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Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 5, Episode 20 - Updated Full Episode

July 18, 2022 / 45:47

This episode of Unsolved Mysteries covers the mysterious death of Army MP Chad Langford, the capture of escaped convict David Gordon Smith, and the discovery of a human skeleton in a storage locker.

Chad Langford was found mortally wounded on March 12, 1992, at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. His family believes he was murdered, while the Army claims he committed suicide. The circumstances surrounding his death, including a cryptic note and his involvement in undercover work, raise questions about the official conclusion.

The episode also details the story of David Gordon Smith, who escaped from prison after murdering police chief JB Hami in Oklahoma. Following a viewer tip, Smith was captured in South Dakota and returned to prison.

Lastly, the episode reveals the unsettling discovery of a human skeleton in a foot locker in Wyoming. The investigation into the skeleton's identity and the circumstances of its burial remains ongoing.

TLDR

Chad Langford's mysterious death, David Gordon Smith's capture, and a skeleton discovery are featured in this episode.

Episode

45:47
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this program is about Unsolved Mysteries whenever possible the actual family members and police officials have
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participated in recreating the events what you about to see is not a news broadcast when Chad Langford a
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20-year-old Army MP was found mortally wounded a cap was stuffed in his mouth a cord wrapped around his neck and his
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ankles were bound the Army believes Lankford did these things to himself as a Prelude to Suicide his family is
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convinced he was murdered when new sessions of Thermopolis wyom agreed to store an old Foot Locker for a friend he
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got more than he bargained for an unidentified human skeleton and a perplexing Unsolved
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Mystery in 1978 a police chief in Oklahoma was mortally wounded during a shootout with two armed robbers 7 years
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later his killer David Gordon Smith escaped from prison and vanished for nearly 8 years David Smith
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lived on the Run successfully eluding capture until he was recognized by one of our viewers join me for this dramatic
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update and more on tonight's unol Mysteries [Music] March 12th 1992 7:40 p.m. along the deserted perimeter of
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Redstone Arsenal army base in Huntsville Alabama 20-year-old military policeman Chad Langford was completing what should
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have been a routine Patrol this is 30 minutes later Langford radio his base station informing them he was
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stopping to investigate an abandoned car I'm on patent South Roger Sor 28 21 Papa 21 say
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again 21 this is redstone say again get a unit all available units proceed the South Patton Road locate
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Papa 21 all Gates locked down secure the post approximately 10 m from MP headquarters a backup officer found
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unsettling evidence that Langford was in Jeopardy close to the entrance of a civilian recreation area that is part of
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the base he found langford's military ID tag his armband and his portable police
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radio they had been deliberately arranged in the middle of the street a quarter of a mile away the
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patrolling officer made the discovery he had been dreading Redstone this is Papa
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Sierra I've located Papa 21 at Bunker 8745 officer is down I request ambulance
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and back up immediately the officer was stunned by langford's condition the MP was bleeding
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from a head wound and breathing faintly his cap had been stuffed into his mouth and the cord from his radar unit had
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been wrapped around his neck his pistol strap was tied around his ankles langford's handcuffs were clamped
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on his left wrist and on his left hand was a cryptic message written in Black Ink March 3 and what looked like the
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name Robert but he's still alive let me get a shirt off careful careful let's roll him over check the
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wounds okay odley langford's 45 caliber pistol was found under his left shoulder
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get that out of here later examination would show Two Rounds had been fired although it could not be determined
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whether one of them had hit Langford here ASAP go just hang in there L come on buddy Chad Langford was rushed to
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Huntsville Hospital where he died 2 hours later Langford was 4 months shy of his 21st
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birthday Chad langford's family had assumed he was killed in the line of duty they were shocked to learn that the
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Army apparently believed Chad had taken his own life when I when I heard that I was very
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upset about the whole thing I I know that my boy did not kill himself there's
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no way I feel that he uh someone is covering something up here Chad Langford was raised by his
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father and grandmother in the small Northern California community of Elk [Music]
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Creek Chad joined the army right out of high school and soon found himself with US forces stationed in South Korea there
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he earned several Good Conduct medals at the conclusion of that tour of Duty he joined the military police At
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Redstone Arsenal in Alabama according to his family Chad loved Army life and planned to
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reinlist however early in 1992 Chad's attitude suddenly changed in January he called me and told
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me that uh he'd been asked to uh do some you undercover work he called me three
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or four different times and uh each time he give me a little bit about his still
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working undercover and uh sounded quite frustrated if you had said sometimes hi Dad how you
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doing yeah okay I guess listen remember what I told you a few weeks ago about my
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new assignment well it's getting pretty intense I had asked him and just exactly what he
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was working on and he said with guns and drugs um and numerous times he told me uh probably two or three times he told
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me that uh if he was found out that uh he was a dead man I've been getting threats you know
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phone calls and letters no I don't know who's sending them I I don't recognize his voice I
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mean it it it might be nothing but I'm starting to get worried I don't know
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what to do that time I told him I can't I can't call told him Chad you got to
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get out of this for 2 weeks and that he came back with I can't get out of it
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know what I'm doing I can't get out of it dead and I said well you got to get
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out of it if it's listen I got to call do you right now okay I will give my love to
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Grandma bye when Jim Langford urged his son to talk to his undercover Superior Chad
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said he would not be able to for another 14 days but in 14 days Chad Langford was
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found bleeding from a fatal bullet wound to the Head the Army's criminal investigation
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division or C reviewed Chad langford's death for 4 months their report stated that Langford
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had not been involved in any undercover narcotics work the C finding echoed the Army's preliminary judgment Chad
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Langford had taken his own life the report included what the C called a psychological autopsy a
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postmortem evaluation of mental health it described Lankford as having serious lifelong emotional
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problems the report that they sent me the psychological autopsy they sent me no that's so far out of whack it's
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unbelievable I'm sorry I just can't believe that any of that I mean I mean I
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raised the boy for 20 years I know himin better than that and uh the military has
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psychologists out to talk to you for or call you over the phone and talk to you for 10 minutes and then they have the
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complete live story of everybody and uh there so far off a base it's unbelievable the report claimed that a
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deterioration in Chad's relationship with his girlfriend had triggered his final suicidal
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depression the CID report said that Chad committed suicide for the distraught over my breaking up with him but that
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wasn't true um I didn't break up with Chad Chad broke up with me I don't know what I
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should ma in January of 1992 6 weeks before his death sh had had abruptly broken up with roxan I don't know I me
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I've got to make up my mind soon because after we get married roxan we need to
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talk what listen we're going to have to put off getting married I don't I don't
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understand I mean why it's my work this new assignment has taken a lot of my time and it just wouldn't be fair
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to you I mean you deserve to have a lot of my attention you still love me don't
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you I'm involved in things you don't even understand I can't even talk about
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them but why I mean I mean why do we have to break up is there another person is that it that's it isn't I there why
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why do we have to break up can't you understand [Music] English just get out I left I don't want to be with you
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anymore in a rage crying [Music] I had a feeling that someone was telling him to break it off with me and I think
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Chad did it to protect me or something roxan saw Chad for the last time 5 days before his death at the Bas
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nightclub he seemed to have changed dramatically Chad was dressed all in black gang style clothing he now sported
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nearing and and was hanging out with several roughl looking men roxan had not seen
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before langford's Lifestyle Changes tie in with another shocking CID allegation
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that he had been The Mastermind of an aborted robbery plan targeting base PX funds the C report included interviews
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with three soldiers who identified Chad as the ring leader one of you guys will have to shoot me sh yeah but I'll be
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wearing a bulletproof Fest that way it'll look like I put up a fight I'll
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probably have to fire off a couple of rounds so I don't look like like a punk
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all right now what about the other escort won't he be able to identify us well I guess we'll just have to kill him
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unless we want Witnesses it seems very strange to me that somebody would come forward to the criminal investigation
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division after someone was killed and said yeah we're planning on Rob we were
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planning on robbing a px fan for x amount of thousand doar I I just can't imagine anybody coming forward with that
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kind of information uh it's really tough that he you know he's not here now to be able to tell us
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what really happened now the plan is you'll be one of the escorts you re a bulletproof vest chaz's father believes
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there is a legitimate explanation for any contact his son may have had with criminal elements on the
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base maybe they were trying to recruit him maybe this was right in in his what he was doing uh with the informant or
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undercover work hours before his death Chad left phone messages for several friends but
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not for his family the C interpreted Chad's calls as goodbye messages to those he cared for
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most when I got off work my mother told me that there was a message on the machine from Chad that had been erased
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but she heard it it was him calling to say hi and how was I doing was I taking care of myself and that he would see me
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soon sorry I missed you um give me a call bye it didn't seem like a goodbye to
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me Chad would have called uh me I know he would have he would have called me if uh if something was to the point where
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you know he was going to commit suicide I know he would have but he didn't call
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me and he didn't call his grandmother uh so there weren't weren't goodbye calls as far as I'm concerned I
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mean uh I know he would have called me the psychological autopsy claimed that Chad Langford had a profound lack of
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self-esteem and was desperate to create a new image even at the cost of his own [Music]
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life according to the report Chad felt that the glory eluding him in life would finally be his if he appeared to have
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died in a heroic Last Stand psychological autopsy more or less uh told us that he was doing this to make us feel good
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about him because we wanted him to shine and and uh he was doing this to to please us and
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that he wanted to go out in glory so this is why he set this whole thing up this is why he drove out there and
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handcuffed himself he didn't want to just to go out in and go around the car
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and do away with yourself you know he just he wanted to make it uh make it special
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the official inquiry concluded that every aspect of Chad's death was methodically staged by Chad himself from
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his accounts of undercover assignments to The Peculiar circumstances of his [Music]
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shooting Redstone this is Papa 21 have a stranded vehicle I'm on pattent South 21 what's your
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location I'm on pattent South Roger send you 28 21 say again one this is redstone say
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again all available units seed to South Paton Road locate Papa 21 all Gates locked down secure the post
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to start with it was very bizarre even from the night that it happened because um the Huntsville police department and
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the other law enforcement agencies never heard a word from the Army about any of
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it and generally when there's a a police officer that's shot I mean there'll be a
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Manhunt you know everywhere and everybody was really baffled because they weren't getting any information
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about it uh you take into consideration that he was tied with his own equipment uh that it happened in a very remote
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area that with easy access to the Recreation Area um anybody could have gotten in and out there very very easily
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and then even before the Army ruled that it was suicide there was just wild speculation as to what could have
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happened to him people were saying Espionage drug deals all kinds of things then it perpetuated itself as it went
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with the c reports according to langford's family even some of the evidence gathered from
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the death scene conflicts with a suicide finding investigators recovered 2 45 caliber casings but they found no
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bullets of any kind in or near the body without bullets authorities were unable to determine what type of gun killed
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Langford radio was in addition lab test did not conclusively pro Langford had even fired a weapon and there was never
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an explanation of how he came to be lying on top of his own gun uh there also said there wasn't a
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struggle but there was a struggle I mean I mean there's no doubt about it they
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found two buttons in the front front seat of the car and those two buttons were supposedly pulled off his uniform when
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the Medics got there this was their explanation to me that when they ripped open his shirt both buttons flew in the
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front seat of the car and uh that's completely impossible cuz I've reset
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that up and there's no way uh from where he was laying and uh the side his buttons were on his buttons
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went the other way they wouldn't have went in the car Jim Langford also believes that MP's
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responding to his son's distress call squandered opportunities to question possible
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suspects within a mile of where Chad was found MP stopped two different cars however contrary to military regulations
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no record was made of the dri names or of either car's make model or license
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number the drivers were never questioned about langford's death just letting him go I mean uh it's
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it's absolutely crazy uh you're talking about a a murder here and it appears to
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me that anybody within uh three or four mile radius of that place should have been stopped and held for some for some
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time they didn't do that they let the man go a source close to the investigation
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has said that one of the drivers was named Robert the name team found scrawled on langford's
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hand those who believed Chad Langford was working undercover are convinced his sudden violent death was nothing less
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than murder I feel that he went down there on that part of Base because he was supposed to meet somebody down there and
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when I talked to him on the first part of March he told me he couldn't talk to his
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contact for at least two more weeks now just about the same time he was supposed
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to talk to his contact and he drove down at the end of that road down there and there was a vehicle there but he knew
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who was in that vehicle and he phoned in just to get away from his radioone this is Papa 21 I'm checking out a
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stranded vehicle I'm on patent South Roger s 28 it would have taken more than one
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person to to uh to handle Chad he uh was very strong very agile uh and then again
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he knew these people I know he knew these people Redstone this is Papa 21 I need
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backup now this is [Music] Papa I think Shad was involved in um involved what he was telling me he was
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involved involved in he was an in between person with some drug dealing um I think he was put in that
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position by somebody on that base whether military or civilian he put somebody put him
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there and I think he was a middle man and I think he was set up I really feel he was set
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up and uh I'm going to find [Music] out Chad langford's Final hours remain
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shrouded in mystery did he invent a tale of under cover Intrigue and then stage a
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heroic death or did Chad Langford truly die a hero gunned down in the line of [Music]
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duty next thanks to our viewers a convicted killer has been captured nearly 8 years after he escaped from
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[Music] prison just after 8: a.m. on September 1st 1978 in katusa Oklahoma police chief JB
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Hami responded to an emergency call from an autol licensed tag agency B get out of
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here 20 rounds ricocheted through the small store in a matter of seconds one Robber was killed the other
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was hit twice but somehow managed to escape less than 5 minutes later Chief Hami
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died from gunshot wounds he was a 24-year veteran of law enforcement and the only police officer in
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katusa on June 15th 1979 the surviving gunman 25-year-old David Gordon Smith began serving a life sentence for the
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murder of JB Hami open 43 Smith became a model prisoner and eventually achieved trustee status 7
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years after he murdered Chief Hami David Gordon Smith took advantage of his status to escape and to
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disappear when we first he this story last October we received more than 75 leads but none of them panned out
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however one thing we have learned on Unsolved Mysteries over the years is never to give up the story aired again
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in March and this time in a small South Dakota town the right viewer was watching he called the local authorities
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and they immediately contacted the FBI one day following the Airing of the David Gordon Smith case on Unsolved
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Mysteries an anonymous tip was received giving us his location he was working as a service
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manager at an automobile dealership in Spearfish South Dakota agents of the FBI local authorities in South Dakota went
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to his place of employment he was arrested without incident and he readily admitted his identity and upon question
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him when David Gordon Smith is brought back to Oklahoma he'll go immediately
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into our our system it'd be classified as a maximum security inmate and uh because of his Escape uh he will be in
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our Maximum Security Prison for a long time there's a tremendous amount of relief uh it was equivalent to a a
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long-term gigantic debt being paid off [Music] [Music] there we go on February 9th 1988 the
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owners of a storage facility in Northern California opened a Locker on which the
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rent had not been paid everything inside they found thousands of dollars of stolen Telephone Company
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equipment the locker had been red by Kevin pson a 22-year-old computer whiz and accomplished hacker
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an investigation revealed that for more than a year pson was apparently accessing sensitive government and
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Military computer [Music] programs when authorities searched Paulson's home they found an
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unauthorized phone tapping device stolen from a northern California phone company
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facility incredibly Poston had taken photographs of himself breaking into and using equipment at a phone company
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transmitting station among the items found inside poon's rented storage locker were computer
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printouts containing classified military information and the unlisted telephone number of the Soviet Embassy in San
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Francisco his penetration of the United States Army government computer his obtaining of a non-published number the
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Soviet consulate gave his grave concern as to how far pson was going with these criminal Acts
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Kevin pson was indicted on 18 felony counts of computer related crimes but before he could stand trial pson jumped
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bail and disappeared update shortly after our broadcast the FBI received information
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that Kevin pson was living near Los Angeles California our San Francisco office had
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advised us that pson had some acquaintances in the Los Angeles area and we went out near interviewed those
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acquaintances and one of them advised us that he had been seen in the not too distant past at Hughes Market we then
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went out and interviewed all the employees at Hughes market and displayed his photograph 3 weeks later pson returned
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to the supermarket I walked past Kevin and um it dawned on me that that's the person in the photo and adrenaline
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was pumping in me I felt really nervous and uh didn't want to be let let any
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suspicion on to uh Kevin that we were on to him Brian immediately notified the FBI however pson was able to leave the
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store before agents could respond the FBI informed me that Kevin pson had been seen at the van I Hughes
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Market at about 10 or 10:30 in the evening I decided to surveil the market thinking Kevin may show up again
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at about 10 minutes till midnight Kevin pson arrived uh drove up and parked immediately in front of the
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market once Kevin was in the store I took a position uh near the front door and asked the security guard to go find
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Brian Bridges the evening manager and bring him to my location so I could tell him that Kevin pson was in the store
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believing that pson would again elude capture two St clerks made a daring [Music]
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move security a security guard escorted pson to a store room where he was held until
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FBI agents arrived and placed him under arrest during the uh search of Mr pson we found some handcuffed keys in his
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eyeglass cases during the time that he was in custody he claimed that his contact lenses were drying out and he
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had asked for his eyeglass cases to be sent to him so I'm assuming that he was
00:27:37
looking for the Handcuff keys [Music] Philadelphia police emergency in a city as large as Philadelphia police
00:28:05
operators receive literally thousands of reports every day regarding possible criminal activity most of the calls are
00:28:12
routine but some are so unbelievable that even the most World weary detectives can be taken by
00:28:21
surprise Brennan on September 10th 1991 Detective Pat Brennan was stunned to receive not one but three telephone
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calls from a convicted rapist named Julius Patterson those calls would launch one of the most bizarre and
00:28:36
disturbing murder investigations the city has ever known we'll find a body who's body out
00:28:44
of the blue Patterson confessed to a shock Brennan that he and his girlfriend Paul at height had killed two people one
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in 1986 and the other in 1988 p a t t e r s o n and when did poad H kill your sister
00:29:02
incredibly Patterson admitted that one of the victims was his own sister even revealed where her body could be found
00:29:09
need a little bit more information from you I'm going to need a date of birth a
00:29:12
social security number where you're living he was like a man on a mission he
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was out to convince me and anyone else that would listen to him that what he had to say was real and he was out to
00:29:23
make the police act on it with this urgency in his voice and and the detail to what he was saying to us just made me
00:29:30
feel that everything he he was saying was a truth and would be found it detectives were immediately
00:29:38
dispatched to the address Patterson had given yeah hi ma'am I'm sorry to bother
00:29:43
we're from the police department the current resident had lived there for several months and had a difficult time
00:29:48
believing there might be a body in the basement how do you know he was telling the truth well we have to check it out
00:29:55
man' it's probably just a crank call hopefully don't want to be here all
00:29:58
night are you sure this is the right house yes it is man Patterson had told detectives to look for a discolored
00:30:05
patch of cement what are you going to do if you find anything we probably won't
00:30:10
we have to check it out there's the carpet okay at the foot of the steps under an old tattered carpet they found
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an area which fit the description but it remained to be seen what if anything might be buried beneath
00:30:23
the floor it all almost that same moment detective Brennan received another call
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from Julius Patterson jul earlier he had said that his girlfriend Paul at height
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could be found at a motel in New Jersey a couple Jersey now I need you to come in and give us a statement now he was
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demanding to know if she had been arrested I don't know they haven't called us back yet but we need once I
00:30:49
confirmed for him that detectives were at the crime scene and that there were detectives in to South Jersey he stated
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he would call back he hung up the phone and he never called back using sledgehammers and shovels the
00:31:04
anxious investigators began to excavate gloves soon their worst fears were confirmed you yeah you get a
00:31:15
body Julius Patterson had been telling the truth up over here let me get a shot yeah we already get shot about SC Julius
00:31:22
Patterson has to be the worst type of person possible uh for somebody to to want to
00:31:27
kill your sister it's just mindboggling like I said I've never seen that in my entire police career
00:31:34
something that tragic especially police soon learned that from 1984 to 1986 Julius Patterson Paul at
00:31:44
height and julius's Sister Jesse had lived together in the house does look like other members of the Patterson
00:31:53
family confirm that Jesse had mysteriously vanished in July of 19 [Music] 1986 testing leader confirmed that the
00:32:06
bones were the remains of Julius Patterson's 26-year-old Sister Jesse she had been born blind deaf and
00:32:14
mute it is almost too horrible to imagine that her brother who'd been entrusted with her care had murdered her
00:32:20
apparently as part of a devious scheme to cash in on her social security benefits but the investigation was just
00:32:27
heating up Julius Patterson had confessed to a second murder and had identified the
00:32:32
victim as Gordy police eventually learned that during the 1980s a man named Hall Luther
00:32:41
Gordon who suffered from Alzheimer's disease had also been under the care of
00:32:46
Julius Patterson and Paul at height the unlicensed height made her living by providing home care for the
00:32:53
elderly she had met Gordon at a local boarding house he was was last seen in July of
00:32:59
1986 around the same time his two caretakers moved away from the neighborhood if you look at both of the
00:33:09
individuals uh Hall Luther Gordon and Jesse Patterson uh both of these people um for totally different reasons were
00:33:18
incapable of taking care of themselves and were completely at the mercy of the people that were entrusted with their
00:33:24
care um because someone took advantage of that situation and that in itself is not that unusual unfortunately but the
00:33:32
fact that they actually went on to kill them uh for no other reason than to to increase their own wealth um yes that
00:33:40
did take a special significance for us these pictures of Julius Patterson and Paul Ed height were taken by a bank
00:33:48
ATM camera in August and September of 1991 authorities believe that over a 10-year period the pair may have stolen
00:33:56
as much as $100 $50,000 from their victims yeah I'm coming FBI agent Richard Kane and detective duac traced
00:34:07
the missing fugitives to a motel in South New Jersey got a photograph just mean anything they arrived only to
00:34:14
discover that Patterson and height had moved out the week before was here almost a year uh we were able to track
00:34:22
poette to another hotel down the road and found that she had stayed there for a night or
00:34:30
two under an assumed name and had left there hurriedly abandoning possessions Julius Patterson and Paul at
00:34:39
height were last seen in Philadelphia in September of 1991 the couple robbed an old friend of
00:34:45
the Patterson family at gunpoint and then promptly dropped from sight Julius Patterson is 38 years old
00:34:55
he is 5' 11 in tall and weighs 50b he is wanted for questioning regarding the death of his sister Jesse
00:35:02
and The Disappearance of Hall Luther Gordon he is also wanted for armed robbery assault and parole
00:35:11
violations Paul at height is 44 years old she's 5' 3 in tall and weighs 190 lb
00:35:18
she uses Elias's colet hoop or poeta Price she's wanted on charges of armed
00:35:24
robbery and fraudulent receipt of Social Security payments she is also wanted for
00:35:29
questioning regarding Jesse Patterson and Hall Luther Gordon following our most recent
00:35:35
broadcast of the story a former employer Paul at height called our phone center to report that height had been working
00:35:41
in a fast food restaurant in Cliffside Park New Jersey under an assumed name here's what happened next according to
00:35:48
Philadelphia police Lieutenant Joseph witty gave us a social security number she used and the FBI tracked that social
00:35:55
security number to a Ware recipient in New York City uh FBI agents in New York City Police Department staked out the
00:36:03
location where she was to pick up her checks at that time both Julius Patterson and Paul Ed height were
00:36:10
apprehended after the arrest Julius Patterson LED police to this empty Warehouse in North Philadelphia where he
00:36:17
said he had left the partial remains of Hall Luther Gordon police records confirmed that
00:36:23
some human bones had been found there in 1989 the police now believe that they were the remains of Hall Luther
00:36:31
Gordon 3 weeks later Patterson LED police back to the same area claiming that he had buried yet another victim
00:36:38
there during the search the unexpected happened while it behind the factory he assaulted one of the detectives knocking
00:36:47
him down and then ran down the railroad adjacent railroad tracks and jumped off a railroad trussle was about 10 ft tall
00:36:53
onto a street and then made his Escape 3 Days Later Julius Patterson was captured at an intersection of North
00:37:04
Philadelphia one he was apprehended Patterson was standing at a bus stop wearing severed handcuffs concealed
00:37:10
under a coat [Music] [Music] sometimes from the most unlikely elements comes a tantalizing mystery and
00:37:43
confirmation that the truth is Stranger Than Fiction the mystery might start say with
00:37:49
this broken down Foot Locker who can guess what the old trunk might contain or where it might lead
00:37:58
perhaps to a small town in Wyoming called theopolis in 1986 a longtime resident and we will call Gabby moved away from
00:38:09
theopolis he left some of his belongings including the old lock trunk in a shed he left the shed with a friend newal
00:38:19
sessions 6 years crept [Music] by finally n couldn't stand the suspense another
00:38:30
minute let's just see what's in here no telling what we'll find no doubt
00:38:36
if you'll find much of anything uhoh my goodness that's a skeleton it's it's
00:38:43
human see what do you think about that it's been in there a long time nobody could believe that we had
00:38:53
uncovered a human skeleton and they wasn't too much said at that time I think it was my wife asked me
00:39:02
what we was going to do with it and I said I think that the best thing we could do with it would be to take it out
00:39:07
here and take a hole and give it a proper burial new's wife put her foot down she told him he had to call the
00:39:14
Sheriff before he did though n felt obliged to contact Gabby and the kid oh they're just fine so what's up well uh
00:39:24
you remember that shed you left up here I sure do uh you remember the Foot Locker that was
00:39:30
in the shed yes I was going to Gabby told new that he'd never even open the Foot
00:39:35
Locker he thought he'd bought it at a garage sale but when it came to the time
00:39:40
and the place Gabby's memory failed him when I cut the lock off I found a human
00:39:46
skeleton in the trunk you're uh not serious about this are you he act uh probably as surprised as I did when I
00:39:56
when I opened the drunk that he couldn't believe it he thought I was kidding you
00:40:01
and I told him no I'm not kidding you there is a human skeleton in [Music] there new sessions contacted John Lumley
00:40:10
the sheriff of Hot Springs County right from the start Sheriff lumbley smelled a
00:40:16
rat doesn't know much he said Gabby doesn't know much I've talked to a lot
00:40:21
of people about this case and everybody's said almost 99.99% or more that they would have
00:40:27
opened it immediately upon purchasing it they said if they went to a yard sale or
00:40:31
garage sale bought a trunk that's half the excitement it's like a Christmas
00:40:35
present can't wait to get home to open it I don't think my curiosity is a less
00:40:39
than the others although it apparently has a tendency to atrophy um because I I know I took the
00:40:46
thing home I didn't have a hacksaw I was going to cut the lock off and that's a lot of
00:40:53
work 2 Days Later another bombshell x-ray revealed a bullet lodged in the skull now Sheriff Lumley thought he
00:41:01
might have a murder case on his hands he decided he'd better have a chat with
00:41:06
Gabby where did you buy the trunk at Gabby oh I guess was uh 73 Gabby was awfully vague about the details he said
00:41:15
he might have bought the trunk in Wyoming or in Iowa Illinois or maybe Oklahoma it might have been as early as
00:41:24
1973 but it might not have been Gabby couldn't be sure was trying to find furniture for the new place well my
00:41:31
being a suspect I first off I I wasn't the least bit worried about why what do
00:41:37
I have to worry about I mean really you know I know I didn't do the guy you know
00:41:42
I didn't shoot this dude um I'm barely in fact I'm not I'm not even as old as the gun that shot him
00:41:52
Gabby is is in his mid-40s the Foot Locker and the lock were made back in the 30s time period I
00:42:01
don't believe that Gabby was was the person that caused the death to this person but my thoughts have always been
00:42:09
that he has knowledge of who the person in the trunk is or where they came from to put tools in for the record
00:42:19
Gabby says he doesn't know one single thing about the bones in the foot locker
00:42:23
and at this point he's a little irked by the whole mess on March 31st 1992 Sheriff Lumley turned
00:42:33
the skeleton over to the Wyoming State Crime Lab in Cheyenne maybe the bones could tell him what Gabby
00:42:40
[Music] couldn't boy it sure doesn't look like there's any organization to these bones
00:42:46
are they not really okay well let's start laying it [Music] out he was in his 50s to uh mid 60s
00:42:59
probably stood about 58 plus or minus an inch and a half um was a Caucasian male the bullet was then turned over to
00:43:09
our Firearms examiner who was able to identify it as uh coming from a 25 caliber um weapon that was produced in
00:43:19
the uh early 1900s 1904 and then available in the United States about 1908 oh here's a plastic bag also in the
00:43:33
trunk was a rotted plastic bag from a supermarket chain called hiy the bag with that particular logo was not
00:43:40
manufactured until the early 1950s it's like a potato sack investigators figured that the
00:43:50
skeleton had been buried once only to be dug up and crammed unceremoniously into
00:43:55
the Foot Locker in an effort to identify the victim Sandra Maye fashioned a three-dimensional reconstruction in
00:44:08
clay the result is uncanny only the eyes and hair are guesswork otherwise this should be a good likeness of the man who
00:44:16
somehow got a bullet in his head sometime after 1908 strangely both of his lower leg
00:44:23
bones and one hand were missing on his rib cage there were several necks which might have been made by
00:44:29
[Music] bullets for every mystery there is someone somewhere who knows the truth
00:44:53
join me next week for another edition of UN solve Mysteries [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 85
    Most shocking
  • 80
    Most dramatic
  • 80
    Most intense
  • 80
    Most surprising

Episode Highlights

  • Chad Langford's Mysterious Death
    Chad Langford was found mortally wounded, leading to conflicting theories about his death.
    “His family is convinced he was murdered.”
    @ 00m 35s
    July 18, 2022
  • The Investigation into Chad's Death
    The Army ruled Chad's death a suicide, but his family disagrees.
    “They believed Chad had taken his own life.”
    @ 07m 53s
    July 18, 2022
  • David Gordon Smith's Capture
    After nearly 8 years on the run, a convicted killer is captured thanks to a viewer tip.
    “Never give up on a case.”
    @ 21m 53s
    July 18, 2022
  • Kevin Pson's Disappearance
    Kevin Pson jumps bail and disappears before his trial for computer-related crimes.
    “Adrenaline was pumping in me.”
    @ 25m 55s
    July 18, 2022
  • Julius Patterson's Confession
    Convicted rapist Julius Patterson confesses to two murders, including his own sister.
    “Patterson had been telling the truth.”
    @ 31m 15s
    July 18, 2022
  • The Shocking Discovery
    A human skeleton is found in a trunk, leading to a murder investigation.
    “I found a human skeleton in the trunk!”
    @ 39m 46s
    July 18, 2022

Episode Quotes

  • There's no way I feel that he is covering something up.
    Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 5, Episode 20 - Updated Full Episode
  • He wanted to go out in glory.
    Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 5, Episode 20 - Updated Full Episode
  • I think he was set up.
    Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 5, Episode 20 - Updated Full Episode
  • I felt really nervous and didn't want to let any suspicion on to Kevin.
    Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 5, Episode 20 - Updated Full Episode
  • It's just mindboggling... something that tragic.
    Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 5, Episode 20 - Updated Full Episode
  • Sheriff Lumley thought he might have a murder case on his hands.
    Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 5, Episode 20 - Updated Full Episode

Key Moments

  • Chad's Routine Patrol02:24
  • Mysterious Circumstances03:56
  • Family's Shock04:59
  • Conflicting Reports07:48
  • Final Hours19:50
  • Pson's Arrest27:20
  • Patterson's Confession28:36
  • Murder Case Unfolds41:01

Tension Over Time

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown