Original subtitles

[musing playing]

NARRATOR: This program is about unsolved mysteries.

Whenever possible, the actual family members

and police officials have participated

in recreating the events.

What you are about to see is not a news broadcast.

Tonight, all new stories on the season premiere

of Unsolved Mysteries.

ROBERT STACK: In the 1980s, one UFO sighting after another,

numbering into the thousands, astounded residents of New

York's Hudson River Valley.

A controversy boiled over when maverick stunt pilots

claimed they were responsible for the

spectacular light formations.

When she was just 17, Tammy Lynn Leppert had it all.

She was a beauty queen, an accomplished model,

and was well on her way to a career in the movies.

But in 1982, Tammy began to withdraw,

growing increasingly paranoid, until finally, she vanished.

In Paducah, Kentucky, a young stranger

was seen loitering at the local airport, penniless,

and trying to talk his way onto a flight.

People still wonder what drove him

to make the desperate decision that would end his life.

Join me for these intriguing stories on our season premier.

Perhaps you may be able to help solve a mystery.

[music playing]

[applause]

PAGEANT HOST: Tammy is 16 years old, is 5'4 1/2--

ROBERT STACK: 1982, the Miss America Sunshine Surf Beauty

Pageant in Orlando, Florida.

The eventual winner will be Tammy Lynn Leppert.

Incredibly, at the age of 16, Tammy

has already competed in more than 300 beauty contests.

She has won the crown 280 times.

LINDA CURTIS: She was very loving,

kind, she was always smiling.

You never saw the child when she wasn't smiling.

When As young as I can remember, she woke up

with a great big smile and the last thing

I saw before she went to sleep was a big smile.

ROBERT STACK: Tammy Lynn Leppert was

an uncommonly beautiful child.

When she was just four years old,

she was entered in her first beauty contest.

Tammy's mother and father divorced when she was seven.

Her fledgling career fell to the tender

loving care of her mother, who was a theatrical and modeling

agent.

LINDA CURTIS: I was constantly busy running her

around to where she had to go and what she had to do,

and I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed watching her excel, because she

always went for the best that she could go for,

the highest level.

ROBERT STACK: Wing Flanagan, one of Linda's client's,

was just 11 when he began living at her house.

I have to blot my lipstick.

ROBERT STACK: He and Tammy were like brother and sister.

I'm trying to watch TV.

Yeah.

WING FLANAGAN: She would bend over and kiss me on the cheek,

and I couldn't quite ever get it completely off.

Mom, I'm leaving.

WING FLANAGAN: It was rather embarrassing to walk

around with this mark.

But I think, actually, I learned to wear

it proudly after a while, because it

was almost a status symbol.

Tammy.

ROBERT STACK: In July of 1982, Tammy Lynn

was cast in the teen exploitation Film, Spring

Break, which would go on to earn nearly $25 million

at the box office.

After Spring Break, Tammy went unchaperoned to an out

of town weekend party.

She came back a different person.

WING FLANAGAN: Sometimes I'd ask her,

you know, what was on her mind, if anything was bothering her.

And she'd usually evade the question.

She change the subject, or she'd say, oh, nothing, you know,

and then try to laugh it off.

[phone ringing]

ROBERT STACK: Soon, Tammy's behavior began

to take on paranoid overtones.

[phone ringing]

I'm not here.

Don't tell anybody I'm here. - Why?

Just do it.

[phone ringing]

All right.

Hello?

MAN (ON PHONE): Hi, is Tammy Lynn there?

No.

She's not here right now.

MAN (ON PHONE): She's out? - Yeah.

MAN (ON PHONE): I'll call back.

All right.

Bye.

Happy now? - Tammy.

What's the problem?

Honey, talk to me.

Tammy?

- I saw something awful. - What?

Something really bad.

Honey, what did you see?

I wasn't supposed to see it.

LINDA CURTIS: She said that she saw something so horrible

that she couldn't talk about it. - Sweetheart, talk to me.

And she said, "Mom, what would you say if I told you somebody

was trying to kill me?"

- What are you talking about? - I wasn't supposed to say this.

- Tammy. - I can't tell anybody.

What do you mean, you can't tell anybody?

LINDA CURTIS: I kept trying to find out who "they" were.

Tammy, talk to me.

LINDA CURTIS (OFF SCREEN): She never would tell me.

Tammy?

ROBERT STACK: Tammy Lynn began a steady retreat into isolation.

Linda and Wing had no way of ascertaining

which of Tammy's fears were real,

and which were paranoid delusions.

WING FLANAGAN: Once, she called me over to the window.

She said, "Look across the street, tell me what you see."

I said, "Well, the neighbors got a new van."

And she said, "Exactly."

And I didn't know quite what she was getting at.

And she said, "The van has mirrored windows.

That means that they can see us but we can't see them."

ROBERT STACK: After two weeks of virtual seclusion,

Tammy Lynn was offered a small part in the big budget Al

Pacino film, Scarface, which began shooting

in Miami in March of 1983.

She stayed with a family friend, Walter Leibowitz.

All went well until the fourth day of filming.

WALTER LEIBOWITZ: I received a call from the casting director

to tell me that Tammy had a breakdown on the set.

They said that there was a scene where someone

was supposed to be shot, and they

had artificial blood spurt out.

And they said when Tammy was watching the scene,

she started crying hysterically, and it got so bad that they

had her take her to a trailer.

[tammy crying]

Tammy, what's happened?

They're gonna kill me.

Who's gonna kill you?

They're gonna kill me.

WALTER LEIBOWITZ: She was in a tremendous state

of fear, anxiety.

Who is going to hurt you?

Who's trying to hurt you?

They're gonna blow my head off.

WALTER LEIBOWITZ: Hysterically, crying, saying something

about money laundering.

I don't know where to hide.

Things of that nature.

I'm so scared.

Tammy.

Look at me.

WALTER LEIBOWITZ: What it was that caused this great fear

in her, I don't know.

When I spoke with Tammy's mother,

I told her that she should take Tammy to a doctor,

and also take her to the police, to find out if the problem was

psychological, or if there was some basis in fact

that someone was actually trying to kill her,

and get to the bottom of it.

LINDA CURTIS: Tammy Lynn quit the film

and went back to Cocoa Beach.

At her mother's insistence, Tammy

did talk to the local sheriff, but apparently

never mentioned that she felt her life was in danger.

Even with her family, Tammy's paranoia ran rampant.

She became convinced that someone

was trying to poison her.

Taste this.

Why?

Just do it.

Fine.

WING FLANAGAN: There were good days and there were bad days.

There were days when she was almost normal, almost.

And there were other days when she was real edgy.

LINDA CURTIS: She was not the Tammy that we know.

We did not recognize this Tammy in personality.

She even begin to take on a different look.

Kind of a wild look in her eyes, and scared look,

is what it was.

And if she really believed that somebody

was going to try to kill her, scared of the feeling

that we were seeing.

ROBERT STACK: On July 1st, 1983, Tammy Lynn finally snapped.

What are you looking at?

What are you looking at?

Not you.

I saw you looking at me.

Why would I look at you?

Well, don't.

[birds tweeting]

[dog barking]

Let me in.

Let me in this house.

[window shattering]

What are you doing?

Stop.

Hey.

Why did you lock me out?

You locked me out.

I didn't.

I didn't do anything to you.

WING FLANAGAN: There was this completely

crazy look in her eyes.

She wasn't her.

I don't think she really knew who I was.

Tammy, stop.

Tammy, it's mother.

LINDA CURTIS: I just kept saying over and over again,

"Tammy, I love you," until I finally

saw recognition in her eyes.

I love you sweetheart.

It's mother.

LINDA CURTIS: I knew then, right then,

that I handled that incident, but I

didn't know I was going to be able to handle the next one.

ROBERT STACK: Linda checked Tammy into the Brevard County

Mental Health Center for a complete physical

and psychiatric evaluation.

Doctors found no evidence of drug or alcohol use,

and kept Tammy in the hospital for 72 hours of observation.

LINDA CURTIS: After we took her home,

she said, "You've got to make me a promise."

I said, "If I can."

She says, "Mom, if anything happens to me, anything at all,

I want you to get even with that person for me.

Would you please?"

I said, "What do you think is going to happen, Tammy?

She said, "I know you don't want to hear this,

but he's still going to try to kill me."

ROBERT STACK: Rick Adams was Tammy's best friend.

They went out the day after she was released from the hospital.

RICK ADAMS: At that time, Tammy--

we got out of the van.

And she looked at me, and she says, "Rick, I love you."

I said, "Tammy, I love you too."

And she said, "I might be going away for a while."

Yes.

We will have a photographer.

LINDA CURTIS: That next day, everything seemed

to be extraordinarily normal.

She seemed, I think, really trying

to impress me that she was OK.

Mom, I'll be back in a little bit.

Right.

I love you.

Bye.

LINDA CURTIS: I suddenly got frightened.

Real frightened.

And I went to the door and opened it,

and I just knew right then it was the last time

I was going to see her.

RICK ADAMS: This friend picked her up

at her home in Rockledge, Florida,

and they drove to the beach.

And we talked to him, and he basically

stated that they'd become involved in a verbal argument,

that she had requested that he let

her out near the glass bank in Cocoa Beach, and he complied.

And as far as we know, that was the last person

to see Tammy alive.

Just stop it.

What do you want me to do?

I just want you to shut up.

ROBERT STACK: According to Tammy's friend,

he dropped her off at approximately 3:00

PM on July 6th, 1983, five miles from her house.

She was barefoot and carried no purse.

RICK ADAMS: She disappeared without a trace.

We talked to some of her close friends.

They felt strongly that Tammy was having problems at home,

and that she had left home, that she wanted to leave home.

LINDA CURTIS: There's no conceivable way I would believe

it, because first of all, she was getting ready to go

to California for three months.

That's away from-- as far away from me as you could get,

from Cocoa Beach to California.

And she was really excited about going.

What reason would she have for running away?

WING FLANAGAN: Tammy saw something.

Tammy saw something that she shouldn't have.

Tammy knew something she shouldn't

have about someone that she was very frightened of.

Sometimes I feel if I had asked her, rather than told her

that it was in her imagination, maybe she would still be here.

ROBERT STACK: What could a 17-year-old girl

have seen that would cause her to fear for her life?

During her breakdown on the set of Scarface,

Tammy Lynn had mentioned money laundering.

According to an official at the US Customs Service,

dozens of money laundering cases in Florida

were under federal investigation at that time.

Some call it sheer coincidence.

Tammy's mother believes it is no coincidence at all.

LINDA CURTIS: I think Tammy is either a victim of foul play,

or she doesn't know who she is.

I, as a mother, wanted to believe everything she told me,

and I wanted to help her.

If I had it all to do over again, I would go back

and I would believe every single word she told me,

and I would just hide her someplace until we

found out what the truth was.

But I can't do it over.

And maybe she had to hide on her own, I don't know.

TAMMY LYNN LEPPERT: No matter what happens,

I would like for things to turn out for the best.

ROBERT STACK: This interview was taped in 1983 during Tammy

Lynn's final beauty pageant.

TAMMY LYNN LEPPERT: --that seem like the best aren't the best.

And things that don't seem so good are the best.

But I'll do my best, no matter what.

ROBERT STACK: When we return, a series of UFO sightings

fuels controversy in New York's Hudson River Valley.

[music playing]

The quiet beauty of New York's Hudson River Valley

belies its location, is 40 miles north of the bustling streets

of Manhattan.

The valley is home to upscale professionals and retirees.

They tend to be well-educated and cosmopolitan.

Hardly the type of people you'd expect

to be swept up by UFO fever.

Yet that is exactly what happened

to more than 5,000 area residents

between 1983 and 1989.

The epidemic of sensational UFO sightings in the Hudson

River Valley lasted six years.

Ultimately the entire episode was largely

dismissed as a hoax, perpetrated by a group

of local stunt pilots.

However, to this day, many of the eyewitnesses

maintain that what they saw could not have

been a handful of airplanes.

Dennis Sant, a husband and father of five,

has worked in local government for 17 years,

is currently the highest ranking deputy in Putnam County.

On March 17th, 1983, Sant's home in Brewster

was the site of an extraordinary event.

[door creaking]

[dog barking]

Oh my god.

Come out here and see this.

Was a very large object, the structure of it

was very dark gray, metallic, almost girder type looking.

What is it?

I don't know.

Girls.

Girls, come out here and see this.

DENNIS SANT: The object seemed to be very silent.

The lights were iridescent, bright,

they stood out in the sky in three dimension it looked

like a city of lights just hung in the sky

of all brilliant colors.

At that time, the girls became very frightened

and they ran inside the house.

Then my son and I were just drawn underneath it.

Felt very good about encountering a visual contact

with the object.

We followed the object around to the back yard,

and at that point, a feeling of fright came upon me.

Thoughts started to flood my mind, thoughts of the craft

touching ground, thoughts of an encounter with an alien being,

thoughts of being abducted.

All types of fearful thoughts started to enter into my mind,

and it seemed only to be seconds before the object

started to move again.

But the feelings were overwhelming.

From beginning to end, the 19 or 20 minutes

that I had viewed that craft was also a time of self-examination

of myself and who I was.

ROBERT STACK: Dennis Sant and his family

were not the only ones mesmerized

by the extraordinary light formation.

A few miles away, traffic screeched

to a halt on Interstate 84 as a mysterious object

hovered overhead.

The Hudson Valley sightings had only just begun.

ANDI SADOFF: I was sitting there looking at it

and I wasn't afraid, I was just amazed.

I was in awe of it.

I didn't know what it was.

ROBERT STACK: Officer Andi Sadoff, a 10 year veteran

of the Newcastle police, is also an instructor in criminal child

abuse procedures.

On March 24th, one week after Dennis Sant's sighting,

Officer Sadoff was working routine traffic patrol.

ANDI SADOFF: I was working a 4 PM to midnight tour,

and assigned to set up some radar

to look for speeding cars.

[radio chatter]

ANDI SADOFF: I had the radar set up,

and I looked up into the sky and saw, coming from east to west,

there was a series of lights.

And at first I thought it was a plane.

It was quite a distance, quite far away,

but it was really quite large.

As I recall, there were mostly white lights,

but there were green lights also.

It was alternating green and white lights.

It approached my vehicle, and as it approached the vehicle,

it stopped, and it seemed to hover.

There was no sound, and I'm looking at this thing,

thinking, what is it?

When I put my head out the window,

and I'm looking up at it, it was huge.

The thing that I recall the most is, I was

amazed that there was no noise.

There was no humming, there was no engine, no low sound to it.

It was absolutely silent.

ROBERT STACK: Just seconds later,

the eerie silence was broken.

Another eyewitness report.

MAN (ON RADIO): Could you please send somebody else?

I'm observing something incredible.

Unit five to base, I'm seeing it too.

It's hovering above my car.

It's heading towards town, I'm following it.

ANDI SADOFF: At the time that we started

to transmit over the air, that was about the time

that it started to move.

And it move very slowly.

Almost floated.

And we followed it.

We followed it until it disappeared off into the hills.

I guess I was mostly curious as to what it could be.

Excited to try and figure out.

Well maybe it's this, or maybe it's a government thing, or--

but I wasn't frightened of it, no.

There really wasn't time to be frightened of it.

I was spending most of my time trying

to figure out why there was no noise coming out of this thing.

So.

ED BURNS: It was truly a flying city, if that's

the way you want to call it.

I mean, it was huge.

ROBERT STACK: Computer engineer Ed Burns is a retired

senior manager for IBM.

At the time of the sightings, Burns

handled the company's contracts in Japan and South America.

On the night of March 24th, and virtually the same time

Officer Sadoff was pursuing the mysterious object,

Ed Burns was driving home on the Taconic Parkway, 10 miles north

of Sadoff's location.

ED BURNS: Out of nowhere, I got a lot of static on the radio.

I thought maybe I was in the wrong number,

and then I look over to turn the dial again,

and that's when I looked up and saw this craft.

It was a triangular chevron ship,

and the back of that chevron had to be as large as a football

field at least.

It was one solid piece of a chevron shape,

and there was no noise.

Seemed so close to the ground.

It seemed like I could have thrown a rock at it, maybe.

ROBERT STACK: Ed Burns pulled off the highway

and joined a group of motorists by the side of the road.

All were gazing skyward, seemingly dumbstruck.

[tires screeching] ED BURNS: It was so shocking.

This one fellow that was talking to, never did answer me a bit.

Isn't that incredible?

Have you ever seen anything so huge?

ED BURNS: He was just staring at this thing,

and I remember his size of his eyes were so huge.

And he never did answer me at all.

It It seemed like I talked for an hour,

was probably only a minute, but I was so excited about it.

I wanted to share whatever I was feeling at the time.

Where was it from?

I'm not into astronomy.

Mars, I mean, I don't know the solar systems.

But what I had witnessed that night was not from this planet.

ROBERT STACK: The eyewitness reports

indicated the object was slowly moving north

over the Hudson River Valley.

Officers Sadoff, and at least 12 others saw it in Newcastle.

10 minutes later, Ed Burns, and at least 20 motorists

saw it near Millwood.

10 minutes after that, the phones

began ringing off the hook in the police station at Yorktown.

Yorktown PD, Officer Wolf.

No, Ma'am, everything is fine.

No, we've had several reports.

Everything is under control.

WILLIAM WOLF JR.: Every line kept going.

Every single line, constantly.

Answer the phone, another line would light up.

Answer the next line, another line would light up.

There's really nothing to worry-- please hold, Sir.

WILLIAM WOLF, JR. Got to the point,

I got a call of Taconic Parkway being stopped,

that people were all out in the cars.

It was starting to get really crazy.

Go ahead, Soravilla.

MAN (ON RADIO): I'll be 1017.

WILLIAM WOLF JR.: I tried calling the cars to find

out if they saw anything.

And the only one that call with the cars was Kevin,

said that he would stop in.

ROBERT STACK: Officer Kevin Soravilla had also

seen the dazzling lights reported by dozens

of Yorktown residents.

This town's going nuts.

KEVIN SORAVILLA: The object was extremely large

and estimated to be close to 300 to 400 yards wide.

We stood out in front facing to the north,

in approximately about five minutes, we did--

the object began to peer from the northern horizon.

Look at that thing, man.

Unbelievable.

ROBERT STACK: Officers Wolf and Soravilla were standing side

by side under the same sky, yet their accounts

are entirely contradictory.

It's gotta be a group of planes or something.

I don't think so.

Yeah, I think I see a wing in there.

I don't think so.

They don't look like planes.

ROBERT STACK: Officers Soravilla is convinced that what he saw

was one large object with a number of small lights.

KEVIN SORAVILLA: I would say approximate 16, 18,

lights running in a v-formation, approximately

200 to 400 yards wide.

I was staring in between the lights

to see any type of a solid structure, where

he may have basically been staring

at the lights at themselves.

WILLIAM WOLF JR.: They looked like airplanes to me.

I say, "You know, I live near an airport.

So I see these airplanes every day."

So as they were coming over, he says, "Well, you

can't hear anything."

I said, "Listen."

But that when we started hearing a drone.

It wasn't one big solid unit.

But if you looked at it for like a couple of minutes or even

a fraction as it was coming over,

I could see where some people would have gotten upset.

ROBERT STACK: Suddenly the Hudson Valley sightings

had taken a dramatic turn.

It appeared that the UFOs were a hoax,

nothing more than small aircraft flying in precise patterns.

But this earthly explanation was lost in an avalanche

of additional sightings, which continued

unabated month after month.

In addition, many claim the circular formation,

photographed as it swept over the area, is also a UFO.

However, other eyewitnesses counter that the unusual lights

they had seen were nothing more than small airplanes flying

in web shaped formations.

ANTHONY CAPALDI: There's anywhere from upwards

of 7 to 10 aircraft that do fly around in formation,

and this is visible from our tower.

Anthony Capaldi has been an air traffic controller

for just under 10 years.

In the summer of 1983, he made an observation

that seemed to settle the UFO controversy once and for all.

[chatter]

ANTHONY CAPALDI: The first time I

observed the formation flying, it looked a little peculiar.

What's that over Stormville?

ANTHONY CAPALDI: And from our vantage point in the tower,

they just appeared to be just one

big light because there they are flying in tight formation.

To estimate the size, maybe two football fields wide.

Appears to be six aircraft flying in formation.

I

ANTHONY CAPALDI: I imagine it's possible, at first glimpse,

that an observer may not be fully aware of what

this formation is.

But I don't think, if this formation flew

over an individual's head at 1,000 feet,

that there's any way you can misdiagnose it for anything

but the formation flying, due to the sound the aircraft engines.

And I imagine at 1,000 feet, you could really

determine that it's aircraft.

PHILLIP IMBROGNO: The UFO was surely

seen before these hoaxer pilots began their night flights.

And after these hoaxers began their night flights,

people would call me up who had seen the UFO in previous dates

and said, well, I saw something strange in the sky,

but it wasn't the same thing that I saw a week before.

It definitely was planes.

So you had people who saw the UFO,

and then you had people who saw the planes,

and were able to identify each as being something strange

and something totally explainable.

Holy good god.

What do you think?

I don't know.

Not planes.

I'm going to Tell you something, Honey, I

don't know what the hell it is.

ROBERT STACK: This home videotape

showing a light formation above Brewster New York,

was taken July 24th, 1984, by local resident Bob Pozzuoli.

Phillip Imbrogno is convinced it shows a UFO.

PHILLIP IMBROGNO: Being a scientist myself,

I'm still waiting for it to be proved 100%, although it has

been looked at by a number of photographic experts

who indicate that the movement of the object on the video

seems to be one rigid object, and not individual objects.

Plus there were hundreds and hundreds

of witnesses who saw the UFO and said it was something strange.

But the night that the airplanes were seen, there were also

dozens of witnesses who said, in fact, that they did

see airplanes.

ROBERT STACK: This image was videotaped in June of 1984,

also by Bob Pozzuoli.

Skeptics and believers all agree that it

shows a squadron of small planes that some say

are military aircraft.

Did you hear the engines?

Mm-hm.

PHILLIP IMBROGNO: If you look at that video,

you can see that the lights are shifting position in relation

to each other.

The fellow who videotaped it is talking about,

he can hear the engines, he can see the stars as the object

is passing over him.

A matter of fact, when a videotape

was made of the airplanes, no one came forward

to say they had seen a UFO.

People called me and said they had seen

airplanes flying in formation.

But the night of the UFO sighting,

when the videotape was made, I had hundreds of phone calls

to different telephone lines of people

who had, in fact, seen a UFO.

ROBERT STACK: What is the truth about

the spectacular light formations that

cruise the Hudson River Valley?

Were the aerial stunts performed by sophisticated pranksters,

or UFOs of unknown origin?

Even those who saw the same object

at the same time cannot agree.

WILLIAM WOLF JR.: I personally think that it was an airplane,

or people who were playing games, trying to take--

get a rush and excitement out of making people feel, "Hey,

there's somebody from another world here,"

where in fact, they were just fooling people's mind.

KEVIN SORAVILLA: If it was ultra lights,

I'm a little amazed by the precision flying.

I have to see it again to believe it.

I'm not too sure.

I'm not too sure about it.

DENNIS SANT: In a man's life, particular things

unfold that make an impression for the rest of their life.

This was one of those moments in my time

that made a very dramatic impression upon me.

What I saw was not planes in formation.

ANDI SADOFF: There was no shaking

or movement or rocking back and forth of any of the lights.

It was perfectly still.

You know, I'm not trying to say what it was.

I don't know what it was.

I know it wasn't an airplane.

ED BURNS: I tell the story a lot to certain friends

that I can trust that will believe me.

I mean, my wife I think believes me,

because she loves me and respects me.

I don't know if my children do, but they love and respect me.

But they also read the papers, I guess about those five

other airplanes.

Maybe they equate it to that.

But boy I'll tell you, I'll never

forget that as long as I live, and five airplanes, it was not.

ROBERT STACK: In preparing to film this story,

Unsolved Mysteries asked the alleged hoaxers

to recreate one of their flights during daylight hours.

No one was willing to be publicly identified.

This may be because when flown at night, some of the maneuvers

violate FAA regulations.

According to Tony Capaldi, most of the formation flights

took place on Thursday nights.

It is interesting to note that less than one third

of the UFO sightings occurred on Thursday nights.

In a moment, a young man dies under tragic circumstances.

[music playing]

September 30th, 1991, Paducah, Kentucky.

Are you a pilot?

Um,no, I'm sure not.

Do you know a pilot I can talk to?

No, I sure don't.

ROBERT STACK: Just after 6:00 PM,

a young man approached airport worker Wes Weaver

at Paducah's small airfield.

Listen, I'm really in a bind.

I really need to get out west.

You've got to know somebody here that can help me out?

WES WEAVER: I kind of thought that maybe he

was into something he wasn't supposed to into,

running from something.

Because he honestly-- he didn't act drugged up

and he didn't act like he was drunk

and he really didn't act crazy.

He was kind of desperate.

Come on, man.

Look, I've got this jacket, isn't there's some way I can

trade this jacket for a lift?

You know, one of the pilots around here?

ROBERT STACK: What began as an odd encounter

soon evolved into a tragic and perplexing mystery.

Really, I don't think I can--

WES WEAVER: I finally just kind of told him no,

and made it to the point where he should leave.

And he stood around for a little while,

and finally he went back through the hangar.

ROBERT STACK: 30 minutes later, Wes Weaver

saw the stranger again.

WES WEAVER: And he had the jacket on

and I thought it was kind of strange,

so I kind of slowed down and watched,

and I saw him run across the ditch and jump up on the fence

and jump over and run towards the plane,

and that's when I radioed for someone to call security.

You better call security, we got a guy jumping

over the fence at two two.

ROBERT STACK: Two other witnesses saw the young man

run across the airstrip.

LINDA LEAB: Me and my husband was out in the yard,

and this plane pulled up, and we saw this guy run it

in the field, and he run over to on the other side of the plane.

Well, we never did see him no more.

JERRY LEAB: The way he was running to it so fast,

he was up to something.

ROBERT STACK: The only aircraft on the runway

was commuter flight 2940, destination,

Memphis, Tennessee.

Just before sunset at exactly 6:49,

the plane was cleared for takeoff.

Everything seemed normal.

LINDA LEAB: The plane got way up in the air,

and I stood there, you know, was watching, in a few minutes I

seen something fall, and I told my husband,

I said, there's something fell out of that plane.

ROBERT STACK: As darkness fell, airport authorities mobilized

an extensive search, looking for any sign of the man witnesses

had seen.

At the northern end of the airfield,

director of airfield services, Ron Jones,

noticed a section of fence which had been damaged.

Lying at the base was the body of the young stranger.

RON JONES: It really hit me then that this actually happened,

that someone actually got onto an aircraft some kind of way,

and that someone had fallen to their death.

ROBERT STACK: No identification of any kind

was found on or near the body.

As we examine the hand, we note

that the nails appear to be manicured and well-groomed.

ROBERT STACK: Blood tests revealed

no traces of drugs or alcohol in the victim's system.

JERRY BEYER: We noticed that his body was well-tanned,

and that there were not any tan lines.

The pubic hair was shaved and in a swimmer's type style,

or of someone who may have been wearing tights.

We searched out leads with a male dancer troop that

was here, the Chippendale type dancers,

who were here the week prior.

And we base that on to his well-developed physical

appearance, his tanned body, the shaved pubic area,

and all of those leads were negative

when they were researched.

ROBERT STACK: This is the jacket worn by the young man.

In one of the pockets, investigators found

a pair of swimming goggles.

Sewn into the collar was an ID tag,

inscribed Lieutenant L.F. Price, USAF.

A check of military records could find no such person.

RICHARD ROOF: When we go back and look

at the series of events that led up to this incident,

the individual had approximately 90 seconds to two minutes

to climb over a 7 and 1/2 foot high fence,

traverse approximately 800 foot of terrain, including one ditch

system, run around the aircraft's tail section,

and then climb on the aircraft, although we

have no actual eyewitnesses to his climbing on the aircraft.

And again the time interval was between 90

seconds and 120 seconds.

It's quite an accomplishment.

ROBERT STACK: Within seconds, flight 2940

was barreling down the runway at 125 miles an hour.

Once air born, the speed increased

to more than 190 miles an hour.

RICHARD ROOF: And that obviously is a substantial wind force

upon anyone trying to stay on the wing of an aircraft

with really no handholds.

We judge at this point that he managed to stay on

for approximately 3,000 to 3,500 feet

after the aircraft departed the ground.

RON JONES: I wonder what was so important to make him take

a chance on trying to catch a ride

on the outside of an aircraft.

JIM GREIF: I think that there's an answer with his family.

His family may not even know that he was coming home.

And I think that that's probably-- if we could just

get over that hurdle there--

I think we could find out why.

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ROBERT STACK: Join me next time for another edition

of Unsolved Mysteries.

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