Original subtitles

- There's a movie about a caveman.

I think Brendan Fraser is in this movie.

And he was frozen at one point.

- They found him in an ice block.

And the movie is they dethaw him,

and he has to be integrated into normal society.

And in some ways, I felt on that level.

Me and my brother, we grew up off the grid.

- We lived pretty isolated in a cabin out in the woods.

- We didn't have exposure to the outside world...

and, like, I want more.

I want more.

- They were dubbed the Wild Boys...

- The so-called Wild Boys.

- after they caught the country's attention

with an unbelievable tale.

- They definitely weren't like my children

or any teenagers or young adults

that I've been in contact with.

- The community was a little on edge

when two strangers showed up unexpectedly at our doorstop.

- Who are these guys? Why are they here?

- It was my job to get to the bottom of it.

- I'm thinking I might be aiding and abetting people

who I really shouldn't be, right?

- I do believe them.

I mean, I don't know what to believe.

- All these people are looking at me,

deciding whether or not they can trust me and my story.

I'm thinking whether I should trust them and their story

of why society is so great.

Go to work, and get your rent.

You'll die one day and end up in the cemetery.

But that's good. That's how it should be.

I'm like, no, it sucks.

I don't want your cemetery.

I don't want your normal life.

- In 2003, Vernon was a small town frozen in time.

The best analogy might be it was an AM radio station

in an FM stereo world.

We couldn't get national media to pay attention to Vernon

on its best day, but it was a great place

to visit and an even better place to live.

- It's a small town,

but you go 2 kilometers in any direction out of town,

you're in the wilderness.

You are in the primeval wilderness.

- The people are friendly.

You go down to the grocery store,

and you run into a dozen people who

know you by your first name.

And as Canadians, there's a tendency

to help your neighbor and your fellow man.

But at the end of that summer, these two rough kids,

you know, popped up on our radar.

- My husband would say I'm the type of person that just...

when I see something that needs to be done, I get it done.

And I'm not going to wait around

for other people to do it.

Back in 2003, I was 34.

My kids were my main focus,

so I was always helping out in the classrooms.

My kids' school was near the library.

That's where I first saw the boys.

They caught my eye.

The younger one was extremely thin

and looked sick.

And he was just following behind the older one.

I remember thinking something was wrong.

You'd look. You'd take a second look.

I just couldn't get them out of my head.

Like, what was that that I saw?

It was so foreign. And it was a young child.

I started thinking, like, where'd they come from?

Like, what's their story?

So I made it my mission to find these boys and help them.

It's a small enough town that you could talk to a few people

and someone would know.

Somebody said they're living near Kal's store.

So I asked the store owners if they'd seen these two guys.

And they knew right away who I was talking about.

- It looked like another... how do you say it?

Alien. -Almost like an alien.

- Yeah.

- They said, oh, they're living behind the store

in a tent,

said they come in and use the payphone a lot.

- I remember them using the phone,

and they were getting a real chuckle out of that.

- So I left quarters in an envelope

with my phone number.

I said, I can help you if you need help.

And I didn't expect them to call me right away.

It was quite soon.

The older one was the only one that spoke.

- Hello?

Who is this?

- He was very quiet, subdued.

- My name is Tom. I got your note.

- So that was strange too, right,

for young people to be like that.

I was like, hey, this sounds strange.

You don't know me. I'm just a community member.

And I wanted to reach out and see

if I can offer any assistance.

And they right away said, yes. We'd love your help.

So we met.

I brought them food.

And they, you know, were very thankful.

But they didn't want any junk food, chips,

nothing that teens would eat.

They were both painfully shy.

The younger boy was a young teenager, 15, 16.

And he just seemed so thin.

And you know, his cheekbones, you could see them.

It was really shocking.

And then the other one seemed to be early 20s.

You know, your mind goes to is there something else going on?

Is he being deprived of food?

Maybe they're in some sort of cult or something.

And I just said, I want to help them.

And that's when they started to tell me their story.

My name is Tom Green.

I was born and raised in the wilderness of Canada,

up near Revelstoke.

That's up north of Vernon.

My mom and dad and my younger brother,

we grew up off-grid in a cabin.

It was a very peaceful way to grow up,

completely separate from the rest of society.

- My name is Will Green, and I was raised in the forest.

Our parents taught us the story of Neverland,

where it's literally about

never getting old,

that that's possible.

It's very powerful because Neverland

inspires us to be very childlike...

to maintain it, to not lose it.

Life in the woods, for a while,

it was just beautiful.

- They'd never been to school,

never been to a doctor.

- There was something different there.

They definitely weren't like my children

or any teenagers or young adults

that I've been in contact with.

They're not socialized like a lot of us.

And I could tell by that.

- Just because somebody tells you something,

that doesn't mean it's real.

I need fact.

As soon as the story started bubbling,

the first thing that came to my mind

was, OK, number one, who are these people?

Why are they in Vernon?

And then the natural thing is, what are they hiding from?

Who are they hiding from?

- For months, no one knew they were here,

two mysterious brothers

living on the outskirts of Vernon.

- There was two things going on.

One was finding out who they were and where they're from.

And then there was a group of people,

including myself, that were advocating

for them to get help first.

It's just, you know, on the ground,

trying to get everything for these guys

and organized... housing, food, clothing.

It was quite a lot of money.

And there was a lot of people upset with that.

- Their story is the talk of the town,

but not everyone is buying it.

- Scammer. Yeah, they're a scammer. Yeah.

- It seems a bit suspicious to me.

I don't know how come

they haven't been seen by other people, and...

- It's a little bit suspicious, maybe, maybe.

But on the other hand, maybe it's true.

- I remember Tami saying at one point, I think,

that, like, hey, people don't even know

for sure that you're really brothers.

- So do you believe their story?

I don't know.

I couldn't tell you on that one.

- Prior to the boys arriving, the community had gone through

a number of gang-related murders,

and it caused a lot of tension,

a lot of anxiety in the community.

People started feeling unsafe.

- There was a definite split in the community

as to whether the boys were telling the truth or not.

And I sat down with the Inspector Kolibaba,

and we had a really frank conversation about,

is this real?

In the '70s, Americans coming north of the border

to dodge the Vietnam War

often settled in the surrounding area.

So if a young man in his early 20s had decided

to cross the border and go off the grid

in an attempt to avoid deportation...

in theory, it was possible that two kids

had lived completely unplugged from civilization.

- They'd lived in secrecy for all those years,

and they didn't want to expose their parents, I guess.

- Does that seem far-fetched to you?

-No. No, not really. -No.

- Do you really think that happens up here?

- I actually grew up up north, so I know it can happen.

- Yeah, I believe what they're saying.

I don't see anything wrong with that.

I think it's unique that we have people that

are a little bit different for a change,

parents who are in hiding.

And the world doesn't have to know what's going on.

- We lived pretty isolated.

Part of you always knows,

yeah, there's this whole other world out there.

And if I wanted to, I could become part of that.

You wonder, am I going to join them one day?

Or am I going to continue living out

my whole life out here?

- At first, when I arrived at Vernon, I was afraid.

I was fearful all the time.

I was suspicious of society.

The way we grew up,

there's a feeling that people are dangerous.

- They kept things close to their chest.

I didn't really know, like,

were they fleeing from an abusive situation?

I didn't ask them a lot of questions at the time

because I didn't want to scare them off.

I was thinking they just needed help

with food and shelter.

- Tami was a resourceful person,

and she found a way to get us a place to stay.

- There was a hostel in town.

I knew it was just a really nice vibe.

It was good energy.

And they moved upstairs into a room.

I brought my blow dryer and shampoo.

Will was kind of fighting me on the shower thing.

And I thought, is he scared of the shower or hot water?

What's wrong?

And then he absolutely did not want me to blow dry his hair

and said that the noise bothered him or something.

- My ears started to literally, like,

feel like they're going to explode.

- With all these details and idiosyncrasies, in my mind,

I'm thinking, clearly they did not live a normal life.

- The hostel was really perfect.

You know, they had a computer that anyone there could use.

And that was a crazy experience.

Growing up, you know, computer, TV,

we didn't have any of that stuff.

Tami was taking care of so much on our behalf

and helping us integrate into society.

She accepted us like we're family

and just led us into her home.

♪ Happy birthday, dear Tom ♪

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

- Birthday boy gets the first piece.

- I remember, it was Tom's birthday,

so we got him a cake.

- OK, Tom, let's see what it tastes like.

- Oh, don't do that to the poor guy.

He's going to have to fake it.

- They may have had maybe a taste of the cake,

but they weren't eating the cake, that's for sure.

It was kind of an excitement to be able to,

you know, introduce them to these things that are "normal."

My kids really liked them.

And, you know, you just go by what your kids think.

Will related to them more.

And that's where he kind of opened up more.

- Tami and her family were adopting me a bit.

She was just filled with compassion,

empathetic, sensitive.

She really cared.

I felt loved, yeah, to be part of other people's family,

when you're missing your own family,

because I was missing my family.

- There are people that choose to live off the grid, OK?

Their story, it's plausible.

But the community was responding with emotion.

We needed, as police, to respond with reason.

We didn't know who they were.

Are they dangerous? Did they commit crimes?

And that's when I assigned Corporal Henry Proce

to find out what was going on.

- I would have to admit,

I like being in a position of authority, which is nice,

as a police officer.

I like solving crime. I love this job.

Inspector Kolibaba dropped the file on my desk

because I was the media relations officer,

and people wanted answers.

We're going to do some investigation,

try and determine the background of the two males,

where they're from, this sort of thing, their identity.

We had the names, Tom and Will Green.

I did run them through our various systems.

And nothing came up whatsoever.

There's no record of these boys being born

within British Columbia.

There's no record of their parents.

There's no driving records, criminal records,

nothing tangible, nothing concrete

that we could follow up on.

At that point, I'd been a police officer

for almost 30 years, so I'm somewhat cynical.

And if I say something is too far-fetched, it usually is.

I thought, OK, these guys are lying from start to finish.

And it was my job to get to the bottom of it.

- At that point, they hadn't committed any offenses.

They were not arrestable.

So now we go talk to them.

Now we interview them, and we see what's really going on.

And that was the plan.

- When you grow up living off the grid,

isolated from the rest of society,

you don't have police.

You don't have people above you,

telling you what you can do.

So when Proce came by the hostel,

it was our first interaction with authorities.

It was clear to me that he didn't believe us.

So he was trying to intimidate me,

you know, trying to get more information out of me.

I guess that's what police do.

- I don't think that kind of confrontation happened.

I mean, we're professional.

We have integrity. We're very thorough.

- I was answering all his questions.

And the details that we gave were just the truth.

- Who are you?

- My name is Tom Green.

- Where are you really from?

- I was born in Canada, in the wilderness of Revelstoke.

- Why weren't they ever seen?

- For starters, our house was covered up,

so you couldn't even see it from overhead.

That was all intentional.

So if there's helicopters flying around,

they wouldn't see it.

You're far out there. You're in nature, for sure.

- What are you doing here?

Why are you taking advantage of these people?

- He definitely was having trouble even understanding

what I meant by things

because I would answer his questions so precisely.

Like, he was frustrated by my answers, I could tell.

- And then when they said their parents were Mary and Joseph,

I thought, this is going nowhere.

- I was just telling the truth.

That's their job to identify people.

If they don't know who we are, that's on them.

- They were not very cooperative.

And you can't force a person to cooperate with you, obviously.

But I can't remember the younger one

saying almost anything.

Like, he was so quiet.

And he would just nod and look at his brother.

That was a concern, that he was that young,

being supervised and under the care of his brother,

who did all the talking.

The only thing that we knew

was that he had this ridiculous diet.

He would not eat anything that involved killing the plant.

So you couldn't eat a carrot

because you got to pull it out of the ground.

- With Will, it was like more avocados,

more vegetables, more fruits, but nothing else.

- As the weeks went by, he was losing weight,

and he was getting thinner and thinner.

- He was so malnourished,

very low energy, speaking very monotone,

just not like a regular teenager.

In my mind, it was almost like

Tom was the one feeding him all this stuff.

And that's what I thought was happening.

It seemed like Tom was controlling

what he said and didn't say.

And the more and more I hung out with them,

the more firm he became.

- I kept telling her, you know, he was in control.

Will's choosing to eat that way for now

because he believed that was the right way for him.

- We butted heads on that a lot

because Will was just a kid,

and Tom was very nonchalant about it.

Was Tom part of why he's so skinny?

I just wasn't sure.

- Growing up, our parents, they would go and hunt.

And so we ate meat.

- There was a stream close by for water.

We would supplement our diet with things like fish.

We would fish.

But at some point, I remember I was telling my parents,

like, look, I don't want to be eating meat in general.

I really started to just be hyper-obsessed with health.

I decided to become a fruitarian and just eat fruit.

My mom and dad would just fight with me

all the time about that.

And they didn't give me the option.

You know, they didn't know what to do with us.

- We wanted to pursue our vegan diet.

But it's just not...

it's not how it's done out there.

So that's why we had to go.

At the same time,

I was saying to Tami, hey, um,

you know, I'm willing to work.

Can you get me help so I can just get a job?

We didn't have, like, birth certificates.

We didn't have IDs.

It all came down to getting identified.

- I was panicking because I thought without ID,

how are we going to help them to live independently?

So at that point, I wanted to get their picture in the paper.

- Tami said there was a local reporter

who wanted to put out a little article on us.

I thought, OK, just a local paper, anyway.

It doesn't matter.

- This is Tom Green, one of the so-called Bush Boys.

The boys talked to the local Vernon newspaper

in the hopes that someone would recognize them

and help them confirm their identities.

- Media coverage went Valley wide.

CHBC-TV out of Kelowna started to get involved.

BCTV showed up.

- These two young men talked about living their entire lives

in the bush.

- That's a pretty bizarre story, don't you think?

- Well, it is, but bizarre things happen.

- I do remember it being on the news and going,

oh, gosh, this is really going to a different level now.

And I'm involved.

And, you know, people are going to know I'm involved.

- The story took on a life of its own.

It became a media event.

- Well, the old saying is, you know,

no media is bad media.

These two wild children appear in our community,

and suddenly, everybody wants to talk to us.

- I had a press briefing

with television, radio, print media.

I would meet weekly with them and updated them.

Most of the time, I just sort of said, I...

we don't know, we just simply don't know.

- You know, now, they're getting help,

financial help, OK?

Is it a scam?

- There was a community member that called me

in the middle of the night,

drunk, freaking out, and basically accusing me

of helping these boys who probably didn't need the help.

She was just convinced they were lying.

I remember just feeling a lot of pressure.

Like, I don't know what to do. I'm just a mom.

- This story raises far more questions

than it offers answers.

Perhaps that's because the community has squirreled away

these two boys.

They're being kept well away from the media.

That is perhaps slowing any positive identification

of who they might be.

- Without hearing from either one of the two,

it is impossible to verify any of the story.

- They just flatly refused to speak to the press.

- The media were really starting to hound everyone.

So in my mind, I was wanting to protect the boys.

I mean, I couldn't imagine the anxiety they would have had.

- They were secluded in the hostel,

and no one was getting near them.

- At one point, Henry Proce knocked on the hostel door.

And he said, you're here. Why are you here?

That's when I realized, I think they need a lawyer.

- I could never understand why they had to be lawyered up.

Tami and the lawyer, you know, formed a team.

And I was seen as on the other side.

- Like, he wanted me basically to hand over the boys,

I think, and let them talk.

He was more black and white. "I want to know the facts.

There's facts to this."

And I was getting in the way of that

and he didn't like that.

I didn't want them to get scared and flee,

and then that's it.

All this work was for nothing.

- We could clear this whole matter up within a half hour

if they simply told us who their parents were,

where they live, and how to get there.

Maybe everything they're saying is true,

and there's some cabin, you know,

somewhere near Revelstoke,

where their parents still hide underground,

read National Geographics.

- Tom and I would get into some arguments

and me saying, you need to tell me more.

Like, I can't help you unless you're more forthcoming here.

And he just wouldn't.

- They said, well, if you go talk to your parents,

it would help lead me to be able to get an ID.

And I said to her, anyone could possibly go take a dog

and find out where I went and find them.

I'm not going to do that.

- It was all centered around this fear.

They were really wanting to protect their parents' identity

and where their parents lived.

But I was like, I've done all this for you,

and you're not giving me anything here.

Like, I can't help you without ID or information.

- She was just very serious about it.

And after assessing the situation,

I thought, like, it's a goodwill thing.

Like, OK, if you go make this attempt,

that's what they want to see.

- We drove to Revelstoke.

And they would say, OK, turn here.

Turn there.

I was a little nervous, right?

I'm in the middle of the bush

with these people that I really don't know.

- And so I just said, OK, here's the spot.

Pull over. I could get there from here.

It was quite cold.

And they said they would go talk to their parents,

and they went in the bush and disappeared.

And I just started spinning at that point,

being like, are they criminals?

Like, are we in danger?

In my mind, I'm like, oh, my gosh,

they've been with my kids.

You know, they know where I live.

And also the family, like,

how do I know they're not dangerous, right?

- I was sitting in the car for what seemed like forever.

You're a little nervous, right?

Is Mary and Joseph going to come out here now?

And I'm picturing them in these, like, religious cloaks.

And then they came out by themselves...

with no Mary and Joseph and no ID.

- I went back.

And I told them that, oh, yeah, I did talk to my parents,

and they said, no, no, no, we can't give you anything,

and don't come in, and go away.

- It just didn't sit with me.

And I kept questioning him and questioning him.

I don't... I don't get it.

You were so cold when we came back to get you,

and if you hiked in an hour and back,

that wouldn't have happened.

And he said to me, I'm sorry. I had to lie to you.

- She said, you didn't really go see your parents, did you?

And I said, that's right. I didn't.

So you admitted to that?

- Yeah.

I said, yeah, I'm not going to, you know, so there.

I pretended to. I played along.

I'm not going to go back.

I'm not going to go compromise their location.

- The fact that they were sent on this wild goose chase

out to Revelstoke...

I mean, I found out about it after the fact.

It's not like they came to me and said,

would this be a good idea?

I would have said, no, it's a total waste of time

because it's not going to happen.

One of the first things I did was check out Revelstoke.

And they had never heard of Tom or Will Green either.

- No, I do believe... I do believe them that they...

I mean, I don't believe...

I don't know what to believe because just like

everybody else, I don't have concrete facts.

And on the way back, the lawyer's office called

and said that the police were looking for us.

And now, I'm thinking I might be

aiding and abetting people who I really shouldn't be, right?

- I was getting more and more frustrated.

You know, we wanted to get to the bottom of it.

I think what's going through your head first

and foremost is, I don't want to screw this up.

And I didn't want to screw it up.

I didn't want to fail.

- There was a sense of urgency,

especially around the younger brother,

because as time went on,

it became apparent that he continued to lose weight.

He continued to become more emaciated.

There was a concern.

What do we do as a community if he, God forbid, dies?

- I was worried about Will

because he was getting seriously worse and worse

every day.

- I just remember being, like, cold and, like, bony.

So if you sit down, like, you gotta make sure it has padding,

you know, like...

Yeah, it's not good.

It's not good to be that skinny.

- We were always trying to encourage Will

to get food to make him gain weight.

He acted like we were going to make him eat these foods

that were going to kill him.

- Back then, I'm thinking, I will only eat something

if I'm convinced it's good for my body.

- I don't think the older brother, Tom,

appreciated the seriousness of the situation,

that his younger brother was slowly dying

in front of his eyes.

I think at that point, he was 85 pounds,

a young man that was over 6 feet tall.

- That was really scary.

And it was just so frustrating because

Tom still wasn't willing to get him help.

So at that point, it was like, where do your loyalties lie?

- Tami contacted me and said

the situation was getting dire.

The lawyer couldn't help, and we had to do something.

And Tami told me he's in the store.

You should go get him.

- That day, I walked to the health food store.

I was buying oranges and all my fruit that I normally buy.

- I approached him, told him he was

being apprehended under the Mental Health Act

of British Columbia.

- He put me in cuffs and put me in, like, a freaking,

you know, cop car.

I just remember being intimidated and afraid.

I thought they were just taking me

for another interrogation or something.

But then, like, somewhere along the line,

in the car, in the cop car,

I realized he was taking me to the hospital.

So I'm thinking the worst of the worst at this point.

You visualize things,

like them literally forcing a tube down your throat.

He was making comments that, like, made me think, oh, yeah,

they're going to make you eat burgers and da da da da,

like, you know, it's horrifying.

- Maybe I said something to that effect.

I don't deny it.

I may have said, you need a cheeseburger.

But I mean, I had empathy for him.

I mean, he was suffering,

and he did not have the common sense to do something about it.

- They just decided, hey, you don't get freedom anymore.

We're going to take it away because we love you.

That's kidnapping.

- The Mental Health Act is the act under which

we can apprehend people who are a danger

to themselves or others.

And in this case, he was a minor

and clearly a danger to himself.

- There's a definite feeling of shame and guilt.

They trusted me.

So I felt like I betrayed them.

But I knew that he needs help.

And that's, you know, what I'm trying to do.

- How serious is his condition?

- Very serious.

-Life-threatening? -Yes.

- Back in 2004, I was a TV producer

for an investigative program called "Disclosure."

I remember, I was reading a newspaper,

and that's where I saw the story.

And it was a story of two young men,

walked out of the bush and needed help.

Despite all of the attention around them,

the boys had never spoken publicly.

And that was our goal,

was to see if we could get an interview with them,

get them to talk and learn more about them.

I went to Vernon not knowing how long it was going to take.

I didn't have a return ticket.

Yeah, when we landed, Will had been placed

in the hospital against his will,

without ID and without a presence in the system.

They were stuck.

- Now that Will's up in their hospital system,

it's going to get worse and worse, until...

how is anyone going to solve it?

No one's going to.

Are we going to ever going to be able to get out of that?

- My pitch to Tom was, look, tell your story,

and maybe there'll be sympathy.

If this is all you've got left to try and make it happen,

why not?

- I was telling them, no, I wouldn't do it.

But they kept trying to talk me into it.

- And we would take a step forward

and then five steps back.

And you just didn't really know

what was going on in his head.

- Right as they were going to give up,

I flipped and said, OK, I'll do it.

- Tom Green has never been interviewed on television.

But after months of negotiations,

he agreed to talk to us.

Do you understand why people are so intensely curious

about you and your brother?

- I think so.

People are curious about anything that's unusual.

They wanted to talk to me, get to know me.

They also wanted to meet Will.

- Everybody,

meet skinny raw-foodist Will.

Do you see a resemblance?

Ah, greens.

- At 16, he's a minor.

And with no parents, he could be made a ward of the state.

- Ah, I can't wait to get out of here.

- We had no idea where the story was going to go.

We hoped it would lead to the truth.

- Tom, what do you know about your parents?

Are they here legally?

- I'm not certain.

And if they're not even...

they could be.

- Are they criminals?

Have they committed some criminal act

that they're escaping from? -No, no, I...

if they are, I don't know anything about it.

- And at one point, while talking with Tom off camera,

trying to figure out more about their parents,

it became clear there was two versions of their story,

the one of them raised in the wild,

then the one where it was a little less wild.

- The hostel owner had said, hey,

they were on the computer quite a bit.

That's where it started to be, like,

I think they know a little more than what they're telling us.

- And so how can someone who was literally

raised in the forest with no electricity have these skills?

- Will would slip and say, oh, yeah, I watched that movie,

or, oh, I love "Cinderella" or something, right?

And I'd be like, well, how do you know that?

- The older brother would show up occasionally

with nice designer sunglasses.

And we discovered that they couldn't chop wood,

which is kind of a prerequisite

if you're living in the bush around Revelstoke.

- I don't see why I should have to prove myself.

- You think people are going to be sympathetic

when they hear that?

- I think some are.

I think some will see things the way I do.

- We got the story done, put it together,

got it to air.

It was the first time people could put eyes on these guys.

But we still don't know who these guys are.

- Once the CBC story ran,

all the pieces of the puzzle started to drop into place.

- Eventually, you get to the bottom of things.

In this case, it certainly exploded

once we found out the true story.

- I spent so much time with them,

thinking they were these people.

I just remember being, like, super hurt

and just going, what is going on?

- This is all unfolding in a matter of days.

Like, our story airs, and we got this email

from someone who recognized the boys on TV.

That changed everything.

- I'm just like, OK, well, we got to confront them.

- I was completely shocked.

Maybe this is all lies.

- Wait, where are you going?

- No, you have to let me in here.

- I have my own way of seeing what is right

and what is wrong.

- At some point, you even don't trust your own parents.

- What happened in Vernon is probably

just a footnote compared to what they're into now.

- If it's not true...

Is the truth darker?