All language subtitles for Expedition.Files.S04E10.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

On this episode of
"Expedition Files"...

In 1974, the body of a brutally
murdered, unidentified woman is

found in the sandy dunes
of Cape Cod.

[woman screams]

[Josh] Was she the victim of
a mob hit?

Or something even
more sinister?

Now, nearly 50 years later,
the Lady of the Dunes' identity

is finally revealed.

Then, for centuries,
Christians have believed Judas

was the ultimate betrayer.

But a recent archaeological
discovery is challenging that

narrative and raising
the question, what if the story

of Judas isn't what we've
always been told?

And in 1828, a teenage boy
stuns Germany by claiming

he's a long-lost prince from
a famous royal dynasty.

Will new evidence confirm
that he's of royal blood

or a master of deception?

In the corridors of time

are mysteries that
defy explanation.

Now, I'm traveling through
history itself

on a search for the truth.

New evidence.

Shocking answers.

I'm Josh Gates.

And these...

are my "Expedition Files."

Scientists have calculated that
you make a first impression of

someone in just a tenth
of a second.

That's all the time it takes to
form an opinion, good or bad.

And to put that in context,
you've already been watching me

for over 150 times that.

And the good news is,
you've decided that

I'm awesome, right?

Tonight, we're taking this
concept to the opposite extreme,

examining three strange
and shocking stories

from history where, far from
getting to know our main

characters in under a second,
it will take decades,

centuries, even millennia
to solve the mysteries

of who these people really are.

And we begin on a beautiful
summer morning

in Cape Cod in 1974.

It's here that we find a young
girl exploring the scenic

Race Point Dunes
near Provincetown,

but she's about to walk
straight into a nightmare.

[woman screams]

It's the decomposing body of
an auburn-haired woman,

face down, half buried
in the sand.

And horrifically,
she's missing both her hands.

Authorities will soon arrive,
but despite an exhaustive

investigation, they will be
unable to identify her.

In fact, her name will remain
a mystery for almost 50 years,

buried in the sands of time.

That is, until groundbreaking
DNA analysis finally answers

the question --
who is the Lady of the Dunes?

[phone rings]

Hello?

[Josh] Minutes after the body
is found...

Where?

...Provincetown Police Chief
James Meads is alerted.

At the dunes?
Any witnesses?

[Josh] He's led the police force
for just four years.

This is by far the biggest
and most shocking case

to ever cross Meads' desk.

When Meads arrives at
the crime scene,

he immediately examines the body
and finds it's brutalized.

The woman's hands have been
completely severed

and are missing, presumably

to prevent identification
through fingerprints.

Her head has almost
been decapitated.

The left side of her skull has
been crushed by a massive blow.

Who did this to you?

[Josh]
Under her head, almost like
a pillow, Meads finds a neatly

folded bandana and a pair of
Wrangler jeans.

The woman appears to have been
dead for at least ten days.

And in the summer heat,
her body is in a sorry state.

With no identification
and very little to go on,

their best hope of discovering
what happened to this Jane Doe

is through an autopsy.

The medical examiner suggests

she's between 25
and 40 years old,

5'6", 145 pounds,
with an athletic build.

She's had a lot of dental work.

[Josh] And something else.

She has several missing teeth,
and those that are left

are unusual.
She has seven gold crowns.

With no matches on the missing
person databases,

Meads comes to believe that the
victim's extensive dental work

could be the best chance
of getting an ID.

Meads and his team contact
thousands of dentists,

desperate to make a connection.

But despite their efforts,
the cops come up empty.

And meanwhile, no one has come
forward to claim the body.

It's as if the Lady of the Dunes
is a ghost.

October 1974, three months on
from the body being found,

she's buried here in an unnamed
grave in Provincetown's

St. Peter's Cemetery.

The funeral is paid for by
the town itself.

The community has become
invested in the tragic story,

and they're looking
for answers.

And no one wants those answers
more than James Meads himself.

He pledges to solve this case,
whatever it takes.

Six years later, in 1980,
he has the woman's body exhumed

in hopes of finding a clue
he missed the first time.

Samples are taken,
and the body is reexamined

with the latest technology.

Unfortunately,
nothing decisive is found.

But unwilling to give up
on the case,

Meads retains the skull when
the remains are reburied.

He stores it at the state
medical examiner's office,

hopeful it may one day
help identify the body.

Over the next several years,
police use the skull to create

forensic facial composites
of the Lady of the Dunes,

releasing them to the public.

[phone rings]

[Josh]
One woman claims the victim
looks like her missing sister.

Another says her father
was the killer.

A psychic suggests
her hands were buried

under a nearby building.

Meads and the other officers
follow these and hundreds

of other leads,
but none pan out.

-[Meads] Thank you all so much.
-[clapping]

[Josh]
Then, in 1992, after more than
30 years on the job,

18 of those working
the Dunes case,

Chief Meads retires from
the force, seemingly no closer

to solving the case than
when he started.

With the advancement
of DNA analysis,

the body is exhumed again
in the year 2000.

However, it's early days
for this technology,

and no match is found.

The case fades from public
attention until remarkable

new leads bring it back
into the spotlight.

The first lead comes in 2012,
when an informant comes forward

saying that he saw a woman
matching the composite

of the Lady of the Dunes hanging
out with the notorious mobster

Whitey Bulger in July of 1974,
the same month she died.

Bulger was known for
removing his victim's teeth

to prevent identification.

But disturbing MO aside,
investigators are unable

to link the mobster to
their Jane Doe.

Then in 2013, the body is
exhumed for a third time

to collect additional samples
for newer forensic techniques.

But once again,
no identification is made.

In 2015, perhaps
the most bizarre lead

in the case emerges.

It's a theory that one can only
describe as jaws dropping.

Joe Hill, son of author
Stephen King,

is watching
the 1975 movie "Jaws."

And in one of the beach scenes,
he spots a woman

in the background
with long auburn hair,

wearing a blue bandana
and jeans that look just like

those found alongside
the Lady of the Dunes.

Hill, familiar with
the Lady of the Dunes story,

reports his lead to a friend at
the FBI, noting that the film

had been shot in Martha's
Vineyard the same year of

the murder, just 100 miles
south of Provincetown.

He also posts his theory
to social media.

Hill's post goes viral,
but a Universal Studios

archivist is unable to find
the name of the extra,

and the FBI doesn't turn up
any new leads.

All hope of ID-ing the victim
seems lost.

That is, until the FBI makes
a stunning announcement

in 2022.

Thanks to the latest
forensic analysis,

and after nearly 50 years,

the Lady of the Dunes
has a name.

[Josh]
For almost half a century,
Massachusetts' most mysterious

murder victim, the so-called
Lady of the Dunes,

has remained unidentified.

But in 2022, advanced genetic
testing conducted by the FBI

finally unlocks the truth.

Journalist Megan Carpentier
has been tracking the story.

[Megan]
Investigators were able to get
DNA from a couple of sources

in order to build out
this genetic profile.

One was from the body
of the Lady of the Dunes,

who had been interred.

The other part was from
her jawbone, which was part of

the investigator's materials.

And then they were able to use
forensic genealogy to find

family members who had uploaded
their own genetic profiles

to public databases looking for
family members.

And that's how they were
finally able to identify her.

She was no longer
the Lady of the Dunes.

Her name was Ruth Marie Terry.

[Josh] Who was Ruth Terry?

Well, she was born in 1936
to a working-class family

in Tennessee.

She moved to Michigan and worked
in an automotive plant,

where she married, divorced,
and had a son whom

she gave up for adoption.

She then headed to California,

where she met
her second husband,

an antiques dealer
named Guy Muldavin.

And that's when her life took
a serious turn for the worse.

[as Ruth sobs]

[as Guy] Move over.
What's wrong with you?

[Megan]
When Ruth brought Guy
home to her family,

he was significantly older.
He didn't seem like he fit in.

She was acting different.
He was acting controlling.

The family had a lot
of concerns.

These concerns were more
than justified.

By the time he met Ruth,
Muldavin already had

an extremely checkered past.

[Megan]
Over the course of his life,
he had five wives.

Ruth was his fourth.

His first wife, he was married
to for ten years.

They had a child together,
and then they got divorced.

He had his second wife,
he was married to for a year.

And then, according to Guy,
she abandoned him.

[indistinct police
radio chatter]

[police] Ugh.

[Megan]
And eventually, police began to
question what happened to her,

and they discovered remains in
the septic tank of their home.

Police believed the remains
belonged to Guy's missing

wife and stepdaughter,
but Muldavin had apparently

fled the scene.

The FBI launched
a nationwide manhunt,

and Muldavin was
ultimately apprehended.

But unbelievably, the cops
couldn't directly tie him to

the crime, and he walked free.

That led him to his third wife,
who had him convicted of theft,

after which he served
a year in prison.

In 1974, Muldavin met wife
number four, Ruth Marie Terry.

He was married to her
for just five months

before he claimed she vanished.

After Terry's disappearance,
Guy returned, driving her car,

and seems to have told
her family they'd had a fight

on their honeymoon,
and she just left him,

and he had no idea what
happened to her after that.

-Where is she?
-I don't know, man.

She walked out on me.

[Megan]
The family believed that Terry
had made it back to California.

They flew out there, they hired
a private investigator,

they did everything they could
in 1974 to try to find her,

but they were unsuccessful.

Even after hiring a PI,
they were told she'd joined

a cult, and there was no trace
of her.

Over the years, Ruth's relatives
contributed DNA swabs

in hopes of one day finding out
what happened to her.

And eventually, it worked.

In 2022, her DNA was
definitively matched to

the Lady of the Dunes.

The story of what happened
to Ruth Terry

has its tragic ending.
So who killed her?

Well, Guy Muldavin is
the extremely likely suspect,

but unfortunately,
justice cannot be served.

Guy married his fifth wife
about two years after Terry

disappeared, and they stayed
married until his death in 2002.

In 2023,
the district attorney's office

announced that they were
closing the case in the death

of Ruth Marie Terry.

The police and prosecutors
had determined

that her killer was Guy,

and given his background,
given the disappearance of

his second wife
and the stepdaughter,

the sum total of the evidence
prosecutors felt like pointed

to Guy and no one else.

It feels pretty rotten that
he was able to just live out

his life like nothing happened.

[Josh]
While Muldavin sadly escaped
justice, he ultimately couldn't

escape being identified
as a cold-blooded killer.

And thanks to the determination
of investigators,

advancements in DNA science,

and the persistence
of her family,

the Lady of the Dunes
is anonymous no more.

She is Ruth Marie Terry.

One lingering
question remains --

could Ruth have been
the background extra some

believe appears in
the film "Jaws"?

The timeline fits, and her body
was discovered just 100 miles

from where the movie
was filmed.

But despite
the intriguing connection,

no definitive proof has ever
surfaced that Ruth was on set.

Still, the theory reignited
global interest in the case,

and in the end, that attention
helped bring Ruth her name back.

The mystery that haunted
the dunes for generations

and the woman
at the very heart of it

may finally rest in peace.

It's AD 33.

I'm in the Garden of Gethsemane
in Jerusalem.

It's normally a place of peace
and reflection,

but all that is
about to be shattered.

A man is being arrested
on charges of blasphemy.

Actually,
you might have heard of him.

His name is Jesus.

And in the next 24 hours,
he will be tried and crucified,

marking the defining moment in
the Christian faith.

And the person said to be
responsible for betraying him

is this man, Judas Iscariot.

But two millennia after
Jesus' death,

an artifact will emerge
that some say rewrites

the story of Judas and proves
he wasn't a traitor after all.

OK, folks, hope you've
got your Sunday best,

because it's Bible recap time.

The story of Judas Iscariot
as we know it today

comes from the four canonical
gospels of the New Testament,

the books of Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John.

In around A.D. 33,

Jesus has been preaching
for several years throughout

the region of Judea,
achieving his famed miracles

like curing blindness
and walking on water,

not to mention gathering
passionate followers.

But that adulation has also left
Jesus with powerful enemies,

none more so than
the Judean ruling authorities

and their backers,
the Roman Empire,

who brand Jesus as a heretic.

Meanwhile, Jesus has been
continuing to spread the good

word alongside his 12 most
devoted followers

known as the Apostles.
And one of them is Judas.

The night before his arrest,
Jesus hosts history's most

famous dinner party,
the Last Supper.

During the meal,
he announces that one of

the apostles will betray him.

What you were about to do,

do it quick.

[Josh] And later that night,
just as his prophecy foretold,

Judas follows Jesus into
the Garden of Gethsemane.

In the darkness,
where the soldiers cannot

easily distinguish him
from his followers,

Judas agrees to identify
Jesus with a signal,

a single kiss.

[distant crowd shouting]

[Josh] With that, the soldiers
move in and arrest Jesus.

[distant crowd shouting]

[Josh] But hold on.
Why would Judas give up Jesus,

the leader he
supposedly worshiped?

Well, the Gospels indicate that
he's motivated by greed.

According to Matthew,
Judas asks the authorities

what they'll give him
if he turns Jesus in.

Eager to put Jesus on trial,
the priests respond with

an offer of 30 pieces of silver,
a hefty sum today.

Matthew tells us
that Judas accepts

and that Jesus' fate
is sealed.

Interestingly, however,
the Gospel of Matthew indicates

that when Judas makes the deal,
he doesn't know that Jesus'

punishment is going to
be crucifixion.

When he finds out,
Judas returns the money

and then hangs himself.

Judas takes his own life,
apparently consumed by

the grief caused by betraying
the man he once revered.

But is that the whole story?

Shocking new discoveries
may rewrite the tale of Judas.

For centuries, the legend
of Judas betraying Jesus

has been embraced by
the Christian faithful as fact.

But some speculate
the apostles' motives

aren't so clear-cut.

Does the Bible really tell
the whole story?

To answer that question,
we have to dig deeper into

the good book and what was
and wasn't included.

The four canonical Gospels,
Matthew, Mark, Luke,

and John, are considered
by modern Christians to be

the definitive accounts
of Jesus' life,

despite being written decades
after his death.

But intriguingly, they are not
the only ancient texts

that tell his story.

In the early centuries of
Christianity, dozens of other

writings about Jesus are also
being published, and some of

them tell a very different
story about Judas' betrayal.

Perhaps the most famous of
these is the Gospel of Judas,

a text known to early Christians
and condemned around 180 A.D.

by the bishop Irenaeus
as false teaching.

Written anonymously,
it portrays Judas not

as a traitor, but as the one
disciple who truly understands

Jesus and carries
out his wishes.

In this account,

Jesus speaks of leaving
behind the physical world

and entrusts Judas with
the role of handing him over

to authorities so he can be
sacrificed and his spirit

can ascend to heaven.
But is it true?

That's harder to answer because
the text itself was lost for

centuries after being rejected
by the early church.

Our only knowledge of it came
from critics like Irenaeus,

whose account is
openly hostile.

The debate over Judas' role
largely remained unchanged for

nearly 2,000 years,
until a discovery in the late

20th century brings the text
back into the spotlight.

While details remain murky,
it's reported that somewhere

near El Minya in Egypt,
a local farmer uncovers

an ancient limestone box
hidden in a cave.

Inside is a leather-bound
collection of papyrus texts

written in Coptic,

the ancient language
of Christian Egypt.

The farmer, unable to read
the text, apparently sells

the papers to an antiquities
dealer in Cairo.

From there, the documents
change hands more times

than the cursed idol in
Raiders of the Lost Ark.

In 2001, the documents
find their way

to a Swiss antiques dealer,

Frieda Nussberger-Tchacos,
who partners with

preservation specialists
to restore and translate

the mysterious text.

The restoration of
the text takes years,

but when it's completed,
it rocks the Christian world,

becoming known as
the Codex Tchacos.

Dr. Cavan Concannon,
a professor of religion at USC,

describes it as nothing
short of revolutionary.

When the Codex Tchacos
was unveiled,

a lot of people were
very excited.

The Gospel of Judas was
a text that we knew existed,

but no one had seen it,

and no one had been able
to access it.

We have so little
material evidence.

So little textual evidence from
the ancient Christians that any

new addition of material is
always exciting and always

brings with it a chance
to revise and to rethink

and to expand our understanding
of the first centuries

of Christianity.

The announcement that this
codex was the lost Gospel of

Judas sends shockwaves
through the archaeological

and theological communities.

But it's also
immediately confronted

with an urgent question --
is it real?

There are a number of ways
in which ancient manuscripts

can be verified.

One of the ways in which this
text was dated was through

the use of carbon-14 testing.

And this is a form of
scientific testing where, um,

you use the decay of isotopes
to determine when an organic

piece of material, um,
had its lifespan.

The dating of things precisely
with carbon-14 is difficult,

so, uh, you don't always get
the thing that we really want,

which is this text was written
on this day in this year.

In the case of the Tchacos
Codex, the carbon-14 testing

indicated a range
of dates in the fourth

to the fifth centuries.

It's clear that this is not
a text that was forged

in modernity,
but a genuine ancient document.

So the document is
certifiably ancient,

but not quite as old as
the canonical Gospels

that make up the New Testament
we know today.

Those date from several
centuries earlier.

And that's why scholars
pay attention

to the Gospel of Judas,

because despite its later date,
it comes from a time when early

Christianity was still taking
shape, reflecting a range of

different views about Jesus
and his followers.

Ultimately, though, it isn't
the age of the document

that's most fascinating.

It's what it actually says,
particularly about Judas.

[Cavan]
The Gospel of Judas is

different from
the canonical Gospels.

It adds some extra scenes.

Scenes that are
important for how

one should understand
the life and death of Jesus.

In this text, we were gonna
get a different Judas,

a Judas who was not a betrayer,
but Jesus' closest disciple,

uh, a kind of tragic hero who
did what no one else could do,

uh, and helped Jesus
fulfill his destiny.

You will exceed all of them,

for you will sacrifice the man
that clothes me.

Jesus tells Judas
what he's going to do

that Jesus is pushing Judas
to do this for him,

and he doesn't seem to have
any agency about this.

He doesn't get to choose
whether he's gonna do

this or not.

This is just kind of
written in the stars

that this is gonna happen.

Judas is the passive actor

in what ultimately is
a tragic drama for him.

The best of the disciples who
ultimately will not be saved.

But as you can imagine,
this new interpretation rankles

the church as it flies
completely in the face of

the, well, gospel truth
of Christianity.

The Gospel of Judas was
received with a great deal of

fanfare and presented as
something that was going to

upend Christian theology
and challenge

the Catholic Church
or challenge, you know,

Christian theology
more broadly.

Christian communities reacted by
calling this text a false text

as a representative
of a heretical form

of ancient Christianity.

Now, though the Gospel
of Judas is different

from the canonical Gospels,
it's not radically different.

Jesus is still presented as
a salvific figure

who comes into the world,
performs miracles,

gathers disciples, um,
dies on the cross eventually,

and as someone who is offering
wisdom to a fallen humanity.

I think when it comes to
the question of what's

the right version or the right
story about Judas,

there isn't really one.

Judas is probably an invented
character to help answer

a particular question,
which is --

if Jesus was the Son of God,

if he was this important
pre-existing divine figure,

why did he have to die?

It gives you a kind of narrative

around which to build
that story,

to explain why
a crucified person

is actually a agent
of the divine.

So the Gospel of Judas is not

necessarily a deviation from
the canonical tradition,

but just a different
perspective on it.

The Catholic Church does not
accept the Gospel of Judas,

regarding it as a heretical text
with no theological authority.

But regardless of your faith,
or lack of faith,

in what it says about Judas
and Jesus' relationship,

there's no debating that its
discovery and restoration

is extraordinary.

That a truly historic text
could be lost for 1,500 years

only to have its message
preserved and deciphered

reminds us that humanity's
story is still being filled in

and that ancient chapters
are still out there

just waiting to be found.

And that is something
we can all believe in.

It's May 26th, 1828.

I'm in Nuremberg, Germany,
and I'm not the only one

who's new in town.

This 16-year-old boy's name
is Kaspar Hauser.

But other than saying his name,
he can barely speak.

Heck, he can barely walk.

And his only possessions are
two strange letters that raise

as many questions as answers.

Who is Kaspar?
Where did he come from?

Some will say he's
a destitute feral child

raised in isolation.

But other will whisper something
even more shocking,

that he's a secret German
prince, hidden from society

to prevent him from claiming
his rightful throne.

And for the next 200 years,
no one is able to solve

the riddle of Kaspar Hauser.

That is, until 21st century
science reveals the truth

about the so-called wild child.

As the story goes, Kaspar
is taken by a local shoemaker

to meet the authorities
in Nuremberg.

[indistinct chatter]

There, they examine
two letters he's carrying.

The first is strikingly brief,
apparently from the boy's

mother, listing only Kaspar's
name, his birth date,

and that his father
was a deceased,

unnamed cavalry officer.

The second letter
is stranger still,

addressed to
Captain von Wessenig,

the commanding officer
of a cavalry regiment

in Nuremberg.

It begins by stating that
the boy wishes to join

the army, but quickly
takes a darker turn.

This letter is not from
his mother, but from a poor

laborer who claims the child
was given to him,

raised in isolation,
and never allowed outside

before being abandoned
in Nuremberg

in the middle of the night.

The two accounts don't align,
offering no clear explanation

of who Kaspar is
or where he came from.

And most unsettling of all,

the second letter ends
with a chilling instruction.

If no one is willing to take
the boy in,

he should be hanged.

A new home or a hanging is
a pretty extreme request,

but we're just getting started
in this bizarre tale.

When questioned
about the letters,

Kaspar can only
repeat the words --

[speaking in German]

And any attempts at gaining
more information

cause him to cry or say
he doesn't know.

However,
to everyone's surprise,

when asked to write
his name,

he does so in clearly
readable letters.

So what's the truth behind
Kaspar Hauser?

All will soon be revealed.

[Josh] In 1828, a strange boy
arrives in Nuremberg.

He's unable to say anything
much more than his name,

Kaspar Hauser.

A letter he brought with him
says he was brought up in

secret and has never been
allowed outside before

being dumped here on
the streets of Germany.

The letter also says that

if someone can't take him in,
he should be killed.

The boy is, in short, an enigma.

According to the letter,
he knows nothing of

the outside world.

But observers notice that
he does seem to recognize money

and can even read
limited words.

But with no knowledge of
who raised him or where,

the boy will need someone
to care for him.

[indistinct chatter]

[Josh] As word spreads about
this mysterious young man,

a prominent citizen in
Nuremberg named

Professor Daumer takes him in
and begins tutoring him.

Under the professor's guidance,
the boy's communication skills

develop quickly,
and Kaspar starts sharing

his remarkable story.

For as long as he can remember,
Kaspar sat in a small dark room

without never getting to see
another soul or go outside.

He was given only bread
and water,

but never saw the person
who supplied it.

It always arrived
during his sleep.

His only companions
were wooden toys,

two wooden horses
and a wooden dog.

He says he lived this way for
13 years, until a few days ago,

when a man appeared
and taught him how to walk,

parrot a few sentences,
and write his name.

This unknown man then took him
to Nuremberg and abandoned him.

[man]
Es ist Zeit zu gehen.

[Josh]
The story is shocking,
but could it possibly be true?

Well, Kaspar is given several
medical examinations,

and they support and challenge
his claims of isolation.

[doctor] Raise your right arm.

[Josh] Doctors confirm that
he has poor motor skills

and may be
intellectually impaired.

But he's otherwise
physically healthy,

and his memory
appears sharp.

[speaking in German]

[Josh] Whatever the story of
his origins, Kaspar has

seemingly found a better life
thanks to Professor Daumer.

[speaking in German]

[Josh]
But in October of 1829,

five months after the boy first
appeared in Nuremberg,

his new life takes
a violent turn.

One Saturday, he's alone,

sick and resting at the home
of the professor.

Hauser needs to use
the outhouse,

so he heads outside.

But a hooded man
is lying in wait.

He attacks Hauser
with a knife...

[Hauser yells] Ahh.

[Josh]...cutting his forehead.

Hauser says the man shouts,
"you still have to die

before you leave the city
of Nuremberg!"

[man]
...city of Nuremberg.

[Josh] He later claims he has no
idea what the attacker means.

The incident turns Kaspar Hauser

into a household name
across Germany.

Why would someone
want to harm this strange

but seemingly innocent
young man?

People begin to speculate that
Hauser is someone important.

Important enough that powerful
people might want him silenced.

Some even whisper
they know exactly who he is.

He's the lost Prince of Baden.

180 miles west of Nuremberg is
the German state of Baden.

At this time it's ruled by
the Grand Duke Leopold,

but it shouldn't be.

Leopold's uncle, Charles,
was the Grand Duke,

but after Charles' young
son died,

he was left without an heir,

and so the throne
passed to Leopold.

But the thing is,

not everyone believes
Charles' son actually died,

and some begin to speculate
that he could be Kaspar Hauser.

They theorize that in 1812,
Leopold's mother snuck into

Charles' house and secretly
swapped out the real healthy

infant prince with
a dying baby.

When the sickly child died,
Leopold was then set to

eventually inherit the throne.

Supposedly, the healthy stolen
baby, the true Prince of Baden,

would become, after 16 years
imprisoned in secret,

Kaspar Hauser.

Once the rumor spills into
the open,

it becomes the talk of Germany.

The claim that the mysterious
Kaspar Hauser is really

the stolen Prince of Baden is
nothing short of scandalous,

so much so that it's about
to cost the wild child his life.

[Josh]
It's 1833, and it's been five
years since Kaspar Hauser,

the mysterious wild child
who could speak little more

than his name, first appeared
in Nuremberg, Germany.

He's now 21 and lives in
the town of Ansbach under

the care of a new schoolmaster,
Johann Georg Meyer.

One night, Hauser returns from
a park and stumbles into

the house bleeding from
a deep wound.

[Hauser yells in pain]

[man speaking German]

[Josh]
Hauser says he was walking
through a park when a stranger

handed him a purse and then
stabbed him with a dagger.

Ah!
[groans]

[Josh] Authorities then
recover a cryptic note

from where Hauser was
apparently stabbed.

The note reads, quote,
"Hauser will be able to tell

"you quite precisely how
I look, and from where I am.

"However, to spare you
the trouble,

"I want to tell you myself
where I come.

"I come from the Bavarian
border, on the river.

I will even tell you the name."

The note is then signed in some
kind of code M.L.O.

Three days later,
Hauser dies.

The author of the strange note
is never identified,

and rather than quell
the royal rumors,

Kaspar's death only
fans the flames.

The possibility that
a long-lost prince

was mysteriously assassinated
before he could claim the throne

becomes a captivating legend
that endures for two centuries,

that is, until 2024,
when the case is re-examined.

Doctor Charla Marshall,
a forensic geneticist,

closely studied the work.

Kaspar Hauser was
a very mysterious man.

He also had a mysterious death.

The more you learn about it,
the stranger it becomes.

The study looked at hair
samples from Kaspar Hauser

that were in private collections
in museums in Germany.

And they compared those to DNA
samples taken from cheek swabs

from the descendants
of what would have been

Kaspar Hauser's grandmother.

If the DNA from Kaspar Hauser's
hair samples was a match to DNA

taken from the House of Baden
living relatives,

then it would be likely that
he was related to them.

If the sequence did not match,

then the story probably
wasn't true.

[Josh]
It was a rare stroke of luck
that any of Hauser's hair

survived at all.

Strands were likely preserved
as keepsakes at the time,

given the widespread
fascination with

his mysterious story.

They now provide
crucial evidence.

Getting a full genetic match
was key to the study.

Any ambiguity in the data would
only leave the door open

to more speculation.

[Charla]
The study concluded that
Kaspar Hauser did not share

the same mitochondrial DNA

as descendants
of the House of Baden.

The DNA samples are so
different that they couldn't be

found in two people from
the same family.

And so the Parson study rules
out the lost prince theory.

So Kaspar Hauser is not from
the Baden royal family.

While those results
are concluding,

they only close the door
on one part of this mystery.

If Hauser wasn't descended
from royal blood,

the question remains --
where did he come from?

[Charla]
Even though we can't tell who
Kaspar Hauser was from his DNA,

we can use other parts
of the story as evidence,

forensic evidence,

to investigate
who he really was.

[Josh] What evidence exactly?
The letters.

Both the strange letters
carried by young Kaspar when

he first appeared in Nuremberg
and the cryptic note found at

the scene of his death were
transcribed by authorities.

These letters were subjected
to forensic analysis,

and the results were nothing
short of jaw-dropping.

The handwriting and language
analysis of the letters

explained his background
and where he came from.

And the letter from the crime
scene where he was stabbed

indicates that they were all
done by the same person,

Kaspar Hauser.

The phrasing and sentence
construction of the two letters

Kaspar Hauser arrived with,
and the one found

after his death
show key similarities.

They also match with phrases in
letters that Kaspar wrote while

being tutored by
Professor Daumer.

The conclusion is that Kaspar
was in fact the real author of

all of them, which also
indicates that there was

no mysterious assailant
who murdered him.

Many experts now theorize
he likely stabbed himself.

Far from being
a long-lost prince,

it turns out Kaspar Hauser was
more likely a long lost soul,

who yearned for
acceptance in society.

I think Kaspar Hauser
did all this for attention.

It's really hard to come up
with a reason why he would

put together a story
about being royalty

and being isolated
his whole childhood,

never talking to another human.

Just really hard to come up
with a reason other than

begging for attention.

Maybe he was ashamed
of his own actual true life,

and he wanted a more fantastical
life -- think about it.

He was taken in by the elite.
He was given a home.

He was given
an education, food.

Sounds pretty good, right?

He certainly upgraded
his circumstances.

Who knows? Maybe that's
not even his real name.

Our story, therefore, ends with
some remarkable answers,

but not the most important one.

Who was Kaspar Hauser?

There is still hope
to solve the mystery.

Samples of his blood are held
in a German museum.

Dr. Marshall thinks future
forensic testing might allow us

to learn even more about
the so-called wild child.

Until that happens,
Hauser's own gravestone

sums it up best.

"Here lies Kaspar Hauser,
riddle of his time.

His birth was unknown,
his death, mysterious."

I'm Josh Gates, and I'll see
you on the next expedition.