Original subtitles

[music playing]

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.

ROBERT STACK: Tonight on the season premiere of "Unsolved

Mysteries," 25 years ago something odd fell from the sky

and crashed in the remote woods near Kecksburg, Pennsylvania.

The official Air Force report states that nothing was found.

But eyewitnesses claim a strange, cone shaped object was

secretly removed Was it their imagination or a government

cover up?

In California, an unknown arsonist

set this house on fire, then callously videotaped the blaze

and left the tape near a highway for authorities to find.

Last season, we interviewed LeVar Bates,

a coworker of a suspect captured thanks to one of our viewers.

Incredibly, that chance interview

led to a reunion between LeVar and the daughter he never knew

existed.

Watch closely.

You may be able to help solve a mystery.

Twilight, December ninth, 1965.

A brilliant light streaked through the skies

over Canada and the Northeastern United States.

Thousands of eyewitnesses reported

seeing its trail, which was visible for hundreds

of miles in every direction.

Near the village of Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, 40 miles

southeast of Pittsburgh, Robb Landy and his brother Ray

were out riding their bicycles.

RAY LANDY (VOICEOVER): We were riding up the road

and we just happened to look up into the sky.

And we saw this thing coming over the tops of the trees.

It just glided right across the sky,

like across the horizon of the trees.

We could see and then it disappeared behind the trees.

It scared us.

We didn't know what it was or didn't

know what to think about it.

Just like dumbfounded, we were just

like in awe as we watched it.

Then it disappeared.

We ran.

You knew what an airplane looked like.

You knew what a helicopter looked like.

And that didn't look like anything

we had ever seen before.

And the angle that it was coming in,

I mean you knew that it had to hit the ground.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Three miles away

another local boy, Randy Overly, also saw the object.

RANDY OVERLY (VOICEOVER): I was playing by a creek at the time

and heard a deep hissing noise, and I looked up in the sky

and saw an object coming at me from a pretty good distance

away.

It flew right over top of me, no higher

in the air than 200 feet.

It was going no faster than a small airplane would go.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Nearby, Nevin and Nadine Kalp

were playing outside when the object flew

overhead and apparently crashed in a wooded ravine half a mile

away.

This ball of like fire come through.

It's something that I've never seen

before and never seen since.

And seeing the smoke then at that time,

down in the holler there.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): For the strange object,

that ravine was the end of a long and highly visible

trajectory.

But for the residents of Kecksburg, Pennsylvania,

the mystery was just beginning.

For the next 25 years, townspeople would grapple

with a perplexing question.

What fell from the sky that December night?

Dozens of people, most of them still alive today,

were eyewitnesses.

For the first time, 10 of them agreed to come together, make

their identities public, and tell the story of a night

that they will never forget.

FRANCES KALP (VOICEOVER): While you're up,

will you turn on the radio, please?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): After Nevin and Nadine Kalp returned

home, their mother heard an emergency appeal

on the local radio station.

OK, we're back.

Now this just in.

We got a report of a downed plane in the Kecksburg area.

State police have asked that anyone--

The radio said something had been sighted.

And they were calling around trying

to find out if anyone had an airplane or something missing.

So I called in and told them it was no airplane.

It was just a small piece that had fallen off

an airplane, because smoke had came up from the area

where it landed.

And I said it burnt up.

FRANCES KALP (ON PHONE): That landed

right out here near my farm.

Yes, it did.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The radio announcer thanked Frances

Kalp for the information.

She hung up and put the matter out of mind.

[phone ringing]

FRANCES KALP (ON PHONE): Hello.

FRANCES KALP (VOICEOVER): Within a matter

of two or three minutes, I got a call from a man

from the US Navy.

And he told me that I was to watch the area.

should anything strange develop to call this number.

I asked, well, shouldn't I call the fire company,

and he said no.

You call us, and we'll call them.

So I hung up from talking to him and went

to call a girl friend of mine.

And I didn't get about two sentences out to her

when an operator come on and cleared the line

with an emergency call.

FRANCES KALP (ON PHONE): OK, operator.

That turned out to be the state police.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Pennsylvania State

troopers were on the scene within 15 minutes.

They were accompanied by two men in civilian clothes

who never identified themselves.

It went down over there.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): By now there was no smoke,

and the fading light made it difficult to pin

down the crash site.

FRANCES KALP (VOICEOVER): At this point, two of the men

took a box and went walking towards those trees.

And I said to this state trooper that was there, I said,

what are all these people coming for?

And he says, well, they think they're going to see something.

But when this goes out of here, nobody is going to see it.

And I said, well, maybe it isn't in here.

He said, it's here.

And I asked him how he knew and they said, it's the radiation.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Located less than a mile

from Kecksburg village, the ravine

runs east to west for 800 yards, cutting across several farms.

The object appeared to crash here, more than a half

mile from the Kalps' home.

As darkness fell, several other search teams

left Kecksburg, also trying to locate the crash site.

Just keep going straight.

When you get to that road, make a right.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Volunteer fireman Jim Mayes

led one team of state troopers to a promontory

overlooking the ravine.

JIM MAYES (VOICEOVER): We went up this road

and came to the brow of a hill and stopped.

And down to the right in the hollow

were these blue flashing lights.

You see that light?

What is that?

JIM MAYES (VOICEOVER): It wasn't searcher's down in the woods

with flashlights or anything.

It was a real bright blue, real bright,

like an electric welder.

The flashes seem to be timed.

At what intervals, I don't know.

But it was a timed thing.

It wasn't like flash bulbs or anything like that.

At that point the troopers decided to close the area

off, close the roads off.

So he brought the two of us that was with him back

to the fire station.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Meanwhile, a call

went out to all the local fire departments.

Soon more than 30 volunteer firemen had gathered

at the Kecksburg station.

OK, guys listen up.

There's a plane down over the hill.

And what we're going to do is split up into quadrants.

We'll have teams of three men, all right?

Romansky, Bill, you come with me.

Rezzy, you get your men, get out of here.

Tom, take your unit.

Now, I'm not sure.

But I think--

JAMES ROMANSKY (VOICEOVER): We all

gathered at the fire station.

And the report was we had a aircraft that

was down in the Kecksburg area.

Yeah, I saw it as I was driving over.

Whatever it is, it's burning.

And after we got our assignment and everybody knew

what they were doing, they took us in pickup trucks up the road

up here.

And they dropped us off at certain points

going up the hill.

Watch your step.

I'll be all right as soon as I got--

JAMES ROMANSKY (VOICEOVER): As we were proceeding

through our grid, we heard the first team,

which was down in front of us, radio back,

we found the aircraft.

Where is it?

We're below the [inaudible] farm in [inaudible].

Let's search down there.

10-4.

Well, man, we booked out of ours, and down over the fence

we went, down into the woods.

And we got there.

What is that?

I don't know.

JAMES ROMANSKY (VOICEOVER): Here was

this humongous metal object, half buried in the ground.

About six, seven, eight foot around,

and it was every bit of eight, 10, 12 foot long.

And to me, the object looked exactly like a fresh acorn

that you pick off of a tree.

There were no wings.

There were no motors.

There were no propellers.

There was no identification whatsoever

that would identify it as a aircraft that I would know.

There was a bumper on the bottom part of it.

On that bumper, there was what I call,

it looked to me like the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

It was markings like stars and shapes

and figures and circles and lines.

And what it was, I don't know.

To this day, I've never seen anything like it.

I've studied the ancient Incas.

I've studied the ancient Aztec Indians.

I've studied the Egyptians.

I've looked at pictures of Russian writing.

I've looked at pictures of Polish writing.

I've looked at pictures of Hebrew writing--

nothing, nothing that resembles it--

Chinese writing, no.

So we're all standing around this thing,

looking around, checking and everything, and wondering

what the heck it could be.

And finally, here come two men down through the woods.

Gentlemen, you must leave the area.

This site is quarantined.

JAMES ROMANSKY (VOICEOVER): And they

took one look at the object and immediately told us to leave.

They said, this area is now quarantined.

We are in charge.

We're taking command.

Get out of here.

So we start walking out of there,

and down through the woods, here comes military.

So we left there.

And by the time we got back down here to the fire hall,

I mean this place was wall-to-wall military.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Within three hours of the crash,

military personnel had set up a command center

in the Kecksburg fire station.

They promptly restricted civilian movement in the area.

Good evening, y'all.

We need this building here for a temporary

tactical headquarters, with your permission, of course.

You have phones here? Can we see where they are?

JIM MAYES (VOICEOVER): It seemed like they were on the scene

immediately.

I would imagine there was in a neighborhood

of 25, 30 military.

At the time it seemed like that they

were really anxious to get into the scene

of whatever may have been.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): An hour

later, the military authorities also commandeered

a farmhouse near the ravine.

Ten-hut.

Folks are here.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Lillian Hayes

and her family had been living in the house for just a month.

LILLIAN HAYES (VOICEOVER): Well, the military

was coming in and out of my house all evening.

And they were making a lot of phone calls,

and they were standing around in groups talking.

That's a roger.

We believe we've located the ravine.

We estimate contact within 10 minutes.

I have no idea who they telephoned.

There was no calls turned up on my bill.

Notify NASA. Put them on standby.

And let the Pentagon know what's going on.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The village

of Kecksburg, with a population of just 250,

appeared to have been invaded, first from the sky

and then by the United States military.

Soon hundreds of curious spectators

gathered on nearby roads to try and get a glimpse

of the mysterious object.

19-year-old Bill Weaver was among them.

BILL WEAVER (VOICEOVER): I happened

to come down through Kecksburg.

And I heard on the radio that an object had landed.

Seeing some people and some cars alongside the road,

I pulled in.

And there was a pretty good crowd of people

gathered in that field.

And they were looking down in the small ravine at some trees.

Hey, what's going on down there?

BILL WEAVER (VOICEOVER): I looked down in there myself.

I seen there was something down in there

that had bright lights on it, but I

couldn't see the object itself.

Some time later, I seen a box truck,

a van type truck pull up there.

There were some men come around the side of it.

They were dressed in moon suits, we called them at the time.

And they had a light-colored box,

I'm guessing roughly five foot square.

They carried it down into the ravine.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The box

Bill Weaver saw seemed too small to hold the object itself.

Was there something or something inside the object

that the military wanted to remove?

Please don't be alarmed.

Everything is under control.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Before long, an army

officer appeared on the scene.

He ordered the crowd to disperse.

Thank you, but you'll have to leave the area now.

Hey, hey, what's going on down there?

You'll have to leave the area now.

BILL WEAVER (VOICEOVER): He told me unless I moved my car

and got out of there that they would confiscate my car.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Back in Kecksburg, Jim Romansky

and the other fireman had still not been

allowed inside the firehouse.

The military continued to occupy it as a control center.

We looked up, and here comes this jeep down over the hill

with its red light on.

Right behind the jeep was a large flatbed truck.

And on the back of the flatbed was this covered object.

They come down here so fast that I

know if you'd have walked out in front of it,

they'd have ran you over.

They'd have never stopped.

And off down the road they went, and where they went,

I have no idea.

Whatever came down in Kecksburg

that night is of high importance to the military agencies.

The most mysterious thing about the whole case

is the fact that after 25 years, the government

still refuses to give us any actual information

on what occurred.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Stan Gordon

is a local researcher who has spent

more than 10 years interviewing dozens

of Kecksburg eyewitnesses.

He has explored several theories trying

to answer the questions raised on that December night in 1965.

STAN GORDON (VOICEOVER): Astronomers

who looked into the case at the time basically felt

that the object in question was a bolide, which was a very

bright, fireball-type meteor.

And they, in fact, eliminated reports

that it could have been some type of man-made device

that re-entered the Earth's atmosphere.

But we now know the thing basically was coming down

from the tip of Ontario and was passing

down basically in a Northwest to Southeast trajectory.

The object appeared to have made about a 25

degree turn toward the east, near Cleveland, Ohio.

And it came in on a straight path over the Pittsburgh area.

And the interesting thing is now that the new data suggests

that the object made a turn towards the South,

and then the object made another turn towards the village

of Kecksburg where it was proceeding into there

towards the Northeast.

The interesting thing is the fact

that within several miles of the crash site,

multiple witnesses tell us that this object

was coming in at a very, very slow speed of descent.

Meteors do not make controlled turns.

They do not come in at a slow speed like this.

And they, in fact, do not glide in, which

this thing apparently did.

JIM MAYES (VOICEOVER) My personal opinion

what landed in Kecksburg that night

was a capsule of some kind.

From where, whether it was one of ours or a foreign,

I have no idea.

The military wouldn't let us get to the scene,

so I have no idea.

But I know it wasn't a meteor.

Two, one, zero.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Another theory

is that the object was space debris.

In 1965, NASA was involved in the Gemini program.

Then as now, it was our government's policy

to monitor not only US space activity,

but also launches from the Soviet

Union and all other countries.

STAN GORDON (VOICEOVER): Going back into the records

we have from NASA and documents we have from other agencies,

they apparently have no loggings for any type

of space debris on that date and the time of this observation.

So we also have to look at the other possibility-- could

this indeed have been an extraterrestrial spacecraft?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Space debris, meteor, or a

genuine extraterrestrial craft?

The final answer to what was found in the ravine

may only be known by the military personnel

who worked in the Kecksburg recovery operation.

This is a copy of the official Air Force record

of the Kecksburg incident, which Stan

Gordon obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

STAN GORDON (VOICEOVER): The report

indicated that there was quite a lot of interest

by government agencies as to what the object may have been.

There were memos there and requests for information

from Houston Space Center, from NORAD,

from the Air Force command post, the Pentagon,

even the Chairman of the Office of Emergency

Planning requested information.

The official Air Force explanation was

that it was likely a meteor.

And basically what it goes on to say

is the fact that the search was called off around 2:00

AM says nothing was found.

But evidence indicates that something

indeed was found at the site.

The military's idea of finding nothing is completely false.

There was something down in that ravine that night.

There was something that glowed an awful bright light.

And they took something out of there.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Another eyewitness

reported seeing a military convoy

coming out of the ravine.

At the end of the convoy was a flatbed truck

with a large covered object on the back.

John Hays was only 10 years old when the truck

rumbled by his bedroom window.

What was on the back of it, I have no idea.

It was about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle

from the distance I was at.

Gentlemen, you must leave the area.

This site is quarantined.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): According to Stan Gordon,

eyewitnesses identified the military unit

as the Air Force's 662nd Radar Squadron based in Pittsburgh.

Gordon believes the unit was part of a top secret operation

investigating UFOs.

STAN GORDON (VOICEOVER): There is no entry at all for December

9th of 1965 in the December log of all activities

for that squadron.

That tells us that somebody apparently

wanted to keep all information associated

with the unit's involvement in that site

away from public information.

I think that we can very plainly see the fact

that the government has not told us everything they

know about the Kecksburg case.

JAMES ROMANSKY (VOICEOVER): The official reports

that the military and the government

put out, as far as I'm concerned, are a bunch of bull.

If this thing was a meteorite, then why didn't they just bring

it out and say here it is.

Let the reporters take pictures of it.

Let the firemen see it.

Let the people in this area see it.

Why the big mystery?

I think when we get down to eliminating everything we've

known about the object, we have two possibilities

we're dealing with here.

Either one that we're dealing with some highly advanced space

probe, probably of a foreign nation,

that appears to be very highly technical

for what we knew about in 1965.

Or the possibility exists we may indeed

be dealing with an extraterrestrial spacecraft.

ROBERT STACK: What happened in the fields

outside of Kecksburg, Pennsylvania

on December 9th, 1965?

25 years after the fiery object was seen streaking

through the skies, the answers to the mystery

remain as elusive as the object itself.

The Air Force has declined our request

to comment on this story.

Their official report still states that they

were investigating a meteorite.

The report concludes that nothing was found.

Some people in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania disagree.

When we return, last summer one of our updates

inadvertently solved a mystery of lost love

and helped a daughter meet her father for the very first time.

Last July, we featured an update on the capture of convicted

murderer John Mooney.

During this segment, we interviewed several

of Mooney's unsuspecting coworkers,

including 53-year-old Lavar Bates.

What Lavar didn't know at the time

was that he was at the center of his own unsolved mystery.

ROBERT STACK: Over the past three years,

we have featured more than 20 stories of lost love.

More than half of them resulted in heartwarming reunions.

Tonight we present an unusual update about lost love

and how a chance helped a father and his 31-year-old daughter

meet for the first time.

1958-- Ike was President.

Elvis was King.

Sock hops and hula hoops were the latest craze.

That summer in Amarillo, Texas, 22-year-old Lavar Bates

fell in love with 18-year-old Peggy Atwood.

Do you have any beer?

Yes, in the back seat.

PEGGY ATWOOD (VOICEOVER): We met at a place called

the Panhandle Barn Dance.

They were playing a dance called the Paul Jones.

It's where you dance with someone

and then they blow a whistle and then you change partners.

Well, when the time came for us to change partners,

and he turned around and grabbed me, I was swept off my feet.

I thought he was the most handsome man at that time

I'd ever seen.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Lavar was employed

by a construction outfit and was working

temporarily in Amarillo.

Peggy lived in Pampas, Texas, a small town 60 miles away.

Every weekend, Lavar would make the hour drive to Peggy's home

so they could be together.

PEGGY ATWOOD (VOICEOVER): The most fun

about driving around with Lavar and having

my arm over his shoulder, and cranking up the radio.

And just like all teenagers, just making the drag.

We just thought that was the grandest thing.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Several months after they first

met, Peggy drove to Amarillo and paid a surprise

visit to the man of her dreams.

Hey, baby.

Come on inside.

[laughter]

Honey, let me finish up in the bathroom, OK?

OK, sure.

All right.

PEGGY ATWOOD (VOICEOVER): When I went in

to see Lavar in his hotel room, he had just

gotten out of the shower and was putting his stuff in his pocket

because we were fixin' to go out.

I thought maybe then we could go over to Hill's.

PEGGY ATWOOD (VOICEOVER): And there was a picture

of this girl on his dresser.

Yeah, I think so.

PEGGY ATWOOD (VOICEOVER): And of course, being 18,

I just throwed a fit.

It's good to see you.

Who the hell is Fifi?

She's just a friend of mine.

I met her at the coffee shop the other day.

Just a friend.

Yeah, just a friend of mine. It's nothing.

PEGGY ATWOOD (VOICEOVER): He kept

telling me that he'd only known her for a couple of times.

You know, he'd went out with her a couple of times

and there wasn't anything serious between them.

Naturally, I didn't believe him.

I don't have to put up with this.

- Listen to me. - You're two timing me, Lavar.

Peggy, I am not two timing you.

Listen to me, OK?

Listen to me.

And then I got real mad and left.

And that was the last time I saw him or heard from him.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): When Peggy stormed out

of Lavar's life, she had no idea that she

was pregnant with his child.

The next day, Lavar's company transferred him to Colorado.

He never saw or heard from Peggy again.

Eight months later, Peggy gave birth to a daughter

whom she named Kimber.

When she was older, Kimber learned

the truth about her father.

KIMBER TICE (VOICEOVER): My mother had told me

as much as she could about him.

That she didn't know where he was at, or where he'd went to,

or anything like that.

I wondered a lot what he'd be like, what he'd look

like, or just things like that.

But I just couldn't imagine.

With no information at all, I just couldn't

imagine what he'd be like.

ROBERT STACK: Lavar Bates had no way of knowing

that he was a father.

Over the years Peggy and Kimber often

discussed trying to locate Lavar, but with so

little information to go on they eventually

gave up hope of finding him.

All that changed on Wednesday night, July the 4th, 1990.

That evening, Peggy was watching the rebroadcast

of our third anniversary special when she suddenly

recognized a familiar face.

Ah, Ah, it's just disbelief.

I didn't really believe it.

He'd be the last one I'd believe was involved

in something like that.

I didn't know what to do.

I didn't know whether to try to call him and try to find out

or to call Kimber and tell her.

But then I decided not to, not to call her

at all until I found out for sure

whether he wanted to meet her.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): At Peggy's request,

we contacted Lavar, who now lives in Phoenix, Arizona.

Lavar is married and has two children.

When the guy from "Unsolved Mysteries"

called me, and said that Peggy'd seen me on television,

seen the name, and was wondering if I was

interested in talking to her about a daughter

we had that was 31 years old.

And I sit down, and shook a little and it scared me.

I was so nervous because I was afraid he wouldn't call.

And I wanted to tell Kimber so bad about her daddy.

And those four days, not being able to pick up the phone

and call her and tell her that I had found her daddy, you know,

was probably the hardest thing I've

ever went through in my life.

The day she called and told me that she had found him,

it was just--

I was excited.

I was scared.

I was-- just all the emotions, just went crazy.

I didn't really know what to do because I was kind of in shock,

I think.

I wanted to see him.

I wanted to know him.

And I was just hoping that he would want to know me, too.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On August 10,

"Unsolved Mysteries" flew Lavar to Amarillo

to meet his daughter for the first time.

For Kimber, the chance to meet her father

was a dream come true.

I'm fine.

How are you?

It's been a long time, hasn't it?

KIMBER TICE (VOICEOVER): When I actually

seen him for the first time, it was great.

You're looking good.

It was exciting and nerve wracking.

But once I actually met him, it was all right.

Oh gosh--

KIMBER TICE (VOICEOVER): He's the kind of person I really

would like to know a lot better, and I hope we have the time

to gather to get to do that.

This is David.

I'm glad to meet you, David.

This is Regina.

A gap of 30 years is a long time when you think about it.

But we seemed to hit it off pretty good,

like we've known each other quite a while.

I don't know why that is, but it just seemed to be real easy.

To actually find my father, it means to me

that now I can get all the questions answered

that I've wondered about.

And in the future, I hope more than anything

that he stays part of our family,

and we can make up for all the years

that we didn't get to be a family.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Next an unsettling look

into the mind of a deranged arsonist, who videotaped

the fire he set and filled the tape

with his alarming and possibly satanic commentary.

I've never run across anything as eerie as this tape.

It frightened me.

As a matter of fact, I thought about it

that night when I went to bed.

ROBERT STACK: Each year in the United

States, more than 200,000 people become

the victims of arsonists.

Each fire is an individual tragedy.

In many cases, victims are left not only

homeless, but injured or dead.

You're about to have the rare and disturbing opportunity

to go inside the mind of an arsonist.

An arsonist who police believe made

a videotape of the fire he set.

The story starts with an innocent discovery.

August 15th, 1989, near Stockton,

California, a car overheated in the scorching summer

temperatures.

We'll call the car's owner Joseph Villa.

[car door closing]

Oh, man.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Joseph inspected the damage

while his wife and son looked on.

Joseph decided that he and his son

should walk to the nearest telephone.

On the way, the boy noticed a camouflage jacket

on the ground.

Wrapped in the jacket were a videotape with no label,

and several audio cassettes of heavy metal music.

They decided to take the videotape home.

This is the actual videotape found by the Villas.

And police are convinced that the person holding the camera

set the fire himself.

The Villa family was stunned when they realized

what they were watching.

The disturbing voice on the tape seemed

to belong to the arsonist.

The police have since enhanced the voice for clarity.

ARSONIST (VOICEOVER): This is beautiful.

Look at it.

You see what I can do [inaudible]

Do you see what I can do?

[laughs] Ah.

This is crazy.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Joseph Villa decided to turn the tape

over to the authorities.

I've never run across anything as eerie as this tape.

It frightened me.

As a matter of fact, I thought about it

that night when I went to bed.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Unable to pinpoint the location

of the fire, investigators began an in-depth study

of the videotape itself.

ARSONIST (VOICEOVER): Look at it, Omar.

OK.

Look at it, Omar.

Look at it, Omar.

Look at it, Omar. - OK.

He did say the name Omar. Look at it, Omar.

Look at it, Omar.

And then he laughs.

FRANK CURRY (VOICEOVER): When we listened to the tape,

it was hard to understand certain words

that this person was saying.

So we sat down, and we actually went through this tape,

I mean hundreds of times.

And came up with a script.

ARSONIST (VOICEOVER): Look at it, Omar.

This is what I've been doing on your week's vacation.

[laughter]

ARSONIST (VOICEOVER): I said I'll do it!

I said I'll do it!

[laughs]

FRANK CURRY (VOICEOVER): He says, I told you I'd do it,

Omar.

Is Omar the property owner, it's a revenge type burn?

Is Omar the construction person that maybe hired this person

and fired him and made that a revenge motive for the fire?

I really don't know.

We really don't know who Omar is.

OK, is this the jacket?

Yes, that's it right here.

OK.

Did you see anything else around here?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): A county arson investigator

accompanied Joseph Villa's brother to the spot where

the tape had been discovered.

Amazingly, the jacket was still there.

In it was a wooden pestle, the type

sometimes used to grind herbs for satanic rituals.

Nearby, the two men found a glove that matched

the jacket and a ceramic skull.

The pestle and the skull suggest satanism,

as do certain portions of the arsonist's monologue.

ARSONIST (VOICEOVER): This is hell.

I call it home.

My hell.

The whole sky is black with smoke.

This is the fire that I will destroy and burn your soul up.

Ancient spirit of evil.

FRANK CURRY (VOICEOVER): Those are basically the clues,

all we have on the video.

And that's why we need to find out where this went down.

Where is this home.

ARSONIST (VOICEOVER): The fire department's

trying to put it out.

What a laugh.

FRANK CURRY (VOICEOVER): As we viewed the tape,

we realized that there was fire suppression equipment that

had responded to the incident.

And we thought if we can enhance the tape,

bring those shots in a little bit closer to us,

we may be able to get a door mark or a house

number or maybe even a fire department

insignia on the door.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Despite a frame by frame

analysis, the photographic enhancements

did not reveal any new details.

Investigators were still unable to match

the tape with any reported fires in the state of California.

The tape was found by the Villa family

here, just a few yards from Interstate 205 near Stockton.

205 feeds into several major highways,

so authorities believe the fire could have happened anywhere

in the United States and that the arsonist

might have been only traveling through California.

I think the person who made this videotape

and is responsible for the fire will,

without a doubt in my mind, continue to set fires.

And the person needs to be apprehended

and stopped before his fires become more destructive.

And then there's a few of these type of serial arsonists

that will move into another criminal area.

You may recall the Son of Sam back east, who killed

six people with a 44 magnum.

He was responsible for about 2,000 fires

in the city of New York.

And then he stopped setting fires

and started killing people.

ARSONIST (VOICEOVER): Look at the flames.

Listen to the coyotes yell.

[laughs] Listen to 'em.

Good night ladies and gentlemen.

[laughs]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The house appears to be a one story

ranch house with two chimneys.

There was another house on the left side

of the picture, partially hidden by a white trailer.

The trailer may indicate that the burning

house was under construction.

The setting is uncluttered, perhaps rural.

The arsonist gives the date as 1988,

and TV commercials recorded onto another part of the tape

verify that date.

Because fire engines do arrive, it

seems fairly certain that somewhere a report of this fire

is on file.

Update-- Redwood City, California,

60 miles west of Stockton.

Within minutes of our broadcast, several viewers

from Redwood City called our telecenter

and identified the location of the house

seen burning on the videotape.

As we were sitting here and we looked at the film on the TV,

we realized with utter shock that it was the house

behind us that was on TV.

And our family was scared, to say the least,

because we didn't realize that the film even existed.

And it was no mistake in my mind at all that that

was the house that was behind us by watching

the videotape on TV.

We called into "Unsolved Mysteries"

and gave all the information.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The arson

occurred on August 15th, 1988.

The house that was destroyed was under construction at the time.

Today it has been rebuilt. Incredibly, on the night

of the blaze, Woodside Fire Captain John Dellinges

also videotaped the fire.

JOHN DELLINGES (VOICEOVER): While I was setting up

the command post, directing companies in

to extinguish the fire, I had set up

my video camera to film the fire for training

and investigation purposes.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): By comparing Captain Dellinges's

tape with the video shot by the arsonist,

investigators were able to confirm beyond a doubt

the fire's location.

MARK POLLIO (VOICEOVER) Some of the calls received

led us to a 17-year-old Woodside youth.

We interviewed that youth.

Through that interview, it led us to a 19-year-old Redwood

City youth.

He was arrested and interviewed and subsequently

admitted burning the house, taking the video

and was the one who talked on the videotape.

Our biggest hope was that maybe we'd find an area

or a location on the fire.

We never dreamed that we'd get the results that we did.

[non-english speech]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Every October 18th, Francesca

and Tomas Santana commemorate their daughter

Marlene's birthday.

But every October 18th is also a time

of sorrow for the Santana family,

for their daughter has been missing since 1985.

Three days after Marlene Santana was born,

she was kidnapped on a Brooklyn street.

No trace of her has ever been found.

On October 18th, 1985, Francesca gave birth to a little girl.

She named her Marlene.

FRANCESCA SANTANA (VOICEOVER): When my baby was born,

she was pretty.

She was very beautiful.

She was the most beautiful baby in the nursery.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Three days later on the 21st

of October, Francesca was preparing

to take her baby daughter home when she met

a woman outside the nursery.

That your baby.

Yeah.

He's so beautiful.

I was looking at my baby in the nursery,

I saw a woman in the window that told

me that my baby was the most quiet one, the prettiest one.

And I was glad that she told me that, because I

thought she liked my baby.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): A few hours later, Francesca

checked out of the hospital.

Her two sisters-in-law came to take her home.

The time was 9 PM.

FRANCESCA SANTANA (VOICEOVER): When

we were going downstairs, a woman come to me,

the same woman that I saw in the nursery.

Where are you going?

I've been waiting for you all night.

FRANCESCA SANTANA (VOICEOVER): She told me

she was waiting for me all day.

I'm going home now.

Goodbye.

This isn't a game.

I'm not joking around.

Walk, or I'll blow her head off.

FRANCESCA SANTANA (VOICEOVER): So she told us to come

and she told us to walk.

Or she's going to blow up the head.

And we walk.

Keep going.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): They walked over six blocks

at gunpoint.

KIDNAPPER (VOICEOVER): Walk.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Finally they stopped

near a deserted junkyard.

KIDNAPPER (VOICEOVER): Stop.

I said stop.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): At first Francesca thought

that they were being robbed.

Give me the baby.

Give me the baby.

[baby crying]

I said, give me the baby.

KIDNAPPER (VOICEOVER): Keep walking.

Walk!

The woman got in a car driven by an accomplice and drove off.

FRANCESCA SANTANA (VOICEOVER): No!

No!

When she took the baby, I was in shock.

I didn't know what to do.

I was crying.

I st-- stopped the car there, and nobody help us.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): After Francesca and her companions

went to the police, detectives were assigned to the case.

Francesca was able to describe the car that

had driven away with her baby.

It was a white 1976 Chevy Malibu with red lettering on its door.

At the hospital, police tried to gather descriptions

of the mysterious woman.

Some believe that she was not a professional criminal,

but rather an emotionally disturbed woman

unable to have a child of her own.

Based on eyewitness descriptions,

a composite was created showing the abductor.

She was white with Hispanic features and no accent.

She had dyed reddish blond hair and appeared

to be in her late '20s.

Today, three years later, the Santana family still

search for their missing child.

A composite artist sketched Marlena

as she might look today.

She would be three years of age, and may celebrate

her birthday around Halloween.

She might have been put up for an illegal adoption

in late 1985 or 1986.

Maybe one day a person who knows where's my baby--

they must say something.

They must do it.

I don't think I could die without seeing my baby again.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Next week on "Unsolved

Mysteries," December 1945--

a squadron of Navy torpedo planes took off from Florida

and literally disappeared from the face of the earth

during a routine training exercise in an area we

now call the Bermuda Triangle.

Since then, the mysterious powers of the Bermuda Triangle

are said to have caused hundreds of ships and planes to vanish.

Now dramatic new evidence suggests

that the legend of the Bermuda Triangle

is just that, only a legend.

And in northern California, one woman

takes a brave stand against drug dealers in her neighborhood.

An unexpected barrage of gunfire left her wounded,

but more determined than ever.

Her attackers fled and remained unidentified.

We'll also tell you the poignant story of six brothers

and sisters who were uprooted from their homes

and placed in orphanages.

Today five of them are still searching

for the missing brother.

Join me next week for another edition

of "Unsolved Mysteries."