Original subtitles

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: In Mississippi, a hike in the woods

ends in tragedy when 17-year-old Norman

Ladner is shot and killed.

The local coroner rules the death a suicide.

Norman Ladner's parents are convinced

that their son was murdered.

At a lonely highway restaurant, truck driver

Dwayne McCorkendale was brutally gunned

down in cold blood for $25.

Perhaps you can help find his killers.

More than a century ago, a mysterious carpenter

arrived at a tiny chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

He left behind a wondrous legacy, a magnificent spiral

staircase and vanished.

Was he just an itinerant craftsman?

Or as the nuns believed, God's answer to their prayers?

Nyleen Marshall disappeared during a picnic

seven years ago.

She is now 12 and a man who claims

to be holding her has mailed taunting

letters to the authorities.

Also tonight, a poignant update on our story

about a 7-year-old girl who made a solemn vow

to a sick friend 21 years ago.

Thanks to our viewers, Nikki Crowder's

finally fulfilled her promise, and we

filmed their joyous reunion.

Join me for another edition of "Unsolved Mysteries."

[theme music]

Norman Charles Ladner of Picayune, Mississippi,

was a third child and eldest son in a family of seven.

He was a senior in high school, a good student,

and a skilled craftsman with his own workshop

in the family barn.

On August 21st, 1989, Norman left

his parents' country store to go hunting on the family farm.

It was a muggy summer day that apparently

began like any other.

MR. LADNER: Norman knew our property very well.

It's fenced on all four sides, even though it's 122 acres.

It has some of the pasture land with about 60 acres

or more timber and woods.

So he knew most every foot of it.

He'd walked it a number of times.

MRS. LADNER: He loved to fish.

He loved to hunt.

He loved to be among the wild animals and the squirrels.

He would come back so excited when he would see a young deer

in the back pasture.

It was just his fascination and love of being out there where

it was peaceful and quiet.

Norman would always be back by 7:00 to 7:30 in the afternoon

or in the evening without fail to help sweep up

and mop up the store and restock the coolers.

And about 7 o'clock, I began to get worried

about him, because he was very punctual

and it was most unusual.

You could almost set your clock on him.

That's the type of young man he was.

Very punctual.

Charlotte, Norman's not back yet and I'm

getting a little worried.

Yeah, I went down to the barn, and he's not there either.

Look, bring the dog and meet me at the farm.

We'll go look for him

I helped to some degree in the search,

but then I decided that it would be best if I

waited at the store for him.

Perhaps if he was lost, he could come to the store.

Or if he was limping from a snake bite or whatever,

he would come to the store first.

And I felt my place should be there.

Norman!

Norman.

Norman!

Robert!

I found him.

I knelt down by him, and I felt him.

I felt he was cold, so I knew he'd been dead for a while.

It's a deep shock and a tragedy to come

up on and find your own son.

Because you could never imagine or think of how this could

happen or the loss of a child until you've

experienced or gone through it.

ROBERT STACK: Just after 10 PM, the Pearl River County

Sheriff's Department cordoned off the death scene

and began an investigation.

SHERIFF LUMPKIN: Foul play is the first thing

that I normally address in the course of an investigation.

I ruled it out in this instance because I saw

nothing there to indicate that.

The gun was apart like that, right?

Yes sir.

If you notice, it's been broken and repaired before.

SHERIFF LUMPKIN: At first I thought

it might have been an accident.

In viewing the scene, it looked as though he might have

been in a tree nearby and subsequently

fallen out of the tree and the gun discharged, et cetera.

MRS. LADNER: After they found him, a deputy came to the store

and approached the door.

And he looked at me as if trying to find the right words to tell

a mother that her son was dead.

And I said, is he dead?

And he said, yes.

I can tell you it's the most shattering experience

anyone can go through.

MR. LADNER: We felt that it was an accident.

And even when the car came back to the store

after the results of his examination,

he came up with two deputies and he

said he felt that it was 90% sure that it

was an accidental shooting.

ROBERT STACK: The case of Norman Ladner

became a living nightmare for his parents

when the coroner issued his findings.

He officially ruled their son's death

a suicide caused by a close contact wound in which

the bullet had entered at Norman's right temple

and exited at his left.

Imagine for a moment that you are Norman Ladner's parents.

You understand the coroner to say that your son's

death is an accident.

This is, at best, difficult to accept.

But it becomes nearly impossible to accept when you're told it

is not an accident after all.

Your son has committed suicide.

It was impossible for it to be a suicide.

I knew my son too well.

He enjoyed and he lived life to the fullest.

He was happy.

He was outgoing.

He was not depressed in any way.

And he had too many things going for him.

The results of that autopsy is what I base

my findings as to believing that it was a self-inflicted wound.

I think that he went back into an area

where he felt comfortable, he enjoyed going,

and for reasons that I don't know, we don't know,

that he decided to take his life.

We believe the boy was standing when shot was fired

because of his body position in relation

to the gun at the scene.

They made no attempt to locate the bullet.

They never fingerprinted the gun.

They cannot say with any facts that his gun was the weapon

that was used to kill him.

Even with their ruling of suicide,

I still believe that it was an accident.

And for several weeks we did nothing

about it until we started to piece the jigsaw together.

Then we realized that it was definitely not a suicide.

As a matter of fact, it definitely was not an accident.

ROBERT STACK: One particular item in the coroner's report

made no sense to the Ladners.

The corner described a 1 and 1/4 inch long laceration

on the very top of Norman's head.

If Norman had committed suicide, how

would he sustain such a wound?

The coroner and the pathologist found

this jacket at the death scene.

They say it was spattered with blood

and believed the root caused the laceration.

We didn't see how that could happen, because falling

straight back you would hit your head on the side

or directly in the back, not up in the crown of your head

up in the peak of his head.

ROBERT STACK: Because the authorities had never

found the bullet that killed Norman,

the Ladners began their own investigation.

They dug through the earth in the area

where their son had fallen.

MRS. LADNER: And I remember so well the feeling that I had

of having to sift through the dried particles of brain

tissue and blood of my son.

We found a bullet that was longer than the bullet

that Norman's gun would hold.

The chamber was not bored out for the length of that bullet.

And the bullet was intact.

It had a slight twist on it, and it had a nick on it.

And it had blood stains, dried blood, and a hair

that we examined under the magnifying glass.

We have no way of knowing where that bullet came from.

We don't have any reason to believe

that it was the bullet that was fired

that caused the boy's death.

Mainly because we feel that the boy was standing at the time

the gun was fired.

And if that being the case would the direction of travel

that the pathologist says the bullet had taken,

it would not have been in the ground underneath his head.

Finding the bullet indicated that our son

was not in a standing position when he was killed.

The bullet was retrieved out of the ground, which

the bullet was embedded about two or 2

and 1/2 inches in the ground.

And we came to the conclusion that he was lying on the ground

and he was shot by someone in a standing position.

ROBERT STACK: A state ballistics expert

was unable to determine whether the bullet had

been fired by Norman's rifle.

He returned the bullet to the Ladners,

but they say it is not the one they found.

Three weeks after their son's death,

the Ladners went to the coroner's office

to question his ruling.

According to Mrs. Ladner, a stranger

interrupted the conversation.

May I speak to you over here for a minute, please?

MRS. LADNER: As we were a distance away, he said,

Mrs. Ladner, don't open this case up.

You have other children.

I suggest you raise them for your own good.

You'll never find the person that killed your son

and then he left.

My reaction to that statement was that it was a warning.

That we would experience some type of problems

if we would investigate this case.

But my feeling on this issue is that this was my son,

and I will not back down under any circumstances.

ROBERT STACK: Undaunted, Norman's father

returned to the area where his son had died two.

Hey, come here.

ROBERT STACK: 300 yards away, he found

a strange radio-like device that looked homemade.

I wonder what that is?

I don't know.

It's from up there.

MR. LADNER: We figured we had a piece of evidence of some sort

that we must try to find somebody that knew what it was.

ROBERT STACK: State authorities felt it was not important clue,

but a neighbor suggested he take it to an ex-narcotics agent

living in the area.

The former DEA agent said that this was a type of device

that drug dealers used to signal aircraft by sending out

a low range signal for the proper alignment

to drop a shipment of drugs.

Well, that led me to speculate that Norman possibly

came upon someone picking up a shipment of drugs on our land.

And possibly, this was the reason he was murdered.

That he would have recognized the person or persons.

SHERIFF LUMPKIN: I don't think that that's

what happened in this case.

It's very hard to accept a death, period.

It's that much harder to accept a suicide.

It's my feeling that if this case was ruled

an accidental death today, they would

say nothing else about it.

ROBERT STACK: What really happened

to young Norman Ladner?

Authorities continue to stand by the coroner's ruling.

Norman's parents refuse to believe that their son

could have killed himself.

This stays with you almost constantly,

almost 24 hours a day.

And every waking hour you think about this.

It's a part of us that's missing,

and it's a great deal of strain knowing that he was murdered

and nothing has been done to bring his murderers to justice.

We have to proceed.

We will not stop this investigation no matter

what until it is finished.

We owe it to our son, and we owe it to our children.

We owe it to ourselves, and we owe it to the other people's

children out there as well.

We want to know what happened to our son.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK: In 1969, seven-year-old Niki Crowder

was hospitalized in Los Angeles, California,

to have several tumors removed from her throat.

There she met eight-year-old Charita Lynn Hardy.

Charita had a rare and dangerous form of cancer.

I like your flowers.

Thank you.

NIKI CROWDER: I looked up to her, because one,

she was older, and she was there first.

So she kind of initiated me of what-- being in a new place,

a new atmosphere.

Let's have a race.

ROBERT STACK: In the days that followed,

a warm and caring friendship blossomed

between the two girls.

NIKI CROWDER: There was a bond there, because we

mattered to one another.

We looked out for what went on.

And we had something in common, and that

was our illnesses itself.

ROBERT STACK: A few weeks after they met,

Charita underwent several hours of grueling surgery.

Mommy, is this going to happen to me?

No, honey, this isn't going to happen to you.

She has a different type of operation

than you're going to have.

NIKI CROWDER: So that's when my mother explained to me

that Charita had had a very, very delicate surgery,

and that she wouldn't be able to have kids.

And I remember feeling like, oh, that was just

the worst thing in the world.

ROBERT STACK: That night, Niki did

her best to comfort her friend.

I'm sorry you're feeling so bad.

Does it hurt?

I said, you don't have to cry, because if I ever have a baby,

I said, you can share it with me,

and we can both be its mommy.

I said, and I'll even name it Charita after you.

Don't worry.

ROBERT STACK: Five weeks later, Niki

was released from the hospital.

The two friends never saw each other again.

Today Niki is the mother of a beautiful three-year-old girl.

She wants to christen her daughter Charita

and keep the promise she made in 1969.

I promise. I'll name her after you.

ROBERT STACK: A few minutes after Niki's story aired,

we learned that Charita Lynn Harding

was alive and well and living in Oklahoma.

We immediately contacted Niki with the good news.

Just 10 days after our broadcast, and more than 21

years after they said goodbye, Charita Lynn Harding and Niki

Crowder were finally reunited in Niki's home in Los Angeles.

I can't believe it.

It's been a long time.

I'm so glad to see you.

I'm so glad you're alive.

CHARTIA HARDING: I don't think Niki has changed that much.

She was always a caring, giving person.

It seems like she still is the same.

She would have to be to try to find me in all these years

and to be so persistent about it.

PASTOR: Father, in the name of Jesus,

watch up over this child.

Protect her all of the days of her life.

ROBERT STACK: On October 20, 1990,

Niki Crowder was finally able to fulfill her promise.

NIKI CROWDER: A child is a gift you can't buy.

It's the most perfect gift in the world.

And it comes from God, and nobody should be deprived

of that whether they have it naturally

or can share it with somebody, you know.

That's something that I wanted to share with Charita.

Because of all the joy and strength she gave me,

I could give her back something that she missed.

PASTOR: Lord, bless them even as godparents,

cause your Spirit to rest upon them.

CHARITA HARDING: Being a godmother is special to me,

because I don't have any kids.

And I know this has given me like a child I can of my own

that I can share.

I'm just honored, so I'll try to live

up to it the best that I can.

NIKI CROWDER: I'm very happy.

Very happy that I found Charita.

And now I can go on, and I can go on a positive note

because she's alive.

And I'd just like to say thanks to everybody.

PASTOR: I christen thee Charita Kennedy Crowder.

[police sirens]

ROBERT STACK: November 12, 1988, Chandler, Oklahoma,

an anonymous caller reported seeing

a body of a man lying beside a phone

booth at a highway rest stop.

At approximately 8:00 p.m.

the Oklahoma Highway Patrol arrived on the scene.

The man had been murdered.

Coins were scattered about his body.

The dead man was Dwayne McCorkendale,

a 27-year-old truck driver and father of twin girls

from Kansas City, Kansas.

He had been killed by a single shotgun blast fired

at close range into his back.

The apparent motive, robbery.

JOAN: If Dwayne had been killed in an accident

I could have stood it a lot better.

It seems so ironic that he was killed for money,

when the last thing a trucker will do

is carry very much for that very reason.

ROBERT STACK: Boston to Bakersfield,

San Antone to Seattle, every day thousands of big rigs travel

the highways and back roads of America.

Though they come from many walks of life,

truckers have one thing in common--

Hey, this is Double Whammy hitting

the back of Kansas City. Come on back.

ROBERT STACK: CB radios, their lifeline

to the rest of the world.

Well, [inaudible] two baby girls

waiting for me back there.

ROBERT STACK: But for Dwayne McCorkendale,

an idle conversation over the airwaves

may have signed his death warrant.

Dwayne's final run began like any other.

On November 10th, 1988, he left Detroit, Michigan en route

to Oklahoma City.

McCorkendale made a regular run

bringing parts to an Oklahoma City automobile plant.

We have no reason to believe anything

was different that night.

He enters the turnpike, he's given

a ticket with the time on it.

And through that ticket, we're able to determine

that he made no other stops.

He drove directly from the turnpike gate to the rest area.

ROBERT STACK: Other truckers reported that at approximately

5:45 PM, Dwayne McCorkendale told

them he was stopping at the Chandler rest stop

to call his wife.

Yeah, I'm going to pull over here at this rest area

and call the wife, and see how things are back at home.

We'll catch you on the other side.

We'll see you later.

It's Double Whammy, we gone, bye, bye.

PAUL RENFROW: We theorize that someone had been listening

to him on the CB and actually followed him

into that rest area or perhaps it was

already there waiting for him.

It looked like he was walking up to the telephone

perhaps counting change out in his hands,

since there was change there at the base of the phone booth,

and was killed as he stepped up to make the call.

Whoever was involved in this killed McCorkendale just

shot him in the back, and he was dead before he hit the ground.

It killed him instantly.

Then, checked him to see if he had any money on him,

any valuables at all.

So people like that are, to us, scary,

because those type of people in our minds

are very likely to do it again.

And that's why we've placed so much emphasis on this case.

What have we got, Tom?

ROBERT STACK: Investigators determined

that the only item that was missing

were Dwayne's keys and his wallet.

They estimate that the killer's take was no more than $25.

JOAN: Being killed for that little money

seems ridiculous, especially when

I know that if they had come up to him

in any threatening manner, he would have handed it over.

Early on in the investigation, I

hate to say we were at a dead end, but our leads were thin.

They were very thin.

One of the things that the agent started doing

is he started putting notices in the trucker

magazines across the United States,

and the calls started coming in.

ROBERT STACK: Within days, investigators

received reports about a brown Ford

Pinto equipped with a CB radio.

Several truckers told of a dangerous game

of cat and mouse.

PAUL RENFROW: At the time of the McCorkendale death,

we have reports that the Pinto was driving very erratically

on the highway trying to cut 18-wheelers off.

Hey, man, what do you think you're doing?

Trying to get somebody hurt out there?

MAN (ON CB): Well, you don't know who

you're messing with good buddy.

We'll drive anyway we want.

Hey, man, ain't no way.

[inaudible]

Behave out here.

You're going to get somebody hurt.

MAN (ON CB): So?

We've already killed one trucker.

And we'll kill another if you stand in our way.

PAUL RENFROW: Then when the truck driver would call them

on the CB, they were abusive.

They said that leave us alone or we'll do to you what

we did to this other trucker.

ROBERT STACK: Three weeks later, authorities received a call

from trucker Ed Heitkamp.

He was breaking for lunch at a rest stop

when he was approached by a young woman

who was acting strangely.

Hey, there.

How you doing?

All right.

Mister, you got any dope you can let us have?

We really need something.

ED HEITKAMP: She was, uh, well, I hate to say it,

but she looked kind of trashy.

I mean, it looked like she had been on something,

and she was just awful shaky.

Well, me-- me and my friend, we,

uh, visiting we've been down to Texas visiting some friends.

We're trying to get back to Alabama.

Can you help us find the road to get there?

ED HEITKAMP: I kind of turned to reach to get a map.

The next thing, she's got her whole front

half inside the truck.

We just need a few bucks.

I really need something bad.

ED HEITKAMP: Well, then she started asking

if I could spare some money.

She needed a fix awful bad.

I said I wasn't about to give her none for that.

Uh, look, can you--

About that time this brown Pinto pulled up.

And she jumped down off the truck and headed for the car,

and they took off.

ROBERT STACK: The next day, just 13 miles

south on the same highway, Dwayne McCorkendale

was gunned down.

ED HEITKAMP: After I read that article,

I thought maybe I'm lucky that I didn't get out of the truck.

Otherwise, I might have been the one who would have got shot,

because they was desperate.

While we have no way of knowing if the Pinto was

actually involved in this or not,

it is without a doubt, our strongest lead.

And we have got to locate the Pinto,

and ultimately the people, to talk to them to see

if-- if nothing else, we can eliminate them

from this--from this situation.

ROBERT STACK: Dwayne McCorkendale was murdered

doing the thing he loved best.

But for him, the freedom of the road

ended in one senseless and violent split second.

JOAN: Having the twins grow up knowing their father only

from pictures has been hard.

Because they see other little girls

and boys with their daddies.

And they've asked where their daddy is,

and we've had to tell them that their daddy's

in heaven with Jesus.

Later on, I'm going to have to find a way to tell

them what somebody did to them.

ROBERT STACK: When we return, the legend of the miracle

staircase of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

No one knows who built this mysterious

and ethereal structure.

[music playing]

Santa Fe, New Mexico, was a city rich in the tradition

and lore of the Old West.

A century and a half ago, it was the last outpost

along the Santa Fe Trail, a bustling, untamed haven

for outlaws, gamblers, mavericks, and renegades.

In 1852, the Sisters of Loretto, a religious order in Kentucky

dispatched seven nuns to bring religion

and education to the frontier.

It was a journey fraught with danger, harsh weather,

hostile Indians, and disease.

SISTER RITA MARIE: When they were on their way,

they were attacked by cholera.

One of the sisters died, and one had to return because she

was too ill to travel.

So five sisters continued the trip to the West.

ROBERT STACK: Once in Santa Fe, the sisters

established a school and began making plans to build a chapel.

Finally, in April of 1878, the sisters

celebrated the completion of the Chapel of our Lady of Light.

It still stands today.

More than 20 French and Italian stonemasons

spent five years constructing the

magnificent Catholic Chapel.

The sisters were delighted except for one minor detail.

There was no staircase leading to the choir loft.

The sisters finally had their chapel

but no means of ascending to the music chamber.

MARY JEAN COOK: Many of the lofts

of churches, early churches, in New Mexico had no staircases.

They simply leaned a ladder up, and climbed the ladder

and sang.

But the sisters couldn't climb a ladder in their long robes,

so they needed a staircase.

ROBERT STACK: A conventional stairway

was not feasible as it would require

the removal of too many seats.

SISTER RITA MARIE: Some carpenters had come in

and looked the situation over, but shook their heads in dismay

and said there was just no way.

And so they decided they would not do anything

until they made a novena to St. Joseph,

the patron of carpenters.

Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come--

ROBERT STACK: A novena requires nine days of meditation

and regular prayer.

--as it is in heaven.

Give us this day--

ROBERT STACK: For eight days the sisters prayed.

Nothing happened.

And forgive us our trespasses as we

forgive those who trespassed against us.

ROBERT STACK: On the ninth and final day of the novena,

a stranger arrived at the chapel.

Come in, sir.

Mother Superior, I'm seeking work.

MOTHER SUPERIOR: And what is your trade, sir?

I'm a carpenter.

We do have need of a stairway to be built in our chapel.

ROBERT STACK: The sisters let the stranger attempt what so

many had said was impossible.

They were hopeful their prayers had been answered.

If the carpenter had a name, it has long since been forgotten.

According to the legend, he carried

only three tools, a hammer, a saw, and a t-square.

Some say he worked for six months, others say it was more.

When he was finished, he called the nuns together.

You have your staircase, he announced,

then he left without being paid and was never heard from again.

MARY JEAN COOK: The carpenter, obviously, had

to be a very fine carpenter.

He had to be a master carpenter to build

the staircase that was built. Because you see,

there is no center support.

This is what makes that staircase so extraordinary.

There is no center post.

It rests by its own geometric balance and design.

It's very steep.

22 feet going around and around, because it makes two 360 degree

turns.

And once again, with no center post.

There's a certain springiness when you walk up it

and you realize you're climbing a very, very special staircase.

Sisters, I've counted the stairs.

There's 33, the exact number of years our Lord

Jesus Christ was on this earth.

SISTER RITA MARIE: I never failed

to count those steps whenever I go up or come down,

and it's still 33.

ROBERT STACK: The sisters planned

a feast for the carpenter.

When he failed to appear, they searched the town.

The mysterious stranger was missing.

SISTER RITA MARIE: Nobody had seen

him nobody knew where he slept.

Nobody ever fed him.

They made a novena to St. Joseph,

the patron of carpenters.

So it's understandable that they would

believe St. Joseph did it.

ROBERT STACK: So far as anyone knows, the carpenter

never returned to Santa Fe.

The chapel is now a tourist attraction.

Through the years, the mystery surrounding the staircase

persisted.

Then in 1965 Oscar Hadwiger, a third generation master

carpenter, visited the chapel.

MARY JEAN COOK: He went in and he saw the staircase

and, of course, he was overwhelmed.

Being a builder, any builder is overwhelmed when

they see this magnificent piece of carpentry.

And he remembered a story in the family

that his grandfather had come to this country

and had built a staircase.

ROBERT STACK: Oscar's grandfather, Johann Hadwiger

was a renowned European Carpenter who

spent two years traveling and working

in Colorado and New Mexico.

It was during that two-year period

that the spiral staircase was built.

Oscar Hadwiger became obsessed with the staircase.

Over the next 10 years, he created

10 perfectly scaled models.

He sent a letter to the sisters contending that his grandfather

had been the builder.

The sisters were skeptical.

MARY JEAN COOK: The sisters are indeed surprised,

shocked at his claim all of a sudden.

And they tell him that perhaps he can't prove this claim,

and that if he can't prove it, it might be fraudulent.

SISTER RITA MARIE: They have nothing except their word

of mouth that he did it.

I really can't--

I don't buy it.

ROBERT STACK: In 1970, Oscar Hadwiger

found what he felt was proof in a storage

room in his sister's home, he came across his grandfather's

toolbox.

Inside was a faded sketch of a spiral staircase.

The drawing was an overhead view with 33 steps.

Oscar Hadwiger passed away in 1980.

The sketch was never authenticated

and has since disappeared.

All that exists today is this photocopy of the drawing.

As for Johann Hadwiger's tools, they too have disappeared.

Who was the stranger who answered the sisters' prayers?

Was it Johann Hadwiger, the European builder?

Or could it have been, as the Sisters

of Loretto believed 100 years ago, a messenger

of God on a sacred mission?

Next, a family's desperate search

for their missing daughter.

And a man who claims he will never return her.

[music playing]

In 1983, four-year-old Nyleen Kay Marshall

disappeared while picnicking with family and friends

near her home in Montana.

For over seven years, Nyleen's family

has been trapped by the agony of not

knowing what happened to her.

Nyleen's story is all too familiar.

Every year thousands of children in the United States

disappear, and tragically many of them are never found.

With your help, Nyleen's case may have a different ending.

Two and 1/2 years after she disappeared,

authorities received this letter from an anonymous man

who claims he has Nyleen.

He writes, she's a sweet little girl.

I realize how much her family must miss her.

I love her and I have her.

I just can't let her go.

Please watch carefully.

You may know the man who wrote this letter.

You may even know Nyleen Kay Marshall.

June 25, 1983, Helena, Montana, a group of local families

were enjoying a picnic in a remote wooded area.

Less than 100 yards away, Nyleen and several other children

were playing on the banks of a shallow creek.

At around 4:00 PM Nyleen vanished.

For 10 days, more than 2,800 searchers combed the area.

TIM CAMPBELL: The dogs were unsuccessful.

The grid search was unsuccessful.

There was just absolutely nothing to indicate

that she was even there.

ROBERT STACK: Authorities were baffled.

Then Nyleen's mother learned of a chilling possibility.

Some of the children playing near Nyleen

told her they remembered seeing a strange man

dressed in a jogging suit.

NANCY MARSHALL: Two little girls had walked by Nyleen

while she was sitting there, and a man stepped

out from behind the trees.

And the first little girl didn't recognize him

as part of the group.

And Nyleen was heard by her saying,

my brother can run faster than you.

And she was still sitting there with her little legs crossed.

A second child, an eight-year-old girl,

came by and saw the man.

And the man took a step closer to Nyleen.

Have you ever played follow the shadow?

What?

Follow the shadow.

NANCY MARSHALL: One of the little boys, a six-year-old

said that Nyleen had told him the man had

told her to follow the shadow, and they

haven't been seen since.

ROBERT STACK: Convinced that Nyleen was abducted,

Nancy Marshall and her husband, Ken,

distributed thousands of missing posters

across the United States.

They received dozens of reported sightings,

but none could be confirmed.

Then on November 27, 1985, the case of Nyleen Kay Marshall

took a dramatic turn.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

received an anonymous phone call from a man

who claimed he had Nyleen.

Two months later, an organization

called Child Find of America received a typewritten

letter from the same man.

In the letter, a man claimed that he was raising Nyleen.

That he loved her and had no intention of returning her

to her parents.

TIM CAMPBELL: This man said he was taking good care of her.

But during this same phone conversation or same letter

that he would write, would also make reference

to things that he was having Nyleen

do which would be sexual abuse.

ROBERT STACK: Over the next six months, Child Find of America

received two more letters and another two phone calls.

NANCY MARSHALL: These phone calls

were coming from the Madison, Wisconsin area, as were

letters that he was sending.

The FBI, to my understanding, had actually

located the phone booth that the phone calls were coming from.

Well, evidently directly after locating the phone booth,

however, the phone calls abruptly stopped.

ROBERT STACK: In his letters, the man reveals a few clues

that might help find Nyleen.

He claims that he lives off substantial investments,

and that he and Nyleen travel frequently.

KIDNAPPER (VOICEOVER): I teach her at home,

and she likes to go with me when I travel.

She would gladly recount to you trips to San Francisco, New

York, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Nashville, Chicago,

Puerto Rico, or Canada.

We were even in Britain for a month last year,

and she loved it.

Nobody questions passports.

NANCY MARSHALL: There were numerous leads

about Nyleen sightings all over the United States.

Well, that ties in.

If he is, in fact, traveling, that

would account for the sightings from one coast

to another coast.

ROBERT STACK: Just last June, authorities

received another possible lead in the case.

Nyleen Marshall's uncle saw this composite of a man and woman

wanted for child abduction in another part of the country.

He believes he saw them during the first day of the search

for Nyleen.

TIM CAMPBELL: It's not really all that unusual for a person

to remain at the scene of a crime, get lost in a crowd,

and stick around to see what was going to happen next.

NANCY MARSHALL: I still look for her.

I always will.

Every time I'm at an airport, every time

I'm at a resort, every time I'm at an amusement park.

Sure, I look like I'm having a good time,

but I'm looking for my child every minute that I'm out.

ROBERT STACK: Today, Nyleen Kay Marshall would be 12 years old.

This is a computer aged photograph

of what she may look like.

At the time of her disappearance,

she had dark brown hair and blue eyes.

Once again, the anonymous man placed

the phone calls from a phone booth in Madison, Wisconsin.

He states that he now calls Nyleen by her middle name, Kay.

In his letters, he mentions that his parents and younger sister

were killed in a car accident when

his sister was nine years old.

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Next week on "Unsolved Mysteries,"

in Aurora, Missouri, a prominent citizen is burned

to death in her own home.

A young retarded man named Johnny Wilson confesses

to the crime but later recants.

Two years later the case takes a bizarre twist

when another man confesses to the murder

and says Johnny is innocent.

But Johnny Lee Wilson is still behind bars.

Two men in a bar fight over a woman in Edmore, North Dakota.

The next day one of the combatants, Kenneth Engie

is found dead in his garage.

An accident or murder?

Join me next week.

Perhaps you can help solve a mystery.

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