Original subtitles

NARRATOR: This program is about unsolved mysteries.

Whenever possible, the actual family members and police

officials have participated in recreating

the events what you are about to see is not a news broadcast.

40 Miles east of Tombstone, Arizona,

lies a rugged and forbidding map, Skeleton Canyon.

A century ago, it was sight of murder and betrayal

as outlaws fought over a fortune in stolen gold and jewels.

And dazzling treasure which continues to tantalize

fortune seekers to this day.

March 1990, Fayetteville, North Carolina.

A brutal attack leaves a young woman

disfigured and near death.

Miraculously, she survived to tell the horrifying story.

Police need your help to find her attacker.

The Virgin Islands, a vacationer's paradise.

In the last several years, this tropical paradise

has been plagued by the strange deaths of five local residents.

Police believe the killer is a devious con-man

who uses phony voodoo rituals to trap his prey.

Also tonight, a Gothic tale of wealth and greed.

An eccentric recluse has left behind a $4 million estate

and destroyed all traces of her past.

Join me, you may be able to help solve a mystery.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: St. Croix, the US Virgin Islands.

This popular vacation spot attracts more than 1

1/2 million visitors in the continental

United States each year.

But even America's paradise can have a dark side.

Control, this is 5-0 echo reporting a traffic accident

in Gallows Bay, vicinity--

NARRATOR: November 18th, 1988.

Just after 9:30 p.m., St. Croix police

are called to the scene of what was reported

to be a minor traffic accident.

They find a local woman, Radha Maharaj in the car,

apparently suffering from internal injuries.

She will later die en route to the hospital.

Less than one, hour later another body

is discovered 16 miles away.

The dead man is Krishnadath Maharaj, Radha's husband.

The investigation revealed three unusual clues.

The clothing worn by both victims

was saturated with seawater, $25,000 in cash belonging

to the couple had vanished, the agent of both deaths

was cyanide.

Incredibly, the Maharajah's brought

to five the number of cyanide poisonings

on St. Croix since 1984.

Authorities began to suspect that all five

deaths were linked to voodoo.

This is documentary footage of a voodoo ceremony in Haiti.

Contrary to popular belief there, is nothing inherently

sinister about voodoo.

It is a unique blend of Roman Catholicism

and African tradition practiced predominantly

in Haiti and Louisiana.

In this ceremony, the participants honor the spirits

of their deceased ancestors, some of whom they believe

have become deities.

Many of us mistakenly think of voodoo as curses, hexes,

effigy dolls, and potions.

But these exist more often in the realm of Obeah,

an underground form of sorcery unconnected to voodoo,

but common in many parts of the Caribbean.

Like all forms of sorcery, Obeah has malevolent potential.

Police in St. Croix have come to believe that the five

cyanide poisonings on their island

are the work of a master con man who practices Obeah, but tries

to cloak himself in voodoo.

He lures his victims into a vicious web

of deceit and murder.

The Virgin Islands are an ethnic and religious polyglot,

nearly everyone comes from somewhere else.

Radha and Krishnadath Maharaj were

both born in the Caribbean, but their parents

immigrated from India.

The Maharajas owned a small grocery store.

Radha's two daughters from her first marriage

helped run the business.

We We were doing very good.

I mean we probably couldn't afford a new car or anything

like that, but we were paying our bills

and we did have food to eat, we're all well,

we were strong and healthy.

And we were all working hard, especially my mother.

NARRATOR: Several months before they died,

the Maharajas took out a loan to enlarge the grocery.

They soon found themselves in a financial bind.

I've got a loan.

No, I don't want to talk about the loan.

Listen, this time it's going to work.

It's not going to work, it never worked before.

The last week that they werealive,

they were very tense.

And especially when I spoke to my mother

about what they were doing, she didn't like

for me to ask all those things.

I'm sorry I couldn't make it last week.

Yes, are some emergency had come.

NARRATOR: According to their daughters,

the Maharajs also began receiving daily phone

calls from a mysterious man.

Yes.

Usually I answered the phone and this man would

ask to speak to my stepfather.

As soon as I gave it to him, he would

ask me to go outside because he had

something private to discuss.

Yes, $25,000.

NARRATOR: Three weeks before the Maharajas died,

they brought home $25,000 in cash borrowed

from Radha's relatives.

Is Friday alright?

MAHARAJ DAUGHTER: She told us that this is what they

had to pay to the gentleman.

So I asked her, well why?

She said, well don't ask me any questions,

by Monday you will know what it's all about.

NARRATOR: At approximately 7:30 PM On Friday,

November 18th, two hours before Radha

would be found near death in her car,

she left home and drove east.

MAHARAJ DAUGHTER: For her to actually go out

alone is something very strange for me.

And for her to go out at night, that

is even more strange, because she didn't ever

go anywhere at night, never.

NARRATOR: 30 Minutes later, Krishnadath drove off

in the opposite direction, presumably

to meet the mysterious man.

MAHARAJ DAUGHTER: I still don't see

why my mother and stepfather got involved with this man.

The only thing I could think about perhaps

is, he probably promised that if they gave him a certain amount

of money, he would probably give them back three or four times

the amount.

NARRATOR: Perhaps no one will ever know exactly

what transpired that night.

Less than two hours after leaving home,

Radha Maharaja's car was coasting gently out

of control near a local beach.

Inexplicably, her dress was soaked with seawater.

She was unconscious and near death,

but there were no outward signs of struggly or foul play.

16 miles away, Krishnadath Maharaj

was found lying by the side of a beach front road.

Oddly, He was clad only in a pair of shorts, which were

also saturated with seawater.

Once again, there were no signs of struggle or foul play.

The police told me that they believe that mom tried

to commit suicide, probably because she and my stepfather

had quarreled about something so very big that there was

no way they could patch it up. That is nonsense.

NARRATOR: Autopsies of Radha and Krishnadath Maharaj

revealed that they had both died from cyanide poisoning.

Incredibly two years earlier, another St. Croix couple

Edstall Striden and Carmen Torres

had died under eerily similar circumstances.

In 1986, Edstall Striden and Carmen Torres

owned a small neighborhood bar.

Like the Maharajs, they took out a loan

to expand their establishment.

They converted the loan into cash, $54,000.

Come on honey, we've got to go.

NARRATOR: At dusk on September 13th 1986,

Edstall and Carmen left home in Edstall's pickup truck.

Their daughter would later recall

that her father had slipped a small bottle into his pocket

before he left.

It was the last time she saw her parents alive.

Three hours later, Carmen Torres was found near death

less than half a mile from the spot

where Radha Maharaj was found.

Like Radha, Carmen was drenched in seawater

and died within minutes of being taken to the hospital.

She too was killed by cyanide.

Edstall was found dead in his truck on a nearby beach.

His shorts were soaked with seawater.

He had also died of cyanide poisoning,

and the $54,000 in cash was missing.

Is he dead?

Yes, call the ambulance.

NARRATOR: Police flashback two years to 1984

and another cyanide death.

38-Year-old Haig Caesar who had immigrated to St. Croix

10 years earlier from Dominica.

Police believed that the death of Haig Caesar

was linked either to Obeah or to a twisted form of voodoo.

On the morning of May 24th 1984, a young girl

on her way to school came upon a car that had

apparently run off the road.

Behind the wheel and was Haig Caesar, dead.

He appeared to be dead for several hours.

There was no indication of foul play or any struggle.

I think this guy might of had a heart attack.

SGT.RHYMER The autopsy was performed the next day.

The results of the medical examinations

showed that he had died from cyanide poisoning.

We didn't know whether he had induced the poison himself

or whether it was given by someone else.

We started talking to people and we later found out

that he had made contact with an individual that

might be involved in voodoo.

What he said is that the man had told them that there

were three large jars of coins buried on the property

that we owned.

And that the coins are being guarded

by spirits, ancient spirits.

And in order to get those coins, they would

have to get rid of the spirits.

And there was a ritual ceremony that went through that.

And in order to do that, they would need to raise some money.

NARRATOR: Before his death, Haig Caesar apparently paid $100,000

in cash to an Obeah man, who claimed

he could manipulate voodoo rituals

to remove the evil spirits.

I can feel something.

Jumbo's presence is really here, I can feel it.

There's a lot of gold on this land.

When you come up with the balance on the money,

I have a potion.

It'll loosen up the jumbie and then you can get it when

you have the rest of the money.

All right don't worry about that, I'll

come up with the money.

When I found out about all the money he was borrowing and all

the cash that he had taken out of all accounts and everything,

without even letting me know, I really was very angry about it.

And shocked, overall just shocked that he

would have taken it so far.

NARRATOR: Police now believe that on the night he died,

Haig Caesar went to the spot where

the Obeah man had said a treasure of priceless coins

was buried.

The Obeah man's lethal scam called for Caesar

to drink a potion and thus drive away

the spirits guarding the coins.

The potion turned out to be cyanide.

There is no way of knowing whether Haig Caesar was alone

when he drank the cyanide.

By the time his body was discovered the next day,

less than a mile from his property, both the Obeah man

and the $100,000 had vanished.

ROSMUND CAESAR: I knew that he was aware of Obeah and voodoo,

I mean most people who live in the islands are.

I thought he was smart enough, intelligent enough,

aware enough to know that it wasn't real.

When you come up with the money, I have a potion.

NARRATOR: Were all five deaths the work of an Obeah man?

If so, is the man who promised buried

treasure to Haig Caesar the same one telephoned the Maharajs?

25,000?

Come on Honey, we've got to go.

NARRATOR: Was he also the man Edstall

Striden and Carmen Torres went to meet on the night they died?

Only one thing is certain.

The similarities in all three cases

go far beyond coincidence.

CAPT. HARRIS: The connection between the Maharajs, Carmen

Torres, Edstall Striden, and Haig Caesar

came from what we theorize is someone in the community that

was a conduit between this individual

and the potential victims.

This person probably knows these people in the community,

knows the lifestyle, and knows the capability

of the financial status.

It's very hard to understand why people

would want to cheat and kill.

And if somebody doesn't find him,

then I don't believe that there is any justice in this world.

If somebody doesn't find that man.

NARRATOR: The man who has murdered five people in St.

Croix has believed to travel throughout the Caribbean

and even into the continental United States.

There are rumors that he has been seen in Florida.

He speaks with a heavy French West Indian accent.

When we return, the legend of an outlaw ambush in the Wild West.

And the buried treasure allegedly worth millions.

Who among us has not imagined what it would be

like to discover a buried treasure.

The very thought brings the promise

of romance and adventure.

Some people spend their entire lives searching

for legendary hidden fortunes.

One such elusive fortune lies in the forbidding Arizona desert.

Its legend springs from a notorious tail of Desperados,

deception and greed.

Stretching 20 miles across Arizona's eastern border

is a jagged mountain ravine whose

very name reflects its dark and treacherous

past, Skeleton Canyon.

A century ago, thieves and robbers from Mexico

frequented this rugged landscape, smuggling stolen

riches into the United States.

Legend holds that somewhere near this mysterious canyon

lays a buried cache of gold and jewels.

According to some, it is a wild west

largest unclaimed treasure.

HUNTER PRICHARD: I Spent a night at Skeleton Canyon

about two years ago, full moonlight.

And I must admit, the hair never went down on my back

once that entire night.

I just have a second sense that there was just

too much to go on, that went on here, not to be a treasure

involved with it somehow.

No I don't believe that there is a Skeleton Canyon treasure

waiting out there to be found.

It's a known fact that it's a real treasure.

This is one of the treasures that's absolutely real, real.

NARRATOR: The legend of Skeleton Canyon

begins in a small Mexican village.

In 1881, a con artist named Jim Hughes learned

that a gang of Mexican bandidos had

looted the town of Monterrey.

They were planning to smuggle their booty

into the United States.

Hughes himself was a member of the infamous Curly Bill Brocius

gang, which operated out of Arizona.

Donde vives tu?

Culiacan?

HUNTER PRICHARD: Hughes was able to infiltrate them because he

spoke fluent Spanish.

And he found out that the gang was

coming back to Skeleton Canyon.

The reports that I read, and the myriad of books and treasure

magazines as far back as 1964 reported the treasure

to be worth anywhere from $2.5 million all the way,

and I've seen reports of it being worth up to $8 million.

NARRATOR: Hughes rode back to Arizona told

his cronies of the treasure.

They made plans to ambush the smugglers.

HUNTER PRICHARD: The Estrada gang had come out of Mexico,

through Sonora, and were going to what was later become

known as Skeleton Canyon.

And they were about a mile to two miles in the Arizona side,

right outside an area called Devil's Kitchen.

The men on watch shot the Mexicans

off their mounts and the contraband

scattered all over the canyon.

And in order to stop the mules from scattering and taking

the loot with them, the gang, the Curly Bill Brocius gang,

was shooting the mules.

NARRATOR: The outlaws now had their treasure,

but without mules they had no way of moving it out of canyon.

Part of the loot was divided up on the spot,

the rest was buried to be retrieved later.

But two members of the gang had different ideas.

HUNTER PRICHARD: Zwing Hunt and Billy Grounds

were fairly good friends.

And they decided that while the rest of the gang

was on in the local bars, in Galeyville or Shakespeare,

or Tucson or wherever they went spending their money ill-gotten

fortune, that they would double cross the gang

and come back into the canyon.

According to legend, they were able to find

a Mexican teamster, talked him into bringing

his team and horses into Skeleton Canyon,

and removing the treasure.

Of course, he was later killed because they

wanted to keep the new hiding place as a secret.

I feel very sure in my own mind that it's very likely

that the treasure is still buried

within the vicinity of Skeleton Canyon,

probably no more than 30 miles away.

NARRATOR: Fearing retribution from ex-partners,

Zwing Hunt and Billy Grounds went into hiding.

They found a desert cave where they remained

for nearly four months.

During this period, Billy Grounds

penned a number of letters to his sister Maggie,

in San Antonio.

Billy wanted her to know where the treasure was hidden,

should anything happen to him.

Billy has said to have ventured out

once a week to give the letters to a passing stage coach.

Hey, get this through.

Yeah, you bet.

NARRATOR: Treasure hunter Fern Hamill

claims to have seen and copied portions of nine

of the letters.

He refused to show us his copies but agreed

to divulge their contents.

FERN HAMILL: In the letters, it told about the cave

and how long they were on the road.

They moved all night with the treasure from dark

until sun up before they stopped to bury it.

And then they went to the cave.

One of the letters he's writing to his sister,

he said there's a cave at the mouth of the canyon.

I found that cave, and he goes back 80 feet.

And we even dug in the cave and found old ropes

that was buried in there.

And one of things in the letter, it said from our lookout,

you can see the turf growing back

over where we buried the treasure, down in the mouth.

I have found all the clues that there is in the letters,

every one of them.

When I once found the right place to look,

where everything fit, and everything is there.

So I know the treasure is, I'm near where it's at.

It's there.

Billy Grounds, who is supposed to have written the letters,

was a 19-year-old Texas cowboy rustler type who had

migrated from Texas to Arizona.

It's unlikely to me that he would have been writing home

detailed letters about, hey we robbed these Mexicans

and we've buried this huge treasure.

Here's how to find it.

Maggie was Billy Ground's sister, and she, her and a man

had spent two years living in a cave

out there looking for this treasure.

And we found this vase in a cave, it says Maggie on it.

1885, World's Fair.

So I know that was Billy Ground's sister that was there

looking for this treasure.

For two years she spent there.

NARRATOR: March 19th, 1882.

A Sheriff's posse cornered Billy Grounds and Zwing Hunt

in a remote desert outpost.

Zwing, come on out of there!

NARRATOR: In the ensuing shootout, Billy was killed.

Zwing was seriously injured.

[mumbling]

NARRATOR: In Tombstone, Zwing Hunt

revealed the secret location of the treasure

to his uncle, who drew up a detailed map.

Zwing later managed to escape, only to be

killed in an Indian attack.

ROBERT PALMQUIST: It seems to me that it's

another typical treasure hunting yarn.

It's always somewhat removed from the original documents.

We never get to see the map, we never

get to examine it for its genuineness

or see if it matches up with any handwriting

samples we might have.

NARRATOR: Fern Hamill claims to have seen the map

made by Zwing Hunt's uncle.

FERN HAMILL: The map shows the canyon

and it shows where the cave is.

Everything matches.

But I think the treasure now, on account

of the earthquake in 1886, I think the treasure

is around 20 feet deep.

Part of the mountain caved off on it.

And so0we've It's got millions of tons of rock to find it

and we don't know right where to dig at.

NARRATOR: Today, even though there

are a great many skeptics, the legend of buried treasure

in Skeleton Canyon continues to attract fortune

hunters from around the world.

CAPT. HARRIS: I think the Skeleton Canyon treasure is

a very plausible story, from the standpoint

that every time it would rain, somebody's skull would show up,

or bones of a mule would be exposed,

or another coin would become evident.

And compared to a lot of other stories,

it's got a lot more plausibility than I would say the Lost

Dutchman mine, for instance,

ROBERT PALMQUIST: It is possible that there is a Skeleton Canyon

treasure out there to be found somewhere,

but the initial reports given by the Mexican government,

given in the local press, indicate that there was

a very small amount of money taken, which would have

been spent very, very quickly.

Thus I don't think there was a treasure, given

historical sources, to hide and thus,

for 20th century Americans, to find.

When I find the treasure, I'll stop looking for it,

that will be when I'll stop.

Because I know it's real, this treasure is real.

And I know I found the right place where it's at.

Everything is real.

NARRATOR: Is there a treasure buried

beneath the full building walls in Skeleton Canyon

or is it merely another fake leftover

from the days of wild west.

In over 100 years of scouring the region,

treasure hunters have unearthed a multitude of bleached bones

and a handful of Mexican coins.

They are convinced they are the remnants of the ambush

in Skeleton Canyon.

Although people have searched for the elusive

treasure for years, at this time it

is illegal to dig in the area.

When we return, a terrifying story of a woman

attacked and robbed along a highway in North Carolina.

March 22nd, 1990.

Business route 95, just outside Fayetteville, North Carolina.

State troopers Chris Dew and Ron Knight stop to compare

notes during a routine patrol.

Yeah, lot of traffic out today.

RON KNIGHT: About two minutes into conversation,

a lady walked out of the woods about 75 yards away

and started towards us, staggering.

The other trooper had a set of binoculars

and he looked at her through the binoculars,

and saw that she appeared to be injured.

She had blood on her shoulders and she

was coming in our direction.

All right, we're going to get you a blanket.

RON KNIGHT: I laid on the ground and the other trooper

went to his car and called for an ambulance.

And shortly thereafter, an ambulance

arrived and transported the lady to the hospital.

NARRATOR: The young woman had been

shot once in the face with a 12-gauge double barrel shotgun.

Her left jaw was completely shattered

and she was unable to speak.

She carried no identification.

It was not until 10 hours later, when her condition

had stabilized, that she was able to write down her mother's

name and telephone number.

Police discovered that the young woman was from Winston-Salem,

North Carolina 120 miles away.

Doctor, we'd would like for you to sit in on--

NARRATOR: Detective Ken Bishop, of the Winston-Salem police

department, worked on the case with Fayetteville detectives.

--If this is getting too hard on her, you just put

a stop to it, and we'll leave.

I want to let you know that she cannot talk,

she can only write.

I also want to warn you that her injuries were massive.

I want to prepare you for what you're going to see.

OK.

OK we'll easy with her.

All right, thank you.

Good morning.

I brought two fellows in to see you.

KEN BISHOP: He did take us in and introduce us to her.

We conducted probably a 30 minute interview with her.

It was probably the most severe injury I've ever seen

for a person that survived.

Where the liquor store was when you stopped?

NARRATOR: The victim seemed to remember everything.

Though she could not yet speak, she

wrote down detailed descriptions of the attack and her attacker.

Working with her, a police artist created this drawing.

It's important that this man be caught,

because he is not rational, he's very dangerous

and he may harm someone else.

NARRATOR: This story depicts a brutal senseless crime that

may not be easy to watch, however police fear

that if the man responsible is not apprehended,

he could strike again.

The young woman who has victimized courageously

agreed to be interviewed.

Because she has requested we not it was her real name,

we will call her Debbie.

On the morning of March 22nd, 1990,

Debbie made a large cash withdrawal from the First

Union Bank in Winston-Salem.

She left the bank at 9:40 AM.

Debbie told police that the man forced her to drive to a liquor

store three miles away.

OK, stop the car, stop the car.

Give me the keys, give me the keys!

NARRATOR: The man went inside to buy whisky,

holding Debbie's car keys and watching her like a hawk.

Debbie was petrified with fear.

The man had threatened to kill everyone in the liquor store

if she tried to make a run for it.

Start the car.

Start the car!

NARRATOR: The man ordered Debbie to take

Interstate 40 heading east and 421 south toward Fayeteville.

For nearly four agonizing hours, he threatened her life.

He drank heavily and bragged that he

once killed a man in New York.

For Debbie, the journey was a living hell.

DEBBIE: A lot of the time, he just

wouldn't talk to me at all.

And when he did, he was very abusive, very angry.

It got worse as time went on because he was drinking also,

the liquor.

And he would just get more angry and more irrational.

And I got more afraid knowing I could not reason with him.

NARRATOR: About three miles north of Fayetteville,

the my man forced Debbie to pull off the road.

Get out.

Get out!

Sit!

Where are you running to?

Where are you running to?

You ain't going nowhere!

NARRATOR: At almost that same moment,

State Trooper Ron Knight noticed the gray station wagon.

I was going to cross over and check the vehicle.

And just about this time, I met a speeding vehicle traveling

south on I-95 business, so I turned

and pursued after this vehicle.

[yelling]

NARRATOR: Debbie was beaten and sexually

assaulted, then left for dead.

The next day, Debbie's station wagon

would be found abandoned 300 miles away

in Hamilton County, Florida, just south

of the Georgia state line.

Authorities in Fayetteville investigated the crime scene.

Rob, looks like we might have some gloves here.

NARRATOR: Their search turned up a dark blue pea

jacket and brown cloth gloves.

Debbie told authorities they had been worn

by the man who attacked her.

KEN BISHOP: The navy blue pea jacket and the brown cotton

work gloves that were recovered at the Fayetteville crime scene

had a strong odor of some type of petroleum product

about them.

We think we're looking at a person that

works around that type of product,

it could possibly be a mechanic, somebody

who works with greasy, grimy motors, that kind of thing.

Possibly even somebody that drives

a fuel, heating oil type truck.

NARRATOR: Debbie's assailant was about 5 feet 10 inches tall

and weighed between 150 and 160 pounds.

He appeared to be in his mid-thirties

and wore his hair close cropped.

Although he abandoned his car in northern Florida,

authorities believe he could be anywhere in the United States.

DEBBIE: I feel like until they find him,

I'm going to continually feel like he's there.

And he, I know it's an unlikelihood that he will try

to find me, but it's that fear of him being there,

and that he also might hurt someone else.

From the beginning after my sister was shot,

we knew that we wanted her to be careful,

as far as just seeing herself.

We wanted her to be with her doctor and for him

to be alongside when she saw herself for the first time

after this.

A friend happened to send a Mylar balloon that she tied

to the foot of her bed, and in the back of this Mylar balloon,

she saw herself actually by mistake one

day and was alone when this happened.

DEBBIE: I feel like you have two choices.

You can just lie down and cry and die.

Or you can live and go on from where you are.

And I have so much to live for.

I have three children, I have a family,

and I have such good friends.

There is no reason for me to just feel sorry for myself

and do nothing.

Debbie has had extensive plastic surgery

and doctors hope they'll soon be able to restore

her shattered jaw.

This is the jacket he was wearing.

It is navy blue wool, size 42, with a belt in the back.

The jacket is not US Navy issue.

Police have physical evidence that

will enable them to make a positive identification

should a suspect be located.

When we return, the bizarre saga of a mysterious recluse,

and the unclaimed fortune she left behind.

Heavenly Father, we commit the body

of our dear sister Dorothea, to be consumed by fire.

Ashes to ashes--

NARRATOR: On a dreary January day in 1990,

in the a tiny English village of Sutton-under-Brailes,

a notoriously mysterious woman was laid to rest.

It was rumored that Dorothea Allen, the wealthiest, most

famous resident of the county had

once danced with Fred Astaire and had

dinner with Gary Cooper.

But when she died at 89, only five people came to mourn her.

In her prime, Dorothea Allen was considered a great beauty.

By all accounts, she was devoted to her husband, Robert.

He died in 1965 and the couple was childless.

When Dorothea died, she left no will,

only an intricate mystery.

The saga of Dorothea Allen, boasts a plot and characters

rivaling any Dickens novel.

The most intriguing character, Dorothea herself.

She had a quirky mystique, a wealthy business executive,

a beauty who hobnobbed with movie stars.

Yet to some, she was a shrew, mistreating

the people who worked for her, hoarding money like a miser.

Her $4 million fortune remains unclaimed.

Because Dorothea had extensive ties in this country,

some think her heirs may be right

here in the United States.

After Dorothy's death, the British government

assigned investigators to search her manor house in an effort

to locate the rightful heir.

What they found instead was evidence

of a woman who had attempted to obliterate

all traces of her past.

CHRISTOPHER PROUDLOVE: I spent a lot

of time going through drawers and cupboards trying

to find anything that would give me

clues as to who this woman was.

And quite frankly, I found very little.

We found her passport, which had pages ripped from it.

Of course, these were the pages that

gave us all the information we might have needed.

When we got upstairs, we found dressing rooms

absolutely stashed with the most amazing clothes and shoes.

I don't think I've ever seen as many pairs of women's shoes

in one place.

We looked through photograph albums.

And all the pictures had been pulled out of the albums

and someone had taken a pair of scissors to them

and cut off the heads, and so we couldn't identify anyone.

It was disappointing and frustrating,

because at that stage, no one had a clue who she was.

NARRATOR: Dorothea Allen and her husband Robert

had always been elusive people.

Intensely private, they had kept their backgrounds

shrouded in mystery.

Even those who knew them best know little about their past.

The Allens had made their fortune

manufacturing plain surgical corsets for women,

then adding frills, lace, ribbons, and bows to make

the corsets more feminine.

The decorated corsets sold like hotcakes,

and Dorothea oversaw every detail.

BRONWEN HANKS: She had an eye for beauty

and she certainly used it.

She made that factory a great success.

She was an absolute perfectionist.

She would count the stitches to the inch

on everything that was done.

It should be 12 years to the inch, you've only done 11.

Dorothea with a very nasty piece of work.

She ran her servants ragged, from what I can gather.

I also think she didn't pay very well to her employees,

and ran quite a strict regime.

She demanded people walk out of her office backwards.

CHRISTOPHER PROUDLOVE: She was probably quite

a ruthless business woman.

She had a business plan, she was going to make herself rich.

And when she got herself rich, she was going to go

out and spend it and enjoy it.

She spent very freely.

CANDY ATHERTON: They went on the Queen

Mary in great extravagance all over the world.

There are a few pictures which show them on the Queen Mary,

a time when they weren't able to stop pictures being taken.

The rest of the time, photographs, they just wouldn't

allow them to be taken.

NARRATOR: At Christmas, the Allens

entertained only those employees who had

a specific productivity quota.

A select few were actually allowed

to speak to the Allens, who felt free to indulge

their illusions of grandeur.

DOROTHY KEARSE: He used to sit right at the end of the room,

behind a little rope.

And people used to come up and talk to them.

They used to be like royalty, really.

[inaudible]

NARRATOR: In 1965, Robert Allen died after a long illness.

Dorothea's whole life had been built around her business

and her husband.

She seemed unable to cope with his death.

I think she could always count on his support,

and when he went she felt that prop had gone, I suppose.

And she just went to pieces, apparently.

BRONWEN HANKS: Oh, she was very, very upset.

They absolutely thought the world of one another.

And she was very much affected.

After the death of Mr Allen, one of her habits

was to get his cigars and light them and leave them burning

in the hall and in the library, so that she got the atmosphere

of him still being there.

NARRATOR: Dorothea began to neglect her business,

and the American parent company, Burger Brothers,

finally forced her out.

She spent more and more time alone.

After an accident in her Rolls-royce,

Dorothea Allen never left her estate again.

CHRISTOPHER PROUDLOVE: No one was allowed in there.

And she lived with a gardener and a housekeeper

in one room in the kitchen.

NARRATOR: As her health began to fail,

Dorothea became obsessed with eliminating

all traces of her past.

According to her lawyer, she mutilated photographs

of herself and her husband.

She destroyed the page in her passport

that contained her place and date of birth.

On January 4th, 1990, Dorothea Allen died in bed.

She'd been a recluse for more than 20 years,

steadfastly refusing to make a will.

CANDY ATHERTON: Well she told some people

that she thought people had too much money anyway.

And therefore they didn't need to be left money in a will.

But then she would have known that the state would

come in and take the money, and I

wouldn't thought anyone who would want to leave

money to the government.

So she had to have something to hide.

And she wanted, she mistakenly thought

that by not leaving a will, she will be able to disguise

her life after she died.

NARRATOR: There appeared to be no record of when or where

Dorothea Allen was born, or even what her maiden name had been.

Then a smallpox vaccination certificate surfaced.

On it, Dorothea's birth date was listed as January 21st 1901.

Her last name, Farquharson.

Finally there seemed to be a clue to Dorothea

Allen's true identity.

BRONWEN HANKS: She told me her name

was Farquharson and several times she told me that.

And that she was born in Scotland.

CHRISTOPHER PROUDLOVE: Well I'd like to know where the name

Farquharson comes from.

I think that this is some red Herring that's being

put forward fairly early on.

There is no Dorothea Farquharson that

fits in, either, 10 years either side

of the alleged date of birth.

NARRATOR: Investigators could find absolutely no record

about a female British citizen named Farquharson born anywhere

near Dorothea's date of birth.

CHRISTOPHER PROUDLOVE: My own personal theory

is that Dorothea was a woman of lowly birth,

that she was a seamstress or perhaps a barmaid.

If it is true that she did come from a humble background,

then I think it's probably something

she would want to keep quiet.

Another theory is that she and her sister

were born in Berlin at the time of the problems in Germany.

They got out at the right time.

Dorothea was educated at an Ursuline convent in Belgium

and found her way to either this country or America.

CANDY ATHERTON: I think the true story is that she

met, in the 1920s, Robert Longwell

Allen in the north of England.

He was married and I think they fell in love.

He left his wife and child and set

up home with Dorothea Allen.

They then had to carry on the charade of being

a married couple, and as she got older,

she became more convinced that the infidelity would come out,

and wanted more and more to protect it.

CHRISTOPHER PROUDLOVE: We think she was married in America,

we think Connecticut, but we don't know when.

And we assumed that she married Robert Allen,

but we're not sure.

There are theories that Robert and Dorothea

were brother and sister.

That is something you want to keep

very quiet, because obviously incest is punishable by law.

NARRATOR: Is it possible with Dorothea and Robert Allen

were brother and sister?

Rumors from their staff have indicated that they always

slept apart, yet the sibling theory

is almost impossible to prove.

Robert's background is nearly as obscure as Dorothea's.

Who was this mystery couple?

Did they have some dark secret to cover up,

or were they simply obsessed with wealth

and possessions, cut off from their fellow human beings?

[music playing]

NARRATOR: In 1966, Navy medic Mark Dennis was reported

killed in action in Vietnam.

But when this photograph appeared four years later,

his family believed he had survived

and been taken prisoner.

Today there is compelling evidence

that the body buried in Mark Dennis's grave may not be his.

Dorothy Eizad, a Canadian housewife,

has photographs that have confounded skeptics.

Are they evidence of life beyond the stars,

or another ingenious deception?

Also we'll bring you an update on the capture of one

of the FBI'S 10 Most Wanted criminals.

Thanks to our viewers, a suspected serial child molester

is now in custody.

Join me next week for another edition of Unsolved Mysteries.