Original subtitles

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): 17-year-old

Tracy Kirkpatrick was an honors student

with a passion for poetry.

In 1989, Tracy was stabbed to death in the clothing store

where she worked.

Three months later, a man claiming to be the killer

made this bizarre telephone call.

MAN (ON TELEPHONE): I know this is gonna sound surprising,

but three months ago, I stabbed a girl to death.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Perhaps you can help catch him.

Folsom Prison, California.

For years, it was thought to be virtually escape-proof.

But in 1984, convicted killer Steve Wilson pulled off

an ingenious jailbreak and became the first man to escape

from Folsom in 15 years.

In 1943, 22-year-old Frankie Bloomer

was reported missing in action when the destroyer

USS "Rowan" was sunk in battle.

A few days later, Frankie's picture,

taken on a hospital ship, appeared in the newspaper.

For almost 50 years, his family has been asking--

what happened to Frankie Bloomer?

In 1965, 22-year-old Judith Hyams vanished without a trace

from Coral Gables, Florida.

25 years later, in a bizarre turn of events,

a series of anonymous phone calls

claimed that Judith is still alive.

Also, we'll bring you an intriguing update on our story

of Amelia Earhart, the legendary aviator who

disappeared while flying around the world in 1937.

Recently, an expedition found a piece of equipment which

may have been on her plane.

Join me for this fascinating edition

of "Unsolved Mysteries."

[theme music]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Tracy Kirkpatrick

was an introspective, pretty teenager from a small town

near Frederick, Maryland.

The third of four children, Tracy

was an honors student who loved reading and writing poetry.

In early 1989, Tracy read her family a haunting poem

written by Christina Rossetti.

Tracy seemed to be asking them not to grieve

for her when she was gone.

WOMAN (VOICEOVER): "Remember me when I am gone away, gone far

away into the silent land when you can no more hold me

by the hand."

Her and her boyfriend had just recently broke up,

and I guess she expressed her feelings through her writing.

She wrote a lot of lonely poems.

She was very intelligent.

She was a hard worker.

And she loved people, and she loved to be around people,

and she loved to have a lot of friends and everything.

Now, this is our new spring line.

We have it in blue--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): During Tracy's senior year

in high school, she held down two part-time jobs, one of them

a sales clerk in a women's clothing store.

We just got a new shipment in.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On the night of March 15, 1989,

Tracy was assigned to close the store and tally

up the day's receipts.

15 minutes before closing time, Tracy was alone.

It was 8:45 PM.

Two hours later, a shopping mall security guard

noticed that the lights inside the women's clothing store

were still on.

The front door was unlocked.

The guard called out but received no response.

He walked toward the back of the store.

In a storage room, he found Tracy

Kirkpatrick's lifeless body.

The guard immediately notified the police.

I'm at the clothing store.

You better send someone down right away, all right?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): At almost the same moment, Billy

and Diane Kirkpatrick, Tracy's parents were

en route to the shopping mall.

It was nearly 11:00 PM, more than an hour

after Tracy usually returned home.

You are worried for nothing.

OK.

I know everything's gonna be fine.

Uh-oh.

What the hell is this?

What is-- look, there's police cars, Bill!

- Yeah, OK. - OK.

Oh, my god.

DIANE KIRKPATRICK (VOICEOVER): As soon as I seen

it was at the store, I jumped out of the car,

and I went up to the door.

And they wasn't-- they didn't want to let us in at first,

because they really didn't know who we were.

Our daughter Tracy works here.

All right, hold on.

Chief, the parents.

Tell me she's OK, Bill.

Come on in.

Thank you.

Our daughter Tracy, is she OK?

I said, is she all right?

Can I see her?

And when he shook his head no, I just blocked out everything.

I didn't want to hear the rest of what

was going to be said to me.

- No! - All right.

Bill!

OK, Diane, sit down.

No!

DIANE KIRKPATRICK (VOICEOVER): What did someone

have against her that they would do something like that to her?

She never did anything to hurt anybody.

Police could find no apparent motive for Tracy

Kirkpatrick's brutal murder.

There was no sign of sexual assault.

The day's cash receipts had been left untouched on the counter.

Since there were no indications of a struggle,

police believe the murderer must have been someone Tracy knew.

A thorough analysis of the crime scene

turned up latent fingerprints but no other physical evidence.

The case was stalled.

Then three months later, police got their first real lead

when a mysterious telephone call was

recorded by a nationwide confession

hotline in Las Vegas.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): This is a tape recording

of the actual phone call.

The hotline immediately notified the Fredrick police.

The sincerity that I heard in that voice and the knowledge

that the person was displaying talking about what he had done

at that point convinced me that I probably

was listening to the killer.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Det.

Horner thought the caller's knowledge of the case

was convincing.

He took the tape to his chief.

Well, let's listen to it then.

Sure sounds like we have our killer, doesn't it?

Sounds very authentic, doesn't it?

CPL. BARRY HORNER: They traced the call back

to a supermarket in Walkersville,

Maryland, which is seven or eight miles

just north of Frederick City.

If it was the killer, he wanted to be caught,

and he was seeking help through this hotline.

And it was a decision made by my chief of police and members

of my division to compose a letter to this individual

and address it to Don and ask Don to please come forward.

If he needed someone to talk to, I was available.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The letter

was published in a local newspaper on October 10, 1989.

Police received no response.

But two weeks later, another unlikely phone call

provided them with a new lead.

Hello, my name is Sean, and I have rather an unusual request.

How can I help you, Sean?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On October 24,

Martha Woodworth, a Massachusetts woman

with a reputation as a psychic, began

to receive calls from a young man

who identified himself as Sean.

Well, I don't usually take cases like--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Sean seemed

obsessed with finding the person who

had murdered Tracy Kirkpatrick.

Martha told Sean she needed more information

before she could help.

Eventually, he agreed to send Martha newspaper clippings.

MARTHA WOODWORTH: And when I received the envelope

with his handwriting on the outside,

I thought this person has a much stronger

involvement than just being a friend who's interested.

I found the handwriting extremely disturbed.

So I felt it was my responsibility

to alert the police that I had a potential suspect for them.

Martha, do you think you've talked

to Sean enough that you could recognize

his voice from a tape?

Yes, I'm pretty sure.

CHIEF ASHTON (ON TELEPHONE): OK, let

me play a little of this tape for you on the telephone.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Chief Ashton played the confession

tape for Martha Woodworth.

She believed the voice was Sean.

MARTHA WOODWORTH: I knew it was Sean.

In fact, my heart dropped.

It was very chilling to hear the voice of the person

I'd been speaking to for months actually

confessing to the crime.

You know, I certainly did encourage her

to maintain contact with him.

Because, I mean, at that time, we

thought it was a viable lead.

And it was the best lead that we had,

and she was the conduit between Sean/Don

and the police department.

What if the killer commits suicide?

MARTHA WOODWORTH (ON TELEPHONE): Well, if he--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Police checked out the return

address on Sean's envelope.

It was in Walkersville, Maryland, the same town

where the call-in confession had been made.

However, the young man living at the address

was not named Sean or Don.

Good morning.

As requested by Frederick City Police--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): At another dead end,

the Frederick Police turned to local radio stations for help.

The caller claims to have killed Tracy Lynn

Kirkpatrick, who was brutally murdered in Frederick one year

ago today.

Authorities encourage you to listen carefully.

There's a chance someone may recognize the caller's voice.

MAN (ON TELEPHONE): Hello, my name is Don--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): After the tape aired,

three people claimed they thought

they recognized the voice.

Again, the man was not named Sean or Don,

but he was the young man who lived at the return address

on the psychic's letter.

Police searched his home the next day.

Our hopes in serving the search and seizure warrant

on his person and obtaining physical evidence

from that suspect was to send that material

to our forensic lab and the state lab

and confirm our suspicions that he was, in fact, the person who

committed this crime.

Unfortunately, the evidence was examined and reexamined,

and we were unable to confirm that he was either at the crime

scene that night or had any particular part

in this criminal act.

OK, I guess.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In the search,

police found many newspaper clippings about Tracy's murder

but could find no evidence that the young man knew

Tracy Kirkpatrick personally.

He pled the Fifth Amendment and refused

to answer any questions.

There has to be someone that seen something--

someone coming from that store, running from that store,

or leaving that store--

or heard something.

I just can't imagine something happening like that and no one

knowing nothing about it.

And the frustrating part is that we obviously

know somebody killed her, and we've never

been able to nail it down to the suspect that definitely did it.

But, I mean, that has been our pledge to the community

and to the family, that we're not going to give up until we

do identify that person.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On March 20, 1989,

Tracy Kirkpatrick was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery

near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The poem she had once recited for her family

was inscribed on her tombstone.

WOMAN (VOICEOVER): "Remember me when I am gone away,

gone far away into the silent land

when you can no more hold me by the hand.

Yet if you should forget me for a while and afterward remember,

do not grieve.

For if the darkness and corruption leave a vestige

of the thoughts that once I had, better by far that you

should forget and smile then that you

should remember and be sad."

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Six decades ago, famed aviator

Amelia Earhart captured the heart and spirit

of an entire generation with her courageous

record-breaking flights.

But in 1937, Earhart became the subject

of one of the most enduring and fascinating unsolved mysteries.

On May 20, 1937, Amelia and her navigator, Fred Noonan,

began their attempt to circumnavigate

the world in a twin-engine Lockheed Electra.

They never returned.

On July 2, they disappeared en route to the small South

Pacific island of Howland.

A massive search turned up no trace of Amelia,

Fred, or their airplane.

Years later, rumors surfaced that Earhart and Noonan were

taken prisoner by the Japanese and held

on the island of Saipan.

[non-english speech]

INTERPRETER: This woman was brought ashore by the Japanese.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Nieves Blas has lived

on Saipan her entire life.

She claims that she witnessed Amelia Earhart's execution.

Were Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan

taken prisoner and executed on the island of Saipan?

Or did their plane, in fact, go down

in the vast and unforgiving waters of the South Pacific?

Shortly after our broadcast, we

learned of an intriguing discovery

that may finally solve the mystery of Amelia

Earhart's disappearance.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In October of 1989,

a 17-member expedition spent three

weeks on a tiny uninhabited island called Nikumaroro.

Nikumaroro is 420 miles from Amelia's

destination, Howland island.

The operation was headed by aviation

archeologist Rick Gillespie.

RICK GILLESPIE: No one ever really searched on that island

for Amelia Earhart, although the US navy flew over it

one week after she disappeared.

The pilot in charge of the flight

saw what he later described in his official report

as clear signs of recent human habitation.

What he could not have known at that time

is there should have been no one on that island,

no sign of any human activity on that island.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The expedition found this aluminum

aircraft part, which may have been

installed in the Lockheed Electra

by navigator Fred Noonan.

RICK GILLESPIE: The number on the box positively identifies

it as a navigator's bookcase.

We know there was a structure of this box's

size and shape installed aboard the Earhart aircraft.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Tests performed by the FBI laboratory

in Washington, DC, conclude that the bookcase

came from a civilian aircraft and was

manufactured in the years just prior

to Earhart's disappearance.

What the FBI has told us doesn't constitute proof.

What it does is constitute sufficient evidence

to merit a return to Nikumaroro to find

and photograph the ultimate proof, the airplane itself.

Rick Gillespie and the archeological team

plan to return to Nikumaroro.

Using sonar and computer tracking devices,

they will try to locate Amelia Earhart's plane in the waters

just off the island.

Perhaps, just perhaps, the mystery of the legendary Amelia

Earhart will finally be solved.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In 1976, a 30-year-old jack

of all trades named Steve Wilson showed

up in Olancha, California.

He was a licensed pilot and a certified electrician.

He said he had come from San Diego

but never revealed much else about his past.

With his rugged good looks and smooth-talking charm,

Wilson soon made friends with the local residents.

People liked Steve Wilson.

He could tell you anything you wanted to hear

and make you believe it.

He was very much involved with the college.

He liked to lift weights.

He liked to weld.

And when he was around a group of people that he enjoyed,

he was very friendly and very fun to be around.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Wilson did occasional odd jobs

on the Cavern Bar Ranch, a 900,000-acre spread

100 miles west of Death Valley.

The ranch was owned by Bill Thornburgh,

a prominent horseman.

22-year-old Callie Thornburgh lived at home

and worked right alongside her father.

When Steve Wilson met Callie, he took

an immediate interest in her.

They courted for nine months and,

with Bill Thornburgh's blessings,

ran off to Reno to get married.

Dad wanted me to get married because he

felt that I needed to have something

other than him and the ranch.

As we were driving to Reno, or even the day before we left,

I was wishing there was some way that I could get out of it

or not get married.

But I felt as though I had made that commitment

and there was no way to get out of that.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The marriage

was an immediate disaster.

Wilson was abusive and threatened Callie.

Just two months after the wedding,

Callie left her husband and moved back in with her father.

Wilson was no longer welcome on the Cavern Bar Ranch.

How are you, hon?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): A few days

later, Callie told her father that Wilson had been

making threatening phone calls.

I didn't realize that guy was so crazy.

I'm really afraid.

I don't know what to do.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The threats

sparked a feud between Bill Thornburgh and Steve Wilson.

Well, I don't like to say this at all, Callie,

but I really fear for your life.

The guy's a nut.

CALLIE THORNBURGH: Wilson would call on the phone

and harass us.

And he would say things like, I will hurt you worse than you've

ever been hurt before.

I will take everything you love away from you.

You will pay.

You will learn to love me.

You will learn that loving me is easier than being away from me.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): About three weeks

after the breakup, Steve Wilson showed up at the ranch

to get Callie back.

Callie!

Callie, come out here!

Callie, I want to talk to you right now!

Come out here!

BILL: What do you want, Wilson?

STEVE: I want to talk to Callie!

She won't talk to you.

Callie, I love you!

Well, she don't love you!

It's over with!

This is between me and Callie!

Get off the ranch!

CALLIE: Why are you doing this to me?

Just go away!

STEVE: I love you, Callie!

Man, I've had it.

And now, I'm telling you, Wilson, get off this ranch!

You hear what I'm saying?

CALLIE: No, stop!

It's not worth it, Dad!

CALLIE THORNBURGH: I grabbed my dad and grabbed the gun

and said, no, don't shoot him.

It's not worth it.

You know, I didn't want my father and Wilson to get

into any kind of a confrontation with each other,

because I was afraid that Wilson would hurt my dad.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): May 29, 1979.

At 6:00 AM, Bill Thornburgh left the ranch house

to do his morning chores and never returned.

When I got there, he wasn't there.

And so I waited for about, oh, 15 to 20 minutes,

and he never showed.

I thought something was wrong, because he was always on time.

Dad?

CALLIE THORNBURGH (VOICEOVER): And so I walked out

to the water lines, and I found his truck

with his every morning cup of coffee

sitting on the dashboard, and it was still hot.

Dad?

Dad?

Dad?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Bill Thornburgh

was never seen again.

Steve Wilson had also disappeared.

Seven months passed.

Then on Christmas Eve 1979, a teenager riding his dirt bike

through the desert 45 miles south of the ranch house

made a grisly discovery.

DEPUTY LEON BOYER: A teenage boy on a dirt bike

had been over in the Sand Canyon area

and had come across the skeletal remains of a body.

The boy knew his parents wouldn't believe him

if he told them, so he actually took the head

and rode back to his house.

And at that time, his parents called the sheriff's office,

and they went out and investigated.

With the evidence at the scene, the clothing

and different articles, it was immediately

known that it was Bill Thornburgh's body,

and all the evidence led to Steve Wilson.

I believe he vented a lot of his rage

at Bill up and to the point where he

took him out and murdered him.

Another year and a half passed, and Steve Wilson

was still on the run.

Then in 1981, he was spotted by a game

warden in Kodiak, Alaska, and was subsequently

arrested in Las Vegas.

He pled guilty to first-degree murder

and received a sentence of 25 years

to life at Folsom Prison in California.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Folsom Prison

is a maximum security facility housing many violent killers.

When Steve Wilson arrived, there had

not been an escape in 15 years.

Wilson immediately went to work ingratiating himself

to the officers and administrators.

Mr. Martin, good morning to you, sir.

How you doing, Steve?

Listen, a little favor I'd like to ask,

if you could help me out.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): He joined

the in-house work program and used his charm

on those who could help him.

I'd be a big help to you in the office.

I mean, much more than out here sweeping up and stuff.

Steve was a model prisoner.

I have 30 years in this career of mine,

and I would have to say that this guy is the greatest

clerk I've ever had.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Before long, Wilson became the clerk

in charge of shipping.

It is one of the most coveted inmate jobs in the prison,

with the least supervision and the most freedom of movement.

- Hey, Larry. - Hey, Steve.

How you doing?

Good.

Hey, look at invoice 1403.

THEODORE C. ZINK: When he became a clerk in the warehouse

adjacent to the metal factory and the license plate factory,

but his job would entail him being in all different areas

of the warehouse, picking up inventories, picking

up invoices, work orders.

So for him to be in a certain area

at any time would not be unusual,

would not be significant.

And if he wasn't there, it would not be significant, either.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Two years passed.

Prison officials had no idea that during that entire time,

Wilson was plotting a way out.

At 8:30 AM on August 3, 1984, while Wilson

was working near the loading dock,

he put his escape plan into effect.

INMATE: Hey!

GUARD: What is your problem?

He ran into me.

Listen, I told you about this safety last week.

INMATE: It was his fault.

GUARD: Watch it!

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): When the truck was fully loaded,

the officers sealed the door shut, unaware that Wilson had

enlisted other inmates to create a diversion

and help him make his escape.

Wilson's meticulous planning had worked.

Nobody noticed that he'd left the loading dock.

THEODORE C. ZINK: It's my opinion

that Steve Wilson was looking for the weakest link

in our security to get out.

I think he was planning this at least well over a year ahead

of time.

He was an intelligent individual.

And when you have vehicles going in and out of a secure area,

that's your weakest link.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The escape plan

was modeled almost exactly after the last successful escape

from Folsom in 1969, 15 years earlier.

Authorities believe that as soon as the truck left the prison

grounds, Wilson cut a hole in the roof using tin snips

he had stolen from the prison metal shop.

Just minutes later, the truck pulled

into the local bowling alley.

When the truck's driver went inside for a cup of coffee,

Wilson squeezed through the hole he'd cut and disappeared.

CALLIE THORNBURGH: Having Wilson on the loose

is very hard for me, because I can never really relax.

I don't like being alone, and I'm always

looking around all the corners.

I-- I'm constantly in fear.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Before Steve Wilson

was sent to Folsom Prison, he was interviewed

on videotape by a psychiatrist.

I can't really say I was thinking anything.

I can't say that I was planning to kill

him, that I wasn't planning to kill him, or anything.

I just turned in and drove straight to the grave.

DETECTIVE: Well, who was driving at that point?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Next, the poignant mystery

of an American sailor whose ship was sunk by the Nazis.

He was later photographed on a hospital ship

and never seen again.

Most of us are familiar with the heartbreaking stories

of American soldiers still missing in action in Vietnam

and the anguish and uncertainty their families face.

It's astonishing to think that there are other families who've

been carrying that same terrible burden ever since World War II.

Yet along with that burden of despair

comes a miracle of hope.

This is a story of one American sailor's family

and their steadfast dream of reunion.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Frank Joseph

Bloomer was born on October 12, 1921, in Zeigler, Illinois.

The younger of two sons, he loved the outdoors, especially

swimming and fishing.

When World War II broke out, Frankie enlisted in the Navy,

against his parents' wishes.

Frankie Bloomer served as a radio technician aboard the USS

"Rowan," a destroyer operating in the Mediterranean Sea.

On September 11, 1943, just off the coast of Italy,

a German U-boat targeted the "Rowan."

Its torpedo hit home, and the "Rowan" sank in less than a

minute.

202 American sailors were killed.

Reported missing in action was 22-year-old radioman

third class Frankie Bloomer.

His parents heard that the "Rowan"

was sunk on their car radio.

In a short time, they were notified

that he was missing in action.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Incredibly, less than a week

later, Mrs. Jane Bloomer saw a newspaper

article with this photograph of three

survivors of the USS "Rowan."

She recognized the man in the middle as her son Frankie.

I know this is him.

Look. Look at this.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): She immediately contacted

her other son's wife, Dorothy.

The two women compared the newspaper photograph

with pictures of Frankie.

Yes, see?

I noticed that, too.

Oh, it is him.

DOROTHY BLOOMER: When I first saw the newspaper

picture of the three survivors, I was

positive the one was Frankie.

It had characteristics that he had, features,

and I knew it was Frankie.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Jane Bloomer

took the photographs to a local mortician who was an expert

at photo identification.

See how he's holding his arm there?

Did he ever break his arm, maybe as a child?

Yes, he did.

I would say that these two men are absolutely the same.

Are you sure?

From my observation of this evidence,

I definitely would conclude they're one and the same.

Thank you.

DOROTHY BLOOMER (VOICEOVER): When the mortician told

my mother-in-law that he felt this picture was of Frankie,

it gave her a lot more hope.

She wrote to the American Red Cross

to see if they could help her, and they said they got all

their information from the War Department

and that they could not find any information

that she did not already have.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Frankie's mother

never stopped believing that her son was alive.

When Mrs. Bloomer died in 1971, she

passed her hope to a new generation,

her granddaughter Janie.

As a very small girl, the first time

I can remember hearing or finding

out about my Uncle Frankie was at my grandma's house.

I noticed the picture sitting on the mantle.

I went over and I asked my grandma.

I said, well, who is this?

And she said, this is your Uncle Frankie.

Why haven't I ever met him?

MRS. BLOOMER: Well, he went into the Navy a long time ago.

He just hasn't come back yet, but I'm sure he will.

JANIE BLOOMER: I would say that my grandmother and grandfather

lived with this haunting feeling of never

knowing if he was alive or dead until the day they died.

I think my grandparents would commemorate

Frankie's birthday in different ways from year to year.

It never went forgotten.

I can recall a time when we were over at my grandmother's

house to eat dinner, and there happened

to be a cake on the table.

And I asked why there was a cake there,

and she told me that it was because it

was Frankie's birthday.

Where is he?

He's away just now.

When is he gonna be back?

I don't know, Janie.

I don't know.

I'm searching to find the answer whether he

is alive or dead so that I don't end up the same way

that my grandparents did.

Because they both died not knowing

the real truth of whether he was alive or dead.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): 12 years

ago, Janie's parents erected a memorial headstone for Frankie.

JANIE BLOOMER: I do go to the grave occasionally,

and our family is all buried in the same proximity.

It's kind of strange though when I look at my Uncle Frankie's

grave marker and know that he's not in there

and think of the possibility that he could be walking

a street somewhere, yet there's a marker here

with his name on it.

For a young women to be pregnant and unmarried

is nearly always a disturbing and unsettling prospect.

In 1965, Judith Hyams, a 22-year-old medical technician

from Coral Gables, Florida, found herself

in that difficult predicament.

With nowhere else to turn, Judith Hyams apparently decided

to have an illegal abortion.

It was a decision that probably led to her disappearance

and, quite possibly, her death.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Judith Hyams learned she

was pregnant in August of 1965.

If you'll just sign your name and address here.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The name

she gave for her pregnancy test was B. Kenney, evidence

that she may have been trying to keep her condition a secret.

Just walk down the hall, and the first door to your right

is the lab.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Judy never said anything to me about the fact

that she might have been pregnant.

She never even told me that she went to have

a test, a pregnancy test.

She called me I guess the day that she was going to have

the abortion, if that is what happened, to tell

me that she was going shopping.

She was leaving work early and going shopping.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The day

she disappeared, Judith went to her bank and withdrew $300.

She told her friends that she was going to buy a watch.

Police believe that instead Judith used the money

for an illegal abortion.

We were able to determine that she contacted a close friend

of hers who helped arrange an abortion through the suspect,

Dr. George Hodjou.

And through that, a date and time and a price

were set for it.

Judith made the arrangements to get the money.

And the last time she was seen, we

feel that she was on her way to get this abortion.

Get plenty of rest.

You'll be fine in no time, huh?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): George Hodjou

was a Hungarian immigrant who posed

as an accredited physician.

According to police, Hodjou operated an illegal abortion

clinic in Coral Gables.

Judy?

MARILYN JACKSON (VOICEOVER): Having an abortion,

I don't think she really had any other choice,

because nobody in those days would have a child and keep it.

It just wasn't done, not in the group

that she was friendly with.

Julie?

Judy.

Judy.

Right through here, huh?

MARILYN JACKSON: A lot of people have

said that what happened to her was that she

died having an abortion.

Judy was a medical lab technician.

She had a lot of medical knowledge.

I find it hard to believe that she could

have died having an abortion.

I mean, surely she would have known.

She was intelligent enough to know to go for help someplace.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Judith Hyams disappeared

on September 14, 1965.

Three weeks later, a rental car registered in her name

was found 650 miles away in Atlanta, Georgia.

On the back seat were traces of blood.

Unfortunately, the car had sat there for two or three

days before it was found.

And then by the time we were able to conduct any crime scene

on it, the car had been handled by other people,

other police agencies.

And by the time it got back to Dade County to be processed,

whatever crime scene existed was totally ruined.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): A local resident

had spotted a man in his 30s parking the vehicle.

He removed what appeared to be a duffel bag from the trunk

and then left the area.

This man has never been identified.

Three months later, George Hodjou was arrested

for impersonating a physician.

George Hodjou?

Yes.

Coral Gables Police.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): He jumped bail

and has not been seen since.

Perjury charges against him are still on the books,

and police speculate he may know what happened to Judith Hyams.

Shortly after Hodjou's escape, police

ended their investigation into Judith's disappearance.

The Judith Hyams case soon faded from local memory.

But 25 years later, the investigation

would be reopened thanks to a bizarre series

of events that began with a police narcotics lecture

in Nebraska.

Capt. Chuck Scherer of the Coral Gables Police Department

was unfamiliar with the Hyams case.

In 1990, Scherer had a speaking engagement

at a police academy 200 miles west of Omaha, Nebraska.

The lecture itself was uneventful,

and Scherer returned home.

It was then that he received a phone call from the past.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Two days

after the Nebraska lecture, Capt. Scherer

received a long-distance phone call at his office

in Coral Gables.

[phone rings]

Hello? MAN (ON TELEPHONE): Hello.

Is this Capt. Scherer?

Yes, it is.

What can I do for you?

MAN (ON TELEPHONE): My name is--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The caller identified himself

as Steve Brown, the host of a popular radio

talk show in Omaha.

He said an anonymous caller had given

him information on the disappearance of Judith Hyams.

I told Mr. Brown that I wasn't familiar with the case

and I'd have to research it and get back to him.

I asked him for his phone number and if he

knew how to get back in touch with this person that

had called the radio talk show.

He said, yes, he did know how to get back to him,

and he gave me two phone numbers.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): A day later, Capt. Scherer

called Steve Brown in Nebraska.

STEVE BROWN: He said, well, regarding your call to me,

I have dug up the information that you needed,

and I have it for you.

And I said, excuse me?

Because this is a call out of the blue.

I didn't know who the man was or could not imagine

what he was talking about.

He was totally surprised.

He'd never heard of me, never knew anything about it,

and denied adamantly that he was the one

that made the phone calls.

No, no.

That's right, that's my home number.

It's my private unlisted number.

Where-- who gave you that?

When he gave me my own unlisted home phone number,

I began to think through the people that

come to mind who have that telephone number,

thinking they could have called.

And no one has yet come to mind who

would make such a phone call without telling

me about it claiming to be me.

Well, now, I'm confused.

I don't know what to think.

Why would a 25-year-old case surface all of a sudden out

of Omaha, Nebraska, when, in fact, I've

never been to Omaha, Nebraska, in my life prior to this time

and had no knowledge or anything about the case?

I never mentioned the case whatsoever the whole time

we were out there for the simple reason I really didn't even

know about the case to give anybody

any information or anything.

[phone rings]

Good evening, Coral Gables Police Department.

Capt. Scherer?

One moment.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Two days

later, Capt. Scherer received another unusual phone call.

Hello, Capt. Scherer.

Judy Hyams is alive, and she lives in Omaha.

Who is this, please?

Judy Hyams is alive, and she lives in Omaha.

Who is this?

Hello?

Who is this?

My gut feeling is that something is going on

to bring this case back up 25 years later,

and it very possibly is that Judy is, in fact,

living in the Omaha area.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In the fall of 1989,

an article on the Hyams case appeared in a local newspaper.

Capt. Scherer then received yet another anonymous phone call.

Hello, Capt. Scherer.

CAPT. CHUCK SCHERER (VOICEOVER): The third phone call

that I received was from a man that identified himself

as an informant for the FBI.

Would you give me your name, please?

CAPT. CHUCK SCHERER: He refused to give me his name

at that time, but he said that he had just spent several weeks

with Hodjou over in Budapest, Hungary,

and he gave me the phone number.

I contacted Interpol, and our Interpol through their Budapest

Interpol determined that the phone number that he gave me

indeed comes back to the same name of the suspect

at that time, the doctor that supposedly

performed the abortion.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Police have yet

to locate George Hodjou in Hungary,

but they feel it is highly unlikely

that he was responsible for the phone calls.

Judy Hyams is alive, and she lives in Omaha.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The only real evidence

that Judith is still alive has come from the mysterious phone

calls.

Hi, my name is Steve Brown.

I'm a radio talk show host in Omaha, Nebraska.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Police have searched the Omaha area

but have found no trace of her whereabouts.

Who placed the anonymous phone calls?

If they are telling the truth, where is Judith Hyams today?

Did she have an abortion and die as a result?

Or did she just disappear?

The only possible scenario that I can see

is that if, in fact, she is, she didn't want the family

to know about the supposed abortion at the time,

and she just disappeared and, in fact,

has been missing for 25 years, not wanting

her family to know about it.

I'd like to believe that she's someplace

and that she could be found or that she'd come back

or that we'd know that she's all right.

I guess my personal theory is it's hard to believe

that she would be dead.

But I can't understand, if she's alive,

why she wouldn't contact somebody after all this time.

After all, there's no more stigmas left.

Why wouldn't she come back?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In 1980, two women in Texas

had a strange encounter with an unidentified object

on a desolate highway outside of Houston.

Within hours, they were stricken with mysterious illnesses which

continue to plague them today.

A genuine UFO, a military operation, or something

new and unexplained?

Join me next time for another edition

of "Unsolved Mysteries."

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