Original subtitles

ANNOUNCER: 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 (VOICEOVER): In the 1920s,

Edgar Cayce gained widespread notoriety

for his apparent ability to make complex medical diagnoses

while in a self-induced trance.

Even now, 45 years after Cayce's death,

thousands claimed to have benefited and been

cured by his knowledge.

Some say it is merely a combination of luck

and the power of suggestion.

28-year-old Crystal Spencer was a small-town girl determined

to make it big in the movies.

But for Crystal, the road to stardom

led through Hollywood's seamy underside and, sadly,

a confusing and mysterious death.

According to her family and friends, Crystal was murdered.

Easter Sunday, 1990, just outside Coldwater, Michigan.

Ray and Marie Thornton were enjoying their weekly drive

through the country.

Quite by accident, this quiet Sunday outing

would place the Thorntons at the center of an unsolved mystery.

These intriguing stories all need

one final clue, one final piece of information

before they can be solved.

Perhaps someone watching tonight can help.

Perhaps it's you.

[theme music]

Kathy, you have a condition called optic neuritis.

This is a condition where the optic nerve--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In 1986, 27-year-old Cathy Comora

visited her ophthalmologist.

OK.

You can sit back now, Cathy.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Cathy thought

she had a minor problem, but the doctor's

verdict was horrifying.

Cathy might be going blind.

It may return.

It may not return.

CATHY COMORA: It was a very frightening experience.

He said I wouldn't run out right away and buy a white cane,

but it's very serious.

And I was scared.

I mean, I suddenly realized that there was a possibility

that I could go blind.

I hadn't taken it seriously all along.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Cathy's trouble

had begun one week earlier.

CATHY COMORA: I woke up one morning

and I just saw that there was a little area

in my field of vision that I couldn't see out of.

And I just thought there was a speck on my eye.

I tried to rub it away and nothing happened.

It didn't leave.

I didn't really think too much about it.

I just thought it was unusual and I just let it go.

And throughout the day, it didn't disappear.

And the next day it was a little larger area.

By the end of the week, when I couldn't

see at all out of the eye, I decided

this probably isn't normal and I probably

should do something about it.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Cathy consulted

two other ophthalmologists.

The diagnosis was unanimous, optic neuritis.

Possible consequence, blindness.

There is no known cure.

Her doctor recommended steroids.

Cathy was strongly opposed to the use of steroids

and was determined to find an alternative.

She consulted a doctor who was well-versed

in the mysterious methods of a man named Edgar Cayce.

Edgar Cayce became famous in the 1920s as a diagnostician,

even though he had absolutely no medical training.

In his lifetime, Cayce made more than 9,000 diagnoses,

which he called readings, while in a deep, self-induced trance.

In 1937, Cayce did a reading on this 18-year-old woman

who suffered from scleroderma, a disfiguring

chronic disease with no cure in which a person's skin hardens.

Cayce prescribed a number of treatments and her scleroderma

went into immediate remission.

The reading was given in January

and the readings were followed to the letter.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In an interview 40 years later,

the woman gave Edgar Cayce full credit for her cure.

--in June of 19--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In 1976,

six-year-old Andrew Senzon suffered from severe psoriasis.

In desperation, Andrew's mother sought out

a doctor who utilized methods set down by Edgar

Cayce 30 years earlier.

Within four months, the psoriasis was gone.

Today, Andrew Senzon is 21 years old

and has had only one recurrence, which also responded

to the Cayce treatments.

Some people write off Edgar Cayce's cures

as lucky coincidence or the power of suggestion

acting on psychosomatic illness.

But for those diagnosed with the disease that modern medicine

cannot cure or in some cases even explain,

Edgar Cayce's methods continue to hold out hope.

Cayce died in 1945.

Even so, each year, thousands of inquiries from all

over the world pour into Cayce's nonprofit center

in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

The thriving center is an unlikely legacy

for Edgar Cayce, a quiet, unpretentious man

who came of age in rural Kentucky

at the turn of the century.

EDGAR EVANS CAYCE: My father was a very ordinary person.

He liked the garden.

He liked to fish.

We had gardens wherever we lived.

He taught Sunday school.

I mean, in everyday life you wouldn't

know him from anybody else.

It was only when he was asleep that he

had extraordinary ability.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Edgar Cayce

discovered his mysterious ability when he was 13.

Time for your lessons, young man.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): A borderline student, Edgar fell

asleep over his spelling book.

Cabin.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): When his father quizzed him,

Edgar could spell every word in the book

and even knew the page numbers where each word appeared.

Cattle.

EDGAR EVANS CAYCE: From that time on, all he had to do

was sleep on his books at night and he moved along

very rapidly, whether it was spelling or math or history

or whatever.

And he became an exceptional student

rather than an average student.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): It 1900, when Edgar was 23,

he suddenly lost the power of speech.

For an entire year, physicians were unable to explain or cure

his illness.

Continue to breathe deeply.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): As a last resort,

Cayce's parents convinced him to see a hypnotist.

His family physician attended and recorded

the session in minute detail.

Cayce sank into a deep sleep.

Edgar.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Everyone present

was stunned when, for the first time in a year,

Edgar Cayce spoke.

Um.

Mhm.

Yes.

We have the body before us.

EDGAR EVANS CAYCE: Dad never had any formal medical training.

In fact, his educational career stopped

at what would be an equivalent to the ninth grade now.

Due to a paralysis of the anterior muscles

of the vocal cords.

He would suggest things and describe

things, the parts of the body, that he had no knowledge of.

This will remove the trouble.

He started to talk and say, yes, we have the condition.

It was a constriction to the throat.

Some constriction of the blood flow.

He'd say, we will correct it.

LANE: The body will now awaken.

EDGAR EVANS CAYCE: And when Lane, the hypnotist,

told him to wake up, he sat up and coughed up a little blood

and he could talk.

Are you all right?

EDGAR EVANS CAYCE: And I think that was

probably the first reading, though it was on himself.

Hello.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Cayce's doctor

persuaded him to attempt diagnoses

on other patients who had not responded

to traditional medicine.

Cayce agreed, but the end result left him disillusioned.

EDGAR EVANS CAYCE: The problem developed when,

at the end of some of the readings,

people would start asking him questions about what horse was

going to win a race or what was going

to happen in the commodities of stock market

or results of a ball game.

And when he found out what had happened

and what people were doing, he said, I'm giving it up.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Cayce abandoned his psychic readings,

married, and moved to Selma, Alabama, where

he worked as a photographer.

By 1914, he had two sons, Edgar Evans and Hugh Lynn.

When Hugh Lynn was eight years old,

he was terribly injured in a darkroom explosion.

A local doctor held out little hope.

How is he, Doctor?

I've managed to remove most of the powder from his eyes,

but I found that the damage to the tissue

was so extensive that he may lose his sight.

EDGAR EVANS CAYCE: My brother was playing in the studio

and dropped a match in a partially-filled can

of flashlight powder and it blew up in his face

and burned his eyes very badly.

The doctors examined him and said, well,

we think we're going to have to take out one eye.

He's probably going to lose the sight in both of them.

And my brother said, Daddy, give me a reading.

Let's go into the parlor.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): For Edgar Cayce,

it was the ultimate test.

He had not attempted a reading in years.

Could he now save his own son from a life of blindness?

EDGAR: Although tannic acid would not be normally used

under these circumstances--

EDGAR EVANS CAYCE: He described an application for the eyes

that included tannic acid.

Well, that was unheard of at the time

and the doctors thought it was too strong,

but they thought he was going to lose his eyes anyway,

so it wouldn't hurt to try.

And when they first put it on, Hugh then said,

this must be Daddy's medicine.

It doesn't hurt.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): It seemed like a miracle.

Within six weeks, Hugh Lynn's sight was completely restored.

Word of the boy's recovery spread.

Edgar Cayce soon became famous.

In 1925, he moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Within five years, Cayce established

a center there to catalog and interpret the readings.

The center received thousands of letters, most of them requests

for readings.

Although Cayce normally did only two readings a day,

he was unable to turn his back on those who seemed

to need him so desperately.

He felt like he couldn't refuse

people so he started doing two and three and four and five.

And it got up to, I understand, nine or 10 a day,

and it was just too much for him.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On the brink of exhaustion,

Edgar Cayce suffered a massive stroke.

He died on January 3, 1945, leaving

behind more than 120,000 pages of readings, which continue

to serve as a wellspring of hope for those

in search of cures that may have eluded established medicine.

Now Cathy, an X-ray examination of your neck shows

that you have the deviation--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): When Cathy Comora's optic neuritis

was diagnosed in 1986, she went to Dr. John Pagano,

a chiropractor in New Jersey who studied Edgar

Cayce's readings for 30 years.

JOHN PAGANO: Cayce was very specific on what

areas of the spine to adjust.

The fact that Cayce suggested the certain procedure for eye

problems does not mean that he specifically

diagnosed it as optic neuritis.

He talked about vision problems, blindness,

and that's what I approached it at, not as optic neuritis.

First I'm going to stretch you out a little bit.

It'll sort of get the blood circulating.

JOHN PAGANO: After I gave her an adjustment,

she called me the next day to tell me there's an improvement.

We continued treatment, and within seven days,

her sight was restored.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Dr. Pagano

believes that Edgar Cayce's treatments set forth

in several readings given decades earlier brought

back Cathy Comora's vision.

Skeptics disagree.

PAUL KURTZ: I think much of the Cayce material

is based upon illusion.

And I think there's a placebo effect here at work.

Often if you believe that someone is going to cure you--

you give them white sugar pills--

they might be cured.

So the power of the mind can have a powerful effect.

I do believe in the power of the mind.

And I tried to will the sight back before I had gone to Dr.

Pagano, and it didn't work.

And it was only after I had gone to Dr. Pagano

and after he had adjusted my neck that the sight came back.

I don't think that Edgar Cayce had any psychic powers.

I don't think there's such a thing as psychic medicine.

I think one ought to be very cautious about the claim

that you can diagnose illnesses in some mystical way.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): How can the unique life

of Edgar Cayce be explained?

He has been denounced as a soothsayer.

He has been heralded as a prophet.

But medical establishment refuses

to endorse Cayce's methods, yet at the same time,

is unwilling to dismiss them.

Before his death, Edgar Cayce wrote to a friend.

"In my life and in the lives of many who come in contact

with the readings, there seems to be much that is of help,

but you must judge for yourself.

Facts and results are the only measuring rods.

If this knowledge is to be of any lasting benefit,

it will require open-minded, intelligent research."

Perhaps the readings of Edgar Cayce

are one mystery that will be solved only

through patients, medical evaluation, and that greatest

of all healers, time.

Next, an aspiring actress is found dead

in her Los Angeles apartment.

The coroner ruled her death due to undetermined causes,

but some say it was murder.

[music playing]

Hollywood, California.

The dream factory.

A fantasy land of myth and legend,

fueled by the tantalizing fable that anyone

can become famous overnight.

Ever since the movies began, beautiful young girls

have flocked to Hollywood, lured by the glamor of Tinseltown

and the promise of stardom.

It was this dream which brought 23-year-old Crystal

Spencer to Los Angeles in the summer of 1982.

For as long as she could remember,

Crystal Spencer pictured herself as not

just an actress, but a star.

Sadly, her search for fame and fortune

led only to frustration, failure, and, some say, murder.

Crystal Lene Spencer was raised in the small northern

California town of Ukiah.

When she was eight, her father died,

leaving her mother to raise three small children alone.

At 17, Crystal dropped out of high school

and took a job to help support the family.

Soon, Hollywood beckoned and she moved to the Los Angeles area

to actively pursue her dream.

Her early years were a struggle, resulting

only in a few bit parts.

Crystal quickly realized that true stardom was elusive

and perhaps unobtainable.

Within two years of her arrival, Crystal

reluctantly took a job as an exotic dancer to pay her bills.

On a good night, she cleared up to $400 in tips.

But Crystal never fully accepted the fact that, in essence, she

was a stripper.

PATTI JO MILLHOUSE: Sometimes she would just

start crying, like she felt degraded about herself,

of what she'd done.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In May of 1987,

friends invited Crystal to an outdoor barbecue.

She was eager to mix and mingle with people who might

help further her acting career.

I'm Crystal.

- I'm Anton. - Nice to meet you.

It's nice meeting you. -

Oh! This is your place, then.

This is your party?

ANTON KLINE: There was something very

alluring and compelling about Crystal that

would readily catch your eye.

She knew that she would become not only an actress,

but she would became a very famous actress,

and it was just a matter of time.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Crystal

was taken with Anton Kline, a would-be screenwriter

and a PhD candidate in history.

Though they came from totally different backgrounds,

they soon fell in love.

Anton took it upon himself to help

Crystal broaden her horizons.

He introduced her to art galleries,

museums, and concerts.

Crystal was dazzled.

ANTON KLINE: She loved classical music.

She loved fine art.

She wanted to know more about these other wonderful things

of life that she had never been exposed to before.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Anton had no idea

how crystal earned her living.

She walked a precarious tightrope, discovering

art and culture by day, immersed in Hollywood's dark side

by night.

PATTI JO MILLHOUSE: Crystal loved Anton very much.

She was very scared about him finding out.

She says, well, I better change.

I better quit dancing then before he finds out.

I better quit doing this before he finds out.

I want to get married.

I want to have a future.

I want to start doing something for my life.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Finally,

four months after they met, Anton found

out about Crystal's other life.

ANTON KLINE: A neighbor saw her dancing at the club

by the airport where she worked.

And he said, I saw that girl on stage the other night.

I said, no, you couldn't have.

He said, that was her.

Of course it was her.

And I was shocked.

He was very upset, but he said it was OK.

He accepted it, which shocked her.

She didn't know what to say.

--sit right there.

No, Anton, you'll catch my cold.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On Wednesday, May 4, 1988,

Crystal was home with a cold.

Anton stopped by and they talked about a promising offer she had

received to work in the Orient.

So what's happening with Japan?

I don't know.

They haven't called yet.

When are you leaving?

I'm not even sure if I have the job or not yet.

ANTON KLINE: She was very nervous, but excited,

about the possibility of traveling to Japan

and seeing a whole different world than what

she was accustomed to.

I spoke to Crystal Thursday evening-- the next evening--

on the telephone.

How you doing?

You feeling better?

CRYSTAL (ON PHONE): Much better, thanks.

That's good.

ANTON KLINE: And the conversation

lasted about 15 minutes.

I said, I'll be in touch, and she said, OK.

I hung up the phone, and that was the last time

I ever spoke with her.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Three days later,

Anton tried to reach Crystal but continuously got a busy signal.

An operator told him the receiver was off the hook.

Can I help you?

Yeah, I'm looking for Crystal Spencer.

She's not working tonight.

Did she work here last night?

She didn't punch in.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Confused, Anton

assumed that Crystal had left for Japan

without saying goodbye.

Excuse me.

Have you seen Crystal Spencer?

What?

Have you seen Crystal Spencer?

No, I haven't seen her in a couple of days.

Do you know where she is?

ANTON KLINE: I was expecting any day to receive a very excited

phone call from a very excited Crystal saying,

it's wonderful here.

It's a whole different world here.

And instead, I got a phone call from the Burbank Police

Department.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Friday, the 13th of May, 1988.

Police discovered the decomposed body of Crystal Spencer.

She had been dead for nearly a week.

ANTON KLINE: They, at first, just said she was

found dead in her apartment.

And they wanted to know when I'd last seen her.

And I said, I last saw her on Wednesday.

And how was she?

I said, well, she had a cold.

And they said they believe she died of natural causes.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): An autopsy

revealed no trace of drugs or alcohol in Crystal's system.

There were no obvious signs of foul play or suicide.

The coroner ruled that her death was the result

of undetermined causes.

ROBERT COHEN: The body of Ms. Spencer

was in such an advanced state of decomposition,

they were not able to ascribe the cause of death,

so they have no finding.

I was suspicious because I did not believe that Crystal

Spencer died of illness.

She was not a sick woman when I last

saw her or last spoke with her.

She was a young woman with a cold.

I was suspicious because the way I was told the body was found--

in an obscure corner of her apartment,

nude from the waist down.

The phone went off the hook for days.

And I became extremely suspicious

when I learned that neighbors had heard terrible screams

and shrills coming from her apartment

that some had described as the sounds of torture.

[screaming]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On the night of May 7, two

of Crystal's neighbors had been awakened

by a strange intermittent wailing.

SUSAN AKIN-TAYLOR: Two or three minutes after 4:00, I remember

looking at the clock and I heard some moans

and some funny sounds.

You know how you are when you wake up.

You just don't know what's going on.

Somebody's screaming.

But even before I even woke him up, I laid there thinking,

someone's being tortured.

Someone's being hurt.

Something's going on.

But I had no past, prior experience to what the sounds

were because they were so bloodcurdling eerie that they

frightened me very much.

Sounds terrible, doesn't it?

Do you think it's coming from here, or--

SUSAN AKIN-TAYLOR: All I could think about, for some reason,

was someone taking a cigarette and putting it

against her body, torturing her, because we had heard

like choking and moaning, but then when this started,

that's all we heard.

JET TAYLOR: Susan was very adamant about calling

the police, but out of my fear of what I heard,

I didn't want to get involved.

That was my first reaction.

SUSAN AKIN-TAYLOR: I don't think I'll

ever be able to live with the fact

that I didn't call the police.

If I had, maybe she would still be alive.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): A week later, Crystal's body was

discovered and the Taylors finally

told their story to the police.

--witnesses, you saw or heard something?

About a week ago, about 4:00 in--

JET TAYLOR: He just took my statement, took my name,

asked me for my driver's license, and that was it.

He was just very nonchalant about it.

I believe most sincerely, as does her family, that Crystal

Lene Spencer was murdered in the early morning

hours of May 7, 1988.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Crystal's family requested

to view the body several times.

The coroner's office continually refused, claiming the body

was in no condition to be seen.

For months, Anton Kline was denied

access to the police records.

However, in September of 1988, he

was able to obtain the autopsy report.

Anton was shocked by the discrepancies he found.

ANTON KLINE: Crystal Spencer was barely 5-foot tall.

The autopsy report claims that she's an amazing 5'7".

Crystal Spencer weighed approximately 105 pounds

when I last saw her.

The autopsy claims the body is a "well-nourished" 140 pounds.

I was stunned.

I said, this is not the body of Crystal Spencer.

And where is the real body of Crystal Spencer?

You don't grow 7 inches and gain 50

to 60 pounds when you're dead.

The only thing that comes to my mind

is a possible documentary error at the coroner's office.

They are overwhelmed with work.

However, we do have the remains identified

by fingerprints from two different agencies,

as I mentioned before.

And those really eliminate any possibility of the coroner's

autopsy and the wrong remains.

I was told by one law enforcement

official, quote unquote, "bad things happen to bad girls."

And I said, you mean bad girls die of natural causes?

And he said, you know what I mean

and hung up on me on the phone.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Two weeks

after the discovery of her body, Crystal's family

and friends gathered for a private memorial service.

Fittingly, Crystal Spencer's ashes

were scattered beneath the famous Hollywood sign.

ANTON KLINE: I believe the investigation was bungled.

And I am angered that they are attempting

now to suppress the police reports in this case forever.

We need to know what happened to her.

It's important to all of us who cared

about her to learn the truth.

That's all we want is the truth.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Next, police

need your help to find a man suspected in the brutal murder

of his ex-wife.

[music playing]

Easter Sunday, 1990.

A lonely road 12 miles outside of Coldwater, Michigan.

Ray and Marie Thornton set off on a leisurely drive

in the country, as they did every weekend.

But in just a matter of minutes, their routine Sunday outing

would place this ordinary, law-abiding couple

at the center of a strange and ominous mystery.

RAY THORNTON: We were driving south

on Snow Prairie Road and, all of a sudden, a van just on us

and passed.

Look at this guy coming around us, honey.

Sure is in a hurry.

There he goes.

GZ.

Jeez!

He must be in a hurry.

RAY THORNTON: One of the things we

do when we're out driving around is we make

names out of license plates.

Marie came up with the, jeez, he's really in a hurry

because the first two letters of his license plate were GZ.

And it was just spontaneous.

Really no thought behind it.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Several miles down the road,

the Thorntons came across the man and the van a second time.

MARIE THORNTON: As we approached an old schoolhouse,

I saw a man behind it and he had what

appeared to be a bloody sheet.

MARIE: The man back there has a bloody sheet!

RAY: Where?

He's behind the building--

MARIE THORNTON: As we continued passing the school,

I saw the van parked between the building and a big tank.

There's the van that passed us.

RAY: Where?

It's right there!

RAY: There was the one that passed us?

MARIE: Yes, I'm sure it was.

It was the van that passed us.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Minutes later, the van

pulled up behind them again and rode their bumper

for nearly two miles.

I'm gonna start writing this stuff down.

RAY: Good idea.

MARIE THORNTON: Our game really paid off

because that helped me remember the first two letters

of his license plate number.

But we wanted to get more, if possible.

RAY: He's got a white skullcap on right now like mine.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Finally, a nervous Ray Thornton

turned off the highway.

When he did, the van pulled to the side of the road.

RAY THORNTON: We decided to turn around

and come back and see if we could

get a license plate number.

We felt if we could get the license number,

then we could turn it in to the police.

The guy was acting very suspicious.

We just felt that authorities should be notified.

There he is.

MARIE: What is he doing?

Now he's in the back of the van.

He looks like he's changing-- he is.

He's changing his plates.

MARIE THORNTON: He was behind his van with the passenger

front door open.

And I saw that the passenger door was covered with blood.

There's blood all over that door.

RAY: What door?

The passenger door.

That guy has done something.

He has.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The Thorntons feared that something

unspeakable had happened.

They returned to the schoolyard to search for the sheet.

MARIE THORNTON: I was beginning to get nervous when

we got back to the schoolhouse.

We were very careful about where we walked.

Where'd you see him?

Back over this way.

OK.

MARIE THORNTON: We tried to find what this white thing

was that he had been carrying.

Look!

Look!

I see it.

That's probably it.

Honey, what is it?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Partially stuffed

into a small animal hole was a blood-soaked blanket.

It's definitely blood all right.

Let's go call the police.

On an otherwise pleasant spring afternoon,

Ray and Marie Thornton had chanced upon evidence

of a shocking crime, a crime which

marked the complete and tragic disintegration of a family.

Unwittingly the Thorntons were witness to the final chapter

of a bitter, heated conflict between a husband and his wife,

which ended in murder.

He sees man in the open.

He throws.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): To outward appearances, Dennis

and Marilyn DePue of Coldwater, Michigan,

had a comfortable middle-class life.

Both had gratifying careers.

Dennis was a state of Michigan property assessor, Marilyn

a high school counselor.

Together, they were raising three healthy children.

But beneath the surface, smoldering tensions threatened

to erupt at any moment.

After the children were born, Dennis

grew sullen and withdrawn.

He began to isolate himself from the family

and accused Marilyn of turning the children against him.

It's not that they fought all the time because they didn't.

They just didn't really talk.

She would just say in general that she was unhappy.

And when the lawyer or someone else

would ask her why she wanted to get a divorce,

she would say because the marriage is broken up

and because there was no longer a marriage there.

You want to make sure that you want to go

through with it this time.

If you do, you're gonna sign it on this page

and sign it on the last page.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In 1989,

after 18 years of marriage, Marilyn DePue finally gave up.

Thank you.

Now, do you have any questions at all, Marilyn?

What about him seeing the children, then?

We'll have to wait till the hearing a week from Friday--

RICHARD COLBECK: Marilyn wanted to be more of her own person,

raising her family as she saw fit.

I believe that she felt at that time

that Dennis was, in effect, trying to domineer her--

that is, run her life and not allow her to make decisions

that she wanted to make.

He was agreeable to his wife having custody.

As far as property was concerned,

he was very willing to allow his wife

to have most of the property that she wanted.

Many times, I had to fight with him

to get a fair share of the property,

but he was very willing to give her whatever she wanted.

I don't--

I don't want this thing to happen.

I don't want this divorce.

It's not-- it's not--

it's not something I want or want to deal with and--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Despite Dennis' attempts

to keep the marriage intact, the divorce became

final in December of 1989.

I'm sitting in the front.

Bye.

Gotta keep your jacket on, now.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Dennis was granted biweekly visitation

rights, but the children were often reluctant to spend time

with him.

Dennis was also granted access to the guesthouse, which he

uses an office and as an excuse to maintain

control over his family.

ANN DUNKEL: Marilyn had to change

all the locks on the doors.

Even after she changed the locks on the doors,

she would tell me that there were some times when she would

come home and unlock the house and go in,

and there was Dennis sitting on the couch.

She didn't know how he got in because she

had different keys made and new locks and everything.

And she seemed a little frightened about that.

He sort of, out of the blue, just

indicated to me one day that he was contemplating

suicide and murder.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Easter Sunday, April 15, 1990.

Dennis arrived to pick up two of the children for a visit.

His younger daughter, Julie, had already refused to go with him.

Come on, Scott.

Get your things.

Put the game down. Let's go.

Get your jacket. - Can't we go a little later?

No, we can't.

Look, I came here now.

You're going now.

I'm not hanging around here anymore.

But Julie doesn't have to go.

I don't care what Julie has to--

Dennis. No, stop.

Just calm-- - No!

Every time, you're turning him against--

He's old enough to make his own decisions.

You ruin everything. He is.

He is coming with me.

Leave him alone!

You're making things terrible!

I hate you!

You're ruining my life-- - No!

Stop it!

Stop it!

You're hurting me!

Daddy, help her!

No! No!

Stop it, Daddy! Stop!

No!

You're hurting her!

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The DePues' eldest daughter,

Jennifer, ran to a neighbor's house

to call the sheriff's office.

JULIE DEPUE: She wasn't walking completely on her own.

We're going to the hospital.

JULIE DEPUE: He was like holding her up.

We're going to the hospital.

You kids stay here.

And when they were walking by, I just said, Mom.

Mom.

And she didn't even look at me.

She was just kind of like in a daze.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The DePues

never arrived at the hospital.

Sheriff's deputies and the Michigan State Police

immediately began a search for the missing couple.

That same afternoon, Ray and Marie Thornton

found the bloodied blanket in the schoolyard.

The area was quickly cordoned off.

The authorities began to assume the worst.

Marilyn DePue was probably dead.

How's it look, guys?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Deputies

discovered several fresh tire tracks

and a large pool of blood.

Good reproduction here.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The tracks were

later matched to Dennis' van.

The blood was Marilyn's.

--get a hand with the stretcher?

All right.

What time do you get off here?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The next day, a highway worker

discovered Marilyn DePue's body just off a deserted road,

midway between the schoolhouse and her home.

She had been shot once in the back of the head.

BETTY MCCLENAHEN: We had a feeling that he had

really done something terrible.

It was so brutal and premeditated that it

makes you so angry.

If she'd been killed in an automobile accident,

you could get over that, but not this.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Just days after the murder,

Dennis sent a series of wild, rambling letters

to friends and relatives in which he tried

to justify Marilyn's death.

To coworker Jan Markowski, Dennis wrote--

DENNIS: "Marilyn had many, many opportunities to treat

me fairly during this divorce, but she chose to string

it out, trick me, lie to me.

And when you lose your wife, children, and home,

there's not much left.

I was too old to start over."

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): All together, Dennis

sent a total of 17 letters postmarked in Virginia,

Iowa, and Oklahoma.

ANN DUNKEL: It seemed as if Dennis was trying

to say that those of us who were friends of Marilyn

were the ones who caused her death, when, in effect, it was

Dennis who pulled the trigger.

None of the rest of us did that.

The only closure that we could get out of it

would be to have Dennis caught.

That's the only thing.

I can't think of anything else that would help me.

I think of it day and night, and I will the rest of my life.

And nothing, even Dennis being caught,

will not take this terrible feeling away and loss.

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a

lie for a lie, a life for a life."

Three months after the murder, Dennis DePue

sent copies of his 13-page letter

to a number of friends and relatives.

It reads like a treatise, a chilling 5,000-word

rationalization which takes liberally

from the Bible throughout.

"I realize that vengeance is mine, saith the Lord,

but sometimes the Lord is too busy doing other things."

Dennis DePue is 6 feet tall and weighs 200 pounds.

He has dark brown hair and dark, deep-set eyes.

He was last seen driving a 1984 cream-colored Chevrolet

van with maroon stripes, which may now

bear Illinois license plates.

At around 8:30 on the night of our broadcast,

a woman who asked that we call her Mary arrived at her home

outside Dallas, Texas.

Mary's boyfriend, Hank Queen, was already home.

MARY: His van was parked in the driveway, which

was out of the ordinary because he usually

kept it inside the garage.

- Hi. - Hi.

It's good you got back.

MARY: He told me that his mother was very ill

and then he needed to make an emergency trip home.

--had a stroke.

And I'm gonna drive up--

could you make me some sandwiches

that I can take on the-- it's a really long drive.

MARY: I was sure that something else must really be going on,

but I didn't know what.

ROBERT STACK (ON TV): --find a man suspected of brutal murder

of his ex-wife.

MARY: He was getting clothes out of the closet,

clothes out of some drawers, gathering

up some of his personal items.

At the same time, giving me instructions

on preparing some food for him to take on the long trip.

- What do you want to drink? - I don't care.

Anything. DENNIS (ON TV): No!

Every time-- - Sodas?

Cans of soda would be good.

DENNIS (ON TV): --everything.

He is coming with me!

Leave him alone! - Stop it!

You're making this terrible!

I hate you!

Aren't you gonna give me a hug?

MARY: He just gave me a little peck of a kiss

and I gave him a big hug and said goodbye to him.

I realized that something was troubling him,

and I knew I would never see him again.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Later Later that night, Mary

was shocked to learn that her boyfriend, Hank Queen,

was really Dennis DePue, and that he had just been featured

on "Unsolved Mysteries".

For nearly a year, Dennis DePue's whereabouts

remained a mystery until the night of our broadcast.

MARY: Looking back on it now, I'm sure he was watching.

And I think that he was deliberately

keeping my attention distracted in the kitchen

so that I wouldn't see the segment

and so that he could leave.

A friend of Mary's called our telecenter

and provided authorities with a Texas license plate

number of Dennis DePue's van.

Four hours later, DePue's life came to a violent end

just across the Louisiana/Mississippi border.

When Louisiana state troopers spotted DePue's van,

they attempted to pull him over.

He led police on a 15-mile high-speed chase

and broke through two police barricades.

PAUL BARRETT: I told the deputies

if the van refused to stop to shoot

a tire off it-- a front tire.

And they missed the front tire, but they got both back ones.

He traveled about half a mile and it just wouldn't

go any further, and he stopped.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): After firing two shots

through his windshield at deputies and another

through an open window, DePue turned his gun on himself

and took his own life.

It was a funny feeling to realize that, the night before,

that you had been watching this man,

that he was wanted for murder someplace

and then you walk up to the van and you

recognize him as being the person that

was on "Unsolved Mysteries".

It's a funny feeling.

But I think he intended to die whether he

had to do it by his own hands or where

he could get us to kill him.

Otherwise he would have stopped and we would've gotten him out

of the van alive and then there never

would've been the shots fired.

While living as a fugitive, Dennis DePue sent a chilling

letter to several friends trying to justify his ex-wife's death.

He wrote, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,

a lie for a lie, a life for a life."

At the time, Dennis DePue had no idea just how

prophetic those words would be.

[music playing]

For every mystery, there is someone, somewhere who holds

the final piece of the puzzle.

Join me next time for another edition

of "Unsolved Mysteries".

[music playing]