Original subtitles

BROADCASTER: 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.

HOST: Judge John C. Fairbanks is a respected

pillar of his community.

Residents of Newport, New Hampshire

regularly turn to him when they needed help.

No one had any idea that, all the while, the judge

was quietly robbing them blind.

In 1988, at a lonely roadside service center,

a young woman courageously fought

off a brutal unknown assailant.

A surprise attack carried all the earmarks

of a serial killing.

Now authorities have constructed a chilling

psychological portrait of a man who

may be responsible for the murders of seven women.

When Sue Scribner was just 13, she

learned of an astonishing family secret.

In 1942, her mother gave birth to twins

and then gave them away.

Perhaps you can help in Sue's search

for her long lost brother and sister.

And a heart warming update.

Thanks to our broadcast, a father

and daughter who have never met finally found each other.

Join me for another edition of Unsolved Mysteries.

[theme music]

HOST: Claremont, New Hampshire, May 1984.

17-Year-old Bernice Courtemanche sets

off for her boyfriend's house.

She's never heard from again.

This particular killer, I feel, does a lot of driving.

And I think what he is doing is selecting sites

that are low risk for him.

Can you hang on just a minute?

There's this guy that keeps driving back and forth

and is making me a little nervous.

Let me just--

HOST: Two months later, 27-year-old Ellen Fried,

a registered nurse, also from Claremont,

calls her sister from a payphone.

She, too, is never heard from again.

Rather than stalking a particular victim,

I don't believe any of these women themselves

were pre-selected as victims.

He selects sites.

And he goes from site to site.

HOST: 18 Months later, the skeletal remains of Ellen Fried

were found in an isolated area eight

miles outside of Claremont.

Bernice Courtemanche's decomposed body

would turn up in the same woods one mile away.

Then, just over a year later, the body

of yet another young woman, Barbara Agnew,

was found on an isolated Hillside in Hartland, Vermont.

It was becoming more and more difficult to ignore what seemed

to be a chilling pattern.

Police estimate there may be as many as 100

serial killers living among us on our streets

and in our neighborhoods.

They are cool and calculating, choosing

victims indiscriminately with little or no remorse

for their actions.

The overwhelming task for authorities

is to determine how the serial killer

thinks and hopefully learn where and when he might strike again.

One such investigation is currently

underway in New England.

Since 1978, the bodies of seven young women

have been discovered within a 50 mile radius along the New

Hampshire/Vermont border.

Police believe that six of the seven women

were abducted and taken to a remote, wooded areas

where they were murdered.

All of the victims suffered similar stab wounds.

And police began to suspect that the killings were the work

of the same individual.

I wondered If you'd take a look through these reports

and give us your opinion on whether or not you feel one--

HOST: With no witnesses and little physical evidence,

investigators are at a standstill.

As a last resort, the New Hampshire State Police

brought in criminal psychologist John Philpin

to develop a profile of the killer.

Give us your opinion on what you think.

My approach is to gather as much of the same information

that the police use in the very beginning,

police reports of the crime scene, autopsy reports,

autopsy photographs.

Every bit of information that would

be available typically to the investigators,

that's what I would begin with.

Profiling is something that you

just, from law enforcement standpoint, have a belief in it

works.

It's not so scientific that it is absolute.

It's not going to tell you this is the individual.

But it does give you the type of individual

that you can be looking for.

If you have a suspect, it can tell you

whether or not you're on the right avenue

or the right approach.

JOHN PHILPIN: In the beginning, I

did make several trips out to the locations

where Bernice and Ellen were killed.

And the first few times that I went

was simply to have something of a feel for the place.

When I was there, what could I hear?

What could I smell?

What was the place like?

What would it have felt like to be there?

How could this crime, this very bizarre

dance between two people, have been

choreographed in this space?

How could it have happened?

When I get to the point where I'm beginning to develop

some feel for what is going on in the mind of a killer,

I'll go back to the scenes, using what I have learned

and simply go through what might have happened just

as though I were him.

I'll do anything you like.

JOHN PHILPIN: What am I hearing then?

Do I hear the noise of a river going by or is

that blocked out?

Am I so focused on the activity of killing

that I don't hear it?

What does it tell me about this person's ability

to perceive in terms of sound, in terms of what I'm feeling,

in terms of what I'm able to see?

Part of what goes on with this killer

is that he has a very strong need

to take these women away alive, transport them to the site

that he has pre-selected.

During which time, clearly, he owns them.

They are his to do with, whatever he wishes.

And part of that, I think, is this process of scaring

the daylights out of them.

HOST: Midnight, August 8th, 1988,

Winchester, New Hampshire.

A 23-year-old woman named Jane was on her way home

from a county fair when she stopped for a soft drink.

It is a hot, muggy evening and Jane was seven months pregnant.

If there was a serial killer on the loose,

this was a perfect setting for him to find a victim.

Is that phone working?

Uh, I don't know.

Hey, hey, hey.

Come on, leave me alone. No!

No, wait!

No!

Don't!

OK, if you want to be that way, come on.

- OK, OK. - Come on!

Just don't hurt me. I'm pregnant, OK?

Please don't hurt me. - Come on.

What do you want?

You hurt my girlfriend real bad.

I didn't hurt anybody.

It's a Massachusetts car, isn't it?

No, it's New Hampshire.

It's New Hampshire.

HOST: At some point, Jane tried to break away.

And the killer's apparent plans to abduct her went awry.

JANE: He had walked all the way to his vehicle.

And by this time, I was rolled over to my belly

and started getting up on my hands and knees.

And when he was driving by me, he

just looked right down at me.

He just looked at me and just kept driving.

I can feel the blood rushing out of me

and I just thought I was going to die.

I kept telling myself, Jane, you're going to die.

That's all I could think of.

And I just felt like I had to get to my friend's house

to get help.

HOST: Although Jane had been stabbed or slashed

a total of 18 times, she somehow managed

to crawl back to her car and drive to a friend's

house two miles away.

JANE: When I left the parking lot,

I felt like I was going fast.

I was driving.

I was in shock, of course, so I'm really not

sure how fast I was driving.

But evidently pretty fast because, before I knew it,

I was right behind him.

As I was behind him, all I could think about

was he was going to stop or he was going to turn around

and follow me.

He left me for dead.

I know he left me for dead, no doubt about that.

HOST: When Jane reached her friend's house,

her attacker drove on.

Fred.

Fred!

Jane?

HOST: Up the road, the attacker turned back.

He stopped momentarily in front of the house then

disappeared into the night.

Vital signs at this time of are BP 90 over 60.

We have a pulse--

HOST: Miraculously, none of the stab wounds

hit vital organs on Jane's seven-month-old fetus.

We're going to take you to the hospital.

Two months later, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl.

If you feel comfortable with your eyes closed,

if you choose to close your eyes--

HOST: Jane agreed to undergo hypnosis with John Philpin

and was able to provide a graphic eyewitness account

of her terrifying ordeal.

A very peaceful, very calm feeling.

JOHN PHILPIN: From what Jane said

during the hypnotic session, it became clear to me

that she was not stopped.

Her decision to go to the fair was a last minute decision.

She had no sense of anyone following

her either going to the fair, while she was at the fair,

and leaving the fair.

She was able to supply very specific details of this man

getting out of the car and coming up on the other side,

making some remark about the telephone.

Is that phone working?

Hey, leave me alone! Leave me alone!

Get away! Get away!

JOHN PHILPIN: This man is very deliberate,

very methodical, very calm.

We know especially from the graphic description

that Jane provided for us that he doesn't get rattled,

that he's very much in control and very patient about what

it is he's doing.

You hurt my girlfriend real bad.

I didn't hurt anybody.

JANE: He seemed so calm, so cool about everything

throughout the whole thing.

I mean, he never got mad.

He never showed nervousness.

He just was so calm.

And everything was just as if it didn't bother him.

JOHN PHILPIN: What Jane described

was a tremendous struggle, a tremendous amount

of resistance on her part, the desire to protect her baby.

But at some point during the assault,

it was as though she had done everything that she could do

and she couldn't do anymore.

And she stopped struggling.

And it was at that point that the assault stopped.

It seemed as though the greater her resistance,

the more determined he was, That as soon as her resistance

began to wane, the attack ended.

JOHN PHILPIN: As you begin to drive south on the highway,

Jane, what do you see?

JANE: I'm Coming up behind another car and it's--

there he is.

That's him.

That's him.

JOHN PHILPIN: The license plate, Jane.

Focus in on the license plate.

It's-- it's dirty.

Six, six, two, um, it's too dirty.

I can't see it.

That's a picture that you can hold.

You can hold that picture.

After getting the description, one

of the things that we decided to do

was see if we could identify this Jeep.

In order to do that, we enlisted the help

of the state of Vermont, the state

of New Hampshire, obviously, and the state of Massachusetts.

We generated a computer print out of all Jeep Wagoneers

registered at that time in those three states

matching the description that Jane had given us.

Jane described it as being a '75 to an '85.

HOST: Police narrowed the search to 1,350 Jeeps

throughout New England.

Unfortunately, none of the leads pinpointed a suspect.

Once again, the investigation has stalled but with one

crucial difference.

The police still do not know who the killer is.

But thanks to Jane's eyewitness description,

they do believe they know what he looks like

and how he thinks.

I think he is a loner type of person,

prefers his own thoughts, his own fantasies,

doesn't like intrusion.

I think his view of women is extremely negative to the point

of hostility, to the point of viewing them

as arrogant, intrusive types of people

so that I could see him making an adjustment that we

might call within the realm of the normal.

But it would require, I think, very limited exposure

to groups of people.

JANE: I just feel really fortunate to be alive.

But I just wish he could be found so it wouldn't

happen to somebody else.

And maybe they won't be so fortunate like I was to live.

[music playing]

HOST: Next, in a poignant update,

a grown woman meets her father for the first time.

By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife.

You may kiss the bride.

HOST: On November 11, 1958, 17-year-old Patsy

Summers married her high school sweetheart in El Paso, Texas.

At the time, only Patsy and her husband

knew that she was pregnant.

Seven months later, Patsy's daughter Jeannie was born.

From a very early age, I felt very different and separated

from my family.

And no one intentionally made me feel that way, I don't think.

But it was just a knowledge I had that was, I guess,

in my subconscious.

HOST: After her mother's death in 1983,

Jeannie learned of a shocking secret.

A passage in Patsy's diary revealed

that the man Jeannie had known as her father

was not her father at all.

The diary detailed how Patsy had gone to a local park

after an argument with her fiance.

There she met a young enlisted man

stationed at nearby Fort Bliss.

His name was Duncan.

Patsy was immediately smitten by the handsome, young soldier.

And they soon began dating.

She never told Duncan about her fiance or her fiance

about Duncan.

My mother, she thought of Duncan as a very kind person

and even stated that, of all the people that she had known,

he was the kindest person she had ever met.

HOST: Six months later, Patsy Summers was pregnant.

She was sure that Duncan was the father.

But fearing her family's reaction,

she decided to marry her fiance as planned.

There's something I want to talk to you about.

Patsy, what is it?

HOST: Patsy told Duncan that she never wanted to see him again.

He never knew that he was the father of her child.

My firm belief is that secrets only cause people harm

and cause a lot of suffering.

And that's why, for me, the truth has to come out

and I have to know who Duncan is.

The night that the Jeannie's story aired,

a woman named Suzanne Gilmore was

watching our broadcast at her home

in lake Wiley, South Carolina.

At the time, Susan's husband, Duncan, was fast asleep.

Jeannie's mother had written in her diary

that he was the sweetest, kindest person

that she had ever met.

I just said, that's My Duncan.

I knew that it was my Duncan.

And the next thing I knew, my wife woke me up.

And she said, were you ever stationed in El Paso, Texas

at Fort Bliss when you were in the Army?

And I said, yeah.

She said, were you there in 1958?

I said, yeah, I was there in 1958.

And she said, did you ever know a Patsy Summers?

And I said, yeah, I knew Patsy Summers.

Did you sleep with her? And he said, what?

What? What?

He just kind of came awake.

And I said, it's very important.

Did you sleep with her?

And he said--

Well, yeah.

She said, congratulations.

You have a daughter and she's looking for you.

And he just came awake like a shadow.

He was like, she's looking for me?

And I said, yes.

As soon as I heard some of the details,

I knew immediately she was my daughter.

And I didn't want to say it was matter of fact,

but I just knew that she was my daughter

and that we had to be together and we had to see her

and I had to respond.

HOST: Nine days and dozens of phone calls later,

Duncan Gilmore and his wife Suzanne

arrived in Houston, Texas.

On May 3rd, 1991, father and daughter met for the first time

in their lives.

Hi.

Hi, honey.

When I hugged my dad, it was a combination of being really,

really happy, but also there was a little sadness

there that so many years have gone by

and that we've missed out on each other's lives.

I love you.

I love you, too.

I will always remember Jeannie coming

to the door and, for the first time, seeing my daughter

and holding her.

HOST: The day was made even more special

when Duncan met his only grandchildren, Joshua

and Justin, for the first time.

When I saw my boys playing catch with their grandpa,

it just felt right.

They needed a grandpa.

And I can't think of a better grandpa for them to have.

Push me.

Never could I have hoped in a million years

or prayed 1,000 prayers for this to turn out as well as it has.

And he's turned out to be everything that I

thought he was going to be.

And tomorrow and the day after, I'll

now have a dad who loves me and wants to be a part of my life.

HOST: When we return, a respected judge

has been accused of stealing more than $10 million

from his friends and neighbors.

[music playing]

HOST: Newport, New Hampshire, population 7,000,

reflects the values that America was built upon,

a small town where successive generations are born and grow

old, where everyone knows everyone

else, where relationships are founded on honesty and trust.

But on a quiet morning in May of 1989,

a crack appeared in that foundation.

Judge John Fairbanks, a lifelong resident,

asked his court clerk to find a replacement for him

and left town.

At the time, no one imagined that Newport

would never be the same again.

Judge John C. Fairbanks was a respected jurist,

a successful attorney whose family

lived in the Newport, New Hampshire

area for three generations.

On June 6, 1989, residents were astonished by the news

that Fairbanks had resigned his judgeship

and abandoned his law practice.

A few days later, the shock turned to outrage.

This pillar of the community was apparently the worst kind

of thief, a man who has stolen more than $10 million

from his friends and neighbors.

Do you understand that you have a right to present

evidence on your behalf?

HOST: For a 33 years, Judge Fairbanks

presided over the district court of Newport.

Thank you.

I'll get to that later.

HOST: Because Newport is a small community,

Fairbanks' court duties were limited.

And he was able to maintain a lucrative law practice

specializing in probate law.

John was a nice guy.

Everybody in the community liked him.

Nobody had a bad word for him.

He just loved his family and loved

his children, his grandchildren, just a great guy.

Fairbanks was honest.

I mean, that was his reputation.

You might knock him for other things.

But the one thing everybody always said about John

Fairbanks was he was honest.

So these people had complete faith and trust

and confidence in him.

HOST: When a client died, Judge Fairbanks

would visit his widow, not just to offer condolences

but to relieve her of her financial worries.

Good morning.

Come right in.

Hello, Jean.

Nice of you to see me.

My husband grew up with Judge Fairbanks here in town.

The families were very friendly.

And through the years, anything pertaining to law,

he would go to Judge Fairbanks.

John Fairbanks was settling in my uncle's estate.

And then, of course, I had the estate

and I had an income tax to do.

I knew him, so I went back to him for income taxes.

And I went to him every year for doing my income tax.

HOST: Patricia Sawyer had been coming to the judge for advice

since 1958.

In August of 1987, she agreed to turn over

her stock certificates to Fairbanks

so he could inventory her holdings.

He called me on the phone and asked about,

could I get the stocks that day?

I'll take that, Patricia.

Judge Fairbanks and I had talked about doing an estate

plan and changing my will.

So many people had died.

Now, If you just lay all that out on my desk--

When we got to Judge Fairbanks' office,

he said he would inventory them and he would let

me know how much they were worth and we would

get together and make the ill.

Now, let's see we have here.

Is this everything, Patricia?

- This is everything. - You're sure?

Yes.

Your uncle didn't have any deposits in any other banks?

No.

PATRICIA SAWYER: He never got back to me.

And I prodded John a few times.

But he was awfully busy and he never got to it.

And then we'll be able to plan the estate.

Patricia, you don't have any idea how much this is worth,

do you? - I have no idea.

HOST: October 12th, 1987, Black Monday

on Wall Street, the repercussions

were felt worldwide, even in Judge Fairbanks' courtroom.

How fast were you going?

60.

How do you know you're going 60?

Well, I almost never go--

We'll take a brief recess.

All rise, please?

The stock market crash, I remember very, very well.

It was the judge's 65th birthday.

He made a couple of comments about turning 65

is just wonderful.

The Stock market crashes on your 65th birthday.

The secret of a stock market crash is not to panic.

Hello, Ed.

Now, what's the problem?

JAN CORLISS: He said, if he panicked,

that he would lose over $3 million in the crash--

--one of the other accounts.

JAN CORLISS: --but that he wasn't going to panic.

He made it through court real quick and left the building.

But I was real concerned about him.

His mannerisms were different.

He was very, very withdrawn that day.

John, when am I going to be getting some dividends?

Oh, you'll be getting it soon.

HOST: Within a month, the effects of the crash

had trickled down to Patricia Sawyer.

I asked him why I wasn't getting dividend checks.

And he said that, due to the stock market crash,

my stocks had gone down and he was turning the dividends back

in to bringing the stocks up to where

they were before the crash, before the drop in the stock

market.

And I believed that.

I called Fairbanks in the spring of '88 because I had

not been receiving accountings.

And it was at that time that he told me

that he had been spending my brother's principal.

HOST: John Tweedy had engaged Fairbanks'

legal guardian for his brother Richard

after their mother died.

Richard Tweedy is a schizophrenic

who has been institutionalized in a New Hampshire hospital

for more than 40 years.

In November of 1988, John Tweedy insisted that Fairbanks meet

him face-to-face to discuss concerns

about his brother's holdings.

John, how are you?

How are you, John? Good to see you.

Well, like you wanted, I brought the account.

Well, very good.

I'm glad you did.

JOHN TWEEDY: I had certain questions

to ask him about the estate.

I mean, there was rhetoric in his response,

but he didn't answer the questions.

Don't worry about that, John.

Here, I want you to take a look at this.

Well, I will.

But maybe you can answer something else.

When did my brother's estate go into the red?

Well, John, I haven't got all those figures

up here in my head.

But you come back to my office later in the week

and I'll lay it all out for you.

JOHN TWEEDY: It was at that time I found out that 75%

of my father's money was gone.

Why didn't you inform me when his estate went into the red?

Well, John, I tried to.

But you're a hard man to find.

Now, look.

I've got another appointment.

You come in later in the week and we'll

take care of everything.

See you later, John.

OK, John.

Take care.

See, if my brother's estate it was in the red

and he knew my brother's equity in the real estate,

if he was going to really take care of my brother's affairs,

he would have notified me at that time and said,

we have to sell some land.

But he didn't.

Why didn't he?

Well, of course, I was to find out why he didn't.

HOST: John Tweedy refused to accept the judge's

explanations about his brother's estate

and began his own investigation.

I found it that he had sold stock

and he had underreported what he had gotten for the stock.

He had underreported what he'd gotten for dividends.

And after a couple of weeks of this,

I came up with $20,000 that was missing.

It turned out that was only a part of what was missing.

But that was all I could determine from public records.

And it was at that point I realized

that, well, he was embezzling.

And I've been raised to believe that when you see a crime

committed, you call the cops.

So I called the cops.

We drove over to look at Fairbanks'

house here in Newport.

And we saw the house and we thought,

gee, that's got to be $500,000.

We were aware they had a home in Concord,

Maine, which is a pretty expensive area to live,

right on the ocean.

That was worth $600,000 or $700,000.

And we looked at each other and said, this guy is a thief.

HOST: Judge Fairbanks' house of cards was tumbling down.

On June 6, 1989, he resigned from the bench

and retreated to his summer home in Maine.

When John Tweedy's charges were made public,

other disgruntled clients began to come

forward with their suspicions.

I had no idea that he was doing

anything underhanded to me until all this came out that morning.

Judge Fairbanks had taken several other people,

not only on my account but others in town.

I wasn't the only one.

He put these stocks into this stock brokerage firm

as my agent.

And I had never signed any papers

giving him any authority.

I had never signed my name on the certificates.

He had done that illegally.

Fairbanks had, in my opinion, been doing this for so long

that he had milk dried most of the accounts

that he had been stealing from.

And along came Patricia Sawyer who had almost a million

in assets that he got in his hands.

And there was a gold mine.

And he pounced on it.

HOST: Authorities now suspect that over a 20-year period,

Fairbanks may have stolen more than $10 million.

As the investigation reached its climax,

Judge Fairbanks spoke with Tom Hannigan

from his home in Maine.

I told him that all I wanted to do

was to have him produce documents

which would show that his accounting was

true and correct.

Look, I-- I--

let's keep this as quiet as possible.

I don't want this to become a big thing.

We agreed to a meeting.

And then he called me maybe a week before the meeting

and said that he had to postpone it.

And I said, OK.

And we set another date.

And then when the next date came up,

I came over to Newport, New Hampshire

to interview Fairbanks and he wasn't there.

HOST: Finally, in December 20th, 1989,

the judge was indicted on four counts of theft.

The indictments listed more than 100 checks written by Fairbanks

were transferred money from client accounts

to Fairbanks' personal accounts.

POLICE DISPATCHER: G-13 G-13.

HOST: The next day, Fairbanks' pickup truck

was found abandoned near his house in Maine.

The judge had disappeared and has not been seen since.

This has affected my life to the fact

that I wonder what I'm going to do.

And I'm going to have to sell land, maybe sell the farm.

And the farm has been in my family since

the original settlers came from Massachusetts, the Rothstein's.

Well, I was in total shock.

I still don't think I've come out of it.

I just can't believe that anyone could do such a thing.

He had a double life.

He had two totally separated lives.

And one of them was fine.

One of them was a man of great integrity,

respected by the community.

And the other was, well, classical.

He was into all sorts of things which are very shaky,

very shady, and quite immoral.

And very few, if anybody, knew the two existed.

[music playing]

HOST: Next, a search for a set of twins

who were separated from their family

just after they were born.

[music playing]

HOST: Growing up in the 50s in Redhill, Alabama,

life was slow and easy.

Everyday seemed pretty much like another.

But when Sue Scribner, the fifth of 10 children,

was 13 years old, one day held an extraordinary surprise.

SUE SCRIBNER: : I'll never forget the day

I came home from church.

It was January, 1957.

Oh, hi, Mom.

SUE SCRIBNER: : My mother was alone in the house,

which was unusual because the kids usually were all around.

So what did you do today?

Oh, just got done reading the paper.

What is this?

SUE SCRIBNER: : She had written two

names all over the newspaper.

So I ask her about that.

What do those names mean, Mom?

SUE SCRIBNER: : She just said she'd seen the names

and she was writing it.

Mom, have you been crying?

Yeah, honey, just a little.

SUE SCRIBNER: : When I asked her why she had been crying,

she told me about having a boy and a girl

twin that had been adopted.

I think it's time I told you.

Told me what?

SUE SCRIBNER: I was really surprised because I was 13.

And it's a shock to find out that you have a brother

and sister that you didn't know about,

especially when you already have so many brothers and sisters.

Two years before you were born,

I gave premature birth to two twins, a boy and a girl.

HOST: Sue's mother Calista began to unburden herself.

It had all began in Winter Garden, Florida

at Orange County General Hospital.

Slim, hurry.

OK, OK, honey.

Hurry, Slim.

HOST: In January 1942, Calista went into labor

nearly two months early.

It's starting to come faster.

HOST: She and Sue's father, Slim Scribner,

were frantic when they arrived at the emergency room.

We'll have a doctor with you in just a minute.

Excuse me, but can somebody please help me?

My-- my wife's going to premature labor.

- Oh, your doctor's name? - Doctor Harter.

Dr. Harter.

Orderly, we need a wheelchair here right away.

Please take her to delivery.

Let me call Dr. Harter.

Step back.

HOST: The twins were born a short time later.

Calista and Slim named them Paul and Paula after their doctor,

Paul Harter.

But they're so small.

They're premature.

They'll have some serious health problems.

We have a heart condition and a blood disorder.

Are they going to be OK, doctor?

Well, we think so.

But they will require a great deal of medical attention.

I asked my mother why they were adopted.

And she said that they needed some sort of surgery

for a congenital heart disease or a heart problem

and that they couldn't afford that.

I know it's a difficult decision.

But it's the best choice for everyone.

SUE SCRIBNER: She said that Dr. Harter knew someone

perfect to adopt the twins and that they would be able to pay

for the medical expenses.

Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

Really, I appreciate everything.

I hope you have a good life with them.

SUE SCRIBNER: The twins being adopted, it

just stayed with her forever.

She never got over it.

Before Calista Scribner left the hospital,

she made a solemn promise to Dr. Harter

that she would never search for the twins.

In 1944, she and Slim were divorced.

Calista remarried and, with a new husband,

eventually raised 10 children.

After Calista's death in 1979, her daughter

soon enlisted the entire family to look for the twins.

But the search went nowhere.

Both Dr. Harter and Sue's father were dead

and the hospital records sealed.

Then a rusty trunk in an attic finally yielded a clue.

In 1987, one of Sue's cousins found a letter

which Calista Scribner had written to her mother

a short time after the twins were born.

Sue's cousin was surprised that the letter

the never mentioned adoption.

In fact, it seemed that Calista had every intention

of bringing the twins home.

CALISTA SCRIBNER: The babies are still improving.

The first time they weighed them at Orange General,

Paula weighed 2 3/4 pounds and Paul 2 and 1/2 pounds.

They told us the day before yesterday

that they weighed 3 pounds, 14 ounces and 3 pounds, 11 ounces.

So they're gaining right along.

And they also said that we might be able to bring them

home by the first of next week.

SUE SCRIBNER: When I read the letter that mother wrote,

it was almost exactly like she had told me in 1957.

The only thing that the letter didn't clear up

was when the twins were adopted.

Because, from the letter, you can tell that she did not

intend for them to be adopted.

HOST: The discovery of Calista's letters

sparked new interest in the twins.

Several newspaper articles followed and one of them

paid off.

Hello?

HOST: In May of 1980, one of Sue's nieces

who lives in Mobile, Alabama received

an anonymous phone call.

--questions.

OK.

The twins are fine.

I knew the family.

They don't know they're adopted.

HOST: The caller seemed elderly and very emotional.

She said she knew where Paul and Paula were.

The caller refused to divulge her relationship with the twins

but did say that she planned to tell them

they were adopted on Mother's Day.

--Mother's day.

I'm going to try and tell them the whole truth.

You'll be hearing from me in a couple of weeks

or else the twins will contact you directly.

That's all.

I called everybody in the family and this is it.

We found the twins.

We're going to hear from them or whoever

the lady was that called.

And I'm counting the days.

And when the day came Sunday, I'm counting the hour

when I would not leave home.

But nothing ever happened.

HOST: As a last resort, Sue wrote an open letter

to the twins which was published both in Florida

and in Louisiana newspapers.

SUE SCRIBNER: And so, elusive twins, I still search.

I write letters.

I stare at strangers with hazel eyes and fair skin.

Yet, should my efforts end in emptiness,

my voice in oblivion, I must tell you this.

I have not fell so completely for I've already found you

once, years ago, chasmed in that deep, indelible well, that

safe place, our mother's heart.

HOST: 10 days after we featured this story,

Sue Scribner received an anonymous call

from one of our viewers who told her that the twins were

living in Orlando, Florida.

Sue immediately contacted her brother and sister whose

names are Bruce and Barbara.

The twins had no idea that they had been adopted

and were shocked to learn about a side of their family

they never knew existed.

Hello.

HOST: On March 15, 1992, Sue Scribner

met her brother and sister for the first time in her life.

The joyous reunion brought together six of the Scribner

children and their families.

SUE SCRIBNER: The very first time I met them,

I think all of our knees were shaking.

It is emotional.

But I think we've all cried enough tears

and we didn't need a lot today.

BRUCE CASHION: So I think that my new

found family is wonderful.

I think they're absolutely adorable.

it's like we've known each other all of our lives

even though we haven't been around each

more than five hours.

You can lose me for another 50 years.

SUE SCRIBNER: I can't wait to get to know them finally.

I'm very excited about it.

And you have all these questions in your mind.

Gee, what did I miss out on all these years?

What were they really like as kids?

She used to be small.

BRUCE CASHION: I think everybody's

going to get to know each other, both sides of the family.

And for the country bumpkins like we are,

it's like a blessing.

SUE SCRIBNER: It doesn't really matter now what kind of life

any of us had because it's what's left that counts.

We know where all of the children are now.

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Join me next time for another edition of Unsolved Mysteries.

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