Original subtitles

[music playing]

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.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In 1949, Annie Currie

lost custody of her two young boys in a bitter divorce case

and vanished from their lives.

Her son, Jim, has never forgotten

his mother, even though he hasn't

seen for more than 40 years.

Recently, two inmates escaped from an Oklahoma jail

and embarked on a vicious murder spree in which four people

have lost their lives.

These dangerous fugitives must be captured

before they kill again.

Ensconced in her sprawling mansion,

Ellen McClung Berry was a classic southern lady--

imperious, well bred, and proud.

In 1978, an elegant, mysterious visitor

charmed Mrs. Berry, moved into her estate,

became her most trusted confidante,

and robbed her blind.

Join me for another edition of "Unsolved Mysteries."

[theme music]

MICHAEL ST. CLAIR: Hey!

Yeah, yeah.

St. Clair, what do you want?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On September 19th, 1991,

two-time convicted killer, Michael St. Clair,

orchestrated a daring escape from Bryan County

Jail in Durant, Oklahoma.

What's the matter with you?

Hey, hey.

Shut up.

I'll cut your heart out, do you understand?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): St. Clair

released fellow inmate, Dennis Reese, who was awaiting

trial for robbery and murder.

That night, Michael St. Clair and Dennis Reese

ignited a murderous crime spree that

stretched across eight states and left at least four dead

in its wake.

Authorities urgently need your help to capture Michael

St. Clair and Dennis Reese.

With each passing day, the odds increase

that another innocent person will fall

victim to their brutal rampage.

Please watch carefully.

You may help save someone's life.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Less than three months ago, Michael

St. Clair was convicted on two counts of first degree murder

and was sentenced to three consecutive life prison terms.

BOB RICKS: Michael St. Clair has been involved with various drug

trafficking organizations in southern Oklahoma

as well as in northern Texas.

His uncle was moving in on his drug operations,

and he felt that his profits were being threatened,

so he contracted out to have his uncle killed.

After his uncle was killed, he then assassinated the hitman.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Two days after the fugitives

escaped, newspaper reporter, Tom Mullins,

received a chilling phone call from Michael St. Clair.

Just a minute, man.

Let me get my tape recorder hooked up.

TOM MULLINS: For almost 20 months now,

I've been covering Michael St. Clair.

I've gotten to know him fairly well,

and I've always tried to give his side

of the story in all fairness.

When he got out, I was the obvious choice for him

to get his message out, that message being that he wouldn't

be taken alive and that when the time came, if any law

enforcement came around, his quote was, "Anyone

wearing a badge, I'll kill."

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Three weeks later near Elizabethtown,

Kentucky, a state trooper pulled over a pickup

truck, which was seen fleeing from a burning vehicle.

PAUL RENFRO: As the pickup truck came to a halt,

the man on the passenger side, who

we now believe was St. Clair, instantly got out of the truck.

The man fired at the trooper's car two times.

The trooper fortunately was not injured at all.

Within just a matter of minutes, the maroon truck

was actually found disabled and abandoned along the interstate.

Apparently, it had crossed the interstate, and in doing so,

had blown both front tires.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The truck

belonged to 56-year-old Frances Brady,

a retired distillery worker and father of three.

Brady had disappeared 12 hours earlier after cashing

a check at a convenience store.

BOB RICKS: Brady's body was found

approximately 12 miles north of Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

He had been shot execution style.

He had been handcuffed and had been shot in the head.

What is remarkable about this type of execution

is that it's almost identical to the way

St. Clair's uncle, Ronnie St. Clair,

had been executed a few years before.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The other truck

that St. Clair and Reese had set fire

to was registered to a Denver, Colorado

paramedic named Tim Keeling.

Like Frances Brady, Keeling also vanished after patronizing

a convenience store.

His body was found in a roadside ditch

outside of Clayton, New Mexico.

Five days after firing on the state trooper,

Michael St. Clair and Dennis Reese apparently struck

again, this time in Tennessee.

Two men matching their description

robbed a video store in Milan, Tennessee.

They brutally executed the clerk,

a 20-year-old mother of two.

30 minutes later, the same two men robbed another video

store just eight miles away.

Again, a young female clerk was gunned down in cold blood.

BOB RICKS: Individuals who would kill for $100, $150, or $200

are extremely desperate individuals.

It indicates that they do not have any type of support

apparatus going for them.

So these are people who are constantly moving.

They're very concerned about staying in one location

for any period of time.

They're very paranoid, they're very dangerous,

and will take any actions to prevent their apprehension.

These individuals seem to be leaving

no witnesses in their crimes that they're committing.

And so the public needs to be very much aware of that,

and if they see them, absolutely do not

approach them, because they are extremely violent.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Next, a Gothic tale

of murder, betrayal, and greed set

against the fading background of the old South.

[music playing]

The state of Tennessee, like much of the American South,

is dotted with majestic antebellum estates.

A type of aristocracy still thrives here,

and Ellen McClung Berry is typical of that upper crust

group.

By 1978, when she was 85 years old,

Mrs. Berry lived in solitary splendor

on a mountaintop outside the city of Knoxville,

which had been founded by her great-great-grandfather.

And isn't it a gorgeous morning?

Oh, yes.

It's very beautiful.

It is so bright.

Are you ready for your tea, Mrs. Berry?

ARTHUR PETE BALLARD: I think she would have been considered

definitely one of the local ground arms of the old school,

and probably there were not many.

That means that you can live on the mountain like she did

and have everybody come to you, like Mohammed.

It's just that simple.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): One of the people

who came to the mountain back in 1978

was Dan Tondevold, a vaguely mysterious man,

who claimed to be from Denmark.

For more than 15 years, he had corresponded with Mrs. Berry,

but the true nature of their relationship was unclear.

How are you?

It's so good to see you.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Sometimes Mrs. Berry

said Tondevold was her godson, sometimes that he was

a friend of her late son, Hugh.

And how is your health?

ELLEN BERRY: Oh, my health is great, Dan.

Are you sure?

I'm sure.

A little drained emotionally, but otherwise, I'm fine.

You look wonderful, really.

ARTHUR PETE BALLARD: I have the strangest gut feeling

that this kid was bad news.

But he was making Ellen happy.

She was happy that he was there, and if he was, in fact,

a friend of her late son, Hugh, for lots of reasons,

I was happy that she was happy, and at least somebody

was on the mountain with her at night in case she fell

or got sick and could get help.

MARCIA ROBINSON: He was taking the place of her son.

He looked like her son, apparently.

And I know that was the attraction.

Mrs. Berry's attraction to Dan is

that he was playing that role.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Mrs. Berry's only child,

Hugh, had left a dark stain on the family tree.

In 1951, at the age of 18, Hugh Berry flew into a rage

over his inheritance, turned a shotgun on his grandmother,

and killed her.

A judge ruled Hugh Berry mentally

incompetent to stand trial.

Rumor had it that he was lobotomized

and sent to live in Mexico.

On New Year's Eve, 1963, Mr. and Mrs. Berry

received word that Hugh had died of pneumonia.

Later, Mrs. Berry hinted that he had,

in fact, committed suicide.

According to his friends, Hugh's body was never

returned to the United States.

When her husband died in February of 1978,

Ellen Berry was left all alone.

[inaudible]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Almost too conveniently,

the mysterious stranger from Denmark stepped in to fill

the void in Mrs. Berry's life.

Then Tondevold moved into her guesthouse

and quickly took over the day to day operation

of her estate, Berrymount.

Good morning, Dan. I'm great.

How are you?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Before long, he had made himself

indispensable to Mrs. Berry.

Not only was Tondevold running Berrymount--

he was running her.

I have some checks for you to sign, if you don't mind.

Sure.

And I'm so glad you're taking care this for me.

I didn't know his place was in such disrepair.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Mrs. Berry signed anything

Tondevold put in front of her.

She also began to cater to his predilection

for expensive show horses.

So we'll stand here and watch you.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): By 1983, Dan Tondevold

owned a stable of seven Tennessee

walkers financed by Mrs. Berry.

He named all the horses Berrymount,

adding only the numbers one through seven

to individualize them.

Mrs. Berry seemed delighted to finance what was fast becoming

a million dollar hobby.

Miss Berry's words to me was, "Mr. Tondevold's hobby did

not make a dent in my fortune.

That was a hobby I wanted him to have."

Yes, I would like to go ahead and close the deal

on that stallion for $20,000.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): It was as if Dan Tondevold had

cast a spell over Mrs. Berry.

In April of 1982, she granted him power of attorney.

ARTHUR PETE BALLARD: She was a willing pigeon, so to speak.

Other people, I think, had tried to tell her

that there was something wrong, that he just didn't make sense.

Possibly, it was a con artist.

I don't know.

And she ignored it.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In 1984, Tondevold

talked Mrs. Berry into taking a winter vacation

in Charleston, South Carolina.

Before they left, he composed a classified ad for a chauffeur,

requesting men who are single, and asking that applicants

submit a photograph.

Secretly, Tondevold placed the ad in the Charleston papers.

At the end of their four months in Charleston,

Mrs. Berry and Tondevold made plans to return home.

She and her hired companion would fly to Tennessee.

Tondevold would drive the Mercedes back to Berrymount.

Suzanne, I thought we left lights on when we left.

Mrs. Berry, we did.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Mrs. Berry

and her companion arrived at Berrymount on March 31, 1985.

There was no sign of the Mercedes or of Dan Tondevold.

Suzanne?

COMPANION: Yes, Mrs. Berry.

The phone's dead, dear.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The telephone at Berrymount,

as well as all the utilities, had been inexplicably cut off.

The bank is going to foreclose on the house.

Your checking accounts and saving accounts

are completely depleted.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Mrs. Berry was virtually bankrupt.

Tondevold had even borrowed money against Berrymount

to the tune of $85,000.

For the first time in her life, Mrs. Berry

had a mortgage to pay.

For the first time in her life, she had no way to pay it.

DEAN SMITH: Her money was gone.

Her checking on account was empty.

He just gutted her, took away her wealth

and her pride and everything.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Meanwhile, Dan Tondevold

turned up 100 miles south of Charleston

at an exclusive resort on the Fripp Island, South Carolina.

Unaware that his secret was out, Tondevold continued

to live in high style.

Mr. Tondevold.

How do you do?

Fine, sir, and you?

Fine, thank you.

I would like to speak to you about possibly

upgrading my accommodations to something more suitable.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Tondevold had been running up

massive bills on Mrs. Berry's credit cards,

but now the jig was up.

All the cards were over their limit.

The bill is substantial.

I'm going to have to request some sort of payment.

Well, let me go back to my villa.

I shall get you a check and pay you immediately.

I'll be right back.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Tondevold.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Dan Tondevold never returned.

The next day, a hastily scrawled suicide

note and a last will and testament

were found in his suite.

Two weeks later, in a swampy deserted area of Fripp Island,

a man's body was found.

He had apparently shot himself in the left temple.

An antique gun was a few inches away.

It belonged to Ellen Berry.

A dog, also shot through the head, lay nearby.

The dead man carried no identification,

but he did carry Ellen Berry's credit cards.

What we need to do is have this

security guard [inaudible].

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The body was partially decomposed.

Nevertheless, the coroner brought in a resort

security guard to identify it.

Now it's going to be difficult, because he's

been dead for awhile.

CURT COPELAND: According to what the security guard said,

he is a person who came to Fripp Island and said,

I am Dan Tondevold.

It looks like, from the best I can tell,

sir, that's Mr. Tondevold.

CURT COPELAND: Possibly may be considered more circumstantial

than anything else, the investigation revealed that he

allegedly did not have a social security card,

nor a driver's license and had supposedly

never had either of these.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The body

was immediately cremated, as Tondevold had requested

in his handwritten will.

His death was ruled a suicide, but not

everyone believed the man found in the swamp was Dan Tondevold.

DEAN SMITH: I'm not sure he's dead.

Nobody that knew him identified him.

The coroner found him.

A police officer [inaudible].

A security guard said, yeah, that's him.

And he hadn't seen him but just driving

by on a little security shack.

Well, you can't negate the possibility that he did,

indeed, kill himself.

That's possible.

I just don't believe it.

It doesn't make sense to me that somebody who went through all

that trouble to get all that money

and to be as nefarious about the whole thing

from beginning to end as he was was out to kill himself.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): A month after the cremation,

Pete Ballard found a copy of Tondevold's classified ad

for a chauffeur in the Berrymount guest cottage.

Now I find it ridiculous that he would need

to put an ad in the Charleston paper

for a chauffeur for Berrymount.

You can get them in the area, I'm sure, just as easily.

And I suddenly realized that maybe

he was looking for a lookalike.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Ballard is convinced

that Tondevold remained in South Carolina

not to hire a chauffeur, but to find a victim.

ARTHUR PETE BALLARD: The lookalike, I feel,

would have been the person he ultimately killed,

and then he just sort of scooted off to wherever

he had planned to go.

It was never reported that he was ever seen in the company

of anybody, male or female.

So there is no reason for me to believe that it

was anybody but Dan Tondevold.

I'm not going to say that that is not a possibility,

but I certainly do not believe it to be one.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The authorities

remain convinced that Dan Tondevold had committed

suicide, yet a shadow of doubt lingered,

giving rise to a piece of outrageous gossip.

CURT COPELAND: The idea is that Dan Tondevold is, in fact,

Mr. And Mrs. Berry's son, who was supposed

to have died in Mexico--

a very easy way to bring somebody

back under an assumed name to get

off the hook after having shot and killed his grandmother.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Adding fuel

to the rumor that Tondevold and Hugh Berry were

the same person was a complete lack of any official record

of Dan Tondevold.

But finally, Tondevold's resume was found among his letters

to Mrs. Berry, which had been stored away.

The resume listed his hometown as Las Vegas, Nevada.

An "Unsolved Mysteries" researcher

turned up this 1951 yearbook from Las Vegas High School.

Dan Tondevold was a member of the senior class

and, not surprisingly, president of the Thespian Club.

Many people in Knoxville considered Tondevold's

Danish accent an affectation.

Perhaps, it was simply bad acting.

In any case, the rumor that Dan Tondevold

and Hugh Berry are the same person

has finally been put to rest.

MARCIA ROBINSON: I think he was her son's replacement.

And here is this lovely, little old lady left--

left without any money.

I mean she is poor--

but also, left without any .

Love I mean what does she have at this point?

Nothing.

Today, Ellen McClung Berry is 97 years old

and has lost much of her ability to communicate.

She lives in an apartment financed

by the interest on an endowment she made

to the University of Tennessee.

No one knows exactly how much money

Mrs. Berry lost to Dan Tondevold,

but estimates run into the millions.

Authorities believe he transferred

Mrs. Berry's funds to European accounts,

possibly in France or Denmark.

[music playing]

On a recent broadcast, we featured the compelling story

of John Nellis, a man whose life has

been torn apart by two wars.

During one conflict, John lost his father, an American GI.

In the other, he lost his son.

I still wish you could come with me.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): When John was five years old,

his father, Melvin Nellis, was ordered

back to the United States from his duty in war-ravaged China.

Because his parents weren't legally married,

John and his mother, a Vietnamese national,

were forced to stay behind.

John never saw his father again.

27 years later, John was among the last group of people

to flee South Vietnam after the US withdrew its troops.

Tragically, amid the confusion and chaos,

John's five-year-old son, Daniel, was left behind.

JOHN NELLIS: If my father and my son are watching me right now,

I would like to tell them how much I miss

them and I love them, and I would like

to reunite and see them again.

Thanks to our broadcast, John Nellis

learned that his father is now retired

and living in Tokyo, Japan.

Incredibly, just three weeks later,

John's search for his son, Daniel, also came to an end

when they were reunited after more than 17 years.

[sobbing]

WOMAN: Oh, he's coming.

Oh, this is him.

JOHN NELLIS: That's him.

That's him right there.

For so many years, I miss him.

I think of him all the time, and I'm so happy to see him.

This is a real dream come true.

It's a miracle.

When I saw my dad, I was so excited and very happy.

When I looked into his eyes and saw his family,

I found happiness.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Daniel's first day

in America was overwhelming.

Not only did he reunite with his father,

he also met his stepmother and half sister for the first time.

JOHN NELLIS: Now he's with me.

I want to do my best to give him a good chance in life

and a better future for him, and make up for what he has lost.

WOMAN: Come on.

Say cheese.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): March, 1949, Vancouver,

British Columbia, Canada--

Annie Currie, an English war bride,

says goodbye to her husband, Donald,

and her two little boys.

After only five years of marriage,

Annie and Donald had divorced.

He has received custody of both sons, Darryl,

three years old, and Jim, five.

They haven't seen their mother for more than 40 years.

JIM CURRIE: I was never given the sense

that I could say how much I missed her, that I could ask

questions about where's my mom.

She's a big question mark, and I would like to hear her voice.

I would like to hear what she has to say about her life.

I'd like her to know me.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In most ways,

Jim Currie is no different from anybody else

searching for a lost parent.

But there is one odd twist in his story.

Jim has spent most of his life looking

for other people's parents.

Jim Currie is senior investigator

for a California public defender's office,

an advocate for defendants who may

be facing the death sentence.

JIM CURRIE: I've had adopted defendants before that had

to find their mothers, and I've been

very successful in doing that.

It just is very ironic to me that I

can find so much about these people's history,

and I can't complete my own.

It's very frustrating.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Jim's parents

met in 1943 during the darkest days of World War II.

Donald Currie was 23, a Canadian sergeant serving in England.

Annie Fry was a 19-year-old country girl from Wales.

The two fell in love and were married that same year.

JIM CURRIE: My mother was described to me

as being an outgoing, socially oriented, kind of upbeat person

with a lot of vitality.

She was a young girl, really.

[explosions]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In 1944, London was still

being bombed by the Nazis.

Annie was pregnant when the impact of one of the bombs

knocked her to the ground.

She miscarried.

Annie became pregnant again, and Donald sent her to live

with his parents in Vancouver.

On December 20th, 1944, Jim was born.

Annie's delight was tempered by the absence of Donald,

still stationed in England.

You getting tired?

JIM CURRIE: She's in a foreign country.

She doesn't know anybody, except for my dad's immediate family.

She makes the best adjustment she can,

but it's a lonely kind of existence for her

and I think fraught with a lot of fear

that whether or not my dad was going to make it home.

[singing]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In June of 1945,

Annie's prayers were answered.

The war in Europe was finally over,

and after more than a year of separation from his wife,

Donald Currie was home.

DONALD: Annie.

Donald!

I missed you.

Donald, that's Jimmy.

That's your son.

Jimmy, this is Daddy.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Donald was overjoyed to meet his son

for the first time, but the happiness of his homecoming

was short-lived.

The war had changed him forever.

JIM CURRIE: It was a very traumatic experience

for my father.

He thought war was wrong.

He told me once that you'll never know how much it can

change you when you see your closest friends blown

into 1,000 pieces in front of your eyes,

and you can do nothing about it.

I think he lost a lot of faith.

He closed down emotionally to protect himself.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In 1945, a second son, Darryl,

was born, and Donald Currie found a position

as a customs official.

His job took him out of the house every night.

Annie was left alone and began spending time

with one of her neighbors, a much older married man.

Soon, the relationship turned into a full fledged affair.

A relative broke the news to Donald,

and he sued Annie for divorce and for custody of the boys.

I believe the petitioner, Mr. Currie, implicitly.

He's a clean, wholesome individual

with a fine war record.

I hereby grant a decree in his favor against Ann Ellen Currie

and the custody of his two children.

JIM CURRIE: My understanding of the judgment against my mother

was that my dad was to have sole custody of both children,

and she was to have no visitation rights.

It would be up to my father whether or not she would

be allowed to see the children.

JUDGE: Mr. Currie, you must realize that there

is more good than evil in this girl,

so do not burn your bridges.

She has been a clear and decent girl

until she met the corespondent.

JIM CURRIE: The judge's decree doesn't

indicate hostility toward her.

It indicates that even there may be something worth salvaging,

that she was under the blandishments of an older,

more sophisticated man.

In spite of all the negatives I've

heard on the surface of being a very nasty divorce,

there were still something that came through for the judge.

This was basically a good person.

You think you need your long johns?

Yeah?

All right.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Donald Currie

elected to send his younger son, Darryl, to live with a couple

he knew in Vancouver.

Don't talk back to your father.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Annie, powerless,

tried to put on a brave face.

Do you want your favorite shirt?

Yes, I think so.

And Darryl, I want you to know, just because I'm not there

doesn't mean I don't love you.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Just after the divorce was final,

Donald Currie broke his family apart.

Darryl would eventually be adopted.

Jim would see his mother one final time.

Several months after the divorce,

Donald Currie decided to move to Los Angeles with Jim.

Just before the departure, Donald

let Annie tell Jim goodbye.

He needs his mother.

DONALD: I don't think so.

He needs his brother.

He needs me.

Look at him.

I don't have to.

I know what he feels.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Despite Annie's pleas,

Donald remained unmoved.

JIM CURRIE: There was a sense in me at the time

that it was the last time I would see her.

I don't remember any hugging.

I don't remember any arguing, but I do remember it being sad.

I remember my feeling sad and confused

and sort of like just not very powerful in that situation.

Whatever was happening was out of my control.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In Los Angeles,

Donald Currie married twice.

Both stepmothers were kind to Jim.

Still, he yearned for the mother he barely remembered.

JIM CURRIE: My dad was always very

reticent to talk about his early life and my mother

in particular.

Anything that would lead my dad to believe

that I wanted to find her was very upsetting to him.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Donald Currie died in 1989.

After his father's death, Jim Currie began to search

for his mother in earnest.

Although Jim has unearthed no new clues

to Annie Currie's whereabouts, he has found his brother.

Darryl is married and still living in Vancouver.

He and Jim have been reunited, but Darryl's loyalty

is to his adoptive mother and father.

He has no memory of Annie or Donald.

Despite Darryl's reaction, Jim is more committed than ever

to finding his mother.

JIM CURRIE: There's the unconditional love

that a mother has for her son, and I feel that that

was pulled away from me.

I don't think I'd have to say a word to her for hours

if I met her.

I don't think I'd have to say anything.

Annie Ellen Currie married again in 1951,

but that marriage, too, ended in divorce.

She may be using the last name from her second marriage,

McDonald, or her maiden name, Fry.

Jim believes she could be living in the United

States, Canada, or England.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The 1930s, the Great Depression--

breadlines, hobos, and shantytowns

were an all too visible part of the American landscape.

Millions lost their jobs, their homes, their savings,

and finally, their pride.

Many times, a destitute relied upon strangers to help

them in their time of need.

One such stranger was an ordinary farmer

named Charlie Best.

Charlie lived with his wife, Alva, and three children, Zella

Mae, Carl, and Verlan in the rolling

hills of eastern Tennessee.

They managed to stave off the hardships

of the Depression like growing watermelons and tobacco.

As darkness fell on a warm spring evening in 1939,

an unknown traveler and two young girls

sought refuge at Charlie's farmhouse.

Evening.

Evening.

Name's Tom Underwood.

Charlie Best.

[inaudible]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Charlie's daughters,

Zella Mae, then a teenager, remembers that evening vividly.

TOM UNDERWOOD: Actually, I was trying

to find a place where girls could pass a night

under a roof for a change.

ZELLA MAE O'DELL: He just come up to the porch

and asked Daddy if he would give the two

little girls a bed to sleep in and said

he would sleep in the barn.

And Daddy told him, no, that they

could stay in-- he could stay in, you know, the house too.

Where's home?

Well, to be honest with you, we don't have one.

We've been on the move for so long,

but we come down from Knoxville.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Tom Underwood was a man

who had fallen upon hard times.

His daughters, Madeline, nine, and Ada, seven,

had traveled the back roads with him

for months as he searched in vain for work.

Their mother had died years before.

You warm enough?

Yes, Zella Mae.

ZELLA MAE O'DELL: They spent the night.

I cooked breakfast for them.

And well, up in the morning, I'd probably say around 8 o'clock.

He [inaudible] with the little girls again.

All right.

Where you folks heading?

Well, I got kinfolk just north of here.

I think we'll head in that direction for awhile.

All right. You take care.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Tom told Charlie

that he was taking the two girls to live with friends

in another part of Tennessee, while he

continued his search for a job.

I wish they could have stayed with us.

They'll be all right.

ZELLA MAE O'DELL: The day after they left, I said,

Daddy, why didn't we just keep those little girls?

I just didn't figure I would ever see them anymore.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): But a few days later,

Tom and the girls passed through the area again.

By pure coincidence, Zella Mae Best happened upon them.

ZELLA MAE O'DELL: Hey.

That man was at my house the other day.

Hold on a second.

I'll be back.

Hey, Mr. Underwood, where you going?

Well, my kinfolk couldn't take care of the girls,

so we're going to Knoxville.

Well, I talked to my pa last night, and he said that

y'all could come stay with us.

Oh, can we, Daddy?

Please?

I don't know, Zella Mae.

I don't think that's a good idea.

Why don't you please come talk to him?

Please?

All right, let's try.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Tom would later

agree to leave the girls in Charlie's care

until he could get back on his feet again.

ZELLA MAE O'DELL: Times were hard, and it was hard for us

to survive.

But he was willing to take them and give them a home

and give them what we had to eat.

It might not have been everything,

but we never did go hungry.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Madeline and Ada

were immediately accepted as part of the family.

Charlie treated them as if they were his own children.

The two girls shared in everything with Zella Mae,

Verlan, and Carl.

CARL BEST: We went to school together.

We went to church together.

We worked in the field.

They went to field with us.

And we had mules, and we had cows

and we'd have shucked corn to feed them twice a day,

pull the husk, the shuck off, and put in a little trough

to feed them.

They worked hard as me and Verlan did.

You know, they'd shuck corn just like we did.

[inaudible] name, Amen.

Pass the corn, please.

ZELLA MAE O'DELL: They just didn't seem like no stranger.

It's like I'd always knew them.

I always wanted a sister, and I knew I think would have one.

So that-- they took the place of a sister.

- Hey, Mama. - Hey, sugar.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Madeline

became especially close to her surrogate mother,

Charlie's wife, Alva.

Alva suffered from a rare nerve disorder, which left

her unable to care for herself.

ZELLA MAE O'DELL: I think Daddy was as happy as the girls was,

and I think the girls was happy as Daddy was.

They were skip and hop, you know,

and he'd hold their hands.

And they were just happy.

CARL BEST: You know, there was never

nothing said about them being a stranger or anything like that.

They was just sort of like one of us,

and we really enjoyed, you know, them being with us.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Zella Mae

remembers that Tom Underwood visited his girls at least

twice.

Then after Madeline and Ada had been with the Bests

for 26 months, Tom returned to the farmhouse

for the final time.

Yeah?

Mr. Underwood.

Zella Mae, I come for the children.

None of their things are ready.

I just did their wash.

It's out on the lawn.

Could you wait until Dad gets home?

I really can't, Zella Mae.

It's coming on nightfall, and I need to be on the road

before dark.

If you'll just pack some things for me, and let

me see the girls.

ZELLA MAE O'DELL: He'd said that his health was bad

and that he had married, and he wanted the children--

to be with the children.

Zella Mae, I don't want to go.

Sorry, but you have to.

Why?

You girls got everything?

Yes, Dad.

OK.

Will Charlie come to say goodbye?

Charlie's out working in the field.

[inaudible], get your sweater.

Let's go.

Ada, come on.

ZELLA MAE O'DELL: I think that the reason he wouldn't wait

until Daddy come in, he was afraid that Daddy would buck

on him, that Daddy might say, hey,

you're not going to take the children

until you pay me some money.

Now that's just what I thought.

Whether that's true, I don't know.

That's the way I felt.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Best--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Three months

later, Charlie received a curious letter

from Madeline and Ada.

Their father had placed them in an orphanage in Nashville.

Charlie immediately contacted the orphanage

and asked if he could adopt the girls, but by the time

the letter arrived, Tom Underwood had once again

retrieved his children.

It was the last time the Best family

heard from Madeline and Ada.

Today, more than 50 years later, Charlie and Zella Mae

still live within 10 miles of the old farmhouse.

Zella Mae is 66.

Charlie is 91 years old.

ZELLA MAE O'DELL: How are you, Daddy?

I said, how are you?

Answer me.

Tell me you're all right.

How are you?

Well, if Daddy could see her again,

it would make him-- make him cry.

And of course, I know he'd tell her that he loved her.

He calls them the little girls.

Now he don't call them-- he don't

look at them as being women.

He calls them the little girls.

Just the other day, he said, have you heard any more

about the little girls?

And I said, no, Daddy, but they're coming.

They're coming.

The night this story aired, Ada Underwood,

now 59 years old, was watching our broadcast

at her home in Indiana.

Ada was shocked to see herself and her older

sister, Madeline, profiled.

Sadly, Madeline passed away several years ago.

But for Ada, Charlie and Zella Mae's story stirred

distant childhood memories.

10 days after our broadcast, Ada Underwood

traveled to Madisonville, Tennessee

for a very special reunion with Charlie Best

and his two children, Zella Mae and Carl.

ZELLA MAE O'DELL: Well, I was anxious to see her.

It was exciting to know she was coming.

Well, you still look like yourself.

I look a lot older.

Glad you got to come.

It is.

It's a day I have been waiting for for,

oh, really for 51 years.

How's your father?

Well, [inaudible].

ADA UNDERWOOD: I was very excited

when I heard that they were looking for me,

because somebody cared enough about me

to hunt for me that long.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Although only eight years ago

when she last saw Charlie, Ada never

forgot the warmth and kindness he and his family

brought into her life.

Well, this here is Ada, Daddy.

Do you remember?

ADA UNDERWOOD: Charlie had to be very good to my sister and I

for him to take us in and take care of us

when we had nobody else to take care of us.

And so I think he was-- had to be a really great man.

You're pretty.

Thank you.

ZELLA MAE O'DELL: It just meant a lot to Daddy,

and I feel that in his own mind, the dream has come true.

Sadly, eight weeks after we filmed this update,

Charlie Best passed away.

According to his family, the reunion with Ada

brought Charlie great comfort in his final days.

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Join me next time for an all new edition

of "Unsolved Mysteries."

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