Original subtitles

NARRATOR: This program is about unsolved mysteries.

Whenever possible, the actual family members

and police officials have participated

in recreating the events.

What you are about to see is not a news broadcast.

ROBERT STACK: The majestic Himalayas

are home to the world's highest mountain.

In 1957, an expedition set out to challenge

his vast wilderness.

Not to conquer Mount Everest, but to track down the elusive

Yeti, a legendary, human-like creature known in the West

as the abominable snowman.

40 Years ago, interracial romance in America

was almost unheard of.

When John Elias and Eleanor Platt fell in love,

an uncaring society forced them apart

and coerced Eleanor into putting their baby up for adoption.

In Florida, John and Virginia Constable left

home to visit their daughter.

Within two hours, they were dead, the innocent victims

of an alleged drunk driver.

Join me.

Perhaps you may be able to help solve a mystery.

[theme music]

March 1987.

In Buffalo, New York, the coda to a poignant love story

is played out.

Eleanor Platt and John Elias are finally together again.

They had fallen in love when they were young,

but the ugly barrier of racial prejudice

had kept them apart for 34 years.

It was 1953.

"Brown v. The Board of Education"

had not yet been heard by the Supreme Court.

A full six years after Jackie Robinson

crossed baseball's color line, there

were just 20 black players in the major leagues.

Racial integration was an alien concept in most

parts of the United States.

Buffalo, New York was no exception.

When high school student Eleanor Platt took an interest in John

Elias, a black man 11 years her senior,

it was by definition controversial, and certain

to bring trouble down on both of them.

Have you seen him around?

No.

I think he is so cute.

I think you're crazy.

I-- I think he's older.

He's looking me, I'll be right back.

Hi.

Hi.

This is for you.

Thanks.

What's your name?

Eleanor.

I'm John Elias.

Eleanor Platt.

ELEANOR WOZNIAK: Right away, I was drawn to him,

and we started talking.

We met at different places, and I just

was fascinated with the feelings that we

were having towards each other.

And I knew that I was in love with him.

So what do you say?

I don't know.

Come on, you're going to break my heart.

Maybe I should think about it.

You're gonna break me-- you got to think about it?

Come here.

JOHN ELIAS: We talked and talked,

and we developed a closer and closer relationship.

And then I asked her would she marry me.

And she thought about it, and I asked her again.

So finally she decided after Christmas,

that she would leave home, and that she would move

in with me in my apartment.

ROBERT STACK: For Eleanor, leaving home was easier

said than done.

She knew her father would object violently.

Nevertheless, on December 26, 1953,

Eleanor ran away from her parents' home to begin

a life with John Elias.

ELEANOR WOZNIAK: I lived with John

from the last part of December until the 26th of January.

And on the 26th of January, I decided

I was going back home, because I surmised that I was pregnant.

At that point, she decided she wanted

to tell her mother of her situation,

because she had been missing from home.

I had warned her before that if she went home,

that there would be problems.

Eleanor!

ACTOR AS ELEANOR PLATT: Daddy.

Where you been, Eleanor?

ACTOR AS ELEANOR PLATT: I've been

staying with my friend, John.

John Elias.

John Elias?

You stay away from him!

I really want you to meet him.

I don't want to meet him.

Dad, I really think you should.

I said no.

I'm going to have his baby.

You what?

Get out of my house, now!

IVA E. PLATT: My husband was an alcoholic, and he drank.

And when he was drinking, he was not himself,

and in order to keep peace in the family

and keep my own sanity in one sense of word,

I had to play ball and let him take over.

Do what he wanted to.

I know what to do.

I'll call Harry Horton at City Hall.

Harry Horton, he'll take care of it.

Dad, don't care of it.

I don't want you to take care of it.

She was put into a home, because that's what they did

with girls that made mistakes, and the law took care of him,

because they accused him of rape.

And so he was arrested for that.

ROBERT STACK: John Elias's arrest took place at midday

in the factory where he worked.

According to Eleanor, charges that John

had held her against her will were trumped up.

Because she was still three days shy of 18,

John was charged with second degree rape

and given a nine month jail sentence.

JOHN ELIAS: I pleaded guilty to the grand jury,

because I did not want to have Eleanor

go through the ordeal of having to be in a trial, brought

on the stand.

In a way, I felt that I was protecting her.

ROBERT STACK: On September 13, 1954,

in a home for unwed mothers, Eleanor gave birth

to a daughter, Rose Marie.

The authorities at the home had told

Eleanor over and over that it might

be best to give the baby up.

ELEANOR WOZNIAK: When I had Rose Marie--

I really didn't want to give her up, I wanted to keep her.

And in my own mind, I couldn't figure out any way of keeping

her, and so it hurt deeply.

Come on down, Eleanor.

ROBERT STACK: The day Eleanor had dreaded finally arrived.

Rose Marie was taken from her and placed

in a temporary custody of social services

until the situation could be evaluated.

Eleanor's ready now.

ELEANOR WOZNIAK: I handed my daughter to the social worker,

and she took the baby and in turn handed her to the lady

that was standing next to her.

I was tore up inside, because I knew that--

or surmised that these ladies were going to take her

and that I would never see her again.

ROBERT STACK: Eleanor immediately reestablished

contact with John, who'd been released from jail

early for good behavior.

They were determined to get their daughter back.

Once again, John proposed marriage.

Eleanor eagerly accepted, but insisted that they

tell her parents face to face.

John, what are you doing here?

You're can't come in here.

We want your blessing, we want to get married.

Joe, get out here right now!

We love each other, why can't you understand that?

Chop chop!

Get out of my house!

Daddy!

Can't you see that we love each other?

Oh, you're married, huh?

Marry this!

Daddy!

Don't come back, John, don't come back!

JOHN ELIAS: At this point, her parents

had her arrested for failing to obey their lawful orders,

even those she was over the age of 18.

Eleanor disappeared.

I had no idea of where she went.

I could not contact her family, because they

didn't want me at their house.

So after that, I asked around, asked around,

no one knew where she went.

Daddy, I don't want to do this.

You sign it.

Baby, listen to daddy, he knows what he's talking about.

ROBERT STACK: Eleanor had been sentenced

to a three year term in a juvenile detention facility.

However, she was told that her sentence

would be reduced if, and only if, she

put Rose Marie up for adoption.

ELEANOR WOZNIAK: I was naive and I

did not know how the laws were, and I was scared of my parents.

I was scared of the social worker.

And so I went ahead and signed the papers,

not knowing what the consequences

would be in the long run.

SOCIAL WORKER: Well, Eleanor, I understand

you've come to a final decision regarding adoption,

is that right?

Yes ma'am.

SOCIAL WORKER: Good, because I think it's in the very best

interest of your baby daughter.

Now if you'll sign these papers right here,

and as soon as you do this--

I was wondering if we could-- if we could wait one more week.

SOCIAL WORKER: Absolutely not.

Now we've discussed this over and over again, Eleanor.

The longer you take, the harder it's going to be on the baby,

on yourself, on your parents, on everyone concerned.

ELEANOR WOZNIAK: Afterwards, I found out

that if I had read and understood the law more, that I

would not have had to give her up,

because I was 18 years of age.

I hope that someday you'll realize

what a good decision you made.

ELEANOR WOZNIAK: When I did the signing,

I felt all tore up inside.

Like I'd-- I'd signed my life away, and there

was nothing I could do.

ROBERT STACK: Eleanor was released six months after she

signed the adoption papers.

ELEANOR WOZNIAK: I still wanted to see John

and get together with John and marry John,

because I loved him.

John was nowhere to be found.

Only later did she discover that he had

literally been run out of town.

I was continually harassed by the police department.

When I was driving my car, they would ask me

for my license, my registration, my license,

my registration-- a continual harassment type thing.

I did not see Eleanor anymore after that,

because I left town, where I could get a decent job

and start settling down after that ordeal.

ROBERT STACK: Eleanor would never have another child.

Because of complications resulting from Rose Marie's

birth, Eleanor was forced to undergo a hysterectomy

at the age of 22.

Eventually the pain of her shattered youth subsided.

In 1977, Eleanor married Steven Wozniak,

and together they raised four foster children.

John Elias was married also.

He and his wife had two children, a boy and a girl.

In 1987, John began to search in earnest for his lost daughter,

Rose Marie.

Along the way, he located Eleanor.

JOHN ELIAS: That really you?

Yes, it's me.

It's a long time since I've seen you.

I know it.

It's good to see you.

Oh, come on in the house, it's too cold out here.

ROBERT STACK: With the blessing of both of their spouses,

John and Eleanor resolved to find their daughter.

If my daughter is watching this, Rose Marie,

I want you to know that I do love you,

and your father loves you, and that's why we're

working together to find you.

There's so much we want to explain to you and to tell you,

that we really do care, and we really did care at the time.

JOHN ELIAS: I hope that we will be successful in finding

this child who has been gone for all

of these years, who was literally taken away from us

by the forces of the law.

And at that point, even though we don't want to interfere

with her life, we'd just like to know her whereabouts,

how she is, and how she came out.

John and Eleanor's search came to an end the night

of our broadcast, when a viewer in Elmira, Pennsylvania

recognized their long lost daughter as one

of his coworkers, Sally Riley.

One of my coworkers called me on the phone,

and he's hysterical.

And he's going, were you watching "Unsolved Mysteries?"

And I said, no, and he said, you're

not going to believe this.

And I said, what do you mean I'm not going to believe this?

He said they're looking for you.

And I said, what do you mean they're looking for me?

He says your mother and father were on TV looking for you.

ROBERT STACK: Two weeks later, Sally and her fiancee

traveled to New York and introduced

her children to Eleanor and John for the first time.

SALLY RILEY: When I first saw my parents, I was--

I was kind of flabbergasted or in awe, I really don't

know the word I'm looking for.

But it just-- you had to stare at them, because, you know,

it's like, I'm a part of them.

Unless a person has gone through it,

there is no way to describe the feeling

that a person has once they find their child that's

been adopted.

I had carried an imaginary picture in my mind of how

I thought she would look.

All I needed-- I had a form, but I didn't have a face.

When she stepped out of the vehicle, I had a face,

and that was a good feeling.

ROBERT STACK: The very special reunion

was arranged by Dominic Telesco, Director of the Center

for Reuniting Families.

DOMINIC TELESCO: John was just in awe,

looking ou the window at his daughter

that they had never seen--

he had never seen her.

So it was a very, very happy reunion.

Very touching, very emotional.

ROBERT STACK: For John, Sally, and Eleanor,

the reunion marked the beginning of an emotional healing

process that was long overdue.

That's up to you guys to do that--

ELEANOR WOZNIAK: I want to make it

as much as possible as a mother daughter situation,

and I want to try to make up for some of the years

that I have missed, and the same way with the grandkids.

That they're growing up to be teenagers, I want--

I've missed a lot of that, and I'd like to share

what I have left with them.

SALLY RILEY: I'm just glad I have a very extended

family now, and that everybody is accepting me

and I'm accepting them, and it just-- it feels really good.

ROBERT STACK: Next, authorities need your help to capture

an accused drunk driver.

March 2, 1991.

Just outside Kissimmee, Florida, local authorities

converge on the scene of a deadly highway accident.

It is a tragedy played out every day, all over the country.

A drunk driver has lost control of his vehicle

and claimed innocent victims.

In this case, an elderly couple, 71-year-old John Constable and

his wife, Virginia, aged 69.

They had been married for 45 years.

It is a tragic fact that 22,000 Americans are killed

by drunk drivers every year.

It is a bitter reality that many of those

who drive on intoxicated survive the terrible accidents

they cause.

All too often, the victims become

faceless statistics, except for the people

who lost someone they love.

We'd have been out of here--

Did you pack the fruit?

Yes, I have the fruit, I have everything packed.

Did you get the camera?

Yes, let's just get these things in the car.

On Sunday, March 3, 1991, when John and Virginia Constable

left Davenport, Florida to visit their daughter

Linda in Jacksonville, a three hour drive away.

You call Linda?

I called her, I talked to her just before we left.

She's all excited, waiting for us to get there.

ROBERT STACK: At 12:35 PM, the Constables

were still just a few miles from their home,

heading north on County Road 545, which

they traveled nearly every day.

Just ahead, traveling southbound and approaching a sharp curve,

was a pickup truck driven by James White,

a house painter and handyman.

No one knows what time he started drinking

or how much he consumed.

[horn honking]

[tires squealing]

[crash and glass breakng]

[helicopter approaching]

[indistinct chatter on radio]

ROBERT STACK: By 12:43 PM, eight minutes

after the accident, the highway patrol and rescue teams

had rushed to the area.

John Constable had died at the instant of impact.

His wife, Virginia, was suffering

from massive internal injuries.

As she was being evacuated, Trooper

Eugene Brewer of the Florida Highway Patrol

arrived at the scene.

EUGENE BREWER: I directed my attention

to Mr. White, who was the single occupant in the pickup truck.

And he was placed in the ambulance,

and I got in the back of the ambulance

with him, at which time I could smell

the odor of alcoholic beverage.

I'm Trooper Brewer with Florida Highway Patrol, OK.

I'm going to request the paramedic

take a blood sample from you.

ROBERT STACK: The results of the blood test

would lead to reveal that James White had

a blood alcohol level of to.

22, more than twice Florida's legal limit of 0.1.

White was taken to Kissimmee Memorial

Hospital 12 miles away.

Mrs. Constable was medevacked to a trauma center in Orlando.

Nearly every organ in her body had been ruptured.

She died just over an hour later, at 2:06 PM

It It got to be 4:30, 5 o'clock, so finally I called

the Florida Highway Patrol.

I was getting very concerned about them being so late.

And then the Florida Highway Patrol officer

pulled in our driveway, and I didn't think anything of it,

because we had placed a call, and he probably wanted

some information to find them.

Thank you for answering our call so soon.

It's all right.

Unfortunately, I'm here to advise you that Mr. And Mrs.

Constable were involved in a serious accident

earlier this afternoon.

- Are they all right? - No, ma'am--

LINDA FAULKNER: He said that there

had been an automobile accident, and there was a fatality.

Are you sure?

Yes sir, I'm sure.

I just remember asking which one.

I never dreamed it would have been both of them.

And after that, I don't remember anything.

It's a common thing in our profession

to investigate accidents where DUI is involved,

and more so than not, we find a lot of them where

the innocent people are killed and people

that had been drinking survive.

Hey Jimmy, how you doing, bud?

What's wrong?

ROBERT STACK: James White had suffered

a fractured jaw, a broken ankle, and three broken ribs.

His jaw was wired shut, and he was admitted

to the intensive care unit.

His relatives who lived in the area

became a constant presence at the hospital.

He's in a lot of pain.

ROBERT STACK: By Wednesday night,

three days after the accident, White's condition

had improved considerably.

Hey, where y'all going?

Just down for a walk.

OK, visiting hours are over.

If you can have him back in 30 minutes?

No problem.

NURSE: OK, thanks.

His family, apparently, was walking him

a little bit each day, and third day, apparently

they kept right on walking.

ROBERT STACK: It is believed that James White and some

of his relatives left the hospital

by an unguarded rear door.

They have not been seen since.

Only later did the authorities discover

that White had a long history of drunk driving arrests.

There was only one real clue to go on,

a driver's license issued to White in North Carolina.

JOHN GREGORY: Local authorities in North Carolina

were sent to the address shown on his license,

and no person by that name was living there,

and hadn't lived there.

So I don't know if he was just using that as an address to get

a driver's license or what.

He is an habitual offender.

He has done this before, and he has a long arrest record just

here in the state of Florida.

And he just has no remorse for the human life.

I just continuously go over their accident every day.

It's just something that never leaves me, trying to imagine

what they had gone through.

ROBERT STACK: Update.

Burlington, Vermont.

James White has been arrested.

LT. CHUCK WILLIAMS: Following the broadcast of "Unsolved

Mysteries," we received some 200 phone calls about James

White and his whereabouts.

Two days after the "Unsolved Mysteries" broadcast,

we got the phone call we were waiting on.

James White was spotted by someone

who had seen the program up in Burlington, Vermont.

He was seen in a bar, and he was arrested and taken

into custody up there.

PEAR HASKINS: I was very glad to get him off the road,

to think that he's not going to kill someone else.

I think it's a terrible thing what he did.

He should have stayed there, and he should have faced the music.

ROBERT STACK: Two weeks after he was captured,

James White was returned to Florida where he is scheduled

to stand trial on all charges.

White, who has two prior convictions for drunk driving,

could receive a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

Next, the search for the Yeti, a mysterious half man, half ape

said to live in the remote Himalayas.

The Himalayas extend through southern Asia,

forming an almost impassable barrier

between China and India.

It is a vast, windswept land, site

of the world's highest mountain, and one

of its most enduring mysteries.

For centuries, the Sherpa people,

who are native to the Himalayas, have

told frightening tales of a strange half

man, half ape called the Yeti.

PETER BYRNE: One of the first people

to come across as an Englishman--

and he talked to the Sherpas, and they

said it has a very bad smell.

It has a powerful odor.

He said-- he described it later as an abominable odor.

And when just went through the channels

and eventually got into the English newspapers,

it became the abominably smelling man.

And so the smelling part was dropped,

it became the abominable man, and eventually,

the abominable snowman.

That's how the name came about.

SHERPA GUIDE: Mr. Doctor, we leave now.

The Yeti.

Yeti go up there.

ROBERT STACK: The abominable snowman,

the perfect Hollywood villain.

He was monstrous, almost comical, and impossible

to take seriously.

It is difficult to imagine that a creature

like the abominable snowman actually exists.

Most of us dismiss him as a fanciful legend,

but for the native Sherpas of the Himalayas,

the Yeti is very real and very much alive.

Their belief is shared by a number of Western explorers,

most of whom have never seen a Yeti,

but remain convinced that such animals do

roam the high plateaus of the Asian wilderness.

In the 1920s, Western man began descending upon the Himalayas.

Over the next 30 years, numerous expeditions were launched

in the hopes of conquering mt.

Everest, at 29,000 feet, the world's highest peak.

With each expedition came more stories

of strange, human-like creatures who lived in the mountains.

Then in 1951, world renowned mountaineer, Eric Shipton,

came across a curious set of tracks,

the first clear evidence that the Yeti might in fact be real.

LOREN COLEMAN: The photograph of the Shipton footprint

is a very big piece of evidence, because it

showed toes, individual toes.

It showed a squat, square footprint, which

a lot of the other expeditions had found,

but now had good photographic equipment with them.

ROBERT STACK: The footprint photograph by Shipton

was 13 inches long and 8 inches wide.

Shipton was certain it was not made by a man or an ape.

His discovery sparked renewed interest in finding a Yeti.

In 1957, a millionaire Texas oil named

Tom Slick and a colorful explorer

named Peter Byrne set off for the Arun valley

in northeastern Nepal, a rugged, hostile region

where temperatures often fall below zero.

LOREN COLEMAN: Tom Slick believed that there were

a lot of interesting bio-medical problems

that needed to be solved.

He felt if he could find a missing link,

that would unlock some of the mysteries of medicine

for humans.

So he really began looking because he

said it was a hybrid animal, something

in between apes and man.

The missing link.

Tom Slick's interest in the beginning

was to find out if the Yeti were really there,

and that's the reason he came on the first reconnaissance.

I had been hearing about the Yeti

for years, ever since I was a child,

but I think that what eventually convinced me that they were

there was meeting with the Sherpas

and talking with them face to face.

Namaste.

Namaste.

PETER BYRNE: The Sherpas viewwe the Yeti as a real living

creature, not as a mythical creature,

they called hairy man that lived out there, separate from them.

On the first expeditions we took along with us 8

by 10 pictures of a chimpanzee, a gorilla,

a primitive man, and so on.

[non-english speech]

[non-english speech]

[non-english speech]

[non-english speech]

ACTOR AS TOM SLICK: Does he understand what we want here?

PETER BYRNE: They used to point to the primitive man

and say that's the yeti.

In fact, they thought we had a picture of the Yeti

when they saw that.

- Definitely. - Yes, I see.

You sure?

PETER BYRNE: The Sherpas described the Yeti to us,

always, as being man like in form, about 5 foot 6, 5 foot 7,

5 foot 8, not very large.

And covered with hair, totally covered with hair,

walking upright, the face was bare of hair,

palms of the hands, that sort of thing.

ROBERT STACK: By the third week of the expedition,

Slick and Byrne decided to split up

to cover a wider search area.

Each was to make his own startling discovery.

PETER BYRNE: Our main find on that first reconnaissance

was two sets of footprints.

The set of footprints that I found,

we had started out from our camp in the early morning,

and we simply chose a mountain and I came

across a lot of footprints.

ACTOR AS PETER BYRNE: I say, what is that?

It's not bear.

There's no claws.

ACTOR AS PETER BYRNE: What is it then?

[non-english speech] Yeti.

You sure?

Yeti, [non-english speech] Yeti, Mr. Peter.

It's yeti.

ROBERT STACK: In Peter Byrne's photograph,

the alleged yeti footprint is on the left.

It dwarfs the boot print of one of the expedition members,

seen on the right.

Sir Tom, Sir Tom!

What is it?

Yeti, Yeti.

ROBERT STACK: In another part of the valley,

at an elevation of 12,000 feet, Tom Slick and his Sherpa guides

discovered a similar set of tracks.

Yeti.

PETER BYRNE: The significance of the prints

that Tom Slick found is that they were in mud,

and whereas snow will distort, with heat and with wind

and so on, mud will not.

He only saw two or three, because it's very

hard to track in that stuff.

In fact, he was lucky to find them.

ROBERT STACK: A plaster cast was struck

and a shipped to the United States to be analyzed.

The footprint measured 10 inches long and seven inches wide.

It had some of the same characteristics

of the footprint discovered by Eric Shipton six years earlier.

DR. GEORGE AGOGINO: It was a short, squat, almost

square type of footprint.

And I sent it to the various physical anthropology experts

around the country, and what they-- usually

the terminology that came back was "unique,"

but we don't know what it is.

ROBERT STACK: The discovery of the footprints made

headlines around the world.

Slick and Byrne began preparing a second expedition,

determined not only to see a Yeti, but to capture one.

In February of 1958, Peter Byrne returned to the Himalayas

to embark on an exhausting four month trek.

Tom Slick financed the operation, but remained behind.

Three months into the expedition, Byrne

hit the jackpot.

He met a Buddhist monk who had a remarkable story to tell.

You've been looking for Yeti.

PETER BYRNE: He liked scotch, this old man, and one evening

while we were sitting there, having a drink and talking,

he said to me, he whispered, he said, you know,

that up in the temple we have a hand.

Hand.

A what?

Yeti hand.

And he said would you like to see it, and I said yes.

So we went back to the temple.

We went into the top part of the temple,

and he showed me this hand, about the size of a human hand,

cut off with the wrist.

And I considered it very significant,

and I took some pictures of it immediately,

some flash pictures.

I asked the man, of course, could I have it.

And he said no.

He said it must never leave the temple here.

If it leaves the temple, varius calamities

will befall the temple in the community and so on.

I asked him if I could have a part of it, and he said no.

ROBERT STACK: Byrne's photograph caused

an uproar among the members of Tom Slick's scientific team.

The alleged Yeti hand was unlike anything they had seen before.

Opinion was divided.

Was it human?

Was it ape?

Or was it an entirely new species?

The fall of 1958 found Peter Byrne back in London.

He and Tom slick met with members

of the scientific community to discuss the latest findings.

PETER BYRNE: We were having lunch,

Tom Slick, myself, Dr. Osman Hill,

and the subject of the hand came up.

Mind you, it wasn't a claw.

PETER BYRNE: Dr. Hill said you've got to get the hand.

Do you think you could get to see the Yeti hand again.

Alone, I mean?

Why yes, I'm quite sure I could.

You know, I had thought.

PETER BYRNE: Hill, who was a brilliant scientist,

reached under the table and pulled out a brown paper sack.

And he said, there you are.

I take it that's not dessert, doctor?

Very funny.

[laughter] No.

My point is we could replace the Yeti hand with this human one.

What do you think?

Well, I'm not quite so sure I can replace the entire hand,

but maybe a finger.

ROBERT STACK: By the next year, Peter Byrne

had returned to the Himalayas to carry out the plan.

He gained access to the monastery

by inviting the monk to partake of another bottle

of fine scotch.

PETER BYRNE: I cut the finger off

and I replaced it with the human finger.

It took quite a long time wire the whole thing

together, and put it all back together

and put it back in the box.

And nobody ever knew anything about it.

And everything-- everybody, actually, was perfectly happy.

They still had their hand, it still had its fingers.

ROBERT STACK: The thumb was brought back

to London where it became the focus

of a detailed examination.

DR. GEORGE AGOGINO: It was sent to me,

and I sent it to the 20 experts which

I thought should look at the hand,

and they were about equally divided whether it was human

or whether it was some type of primate, known or unknown.

ROBERT STACK: Dr. Agogino placed a tissue sample in an envelope

and tucked it away in his desk, where it remained

for more than 30 years.

In 1960, television personality Marlon Perkins and Sir Edmund

Hillary, the conqueror of Mount Everest,

launched a Yeti search of their own.

They came back convinced that there

was no such animal as the Yeti.

--even the descriptions of the Yeti can be explained

by perfectly ordinary means.

They were essentially over there to debunk it.

Most of the members of the Hillary expedition

didn't believe in Yeti to start with, so they went over there

and they found bearskin, said that was the Yeti

and then they debunked it.

They looked at the Pangboche hand,

said, wow this has got wires on it.

Obviously it had wires on it, because the Tom

Slick expedition had taken parts of it and wired it up again.

So everything they came across, the Hillary expedition,

they said there is no Yeti.

So you know, none of us were surprised when they came back

and said Yeti doesn't exist.

ROBERT STACK: Interest in the Yeti he began to wane.

Then on October 6, 1962, Tom Slick died in a plane crash.

His partner subsequently abandoned

the hunt for the elusive Yeti, but the sightings continued.

KURT FRITZLER: I had made camp at 16,500 feet, when out

of the darkness a very loud, piercing

call began that sounded like nothing I'd ever heard before.

It moved around, it circled our campsite.

It would get closer, it would get farther away.

It would call intermittently, and the call

was always very loud, and very piercing, and very--

frightening.

I was on a distance of 10 meters,

so it was my impression-- it's bigger than me,

it was quite hairy, and strong, with short legs,

and the face falls a little bit more white or clear,

and then the body--

the body was quite dark.

Dark brown, black hairs, long, long hairs.

And he has quite a lot of hairs on the head.

I have to leave it open that I do not know what

the Abominable Snowman is, but I feel there there is a very good

chance, probably 50/50, that something resembling the thing

they're looking for does exist.

ROBERT STACK: During the course of filming this story,

"Unsolved Mysteries," learned of the piece of tissue

Dr. Agogino had set aside 30 years ago.

The sample was analyzed at the University of California's

molecular evolution lab.

The results were inconclusive, but seemed

to indicate that the tissue probably

came from a human hand.

DR. JERRY LOWENSTEIN: The problem with something

as vague as the Yeti is that almost any result you have

can be fitted into the theory.

So I'm sure that most believers will say well, this is great,

this proves that the Yeti is some sort of subhuman species.

I think that's what we've always thought,

that it wasn't an animal.

That it wasn't an upright, walking ape, because apes

don't walk upright anyway.

That it was a hominid, a hominid form,

a human form of some kind.

ROBERT STACK: Do the Himalayas conceal

one of the great mysteries of the 20th century,

providing a safe and isolated haven

for a distant relative of man?

Or is the Yeti simply a fanciful myth,

the creation of a primitive people and an imaginative group

of explorers?

It seems impossible that in this day and age,

we might discover an entirely new species of animal.

However, we must remember it was only 70 years ago

that the Giant Panda of China was first observed in the wild

by Western man.

Until then, it, too, was regarded as nothing more

than a mythological creature.

Next, the ashes of an unknown woman

discovered on an isolated California island.

All of us have known people lived their lives

outside the mainstream, adhering to their own rules,

marching to the beat of a different drummer.

In life, we find their eccentricities fascinating.

But often when a deeply private person dies,

he leaves behind an unsolved mystery.

Dr. Carey Stanton, who died in 1987, was just such a man.

Stanton, a lifelong bachelor, was a scion

of a wealthy California family.

He graduated from medical school at Stanford University

and practiced as a pathologist in New York City.

In 1957, when he was just 34-years-old,

Dr. Stanton left New York.

He returned to California to run the family cattle ranch.

It was not a typical ranch.

Stanton's family owned 9/10 of Santa Cruz Island,

as 62,000 acres, the largest of California's Channel Islands.

When Dr. Stanton's parents died, he took control of the ranch.

MARLA DALEY: Carey Stanton was very protective

of Santa Cruz Island.

He used to say that this island was not his,

it was just a responsibility that was handed

down to him from his parents.

ROBERT STACK: Dr. Stanton lived in virtual solitude

in the main ranch house, though he welcomed house guests.

You have a nice stay with us?

Yeah, sure.

You know, that the girl's coming tomorrow at 5:00

in the morning to pick up cattle.

Perhaps you could help me with that,

I could really use your help.

Oh, fine.

That'd be great.

ROBERT STACK: As the years passed,

Stanton developed a rigid, sometimes

quirky schedule, that he expected

all visitors to abide by.

[bell ringing]

ROBERT STACK: Dinner was always a semi-formal affair which

began precisely at 7:30 PM.

The weekly menu never varied.

The same five main courses were rotated in sequence

throughout the year.

At the stroke of 8:30, Dr. Stanton and his guests

repaired to the living room for coffee,

and the only dessert ever served, oatmeal cookies.

Dr. Stanton retired for the evening at precisely 9 PM.

During all the years he lived on the island,

he rarely deviated from his routine.

[clock chiming] - Mm.

Thank you for a very nice evening.

GUEST: Thank you.

Good night.

ROBERT STACK: For Dr. Carey Stanton,

Santa Cruz Island was heaven on earth.

He established a private cemetery,

exclusively for those who have been intimately

associated with the island.

Stanton even had his parents' bodies

exhumed, cremated, and reburied in the little cemetery.

By 1987, there were 14 graves surrounding the ranch chapel.

On December 8th of that year, but total rose to 15.

Dr. Carey Stanton was dead at the age of 64.

Dr. Stanton left the entire ranch

to the Nature Conservancy.

The Conservancy, in conjunction with Santa Barbara County's

Agricultural Commission and other environmental agencies,

worked to preserve the island in its pristine state.

Marla, come over here a second.

ROBERT STACK: On April 27, 1990, the Deputy Agriculture

Commissioner discovered an old metal box in a shed

on the ranch.

Take a look at this.

What do you think?

MARLA DALEY: And I looked in the box, and it was full of ashes.

And I recognized the ashes as being those of a human.

Human remains.

ROBERT STACK: No one on the island

knew anything about the mysterious ashes.

Larry Gillespie, the Santa Barbara County Coroner,

found a few intriguing clues.

A snap-like clothing fastener, manufactured in the 1940s,

several false teeth from the '50s,

and a diamond studded platinum ring dating

from before World War II.

Later tests on the bone fragments

would yield more information.

We believe that it's an elderly female victim, based

upon the findings of the arthritic changes of the bones

and the characteristic of that one particular wrist bone

that appeared to be female.

ROBERT STACK: Was Dr. Carey Stanton the keeper

of a deep, dark secret?

It seems unlikely.

Sturton had a reputation as a compulsive archivist,

who meticulously labeled everything.

MARLA DALEY: It is very unlike Carey Stanton

to have the loose end in particular of human remains

left on Santa Cruz Island.

It's not something that he would do.

ROBERT STACK: Who is the mystery woman of Santa Cruz Island?

All that is known is that she died sometime after World

War II at an age past 50.

She suffered from a slight arthritic condition,

and wore a platinum and diamond eternity ring.

MARLA DALEY: The Santa Cruz island foundation doesn't know

what to do with her, and we very much

would like to do the right thing and find

a place where she belongs.

And if it's on the island, we would

like to see that she's added to the cemetery,

if she belongs here.

We want to do the right thing to make sure

that these ashes receive a final resting place which

is appropriate.

Next week marks a very special milestone

for "Unsolved Mysteries," the broadcast of our 100th episode.

In an unprecedented two-hour show,

you will see a fascinating array of intriguing mysteries

and recent updates.

Join me next Wednesday for this memorable celebration,

the 100th episode of "Unsolved Mysteries."

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