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: It was Christmas 45 years ago.

Sympathetic deputies transformed the jail

in Henry County, Illinois into a sanctuary

for a destitute mother, Hilda Craun, and her family.

But within weeks, the simple act of charity

would backfire when seven of Hilda's nine children

were separated and put up for adoption.

Barbara Pasciak was thrilled when her daughter Paula brought

her boyfriend home for a visit.

Five days later, Paula was dead and the boyfriend

was on the run, suspected of murder.

Also, one of the most fascinating mysteries

of this century, the story of Anastasia,

youngest daughter of the last czar of Russia.

History records that she was executed along

with the rest of her family by Bolshevik

revolutionaries in 1918, but evidence abounds

that history may be wrong.

In the 1920s, a mysterious woman turned up in Germany

using the name Anna Anderson and claiming

that she was Anastasia.

For more than 70 years, the secret of Anna Anderson's

true identity has provoked a tantalizing and often fiery

debate.

Join me as we journey to Russia on this very special edition

of Unsolved Mysteries.

[theme music]

Her name was Anastasia.

She was more royal than a princess.

She was an imperial grand duchess of Russia,

daughter of Czar Nicholas II, the wealthiest

man in the world.

Anastasia was born with her father's

captivating azure blue eyes, but the czar

already had three daughters.

He, along with all of Russia, wanted

a boy, an heir to the throne.

Anastasia must have sensed that she was a disappointment.

She grew into an unrepentant tomboy,

a jokester, the family clown.

Even after a son was finally born,

Anastasia remained the rebel of the imperial Romanov family.

Her impish nature was irrepressible,

whether she was rollerskating on the decks of the imperial yacht

or enduring the pomp and panoply of the Russian court.

Then on July 17, 1918, Anastasia's fairy tale life

came to a horrible end.

[speaking russian]

She was just 17 when her entire family

was executed, along with their physician and three servants.

[gunshots]

Their burial site remained a dark state secret.

As far as history was concerned, that was the end

of Anastasia and her family.

19 months later, a young woman, nameless and alone,

wandered the gloomy damp streets of Berlin, Germany.

When she came to Bendler Bridge, spanning a murky city canal,

the stage was set for one of the world's great mysteries.

Nein! Nein!

Nein! Stop!

ROBERT STACK: Eventually, the young woman

would take the name Anna Anderson,

and shocked the world by claiming that she was

the Grand Duchess Anastasia.

The debate over her identity rages to this day.

There is absolutely no question in my mind

at all that the Grand Duchess Anastasia

survived the assassination of the Romanovs in 1918,

made it to the West, and died in the United States

as Anna Anderson.

No question at all.

ROBERT STACK: Despite adamant opinions on both sides,

it seemed this was a mystery which would never be solved.

Then on July 12, 1991, in this remote field

near the Siberian city of Yekaterinburg, Russia,

the remains of the czar's family were finally unearthed.

To the astonishment of almost everyone,

two bodies were missing from the grave, and one was Anastasia's.

Now using sophisticated DNA technology,

scientists may finally be able to answer once

and for all the question that has haunted

history for nearly 75 years.

Was Anna Anderson in fact the Grand Duchess Anastasia, whose

name means she who is reborn?

Nicholas II, fated to be the last czar of Russia.

In the beginning, his life was the envy of the world.

An adoring wife of royal blood, Alexandra,

granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England, four

beautiful daughters, the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Marie,

and Anastasia, and finally, a son,

Alexei, heir to the throne.

Alexei, however, was a hemophiliac.

His disease was kept a tightly held family secret,

and the seven Romanovs drew more and more into themselves.

Even their closest relatives saw little of them.

The royal Romanovs lived in grand and increasingly

isolated opulence.

Most of their subjects were starving.

When Nicholas involved his country in World War I,

hundreds of thousands of his soldiers

had neither shoes nor rifles.

More than a million men were killed or wounded.

Finally, the people rebelled.

In 1917, Nicholas abdicated to a provisional democratic

government, but soon after that government

fell to the radical Bolsheviks.

The czar's mother and sisters made it safely

out of the country, but the czar, his wife,

and children were virtual prisoners in their own palace.

On August 13, 1917, the Romanovs were banished

in the dead of night from the Summer Palace

just outside St. Petersburg.

11 months later, the entire family was executed,

or so it was thought until the mysterious young woman appeared

in Germany on February 18, 1920.

Please, right this way, miss.

ROBERT STACK: After her suicide attempt,

police committed the young woman to Dolldorf

asylum, a mental institution just outside Berlin.

She gave no information about herself

and was dubbed Miss Unknown.

Only much later would she take the name Anna Anderson.

This is your bed.

ROBERT STACK: At Dolldorf, she underwent

her first physical examination.

Doctors discovered that her body was

covered with scars, for which they could find no explanation.

She began to reveal her own personality very slowly.

For many, many months, she virtually

never left her bed, and--

ROBERT STACK: James Blair Lovell,

author of "Anastasia: The Lost Princess,"

knew Anna Anderson personally.

She was, in her mind, in hiding.

And the best place to hide was this asylum

where no one would come looking for her

or suspect that she was who she was.

ROBERT STACK: The patient hid her identity successfully

until a woman named Clara Peuthert

was admitted to the same ward at Dolldorf in December of 1921.

Clara, good morning.

What is it?

I know you.

I don't understand.

What are you talking about?

Oh, it is all right, my daughter.

You know, it is such a miracle that you're alive.

JAMES BLAIR LOVELL: Clara Peuthert

was a devotee, as were so many people then,

of the royalty magazines.

And she began to look at pictures of the Romanovs.

Look at this picture.

JAMES BLAIR LOVELL: And she began

to believe that Miss Unknown bore

a striking, uncanny resemblance to the Grand Duchess Tatiana.

And then it came to me.

It is you.

ROBERT STACK: Miss Unknown neither confirmed nor denied

Clara Peuthert's claim.

CLARA: I can see the resemblance.

ROBERT STACK: Soon word reached several members

of the Russian nobility exiled in Paris.

They sent an official representative,

a Madame Tolstoy to Dolldorf.

We are just here to talk.

There's someone I would like you to meet.

MISS UNKNOWN: Please go away.

I don't want to see anyone.

Don't be afraid, child.

It's just that I spoke with your friend Clara,

and she has told me so much about you.

I wanted to meet you for myself.

My God.

She has eyes of Nicholas.

Later, Tolstoy told people that when she saw those eyes

in the context of the rest of the face,

she knew she was looking at one of the daughters of the czar.

ROBERT STACK: Eventually Anna Anderson told several nurses

she was actually Anastasia, the youngest grand duchess.

Indeed, she did resemble Anastasia facially,

and in height and age.

Apparently several childhood scars

and birthmarks were checked out, and they too matched.

Now the fresh scars seemed to make sense.

Perhaps they were remnants of Bolshevik bullets and bayonets.

Four years later in July of 1925,

while the young woman was hospitalized for surgery,

she received a visitor.

Shura Gilliard, Anastasia's former nanny,

had come to see for herself just who Miss Unknown was.

Shura recognized the grand duchess,

both by her childhood scars and by a bone deformity

on her right foot.

Then the young woman beckoned to Shura to massage her forehead

was cologne.

It had been a favorite childhood ritual of Anastasia's,

known only to the two of them.

Later, Shura and her husband brought the czar's sister Olga

to visit.

Olga had last seen her niece when Anastasia was a plump,

boisterous adolescent more than a decade earlier.

My child, you are so pale.

Her aunt said that this young woman had lost so much weight

that she was unable to make a positive visual identification

of her, and so they talked.

I am so happy you came.

JAMES BLAIR LOVELL: According to Anastasia,

Olga then did say, "You are my niece.

I recognize you."

We shall not abandon you.

This is such a nice hospital.

ROBERT STACK: The next day, in a private visit

with Olga, Anastasia made a revelation about the czar's

secret bank account which would ultimately

prove to be her undoing.

You know we lost everything when we escaped from Russia.

I don't think you have to worry about me.

Why not?

Because all the money that Nicholas left for us.

There was, she believed, in the Bank

of England $80 million.

This was news to the family.

And that one conversation, that incident,

radically changed the life of Anna Andersen forever.

ROBERT STACK: Anastasia was betrayed.

$80 million in 1925 was the equivalent of $5.6 billion

in today's economy.

It was ample motivation for Anastasia's aunt

and the other surviving Romanovs to deny

her identity, and therefore her right to any of the money.

In essence, she was once again Miss Unknown.

However, Anastasia was not abandoned by everyone.

In 1927, she took up residence in a German castle

under the protection of a sympathetic duke and duchess.

That spring, Gleb Botkin, a close childhood friend

of Anastasia's, traveled from his home in the United States

to see whether the grand duchess had somehow survived.

Gleb was the youngest child of the czar's

physician, Dr. Eugene Botkin.

The doctor had been executed along with the imperial family,

but Glen was able to escape from Russia.

One of the childhood games that he and Anastasia had

played together was that Gleb would draw or would paint

a watercolor painting of animals dressed in human clothing

and in human-like situations, give the picture to the young

Anastasia, and she then would make up a story to explain

the action in the picture.

Niet, but I would like to see the pictures.

Oh, yes.

JAMES BLAIR LOVELL: He recognized her immediately.

And as she leafed through them, she remembered the stories

that she had made up years earlier

to accompany the pictures.

--telling the rat that they were safe because the cat

was caught by a lion.

JAMES BLAIR LOVELL: It was the most significant recognition

of Anastasia in her lifetime.

--was about my father.

JAMES BLAIR LOVELL: And Gleb Botkin became, as she called

him, her lifelong champion.

--friends with the lion.

And when the fox--

ROBERT STACK: Only later would Anna recount

for Gleb which she knew about the terrible night of July 17,

1918--

how she had been horribly wounded and rendered

unconscious during the execution, how she had been

thrown on a truck with the dead bodies of her family, how

the truck lumbered off into the night,

heading to a secret grave site.

At some point the truck overheated.

A soldier named Alexander Tchaikovsky was one

of those left to stand guard.

He realized Anastasia was not dead.

Aided by his brother, Tchaikovsky

spirited her to safety.

Alexander Tchaikovsky was later killed in Romania.

Anastasia eventually made her way

to Germany and Bendler Bridge.

20 years after the czar's assassination,

Gleb Botkin and Anna's lawyer were finally

able to go to court to claim Anastasia's inheritance

and thereby prove Anna Anderson's identity.

That Anna Anderson is the Grand Duchess Anastasia.

During the course of this entire case the,

Romanov family--

ROBERT STACK: None of the principals

had any idea that the case, including several appeals,

would drag on literally for the rest of their lives.

From the beginning, Anna's attorneys based their arguments

on the numerous points of similarity

between the grand duchess and Anna Anderson.

Experts analyzed photographs of both women's ears.

A match impressed even Anna's bitterest enemies.

Various scars and birthmarks also matched.

Handwriting samples were analyzed,

and found virtually identical.

Anna was now 58 years old.

She had become increasingly eccentric

and was almost totally uncooperative,

both with her own attorneys and with the courts.

Anna lived in a remote German village near the Black Forest.

Her modest cottage was overgrown with weeds

and overrun by her four dogs and 30 cats.

Good afternoon, Ms. Anderson.

ANNA ANDERSON: What is it?

Can I talk to you?

ROBERT STACK: In 1959, during an appeal of the case, a judge

and two language experts came to ascertain whether Anna, who

almost always spoke German or English,

could also speak Russian.

Who are these people?

These are the experts that your attorney

agreed upon, and--

JAMES BLAIR LOVELL: Anastasia refused

to allow anyone into her house except the judge.

I never agreed to any such meeting.

And when he extended his hand to shake hers,

she refused to do so, saying that she was afraid of germs.

In fact, she considered it a breach of etiquette

on the part of a lowly German Supreme Court judge

to want to shake the hand of a Russian grand duchess.

I have made my choices, and I am willing to live with them.

She She refused to speak Russian to him,

was totally social, as if this were just a little tea party,

and at the end of 10 minutes, she dismissed him.

But this meeting is over.

ROBERT STACK: Finally in 1967, a German high court

issued a decision.

There was not enough evidence to prove Anna Anderson's claim .

The court did state, however, that the death of Grand Duchess

Anastasia could not be considered

a verifiable historical fact.

Despite that small victory, Anna had had

enough of lawyers and courts.

These home movies of Anna Anderson,

televised here for the first time,

were shot in Germany in 1967.

The following year, Anna moved to Charlottesville, Virginia,

where her protector Gleb Botkin introduced

her to one of his friends.

On December 23, 1968, Anna married Jack

Manahan, 18 years her junior.

One year later, Gleb Botkin died,

never wavering in his belief that Anna

Anderson was Anastasia.

In fact, Anna now called herself Anastasia Manahan.

She and Jack were a quirky, eccentric couple, a bane

of their neighbors' existence.

Over the years, Jack's once beautiful house became

overgrown and full of cats.

Anastasia died in 1984, Jack in 1990.

16 months later on July 12, 1991,

the imperial family skeletons were finally exhumed

near Yekaterinburg, Russia.

After the execution, the bodies had been buried hodgepodge.

Still, everyone expected to find all seven

Romanovs, as well as four members

of the family's entourage.

[speaking russian]

TRANSLATOR: In the grave there was supposed to be 11 bodies,

but only nine were there.

Two were missing.

For a whole year we looked for the two missing skeletons,

but we could never find them.

The middle face has been badly fractured.

ROBERT STACK: In an effort to determine which skeletons were

missing, the Russians invited American forensic expert Dr.

William Maples to examine the remains.

It's a shame we don't have a good--

We looked at the remains, we photographed the remains,

we measured the remains, and for each of the nine skeletons

we determined age, sex, race.

We determined that the czar was most likely there.

Body seven is the czarina.

We had the family physician, Dr. Botkin.

And we had three of the daughters,

but I don't believe any of the three daughters

could be young enough to be Anastasia,

who was 17 years one month at the time of the shooting.

ROBERT STACK: Also missing were the remains of Alexei,

the czar's youngest child and only son.

It was the absence of Anastasia's body, however,

which once again fueled the controversy.

Was it possible that Anastasia had somehow

managed to escape the carnage?

Whether she could have survived that night,

I seriously doubt it.

As a forensic scientist looking at the objective evidence

that we have, we don't have any evidence that anyone

would have survived.

The damage to the remains was pretty profound.

[dramatic music]

ROBERT STACK: The official Bolshevik

account is as follows.

The Romanovs were imprisoned in the former home

of a wealthy Yekaterinburg industrialist.

The czar had been ordered by the Bolsheviks

to awaken his family.

There was unrest in the town, as supposedly

the Romanovs had to be moved for their own protection.

[speaking russian]

The girls were given half an hour to dress.

They carefully laced on their corsets.

A fortune in precious stones and gems

had been sewn into the linings.

The Romanovs, along with Gleb Botkin's

father and three servants, were led into the cellar.

They had no way of knowing they were about to die.

The czarina asked for chairs.

Two were brought.

Then abruptly, Yacov Yurovsky, the Bolshevik

officer in charge, read the orders of execution.

That

Nicholas, dumbfounded, asked him to repeat.

[speaking russian]

[gunshots]

When they began shooting, the bullets bounced off Grand

Duchess and returned to them.

They did not know that in corsets of Grand Duchess,

the czarina hid their jewels, and jewels protected them.

They decided that God protected them, and they--

a little, and they immediately became crazy,

and disordered shooting began.

JAMES BLAIR LOVELL: In the first volley of shots,

Anastasia was not hit.

After everyone else was dead, even

the Bolshevik accounts will tell you, that Anastasia was alive.

One account has her standing up and screaming,

while one of the guards stuck a bayonet through one of her feet

to pin her to the floor, and the other one clubbed her

in the jaw with a rifle butt.

ROBERT STACK: Assuming Anastasia was now dead,

Yurovsky's men loaded all the bodies onto a truck.

However, en route to the secret burial site,

the truck would get bogged in the mud

and Yurovsky would decide to dispose of the bodies

on the spot.

Yurovsky reported that in order to confuse anyone who might

locate the grave, he burned two of the bodies

and disposed of the charred remains right there.

The other nine, he wrote, were buried

together a few meters away.

Edvard Radzinsky, author of "The Last Tsar: The Life and death

of Nicholas II," believes that Yurovsky simply

invented the scenario to cover up the fact that he could

not account for all the bodies.

They did not see two bodies when

they buried all the Romanovs in this terrible grave.

And Yurovksy had only one opportunity to explain it.

He wrote, "we burned two bodies.

It was the end."

[speaking russian]

TRANSLATOR: Not only Anastasia, but two of the other daughters

as well were actually alive.

ROBERT STACK: Michael Medvedev, whose

father was a member of the execution squad, disagrees.

TRANSLATOR: When the soldiers began

to move the body from the wall of execution

onto some stretchers, the girls regained

consciousness and moaned in pain, including Anastasia.

And one of the soldiers named Peter Ermakov,

he killed Anastasia.

ROBERT STACK: And so the great riddle continues.

Is the body of Grand Duchess Anastasia

hidden in a shallow grave near the spot

where the rest of her family was found,

or did Anastasia somehow survive the assassination

only to emerge years later as the eccentric Anna Anderson?

Many of those who knew Anna best believe the truth

is undeniable.

JAMES BLAIR LOVELL: Anna Anderson was Anastasia.

All she wanted was for the world to leave her alone

and for her surviving family members to publicly acknowledge

what they privately acknowledged,

and that was simply her identity.

ROBERT STACK: It was December of 1948.

Christmas was just around the corner.

Annawan, Illinois seemed like Norman Rockwell painting,

wholesome, peaceful, serene.

But while most families were joyfully anticipating

the arrival of the holiday season,

one couple, Frank and Hilda Craun are visited by disaster.

The Crauns were dirt poor, and lived

with seven of their children in a small farmhouse

on the outskirts of town.

There was no plumbing or heating,

and every night children all crammed into a single bed

to keep warm.

[knocking on door]

Yes?

Hello, are you Mrs. Hilda Craun?

Yes, I am.

Is your husband home?

No, I'm sorry.

He had to leave early this morning.

Why?

Is something wrong?

Well, yes, ma'am, I'm afraid there is.

We have a eviction notice here from your landlord

and I'm afraid we're going to have to ask you and your family

to vacate the premises.

Mama, I'm hungry.

Marie, it'll have to wait.

ROBERT STACK: The deputies learned that the Crauns had

nowhere to go and took pity.

They decided they could not let the family spend

Christmas out in the cold.

In the spirit of the season, they

took Hilda and the children to the only available shelter

in town, the Henry County jail.

Raymond Craun was eight years old at the time.

Okay, boys, here we go.

They just put us all in a car.

To the jail we come.

It was just a place for us to be in out of the weather is what I

kind of remember of it as being, that there

was no other place for us, so.

ROBERT STACK: Suddenly the jail was transformed.

Its cold cement walls were now home for a destitute mother

and her seven young children.

The boys and girls were free to roam throughout the jail,

but in a mystery that is still troubling,

their parents were forbidden to see one another.

But Dad wasn't allowed to go into the jail to see Mother,

and she wasn't allowed to go out.

And I never understood that either.

Like I said, they let us go wherever we wanted to

and do whatever we wanted to.

Can I open the cell?

Sure, you can.

RAYMOND: We used to be able to go outside whenever we wanted

to, we used to go down and talk to the other prisoners,

we used to play with things that we weren't supposed to.

I remember it as a fun place, because I was only 8

and I didn't know what was really going on.

Okay, is everybody clear?

Yeah.

There.

We'll make your hair all nice and clean.

ROBERT STACK: Marie Craun was four years old in 1948.

Her memories of jailhouse life are quite different

from her brother Raymond's.

MARIE: One time my mother was giving me a bath

and the policemen were walking by.

Good afternoon, ladies.

Hello, Sheriff.

And I got really nervous.

I didn't want to be in that tub.

Every time then after that when it was time for me to take

a bath, I didn't want to because I

was afraid these men would walk back by again

and see me in that tub.

ROBERT STACK: A week went by, then two.

On December 17, 1948, the family's plight

was publicized in the local newspaper, which

carried this photograph, the only family

portrait known to exist.

In response, many community members offered assistance.

A well-intentioned social worker hoped

to brighten the children's Christmas

by taking them out of jail and placing them in foster homes

for the holidays.

Hello.

Hi.

SOCIAL WORKER: You must be Francis?

- Yes. - I met you, Marie.

You girls are going to come with me for a little ride.

(CRYING) I don't wanna!

MARIE: I remember that Francis and I, neither one

wanted to go.

Now, come on.

You'll have fun.

MARIE: We really had never been away from our mother.

We had always been-- our mother had always

been there and everything else.

But finally we had to go.

I mean, there was no way that we were

going to get to stay there.

I feel that she felt that if we went, that we would have

at least a nice Christmas, one that we had never

actually ever had in our life.

And then, like I say, that's the last time we, either one of us,

saw our mother after that.

ROBERT STACK: While her mother remained behind bars,

Marie and Francis were placed in separate homes

and eventually adopted.

To this day, Marie wonders whether her mother actually

consented to give the children away.

Yes, well, come on.

We're gonna have to go now.

Let's go this way.

Maybe she couldn't read and if she signed any papers that

was giving us away, she didn't know what she was signing,

that she was maybe told that she was signing a release form

for us giving her permission for us to go for over the holidays.

Okay, dinner time, boys.

ROBERT STACK: Christmas day finally arrived.

At the Henry County jail, it was a day

without Santa Claus' stockings, but not completely

without Christmas spirit.

RAYMOND: Reason why I know it was Christmas

time is because when we got our dinner tray,

there was a candy bar on it.

It made an impression on me because I

probably never had anything like that for quite a while and--

or even anything for Christmas for a while

that I remembered of, you know.

And this-- it did stick in my mind and it always will.

ROBERT STACK: Within a month, Raymond and his brothers

Clarence and Leonard would be placed in children's homes.

But the fate of their parents, Frank and Hilda Craun,

remains a mystery to this day.

Marie recalls being told that they had been banished

from the state of Illinois.

My adopted mother told me that they

were never to return, that if they did,

they would be arrested.

That I don't know, but she never explained why or anything else.

ROBERT STACK: The secrets about her mother and father

plagued Marie throughout childhood.

She and her sister Francis, now named June,

had been adopted by neighboring families,

who for reasons unknown, insisted on keeping

the young girls apart.

MARIE: I remember that one time I went up to the store

and Francis was up there at the store.

So we walked home together and we talked.

She's the meanest teacher there.

MARIE: And then her mother came and called her in.

June!

Come inside now.

I'll be right back.

OK.

MARIE: And she told me she'd be back out.

And I waited and waited, and then finally I

went and knocked on the door.

And her adoptive mother came to the door and says,

she can't come out, she has things to do,

and then shut the door.

And I went home and I was real upset about it.

ROBERT STACK: Years passed.

Marie never stopped wondering about her brothers and sisters.

Finally in 1966, Marie learned through a mutual friend

that Raymond, whom she had not seen in 18 years,

was living in a nearby community.

MARIE: I remember driving down the street

looking for Raymond's house.

And then I saw this guy standing on the porch

and I knew right away it was Raymond.

And I stopped the car and jumped out and ran out of there

and it was really wonderful to see him again after all

that time not being together.

Marie!

Raymond!

Oh my!

Oh my gosh!

RAYMOND: The minute she got there,

I knew she was my sister.

Just-- it just--

I knew it was her.

And I hadn't seen her for 18 years,

and it was a real exciting reunion.

You know, I got a little lost on my way here,

but as soon as I saw you on the porch, I knew it was you.

ROBERT STACK: Marie and Raymond spent hours

reminiscing and catching up on the years they had spent apart.

Together they vowed to find out what had happened

to the rest of their family.

For 18 years, Marie and Raymond suffered through a series

of near misses and false leads.

Finally in 1993 they did locate one sister, Carol.

Then their story aired on Unsolved Mysteries.

Incredibly, within a few hours, two more sisters and three

brothers had been found.

On July 9, 1994, we were at Raymond's house in Houston,

Texas as the Craun family gathered

for their first reunion in more than 45 years.

Marie's dream had finally come true.

MARIE: I've been looking forward to this for a long time

because I didn't know if I would ever get to really

meet them in person or not.

I feel that the love is still there.

It never went away, it's always been there.

And I always wondered about them and now I'll finally

get to find out what's been going

on with their life and everything

and get reacquainted.

ROBERT STACK: For the oldest sister, Betty Jane,

the reunion was particularly emotional.

BETTY JANE: I knew that was Marie right away.

Just by looking at her, I knew that was Marie,

and that's the first one I embraced.

I was very happy to see them all.

And they all started coming to me and I started going to them,

hugging them and everything, so.

I was very happy and I feel good, I really do.

ROBERT STACK: For Raymond, the end of the search

meant a new beginning.

I know you're going to be tired in a week.

[laughing]

No, we won't.

We got a lot of catching up to do.

Yeah, we do.

I always knew that--

their names and everything, but I just--

I didn't know how to go about finding them or anything.

We hunted and we just get turned down

every place we turned to try to find them until this come along

and it worked.

[laughing]

ROBERT STACK: When we return, authorities

need your help to find a man suspected

of killing his girlfriend.

Kissimmee, Florida is a lakeside resort town about

10 miles south of Orlando.

BARBARA: Paula!

Mom!

BARBARA: Oh, honey.

Oh, it is so good to see you.

I am so glad that you're here.

ROBERT STACK: On July 9, 1986, 22-year-old Paula Pasciak

and her boyfriend Jerry Gervasoni

arrived from New Jersey to visit Paula's mother, Barbara.

OK, let's go.

They stayed there about one week.

We all had a good time together.

Paula was as happy as a lark, the two of them were.

I mean, they were very--

together, they were just happy-go-lucky.

Thanks for dinner.

It was really good, wasn't it, Jerry?

ROBERT STACK: During the visit, Paula

and Jerry slept in Barbara's bedroom

while she slept on a couch.

So do you guys have any plans for tomorrow or what?

Um, well, I was thinking maybe we'd go visit

my relatives down in Miami.

ROBERT STACK: On Sunday, four nights after they arrived,

Paula and Jerry told Barbara they would be leaving

the next morning for a short excursion

to another part of Florida.

We're getting kind of tired so, I think we'll sleep.

BARBARA: I got up the next morning.

OK, sweetie. For

BOTH: Goodnight.

And I thought I heard them up.

I didn't know whether they were or not,

so I didn't bother to say goodbye.

Maybe if I had, you know, things would have been different.

How long has it been this way?

For a couple of days.

ROBERT STACK: Over the next five days,

an odd smell began to waft through Barbara's mobile home,

however she and a friend were unable to determine

where it was coming.

Well, on Saturday morning I got up,

and by now the odor had really become strong to the point

where I had to search around to see what was causing this.

ROBERT STACK: Barbara searched the entire trailer

and found nothing.

The last place she looked was in her own bedroom.

Hidden under the bed, wrapped in a bamboo curtain,

was Paula's body.

At first--

I wasn't sure what I seen.

Just didn't expect it.

I had to stop and think, is this real or am I seeing things?

ROBERT STACK: Paula Pasciak had been strangled to death

and left under the bed for nearly a week.

The prime suspect was Jerry Gervasoni,

but he had dropped from sight.

Less than a month later, authorities

got their first break when they questioned a friend of Jerry's.

Just three days after the murder,

he had picked Jerry up at the Newark, New Jersey airport.

He claimed that Jerry virtually confessed to killing Paula.

What would you say if I told you I killed someone?

Bull.

I-- I don't know what happened.

I just freaked out, I lost it.

Over what?

I needed some quick cash, so I swiped the old lady's paycheck.

PAULA: What are you doing?

JERRY: Nothing.

Why are you in my mother's drawers?

I was just looking for a lighter.

Wait, wait, wait.

Wait.

These are her papers and I saw you

put something in your pocket.

Are you trying to rip her off?

No.

Then let me see what's in your pocket.

- No. - Let me see--

Don't touch me!

--what's in your pocket.

Get out of my way!

You liar!

I didn't mean to hurt her.

I broke her neck.

Look, man, if you've done something like that,

you're not getting my car and you're not coming

back to my place, you got it?

I scared ya.

I was just kidding.

DET.

MARK ALLEN THOMSPON: The witness was

very surprised when he learned that Paula had been murdered.

I got you. You should have seen your face.

After seven years, I believe that Jerry has decided

that he's no longer wanted or that we're no longer looking

for him and he's able to roam the streets freely

without worry of being arrested.

ROBERT STACK: But the seven years

since Paula Pasciak's murder have been filled with pain

for her mother Barbara.

In that time, Barbara has seen her own life gradually unravel.

I've become a very angry, very hateful person.

Ah, your life is never the same.

A part of you dies.

ROBERT STACK: Update.

British Columbia, Canada.

On October 21, 1993, Jerry Gervasoni

was arrested in the small community of Salt Springs

Island, where he had been living under the assumed name

Gordon MacIntyre.

When our program aired in Canada,

Gervasoni's former landlord recognized him and immediately

called authorities.

I come home and sit down to dinner, about 9:30,

quarter to 10:00, and flip on the TV

and there was this black and white photo

of Gordon McIntyre, my tenant.

ROBERT STACK: Once in custody, the suspect

vehemently insisted that he truly was Gordon MacIntyre.

But fingerprints soon confirm that he

was in fact Gerald Gervasoni.

At the local airport, Gervasoni tried

to avoid photographers as he was hustled

out of a waiting airplane.

He was then flown to a deportation

hearing in Victoria, Canada.

Gervasoni will be held there pending extradition to Florida,

where he will face charges in the murder of Paula Pasciak.

Join me next time.

Perhaps you may be able to help solve a mystery.

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