Original subtitles

ANNOUNCER: This program is about unsolved mysteries.

Whenever possible, the actual family members

and police officials have participated

in recreating the events.

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

ROBERT STACK: It was one of the boldest

breakouts in Oklahoma history.

19-year-old Travis Duncan and two

escaped prisoners led state troopers

on a frantic high-speed chase that ended in a wild shootout.

and Travis Duncan's disappearance.

For more than three years, Stephen Marfeo has

searched for his wife Doreen.

She mysteriously vanished in 1990,

but police believe Marfeo's concern is a clever smokescreen

intended to cover up his own involvement

in his wife's disappearance.

For 500 years it has been one of the world's

most famous portraits--

Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

But her identity has long been a mystery.

Tonight, a controversial new theory--

could the person behind the enigmatic smile

be Leonardo himself?

When Raymond Young vanished off the coast of Louisiana,

his family assumed he had drowned,

but authorities are convinced that Young is very much alive

and enjoying a good life thanks to millions of dollars

scammed from the government.

Join me for these intriguing cases.

Perhaps you may be able to help solve a mystery.

[theme music]

This story is about one of law enforcement's worst

nightmares--

three young criminals on the road

with a truck full of weapons and nothing to lose.

At the apex of this explosive triangle

was 19-year-old Travis Wade Duncan.

His family had lived in central Oklahoma for four generations.

In more than 100 years, not one of the Duncans

had ever been in trouble with the law,

until Travis came along.

In April of 1992, Travis Duncan was

an apprentice auto repairman in Seminole, Oklahoma.

He had just moved into his own apartment.

After one minor legal scrape in Texas,

Travis had maintained an excellent work

record for nearly a year.

JOE CRAIG: Travis was a quiet young man.

He'd get a little mischief now and then, but growing up he

was he was a good kid, you know, from a good family there.

ROBERT STACK: But in June of 1992,

Travis Duncan was arrested for stealing

guns from his employer.

Travis claimed he bought the guns.

He said he had no idea they were stolen,

much less stolen from his boss.

Bail was set at $25,000.

Duncan's family could not afford to post bond,

and he was incarcerated at the Seminole County Jail.

In you go.

CLINT WITHERS: He appeared to be a little nervous to be in jail.

Travis was the kind that was very quiet.

He never did cause any trouble at all.

He was just a real quiet type, kind of kept to himself.

ROBERT STACK: Another prisoner at the jail

was 19-year-old John Fisher.

According to law enforcement officials,

Fischer was by turns charismatic and crazy.

I'm rid of this bed, I'm rid of this cell,

I'm rid of everybody.

I'm out of here.

CHARLES SISCO: Fisher was arrested on a murder

charge, first degree murder.

John's goal in life was to be the drug lord of Oklahoma.

He was constantly fantasizing about,

and bragging to other people that he

was in with the Medellin Cartel of South America

that he had beaucoups of money, just any amount you had.

He had several accounts that had hundreds of thousands

of dollars in it.

Most people knew he was fantasizing.

ROBERT STACK: But Travis Duncan was not most people.

Naive and gullible, he was an easy mark for John Fisher.

The two would forge an unholy alliance.

Hey, I'm getting out of here.

I got $200,000 in a bank in Oklahoma.

I got guns, I got a car, everything.

CLINT WITHERS: Fisher was the kind that would look you right

in the face and tell you exactly how he felt.

He was a leader among the other inmates.

Everybody looked up to him.

Oklahoma's mine.

Six months out of here, Oklahoma's mind.

I always considered Fisher to be an escape risk just

by his actions.

And he would come straight out and admit it, that he would

escape if he had the chance.

I'm gonna run this place.

ROBERT STACK: For weeks, John Fisher filled Travis Duncan's

head with his wild ideas.

Then on August 18th 1992, Duncan's bail

was reduced after his parents hired a new lawyer.

Travis Duncan was released on the condition

that he live with his mother and father.

But Duncan insisted on moving back to his own apartment.

Over his parents' objections, he took his sister's pickup truck

and left.

No one knows where Travis Duncan went, only what he did.

Travis manufactured Molotov cocktails, different things,

loaded up the back end of the pickup

with all types of ammunition, 9 millimeter pistols, shotguns,

all different types of things, some camping equipment,

and food, water, things to live off of if they

had to hide for while.

ROBERT STACK: Seminole County jail, 5:30 PM, the next day.

Hey, hey Travis.

Hey, what's up?

Not much.

Hey, you mind if I go over and look at Travis' pick up?

Absolutely not, just finish up what you're doing.

Glen?

Hey Travis.

Hey, want some cigarettes?

Yeah, thanks.

Let's go.

Don't move.

Turn around,

CLINT WITHERS: When he pulled the gun on me,

I was frightened.

He also told me if I didn't cooperate with him,

that he would shoot me.

This job ain't worth your life.

Move.

ROBERT STACK: Duncan was familiar with the jail routine.

He knew that at this hour, only the jailer would be on duty.

In, in.

Take off your shirt.

Hurry!

Go on, take off that shirt.

Give it to me, now.

Don't move, boy.

Don't you move, boy.

ROBERT STACK: Duncan quickly found

the keys to the other cell.

He lost no time freeing John Fisher.

Don't you move, boy.

Fish, you ready?

I'm ready, I was born ready.

Let's go man, now.

ROBERT STACK: Fisher tried to turn the escape

into a mass jail break, but only one other prisoner,

Timothy Johnson, was willing.

JOE CRAIG: I think it came as a surprise to Fisher

that Travis did this, showing up in just

the quick moment that he did.

We were prepared for a break, for an escape from the inside.

We never dreamed of one coming from the outside on us.

It was approximately 30 minutes before we knew of the escape.

And a general broadcast was sent out over the escape

with the vehicle description and the occupants.

The highway patrol's police units up on the interstate

picked him up on radar running a high rate of speed.

And we were able to monitor the traffic at that point

and [inaudible] who they were after

and what the circumstances was.

On August 19th, I was notified by my troop

headquarters of a vehicle traveling

at high speed on I-40.

The vehicle was occupied by three white males,

and we set up a roadblock to attempt to intercept

the vehicle as it came through.

As it came around the curve, got within a visual sighting

of our roadblock, the driver, Travis Duncan had accelerated

to about 100 miles an hour.

[tires squealing]

I jumped in my patrol car and began pursuing the pickup.

They continued east on I-40, burning

about a hundred miles an hour I caught it, the pickup.

Fish began to lean out the window

and point the shotgun at my patrol car as I was pursuing.

Every time he'd lean out and to draw a beat on my unit,

then I would go to the left of the driver's side

of the pickup, get as far over as I could,

get out of the line of fire.

This is something that you expect to see on the movies,

but you don't really expect it to happen to you.

ROBERT STACK: By 7:30 PM, the three fugitives, heading due

east, had rampaged along a 150 mile stretch of Interstate 40

at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour.

Just 24 miles from the Arkansas Border,

they headed for Kerr Lake, an area

which the troopers knew well, but the fugitives did not.

BILL JAMES: We exited the interstate

and started south on the county road.

Because we did, Fisher leaned out the passenger's window

and threw what appeared to be a beer bottle up in the air.

Like, he tried to throw something

through the windshield of my patrol car.

That Molotov cocktail failed to ignite because it hit the road.

The wind and the high speed blew the wick out of it,

all it was doing was smoldering.

ROBERT STACK: Seconds later, Fisher lobbed another homemade

bomb our of the truck.

It, too, failed to detonate.

BILL JAMES: As we entered the park area,

I began to crowd him at a high rate of speed

again to push him from making a left turn

to go back to the east.

At that point, I had them going straight south into a closed

area where there was a big steel gate,

and I knew they'd have to either stop at the gate

or they would crash through this heavy steel gate.

[gun firing]

ROBERT STACK: A fierce firefight broke out.

Incredibly, no one was wounded, even

though 70 rounds were fired.

The vehicle had over 2000 rounds of ammunition in it

after it crashed.

There were about seven Molotov cocktails and some pipe,

or black powder pipe bombs in the vehicle.

There were firearms, there was camping gear,

so they had every intention of going into the woods

and not returning to jail.

You don't have time to fear anything,

the adrenaline's pumping so hard.

But your mind is rushing, you know,

I hope I told my kids that I love them

before I came to work today.

ROBERT STACK: At around 7:45 PM, Fisher, Duncan, and Johnson

fled into the woods.

Unwittingly, they had trapped themselves on a peninsula

jutting into the lake.

By nightfall, the State Highway Patrol, working with local law

enforcement agencies, had attempted to seal

off all possible escape routes.

Finally, the Oklahoma Lake Patrol was called in.

We're coming out, don't shoot.

Put your hands up over your head.

Turn around.

We're unarmed, don't shoot.

Turn around.

Walk backwards towards the boat.

ROBERT STACK: Just before 10:00 PM, Fisher

and Johnson were cornered.

They claimed Travis Duncan had been shot

and was lying dead in the woods, but later

they admitted that Duncan had, in fact, gone off on his own.

BILL JAMES: I transported Mr. Fisher back to the county

jail in my patrol car.

As we pulled into the county jail,

Mr. Fisher looked me in the eye and he said, you know,

you really are a nice guy.

He said, I don't want you to take this all personal,

he said, but people like me and you,

this is all in a day's work.

Which I stated, it may be in a day's work for him,

but it is definitely not in a normal day's work for me.

We kept the area contained for nearly three days,

hoping to find Duncan.

We used tracking dogs, we did searches

in case he had, in fact, been shot and was down in the woods.

The place has been thoroughly combed.

It was combed in a grid search area over and over again.

We've had a mounted patrol in here on horseback

to search all the wood areas to no avail.

We're unable to locate him, no signs that he's in there.

There was no evidence to indicate that he'd been shot.

ROBERT STACK: One month later, police

discovered a badly decomposed male body on the south shore

of Kerr Lake.

He was a missing camper who had been shot through the head

at approximately the same time Travis Duncan disappeared.

Police now theorize that Duncan swam across the lake.

He then murdered the camper and used his truck to escape.

Update-- on May 5, 1994, Travis Wade Duncan

finally came home to Seminole County, Oklahoma,

five days after he was arrested in Boise, Idaho.

Thanks to a tip from an alert viewer,

Duncan's life on the run is finally over.

CHARLES SISCO: We believe that he went from Oklahoma to North

or South Carolina, has went into Washington and Oregon,

went to Hawaii, was in Arizona prior to being

arrested in Boise, Idaho.

So he had traveled around doing odd jobs, living from one state

to another.

ROBERT STACK: Once in custody, Duncan

willingly revealed the details of his escape from Kerr Lake.

BILL JAMES: Travis told me that after the crash,

he stayed in the woods, traveled through the woods

until he came to the edge of the water on Kerr Lake.

He stayed hid in the bushes until about an hour after dark,

and then he swam a cove, which would be approximately a half

mile wide, and then came up and stayed in the tree line

and walked a mountain lion out, then

he was able to catch a ride and go east from that area.

I'm delighted that he's behind bars.

It kinda ends this story.

And I'm completely satisfied with the results,

that nobody was injured.

He was apprehended, and he's facing

the years in the penitentiary that he's looking at.

ROBERT STACK: On September 10, 1991,

detective Pat Brennan of the Philadelphia Police

was stunned to receive not one, but three

telephone calls from a convicted rapist named Julius Patterson.

Out of the blue, Patterson confessed

that he and his girlfriend, Paulette Hite,

had killed two people.

He was like a man on a mission.

He was out to convince me and anyone else that would listen

to him that what he had to say was real,

and he was out to make the police act on it.

With this urgency in his voice, and the detail to what he was

saying to us just made me feel that everything he was saying

was the truth and would be founded.

ROBERT STACK: Patterson said one of the victims

was an elderly man named Hall Luther

Gordon, who had mysteriously disappeared in 1988.

How do you know he was telling the truth?

ROBERT STACK: Patterson claimed that the remains

of the other victim could be found buried in the basement

of a Philadelphia row house.

Incredibly, he even admitted that this victim

was his own sister.

Julius Patterson had been telling the truth.

Testing would later confirm that the bones found

in the basement were those of his mentally handicapped

younger sister, Jessie.

These pictures of Julius Patterson and Paulette Hite

were taken by a bank ATM camera in 1991.

Authorities believe that the pair may have stolen

as much as $150,000 in social security benefits

from their two victims, both before

and after they were murdered.

Following our most recent broadcast of this story,

a former employer of Paulette Hite

called our phone center to report that Hite had been

working in a fast food restaurant

in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, under an assumed name.

Here's what happened next, according to Philadelphia

Police Lieutenant Joseph Witte.

He gave us the social security number she used,

and the FBI tracked that Social Security number to a welfare

recipient in New York City.

FBI agents and New York City Police Department

staked out the location where she was to pick up her checks.

At that time, both Julius Patterson and Paulette Hite

were apprehended.

ROBERT STACK: After the arrest, Julius Patterson

led police to this empty warehouse

in North Philadelphia, where he said

he had left the partial remains of Hall Luther Gordon.

Police records confirm that some human bones

had been found there in 1989.

The police now believe that they were the remains

of Hall Luther Gordon.

Three weeks later, Patterson led police back to the same area,

claiming that he had buried yet another victim there.

During the search, the unexpected happened.

While behind the factory, he assaulted

one of the detectives, knocking him down,

and then ran down the railroad tracks

and jumped off a railroad trestle

that was about 10 feet tall onto a street

and then made his escape.

ROBERT STACK: Three days later, Julius

Patterson was captured at an intersection

in North Philadelphia.

When he was apprehended, Patterson

was standing at a bus stop wearing severed handcuffs

concealed under a coat.

Next, a startling new theory about the model for one

of the world's great paintings-- the Mona Lisa.

Her face and smile have captured imaginations

for nearly 500 years.

She has inspired poets, painters, and musicians alike.

She is, of course, the Mona Lisa--

a master work of the master artist, Leonardo da Vinci.

Through the centuries, millions have been drawn to the mystery

and beauty surrounding the portrait,

except that art history has it that the model

for the Mona Lisa was the wife of a wealthy Italian lord.

Some say that the loss of a child

accounts for her sad, captivating expression,

but no one knows for sure.

According to legend, Leonardo da Vinci

was so enamored of the Mona Lisa that he carried the painting

with him everywhere he went for the last two

decades of his life.

When he passed away in 1519, the secret of the Mona Lisa's

identity went with him to the grave,

providing generations of scholars

fodder for a lively debate.

Recently, however, a computer analysis of the portrait

may have uncovered a startling clue

to the Mona Lisa's identity, a clue which has

set the art world on its ear.

Lillian Schwartz, co-author of the computer artist's handbook,

pioneered the use of the computer in art.

In 1986, Lillian and a colleague were working

with a new computer program which involved

comparing two digitized images.

All right, and would you call me when you

get something we can look at?

Sure

ROBERT STACK: By pure coincidence,

Lillian had fed into the computer

a self portrait of Leonardo da Vinci and the Mona Lisa.

When the self-portrait was reversed

and placed beside the Mona Lisa, single face emerged.

The results left Lillian Schwartz flabbergasted.

LILLIAN SCHWARTZ: This was an incredible match.

When I pointed this out, I said my god, look at this,

look at this.

I mean, Leonardo probably used himself for the model

for the Mona Lisa.

And he said no, no, no.

He didn't want to agree.

He didn't even look at the screen.

He didn't want-- he didn't want to accept that.

ROBERT STACK: Everything about the two faces appeared

to be a perfect match--

the eyes, the nose, finally and especially the mouth.

Using a different computer, Lillian even

managed to turn up the corners of the self-portrait's mouth

and approximate the famous Mona Lisa smile.

In addition, a comparison of the foreheads

revealed a baffling curiosity.

An extremely important clue was that the supraorbital ridge

that is very prominent in the Mona Lisa image

and in Leonardo's self-portrait is found in almost all males,

over 90% males.

Rarely would you see that in a female head.

ROBERT STACK: The conclusions seem preposterous.

Had Leonardo perpetrated an incredible practical joke

and actually served as the model for the woman

often deemed the world's most beautiful?

In January of 1987, Lillian Schwartz

took her findings to magazine publisher Wick Allison

WICK ALLISON: Initially I was very skeptical

of Lilian's discovery, but when I

got to understand the very detailed work being done

in the laboratory, it started to make not only sense to me

that this was the answer, but as we got to know more

about human facial characteristics,

that it was the only answer.

There are certain things that right away

would puzzle an art historian.

One is that the images, Leonardo's images,

say the Mona Lisa, is remarkable precisely for the fact

that it's not very distinct.

The outlines of the face are not very strongly marked.

There's a shadow under the nose, so you can't

tell exactly how long it is.

So if one wants to apply a scale,

there's nothing that tells you exactly

where that scale should go.

In other words, you are placing something very specific

on top of something that's not very specific.

ROBERT STACK: Professor Brandt is

also skeptical about whether that drawing

is a self-portrait.

If the drawing is by Leonardo, its style

suggests a date when he would not yet have looked so old.

Some in the art world believe the portrait was actually

drawn by a clever forger.

So Lillian, how's it going?

Oh, hi.

Well, I found something really interesting here.

ROBERT STACK: Lillian Schwartz refused

to back down in the face of mounting criticism.

She set out to prove her theory. .

Eventually, Lillian came across this study

of an Italian duchess named Isabella

that many believe was a preliminary sketch for the Mona

Lisa.

When Lillian compared to the drawing of Isabella

to an x-ray of the painting, she found that it matched

to the under sketch that people had always assumed

was the Mona Lisa.

For Lillian, it was the final, crucial detail.

I'm convinced that Leonardo started with Isabella,

and then he used himself to complete this work of art,

changed much of what was the duchess, incorporating

his own dimensions and forehead to create this feigned,

this fictionalized face.

When you take all the evidence of art history, all the things

we know about Leonardo, when you take

the technical applications of Lilian's work,

Lillian's theory holds up.

On reflection, I am more convinced than ever

that it's the answer.

ROBERT STACK: However, professor Kathleen Brandt

argues that most everything about Lillian's

theory conflicts with Leonardo's own philosophy about art.

Leonardo cautioned artists that every painter

somehow paints himself.

That is, that his own self image is somehow

inherent in his images of others.

Leonardo says, we have to try to counteract that.

So therefore, it would be absolutely a contradiction

if he would should willingly impose his image

into that of a young woman.

ROBERT STACK: Did Leonardo da Vinci

serve as his own model for the world's most celebrated

painting, or have some scholars and artists

jumped to hasty conclusions?

For 500 years, people have wondered

who posed for the Mona Lisa, yet she has

refused to divulge her secrets.

Perhaps that is why she is smiling.

When we return, a grieving husband

becomes a suspect in the mysterious disappearance

of his wife.

STEPHEN MARFEO: I had nothing to do

with my wife's disappearance .

I would like to think that she's still alive.

But I do feel that it's possible it could go the other way, too.

I want to know that she is alive.

Doreen?

On On March 29, 1990, Stephen Marfeo of Johnston,

Rhode Island came home from work to find

his house oddly silent, empty.

A small suitcase was missing, and

Stephen's wife of 12 years, Doreen,

was nowhere to be found.

STEPHEN MARFEO: I started looking for the clothes.

I noticed some jeans, a couple shirts were missing, blouses.

I checked a small safe that we used to have

and I noticed that there was some money out of it.

There was probably a few hundred in there that was gone.

Other than that, there was-- the car in the yard,

there were no notes, no letters, nothing.

ROBERT STACK: Doreen Marfeo was 34

years old when she disappeared.

Since then, there have been several unconfirmed sightings

of her, but beyond that, nothing--

no phone calls, no paper trail, no body.

Over the past three years, Stephen Marfeo

has spent thousands of dollars searching for his wife,

who he believes is still alive.

He has publicized the case on television and newspapers,

and has offered a $5,000 reward.

The police, however, have become convinced

that Doreen was murdered.

And Stephen Marfeo has discovered that when someone

disappears for no apparent reason,

the most obvious suspect is the person who knew them best.

Stephen Marfeo met Doreen Dobson in 1976,

and quickly found they both enjoyed active lifestyles.

Two years later, they were married.

Stephen worked in the jewelry business

and enjoyed weightlifting and driving fast cars.

Doreen was a successful career woman,

a purchase manager at the Rhode Island School of Design.

With their similar outgoing personalities,

Doreen and Stephen seemed the perfect match.

Hello?

Hi, Mr. Kendall, how are you?

ROBERT STACK: But in the fall of 1989,

a crack appeared in the Marfeos' perfect world.

That October, Doreen abruptly quit her job

and said she needed a change.

STEPHEN MARFEO: It was a surprise to her bosses

as well as myself and her friends and mother.

Yeah, I've enjoyed working with you too.

OK, OK, well, take care.

You just don't quit a job and not go anywhere.

She's not the type to just leave for no reason.

ROBERT STACK: According to Stephen,

Doreen's behavior grew increasingly erratic,

to the point that she seemed on the verge

of a nervous breakdown.

STEPHEN MARFEO: From a strong, independent woman

she became very weak, very unassured of herself,

basically a nervous wreck in a matter of weeks.

Doreen, do you know what time it is?

I know, I know.

Look, just go back to bed, I'll be there

in a couple of minutes, OK?

Doreen, please, what is it, please tell me what's wrong.

Is it me?

Is it something I did?

No, It's not you, it's me, I just--

STEPHEN MARFEO: When I did try and push the issue,

she would get more hysterical.

I can't talk about it.

I can't.

STEPHEN MARFEO: I remember a couple times she said

I think I'm having a breakdown.

And tears were coming down, she would just shake,

all I could do was hold her.

Please, please talk to me .

Don't shut me off like this.

STEPHEN MARFEO: We always could talk about everything before,

why not now?

She said it's, I can't at this time.

I will tell you, but I can't at this time.

And I never did find out.

ROBERT STACK: Stephen says that Doreen's

bizarre behavior continued until the day she disappeared.

Hi, Laura?

Hi, is Doreen there?

ROBERT STACK: Stephen admits he did nothing for two days

after Doreen vanished, assuming she needed some time alone

to sort things out.

Finally, he called Doreen's mother,

but she had not seen or talked to her daughter in over a week.

I really think she went away to get a few days

by herself to clear her head.

LAURA DOBSON: When Steve called me in the morning,

he sounded strange.

I said, there's something wrong.

Then he called in the afternoon.

Right away I knew.

I told him call the police now.

Don't wait.

ROBERT STACK: The police questioned

Doreen's family and friends.

However, no one knew what might have prompted her

to just pick up and walk away.

Then, a phone call took the investigation

in a new direction.

I just called Stephen Marfeo back.

He said he had Doreen followed around

by two private investigators for like 11 months.

STEPHEN MARFEO: I didn't think it was anything major,

but I just felt something wasn't right.

So [inaudible].

Something's not right, I want to find out what it is.

So I did hire a private investigator on and off

for a year, maybe a few hours a month

to find, follow her once in awhile,

because I didn't know what was going on.

I just felt that there was something wrong.

But they never found anything.

Basically, what you have is you

have a man who has a personality, who

has his wife followed around for 11 months for no reason at all,

and this same man later on, down the road, his wife disappears.

She's missing for two days, and he

has no concern to follow her, or call her,

or to report it to the police.

I mean, that's totally inconsistent

with his personality when he her followed around for no reason.

Here, you have your wife missing now for two days,

and you don't think anything's unusual,

you don't make any phone calls or call the police?

It's not consistent.

ROBERT STACK: Authorities had nothing but suspicions.

On the one hand, there was nothing to indicate

that Doreen was still alive.

On the other hand, there was no evidence that she

had met with foul play.

Then, on June 13, 1990, 2 and 1/2 months after Doreen

disappeared, police got their first break in the case

when they received two anonymous letters.

In the first letter opened by investigators,

the author attacked Doreen's character

and accused her of cheating on her husband,

saying, among other things--

--although on the outside, she personifies class beauty

and professionalism, in reality, she is nothing

more than a cheap harlot.

Her promotions were achieved by her sexual prowess

rather than management or leadership abilities.

JOHN L. NARDOLILLO: The first letter

that we received mentioned names of people she was involved

with that we spoke to, who were totally surprised to even have

the police question that their name was even mentioned

in this investigation.

One of them was an elderly gentleman.

I mean, we talked to coworkers.

There was absolutely no inclination of Doreen

having an affair with anyone.

Her coworkers said that was totally out of her character.

She had mentioned just in normal conversation with her coworkers

that that's something she would never be involved in

or tolerate was any type of marital affairs,

even long before she disappeared.

ROBERT STACK: However, according to Doreen's sister,

Doreen had once considered leaving Stephen

for another man, not one year before she vanished,

but 10 years earlier.

LORNA DOBSON: She was having an affair,

and the guy that she was having an affair with

was leaving, or wanted to have her leave with him

to wherever he was going.

She was pretty weary, very upset about what she should do.

And she came to me, and eventually my husband,

to talk about it, and we all decided that probably the best

thing she should do is not do what she was thinking of doing.

So this had been a thought that passed through her head before.

ROBERT STACK: The second letter was even

more disturbing than the first.

This letter gave a chilling account

of how Stephen Marfeo had allegedly murdered his wife.

Stephen got hot under the collar.

He made for couch and strangled Doreen.

On a narrow dirt road he stopped and deposited

wife's body in reeds in a pond.

When we first received these letters,

the captain and I felt as though that Stephen Marfeo may have

been the author of these letters based

on some of the information that was contained, the contents.

He would have only been the one to know these contents.

What we did at that point was to reaffirm our belief.

We had him sent up to Syracuse University

and had him examined by Dr. Murray Miron, who's

an expert on psycholinguistics, for his opinion as who

was the author may have been.

DR. MURRAY MIRON: Well, it's got to be

someone who knew Doreen quite well,

close to the family, the Marfeos.

And then one says that the easiest and simplest

account of this was it was designed

to deceive the authorities.

ROBERT STACK: In his report, Dr. Miron pointed a finger

directly at Stephen Marfeo.

Miron concluded that Marfeo probably wrote both letters

and was, quote, a logical suspect

in the murder of his wife.

STEPHEN MARFEO: I did not type any letters.

They're police, they can say whatever they want.

And they do, and they get away with it.

I'm really getting tired of the accusations

and the allegations, innuendos.

If you have something, bring it forward.

ROBERT STACK: The police seized several typewriters

to which Stephen had access.

A comparison of type styles revealed at the first letter

had indeed been written on a typewriter belonging to one

of Stephen's close relatives.

LEO E. O'DONNELL: It establishes for the first time

a linkage between the document, the instrument, and a suspect.

So it was of major importance to us,

and I mean, it's like a fingerprint

as far as identification.

It's easy for them to suspect the spouse.

And they've been proved wrong before,

and they'll be proven wrong again.

Everybody calls me an optimist,

and everybody says oh, Steve killed her.

But I don't believe that at all.

None of his friends do as well, the ones that I know,

that I've talked to.

I, myself, don't.

The police do, but there is no evidence.

They've tried to convince me that he did do it.

There's a possibility, but in my mind, when I see the way

Steve acts when the mail comes, a phone rings, as I said,

that goes back.

He still thinks that she's alive.

ROBERT STACK: Today, Stephen Marfeo lives in the same house

that he and Doreen shared for 12 years.

The police still believe that Stephen is the only person

responsible for the disappearance of his wife,

although they lack enough evidence

to charge him at this time.

STEPHEN MARFEO: I had nothing to do

with my wife's disappearance, nor do I know where she is.

I would like to think that she's still alive,

but I do feel that it's possible it could go the other way too.

I want to know that she is alive.

ROBERT STACK: Next, a business man

vanishes after scamming the government out

of millions of dollars.

April 6 1993, off the coast of Louisiana near the mouth

of the Mississippi River.

For businessman Raymond Young, it had been a perfect day.

Since dawn, he and his son Edward, along with two friends,

have been enjoying a favorite activity--

scuba diving.

At 6 PM, Raymond and Edward decided to make one final dive.

20 minutes later, a panicked Edward surfaced alone.

Have you seen my dad?

No, I haven't seen him anywhere.

ROBERT STACK: The peaceful outing

had turned into a nightmare.

Raymond Young was missing.

A massive search would turn up nothing

and Young's family assumed he had drowned.

However, the authorities are convinced

that Raymond Young is alive and well

and that he staged his own disappearance.

Raymond Young was the type of person who liked to gamble.

He was a chance taker.

He spent millions of dollars in his activities.

He liked to live the good lifestyle,

and he saw that he could make big money fast.

ROBERT STACK: Raymond Young was a flashy self-made millionaire

who owned and operated a wholesale fuel company

on Marco Island, Florida.

Message was right, opportunity of a decade.

No, would I lie to you?

ROBERT STACK: Young set up the company

to distribute diesel fuel for offshore marine use.

Because he supposedly sold to wholesalers only,

Young was exempt from paying federal excise taxes.

However, when customs officials discover that millions

of dollars were flowing in and out of Young's personal bank

accounts, they began to suspect that his real business

was scamming the government.

In reality, Raymond Young had been selling his fuel to retail

gas stations throughout the state of Texas and pocketing

the money he should have been paying in taxes, an estimated

$0.40 per gallon sold.

MERLE THROOP: $0.40 a gallon may not seem like a lot of money,

but when you multiply that by the hundreds of thousands

of gallons that Ray Young l distributing--

this took place over a two to three year period of time.

So he could have in actuality defrauded the government

for an excess of $15 million.

ROBERT STACK: In October of 1991,

the IRS and US Customs Service launched a joint investigation

into a Young's activities.

Simultaneously, Young began to liquidate his assets.

Eventually, the authorities would decide

to charge Raymond Young with 17 counts of tax evasion,

but Young left Florida while the investigation

was still under way.

In May of 1992, Young surfaced in New Orleans.

Federal agents set up a surveillance

and observed his Mercedes parked alongside a luxury

yacht, which was being primed for ocean voyage.

Although the vessel was flying a foreign flag,

records confirm that the boat belonged to Raymond Young.

Somebody's new's up on the bridge.

That could be our man.

It is our man, let's get him.

You have the right to remain silent.

Anything you say can and will be used

against you in a court of law.

MERLE THROOP: When Raymond Young was arrested,

by all indications, Raymond did not think he was going to be

found guilty on these charges.

He told all of his friends that he would not be convicted

and felt very confident that would be the case.

Ray, wait, now that was a totally unexpected verdict.

ROBERT STACK: Raymond Young could not have been more wrong.

In January of 1993, he was found guilty on 16 counts.

Counselor, I am not going to prison.

Ray, don't do anything foolish.

ROBERT STACK: Even though Young faced up to 13 years in prison,

he was eventually granted bail clean up

his personal and business affairs.

Two days before he was to be sentenced,

Raymond young went scuba diving in the Gulf of Mexico

and has not been seen since.

On our next "Unsolved Mysteries," a modern day

Cowboy is found shot to death and his girlfriend

turns up missing.

Is she also dead, or is she the key figure

in a sinister murder plot?

My daughter did not kill that man.

I would like to think she's still alive,

but I believe she's dead.

I've come to terms with God.

I just want him to help me settle his case, to find

out who did it and let them pay the penalty

and they should pay.

For every mystery there is someone,

somewhere, who knows the truth.

Perhaps that someone is watching.

See you next Wednesday.

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