Original subtitles

[music playing]

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.

[music playing]

Is it mother's instinct or just coincidence?

Tonight, a fascinating look at the mysterious telepathic link

between mothers and children.

Carolyn Hebert was cleaning up after dinner

when she suddenly sensed that her 8-month-old daughter was

in grave danger.

Carolyn rushed to the living room

and saved the baby from choking.

Elaine Emmi was overcome by a strong, inexplicable feeling

of dread during an out-of-town trip.

Later, she would learn that, at that very moment,

her son had been seriously injured in a fall.

Both women attribute their experiences

to a special sixth sense possessed only by mothers.

Also tonight, in 1990, Anita Green

was gunned down by an unidentified man in the parking

lot of her husband's office.

Two years later, a friend of Anita's, Michele Samit,

was writing a book on the case and found herself targeted

by a vicious unknown stalker, who

she believes is the same man who murdered her friend.

This tragic accident left one person dead and three injured,

but in reality, it was no accident.

It was a result of a deadly con game gone wrong--

a con game springing up all over the country--

and you could be a target.

Finally, the intriguing mystery of this century-old edition

of the Bible.

It was found accidentally in a second-hand store,

its pages crumbling and its gold gilt long since faded.

But as it turns out, there was a lot of life in this old book.

The enigmatic secrets of a family whose

heirs may be watching tonight.

Join me.

[theme music]

There seems little doubt that an almost

magical bond exists between some mothers and their children.

It is perhaps the most wonderful and heartwarming

of all mysteries.

January of 1974 was a blur of diapers and dishes

for Carolyn Hebert, a mother of two.

But Carolyn will remember one day in particular

for the rest of her life.

CAROLYN HEBERT: It was in the evening.

I was in the kitchen doing the dishes.

My husband was down the hallway, reading the newspaper.

My daughter Monica was in there, doing her homework,

and Sarah, our little baby, was playing with her toys.

And you know, you're not-- your mind is not really usually very

far away from your children.

You think about them.

And this night, I was thinking about Sarah,

and suddenly, I had a feeling that there was something wrong.

It was a very focused feeling.

And in my mind, I saw that she was choking on something.

I didn't know what. - Sarah?

DAD: Sarah?

Look what she had in her mouth.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Carolyn

says that she had inexplicably sensed her 8-month-old daughter

silently choking on a balloon.

Sarah, you've got to be careful.

CAROLYN HEBERT: You would think about the what-ifs.

What if I hadn't listened and just thought,

well, I'll go in a few minutes?

But this was not that sort of a feeling.

This was, get there, you're needed.

Call it mother's instinct.

Call it ESP.

Call it simply the power of love.

Accounts of the extraordinary intuition of mothers

have been handed down for generations.

Such a bond seems to defy the limits of time and space.

And while it may never be scientifically proven,

it is far too compelling to be denied.

It's not like watching your child walk down the street

and say, oh, I know they're going

to trip over the sidewalk.

It's not like that.

It's so powerful and so strong, and it's

very different feeling.

Hi.

How many?

Two, please.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In 1983, business

had taken Elaine Emmi and a neighbor, Sharon Krakker,

to Palm Springs, 110 miles from their homes in Los Angeles.

Here you go.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): They were just sitting down

to eat when Elaine was seized by an overwhelming sense of dread

about her 4-year-old son.

Am I hungry!

ELAINE EMMI: It was like being hit by a wave.

It was a very powerful feeling, both emotionally

and physically.

Sharon, something's wrong.

What do you mean, something's wrong?

Something's happened to Matt.

Oh, Elaine, stop worrying.

I'm sure he's just--

ELAINE EMMI: It's like someone flipping a switch.

All of a sudden, you feel something,

and two seconds before, you didn't feel that.

You weren't thinking about that at all.

SHARON KRAKKER: Elaine, everything looks so good.

I knew something was wrong with Matt immediately,

and it wasn't just a foreboding.

I mean, sometimes people get a strange sense

that something's not right. It wasn't like that.

It was a very definite feeling, something that you

couldn't just shrug off.

Sharon, Matthew has been hurt.

I just know it. - Elaine?

I'm going to go call home.

I'll be right back.

SHARON KRAKKER: Elaine had instant panic.

She wasn't what I would consider out of control,

but just her mannerisms gave me the impression

that she was very concerned and knew that there

was something very wrong.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Elaine immediately called home.

No answer.

Convinced that something truly terrible had happened,

she phoned Sharon's husband Tom.

[phone ringing]

TOM (ON PHONE): Hello? - Hi, Tom.

It's Elaine.

Elaine?

Where are you?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Tom had not

heard from Elaine's husband or seen

anything unusual at their house just across the street.

So I said, well, then, why don't we just have lunch?

She said, no, there's something wrong.

We need to go home.

And that's what we did.

Elaine, are you still worried?

I don't know.

I just can't get rid of this feeling

that something awful has happened to Matt.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Twice during the trip

back to Los Angeles Elaine stopped to call home.

- Do you want me to drive? - No.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Still, no one answered.

ELAINE EMMI: Sharon tried to reassure me that everything was

probably all right, but the sense of urgency

was still there, and there was nothing I could

do to get of that feeling.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): It was the longest three

hours of Elaine Emmi's life.

When she and Sharon finally arrived home,

Sharon's husband had stunning news.

He had learned that Matt was in the hospital.

Matt.

Mom.

Oh, thank God you're here.

Oh, Matt.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): When Elaine arrived,

Matt was being prepped for surgery to reattach

severed tendons in his arm.

He had fallen and crashed through a plate glass door

at the very moment the sense of dread had swept over Elaine.

But I think Matt's going to do just fine.

Aren't you?

ELAINE EMMI: I was feeling what Matt was going through,

no doubt about it.

I don't think I ever questioned that.

I'm not sure why I was able to feel that.

But I know, without any doubt, what I was feeling

and what I was experiencing.

It made the hair stand up on the back of my neck,

thinking, oh my god, she actually

did know that something was happening when it happened.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Elaine and her son

had been separated by more than 100 miles,

and yet, she had been as certain he was hurt as if she had seen

the accident with her own eyes.

Don't worry.

Don't worry.

It's going to be just fine, OK?

I think that this connection starts in the womb.

I think even in the womb some children and some mothers

are more connected than others.

And if they are really connected, of course,

then it will continue for the rest of their lives.

It is a connection of love, whereby the mother

anticipates the child's needs--

whether it's a small baby, A toddler, an adolescent--

but she anticipates it, not only on a physical level, which,

of course, is part of the maternal instinct,

but on a level we might almost call telepathic,

spiritual, so that the whole mother is

in touch with the whole child.

Sometimes it just happens once in a lifetime,

and you may never be able to repeat it again.

But it just happens.

You have tuned in that one person

who is sending out those signals because it's important to you.

DOCTOR: Mom and Dad, you can come along with us.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): If Elaine Emmi does have

a psychic bond with her son, it seems logical

that it originated in the womb.

However, many adoptive mothers have also reported

these astounding experiences.

Simply the fact of having adopted a child doesn't mean

the woman's divested of all her instincts,

and I believe that women have instincts--

a woman's intuition, whatever you want to call it.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In March of 1987, Linda Babb

and her husband Dirk, already the parents of four,

were looking to adopt for the second time.

Linda says at around that time, she

had a most incredible dream unlike any

she's had before or since.

DOCTOR: Now push.

Push real hard.

Go ahead and push. Push.

Push.

LINDA BABB: I had a dream.

And in the dream, I saw a young woman, and she was in labor--

a light-headed woman that was fair complected.

And I didn't know who this person was,

But I did see that she was in labor and at the point

of giving birth.

And as she pushed, I saw the baby's head crown

and then be born.

[baby crying]

DOCTOR: It's a beautiful, healthy baby boy.

LINDA BABB: He had lots of dark hair on his head.

I remember that.

And he was dark complected.

And at the moment that he was born and began to cry,

I woke up from the dream.

I felt startled because it was a very vivid and realistic dream.

I had never had a dream so vivid.

And I looked at my clock on my bedside table,

and it was 2:59 in the morning on March 8.

Next morning at breakfast, my wife said, sweetie, I've

got the most incredible dream.

I witnessed the birth of a child.

And I said, what child?

She said, I don't know.

Linda, Dirk!

I'm so glad you could make it.

How are you?

I'm fine, thank you.

LINDA BABB: Six weeks later, we had a call

from our adoption agency.

We had applied to adopt, and they

called and asked us if we would be interested in adopting

a baby boy.

Oh, here he is, and he is such a cutie pie.

LINDA BABB: When they brought the baby in,

he looked to me like the most beautiful baby I had ever seen.

He had beautiful, golden brown skin

and a head full of dark hair.

He looked very much like the infant in my dream.

How old did you say he was?

Six weeks.

Uh, let me check that.

Yes, he was born March 8.

March 8?

What time?

Let's see.

2:59 AM.

LINDA BABB: When she told me the baby

had been born March 8 the 2:59 in the morning, I was stunned.

For a moment, I was just speechless.

Then I turned to Dirk, and I said, that's the same time

and the date of that dream I had.

I thought my wife really had seen the birth of this child

with her mother.

That was the dream.

And it was confirmation to me at that time

that this was meant to be, that this was the child for us.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Linda and Dirk

adopted the infant, whose very birth Linda

feels certain she witnessed.

Any remaining doubts vanished 18 months

later, when Linda was shown a picture

of her son's birth mother.

LINDA BABB: My first thought was how beautiful she was

and how much he looked like her.

Then I realized that this was the light-haired,

light-complected woman of the dream--

the mother that had the baby.

An adoptive mother can feel this communication almost

as a radar of love because whether she has formally

applied to adopt a child or not, she still

has in her heart this intention, and it's

almost as if the right child somehow

contacts her psychically, sometimes

even before the child is born.

Those two vibrations somehow meet each other,

and it may happen once in 10,000 cases,

and that's the one that we, perhaps, hear about.

But that very special case just proves the fact

that at least it can happen.

LINDA BABB: I'm as skeptical as the next person,

always looking for another explanation.

It does seem a little far-fetched.

All I can say, it was a gift.

I don't know why it happened or why

I would be given such a gift.

I just know that it happened, and that's

the only explanation I have.

DR. THOMAS VERNY: There is no rational explanation

for these things.

But just because there is no rational explanation

for these things doesn't mean that it didn't happen.

ELAINE EMMI: I don't understand the connections,

but I think the connections are there.

And a lot of it probably just has to do with survival.

We want to make sure that the next generation grows up.

Taken at face value, these three stories

and countless others like them point

to an apparent telepathic link between certain mothers

and their children.

While such a connection may never be fully explained,

if you someday get the prickly feeling that your child is

in danger, it might not hurt just

to wander over and take a look.

Next, a woman is gunned down in broad daylight,

and the man who pulled the trigger is still on the loose.

[music playing]

MAN: Anita!

Anita!

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): North Hollywood

California, October 25, 1990.

Anita! Oh my god!

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): A woman, sitting in the driver's

seat of her own car in the parking

lot of her husband's accounting firm,

was shot once through the head.

The woman's name was Anita Green.

She never regained consciousness.

After two days in a coma, she died.

And the man who shot her is still at large.

Now, a woman named Michele Samit believes

the same man has targeted her.

Michele was Anita Green's friend.

She has written a book called "No Sanctuary"

about Anita's murder.

The knowledge that this guy's out there, out on the streets,

terrifies me every day, whether it's the person I think did it

or not because any person who did it

knows that I know a lot about this case

that they don't want me to know.

This is a chilling story of two innocent women, one of them

murdered, the other apparently stalked.

It is a most bizarre and complex case,

one of the highest profile cases in recent Los Angeles history.

The saga began in 1974 when Anita Green met her husband.

At the time, Anita worked as a bookkeeper

in Mel Green's accounting firm.

Both were married to other people.

After nearly seven years, they left their spouses

to wed one another.

Anita's friends were shocked, not only because Mel weighed

more than 500 pounds, but also because he

convinced Anita to sign an outrageous prenuptial

agreement.

MICHELE SAMIT: Basically, there was a provision in it

that he wore the pants in the family,

and he was the supreme boss, the god, the absolute ruler,

and if they ever had an argument or disagreement,

he would automatically win just because of that rule.

We'll review Cathy's report on Wednesday night.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Anita threw herself into activities

at her synagogue.

Anita. Mel.

Hello.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): According to Anita's friends,

Mel attended services less and less often

as Anita's involvement grew.

RABBI: 8:00 PM.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Most of the time,

Anita made excuses for her husband,

but occasionally, she let down her guard.

Let's go.

I'm late.

All right.

MICHELE SAMIT: She'd say she was afraid of her husband,

but then she said, oh, you know Mel.

He's just a loudmouth.

He likes to hear himself talk.

He's a blowhard.

He's not really going to do anything to me.

She had all the classic symptoms of an abused woman--

thinking they were in control, thinking

that they knew what they were doing, but really

frightened and scared.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Anita took refuge from her marriage

by becoming more and more involved in the synagogue.

Eventually, she was elected president of the congregation.

As a result, Anita and the rabbi saw one another

more and more often.

Allegedly, the two became entangled in a love affair.

When Anita asked Mel for a divorce, he was infuriated.

MEL GREEN: Anita is bad.

She's immoral.

She doesn't deserve to live.

I absolutely demand that my property is handed over to me.

I have an extensive stamp and coin collection--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Curiously,

despite his bitterness, Mel was adamant

that Anita continued to work with him

at the accounting firm.

MEL GREEN: She has to work for me.

The business depends upon it.

JANIS MCDONALD: Mel was inconsistent.

One minute, I don't need you.

You're not worth anything.

But the next minute, he would absolutely be insistent she

had to work for him.

And frankly, I think both Anita and Mel

were indirectly acknowledging that Anita knew

where the bodies were buried.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Throughout the divorce

proceedings, Mel bombarded Anita and her lawyer

with threatening letters.

Only after Anita was murdered were the letters

turned over to the police.

RAY HERNANDEZ: Melvin Green did send some letters where he

threatened to kill Anita Green.

In my mind, it just gave more credence to him

being involved in her shooting.

So let me see if I understand.

You were working at your--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Detective Hernandez soon found

three different witnesses who believe

they saw Anita Green's killer.

One was a man who worked across the street

from Mel Green's accounting firm.

He had observed Green emerge from the building minutes

before Anita arrived in her red Corvette.

RAY HERNANDEZ: That's a door that is not used very often,

so it was unusual to this witness across the street

to see this.

After he observed Melvin Green looking,

he observed Anita Green turned a corner, closely

followed by a motorcycle.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): A second witness

observed even more.

RAY HERNANDEZ: He stated he was working on a roof

directly across the street where Anita Green

had parked her red Corvette.

And what brought his attention was

he heard a motorcycle arrive, parked on the wrong side

of the street.

He observed the individual approach

Anita Green, fire one shot--

[gunshot]

--immediately ran to his motorcycle,

and at a high rate of speed, go northbound on the street.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Finally,

a third witness helped police artists

come up with this composite.

The witness had seen the motorcyclist

just after Anita's murder without his helmet and visor

on.

Investigators began to suspect that Mel Green had hired

a hit man to kill his wife.

Mel Green's behavior at his wife's bedside

did nothing to alleviate police suspicions.

Only moments after Anita died, with her body

still in the room, Mel reportedly

had a bizarre exchange with Anita's friend Phyllis Baltin.

I look pretty good, don't I?

It's the new liquid diet that I'm on.

PHYLLIS BALTIN: He was talking about how much weight

he had lost and how good he had looked.

It was absolutely nauseating.

There was not one moment of remorse, not one tear shed.

He was as talkative as if she was wide awake

and sitting there watching us.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The day after Anita was shot,

Detective Hernandez went to Melvin Green's office

to interview him.

If you stop right there.

I can't talk to you.

My attorney says I can't speak with anyone.

Why do you need an attorney?

He's a criminal attorney.

RAY HERNANDEZ: Why do you need an attorney?

I'm only here to speak to you about your wife.

Talk to my attorney.

He says I can't speak to anyone.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Now the scenario of Anita

Green's murder began to gel.

RAY HERNANDEZ: We were able to piece together the fact

that Melvin Green specifically controlled

the date and time Anita Green was

supposed to be at his office.

That would allow Melvin Green to have somebody hired

to follow her and shoot her.

And that's how Anita Green was shot.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Ultimately, Melvin Green

was arrested for conspiring to kill his wife,

even though there was no direct evidence that he

had hired someone to shoot her.

On March 4, 1992, a jury convicted Green

of first-degree murder and sentenced him to life in prison

without the possibility of parole.

But the case was far from over.

Mel Green appealed, claiming he was innocent, and the hit man--

whoever he was-- remained at large.

In May of 1992, Michele Samit visited Mel Green

at the Los Angeles County jail, where he was awaiting

transfer to a state prison.

Against his lawyer's advice, Green had agreed to be

interviewed for Michele's book.

MICHELE SAMIT: Hello, Mel.

Hello, Michele.

And how are you doing?

I wanted to go in there with an open mind,

and I started to listen to him.

And for the first few weeks of our visits,

I wasn't certain of anything anymore.

If I didn't shoot her, there's no connection.

So there's more than one road to reasonable doubt.

But as our visits continued, Mel himself

made me more certain of his guilt than ever before.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Michele

continued her investigation.

But one thing nagged at her--

how and when had Mel paid the hit man?

Michele claims that, in the course of her research,

she finally uncovered evidence that Mel Green had sold

off a $30,000 coin collection just three weeks

before Anita was murdered.

Michelle told the police about her discovery

but decided not to tell Mel Green.

My innocence will come--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Michele claims

that during one of their subsequent interviews,

Mel made unusual comments when another visitor showed up.

GUARD: You have another visitor.

Oh, all right.

This is a man I call my brother because he'd

do anything for me.

In fact, he's a homeowner because of me.

You can wait outside.

MEL GREEN: Mel had visitors come every day during our visits.

My visits were all day long.

Mel had never asked me to leave during his visits before,

and that alone I thought was unusual.

And I went downstairs, and I went into my car and sat.

I knew I'd have about a half hour until this guy came out.

And my mind started to run away with me

that this guy looked a lot like the police

composite of Anita's shooter.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): According to Michele, when

the visitor left, he got on a motorcycle,

which fit the description of the one driven by Anita's killer.

When I went back to the jail, I made a very stupid mistake.

I said to Mel, I've got this theory.

You paid for the murder with the money from the coins

you said Anita stole.

She didn't steal them.

You're not going to write that.

You can't write that.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Michele

claims that when she told Mel her suspicions,

he threatened her.

Nobody's going to put those lies about me!

If you end up dead after I make a call, you'll know who did it.

MICHELE SAMIT: I knew Mel likes to talk like that.

You know, this is just a blowhard, just a man talking.

And I realized, god, how stupid can you be, Michele?

That's exactly what Anita said, and she's dead.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The next day, June 17, 1992,

Melvin Green was transferred as scheduled

to Calipatria State Penitentiary,

east of San Diego.

He peppered Michele Samit with angry letters.

MICHELE SAMIT: He's threatened to harm my children.

He's threatened to hurt me.

Never before had I encountered this feeling of fear

before because I'd never been so involved

in a story before where it took on a life of its own.

But I couldn't stop because I knew I had the potential

to find the answer.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Michele Samit

says that over the next few months,

someone began to stalk her.

The front gate to her house was ripped from its hinges.

The house itself was vandalized.

And finally, Michele says that in the driveway

of her own house, an unidentified man hit her

in the face, breaking her nose.

MICHELE SAMIT: A lot of that has stopped

now that the book has come out.

But of course, you always live your life

fearing that what you've uncovered

might lead to some potential danger for your family.

For me, I'm OK because I understand

that's the risk by taking this kind of story

and by following through.

For my children, I'm worried every day.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Michele Samit

believes the man she saw visiting Melvin Green in prison

was the same man pictured on the police composite.

He would today be in his early 30s.

He has blond hair, dark eyes, and a muscular

build and may own a red or maroon Suzuki motorcycle.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Next, authorities need your help

to stop a deadly insurance fraud scheme

responsible for dozens of accidents

on the nation's highways.

[music playing]

It is an all too familiar scene on our nation's highways.

Emergency workers struggle to free

the occupants of a car, which has been rear-ended

by a tractor-trailer rig.

In this case, on Interstate 5 near downtown Los Angeles,

the driver of the car and two passengers were rescued.

However, a third passenger was pronounced dead at the scene.

What made this tragedy all the more chilling

was that it may not have been an accident at all.

Authorities believe it was part of a carefully orchestrated

insurance scam that backfired.

The police in Los Angeles call it the Swoop and Squat,

a scheme in which people intentionally

create rear-end collisions in order to collect

on bogus insurance claims.

Authorities estimate that the Swoop and Squat costs consumers

millions of dollars every year.

Even though the scam originated in Southern California,

it is now popping up all over the country.

Watch closely.

You may find yourself involved in one of these situations.

Here's how the Swoop and Squat works.

A typical operation involves two or three cars.

They cruise the highway in tandem, searching for a victim.

Incredibly, the vehicles they most often choose to target

are the most dangerous--

large tractor-trailers.

Trucks are a favorite target among Swoop and Squat rings

because, 1, they know that trucks will have

a lot of insurance, and, 2, that there'll

be a lot of damage, which is compensable by the insurance

companies.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The scam unfolds quickly.

First, a squat car, normally filled with passengers,

positions itself directly in front of the targeted truck.

[truck honking]

Then, a second car pulls alongside the truck,

effectively boxing it in.

Over the next several miles, the driver of the squat car

may try to distract the truck driver.

[truck honking]

Finally, the swoop car appears and makes its move,

forcing the other drivers to jam on their brakes.

BARRY THORPE: Immediately afterwards,

the people who are in the squat car will then claim injury.

Injuries are almost always soft tissue injuries because they're

so difficult to disprove.

They'll exchange insurance information,

and then, a couple of days later,

the attorney makes the claim.

We've had one situation where two attorneys made over

$9 million from a two-year period of time

from simply buying staged accidents.

The ringleaders of the Swoop and Squat

are often well-to-do attorneys who work out

of the safety of their officers far removed

from the accident scene.

Each accident can mean up $20,000

in false insurance claims, a large part of it

pocketed by the attorney.

By contrast, those who risk the most in the con game

are paid the least.

Usually, a middle man called a capper

seeks out people who are willing to do

almost anything for money.

[speaking spanish]

BARRY THORPE: The people who are in the Swoop and Squat

accidents as passengers or drivers may

be paid as little as $250 to $300

to risk their lives in that accident.

Cappers may get approximately $1,500.

All the money is made by the professionals who are corrupt--

the attorneys who are financing these

staged accident activities.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The crash on Interstate 5

had all the earmarks of a classic Swoop and Squat,

but in this case, informants were willing to talk.

They led police to the man who had allegedly

organized the operation--

one Filemon Santiago.

Santiago was a Mexican national who lived

in West Hollywood, California.

A search of his apartment turned up

documents linking him to a Beverly Hills

attorney named Gary Miller.

[music playing]

In a moment, the intriguing mystery of an old family Bible.

Perhaps you can help locate the rightful owners.

[music playing]

In a place like this, time stands still.

Random moments of other people's lives

are frozen, caught as if in amber,

and behind every captured moment,

every object is an untold story.

When you collect antiques, you never

know when one of those stories might intersect with your life

and draw you into a small unsolved mystery of your own.

Jonathan Grady, a Los Angeles collector,

understands that all too well.

In 1980, Jonathan was out browsing when

he spied a box of sundry items.

JONATHAN GRADY: Excuse me?

Yes, how much for your Bunsen burners?

Oh, let me see.

I'll tell you what.

I'll give you the whole box for 75.

How's that?

That's too high.

I'll give you 50.

OK, you can have the whole thing.

I'll write it up.

JONATHAN GRADY: After buying the box,

I noticed there was several other things in the box--

things that I could use.

There were some oil cans there and old scrub brushes,

and there was this Bible.

It was a very large Bible, very old, and the binding was torn,

but yet, it was part of the purchase price.

So I took it home.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The Bible

was more than a century old--

so old it was literally falling apart.

Its embossed cover was cracked, its pages crumbling.

JONATHAN GRADY: I thought something

like this would be nice to display in my living room,

but I had to have it repaired.

And after checking with several bookstores in the area,

I was told it would cost between $200 and $300.

So I put it into the garage, and I stored it away.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The Bible lay

forgotten in Jonathan Grady's garage,

gathering dust and guarding its memories

for more than a decade.

In the meantime, Jonathan embarked on a writing career.

One day, he found himself in need of a quote

from the Book of Job.

As he leafed through the old Bible,

Jonathan was caught short by a presentation page, which

he had not noticed before.

JONATHAN GRADY: Everything stopped right there.

I was completely surprised.

I never found the character of Job.

Instead, I found Lazarus.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The Bible

had apparently been given to a Mr. Charles

Lazarus and his bride Fannie Bergman

on their wedding day, March 25, 1874.

They were married in Cincinnati, Ohio.

When Jonathan turned the page, the history of a family

unfolded.

Charles and Fanny Lazarus had recorded

the birth of two sons--

Joshua and Samuel-- and three daughters--

Blooma, May, and Reina.

Joshua had married Dora Fleischman of Americus,

Georgia; Samuel, Ada Hassett of Posen, Michigan; and Blooma,

a German immigrant named Michael Michaelson.

On the facing page, Charles and Fannie recorded

the birth of one grandchild--

Blooma's daughter, Helen May Michaelson,

born in Denver, Colorado, on May 2, 1895.

JONATHAN GRADY: I'd looked at this Bible for several days

after that.

I would refer to this page back and forth.

I watched his kids grow.

Some unknown source pulled me into this man's life,

and I have not quit.

I have not quit trying to locate another man's family.

This is Jonathan Grady in Los Angeles.

I'm calling you regarding the Lazarus family Bible.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Jonathan

became obsessed with returning the treasured family heirloom

to its rightful owners.

Thanks to his efforts, several newspaper articles

were published, and he actually got a lead--

this letter from 81-year-old Bernard Fleischman

of South Carolina.

Mr. Fleischman had met Dora, long since dead,

from the town of Americus, Georgia.

He felt she might be the same Dora Fleischman

who married Joshua Lazarus.

Unfortunately, Mr. Fleischman had lost touch with his aunt

Dora's family, but the letter only

strengthened Jonathan Grady's resolve to find an heir

to the Lazarus family Bible.

JONATHAN GRADY: There are family members.

There were four siblings-- living siblings-- of this man,

all married.

There has to be a granddaughter, a great-granddaughter,

a great-great-granddaughter.

There's a relative there, I know.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The original owner of the Bible,

Charles Lazarus, died on the 4th of July, 1913,

and was buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery in New York.

Any direct descendant of Charles and his wife Fannie

would have a legitimate claim to the family Bible.

Next, a respected physician is now on the run,

charged with sexual assault.

[music playing]

We will call the young woman you are about to meet Patricia.

She is the daughter of a military chaplain.

On January 7, 1992, when she was 19, Patricia went to a clinic

in San Diego, California, complaining of flu symptoms.

Patricia had no way of knowing that the doctor who would

examine her that day had recently

been forced to resign from the staff of another clinic.

Four different complaints of sexual misconduct

had been filed against him, each by a young woman in her 20s.

The doctor's name was Arvind Sinha.

The California State Medical Board had chosen not to revoke

his license, stating that all four

complaints were cases of the patient's word

against the doctor's.

Well, you definitely are congested.

I know.

That's what I thought. ARVIND SINHA: Hi.

NURSE: Here's Dr. Sinha right now.

ARVIND SINHA: Dr. Sinha.

PATRICIA: He kept on asking me questions about family,

about having a boyfriend, and I was really sick.

I had a fever.

I wasn't feeling well.

This, combined with all the questioning,

it really just threw me off, you know?

I just figured that he was just trying me to be more helpful

and caring. ARVIND SINHA: You're 19.

Yeah, I am.

- You have a boyfriend? - Well, kind of.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Patricia

says that with the nurse gone, Dr. Sinha's examination

became a criminal assault.

PATRICIA: He manipulated me into a position

where I couldn't even see what he was doing.

And I didn't even know what he was doing

or trying to do until I had finally

realized that he had raped me.

After he had left the room, I just started crying.

I knew what had happened, but I just could not believe

that that had happened to me.

I'm okay.

Yeah.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Patricia

was afraid to let anyone at the clinic know what had happened.

She telephoned her mother.

A short time later, Patricia's parents

took her to another hospital.

She was examined and the authorities duly notified.

After a week-long investigation, Dr. Arvind Sinha

was arrested by Detective Christine Gregg of the San

Diego Police Department.

He had no reaction.

He kept repeating, after I told him what she was alleging--

he said, oh, how interesting.

And throughout the interview, he repeated, how interesting.

No emotion, no reaction.

Just he said he didn't do it, that he might have been framed,

but I would have expected a little reaction out

of an innocent person.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The next day, Dr. Sinha

posted his own $175,000 bail.

Within a month, he had disappeared.

Later, his medical license was revoked

by the state of California.

CHRISTINE GREGG: Every woman he's around is in danger.

He's not going to stop.

He had four warnings and lost a job,

and then he came back and raped Patricia.

He's not going to stop.

The only two places I really felt safe

was at church or at the doctor's office.

And now, I don't have that trust for anybody anywhere.

[theme music]

Join me next time for another intriguing edition

of "Unsolved Mysteries."

[theme music]