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]

Tonight, join me for a special two-hour edition

of "Unsolved Mysteries."

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Some legends get better with time.

Others become more and more real.

Many people believe that the untamed forests

of the Pacific Northwest harbor a mysterious creature

known as Bigfoot.

Now, a team of researchers, bolstered

by credible eyewitness accounts, set out to prove

the fabled beast does exist.

Since 1984, Bill and Dorothy Wacker

claim they have been targeted in a vicious campaign

of harassment--

anonymous phone calls, threatening notes, burglaries,

and even violent assaults.

In this most bizarre case, everyone is suspect--

even the Wackers themselves.

Christine Reinhard needs your help to find her husband.

He disappeared from a Colorado motel on August 31st, 1993.

Two weeks later, he was apparently

spotted on an Amtrak train, disheveled and disoriented.

Christine is convinced that he is suffering from amnesia,

that he has no idea who he is or where he lives.

Are there angels here on Earth watching over us?

You'll see the compelling accounts of the two women

who came face to face with death and miraculously survived.

Join me for this very special edition

of "Unsolved Mysteries."

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Mt.

Hood, Oregon.

April 19th, 1994.

The peaceful beauty of an alpine spring

is shattered by a manhunt.

[helicopter whirring]

MAN: Copy contact team.

I understand your latest coordinates.

We're closing in on the fugitive.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): 25 volunteers are on the ground.

In the air is a helicopter equipped

with a sophisticated thermal imaging system called FLIR--

forward looking infrared.

There's our target.

27, [inaudible].

Attention ground units.

You're closing in on the fugitive.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): But this manhunt is different.

It's a training exercise.

Even the fugitive is a volunteer--

a stand-in, as it were, for the elusive, legendary creature

known as Bigfoot.

Bigfoot, Yeti, Sasquatch-- no matter what this beast is

called, many believe that if he exists,

he is a missing link between ape and human.

MAN: Attention ground units, I see fugitives at 45, 39--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The training exercise

was sponsored by an Oregon-based group,

the Bigfoot Research Project.

Peter Byrne, noted adventurer and world explorer,

heads the project.

PETER BYRNE: We don't want to capture it,

we don't want to shoot it.

The ultimate find, you know, as far

as we're concerned would be to do something

like what Jane Goodall did.

In other words, to find one, see if we can communicate, have it

lead us to others, and then bring in the right people,

totally responsible people.

Bring in scientists, and show them what we found,

and, um, document the whole thing, of course.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Attempts to document Bigfoot

have so far been sketchy.

There are several crude home movies

and videos purporting to show the creature in the wild.

And there are dozens of plaster casts and photographs showing

large, humanoid footprints.

Yet for every person who believes Bigfoot exists,

you'll find at least two who say that the films

and the footprints alike are merely the handiwork

of pranksters in fur suits.

Is Bigfoot real or an elaborate, ongoing hoax?

Well, even hoaxes are usually based on something.

Through the years, eyewitness accounts

have consistently described a very human-like animal.

He walks upright with an almost comical gait

and steers clear of people, unless they

happen to invade his turf.

But even those who claim they've run across Bigfoot

say he's a harmless, if somewhat scary-looking, giant.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Todd Neiss is a sergeant

in the Army National Guard.

Once a month, he returns to the Oregon Coastal Range,

where he had an unusual sighting on [inaudible] in 1993.

TODD NEISS: Across the ravine, I could distinctly

see three large, black figures.

I would estimate the largest one to be

between eight and nine feet.

The two that flanked it were a full head shorter.

But I tried to think if they were bear, or if they were elk.

And then when I saw them shuffling back and forth,

I could very plainly see they were upright on two legs.

And during that entire time, they were--

all three of them were standing on two legs.

I don't think I would have ever told this to anybody

had something very unusual not happened.

I was approached by another sergeant, who had walked up

to me and said, Sir Neiss, did you see what I saw down

at that second rock quarry?

And not to be made a fool, I said, well, I don't know.

What did you see?

He followed with, well, for lack of a better

word, what I saw were three large, hair-covered Bigfeet."

One of our theories is that they are nocturnal,

and that when they're seen in the daytime,

it's a result of disturbance of some kind.

In this-- in this case, there was a National

Guard exercise with explosions.

And immediately after the explosion,

three of these things were seen.

They were seen by him, seen by another man.

And he gave us a description and, um, a very credible story.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): One month

after Todd Neiss' sighting, two women

were driving on a remote country road

100 miles away when they had a much closer encounter.

The driver agreed to speak with us in silhouette.

We had just come around a bend in the road

when I saw movement, and I slowed

down for the anticipation of something

crossing in front of me.

And that's when it stood up and moved across the road

without once looking at us, and disappeared.

We couldn't make any sense of what we saw.

It was very close to a human, but yet it wasn't.

There was no visible signs of-- of clothing, shoes, jacket,

hat.

There was no neck.

The arms were very long and swinging with the movement.

We had the opportunity of interviewing

both of the ladies, and we found the story very credible.

We saw some signs where something had crossed the road,

and, um, about 300 yards into the forest,

there was a dead steer.

And a few footprints that we saw-- they were very faint--

were going directly towards that dead steer,

possibly with the intention of eating it.

ELMER FROMBACH: So do you guys want

to come along with me up there?

MAN: [inaudible] You go on ahead.

ELMER FROMBACH: OK.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Perhaps the most amazing

Bigfoot sighting in recent years occurred when Elmer Frombach

of Seattle, Washington took his family on an outing

near the Canadian border.

Elmer, an electrician and part-time prospector,

set off to stake a claim nearby.

ELMER FROMBACH: I had, uh, 4x4 cedar posts that I

was using to mark the claim.

And, of course, I had all of the normal things,

like surveyor's ribbon, and a compass,

and different items which would be used to lay

out the claim boundaries.

As I traveled into the upper areas,

I was now at about 1,500 feet.

And I noticed that the trails in this area

were somewhat isolated, with trees being snapped off

and laid over the trail in certain spots, which looked

as though they were strategically

placed to block the trail off.

So I laid the cedar post down on the ground

and went up the hillside, uh, to where I could walk

on the trails easily again.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Elmer had just

started to take a few more samples when he suddenly

realized he was not alone.

[hammering]

[distant pounding]

[pounding continues]

As I walked around the hillside,

the pounding seemed to cease for a short period of time,

and then it resumed again.

And I thought, maybe the boys are

up here playing a trick on me.

[pounding]

All right, you guys.

It isn't funny.

[pounding continues]

Hey!

You on the hill!

[rustling]

I thought at first I had triggered an avalanche

of some type, until I saw a big, black, hairy mass

right behind all of those rocks and twigs.

And then I began to wonder, is this a bear that I'm seeing,

or is it something else?

And at that time, I kept thinking in my mind,

I've got to find a way to scare it.

And I fired a shot above its head,

and it turned just slightly and then

proceeded to walk down the trail as though I wasn't even there.

And as it walked away from me, it

took perfect, human-like strides down the trail,

only like a giant man.

At that point in time, I thought the thing was probably gone.

But this thing had crouched down at the end of the trail,

and it picked up a rock the size of a basketball

and was using it to bang against the other rocks.

It again, made a slight sideways turn, just enough to see me out

of the corner of its eye.

I was scared, and I wanted to get out of there.

I kept running down the hillside,

and the thing was in hot pursuit the whole way.

I was absolutely terrified.

And I had a hard time figuring out

how that thing could cover so much area,

or if there were actually more than one of them.

I've never been more scared in my life.

The creature could have very easily have caught

me if it would have wanted to.

Why it didn't is still a mystery to me.

I still can't understand, with something that would move that

fast, cover that much territory, why it had

such a hard time locating me.

I don't think it was a chase.

I think-- possibly, it was what we call a demonstration charge,

if it truly was a Bigfoot that he saw.

And it was simply saying to him, get out of here, you know.

This is my territory.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Accounts

like Elmer Frombach's are invaluable to the Bigfoot

Research Project.

The project correlates all eyewitness data

in an attempt to predict where and when

a Bigfoot will show up next.

Based on this data, special infrared cameras

are set up in hopes of photographing

the elusive beast.

But even credible photographs might not

convince the skeptics.

Noted anthropologist Daris Swindler

wants to see tangible proof.

And I'm amazed that through all the years,

the various people that have been hunting Sasquatch

through the years have not really

found any what we call bone or dental evidence

of the creature.

That, to me, would be very satisfying.

You can talk to people who lived out here 50 years,

never found a dead bear, never found a dead cougar--

a dead deer, maybe.

But when something dies, it's eaten, just as in East Africa.

When a eight-ton elephant dies, in 72 hours,

it completely disappears.

This is nature's way.

I would still like to see some what we call teeth and bones.

I would think it would be only logical to suspect this--

that we might-- by this time, would have found

some more concrete evidence of their existence.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Does a lost species

roam the Pacific Northwest?

If so, there are a lot of people who are very interested.

Some, like Peter Byrne, want to find a Bigfoot alive.

Others want a specimen dead or alive.

The eyewitnesses we interviewed hope

that the scientific community takes

notice before it's too late.

It's not just to validate what I saw,

but I think it's important if these creatures are still

out there, that they need to be protected in some way,

that they need to be understood and studied.

[footsteps]

There was no aggression at all in the animal.

And I believe that it is up to us

to protect it, learn all we can about it and leave it alone.

[pounding]

What I saw there was a living creature and not

some figment of my imagination.

Modern science hasn't absolutely proven by a dead object

that this thing exists, but I tell you,

quite frankly, I've seen one.

I know it exists.

And there is no doubt in my mind.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Next, a determined

wife crisscrosses the country in search of her missing husband.

Perhaps you can help.

[music playing]

Imagine that you are a woman whose husband has

gone away on a business trip.

You speak to him the night before he

is due to come back home, and you never

see or hear from him again.

What are your choices?

Do you sit at home waiting for police in distant cities

to call you back, or do you try to do something yourself?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Christine Reinhard

of Clintonville, Wisconsin did something.

Today, Christine's search for her husband

has become an all-consuming quest.

CHRISTINE REINHARD: Hello.

Hi.

Hi.

Uh, my name's Christine, and I'm out here

searching for my husband, who's been

missing for quite some time.

His name is Craig Williamson.

I've reason to believe that he's suffering from amnesia

and may have been on this interstate corridor

and perhaps caught a ride with a trucker.

And I'd like to put this up in your window,

if that's possible, and-- - That'd be fine.

--someone might see it.

Sure.

Oh, I-- I really appreciate that.

Thank you very much.

All right.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Christine's quest

began on September 14th, 1993 in Colorado Springs, Colorado,

at the motel where Craig Williamson was last seen.

HOTEL STAFF: OK, Ms. Reinhard.

This is where your husband stayed, in room 112.

[keys jangling]

This is the washroom here.

All this stuff was in here, and he had a book here on the sink.

OK, this is the room he stayed in.

Over there on the chair was his luggage.

It was unpacked and opened.

The bed was made.

It looked like it was not slept in.

Had there been any, um--

like, signs of struggle in the room?

HOTEL STAFF: No sign of struggle at all.

It looked like, uh, someone just left and walked out.

[music playing]

MINISTER: It is now my pleasure as an ordained minister,

and by the power invested in me by the state of Nevada.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Craig Williamson was nearly 46

and Christine Reinhard, 41, when they married at Lake Tahoe.

It was a second marriage for both.

MINISTER: --and wife.

Craig, you may kiss your wife.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Craig and Christine

had known each other for only a month,

but it was definitely a love match.

Christine still speaks of their marriage in the present tense.

CHRISTINE REINHARD: Being married to Craig is--

it may be a cliche to say it's like a honeymoon,

but it really is, because he's the most sincere, caring,

loving person.

I think the thing about Craig that is most endearing

is his caring and nurturing attitude toward me.

He's just wonderfully supportive and very loving.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Craig and Christine

bought a farm in Wisconsin, Christine's home state,

and undertook an immediate renovation.

They added onto the barn, installed large tanks,

and began to raise an exotic and tasty

African fish called tilapia.

CHRISTINE REINHARD: [inaudible] oxygen today, dear?

CRAIG WILLIAMSON: Yep.

CHRISTINE REINHARD: Any reason?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Craig specially rigged an old school

bus to transport the fish.

On August 28th, 1993, Craig Williamson loaded up and set

off for Colorado, even though he was still experiencing

headaches and blurred vision due to a concussion

he had suffered four weeks earlier.

If I tried to rub his head, he said, honey,

don't do that, it hurts.

And so I know he was still suffering from it,

because he would still--

I'd say, do you have a headache?

And he'd say yes, you know, but he wouldn't admit it.

But I'd catch him taking aspirin all the time.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In Colorado Springs,

Craig rented a car to use for business appointments.

At 9PM on August 30th, the night before he was to return home,

he and Christine spoke for the last time.

Craig was 1,000 miles away from the farm in Wisconsin

when he disappeared in Colorado Springs.

The next day, his credit cards were discovered at a market

in El Paso, Texas, 675 miles south.

Two weeks later, in Juarez, Mexico,

just across the border from El Paso,

Craig's rental car was found abandoned.

Once again, there were no signs of foul play.

Detective Robert Johnson headed the investigation in Colorado.

This is the area where we found the bus still parked--

OK.

--when we came out the day of the search.

Uh-huh.

And what I wanted to show you is some of the things

that we found.

When we got here, the bus that Craig had driven down here

was still parked kind of along this line here,

about three or four feet from the dumpster.

CHRISTINE REINHARD: OK.

I truly believe that Craig walked up to his rental car

and that someone came up behind him and hit him on the head.

And this is completely in keeping in character

with Craig, is that he'd get up and wouldn't go in

and say, I'm hurt, help me.

He'd think, I have to get on with things.

I, you know, I have to be doing something.

I'm supposed to go somewhere.

I have to get back.

And he would wander toward the bright lights of the parking

lot and then the interchange.

And he wandered off from there.

TV ANNOUNCER: Over the past week,

Williamson's wife Christine--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Television

stations in Wisconsin and Colorado

covered Christine's story.

Within days, a retired nurse from Montana came forward.

When I saw him on TV, you know, I recognized him.

And I said, that man was on the train that I was on.

And my son said, are you sure about that?

I said, yeah, I recognize him.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Judy Inman

believes she saw Craig Williamson

looking dazed and disheveled two weeks after he disappeared.

Judy was on a train traveling from Montana

through Washington state, where Craig

and Christine had first met.

JUDY INMAN: When he first got on the train,

these two drunks-- they just kept harassing him.

[drunken rambling]

JUDY INMAN: I was just wishing they'd all three shut up,

you know, so we could get some sleep.

[loud talking]

JUDY INMAN: But when he walked up the aisle,

he didn't say anything.

But there was something that he wanted.

I've got to get back to the fish.

He kept talking about this fish that he had to go pick up.

And, uh, he was talking about this big building

that had these big, huge tanks in it,

where they kept the fish.

How are you going to catch this fish?

JUDY INMAN: These two drunk guys asked

him, well, where do you have to go to catch that fish,

you know.

He said, well, you wouldn't find a fish like that around here.

He said, in fact, you wouldn't find a fish

like that in the United States.

Hey!

My jacket.

CRAIG WILLIAMSON: Oh.

Oh.

I've got to get back to the fish.

JUDY INMAN: That man definitely had something wrong with him.

He was absolutely not drunk.

And I knew he was not mentally retarded.

There's a difference between someone

that's mentally retarded and someone that's drunk

and someone that has a head injury.

And I knew that he definitely had some type of a head injury,

because I've taken care of patients like that.

I knew that that was Craig.

I knew it!

And the fact that it was on Amtrak,

and it was heading toward the Pacific Northwest, I mean,

I knew that that was Craig.

There was no way anyone could make up the type of things

that Judy Inman said Craig was talking about.

I packed up everything that I would need, packed up

a suitcase for Craig in the outside chance I would find

him, and went to look for him.

NARRATOR: Christine set off on a six-week odyssey,

paralleling Judy Inman's train route from Whitefish, Montana

to Portland, Oregon.

She photographed every train station along the way.

On December 26, 1993, Christine met Judy Inman in person

for the first time, and showed her the photographs.

This is another one of the train yard.

There's really nothing much around there.

It's pretty empty.

Then there's this one.

That's it there.

You think this is the one?

That's the one he got off.

Because it was a small building?

Yeah, it was small.

And it was this color.

This is the one where he got off.

NARRATOR: Judy had identified Wishram, Washington,

near the Oregon border.

Christine believes Craig might have

mistaken Wishram for Washougal, a town where

he had lived in the 1980s.

Craig's son plastered the area with his poster,

but no new clues surfaced.

It was absolutely terrible to drive

back here after looking for Craig for the six weeks

that I did.

This place was so cold and empty.

And everywhere I look, things remind me of Craig

all the time.

NARRATOR: Today, Christine Reinhardt has no choice

but to sit at home and wait.

The farm is closed.

The fish tanks are empty.

But Christine will never abandoned her quest.

I can't give up.

I will never give up.

I will just constantly look for him until I die, or he's found.

Those are the only two options.

I know he's alive.

And I know someday I'll find him.

The trouble is I don't know when.

And I just have to keep hanging on.

The hardest part is hanging on.

NARRATOR: Craig Williamson is 49 years old, 5 feet 10 inches

tall, and weighs 190 pounds.

He has gray hair and blue eyes.

This is television footage shot in Wisconsin

in February of 1993.

Some of these will be filleted out in our processing plant.

Some will be delivered to the east coast as live, whole fish

to the oriental market.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: When we return, a fugitive

is captured thanks to your calls,

and the bizarre case of a couple targeted for terror

by an unknown assailant.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: This is 36-year-old David Vieira.

He is charged with the murder of his wife.

On April 16th, 1994, Viera was arrested

in Montreal, Canada, the 108th fugitive

captured thanks to your calls.

His long, troubling odyssey began

some 20 years ago on a small island in the Atlantic Ocean.

David Viera grew up on St. Michael,

one of a group of island's west of Portugal

known as the Azores.

It was there in 1974 that Viera married

his 17-year-old cousin Alice, who lived

in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

David and Alive eventually settled in New Bedford.

Within a year, Alice was pregnant.

Their marriage went off pretty good,

like maybe I'd say about the first couple of months.

And then already, he was already starting with her.

You know, she couldn't wear make up.

She couldn't do anything.

You know, he was very jealous, very possessive of my sister.

NARRATOR: By 1981, Alice and David had three children.

As the years went by, David reportedly became abusive,

to the point of violence.

David used to always say, there's no other woman

in my life like you are.

And he always had threatened her that if she

ever decided to leave him for anybody,

that he would kill her.

But we never took it seriously, you know?

NARRATOR: Alice and David finally separated

in the summer of 1988.

Alice enrolled in nursing school,

and began to see another man.

But David Viera would not let her go.

He allegedly began to stalk Alice at work

and at home, night and day.

On July 25th, 1988, Alice was at home with her boyfriend,

when David apparently snapped.

By the time police arrived at the scene,

Alice was dead bludgeoned and stabbed 24 four

times with a butcher knife.

David Viera had vanished.

And for nearly six years, he could not

be found, until the night of our broadcast.

Our particular segment on that show

aired our time here in New Bedford, Massachusetts

at approximately 8:50 PM.

By 9:03 PM, I was receiving telephone calls from Canada

right here into my office with very good leads

as to his whereabouts.

The first phone call that I received saying that they knew

where he was, I just jumped up with joy, and told my husband,

I think we got him, you know?

And I couldn't believe it.

It took less than 48 hours.

NARRATOR: Viera had lived in Montreal

for at least two years, and was well known

in the Portuguese community.

He belonged to a neighborhood soccer team

and was employed at a local fish market.

Viera's coworkers were stunned to learn about his secret past.

I don't believe the guy do it.

I don't believe it, because the guy is so nice.

We do, because we see the picture.

If you don't see the picture is exactly the man, if we

don't see, we never trust.

I've seen him apprehended, and with handcuffs.

And to me, that was a sign of saying, thank God, I can rest.

And my sister can also be at peace now that he's caught.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Dorothy and Bill Wacker

lived in a small town in Ohio for most of their 48 years

together.

What time is Kathy coming over?

About 6:00 o'clock.

NARRATOR: The Wackers are quiet, unassuming people, who

tend to mind their own business, hardly the time to draw

the wrath of an unseen enemy.

Oh my, not again.

All right, that's it.

I've had enough.

I'm calling the Sheriff.

NARRATOR: On January 16th, 1985, the Wackers home was ransacked.

It was a third incident in a campaign of terror

that began in 1984, and continues unabated to this day.

After nearly 10 years, Dorothy and Bill Wacker still wonder,

who and why?

Well, as far as all this harassment

is going on, which to me it looks like it's

trying to force us to move.

Why should I move?

Why should we move?

Why should we be forced out by a kook?

To me, that's what it is, is a kook.

I'll not do it.

I'll stay there, and protect our home.

[knocking]

NARRATOR: July of 1985, after six months

of peace, another incident.

Dorothy was home by herself recovering from heart surgery.

Yeah?

I'm really sorry to bother you, ma'am.

My car broke down.

And I was just wondering if I could use your phone.

Where's your car?

Oh, it's just down the street here.

I would really appreciate.

OK, I guess it'll be all right.

Come on in.

Anybody come to the door, we didn't

believe the worst of them.

So we did what we had to do.

If they wanted help or anything, we always helped them.

Right here.

Nice place out here.

You need me I'll be in the kitchen.

Thanks a lot.

I really appreciate it.

He was very polite.

So I had no qualms about leaving him in.

I need to get a tow truck.

Right, right on South Ferry.

He was talking on the phone.

But like I say, I didn't pay no attention to him.

I don't listen to people's conversations

when they use the phone.

And he said, thanks very much.

And that's the reason I thought he'd left.

You're welcome.

The next thing I remember, I woke up on the floor tied up.

And hit me in the head.

And he hit me alongside the jaw.

And, finally, I got over towards the kitchen window.

And it was open.

And I got the neighbors to hear me over there.

And they come over.

NARRATOR: Bill returned home to find

his house swarming with police.

Fortunately, Dorothy was not seriously injured.

She's all right.

NARRATOR: Bill did discover some personal possessions were

missing--

a .22 caliber revolver, an antique watch, a movie camera,

and a radio scanner.

In the dining room, the assailant

had left a cryptic message scrawled in crayon.

The words were cheaper, but will do.

There's no connotation.

There's no rationale behind that message that we can understand.

NARRATOR: This sketch drawn from Dorothy's description

was widely distributed after the attack.

The suspect never surfaced.

But inexplicably, most of the Wacker's missing possessions

did.

Bill says that about four months after Dorothy was assaulted,

the revolver turned up on the front porch.

One by one, the other items also reappeared.

I couldn't figure it out.

I still can't figure it out, why it was brought back.

If somebody was steal something, normally

if they don't have any use for it,

they're going to sell it to somebody else.

And it just looked like this stuff was laid around

till it was brought back.

This is extremely unusual, if not very rare.

In all my years in law enforcement,

I have never known of a gun being

returned after it was stolen.

NARRATOR: Meanwhile, the unseen tormentor had launched

a new pattern of harassment.

Hello?

Sometimes, he wouldn't say anything.

He'd just breathe real deep.

And then the next time, why, he says,

I'll knock you in the head, and lay you out.

And I'll do this to you, and do that to you.

I was angry. And I was scared.

They've changed her telephone number several times.

And whoever this is that's harassing

them has come up with the number.

How they found it, I have no idea.

NARRATOR: According to Bill and Dorothy,

the phone calls never let up.

And the mysterious assailant soon escalated his campaign.

I would be sitting there watching

TV, or reading, or whatever.

And always after dark.

And on the driveway side of the house

is where it first started.

They would bang five, six times real hard.

[banging]

What's that?

I don't know.

But I'm darn sure going to find out.

Bill.

I've had it!

I don't want you going out there, Bill.

I'd rush outside, never see a thing, never hear a thing,

never hear a car, never hear a noise whatsoever.

We got to the point that we figured that we needed

some kind of security light outside

in the front, which we put up.

It wasn't too long after that we had a note on the front porch.

It says, your lights are a laugh.

NARRATOR: Periodically, other notes have shown

up on the Wacker's front porch.

Some are crudely threatening, others simply mocking.

It was a disturbing onslaught.

But at least the Wackers had tangible evidence

to present to the authorities.

It would appear that the person that wrote these notes

may have been using the opposite here from what they're

normally used to writing with.

Whoever printed them went to some pains

to try to conceal their normal handwriting

or printing techniques.

To date, we have found no latent fingerprints

or any other form of material on the evidence

that's been submitted.

NARRATOR: With the investigation stalled,

Dorothy and Bill were seemingly at the mercy

of their unknown enemy.

He struck again on October 27, 1993.

This time, Dorothy was raced to the hospital

with skull lacerations.

Desperate for a witness, police once again

canvassed the neighborhood.

Have you had anybody around your residence crawling

around your resident, looking in the windows

the last few months, sir?

No.

Do you have any idea who may be crawling

around the Wacker residence?

We've interviewed the neighbor's

on numerous occasions.

And none of the neighbors have yet

been able to provide us with any information

which would lead us to believe that there was a person there.

Nobody has ever seen a body, which is very frustrating to us

in our efforts.

NARRATOR: With no suspects and no clues,

the lead detective presented Dorothy

with an unthinkable scenario.

He says I'm going to ask you a question.

But he said, I don't want you to take it the wrong way.

He says, do you think your husband could have done this?

And I said, no way.

I said, he wouldn't do something like that.

He says, we've got to explore all possibilities.

She says, no, which, why should I do something like after being

married 48 years, you know?

In any type of criminal activity,

usually you can identify pretty much

upfront what the motive is.

It's pretty simple.

The problem with this is you cannot identify the motive.

You can't identify the reasons behind the activity

that's going on out there.

There seems to be--

there seems to be a pattern of activity, yes.

But what is the underlying reason that this activity

is taking place?

The other thing is, it's sporadic.

It's not constant.

You'll have months go by with absolutely nothing happen.

And then you'll have a flurry of activity

for maybe a period of a month.

And then it becomes dormant again.

This has thrown us into a quandary,

because we can't figure out exactly what's going on.

We know what's going on.

They're filing the complaints.

And they're filing reports. We're going out there.

But, yet, we can find nothing.

NARRATOR: In November of 1993, Bill and Dorothy took

matters into their own hands.

With the help of family members, the Wackers

staked out their own house.

Bill was holed up in a trailer parked in the driveway.

Across the street, his sons in law Dan and Clay

watched from a van.

Clay's wife Kathy stayed with Dorothy in the house.

The family was linked by walkie-talkie.

It's all quiet in here.

For

NARRATOR: Almost four hours, they waited.

Around 10:30 PM, they decided to call it a night.

And all of a sudden, we heard bump, bump, bump, bump.

I said, there's something on the front porch.

We can't see anything.

NARRATOR: Inevitably, perhaps even predicatively,

the intruder had found a blind spot in the Wacker's stakeout.

I never saw it come from anywhere.

NARRATOR: The scrawl was all too familiar.

The note read simply, get the message.

Oh my-- here.

Come on.

Let's go in the house.

NARRATOR: Violent assaults, threatening notes,

unnerving calls, nearly 10 years of harassment.

Who is behind the play on the Wacker household?

Could it be an embittered neighbor, a family

member, a total stranger?

The Wackers remain as mystified today as when

their troubles first began.

The sooner he's caught, the better off a lot of people

are going to be, because if he's not harassing us or threatening

us, he'll probably be doing it to somebody else

to get his kicks.

I think that's what it boils down to.

He gets a heck of a big kick out of it.

NARRATOR: Next, authorities need your help

to find a deadly arsonist.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: September 29, 1988--

arson investigators sift through the ashes of a burned

out home in South Oakcliff, a section of Dallas, Texas.

Five children had died as a result of the fire.

And the authorities wanted to know why.

The house belonged to a woman named Molly Jordan.

The victims were her great granddaughter,

2-year-old Jasmine, and four of her grandchildren, Jamal 6,

Erica 9, Bernard 16, and 18-year-old

Dimitra, Jasmine's mother.

September 28 seemed, at first, like any other day

in the Jordan household.

By 3:30 that afternoon, the kids were all home from school.

Their grandmother, Molly Jordan, was about to leave.

Molly worked back to back eight hour shifts as a nurse

to support the six children.

Molly's jobs would keep her away for some 16 hours

until 7:00 the next morning.

But she carried a beeper so the kids could

reach her directly at any time.

Around 3:00 AM, Ketrick Jordan, then 10 years old,

awakened to the sound of his brother

Bernard talking to someone.

Bernard had apparently become deeply involved

with a local drug dealer.

I was walking to the refrigerator.

And I saw him.

I saw the drug dealer and Bernard talking about,

where's my money?

And Bernard said, I don't know what you're talking about.

Bernard.

Ketrick, get back to bed.

But--

And don't come back out.

NARRATOR: The brief exchange left

Ketrick shaken, afraid to go back to his own bedroom.

So I went into my sister's room.

And I went to bed.

It seemed like I didn't sleep that long.

But it seemed like about five minutes later,

he busted into the door, and the house was on fire.

-The house is on fire!

The house is on fire!

[screaming]

He told me to start busting out windows,

and stuff to try to get air coming through the house,

because we couldn't go through the front door.

NARRATOR: The only hope of escape was through the windows.

But the safety releases for the burglar bars inexplicably

jammed, and refused to budge.

I saw my sister Erica laying on the bed crying.

And I tried to save her so she can get air.

But she was in such a panic.

And then my sister, she was bursting out windows.

And she cut herself real bad.

And she got into a panic.

And I looked over to my little brother Jamal.

And he was already dead.

And I looked over to my niece, Jas.

She was already dead.

NARRATOR: By the time firemen arrived, flames

had engulfed much of the house.

All six children were trapped.

Repeated attempts to break down the front door failed.

Inside, a coach had been propped against the door,

holding it closed.

The burglar bars doomed any chance of a quick rescue.

And precious minutes dribbled away, as firefighters fought

their way through the iron.

10 minutes later, the bars gave way.

Firemen didn't know if anyone was still alive inside.

While parts of the house continued to burn,

they began searching for survivors.

They found Ketrick Jordan first.

Ketrick was burned over more than 75% of his body.

Dimitra Jordan was also pulled out alive,

but she would die the next day at the hospital.

The bodies of the other four children

were found huddled together, lifeless at the foot

of the barred window.

At that very moment, Molly Jordan was

rushing home from the hospital.

She had been called by a relative, who said only,

the children are all gone.

When I got about a mile or so from the house,

one ambulance passed me.

They were just screaming and going.

Then I started feeling sick at the stomach.

Then I was thinking, well, it didn't

have to come from my house.

There's a lot of houses.

But when I got within a few blocks,

it was another one passed me screaming and hollering.

And I just got real sick to the stomach,

heart went to beating fast, and all this.

It seemed like I couldn't breathe.

I couldn't walk. I couldn't stop.

I couldn't talk.

Just everything left my body it seemed like.

NARRATOR: Once the flames were extinguished,

arson investigators easily determined that the deadly fire

had been deliberately set.

In the main living room, we found a gasoline can that

had been there during the fire.

And later on during the investigation,

we actually did find samples of flammable liquid

that had been poured on the floor and set on fire.

NARRATOR: Investigators soon pieced

together what they believe are the events

that led up to the fire.

The drug people had come to seek payment from Bernard,

wanted him to come outside.

He did not come outside.

They set the house on fire to get him to come outside.

But, unfortunately, the whole family

got caught in the burglar bars, and didn't come out.

So we have an act of arson that resulted in five murders,

and one severe injury.

NARRATOR: Police now believe Bernard piled up

furniture in a desperate attempt to keep the assailants out

of the house.

Instead, both the couch jammed against the front door

and a love seat wedged behind the hallway door trapped

the children in the house.

The arsonist probably entered through this window,

one of two not equipped with bars.

He worked quite hard to try to find who

was responsible for the fire.

We did come up with one name, one of the individuals

supplying drugs to Bernard.

His name was Curly, the nickname Curly.

He was a black male, about 5' 10" in height,

weighed about 160 pounds.

We never have found Curly, or any of his friends.

But Curly is known to have bragged about setting the fire.

NARRATOR: Three days after the tragedy,

some 2,000 people gathered at Carver Heights Baptist Church

to mourn the loss of the five Jordan children.

In the five years since, Ketrick Jordan, the lone survivor,

has endured a dozen operations, including

the amputation of both legs.

Ketrick is now 16.

Prosthetic limbs have allowed him to walk again.

After the fire, an outpouring of contributions

from the community enabled Ketrick

and his grandmother to move to a new home

in a different part of Dallas.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Do you believe in angels?

Here are the incredible stories of two women

who believed celestial intervention

saved them from certain death.

In California, police are searching

for an unknown witness who may have

vital information about the murder of a deputy Sheriff.

And two poignant stories of lost love--

in one, a woman battling a fatal illness

hopes to find her long lost sister.

In the other, Brenda Abby's search for her birth parents

has taken her into the unfamiliar world

of the traveling carnival.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Do angels dwell among us?

More than 1,000 years ago, St. Augustine

wrote that every visible thing in this world

is put in the charge of an angel.

Even today, most of us hope those words are true.

You're about to meet two women, both of whom

are certain that they were placed

in the charge of a guardian angel

just when they needed it most.

Consider first the case of Janie Shamal.

Her story begins in 1976.

Janie had just turned 14, when her brother and sister-in-law

took her on a Western vacation.

They traveled in a camper with another family,

and visited all the usual tourist attractions.

However, one stop stands out.

In the painted desert, something amazing

happened, something Janie, who is now 31, will never forget.

I had gotten a new camera for the trip.

And I was curious to get some good photographs.

And I can remember leaning up against the guardrail,

focusing the camera, and thinking, you know,

if I just got on this other side of this guard rail

down there a little bit, it would

be a much better photograph.

As nearly as anyone can figure, just at that same moment,

Janie's mother surely, who had stayed home in Michigan,

was sitting down to read her Bible, as she did every day.

I really felt that I was led by the Holy Spirit

to read psalm 91.

And I began sobbing, just sobbing, because I

knew Janie was going to die.

I didn't know why or how.

But I knew she was going to die.

[shouting]

- She's gone over the edge! - Where did she go?

Right over the railing.

I can't see her anymore.

Suddenly, I just stopped.

I just stopped.

And I can remember thinking, I'm so glad I stopped,

and thinking, what stopped me?

I was afraid.

I was scared that there was no way I was going

to get back up to the top.

I could not see the top.

I couldn't hear my family yelling for me.

I knew I had to be very careful, or I would start falling again.

As soon as I had this feeling that Janie was going to die,

I began pleading with the Lord too, please, don't let her die.

And that would be more than what I could bear.

I continued to read psalm 91.

It said, and he shall give His angels charge over thee to keep

thee in all thy ways.

And they shall bear the up in their hands,

lest your foot dash against a stone.

And then a peace just came over me, because I believed it.

Janie?

Alfred, it's Janie!

She's back! Janie!

You're all right.

Janie, what happened?

I don't know.

I fell a long ways.

I don't even remember coming back up.

At least you're all right.

I was afraid I was going--

I know I did not climb up myself.

Something strange had happened.

But I just kind of was glad I was back up there.

We had talked among ourselves about calling her mother.

And we decided that she could call her mother,

but not to say anything about her fall,

mainly because we didn't want to upset Shirley.

And we were so far away from home.

Tell me all about your trip.

NARRATOR: But, inevitably, once Janie

was back home in Michigan with her mother, the truth came out.

And here's where I stepped over the guardrail,

and I fell down the slope.

You what?

I just want to get a better picture.

So I climbed over the rail.

And I slipped.

And I said, what are you talking about?

And she said, oh, she wasn't supposed to tell.

When did this happen?

When we were in Arizona.

You remember that night I called to tell you everything was OK?

Well, it happened that morning.

When Janie was telling her story,

I really realized the whole magnitude

of what had happened to me.

Then I knew that verses 11 and 12, that the angel shall bare

thee up in their hands, lest your foot dash

against the stone, that they were the ones that

brought her back to the top.

When I heard my mother's story of what had happened that day,

and her feelings that I was going to die,

I realized then that it was her prayers that

had sent the angels that had made me stop,

and had brought me to the top of the canyon.

How do you explain what happened to Janie Shamal?

Even though Janie neither saw nor heard anything

to confirm it, she is thoroughly convinced that she

was rescued by an angel.

Estella Vera of Riverside, California

reports an even more dramatic experience.

Estella believes not only that an angel saved her,

but that she actually saw him do it.

On Saturday, March 30th, 1991, Estella and her two

grown children were on their way home

when they spotted an ice cream truck being robbed.

Estella's daughter ran to call the police,

while her son rushed to help the ice cream truck owner.

He and another and were already grappling

with the large, musclebound assailant.

[shouting]

I knew there was absolutely nothing I could do.

And I saw my mother in the path of his van.

Mama!

I knew she was in between the two.

So I think instantly, I thought she was dead.

NARRATOR: Estella's left leg had been severed below the knee.

And she had suffered cardiac arrest.

At the hospital, Mingo and his father kept vigil.

What did the doctor say?

The first time I saw my mother after the incident,

I could not recognize her.

Her face was completely swollen.

And we were just waiting for any word

whether or not she would even survive.

NARRATOR: Estella drifted in and out of consciousness

for the next several days.

Finally, she awoke.

He's OK.

He's right here.

It's good to hear your voice, Mom.

Did you see the man by the trunk?

Don't worry, Mama.

He's in jail.

No, the other man, surrounded by light,

in front of the truck.

Was this some dream, Estella?

No, he was standing by the truck.

My father and I looked at each other kind of puzzled,

and possibly looking at her as if she

may have dreamt something within the time

she was in the hospital.

NARRATOR: But Estella insisted she had not been dreaming.

The story she tells is truly astonishing.

I remember just looking at this truck coming so fast.

And just with all my heart, I said to God, God,

please don't let me die.

And then I started reciting psalms that I know.

I said the angel of the Lord takes

care of those that loves him.

And then I look again.

And the truck is right in front of me.

And I could see the robber's face.

He looks so angry.

You could see those eyes.

He was desperate.

I look again.

And now, in front of the truck, there is this beautiful person.

He looks so peaceful, so beautiful.

He has the most beautiful smile.

You could see him, like in slow motion.

Immediately, I forgot about the ice cream truck.

I forgot about everything that was happening.

All I remember was this beautiful face.

And then I grab his hand.

I put my face over his hand.

And I would go on like this.

And I remembered, a couple of times,

I opened my eyes to look at his face

to be sure that he was there.

And I could see him right over there looking at me

with a big smile.

I believed her.

She was very sincere, very excited, very sure of the fact

that the angel was there.

I felt possibly a little doubtful myself, because nobody

else saw anything.

But you can see it in her eyes that it was true.

I cannot really explain this beautiful experience.

I have no doubt in my heart that God sent an angel to save me.

I ask everyone if they saw this beautiful person pulling

me to the side and helping me.

Nobody knew what I was talking about.

But I knew that it was true, that God

sent an angel to save me.

Remarkably, Estella Vera feels no bitterness

about the accident.

And with the aid of a prosthesis,

Estella has already been able to walk again.

Are there angels among us?

No matter what anyone else may think,

Estella Vera firmly believes she is alive today because she was

visited by a guardian angel.

When we return, a woman fighting a deadly disease

needs your help find her long lost sister.

And police believe a mystery witness

holds the key to identifying a cold-blooded killer.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: For Diane Hamline of La Crucenta, California,

every day is a race against time.

The rare and often fatal blood disease

she has been fighting since 1986 has finally

reached the crisis point.

Diane, how are you doing?

Hi, doc.

This procedure is going to take about five or 10 minutes.

You may be a little uncomfortable

before the biopsy is done.

How uncomfortable?

It's going to hurt.

But it won't take long.

Diane has a relatively unusual blood disorder, normally

considered to be an incurable illness, now potentially could

be cured by the utilization of a bone marrow transplantation,

fraught with a lot of dangers though,

and a lot of potential complications,

so not something to be taken lightly.

NARRATOR: In all the world, this woman, Diane's younger sister

Marilyn, is the only potential bone marrow donor who

offers any chance of success.

But Diane has no idea where Marilyn is today.

She hasn't even talked to her sister in more than 20 years.

I feel I'm asking a lot of my sister

to do this bone marrow for me.

But even if she doesn't agree to a transplant, if she says,

I don't want to do this, I would still

like to make peace with her.

She's my sister.

NARRATOR: Diane is three years older than Marilyn.

They grew up in Los Angeles during the 1940s.

We were post-war babies.

And we came from a lot of poverty.

There wasn't any money.

And our mother and father had to work long hours.

We were like most children.

We fought, and bickered, and didn't

want to do the housework.

You know, you do that.

No, you do that.

I don't think it hurt us.

But I think that she resented that.

NARRATOR: Diane and Marilyn's parents separated in 1954.

Ultimately, Marilyn went to live with her father.

After my sister moved in with my dad,

I saw my sister maybe, like, once a month.

But as time went on, it became more infrequent.

And I just think because she went with dad

and I went with mom, that we separated.

I mean, we just lost our--

we didn't do our activities or anything together anymore.

NARRATOR: Years passed with little contact.

In 1965, Diane visited her sister at the restaurant

where she worked.

This place never stops.

So how are you doing?

Well, met a new guy.

Yeah?

NARRATOR: Marilyn said she was in love.

She planned to marry a man who had several children

from a previous marriage.

Crazy about him.

NARRATOR: Neither sister realized

the brief visit would be the last time they would

see each other face to face.

Eight years later, they did speak briefly on the phone.

Marilyn told Diane that she had a little boy named Billy Joe.

Billy Joe?

That's good.

NARRATOR: The sisters talked about getting together.

But time drifted by, and they never spoke again.

Bye-bye.

NARRATOR: In January of 1994, Diane

hired private investigator Marilyn

Ganell to find her sister.

Well, it's like a needle in a haystack,

because without a name, you have nothing

to pin your investigation on.

We have tried certain things with the use of her maiden name

and her first married name.

And, of course, her maiden name is

Jones, which makes it extremely difficult.

There's no paucity of Jones available.

How are you?

How are you, doctor?

Good.

NARRATOR: With every passing, day

Diane's treatment become less and less effective,

her search more and more vital.

In the morning.

Any bleeding, easy bruising?

I'm having more bruising now.

NARRATOR: Diane is an unusual person.

She has a very strong will.

She's very optimistic.

She's really, so to speak, already beaten

the odds by getting this far.

I think I'm still here after all these years

is because I don't think that my life should be over with yet.

You know, I had a daughter to finish

raising to go to college.

And I'd like to see her get married and have babies.

And I just don't feel like checking out of here yet.

But I think I'm going to pretty soon

if I don't do something fast.

When we broadcast Diane's story,

a private investigator from Denver, Colorado, Robin Lee,

was watching.

She was touched by Diane's plight,

but assumed we would get the clues we needed.

We didn't.

As luck would have it, Robin was also watching when

the segment re-ran in June.

This time, she decided to volunteer her help in tracking

Marilyn Down The result was one of our most unusual solves

ever.

I contacted the show, got a little more information,

started out with the sister's name.

Marilyn Jones was her maiden name,

started with that and the date of birth,

and went on from there.

And it took me about three days to find her,

three working days, if you don't count the 4th of July

holiday in between.

And I think it's great that they're back together.

NARRATOR: On August 13th, 1994, Marilyn and Diane

met face to face for the first time in 30 years.

It's so good to see you.

Once we hugged, it was like it hadn't been 30 years.

It had been just a short time.

I guess maybe that's why I feel comfortable,

is because I can feel the love.

And when you feel that love, you feel comfortable.

You haven't changed a bit.

Oh no.

I get cuter with age.

Yes, you do.

I think I'm still in shock, you know?

It's still like, I'm not here yet.

It's just a dream, you know?

But it's a great dream.

And we have a lot of catching up to do.

And we'll be together forever now.

We're going to have a lot of fun together,

enjoy the time we have.

Isn't that beautiful?

NARRATOR: Coincidentally, the day of the reunion

was Dianne's 53rd birthday.

And Marilyn had not forgotten.

And my name is spelled right.

This is the best gift I've ever had in my whole life.

This is the best gift ever, is to have my sister,

and to have my family for my birthday.

It'll be the best birthday I've ever had in my whole life.

NARRATOR: On the day of the reunion,

Marilyn's fondest wish was to prove a compatible bone

marrow donor for her sister.

Do I have to go to the movies?

To the movies, we have go all the way to Canada.

[laughter]

I want more than anything to have this work with Dyann.

But even if it doesn't, we're going

to take full advantage of however

long we do have together.

We can make a week seem like an eternity.

As it turned out, a series of tests

showed Marilyn's bone marrow would not work for Dyann.

But there is a ray of hope.

Doctors are now moving on to a new experimental therapy

for Dyann's blood disorder.

In the meantime, she and Marilyn are

making the most of their precious, newly

kindled relationship.

[music playing]

January 24th, 1987, a deputy Sheriff

named Charlie Anderson was gunned down

in his Burbank, California home.

The next day, an anonymous witness

phoned the Burbank Police, claiming to know

the identity of the killer.

But the caller, obviously nervous,

hung up before revealing any information.

He never called back.

Authorities hope that tonight, seven years later,

this mystery witness will finally come forward, and solve

the murder of Charlie Anderson.

Charlie Anderson was a 14-year veteran

of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

He distinguished himself as a highly skilled driver, teaching

hundreds of officers how to handle

themselves in their vehicles in dangerous situations.

Charlie was probably one of the most talented drivers

that I've ever met.

It was a natural talent tell for him.

Charlie was able to get along with everybody.

He was serious on the job.

But he had a good sense of humor when he was

around the rest of the staff.

NARRATOR: By all accounts, Charlie Anderson

was also a dedicated father, never

too busy to spend evenings and weekends with his two sons.

Charlie didn't seem to have an enemy in the world

until the early hours of January 24th, 1987.

Charlie's wife Beth told police that around midnight, she,

Charlie, and their two young sons returned home from a visit

to her parents.

Oh, he's out like a light.

Well, I'll bring him upstairs.

And then I'll come back for you and the babies.

They arrived home.

And because Mrs. Anderson was suffering from a back injury,

her husband offered to go inside the house

with her oldest boy first.

He asked her to wait in the car.

And she did so.

Charlie Anderson went in the house with the oldest son,

and we believe took him upstairs.

A few moments later, Mrs. Anderson

heard what sounded like backfires from where

she was parked in the driveway.

She was still seated in the car.

Because the sound was unusual, she walked to the house

and called in to see if there was anything wrong.

Charlie?

Charlie?

Honey, are you up here?

Charlie?

Honey?

Charlie, can you hear me?

She ran downstairs, picked up her younger son,

and ran a next door neighbor's house.

Help!

Help!

Initially, the detectives believed that the house was

being burglarized, and that Mr. Anderson

had interrupted the burglary, and had

confronted the suspects.

One of the things that was not consistent with a burglary

was the suspect had very carefully moved items.

Normally, in a burglary, the suspects, or the burglars,

are working very quickly, they'll pull out a drawer,

and dump the entire drawer, just to examine

all the contents at once.

What the investigators found was that the drawers had been

either pulled out partially, or carefully pull out,

and maybe one item removed.

And they felt that that was inconsistent with most burglary

scenes that they had seen.

NARRATOR: There were other telltale signs

that the burglary had been staged.

While they had selected certain items

and placed them together to be taken from the house,

they had overlooked other items that were much more valuable

that were in plain sight.

This led to a second theory that this might have been someone

that, perhaps, knew Deputy Anderson that

confronted him and shot him.

NARRATOR: Charlie's sister Trish believes

that is exactly what happened.

She was at the scene that night, called by a neighbor.

But what really surprised me was the look on his face.

He had a look, a wide-eyed look, as if he'd

been shocked or betrayed.

It's something that lingers with me today.

NARRATOR: Was Charlie Anderson ambushed by someone

he knew, someone who dressed up a cold-blooded murder

to look like a random burglary gone wrong?

In the end, evidence at the crime scene was ambiguous.

The only identifiable fingerprints were

all from members of the family.

Police were left with a murder victim and virtually no leads

until the mysterious phone call one day later.

What you are about to hear is a reenactment

of that conversation, taken directly

from police transcripts.

Burbank Police Department.

May I help you?

MAN: Yes, may I speak to the officer in charge, please?

Sure, regarding what type of incident?

MAN: This is some information that might lead to the killer

that shot the deputy Sheriff.

OK, wait a minute.

Hang on just a second.

At that time, the investigator handling the case

was in the station.

And he was called to the dispatch area

so he could speak with the person that had called in.

MAN: I know who did the shooting.

OK, the watch commanders on his way

down here to answer the phone, OK?

MAN: I can't wait too long.

OK, here's the detective handling the case right now.

Hang on, just a second.

Hi there, what can I do for you?

MAN: Is this being recorded.

Yes, it is.

MAN: I can't speak to you if this is recorded.

OK, why don't I give you the number of my office

where it is not recorded?

I'm not going to lie to you, OK?

MAN: I don't like recordings.

The man on the line was very, very nervous.

He was very concerned about his voice being taped,

about the call being traced, or in any way the police

identifying who he was.

MAN: I'm not playing around.

NARRATOR: The call could not be routed to an unrecorded line.

The detective had to ask the witness

to hang up and call again.

OK, well as I said, you're going

to have to give me about two minutes

to get back to my office.

MAN: All right.

OK.

NARRATOR: The man readily agreed.

But the phone call never came.

On January 31st, 1987, Charlie Anderson

was laid to rest with the full honors reserved for officers

killed in the line of duty.

Since then, lack of evidence has dragged the investigation

to a standstill.

Seven years after the murder of Charlie Anderson,

authorities are still searching for the unidentified caller.

We feel it's very, very important

to locate this caller, because he

was concerned enough to call us right at the beginning

of the investigation.

He has never been identified.

And we're very, very interested in speaking

to him to find out what he does know about this case.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Next, a woman's search for her birth parents

draws her into the exotic world of a traveling carnival.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: For most of us, a night at the carnival

offers thrills, chills, and an old-fashioned good time.

But for Brenda Abbey, a 45-year-old mother of three

from Chester, Virginia, this frenzied

magic promises much more--

the solution to her own personal, unsolved mystery.

Brenda was adopted as an infant.

She knows little about her biological parents,

except their names, and that they worked for the Setlin

and Wilson Traveling Carnival almost 50 years ago.

Every time I hear the news that there's a carnival,

I will go.

And I go up to every booth, every concession.

I go up to every person that's employed by that carnival.

And I look at them, just to see if I can find

somebody that looks like me.

NARRATOR: In April of 1949, Brenda

was adopted by Sam and Thelma Zimmer of Petersburg, Virginia.

When she was 16, Brenda found out

that her birth parents had been with the Setlin

and Wilson carnival.

In 1983, Brenda developed a serious health problem.

Because of her acute need for a family medical history,

Virginia officials released a copy

of Brenda's birth certificate.

Her biological parents were Elizabeth

Hanson and Walter Dean Perry.

Brenda was stunned to learn she had two siblings.

But for Brenda's search, the most important clue was

her birth father's occupation.

My father was a representative of the Midget Review.

Possibly, my father was a barker,

where he goes out there.

And he tries to get people to come here to see

the midgets and their show.

You're going to regret it tomorrow.

This show stars--

NARRATOR: The pieces of the puzzle were falling into place.

Brenda set out to find everything

she could on the Setlin and Wilson Carnival.

I looked in the newspapers back in 1948.

And I did come across the announcements

of Setlin and Wilson.

And I found a group of midgets that

were called Singers Midgets.

And I know the whole library heard me, because I said

I found them, I found them.

Finally, Brenda Abbey had a tangible clue.

And it led straight to the carnival circuit.

Last month, we joined Brenda in Virginia

to experience her search first hand,

the excitement of each promising lead,

and the heartache of near misses and dead ends.

How long have you been with the carnival?

NARRATOR: Brenda visits every carnival that passes within 200

miles of her home town.

Are they with the carnival?

No, nobody but me.

I'm the black sheep.

NARRATOR: Old-timers like Joe Stevenson, a 60-year veteran

of the carnival, offer rare glimpses

into a strange and exotic world.

Do you remember if this woman had been pregnant at the time?

We made up a language, just vowels switched around.

Like you got here, light liz light, keyazamera, camera, Joe,

Jee-zo.

I could say loozooki izat mezan.

You don't know what I'm speaking.

I said, look at that man.

We're speaking what is known as carny.

Well, I worked sometimes as the alligator girl.

I worked as the world's strangest mother.

And I had to go up on a stage, and talk to the public.

A lot of them had to live in wagons,

and underneath wagons, and things like that,

in the old days.

They don't do that today.

But they used to have to do it, because they

didn't make enough.

Hopefully, I'm going to ring a bell one

day with one of these people.

And they're going to know my parents, simply by what I tell

them about the Midget Review.

They might remember somebody.

But this is what I do.

I keep hoping that somebody in the carnival that's old enough

to remember will remember.

They're the original Singer Midgets, because he's Carl.

I remember him.

He was the tuba player in the band.

They had the smallest midget in the world.

What was her name?

Do you remember?

They never brought her out on the front.

You paid extra.

Yeah, she's right there.

That was Margie.

Margie, that's it.

This is the group I tell you about that had the cook.

And she remembered the lady's name like I do.

But the only thing we know--

NARRATOR: For a brief instant, Brenda

thought Joe and the others had actually

known her birth mother.

Was she 20, 24? Was she young?

She was a woman then, wasn't she?

She was old.

He doesn't feel that she could have been my mother,

because her age would have made her--

he said, he was just joking, he said 2,000 years old by now.

So it definitely could not have have been mother.

My mother was supposedly 24 when she had me.

But Joe said that, quite possibly,

it might be Mama Li's daughter.

But there, again, who knows?

And that's another avenue I'll have to travel.

It was a Singer's-- MAN: Let me ask you first.

What year were you born?

That would have been on the birth certificate.

OK, 1949.

NARRATOR: Brenda didn't cover one exciting lead--

the phone number for a man named Ward

Hall, a prominent booking agent for east coast carnival side

shows.

We were there when Brenda called him.

Ward Hall knew carnival people going back some 50 years.

But he had never heard of Brenda's birth parents.

I really thought he was my answer.

I really did.

I had a lot of faith in that phone call.

And I'm a little disappointed.

I really am, not because he couldn't

give me the answer I wanted.

But just because he didn't have it.

We're going over to the Department of Social services

in Richmond.

And over there, they have identifying information.

NARRATOR: Just before we travel to Virginia,

a judge had granted Brenda access

to her sealed adoption papers.

We were not allowed to film in the archives.

But our cameras were on hand when Brenda emerged.

The documents finally revealed where her birth parents

had gone after the adoption.

I got it.

Alaska.

And it's all the identifying information

filled in, everything.

And there's two different names.

I've got a WL Perry.

And then I have a WD Perry.

They say it could be a typographical error,

but maybe not.

They're just not sure.

NARRATOR: Despite the information in the adoption

records, it turns out that the Setlin and Wilson Carnival

never once traveled to Alaska, nor has Brenda

found any evidence that her biological parents

moved to Alaska on their own.

Perhaps the next carnival will yield

the clue that finally leads Brenda to her birth parents.

I want to find my parents and my siblings more

than anything in the world.

I want to tell my mother before she dies,

I don't think she did anything wrong.

I think she did what she had to do.

And I really can understand it.

I have a heart big enough to understand it.

NARRATOR: Update-- during a search

that spanned 30 years, Brenda talked

with countless old timers.

Each had a story to tell, and some even offered suggestions.

But not one claimed to know Elizabeth

Hanson or Walter Perry.

Inevitably, as each carnival was packing up and hitting

the road, Brenda Abbey was left behind, no closer

to finding her birth parents.

It seemed she might finally be out of options

until the night of our broadcast.

The response was far greater than even Brenda had hoped for.

Not only did her birth mother called our phone center,

but so did a sister, and a brother, then another sister.

Additional calls were logged in from friends

of still more siblings.

Brenda Abbey was saddened to learn that her birth

father had died in 1959.

But she was thrilled to discover a total

of 11 brothers and sisters.

One of them, Martha Oak, of St. Clair Shores Michigan,

hosted a reunion in August of 1994.

Although Brenda's birth mother was unable to attend,

Brenda finally met four of her long lost brothers and sisters

face to face.

As hostess for the celebration, Martha was

the first to welcome Brenda.

Hi, Brenda.

How you doing?

NARRATOR: A brother, Thomas Chillag,

flew in from Louisiana, 1,000 miles away.

Another sister, Susan Donar, came

in from Port Clinton, Ohio.

Brenda's brother, Frank Smith, grew up

in Greenwood, Mississippi.

Like Brenda, he never imagined he had so many siblings.

I did my own search, and kept running into dead ends,

and finally gave up.

And when I found out about this, it was incredible.

It's amazing.

It's unbelievable, totally unbelievable.

It's funny to actually walk up to people,

and touch their skin, and know they're related.

NARRATOR: The get together in Michigan promises

to be just the first of many.

Plans are already underway for the next reunion.

These are my flesh and blood.

And it's something nobody can take away from me.

That's right.

And it's such a great feeling.

It was worth the 30 years that it took me to do this.

[music playing]

In just a few weeks, an exciting new season

of "Unsolved Mysteries" will begin.

Here's a sampling.

In the late 1960s, thousands of curiosity seekers

flocked to see the Iceman.

Was it a hoax, or perhaps a prehistoric cousin of man?

Novelist Agatha Christie was a queen of mystery.

But how many of us know that in 1926 Agatha took center stage

in her own real life mystery?

21-year-old Tommy Burkett died in 1991, an apparent suicide.

Now, his parents have pieced together a shocking scenario

of murder and intrigue.

From the realm of the unexplained,

a bolt of lightning sends a young man

on an incredible journey to the brink of death and back.

And follow a team of real life ghostbusters,

as they track down an elusive spirit in a haunted

hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Join me, starting later in September,

for four special Sunday broadcasts, and then in October

during our new time, Fridays at 8:00.

[music playing]