Original subtitles

ANNOUNCER: This program is about unsolved mysteries.

Whenever possible, the actual family members

and police officials have participated

in recreating the events.

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

Tonight, on a special two-hour edition of "Unsolved

Mysteries," the strange and mysterious saga

of the Circleville Letters.

For eighteen years, residents of a small town in Ohio

have been deluged with anonymous death

threats, slanderous accusations, and even a lethal booby trap.

Many believe this vicious campaign

has led to the death of one man and the unjust imprisonment

of another.

From England, the spellbinding case that's not only

in the grand tradition of Agatha Christie,

it's about Agatha herself.

In 1926, as her marriage was unraveling,

the best-selling mystery writer of all time

vanished without a trace, leaving

the authorities to figure out who done it and why.

In December of 1991, 21-year-old Tommy Burkett was found

shot to death in his bedroom.

Just minutes after arriving at the scene,

investigators told Tommy's parents that their son

had committed suicide.

But, now, Tommy's mother and father

believe they have unearthed a chilling

scenario of murder which may implicate the local police.

Legend has it that beneath the remote chilly waters

of Lake Michigan lies a sunken fortune--

five chests stuffed with golden bullion worth millions.

Tonight, we'll join a dangerous underwater quest to find

the Poverty Island Treasure.

Also, tonight, we'll take you to the phone center

for a very special milestone--

the solving of our 200th mystery.

And a very special update--

the reunion of a GI and the buddy

who saved his life in Vietnam.

Join me for two hours of intriguing cases

and a celebration of 200 solves on "Unsolved Mysteries."

[theme music]

In December of 1993, "Unsolved Mysteries"

received this postcard.

It was not exactly in the vein of our usual viewer mail.

The card read--

"Forget Circleville, Ohio.

Do nothing to hurt Sheriff Radcliff.

If you come to Ohio, you el sickos will pay.

The Circleville Writer."

It's not often that we become part

of a story we're investigating.

But, in this case, it didn't come as a total surprise.

For the past eighteen years, residents

in and around Circleville, Ohio have

received literally thousands of bizarre letters and postcards.

They represent an insidious campaign of character

assassination which some believe has

left one man dead and another unfairly imprisoned.

[somber music]

Circleville, Ohio, thirty miles south of Columbus,

is a place that rarely attracts outside attention.

In fact, the town's main claim to fame

is its annual pumpkin show.

For years, Circleville was a stable workaday community.

Then, in 1976, the letters started.

MARTIN YANT: One of the very first letters,

if not the first letter, was received by Mary Gillespie,

a school bus driver, telling her that the letter writer was

aware that she was having an affair

with the superintendent of schools,

and that it had better stop.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In addition

to allegations of an affair, the letter

carried an ominous threat.

CIRCLEVILLE WRITER (VOICEOVER): I know where you live.

I've been observing your house and know you have children.

This is no joke.

Please take it serious.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The envelope

is postmarked Columbus, Ohio.

There was no return address outside, no signature inside.

No way to tell whether it came from a man or a woman.

Within eight days, Mary Gillespie had received

another letter similar in tone.

Mary?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Mary apparently kept

the letters to herself until her husband

Ron received one as well.

What's going on?

All right.

I already got two of these, OK, and I didn't say

anything because it's not true.

What do you mean you got two of these?

You have to know it's not true.

Why didn't you say something?

Because I thought they would just go away, and--

MARTIN YANT: And this letter, addressed to Ron Gillespie,

told him that if he didn't do something to stop this affair,

that his life was undoubtedly in danger.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The alleged

affair was a rumor tailor-made to set

any small town on its ear--

the superintendent of schools and a school bus driver.

Soon, the anonymous writer was threatening to go public.

CIRCLEVILLE WRITER (VOICEOVER): Gillespie, you have

had two weeks and done nothing.

Make her admit the truth and inform the school board.

If not, I will broadcast it on CBs,

posters, signs, and billboards until the truth comes out.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Mary and Ron evidently confided

in three family members--

Ron's sister, her husband Paul Freshour, and Paul's sister.

What was that movie, it was in black and white,

where they wrote letters?

They thought they knew who the suspects where,

so they wrote letters to them.

"I Know Who You Are."

That's it.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Mary had

some ideas about who was sending the letters,

and she had a plan.

--we write letters back, telling

them we know who they are.

You do it.

You print well.

What do we say?

Just-- just like the letters.

We know who you are--

PAUL FRESHOUR: We thought we'd, uh, you know, scare the guy.

We did four or five letters only, you know, nothing, uh--

there was no violence at him or anything,

just that we knew who he was and what he was doing,

and we sent him the letters.

[phone rings]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): For a while, the plan worked.

The threatening letters stopped.

Then, on August 19th, 1977, Ron Gillespie got a phone call.

Who is this?

No, you listen to me.

We're sick of this, OK?

No more letters, no more phone calls,

we're sick of the whole thing.

Just end it, all right?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): No one knows what the caller actually

said, but the call apparently confirmed

Ron's suspicions about the identity of the letter writer.

He told the children he was going out,

he was going to confront the letter writer.

He took his weapon.

He did not seem to be drunk.

Said goodbye to his children and went out.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In the heat of the moment,

Ron Gillespie ran to the family's red and white pickup,

even though the letter writer had often referred to the fact

that he or she was watching that truck.

[dog barking]

Perhaps Ron didn't remember.

Perhaps he was too angry to care.

[siren]

[police radio]

MARTIN YANT: Within on a short distance, at an intersection

that he knew very well, he lost control of the vehicle,

hit a tree, and was killed.

[indistinct conversation]

Somewhere in between leaving the house and hitting that tree,

his gun had fired one shot, and there was never

any explanation for when or how at who

that gun could have been fired.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Pickaway County Sheriff Dwight

Radcliff, who declined to be interviewed for this story,

supposedly investigated and eliminated at least one

suspect.

He then ruled Ron Gillespie's death an accident.

But several Circleville residents soon

received anonymous letters saying that Sheriff Radcliff

was perpetrating a cover-up.

PAUL FRESHOUR: First of all, the sheriff agreed

with me there was foul play.

And then, when I contacted him again,

he changed his attitude completely.

Then he was telling me that it wasn't foul play, that it was--

the suspect had passed a polygraph test.

Gillespie had 0.16 percent alcohol, which, in Ohio, would

be 1 1/2 times the legal limit.

Most people I've talked to said that he was not a heavy drinker

and were surprised by that kind of finding.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Was Ron

Gillespie's death an accident?

Was he really drunk that night?

And why had one bullet been fired from his handgun?

Six years after the death of Ron Gillespie,

the Circleville Ohio Letter Writer was still waging

his or her vicious campaign.

The initial targets, Ron's wife Mary and the superintendent

of schools, eventually acknowledged a relationship,

but both claimed it had begun after the letters

rather than before.

Mary was still driving a school bus to support her family.

In 1983, the letter writer began to put

up signs along her bus route.

Finally, Mary's daughter was targeted.

Mary Gillespie had had enough.

MARTIN YANT: She ripped the sign down.

Much to her surprise, behind the sign

was this box and some string, and also a another post that

was attached to the fence post.

She took it into the bus and she opened up

this rather unusual-sized box.

As she opened it up, there was a small pistol.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On closer examination,

Mary realized that it was a crude booby trap designed

to fire the gun at her.

An amateurish attempt had been made to rub the serial number

of the handgun.

When lab tests were able to raise it again,

the case took an incredible turn.

The gun belonged to Mary Gillespie's

brother-in-law, Paul Freshour, who had just

split up with Ron's sister.

PAUL FRESHOUR: I admitted the gun was mine,

but I hadn't seen it for a long time.

I had no reason to check up on it or anything,

and I don't know when it came up missing.

I really don't know what happened to it,

and I told them that.

And that's the truth.

That's how it was.

DWIGHT RADCLIFF: OK, Paul--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On February 25, 1983,

Sheriff Radcliff called Paul Freshour in for questioning

and asked him to take a handwriting test.

DWIGHT RADCLIFF: We don't have all the answers

we'd like to have just yet, OK?

What I'd like you to do is to take this--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Under the impression

he was helping to protect another family member,

Paul agreed.

The Sheriff told him only that the missing

gun was somehow linked to the Circleville Letters.

DWIGHT RADCLIFF: This is an actual letter.

I want you to copy as closely as you can, on the pad,

what you see here.

In other words, write what they have written.

PAUL FRESHOUR: He would give me an actual letter

and ask me maybe to do the envelope part,

just as near as I could to the envelope.

And then on some, he would take the actual letter out and have

me to do them as near as I could on the letters from what,

you know, from right there in front of me.

And I did them because I knew I wasn't

responsible for the letters, and I knew

that evidence would clear me.

And then he dictated letters, and he asked me to recopy,

in my mind, the same way on this dictation

as I had recopied from the actual letters and envelopes.

Everyone is talking.

PAUL FRESHOUR: He made sure that I did them

in a reference of how I copied them because that

was very important to him.

And I did the best I could and turned everything into him.

That is not the proper way to test to see if someone has

a certain writing style because if they're

copying from a letter, they're going

to try to emulate the style.

And the experts said that the testing was improper.

So they didn't really say that these letters

were written by Paul Freshour.

They said that they could have been.

Dwight, pardon the mess, but I usually try to keep

it a little cleaner than this.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): After the handwriting test,

a still unsuspecting Paul Freshour took

Sheriff Radcliff to his garage.

Sometimes I used to keep it up here.

And then, on top of the refrigerator--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Paul showed the sheriff

where he had kept his gun.

Afterwards, the two men returned to the courthouse.

And I didn't think about it.

PAUL FRESHOUR: He called in the prosecutor

and told the prosecutor it was my writing on the booby trap.

And then the prosecutor is the one that actually told me

that there was a booby trap found

and I was under arrest for attempted murder

and placed on a $50,000 cash bond.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On October 24, 1983,

Paul Freshour went on trial for the attempted

murder of his sister-in-law, Mary Gillespie.

Even though Paul wasn't charged with writing

the threatening letters, they became a crucial part

of the evidence against him.

What you are about to hear is verbatim testimony

from court transcripts.

And did you explain to the handwriting analyst

how you went about obtaining the samples.

Yes, I did.

And did he indicate which part of these

he would actually use in his analysis?

The ones we dictated were the ones

that would be used for comparison,

not the ones he copied.

It is my opinion that the handwriting

on the envelopes, documents, and postcards

were printed by the same person.

"It" being the known handwriting or handprinting

of Paul Freshour.

Have you, at any time, suspected the defendant

of being the one responsible for writing these letters

and putting these signs up?

Not at first.

Well, when was your first indication

that you had where someone indicated

that it could possibly be him?

It was August of 1982, and his wife came to see me

and indicated it might be a possibility.

This is the weekly time record for Paul Freshour

for the week ending to 2-12-83.

And what days was Paul Freshour working that week?

Uh, Mr. Freshour worked Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

and Friday of that week.

Did he work Monday?

No, he did not.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The Monday

in question was the very day that Mary Gillespie had

found the sign and booby trap.

Even though Paul Freshour had an alibi

for almost the entire day, he never took

the stand in his own defense.

It was a decision which Paul would come to regret.

We the jury, find the defendant, Paul L. Freshour,

guilty of attempted murder.

We further find and specify that the defendant did have

the firearm under his control.

PAUL FRESHOUR: I couldn't believe it.

I was just in shock.

I mean, I know they put in some good evidence

and there was evidence withheld, but still yet, I mean--

You know, I can't blame the jury because the jury

didn't hear all the evidence.

But I was just--

I-- I-- I just couldn't believe it.

I was really in shock, you know, and I

was probably in shock for a year after I was in prison.

Unbelievable.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Paul Freshour

was given the maximum sentence for attempted murder--

7 to 25 years.

Everyone assumed Paul had written

the Circleville Letters.

And everyone assumed that with Paul behind bars,

the letters would stop.

Everyone was wrong.

MARTIN YANT: They were being received all over, a large area

of central Ohio, so a lot of people

couldn't understand how Paul Freshour could be mailing

all these letters from prison.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Following repeated complaints

from Sheriff Radcliff, Paul was placed in solitary confinement.

Still, the letters continued.

All of them were postmarked Columbus

even though Paul was imprisoned in Lima, Ohio, 200 miles away.

PAUL FRESHOUR: You go into a single-man cell and that's it,

you know, it's nothing in there with you--

no pencils, no papers, no nothing.

Restrictions-- you wouldn't believe.

Pat downs, cell searches, visit monitoring, mail--

in-going, out-going mail-- always examined and tested.

Maybe some days I'd get my mail.

Maybe some days I wouldn't.

We have, of course, reviewed your file in preference

to your visit with us today.

And, although we find some nice things about you in the file,

there are also some things that concern us a great deal.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): After seven years in prison,

Paul Freshour became eligible for parole.

In the weeks preceding his hearing,

the volume of anonymous letters increased dramatically.

Despite the Columbus postmarks, the letters

worked against Paul.

He was denied parole even though he was universally

regarded as a model prisoner.

A few days later, the letter writer sadistically

wrote a letter to Paul himself.

CIRCLEVILLE WRITER (VOICEOVER): Now,

when are you going to believe you aren't

going to get out of there?

I told you two years ago--

when we set them up, they stay set up.

Don't you listen at all?

No one wants you out.

No one.

The joke is on you.

Ha.

Ha.

Full scale investigations were conducted, twice possibly

three times, during which Paul Freshour

was put into isolation.

And the warden of the prison he was in during one

of these investigations then wrote a letter to Paul's wife

saying that as far as he was concerned,

it was impossible for Paul to be writing these letters

and sending them from prison.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): When Martin Yant reviewed

the sheriff's investigative file,

he uncovered evidence never mentioned at the trial which he

believes might have kept Paul Freshour out of prison

altogether.

MARTIN YANT: Mary Gillespie told the sheriff

that one of the other bus drivers

told her that she had been driving that same road about

twenty minutes before Mary Gillespie found that booby trap

at exactly that site.

And when she went by that very same intersection,

there was a yellow El Camino parked there.

A large man with sandy hair was standing there.

And when he saw her come, he turned around

and acted like he was going to the bathroom or something,

but seemed also to be avoiding any kind of identification.

The description of the individual

does not fit Paul Freshour at all,

and Paul had a very solid alibi for this time of day.

There was no attempt at all to follow up on that lead.

And if they had, as I say, they would

have found that another possible suspect in this case

had a brother who had a yellow El Camino.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In May of 1994,

Paul Freshour was finally granted parole

after serving ten years.

To this day, he staunchly maintains his innocence,

and he is sure that the real criminal is still at large.

PAUL FRESHOUR: I'd really like to see someone really

look at this case on the letters,

reopen the letter part of it and get in and find

out who wrote the letters.

I'd also like to see someone look

into this, to my former brother-in-law's death.

Look, I-- you know, that's-- that's not my family

anymore and that's my past.

I'm not even going to look back at it.

I've got a new family and a new future,

but I still would like to see someone look at that accident

real close and the letters.

And that's-- that's what it really is.

ROBERT STACK: So many questions remain

in this most bizarre case.

Who did write the Circleville Letters?

At home, did Ron Gillespie fire his gun?

Did that person kill Ron?

Who was responsible for the booby trap

found by Mary Gillespie?

And, finally, who stole Paul Freshour's pistol?

When we return, Agatha Christie, the world's

most-renowned mystery writer, becomes

a focal point of her own, tantalizing, unsolved mystery.

[theme music]

In 1823, the poet Lord Byron wrote,

"Truth is always strange, stranger than fiction."

Just over a century later, the great mystery writer Agatha

Christie authored such famous novels

as "Murder on the Orient Express"

and "Ten Little Indians."

It would prove that Byron was right.

You see, when Agatha was 36 years old,

she became the subject of her own real-life unsolved mystery,

demonstrating that truth is not only stranger than fiction;

often, it's directly related.

On the morning of December 4th, 1926,

Agatha Christie's car was found abandoned about an hour's drive

from her home on the outskirts of London.

Agatha had apparently vanished into thin air,

but some suspected the worst--

that her husband Archie had done her in.

[crows cawing]

The press was fascinated.

So was the public.

Agatha was a famous woman.

She was known to be a mistress of mysteries.

This was a real-life mystery.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The story

was taken up with great glee by newspapers around England.

What had become of Agatha Christie?

How could one of the most well-known women in the country

have disappeared off the face of the Earth?

She was born Agatha Miller in 1890.

Her father was a wealthy American, her mother

a proper British lady.

Agatha was raised in the moneyed upper middle

class of English society.

In 1914, Agatha broke an existing engagement

to marry Colonel Archibald Christie, a dashing pilot

in the Royal Flying Corps.

Archie had pursued Agatha aggressively,

even though many thought they were opposites in every way.

Everybody tells them it's a bad idea.

It's the war, they get married on Christmas day,

and he immediately goes off to the war.

A very, very traditional and romantic tale.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): While Archie was fighting

in the skies over France, Agatha worked as a nurse

and, in her spare time, launched a writing

career creating the famous Belgian detective

Hercule Poirot.

Agatha's first book, published four years after the war,

was called "A Mysterious Affair at Styles."

That first book was a sensation.

She didn't expect anything like that.

And nobody expected it from a rather plump, placid, ordinary

looking girl.

She hit the jackpot straightaway.

The next three or four books did a little better each time.

And then, with her fifth book, "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,"

she really hits the big time.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In 1926, Agatha, Archie,

or the young daughter Rosalind, move

into a mansion which the name "Styles"

after Agatha's first novel.

Archie had been successful in his own right--

a retired war hero turned investment banker.

On the surface, the Christie's looked

like the picture-perfect family.

I hadn't given it a thought.

Archie was a real stockbroker.

He was a British, proper, upper-crust, boring man

who looked good.

He was extremely conventional.

I'm playing golf for the weekend.

Care to join me?

I don't believe I can.

As you will.

GILLIAN GILL: Agatha looked conventional,

but inside she wasn't.

Inside, she wanted more.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Later, in 1926,

when Agatha's mother Clara died, the strange civility of Agatha

and Archie's marriage cracked.

Agatha was absolutely distraught

with the death of her mother.

I think she had really never left the mother's side.

And this is possibly one of the reasons

why the marriage wasn't a great success--

that she still remained very much a family girl.

And when the mother died, it really unhinged her a bit.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Agatha took Rosalind and her nanny

to Ashfield, the rambling Edwardian

home where Agatha had grown up.

Ostensibly, the move was temporary,

to sort through her late mother's possessions,

but it dragged on for weeks.

Archie stayed away.

Agatha's grief for her mother was too deep to fathom.

GILLIAN GILL: At 36, I think most women

would mourn their mothers.

But with Agatha Christie, it wasn't just sorrow.

It was something approaching melancholia.

It was an almost pathological condition, I think.

And so she lived at Ashfield in this terrible sense

of disorientation, physical stress,

with no one to confide in, looking forward to the point

when Archie would come down and celebrate with her,

their daughter's birthday.

Agatha, please do sit down.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The birthday celebration did not

play out as Agatha had hoped.

Agatha, I want you to give me a divorce.

A divorce?

That's what I want.

No, Archie.

Absolutely not.

Never.

That's what I want, Agatha.

I will not be moved.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): It seemed

that Archie had become involved with a woman named Nancy Neal.

Well, this was absolutely devastation for her.

She had been betrayed.

She never thought that a man could do this to her.

I think she would have even lived with Archie having

a mistress, but the fact that he wanted to divorce her,

destroyed her.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In a last ditch effort

to save her marriage, Agatha took

Rosalind and moved back home.

I think you should stay at Styles this weekend, Archie.

We could spend some time alone together.

If you'll excuse me.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On December 3rd, 1926,

Archie took off alone, bound for a weekend house party.

By some accounts, Archie and Agatha

argued bitterly before he left.

Agatha must have suspected that he planned

to rendezvous with Nancy Neal.

With Archie gone, Agatha was left to stew in her own misery.

GILLIAN GILL: Either at 9:30 at night or around 11 o'clock

at night, according to different reports,

she left the house in something of a state.

The maids were alarmed by the way she went out.

We know that she took with her a small traveling case

and that she wore her fur coat.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Agatha left behind at least two notes.

One was addressed to her secretary

asking that she cancel Agatha's weekend appointments.

Another of unknown content was addressed to Archie.

[owl hoots]

Superintendent.

Good morning.

Show me what you've got, Constable.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The next morning,

Agatha's abandoned car was found just

an hour's drive from Styles.

GILLIAN GILL: Again, the exact time seems to be in doubt.

It had gone off the side of the road, it was not turned over,

there had been no big accident.

A local man found the car on his way to work, sir.

The license was in her case.

That's how we know it's Mrs. Christie.

Her coat's still in the car, sir.

Cold night to be out without a coat.

Very cold indeed, sir.

What's this?

Her luggage, sir.

One small bag.

Three dresses, uh, two pairs of shoes, and this, sir.

Very nice. Thank you, Constable.

[horn beeps]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Archie Christine had been tracked

down at his house party.

He made an unfortunate appearance

the very moment the authorities were

beginning to suspect foul play.

[brakes squeak]

Superintendent.

Hello, Christie.

Who are all these people?

Oh, just the curious, sir.

Have they got to be here?

Too late to stop them now, sir.

They know that [inaudible] already.

Colonel Christie, have you any idea where your wife might be?

No, sir.

None.

I haven't a clue.

Pardon me for asking, but, uh--

where were you last night?

I was away, with friends.

You were?

Yes, Superintendent, I was.

Excuse me. Sorry to bother you.

Just one question. [crosstalk]

Just one question.

Was the colonel asking for--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The press had already

gotten wind of the event.

Constable, keep these men away from the house,

and keep the inspector--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The Superintendent

went to Styles to question Agatha's secretary

and other staff members.

No one was able to shed any light on Agatha's

strange disappearance.

Have you spoken to the staff?

Yes, sir, I have.

GILLIAN GILL: The police launched vigorous attempts

to find a body.

There is a small pool nearby called Silent Pool which Agatha

had in fact used in one of her previous stories,

and this is dragged, I think at least twice.

They involved the public, and I think,

even parts of the Army in kind of beating

the bushes, quite literally.

Dorothy L. Sayers and her husband

engaged in this very activity.

So there were days of searching.

Meanwhile, the press is trying to investigate

every angle on the case.

They very rapidly get on to the Nancy Neal angle.

That is to say, they start putting two and two together.

Colonel Christie wasn't home.

And the plot they start to evolve

is, in fact, a murder plot, possibly a suicide plot.

She's been driven to suicide by the cruelty of her husband

and his infidelity.

Or, even more interesting, she is refusing to divorce him

and so he decides to make away with her.

And the fact that so many of the elements in the situation

mirror Agatha Christie's own published fiction

makes the whole thing so much more fascinating.

[splash]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Fascinating indeed.

All the more so when witnesses came forward to say

they had seen Agatha Christie.

The first, a workman named Ernest Cross,

was trekking to his job on the morning

of Agatha's disappearance.

Are you all right, ma'am?

What are you doing here?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Cross said Agatha seemed distraught.

She wore only a thin dress, despite the chilly weather.

I can't start it.

I've tried.

I--

Can I help you then?

Will you?

Oh, please.

- Certainly. - Very good.

Very good. I'll just get in.

All right then.

[engine turns]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): According to Ernest Cross,

Agatha drove off in the opposite direction

from Newland's Corner, the village

where her car would later be found.

The plot thickened.

If Agatha Christie was dead, she certainly

had a strange habit of popping up all over the countryside.

Yes, ma'am.

Can you tell me where I am?

Yes ma'am.

You're in Guilford and Surrey.

Is that the train?

Yes.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Two railroad porters

who spoke with Agatha outside the station in Guilford

assumed she had boarded a train.

Thank you.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Eleven days

later, the final chapter of Agatha's adventure

would be acted out.

The scene-- an elegant health spa in Harrogate,

200 miles from her home.

An alert musician in the dance band

notified authorities that Agatha Christie,

using an assumed name, was a guest at the spa.

The Superintendent wasted no time bringing Archie

Christie up to Harrogate.

Where shall I wait?

Right here in the foyer, sir.

She'll have to pass through here.

And where will you be?

Just through there.

How long shall I wait?

Until she passes by, sir.

Very well.

[sighs]

Agatha.

Archie.

Dear brother, you've come to take me home?

Brother?

Archie, it's so good to see you.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): For reasons known only to herself,

Agatha had first identified Archie as her brother, not

her husband.

We've been searching everywhere for you.

The police thought you were dead.

Is this your wife, Colonel?

Yes, it is.

Mrs. Christie.

Hello.

Agatha, please, we must talk.

Come with me.

GILLIAN GILL: What I would like to know

is what happened when Archie and she went upstairs that night,

and they sat in that room all night talking.

I mean, did they give each other hell or what?

That's what I think nobody, of course, will know.

And did he say, "Well, I have no intention

of ever coming back to you."

I think he must have because that was the end.

That was the tragic moment, that night.

How long have you been in Harrogate, Mrs. Christie?

Is there another man involved?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Agatha and Archie

made their getaway from this spa amid nearly

hysterical press [inaudible].

REPORTER: Mr. Christie, can we have some comments, please?

[car horn]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Both refused

to comment about Agatha's mysterious disappearance,

so reporters all over England began to dig furiously.

Backed up by Agatha's doctors, and encouraged by her family,

the press at last concluded that Agatha Christie had

been suffering from amnesia.

I believe that Christie had a definitive and terrible fight

with her husband.

It drove her over the edge.

She had been depressed.

Now she becomes, on some level, psychotic.

She is not herself.

She takes on another identity.

She wanders off.

She gets on the train.

She takes another name.

She goes into this hotel, and she lives another life.

Dear brother, you've come to take me home?

That's very, very, very rare, but it's known.

It's documented in the annals of psychology.

And we know that Agatha Christie was an unusual woman.

Well, I think, and for my elderly age,

I think she plotted and planned it from the start.

She went to the only thing she knew.

She would use the media that she knew, which was revenge,

mystery, possibility of murder.

She checked into this hotel under the name--

I think it's just madly funny-- she checked in using

the name of the girlfriend--

Neal.

Table for one for Teresa Neal.

I think she took endless delight in the fact

that the police shadowed Archie.

Poor Archie had a hell of a life.

He couldn't go anywhere because they

suspected him of murdering her.

And I think she took marvelous delight

in reading this in the papers.

Again, I think, in a sort of revenge and twisted

up sort of way, she was thinking,

but it was very funny.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Agatha and Archie Christie quickly

went their separate ways.

Agatha married eminent archaeologist

Max Mallowan in 1930, two years after Archie

had wed Nancy Neal.

By all accounts, both couples had long, happy marriages.

Agatha Christie went on to write more than one hundred novels,

becoming the best-selling mystery writer of all time.

In her later years, Agatha also wrote her autobiography,

but it would not be published until after her death in 1975.

Agatha's curious fans had waited fifty years

to have her strange disappearance

explained once and for all, but she

wrote not one word about it.

Agatha Christie, mistress of mystery to the end,

had taken her secret to the grave.

Next, a very special celebration.

The solving of our 200th mystery.

[theme music]

For the past seven years, the phone center

has been an integral part of our operation,

providing the crucial link with you, our viewers.

Recently, activity at the phone center took on added excitement

as we counted down to a very special milestone--

the solving of our 200th mystery.

Since our first broadcast in 1987, scenes like this

have become a familiar and welcomed sight.

Thanks to your alert tips, more than one hundred fugitives

have been captured all across the country,

and even in such faraway places as Panama and Central America,

and the island of American Samoa in the South Pacific.

No less important are the heartfelt reunions

of separated family members and long-lost friends.

To date, your calls have helped us solve sixty-three percent

of our lost love cases, a success

rate beyond our wildest dreams.

As we approach the magic number of 200,

each call to the phone center was

met with rising anticipation, and the final solves reflected

the diversity of our show.

A mother and daughter separated by adoption in 1937.

A man wanted for murder.

A suspected con artist.

Two sisters who had not seen each other

in more than twenty years.

It's so good to see you.

Gosh.

And now there are 200, all made

possible by you, our viewers.

Since today is Veterans Day, it seems only appropriate

that we celebrate our 200th solve

with the uplifting story of a friendship forged

by the difficulties of war.

We're going to take a little run.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In 1964, 19-year-old Mitchell

Shigemoto of Honolulu, Hawaii made it

through a rigorous training course

to join the prestigious 173rd Airborne Division

of the United States Army.

The next year, Mitchell and his unit

were transferred to Vietnam.

At the front, within the ranks of his own Army,

Mitchell ran into a strange bias.

He looked just like the enemy.

Move on, Jap.

Hey, you got a problem?

Yeah, I don't serve zipperheads.

- Let's go! - You want to go?

Come on!

Come on!

What's the problem?

Why don't you just do your job and serve the soldier?

All right. Just relax, OK?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): But one soldier, James Pearson,

stood up for Mitchell.

All right. All right.

Just take it easy.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Mitchell and James had become

best friends when they were posted

in Okinawa en route to Vietnam.

[gunshots]

On January 2nd, 1966, their unit ran into a heavy fire.

[gunshot]

When Mitchell Shigemoto caught a bullet in the thigh,

James Pearson came to the rescue.

There was one sniper there who was keying in on us.

James took a position right in front of me

like he was trying to block off the shots,

and James actually saved my life.

[yelling]

And what I say to him, I say, "James, I never had a chance

to thank you personally.

I want to thank you now."

I really appreciate everything that he did for me.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): What James did for Mitchell

was against regulations.

He and another soldier temporarily

left the firing line in order to carry Mitchell to safety.

A few weeks later, Mitchell was sent home to Hawaii.

He never saw James Pearson again and never

had the opportunity properly thank

the man who saved his life.

After our broadcast, all that would change

in a most remarkable way.

A viewer in San Bernardino, California, retired Lieutenant

Colonel Truman Plants, took it upon himself

to track down James Pearson.

One week later, Lieutenant Colonel Plants

found him in Chicago.

And before long, James, his fiancee,

and his two grown daughters were on their way

to Hawaii to visit Mitchell Shigemoto and his family.

As Mitchell's relatives gathered to welcome James,

the two old comrades caught the first glimpse of one another

in nearly 30 years.

Mitchell.

How are you doing, man?

Great.

It's great to see you.

Great to see you.

You still look the same.

[both laugh]

It was a complete and total joy.

Happiness.

It's just great to see you.

I had to compose myself, you know.

It was just completely overwhelming and unbelievable.

Hi, Connie.

How are you?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Mitchell's wife, Connie,

greeted James in traditional Hawaiian fashion.

After all, this was the man who saved her husband's life.

And who is this one?

I wasn't going to leave him out there

alone under those conditions.

I couldn't have did it.

Whether regulations permitted it or rules permitted it or not,

I just couldn't have did it.

It took a lot from a real special person

to do something like that.

And my wife, you know, when she heard that story,

she made it a point to try to locate him with no success,

until we found you guys.

[laughs]

That's my next agenda.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): James spent a full week in Hawaii

with Mitchell.

The two of them never stop talking about the past,

and the future, planning the time

they would see each other again.

INTERVIEWER: So how does it feel to be back together?

[laughs]

They haven't come up with that word yet.

When they come up with that word,

I'll write you and let you know.

There is no word for the feeling,

you know, for right now.

They haven't come up with that word.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Stay tuned, in the next hour,

for these intriguing mysteries.

When police conclude that a young college student has

committed suicide, his parents launch their own investigation

and reach their own disturbing conclusion.

In Massachusetts, authorities need

your help to track down a man who killed his wife's sister.

And journey into the murky depths

of Lake Michigan in search of a legendary treasure worth

millions.

[theme music]

When he died at the age of 21, Tommy Burkett

was a junior at Marymount University

in Arlington, Virginia, just down the road

from Washington, DC.

Tommy's parents lived some twenty miles from the campus.

His mother, Beth George, was an instructor there.

I thought I left the lights on.

Tommy?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On Sunday, December 1, 1991,

Tommy was at home after the Thanksgiving holiday.

Tommy!

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): His parents had been

out for much of that afternoon.

When they returned to the house at about 6:10 PM,

they confronted an unimaginable horror.

Tommy was upright on the sofa in his bedroom.

He had been shot once through the mouth.

The revolver rested in his hands.

TOM BURKETT: No!

Don't go in there.

No. No.

I'm going to call 911.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Virtually, from the moment

police arrived on the scene that night, they have insisted

that Tommy Burkett committed suicide.

Case closed.

But Tommy's parents, Beth George and Tom Burkett,

have amassed compelling evidence that their son

was in fact murdered.

They have pieced together a chilling scenario

that they claim implicates officials from both the Fairfax

County Virginia Police Department and the United

States Drug Enforcement Agency.

Tom and Beth's suspicions began within minutes of discovering

their son's body.

[sniffs]

Oh, no.

I went over close to him and I knelt down beside him

and I touched his hands and they were--

they were stone cold.

It's going to be all right.

But I just kept saying over and over that everything would

be all right, and that we would find them,

and that we loved him.

[sniffs]

Tom, look at that gun.

Something's not right.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In the emotion of the moment,

Tom picked up the revolver.

He was surprised to find his cylinder unlatched.

Surprised because the gun could not have

been fired in that condition.

Paramedics arrived at 6:20 PM.

Is there anything you can do for him?

No.

There's nothing more we could do.

It's been several hours.

I'm sorry.

After fire and rescue left, a uniformed officer

entered the house immediately and he

was in a hurry, which I thought was strange

because my son was dead.

Don't blame yourself.

I responded, "I don't blame myself."

And he said, "Well, I've seen hundreds of these suicides,

and there was nothing you could have done."

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The lead detective arrived

and went up to Tommy's room.

According to Beth and Tom, he soon emerged

with an old bank deposit slip.

I have something to show you.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On one side

was a note which said simply, "I want to be cremated."

This isn't Tommy's handwriting.

[sighs]

The Fire and Rescue Squad said Tommy's been dead for hours.

No, that's not true.

It just happened.

It probably happened while you were coming down the street.

I was dumbfounded at that comment

because it didn't take a medical person to recognize

that Tommy had been dead for several hours.

He was cold.

He was stiff.

The blood had dried.

Any layman would have said several hours.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Major Art Mabry is a spokesperson

for the Fairfax County Police.

The gun was processed.

An autopsy was conducted.

Photographs were taken.

A thorough and acceptable crime scene was conducted.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): To the police,

the facts spoke for themselves.

Tommy's death was an open and shut case of suicide.

But the facts told a different story to Beth George.

She was certain her son had been murdered, a suicide staged.

It was not just the unlatched gun and the suspicious note.

Tommy's glasses, wallet, and driver's license were missing.

Two days after Tommy's death, his parents went to his dorm

room to collect his belongings.

[knocking]

TOM BURKETT: Come in.

Oh, Mr. Burkett.

You have my condolences.

Thank you.

Oh, by the way, a student found this.

How did you get this?

Oh, well, I'm sorry--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): According to Tom and Beth,

school administrators refused to provide any information

about the student who had turned in Tommy's driver's license.

It was another unanswered question

to add to a growing list.

It looks like it's been tampered with.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Tommy's parents decided

to canvas the neighborhood.

They were stunned by what people had seen the afternoon

of their son's death.

Several neighbors reported seeing

a car chase, Tommy's car being chased by a larger, darker car.

One neighbor in particular had a very clear recollection.

He said he saw the cars coming and he

thought, "This is serious.

It's life or death."

[tires squealing]

Another neighbor reported that one

of the cars involved in the chase at one point

drove through someone's lawn.

Tommy's car was apparently run off the road

and he was assaulted.

He got away from his attackers at that point

and made it back to our house.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Two other neighbors

reported seeing a peculiar incident at around 5:15

PM, a time when paramedics said Tommy was already dead.

One of the witnesses was willing to appear on camera.

What I remember about that night is that another neighbor

of mine was coming over to my house and she observed a car

going around the cul-de-sac.

It was Tommy's car, and it was going around the cul-de-sac

with no lights on.

And he was not driving in his normal manner.

And as soon as she arrived at my house,

she immediately relayed the story to me.

You know, we commented about it for a while.

We stood out on the porch and chatted for a minute.

And whoever was sitting in the car did not get out of the car

until after we went inside.

We thought it was very strange that no one had contacted us

from a law enforcement agency to find out if we did

indeed know anything or not.

At the insistence of the Burketts,

we did go and talk to all the neighbors,

but no information was developed from those discussions that

would change the information that led us to believe

that it is a suicide.

Tom, come here.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): A few weeks after Tommy's death,

Beth noticed a spray of small reddish marks on the stairway.

It looks like scattered, faint bloodstains.

But what would it be doing on the stairs?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Earlier, Beth

had noticed other spots near a doorway downstairs.

We have to have someone come here and look at this.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Beth and Tom

informed the authorities, but no official investigation

followed.

Tom and Beth then made a bitter decision.

Tommy's body was exhumed for a second autopsy.

The new findings added to their growing belief

that Tommy had been murdered.

The second autopsy revealed that Tommy

had unexplained abrasions, bruising around his right ear,

and he had a broken jaw.

Tom and Beth hired Paul Kish, a bloodstain

expert from the Laboratory of Forensic Science in Corning,

New York.

He determined that the spots were in fact blood,

though he could not determine whether it was Tommy's.

It's not consistent with being created

from an individual committing suicide

in a room sitting on a sofa.

Some other violent altercation took place

where blood was shed, with a lot of energy

being exerted towards the blood, like a gunshot.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): This spent bullet

was found in Tommy's room.

It bolstered best suspicion that the suicide had been staged.

At our laboratory, professor MacDonald

did a analysis of the lead core which was pulled from the wall

and was unable to identify any kind

of tissue which you would expect to see

that passed through the skull.

And he also had a negative test for blood.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): To Tommy's parents,

a terrifying picture of his last hours had begun to emerge.

I'm calling about some information concerning

my son, Tommy Burkett.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Beth resolved

to find out if her son had telephoned

for help on the day he died.

Do you have any records of him making any 911 calls that day?

He did call twice.

What did he say?

She said, "Well, on the computer screen

it shows his name and the login number

and the time that he called and that he

made two consecutive calls, but the message has been deleted."

Well, how can I find out what he said?

I really need to know what my son said.

And she said, "Well, let me check with the supervisor."

Also, do you have any records of any complaints

he may have made against any persons?

She said, "Yes.

He had filed a complaint at the end of October

and at the end of August."

What was the nature of the complaints?

And she said, "Well, I'll have to check with my supervisor."

So she left, was gone several minutes, and came back

and said, "I don't know why his name is on the computer,

but he didn't call 911."

I'm not familiar with who they spoke with.

I do know that there is no information

to indicate that Tommy had called 911 prior to his death.

I know Tommy made the calls because police

department personnel told me.

I know this to be a fact.

I'm angry every day of my life.

I wake up angry every morning that this police department did

not respond to the 911 calls.

It's my understanding that the information that the Burketts

came up with about the 911 call was well after the thirty days

and the tape that would have been on the machine

that particular night had already been routinely erased.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): If Tommy did indeed call 911,

were the official phone records innocently

erased or deliberately purged?

More importantly, if Tommy had called,

why were his pleas for help ignored by the authorities?

Tommy's parents began to closely re-examine

a strange series of events that preceded their son's death.

It began with a phone call from Tommy around November 12,

less than three weeks before he died.

Hello?

Mom, they smashed my mailbox and took my paycheck.

They took everything.

Calm down, Tommy.

Look, uh, get in touch with payroll

and tell them to stop payment on the check.

It's not the paycheck I'm worried about, I--

Tommy was normally very poised, very calm,

and he was just frantic.

I'm not sure what was in there.

It's OK, hon.

What do you think was in there?

Well, something I didn't want anyone to know about.

I think they found out what I'm doing.

And I took it to mean that, since he was not positive they

had found something out, he was not going to divulge exactly

what he was worried about.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Beth says

that a few days after the mailbox break-in,

she had a troubling encounter with a student

on the Marymount campus.

Hey. Hey, how are you doing?

Great. How are you?

I'm doing OK.

Good.

Have you guys seen Tommy today?

No, we haven't.

But when you find him, tell him

there's three guys looking to beat him up.

We were later told that the same young man who

made the threat, the next night, on the 15th of November,

assaulted Tommy at a location off campus.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): According to Beth,

several sources told her that Tommy confronted his tormentor

a few hours later.

What's wrong with you?

Why do you keep doing this to me?

Why don't you just leave me alone?

[grunts]

[groaning]

We were later told by a student at the University

that the young man who had Tommy's driver's

license after he was dead was the same student

who had beaten Tommy up.

There may have been some indication

that Tommy was involved in investigating drug activity

on the Marymount campus, and that

may have been one of the reasons why

we still don't know to this day what really

happened to Tommy Burkett.

A number of sources, mostly anonymous, have come to us

and helped us piece together a story.

In most instances, their accounts

corroborate each other.

And what we've learned about our son

was that he was a paid DEA informant.

That there were a group of students on the campus

who were dealing drugs.

They felt Tommy knew too much, and that they conspired

with others to kill him.

[tires screech]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Beth and Tom

now believe that their neighbors unknowingly witnessed

Tommy being chased by the killers.

They also believe Tommy abandoned his car

and made his way home in time to place the 911 calls.

Then, the killers burst in.

[yelling]

According to Beth and Tom, an informer said Tommy was beaten

to death with a baseball bat.

Phone books were used to minimize bruising

and absorb the blood spatters.

The story fit in with everything we had noticed

and could not account for during the previous months.

For example, we had noticed our phone books were missing

the week after Tommy died.

Also, we had told the police we were concerned because there

had been a ball bat in Tommy's bedroom

and the gripping tape had been stripped off the bat,

and that had not been done by any of us.

We understand the students had assistance

in staging the shooting in the room from persons

more knowledgeable about law enforcement and crime

than they were.

Tom and Beth have names of the students they suspect

were involved in Tommy's death.

There's not enough evidence to say their names publicly

at this point, but I believe, with some of the evidence

they've collected over the past two years,

that they may have the right people.

It has been determined and it's

going to be maintained that it is

a suicide until substantial, credible information is

brought to us.

At that point, we will examine all the information, just

as we have for the past years.

But, again, credible information is what we're seeking.

There's just a sense of rage that nobody's doing anything.

No matter how much information is

dumped in the laps of law enforcement people,

they don't do anything.

The response is the same-- everything's all right.

Everything was done wonderfully.

Everything's fine.

And they think if they say it enough, it'll be true.

It won't be.

And we're not going to stop saying it's not.

[somber music]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): When we return,

a treasure hunt that is not for the faint-hearted.

But some think $400 million in gold is worth the risk.

[theme music]

It is only a speck of rocky land, just east

of Wisconsin, surrounded by the chilly waters of Lake Michigan.

It is called Poverty Island, an apt name,

especially when treacherous storms sweep in across the lake

without warning.

Furious winds and lightning-swift currents

have spawned a graveyard of sunken ships

and over the years, intriguing tales of lost treasure.

One legend in particular professes that, just offshore

of Poverty Island, there are five chests

stuffed with gold bullion and coins which would today be

worth more than $400 million.

It might sound far-fetched, but the promise of millions in gold

is enough for Richard Bennett, a professional diver

and author of "Deep Quest."

Bennett has spent more than twenty years

and $100,000 of his own money searching

for the sunken fortune.

--what we're going to do this morning, OK?

OK.

Could we just put it together?

Any story that last or survives a hundred years,

has to have some validity to it.

If they survive a hundred years, they

probably have an eighty to eighty-five percent

chance of being true.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): But how could $400 million in gold

end up on the bottom of Lake Michigan?

It all dates back to 1863.

The tide of the Civil War was turning in favor of the Union.

The beleaguered South, strapped for capital,

put out a desperate call for relief to England and France.

According to the legend, the emperor of France,

Napoleon Bonaparte III, answered the plea

and arranged a clandestine shipment of gold

to the Confederacy.

With the Southern ports blockaded,

the gold was quietly packed into five chests

and shipped across the North Atlantic to Canada.

The secret shipment was then spirited hundreds of miles

down the St. Lawrence River and clear across the Great Lakes

to Escanaba, Michigan.

There, the gold was hustled aboard a sixty-foot schooner

for transport to Chicago.

Some say the ship was attacked by French mercenaries and sunk.

Others, that it was shipwrecked in a storm.

In either event, the chests of gold were never recovered.

The legend is very consistent in several ways,

and I think that's one of the most intriguing things

about this legend is that, it's consistent in that the loss is

always at Poverty Island, there's always five chests,

and it's always the same scenario.

And over here, she shows as being lost--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Historian Chuck Feltner

disagrees.

He has spent years in the Great Lakes searching for shipwrecks.

He believes that the legend of the treasure

makes for good storytelling, but maintains it is just that--

a good story.

And that's 257 tons.

CHARLES FELTNER: Records of shipwrecks

on the Great Lakes in the year 1863 were extremely good.

We've not been able to find any evidence

that any of these vessels that were recorded to have been lost

were sunk in the vicinity of Poverty Island,

or that they were French vessels, as the legend would

have it to be.

This is not the kind of activity

that people would normally document with enrollments

and this kind of thing.

This was more of a secret activity,

and they would not want to be broadcasting it.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Despite the lack of a paper

trail, the legend of the secret shipment

has grown, fed by rumors and speculation.

In 1929, a group of sailors was said to have snagged the five

chests with their anchor.

Up it came, just seconds away, a fortune in gold,

when suddenly the chains broke.

[groans]

[splash]

The treasure plummeted back to its watery grave.

[thud]

A few years later, a group of investors in Chicago

allegedly raised $50,000 to try their luck at Poverty Island.

A young boy named Karly Jesson, whose father was

a local lighthouse keeper, was said

to have watched the salvage operation

for three consecutive summers.

One day he was sitting on the rocks watching this operation

and there was a lot of rejoicing, revelry.

Obviously, a real congratulatory party that

was going on, on the ship.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): According to the boy,

in the third year, a sudden storm arose

forcing him to return home.

That night, the salvage ship allegedly sank with all hands

on board.

The heartless tides of Lake Michigan

had once again reclaimed the Poverty Island Treasure.

Today, some sixty years later, Richard Bennett

feels certain that he will succeed

where others have failed.

Bennett has devised an ingenious underwater sled

to comb the murky depths of Lake Michigan.

The only way to really find this treasure

is to have human beings on the sled visually looking

at the bottom.

It's cold, it's deep, and the area is very treacherous.

Rocks, as large as sofas, are moved around on the bottom.

But I'm a dreamer, and I'm a gambler.

As long as I have those things working for me,

I'll probably continue to do it.

Will Richard Bennett ever find the Poverty Island Treasure?

Only time will tell.

But a word of warning to any would-be treasure hunters--

the waters surrounding Poverty Island

can be extremely treacherous, even for the most

experienced divers.

Next, authorities need your help to capture

a man convicted of kidnapping and murdering

his own sister-in-law.

[theme music]

April 25th, 1979.

An intoxicated 29-year-old man tentatively

made his way to a Catholic church

in Everett, Massachusetts.

Father.

Jimmy?

There's something I need to tell you.

Can I come inside? - Yes.

Certainly, lad.

Come in.

You have to help me, Father.

You have to help me get this weight off my shoulders.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The man's name was Timothy Barry.

He was about to make a stunning confession.

I'm the one that kidnapped Nancy.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Incredibly,

Tim Barry had confessed to kidnapping

his own sister-in-law.

In that dramatic moment, he also became a murder suspect.

23-year-old Nancy Brown had vanished

sixteen months earlier from the house she shared

with her mother and sister.

Nancy was still missing.

It seemed too bizarre and horrendous to contemplate.

Could Tim Barry have killed Nancy Brown--

Nancy, who idolized him like a brother?

The seeds of this tragedy were planted when Tim Barry married

Nancy's sister, Andrea Brown.

Andrea was the oldest of four daughters,

and when their father died, Tim became the unofficial head

of the family.

Do you want some marshmallows?

He was the brother that my sisters never had,

and the whole family just loved him.

Tim's upbringing was very similar to my own.

His parents brought him up very Christian.

He believed in the same things I did.

Very family-oriented.

We all just became as one.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): They remained as one

for seven, happy, basically contented years.

Then came Thursday, October 6th, 1977.

It was Nancy's regular day off and she got

an early start doing laundry.

The only other person in the house

was her younger sister, 16-year-old Maura,

home sick from school.

Early that morning, Maura heard Nancy

slam the door to the back porch and turn

on the radio in the kitchen.

That was the last anyone saw or heard of Nancy Brown.

A little while after supper, my mother

called wondering if I had seen my sister, which, usually

wouldn't have been abnormal for me to have seen her

during the course of the day. And I hadn't.

And I hadn't spoken to her.

And they told me that nobody had seen her all day.

Mary, have you seen Nancy today?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Tim and Andrea,

and Andrea's sister Allison, rushed over to the house

and started calling Nancy's friends.

She hasn't seen her today.

Oh my God.

I know something's happened to her.

Nothing's happened to her.

Just calm down.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Both Andrea and Allison

were eight months pregnant.

They tried to keep themselves and their mother calm.

MRS. BROWN: I talked to Margaret.

ALLISON: And the neighbors? - Yes.

ALLISON: Did you talk to her friends?

Yes.

I wouldn't worry about it, Ma.

There's lots of places she could be.

She probably went shopping. - Yeah.

I agree with Allison.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In retrospect, Tim's behavior

seemed out of kilter.

ALLISON: Did you look around?

Did you look in her room?

When Nancy disappeared, Tim was there with everybody, very

concerned, wondering what happened,

but he seemed to be more nervous than what the rest of us were.

I'll go downstairs and check the washer.

OK.

You check the basement.

I'll check her room.

And I'll get her address book and see if there's

anybody we haven't called.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The group split

up to search the house again.

In the basement, Ida Brown found the one clue

that had been left behind--

Nancy's glasses.

The fact that Nancy's glasses were found

on the floor of the cellar was particularly disturbing

because the car was gone.

Nancy was blind is a bat.

She had to have the glasses at all times,

especially for driving.

The very next day when she did not appear or report for work,

we conducted an investigation as to the place

that she was employed and also the place she was last seen.

We also were looking for her car.

And on the second day, I believe,

we located the car in a shopping mall, perhaps a mile

from her home.

Well, there's no damage to the ignition.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Interestingly, Tim Barry

been the one who suggested to police they check

that particular shopping mall.

Nancy's car was unlocked, the keys lying under the seat.

There were no apparent signs of foul play.

When they went to look at the car,

they found out that the car-- she had an alarm in it.

The car alarm was not set, which is unusual for Nancy.

She always set the alarm.

And there were a few particles of sand inside the car.

But that's all that we had at the time.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): An abandoned car

and a pair of glasses.

The clues were sparse, yet the ominous possibility

loomed that something terrible had happened to Nancy Brown.

We all tried to settle into a normal life,

trying to make things as natural as we could.

We were always hungry for any news.

We always tried to think of possibilities.

--all the way through the night all ready?

- Mm. - That's great.

How are you feeling?

Good.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Allison had her baby just

days after Nancy disappeared.

Andrea and Tim's second child was due any time.

The sisters still hadn't given up

hope that Nancy would return.

I wish Nancy were here.

Me too.

Me too.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): But Tim evidently had.

Will you stop talking about it?

She's gone.

There's nothing we can do about it.

Tim seemed to be a little bit more

withdrawn, a little bit more moody than he

normally would have been.

He wasn't acting himself.

ROBERT STACK: According to Andrea,

Tim had begun to drink heavily.

Unbeknownst to her, the police had asked

him to take a polygraph exam. He had refused.

The police began to check into Tim Barry's background

and soon found an alarming skeleton in his closet.

While stationed in Germany with the US Army,

Tim had been charged with the murder of another soldier.

A military court found him innocent,

but the record did note his so-called clairvoyance--

how he had led authorities to the location of the murder

weapon and the body.

Police now began to believe it was more than coincidence

that Tim had known where to look for Nancy's car.

Still, there was no hard evidence against Tim Barry

until April 25, 1979.

I'm the one that kidnapped Nancy.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): That was the night, nearly a year

and a half after Nancy disappeared,

when Tim Barry made his dramatic appearance at the church.

I knew that Nancy, on her days off,

would do laundry at her mom's house, so I, uh--

I-- I broke into the house about 5:00--

5:00 AM and waited for her down under the stairs.

I could hear her moving around up there,

and she walked down the stairs, and I, uh, came apart.

I grabbed her and I blindfolded her

so she couldn't see who it was.

And then I put her in her car and I made

her lie down in the front seat.

I know who you are.

TIM: Get back down.

Get down.

Timmy, I know it's you.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Tim told the priest

he had worn a fake mustache so no one in the neighborhood

would recognize him.

He said he drove Nancy to a beach

in Ipswich, Massachusetts, twenty miles north of Everett.

Nancy, shut up.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Tim Barry

forced Nancy Brown to walk through the dunes

into a heavily wooded area.

He carried a hunting knife and a military and trenching shovel.

NANCY: Timmy, you're crazy.

TIM: No I'm not.

Then why would you be doing something like this?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Tim told

the priest that when Nancy stood up to him,

he decided to end it.

TIM: And no on will ever know.

I hit her in the back of the head

with the shovel, and then I--

I slit her throat.

I buried her and threw the shovel

away and buried the knife.

I know it took a lot of courage to tell your story,

Timmy.

But don't you think it would be wise if you told it one

more time to the authorities?

Do you think you can do that?

When he first confessed to us, he was cool, calm.

It seemed like he had a burden on him,

he wanted to get it off his chest,

and he told us from the beginning, you know.

And I just said to him, "Timmy, you know,

all these years, it's been over sixteen

months the investigations are going on.

Why didn't you confess before?

Why now?

He said, because nobody had ever asked him the question,

"Did you murder her?"

And if they had, he said he would have confessed.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Later that night, Tim Barry

led the authorities into the woods

behind the beach at Ipswich.

One of the police officers present

was Patrick Dello Iacono, a friend

of Tim Barry's from childhood.

It's, uh, 30 meters over there.

The terrain itself was difficult, walking in the sand.

It was very sandy.

It was tough on your feet to walk.

And Timmy kept looking up at the stars and I questioned Timmy,

"Why were you looking at the stars?"

And he said, "That's how I find my way to where we're going."

You know, Timmy, you know your way around these woods

pretty good, huh?

TIM: Yeah. in the Army I was trained

in the Special Services.

PAT: Oh, yeah?

I bet they taught you all about this stuff, huh?

TIM: Pat, I could live in the woods and you'd never find me.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): It took more than an hour,

but Barry finally brought the group to the spot

where he had killed Nancy.

TIM: She's over there.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In a shallow grave,

police found the body of Nancy Brown.

She had died exactly as Tim Barry had said.

PAT: OK, Tim.

We found her body.

You're going to be arrested.

[sighs]

When he was asked why did he do it,

Tim never would tell us why.

He just said, "This is the story.

This is how.

Don't ask me why."

And even though we asked, we never got an answer.

Never had a motive.

I just went to pieces.

I couldn't believe that--

that something like that had happened.

I didn't want to believe my sister was dead,

and I couldn't believe that he had had anything to do with it.

It just, at that point, it didn't

seem like that was his nature.

And I think the whole family went into total shock.

It was just something that was too horrible to have to accept.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On February 11, 1980,

Tim Barry was convicted of second degree

murder and kidnapping.

He received a life sentence plus five to ten years.

For eight years, Tim Barry made a good show of contrition.

According to Andrea, Tim remained a loving and dedicated

father, even behind bars.

Barry also came to be regarded as a model prisoner

and was regularly assigned to work details on the outside.

Hey, Barry.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On Election Day, 1988,

Tim Barry was part of a crew repainting

the Department of Corrections offices in downtown Boston.

Fourteen thousand.

We'll need about--

That particular day, the building was very busy.

There were voting polls on the first floor of the State

Office Building here.

People coming and going all day long.

Elevator traffic.

The inmate work crew were approximately ten

inmates who were working with an officer-supervised work crew.

Timothy Barry, part of that work crew,

was assigned to a specific area painting offices.

I thought you'd be glad to hear that.

I, uh-- I need to go to the can.

Here you go. You remember where it is, right?

- Yeah. - OK.

Hold on.

It's our understanding that he requested of the officer

that he go to the men's room and use

the facilities at approximately 9:30 that morning.

About fifteen minutes later, the officer

realized that Tim Barry had not returned to his work area

upon a check.

And we soon realized that the subject

had left, taking an elevator down to the first floor,

and mingled into the traffic, the floor traffic of the people

voting and the pollsters, and blended into the crowd

and just took off and fled the area.

We initiated a ground search, and that search

revealed absolutely nothing, as if Timothy Barry

just disappeared into the sun.

Gone.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Nearly a year

and a half later, Tim Barry walked

out of the woods in Vermont.

His children, then twelve and seventeen,

were visiting Tim's sister for Memorial Day.

Is that Dad?

What?

Hey, that's Dad!

Hello, Sally.

Oh, God.

I had to work, so I didn't get to go

to the family vacation home.

Where have you been?

Uh--

I don't think anybody expected what happened.

As a matter of fact, I'm certain of that.

I'm never going to see you guys again.

Where are you going?

I just--

I just have to be by myself.

I-- I need to be alone.

Obey your mom.

Say hello to everybody for me.

Dad, come back.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Tim Barry had

stayed for only ten minutes.

It was the last time anyone in the family saw

or heard from him.

I can't say that I'm frightened,

but I have to admit to once in a while looking over my shoulder,

wondering if maybe he isn't someplace watching.

I know he would never do anything to hurt the children

or put the children in a position

where they could be hurt in any way,

but I have to admit to wondering.

Timmy Barry is an extremely intelligent individual,

convicted of murder, sentenced to life imprisonment

in this state, and he is to be considered extremely dangerous.

I want to see Tim caught and brought back to incarceration.

I mean, he did commit a murder, and he

does owe his debt to society.

[dramatic music]

ROBERT STACK: Update.

Timothy Barry is once again behind bars.

As a direct result of "Unsolved Mysteries"

Barry was arrested this past Monday in Akron, Ohio.

Barry had been working there as a truck driver using

the name John Prendiville.

At a hearing in federal court on Tuesday

morning, Barry waived extradition

and was remanded to the custody of the US Marshals

for transport back to Massachusetts.

[theme music]

For every mystery, there is someone,

somewhere who knows the truth.

Perhaps it's you.

Join me again next week on "Unsolved Mysteries."

[theme music]