Original subtitles

ANNOUNCER: This program is about unsolved mysteries.

Whenever possible, the actual family members

and police officials have participated

in recreating the events.

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

ROBERT STACK: Legend has it that off the coast

of northern California divers have

glimpsed the remains of a sunken World War II submarine.

But is there more to the story than mere legend?

Several Navy veterans remember sinking a sub

near San Francisco in 1945.

Now they fear it might have been one of our own.

In Oklahoma, abject poverty forced a couple,

along with their six children, to set up housekeeping

in an old school bus.

When that meager shelter was taken away,

Lela and Roy Lee Stallings were arrested,

the children were separated.

Perhaps someone watching can help

reunite the school bus family.

And the strange saga of John and Linda Sohus.

In 1985, the young couple left their home

in a well-to-do Los Angeles suburb for a two week trip

to New York.

They never returned.

Then this past spring, workmen installing a pool

at their former residence were stunned

by the discovery of a dismembered human skeleton.

Almost overnight, an inactive missing person's case

became an intriguing murder mystery.

Join me for these intriguing new stories

and more on another edition of "Unsolved Mysteries."

[theme music]

May, 1994.

San Marino, California, just north of Los Angeles.

Excavation for a backyard swimming pool

came to an abrupt halt when a workmen made a grim discovery,

three plastic bags and a fiberglass box

containing dismembered sections of a human skeleton.

We didn't really know who this person was

and we were later told by uniformed officers

from San Marino that in 1985, the people

that lived in that house had reported two people missing.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The two missing persons

were John Sohus and his wife Linda, both in their late 20s.

Their sudden disappearance had mystified

everyone who knew them.

The grisly discovery was a macabre twist in a nearly

10-year-old mystery.

It suddenly appeared that either John or Linda Sohus may have

been the victim of foul play.

Detectives proving the disappearance

encountered a cast of characters that might have been

dreamed up by a mystery writer.

Though married for two years, John and Linda still

lived with John's mother, Didi Sohus,

by all accounts, an alcoholic.

However, the most intriguing character

would prove to be a mysterious young man who went by the name

Christopher Chichester.

For about two years, Chichester was a tenant in a guest house

on the Sohus property, located behind the main house occupied

by Didi John and Linda.

According to friends, John and Linda

felt trapped living with Didi Sohus

and looked forward to escaping to a place of their own.

That looks great.

John held several part time computer

programming jobs and Linda was beginning

to find success as an artist.

Linda was happy with her life and John approved of everything

she had to do and say about life and what she

wanted to do and be in life.

And I thought that was great for her

because she'd never had a supportive man in her life.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Early in 1985,

it appeared the young couple had finally gotten the break

they had been hoping for.

Linda announced that she and John

have been asked to interview for important new jobs.

Linda called me and informed me

that John had a job with the government

and she couldn't release any information to me.

All she could tell me was that he's

got a job with the government and they want us both.

and we have to go to New York.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Linda told Sue

that the trip was scheduled to last about two weeks.

However, the return day came and went, no Linda and John.

The mystery would deepen in the coming months.

Hi.

We're going to be gone for about two weeks.

Will that cover it?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Prior to the trip,

Linda had boarded her six cats in a local kennel

and paid in advance for a two week stay.

But at the end of eight weeks, she

still had not claimed her pets.

The kennel owner tracked down Linda's sister, Kathy.

I immediately thought that something was wrong.

If they were not going to return,

they would have taken their pets with them.

I feel inside very strongly that Linda would not

have left her animals behind.

[phone ringing]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Kathy telephoned John's mother,

Didi Sohus, hoping she had an explanation.

Hello.

Didi, it's Kathy, Linda's sister.

Is Linda back from her trip yet?

I'm not supposed to tell you anything.

Tell me what?

What can't you tell me?

A mission.

Mission?

What mission?

What are you talking about?

KATHY JACOBY: It was very frustrating in all

my conversations with Mrs. Sohus to get the same stories,

slightly altered, but still the same story about Linda and John

being on a secret mission and unable to contact any family

members.

Well, that's all I can tell you.

It did appear to me as though she had been drinking.

Sometimes it depended on what time of the day

you called as to how wild the story became.

[knocking]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): April, 1985.

Responding to a missing person's report filed by Linda's family,

San Marino police tried their hand at getting

information from Didi Sohus.

Missing persons report on John and Linda Sohus.

Do you know where they are?

They're not missing.

Everybody keeps asking me and I keep telling them,

they're on a secret mission.

OK.

Can you tell us how we can reach them?

I have a source.

Everyone keeps calling here and I keep

telling them the same thing.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Didi refused to identify the person

she called her source.

With no evidence of foul play, the authorities

were powerless to investigate further.

Finally, a full three months after the Sohus' had

supposedly left, Linda's friend Sue

received this picture postcard.

But it had not been mailed from New York.

Far from it.

I have no clue as to how going to New York

could ever wind up being France.

And I read the back of it.

I was like, I can't wait.

She's finally going to tell me where she is, what's going on.

And all it said was "Dear Sue, kind of miss New York, oops.

But this can be lived with.

John and Linda.

Nothing about I'll call you later, can't talk now.

Nothing.

It just didn't sound like her.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Another card was sent

from France to Linda's family.

My mother received a postcard from Linda,

I believe it to be from Linda.

It did not say when she would return

or how she had come to be in Paris.

If they were planning a trip to Europe,

she would have been very excited about going

and would certainly have expressed that to my mother

and perhaps myself as well.

When I first talked to the police,

I thought I knew what was going on.

Now--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Three months

after refusing to help the police,

Didi Sohus had an inexplicable change of heart.

She, too, filed a missing persons

report on John and Linda.

Have you had any contacted all since they left?

Well, I've been sending their mail through my source.

The man has been contact with them.

He's been the one telling me what's been happening.

We'll need to talk to this individual.

You can't.

That's why I'm worried.

He's gone, too.

Just disappeared.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): According to Didi,

the mysterious contact was none other than her guest house

tenant, Christopher Chichester.

However, he had recently moved, leaving no forwarding address.

Didi also reported that her son's pickup truck

was now missing, though she could not

say when it had disappeared.

However, there still was no proof

that a crime had been committed and the investigation stalled.

If I think of anything else, I'll call you.

OK, please do.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Soon after filing her missing person

report, Didi Sohus would sell her house

and move to a trailer park.

As soon as we hear anything we'll let you know.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): She died

in February of 1988, the fate of her son still a mystery.

Nine months later, the case unexpectedly sprang to life.

The Sohus' truck turned up 3,000 miles away

in Greenwich, Connecticut.

A man calling himself Christopher Crowe

had tried to sell the pickup to the son of a local minister.

Well, this is it.

That's a great looking truck.

Yeah, I told you you'd like it.

One thing though, I don't have the title

paper so you're going to have to get

them from the California DMV.

The reverend's sun decided not to purchase the vehicle

based on the fact that there was an outstanding lien

on the truck.

The San Marino police department wanted me to also look

for an individual by the name of Christopher Chichester who they

felt had information on the whereabouts

of John and Linda Sohus.

My continued investigation in attempting

to locate Mr. Chichester ultimately

ended in me discovering that Mr. Chichester and Mr. Crowe

were the same individuals.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): It was a stunning discovery.

Crowe, Chichester, by any name, the enigmatic ex-tenant

seemed to be one person who might be able to shed light

on the Sohus' disappearance.

But Christopher Crowe, alias Christopher Chichester,

had vanished again.

Consequently, the investigation stalled

again until the dismembered skeleton

was uncovered in May of 1994.

After extensive analysis, a forensic anthropologist

determined that the remains were consistent with physical

descriptions of John Sohus.

However, a lack of dental records

prevented conclusive identification.

Police could only speculate about how the body

came to be buried in the backyard of the one-time Sohus

residence.

Nothing about the bones themselves

that say there was murder.

There was no bullet holes, anything like that.

But the fact that the bones were buried

in three separate plastic bags and the head in a separate bag,

makes one think that there was murder involved.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Detectives hope

to learn more in using a controversial chemical called

luminol.

Though it is highly toxic and dangerous to use,

luminol will emit a distinctive glow when it

comes into contact with blood.

Even where the stains were wiped away years before.

Luminol was applied to the cement floors

in the guest house in the former Sohus property.

Within moments, it would become apparent if there

was evidence of murder.

[inaudible]

The telltale glow was unmistakable.

[inaudible] what do you think about that?

Looks like it could be blood.

That's a whole lot of blood, [inaudible]..

Although luminol can detect chemicals in other compounds,

this was not just a trace element situation.

There was a copious amount of something put on that floor.

And in our opinion, that was blood.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): But whose blood?

Was Jone Sohus murdered in the guest house,

then buried in the backyard?

If so, what happened to Linda.

Officially, both John and Linda Sohus are still missing,

perhaps having the time of their lives

gallivanting across Europe.

I believe that it would have been possible for John

and Linda to relocate and have a new life

and choose not to contact family members.

But I do believe that after so many years have passed,

that at some point, at least once Linda

would have made contact.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): There is one curious footnote

to this perplexing case.

According to the kennel operator, in June of 1985

a woman showed up and asked for Linda's cats.

Faced with the alternative of destroying the animals,

the kennel owner complied.

She never saw the woman again.

And there is no clue to her identity

or whether she has any connection to the case.

Authorities would like to speak to the young man known

as Christopher Chichester.

They now know that he is Christian Gerhartsreiter,

a native of Germany.

[music playing]

Next, a mystery submarine sunk during World War II.

Could it have been one of our own attacked mistakenly?

The 840 mile coastline of California

is a treasure trove of natural beauty.

Its long stretches of beach coupled

with fabulous rock formations have made

it a haven for deep sea divers.

Over the years, a kind of beach town urban legend

has sprung up along the coast.

Rumor has it that divers between Santa Barbara and San Francisco

have sighted something very unusual.

We're about 15 miles off the point.

I'm on the six pack.

We're down about 120 feet.

Now, listen, I got real good visibility,

maybe 30 or 40 feet.

Really?

And sitting off a point there at the bottom right

on the reef is what I think a World War II submarine,

a u-boat. - A submarine?

- Yeah. - Out here?

Yes.

Deck guns, the whole thing in place right there at the reef.

Crystal clear.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Today, it seems preposterous,

an enemy sub that close to the continental United States.

But in World War II, America's coastline was

vulnerable to enemy sub attack.

A German u-boat was sighted off the coast of New England

in May of 1945.

Later that year, an oil rig near Santa Barbara, California,

was fired upon by a Japanese submarine.

Despite the obvious threat that existed 50 years ago,

rumors of a sunken sub remain just that, rumors.

But, in fact, there are a few aging American sailors

who remember a submarine hit in 1945 just

off the coast of northern California.

At the time, of course, they assumed it was the enemy.

But curiously, no record of the incident exists.

Now the old sailors are afraid they might inadvertently

have sunk one of our own.

During 1944 and 1945, the USS Willard Keith

was one of a fleet of Navy destroyers

patrolling the Pacific coast.

For the most part, life on board was

all practice and drill with the k-guns,

better known as depth charges.

Then came March 21, 1945.

The Willard Keith was cruising south of San Francisco

when a general quarters alarm sounded.

An enemy sub was below.

Chet Gardner was a 19-year-old Seaman on the Willard Keith.

His duty, set the depth of the explosive charges.

CHET GARDNER: I can see it just plain today as I

could the day that it happened.

Starboard k-gun, ready to fire, sir.

CHET GARDNER: It's something I'll never forget because I

was pretty excited about it.

Boy, the water flew everywhere.

I thought, oh my gosh, we've made a mistake.

Looked to me like we were going to blow

the ship right out of the water, it was so shallow.

But as we watched then word it came down from the bridge

that they got a hit.

There's something coming up, there's oil coming up.

It was a tremendous explosion, you know.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Eugene Sheridan, then 24 years old,

manned a k-gun on the Willard Keith.

We saw all greenish looking, oilish looking stuff coming

to the top of the water and it's not the seawater,

you're in there all time, you can tell

the difference of color of it.

And we made three or four passes around and back and forth

and crisscrossed and everything else

and we never did pick it up again.

After we had made our turn and came back,

they couldn't pick it up on the sonar anymore.

There was no more sound.

We assume it was just laying on the bottom there some place.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Bill Anderson,

a laundrymen on the main deck, was just 18 years old.

Even then, Bill had his doubts and began

to wonder whether, in fact, the sunken submarine

did belong to the enemy.

Indeed, Bill felt strongly enough

to question a junior officer.

Because we're too close to shore, Anderson.

But, sir--

If it was an American submarine,

it'd be on the surface, not below it.

Yes, sir.

It was kind of a sobering thought, you know?

I mean, you had maybe 50, 60 men dying below you at that time,

or we thought this was the case.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Bill Anderson

has never been able to shake that haunting

image, nor the nagging suspicion that the dying

man were his own comrades.

He has petitioned the Navy and received the deck log and war

diary for the Willard Keith but there is

no record of the submarine hit.

The war diary we got doesn't mention any enemy contact,

doesn't mention this depth charge run whatsoever.

There didn't seem to be any information in Washington

on a submarine being sunk off the coast of California.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In 1932,

Bill Anderson and a partner pool their resources and boat

a boat called the Echo Hunter.

Using radar, underwater sonar, and divers

they are determined to find the sunken submarine.

[inaudible]

BILL ANDERSON: We think the odds are good enough

that we've spent most of our money

on this project to find it.

It's became an obsession with us to find the sub.

I say, we either sunk it right there or we crippled it bad

and it crawled off someplace else.

Maybe got away or maybe who knows, you know?

But I definitely do know that we dropped

the depth charges on them.

The Navy denies that it happened.

But it did happen.

Why they say it didn't happen, I don't know.

Unless they are covering it up, you know?

Unless it is one of our subs and they don't want it known.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Did the USS Willard Keith make

a direct hit that day in 1945?

If so, regardless of whether the dead are American, Japanese,

or German, the Willard Keith sailors

hope to turn the sunken submarine

into a monument to honor the memory of those who fought

and those who died.

At our request, the US Navy checked their archives.

They gave us the following statement.

"We have no record of the USS Willard

Keith sinking a submarine in the spring of 1945.

Additionally, we have no record of any sub

sinkings in the eastern Pacific Ocean

during that same time frame."

Bill Anderson and his comrades remain undaunted.

They plan to continue their quest.

Next, the mysterious death of a Cook County Illinois police

captain.

Was it suicide or was it a contract killing?

[theme music]

According to those who knew him best,

Captain Michael O'Mara of the Cook County, Illinois,

Sheriff's Police was the straightest of straight arrows.

He was a devoted husband and father.

The only officer in the Sheriff's Police

trained at the FBI Academy.

In the 60s, O'Mara became celebrated as a scourge

of the Illinois mafia.

By 1988, however, Michael O'Mara had been relegated to a desk

job in the records department.

It should have been the gentle twilight of a brilliant career.

Should have been, but wasn't.

May 30, 1988, shortly after 9:00 PM.

At the Cook County Courthouse, the sheriff's police patrolman

pulled into the private service area to gas up his car.

An unmarked police car was parked at the pumps

with a gas nozzle in the tank.

Yet no officer was in sight.

Anybody here?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): As the patrolman's flashlight played

over the lawn around the service area,

he caught a glimpse of a gruesome scene.

Michael O'Mara's body was slumped over a rock

in the middle of the lawn.

He had been shot once through the head.

His wallet in his briefcase had not been touched.

Even though there was no sign of a robbery,

Michael O'Mara's reputation as a crusader

against organized crime made murder seem a possibility.

--Just north of the Markam Courthouse pumps.

You approach a death seen as possibly a homicide, initially,

that, you know, who did this?

There was a gun to the right side of the body

near the right hand.

And there was a very visible gunshot wound to the forehead.

There was a flashlight found next to a rock

and that we can identify as his flashlight, the gun is his gun.

And there was one bullet that was

discharged from that cylinder of that weapon.

You've got nothing in any way, shape, or form

to say that there were anybody else there.

The victims pockets were intact, his money was intact,

his car was intact.

If you are going to weigh this, there would be more weight

towards a suicide or an accident than there

would be towards a murder.

ROBERT STACK: Two weeks after Mike O'Mara died,

a Cook County coroner handed down a ruling which confirmed

investigators suspicions.

The official cause of death was listed as suicide.

It all seems so final, a tragic end to an otherwise spotless

career.

But it was not the end.

Mike O'Mara's friends and family felt there

had been a rush to judgment.

Despite the coroner's ruling, they were convinced

that Mike had been murdered.

What they didn't know was who could have done it and why.

But they were sure that Michael O'Mara had not killed himself.

The last person known to have seen Mike alive

was his wife Barbara.

She recalls he left her house that night in good spirits,

saying he had to fill his department vehicle with gas.

Right before he left, he said he was going to stop on the way

back to get yogurt and he asked everybody

what flavor they wanted.

And, of course, the day before payday and he

didn't have any money in his wallet

so he asked me for some money to go.

Barbara, do you have any cash?

Yeah, my purse is in the hallway on the table.

Thanks.

BARBARA O'MARA: Why would he take my last couple of dollars

to get the yogurt if he was planning on not coming back?

It doesn't make any sense.

In this case you can take any isolated fact

and say it can be consistent with suicide.

The problem is the whole scenario.

When you look at that, it's not that of a suicide.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In 1989, Barbara O'Mara

hired Dr. DiMaio to review the case, including

the coroner's findings and the events leading up

to Mike O'Mara's death.

When I reviewed the background information in this case,

it was evident that there was no reason for the individual

to have committed suicide.

There was no financial problems, no personal problems,

no fatal disease.

That does not completely rule out suicide,

but it kind of makes the conclusion

that a death of suicide a little more difficult. The man

is found dead in a field with a flashlight next

to him and his gun.

His car is parked nearby with a gasoline

nozzle inserted into the tank.

This does not sound like a suicide, you know,

unless the man just drove up there

and as he was filling his gas tank says, hey, gee,

I don't have anything else to do.

Might as well commit suicide.

It was kind of bizarre.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Based on his investigation,

Dr. DiMaio has come up with a scenario for a murder.

The evidence at the scene suggests that Mr. O'Mara began

to fill the tank of his car when he saw or heard something

in the field he then took the gun from his briefcase

and went to investigate.

When he got into the field, he met somebody or a number

of people and he was shot.

I think that if someone was screaming that a crime was

occurring and he was standing right at his vehicle,

I don't know why he wouldn't ask for help first.

Also, it's my understanding from reading the file

and talking to the investigators that persons

who heard a shot fired did not hear those other things.

They didn't hear somebody calling for help.

When our investigators went to the scene

and they looked in the field, it didn't appear that there was

any struggle in the field, if not by him and somebody else,

by that, quote, possible offender and a third party.

There was no evidence of a struggle.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Who would have had

a motive to kill Mike O'Mara?

Could it have been a long-forgotten enemy nursing

a vendetta for more than 25 years,

ever since O'Mara and his raiders went after the mafia

in the 60s?

Or could Mike O'Mara have had an enemy closer to home?

Perhaps even in the sheriff's police.

If anyone knows, he's not saying.

But Dr. DiMaio points to one additional fact,

which he believes argues against suicide.

When people shoot themselves, they

tend to put the gun firmly against the head

at the time of discharge.

In this case, the muzzle of the weapon

was between two and four inches away from the skin.

And you could see that by the powder tattooing on the skin

around the entrance wound.

He may have chosen to have it not be a contact wound

because he taught homicide investigation,

I mean, he taught courses and he taught about suicide.

So he knows-- if he wanted to make it look

like something other than it was, he may

have deliberately done that.

So I don't think you can really get into someone's head

if they are about to go and do something as drastic as this.

He left the house with the intent to get gas.

He told his wife that and I'm going to bring

some frozen yogurt home.

So he played that scenario out.

He just didn't come home.

Based on the information that I have

in front of me in reading the entire case,

it tends to be suicide.

I don't have any evidence in front of me

that would conclude that this was a homicide

and we're looking for the offenders.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): What happened

to Captain Michael O'Mara on the night of May 30, 1988?

Is it possible he chose to end his own life,

a life which would have been the envy of any police officer?

Or is there a killer still at large, still

unidentified, still a danger?

Mike O'Mara's friends and family believe the answer is obvious.

Mike O'Mara was not a man to commit suicide.

One of the reasons that I don't believe this would have

been a suicide, it just wouldn't have been his nature

to do something like this, either to his family

or to his religious beliefs.

It wasn't an accident, he was purposely shot.

And why it's being covered up or whether they know

or anybody knows, I don't know.

I can't believe it's a suicide at all, knowing Mike.

It was totally foreign to his nature.

He was never one to give up on something.

You know, it just doesn't fit him.

You know, what happened out there?

I'll never know.

But suicide I'll never believe.

[theme music]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On the evening of October 2, 1961, Mr.

and Mrs. Earl Betcher and their son

Alan were leaving Baptist Hospital

in Jacksonville, Florida.

When Alan ran ahead to the family car,

he made a startling discovery, a baby girl had been carefully

placed in the back seat.

The child became a local celebrity.

Newspapers dubbed her Baby Girl X. Within a year,

she was adopted by Mary Lou and William Christie of Tallahassee

and named Terri.

Terri grew up happily, doted on by her parents and an older

brother and sister.

By the time she was a teenager, however,

she began to ask questions.

I kind of rebelled and wanted to know, you know?

That's when we went to the library and looked it up.

And then I got excited, I was proud.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Together, Terri

and her adoptive mother Mary Lou searched

for clues to the identity of Terri's birth mother.

Let's roll it, see what else we can find.

I believe she had a heart.

She put me somewhere safe, where I was

going to be well taken care of.

And I appreciate that.

I just want to meet her and see how she is.

I would like to find a beginning.

- Did you see anybody around? - No.

OK.

Thanks to our broadcast, Terri Christie Derby

now knows the answers to all of her questions.

Sadly, Terri's birth mother, Edith Campbell,

died on August 17, 1993.

Just a few months before our segment aired.

But out of this sadness, a happy ending did emerge.

Terri was delighted to learn that she had

a sister and three brothers.

They were delighted as well.

None of them had ever known that Terri existed.

On July 8, 1994, Terri went to a hotel in Miami, Florida

to meet three of her siblings, Phillip,

Paul, and Cecilia, face-to-face for the first time.

Hey.

Hi.

Hi.

Hey, Terry.

How are you?

It was the neatest experience of my life.

I walked in and there was everybody I wanted to see.

Next to me giving birth to my own kids,

this is the best thing that's ever happened to me.

Best thing.

My experience is that there's more

than just a biological thing in the family,

there's also a karmic--

a sense of underlying destiny that lies

underneath the whole thing.

And this-- you know, you meet somebody--

I meet Terri, it's like, she is my sister.

I knew right away, you know?

There's no doubt.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): At the reunion,

Terri and her adoptive mother finally

saw a picture of Terri's biological mother,

Edith Campbell.

According to a family member, Edith had given Terri up only

because of extreme financial desperation.

Knowing what a loving person she was,

she cared about nothing but her children her whole life.

And I can only imagine the anguish

that she went through when she decided to do this.

Hi.

How you doing?

[inaudible]

They make me feel wanted.

They make me feel like I'm not an outcast.

I kind of felt like I was in the past, but--

I can feel their vibes, love, whatever, you know?

It's kind of cool.

Come on, let's go.

Let's go, come on.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The next day,

Terri met her other brother Chris

who had been called out of town on business

on the day of the reunion.

That's right, snuggle up.

Brothers and sister.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): At last,

the family circle is complete.

When we return, perhaps you can help

reunite a family torn apart by poverty and misunderstanding.

[theme music]

In the year 1948 a family tragedy began to unfold

just north of Tipton, Oklahoma.

You coming home after work today?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Roy Lee and Lela Stallings,

along with their six children, existed

on the edge of abject poverty.

The Stallings actually lived in an old school bus.

Roy Lee worked sporadically as a sharecropper

and was rarely at home.

He gambled away what little money he brought in.

In his own way, he was fatherly by trying

to make a living for us.

But as far as being home, he wasn't home that much.

My mother was the one that was a disciplinarian.

To the cooking the food and supplying

the meals and everything.

It was mother's job.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In spite of almost insurmountable

odds, Lela Stalling struggled to maintain a home life

that was as normal as possible.

Mary, why don't you take him?

[inaudible] mama.

Thank you.

We always had something to do and we had toys to plan with

and each other to play with.

So we didn't think of ourselves as being different.

Do you want to hear the story of Noah's Ark again?

Yeah.

OK.

One day the Lord told Noah to build an ark.

MARY SMITH: Mother couldn't read nor write, but her Bible

meant a lot to her.

And she'd see pictures and she'd tell us Bible

stories from the pictures.

And we grew up with a very direct sense

of what was right and wrong.

40 days and 40 nights.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): To the children,

the old school bus was home, a haven and a safe place.

But others, notably Melvin Purdy, a family friend,

had different ideas.

And Melvin did not hesitate to make his feelings

known to Lela Stallings.

Melvin, you want to separate our family?

Lela, you don't have a prayer over in that old bus

with them kids.

Melvin, I will see you dead before you get my kids.

Lela, Lela, that's no way for you to act, now.

I want you to leave and never, never come back here.

You're not going let me take little David Ray, are you?

No, you can't have him.

Well I'm going to tell you something,

I think you ain't going to have any of them kids very long.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The only child

Melvin wanted to raise himself was four-year-old David

Ray, the youngest boy.

But Melvin thought all the children who are neglected.

From the baby, two-year-old Norma Ruth, to the eldest,

12-year-old Roy Jr. Mary was then

10, the oldest girl and the second mother

to the younger ones.

Joe was both big brother and role model

to six-year-old Earnest Lee.

The bus is gone.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The final straw

came a few weeks later when the old school bus was taken away.

Apparently Roy Lee Stallings had lost it in a poker game.

Melvin Purdy, along with several others,

wasted no time contacting the authorities.

The State of Oklahoma versus Lee and Lela Stallings.

You've been charged with the crime of omitting to provide

for the care of minor children.

How do you plead to these charges?

Not guilty.

Based on evidence presented to this court

there is due cause to have you bound over for trial.

Until further decision, the children

are placed in the care of the child welfare department

under your supervision.

Yes, your honor.

Mr. and Mrs. Stallings, at this time

you are placed in the custody of the Tillman

County Sheriff's Department.

MARY SMITH: I remember seeing them both in handcuffs.

And that was the last time I saw mother as they

lead her out the side door.

And that was something very strange to us.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Over the next few days,

the Stallings children would all be taken to foster homes.

Mary vividly remembers the last time she saw

her three youngest siblings.

MARY SMITH: I put Earnest Lee in the car,

told Earnest to get in the car, and I put David in the car.

And Normy was holding onto me and wouldn't let go

and they pulled her out of my arms and put her in the car.

You go in the house.

MARY SMITH: Earnest Lee was pulling at the windows,

they had rolled the windows up.

And that's the last time I saw them.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Within a week,

the charges against Lela and Roy Lee Stallings were dropped.

But the damage had already been done.

Lela was told that all of her children,

except the oldest, Roy Jr. Had been put up for adoption.

Two years later, after Roy Lee and Lela divorced,

Mary was allowed to go home and live with her mother.

Joe was reunited with them in 1959.

Lela passed away in 1989.

But Mary and Joe still desperately want to be reunited

with their brothers and sister.

MARY SMITH: We've never given up hope

that they all are still alive and that we

will be able to find them.

Curious as that what they've grown up

like, their family life, what they've made up themselves.

And definitely hoping that if I do find them that none of this

will ever hurt them.

I have tried every avenue that has

came before me to try and locate these brothers and sister.

And I'll never quit until the last day of my life.

"Unsolved Mysteries" appeared to be the last hope.

And happily the day after our broadcast,

35 years of frustration came to an end for Joe and Mary.

A man named Lee Shulien of Owasso,

Oklahoma called our phone center.

He identified himself as Earnest Lee

Stallings, who was only five when

the family was split apart.

Lee was thrilled to hear that his brother

and sister were looking for him and was anxious to meet them.

Three weeks later, Lee arrived at a hotel in Tulsa, Oklahoma

to be reunited with Joe.

Hello.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The two

brothers had not seen each other in nearly half a century.

I've been talking to you on the phone quite a bit.

I've waited for this moment so many years.

I know, that's what I heard.

I don't know how to describe it.

It's such a wonderful feeling.

About time.

It's definitely time for this.

Walking in this morning, he walked in and we met,

hugged each other.

No body can realize the feeling.

We were separated for too many years.

- Yeah, about 40, 46. - 47 years.

About 47, so--

I really didn't know how I was going to react,

you know, we've been separated 46 years

and I felt a lot better than what I thought I might.

I was really-- it felt real good to hug him.

We've already started making some plans

to get together and go fishing.

So we got a future ahead of us to be

together and enjoy each other.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Sadly, Joe and Lee's sister Mary was

unable to attend the reunion.

However she has spoken with on the phone

and they plan to get together in the very near future.

[inaudible] a picture of our dad.

Right, yeah.

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ROBERT STACK: On our next "Unsolved Mysteries,"

a remarkable story of faith and healing.

When Vera Marie Calandra was two years old,

her parents were told that she had just weeks to live.

Vera Marie's mother immediately undertook an arduous journey

to Italy to ask for a special blessing

from an aging priest named Padre Pio.

Within weeks, doctors were stunned to find

that Vera Marie was well on her way to recovery.

Today, Vera Marie Calandra is a normal, healthy adult.

What she saved by a miracle?

Join me next Friday for this uplifting story

and much more on "Unsolved Mysteries."

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