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.

[theme music]

NARRATOR: To millions of devout Catholics,

he was known as Padre Pio.

When he was 31, this humble priest

was said to have had an extraordinary vision of Jesus

Christ, which many believe left him blessed with the power

to heal the sick.

Tonight, you will meet two people who are convinced

that they were cured by miracles,

miracles they attribute to God through the intercession

of Padre Pio.

In a remote campground area, an off-road enthusiast

had a surreal encounter with a beautiful blonde woman

and three angry strangers.

Little did he know that this curious episode

would later make him a key witness in a murder mystery.

During World War II, the Lazarus family of Baltimore, Maryland,

was told that their eldest son, Sylvan, had died in a plane

crash in North Africa.

However, three months later, they

identified him in this photograph

of captured American airmen.

Today, his relatives are still determined to find out what

happened to Sylvan Lazarus.

Join me for these intriguing and fascinating cases

on tonight's edition of "Unsolved Mysteries."

NARRATOR: In 1987, Pope John Paul II

traveled to the Italian city of San Giovanni Rotondo

to pay homage at the tomb of one of the most

renowned and controversial figures in the history

of the Catholic church.

To millions of devout followers around the world,

he was known as Padre Pio.

He had been born Francesco Forgione

in 1887, the son of farmers.

You are about to hear the uplifting stories of two people

who believe their lives were saved by the miraculous powers

of Padre Pio.

This is Paul Walsh of Ridley Park, Pennsylvania.

In 1983, during his senior year in high school,

Paul was so badly injured in an automobile accident,

the doctors gave him almost no hope of surviving.

Today, Paul attends college and has recovered completely.

When Vera Marie Calandra was two years old,

her parents were told she only had a few weeks to live.

26 years later, Vera Marie is perfectly healthy

and has no traces of the illness that almost killed her.

Vera Marie Calandra and Paul Walsh

believe they are alive today because they were each blessed

by a miracle, miracles they attribute

to God through the intercession of Padre Pio.

How did this unassuming priest become known

worldwide as a great healer?

The remarkable saga of Padre Pio begins in 1903

when he decided to enter the priesthood

and dedicate his life to God.

NARRATOR: Seven years later in 1910, Padre Pio

was ordained at the age of 23.

Even then, his extraordinary righteousness

and piety distinguished him from the other priests

in the friary.

But no one anticipated the remarkable events that took

place on September 20, 1918.

That morning, Padre Pio was deep in prayer

when he experienced what is known

in the faith as an ecstasy, a profound vision

that many believe left tangible evidence

that Padre Pio had been touched by the hand of God.

BERNARD RUFFIN (VOICEOVER): When the ecstasy was ended,

he had noticed that his hands, and feet,

and side were bleeding.

[speaking italian]

And he had to drag himself to his cell.

And there, he cleaned his wounds,

and he began to sing hymns of praise

to God because of the vision.

NARRATOR: These are photographs of the wounds

on Padre Pio's hands.

Along with those on his feet and side,

they are said to generally correspond to the wounds

suffered by Jesus on the cross.

They are commonly referred to as a stigmata.

From the start, some church officials doubted the validity

of Padre Pio's claim.

They suspected that the wounds had

been self-inflicted and called in doctors to examine them.

One of the doctors decided to conduct an experiment.

BERNARD RUFFIN (VOICEOVER): He directed that the friars

bandage the wounds and seal them for eight days

so that nobody could open the bandage without being detected.

And he felt that after eight days,

you would see the beginning of healing in the wounds.

And after eight days, the wounds were undressed,

and they were still the way they were before.

There was no sign of healing.

NARRATOR: As word spread about Padre Pio's divine revelation,

pilgrims began flocking to San Giovanni Rotondo,

anxious to be blessed by Padre Pio

and bear witness to the miracle of the stigmata.

BERNARD RUFFIN (VOICEOVER): You had almost like a carnival

atmosphere there at San Giovanni Rotondo.

People were hawking pictures of Padre Pio.

They were dipping pieces of cloth in chicken blood

or rabbit blood, and selling them as bandages

soaked with the blood of Padre Pio's stigmata.

That became a problem for the superiors.

NARRATOR: The church took drastic action.

Padre Pio was sentenced to a sort of internal exile,

forbidden to venture into public or conduct

any of his priestly duties.

The exile lasted three years.

Ultimately, the Vatican relented,

and Padre Pio was restored to his former position

with one exception--

he was prohibited from showing the stigmata in public.

By his own choice, Padre Pio wore gloves to hide the wounds.

As the years passed, and Padre Pio's fame blossomed,

he developed an international reputation

as a man of miracles.

The faithful turned to him in droves,

seeking divine intervention for their earthly afflictions.

Among them were Vera and Harry Calandra

of Bartel, Pennsylvania.

Their fifth child, Vera Marie, had

been born in 1966 with congenital defects of

the kidneys and urinary tract.

Two years and four operations later, a doctor delivered

the worst possible news.

Want my advice?

Take your daughter home.

Make her comfortable.

What are you saying?

You want us to just give up on Vera Marie?

There comes a time--

He came back to us immediately and said, she's in recovery,

and we did remove her urinary bladder.

I thought I would pass out.

I said, but how will she live without a bladder?

He said, she's not going to live.

NARRATOR: Vera Marie was fitted with a catheter,

but her condition continued to deteriorate.

Her parents sought comfort in the church.

Mrs. Calandra sent a telegram to Padre Pio, then 80 years old,

asking for his blessings.

A few weeks later, she says she received

a sign that her prayers had been heard.

I was sitting in the living room of my home

with Vera Marie sitting on the floor.

And suddenly, I experienced a most unusual

fragrance of fresh roses, something I

never experienced before.

I had no flowers in my home, yet all around my head

was an overwhelming, powerful fragrance of roses.

And then suddenly, Padre Pio spoke to me.

He said, I want you to bring your little girl to me here

in Italy, but do not delay.

Come immediately.

NARRATOR: On September 1, 1968, with her ailing daughter, Vera

Marie, and a newborn infant in tow,

Vera Calandra arrived in Italy and made her way to the church

at San Giovanni Rotondo.

Exuse me.

Father, I need to see Padre Pio.

Padre Pio is very weak and is sick.

Oh please, I need to see him right now.

What is the reason?

What makes you special?

Because my daughter is dying.

He told me to come.

I need to see him, please.

Please.

All right.

VERA CALANDRA (VOICEOVER): I call it a visit.

Actually, it was a fleeting moment.

He was in a wheelchair.

We burned the sacristy.

He was brought forth in his wheelchair.

We knelt before him as we were told to do.

He touched my sick daughter on the top of the head,

and he didn't even look at me.

I was crushed, because I thought,

here is an expensive trip, came a great distance,

my daughter could die, and I have not the chance

to speak with him and explain to him

the problems that we have at this time,

and how we're asking him to help us.

NARRATOR: The next day, Vera returned

and was granted a rare, private audience with Padre Pio.

VERA CALANDRA (VOICEOVER): There he was, right in front of me

in the wheelchair.

And he put out his hand and touched by sick daughter

on the top of the head.

I spoke to him through my heart.

Please, God, make a miracle so that all

the people will believe.

NARRATOR: Two weeks later, back in America,

it began to appear that a miracle had indeed occurred.

Any change in her condition?

Is there anything we can hope for?

This may have no significance whatsoever,

but we found what appears to be the remains of a bladder here.

I hit the ceiling and said, but, Doctor,

you removed her bladder before we left on our trip.

And he said, well, it's there.

I don't know what it is, but we'll leave it alone.

I was very, very happy because I figured,

well, something did happen.

And the doctor says, whatever you're doing,

continue to do it.

Padre Pio has affected my life in many different ways.

He's brought me closer to God.

He's made me survive when I should have been dead.

And in a lot of ways, he's always there

for me and my whole family.

NARRATOR: On September 23, 1968, just weeks

after he blessed Vera Marie, Padre Pio people passed away.

Curiously, after half a century, the stigmata

were said to have completely healed during the final days

of his life.

That same year, to honor their own personal miracle,

the Calandra family established the National Center

for Padre Pio.

The center has worked with thousands

who claimed to have been healed by Padre

Pio's miraculous powers, even in the years after his death.

One of the most dramatic cases is that of Paul Walsh.

In December of 1983, Paul was rushed to the hospital

after a serious car accident.

He had crashed his skull and broken every bone in his face.

Paul's mother, Betty, remembers vividly.

Mrs. Walsh.

Where are they taking him?

Surgery.

How long is that going to take?

We have to prep him.

BETTY WALSH (VOICEOVER): There really

wasn't anything I could do.

And I think that there is a shock in a case like that,

where you are in a daze, that you

can't believe it's happening.

All they really said that night was "massive facial and head

injuries."

And the outlook was not good.

I frankly had basically written

him off as possibly even living, let alone living normally.

And my prognosis for Paul's normal survival

was practically zero.

NARRATOR: Eventually, Paul developed

hydrocephalus and spinal meningitis,

and lapsed into a deep coma.

BETTY WALSH (VOICEOVER): At this time,

Paul was totally unconscious, burning up with fever.

The sweat was just pouring off him.

A woman at church gave me a prayer to Padre Pio.

When I came to the Padre Pio prayer,

I started to say the prayer.

Paul's hand came up from his side.

Very shakily, he reached toward his forehead.

I was shocked.

I could not believe it.

His hand didn't make his forehead all the way,

but he had made the sign of the cross.

NARRATOR: With renewed hope, Betty

contacted the Padre Pio Center.

Harry Calandra agreed to visit Paul in his hospital.

There's been some improvement.

Good.

Let us pray.

NARRATOR: Harry began reciting a prayer to Padre Pio

and covered Paul's head with a glove

that had actually been worn by Padre Pio

to conceal the stigmata.

And grant us the grace we ask of you.

BETTY WALSH (VOICEOVER): It was, to me, as if an electric shock

went through Paul.

I knew something happened.

It was like a sudden jolt. He shook.

It only lasted for a second, but he opened his eyes,

and he looked at me with such clear eyes

as he had not done for a long time.

But I knew something had happened, even though it

didn't seem outwardly.

We left.

He was still comatose.

We left the room.

The next day, I waited purposely till in the afternoon,

but I knew something would be different.

You're a good kid.

Paul.

PAUL WALSH: Hi, Mom.

Hey, [inaudible].

How you doing, buddy?

This is our miracle.

What are you doing?

I'm just drawing.

Where have you been?

- Have the doctors been here? - No.

A nurse just gave me this to draw.

I couldn't believe it.

One of the nurses came running in through the room.

She was so excited.

She said, he's, been talking all day.

I asked him, one neurosurgery assistant who, the day before,

had shown me all the dead brain cells on the CAT scan,

what could have happened?

I said, you know this was a miracle.

And he said, yes, I know.

Other patients I have had that had the same extent of injuries

that Paul had are either still in rehabilitation homes

or are dead.

I have, frankly, not any scientific basis

for explaining why he survived.

When I did come out of the coma,

I was wondering what everybody was making such fuss over me

for.

I guess at the beginning, before I was told what happened to me,

I didn't understand what the big deal was.

NARRATOR: For Betty Walsh, it was

clear that Padre Pio was responsible for Paul's

sudden improvement.

Two weeks later, Paul told his doctor an odd story

that seemed to confirm it.

He described having a visitor whom he thought was his uncle,

but he stated that his uncle was dressed up in a brown robe.

And I just thought this might be some kind of hallucination.

NARRATOR: But was it hallucination?

Not only Paul, but also his roommate,

reported seeing the mysterious visitor.

Uncle Charlie?

NARRATOR: Paul continued to believe the man was his uncle

until his mother showed him a folded leaflet that featured

a photograph of Padre Pio.

And I brought the picture in and said to Paul,

is this who visited you on Easter Sunday?

And I said, yes, it was.

That is Uncle Charlie, right?

And she folded the paper down and showed me

that it was Padre Pio.

And at the time, I was--

I was laughing, that how could it be Padre Pio?

Padre Pio is dead.

After they had told me what had happened and all that,

I believe it was Padre Pio.

There was a man who lived in the 20th century who

did the same thing as the apostles did,

whose ministry confirms the truth of the New Testament.

If you asked him, he would say that he

didn't believe in miracles.

He would say that he didn't work miracles.

Because everything is a miracle.

Everything is the work of God.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Next, a strange encounter in the forest

may have been a prelude to murder.

The Angeles National Forest, nearly 700,000 acres

of wilderness recreation area just

30 minutes outside Los Angeles.

For city dwellers, the Angeles Forest

is a perfect weekend getaway with plenty of space

to be alone.

On Saturday, February 29, 1992, a dedicated off-road enthusiast

named Jeff was exploring a campground area

when his curiosity led him into a mystery.

I'd been back in there before, and it

was the first time I noticed this one

little road off of the side.

And I was proceeding, got maybe 100 yards back if that,

and I saw somebody had set up a camp there.

As I pulled up, directly in front of me,

there was an old panel van.

To the left of that was a tent.

To the left of the tent, there was a very attractive

girl sitting there by herself.

Her hair was done up.

It was curly and long.

She appeared to have makeup on.

She's looking down, and she very slowly raised her head,

and we had eye contact.

What you looking at, man?

What's your problem, man?

Yeah, man, what's your problem?

NARRATOR: Jeff's side trip had suddenly

taken a frightening turn.

What's your problem, man?

Get outta here!

Get! Leave!

Leave!

Get outta here!

I never thought about calling the police,

nor did I think that these guys were

really dangerous to anybody.

I thought they were being protective of their camp.

NARRATOR: March 3, 1993, just over a year later.

The Los Angeles County coroner was

called to investigate a possible murder

site in the Angeles Forest.

A partial set of skeletal remains

had been found approximately 50 yards

from the spot where Jeff had seen the young blonde woman.

When the coroner checked dental records

of missing persons in the Los Angeles area, he found a match.

The remains were identified as those

of 20-year-old Kimberly Pandelios, who

had disappeared a year before.

It was a tragic end to a promising young life.

Kimberly and her parents had immigrated

from Cuba when she was eight.

They settled in Pennsylvania, where at the age of 19,

Kimberly married.

In 1991, she and her husband, along with their infant son,

moved to Northridge, California.

Kimberly started taking business courses

and worked part-time as a model.

Kimberly was a beautiful human being.

She was loved by everybody in the family.

And she was so sweet, so kind.

The very end of her life, I don't

want even to think about it.

NARRATOR: After the remains were identified,

Kimberly's story was covered extensively on the local news.

By coincidence, Jeff, the off-road enthusiast,

was watching.

TV was on, and I said, that's the girl, that's

the girl I saw sitting there.

In my mind, there is no doubt that the girl on TV

was the same I saw in the camp, same girl.

NARRATOR: Jeff immediately contacted the Los Angeles

County Sheriff's Department and accompanied

two deputies to the spot where he had seen Kimberly.

But far too much time had passed.

There was not a single clue to the strange disappearance

and death of Kimberly Pandelios.

It was close to where that rock right there is.

How would Kimberly come to be in that remote area

of the Angeles National Forest?

Who were the three men Jeff had seen with her?

Even though the coroner could not

determine the exact cause of Kimberly's death,

law enforcement now had no choice.

What had begun a year earlier as a missing persons

case had become a probable murder investigation.

NARRATOR: February 28, 1992, the day

before Jeff saw Kimberly in the makeshift camp, a burned

out car was found near the Monte Cristo Campground section

of the Angeles National Forest.

You can see where they torched it from the side.

JOHN LAURIE (VOICEOVER): The fire

was started in the passenger compartment

on the passenger side of the front seat.

We were able to determine that the front seat was pulled

forward in a position that would be as

if she drove to that location.

NARRATOR: Investigators found the charred

remains of a spiral notebook in the car but little else.

They ran a DMV check on the plates

but could not reach Kimberly's husband.

By the time they did locate him, he

had reported Kimberly missing.

But a search of the area turned up no further clues.

Three weeks later, however, a second notebook,

this one Kimberley's day runner was found under a bridge

two miles away from the car.

The two hikers who stumbled on it turned it into authorities,

but the day runner yielded neither fingerprints nor other

clues.

Rita, did you talk to Kimberly on Thursday?

NARRATOR: Apparently, a third notebook

is still unaccounted for.

The day after Kimberly was reported missing,

her son's babysitter told investigators

that a man named Paul had telephoned for Kimberly the day

she disappeared.

Do you know Paul?

No, but this Paul called about 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

He said he had an appointment with Kimberly,

and he wanted to confirm it.

Did he leave a phone number with you?

No.

What happened after that?

Well, this Paul called again about 7:00 PM.

Kimberly still wasn't home.

He said she had left her appointment

book when she met with him.

The notebook that Paul has is probably

the most valuable notebook.

That might have her appointments or contacts for later that day.

There is a possibility that Kimberly went up

into the mountains to meet someone,

and that appointment might be in her book.

NARRATOR: Kimberly had told her husband that she was scheduled

to do an outdoor photoshoot.

Authorities believe she responded to an ad

in a local newspaper.

JOHN LAURIE (VOICEOVER): A theory

is that she drove to that location by herself

and met someone to do an outdoor shoot.

And that once she was there, she was

taken off the road back into the area

that she was ultimately found.

Hi, I'm Kimberly.

Ready for a little walk?

Come on, let's go.

No!

[scream]

Come on!

[screaming]

Come on!

I think she was there for at least a day and a half,

from Thursday late afternoon, all day

Friday, and at least through noon on Saturday.

NARRATOR: It was just past noon on Saturday

when Jeff happened upon the makeshift campsite.

JEFF (VOICEOVER): In retrospect, she might have been drugged,

but we just have no idea.

If she would have cried out, if she would have said something,

if she would have given me an indication she was in trouble,

of course, I would have done something, but I didn't know.

It just gets to me that I didn't do something right

then and there to help her.

This person basically died because

of my inaction or my ignorance.

You can't bring the girl back.

But I would like justice to be done, of course.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: When we return, a rare behind the scenes

look at the unsung heroes of law enforcement-- coroner's

investigators.

This is a story about the unheralded heroes

of law enforcement.

When an accident or homicide victim goes unidentified,

it falls to investigators from the coroner's office

to find out who the John and Jane Does are,

and how they died.

More often than not, these investigators

are successful, solving unsolvable cases

through a combination of medical expertise,

ingenuity, and compassion.

NARRATOR: October 5, 1983, Seal Beach, California.

At dawn, two lifeguards discover the body

of a young boy floating in a channel near the ocean.

The body was so badly decomposed that it

made identification impossible.

Coroner's investigator Joe Luckey

was dispatched to the scene.

He found no evidence of foul play.

In fact, an autopsy would later determine

that the cause of death was accidental drowning.

But who the boy was and where he had come from

posed a baffling mystery.

It looked like one of those cases

that might never be solved.

It takes a while, sometimes, to get over the fact

that you can't identify these people.

You tend to think about your own families

and know that there's somebody out

there who's missing a relative, somebody,

but we don't know who.

NARRATOR: Joe Luckey was used to long odds,

and this case would challenge all of his skills.

Joe sent a description of the boy

to every law enforcement agency in the immediate area.

Only one possible match turned up--

a boy who had disappeared from Fullerton, California.

But Fullerton was 16 miles from where the body was discovered.

The boy is missing here in Fullerton.

NARRATOR: Joe Luckey met with the boy's parents.

They told him that their son had vanished shortly after leaving

for a neighborhood park.

JOE LUCKEY (VOICEOVER): I went over to the park,

and I found that there was a flood control channel

right adjacent to the park.

I also discovered that because of the rainfall the day

of his missing, that the flood control district had opened

the local dam, which was above that area,

and allowed the overflow to come through that channel,

raising it approximately six feet higher than normal.

NARRATOR: The mystery had been solved.

Tragically, the young boy had fallen into the flood channel

and been swept 16 miles to the ocean.

Blood samples would later provide

a positive identification.

A coroner is probably a good mixture of being a surgeon,

a detective, and an attorney.

Every day is a challenge.

It's new.

It's a little bit of detective work all the time.

NARRATOR: Cullen Ellingburgh has worked on literally

thousands of cases.

Some take months of painstaking research and legwork.

Others are solved solely on the basis

of one small piece of evidence.

That was the case with an unidentified murder

victim in 1985.

CULLEN ELLINGBURGH (VOICEOVER): Checking his clothing items

for possibly a name inside, we came upon a buckle that

was unique and had the name of a company that

manufactures drill bits in Alaska for oil wells

on this buckle.

Yes, the phone number for the Anchorage Drill Bit Company.

CULLEN ELLINGBURGH (VOICEOVER): We

were able to call this company, determined

that the buckle, in fact, was an award given

to the employee of the year, only

given out for about five years.

And with that information, we were able to identify

the deceased individual.

NARRATOR: But some cases remain unsolved, even

after years of investigation.

One in particular has haunted Cullen

Ellingburgh since May 18, 1987.

That morning, the body of a woman in her early 20s

was found at the base of a steep cliff

in Dana Point, California. - What have you got?

Got a girl apparently fell off the cliff.

Any ID on her?

Got a unit up top, but we don't have much more than that.

NARRATOR: The woman had apparently plunged to her death

sometime during the night.

CULLEN ELLINGBURGH (VOICEOVER): We weren't sure at that point

if it was an accident, or intentional,

or if she had been pushed.

I went to the top of the cliff, and there, I

found a small purse, a half consumed soda, and a map

of Southern California.

NARRATOR: Oddly, the purse had no other contents.

But the map held a clue which would lead

Cullen to the person who may have last

seen the young woman alive.

CULLEN ELLINGBURGH (VOICEOVER): There

was a phone number on the map.

The phone number was that of a cab company.

And the cab company was contacted,

and they indicated they had a fare picked up from the area

and dropped off at the area of the Dana Point Cliffs at about

3:00 or 4:00 that morning.

NARRATOR: When Cullen interviewed the cab driver,

he described a woman who fit the Dana Point Jane Doe to a T.

You the lady called for a cab?

Yeah.

Can you take me to Ross Towers in Laguna Beach?

Sure no problem.

Can you tell me how much that's gonna be?

That'll be 20 bucks.

I only have 18.

[sigh]

Can you take me as far as that'll go?

DRIVER: Yeah, sure, get in the back.

CULLEN ELLINGBURGH (VOICEOVER): The only thing

the taxi driver said was that she had very

little to say other than that.

She was very quiet, and he didn't notice anything

really unusual about her.

The meter says 18 bucks, ma'am.

That's the best I can do.

Thank you.

Good night.

Goodbye.

NARRATOR: The next morning, the young woman's body

would be found at the base of the cliff.

She was 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 127 pounds.

She had light brown hair, brown eyes,

and was wearing what appeared to be secondhand clothing.

At the time of her death in 1987,

she would have been approximately 20 years old.

This is the first Jane Doe that I've had

that I was unable to identify.

And I've continued to work this case to today,

and occasionally, a new lead will come in,

and I'll follow up.

But I'll, to this date, have been unsuccessful.

There isn't a week that I don't go by the Point

without thinking about this lady.

I want to identify her, and find out who she is,

and who she belongs to.

NARRATOR: Despite the sophisticated missing persons

computer systems available today,

thousands of John and Jane Does across the country

remain unidentified.

Here are three of them.

This is a composite drawing of a young woman who, in 1990, was

struck by a car and killed along the Pacific Coast Highway

in Huntington Beach, California.

She was in her early 20s, 5 feet 4 inches tall, and weighed

approximately 125 pounds.

She had dark brown hair, brown eyes, and severe acne scars.

Among the objects found in the woman's possession

were a hotel key and a ring made of human hair.

In 1976, a young couple was found

shot to death on a remote road in Sumter

County, South Carolina.

Because of their similar facial features

and matching olive skin, authorities believe

they were brother and sister.

The man was approximately 20 years old, 6 feet tall,

and weight around 150 pounds.

He had had extensive dental work which

included bridges and crowns.

He was wearing an expensive Bulova

Accutron watch and a ring inscribed

with the initials JPF.

The woman appeared to be in her late teens.

She was 5 feet 5 inches tall, approximately 100 pounds,

with two distinct moles on the left side of her face.

She was wearing three handmade Mexican or Indian style rings.

Next, a family's 50 year search for a young airman

lost during World War II.

In 1943, at the height of World War II,

an American B-24 bomber on a non-combat mission

went down over North Africa.

The entire crew was lost.

Among the victims were these three men--

Sylvan Lazarus, Carl Cobb, and Bernard Brady.

For some 50 years, they have been

the focus of a perplexing unsolved mystery.

Three months after the crash, a Baltimore newspaper

ran this photograph of four American prisoners

of war being interrogated by a German officer.

Inexplicably, three of the prisoners

were positively identified by their families

as Lazarus, Cobb, and Brady.

Perhaps someone watching can help the families of these men

finally put their sons to rest.

NARRATOR: Christmas of 1943 was a time

of sorrow for the Lazarus family of Baltimore, Maryland.

On December 14th, they learned that their eldest

son, Sylvan, an American airman, was missing in action.

Three weeks later, the family's worst nightmare came true.

Dad?

It's your brother.

He's dead.

NARRATOR: Sylvan's brother Arnold

was 17 years old at the time.

We were devastated, absolutely devastated.

I mean, my brother was such a great guy.

He was loved by everybody, very, very outgoing, family oriented.

And to lose somebody like that is devastating.

There's no other word I could use.

NARRATOR: According to government records,

on December 8, 1943, Sylvan and 13 other men

boarded a B-24 Liberator bomber on the eastern coast of Africa.

The plane was bound for Casablanca, Morocco, when

it reportedly crashed in the Atlas Mountains

near the city of Taroudant.

Military officials reported that Sylvan

Lazarus and the other victims were

later buried in a mass grave.

Three months passed, the Lazarus family tried to cope

with the loss of Sylvan.

They never received any of his personal effects, not even

his dog tags.

Then on March 17, 1944, the mysterious photograph appeared

in "The Baltimore Mirror."

Anna.

Anna!

NARRATOR: The family's grief turned first

to confusion, then to hope.

Oh, my, Samuel.

What does it say?

Says, "Prisoners of Germany, captured after their planes

were shot down over the Third Reich

during recent obliteration bombing raids."

We were shocked.

There was no question about it that one of the airmen

was definitely my brother.

His eyes, his posture, the way he stood at a certain way.

It was definitely him, definitely.

NARRATOR: Was it possible that Sylvan Lazarus had survived?

If so, it made no sense for him to be

interrogated by a Nazi officer in North Africa.

The Germans had been driven from the area

more than seven months before the crash.

Sylvan's father was convinced that there

was much more to the story.

He obtained the names of the 13 other crewmen

killed in the accident and sent each of their families

a copy of the photograph.

Incredibly, Bernard Brady of New York

and Carl Cobb of Cynthiana, Kentucky, were identified.

My father wanted more answers, and he wrote back

and forth to the government.

My father even contacted the Red Cross, trying to get answers.

But it was all in vain.

Anything?

No, nothing.

JERRY LAZARUS (VOICEOVER): They were first

told that the crewmen were all buried

in a common grave at the Casablanca European Cemetery.

Later on, they were told that the men, their remains,

were dug up and reburied in [inaudible] Cemetery

in, I believe, Algeria.

There was never any explanation given, to my knowledge,

as to why the government did this.

I am not really sure whether the government or the military

knows exactly what happened.

I have my own theories.

Unfortunately, I don't have proof.

SOLDIER: [shouting in german]

NARRATOR: The Lazarus family now believes that Sylvan's plane

may have been shot down during a secret mission

behind German lines in Europe, not in Africa.

They also believe that some of the crewmen

managed to parachute to safety, only to be

taken prisoner by the Nazis.

[speaking german]

NARRATOR: Sylvan and the others were

most likely photographed while being interrogated

about their mission.

The Lazaruses fear that Sylvan may have been singled

out because of his religion.

[speaking german]

My theory is great possibility that the Germans found

out that my brother was Jewish.

And I believe that they violated the Geneva Convention.

By rights, he should have been put into a POW camp.

But I don't believe that that happened.

I believe that he was put into a concentration camp instead.

See, Dad, this is from the War Department,

the Adjutant General's Office, dated January 24, 1944.

NARRATOR: Although it has been 50 years since Sylvan Lazarus

was last seen alive, his family continues to search

for clues to his fate.

In 1990, under the Freedom of Information Act,

the Lazaruses obtained the original crew list

from the National Archives.

JERRY LAZARUS (VOICEOVER): There were 14 names,

and my Uncle Sylvan, Carl Cobb, and Bernard

Brady were among those names.

And next to those three names were check marks,

and the numbers 1, 2, and 3.

And I've never gotten an explanation

as to what those check marks or numbers meant.

I feel very, very sad about one thing--

that my parents went to their graves

without knowing exactly what happened to my brother.

Having seen the photograph, we cannot help but wonder

what really happened to him.

Couldn't have been killed in the crash.

So what happened to him?

That's what we want to find out.

[music playing]

Do our minds possess untapped psychic powers?

Can we move objects without touching them?

Can we communicate clairvoyantly with the dead?

Do premonitions come true?

Join me two weeks from tonight as we explore

these intriguing questions on a special "Unsolved

Mysteries" report, mysteries of the psychic mind.

[theme music]