Original subtitles

[music playing]

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.

NARRATOR: Kansas City, Missouri.

It started as a small fire at a construction site.

Then suddenly, it exploded with unrestrained fury,

instantly killing six firefighters.

Later, investigators discovered that the blaze had been

deliberately set, meaning the deaths were in reality

cold-blooded murders.

Imagine the eerie feeling of stepping off a train

and coming face to face with a total stranger who

looks exactly like you, in effect, your mirror image.

That is precisely what happened to a soldier named

Ken Palmer during World War II.

Some 50 years later, he's still searching for his exact double.

On a small plane loaded with marijuana crashed

in the Virginia countryside, it blew the lid

off one of the East Coast's biggest drug rings.

Authorities began to close in on the mastermind,

a charismatic pilot named Wallace

Thrasher, only to hear he had apparently

died in Central America.

But reports of the drug lord's death

may have been a clever hoax.

Officials now believe that Wallace

Thresher got away scot-free.

Join me for another fascinating edition

of "Unsolved Mysteries."

[theme music]

Tonight, a woman named Pam Paige is missing.

For more than four years, her family

has endured the agony of not knowing what happened to her.

In 1977, Pam and her husband, Rob,

left Arkansas and eventually moved

to a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona where they

opened a video rental business.

Despite one shaky period in 1987, Pam and Rob seemed happy.

In fact, on July 7, 1989, Pam went back to Arkansas

for a family reunion and told everyone

that things were great.

[music playing]

Two weeks later, however, on July 22, 1989,

Rob Page said he noticed that his wife

was behaving strangely.

During the middle of the night on the early morning

hours of Saturday Mr. Page awoke and discovered

that his wife was not in bed.

He went downstairs and discovered her on the sofa.

Honey, what are you doing?

I just couldn't sleep.

My back really hurts.

DOUG HILDEBRANDT: She was through family photographs.

And she was crying.

I'll just leave for a little while.

DOUG HILDEBRANDT: She told him that her back was bothering her

and that she didn't feel well.

And Mr. Page said that he encouraged

her to go see a doctor in the morning,

and he returned back to bed.

Mr. Page said he got up at 7 or 8 o'clock in the morning,

went downstairs, and found his wife sorting through clothing.

I'm sorting through some clothes for goodwill.

I've been wanting to do this for a while.

It's almost 8 o'clock.

Are you going to go down to the shop?

I really don't feel very good.

Well, you want me to open it for you?

- Would you? - Yeah, sure.

That would be good.

OK, I got the keys.

OK, thanks.

Right.

DOUG HILDEBRANDT: He did leave the home.

He stated he had trouble starting his vehicle,

because he has an ignition switch problem--

worked on his truck for a little bit,

got it started, and went up and opened up the video store.

NARRATOR: Rob Page said that eight

hours later, he came home to an empty house and a letter

from Pam.

PAM (VOICEOVER): "Rob, by the time you read this,

I'll be a long way from here.

I have though this thing out, and I've been planning

this for several months."

NARRATOR: The letter stated that Pam had left

town with a woman named Sarah.

Rob Page claimed she was embarrassed

because he thought his wife had left him for a woman.

He did not call Arkansas to tell Pam's family.

Four days later, however, Pam's older sister, Trena,

did call Rob. - Hi, Rob.

This is Trena.

I was calling to see how Pam was doing.

ROB (ON PHONE): She's gone.

What do you mean she's gone?

Well, I came home on Saturday, and-- and she left me a letter.

It seemed out of character to me for her not to let

anyone know where she was--

where she was at.

But I didn't think about that at first.

I just had one thing on mind was getting my word to somebody

that she was missing.

"By the time you read this, I will be a long way from here."

NARRATOR: One by one, the members of Pam's family

called Rob and listened as he read the letter.

To each and every one, something seemed odd.

Rob told him the police had taken a report.

But Pam's father wanted to see the letter anyway.

He asked Rob to fax it to Arkansas.

"How living back home would make me happy.

It won't."

When I received that faxed letter,

I knew that something was bad wrong.

For one thing, I looked at the signature.

I had birthday cards, and letters, and so on from Pam.

And the signature wasn't her signature.

NARRATOR: Finally, Pam's sister Jimmy

called the police in Arizona.

But they had never heard of the case.

The family was stunned.

I knew from that second that she was dead.

It scared me, because I didn't know if we would find her body

or if we would know what happened to her.

But I knew she was dead.

I was sure of that.

She wouldn't leave under no circumstances.

She would have let mama know.

They were too close.

NARRATOR: Rob Page told detectives

that on the day of Pam's disappearance,

he left home around 8:00 AM.

Later, he went to several auto parts stores,

looking without success for an ignition switch for his truck.

In the parking lot of one store, the truck finally gave out.

Rob said he called home, got no answer,

and assumed Pam had gone to the video shop after all.

He phoned for a taxi to take him home.

Hi, I need a taxi.

NARRATOR: Rob said he never went into the house,

only the garage.

He got a part for his truck, hopped on his bike,

and went back to the store.

When the truck finally started, he drove home

and found the letter.

The letter stated that Pam had taken

all their money, $60,000 in cash, out of the safe

at the video store.

Rob Page said he went straight to the store.

And indeed, the cash was gone.

The letter also said that Pam had left the couple's Corvette

at a Winchell's Donut Shop.

Rob Page claimed he drove to every Winchell's in the area

until finally the next day he located the Corvette.

Soon, however, the police began to question

the details of Rob's story.

None of the employees of the last auto parts store

remembered rob or anyone asking about an ignition switch.

In addition, Rob Page said his truck, which

was very distinctive, was parked at the store for nearly

four hours that afternoon.

DOUG HILDEBRANDT: None of the employees

ever recall seeing that truck being

out in the front of the store or anyone ever working on it.

And one particular employee stated

if that truck had been out front of his business,

he would have known it.

NARRATOR: The police also found it curious

that the donut shop where Pam had

allegedly parked the Corvette--

the shop which had taken Rob Page several hours to locate,

was right across the street from the auto parts store.

However, police did verify Rob's claim

that a cab took him home from that location on July 22, 1989.

Next, investigators turned their attention

to the letter and the traveling companion named Sarah.

Rob said he had never met Sarah, but had

heard Pam talk about her.

DOUG HILDEBRANDT: Mr. Page felt that his wife had

met Sarah at the video store.

From checking with the video store and the customers

by the name of Sarah, we were not able to find a woman

by that name of Mrs. Page.

NARRATOR: Finally, three weeks after Pam Page disappeared,

the Arizona State Crime Lab verified

that the signature on the letter was almost certainly not Pam's.

DOUG HILDEBRANDT: Mr. Page refused to believe me

and was adamant that his wife had in fact signed the letter.

After continuing to question Mr. Page about the signature

on the letter, he admitted to me that he in fact

did sign that letter.

NARRATOR: Rob Page now became a suspect

and suddenly, he began to tell a very different story.

DOUG HILDEBRANDT: Mr. Page stated

that the Thursday preceding his wife's disappearance

that while he was on the family's home computer,

he discovered a letter that he claims his wife

had authored in which, in essence, that she

was going to be leaving him.

I was working on the computer just now,

and I found something very interesting.

What did you find?

DOUG HILDEBRANDT: Mr. Page stated he confronted

his wife about that letter.

Oh, I'm sorry you found this.

I wrote this a long time ago.

Oh, then you weren't planning to leave me, huh?

No, I wasn't.

I wrote this when I was upset.

Oh, then you're not going to take all our money and run off.

Rob, why do you have to blow up

everything out of proportion?

Let's talk about this when you've cooled down.

Come back here. We're not finished.

DOUG HILDEBRANDT: On Saturday, he went to the video store,

opened it up, and stayed at the store until about noon.

And then he returned home to check on his wife.

NARRATOR: Rob now told police that when

he came home from the video store,

he found the house in disarray.

Pam?

NARRATOR: Rob said that all of Pam's clothes except the items

she had set aside for goodwill were gone.

All the family pictures and one of their dogs,

a dachshund name Rerun, were missing.

Pam's credit cards and house keys were on the kitchen table.

But Rob said he couldn't find her driver's license.

Rob Page said he went downstairs and added four innocuous

sentences to the letter in the computer,

printed it out, and signed Pam's name.

Then Rob drove the Corvette to Winchell's, went

to the payphone across the street, and called a taxi.

DOUG HILDEBRANDT: Mr. Page stated that he fabricated some

of the things he did and acted out some of the things

that he did, because no one would ever

believe him that his wife had in fact

left him had he not done this.

Due to Mr. Page's inconsistent statements

throughout this investigation, and as well

as the suspicious circumstances surrounding the disappearance

of his wife, he was offered a polygraph examination

on several occasions to eliminate him as a suspect

in his wife's disappearance.

And he declined to take a polygraph on each occasion

that it was offered.

NARRATOR: Despite the suspicions about Rob Page,

there was no evidence that he had done anything

wrong except change his story.

No charges were filed.

And the investigation sputtered to a halt.

This is a picture of your sister, Pam?

Oh, yes.

NARRATOR: Frustrated, Pam's sister, Jimmie, Rice,

decided to visit Carol Pate, a psychic in Little Rock,

Arkansas, who has worked with the police there for 10 years.

Carol had never been to Arizona and knew

nothing about the Page's.

She had only a photograph of Pam to go on.

That's very good.

Thank you.

JIMMIE RICE : I just handed her a picture.

She put her hand on it, and started

describing Pam's front room.

And unless you've ever been there,

she didn't know if Pam lived in a trailer, or apartment,

or whatever, but to describe the downstairs

and how you go up the stairs, and the balcony,

and going into a bedroom, you know,

you knew she was actually seeing all this.

I saw her with a man in what appeared to be her house.

And she was arguing with him.

The argument goes up the stairs.

She's going up the stairs.

She's going down the hallway.

He knocks her to the floor.

He's trying to strangle her.

He grabs a pillow.

And all of a sudden, she--

she's quiet.

Then a female comes.

She assists him when placing her in the trunk.

Now I'm seeing them pull out of the garage.

And they're driving.

The name Coolidge comes into my mind and 2, 4, 1.

Then I'm seeing a factory.

And it's gray in color.

It appears to be to my left.

And there's a railroad track parallel

and then crossing over the railroad track

onto a small road.

Then he pulls over on the side of the road

and removes the body and begins to dig.

When apparently it is deep enough,

he places her in the grave and then drives away.

NARRATOR: Jana Thorson, a Arizona newspaper

reporter covering the case, was in touch

with Pam's family in Arkansas.

She decided to check out Carol Pate's three strongest clues--

the factory, the numbers 2, 4, 1, and the name Coolidge.

Incredibly, Thorson did find a gray factory

building near railroad tracks right in Peoria, Arizona.

Nearby was a sign with the numbers 241.

One of the routes between the Page home and a friend's house

passed both of these sites and ended

at a street named Coolidge.

There is no way of knowing if Carol Pate's information means

anything until we know whether Pam Page met with foul play

or chose to disappear.

From the beginning, Rob Page has maintained that he

believes his wife is alive.

In a letter to "Unsolved Mysteries,"

he declined a request for an interview,

but said that if we aired this story,

he hope Pam would be found.

Pam Page would today be 36 years old.

She has red hair and is 5 feet 8 inches tall.

[music playing]

[siren]

It was just after Thanksgiving, 1988,

firemen raced to extinguish two small blazes burning

at the edge of the city.

It was a most routine of calls.

Then in the blink of an eye, one of the fires

exploded with unprecedented fury.

[explosion]

LEOTA HALLORAN: He could have retired several years ago,

but he loved it so much that he stayed.

JEWELL HURD: He wasn't even supposed to have been working.

He was filling in for somebody else.

CECILIA KILVENTON: I'd rather have him go this way than

to lay in a coma or be sick, because that

would never be Jim Kilventon.

KAREN OLDHAM CABLE: He didn't want to fly an airplane,

because he didn't want to risk his life on an airplane.

And I said, but you risk your life every day being a fireman.

And he said, well, he's in control when

he's at the fire department.

NARRATOR: Michael Oldham, Robert McKarnin,

James Kilventon, Gene Hurd, Thomas Frye, Gerald Halloran.

They were among Kansas City's best--

six firefighters with more than 100 years

of service between them.

All had been married.

All had children.

Underlying the tragedy is the ugly fact that the fires

had been deliberately set.

And arson means that the deaths are nothing less

than cold-blooded murderers.

In spite of a massive investigation,

no charges have been filed-- no convictions won.

Today, the case remains Kansas City's

most notorious unsolved crime.

The first minutes gave no hint of what was to come.

At about 3:40 AM on November 29, 1988,

two security guards at a highway construction site

discovered a pickup truck in flames.

Yes, I want to report a fire--

71 Highway, southbound lane.

Across the street--

NARRATOR: Some 500 yards away, a second blaze crackled

around a storage trailer.

CALLER: Look, there's some explosives there

that are burning near the fire.

OK, we'll get somebody started.

NARRATOR: The dispatch went to Station 41.

MAN (ON RADIO): Pumper 41, this is pickup track.

NARRATOR: Captain Jim Kilventon, fireman Robert

McKarnin and Mike Oldham were out the door

in just over 90 seconds.

MAN (ON RADIO): Pumper 41, a pick up truck,

87 South 71 Highway on the west side of the highway.

[siren]

Pumper 41, use caution.

Information from calling party-- there may be explosives stored

in that construction site.

The pickup truck may be in the construction site.

41 is clear.

NARRATOR: As Pumper 41 whipped through town,

Jim Kilventon's wife Cecilia heard

the dispatch over the police scanner she kept at work.

CECILIA KILVENTON: I just didn't think anything about it

at the time, because you are just going to a regular truck

fire down on the highway.

I just thought it was teenager's truck.

They said they caught it on fire for insurance purposes.

[siren]

Yeah, we're the ones that called.

Yeah.

You'll have to talk to the captain.

- Are you the captain? - I'm right here.

Totally involved.

We'll be using one small screen.

Thanks for getting here so quickly.

The truck is totalled, but there is a fire on the other side.

Yes, ma'am.

MAN: There's explosives over there.

CAPTAIN: On the other side of the highway?

MAN: Yes, sir.

NARRATOR: From the onset, arson seem probable,

given two fires that were apparently

started simultaneously.

CAPTAIN: Send another pumper company.

NARRATOR: The highway construction site,

a frequent target of vandals, lay some 10 miles

from downtown Kansas City.

The burning trailer was located here perched on a hillside.

Roughly 500 yards to the northwest, across a highway,

was the pickup truck.

Kilventon and his crew soon had the truck blaze under control.

However, fires still burned unchecked through the trailer.

Within minutes, Captain Gerald Hallaron

along with Fireman Thomas Fry and Gene Hurd

arrived from Station 30.

Pumper 30 to 97.

Hey, Gene, how you doing?

Gene, what do we got?

Well, Gerald, it looks like we've

got a pickup down here that we pretty well got under control.

Why don't you go up on top of the hill and handle that?

NARRATOR: Hallaron and his men headed up the hill

to work the trailer fire.

Pumper 41 stayed behind to wrap up the first blaze.

To Captain Hallaron, a check of the area

suggested that the explosives had

been properly stored in clearly marked

metal sheds known as bunkers.

JAMES GIBSON: Just the fact that the bunker was there-- in fact,

there was two bunkers there--

led that Captain to believe that's where

the explosives was.

And this trailer was just a regular, normal construction

trailer with tools and equipment in it.

And therefore, there was no danger,

that the heat was going to put that fire out,

and they'd be done for the night.

NARRATOR: Roughly eight minutes later,

Captain Kilventon and his crew joined

the others at the trailer.

POLICE RADIO: 10-4.

Are you back up in there now?

Yeah, 10-4.

NARRATOR: 4:08 AM, the battalion chief pulled

into the construction site.

He was a quarter mile from the flames, just minutes

from one of the worst tragedies in Kansas City history.

I'm the battalion chief.

You guys are?

We're the security guards.

We're the ones that reported the fire.

Uh-huh. Tell me a bit about it.

We just got on the scene.

Well, my truck was on fire.

And they came and took care of that.

And I think the firefighters went over to the site

across the street.

They're down around the trailers down there.

We understand there's some explosives here in a bunker?

Yeah, and we think that there there's some in that trailers

over there as well.

The trailers that are on fire?

Yeah.

Let's come out of there, John.

106--

[explosion]

KAREN OLDHAM CABLE: It was just the loudest noise I ever heard.

It just kind of went through you.

It was just so loud I can't describe it.

I'm serious.

It was just incredible.

And we live about 12 miles away from where the explosion was.

[explosion]

LEOTA HALLARON: It knocked me out of bed.

And I got up and looked to the east, and I saw a big--

great big ball of fire, and I said to myself,

Gerald is going to have to go to that,

because that's his district.

And I just knew he had to go.

I knew he'd be there.

POLICE RADIO: 407 to dispatchers.

DISPATCHER: 407.

POLICE RADIO: Explosions just a s we pulled up in here.

Get us all kinds of ambulances and at least a couple

or three more companies.

NARRATOR: 15 companies of Kansas City firefighters

rush to aid their comrades.

Comrades.

The safety considerations forced them to wait

frustrated on the sidelines.

BILL FORBES: They feared that there were more explosives

up there on the hill.

And it was still dark.

From the sounds of the explosions,

they were pretty sure that nobody had survived.

And so we made the decision that we

were going to wait until daylight, because we didn't

want to go up there and stumble around on more explosives

and get more people injured and killed.

[explosion]

NARRATOR: 40 minutes after the initial blast,

a second explosion did indeed rip through the site.

DISPATCH; Pumper 41 or pumper 30--

answer.

Pumper 41 or pumper 30.

Pumper 30, pumper 41-- answer.

Pumper 30, pumper 41--

please answer.

CECILIA KILVENTON: I knew something had happened.

Why couldn't he get to his radio or anybody get to the radio?

I said everything will be OK.

I just sort of blocked it out of my mind.

Then she come through.

There were about five after six come through the door.

He says, they're gone, but legally,

they cannot pronounce him gone until the coroner gets there.

I said, no way, they're still alive.

He said, no, they're gone.

His captain came to the door.

And when he came in, and I said, don't tell me it isn't true.

And I just started crying.

NARRATOR: Daylight revealed a stark landscape.

In the dismal aftermath, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol,

Tobacco, and Firearms joined Kansas City Police

to sift the wreckage for clues.

BILL FORBES: It was evident that nobody

could have survived that.

It was just totally devastated.

I don't think any of the group that went up there

was expecting what we found.

I don't think anybody had any idea that it was that bad.

I'd been in Vietnam and seen B-52 strikes--

what the aftermath of those were.

And these craters were much larger

than 2,000 pound bombs leave.

And as we found the firefighters,

we came to the last one, and he was lying there,

and his radio was still on.

And you could hear the voice of the dispatcher still coming

on over the radio calling.

And it just kind of shattered the stillness of it.

It's just a very surreal looking scene.

NARRATOR: A public outcry erupted

following the revelation that arson had led

to the firefighters' deaths.

Angry residents inundated the police department

with literally hundreds of leads.

JOHN FRAISE: The tips have ranged anywhere from someone

out trying to steal to someone out just for fun, someone

out just because they liked to set fires

and wanted to see what would happen.

But as time wore on, these leads soon wore out.

NARRATOR: Meanwhile, federal agents

pursued the investigation from a different angle.

The highway project had long been the focus

of a bitter labor dispute.

We know that there was labor unrest.

And it primarily dealt with union

versus non-union companies.

We learned that there were a number of violent acts directed

at non-union companies.

They were putting acid into company equipment.

They were putting a dirt into the diesel lines.

And there were a number of incidents where fire

was used to destroy equipment.

And if you take away the tragedy of that night of the six

firefighters dying, we can look at some

of these previous incidents being very similar to what

happened that night.

You had equipment damaged.

And then, in this instance, you had a security

guard's truck set on fire also.

NARRATOR: The untimely deaths of the six firemen reverberated

across the entire country.

Firefighters from every state joined in memorial services

at Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium.

To this day, surviving family members

have been the focus of unflagging community support.

LEOTA HALLARON: We were all very proud of our husbands.

And we are proud of the people in Kansas City,

because they gave us such support.

Everyone was back of us.

And we weren't alone.

KAREN OLDHAM CABLE: I guess I feel like if I knew who did it,

we'd know why they did it.

And I don't think they were trying to kill six firemen.

But somebody was trying to do something to somebody.

And six men are gone.

And that's hard to deal with.

Today I think about this case.

Tomorrow I'll think about this case.

And I'll think about it until it's resolved.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: When we return, the case

of the enigmatic Wallace Thrasher--

debonair country gentlemen and alleged drug lord.

[music playing]

[siren]

On October 17, 1984, Virginia State Troopers

converged on an eerie scene.

A small airplane had crashed in a remote mountain wilderness.

Sprint across out there.

Making trails out there.

[inaudible].

Check this pilot.

NARRATOR: Still strapped in the cockpit

was a body charred beyond recognition.

But it was the plane's cargo that riveted

the attention of police.

In smoldering heaps strewn over the crash

site was 1,200 pounds of high-grade marijuana.

Street value-- more than $1 million.

For the authorities, the crash was something of a godsend.

Eventually, they would connect both the plane

and the dead pilot to Wallace Thrasher of Bland County

Virginia, one of the most successful and most flagrant

drug runners in the Eastern United States.

Back in high school when he belonged to the Key

Club and the Latin Club, Wallace Thrasher hardly seemed the type

to end up peddling drugs.

He played on the football team and earned

the nickname Squirrel for his ability to outrun trouble.

But somewhere along the way, Wallace Thrasher went wrong.

Today, his whereabouts are the subject

of unending speculation.

Former associates insist Thrasher

died in Central America.

But authorities suspect that the Squirrel

is once again on the run.

From the late '70s to the early '80s,

Thrasher's operation flew tons of marijuana and cocaine

into the western region of Virginia.

Distributors then smuggled the drugs north to Chicago,

Detroit, and other big cities.

Thrasher often piloted the planes himself.

And many of his neighbors seemed to regard

him as a kind of local hero.

DONALD LINCOLN: Here in Western Virginia

and for probably 200 years, kind of the swashbuckling,

pirate, buccaneer type people out here

were the local moonshiners.

And to some extent, dope pilots are the modern-day moonshiners.

It takes the same kind of talents

to smuggle dope in by air as it does

to run a load of moonshine.

He was the type person he wasn't afraid let everybody

know what he was doing.

Basically everybody that had contact with him at the airport

and in the areas where he was doing his drug business

knew he was transporting drugs.

[horn]

Hey, baby!

NARRATOR: The rewards of Wallace Thrasher's life of crime

are on display for everyone to see.

He and his wife owned a 10-acre country estate

and surrounded themselves with the luxury.

What you been doing?

Been shopping.

Oh, yeah?

DONALD LINCOLN: Wally Thrasher was a very charming fellow--

very generous to his associates and the people

who lived around him.

He spent money very freely.

So there a great many people will

tell you kind things about him.

NARRATOR: For nearly a decade, Wallace Thrasher

managed to stay two steps ahead of the law

until that fateful night when one of his pilots

slammed an airplane full of marijuana into a mountainside.

It would take two weeks of painstaking

investigation to turn up undeniable proof

that Thrasher owned the plane.

Detectives were planning to move in until this article

appeared in the local paper.

Wallace Thrasher was dead.

May I help you gentlemen?

NARRATOR: Soon after, Virginia authorities tried to speak

directly with Thrasher's wife.

No, I'm afraid now is not a good time.

Well, we read that Wallace Thrasher died.

That's correct.

Exactly how did he die?

In a plane crash.

He was a pilot.

And where did he die?

In Jamaica.

When did this happen?

November 5th.

Gentlemen, I'm sorry.

I have to go.

Goodbye.

Thank you.

NARRATOR: The investigators departed unimpressed.

Later, Mrs. Thrasher produced this death

certificate as proof of her husband's fatal crash

in Jamaica.

Still suspicious, police sought to verify the information.

DAVID DEAN: The investigation revealed that the death

certificate was fraudulent, and there was no evidence

from any witnesses or anyone in Jamaica

that knew of any such crash.

NARRATOR: The disclosures convinced authorities

that Wallace Thrasher was still alive, and as a result,

they filed charges against him.

But with Thrasher's whereabouts unknown,

his wife was again questioned by the authorities.

Eventually, she agreed to tell investigators what she knew.

She began with the night of the crash

and confirmed that there had been a second pilot on board

the aircraft.

Although severely injured, the pilot

was able to drag himself to a payphone.

Hey, man!

NARRATOR: Thrasher picked him up at the very moment police

were racing to the crash scene.

[siren]

What happened?

tThe plane crashed.

Oh, my god.

You've got to get him to the hospital.

No, no.

NARRATOR: Almost immediately, Wallace Thrasher

began to assess the damage to his operation.

What happened man?

We were trying to come in low under the cloud cover.

It was just too low, man. I tried to get us out of there.

NARRATOR: Thrasher was well aware

that the plane could be traced back to him, that it was just

a matter of time before the authorities

would be knocking at his door.

I think we got problems.

I think we got real problems.

We have got to get him to a hospital.

NARRATOR: Later, Thrasher sped the injured pilot

to an out-of-state hospital and dropped from sight himself.

Mrs. Thrasher went on to tell police

that about two weeks after the crash,

her husband stuffed a quarter of a million dollars

in cash into a travel bag and departed for the Central

American country of Belize.

Thresher had said that he planned

to buy a load of marijuana and return to the United States.

But some believe Thrasher never intended to come home,

that the $250,000 was a down payment on a new life.

[phone ringing]

Hello?

DONALD LINCOLN: About a week later

Mrs. Thrasher received a call from two of their confederates

down in Belize advising her that Mr. thrasher had been killed

on takeoff in a massive crash.

Oh, my god.

The fire had been so intense that literally the plane was

burned down to the outline of a plane on the ground

and that there would be very little

for them to send back and no reason for her to come down.

My god.

DONALD LINCOLN: Mrs. Thrasher contacted her attorney with

the basic problem of how to handle her husband's estate--

how would she inherit things-- how would you spend money--

take money from accounts and so forth.

NARRATOR: In the end, Thrasher's wife

admitted she bought the fake death certificate

and concocted the tale of a Jamaican plane crash.

She had feared that her property would be confiscated

if authorities learned her husband was on a drug run

when he died.

But even the crash in Belize started

to seem like a fabrication after one

of Wallace Thrasher's former associates

showed up in May of 1986.

So what did you find?

Well, I went to Belize to the spot where the plane went down.

And apparently, the fire was really bad.

So the guys just bulldozed whatever was left into a hole.

And the fire was so bad there wasn't much.

I did get some proof though.

It's a wedding ring.

I got that from one of the guys

that was there when he crashed.

NARRATOR: The ring was in perfect condition--

the inscription as sharp as the day it had been engraved.

For detectives, that was part of the problem.

DONALD LINCOLN: Mrs. Thrasher did advise me it was definitely

Wally Thrasher's wedding ring.

We find it kind of tough to believe that an aircraft could

go in with that amount of fuel, cause

that amount of destruction to the point where literally

the substructure of the plane was melted,

and the ring itself would still be in that kind of condition.

NARRATOR: A decade has passed since Wallace Thrasher left

for Belize with a change of clothes

and a quarter of a million dollars.

Did he perish in a fiery crash in the jungles

of Central America?

Or did the Squirrel once again dash to freedom?

I think that at the time that Mr. Thrasher disappeared,

he was facing a lot of different problems.

And it may have been an opportune for him to, as they

say, exit stage left.

We know that he was having problems

within his own organization.

He knew that if he got caught this time,

it wouldn't be a matter of 18 months at a country club

and would be some serious prison time.

So I think it was an excellent time

for him to make that decision if he was going to make it.

NARRATOR: This photograph shows Wallace Thrasher

at about the age of 36.

He has graying hair, an athletic build, and stands

5 feet 10 inches tall.

Next, the amazing encounter of two lookalikes--

identical strangers who may in fact be long

lost blood relatives.

[music playing]

What are the odds that somewhere in the world

is another person who looks exactly like you?

1 in a million?

1 in 50 million?

The chances of actually standing nose to nose with your double

seems beyond calculation.

And yet around 50 years ago, that

is precisely what happened to a young soldier named Ken Palmer.

Tonight, with your help, he hopes to beat the odds again.

In December of 1943, Ken Palmer was a newly commissioned

second lieutenant in the Army Air Corps on his way from Texas

to Wisconsin.

During a momentary stop to change trains

in Cincinnati, Ohio, Ken had the most remarkable

encounter of his life.

Ken sensed that someone was staring at him.

A quick glance told him why.

Incredibly, improbably, Ken Palmer

had found his exact double.

KEN PALMER: I was amazed.

And both of us saw it and both of us reacted so much to it.

Both of us sat down our bags and stared.

And until I got a hold of myself and extended my hand,

he didn't move.

He was just frozen, looking at himself in a different uniform.

I'm Ken Palmer.

My name is Palmer.

KEN PALMER: My first thought, of course,

was that he's closely related.

Look, my father is from Brownsville, Minnesota

just across from Lacrosse, Wisconsin.

Do you know Brownsville?

No, I have no family there.

KEN PALMER: We began to exchange our fathers

names, our grandfathers names, where we lived--

things of this nature.

And that didn't get it.

My grandfather is from Brownsville.

NARRATOR: Surprisingly, the two men could not find

a single relative in common.

But when Ken began to recount an old family legend,

he was stunned by the stranger's response.

My family often talks of this lost treasure in India.

Two Palmer brothers were at a party

in the Court of St. James.

They, uh, cut the queue off a court official.

Yeah, that's right.

They had to flee England.

I mean, that's the story.

They left a fortune.

KEN PALMER: Not only did he know about it,

he added details that I checked out with dad later.

And they were accurate--

things that I didn't know.

So it was perfectly obvious that we were related.

And yet we couldn't understand how we could be.

- All aboard! - This is my train.

I've got to go.

Look, ti's going to be--

Do you-- do you have a pen?

Yeah, I do.

You write down your name and address.

When I get back home, I'm going to contact you.

This is good. This is good.

Do.

I will.

KEN PALMER: I took his name and address--

stuffed it in my pocket.

I'll write you.

Goodbye.

Goodbye.

KEN PALMER: I picked up my luggage

and scooted off for my train.

If I'd had the sense that God gave geese,

I would have stopped right then, and we would

have spent some time together.

When I got on the train and settled,

I reached in my pocket to get that slip of paper.

It wasn't there.

It all fell apart at that moment.

I was devastated.

NARRATOR: Ken Palmer never saw his double again.

And all attempts to find the man have been unsuccessful.

These pictures of Ken Palmer were taken in the 1940s.

The man he met at the train station so long ago

was virtually identical.

Like Ken, his last name was Palmer.

His first name may have been Robert or James.

Ken believes the man lived in the Eastern United

States, possibly New Jersey.

At the time, Ken's double was either a technical or a staff

sergeant in the Army Air Corps.

KEN PALMER: I would like very much to find

him and/or part of his family.

Doggone it!

How many times are you're going to walk across the station

and see that double out of all the people

in the United States--

out of everybody that it could happen.

That split second timing when in this great crowd and all

these people we walk into one another

and we sat down our bags and stare at one another--

magical moment.

[music playing]

Join me next Friday.

Perhaps you hold the key.

Perhaps you may be able to help solve a mystery.

[music playing]