Original subtitles

[mysterious music]

NARRATOR: Tonight, on "Unsolved Mysteries"--

ROBERT STACK: Welcome to the renowned Comedy Store

on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

Many of America's most famous comedians

got their start at this popular club.

But some people say that, on certain nights,

you're likely to catch a very different kind of show--

one guaranteed to create a lot more chills than chuckles.

Is The Comedy Store truly haunted, from the basement

to the rafters?

Tonight, we've come to the legendary nightspot

to see for ourselves.

Join me in this ghostly profile, as well

as these intriguing mysteries.

Keith Warren was a young man with everything to live for.

So when the police announced that his sudden, shocking

death was a suicide, Keith's family

began their own investigation.

Today, eyewitness testimony and questionable evidence

has left them more convinced than ever

that Keith was murdered.

When she was just 16, Wendy Radcliffe

found herself all alone in a moment of terrible crisis.

But in the midst of Wendy's tragedy,

a kindly stranger stepped forward to comfort

and console her.

Perhaps someone watching tonight knows the identity of Wendy's

unknown good Samaritan.

Also, Keely Shaye Smith joins us from the phone

center with a poignant update.

See how your calls reunited Fritz Vincken

with a soldier who helped teach him

the true meaning of Christmas.

Stay with us for another fascinating hour

of "Unsolved Mysteries."

[theme music]

[eerie music]

[jazzy music]

If America's heartland is in the Midwest,

it's funny bone is here in Hollywood,

at a Sunset Strip nightclub called The Comedy Store.

For more than 20 years, the club has

played host to legendary comedians like Richard Pryor.

Film and television stars Jim Carrey, Roseanne, Jay Leno,

and Arsenio Hall, each got their big break

while delivering knockout punch lines

to the club's delighted fans.

[laughter]

If it fit right here-- no, that's Don King.

OK, wh-- where's the one--

I'm there.

I'm cool to fight.

ROBERT STACK: But some say the best show takes center stage

when the crowd goes home and there's

hardly a living soul around.

According to many employees, past and present,

The Comedy Store's hallowed halls are haunted.

[echoing laughter]

Author Laurie Jacobson, who once worked here as a waitress,

collected the stories for a book about ghosts and Hollywood.

LAURIE JACOBSON: This place is haunted from the basement

to the rafters.

When I was a waitress here, the waitresses

would have to set up the showroom by putting

tablecloths on the table and we would

put an ashtray on every table.

And we would set up an hour before the customers

were due to arrive.

On occasion, girls would set up the room, leave for a moment,

come back, and everything would be put back.

The tablecloths would be refolded and stacked.

The ashtrays would be stacked.

And we all knew exactly what we were dealing with here.

Dave?

That what was happening in those rooms,

being set and unset, it was being done by ghosts.

It wasn't a figment of my imagination.

I wasn't drunk.

I wasn't high.

I wasn't-- I didn't get hit in the head with something,

and you know.

It's easy to know, once you've seen it, you believe it.

ROBERT STACK: When he was just starting out,

Joey Gaynor worked as a doorman at The Comedy Store.

Most nights, he was the last one out of the building--

or so he thought.

[soft music]

JOEY GAYNOR (VOICEOVER): It's about 3

o'clock in the morning, everybody's out.

I'm locking up, and I go into the original room

to get my coat, and there were two candles lit on the table.

I blew them out.

[mysterious music]

Turned around, they were lit again.

Went back over and I said, man, you know.

I blew them out again.

I said, well, maybe they were still--

they stayed a little lit when I blew them out.

And I start to go down the stairs,

and it was freezing all of a sudden in there.

And I turned around, the candles were lit again.

So I said, OK, stay lit, goodbye.

And I just split.

I didn't want to hang around to find out why.

[jazzy music]

ROBERT STACK: It seems The Comedy Store spirits just love

to play games with Joey Gaynor.

JOEY GAYNOR (VOICEOVER): One night, I was going to shut

the lights in the building--

takes four seconds, five seconds tops.

Walked back out, chairs.

All these chairs are just piled in the middle

of the aisle, piled up.

And I never heard anything, nobody could have come in

and done that in five seconds.

Even if it had been 10 seconds, if you

can pile 8, 10 chairs in that amount of time,

you should be in Vegas.

Because that's pretty amazing.

Born and raised in Georgia and I fought in Vietnam.

That's like being punished for the same thing twice.

[laughter]

ROBERT STACK: Like Joey Gaynor, comedian Blake Clark

served a tour of duty as a Comedy Store doorman.

Blake says he, too, was a target to the club's

disembodied pranksters.

I was a person who did not believe in ghosts.

Absolutely, unequivocally, undeniably

did not believe in any sort of paranormal manifestation.

I thought they were working here.

I was coming in to lock up the band room, and I heard a noise.

[eerie music]

It was moving just, you know, like somebody was just

kind of dragging it across the stage,

except there was no one there.

I'm not a scientist, but it wasn't an earthquake.

It wasn't wind.

It wasn't a person.

It was some supernatural or, as yet, unexplained force.

Let's get the chairs out, OK?

ROBERT STACK: Blake claims he also

witnessed one of Joey Gaynor's misadventures

with the supernatural.

A lot of strange stuff going on in this place this week.

Just quit antagonizing them, Joey.

What?

When I do this?

Hey, come on out.

Come on, ghost.

Show yourself.

Come on!

Where are you?

[mysterious music]

I saw this ashtray just go across the room and burst

onto the wall.

And so, Joey just says, woah, what was that?

Woah, did you throw that at me?

And I went, no, it came from over there.

It was like, zoom!

You know?

To see it come up, and take off, is what was scary.

I was always skeptical, because we're

talking about comedians telling stories.

However, I did see it.

ROBERT STACK: Michael Becker currently handles The Comedy

Store's business affairs.

It took less than five minutes to turn him into a believer.

Definitely.

Yeah.

9 o'clock, MC spot.

ROBERT STACK: Becker says the phantom

he saw dropped by in broad daylight,

in the middle of an important call, no less.

Yeah, hi.

It's Mike Becker.

MICHAEL BECKER (VOICEOVER): As I was standing there,

I saw someone with a kind of a tweed '40s jacket,

just walk right into my office.

Get that guy out of my office.

Can you hold, please?

Thanks.

Who's that guy? - What guy?

The guy that just came in here.

MICHAEL BECKER (VOICEOVER): There

was nobody there except the guy that was on the phone

originally.

Nobody came in here? MAN: Nobody.

MICHAEL BECKER (VOICEOVER): And to top it off,

the guy that was on the phone didn't see anything.

So it was not a guy, but it was something

that walked in my office.

[eerie music]

ROBERT STACK: That something has been prowling the premises

for decades, or so they say.

[soft jazzy music]

Long before The Comedy Store moved in, these walls were

home to the nightclub Ciro's.

In the 1940s and '50s, Ciro's was

a splashy, flashy playground of movie stars,

like Tyrone Power, Bette Davis, and Lucille Ball.

Ciro's was the most popular nightclub in Hollywood.

And when a club is that popular, the mob is often involved.

ROBERT STACK: Mickey Cohen was the most

notorious of the club's gangland regulars.

It has long been rumored that a few unfortunate souls,

who had run-ins with Cohen, ended up as ghosts at Ciro's.

MICHAEL BECKER: It kind of all fits

together that something happened back in the '40s, perhaps.

Because it's never, like, a hippie-looking guy, or it's

never somebody from the '80s, or anything like that.

The clothing is always '40s, every time

I've ever heard a story.

Once you rule out all the prosaic, logical explanations,

such as a hoax or a fraud, misinterpretation

of natural events, you know, seismic, you know,

transients, electrical transients,

you're left with something that is

totally inexplicable in terms of modern science.

[suspenseful music]

ROBERT STACK: Modern science would have conniptions trying

to explain what Blake Clark claims he

and a coworker saw late one night.

BLAKE: What the--

[gate creaking]

Do you see that?

Yeah.

BLAKE CLARK (VOICEOVER): We looked back and I saw the gate.

And it just started, just bending out into the hallway--

[imitates metal creaking]

--making that kind of noise.

And as I was looking at it, I thought this is certainly

approaching the boundary of physical possibility,

that something can do that.

Most of the ghosts at The Comedy Store

are not dangerous at all.

But there is something in the basement

that is very terrifying.

And you'll have a hard time convincing people to go

down there, at least alone.

[tense music]

ROBERT STACK: It was a challenge tailor-made for Blake

Clark and Joey Gaynor.

One time, and one time only, they

braved an after hours visit to the forbidden clutter

of The Comedy Store basement.

Hey, look at this Joey.

Hmm?

It's a checkbook.

[scoffs] Find anything there for me?

Hey, what do you want?

Wh-- what do you want?

Stay back!

Just stay back!

What do you want?

It had no features, no features at all, just moved.

And it started to snake upwards and down towards us.

Spirit, demon, whatever.

Whatever was down there in that basement, I just don't like it.

Hey, what do you want?

ROBERT STACK: Apparently, the feeling was mutual.

[whooshes]

For sheer speed, Blake and Joey's sprint from the basement

has yet to be equalled.

A funny thing happened to the comedian at The Comedy Store.

When a story begins like that, you're

inclined to take it with a grain of salt.

But what of the waitresses and employees,

who have little to gain by telling tall tales?

So far, Laurie Jacobson has documented

50 mysterious episodes here at The Comedy Store.

[eerie music]

Perhaps we should make it 51.

Next, during a time of tragic sorrow,

a young girl finds comfort in the arms

of an unknown good Samaritan.

And later, a joyous reunion rekindles

the spirit of a remarkable wartime Christmas.

[eerie music]

[gentle music]

It was a friendship that reached across the generations.

16-year-old Wendy Radcliffe, weathering her parents'

stormy divorce, found a best friend and confidant

in her grandmother, Bernice Gardner.

There was really unconditional love between us,

and she accepted me.

It was total acceptance.

To spend time with my grandmother was safety.

It was kind of like my safety net.

Whenever I had problems at home, I went and stayed with her.

How are things with your mom and step-dad?

ROBERT STACK: In 1984, Wendy and her grandmother

spent Christmas vacation together in Oregon.

On December 30th, they headed back home

to southern California.

Uh-oh.

WENDY: What's wrong?

Light just came on.

I think we better pull over.

Oh.

No one could have foreseen that the minor car

problem would trigger a catastrophic series of events.

Within hours, Wendy would find herself all alone,

facing unbearable sorrow.

More than a decade later, Wendy still

wants to thank the total stranger who

unexpectedly appeared at her side

that tragic night in December of 1984.

[tense music]

OK.

Uh-huh.

ROBERT STACK: The car repair had derailed Wendy and Bernice's

plan to drive home in one day.

Wendy called her mother from Modesto, California to say she

and her grandmother would be staying over.

That's it.

Hungry?

I'm starving.

Place across the street used to be pretty good.

Want to go try it again?

OK, sure.

Come on.

WENDY RADCLIFFE (VOICEOVER): Then

we headed out to walk across the street to the restaurant.

And I was ahead of her.

And I just kind of ran out into traffic

and went across the street.

And she decided to wait.

[brakes screech]

Grandma!

The feeling was just pure horror.

I can't describe it any better than that, it was just--

to see her, and to see her looking at me when it happened.

It was just pure horror.

ROBERT STACK: Wendy charged into the restaurant,

screaming for help.

By the time she returned to her grandmother's side

a small crowd had gathered.

WENDY RADCLIFFE (VOICEOVER): And there was a man there,

and he kind of pushed me away.

[wendy crying]

Wake up.

I'm sorry, miss.

Miss, you need to--

Let go of me.

This is my grandmother!

I got the impression that he didn't

know who I was, he didn't know that we

were related, that he just thought that I was a bystander.

No!

ROBERT STACK: As Wendy watched helplessly,

a stranger stepped from the crowd.

Oh, it's OK.

WENDY RADCLIFFE (VOICEOVER): And this woman

just grabbed me and held me, and told me it was OK to cry.

And tried to tell me everything was going to be OK

and, you know, comfort me.

She was there.

I mean, she reached out to somebody she didn't know

and tried to help.

ROBERT STACK: At the hospital, Bernice was rushed to surgery.

Wendy was alone again, adrift in a living nightmare.

WOMAN (ON INTERCOM): Dr. Rosa to reception.

Dr. Rosa to reception.

ROBERT STACK: Then, out of the blue,

a stranger appeared once more.

Hi.

How are you doing?

WENDY RADCLIFFE (VOICEOVER): I was very surprised to see her.

You know, you just kind of expect people

to go on about their life.

What are you doing here?

I couldn't stand to think about you

here all night in this hospital, all alone.

Have you gotten in touch with your family?

Yeah, they're on their way.

Well, how about if I stay with you?

WENDY RADCLIFFE (VOICEOVER): She knew

I didn't have any family there.

And so, she wanted to be with me,

so that I had somebody there.

Somebody that I could look to.

Miss?

You can go up and see your grandmother now.

Is she going to be OK?

She's stable.

The doctor will explain everything.

ROBERT STACK: At last, the ordeal seemed to be ending.

WENDY RADCLIFFE (VOICEOVER): I was excited, you know,

I thought that I was going to get to see my grandmother.

I thought she was alive and doing OK.

- Doctor? - Mm-hmm?

Can you tell me which room is Bernice Gardner's?

The nurse said we could come in and see her now.

- Are you family? - She is.

I'm her granddaughter.

Um, I don't know what they told you downstairs, but I'm

afraid you've been misinformed.

And then, the lecture, the speech, the one you

never want to hear in your life.

He had told me that she died, and I just fell apart.

No, I'm sorry.

We did everything we could.

I'm very sorry.

There must be some mistake.

Oh, sweetie.

The nurse said she was stable.

I know, she did.

I know.

WENDY RADCLIFFE (VOICEOVER): I cried, and she held me.

From that point on, I don't really remember much.

ROBERT STACK: The unknown woman stayed until Wendy's family

began to arrive.

Then, without a word, she slipped away.

WENDY RADCLIFFE (VOICEOVER): I've looked

back on it so many times.

And I see, over, and over, and over again,

how important it was that she was there.

Because she hadn't have been there,

I probably would have totally fallen apart.

You'll be OK.

[gentle music]

ROBERT STACK: Today, a decade later, Wendy is a happily

married mother of three.

But since that night, she has felt a debt of gratitude

to the gentle stranger who extended a helping hand.

WENDY RADCLIFFE (VOICEOVER): It was

a real turning point for me.

She helped me to become a person who

can be there for somebody else, and I want her to know that.

It means a lot to me to find her.

To let her know that one person made a difference.

[upbeat music]

ROBERT STACK: When we return--

in 1944, a German boy and an American G.I.

shared an unforgettable Christmas dinner.

Some 50 years later, our viewers help reunite them.

[eerie music]

Tonight, we have a heartwarming update to one of our most

poignant lost love cases.

Perhaps you remember the story.

[dramatic music]

December 1944.

Some of the most savage fighting of the Second World War

took place in Belgium's Ardennes Forest.

Thousands of American and German soldiers

would lose their lives in the infamous Battle of the Bulge.

Christmas Eve brought no end to the carnage.

In an isolated cabin, within earshot of the fighting,

a young German boy named Fritz Vincken and his mother

tried to make the best of the holiday.

[knocking]

Papa?

Shh.

FRITZ VINCKEN (VOICEOVER): My mother blew out the candle,

and went to the door and I went with her.

She opened the door, and there were these soldiers.

We're Americans, and we're lost.

And our friend-- our friend's been shot.

ROBERT STACK: Fritz's mother knew that harboring the enemy

was punishable by death.

But it was Christmas, and she was willing to take the risk.

The G.I.s had just begun to relax in anticipation

of an unexpected holiday meal, when

there was a knock at the door.

[knocking]

FRITZ VINCKEN (VOICEOVER): We thought, automatically,

this must be more Americans.

And I went to the door, and opened the door.

And there were four German soldiers.

[speaking german]

ROBERT STACK: No one could have foreseen what happened next.

In a remarkable display of courage and compassion,

Fritz's mother bid the Germans welcome, provided they leave

their weapons at the door.

[speaking german]

That night, hostilities ceased in at least

one corner of the forest.

American and German soldiers sat down together

to honor the Christmas spirit.

[speaking german]

FRITZ VINCKEN (VOICEOVER): By that time,

they were all crying.

Not profusely, but the tears were falling.

You know, even the German soldiers, I was very surprised.

And then we ate, and the tears disappeared.

But from then on, there was a feeling of friendship

that permeated the whole world.

It was wonderful.

I'll never forget it.

ROBERT STACK: Fritz never did forget the lessons

he learned that night.

And he never stopped hoping when he would someday be reunited

with one of the American G.I.s.

Against all odds, it was a dream that came true.

Here's Keely to tell you how it happened.

Bob, after our most recent broadcast of Fritz's story,

a man named Eldridge Ward called our phone center.

He's a volunteer chaplain at a nursing

home in Frederick, Maryland.

Eldridge recognized the stories, one

often recounted by an elderly resident named Ralph Blank.

We did a little research, and found out that in 1944

Ralph Blank had, in fact, been a sergeant serving

with the US Army in Belgium.

Fritz immediately phoned Ralph, who confirmed that he was one

of the soldiers who had celebrated Christmas

with Fritz and his mother.

FRITZ VINCKEN: I was completely unaware

that we had looked for him.

Though, either way, I asked him whether he

remembered me from that night in the Ardennes.

Oh, yes, I remember you, he said, you must be Fritz.

KEELY SHAYE SMITH: On January 19th, 1996,

Fritz flew to Maryland to meet his long lost

friend, who is now 76 years old and in fragile health.

FRITZ VINCKEN: I was very excited, I could hardly wait.

[speaking german]

Fritz?

Hi.

Well, it's good to see you, young boy.

[speaking german]

[ralph chuckles]

It's been so long.

I'm glad to see you.

FRITZ VINCKEN (VOICEOVER): I just had to look at his eyes,

and I knew this is him.

And he recognized me, apparently, even though we

changed so much in that time.

But it was a great experience.

Have I changed any?

RALPH BLANK (VOICEOVER): Oh, I never

thought I'd ever see Fritz again when I left Germany.

Today is a special day for me.

KEELY SHAYE SMITH: The emotional reunion took place just a day

after another exciting event, Ralph Blank's

50th wedding anniversary.

To cap the joyous celebration, his daughter-in-law

fixed the same meal Fritz's mother

had served some 52 years ago, a hearty bowl of chicken soup.

I can only tell you it was the fulfillment

of a lifelong dream.

Something I had given up all hope to experience.

KEELY SHAYE SMITH: Fritz Vincken and Ralph Blank,

proof that true friendship and brotherhood

can endure time, distance, and the ravages of war.

I had a pistol.

You remember?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- I gave it to your mother. - That's right.

Or she took it from you.

[laughter]

Has she still got my pistol?

[eerie music]

Tonight, an urgent appeal to police departments

across the country.

For nearly a decade, a cunning serial rapist

has prowled Buffalo, New York and its suburbs.

Local detectives now fear that the suspect may be targeting

women outside the state.

Perhaps investigators in other areas

can help put an end to the growing list of victims.

I was 17 years old and I was walking to summer school.

I was running a little bit late for school,

so I decided to cut through the pass.

And I was almost at the end of the path,

and I heard something behind me.

Hi, how you doing?

WOMAN (VOICEOVER): And I didn't think anything of it,

so I turned around and I kept walking.

You know, I mean, he didn't look like someone I had to fear,

he looked like a normal everyday guy.

[tense music]

Shut up.

And don't look at my face.

WOMAN (VOICEOVER): He started dragging

me back into the woods, and then he started strangling me.

And then I thought, that's it, I was going to die.

It was-- I really thought I'm never seeing any of my family

again.

And when he was finished, I asked

him, what's going to happen.

And he told me, he said, nothing.

He almost sounded sorry.

And then he left.

ROBERT STACK: The reign of terror had only begun.

In June of 1988, the rapist was lying in wait

as a 16-year-old girl walked to school along

an isolated railroad track.

Once again, the assailant would double-wrap

a rope around his victim's neck and tape her eyes shut.

PW REINIG: Almost a year later, in May of 1989,

another young girl was using this as a shortcut on her way

to school.

The same individual passed her and, immediately afterwards,

double-wrapped a rope around her neck, gained control of her,

and took her to the bush area behind me.

He forced her to place tape over her eyes.

He bound her and sexually assaulted her.

ROBERT STACK: Now there were four.

Two of the women said the rapist had worn a blue baseball cap.

Each victim described a short, stocky, mustachioed man

in his mid-30s.

Four months passed, then a fifth attack.

A woman alone in a secluded place, early morning.

THOMAS GOULD: He placed a rope around her neck,

and he wrapped it twice.

She described him as a very powerful man.

He lifted her over this fence.

And took her into the wooded area over here,

where he bound her hands behind her back

and he placed surgical table her eyes.

And at that point he raped her.

ROBERT STACK: 5' 5" to 5' 8", stocky

build, black hair, black mustache,

white, possibly Hispanic.

It was a rapist.

And he would savage two more victims in Amherst.

32-year-old female was using his path early

in the morning for exercise.

As she got to this point right here,

a rope was placed around her neck

and she was immediately rendered unconscious.

She was then dragged into these woods

up this way, which we think was a pre-selected site.

ROBERT STACK: The woman was found one

hour later, still unconscious.

Double-wrap marks on her neck told police

who they were dealing with.

But this time was different.

This time he had nearly killed his victim.

22-year-old Linda Yalem was a student

at the State University in Buffalo

when she crossed paths with a rapist.

Linda was the seventh known victim.

She would be the first to die.

Linda Yalem was left in the woods,

her mouth and nose wrapped tight with duct tape.

THOMAS GOULD: It was premeditated murder.

He planned on killing her when he grabbed her that day.

Once he put that tape over her nose and her mouth,

there was no chance for survival.

ROBERT STACK: An unexpected lull followed, 2, 3, 4 years.

Authorities wondered, had the suspect moved, gone to prison,

or even perhaps died?

Then in October of 1994, a 14-year-old girl

was raped in Buffalo, New York.

He was back.

This guy strikes so infrequently,

he's very hard to profile, very, very difficult.

He's either got tremendous self-control,

or else he's hitting in other parts of the country

that we're not aware of.

[stern music]

ROBERT STACK: In a moment, the mysterious case

of Keith Warren.

Did a killer cleverly arrange Keith's death scene

to make it look like suicide?

[eerie music]

The 911 call came in just before 2:00 PM on July 31st, 1986.

A mother's quiet world was about to be shattered.

Her only son was dead.

Keith Warren was just one month from starting college.

He had lived with his sister and mother

since his parents divorce, when he was 10.

By all accounts a well-liked and dependable young man,

Keith seemed destined for a promising future.

Instead, he had came to an untimely end.

Paramedics found Keith in a wooded area

behind his family's townhouse.

He was hanging by the neck from a small tree that was

bent double with his weight.

The elaborate arrangement of the hanging rope

would later be the source of bitter debate.

The cord was anchored around the base of a large tree.

It extended some 25 feet to a small sapling.

It encircled the sapling's trunk and then

arched up through a fork.

The authorities, however, saw nothing suspicious

about the scene.

After a brief visual inspection, the county's

deputy medical examiner determined that Keith

Warren had committed suicide.

No autopsy was ordered.

And the body was dispatched to a funeral home for embalming.

It was already dark when Keith's mother was informed.

I didn't realize at the time that Keith's

body was not in a morgue.

There'd been no investigation, and his body

had been discovered maybe five or six

hours earlier, about 12:30.

I didn't know at the time the officer

had chosen a funeral home.

[gentle music]

ROBERT STACK: A few days later, Mary Couey

received her son's personal effects,

some audiotapes, a jacket, and his trademark brown boots.

MARY COUEY (VOICEOVER): And I saw the boots

and that's when I just got really--

I mean, it was just, I knew it was all over, to see the boots.

That was Keith, and--

that was it.

Initially, Keith's mother accepted

the finding of suicide.

But over time, she found discrepancies

too numerous to ignore.

Today, Mary Couey totally rejects

the official explanation.

Her doubts began after she heard a friend of Keith's

named Rodney Kendell.

Rodney reported that a parade of suspicious characters

had been looking for Keith shortly before his death.

MAN: Hey, yo, dude.

You seen Keith Warren around?

Do you know him?

- No, why, what's up? - Mm.

Nothing much, man.

Just some friends looking for him, see him around?

ROBERT STACK: The first incident occurred

in front of the townhouse, a week

before Keith's body was found.

Why?

What are you looking for him for?

RODNEY KENDELL (VOICEOVER): It was mainly black males

that were in the car.

And Keith did not associate much with black males, most

of his friends were white males.

So I thought it was pretty strange.

And after I told them that I hadn't seen Keith, they left.

He said they weren't from the neighborhood or our school

area, so I kind of figured, why would

they be looking for Keith?

But, you know, no one had an answer for me.

ROBERT STACK: Several days later, Rodney

heard another odd encounter.

This time with a high school acquaintance of Keith's

named Mark Finley.

Rodney, have you seen Keith?

RODNEY: No, man, what's up?

I-- I need to find him.

Wh-- where was last time you saw him?

I don't know, we were out last night.

MARK: What time? When?

RODNEY KENDELL (VOICEOVER): He seemed pretty urgent.

I thought it was pretty strange.

Because he acted like he needed to find Keith very quickly.

And I told him I couldn't--

I didn't know where Keith was, and he left.

And that puzzled me.

Because I said, you know, in the past eight-- seven

to eight years we lived in Maryland,

Mark never came by, nor did he ever call for Keith.

I never saw him in the house.

I don't recall him.

And my last recollection of Mark was when we were in 8th grade,

and they got into a fight, Keith and Mark did.

A couple of weeks after that, my mom came to visit me.

And I've never gone to the site that the tree was found

and she wanted to go to the tree.

ROBERT STACK: Rodney Kendell, who

had earlier identified his body for the police, led the way.

And when we got there, I looked around,

and couldn't find the tree.

But I was sure I was in the right spot.

And we looked down, and the tree had been cut down.

It was just the stump left.

I panicked and I called the police.

And they were very rude, and rudely told me that, well,

what do you want us to do.

You know, we cut it down, and what

do you want us to do about it?

ROBERT STACK: Mary Betters and a multi-racial community

group known as CLAMs, are helping

Keith's mother with the case.

The police had cut down the tree

and they were saving it as evidence.

Now, this was a big surprise to us, because heretofore

they had said that the case was closed.

And we were surprised that they would be still

collecting and saving evidence.

ROBERT STACK: Keith's mother no longer trusted the police

or their explanations.

She launched a letter writing campaign targeting

state and federal officials.

But for six long years, Mary Couey hit a stone

wall every way she turned.

Then came April 9th, 1992, her son's birthday.

Keith would have been 25.

That afternoon Mary found a plain manila

envelope at her doorstep.

The stunning contents would sweep her back

to the day of her son's death.

[suspenseful music]

Sherry!

Oh my god!

MARY COUEY (VOICEOVER): And Sherry came up

and she saw the pictures scattered.

And she picked them up.

And, of course, she panicked.

And then she says, oh my god, this is Keith.

ROBERT STACK: There were five pictures in all.

They looked official, and each showed

a different view of Keith Warren hanging by his neck.

Mary forced herself to look.

And in the process, she found a glaring discrepancy.

Those are not his shoes.

MARY COUEY (VOICEOVER): His clothing, they didn't fit him.

That's when we started to realize,

he was wearing somebody else's clothing.

He's got a long sleeve shirt on.

It looks fairly new.

He's got, like, corduroy jeans on that he didn't own.

But the real eye-catcher was that he

was wearing white sneakers.

And those white tennis shoes, he did not own.

He did not own a pair of white tennis shoes.

Those are not his clothes.

ROBERT STACK: For Mary Couey, it was

a nightmarish inconsistency.

Yes, that was her son in the photographs,

but whose clothes was he wearing?

Whose white tennis shoes?

And why was he wearing them?

The only items of clothing the police returned to the family

had been Keith's jacket and brown boots.

Neither was shown in the photographs,

although authorities said that they had

been found near Keith's body.

MARY COUEY (VOICEOVER): My brain started to just really go

into a tailspin, because I didn't feel that the police

were my friends at all.

I started to talk around to legal people.

And I was advised to go to a local investigator,

and find out the source of the photos.

The police department conceded that they were copies

of original police photos, but they had

no idea where they came from.

None whatsoever.

They were questioned numerous times.

ROBERT STACK: When Joe Alercia examined the pictures,

he noticed leaves on the back of Keith's shirt.

To Alercia, this suggests that Keith

had been lying on the ground, and was hoisted into a hanging

position by someone else.

Alercia says that his theory is bolstered by the complex path

of the rope found at the scene.

JOE ALERCIA: Apparently, the perpetrators

noticed that the tree was small and wouldn't hold a body.

Therefore, they needed some security by tying

around a big tree here.

When you talk to police off the record,

you get this was a travesty of errors.

On the record, you get a lot of there

are logical explanations for everything,

and yet no logical explanations have ever been given.

The fact of the matter is, no one seems

to know whose clothing Keith Warren is wearing

in those photographs, and whether or not Keith Warren

was hanged, or whether or not he committed suicide.

ROBERT STACK: Finally, Keith's family had his body exhumed.

At long last, there was an autopsy.

And the results were shocking.

I believe that Keith Warren's death being listed as suicide

is medically not supportable.

ROBERT STACK: Toxicology tests had revealed the presence

of potent chemicals.

Most importantly, trichloroethane or TCE.

They are usually found in glue and solvents.

The levels found in Keith Warren were

more than enough to kill him.

These substances can get in there

by inhalation or they could be-- actually

even to be taken in by mouth.

The other possibility, of course,

is injection as part of an embalming solution.

ROBERT STACK: The embalming process

is exactly how Maryland's chief medical examiner

explained away the toxic chemicals when

he reviewed the autopsy report.

Dr. Mihalakis disagrees.

ISIDORE MIHALAKIS: The substances

found in Keith Warren's body could not

have been introduced by the embalming fluid

because, one, the embalmer in his report

never mentioned using any of those substances.

Secondly, the distribution of the key substance,

trichloroethane, is more consistent with inhalation.

And third, there were found two additional substances

which are totally unrelated to any embalming solution.

He could have been at a party where

there were some drugs involved and he

accidentally killed himself.

And they were afraid, and then they

decided to take and hang him make it look like a suicide.

OK.

Or he could have been attacked from the back,

and that particular chemical is so potent,

that one chemist said that he was

dead before he hit the ground.

He couldn't have done this and placed himself on a tree.

That's the bottom line.

He could not have taken these chemicals

and then hung himself.

ROBERT STACK: If Keith Warren didn't hang himself,

then who did hang him?

In a final disturbing twist, the one person

who might have answered that question

has also turned up dead under suspicious circumstances.

Mark Finley was one of those who came looking for Keith

around the time he died.

Six years later, when Mary Couey received the photographs,

Finley again figured prominently.

Affixed to one of the pictures was

a threatening note which appeared to target

Finley and another man.

The note read, in part, don't worry,

Mark Finley will be next.

Two months after Mark learned he had been singled out,

he contacted Mary Couey.

Mark called my residence, left a message on my answering

machine to the effect of something that said,

Miss Warren, this is Mark Finley.

I got your message, and I will be by to see you.

I do remember those specific words, "I need to unload."

ROBERT STACK: One month later, Mark Finley was dead.

According to the Montgomery County Police,

Finley died accidentally when he struck a curb

and was thrown from his bike.

JOE ALERCIA: That was a strange death.

The original ambulance crew said the damage to Mr. Finley

didn't fit the accident itself.

The damage in his face, it was-- looked like somebody

either hit him with a car or he was

waiting for him with a baseball bat

and hit him with a baseball bat.

Mark Finley made a statement at a party,

saying that Keith didn't kill himself,

I helped hang him in the tree.

It just seemed kind of strange that he'd happen to expire when

he had made that statement.

ROBERT STACK: Why was Mark Finley

targeted in a threatening note?

Did he truly have information about Keith Warren's death?

As with all the other nagging questions,

the authorities have a standard answer.

This case is closed.

We're still being stonewalled.

And we're still being fought.

And that's incredible.

I can't-- I can't understand that.

What is-- What is it that the system does not want me to know

about my child's life or death?

Despite repeated requests officials in Montgomery County,

Maryland declined to comment on the case

or participate on this broadcast.

Mary Couey vows that she will continue

to press her own investigation until each

and every question about her son's death has been answered.

Join me again next Friday.

Perhaps you may be able to help solve a mystery.

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