Original subtitles

[theme music]

(VOICEOVER): Tonight on Unsolved Mysteries--

ROBERT STACK: She was beautiful, charming, and she loved horses.

But even though Shelly Malone was an expert rider,

eyewitnesses claim she died in a freak riding accident.

Shelly's family thinks the truth is very, very different.

In Indiana, a sudden thunderstorm

spells trouble for an unsuspecting motorcyclist.

Tragedy seems inevitable, until a mysterious lady in black

appears from out of nowhere.

It was the night Senator Robert Kennedy was assassinated,

a crime which many believe is still unsolved.

A young photographer named Scott Enyart

claims he was taking pictures at the exact moment

of the shooting.

Now those pictures have inexplicably disappeared.

September 1994, a lone gunman lurks in the woods

outside Anderson, Missouri.

His target, an off-duty highway patrol officer.

His apparent objective, vigilante justice.

Join me.

Perhaps you may be able to help solve a mystery.

[theme music]

I would hope--

I would hope now that the California primary--

ROBERT STACK: June 5, 1968,

--now that these primaries over--

ROBERT STACK: Senator Robert F. Kennedy addresses hundreds

of supporters who've gathered to celebrate

his victory in the California state primary.

My thanks to all of you, and now it's on to Chicago

and let's win there.

Thank you very much.

ROBERT STACK: Within 20 minutes, the senator's triumph

would be swept away in a hail of gunfire.

The accused assassin was a young Palestinian

national named Sirhan Sirhan.

[shouting]

The years since have been marked by heated controversy.

Many people question whether Sirhan

acted alone, whether a second gunman was involved.

The debate has been fueled by the belief

that there was no visual record of the precise moment

the senator was gunned down.

Now that assumption has been challenged.

There's no film of it, there's no videotape of it,

there is an audio recording from a radio reporter,

and there are my black and white photographs.

And that's it.

ROBERT STACK: Scott Enyart says this

is a photograph of him taken in the pantry

of the Ambassador Hotel.

Scott claims that at the instant Senator Kennedy was shot,

he was taking pictures.

What is most puzzling about Scott Enyart's remarkable story

is that no one can find the bulk of his photographs

or any of the negatives.

Enyart claims he shot three rolls of film that night.

The authorities, however, maintain that two

of those rolls never existed.

[ominous music]

When Senator Kennedy gave his victory speech,

15-year-old Scott Enyart was just a few feet from the stage,

shooting photographs for his high school newspaper.

These are some of Scott's pictures.

He took his first roll of film before Kennedy

mounted the podium.

Scott says he loaded a second roll just

as the senator began to speak.

ANNOUNCER: Well, the senator has just finished

his very brief little talk.

ROBERT STACK: As his speech concluded,

Scott says he joined those who followed

Kennedy from the stage.

After leaving the ballroom, Senator Kennedy

headed down a corridor which led to the pantry.

There, he stopped to shake hands with the kitchen workers.

When he stopped, I was about 10, 12 feet behind him.

There was an open wedge which had been made by the two people

on either side of him, so I had a clear view of him.

It's at this point that I brought my camera

up and started taking pictures.

ROBERT STACK: Suddenly, gunshots rang out.

SCOTT ENYART: Now, I was behind Robert F. Kennedy.

Sirhan Sirhan was in front of Kennedy,

so I did not see Sirhan.

All I saw was Kennedy twist and fall.

I moved back and jumped up on a steam table.

And I took some pictures over where the dog pile on Sirhan

was taking place.

His hand was sticking out with the gun in it,

but I couldn't really see what was taking

place there because so many people

had crowded in at that point.

SPEAKER: Is there a doctor in the house?

SPEAKER 2: Everybody please stay back.

Please stay back.

We need a doctor here.

ROBERT STACK: A few moments later,

Scott Enyart returned to the ballroom, where

pandemonium had broken out.

At that time, Scott says he loaded and clicked

off his third roll of film.

[ominous music]

SCOTT ENYART: I noticed two men in suits.

They were looking at me rather strangely

and I moved a few steps and they moved a few steps.

Not knowing who's a terrorist, who's an assassin,

and who's the police, I took off.

[suspenseful music]

They went through my pockets and took

all three rolls of the film.

They took the camera, of course, and it's at that point,

I realize, these are detectives and I'm with the good guys.

ROBERT STACK: At around 3:00 AM, Scott

was taken to Rampart Station in downtown Los Angeles.

- Scott, Sergeant McCann. - Hi.

I understand you got some pictures of the shooter--

the suspect doing the shooting?

Well, I'm not exactly sure.

SERGEANT: Where were you, Scott?

OK, I was in the Embassy Room.

ROBERT STACK: Scott was questioned

for about 20 minutes.

This is an actual recording of the interrogation.

SCOTT ENYART: So there was a table

here about three-and-a-half feet tall, I'd say.

So I got up on it so I was above everyone.

And I-- And the tape was--

And then the shots started--

be fired.

And I took pictures and kept taking pictures.

SERGEANT: While the shots were being fired?

SCOTT ENYART: While the shots were being fired.

Maybe a little afterward.

I'm not exactly sure.

I-- I could tell--

I can only tell by the pictures.

ROBERT STACK: Scott Enyart had become a small part of history.

Six months later, Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to life in prison

for the murder of Robert Kennedy.

A court ordered that all files from the case,

including Scott's photographs, be sealed for 20 years.

Scott waited.

By 1988, he was an established photographer.

Scott wrote to the LAPD, requesting

that they return his film.

Five months later, Scott received a letter

from the California State Archives

which stated that his photographs could not be found.

The conclusion was that the pictures

had been, quote, destroyed by LAPD in August 1968.

Scott immediately filed a lawsuit against the police.

This time he waited eight years.

Top LAPD detectives were assigned

to work with our attorneys in preparation for this lawsuit.

And actually, if we could find what Scott was looking for,

we thought that that would make the lawsuit go away.

And it was just some good detective work and looking

in places where people hadn't looked before that found,

up in Sacramento, found that-- booked under a different name--

was a--

was a sheet of negatives that had already been cut

and put into plastic sleeves.

ROBERT STACK: A few weeks later, the city attorneys

presented Scott with a proofsheet

made from those negatives.

Scott immediately became suspicious.

The proof showed only one roll of film.

The stock was Ilford, ASA 125.

Scott claims he shot three rolls that were Tri-X,

ASA 400, manufactured by Kodak.

Basically what I believe the police did was,

they took roll number two, which showed the speech.

And they used part of that in this proof sheet

and then they used roll number three,

which was once I returned to the ballroom

afterward, where you see the aftermath and some

of the victims and things.

And they just put them together as a proofsheet

and expected that they could pass that off as being

all the film that I shot.

That role is a continuous roll of film.

Shows pictures before Mr. Kennedy

speaks, pictures of Robert F. Kennedy speaking

to the audience, and then pictures of the aftermath

of the shooting.

There are no photographs in the pantry.

Our position is that Mr. Enyart did not make it into the pantry

and did not take photographs inside the pantry.

ROBERT STACK: Then in 1991, a book

came out that contained a number of previously

unpublished photographs.

This one was taken in the pantry a few moments after Senator

Kennedy was gunned down.

Scott Enyart swears that he is the young man standing

on a table with camera in hand, just

as he told detectives on the night of his interrogation.

I don't know who that person is for sure.

We don't believe that that's Scott Enyart.

I think it's just a coincidence that he, you know,

says that he was standing on a table

and there's somebody standing on a table in the picture.

We don't think that's him.

ROBERT STACK: Scott Enyart continued to press

his case against the LAPD.

In January of 1996, the city attorney's office

hired a private courier to transport

the negatives in question from the archives in Sacramento

to Los Angeles.

Once there, the courier rented a car

to drive from the airport to the downtown courthouse

about 20 miles away.

Soon after leaving the airport, the courier was forced

to pull into a service station.

His right rear tire was flat, apparently slashed by a knife.

COURIER: What do you want me to do?

No, I'm a courier on my way to court.

All I need to know--

ROBERT STACK: Some time during the next 10 minutes,

the briefcase containing the negatives was stolen.

I was with my attorneys when we--

when we learned this and we were just absolutely shocked.

I mean, we-- we-- we were--

for some reason, we weren't surprised,

but we were just truly shocked.

I couldn't believe it happened.

But if I was a conspiracy theorist I'd say, see,

there's further proof.

Now we'll never know.

The Enyart photos, if he captured the actual shooting,

would be the only photographic record that we have.

If those Enyart frames were on Kennedy as he was falling,

it could be the whole case.

It could tell us everything we want

to know about what happened.

[theme music]

ROBERT STACK: Next, in the aftermath of a violent storm,

a young man finds himself in desperate need of a miracle.

And later, when an experienced horsewoman dies in a freak

riding accident, her family's suspicions lead

them to a stunning conclusion.

[theme music]

Good fortune can quickly turn bad, swift as thunderclouds

can sweep a summer sky.

No one knows this better than Robert Davidson.

16 years ago, in June of 1980, Davidson was barreling

down I-74 near Acton, Indiana.

As a rainstorm whipped up around him,

Davidson's luck suddenly changed for the worse.

When you're driving 60, 65 mile an hour

on a motorcycle, when raindrops hit you,

it's really pretty stinging.

It hurts.

And I thought, better pull over and get my rain

jacket out of the trunk.

Had one foot on the ground when--

that's the last thing I can remember.

[thunder]

It was a direct hit.

More than 200,000 volts of electricity.

38-year-old Robert Davidson should

have died right then and there.

Yet Davidson is still very much with us today at the age of 54.

Some say his survival was just another shift

in the winds of fortune.

Nothing more than a stroke of luck,

but others, including Davidson himself,

call it a miracle personally delivered

by a messenger of God.

Within minutes of the lightning strike,

emergency crews were on the scene.

From the start, it appeared their efforts would be in vain.

Clinically, he should have been dead.

By the color of his skin, when we arrived

there was no blood pressure, no pulse.

Basically, he had no chance at all.

Hey, Thelma, I'm going to need a chopper in here right away.

This guy is in bad--

ROBERT STACK: According to several witnesses,

events at the scene suddenly swerved

towards the supernatural.

First, every power circuit in the ambulance

inexplicably failed.

The engine shut down, the lights turned off,

and it was without power completely.

We got dual batteries.

One battery would go down, the other one would take over.

And there's no way they could have both

gone down at the same time.

It was an eerie feeling.

I mean you could just-- it felt strange.

And as they were doing the CPR, you heard this woman coming up,

yelling, I need to touch him.

I need to touch him, just let me touch him.

I must touch him.

I must touch him.

ROBERT STACK: Nobody knew her name or where she came from.

Later, they would refer to her reverently

as the Lady in Black.

She just kept, again and again and again, you know,

I can save his life.

And of course, you know, at that point in time,

I kind of thought, well, maybe this is just one of the people,

so to speak, left over from the 70s, you know.

But I said, you know, let her do what she needs to do.

You know, what can it hurt?

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.

He leadeth me beside the still waters.

He leadeth me in the name of righteousness

for his name's sake--

She was dressed in the late-1800 dress,

your basic black dress.

Very, very old fashioned, and she

had the old-fashioned black shoes that went with it

and carried her little black Bible.

Then she raised the Bible to the sky

and started speaking in tongue, which

was something I didn't understand

but I'm sure somebody out there did.

[speaking in tongues]

You could just feel, all the time that she was saying this,

just chills from head to toe.

It was like, just this tremendous amount of energy.

RICHARD NEIBERT: When she was finished, she looked at me,

smiled, and got up and walked away.

Probably five seconds had passed by

and I turned to look the direction where she had left

and there was nobody to be found.

ROBERT STACK: Accounts from that day

couldn't be more contradictory.

Some eye witnesses, including two of the paramedics,

insisted that the mysterious woman was never there.

I don't know why they couldn't see her, really, because it

was plain as day to me.

It was plain as day to Randy.

You know, why couldn't anyone else see her or hear her?

There is no doubt in my mind that she was there.

I believe there was a power that actually shut the vehicle

down, a surge which just obliterated

the vehicle's power supply and shut it

down when this woman walked by.

ROBERT STACK: According to those who saw the Lady in Black,

her departure triggered another chain of uncanny events.

First, the ambulance came back to life.

Then--

I've got it, I've got a pulse.

It almost burst my eardrums, but it was a welcome,

to hear that first heartbeat.

And I yelled again, I think everybody could have heard me

down the interstate, 'cause I was so happy that we

was getting some vital signs.

ROBERT STACK: Davidson had a heartbeat,

but his life was still hanging by a thread.

The ER physician was not optimistic.

My prognosis was that he would not come out of his coma.

And I expected him to remain in permanent coma

and ultimately suffer complications and ultimately

die.

ROBERT STACK: For nearly two months,

Robert Davidson was more dead than alive.

Then one day, he simply woke up and resumed his life.

When I came out of the coma, I looked around

and I couldn't figure out what I was doing in the hospital

because I had no memory of anything happening to me that

would put me in the hospital.

When it became apparent that he indeed woke up, and not

only woke up but was talking and walking, I was utterly amazed.

ROBERT STACK: Davidson's astounding recovery

has prompted speculation that the woman in black

was far more than a simple passerby.

Some believe her to be a divine spirit

that rose up from Indiana's fervid religious past.

Just down the road from where Davidson

was struck by lightning lies this quiet meadow.

It is a site of a 19th-century spiritual retreat

known as Acton Campground.

More than 100 years ago, this spot

rang out with fiery sermons, gospel

hymns, and the strange music of the faithful speaking

in tongues.

Most of Acton Campground burned down in 1905,

but a few artifacts can still be found at a local museum.

There, among the relics of a long vanished era,

is a vintage dress unmistakably reminiscent

of the Lady in Black.

I believe that this woman maybe

had been a pastor, a Reverend or a priestess

or whatever in her life prior.

And when she passed on, she was brought in to, I guess,

guardian angel form.

I know I witnessed a miracle.

There's just no other words to say it.

It was a miracle.

[thunder]

ROBERT STACK: Many will argue that Robert Davidson's life was

saved by quick treatment and a measure of good luck,

but others believe just as firmly

that the spirits of Acton Campground were awakened

and that one of them came to Davidson's rescue.

I've always kind of believed in angels, that everybody

has a guardian angel.

But Most people never get to see them or have them

really do anything for them.

I think my angel was doing her job that day.

ROBERT STACK: Coming up, controversy rocks

a wealthy enclave in Virginia after a beautiful young woman

dies under mysterious circumstances.

But first, Timothy Coombs bills himself as a servant of God

and a defender of freedom, but the police

say he's a dangerous criminal, perhaps capable of murder.

[theme music]

September 16, 1994, Anderson, Missouri, a lone hunter

cautiously makes his way through the woods,

stalking, waiting for just the right moment to strike.

But his prey is not what you would expect.

The target this night is a Missouri State

Highway patrolman, and the hunter is

not your everyday outdoorsman.

According to the police, his name is Timothy Coombs

and he calls himself a Freeman.

They exist on the farthest right fringe

of the political spectrum.

They believe they are the true Americans,

but others call them domestic terrorists.

Their rallying cries are Waco, Ruby Ridge, and now

Justice township in Montana.

The freemen are a loose-knit brotherhood,

bound by what some say is a pathological mistrust of

the United States government.

Mr. Thomas, in late November of last year,

did a couple from Kansas City call on you at your home

or place of business?

MR. THOMAS: Yes, they did.

What was the purpose of that visit?

ROBERT STACK: This is a recreation

of a so-called common law court.

Most Freemen no longer acknowledge the authority

of our legal system and see common law courts as a way

to circumvent the government.

--you, what was it the sheriff wanted to talk to you about?

He wanted to know if I had a tax ID number, how

long I'd been working out of my home,

and had I paid state sales tax.

State sales tax?

Yes, sir.

He wanted you to pay state sales tax on items

that you made in your own home?

That's right.

Mr. Thomas, may--

ROBERT JOOS: The common law courts

now that are being formed are by citizens of the counties.

And they are tired of being jerked around in the state

courts and not having their rights

protected within these courts.

The common law courts are predicated

upon Freemen using their right to determine issues of law.

ROBERT STACK: Robert Joos, a self-styled minister,

has asked to be filmed in silhouette

due to his religious convictions.

This is a photograph of Joos taken in 1995.

He is one of the area's leading advocates

of the Freeman movement.

The Freemen or superpatriots or patriots

or Christian patriots believe that the Constitution

is a divinely inspired document, along with the Bill

of Rights, that gives them preeminent rights

in American society.

That they do not have to do things like pay income taxes

or have driver's licenses and so forth, because that's

all part of the laws that were passed after the Constitution

and the Bill of Rights.

They see these as man-made laws that don't apply to them.

ROBERT STACK: In the case of Robert Joos,

that philosophy apparently led him

to issue fake legal documents.

In 1985, he was convicted of drafting a bogus court order

in the case of a parishioner who'd been arrested

for a minor traffic offense.

For nine years, Joos laid low on his farm

while he contested the conviction,

but in June of 1994, the new prosecuting attorney

for McDonald County, Missouri, ordered the highway

patrol to bring Joos in.

Mr. Joos has a history of resisting arrest.

And to avoid an armed confrontation on his property

where he is believed to have a large number of weapons,

the decision was made to arrest him on a county road

were he was by himself.

ROBERT STACK: Joos drove right into a trap.

Sergeant Steve Dorsey and Corporal Bob Harper

were waiting.

[sirens]

I knew Joos from several years back.

And he had never caused me any problems.

Robert, get out of the van, Robert.

ROBERT STACK: By some accounts, this day would be different.

I walked up the van, him screaming

and all, you think you're dealing with someone

that had a mental problem.

I mean, he's screaming, hollering,

and just throwing his hands up and saying, who are you?

Who are you?

Robert, if you don't calm down, I'll mace you.

Robert, I'm going to mace you.

[screaming]

I knew if they were going to kill me,

they were going to kill me.

And there wasn't anything I could do except pray to God.

And that's what I was doing.

[praying]

And I knew they had no rightful cause of arrest and they--

and as it turns out, they didn't have any.

That's why they had to make up the story about resisting

arrest and a concealed weapon after they

arrested me so they had some reason to hold me, see?

ROBERT STACK: Robert Joos was taken to McDonald County Jail,

where he remains to this day, awaiting

trial, unable to raise bail.

According to the authorities, his confinement

precipitated the disturbing events that followed.

Three months after Joos was captured, one of the arresting

officers, Corporal Bob Harper was home celebrating

his 33rd wedding anniversary.

[ominous music]

I heard this loud shot and I ran up the hallway

and Bob was laying next to the cabinet.

And he was trying to tell me that the can had exploded.

And I explained to him that he had been shot.

Call the sheriff.

--the sheriff, OK.

Hold on.

Hold-- hold on.

ROBERT STACK: It was only by a miracle

that Bob Harper survived.

The bullet pierced his ribcage and missed his heart

by just 1/16 of an inch.

[groaning]

The next day, investigators clustered

around a grove of trees 245 feet from Harper's kitchen window.

[murmuring]

It wasn't long before they found what they were looking for.

Looks like 71, 16 maybe.

Bob Harper was not known to have any enemies.

And because of his recent involvement

in the arrest of Robert Joos, we felt

that it was probably connected.

ROBERT STACK: A few days later, officers

were dispatched to the Joos farm to speak

with Robert Joos's girlfriend.

They were confronted by an armed stranger.

Man in the road, with a gun.

What do you boys want?

This is private land.

We're with the highway patrol.

What do you need?

We need to talk to Annie.

MILES PARKS: He demanded that we stay where we were

and he said that he would go get her.

We felt uncomfortable staying there,

so we retreated to our patrol cars.

And about 10 minutes later he returned

and started shouting at us.

And we subsequently had a-- about a 30-minute conversation

with him.

Right here with the citizens of the kingdom of Christ,

we got our elders--

ROBERT STACK: The man identified himself as James Wilson.

According to the police, he began

to spout wild religious rhetoric unlike anything they

had ever heard.

Well tell us, you say that the state elders are training

people to carry out violent acts for violations

against the church?

Well sure, we've got snipers right now being trained

by the state elders to help us.

You know it-- it's the law.

It says it in the Bible.

It's God's law, right here in Colossians 1:13,

you can read about it for yourself.

How many are in that violent faction?

And we didn't feel comfortable with what we had heard

from him, so the following morning,

calls were made to Arkansas.

And we received a large amount of information

about James Wilson.

Found at that time that his real name was Timothy Coombs.

ROBERT STACK: Timothy Coombs had served time in prison

on various weapons charges.

By the time police secured a search warrant for the Joos

farm, Coombs had vanished.

However, investigators did uncover an impressive arsenal.

Pistols, rifles, and more than 40 sticks of dynamite.

That same day, in Arkansas, Coombs's next-door neighbor

gave investigators a bullet that had

struck his horse's rear flank.

Can you show me the location of the shooter?

Sure, it's my neighbor, he's up this direction.

ROBERT STACK: The man suspected it

had been fired by Coombs, who often

took target practice nearby.

See the machine shed there and the tree to the right?

He's about midway in-between, back in that brush line--

ROBERT STACK: According to the authorities,

a thorough search of Coombs's property

turned up the incriminating evidence.

- Hey, Tom. - Yeah?

Think I got something.

ROBERT STACK: Shell casings that reportedly

matched the casing found outside of Bob Harper's kitchen window.

Police suspect the trail leads not just to Timothy Coombs,

but to Robert Joos.

We believe that there was collaboration between Joos

and Timothy Coombs.

We believe that the weapon used to shoot Bob Harper was

actually an SKS rifle that had been purchased by Robert

Joos about three weeks prior to his arrest

for resisting arrest.

He will now not talk about that weapon.

ROBERT STACK: Robert Joos maintains

that he had nothing to do with the attack on Bob Harper.

Yeah, they're trying to claim I was involved in a conspiracy

to shoot Harper.

I had nothing to do with it.

Didn't know anything about it till after it happened.

Still don't know that he's actually shot.

I've never seen any medical evidence,

never heard a doctor testify the man was shot.

Far as I know, he had another heart attack

and had to crack his chest, do emergency open-heart on him.

I mean, from what I've experienced with these cops

here, they'll lie about anything and everything

to try to frame somebody and-- and the people that

are helping them.

ROBERT STACK: To date, only Timothy Coombs has been charged

in the shooting of Bob Harper.

Coombs is now 37 years old.

Authorities believe he has gone underground

and is probably being harbored by members

of a right-wing militia group.

There are people associated with this movement who

are threats because they see themselves as warriors,

basically, against American society.

They see themselves as having a special status

that others are trying to, they believe, undercut.

And the problem with that is that when this is increasing

in small communities in particular,

it's a very, very, very scary thing for local officials

and others to have this counter-force

there that's usually very well armed

and is implicitly a threat.

While we were completing this story,

we were saddened to learn that Corporal Bob

Harper had died during surgery for a preexisting

heart condition.

His colleagues believe there could

be no more fitting tribute to his memory

than the capture of Timothy Coombs.

[theme music]

Next, witnesses say veteran rider Shelly Malone

was trampled by her own mount.

However, expert horsemen say, highly unlikely.

[theme music]

The Plains, Virginia, is thoroughbred country,

a small, wealthy community where both people

and horses have pedigrees.

It's not at all the kind of place you would expect to find

an unsolved mystery, much less a mystery fueled by one family's

suspicions of foul play.

Shelly Malone is 37 years old when she died.

On many levels, her case is one of the most emotionally-charged

we have ever profiled.

We have been unable to obtain interviews

with the local police or the people who were

with Shelly the day she died.

Consequently, the story is told almost entirely from the point

of view of Shelly's family.

Are they overreacting out of grief,

hypersensitive to every inconsistency?

Or is it possible their suspicions

add up to a sinister truth?

[sirens]

October 18, 1992, paramedics were

called to a field in a wooded area outside The Plains.

Shelly Malone, an accomplished horsewoman,

had been badly injured in a riding accident.

As the paramedics struggled to save Shelly, her boyfriend

George Carhart and two other friends,

Erica Stumvoll and Carter Wiley could only stand by helplessly

and watch.

According to Erica, the only witness to the accident,

Shelly's horse had stepped on her and kicked her repeatedly.

One blow was apparently powerful enough to rupture her heart.

However, Shelly's family has always found Erica's

account highly questionable.

I know that that accident is most

improbable if not impossible.

In an open field, for a horse she loved and loved her,

to step on her squarely on the chest

after he had thrown her off.

This is impossible.

ROBERT STACK: To Shelly's family,

it seemed particularly impossible

for such an experienced rider.

Shelly had been around horses since she was a young child.

Shelly was born loving horses.

When she was six or seven, she told me she was going to marry

a horse when she grew up.

So she never, ever lost her interest in horses.

ROBERT STACK: It was horses that brought Shelly

to The Plains area in 1988.

Located an hour and a half from Washington, DC,

The Plains is home to many of the country's

rich and powerful, including US Senator John Warner.

Though her own roots were modest,

Shelly gained entry to this elite society,

thanks largely to a wealthy older

benefactor named Cecil Altman.

Altman set Shelly up in business and reportedly gave her

an allowance of $5,000 a month.

Shelly lived in a small house out

in the country, a perfect place to stable her two horses.

In 1990, she started dating George Carhart

who lived in New York and reportedly

came down frequently to visit. - OK, here we go.

All right.

Here you go, here you go, move your chin, there you go.

ROBERT STACK: However, Shelly's mother

claims that after two years, Shelly was ready to move on.

The relationship was strained.

She had relayed to my husband and myself

that she was bringing this relationship to a close.

ROBERT STACK: On Friday, October 16, 1992, two days before

she died, Shelly allegedly had an impromptu romantic encounter

with a local attorney.

Shelly's family believes George Carhart

found out about the affair when he came to visit that weekend.

Carter and I are going to go chop some firewood.

Uh-huh.

And we'll have dinner when you guys get back.

OK, great.

ROBERT STACK: On Sunday afternoon,

Shelly had plans to go riding with Erica Stumvoll.

George Carhart and Carter Wiley, Erica's boyfriend,

stayed behind at the house.

Erica has issued only one official statement on the day's

events, a written document she prepared

and delivered to the police.

You're about to hear selected portions from that statement.

ERICA STUMVOLL (REENACTMENT VOICEOVER):

We alternately walked, trotted, and galloped

the horses through several fields and trails.

We were approximately 100 yards into a new field

we had just entered.

We were walking the horses side by side to cool them down.

Unexpectedly, both horses spooked or started.

I was thrown and fell off to the left of my horse.

I was not seriously injured.

I sighted Shelly about 30 feet away.

The horse stepped on her legs, face, and head,

kicking her head as he did so, in an apparent attempt

to get away.

As the horse moved away from her, I immediately ran to her.

Shelly? Shelly!

I checked her pulse and looked in her mouth to see

if there were any obstructions.

I noticed her left cheek was turning purplish-blue,

which I assumed was the result of the horse stepping

on her face.

I promise, I'll be back soon as I can, all right?

Fearful of a head injury as a result of seeing the horse

kick her in the head, I then concluded

that the best thing to do was try to seek medical help.

ROBERT STACK: Erica says she got lost trying to find help.

It would be an hour and a half before paramedics

reached Shelly.

It was George Carhart who later called

Shelly's mother in Florida.

When the phone rang, he said, Shelly's had an accident.

I expected him to say she slipped and broke

an arm or a leg or something.

And I said, what kind of an accident?

And he said, she's dead.

ROBERT STACK: Shelly's family claims they got

another shock at the morgue.

To them, Shelly looked like she had been involved in much

more than a riding accident.

One of the clerks there showed us a Polaroid

of my daughter's face.

It was so battered and so swollen,

her eyes were black and blue, that I didn't recognize her.

ROBERT STACK: According to Shelly's family,

subsequent events made them even more suspicious.

Despite the fact that the coroner's ruling

was accidental death.

Two days after Shelly's funeral, her family claims they had

an odd experience at her home.

George Carhart was one of those present.

There was a pickup truck backed up to the front porch

and there was some large pieces of my sister's

furniture on there.

And they were moving stuff out and loading bags

up with her clothes and her belongings.

ROBERT STACK: Shelly's mother claims that Carhart made

several insensitive comments.

Packing up some of Shelly's stuff.

Why?

I live here too, I just wanted to get rid of everything

that was pre-George, OK?

And I countered with, well I'm pre-George, and I

don't understand what you mean.

And he said, all of her clothes will go to charity.

And I said, well, we have made no arrangements

to do anything of the kind.

And as these black garbage bags were

going down the stairs with her belongings in them, I was in--

pulling them back up the stairs.

And we were like, having a tug-of-war with these bags.

Hey, here's one.

ROBERT STACK: The next day, George Carhart

took Shelly's family to the local dump

to retrieve the clothes she was wearing when she was killed.

They never found the clothes, but they

say that they did discover more than two

dozen jewelry boxes from Tiffany and Cartier, all of them empty.

When we questioned George about where the contents were,

he told us that she was hocking her jewelry.

ROBERT STACK: That explanation struck Shelly's family

as dubious at best.

But some find it credible, particularly

in light of questions relating to Shelly's past, including

a drug conviction in 1979 and alleged ties

to a savings-and-loan scandal in the 1980s.

Shelly's past however, does not explain

the matter of her truck.

When the family brought the truck back to Florida,

they discovered what they believed to be bloodstains.

A local detective was asked to test them.

I did a field test to tell whether or not

it was human blood and the field test was positive.

From the angle where the blood was on the passenger seat,

it appears that it came from a head wound.

ROBERT STACK: Shelly's family took

the truck back to The Plains and turned

it over to the authorities.

Some routine blood tests were performed.

However, the Fauquier County Sheriff's Office

claimed they didn't have the budget to do DNA comparisons.

Shelly's family has taken out newspaper ads, written letters,

and made numerous phone calls to local and state officials,

all for one purpose.

They want a full-fledged investigation.

An investigation they believe will prove Shelly was murdered.

I can only think that an argument came

about between Shelly and George or Shelly and Carter Wiley,

I don't know which of the two.

I think it wasn't a planned thing, but I think one of them

struck her.

And killed her or felt that they had killed her

or felt that they had maimed her in a--

in a very serious way.

And I think the rest of the scenario that we've been told

is simply that, a scenario.

Shelly!

ROBERT STACK: John Strassburger, a horse expert and editor

of "The Chronicle of the Horse," feels

it is highly unlikely Shelly's horse would have behaved

as Erica Stumvoll described.

The element of the story that-- that raises questions,

in my mind, are a horse stepping on its rider in an open field.

It's hard to imagine a horse intentionally

or accidentally stepping on someone in that situation.

Not impossible, but very hard to imagine.

I've talked to medical men who say a man with a big fist

could strike a girl weighing 104 pounds

and just with the force of his hand, sever that ventricle.

So that once that had happened and she

was unconscious or dead, what could they do?

So you take the shoe off of the horse,

ram it onto a four-by-four.

And then with all the force you have, plant

a hoof print over the heart.

ROBERT STACK: What happened to Shelly Malone?

The sheriff's department in Fauquier County, Virginia,

issued the following statement in response to our story.

Quote, Ms Malone's death has been investigated

and reviewed by several agencies to include

the Virginia State Police.

All conclude the death is accidental, end quote.

In addition, the Office of the Chief Medical

Examiner in Washington, DC, also ruled

that the death was accidental.

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