Original subtitles

ROBERT STACK: Tonight, on the season premiere of "Unsolved

Mysteries," we travel to San Francisco

a stunning special report.

A generation ago, the Zodiac killer

terrorized northern California, striking at random,

taunting the police, taking at least five lives.

But when the killing abruptly stopped,

the memories faded, until this.

The dramatic arrest of Theodore Kaczynski-- the

accused Unabomber-- changed everything.

Two investigators soon challenged the authorities

with a remarkable theory.

They believe the Unabomber and the Zodiac are the same man--

Theodore Kaczynski.

It may seem improbable, but the similarities are chilling.

And even skeptics admit the evidence is worth debating.

Join me for this compelling investigation, as well

as these intriguing mysteries.

For 14-year-old Trish Zemba, a fall from her horse

marked the onset of a rare, often incurable nerve disease.

The grim prognosis left her family with little

to do but pray for a miracle.

A heartless murder in Georgia leads to a dramatic shootout

with police.

Now a killer is on the run.

And from the current case file, two

young coeds, two different universities,

two baffling disappearances.

Stay with us.

Perhaps you may be able to help solve a mystery.

[music playing]

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area,

the paths of two serial killers once crossed and recrossed,

seemingly intertwined.

Yet the two haunted different decades

and had markedly different tastes in murder.

An unmatched pair?

Or merely different faces of the same madman?

The Unabomber-- psychopathic general in a one-man war

against society.

His targets-- anyone even loosely

connected to technology--

university students, airline officials, computer salesmen.

[explosion]

A decade earlier, the Zodiac.

He was obsessive and particular.

Young couples, moonlit nights, secluded roads.

Zodiac had five known victims, though he claimed nearly 40.

He was never arrested, never even identified.

The Unabomber burst onto the scene in 1978.

During an 18-year cross-country reign of terror,

he killed three and injured 23.

He taunted police with letters, all mailed from

in and around the Bay Area.

Frustrated officials said it was like chasing a ghost.

The Unabomber was seen but once, a sighting that resulted

in this notorious portrait.

Then, April 1996, a suspect unmasked.

FBI agents named Theodore Kaczynski,

a 55-year-old ex-mathematics professor,

as the elusive killer.

The fingerprints were hardly dry on Kaczynski's booking sheet

when the case was spun in an entirely new

direction by these two men--

Mike Rusconi and Doug Oswell.

Working independently at opposite ends of the country,

and joining forces once their story hit the papers,

Rusconi and Oswell had each come up

with the same stunning theory.

DOUG OSWELL: I've concluded that there's a very good likelihood

that the Unabomber suspect, Ted Kaczynski,

and Zodiac are one in the same.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Was the resemblance

more than coincidence?

Journalists wrote it off as unlikely.

To detectives, it was doubtful.

But nobody said it was impossible.

At the age of 26, Theodore John Kaczynski

was a rising star in the world of higher mathematics, one

of the youngest instructors ever hired by the University

of California Berkeley.

Kaczynski began teaching there in September of 1967.

The Zodiac crawled out of nowhere a little over a year

later.

It was a full moon, December 20, 1968.

The Zodiac's first victims were two

teenagers parked on a lover's lane near the Bay

Area town of Vallejo.

[inaudible]

Are you gonna talk to him?

[inaudible]

[gunshot]

[scream]

[inaudible]

[gunshot]

[scream]

[gunshots]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Both victims died at the scene.

To researchers Mike Rusconi and Doug Oswell,

Kaczynski's actions shortly after the murders

were the first hint that he could be the Zodiac Killer.

One month later on January 20, 1969,

Kaczynski tendered his resignation from Berkeley

without any apparent motive.

And this astounded the people who worked with him.

It was just an inexplicable thing to do.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Oswell and Rusconi

find an even stronger link to Kaczynski

in the Zodiac's next murder, some seven months later.

Once again, it was a full moon.

Once again, Zodiac targeted two lovers

parked on a secluded road near Vallejo.

[screams]

[gunshots]

This time the Zodiac left an eyewitness, one

of the intended victims, Mike Mageau, survived the shooting

and watched the killer drive away.

DOUG OSWELL: Mike Mageau claimed that the man who shot

him drove a light tan Chevy.

Ted Kaczynski's brother, in a "Washington Post" interview,

claimed that Ted owned a 1967 Chevy Malibu, tan in color,

at the time of the killings.

It's an interesting comparison.

I mean, certainly Ted Kaczynski, the suspect,

was at Berkeley roughly at the same time

that the Zodiac killings occurred.

We know both enjoyed taunting the police.

However, there's many more differences than similarities.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): After the murders,

Zodiac bombarded local newspapers with letters.

As the Unabomber would a decade later,

Zodiac loaded the envelopes with far more postage

than necessary.

He teased that his identity would

be revealed if authorities could only decipher

a three-part coded message.

Each section of the cryptogram consisted

of letters and astrological symbols arranged according

to an unknown formula.

Robert Graysmith of the "San Francisco Chronicle"

saw the cryptograms firsthand.

The genius of Zodiac's cryptograms-- first of all,

he laid them out like works of art, very perfectly arranged.

He would use 16 different symbols for the letter E,

for instance.

And he would not repeat them.

He'd go completely through the 16 before he'd begin,

which made them very, very difficult. He kept them short--

360 symbols in the longest one he had.

That made it difficult to break.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): To Oswell and Rusconi,

the cryptograms forge yet another link between the Zodiac

and Ted Kaczynski.

Cryptograms are the toys of mathematicians.

Kaczynski was a highly regarded mathematician.

He wasn't just a garden variety mathematician.

He was touted as one of the top mathematicians in the country.

Ted Kaczynski was interested in very abstract mathematics.

There's not a lot of evidence that he

was interested in astrology, or the Radeons,

or local geography, or the full moon.

Ted Kaczynski is a man of numbers,

but not the kind of numbers that Zodiac was interested in.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): When the Zodiac's message

was finally deciphered, it proved to be a vile ode

to the joys of murder.

For the researchers, there was one more

connection to Ted Kaczynski.

The message was solved all except for the last 18

characters.

Now coincidentally enough, there happens

to be 18 letters in the name Theodore J. Kaczynski.

So this possibly could be his signature

at the end of the letter.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): It was in these letters

that Zodiac introduced his now infamous symbol.

Within a few weeks, it would be seen again.

Did you pack any more stuff in the basket?

Yeah.

We've got apples, bananas--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): September 29,

1969, just north of Berkeley.

The Zodiac stalked another couple.

Don't worry about it, all right?

[inaudible]

Don't move.

Don't make any noise, OK?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The intruder

wore an executioner's hood.

Emblazoned on his robe, the sign of the Zodiac.

- Tie her up. - What?

Yeah. Tie her up.

Here, take my car keys, man.

I don't--

Once again, it was a young man who would survive.

I don't want your cash.

I'm an escaped convict from Deer Lodge, Montana.

And I don't have much time.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Deer Lodge, Montana.

The Zodiac's mention of such an obscure town

defied explanation, until the capture

of Ted Kaczynski at his cabin, just an hour's drive

from Deer Lodge, Montana.

Kaczynski had owned the cabin for 25 years.

After his arrest, FBI agents catalogued

Kaczynski's every possession, buttons to bomb parts.

I would certainly have expected

to have found in the investigation at suspect

Ted Kaczynski's cabin something there that belonged to Zodiac.

Now suspect Ted Kaczynski kept everything--

the hood, the sunglasses, bomb-making paraphernalia.

He had a fetish for keeping these what we call "souvenirs."

Why wasn't there one shred of evidence in that cabin

linking him to the Zodiac?

You guys, come here.

Come here.

Look at this.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): As for the Zodiac

himself, teenage party-goers in San Francisco

were the next to catch a glimpse of the furtive killer.

It was October 11, 1969, roughly two

weeks after his last assault. It was

a Zodiac's fifth known murder--

an unarmed cab driver.

However, a police dispatcher garbled

the eyewitness description.

Hey, buddy!

See anything suspicious around here in the last few minutes?

As a result, police did not arrest

the man they encountered less than a block

from the murder scene.

You just missed him.

He was going east on Washington.

Thanks a lot.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The man walked off into the night.

Soon after, he sent a letter to a local newspaper.

Inside was a bloodstained slice of the cab driver's shirt

and a mocking letter describing the encounter with police.

It was signed, The Zodiac.

Authorities released this sketch of the suspect.

Researchers Oswell and Rusconi maintain

that without glasses, the face is familiar--

a young Ted Kaczynski.

They both had a strong lower jaw with a cleft--

small cleft in the chin.

Both had a reddish tint to their hair.

And they both were about 5' 9".

Also, the age given for the Zodiac killer

was between 25 years of age and 30 years of age.

Theodore Kaczynski at that time was around 29 years old.

After the cab driver murders, Zodiac announced a new MO.

Instead of guns and knives, he would now kill with bombs.

He threatened to target a school bus filled with children,

and enclosed diagrams of complex triggering devices.

Despite his threats, Zodiac did not bomb a single target.

Indeed, he was never heard from again after his letter

of April, 1978.

But one month later, the Unabomber attacks are underway.

Had the Zodiac reinvented himself

as an anti-technology warrior?

I think it would be quite unusual to change your MO like

that, to go from different kinds of weapons

to suddenly bomb-making.

I think there are a lot of interesting connections.

But I do not believe they're the same.

Zodiac is a confrontational killer, hands-on.

He enjoys looking at his victims.

He enjoys stabbing, shooting.

So there's a marked difference there.

Serial bombers like suspect Ted Kaczynski

tend to be nerdy, cerebral, they enjoy killing from afar.

DOUG OSWELL: It's been thought that Kaczynski was

a mathematical nerd growing up, that he

spent all his time with his nose in a book, in a classroom.

That's not true.

He spent a great deal of time in the woods

learning survival skills with his brother and his father.

That's been brought out by the FBI

and by interviews with his brother since.

So we know that Kaczynski was familiar with weapons.

He knew how to use them, and he was comfortable with them.

I don't believe a confrontational serial killer

such as Zodiac later on would become a serial bomber.

When he mellowed out, when he became better educated,

settling back, now I'm going to play a new game

with law enforcement.

We rarely see that.

Ted Kaczynski was 36 when the first Unabomber

explosion occurred.

The FBI was a little puzzled as to why somebody that age

would want to begin on a career of serial murder.

Usually it's much younger people who do.

Perhaps they didn't dream that he had had an earlier, more

violent period of murder, and had mellowed out

over the years, as serial killers are said

to do if they're not caught.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Rusconi and Oswell's theory

prompted police to review their Zodiac case files,

sifting for evidence against Theodore Kaczynski.

Mr. Ted Kaczynski is not a viable suspect

at this point as the Zodiac.

We have not made any conclusion as to who the Zodiac was or is.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Off the record,

detectives specify one suspect among the more than 2,000

questioned in the case that they believe was the Zodiac.

However, there was never enough evidence

to make their suspicions stand up in court.

Zodiac has been silent now for almost 20 years.

Is he still with us?

Perhaps facts will emerge at the trial of Theodore Kaczynski,

expose him as a Zodiac killer.

Or perhaps the truth about the Zodiac

will remain forever just out of reach.

[music playing]

Next, two young coeds from opposite sides of the country

mysteriously vanish.

And later, do you believe in miracles?

If you don't, Trish Zemba's recovery

from a painful nerve disease might just convince you.

[music playing]

Tim Harrow's a veteran journalist

with a long list of credits.

But one particular story had haunted him for years--

his own, as told to him by his adoptive mother, Helen Harrell.

[baby crying]

In 1946, Helen was working as a nurse at a hospital

in St. Louis, Missouri.

She told Tim that she had found him abandoned in a trash can.

She took him home and raised him as her own.

Tim was still a boy when Helen told him that story.

Because of it, Tim harbored a lifelong grudge

against his birth mother, a woman he thought

had thrown him away.

By 1976, Tim was on staff of the "Los

Angeles Herald Examiner" when he got a call out of the blue.

City desk. -

WOMAN (ON PHONE): May I speak to Tim Harrell?

Speaking. Who's calling?

WOMAN (ON PHONE): This is your mother.

Excuse me?

What are you talking about?

My mother is at home.

WOMAN (ON PHONE): This is your mother.

Your real mother.

All of a sudden, all the hatred had just exploded.

I said, how could you?

How could you throw me away like I was a piece of garbage?

How could you do that?

And she said, well, you don't understand.

I said, I don't want to understand.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): After Helen died,

Tim began to reconsider.

In 1990, on a trip back to St. Louis with his second wife,

Tim tried to locate his birth mother

through adoption records.

Thanks to a helpful lawyer, Tim learned that everything Helen

had told him had been a lie.

His birth mother was Helen's own niece.

And she had given Tim up because he needed medical care,

care that Helen could provide.

TIM HARRELL: It went through me like a jolt of electricity.

The only thought in my mind was, I

really wanted to find her now.

And I really wanted to say, look.

I didn't know.

And I am so sorry.

I am so sorry for what I said to you and how I acted to you.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Tim Harrell

called on all his skills as a reporter

to track his birth mother.

But it was not until the night of our broadcast

that he got the help he needed.

Here's Keely Shaye Smith with the tales

of a reunion long overdue.

Bob, one of the people watching our broadcast

that night was a private investigator

from Scottsdale, Arizona.

Alice Simon volunteered her expertise

and resources for Tim's search.

Within one week, she telephoned him with extraordinary news.

She called, and she said, I just talked to your mother.

And you have a wonderful family, and three sisters,

and a brother, and scads of cousins and nephews

and nieces and everything.

And I just broke down and cried.

KEELY SHAYE SMITH: Tim's birth mother, Muriel Gartner,

lives in Campbell, California.

This past June, Muriel gathered her entire family

to welcome Tim and his son, Adam, home at last.

[interposing voices]

Hi, Tim.

I'm about to cry.

[inaudible]

[inaudible]

MURIEL GARTNER: It feels right.

It feels that finally everything has come full circle.

This is your grandson.

MURIEL GARTNER: Hi.

Hi, Grandma.

Oh, [inaudible].

Oh.

There's always been the hole--

an empty hole.

Though I've have a lot of other kids

and a wonderful life, great kids,

but it feels like this hole's beginning to fill in now.

This is your brother, Joe.

Joe, how are you?

[inaudible]

Hey, how's it going?

Hi.

[inaudible]

It's just the most amazing feeling in the world

to know that I've got this family,

and that I'm going to be a part of this family,

and that they're going to be a part of my life.

I mean, I just can't tell you what the feeling is like.

[inaudible]

I was bald then too?

He's just one of us.

And it felt that way from the very beginning

when he called me.

He said, hello, Mom.

And I said, hello, son.

And that was it.

When we went to hang up, he said, can I

call you again tomorrow, Mom?

I've been wanting to call my mom for a long time.

And I cried and he cried.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK: At this time every year,

a familiar ritual plays out all across America.

Kids head off to college.

The last thing any parent imagines

is that their child will go to school

and vanish without a trace.

But recently, the unimaginable was exactly what

happened to 18-year-old April Gregory

and 19-year-old Kristin Smart.

April and Kristin never met.

Indeed, they were enrolled at different universities

on opposite sides of the country.

Yet within the same five-hour period,

they were both suddenly gone.

No warning.

No explanation.

April Gregory took her schoolwork very seriously.

She wrapped up freshman year at Syracuse University in New York

and turned right around and enrolled in summer session.

At 11:45 on May 24, 1996, April's brother, Lamar,

dropped her off at her dorm, Sadler Hall.

I helped April with her bags to the front of dormitory.

And that was the last I saw her.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The mystery begins.

April walks up these steps, enters these doors

under the watchful eyes of dorm officials, ascends

to her seventh floor room.

These are the meager facts.

Later, police examine April's room.

She is not completely unpacked.

Was she interrupted?

In the closet, a clue.

April is employed at a local restaurant.

And her work uniform is missing.

This is a path April takes to her job.

Did she even get this far?

All we know is that April never arrived at work.

But rarely did she miss work.

Very rarely.

I just knew something bad had happened to my baby.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Whatever happened happened

between midnight and 5:00 AM.

During that same time, 3,000 miles away, another young woman

mysteriously disappeared.

Kristin Smart, 19 years old, a freshmen

at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, California.

About the time April Gregory should have been heading

to work in New York, Kristin was walking

along this road in California.

She was returning to her dorm after a party.

She was not alone.

Paul Flores, 19 years old, also a freshman at Cal Poly.

He had offered to walk Kristin back to campus after the party.

An eyewitness saw Paul and Kristin at this corner

roughly 200 yards from their dormitories.

Paul told police that Kristin headed to her dorm.

And he continued across the street alone to his.

Kristin phoned home every Sunday religiously.

And when that Sunday passed, and she hadn't phoned,

I knew something was wrong.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Authorities agreed.

100 sheriff's deputies and 300 volunteers

searched the campus for any trace of Kristin Smart.

Results-- negative.

Search dogs specially trained to recognize

the odor of a dead human body were

taken through campus dorms.

Experts say the only possible false positive

is a scent of menstrual blood.

Those dogs hit on this room, room 128 at the Cal Poly

campus, and specifically came into this room

and hit on this mattress and the corner of this mattress.

This room was occupied by, coincidentally,

the male subject that was last seen

with Kristin Smart on the day she became a missing person.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The male subject was Paul Flores.

Authorities began to question Flores' statement that he

and Kristin had gone their separate ways

once they arrived at the dorms.

Headed toward the dorms.

When they got to approximately here,

he says he continued into his dorm, which is up the hill.

And she left and went up between the two dorms to her dorm.

However, we believe that based on what we've learned

from the search dogs, she actually continued

into his dorm with him.

At this time, no criminal charges

have been filed in the case.

Kristin Smart is still considered a missing person.

We never give up hope that Kristin will be found.

But as any parent can imagine, the longer that it goes on,

the dimmer the light.

And you can only hope.

In Syracuse, New York, similar emotions gripped

the family of April Gregory.

There's a neighbor girl--

Mikeisha's friend-- she resemble April a lot.

And I'd be in the kitchen sometimes,

and she'd walk through the house,

and my heart just fluttered cause

I'd be hoping it's my April.

And I'd be so disappointed when it's not.

Everything brings April to my mind.

Sometime now I don't cry as much as I used to.

But the pain is still there.

I really, really miss our daughter.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Coming up,

authorities need your help to track down a convicted killer.

But first, in a remarkable story of faith and resilience,

a young girl overcomes a painful nerve disorder.

[music playing]

It was a normal Christmas Eve, Western style.

In Phoenix, Arizona the sky was blue, temperature a balmy 75.

14-year-old Trish Zemba saddled up her ex-racehorse Sly,

and headed out for a ride.

[horse neighing]

When I fell, it hurt very much.

But I was in shock.

I had so much adrenaline rushing through my system

that what had just happened did not

register with me at the moment.

I helped her into the house.

She was limping a little bit.

And I took her in and took everything

off to look for broken bones.

And she was scraped on the one side, somewhat scraped,

and it was red like road rash, and some

bruising where you could tell there was going to be bruising.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The injuries appeared superficial.

Trish improved overnight.

And the incident had little impact on the family's

Christmas day plans.

I got up, got myself dressed, came out, and basically spent

all Christmas day on the couch.

I was sore.

I still hobbled around some.

But I was able to get around.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The accident

seemed like a thing of the past, until Trish

was bathing some 10 days later.

TRISH ZEMBA: I remember I went to get up.

And when I was standing up, I started feeling dizzy.

I heard a thump.

And I called out to her.

And she didn't answer me.

[knock on door]

Trish?

Trish!

Trisha!

Honey, [inaudible].

Trish!

Joel!

I was panicked when I saw Trisha passed out.

I didn't know what had happened.

I couldn't get a response out of her at first.

I just didn't know what was going on.

From there on, her condition seemed to get worse.

Pain increased, her mobility started to be less.

She had more trouble getting around and sitting.

So that's when we started taking her to a round of doctors.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The bathtub fall

had triggered an avalanche of pain doctors

could neither diagnose nor relieve.

TRISH ZEMBA: Ow! Ouch!

Ow!

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): After five weeks of unrelenting

agony, Trish was hospitalized.

Can you tell me where it hurts?

No.

Does it hurt in your back?

Does it hurt in your legs?

JOEL ZEMBA: She was in a lot of pain,

so they started administering morphine.

And they just kept giving it to her

and giving it to her in large doses.

And it wouldn't affect the pain.

Does not help the pain at all.

And finally they had given her so much they couldn't give her

any more without killing her.

It was horrible seeing Trisha in this pain

and not being able to do anything for her.

And it was very, very scary.

And so we would pray.

Dear Jesus, we would just ask, Father,

that you would reach down and lay

your hands on Trisha, Father.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Trish was wracked

by pain every waking hour.

Her left leg ultimately turned purple and then back to normal,

grew hot and feverish, then icy cold.

The diagnosis could hardly have been more frightening.

Trish had a rare, often incurable

nerve disease called reflex sympathetic dystrophy, or RSD.

Dear Heavenly Father, we know that you--

MARILYN WELLS, DO: This was by far the worst I had ever seen.

And I was feeling pretty hopeless

about her chances of getting any kind of a good recovery here.

And I remember her mother being so strong in their faith,

saying, we're going to see a miracle here

before this is over.

And I kept thinking, no, I don't think so.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): This videotape

of Trish was made at the hospital

where she was treated for RSD.

Doctors believe the disease is produced by malfunctioning

nerve circuits.

The nerves endlessly amplify and reamplify

pain sensations, making even a minor injury

unremitting torture.

She was literally writhing in pain, unable to have anybody

touch or move her leg, her hip.

If you even breathed on it or put a blanket over the skin,

she would just jump.

We continually gave her medication to try

and basically numb her legs.

The idea being that if we break the cycle, kill the pain,

stop the cycle of pain from renegotiating itself,

that the condition itself would disappear.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Doctors injected

the most potent painkilling drugs available directly

into Trisha's spinal column.

But Trish hardly noticed.

The RSD continued to worsen.

And Trisha's muscles began to weaken from disuse.

JOEL ZEMBA: They started telling us that they were going to have

to institutionalize her, that most patients with RSD this bad

either die from it, or they commit suicide,

or they literally go crazy because they cannot

live with this type of pain.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Even in the face

of such bleak predictions, Trisha's parents

say they never lost faith.

Countless times, each and every day, they'd turn to prayer.

Grant her some peace, take away this pain

so she can rest, Father.

We would pray.

And again, that sense that things would be

all right would come over us.

And though Trisha would still be moaning,

and our circumstances didn't change,

it was like things were all right.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Trisha's doctors

were less optimistic.

They propose an operation usually reserved

for terminal cancer patients--

implanting a morphine pump into Trisha's body.

If it sufficiently dulled her pain,

they could at least attempt physical therapy

to slow the deterioration of Trisha's leg muscles.

MARILYN WELLS, DO: That was our next step.

That was really all we had left to offer her.

And quite frankly, what I foresaw

was a long, painful route in rehab,

and with a very uncertain outcome as to whether this

would ever resolve.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Surgery loomed.

Then early on the morning of March 11, 1994,

the family's prayers were answered.

Suddenly and dramatically.

I felt the pain in my body move down.

As it was moving down my ribs, I remember

feeling what my ribs felt like.

And I felt it keep on moving down and moving down.

And then finally I felt it move all the way down my leg.

And I felt it exit through my toes.

I felt it leave my body.

And I heard very, very quietly, almost to the point where

I couldn't hear it, get up.

And I remember thinking, I can't get up.

I'm physically unable to get up.

And I heard again, clearer, and a much more

authoritative-- get up.

And I remember grabbing on to the side of the bed rail

and beginning to sit up.

And I was able to sit up like I would have in the past.

I sat up, and I was sitting on the edge of the bed.

And the second I set my feet on the ground,

I didn't have any pain anywhere in my whole body.

I stood up.

And I remember I was standing there, like, well, what now?

And I started walking.

It was unbelievable to walk into her hospital room

and see her standing there.

She hadn't stood 2 and 1/2 months on her own.

Tremendous relief and gratitude to God.

He never let us down.

He didn't ever let us down.

As a medical physician, I have to go by the medical data.

And the medical data has no explanation for this.

On a purely personal basis, and based

on my own religious beliefs, I feel that, yes, she

did have a miraculous healing.

We work in the world of science,

but that does not mean it necessarily

has to be mutually exclusive of the realm, if you will,

of the spirit or of religion.

And I think we work together to create a successful end

when the ends are successful.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): That same morning, Trish

was released from the hospital.

Trisha's parents made this video tape

soon after she arrived home.

I know it was a miracle.

The pain just left my body in one fell swoop.

I felt like God was standing there, right there,

just taking this pain from me and saying,

you know, I love you so much, I just want to set you free.

Spontaneous remission is virtually without precedent

in acute cases of RSD.

Medical science still cannot explain Trish

Zemba's stunning turnaround.

However, to Trish and her family,

there's no mystery at all--

just further evidence of the infinite power of faith.

When we return, an abduction and murder

leads to a wild shootout with the police.

[music playing]

For most of us, 22 years seems like a long time.

But when it comes to tracking down

a ruthless killer who has escaped punishment,

time doesn't matter.

22 years ago might just as well be yesterday.

MAN: Take a right at the next light.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): March 6, 1974.

Suwanee, Georgia.

30 miles Northeast of Atlanta.

I just got my check cashed.

I got $200 in my wallet.

Just reach in the back.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): James Rouse, Jr., a teacher, husband,

and father of two young children, abducted

at gunpoint by two fugitives--

William Jordan and Anthony Prevatte.

Jordan and Prevatte were wanted in North Carolina

for a series of burglaries.

Make another right up here.

Look, guys.

You've got my keys.

Turn around that way!

You've got my money.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The ride ended

at the edge of a remote forest.

The kidnappers forced Rouse to go barefoot

and marched him into the woods.

Don't even know who you are.

Keep walking and you're gonna find out.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): When they

reached the shore of a deserted lake, they stopped.

[gunshot]

James Rouse died instantly, shot at point blank range

with a sawed-off shotgun.

The next day, Waynesborough, North Carolina.

240 miles from Suwanee.

That's it over there.

421.

Police got an anonymous tip that Jordan

and Prevatte were back in town, hiding at the home of a friend.

You recognize that car?

Nah, it doesn't look familiar to me.

We knew who we were looking for.

We were looking for two guys, last name

of Prevatte and Jordan.

They had a reputation of being bad guys,

predominantly in the property theft, housebreaking,

and those type of things.

We didn't really suspect that they were involved in anything

serious other than that.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The officers

approached the house, fully expecting to make an arrest.

But Jordan and Prevatte were one step ahead.

Sheriff's office, 107 in pursuit of suspects

traveling east on Highway 117.

[police sirens]

[gunshot]

Suspects are firing upon us.

Requesting backup.

[gunshot]

Everything was happening so fast.

But it seemed extreme that these guys were using this much

excessive force to get away from us

just because we wanted to talk to them

about some house break-ins.

Get a shot!

Get a shot at him!

[police siren]

[gunshot]

Suspect has thrown out what looks like to be a weapon

just past Olivette Church.

I'm gonna pull alongside of him.

[screeching tires]

[sounds of breaking glass]

Freeze!

Get your hands up!

Let's go!

Get 'em up!

Get 'em up!

[inaudible] get out of the car!

Get out of the car!

Let me see your hands. Come on.

Come on. Give me your hands.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): 24-year-old Anthony Prevatte

and 31-year-old William Jordan were booked on charges

of breaking and entering, larceny, and assaulting

officers with a firearm.

Police in North Carolina still didn't know

that the two men were killers.

I got radio [inaudible].

I'll get it.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): 48 hours

later, the body of James Rouse, Jr. was discovered in Jordan.

It was his stolen car that Jordan and Prevatte

had crashed in Waynesborough.

It didn't take long to piece together the rest.

A shotgun shell found at the murder scene further

damned Jordan and Prevatte.

Ballistics tests revealed Rouse had been killed with a blast

from the shotgun dumped during the chase.

Finally, and most chilling of all, police in North Carolina

found arrogant trophies of murder inside the wrecked car--

photographs of Jordan and Prevatte

leaning against Rouse's car, and posing proudly with the shotgun

that killed him.

SHERIFF TOMMY ALLEN, JR: They were both eventually

extradited back to Georgia.

They were both tried, both found guilty of first degree

murder, both given death--

given the death sentence.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): However,

neither Jordan nor Prevatte stayed long on death row.

On review by the Georgia Supreme Court,

they felt there were prejudicial comments made by the district

attorney in his closing argument that lifted the burden

of the decision from the jury.

And it was reversed, and their sentences commuted to life.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In 1991, Prevatte

was paroled, but was returned to prison after he

murdered his girlfriend.

Prevatte is currently on death row in North Carolina.

The story of William Jordan, however, has yet to end.

Jordan, you and Greene take the truck

on back to the house, gas it up, make yourself useful.

Yes, sir.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): After 10 years of good behavior,

Jordan had been assigned to a minimum security

work farm in Odom, Georgia.

But his image as a model prisoner proved false.

William Jordan just kept driving.

A month later, police caught the inmate who escaped with him,

but Jordan has eluded capture ever since.

Jordan was possibly seen in 1992 in Virginia.

He possibly works in Virginia, West Virginia,

as a heavy equipment operator.

He also possibly has a family in West Virginia.

He uses the name William Bill Jordan

or William Junior Jordan.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): It's been more than 20 years

since Jordan and Prevatte heartlessly

murdered James Rouse, Jr. But the Rouse

family still feels the pain.

[gunshot]

The hardest part has been not only the way

it happened, but certainly the fact

that he has not been with us and been

able to enjoy his own family.

We have lived through years of anger

for what Jordan did to my brother-in-law, Jim,

and what it has done to the children

as well as to his wife.

ROBERT STACK: This is how William Jordan looked in 1974,

the year he murdered James Rouse.

This photograph, the last known taken of Jordan,

shows how he looked in 1979.

Computer aging shows how he might

look today at the age of 54.

William Jordan is 6 feet, 2 inches tall,

has brown graying hair, and probably wears glasses.

Jordan has several distinctive tattoos--

a skeleton on his right forearm, a spider

on his right upper arm, a cross with the name

Sybil on his left forearm, and the name

Louise on his left leg.

Join me next time for another intriguing addition

of "Unsolved Mysteries."

[music playing]