Original subtitles

[music playing]

ANNOUNCER: Tonight on Unsolved Mysteries.

ROBERT STACK: A young man is mesmerized by a beautiful girl

and begins a torrid relationship.

Within a month, his body is found burning in a vacant lot.

Did a brief love affair culminate in murder?

According to police, this cunning con artist coolly

walked out of an Alabama bank with a small fortune

and never looked back.

But this was no ordinary bank heist.

It was a crime that took meticulous planning

and daring execution.

Today he's still on the lam, and he may be in your community.

Half a million dollars vanishes from eight automated

teller machines in Indiana.

So does the courier responsible for tending them.

Was she a thief?

Or the victim of a shadowy figure

who forced her to do his bidding?

A woman sets out to find the family she

hasn't seen in over 45 years.

That search triggers shocking memories

of her violent and secret past.

Join me for these intriguing cases and more,

on Unsolved Mysteries.

[music playing]

A fire blazes in a vacant lot outside of Chicago.

Smoldering deep in the flames is a scorched body

wrapped in a partially burned tar and bed sheet.

The victim, a 22-year-old man with nothing in his background

to suggest such a violent end.

Oscar Velazquez.

At the county morgue, Oscar's parents

are faced with the most difficult task of their life,

identifying the remains of their eldest son.

MARIA RIOS: [speaking spanish]

INTERPRETER: I never thought we would find him there.

He was a good kid, he never got into trouble.

He didn't drink.

He didn't smoke.

He was different from the other kids in the neighborhood.

ROBERT STACK: Growing up, Oscar Velazquez

had managed to avoid the gangs that infested his neighborhood.

He was well-respected in the community,

and had a steady job as a truck driver.

Oscar had also recently begun a new relationship

with an attractive 18-year-old brunette.

Her name, Regina DeFrancisco.

INTERPRETER: Mrs. DeFrancisco, would you have a seat please?

And your daughter.

ROBERT STACK: Investigators soon discover

a troubling coincidence.

Two days after Oscar's body was found,

Regina's mother and 16-year-old sister

Margaret file a missing persons report for Regina DeFrancisco.

She's been gone for two days.

Has she ever taken off before?

No.

So this is the first time?

ROBERT STACK: Four days after the discovery of Oscar's body,

the same detectives who were investigating his murder

visited the house of the missing Regina DeFrancisco.

While searching her home for any clues related to the teenager's

disappearance, investigators made

a startling discovery that linked Regina to the murder

of Oscar Velazquez.

Lo and behold, to our surprise there was the matching

pillow cases to the sheet that was used

to wrap Oscar's body up in.

And that's when our focus of our investigation

switched to Regina herself.

As police sought to solve the murder of Oscar Velazquez,

they were soon confronted with a tangled web of sexual fantasy

and homicidal impulses.

At the center is a strikingly attractive

teenage girl whom police believe lured Oscar to his death.

But why?

Authorities are convinced that Regina DeFrancisco

knows the answer, and they're asking

for your help to find her.

[music playing]

REGINA DEFRANCISCO: Hey Oscar.

OSCAR VELAZQUEZ: Oh, hey.

What up?

How you doing?

ROBERT STACK: By all accounts, Oscar

Velazquez lived a stable life.

But that all apparently changed when he

set eyes on Regina DeFrancisco.

You look beautiful today.

Thank you.

STEVEN KONOW: Oscar thought she looked like a nice girl.

In a short period of time, approximately three weeks,

they only had maybe three or four dates.

Oscar and Regina seemed to hit it off.

And I think Oscar was blinded by Regina's good looks.

ROBERT STACK: But below the alluring surface,

a storm was brewing.

Regina apparently had another boyfriend, a gang

member nicknamed Loco, and she needed

$1,000 to bail him out of jail.

According to police, Regina decided to get

the money from Oscar Velazquez.

And she allegedly enlisted her sister Margaret in the scheme.

[music playing]

Detectives believe Margaret told Oscar

that it was Regina who was in jail

and needed to be bailed out.

Can you get us the money?

I got $1,000.

Is that enough?

STEVEN KONOW: Oscar being the loyal and true

boyfriend that he thought he was, didn't hesitate at all.

Thank you.

STEVEN KONOW: Oscar gives Margaret the $1,000.

Margaret tells Oscar, as soon as she bails Regina out of jail,

that Regina will call him.

ROBERT STACK: Regina did call Oscar,

a two went out on another date.

Thank you so much baby for helping me.

It's all right.

You know I love you.

You do?

I'd do anything for you.

ROBERT STACK: Oscar allegedly asked Regina when she

would pay him back the $1,000.

According to police, her answer laid the foundation

for Oscar's death.

Baby, I don't have the money right now.

I just got out of jail.

STEVEN KONOW: Regina says, hey, I'm sorry.

I'm willing to pay it back.

Give you a little extra.

Margret really likes you too.

How about coming over and I'll give

you your money, and the three of us will have a little fun.

Are you serious?

And that's when Regina offered the threesome,

the sexual encounter.

And Oscar was pretty willing to turn around and oblige.

ROBERT STACK: According to witnesses,

Oscar arrived at the DeFrancisco home at around eight o'clock.

He was greeted at the door by Margaret.

Hey.

Hi.

What are you doing here?

I don't know.

Regina's downstairs waiting for you.

ROBERT STACK: Allegedly, a friend of the de DeFrancisco

sisters was also at the house.

And waiting downstairs in the basement was Regina.

Oscar!

Come down here baby.

I'm in the basement

STEVEN KONOW: Oscar went am head of Margaret,

walked down the steps.

And when he made it to the last step in the basement,

Margaret took the semi-automatic.

[gun firing]

Shot him one time in the back of the head.

[music playing]

Come on, let's go.

ROBERT STACK: Investigators believe

that the girls took Oscar's necklace, his car keys,

and $600 in cash.

[music playing]

Next, they wrapped the body in a bed sheet and then a tarp.

According to the police, the sisters did what they could

to clean up the crime scene.

And finally, they dragged the body up the basement stairs

and reportedly put it into the trunk of Oscar's car.

Then they drive around say for approximately 40 minutes

looking for a spot to dump the body,

until they happened upon this vacant lot.

Regoina and Margaret try to get Oscar's body out of the trunk.

Body gets dumped out into the lot.

One of the girls take a large bottle of nail polish

remover, doused Oscar's body.

They ignite the body.

REGINA DEFRANCISCO: Get back!

STEVEN KONOW: And drive away.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK: Two days later, police

discovered Oscar's Camaro not far

from where his remains were found.

It too had been torched.

It wasn't long before the case broke wide open.

The young girl who was allegedly at the home

at the time of the crime confessed to police.

She gave a detailed account of what she witnessed

on the night of Oscar's murder.

Come on, let's go.

ROBERT STACK: Arrest warrants were issued for Regina

and Margaret to DeFrancisco.

Both are believed to have fled the Chicago area.

As Maria Velazquez waits for justice,

she struggles with a painful void left in her life

by her son Oscar's murder.

MARIA RIOS: [speaking spanish]

INTERPRETER: Every day is a labor, because I'm

still looking for him.

I see young people, and I'm always hoping that I see him,

but I can't find him.

It's hard to get used to living without him.

It's really hard to get used to the idea

that he isn't here anymore.

We miss him a lot.

All of us.

[music playing]

The bank should be right around the corner

right up here. - All right, well--

ROBERT STACK: When Brent Trauth of Baton Rouge, Louisiana

decided to sell his Nissan sports car,

he found a ready buyer in John Maggio.

You took nice care of it.

Pretty nice care of it.

ROBERT STACK: All Maggio needed to seal

the deal was a cashier's check.

Brent agreed to drive him to the bank.

During the short trip, the conversation

was light and friendly.

Yeah, and the bank should be right over, right over here.

ROBERT STACK: Then without warning, it turned ugly.

Whoa!

Whoa!

ROBERT STACK: Brent suddenly found

himself on the wrong end of a gun, fighting for his life.

BRENT TRAUTH: He had the meanest look on his face.

Cold-blooded killer.

JON MAGGIO: Let go of the gun!

[gun firing]

He pulled the gun to the right,

and it went on the side of my leg,

the bullet went on the side of my leg

and came out on the corner by my kneecap.

And that when I bit him on the shoulder.

When he let go of the gun, I through the gun out the car.

JON MAGGIO: Stop the car!

BRENT TRAUTH: I'm not gonna stop.

JON MAGGIO: I said stop the car!

ROBERT STACK: Maggio then dove out the passenger side door.

While Brent Traught drove himself to the hospital.

Brent nearly lost his leg, but later recovered.

The next day, police tracked down

Maggio and made the arrest.

JON MAGGIO: I'm telling you, I'm going to be out by tomorrow.

ROBERT STACK: To those who knew him,

it came as no big surprise.

Maggio had been a rebellious teen, constantly

at odds with his wealthy father who owned a real estate empire

in and around Baton Rouge.

Con artist Jon Maggio was much smarter than the average street

criminal.

Charged with attempted murder and facing

overwhelming evidence, Maggio plea

bargained his way to a reduced sentence of five years.

He then arranged to pull a work detail outside prison grounds,

ironically at the officers of the Louisiana State Police.

But allegedly, Maggio's biggest con was yet to come.

[music playing]

John Maggio did his time and was released on parole.

He immediately left for Mobile, Alabama,

where family connections helped land

him a position as boarding agent at Fillette

Green Shipping Services.

In a characteristic display of bravado,

Maggio listed the prison job on his resume.

Failing of course to mention he was behind bars at the time.

[music playing]

JON MAGGIO: Morning Denise.

Good morning, Jon.

ROBERT STACK: Maggio's new job involved processing payroll

accounts for ships in dock, a service that often involves

sizable amounts of cash.

It was another ironic twist, an ex-con with his hands

on the checkbook.

DENISE MCDONALD: The owners of the vessel

would wire us the money that the captain requested.

And then we would make out the receipts,

bring the cash down to the captain.

He would sit there and count it out, and then sign the receipt

and you'd be done.

ROBERT STACK: Jon fit in right away,

and got along well with everybody.

MINNIE ARMOUR: He just went overboard to be nice.

He was just super.

He was out-going.

When you talked to him, you felt like you'd known him forever.

That's just how he made you feel.

ROBERT STACK: Molly Perez was certainly

taken by Maggio's charms.

Want to sit here?

ROBERT STACK: Following a short whirlwind romance,

the couple decided to tie the knot.

JON MAGGIO: A could of them had to work.

And they could've hit traffic, but I'm

sure my aunt will show up.

WOMAN: It's still early. She'll show up.

ROBERT STACK: Molly had a four-year-old daughter

from a previous marriage.

Maggio appeared to love her like his own.

But according to Molly's mother, the relationship was

stormy and sometimes vilent.

VIRGINIA DAWSON: Molly never told me he was abusive.

But her daughter did.

And at that time, her daughter had just turned four.

And she was terrified of Jon, terrified.

In front of us, he acted like the dotting step father.

But when he was away from us, it was a different story.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK: It turned out Maggio

had a lot of people fooled.

JON MAGGIO: Hi, this is Jon.

ROBERT STACK: But no one could have guessed

what he was really up to.

An alleged scam that was as brazen as it

was risky, to the tune of nearly $200,000.

According to police, it all began with a phone conversation

between Maggio and a local bank officer,

who asked not to be identified.

WOMAN: They called to inquire how long it

would take me to get 197,000.

And I told him I need to know by Tuesday to have it

in towards the end of the week.

ROBERT STACK: Sometime over the next few days,

police believe Maggio snuck back into the office after hours,

unlocked a filing cabinet, and walked out with a blank check.

JON MAGGIO: Thank you very much.

Good morning Miss Henderson.

ROBERT STACK: He showed up at the bank on Thursday morning

right on cue, with a check for $197,000, apparently authorized

by the office manager.

The amount was unusually large, but otherwise everything

seemed to be in order.

WOMAN: It was a well established account.

He was a well-known person to be responsible for picking

up and calling in the orders, and the signature was a match.

ROBERT STACK: According to the bank officer,

Maggio was friendly, but uncharacteristically on edge.

Sure is a lot of money.

WOMAN: This was the largest amount they

had ever gotten in one period.

And he told me that one of their couriers for the company in New

Orleans had been killed doing a drop such as this,

and so he was a little nervous.

I can get you an escort if you like.

We could have someone walk you out.

No, that won't be unnecessary.

I mean, just you and I know about this transaction, right?

Right.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK: Moments later, police

say Maggio calmly walked out of the bank in Mobile, Alabama

and simply disappeared.

Fillette Gree Shipping.

ROBERT STACK: The next day, Denise McDonald

received a disturbing phone call from the home office

in New Orleans.

DENISE MCDONALD: The accountant that manages all the money,

he asked me if we had written any big checks,

and of course, I said no.

So he said look for this check number.

So I went and looked, and the check was missing.

So I went back to the phone and I said yes, the check is gone.

And I said, how much money is gone?

And he said $197,000.

And I said, god, you're kidding?

ROBERT STACK: Investigators learned

that the authorized signature on the check was a forgery.

Meanwhile, Molly left her little girl with her mother

and prepared to leave town.

VIRGINIA DAWSON: Molly left with John because she was

protecting us and her daughter.

Because I know now that Molly knew just how evil he was.

And is.

But Molly I didn't realize was we'd have

done anything to protect her.

Anything.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK: Police say Molly left with Maggio

and a new $35,000 SUV, which he had allegedly purchased

with some of the stolen money.

[music playing]

NANETTE CONILL: So the place has been

vacant for about six weeks.

It's ready to be rented out at any time.

ROBERT STACK: Four months later, the couple reportedly turned up

in Staten Island, New York.

I don't think we need to see much more of it.

We love it, right?

I love it.

ROBERT STACK: Using the names Rick and Sarah Parker,

they rented an apartment from Nanette Conill.

NANETTE CONILL: Molly and Maggio came after be the sweetest

people to everyone.

Not only to my husband and myself and my family members,

but to the neighbors as well.

ROBERT STACK: Over the next year,

Maggio bounced from one job to another

before landing a sales position with a rare autograph

dealer in Manhattan.

You all need some help just let me know.

ROBERT STACK: But it wasn't long before he

was up to his old tricks, allegedly gaining access

to company checks, forging authorized signatures,

and discreetly pocketing the funds.

[music playing]

However, by the summer of 2001, Maggio's days in the Big Apple

were numbered.

May I help you?

Yes, you may.

TIMOTHY FUHRMAN: Maggio had attempted to cash a $1,500

check.

Here you are.

And the place where he was trying to cash it

contacted the employer, and he said,

no, he does not have the authority

to cash a check in that amount.

I cash checks here all the time.

Sir, for this amount I need an authorization.

TIMOTHY FUHRMAN: Maggio never showed back up at that company.

The individual had an audit done of his records

and determined that Maggio on 14 different occasions

had written $1,000 checks which were forged,

and which were basically embezzlements from the company.

ROBERT STACK: By the time police were notified, it was too late.

Maggio and Molly were already on the run.

[music playing]

[phone ringing]

NANETTE CONILL: Early in the morning,

it must have been like 6:30 in the morning,

I suddenly get a phone call from Maggio.

Hello?

JON MAGGIO: Hey there Nanette, it's Rick.

NANETTE CONILL: And he was like, oh, I'm

taking Molly to the hospital.

She's very sick.

I'm leaving the dog papers, watch the dog.

I left the key underneath the mat.

ROBERT STACK: Nanette was surprised and concern

for Molly, but before she had a chance to ask any questions,

Magigo had hung up the phone.

JON MAGGIO: I'll give you a call later.

Bye.

NANETTE CONILL: Right there, all the cards started

falling right into place.

Something is very fishy.

Sarah!

ROBERT STACK: Suspicious, Nanette went

down to check on her tenants.

The apartment was trashed.

John Maggio and his wife had simply vanished.

[music playing]

NANETTE CONILL: You poor thing.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK: Detectives later discovered that Molly had

purchased two airline tickets for a flight from New York

to Los Angeles, but there have been no reported

sightings on the West Coast.

So where are they now?

That's what the FBI would like to know.

Molly has not contacted her daughter since leaving

Alabama in the summer of 1999.

Authorities believe they are probably using assumed names.

And that Jon Maggio, wherever he is, is cooking up a scam.

He is what we would consider to be

an armed and dangerous person because

of the fact of his previous criminal record.

In the past, remember this individual

almost killed another individual in order to steal a car.

So there's no question if he feels like he

is in some jeopardy of having his freedom curtailed,

he would more than likely engage in such conduct again.

[music playing]

Peru, Indiana, 4:00 AM.

Cynthia Wismiller's day begins.

Already a grandmother at age 42, Cynthia

is a free-spirited matriarch of a close family.

BILLY HAWKINS: We drank coffee and talked for a while.

And she kissed me goodbye.

Said she loved me and she she'd see me later.

That was probably the worst day of my life.

Bye baby.

ROBERT STACK: Cynthia was a courier

for an armored vehicle service.

Her job is to replenish automated teller

machines with cash.

At 5:50 AM, Cynthia begins making her rounds of the ATMs

on her route.

Later that morning, she mysteriously disappears,

along with $268,000 in cash.

Was Cynthia, a former police officer and dedicated

grandmother, a brazen thief?

Or was the real thief lurking out

of range of ATM surveillance cameras,

forcing Cynthia to take the money before he killed her?

Bank robber or victim?

The police and Cynthia's family found

themselves bitterly divided.

On the surface, the evidence of her guilt seemed overwhelming.

Yet detectives acknowledged it was

odd for a woman with an unblemished past

to commit such an audacious theft

and then desert her loved ones.

The only certainly was that no trace of Cynthia remained.

[music playing]

Oh, Oh, look at the sun.

ROBERT STACK: Cynthia Wismiller was a nucleus around which

her entire family revolved.

Those who knew her best say she possessed

a generous spirit and an unwavering

sense of right and wrong.

To suggest that she was capable of bank robbery

was inconceivable.

RICHARD MUNOZ: My mother has taught me

that it's very good to be good.

You can't take more than you give.

No one gets anything for nothing.

She instilled that into us very early.

For there even to be speculation that she would have

done something like that or gone this direction

or done anything to attempt to take the easy way out

is just ludicrous, there is no way.

No way in hell it would have happened.

ROBERT STACK: Whatever did happen say investigators,

may have begun three days before the robbery.

Come on in Cynthia. Have a seat.

ROBERT STACK: Cynthia's supervisor told her

their security company had been bought

by the Brinks armored car service,

and that she was to have a new position.

MAN: There'll be some changes, and I'll

fill you in on that next week.

But because of time constraints right now,

I just want to cover one thing with you.

ROBERT STACK: The following work day,

she was to postpone her pre-dawn duties until 9:00 AM.

At that hour, she was to meet her replacement

and acquaint him with her route.

Show him your routine, et cetera, et cetera.

Yeah, sure, I can do that.

So then am I giving up my job?

Do I have a job?

As long as I still have a job, you still have a job.

ROBERT STACK: Despite her instructions,

Cynthia arose that morning just as early as she always had.

According to her boyfriend Billy,

she never mentioned that her work schedule had been changed.

[music playing]

Investigators say that between 5:50 and 7:15

AM, Cynthia made stops at each of the eight ATMs on her route.

She began three hours earlier than she had been instructed,

and without her trainee.

[music playing]

Each of the machines was virtually emptied of cash.

MIKE BANUSH: The ATMs had video cameras on them.

Out of the eight ATMs we only found

actual film footage of Cynthia Wismiller on one of the tapes.

And throughout the entire time she was in that building,

she was alone.

It didn't appear that she was under any type

of duress or force of any kind.

Most of the ATMs that she serviced

were exterior buildings.

They were not actually in the bank branch.

And she could get into the back of the ATMs

without being seen on the video camera.

John, you take him down to room--

ROBERT STACK: Detectives began their investigation

by questioning Cynthia's family, and her boyfriend Billy

Hawkins.

MIKE BANUSH: Billy was adamant that Cynthia was abducted

and that she did not take any money from the ATMs.

And he also was adamant that someone has forced her to do

this Billy told me that there's no way she would

have done this on her own.

If someone was holding a gun on her

or had threatened her family or something,

she would do something like this to protect her family

or to protect her own life possibly.

There's nothing else on this Earth that

would make her do something like this

without being coerced into it.

ROBERT STACK: Was someone else present at the ATM

who forced Cynthia to steal the money?

Or was such a person merely conjured up in the imagination

by those unable to face that Cynthia had turned to crime?

[music playing]

Investigator discovered an eyewitness

who said that Cynthia indeed was not alone.

But his account only deepened the mystery.

MIKE BANUSH: The witness said that he saw

Cynthia with another person.

He saw Cynthia and this other person

unloading bags and putting them into another vehicle.

He said this person had a sock hat pulled down to the lower

part of their face.

So he could not tell if this person was white,

black, or male or female.

ROBERT STACK: According to the witness,

Cynthia did not appear to be assisting the mysterious figure

against her will.

The police concluded she had a partner in crime.

But her family believed that this

was the person who forced her to steal the cash from the ATMs

on her route.

RICHARD MUNOZ: They knew exactly where she was going,

they knew what she was doing, it was an obvious vehicle.

She was by herself.

I think that someone came, they took

advantage of the situation.

And they did what they felt was necessary in getting

the money from these machines.

That's what I think happened.

ROBERT STACK: Investigators learned

that if Cynthia was an unwilling accomplice,

she had the means to secretly alert her security firm.

To open an ATM, couriers must enter

a code that changes daily.

A distress signal is sent by altering one of the digits.

But Cynthia did not enter the distress

code at any of her machines.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK: It is possible however,

that she was warned not to by one

who was aware of how the security measure functioned.

But as the investigation of Cynthia Wismiller progressed,

the police made a discovery that seemed to erase

whatever doubts remained.

An audit revealed an additional $200,000 was missing.

Cash that Cynthia was supposed to have placed in her ATMs

more than a week before the robbery.

MIKE BANUSH: I think she was dipping

in the tail a little bit to help her family out.

When she was informed that Brinks security was taking

over the company, she knew she was going to be caught

when they did the audits.

And I think she just took as much money

as she could and fled the area.

We, as a police department, want to find her

because she stole the money.

But we also want to find her to make sure she's safe.

We have the fact of another person being

with her in the parking lot.

If it was a plan that those two were going to take the money

and split it and disappear, who's

to say that that other person isn't going to harm Cynthia so

that that person can get all of the money and not

have to split it.

ROBERT STACK: Despite the evidence pointing to Cynthia's

guilt, her family still firmly believes she

is a victim, not a criminal.

I don't believe for a minute she did anything wrong.

She just wasn't that kind of person.

Just wasn't her.

ROBERT STACK: Whatever the truth, the void of her absence

has taken its toll.

BILLY HAWKINS: It's like somebody

just ripped your world apart and you don't know where to go.

You don't know anything.

You're just completely blind and your mind is blank

and you can't function.

It's been tremendously difficult and continues to be.

And I don't see it letting up anytime soon.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK: It was the winter of 1960,

and four-year-old Lori DeLorme had

just been adopted by a family in Chillicothe, Missouri.

One evening, Lori stumbles upon her adoptive father

cleaning a gun.

Disturbing feelings float into her mind,

giving Lori the first horrific glimpse at the dark secret that

ripped her birth family apart.

LORI DELORME: When I was very little, my adopted dad,

he collected guns.

And he was cleaning one of his guns, and I saw that

and I just said, that's what the policeman had

when they come to get my daddy.

ROBERT STACK: Unable to fully grasp what she was remembering,

Lori vowed to discover the truth.

Her search would trigger ominous memories of a fateful night

over four decades ago.

[distorted voices]

[music playing]

A policeman holding a gun to her father

and putting him under arrest.

That vague and fleeting memory somehow

explains why Lori DeLorme Magnin was

separated from her biological family at 14 months of age.

Lori now hopes to find the only people who

can help her understand what exactly

happened to her as an infant.

A family she hasn't seen in over 45 years.

At the age of three, Lori was adopted

by Charles and Aretha DeLorme in Kansas City, Missouri.

But the Jackson County court sealed Lori's records

and would only tell her adoptive parents that she

was in need of a stable home.

Although Lori was welcomed into the extended DeLorme

family with open arms, signs soon emerged

that something wasn't right.

Lori began having nightmares, and appeared distant

and distracted.

Lori was probably about six or seven,

and she was eating at the table one day,

and she couldn't close her mouth.

She would just leave her mouth open.

And it really scared mother, so she

made an appointment with a therapist in another town

and took her there.

And they said that she had had a serious trauma,

and that it happened when she was fairly young.

ROBERT STACK: Lori's adoptive mother

tried in vain to find out what was wrong with her little girl.

As Lori grew older, she took up the search herself.

Driven by a troubling sense that something

dire had happened in her past.

Lori asked her mother for any paperwork

concerning her adoption.

I turned 16, and she brought the adoption papers out.

She kept every letter.

And this is--

I'm going to give this to you.

Now is the time.

And so I took them, I went over to Renee's house.

I couldn't wait till she got there,

because we always had this dream where

we're going to find her mom.

And so when she came, we got up on the bunk bed,

and she opened up the papers.

And that's when we found out that her mom was already dead.

ROBERT STACK: Lori and Renee were shocked

to discover that Lori's mother Francis

Camarena died on November 27, 1956 in Kansas City, Missouri.

The adoption papers did not give a cause of death

or mention any other siblings.

LORI DELORME: And we were like, oh my goodness.

And Renee, we was like, well, we'll just go

to try to find somebody here.

And it didn't-- we didn't know where to go, we were too young.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK: Lori soon moved on with her life,

married, and had three children of her own.

But her happiness was always haunted by hazy memories

of an unbearable tragedy.

There was only one hope for her peace of mind.

Lori had to know the truth.

There was still one last place Lori had not yet looked.

The Kansas City public library.

Lori, her husband Donald, and their son

searched the microfiche files of the Kansas

City Star on the day Lori's mother died, November 27, 1956.

OK, here we go, here we go.

LORI DELORME: Slow down, slow down.

DONALD MAGNIN: I was scanning through the old papers

and I came across this picture of four girls and a boy.

And one of them was about Lori's age,

would have been Lori's age.

I said, Lori, could this possibly be your family.

I said this looks awful lot like you, the next to youngest one.

And she looked at the picture and she said, yeah, that's me.

ROBERT STACK: In the photo a 14-month-old Lori

sat next to her four siblings, who ranged in age from nine

years to three months.

That's when I first time I saw a picture of me

and my brother and my sister's.

First time.

My first baby picture I ever seen.

ROBERT STACK: But Lori's joy was short lived.

Seconds later, she saw the article accompanying the photo.

Lori DeLorme magnin had finally come face

to face with a horrifying truth of her past.

[slamming]

[man laughing]

[inaudible]

ROBERT STACK: In the pre-dawn hours of November 26, 1956,

Lori's father, Alexander Camarena, arrived home drunk.

His wife, Lori's mother, was waiting for him.

The landlady was here for the rent.

Why are you buying me chocolates?

ALEXANDER CAMARENA: Forget about the rent.

Forget about the rent.

ROBERT STACK: Alexander had made two purchases earlier

in the evening, a box of chocolates

and a 38 caliber handgun.

How stupid can you be?

You're spending our money on a gun?

ROBERT STACK: An argument ensued over the gun.

Alexander claimed it was broken, and demonstrated by pointing

the weapon at his wife's head.

No!

Stop!

[music playing]

When I read that, I felt against my father.

Like, I don't care if he say sorry and all that.

You just don't point a gun at someone's temple.

I don't care.

And that was my mom.

And I won't ever see her again.

ROBERT STACK: Lori made a copy of the photo

and took it home with her.

I just went to the bedroom, took that picture with me.

I just stared at it.

Just couldn't believe it.

That's me, my brother, my sisters, and we all look alike.

With all the dark hair and that.

And the oldest girl, she's like looking off in a direction,

she just looks so sad.

Because she was old enough to remember.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK: Lori's mother, Francis Camarena

is buried under her maiden name of Rivas

in a cemetery in Kansas City.

LORI DELORME: Here you are, Mommy.

Just for you.

ROBERT STACK: Lori's father was convicted

of second degree murder and imprisoned for eight years.

He died in 1991.

LORI DELORME: My brother and my sister's,

real brother and sisters, we lost both our parents now.

And I think they need me like I need them.

And they may have their own families now like I do,

but I feel they must want to see me, if they think about me.

I don't know if they tried to find me, but I'm trying.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK: Shortly after our broadcast,

Ruth Crook, Lori's birth cousin, contacted our telecenter.

A friend of Ruth's had seen the show

and told her that her long lost cousin was

looking for her birth family.

It was a happy shock, and very exciting to know

that she had been found.

ROBERT STACK: A family reunion was held several weeks later,

and we were there to capture it.

The elder sister Phyllis was unable to attend the reunion.

Sadly, Lori's younger brother Robert died in 1982.

Nancy, the last sibling, was located

after the reunion was held.

[music playing]

Join me next time for another hour of fascinating cases

on Unsolved Mysteries.

[music playing]