Original subtitles

ANNOUNCER: Tonight on "Unsolved Mysteries--"

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): A 19-year-old college

student's car becomes disabled along an interstate.

Minutes later in full view of other motorists,

the same young woman finds herself

in a life or death struggle as she hurtles down the highway.

Authorities need your help to find her attacker.

When Helen Root was diagnosed with cancer and Dave Cernan

with hepatitis, they began searching

for a medical miracle.

They believed they found it Dr. Caplinger, a physician

with an experimental remedy.

Could the doctor's treatment save their lives

or would it turn out to be deadly?

He was a well-loved teacher, a selfless family

man and a community icon.

In fact, considered him a hero.

Who would have ever thought that Frank Montenegro would be

charged with child molestation?

A small Idaho town is shaken by the mysterious disappearance

of a young gay college student.

Wil Hendrick vanished one January night

and hasn't been heard from since.

Did he willingly walk away or is it possible he

was a victim of crime?

Join me for these stories that have

defied reason and explanation.

Perhaps you could be the one to solve a mystery.

[theme music playing]

A beautiful spring day outside Little Rock, Arkansas.

Routine lunch hour traffic was suddenly

interrupted by an unfolding drama

that was anything but routine.

A white pickup swerved erratically as it

barreled down the highway.

Inside, a terrified female passenger

struggled for her life with a male driver.

Frantic 911 one calls poured in, but no one

could come to her rescue.

Horrified witnesses were powerless to stop

what seemed inevitable.

Guy's going crazy.

She's hanging out.

She's about to fall out the door.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The driver sped off

without a moment's hesitation.

19-year-old Carson Prince was rushed to the hospital

with massive head injuries.

As doctors tried to stabilize Carson's injuries,

Arkansas State Police investigators

swung into action.

Identifying and locating the driver of a white pickup truck

became their number one priority.

But authorities had other puzzling questions

related to the shocking broad daylight attack.

Did Carson know her assailant?

And if not, what was a well-liked college

student doing in his truck?

Carson Prince grew up in Maumelle, Arkansas,

a suburb of Little Rock.

She was the oldest of three.

Carson was a neat kid, a very caring and giving young lady.

But she didn't expect anything in return.

SUZANNE HIXSON PRINCE: She was very, very funny.

Carson could always make you laugh, even if she didn't

feel like laughing inside.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): However, Carson's outlook

changed dramatically when her parents

divorced when she was 13.

SUZANNE HIXSON PRINCE: I think Carson

was struggling with who she was and where she was going.

And she kind of grew up in the middle of a 16-year divorce.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): After coming

to terms with her parents' divorce,

Carson went on to earn a college scholarship

to the University of Arkansas.

Carson was that friend who everybody adored.

She was the person that was more excited about your stories

than you were.

She was selfless, she was more into everybody

else than she was herself.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): During her sophomore year in college,

Carson left school and moved back home with her dad.

Then came that ill-fated spring morning.

TOM PRINCE: As I was heading out the door to go to work,

I passed by her bedroom.

And she said, would you get me a glass of water?

You know how a daughter can pull on your heartstrings.

I got her a glass of water and came in

and sat down beside her bed.

And she sat up and we talked about what she

was going to do during the day.

She was going to go to school and pick up

the forms for registering in the university

there in Little Rock.

I like that idea.

I'll come home early tonight and we'll

go out and celebrate then.

OK.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): But Carson and her father

would never have that celebration dinner.

Carson's mother, who was a county prosecutor,

was returning from lunch when she learned the dreadful news

from her boss.

Suzanne, Carson's been in an accident.

An accident?

She's at the hospital.

Where's Tom?

He's down there.

Donny, we're going to get Suzanne down to the hospital.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Co-workers immediately rushed

Suzanne to the emergency room.

Tom, where's Carson?

Have you seen her?

She just got out of surgery.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Carson's divorced

parents are brought together under the direst

of circumstances.

She's out of surgery and she's in intensive care.

There were some spinal injuries and swelling of the brain.

If the swelling doesn't go down, we may lose her.

TOM PRINCE: You could tell very early only that Carson

wasn't going to pull through.

Her mother and I were there and it was very peaceful.

We stayed at Carson's side throughout the day

as she slowly slipped away.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): 19-year-old Carson Prince

died at 10:30 that night.

Investigators were already busy reconstructing the events

leading up to Carson's death.

Carson's Ford Bronco was found alongside Interstate

430, just half a mile from where her body was recovered.

[engine cranking]

The car's gas tank was empty.

Strangely, less than 30 minutes after leaving her house,

Carson seemed to be headed back home in the opposite direction

of her errands.

A number of witnesses recall seeing Carson after she pulled

to the shoulder of the highway.

A gas station was within walking distance,

so Carson's apparent next move does

not make sense to her parents.

TOM PRINCE: There's something strange in the fact

that she didn't leave her vehicle

and walk a quarter of a mile to the gas station to get gas

or to get help.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Witnesses saw a young man

with a white pickup truck stop near Carson's disabled vehicle.

He was holding a gas can.

Although investigators have yet to find

anyone who witnessed it, Carson somehow got inside the truck.

SUZANNE HIXSON PRINCE: I don't think Carson would have gotten

into a truck with somebody she didn't know just

because she was out of gas.

I have a hard time believing she'd

get in a truck with a stranger.

Either she knew the person and she

got in the vehicle or the person forced her

in under threat of her life.

Otherwise, she wouldn't be in that vehicle.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Motorists reported witnessing

a violent struggle going on inside the truck's cab

as it sped down the interstate at nearly 70 miles an hour.

TOM PRINCE: Carson was being beaten.

Carson was fighting back, trying to defend herself,

and that somehow the guy reached across, the door was opened,

and Carson was shoved out of the door

and trying to hang on while the truck was speeding

away and hung on as long as she could and then fell out

and fell to her death.

And the driver continued which naturally in the highway patrol

guy's mind says, OK, well, obviously this guy

has left the scene of an accident

here where someone is critically injured

so we've got to find him.

This truck was described to us by the witnesses

as not being a totally white.

It was more of a off-white or a cream-type white color even.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Unfortunately, to this point,

authorities have been unable to locate the truck.

Next came an investigation into all aspects

of the college student's life.

Authorities would learn that Carson had developed

a stormy relationship with a young man of dubious character

whom she had met while working at the local country club.

Hey, Carson.

How are you doing, sweetie?

I have to go back to work.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Friends

were concerned that Carson could not seem to break

away from the turbulent affair.

JENI COOPER: The reasons that she wanted to be with him,

I still don't know.

I don't know what she saw in him because he just

made her unhappy all the time.

All right.

I've got to go.

All right.

I told her.

I was like, Carson, this guy is not good for you.

He's not good for you at all.

All he does is make you cry, he makes you upset.

He's not doing anything for you at all.

[phone ringing]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The young man was also

no stranger to law enforcement.

He was a suspected drug dealer.

Yeah.

Let's do this at about 7:30.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): It's believed

Carson's boyfriend occasionally used

her car when making deliveries.

I told her that if she were out with him

and he got arrested, she was going to get arrested too.

Whatever his fate was, she would share it.

She didn't seem to be too worried about that.

Hi, hon.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Then the day

before her death, Carson unexpectedly

showed up at her mother's home.

The prediction that had been made about her boyfriend's

arrest had actually come true.

I didn't give Brian anything.

Yes, you did.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Carson was upset because she believed

her mother, as a deputy district attorney,

could have been involved in her boyfriend's

arrest and prosecution.

No.

Brian got exactly what he was supposed to get.

No.

And at that point, I got afraid.

I thought that he was outside.

The Bronco had pulled into the carport lights

on, engine running.

I thought he might be going to come to the door and hurt me,

blaming me for a prison sentence that I didn't

even know anything about.

Carson, I didn't have anything to do with it.

Yes, you did.

SUZANNE HIXSON PRINCE: And I told her, y'all need to leave.

It's just a friend.

SUZANNE HIXSON PRINCE: And that's the last time I saw her.

I find it a very strange coincidence

that within 12 hours of her telling me that,

she's on the side of the road fatally injured.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): So who killed Carson Prince?

While Carson's boyfriend has been cleared of any involvement

in her death, could it have had anything

to do with his drug dealing?

Could she have been fleeing a stalker?

Or had Carson merely run out of gas at the wrong moment?

SUZANNE HIXSON PRINCE: I wish I had some answers.

I don't think there will ever be justice for Carson.

But I think there will be truth, and I will settle for that.

Helen Root packs her bags for a trip to Santa Domingo

in the Dominican Republic.

Sounds like you're in good hands.

Sure does.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): She is not

headed for a tropical vacation, but is on a mission

she believes can save her life.

HELEN ROOT: I had third stage colon cancer

and the whole right side of my colon was removed.

They wanted me to have six months of chemotherapy.

And I chose not to have that and I

was looking for an alternative.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): So Helen Root and her husband,

William, mortgaged their home for the $40,000 Helen

needed for an experimental drug therapy.

A friend had told them about a Dr. Caplinger

in Santo Domingo, who reportedly had an amazing treatment

for fighting cancer.

Dr. Caplinger's resume was a long and impressive list

of medical schools, including Harvard University.

According to his brochure, the clinic in Santa Domingo

was a world class facility.

There, his remedy, a drug cocktail called Immustim,

didn't need FDA approval.

Caplinger claimed Immustim could fight many deadly diseases

including AIDS and hepatitis.

Helen was glad to arrive in Santo Domingo,

but was taken aback by the poor condition of the facility.

Right down here is Dr. Caplinger's office.

HELEN ROOT: I noticed that there was no patients in the rooms.

It was pretty old fashioned looking, kind of dumpy,

and not certainly what I was expecting to see.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Within a few hours,

Helen was relieved to finally meet the doctor

she'd heard so much about.

NURSE: Mrs. Root.

Mrs. Root, Dr. Caplinger.

Nice to meet you.

HELEN ROOT: He looked very professional

and very caring and very concerned about my condition.

And so I thought, well, finally I'm going

to get some good help here.

It could become malignant.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Although US doctors

had confirmed Helen to be cancer-free,

Caplinger said his review of her file

revealed a small tumor that needed aggressive treatment.

Helen was frightened, but also confident she

had made the right choice to travel so far from home.

You're in good hands.

HELEN ROOT: Because of the degrees that he had,

because of his background, I thought

I was in excellent hands.

[phone ringing]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Until the next morning,

when she received a phone call from her husband, William.

WILLIAM (ON PHONE): Helen, you can't take the treatment.

HELEN ROOT: 9:00 AM Saturday morning

and it's my husband on the phone almost hysterical saying,

Helen, you've got to come home.

That man is not a doctor, he's a crook.

WILLIAM (ON PHONE): We have to get the money back.

Tell him we had a family emergency.

WILLIAM ROOT: I said, Helen, you've got to get out of there.

He's ripping us off.

Say whatever you have to say, but don't take any treatments.

Get out of there.

Come home as quickly as you can.

I'll try.

What Helen's husband discovered

is that Gregory Caplinger is not a doctor,

he is a fugitive wanted by the FBI.

Caplinger is an alleged con man accused of scamming millions

from investors and unsuspecting patients

willing to support his cure-all drug, Immustim.

The FBI believes Immustim could contain

a combination of illegal steroids,

vitamins, and amphetamines.

STEPHEN BARRETT: Caplinger was a medical impostor.

He had more phony credentials than any other medical impostor

in history.

LINDA VIZI: Caplinger is a con man

because he plays on the people that are dying,

he plays on their families.

He gives them that one last hope to live, takes their money,

and provides very little care.

STEPHEN BARRETT: He never went to any medical school.

He got some of his papers by sending money

to British diploma mills that simply issued

them when they got his money.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Dr. Barrett has created

an extensive website dedicated to medical scams.

It is there that a friend of the Roots

read the disturbing truth about Dr. Caplinger

and quickly called Williams.

WILLIAM ROOT: When I heard that he was a fraud,

I feared for her life.

There she is down here all by herself

and I'm going, how is she going to handle this?

She doesn't speak Spanish, she doesn't know anyone

and now her friends are the enemy.

Dr. Caplinger, Mrs. Root is here to see you.

HELEN ROOT: I knew that I had to go to his office

and ask for my money back.

And now I'm not talking to Dr. Caplinger,

I'm talking to a crook.

What could be more important than your life?

HELEN ROOT: He said, there's no emergency

at home that's more important, Helen, than your health.

I can save your life.

I think you're making a great mistake.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Helen insisted, and by the next day

Caplinger agreed to return $20,000 of the $40,000

payment she had made.

HELEN ROOT: We figured we would take that

and be happy that we got that.

So we thought $20,000 was better than none.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Three years after Helen's ordeal,

she remains cancer-free, but she is one of the lucky ones.

There are dozens of others who suffered at the deadly hands

of the doctor imposter.

LINDA VIZI: Usually in many, many cases

they'd never make it out of the Dominican Republic.

Most of them-- many of them died there.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Linda and Dave Cernan

also put their faith in Dr. Caplinger

when it looked like Dave had no other options.

They had been married three years when Dave was diagnosed

with hepatitis C. Two years later,

he needed a liver transplant.

But finding a match in time wasn't likely,

so they gambled with Linda's inheritance

and went to Santo Domingo.

Buenos dias.

I'm Mrs. Cernan.

I'm here to check in my husband, Dave.

LINDA CERNAN: The money that we had

to come up with was worth every penny

because Dave wanted to live.

We would have done anything, which

we did do everything we could.

And by going down there, I felt like it was an answer from God.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Dave's treatment began immediately.

LINDA CERNAN: Dave was hooked up to an IV

for six to eight hours a day.

And on alternating days, he received vitamins.

The other days was a clear liquid that we were

told that was the Immustim.

Dr. Caplinger assured us that Dave's chances of living

were very, very good.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): But instead of getting better,

Dave's health deteriorated rapidly.

I'm getting very worried.

Dave isn't eating.

He's too weak to walk or stand.

I don't understand what's going on.

Well,

With of Immustim, things actually get

worse before they get better.

LINDA CERNAN: Dr. Caplinger reassured me

that a lot of times, the patient will go downhill

before the drug really kicks in, before the vitamins really

kick in, before the treatment really

produces extravagant results.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): As the weeks went by,

Linda was shocked by the unsanitary conditions

of the clinic.

LINDA CERNAN: There was no water probably

80% of the time there, was no electricity probably

60% of the time.

There was lizards crawling on the walls.

There was roaches everywhere.

The conditions of this world renowned institute

was appalling.

Look, I want to go home.

I want to see John, like now.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Although Dave hadn't been

strong enough to get out of bed for weeks,

Linda was desperate to get him home to see his son.

Mrs. Cernan, what can I do for you?

We're going home, Dr. Caplinger.

We can't stay here any longer.

LINDA CERNAN: He was rather upset.

He said that you have to get the treatment a chance to work,

you have to stay and stick with this.

- I can still save him. - No.

LINDA CERNAN: I told him that there was no way

that there was any kind of improvement,

it was just deterioration.

We realized we had made a mistake at this point

and we were going home and we left.

When we got to Santa Domingo, Dave was weak

but he was walking, he was eating.

At the end of six weeks, my Dave could not

stand, he could not eat, he could not even talk to me.

He was too weak to even hold a phone.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Dave Cernan

passed away just 24 hours after returning to the United States.

LINDA CERNAN: I very much believe Dr.

Caplinger killed my husband.

Shortly after completing production on this story,

"Unsolved Mysteries" was informed after two years

of evading law enforcement, Gregory

Caplinger has turned himself into Dominican

Republic officials.

Outstanding warrants allowed Caplinger to be immediately

extradited to the US.

Due to an injury, Caplinger was transported in a wheelchair.

LINDA VIZI: He spent two days in the care and custody

of the Dominican authorities and then agents from the Charlotte

Division flew down to the Dominican Republic,

were there no more than a half hour, took custody of him,

put him in a plane and flew him back.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The FBI

added Caplinger to their wanted list

after he fled during a 1999 trial

in Charlotte, North Carolina, where

he was convicted of money laundering

in the Immustim scheme.

Caplinger is also facing indictment in Philadelphia

for 39 counts of wire fraud related to the travel

and treatment of patients who went to his clinic

in Santa Domingo.

LINDA VIZI: When you look at the charges of wire fraud

or you look at the charges of mail fraud,

they may not seem to reach that level of why are you

just charging this man with simple fraud

when in fact, people were dying, and dying terrible deaths?

But it's a sure fire way of putting this man in jail.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Linda Cernan, whose husband,

Dave, died soon after receiving treatments from Caplinger,

will be a key witness at Caplinger's pending fraud

trial.

Caplinger may not be able to be tried as a first degree

murderer, but he did murder these people because he

knew that his drug was a fraud.

In my eyes, he is a murderer.

I'm hoping that when he is sentenced that he is given

enough time that he can never get on the streets

again so that there's no way he can do this horrible thing

to families again.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): By any measure, he was a hero.

At the age of 24, both of Frank Montenegro's parents

suddenly died, leaving behind Frank and five children

under the age of 18.

Frank's response was both unselfish and noble.

He immediately gave up his carefree life in San Diego

and moved back to Hayward, California

to raise his orphan brothers and sisters.

MANUEL MONTENEGRO: He basically was

kind of like an angel that came in there and said,

it's going to be all right.

You'll stay together and you don't

have to worry about being in different places

and not being taken care of.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Soon, the story of Frank's sacrifice

was national news.

Numerous newspapers and magazines

proclaimed how Frank's generosity

should be a lesson to us all.

To support his family, Frank taught special education

at the local elementary school.

Good morning, gentlemen.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): He seemed

to be not only the perfect teacher, but also

the perfect citizen, an avid churchgoer,

a devoted family man, and a compassionate mentor

to troubled kids.

Good morning.

Aren't you a little bit late?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Known affectionately

as Mr. Monte, everyone admired and trusted Frank Montenegro.

Then a mother of a boy in Frank's class

says she made an odd discovery.

PATRICIA JACKSON: I noticed in his clothes

a new pair of underwear.

Billy, whose are these?

PATRICIA JACKSON: And I asked him, where did you get these?

And he said, my teacher, Mr. Monte, bought them for me.

I thought that was strange.

Why would a teacher at school be buying a student underwear?

I couldn't really come up with a sensible reason,

but I just kind of kept it in the back of my head.

And a year after this had happened, my son said--

he goes, I forgot to tell you something.

And I go, what?

And he goes, remember my teacher,

Mr. Monte, the one that bought me those underwear and stuff?

And I said, yeah.

What about him?

He said, well, he raped me.

Honest, kind-hearted, even heroic.

These were the words commonly used

to describe Frank Montenegro.

Could somebody who seemed to care

so much for children to be harming them

was such an unspeakable way?

Because false accusations have been

made in past cases of alleged child abuse,

authorities were faced with a troubling dilemma.

Was Frank an upstanding citizen or was he really

a child molester in disguise?

The allegation against Frank Montenegro

landed on the desk of Fremont, California police

detective Teresa Martinez.

An officer since the age of 22, Martinez

became a detective three years earlier

and now worked on the Sexual Assault Unit.

TERESA MARTINEZ: Frank Montenegro

is seen as his huge icon in the community.

And you can't ruin his career because one

child says it happened.

And you can't go into court and convict the guy

for child molest or sexual assault

when there's nothing to corroborate it.

Do you know why you're here today?

Yeah.

So you know about good touch and you know about bad touch?

Yeah.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Martinez's

professional experiences with children

had shown that they sometimes lie,

so she had to corroborate the boy's story.

She brought him to an interview center

for childhood sexual abuse victims,

where a specialist questioned the boy.

Teresa watched on closed circuit television

so as not to frighten the child.

Do you want to show me on the picture where he touched you?

Here.

COUNSELOR: And what do you call that spot?

My private parts.

TERESA MARTINEZ: What came out of the interview

is the victim said that all the students in his class

had seen what occurred.

When we heard that, everybody's opinion was,

OK, we know that's not true.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Despite her doubts,

Detective Martinez immediately interviewed all of the children

in the boy's class.

They all denied seeing anything.

Martinez decided to re-interview the boy herself.

I talked to the kids and not one of them

said they saw what happened.

I want you tell me the truth.

Did any of those kids see what happened?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The boy admitted

to lying about the other students seeing the assault.

He said he became scared during the initial interview

and thought this lie would stop investigators

from questioning him.

But he insisted that everything else he had said was true.

Frank Montenegro had attacked him.

You don't have to believe me, but he did it.

This kid was so believable.

His demeanor wasn't one of being untruthful

and he just wasn't lying and I believed him.

This is Mr. Montenegro's classroom.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Detective Martinez searched

Frank's classroom, where the victim

said the attack took place.

As she made her way to the back, she

found something you'd never expect

to see at an elementary school.

Through a nondescript door were two hidden rooms.

Separating them, a two-way mirror.

TERESA MARTINEZ: There should be no reason for a two-way mirror

between those two rooms.

I'm thinking, why would he need that?

And in my mind as an investigator, I'm thinking,

this guy's probably filming these acts.

The computer that I was telling you about.

It's pretty nice, isn't it?

TERESA MARTINEZ: The way the two rooms are set up in the back,

if Frank wants to do this with this child,

he can shut those doors and even if somebody walked

into the classroom, they wouldn't be

able to see what was going on.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The following day, Detective

Martinez returned to the rooms.

According to Martinez, the two-way mirror was now

a regular pane of glass.

Fearing that Frank might have gotten wind

of the investigation and was possibly destroying evidence,

Martinez moved into high gear.

A search warrant was immediately secured for Frank's home.

TERESA MARTINEZ: And when we searched his room,

we found gifts for smaller kids and books about sex

with younger kids.

Now we're starting to get some things that

are going to help to cooperate the profile of a child

molester.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Frank was not home during the search,

but a female relative was.

Detective Martinez says the relative then later disturbing

revelation.

Are you here about the little boy in Frankie's room?

I don't know anything about that little boy.

Can you tell me more?

TERESA MARTINEZ: She told me of an incident

involving another victim that was

found in Frank's bedroom naked.

I went to the police about two weeks ago.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): After hearing

about the possible second incident of molestation,

Detective Martinez asked Frank to come in for questioning

and he agreed.

Is there any reason why Billy would say you're

the one that molested him?

I know Billy, he's a liar.

he's always telling stories.

Why would he lie about something like this?

TERESA MARTINEZ: We talked to him for close to four hours,

and in that whole time he never denied that he did anything.

It was always, it couldn't have been me;

not, no, I didn't do it.

It was more very passive, very clear to us

that he wasn't being truthful.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): But it was still

word of a little boy who had initially

lied against that of a well-respected teacher

and community leader.

And for allegations of child abuse,

that is often not enough to get an arrest warrant.

Detective Martinez needed to corroborate

her victim's testimony.

Fearing that Frank might run at any moment,

Martinez raced to find the alleged second victim.

She discovered that a neighboring police department

did have a complaint against Frank

involving a boy in his bedroom.

Detective Martinez immediately picked the boy up

from school for an interview.

So I'm just going to talk to you about Frank a little bit.

OK?

So why don't we come on over here to the car.

TERESA MARTINEZ: His eyes started tearing up

and he looked as if, oh my gosh, I am caught.

I need to talk.

I knew that something had happened to that kid.

I want you to be real truthful about what happened.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Detective Martinez

says the boy finally told his terrible secret.

TERESA MARTINEZ: The stories he told

me were probably some of the most horrific stories I

had ever heard.

And to even picture in my mind how

this guy did these things to this little boy,

it made me sick.

Am I in trouble?

TERESA MARTINEZ: No.

You're not in trouble at all.

And it broke my heart to see this little kid, who's

a great little boy, think that he was

bad when he wasn't bad at all.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Detective Martinez

now had the corroboration she needed

to arrest Frank Montenegro.

But it was too late, Montenegro was already long gone.

Six days after Frank was interviewed by police,

a car rented in his name was found

abandoned in La Paz, Mexico.

His whereabouts are currently unknown,

but police believe he has likely returned to the United States.

MANUEL MONTENEGRO: It was hard for me

to believe that he did this.

I still had the tendency, like everybody

else did, to look up to him.

My heart has to go out to these children

that this has been done to because their innocence has

been taken away from them.

I don't think just because he had a close run-in with the law

that that would motivate him or scare him to stop his actions.

That obsession is still with him wherever he goes,

and I hate to think that other kids are going through what

my son went through.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Moscow, Idaho, population

25,000, is a quiet college community

in one of the most conservative states in the country.

The University of Idaho sits in this picturesque rural setting,

making the town a unique mix of cowboys and academics.

Little happens out of the ordinary here,

so when a local university student suddenly vanished,

Moscow was shocked.

People don't disappear around here murders don't happen.

I can name them on one hand in the last 20 years.

We don't expect it, so it couldn't have happened.

It didn't happen here.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On an early January morning,

Wil Hendrick mysteriously vanished without a trace.

Family and friends are desperate to know

if Wil met with foul play or just walked away

from his seemingly happy life.

There are a few clues to lead detectives in their search.

At 25, Wil Hendrick seemed to have it all.

He was a well-liked senior in the theater department

and had a good job on campus.

He recently landed a small part in a Hollywood action film.

Some believe the disappearance may be connected to the fact

that he was gay.

No one seems to know what happened

late one night in Moscow to interfere

with Wil's bright future.

Is the outlet clear down there?

Yeah.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The evening began with hard work.

Wil and his partner, Jerry, who'd

been together for five years, were remodeling their kitchen.

That's it. I'm done.

Well, Katie's party's tonight and we're going.

JERRY SCHUTZ: Wil decided he wanted to go to Katie's party.

I didn't want to go.

I wanted to go to sleep.

And at about midnight, he said, OK, I'm going to go

and I'll be home in a few hours.

I'll see you in a few hours.

The last thing I told Wil was, I love you.

And he said, I love you back.

It was the last weekend before school started and everyone was

coming back into town from Christmas break

and it was a perfect excuse for a party.

Oh, hey, Wil.

Hey, Katie.

How's it going?

Good.

How are you?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): By the time Wil arrived,

two parties were in full swing.

On the third floor were Moscow locals, mostly former athletes

from the town high school.

Katie's party on the second floor was for her friends

from the college theater department.

KATIE PAYNE: Because of the two different worlds that were kind

of colliding that night, my concern

was that there could be a possibility for some sort

of confrontation since Wil has no problem being open with how

he is and with every opinion.

OK.

I'm a little worried about Karen.

I don't like that guy.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Throughout the night,

Wil was preoccupied with another friend, Karen, and the trouble

she was having was her boyfriend,

a local resident who was attending

the third floor party.

You're causing a scene.

Good.

I'll cause you a scene.

Hey.

KATIE PAYNE: Wil was very protective of his friends.

And being as he was drunk, it enhanced his concern naturally.

But he just wanted to make sure she was OK.

There were times when if he'd had a bit to drink,

he'd get belligerent.

If somebody yelled a slur at him, he'd respond,

he'd take the bait.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): By about 2:30 in the morning,

Karen had gone home, leaving Katie to keep Wil from putting

himself in an unpredictable situation

with Karen's boyfriend and the partiers on the third floor.

- I'm going upstairs. - No, you're not.

Yes. I want to go upstairs.

No, you don't.

KATIE PAYNE: And then I thought, I want to make

sure that Karen got home OK.

So I called her house, found out that she was OK and found out

she was asleep, and I walked back outside onto the porch

and Wil was gone.

Wil?

Wil?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Katie noticed

Wil's car was still parked out front

and assumed he had gone upstairs.

By the next morning, the car was gone.

It was about 11:30, 12:00 when I called Katie's.

And I said, can you wake Wil up and send him home?

We've got some stuff to do today.

And she said, well, he's not here.

He didn't stay here last night.

And I started calling around to all theater students trying

to find out if he'd gone to somebody

else's house, continued drinking,

passed out on their couch.

And nobody had seen him.

He called about 7:30 Sunday evening and he was concerned.

And I was immediately concerned.

It was winter and my initial concern was hypothermia.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): When Wil hadn't shown by Monday

morning, nearly 36 hours after the party, his friends combed

the city searching for him.

Find anything?

Nothing down here.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): A big break

came when a search team found Wil's car

parked on a downtown street.

I was just driving around and saw it.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Jerry examined the car

and was surprised to find it was unlocked

and that Wil had left his portfolio inside.

That portfolio carried all of Wil's artwork--

his drawings, his makeup sketches.

Everything that was important to him was in that portfolio.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): And on the dash,

his work keys from the university.

JERRY SCHUTZ: The keys that were left there,

they never left his body.

They were clipped to his belt or they were at home

because if he lost the keys, then he would

have to re-key the building.

We did go through the car with a fine tooth comb

with crime lab folks.

There weren't any blood or any hair

samples that weren't Wil's.

There wasn't anything in there that

would indicate that any kind of foul play

occurred, at least in the car.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Finding

the car had only raised more questions

about Wil's disappearance.

Some of his friends thought it possible that Wil

had left voluntarily to start a new life.

Wil had a lot of trepidation about school

and I think he shared that with me

because we had that in common.

Sometimes you just get overwhelmed.

And his comment was, I'd like to tour the country.

I'd just like to take off someday.

I was like, wow, and not tell anyone--

not even your parents?

What about your commitments?

He said, well, I'd just go.

I think he took the car downtown and intentionally parked it.

He left his work keys, he took his wallet.

Maybe he even hitchhiked out of town.

I spent probably about a year hoping, praying

that he had walked away because the alternative was

he was dead.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): But after nearly two years

and still no sign of Wil, his friends

and family feared the worst.

Katie believes it all goes back to her apartment

building that January night.

KATIE PAYNE: My hypothesis, I guess you could say,

is that something happened and it got out of control

and it probably didn't mean to happen.

But then whatever happened got covered up simply

because it became so huge.

I could see that this might have been a possibility,

that he ran into somebody that didn't like gays

and they did him in.

DAN WEAVER: We did interview all of the folks on the top floor

and did not get any indication from any of them

that they had done anything other than just talk to Wil.

Subsequent to our initial contact with them,

those individuals on the top floor

took a polygraph and all of them did pass the polygraph.

The gap between 3:30 in the morning

and then finding the car at 11:00 on Monday, it's a hole,

it's a blank hole.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Jerry believes

the car might hold the most important

clues to Wil's disappearance.

When the police released the car,

he discovered disturbing details.

I found out that there was mud caked on the inside wheel

wells of the car.

So there was no reason for mud to be caked on the inside

of the wheel wells.

And then the other odd thing was that somebody had moved

the seat all the way to its far back position,

indicating to me that a large person may

have been the last person to drive Wil's car.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Grasping for answers, Jerry

pursued a theory that someone they both knew

might have crossed Wil's path early that January morning.

Two months prior to Wil's disappearance,

Jerry had fired a van driver who worked for his shuttle service.

One morning, he came in from his shift

demanding that the operations manager go out

and change a headlight.

It's your van.

You own the van, you fix the headlight.

I don't want to argue about this.

OK?

JERRY SCHUTZ: He started yelling, screaming,

and ended it with a slur at my sexuality.

Faggot!

JERRY SCHUTZ: I terminated him on the spot.

What did you call me?

Get off the property.

I don't want you hear again.

He subsequently went to work for a long-haul

trucking outfit.

And on the morning of Wil's disappearance,

at approximately 4:30, 5:00 in the morning,

he checked out a refrigerated truck

from the dispatch in Lewiston, 30 miles south of here.

There is a coincidence there in that the last time Wil was seen

was about the time this driver would

have been going to Lewiston.

DAN WEAVER: We have had a number of sightings across the country

that people call us up and say, hey, we have seen Wil.

We have checked each and every one of those calls out

and they have not proven to be Wil.

We have checked out hundreds of leads,

put in hundreds and hundreds of hours on this particular case.

And as far as absolute facts that we can lay down

on a piece of paper to show what may have happened,

we are no closer than we were on day one.

I don't know that it's important to find him

because if he's dead, and I believe that he is,

I know where he's at.

But I think having a body can relate

definitely put some closure.

Join me next time for more intriguing true tales

on "Unsolved Mysteries."

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