Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Tonight, on Unsolved Mysteries.

ROBERT STACK: In a peaceful suburb of Los Angeles,

a feud over a drug debt spirals out of control,

an innocent teenage boy is taken hostage,

and a family is destroyed.

Jill Behrman had a passion for cycling.

One morning she set off for a ride

through Bloomington, Indiana, and inexplicably vanished.

Was she abducted?

Or was she the victim of a tragic accident?

It began innocently enough.

A selfless good deed by Billy Fisher

convinced Nancy Hyer that they should become friends.

Three weeks later, Nancy sat down to dinner

with Billy and his father, soon two would

be dead and a third missing.

Authorities need your help to bring a killer to justice.

Kristen Modafferi came to San Francisco

for a summer of adventure.

Then she vanished.

Did she drown in the Pacific?

Or was she lured into the arms of a murderer?

Joining me for these stories of intrigue and deception,

prime ingredients for Unsolved Mysteries.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK: Nick Markowitz celebrates

his bar mitzvah with dozens of friends and loved ones.

It would be the last joyous occasion before tragedy rips

the Markowitz family apart.

MAN: Ladies and gentlemen, let's give

it up for the Markowitz family!

ROBERT STACK: The seeds of their tragedy lie with Nick's older

half brother Ben.

For most of his life, Ben has been in trouble.

And now young Nick is about to be engulfed in Ben's

world of deceit and betrayal.

Ben owes money to this man, Jesse

James Hollywood, who was given his notorious name at birth.

On August 6, 2000, Jesse allegedly

decided to find Ben and collect what is owed him,

one way or another.

According to reports, Jesse and two of his friends

cruise the quiet streets of West Hills,

California, looking for Ben.

They cannot find him, but instead spot Nick.

A fateful decision is made.

- Nicky. - Nick.

Nicky.

Hey guys.

Where's Ben?

- I don't know. - You don't know?

No, I don't know.

I don't know, man.

I think maybe you do. - I think you know.

- No, I don't. - Yeah, you do.

I don't know.

Why don't you come with us in the van.

No, I gotta get going.

BRUCE CORRELL: Witnesses say that they saw the van pull over

and there was a physical confrontation.

And that young Nick was forced into the van and the van left.

On that day, he was simply a young man who his only problem

was that he had an older brother who had provoked the wrath

of Jesse James Hollywood.

ROBERT STACK: At first glance, Jesse James

Hollywood and his friends seem like

typical suburban teenagers.

They grew up in a loving middle class homes

and were given every chance to succeed in life.

But somewhere along the way, Jesse allegedly went off track.

When by chance Nicholas Markowitz crossed Jesse's path,

the result was catastrophic.

Now one of them is dead and the other a fugitive from justice.

As a child, there was no hint that Jesse James' outlaw name

might turn out to be prophetic.

Jesse and his close knit group of friends

would spend countless summer days playing baseball,

while their families watched with pride.

But police believe that Jessie, the innocent little leaguer,

somehow transformed into a big time suburban drug dealer.

Incredibly, the age of 19, Jesse reportedly

amassed enough illicit profits to buy an expensive home

and the party began.

Jesse James Hollywood was driving expensive cars.

He was partying with his friends on nearly a daily basis.

And he was living a rather lavish

lifestyle for a young man without any legitimate means

of employment.

ROBERT STACK: Less than two miles away, but a world apart,

15-year-old Nick Markowitz lived with his parents, Jeff

and Susan.

JEFF MARKOWITZ: Nick was a typical teenager.

He was a likable kid.

Everybody loved Nick.

He had a great sense of humor.

He was always positive and fun to be around.

ROBERT STACK: But Nick's 25-year-old half brother

Ben was an entirely different story.

According to police, Ben was a friend of Jesse Hollywood,

and often bought marijuana from him.

Shortly before the kidnapping, Ben and Jesse

had a falling out after Ben refused to pay a $1,200

drug debt.

BEN MARKOWITZ: He's a real little guy,

very obnoxious, just the type of guy

you'd want to take his stuff. I didn't fear him.

He was, like I just said, he was just--

Jesse was just a little man.

I was like, $1,200, yeah, sure.

I'll get you later, buddy.

What's going on, man?

Jesse, what are you doing?

Where have you been?

ROBERT STACK: Jesse James Hollywood reportedly confronted

Ben on several occasions.

I told you I would get your money, all right?

You don't come to my house like this, man.

Come to your house-- what are you smoking?

Huh?

This is your last chance.

You got that?

ROBERT STACK: After numerous run ins with Ben,

Jesse reportedly had had enough.

And on August 6th, he went looking for his former friend.

Nick Markowitz just happened to be in the wrong place

at the wrong time.

I was making Nick breakfast and went upstairs to get him

and he was not there.

I paged him and he did not return my page.

I guess I must have paged him 100 times.

I knew something was wrong.

ROBERT STACK: Police believe that Nick could not

return his mother's call because Jesse James had kidnapped him.

Nick was purportedly taken to a home in Santa Barbara,

California and restrained.

There, he would remain a hostage until his brother, Ben,

paid his debt.

On the following day, witnesses report seeing

Nick at the Santa Barbara home.

Jesse is not at the house.

Nick is no longer bound nor gagged.

In fact, Nick's captors seem to treat him like a guest.

Nick was free to move around the residence.

Young people that did come and go from the residence,

although they were told that he had been, in essence,

kidnapped, by his demeanor there, he was not acting

as they might expect someone that had been kidnapped

would be acting.

I personally feel that Nick had the expectation

that at some point in time, he would be freed.

Don't worry about him, he's fine.

ROBERT STACK: In the ensuing days,

there was no reported effort by Jesse James Hollywood

to exchange Nick for the money Ben Markowitz owed him.

According to witnesses, Jesse realized

the situation was quickly spiraling out of control.

He telephoned his lawyer for advice.

That won't-- it can't be.

ROBERT STACK: Police believe that Jessie came

to a disturbing realization, if Nick was released

and told authorities about the spontaneous kidnapping,

Jessie could spend the rest of his life behind bars.

We believe that, as a result of that conversation,

Jessie came to the conclusion that he would

be in a better situation to kill Nick as opposed to trying

to return him.

ROBERT STACK: Authorities theorize that Jessie then

contacted this man, Ryan Hoyt, a 21-year-old acquaintance who

also owed Jessie $1,200 for drugs.

In this home video taken by Jesse James Hollywood,

he can be heard demanding payment from Ryan Hoyt.

JESSE JAMES: You're saying you're going to give

my money back on Monday?

What's going to be there tomorrow, Hoyt?

I'm serious man.

Stop recording.

JESSE JAMES: I said, what's going to be in the bank.

You never answered yet. I want to know.

$500. At least $500.

Now stop [bleep] recording.

ROBERT STACK: Jessie allegedly offered

Ryan a way to pay off his debt.

Hey, Ryan, it's Jessie.

Listen, I got a proposition for you.

On August 8th, police believe that Ryan Hoyt and two

accomplices led Nick Markowitz to Lizard's

Mouth, a remote area in the Los Padres National Forest.

Jesse James Hollywood was not there.

[gun shots]

BEN MARKOWITZ: We were friends.

All of us, we were friends.

And the way that it went down, I feel very responsible for it.

All I can really do is just overthink it in my head

and, you know, and believe me, there's many nights

where I couldn't sleep.

ROBERT STACK: Four days later, the body of Nick Markowitz

was discovered.

An anonymous tip from a teenager who saw Nick at the Santa

Barbara home quickly identified several suspects

in his kidnapping and murder.

Within days, police arrested Ryan Hoyt and three accomplices

for the crime.

All four pleaded not guilty and remain in custody at the Santa

Barbara County jail.

But Jesse James Hollywood was nowhere to be found.

Authorities believe publicity about the murder

caused Hollywood to flee.

BRUCE CORRELL: We don't know where he went.

We don't know where he is now.

But he did leave the jurisdiction eventually.

And he returned to the San Fernando Valley area.

But since that time, his whereabouts

have been unknown to us.

The nightmares you wake up from,

this is worse than a nightmare.

They've destroyed me.

They've gutted me.

I am soulless.

I am lost.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK: Every evening at dusk, Eric and Marilyn Behrman

perform a quiet ritual.

The candle's flame represents the flicker of hope,

that they will solve a perplexing mystery

that has shattered their lives.

On May 31st, 2000, their 19-year-old daughter Jill

looked forward to another morning

indulging her passion for fitness.

She left their home in Bloomington, Indiana

at 9:00 AM.

Her job did not begin until noon.

She had plenty of time to first enjoy the sport she loved best.

MARILYN BERHMAN: Jill treated a bike ride like a workout.

She took it pretty seriously.

And she wanted to ride hard.

And her friends have told me that going for a bike

ride with Jill was not very much fun

because they couldn't keep up.

ROBERT STACK: Jill had just completed

her freshman year as a business major at Indiana University.

Her family and friends described her

as the epitome of a fun-loving, All-American girl.

I found her purse.

ROBERT STACK: 12 hours later, Eric and Marilyn

became alarmed when Jill failed to return home.

MARILYN BERHMAN: It's way after dark.

It's very late.

It's cold outside.

And I was alternating between being

sad or worried, or maybe even angry, thinking,

why would she do this?

Why would she go off and not tell us what she's up to?

I mean, just all those mixed emotions.

I don't know what to think.

Its was then that we both were really,

I think, terrified as to just what

might have happened to her.

ROBERT STACK: Jill Behrman had vanished without a trace.

Bloomington Police and the FBI received over 3,000 tips.

But what happened to Jill is still unknown.

Authorities believed she might have been

abducted, although there was no evidence

to support that conclusion.

They also thought she may have been the victim

of a hit and run accident.

But if that were true, where was her body?

The investigation yielded many clues but no answers.

News of Jill's disappearance spread

quickly throughout Bloomington.

Two days after she vanished, townspeople by the hundreds

joined investigators in an exhaustive search.

Local cycling clubs traced the routes Jill may have taken.

They had groups of people not only searching the roads,

but about 150 feet or so off on each side of the road.

In the woods and the ravines and the areas along several

of the roads, and in places that we

know that Jill liked to ride.

ROBERT STACK: Despite the massive effort,

no trace of Jill was found.

But the same day the search began, a vital clues surfaced.

Resident of Bloomington stepped forward,

reporting that he had retrieved an abandoned

bicycle, two days earlier, the same day Jill had disappeared.

Only later, when news about Jill broke,

did he realize the significance.

The bicycle's serial number enabled police

to confirm that it was Jill's.

Investigators searched the area surrounding

where the bike was found.

But they found nothing.

The location raised their suspicions.

Jill was last seen south of her home

riding in a southerly direction.

Her bike was 10 miles Northwest of that site.

ERIC BEHRMAN: That's not a route that she

would have been on that day.

That's about 10 miles away.

It's through town.

It's through a great deal of traffic.

And Jill hated riding in any kind of traffic.

She just-- she wouldn't ride in the traffic.

MARILYN BERHMAN: She's not with the bike

and the bike is somewhere she would not have ridden.

And this isn't making any sense.

This is even more mysterious and more scary

now because now I don't know what to think.

ROBERT STACK: Three days after Jill vanished,

the mystery deepened.

A digital radio was found neatly placed in the parking

lot of a Bloomington church.

It was the same model, and color as one

that Jill usually took with her when she cycled.

At the moment the radio was found, at church goer

in the parking lot witnessed a pickup truck that investigators

viewed with suspicion.

There's no indication that that pickup truck

was related to the Walkman.

However, we've attempted to try and find

not only the pickup truck but certainly

the individual driving it.

We've been unsuccessful in doing that.

ROBERT STACK: 10 days later, a young woman

Jill's age was involved in an attempted abduction

just three miles from where Jill's bike was found.

We certainly believe that there could

be a correlation between the event in Ellisville

and Jill's disappearance.

ROBERT STACK: Is it possible that the same assailant,

who is still unidentified, also targeted Jill?

We've had any number of theories in this.

And certainly one of those theories

is that Jill was targeted.

And that they placed the bicycle in an area different from where

she was last seen in an effort to try

and at least lead us away from the area in which she

was, in fact, abducted.

ROBERT STACK: The possibility that Jill was abducted

seemed more plausible when news broke

a year later about another female cyclist in Kentucky.

A motorist struck her and tried to drag her into his car

before he was chased away by a witness.

A police artist made this sketch of the suspect.

But whether this man also attempted to abduct Jill

is unknown.

The only other theory investigators consider possible

is that Jill was a victim of a hit and run accident.

We believe that it was certainly possible

that Jill was struck by a group of people who were

high on drugs, alcohol or both.

That these folks panicked.

And instead of leaving her or trying to get help for her,

they put her and the bike in a vehicle and took her.

ROBERT STACK: The hit and run theory,

however, is flawed by one perplexing detail, the damage

to Jill's bicycle was minimal.

Still, investigators say it is possible that Jill was not

struck while riding, but after she dismounted

to rest or make repairs.

Ultimately, however, what happened to Jill

remains unknown.

That's one of the hardest things

about this whole situation, is the not knowing.

Without knowing whether she is alive,

without knowing where she is.

MARILYN BERHMAN: I miss that smile.

I miss her laugh.

It's a nightmare that just keeps going on.

ERIC BEHRMAN: Every night we light the candle

on the front doorstep.

And it stays lit all night until the next morning.

MARILYN BERHMAN: It's kind of a beacon of hope.

And just as a reminder that Jill is still missing.

ERIC BEHRMAN: And every day we pray that that's going to be

the day that we find Jill.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK: 21-year-old Nancy Hyer and 19-year-old Billy

Fisher met by chance in 1986.

OK.

I'll take your word for it.

ROBERT STACK: Billy first saw Nancy on a train

heading to New York City.

She had become lost and was on the verge of tears.

Billy stepped forward and volunteered

to escort Nancy back home to Hicksville, Long Island.

The two began a close friendship.

That's awesome.

DEBRA MCCABE: Nancy thought Billy was a really nice guy.

She did say to me, he's starting to look at me like a girlfriend

kind of thing.

And I don't like him that way.

But she didn't want to hurt his feelings

because he was so nice.

ROBERT STACK: On a stormy night three weeks later,

Nancy received a call from Billy.

Get home from work tomorrow, OK?

Alrighty, I'll talk to you later.

Bye bye.

I wonder if I'll actually be able to follow

these directions.

ROBERT STACK: She told her sister, Debra,

that Billy had asked for a ride home

from his father's house in South Hampton.

Despite the weather, Nancy decided to repay Billy's

earlier act of kindness.

I don't really think you should be going

out in this weather, Nancy.

DEBRA MCCABE: And I said, I can't believe you're

going to drive in this weather.

You don't even like to drive at night.

And she says, well, he's done so much for me

that I'm going to just go.

Alrighty, I'm all ready to go.

You look great.

Thank you.

ROBERT STACK: Nancy's mother, Joan,

was also concerned about her daughter

driving during a storm.

JOAN HYER: As I saw my daughter drive away,

I was a little fearful, myself.

Worry, just mother's worry.

That's enough.

ROBERT STACK: Nancy Hyer set off into the downpour

for the hour and a half drive to Southampton.

Her friendship with Billy Fisher would soon lead to tragedy.

An unsuspecting Nancy Hyer was heading straight

into another family's conflict, one

that was about to turn violent.

Billy Fisher had cystic fibrosis,

a degenerative respiratory disease

and was overwhelmed with medical bills.

He was seeking money from his estranged

father who'd abandoned the family 15 years earlier.

What followed next was a chain reaction of ill-fated events,

ultimately put Nancy Hyer in the wrong place at the wrong time.

At the time Billy Fisher met Nancy, he was swamped in debt

and increasingly ill.

Hi, may I speak to William Fisher, please?

ROBERT STACK: He decided to ask his father,

William, for help, even though the two

hadn't spoken in over a year.

Hello?

Hi, dad, it's Billy.

STEPHEN OATES: He was employed by a well-to-do car

dealership in Manhattan in the city of New York.

Was making a very high salary.

The investigation determined that he began and had been

using cocaine extensively, to the point

that it affected his performance at his place of employment.

ROBERT STACK: Billy's father invited

his son to visit for the weekend and discuss

the money situation.

Hey, Billy.

How are you doing?

I'm OK.

Come on, I'm not going to bite you.

ROBERT STACK: Nobody knows how Billy got to Southampton.

But a day after arriving, he called

Nancy Hyer to take him home.

That night, Joan Hyer waited anxiously for Nancy to return.

JOAN HYER: I was pacing the living

room, constantly at the front door looking out the window.

The clock was going, 12:00, 1:00, 2:00 o'clock.

I kind of figured, she's a responsible girl.

She might have had to stay over because of the weather

or the time of night.

But then I still kept hesitant because I said,

she would never not call me.

Yes, well I know she's 21, but could you please--

ROBERT STACK: The next morning, still no call.

Joan began to panic.

The police could not help.

Nancy had not been gone long enough to be declared missing.

I know she left directions and a phone number

around her somewhere.

I don't know where she left it.

ROBERT STACK: Running out of options, Joan

and Nancy's sister, Debra, rummaged through her bedroom.

No wait, here it is.

Fisher.

Hello?

Yes, hello.

This is Nancy Hyer's mother, Joan.

Mr. Fisher, yes.

I'd like to know if my daughter came out there last evening.

Yeah, she was here.

I cooked a roast.

We had some drinks and dinner.

And for you, young lady?

Medium rare.

JOAN HYER: He said, we had dinner.

He said, and I gave them something to drink.

Nice to see you, son.

Dad.

JOAN HYER: And they went out after that.

Well, listen, you both take care and drive safely.

He said, oh, they probably just went somewhere.

Or, he says, or Billy is somewhere

and Nancy is somewhere else.

If I hear anything, I'll give you a call--

DEBRA MCCABE: He seemed very forthcoming, that he was

concerned about his own son.

We were thinking, at that point that, young Billy had taken her

somewhere and done something.

ROBERT STACK: Another day passed with no sign of Nancy.

And Joan filed a missing persons report.

But with no proof of foul play, there

was little the police could do.

So June turned back to the last person who saw her daughter.

She repeatedly called William Fisher, who became

increasingly confrontational.

Mr. Fisher, could you go over, step by step, exactly

what happened that evening.

Look, like I told you before, they came over.

JOAN HYER: He would fly off the handle

and tell me, let the police handle this.

I have no idea where these kids went.

And he was getting very, very hostile over the phone.

Goodbye.

JOAN HYER: So I kept getting more suspicious of Mr. Fischer.

ROBERT STACK: 10 days after Nancy's disappears,

in a parking lot two miles from William Fisher's house,

police responded to a report of an abandoned car.

Nancy Hyer.

Sarge, it comes back to that missing girl, Nancy Hyer.

See if you can pop the trunk.

Oh my god, Sarge, get back here.

Oh my god.

STEPHEN OATES: Located in the trunk of the car

was a young Billy Fisher.

A second body was located [inaudible]

and that was young Nancy.

The autopsy reported that Billy had been shot 18 times.

The vast majority of those rounds

were in the head at close range.

Nancy's autopsy revealed that she

had been stabbed twice with a very long, sharp instrument.

At that same time, neighbors reported strange activity

at the Fisher home.

Apparently, William was remodeling his master bedroom

at 3:00 AM in the morning.

Well, you can see it's been freshly painted.

ROBERT STACK: Police secured a search warrant

for the Fisher residence.

Slight indentations were observed

in a section of the wall, and it was removed.

See what we find here.

ROBERT STACK: Two .22 caliber bullets were recovered.

A single strand of hair was fused to one of the bullets.

It was identified as Billy Fisher's.

STEPHEN OATES: That established that this was the crime scene.

Additional testing established that there was a large amount

of blood splattered all about the halls,

of the hallway, consistent with an individual, Nancy,

being stabbed in that area immediately

outside the master bedroom.

Well, what does that mean?

That means--

ROBERT STACK: The evidence clearly

implicated William Fisher.

But the sheer brutality of the killings obscured his motive.

Well, everybody works to pay the bills.

So what?

It's not enough.

ROBERT STACK: What could have caused Fisher,

a man with plenty to lose, to shoot his son 18 times

and then murder a complete stranger?

You think I can afford to live here if I don't work?

Why don't you help me?

This is about money, isn't it.

ROBERT STACK: Could an argument have broken out over Billy's

financial problems?

Just the same as always, it's always about money, isn't it?

It's you, you, you.

Constantly.

All the time.

It's always about money.

[gun shots]

ROBERT STACK: Nancy, who was only

in the house because of an act of kindness,

was now a witness to murder.

JOAN HYER: I can't imagine a parent killing their own child

and then taking someone else's child

that they don't even know anything about.

I just can't, still today, believe that anything

could happen like this.

ROBERT STACK: Police sought a warrant for murder

against William Fisher.

But before it could be issued, Fisher disappeared.

His car was found abandoned at JFK airport.

Police later discovered he had taken

a second mortgage out on his house in excess of $100,000.

William Fisher has evaded arrest on murder

charges for nearly two decades.

William Peter Fisher is 57 years old, 5 feet 11 inches tall

and 185 to 200 pounds.

These age enhanced photos depict what

Fisher may look like today.

He wears expensive clothing, drinks heavily,

and may have fled the country.

[music playing]

ROBERT STACK: San Francisco, California.

18-year-old Kristen Modafferi enjoys a summer of adventure.

A college honors students, she is 3,000 miles from her home

in North Carolina.

The extended visit is a dream come

true for a young woman eager to explore life on her own.

Monday, June 23 begins like any other day.

At 7:00 AM she arrives at the upscale Crocker Galleria.

She has taken a job at a coffee shop

to pay for a photography course at UC Berkeley.

Good morning.

How are you?

ROBERT STACK: As always, she is eager to explore the city

at the end of her shift.

According to the new friends she had met, perhaps too eager.

GRIFFIN CHERRY: She wanted to come to the big city

and find some excitement.

But it seemed to be coupled with a naivete,

maybe, or not a real understanding

of how the big city works.

ROBERT STACK: At 3:00 o'clock, Kristen leaves the coffee shop,

then disappears without a trace.

Kristen Modafferi's dream summer in San Francisco

lasted only three weeks.

The police would be frustrated by tantalizing

leads that went nowhere.

A mysterious blonde woman seen with Kristen,

page's inexplicably torn from a diary,

and an anonymous phone call directing them

to a shadowy figure who may know what happened.

The mystery is a nightmare not only for the police,

but also for Kristen's parents.

OK.

Just got to the hotel.

ROBERT STACK: Bob and Debbie Modafferi

wasted no time after they learned Kristen had vanished.

The following day, they flew 3,000 miles

from North Carolina.

BOB MODAFFERI: When we found out that she had disappeared,

we were just shocked. We couldn't eat.

We barely spoke.

We just were-- just even having trouble breathing.

DEBBIE MODAFFERI: When you are faced

with a situation like this, you really don't

know how strong you can be.

You can either crawl in a hole and die and give up,

or you can fight.

And I think there was no choice for us.

We were going to fight for our daughter.

ROBERT STACK: But finding Kristen

would be a formidable task.

Like many missing persons cases, it was difficult even

knowing where to start.

PATRICK MAHANAY: You don't have a crime scene.

You have no witnesses.

You can't even establish that a crime has occurred.

And you just kind of build on little pieces of information,

hunches, whatever you can come up with, and see if you

can put the puzzle together.

ROBERT STACK: One of the first pieces of the puzzle

was a sighting of Kirsten by one of her coworkers,

45 minutes after her shift ended,

she was seen in the Crocker Galleria with a blonde woman.

PATRICK MAHANAY: She thought that was

kind of strange because she never

really stuck around after work.

Soon as she checked out, she was gone.

BOB MODAFFERI: And they were very close

together, like they were hanging out together, talking together.

Definitely with each other.

And so we've made a lot of effort

to try to get the blonde woman to come forward,

identify herself.

And we appealed a number of times through the media,

but never got a response to all our appeals to the blonde woman

to come forward.

ROBERT STACK: With few leads, the police

took an unusual step, a bloodhound

attempted to retrace Kristen's path from the coffee

shop the day she vanished.

JEFF SCHETTLER: When we were downtown,

I could tell he was on a trail.

He knew exactly where he was going, every turn was perfect.

ROBERT STACK: The police could not

be certain, however, that this was the path Kristen

took the day she disappeared.

It could have been a route Kristen had previously

traveled without incident.

PATRICK MAHANAY: He then led us up to Geary Street,

heading out towards Land's End Beach.

ROBERT STACK: Kristen's coworkers had told police

that on the day she vanished, she talked

of visiting Land's End Beach.

PATRICK MAHANAY: We then got down to the beach area

and came to a point where the trail seemed to have stopped.

ROBERT STACK: A chilling possibility revealed itself.

PATRICK MAHANAY: That's a very treacherous part of the San

Francisco water line.

Numerous people each year are washed off the rocks

and are never seen again.

So that was a distinct possibility that she had,

in fact, fallen into the ocean.

BOB MODAFFERI: We really don't believe that's what

happened to Kristen.

It's a very tourist-oriented area.

There's always people around.

If she had fallen into the water,

somebody would have seen something.

ROBERT STACK: If Kristen did not suffer a tragic accident,

what became of her?

[phone ringing]

ABC 7.

ROBERT STACK: A startling twist to the mystery

occurred 17 days after she vanished.

An anonymous male telephoned a San Francisco TV news room.

He said Kristin had been murdered.

How do you know these two women?

BILL MAGEE: He went into a very long description

of who he said killed her.

And he told me that there were two women and he named them.

And he said that Kristin had been

killed as a result of a lesbian love affair that went wrong.

ROBERT STACK: Detectives tracked down the two women named

by the caller, but determined they did not know Kristen

and had nothing to do with her disappearance.

PATRICK MAHANAY: We then asked these people,

who has a grudge against you?

Who would want to see you go through this?

And each person separate and independent

gave the name of John.

All right, so I made the phone call.

So what?

ROBERT STACK: John, who asked us not to use his last name,

told police the two women were his girlfriend's employers.

He claimed they were harassing her at work.

To get back at them, he said, he phoned in the false tip.

He said he got the idea when he saw TV news coverage

about Kristen and he knew nothing

about the case beyond what he saw on television.

Still, the police suspected there was more to John's story.

They investigated his background and discovered

disturbing allegations of previously abusing women.

The next step was to determine whether he

had any connection to Kristen.

Police say that John met women largely through personal ads.

Come on.

Here it is right here.

I bet you this one's it.

Check it out.

ROBERT STACK: Previously, they had

found an ad in Kristen's apartment they

think she might have placed.

BOB MODAFFERI: If you read it, sounds

like it could be Kristen.

It's all the kind of things she was interested in.

It's photography, walking the city, music, art.

It was all the kind of things that Kristen was there to do.

ROBERT STACK: If the ad had brought Kristen and John

together, a baffling piece of the puzzle

could now be seen in a new light.

BOB MODAFFERI: John, we were told,

used other women to lure women to himself.

So we felt that perhaps this blonde woman

could have been a plant to draw Kristen to this John.

ROBERT STACK: The police uncovered

more troubling pieces of information

from the women John allegedly abused.

One of them claimed he made an alarming reference to Kristen.

That's what he said.

Now you know what I did to Kristen.

Don't make me do it to you.

I never made a statement like that.

ROBERT STACK: John agreed to do an interview with us

on condition that we not reveal his face and alter his voice.

The reason she made that statement is she

was angry that I was leaving San Francisco.

I was leaving her.

And I didn't want her anymore.

She was very angry, very bitter.

ROBERT STACK: One more troubling coincidence

was discovered at the home of John's girlfriend.

Her diary was missing several pages, pages

covering the same time period Kristen

had been in San Francisco.

PATRICK MAHANAY: We asked her, why is this the way it is?

And she told us that John had torn the pages out

and said that some of the stuff that was in there

could come back to hurt him.

ROBERT STACK: Despite such disturbing pieces

of information, police say they have

no clear evidence that John had any involvement

in Kristen's disappearance.

Also, John says he has taken and passed

a polygraph examination conducted

by a reputable expert.

BOB MODAFFERI: At the very least,

this John made a stupid, stupid mistake by making this phone

call to the TV station.

But if he is more involved, then we still

need to find out those answers.

And we still need to keep after him until we find

out whether or not he's guilty.

I've never met Kirsten.

I never saw her.

There's absolutely no connection to Kristen and I in any way.

And what I did was wrong.

I wish I'd never made that call.

But I did.

And I just want to tell the parents how sorry I am.

I'm really, really sorry for what I did.

ROBERT STACK: Kristen Modafferi had

come to San Francisco embracing a future full of promise.

What shattered that future remains a mystery.

For her parents, the search for answers continues.

DEBBIE MODAFFERI: We owe this to her.

We owe this to ourselves.

And we owe this to her sisters.

Someone stole Kristen's dreams and that's not fair.

ROBERT STACK: Join us for our next edition

of Unsolved Mysteries.

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