Original subtitles

ANNOUNCER: Tonight on "Unsolved Mysteries"--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Responding to a routine call,

Lufkin, Texas firefighters made a gruesome discovery.

The partially burned body of a young woman

was tied to her own bed.

Authorities now need your help to find the murder

of 26-year-old Megan Curl.

It was a brazen crime spree committed

by an unlikely suspect that left three dead bodies on its wake.

In 1970, 18-year-old Margo Freshwater

was convicted of murder, but she escaped custody.

She has evaded authorities for more than three decades

and tonight, a shocking new development.

An apparent growing causes suspicion

when the supposed victim turns out to be

a man awaiting trial for rape.

Authorities need your help to determine if Strider

Styarfyre is dead or alive.

A man and a woman inexplicably vanish in America's heartland.

A massive search for the pair has failed to turn up anything,

except for a single bizarre clue.

Growing up, Virginia Burns never knew

that her father had a hidden secret, a previous marriage

and another daughter.

Now Virginia and her sister are finally together,

thanks to you, our viewers.

Join me for these stories of intrigue and deception,

the prime ingredients of "Unsolved Mysteries."

[theme music playing]

4:00 AM, Lufkin, Texas.

Awakened by the smell of smoke, an apartment resident

investigates.

Flames are raging out of control in a unit on the second floor.

The man immediately calls 911.

[sirens]

The Lufkin Fire Department arrives within minutes.

With hoses drawn, the firefighters

waste no time racing to the apparent source of the blaze.

Apartment 616 is locked, requiring

a forced entry to be made.

The fire is confined to the bedroom of the small apartment.

As firefighters extinguish the blaze,

a chilling sight is revealed.

Tied to the posts of the bed is the charred body of a woman.

Homicide investigators are immediately called in.

She had been suffocated with a plastic bag

and her throat had been cut very deeply, two different cuts,

one on each side.

And then the bed had been set afire.

This crime was absolutely the meanest thing I've ever

seen one person do to another.

Dental records would identify the victim as apartment

resident Megan Curl.

The 26-year-old woman who worked at a local chicken

processing plant and had been a Lufkin resident for five years.

Investigators continue to face a perplexing question,

who could commit such grisly acts

on this well-liked young woman?

Megan Curl was born into a military family.

Younger brothers Josh and Shawn soon followed.

In first grade, Megan was diagnosed

with mild retardation, requiring that she attend

special education classes.

Her life was never really easy.

She wasn't always accepted.

People would make fun of her, put her down,

and she'd always come back with a kind word for them.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): When Megan was in high school,

her family settled in Lufkin, 175 miles southeast of Dallas.

Megan would marry at 18 and move to Arkansas,

but According to Sherry McClung, that marriage was abusive.

When they separated, Megan returned to Lufkin

and insisted on getting her own apartment.

Because Megan was so trusting and was so outgoing,

she tended to be an easy target for some of these men.

Men who are accustomed to looking for women who could be

easy prey absolutely could tell that Megan wanted to please,

that Megan wanted somebody to care for her,

and that she was lonely.

And I think that that is part of what happened here.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Megan's mother's

suspicions may be on the mark.

Earlier on the night of her murder,

Megan Curl went to the Electric Cowboy, a local nightclub.

DAVID YOUNG: She was seen talking

with a man at the Electric Cowboy club,

and that man did buy her one or two drinks.

She talked with him off and on through the night at the club.

She wasn't with him the entire night.

No one at the club knew who this man

was and no one reported ever seeing

him there before or since.

Megan loved to dance and sometimes her dancing

was a little bit provocative, particularly

for that area of Texas.

She was asked to leave the club.

She went to another club called the Sport Shack

just a little ways down the road from the Electric Cowboy club.

She talked to some people there and caught a ride

with an employee of the Sport Shack home.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Megan arrived

home just after 1:30 AM.

A close friend who lived in the same apartment complex

was waiting up from Megan to hear the details of her night

out.

Hey.

Can I come up there?

Yeah.

The manager came right up to me on the dance floor

and told me that I had to leave.

Well, what That that for?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Megan's friend

requested that we alter her voice and protect her identity.

MEGAN'S FRIEND: When we were standing out there talking,

then all of a sudden, there was this guy in this car

and he was speaking really fast and he just did a dead stop.

He's driving crazy.

He's going to kill somebody.

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

the driver remained in the car.

MEGAN'S FRIEND: Then I says, well, why

is the guy just sitting there? - Hey, you know what?

I think that maybe my friend from the club.

- Really? - Yeah.

I think I'm going to go say hi to him.

Are you sure?

Yeah.

Well, you be careful.

OK.

OK.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): As Megan's friend watched,

Megan approached the driver.

She seemed to recognize him.

They began to talk.

I went back into the apartment to get me something

to eat because I'm hungry.

And then when I walked back out the next time,

she was sitting inside the car.

And with each little thing, I was getting more worried,

what she was doing.

And then I went back in again and I came back out.

The car was still there, but neither one of them was there.

They were gone.

And I was like, oh, Lord.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Megan's friend

was so concerned she went up to Megan's

apartment to check on her.

[knocking on door]

Hey.

Oh, hey.

- Are you all right? - Yeah.

- Are you sure? - Mm-hm.

MEGAN'S FRIEND: She said, hi.

She says, I was right.

It was my friend from the club.

And I looked down to him and he just nodded his head

slowly and didn't say a word.

And I didn't speak to him at all either.

And I says, well, are you sure you're OK?

And she says, yes, I'm fine.

Yes.

OK.

Call me tomorrow.

OK, I will.

Bye.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): That would be the last time

she would see Megan alive.

When Megan Curl's body was found,

there was a remnant of a nightgown on her.

Most of it had burned off.

In interviewing men from her past,

we learned that her normal sleeping

attire would be something along the lines

of shorts and a t-shirt.

But if she were going to be romantically involved,

she would sometimes wear a negligee or a nightgown.

We feel like because of that, possibly she knew this person

and was preparing for an intimate evening with them.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The very thought

that Megan was killed by someone she trusted compounds

Sherry McClung's grief.

SHERY MCCLUNG: I believe that Megan

knew who the murderer was because she got in the car

with this person.

Megan would have gotten in the car with a person

that she knew.

There was not a forced entry so this

was someone that she bought into the apartment

and that she had trusted.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Investigators

questioned men with whom Megan Curl was known

to have had relationships.

However, each man was able to account for his whereabouts

on the night of the murder.

This sketch is based on Megan's friend's description of the man

she saw with Megan in her apartment.

He is a prime suspect in the murder of Megan Curl.

The man is white in his mid twenties

early thirties, with blonde hair and a light mustache.

He wears gold-rimmed glasses.

Investigators would also like to find this man.

He was seen with Megan by the bartender

at the Electric Cowboy club on the night she was murdered.

He is described as having a dark complexion

and possibly being Hispanic.

This man is not viewed as a suspect.

Investigators simply want to question him about what

he may have seen on that night.

The year was 1970.

Margo Freshwater, a blonde, wide-eyed teenager

from Columbus, Ohio, found herself

in an unlikely place, Tennessee State Prison for Women.

The one-time babysitter had just been convicted

of first degree murder, but Margo would not

remain incarcerated for long.

[door alarm sounding]

On October 4th, Margo and another inmate

made an audacious escape.

While being escorted by a single unarmed guard,

Margo and her accomplice made a run for the fence.

TOMMY LEWIS: The guard had to make a decision

whether to stay with the main group or chase them.

All the guard could do was try to summon some help

and have somebody go after them.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Margo Freshwater

has not been seen since.

Margo Freshwater has managed to elude capture for more than 30

years, longer than any other woman wanted by the Tennessee

Bureau of Investigation.

Police reason that she has blended back

into the fabric of everyday life,

but Margo Freshwater is a convicted killer.

With your help, authorities hope to finally return her to jail.

How did Margo Freshwater, a young woman

with no criminal background, end up a murderer?

The story begins in the office of Glenn Nash,

a hard-drinking lawyer whose grip on sanity

was beginning to slip.

Nash was being investigated by the Memphis Bar Association

for legal misconduct.

He had come to the deluded conclusion

that agents from the Bar were conspiring against him.

TOMMY LEWIS: Glenn Nash was an intelligent person,

but somewhere along the line his drinking and mental situation

apparently deteriorated and he just took a left-hand turn.

Mr. Nash.

Glenn Nash.

Margo Freshwater.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Margo had

come seeking Nash's help in getting

her boyfriend out of jail.

Who then took advantage of whom is open for debate.

Well, I'm here because of my boyfriend.

He's in jail right now for armed robbery.

Margo was a young, attractive blonde, very good figure,

and Margo had the distinct ability to turn a man's

head when she would walk by.

And I just drove down from Ohio to help him out.

I believe Margo was seduced by Nash.

She didn't have any life experience,

especially with any kind of situation like this.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Margo had no money to pay Nash.

She couldn't even afford a place to stay in town.

Although broke himself, Nash agreed

to take the case pro bono.

He also put Margo up at a local boarding house.

The married 41-year-old and the 18-year-old

then began a torrid affair.

But Nash was increasingly consumed by paranoid delusions

that agents from the Memphis Bar were after him.

One evening, he told Margo's landlady

they were going bowling.

Instead, a three-state crime spree ensued.

All the money in the register right now.

Right now! Go.

Come on.

TOMMY LEWIS: I believe that Glenn Nash

had lost touch with reality.

Come on. Get the money.

Come on.

TOMMY LEWIS: I really think he was fantasizing that he could

go in and rob somebody and there wouldn't

be any consequence to it. - Come on.

Come around. Come around.

Let's go. Come around.

You, keep an eye.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Nash ordered

Margo to stay up front while he took

the cashier to the back room.

A customer came into the store and later told investigators

that Margo waited on him.

Meanwhile, Nash remained out of sight,

accusing the cashier of being an agent of the Memphis Bar.

[gunshot]

I seriously doubt Margo knew that any of this

was coming until it got started.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The cashier, Hillman Robbins,

was tied up with rope and shot five times in the head.

A 22 and 38 were both used in the murder.

He left behind a wife and two children.

Witnesses saw two people matching Margo and Nash's

description fleeing the liquor store

and hopping into a white Ford Fairlane.

12 days later, eyewitnesses described

an almost identical scene at a Florida convenience store.

Let's go.

[gunshots]

A couple exited the building and sped off in a Ford Fairlane.

Inside the store was the body of Ester [inaudible]..

She had been shot in the neck.

Police at first did not connect the murders

until they found Nash's car abandoned on a highway.

In the trunk, they found rope and bullet

casings that matched what was used

in the Hillman Robbins murder.

The car was traced to Glenn Nash and an APB was issued.

But the couple's murderous rampage was not over.

A cab driver, CC Syrett, was shot

to death shortly after picking up Glenn and Margo.

The police staked out all the nearby bus stations,

and their efforts soon paid off.

Glenn Nash, Margo Freshwater, you're under arrest.

What for?

Boys.

TOMMY LEWIS: When they arrested them,

they were transported to the Hernando, Mississippi,

to the DeSoto County Jail, where they were charged in connection

with CC Syrett's murder.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Glenn Nash was declared insane,

ruled incompetent to stand trial,

and incarcerated at a mental hospital.

Margo stood trial for the murder of CC Syrett.

She testified that she was held prisoner by Nash

and forced to participate in the crimes under threat of death.

Investigators disagree over Margo's

culpability in the crime spree.

I don't know if I can do this.

You will do this.

Margo Freshwater, in my opinion,

was in a psychological condition where

she wouldn't attempt escape from Nash for fear of being killed.

I don't think that Freshwater was a victim in any way.

She had opportunity after opportunity to leave

and not commit these crimes.

But I think she enjoyed it.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The jury could not decide either

and failed to reach a verdict twice.

Three years later, Margo was tried

for the murder of the first victim, Hillman Robbins.

She was found guilty and sentenced

to 99 years in state prison.

18 months later, Margo and another inmate, Faye Fairchild,

scaled a barbed wire fence, hitched a ride,

and disappeared.

TOMMY LEWIS: Once Faye and Margo had escaped,

they went from there to Baltimore, Maryland.

Faye Fairchild was arrested in Chicago some time later.

The last time Margo Freshwater was seen

was on a street corner in Baltimore, Maryland,

where she said her goodbyes to Faye and Faye's niece and left.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): After that,

Margo Freshwater seems to have disappeared

off the face of the Earth.

I would say that she has changed her life around.

She is probably living as a mother or maybe even

a grandmother at this time.

Margo committed a crime and she needs

to spend her time in prison and serve that sentence.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Update--

Margo Freshwater has been caught.

Police found her in Columbus, Ohio living under the alias

Tanya McCotter, a married mother of three.

She was taken into custody outside an athletic club

by agents for the Ohio Bureau of Investigation.

At the time, Freshwater was with her husband, youngest son,

and grandchild, none of whom were

aware of her criminal past.

She said nothing and was surprisingly emotionless.

She then wanted to say goodbye to her son and husband,

and we allowed her to do that.

She first gave her son a hug and was

clearly whispering in his ear and he started

sobbing quite noticeably.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Freshwater was re-incarcerated

the same Tennessee prison she escaped from 32 years earlier.

Washington's Snake River.

How much longer before we get in?

I don't know. Just a few minutes.

We've just got to go around here and over.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): After a late summer fishing trip,

Strider Styarfyre and another man headed for home.

Man, is it cold.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): As dusk approached,

concerns were raised about getting back before dark.

As the boat sped across the water,

Strider reached for a beer from an ice chest.

The boat's driver herd his dog yelp,

and when he looked around, Strider was gone--

never to be seen again.

Strider?

Strider?

The apparent accidental drowning of Strider Styarfyre

has been in question ever since.

Investigators quickly learned that Styarfyre had a murky past

and may have had reason to disappear.

10 days after he supposedly slipped and fell overboard,

Strider Styarfyre was due to stand

trial in Roseburg, Oregon.

One thing was certain, this charming and charismatic man

was not who he appeared to be.

Strider Styarfyre first surfaced in Oregon in the mid-1980s.

Within two weeks, the enigmatic Styarfyre

had met a local woman.

They fell in love and were soon married.

By the early 1990s, the Styarfyres

had a son and daughter and had settled

into a seemingly idyllic life in Roseburg, Oregon.

The teenage daughter of a dear family friend

was a frequent guest of the Starfighters.

The girl visited so often that she became a second daughter

to Strider and his wife and a beloved sister to their kids.

Whoever spent any time with Strider

eventually would fall under the spell

of his incredible charisma.

Me and Tim were in this fox hole, all right.

And we're pinned down, we can't get up.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): He often told romantic tales

revolving around his supposed exploits

serving with special forces in Vietnam, spying for the CIA,

or fighting alongside the Irish Republican Army.

And I crawled on my belly, dragging him, draggin him.

When he told us about being this savior, this crusader

to help the little man, to pull the poor guy up by his boots

and give the underdog his day, you tended to believe him.

He wove his stories very well.

So the reason why we're called the clan of Styarfyre

is because--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): But there

was one particular story even more fantastic than the others.

--be the prince of the house of [inaudible] Star.

No, no.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Strider Styarfyre claimed

he was the last surviving member of a Scottish clan

called the House of Ellen Star, and he apparently had proof.

I'll show you.

Here we have the document.

This is real?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Strider possessed a letter

on embossed parchment stationery claiming him the sole heir

to the clan's fortune.

As the young friend grew up, she continued to spend time

with her Styarfyres, and Strider always

made himself available to her.

He was a father figure when she had no father figure.

She had no qualms of believing and feeling safe with him

because he had always been safe.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): But according to the then

14-year-old girl, those feelings of trust and security

were stolen from her one night in the Styarfire home.

Out of the blue, he started to profess his love to me,

telling me he'd been in love with me for years.

That was a really terrifying moment.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): After making his advance,

Strider Styarfyre, a married father of two,

allegedly seduced and then had sexual relations

with the minor.

For more than a year, the traumatized 14-year-old

would keep secret what had allegedly happened that night.

But Strider Styarfyre's carefully crafted persona

had already begun to crumble.

According to his wife, her suspicions

that he was being unfaithful to her

were confirmed the day he brought

home an unexpected guest, his new internet business partner.

I had been getting a little bit of rumor

that there was more than just business going on between them.

And when they came home, it was exceedingly obvious

that they were being intimate.

Who the hell is that?

Are you out of your mind?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Strider apparently stunned

his wife by proposing that she welcome

this woman into their home as his second wife.

This was the last straw, and within weeks

she filed for divorce.

But it was not until after the divorce was final

that Strider's now former wife would

apparently learn the true depth of his lies and deceit.

After Strider did that to me, my life

really spiraled out of control.

I couldn't make any friends at school so I quit going.

I did a lot of drugs.

I decided that I couldn't deal with it anymore.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): She wrote a note

saying she was running away with her boyfriend

and she finally revealed the dark secret

she said she'd been keeping.

[phone ringing]

Hello?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Strider's ex-wife

then received a disturbing call from the teenage girl's

stepfather.

He said she left a note and in the note,

she states that Strider molested her.

And I was torn between disbelief and belief.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The 15-year-old girl returned home

safely the following day, but Strider's former wife

was sickened by what he had allegedly done.

I was just overwhelmed with everything that had happened.

I'd just been through a whole time

during the divorce of finding out that he wasn't who he said

he was, that the last 11 years really

had nothing to do with reality.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Strider Styarfyre

was formally indicted on felony rape

and sexual assault charges.

Authorities would learn from this 15-year-old

that there may have been more secrets to uncover

in the Styarfyre home.

When going over her case, she brought up another girl's name

that she was aware was living there at the house

during that time she was.

And that's when victim number two was brought up in this.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Years earlier, victim number

two, as she became known, had become

close to the Styarfyre family and often

babysat their children.

This alleged victim was just a ninth grader

at the time she was first seduced by Strider Styarfyre.

I'm going to go back and I'm going to regain my kingdom.

Really?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): She told authorities

he had charmed her with fantastic tales

of his Scottish inheritance and promises

to make her his princess.

Anything you want.

Because you're the princess, you get

anything in the entire kingdom.

Even horses?

Yeah.

It's like he made the fairy tale.

And Strider really created a fantasy world

for a lot of people.

And for me, it was the fantasy that

was sort of where I really wanted

to be in life, not where I was.

It obviously wasn't just some isolated incident.

I had to come forward not only to give validity

to the other girl's claims, but also just

to try and prevent this from happening to somebody else.

DEAN PERSKE: These were classic cases.

Strider, he's in his forties, obviously a mature adult,

been around quite a while.

These young girls haven't.

He's learned to find these young girls that

are in an emotional time in their life

and he zeroed right in on them and was

able to manipulate them and do just what he's

obviously probably done before.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Strider Styarfyre

was arrested and released on his own recognizance

while awaiting trial.

Then just 10 days before the trial was due to begin,

Styarfyre vanished.

We have a lot of people come up missing or drowned

in the Snake River, but in my 13 years' experience,

I've never had one like this.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The suspicions that investigators

were quickly aroused.

Did Strider Styarfire stage his own disappearance?

Police found it strange that the boat was dry

and didn't appear to have been used

that day and all the fishing gear on board

was clean and neatly stowed away.

Inside Styarfyre's pickup truck, investigators

were surprised to find a fishing license

in the name of Daniel Chafe, which was determined

to be Styarfyre's legal name.

They learned Strider Styarfyre was only an alias, one of two

he was known to use.

Some knew him by the name of Curtis Jacoby.

Further investigation determined the Strider Styarfyre had never

served in Vietnam, worked with the Central Intelligence

Agency, or fought with the IRA.

DEAN PERSKE: I'm sure Mr. Styarfyre is

alive and well at this point.

I don't believe Mr. Styarfyre was ever on that boat,

I don't believe he was ever on that river.

I believe he's hoping that at some point,

hopefully all this will just go away

and he can lead on with a happy life.

Strider Styarfyre is wanted on 13

felony charges related to the rape

and sexual abuse of minors.

Authorities fear he may be committing similar crimes.

Last summer, Bill Rundle and Traci Kenley

set out for a leisurely drive along the remote country

lanes of the Nebraska farmland.

The pair had big plans to meet Traci's

boyfriend later that evening.

Bill and Traci had met six months earlier,

and by all accounts their relationship was platonic.

Traci, a health care specialist who worked with the elderly,

and Bill, a forklift operator, got together

at around 4:30 PM on August 17.

They drove off into the afternoon sun

and vanished into thin air.

[knocking on door]

Hey, Bill.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The following day, Bill Rundle

failed to show up for work.

I was concerned.

He would have not just not shown up for work, absolutely not.

And he would have called.

One way or the other, he would have let somebody

know that he wasn't going to be there.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Traci Kenley lived with her boyfriend

of seven years, Doug Wolfe.

She was also a no-show at her job.

Wake up, Doug.

We're looking for Traci.

Have you seen her?

I knew she was pretty serious because Traci, if she wasn't

going to go to work, the first thing she'd do

would be to call into work and let them know that she was sick

or whatever.

The first thing I did was hop up,

put my clothes on, head out the door, and start looking.

I didn't know what to think.

I didn't know what to think at all.

It's not something that's supposed to happen

in Hastings, Nebraska.

Residents of the tightly-knit rural community all new Bill

Rundle and Traci Kenley and cannot imagine how the two

could have simply disappeared.

Nearly a year has passed and the leads in the case

are non-existent, except for one solitary clue.

Bill Rundle's hat mysteriously surfaced one week

after he and Traci were last seen

in an area that had already been thoroughly searched.

On the day Bill and Traci vanished,

there was little to foreshadow the bizarre events

about to unfold.

That afternoon, the two paid a visit

to Traci's parents' house, 38 miles southeast

of Hastings, Nebraska.

Hey.

Hi, you guys.

Hi, Mom.

So this is Bill.

Finally I get to meet you.

This is my mom, Sharon.

We had never met Bill before this,

so we don't know anything about him.

But it's like her dad said, any friend

of Traci's is a friend of ours.

What do you do, Bill?

SHARON KENLEY: We never talked about where

they were going when they left or what they were going to do.

I guess we felt that she'd make it home safe.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): But Traci Kenley didn't go home.

Instead, she called her boyfriend, Doug, at 11:00 PM

and made tentative plans to meet him at a local bar at 12:30 AM.

I'm just leaving my parents' house with Bill.

What are you going to do after work?

Traci and Bill were never heard from again.

By examining cell phone records and transmission signals,

police were able to pinpoint Traci's location

at the time of the call, a junction

in the road 16 miles east of Hastings.

The Clay and Adams County Sheriff's Departments

organized a search of that intersection

and the surrounding area.

Authorities worried that Bill may

have crashed his car into a towering cornfields

that blanket the region.

A 30 square mile area was painstakingly gone over,

but no sign of Bill, Traci, or the Jeep turned up.

A A lot of dedicated individuals came out and searched

for two solid days.

Some areas were searched two and three times.

I believe in a 30-mile circumference,

we've done a very thorough job of searching.

Not finding anything with as many searches as we've had,

you would think you'd find something.

There's just nothing-- nothing.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Police began to consider whether Bill

and Traci left voluntarily.

AMY WARNER: At the time that he disappeared,

Bill was really lonely.

From what I know of Traci, she was

a really gentle, sweet person.

And I think that Bill was probably really attracted

to that as a friend and that at that point

he did need a friend.

And I think maybe they needed each other.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Could Bill and Traci

have been having an affair kept completely secret

from both their families and Traci's longtime boyfriend

and could they have decided to run away together

to start a new life away from the small town

scrutiny of Hastings?

DOUG WOLFE: Traci's a very responsible person.

There's no way that she would run

away from her responsibilities.

She was very close to her parents, she was close to me.

I mean, if she didn't want to call me if she ran off

or something, the first people she would call

would be her parents. - They didn't run away.

I feel that in my heart because neither one of them

took their toothbrush, neither one

took any change of clothing.

There's been no evidence as far as their credit cards,

ATMs, phones have ever been powered up

from the day they disappeared.

No evidence has led us in that direction

that they're still out there.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Then one full week

after Bill and Traci went missing,

a baffling piece of evidence suddenly appeared.

It was found at the same intersection where Traci made

the final phone call to her boyfriend,

an area that had already been searched several times.

We had a farmer come to us who had recovered a hat,

and the hat was sent into the lab just in case.

Through lab analysis, it was found

that the hat was Bill Rundle's.

The hat was laying right down here.

JEFF FRANKLIN: We do not believe that Bill

was wearing the hat when Bill and Traci disappeared.

Anything else around it that you noticed?

No. Just the hat laying there.

JEFF FRANKLIN: There had been three inches of rain in two

nights after they had disappeared

and the hat was clean and did not appear

to be out in the weather.

Plus, most of our search teams went directly by that area

and we believe our search teams would have seen

it if it would have been there.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Police are

now convinced that the hat was planted, but by whom and why?

Bill and Traci knew that they didn't have to meet

Doug for at least an hour.

It would have been very normal for Bill to find a place

to pull over and maybe pulled into a shaded area, possibly,

and just opened up a few beers and talked.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Is it possible

that Bill and Traci inadvertently

put themselves in the path of a roaming killer?

JEFF FRANKLIN: Nebraska is an area

where you travel through to get from the east or the west.

There is always a possibility of somebody coming

through the area that may have been a more severe criminal

than we're normally used to.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): But who

could have murdered two young healthy people,

disposed of their bodies and car without leaving

any trace of a crime?

And why would a killer then plant

Bill's hat one week later?

Friends and relatives cling to the hope

that Bill and Traci are out there somewhere

and will somehow turn up unharmed.

Until that day, the search continues.

I'll never stop looking.

We need some kind of clue.

We have no clue.

There has been nothing.

It's just like they just disappeared.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): They are

snapshots from another place and another time.

A proud young father cradles his newborn daughter.

Virginia Burns always thought they were photos of her.

After Virginia's father died, her mother revealed the truth--

the little girl in the pictures was, in fact,

Virginia's half-sister.

Her name was Susan.

Come here, Sweetie.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): As a young man,

Virginia's father had been previously married.

Daddy's gonna miss you.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): But circumstances

and a longstanding dispute with his mother-in-law

had forced him to leave his wife and his baby daughter, Susan.

I'm sorry, Joe.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In later years,

his attempts to locate them met with failure.

VIRGINIA BURNS: My mother admitted that she

didn't tell me to protect me.

She had no way of knowing where my sister was,

and why tell me if there was no way I could meet her?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Looking back,

Virginia suddenly understood the poignance

of one memorable incident from her childhood.

For her sixth birthday, Virginia's parents gave her

the doll of her dreams.

So what do you think of your new doll, sweetie?

I love her.

She's beautiful.

Well, what's her name?

I don't know.

What do you think I should call her?

VIRGINIA BURNS: He says, why don't you call her sweet Sue?

And I did, not realizing that that was the name of my sister.

She needs to know she has a father who loved her.

And secondly, I have a sister out there

and I'm more than ready to be a sister.

When we aired this story last spring,

we had high hopes that sweet Sue would be found.

We weren't disappointed.

Bethina Susan King lived in Oklahoma City,

only a short flight from Virginia's home

near Denver, Colorado.

The two women spoke on the telephone that night

and sensed an instant bond.

When they met, that bond was confirmed.

I watched each person as they got off the airplane

and I just--

none of them, I knew that they weren't her.

But when she came walking out those doors,

I knew her instantly.

I just knew, that's my sister.

SUSAN KING: I was really nervous.

I didn't know what to expect.

So when I walked through, there was Ginny and her husband

and Ginny was holding this huge sign that says,

"Desperately seeking Susan."

And I had planned on just walking by to see if she would

recognize me, but I couldn't.

I got to her and dropped my suitcase

and we hugged and cried and kissed and hugged some more

and had a crowd looking at us and just fell

in love with her instantly.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Since the reunion,

Virginia and Susan have been thrilled to discover

how much they have in common.

I can make my bouquets and say they're Ginny flowers.

Yeah.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): They like the same food,

the same clothes, enjoy the same hobbies, even talk alike.

We finish sentences for each other, we have the same things.

My husband has just--

he sits here and shakes his head.

He says, they are so much alike.

My daddy.

I feel like that if our dad was here right now that from what

Ginny has told me about him, he would be tickled to death

to have both of us together.

I would love to give him a hug, to tell him

that I'd searched for him since I was 21, thought about him

since I was 12.

I think he would be happy for us.

He'd probably think, oh, Lord, the world's

not safe now with two of them.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The doll

that has stood in for Susan for so many years now

has special meaning for both women, a tangible reminder

of their father's love.

And that was my Suzy.

I knew it was a gift from our dad to her,

but I also felt like at that moment that it was mine, too.

Mm-hm. It's ours, definitely.

It's all right.

It's all right.

I love you.

I love you, too.

For every mystery there is someone,

somewhere who has the answer.

Join me again for "Unsolved Mysteries."

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