Original subtitles

ANNOUNCER: Tonight, on "Unsolved Mysteries."

ROBERT STACK: Two seemingly unrelated cases

lay dormant for years, until two veteran California criminalists

employ the latest in DNA profiling technology

to prove an unidentified serial rapist

and an unknown serial killer are one in the same.

Authorities now need your help catch

a notorious murderer who has preyed on California

since at least 1976.

Donna Baldeo finds a threatening note outside the bank where

she works demanding money.

The author of the note threatens violent retaliation if Donna

does not heed the warning.

Five weeks later, a deadly fire erupts

outside of her apartment.

Coincidence, or was Donna Baldeo the target

of a vicious extortionist?

An alarming number of children in a rural western town

are diagnosed with leukemia.

Two have already lost their lives.

What is happening in Fallon, Nevada

to create what doctors call a cancer cluster?

A well-known Colorado family responded to a call for help

and never came back.

Could the stranded motorist who placed a distress

call have anything to do with the disappearance of Dale

Williams?

Join me.

Perhaps you may be able to help solve a mystery,

or perhaps you may encounter one that

simply cannot be explained.

October, 1976-- an affluent suburb

outside Sacramento, California.

WOMAN: (DISTORTED VOICE) I remember

waking up with a flashlight shining in my face.

Shut up!

Don't say a word.

WOMAN: (DISTORTED VOICE) And I was

looking down the barrel of a gun, and he said, uh,

don't move.

Don't make a sound, or I will kill you.

Gimme your hand!

WOMAN: (DISTORTED VOICE) And within a moment's notice,

my life was all of a sudden in the control of somebody else.

Just do as I tell you.

ROBERT STACK: The rape victim, whose identity we're not

revealing at her request, is one of more than 40 women believed

to have been assaulted by a man who terrorized the Sacramento

area during the 1970s.

The mysterious attacker known to police as the East Area Rapist

was never identified.

Incredibly, more than 20 years later, dramatic advances

in law enforcement technology determined

that the same man was responsible for a series

of murders in the 1980s.

Authorities seek your help in tracking

down a suspect who has eluded police for nearly 30 years.

During the 1970s, the man who would defy detection

for decades established himself as a unique offender

with unusual signature habits, including boldly lingering

in victim's homes for hours.

WOMAN: (DISTORTED VOICE) I know that at some point

he was out in the living room smoking,

and the police felt that he maybe had

gotten into my refrigerator.

I think he was in the house anywhere from a two

and a half to three hours.

I laid there for what seemed like a long period of time

with no noise, and then all of a sudden--

[screaming]

Did you miss me?

WOMAN: (DISTORTED VOICE) I couldn't see.

I couldn't move.

And I couldn't yell.

And I remember wondering, is this it?

Is this the way I'm going to die?

ROBERT STACK: Eventually, after sexually assaulting his victim,

the rapist would quietly sneak away.

Can you tell me maybe a little of what he looked like?

ROBERT STACK: Detective Carol Daly interviewed

many of the rapist's victims.

Well, he has a mask.

DET.

CAROL DALY: The East Area Rapist very definitely

did a psychological rape along with the physical rape,

and the manner in which he would threaten

the victims, the length of time that he stayed in the home--

his crime was different and unique.

Richard, did you find anything?

ROBERT STACK: For Lieutenant Richard Shelby,

this would become one of the most

demanding cases of his career.

It was a high priority.

It had a lot of publicity.

It had a lot of victims.

The guy is dangerous.

Our office and city police both had special teams working it.

Get me an evidence bag.

ROBERT STACK: Evidence recovered near two crime scenes

indicated the rapist had spied on his victims

before he struck.

I want casts of all of this, too.

LT. RICHARD SHELBY: He prowled the area.

He knew it well.

See?

He could sit right here and look right in her window.

All right.

Some of the cases, he knew the victims.

He knew the time, their schedule.

He knew that of the neighbors', and some of them

were crimes of opportunity.

They weren't supposed to be there.

There they were, so he took advantage of it.

ROBERT STACK: The first 15 attacks occurred in homes only

inhabited by women and children, but then the rapist

became even more brazen.

He targeted homes in which a man was also present.

DET.

CAROL DALY: When the rapist would come in,

he would, at gunpoint, order the female to tie

up the-- the male in the house.

And then he would remove the female

to the other part of the house where he would also tie her up.

And then he would put the dishes on the husband.

If I hear one plate rattle, I'll

kill everyone in the house.

DET.

CAROL DALY: While he was in the other room occupied

with the sexual assault, he could

hear whether or not the male was trying to get free.

I can't think of any other rapes that I worked

other than this one where a suspect was willing to go

in and do the types of things that the East

Area Rapist did when there were other people in the house.

[interposing voices]

DET.

CAROL DALY: There was so much fear in the community,

and there were so many rumors out there about what

the East Area Rapist was doing, so we were

holding town hall meetings.

We understand your concern.

DET.

CAROL DALY: They were incensed to think that a man could have

been in the home when these rapes occurred and not

have done anything about it.

Look, you don't you worry about--

DET.

CAROL DALY: In this particular meeting,

a gentleman got up and said, I don't

believe that could happen.

But if he ever comes into my house, I'm gonna be ready.

ROBERT STACK: That man and his wife

would later become victims.

DET.

CAROL DALY: It led me to believe that the rapist was

in the audience at night and probably

followed this couple home.

I think that he liked the excitement of the game.

I think it was as much a game with the investigators

as it was for what he was doing to the victims.

ROBERT STACK: The sadistic game being

played by the rapist often extended

beyond the attack itself.

[phone ringing]

Hello?

ROBERT STACK: Several victims reported

receiving disturbing phone calls from the rapist years later.

Who is this?

WOMAN: (DISTORTED VOICE) I felt by what

he said to me that he had been still

watching me and stalking me.

I felt absolutely terrified.

I think the phone calls were just his way of saying

you're still my hostage.

Even though I'm not in your house,

psychologically you're still my hostage.

ROBERT STACK: By the late 1970s, the East Area Rapist

had moved west to communities in Contra Costa County,

50 miles from Sacramento.

Authorities traced five more sexual assaults

to him there before the attacks abruptly stopped.

Everybody speculated on where this guy might have gone

or might--

why he might've stopped, and there

was nowhere to go with it.

We had no real physical description.

ROBERT STACK: Years passed.

The trail grew colder.

Then 400 miles south, at the Orange County,

California Sheriff's Department, forensic scientist Mary Hong

compared semen samples from several unsolved rape murders

in the Southern California area and linked the crimes

to the same perpetrator.

Meanwhile, back in Contra Costa County,

Sheriff's Department criminalist Paul Holes

ran DNA profiles on semen recovered from the East Area

Rapist assaults in his county.

Then, in 2001, Paul Holes contacted Mary Hong.

Let me grab that file.

MARY HONG: Independently, he was thinking

that this guy has to be committing

these crimes somewhere else.

So he actually was calling these agencies

and finding out if they had any cases that fit his profile.

OK, I've got D3-1516.

MARY HONG: I had him read me the profile

that he had on his case. - OK.

MARY HONG: And I compared that to the profile

that I had in our cases, and they

matched all the way across.

Wow.

It looks like we've got a match.

LARRY POOLE: And at that point, we

knew that we had just connected the series of sexual assaults

in Northern California with a series of homicides

down in Southern California.

DET.

CAROL DALY: We felt before he left Sacramento

that he was ready to kill.

His behavior was becoming more and more bizarre,

and the threats that he was making to the victims

were, uh, more severe.

His-- just his demeanor was changing.

ROBERT STACK: The Eastern Area Rapist

had become a Southern California killer,

leaving a trail of deaths in his wake--

Charlene and Lyman Smith of Ventura,

newlyweds Keith and Patty Harrington of Laguna Niguel

Manuela Witthuhn of Irvine.

Five years later, the next murder

took place on May 5, 1986.

Janelle Cruz also lived in Irvine.

Like the others, she had been tied

up, sexually assaulted, and bludgeoned

to death in her home.

Larry Poole of the Orange County Sheriff's Department

has headed up the Southern California investigation.

PAUL HOLES: We don't have anything that we've linked

to him after May 5th of 1986.

Doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.

Doesn't mean that it's not out there for us to acquire.

We're just not aware of it.

ROBERT STACK: However, based on the killer's MO,

Larry Poole has come to believe that the man he is pursuing

also murdered two couples in Santa Barbara before

and after the string of cases connected by DNA began.

PAUL HOLES: I don't know of anyone like him.

He's a very unique offender--

50 rapes that we're aware of, 10 murders that we're aware of.

We suspect that he's probably responsible

for more rapes, and murders, and crimes

outside of what we have identified.

ROBERT STACK: With a biological link to the Northern California

rapes confirmed, investigators now had 50 additional cases

to comb through in search of new clues

to the serial killer's identity.

The East Area Rapist's MO of stacking plates on the victim's

partner during the assault is believed

to be particularly unique.

PAUL HOLES: It's a signature aspect of our offender.

Is it possible that someone abused him and treated

him the same way, terrorizing him, perhaps,

as a boy when he grow up?

It's-- it's possible.

ROBERT STACK: If the old police adage of serial killers

do not stop unless they're caught

is true, how is it possible this one hasn't

been heard from since 1986?

PAUL HOLES: He could be dead.

He could be disabled and is no longer capable of doing what

he once did as a serial killer.

He could have moved to another state,

changed his MO somewhat, and has committed multiple offenses

that he's been identified for, and we've

just yet to link him up.

Larry Poole believes there's another possibility--

that this serial killer could be incarcerated,

perhaps on death row for an unrelated murder.

Poole advocates DNA testing of every death row inmate.

However, in California, investigators

are blocked by an injunction that prohibits

the extraction of blood from any prisoner

on death row against his will.

PAUL HOLES: There are approximately 600 men

who are among California's most heinous notorious criminals

who do not have DNA profiles compared against the databank.

WOMAN: (DISTORTED VOICE) I think that we need to do whatever we

possibly can to identify him, and to miss that opportunity

I think is-- is criminal.

Please, somebody out there has to know

something about this person.

And if the information could come forward,

will it ever bring closure to the victims?

Only that they would feel safe that he is

not out there to attack again.

PAUL HOLES: I don't want to end my career without having solved

this, and if it's not solved by the time I retire,

I'll think about it till the day I die.

ROBERT STACK: The Chateaux Dijon Apartments, Houston, 3:30 AM.

On February 1, 2002, Curtis Ford awoke

to a series of strange sounds in the stairwell

outside his apartment.

CURTIS FORD: The banging that I heard

sounded like a herd of elephants running up the stairs,

and then I heard--

[knocking]

--which was like a knock at the door,

and then I heard the same--

right down the stairs.

So I looked up, and this wall of fire

just shot out my side balcony window.

Just shot straight up and out.

It was like my whole apartment lit up.

I couldn't believe the amount of force that this thing had.

[fire alarm]

ROBERT STACK: Curtis escaped the fire unscathed.

Three of his neighbors would not be so lucky.

The fire at the Chateaux Dijon Apartments

was quickly ruled arson.

Few details have been released as to exactly how the blaze

started, but authorities say it may not have been a random act,

that the arsonist was possibly trying

to harm a specific resident of the building.

That person was Donna Baldeo.

Donna Baldeo lived a quiet life with her 22-year-old son

Jailall Lewis and 8-year-old daughter Bunnie Sue Terry.

By all accounts, the family was close and had no enemies,

but several weeks prior to the fire, a disturbing incident

may have given someone motive to attack Donna.

Donna Baldeo had worked at Wells Fargo Bank for 10 years.

She was currently a manager at a drive-through branch

located outside of Houston.

On December 22, Donna was the first to arrive at work.

She immediately noticed an odd piece of paper lying in front

of the bank's entrance.

Encased in a protective plastic sheath was a note.

It demanded all the money from the bank,

and if anyone called the police, they

would face dire consequences.

It was a well-crafted note, well verbalized,

and specifically threatened employees if they

didn't cooperate in turning over all

the bank's money that day that they

would be retaliated against.

ROBERT STACK: Donna retreated to her car.

Five minutes later, another employee showed up.

Don't stop.

Just follow me.

ROBERT STACK: They drove to a nearby convenience store

and contacted their supervisor, who called police.

I pulled up like normal, uh, parked the car.

ROBERT STACK: Donna had done exactly

what the note had explicitly instructed her not to do.

Authorities found no fingerprints on the note,

nor were there any clues as to who the author might be.

The investigation never turned up a suspect.

Move on, OK.

While investigators had no evidence that pointed directly

at the suspects leaving this note for Donna Baldeo

personally, she is the person who found it,

and in this instance, Donna Baldeo did not comply.

ROBERT STACK: Five weeks later, the blaze

erupted in the stairwell at Donna's apartment building.

Donna's unit was one of two located on the second floor.

Two more units were downstairs.

[knocking]

Authorities speculate that Donna's daughter, Bunnie,

was awakened by the mysterious knock.

Unaware of the inferno outside, she opened the door.

Bunnie, stop!

No!

Bunnie!

ROBERT STACK: Donna and her son Jai then ran into the flames,

desperate to rescue her.

Curtis Ford, Donna's downstairs neighbor,

witnessed the unfolding nightmare.

[shouting]

CURTIS FORD: Jai was laying there on the landing,

and I saw him burning, and I just grabbed his ankle,

and I pulled him down, you know?

And he was just, like, screaming at the top of his lungs--

like, my sister's dead.

I mean, he just couldn't believe the fact

that this was going on.

I mean, it was just horrible, horrible, horrible.

ROBERT STACK: Curtis saw Donna repeatedly enter the flames.

Horrifying screams for her youngest child went unanswered.

CURTIS FORD: The look on her face just

would break any person.

I mean, I couldn't sleep for the next two months because of it.

ROBERT STACK: Emergency workers arrived at the apartment

complex within minutes.

Donna and her children were the only victims of the fire.

Donna and Jai had been critically burned

over their entire bodies.

They barely clung to life, hysterical over Bunnie's fate.

When the smoke finally cleared, the 8-year-old was

found dead in the stairwell.

ROY PAUL: This was absolutely one of the most horrible events

I've seen in my 30 years in the fire department,

because they were literally burned alive there.

ROBERT STACK: Donna and Jai were rushed to the hospital.

Friends and family gathered around their bedsides,

hoping for a miraculous recovery.

You couldn't even recognize them.

You couldn't even recognize Jai, and you

couldn't even recognize Donna.

And so we came out-- we were just devastated.

Jai was pronounced dead at 10:30 that morning.

Donna followed her son one half hour later.

An entire family was gone.

Who would have committed such an appalling crime, and why?

Was this the reprisal threatened by the extortionist?

Or perhaps there is another equally tragic explanation.

It has been reported that over the past three years

15 fires have broken out at the Chateaux

Dijon apartment complex.

Her death and her children's death

could be related to the series of arsons

in that same apartment complex, including

one that happened on the same stairwell just a year before.

When the dust settles on this, it's--

it's probably going to be somebody that she knew,

and I just got that feeling about

that-- that this is more somebody got mad at her

for whatever reason.

No one knows why.

ROBERT STACK: Fallon, Nevada--

population 8,000.

For those who moved here, it seemed like the perfect place

to escape the urban sprawl and raise a family.

[chatter]

But there is something terrible happening

to the children of Fallon.

You goof burger.

ROBERT STACK: It all began with Dustin Gross.

Honey, where did you get this bruise?

I falled off of my bike.

Are you sure?

BRENDA GROSS: When I was giving him a bath,

I noticed bruises on his back and his arms.

And I asked him, what was he doing?

Why did he have these bruises?

And he told me he was playing with his friend

on the big wheels.

And I thought, OK, that makes sense.

That's where the bruises come from.

Honey, what are you doing home?

Well, he's been tired all day.

BRENDA GROSS: But then the next day, my husband

had noticed a lot more bruises and brought it up

to my attention.

I saw he had bruises all over his body--

his arms, his legs, his stomach, um,

his back, and little red blood specks

on the surface of his skin.

And I knew that, um, something was wrong at that point.

You're going to feel all better.

ROBERT STACK: Brenda took Dustin to the local hospital,

and he was immediately transferred

to the UC Davis Medical Center.

Blood was drawn.

A diagnosis was made.

BRENDA GROSS: The doctor told us that Dustin had leukemia.

I knew about leukemia.

I knew it was a cancer, but I didn't

actually realize how severe.

ROBERT STACK: Brenda soon learned the seriousness

of Dustin's condition.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia strikes children

usually between the ages of two and nine.

It causes the production of millions

of defective white blood cells, destroying the immune system,

and can be fatal.

Dustin immediately underwent aggressive chemotherapy.

You want to take your pills?

BRENDA GROSS: I have never went through anything

like that before in my life.

Not knowing what to expect, what my child is going through,

seeing him lie there so lethargic and so lifeless--

I think that that's probably the hardest thing that I've

ever had to deal with.

It was not easy.

Dustin Gross was not alone.

Over the next two years, 14 more children contracted childhood

leukemia in the Fallon area--

an astronomical number in a community so small.

Two have lost their lives.

Authorities are now convinced that the outbreak

is not a coincidence.

Parents are in a state of panic, desperate to find answers

before more children become ill and possibly die.

Within weeks of Dustin Gross's diagnosis,

two more children came down with childhood leukemia.

The cancer treatment facility at the local hospital,

run by RN Barbara de Braga, was overwhelmed.

Even at that point, I was just thinking it's just coincidence.

It's just a terrible coincidence,

but it's a coincidence, but then shortly after the third,

then we got a referral for a fourth.

ROBERT STACK: Barbara de Braga feared that she was looking

at an abnormally high occurrence of the disease

known as a cancer cluster.

She contacted the state assembly person for the Fallon area,

and an official investigation was launched.

A state epidemiologist, Dr. Randall Todd,

prepared an all out inquiry.

The devastating disease threatened

to spin out of control, striking victims number five and six.

A couple of days after, there was a seventh case diagnosed,

and so this started to--

to kind of make the hair on the back of my neck

stand up a little bit.

It was-- it was a frightening time.

We have a series of questions we want to go over with you,

and we're going to use this office right here.

- OK. - If that's OK.

ROBERT STACK: An alarmed Dr. Todd immediately

sought a common denominator shared by all the victims that

might explain the epidemic.

Could it be it environmental toxin?

And, uh, how is the water supply to that house?

Is it--

- It's a well. - It's a well.

DR. RANDALL TODD: A well?

OK.

ROBERT STACK: Interviews with parents, however,

produced no answers, and Dr. Todd

watched helplessly as new cases continued to appear.

Zach Beardsley was the ninth child diagnosed

with childhood leukemia.

TAMMI BEARDSLEY: When I heard I was number nine in a cancer

cluster, at that time, my child was so ill

that all I could think about was,

how do I get out of this mess with a healthy child?

After I found my feet, if you will, I realized that it was

important to get involved in the investigation,

and that's when I found the strength,

and rolled my sleeves up, and said, well, what can I do?

And then you start to fight, and you don't look back, you know?

ROBERT STACK: Tammi Beardsley readily opened her house

to a phalanx of scientists.

The search for the common denominator continued.

What did all these children share that might

explain their illness?

TAMMI BEARDSLEY: There was a team of people that

came into our home and vacuumed, took

dust samples, air quality samples, water

samples, biological testing.

They scraped our mouths--

blood tests.

ROBERT STACK: But these tests were inconclusive.

Perhaps the problem was not in the children's homes,

but in the surrounding environment.

Was there something unique about Fallon that could explain why

a cancer cluster appeared here?

Researchers began with the water.

DR. RANDALL TODD: The one thing that-- that makes

this community sort of stand out is that they have one

of the highest rates of naturally

occurring arsenic in their water supply

of any place in the nation.

ROBERT STACK: Researchers also found mercury in a nearby lake

and several irrigation canals, places where the children

were known to play.

And there was another unusual feature about Fallon

that raised red flags.

Residential homes are freely intermixed with farmland.

MARK WITTEN: They have to, uh-- to treat

these fields with pesticides, and fertilizer,

and this type of thing.

So you're now having that very close to the living community,

rather than maybe in a normal farming community

where it starts on the outskirts of town.

ROBERT STACK: Radioactivity was also a possibility.

Underground atomic tests were conducted

near Fallon during the 1960s.

Arsenic, mercury, pesticides-- there seemed to be no shortage

of toxins in the environment.

Incredibly, scientists have so far failed to link any of them

to the outbreak.

In fact, no studies have ever demonstrated

that these contaminants play a role in contracting

childhood leukemia.

DR. RANDALL TODD: Working on this

really is like trying to do a gigantic jigsaw puzzle.

What we can say is that, in fact, we likely will not

have the complete puzzle put together at the end

of this investigation.

ROBERT STACK: There was one final possibility.

Fallon is located 10 miles from a major Naval air station

used to train fighter pilots.

The jet fuel contains benzene, a known carcinogen.

DR. RANDALL TODD: There is a pipeline

which transports jet fuel.

The pipe comes right through and underneath Fallon,

and winds up at the Fallon Naval Air Station.

Uh, we wondered was there, uh, fuel getting into the water

supply, but we didn't find any evidence

that the water had been contaminated with jet fuel.

ROBERT STACK: Perhaps the residents of Fallon

were inhaling the jet fuel.

This theory is currently being tested on laboratory mice

at the University of Arizona.

Human trials may take place in the near future.

MARK WITTEN: We can actually measure

on a person's expired breath remnants

of-- of jet fuel exposure.

That-- that technology has been developed

over the last five years.

ROBERT STACK: While authorities search for answers,

the parents of the children suffering

from leukemia in Fallon try to remain optimistic.

Zach Beardsley has been undergoing chemotherapy

for the past 17 months.

Although he is responding well, it is still too soon to know

if he'll beat the disease.

TAMMI BEARDSLEY: There's a-- a fear inside of me.

I have two other children and one on the way,

and I'd like to find out what's making children become

diagnosed with leukemia here before I bring

another child into the world.

Surprise!

ROBERT STACK: After two years of intensive chemotherapy,

Dustin Gross recently had an end of treatment party.

His cancer is currently in remission,

but there is always a fear that it may one day return.

BRENDA GROSS: I am worried for my family, and my other

children, and for Dustin still.

I will never give up on pushing the research

to find what has caused childhood leukemia

in a cluster in this community.

Obviously the more research and continued research is going

to get us closer and closer, and I feel that we will find it,

but we cannot let up.

ROBERT STACK: Sunday, July 4.

A family swimming at the confluence of the San

Miguel and Dolores Rivers in western Colorado

made a grim discovery.

Submerged in the muddy waters was a pickup truck.

The Montrose County Sheriff's Department

responded to the scene, and it quickly became apparent

that this would be more than a simple vehicle

recovery operation.

Investigators realized this might be the break they

desperately needed in a case that had captured the attention

of surrounding communities.

The truck belonged to a man who suddenly

vanished six weeks before.

Hopes, however, were quickly dashed

when no other signs of the missing man were recovered.

Authorities need your help to solve this baffling mystery.

The recovered pickup truck was registered

to 42-year-old Dale Williams.

The longtime area resident was a devoted husband and doting

father of two teenage daughters.

Dale owned and operated an auto body shop

in the nearby town of Nucla.

On the evening of May 27, Dale failed

to make it home for dinner.

His wife, Diana, assumed he was preoccupied

with a job at the body shop and lost track of time.

[dialing]

By bedtime, however, Diana was concerned.

Hi, Dale.

It's me. Uh--

DIANA WILLIAMS: I called the shop a couple

of times, and no answer.

OK, give me a call as soon as you get in.

Bye bye.

So I thought, well, maybe he just

didn't hear the phone because he's using

the air ratchets or something.

I went to bed about 10:00, and I laid there,

and I felt like something was wrong.

I tossed and turned all night, woke up several times,

and he still wasn't home.

ROBERT STACK: Diana woke at dawn and was

horrified to discover Dale had not made it home all night.

As soon as she got her kids off to school,

Diana drove straight to Dale's garage.

Dale?

DIANA WILLIAMS: When I first walked in the shop,

the door was unlocked.

Dale?

DIANA WILLIAMS: The hood was still up on the van.

His tools were-- they were just laying around the vehicle,

like he had just walked away from it for a few minutes.

I went over to my mother-in-law's, and she

hadn't heard from him the day before or that morning.

ROBERT STACK: Dale often shopped at junkyards,

looking for spare parts to use at the body shop.

IDA WILLIAMS: When was the last time you--

ROBERT STACK: Diana and her mother-in-law

thought that would be a good place to start their search.

When we didn't find him at the junkyard,

we thought we'd probably find him

along the way, the road somewhere

where he'd maybe ran off the road.

We felt like that something had happened to him for sure,

but we felt like we would find him, but as it happened,

we didn't find him.

ROBERT STACK: Within a few hours,

Diana Williams notified police, and word

of Dale Williams's strange disappearance spread

through Nucla.

Investigators began piecing together Dale Williams's day.

They learned Dale made a brief stop at Tami Lowrance's office

about 12:15 that afternoon.

I had a windshield that I needed repaired on a truck of ours.

Hey, Dale.

What's up?

Listen, I stopped by to let you

know that I can't do your windshield

until next Wednesday.

That's OK.

Is that all right?

TAMI LOWRANCE: I thought it was strange

that Dale stopped in, because he didn't

have to stop and tell me.

He could have called me.

ROBERT STACK: Dale was in a hurry.

He told Tami he was on his way to help a stranded motorist.

Maybe he felt uneasy about who he was going to go give a tow.

I really don't know.

All right. See you later.

Bye.

TAMI LOWRANCE: That was the last time that I saw Dale Williams.

ROBERT STACK: The investigator determined

that Dale's friend, Tom Ross, had been with him

just before Tami saw him.

We've got an arm.

ROBERT STACK: Tom and his young son

had stopped by the body shop late that morning.

TOM ROSS: It was just getting close to the noon hour,

and he said, uh, I'm real busy today.

I got a full shop.

But he said, I got time for one game of darts

if you want to-- if you got time.

I said, yeah, sure.

Yeah, nice job, bud.

Nice job.

[phone ringing]

Uh, hold on a second.

TOM ROSS: A phone call come in.

Hello?

TOM ROSS: And they were broke down they said about 3/4

of a mile east of the Bedrock, Colorado store-- just

a little country store.

Yeah, yeah.

I think I know where that is.

TOM ROSS: I was under the impression

that it might have been a lady that called.

Nothing that was actually said.

It was just the way he talked and stuff.

Yeah, no.

It's the other road.

It's the only way to go.

ROBERT STACK: Dale's shop did auto body repair.

He was not a mechanic, so it was unusual for him

to receive a call for roadside help.

I-- I did feel odd that, um, um, they

called Dale for assistance.

Sorry, you guys.

Uh, I'm gonna have to take off.

TOM ROSS: But at the same time, Dale

was one that was willing to go and help somebody

if they were broke down.

We said our goodbyes at the shop door.

That's the last time I ever saw Dale.

ROBERT STACK: The citizens of Nucla responded

to the emergency situation.

Missing posters were printed up and distributed

by Dale's friends and family.

It makes me feel really great to know I'm in a small town,

and everybody cares.

ROBERT STACK: However, Diana would soon

come to understand that not everyone in her small town

did care.

DIANA WILLIAMS: We had missing posters up and I noticed--

I had put some in the post office,

and about two days later, they were all gone.

So I put some more in there, and they just--

two or three days they disappear.

That ultimately resulted in us installing a hidden camera

in the post office in Nucla.

And that led to us being able to determine

who was responsible for the disappearance of those flyers.

ROBERT STACK: Within a few weeks,

the camera hidden by police captured images of this man

tearing down the flyers.

Incredibly, he was ultimately identified

as a former longtime family friend

of Dale and Diana Williams.

The individual depicted in the photographs was questioned,

and he denied any involvement in Dale's disappearance.

He also was able to, uh, give us an alibi for the 27th of May

1999, and for the most part, that alibi is consistent

and has been confirmed.

ROBERT STACK: Could Dale's disappearance

have had anything to do with some bad blood

between the two men?

12 months before Dale vanished, Diana and Dale

helped move the mystery man's ex-wife to another state

without his knowledge.

DIANA WILLIAMS: He was angry at Dale

for helping his ex-wife move and get clear out of the area,

and then we wouldn't tell him where she

was at or anything like that.

And I feel like he was really angry with Dale for that.

ROBERT STACK: A month after helping the man's ex-wife move,

Dale found some disturbing items outside his auto body shop.

DIANA WILLIAMS: He went to work.

He noticed some pictures torn up there just

laying all over the ground.

ROBERT STACK: The torn photographs

had been stolen from his shop.

They depicted Dale and Diana with their now divorced

friends in happier times.

Several 22 caliber bullets were also

scattered across the ground.

Several days after that, Diana made

a strange discovery in the night drop

box of the video rental store she ran--

a 22 caliber revolver.

Diana and Dale later discovered the gun, like the torn photos,

had also been stolen from Dale's auto body shop.

I was really nervous, because I didn't know what to think.

And Dale just told me to not worry about it.

Things would be OK, and things will settle down.

Whatever happened, it was more to scare him,

he felt like, than anything.

ROBERT STACK: Police interviewed Dale's former friend

about the burglaries, but he denied any involvement

in the break in.

Dale's life seemed to return to normal.

Then, 11 months after his body shop was burglarized,

Dale Williams suddenly disappeared.

Six weeks later, Dale's truck was recovered from the river.

An analysis of the vehicle at its recovery site

provided more clues.

The truck's ignition was turned on.

The vehicle was in gear, and the angle

between the highway and the river was extremely sharp.

Each detail seemed to indicate that someone

had deliberately steered Dale Williams's

truck into the water.

Once Diana viewed photographs of Dale's truck,

she was certain someone other than her husband last

drove the vehicle.

She took particular note of the partially

opened driver's side window.

DIANA WILLIAMS: Dale usually drove

with the driver's window all the way down, but never half way--

always down or up.

Somebody put it in there to get rid of it,

somebody who knew the river.

ROBERT STACK: Generating further speculation,

police have not located the stranded motorist

Dale Williams went to help.

Was the mystery caller a woman as Dale's friend surmised?

And why has that person never come forward?

Hello there.

ROBERT STACK: Investigators may already have that answer.

The purported distress call was placed

from a stolen cell phone.

Dale Williams's loved ones must also face yet

another perplexing scenario.

There are those who claim that Dale's truck was parked

in its normal spot at his body shop by 1:30 PM the day

he vanished.

If true, Dale, or someone else, drove his truck

back into town within 90 minutes of his responding

to the distress call outside of town.

There were even reports from witnesses

who claimed to have seen Williams

early that evening at a market in the neighboring

town of Naturita.

TAMI LOWRANCE: I do believe that the people who

saw Dale Williams between 5 and 6 o'clock at the local grocery

store did, in fact, see Dale and that they

are people in the community, that their word can be trusted.

ROBERT STACK: So what happened to Dale Williams,

and where is he now?

DIANA WILLIAMS: I believe Dale either seen something

he shouldn't have or knew something he shouldn't have,

and somebody was looking to shut him up.

Maybe he was ready to go to the cops and tell what he knew,

and that was their way of shutting him up.

ROBERT STACK: Dale Williams has not

been seen since May 27, 1999.

He stands five foot seven inches tall

and has light sandy hair and blue eyes.

Join us next time on "Unsolved Mysteries."