All language subtitles for Where.She.Lies.2020.WEBRip.x264-ION10

[serene music playing]

[Peggy Phillips]
When I was four or five,

my mother and dad
got me a puzzle...

and I was not able
to get the puzzle to fit.

So I snuck off and got my mother's scissors...

I cut the pieces
to make them fit.

I never liked things

that went zigzag in my mind.

I wanted everything to fit
even if I had to make it fit.

And I think
that was the beginning
of the story of my life.

I always tried to make it fit.

[woman 1] Peggy Phillips
stands by her baby's grave.

[low tempo music playing]

35 years ago she had a baby girl out of wedlock,

a baby she says her parents
didn't want her to keep.

Peggy gave birth here at Chattanooga's Memorial Hospital.

Doctors told Peggy the baby died
days after she was born.

But Peggy says before her
mother died,
she told her the truth.

She told me that the baby
had been adopted out.

So then, of course, I wondered,
well, what's in the grave?

[Zach Marion] A few years ago
I discovered Peggy's story

while doing research
for another project.

It came to me in the form
of a short online article
from 1997.

Like many people, I have questions about a family tragedy in my past that trouble me,

but none loomed so large
as to cast a shadow
over my entire life.

Peggy's longing struck me
as an intriguing premise
for a documentary

and a potential opportunity
to help another human being.

I wrote her a letter...

and three days later
she called me.

It was the beginning
of an unlikely friendship

formed to unravel a mystery
nearly 60 years in the making.

[low tempo music playing]

Okay.

-Hey.
-Hey.

-How are you?
-I'm fine.

-Can we come in?
-Sure.

All right.

I think what we'll,
what we might do

is maybe we'll bring in a few
little pieces of equipment.

-[Peggy] Okay.
-[Zach] And then we can
pick a spot

-and then we can sit and talk
for a little while.
-[Peggy] Okay.

-[Zach] Does that sound good?
-[Peggy] That sounds okay.

[Zach] Okay.

[serene music playing]

When I was 19, my sister-in-law
brought these guys over

and... Bob was not one of them

that was to be considered...

but he decided to impress me
by walking on his hands

down the sidewalk.

I never thought
about him being married.

That never entered my mind.

He told me
that they were getting divorced,

that she had left him.

So we started dating each other.

He did have one other habit
I wasn't happy about,

he did drink.

This one night he fooled me
and he was pretty high...

and...

that's when...

that happened.

[crying]

[cries]

[Peggy] After that
I didn't see him.

I talked to other girls

and they told me the first time
that you probably
won't get pregnant.

But I did.

I was 19,
but I was 19 going on 13.

Right here is the little house.

I was 15
when we first moved here.

There wasn't anything
but a barn.

I left and went to my aunt's
because I knew my dad
had a quick temper.

And with me being pregnant,

I didn't want him to get mad
and hit out at me.

I remember when I was pregnant

that mother
would take the chairs

and take them behind the house
when I was here.

She didn't want the neighbors
to know it.

Dad told me that...

if I agreed to have the baby
put up for adoption
that I could come back home.

And I told him no.

I never intended to do that.

And you know after that
it never felt back home again.

Never did.

So I stayed with my aunt...

and her daughter.

[Zach Marion] Jewel,
tell me about your house.
How long have you lived here?

-How long have I lived here?
-Mm-hmm.

Before he was born.
How old are you, Doug?

67.

67.
I've been here about 80 years.

[Zach Marion] So we're actually
in the room where Peggy stayed
when she was pregnant?

[Doug Scott] Right. When Peggy
was here, I was 12 years old.

At first I kind of thought like
what's this person doing here,
you know, or why is she here.

And nobody really said.

She just said it was just that
she's gonna be staying with us
for a while.

[Peggy Phillips] When I was
six months pregnant,

I had my first visit
with Dr. Thomas Monroe.

After the exam,
he told us to go into his office

and he had papers there
for me to sign...

to give my baby away.

I told him I never intended
to give my baby away.

And he said, "Well, you know
your baby will be called
a bastard, don't you?"

And I remember saying they can
call me what they want to,

but they won't be able
to call my baby a bastard.

[Zach Marion] One of the things
that Peggy told me was when she
first met with your father,

he... he strongly encouraged her
to give her child up
for adoption

saying that she didn't want
to keep this child
because it would be a bastard

and, you know,
would have a stigma against it.

Could you see your dad
saying something like that?

Yes, I could see him
saying that very forcefully

and... and really putting
pressure on... on her.

He... he would think
that would be completely best.

He believed that and...
and there was something to that
in 1962.

I was surprised

I had never heard of a doctor

trying to push an adoption
on someone.

It might have been because
my dad was connected
to other OB/GYNs

and OB/GYNs in those days would
facilitate private adoptions,

that they would do
that sort of thing.

It might have been
that he had access

to that kind of secondary
adoption agency

or adoption trail.

[Peggy Phillips] I went
into labor about two weeks

from being time for me
to have the baby.

So I called mother and told her.

She said, "Well, we'll be over
to get you."

But my dad left that night.

He said that he couldn't stay
under the same house

with a whore.

Correct.

He was concerned about
the people he worked with
finding out.

There was so much shame
about having a child
when you weren't married

was just totally different
than it is today.

At that time Memorial Hospital
would not allow a single woman

to go into their hospital
and have a baby.

They had a paper there

that they needed me to sign

saying that I could go into the
hospital under Bob's name.

It wasn't really that bad
of a labor.

I mean, it was 13 hours
and me, I was scared.

I... I had a feeling
that something
wasn't going to be right.

When they got me in there to the
delivery room,

I said there's no need in giving
me anything to knock me out...

and they did it anyway.

[dramatic music playing]

When I woke up, my mother
and my cousin were there

and said that they got
to hold the baby

and the baby had all its fingers
and its little toes

and it was okay.

I was there.

Yeah, how'd you get there?

I guess somebody took me.

-I guess somebody...
somebody had to take me...
-Well, of course.

...because I couldn't drive
back then.

-Do you remember who took you?
-I don't know.

-Did Gary take you or...
-But I know I stayed down there.

I stayed with her
until she had the baby.

-Right.
-And the baby was fine.

And I didn't... they wouldn't
let me see the baby.

[Zach Marion] Do you remember
being in the room
when it was born?

No.
I asked her about that earlier.

No, she wasn't in the room.

So... and she just never really
saw the child, you know.

Uh, she wants to think that she
did, how's that,

uh, and she wants to believe
that she did, uh, but, no,
she didn't ever see the child.

My OB/GYN came in...

and he said that, "I guess you
know your baby was a stillborn."

And I was trying to tell him,
"No, she's okay now."

"Did you try to do away
with her?"

"Did you take something?"

"No. Well, she's deformed,
so you don't want to see her."

There was an ashtray
sitting there by the bed.

I picked it up, threw it at him.

He went running down
to the nurse's station

and ordered me a sedative.

Ten minutes after that
Dr. Brackett, who was
the family doctor, comes in...

and he was asking me,
"Why are you pitching a fit?"

"Why are you throwing out
ashtrays at doctors?"

I told him and he said,
"Your baby's not dead."

"I just come from your baby."

"Your baby's not deformed."

And he called and told him to
get him a wheelchair up there.

He put me in a wheelchair and
wheeled me up to the nursery.

I was pretty well out of it,

but I can remember them
holding a baby up for me to see.

There was no IV on her,
there was no oxygen.

Nothing that you would put on
a baby that was seriously ill.

[baby crying]

When I woke up the next
morning at about 6:00,

this other doctor come in,
Dr. Perrin,

a specialist
and said that she had just died.

And I did look him in the eye
and I said, "Are you sure?"

And he said, "Yes, I'm sure."

[Zach Marion] Peggy shared
with me the birth certificate

and death certificate
for her daughter
who she named Darlene.

On the certificate of death,
the cause listed
is primary atelectasis,

which is the failure of lungs
to fully expand at birth.

Also listed is a congenital heart deformity.

Is there anything about these
documents that make you question
their authenticity?

The name was spelt different.

On the birth certificate
her name was D-A-R-L-E-N-E,

and on the death certificate
it was D-A-R-L-I-N-E .

There is no mistake that can
be made on a death certificate.

I know that from experience.

I worked for a pulmonary
specialist for two years

and I would prepare
the death certificates

and all he did
was sign the bottom of it.

So I realized
it wasn't that hard

to get a death certificate done.

[Doug] Well, now wait a minute.

One minute you say you saw
the baby, an hour later
you didn't see the baby.

I did. I saw the baby.

-See what I'm saying?
-And then they said it died.

They wouldn't let me see her
and they wouldn't let me
go to the funeral.

Every time I would request it,
I got another pill stuck
in my mouth.

[Zach] There was a funeral
for the baby.

-At that time.
-At that time.

Yeah. See, we don't know
anything about that.

-We never...
-So you don't remember
a funeral?

I don't even know. I wasn't
driving or anything back then.

-They brought the baby
into the room.
-Yes, they did.

-And the baby was alive then?
-Yes.

Baby was alive then.

So it died that night
or the next day

or whatever in your opinion
or the way you remember it.

-Well, they...
-Or that's what was told to you.

And... and that was
what we did, yeah.

That's important, I know now
that ended it right there.

[Peggy] I called my aunt
from work

because I couldn't mention
anything about the baby
in my parents' house.

She told me to quit crying.

She said,
"Peggy, your baby's not dead."

"Charles Byles
adopted your baby."

I went and faced my parents

and asked them if that was
what had happened.

They said, "No, it wasn't."

So again, I believed my parents.

[Zach] Dr. Byles passed away
in 2007.

He spent most of his life
working in Chattanooga
as a veterinarian

where he co-founded what is
now known as the
Shallowford Animal Hospital.

Dr. Byles had one daughter,
an adopted child named
Catherine Suzanne Smith.

Peggy keeps
this newspaper clipping
of Chattanooga's most wanted.

Catherine Suzanne Smith, who Peggy refers to as Suzanne,

was born six months to the day
that Peggy's baby was born.

[Peggy] I entered school
to become a dental assistant....

graduated and that's when
I met my husband.

The next few years I was having
trouble trying to get pregnant.

I was getting pregnant
but I was miscarrying.

They had to do surgery.

My dad [inaudible] once told me,

he said for a certain amount
of money I can get you a baby,

you don't have
to go through that.

I said, "What do you mean
you can get me a baby?"

He says, "I know some people."

And it went through my mind then

if you can get me a baby,
you could get rid of my baby.

[Zach] Did you suspect
that when your dad told you
that he could get you a baby

that there might be some kind of
operation going on or...

Yeah, I did think that.
In fact, I knew that.

This next story
will blow your mind.

With the help of a DNA test,
a mother and daughter
just met for the first time

after nearly 70 years.

Tonight in Georgia there are
still hundreds of people
looking for answers.

Tonight's story is about babies right here in the United States in Memphis, Tennessee.

Certain members of my family...

was...

doing...

-Black market.
-Black market babies.

...black market babies.

Infants and young children
are stolen and sold by underground baby selling rings.

I know you all find this hard
to believe but it really
is going on in America.

Some of the girls was very poor.

It...
I mean, they really had nothing.

Mostly women who were poor
or uneducated
and so couldn't fight back.

And they would pay them
a thousand dollars.

Up to thousands of dollars.

For the baby.

I just feel like that...
that I'm a black market baby
until I know better.

Beyond your father, did you
ever hear about a baby ring
from anybody else?

Only from my first cousin,
Margaret.

She had heard about me having
so many miscarriages.

I don't remember her exact words
but it was,

"I know how to get you a baby."

She seemed proud of the fact.

My name is Zach Marion.

I'm a filmmaker
working on a documentary.

Did your parents ever have any
involvement with a baby trading
ring or anything like that?

No, not that I know of.
I've never heard anything.

-They never mentioned
that they were--
-No.

Never mentioned it.

Do you think that something
like that could be true?

Knowing my mom and dad,
no, I don't think so.

My daughter could never find me.

But she's here today.
Meet your daughter.
Jackie, come on out.

[applause]

In a lifetime of wanting this,
wishing that I could find
my mother.

[indistinct chatter]

[woman 2] It's okay.

[Zach] So your dad offers to get
you a baby, and then what do you
decide to do?

I wanted a baby so bad

even though I knew that
that had to be wrong...

I decided I would do it.

For three or four months
I was happy,

I was buying baby clothes.

I didn't notice
but I was pregnant.

[serene music playing]

[Peggy] For a long time
it was normal home.

Having my son did help me
to forget but not completely.

It never completely went out
of my mind about the first baby.

[Zach Marion] Tell me the events
leading up
to your mother's passing.

After she fell and broke her
hip, she just seemingly gave up.

She just would not eat.

She got to where she wouldn't
get up, didn't want to walk.

This is from my diary.

"I heard nothing
until mom entered the hospital.

She went into a coma
on December 10, 1994.

The doctor said she wouldn't
come out of it.

He expected her to die
before morning.

But God had other plans.

She came out of the coma
the next afternoon."

And that's when she said
you're doing this

just because of what Claude did
to your daughter.

She told me that she tried
to get dad not to do what he did
with my baby.

"But then she turned on me
and said it was my fault

because I made him do it
by getting pregnant."

I said, "How did you do that,
mother, I never did sign
adoption papers?"

And she said, "Your daddy signed
your name, said you'd never know
the difference."

I asked her, I said,
"Well, who... who was it?

Who had her?"

And she said, "When I get out
of here, I'll take you to her."

She rolled over in the bed
and went into a coma.

She never did come out of it.

♪ Happy birthday to you

♪ Happy birthday to you

♪ Happy birthday, dear Peggy

♪ Happy birthday to you

Thank y'all.

[blowing]

Whooo!

Well done.

-Did you make a wish?
-Mm-hmm.

Don't tell anybody.

You're not supposed to tell it.

I got this attorney
to represent me.

[Zach Marion] Just first say
your first and last name
and spell it.

It's Doug Cox. D-O-U-G C-O-X.

I'm a lawyer and I've been
practicing since 1987.

When I first heard the story,
it was strange enough that
I thought this could be true.

Her mother on her deathbed
had told her

that the child had actually
survived and had been adopted
by Dr. Byles,

which was up the street from,
or up the road from
where they lived.

I think they actually
knew each other.

And I felt like Miss Phillips,
she needed some closure
to this issue.

[Peggy Phillips] Then I called
Doug Cox and asked him if he
would slip an appointment for me

and the Byles to meet.

I decided that maybe
they would just come on out

and tell me the truth

and tell me how they got her
and so forth.

When Charles and Dorothy Byles
came in,

I said, "Well, I guess
you have heard of me."

And he said, "No."

I said, "Well, I think you have
my baby."

"No."

And so I knew it wasn't gonna
be no truth meeting.

And he got very angry

when he found out
I had his daughter's
birth certificate.

Yeah.

[Zach] This is Suzanne's
actual birth certificate.

[Peggy] Mm-hmm.

[Zach] How did you get the
hospital to give this to you?

[Peggy] At that time
I worked in medical records.

From the birth of Miss Phillips'
child to the adoption
was a six month period,

which was fairly close
for an adoption.

Charles Byles asked my attorney,

"Does she have enough evidence
to sue me?"

Doug Cox said, "No, she don't
have enough evidence now."

He said, "Well, then if she
don't have enough evidence
to prove this case,

then I'm wronged,"
and he got up and left.

And while he was gone,
his wife had pictures

and she was showing me pictures
and telling me about them,

what kind of baby Suzanne was
and asked me then,

"Would you like to have
some of the pictures?"

And I thought
you just told me that...

that couldn't be my baby,

why are you doing this?

That's automatic to me but
you knew that it wasn't right.

When Peggy's daughter was born,

um, I was probably in the second
grade but my aunts
always discussed it.

They always said that her
daughter was adopted out,
or didn't die.

They've always said that.
My whole life I've heard it.

And so one day
I went to see Peggy
and she started talking about it

and it kind of angered me
because I find people for hobby.

So I thought, "Well, I'm sure
I can find Suzanne."

[Peggy Phillips] My cousin said,

"Well, there's a woman
that lives up the street here
by the name of Suzanne."

Suzanne lived on a street
where my daughter's friend's
grandmother lived there forever.

So her friend's grandmother
remembered Suzanne
and growing up.

She went up there and knocked on
the door and Suzanne's husband
come to the door.

And so he took my number and
called the detention center

and Suzanne called me
that night.

Her words was, "I've...
I've heard that you've been
hunting me."

And I remember, I said,
"I think I've been hunting you
all my life."

Hey, Suzanne, it's Zach.

I'm up at, uh, at Hardee's.

Do you think
you can make it up here?

-[laughs]
-Oh, no?

Um...

Okay.

Hey.

We're just, uh, we're sitting
at the bottom of the driveway.

All right, hang on.

I try to keep my distance from
people because I don't want to
harm them with my drug addiction

and, you know, [inaudible],
I'm... I've been dried out
and then bang, back.

[woman 3] A search for the truth
brought Peggy here

to the Tennessee Prison
for Women in Nashville.

Behind the security guards
and the wire fence

Suzanne Smith
walks the hallways.

All I've been told
about my birth mother
is that she was a nurse,

she was unmarried
and she just couldn't raise me
and she gave me away.

Yes, this is one
that she sent me.

[Zach Marion] Do you want
to hold it up actually?

It's because the camera
will see it.

From prison when we were
very close to each other

and I felt that connection
with her...

that she was my daughter.

This is a picture of Suzanne.

And, of course, you're going to
put your children's pictures out

where people can see them.

People that adopt their children
are going to have to understand

that that no matter what they
do, no matter what they buy us,
no matter what they give us,

beat us, give us, whatever,

we want our mama
and our mama wants us.

[woman 4] Peggy says she's
99 percent sure
Suzanne is her daughter.

In an exclusive
Eyewitness News interview

Suzanne says she first learned
about Peggy
from a childhood friend.

I believed it.
I really believed it.

And then... and I took it
real hard at first.

[Peggy Phillips] This is
a letter I received from Suzanne
where she was in prison.

February 2, 1996.

"Dear Peggy and Jimmy,

while I was home on escape
I dyed my hair black,

well, there is no doubt
I look just like you, Peggy."

[Suzanne Smith] Peggy would say,
"Oh, my little finger
looks like yours."

I'd say, "Peggy,
I know it looks like yours.

Women's fingers,
you know, they..."

I said, "But I'm not going to go
into that with you, Peggy."

I said, "If you want me to be
your daughter and fill that void
in your life, I will."

I said that I can only do it
until my drug addiction kicks in

and I'm out of control.

I said, "Darling,
there's nothing you can do.
Nobody can do."

I don't think God can do
anything with me, you know,
because I go on self-destruct.

Suzanne has spent three years
in prison for drug dealing
and parole violation.

When I met Peggy,
I just started doing drugs,
you know, just every day.

Suzanne says she then turned
to her adoptive parents
for answers,

but then learned
they had connections to Peggy.

Peggy was pregnant.

She stayed at her aunt's
who lived next door
to my father's parents.

Then she also
has some of my mother's cousins

married into her family,
you know her parents' family.

[Peggy Phillips] "Dear Peggy,
I get really mad

when I think of you being lied
to all those years."

"Dear Mom,
I got your letter today."

"I'm just really thankful
you all did find me."

"I'm at peace knowing the real
mother I have [inaudible]

has a face to go with it."

February 12th, 1996.

"Hi, Mom, a lot of people
don't understand
why I've always been so unhappy.

You were and are the key
of making me whole."

March 5th.

"I really thought it's sweet
for you to want to make your
daughter a room.

Green is my favorite color."

"Hi, Mom,
thanks for my birthday present."

March 12th.

"It's really nice to be able
to tell you anything."

March 20th, April 17th.

By that time I... It...
I felt like I had adopted her

in my heart,

that she would always be like
my daughter no matter what.

You know, I really want to
believe this

and, you know,
I'd much rather think, you know,
I was taken than given.

But, you know, I have to also
keep that other spot open
just in case it's not true.

What is it? Yeah.

[Zach Marion] It says, uh,
"Dear Suzanne,

I've been wanting to get
in touch with you
for quite a while.

I want you to know that
I didn't lose touch with you
because I wanted to.

I lost my job
and I had to have surgery.

I still love you.

And if you ever decide to call
me, my number is,"
and the number's here.

It says, "Love, Peggy."

[bell chimes]

Yeah. You know, she...
she does love you.

I know she does.

-Do you want this too?
-Mm-hmm.

She really does.

-And I think--
-I know she does. [sniffles]

You know, I've heard.

I just...

I mean, now, um,
where I'm at in my life...

I could be around her
and not hurt her.

All that I know is that at one
point in time

that Peggy had welcomed Suzanne
into her home

and that... and... and Peggy
was really under the impression

that, uh, she had found
the truth
that this was her daughter.

But that didn't turn out well.

[Peggy] This is where she got
my checks

and wrote... wrote them up.

And my jewelry.

And that is the reason
my son feels hurt at her.

[Evelyn Burroughs] It was pretty
early in the morning,
a knock on the door,

and a gentleman at the door
identified himself,

told me he was process server
and that he had papers
for Mr. Robert Burroughs.

He was trying to get a DNA test
from my husband

so that they could make sure
that Suzanne was his daughter.

They came up and took blood
from my husband
and they had blood from Peggy.

So they went out to Silverdale
to get some from Suzanne.

[Zach] Did you know anything
about the child earlier on,

like, throughout your marriage
or anything?

No.

I mean,
my husband was a womanizer

and I'm sure there might be more
out there, I don't know.

How did you feel about
the DNA test that was done?

I felt like it was
a waste of her money.

-Did you tell her that?
-Yes, I did.

But there was nothing going to
make Peggy have peace
within herself until she did.

It came back showing
she wasn't my daughter.

That was very hard to believe.

I guess I chose not to believe.

I was talking to Peggy one day
and she said, "I just got
a phone call from somebody."

I said, "What happened?"

She said, "This lady called me
and said do you remember

when you had somebody out here
to take a DNA sample
from Suzanne?"

And Peggy said, "Yeah, why?"

And this girl said, "Well,
it wasn't Suzanne's blood."

Said, "I'm the one
that gave the sample."

I said, "Well, did you find out
who she was or anything?"
She said, "No."

Said, "She wouldn't tell me
and she just..."

You know, she said, "I just
thought you needed to know."

DNA testing, as we discussed
earlier back then,

everybody was under the,
you know, impression
that it was infallible.

And so I... I was hoping
with that in hand that Peggy
would finally put it to rest.

But she didn't.

So I decided that I would go
another way

and try to have
the grave exhumed.

I called the funeral home and
asked the man

if he had records that went back
that far and he told me he did.

It showed only thing that was
put down as an expense

was 45 dollars for a casket,

nothing for keeping
the baby overnight,

nothing for the embalmment,

no expense on the hearse
taking the baby
to the gravesite.

I said I remember
that they charged for all that.

And he said, "Yes, Ma'am,
I can't explain that.

I don't know why they didn't."

[woman 5] Peggy Phillips walks
into Chancery Court
looking for truth.

She's hired an attorney.

They want Judge Vann Owens
to order the grave be dug up.

State law requires that the
Department of Health to have a court order to dig up a grave.

A decision will be made
in about 30 days,

unlocking a mystery that's haunted Peggy most of her life.

[Jodi Brooks]
I was in my mid-20s

and I was working in
Chattanooga, Tennessee,
for Channel 3

and we had just finished
my story in the newscast.

And I go back to my desk
and my phone's ringing.

And usually it's like, "Oh, my
gosh, my boss is calling me,"
like, "What did I say wrong?

What did I do?" And I answered
the phone and it was Peggy.

And she said she had just seen
my story on the news
and she had a story for me.

[Zach] When you first heard
Peggy's story, how did you feel?

Yeah, I was... I was sad for her
and I wanted to help her.

I'm like, you deserve the truth.
We all deserve the truth.
Let's figure it out.

[Doug Cox] The chancellor
was not sure that he had
the authority

to order this disinterment.

But after some time he came
around and we got the order
that was necessary

to exhume the body.

The only way I've made it
is my belief in God

and God's been with me
through the whole thing.

He wanted me to find out.

[Jodi] Soon Peggy will find out
if her intuition is right.

Judge Vann Owens ruled today the baby's grave can be dug up.

He said Peggy deserves closure.

It's hard to explain how I feel.

It's wonderful, at least I know
I can get
to the end of this now.

[Zach] At any point did
you think that Miss Phillips'
motivating factor was financial?

Never. That... that...
It was never financial.

And I... I feel quite
positive about that.

I mean, because we, even at
the time this was going on,

we were contacted by other
companies that wanted to do
a film production

and, uh, it never crossed
her mind.

It... it was never anything that
she seemed that interested in.

Is there a reason that you never
did talk shows
or anything like that?

I just... I really am more
of a private person

and I really didn't want to
stimulate that

to where they would be more
[inaudible] in that one and
more [inaudible] in that one.

Was there something different
about this film?

I just...
I just liked your voice

when I first heard
you talking to me.

I worked for Chattanooga Wilbert
Vault Company

and, uh, we were hired to
come in and do the disinterment.

And who actually hires you to,
to bring you in
for something like that?

Uh, it's usually... usually
the funeral homes do that.

And so would that be
Curtis Ottinger?

I believe it was Curtis.

When I was in high school,
I've always said I want
to be a funeral director

and I've done that very thing.

You know, I was there because
in the State of Tennessee

you have to have a licensed
funeral director present
for a disinterment.

[Jodi] Peggy Phillips gathered
with family and friends
in the pouring rain.

Nothing would stop her today
from solving
a 35-year-old mystery.

It was rainy and it was muddy
and it was cold.

I mean, I even remember
the jacket I was wearing.
I remember that day.

I had to put my, you know,
all the plastic on to keep dry.

Anticipating what we would find,
if anything.

It was a somber event.

More people there
than I thought would be there.

A caretaker hired to dig up
the baby's grave
first removed the headstone

marked with the name
Darlene Elizabeth Burroughs.

Peggy had won the battle
to have this grave dug up,

but still fought an emotional
battle, one she'd win
if this grave was empty.

I had my backhoe and I had
to be real careful go in

because you don't want
to tear up any other graves
or anything getting in there.

Peggy watched as a caretaker
first used a machine
to dig up the grave.

At about four feet deep,
he saw something
and switched to a shovel.

I had my shovel and was trying
to be gentle and, you know,
as easy as I could

to stay in where the grave was
and not bring anything else out,
you know.

Embalming in children and babies
that... that young,

they're not embalmed like...
like adults are embalmed.

There's an entirely different
embalmment process.

So you just... you don't know
the decomposition process
over the years,

you... you just don't know what
you're going to find really.

You just... you...
You never know.

The first thing I do remember
was the interior of the casket.

The material, the little pillow
of the casket and everything
else was disintegrated.

It was just basically the wood.

Everything was real dirty
and it was muddy,
water was pouring in the grave.

Funeral home manager
Curtis Ottinger used a rubber
glove to sift through the mud.

He set aside what appeared
to be evidence of an infant.

That's when we started finding,
I think we found a little
armband, I believe,

um, with...
with the name Burroughs
actually on the little band.

And then we little by little
we... we did find a bone.

My attorney called me away
from the grave

and told me that they had felt
one or two pieces of something.

They wasn't sure
whether it was bone or not.

Remains were exhumed, they were
taken to the funeral home
and that's where it was opened.

There wasn't anything done there
on the site.

When we did unearth the remains,
we found just a few.

But now that we're back,
we've sifted through,
we found quite a few bones.

[Zach] Was Peggy ever shown
the remains at that point?

I don't know that she was.

I don't recall.
I mean, it's been a long time.

Was she ever brought into a room
to look at what was found?

Yeah, I think she was.

20 minutes after we got back
the funeral home,

they said they had found
50 something bones.

A newborn baby...

the bones haven't even formed
real good.

They're soft.

Those bones would not have been
bones that many years
in... in... in the ground.

They would have deteriorated.

They had found booties.

Now here is the booties...

that they gave me that they were
supposed to be under the ground
for 33 years.

There's not a hole in them.

Do you think the booties could
have lasted in a good condition
as they were?

Yeah, it just must have been
the way the cloth come down
when it collapsed,

eventually, the wood
and kind of pancake,
you know, like a pancake

and protected it on the inside.
That's what I would assume.

The dress, now if it'd been
in that grave for 32 years,
it would have been rotten.

It looked like it what did
when you bought it.

It came out of the ground
because I was standing there.

The dress that came out of
the ground, it had design on it.

It's been over 20 years
but it had design on it.

What color was it?

I want to say it had green in it
but it was nylon dress for sure.

And my mother went with
Peggy's mother to buy the dress.

Did your mom say
it was a white dress?

Yeah, definitely,
without a doubt.

And my mother said, "No way
the dress had lace on it.
It was white."

And that's not the dress.

[Zach] They found this bracelet
that said Burroughs on it in.

Do you have any idea?
What do you think?

Uh, it was, uh, it was part of
it. She showed that to me too.

[Peggy] The pink is still
on the bead.

If they had found
one bead one place,
another bead another place,

but it to be together
and you can read the letters

after being under the ground
for about 33 years,
I just can't believe that.

There's no way all that stuff
would have been in there
that many years.

It's just almost impossible.

To switch and place, you know,
another child's remains
in that box and bury it,

I don't know
how that would have happened.

That would have been
a criminal act.

[Zach] What would it take from
your perspective to kind of do a
bait-and-switch with a skeleton

on a...
on a disinterment like that?

Wow.

No, that's... that's a...
I don't know, that's a...

When I saw that there were
remains, it kind of suggested
to me that,

well, maybe it didn't go down
as Miss Phillips thought it did.

You know,
that would be so difficult.

I don't know
how that could have happened.

I really don't know
how that could have happened.

It's too large a dress,
it's the wrong color.

It's just... it's not her baby.

I could not believe that they
had found all them bones

because how could it went
from two pieces of something

to 50 bones?

I rarely will discuss anything
about a case with the news

um, but I don't... I don't
recall saying anything to them.

And if I did, the only thing
I would have given them
were facts and not opinions.

I think that she had adopted
what she thought, you know,
was the truth and pursued that

and that's not
what's happened here today.

Today's discovery
is not what Peggy expected.

Right now she just wants to stay home, sort through all this

because she still believes
her daughter is alive.

Still a lot of unanswered
questions to this, Jodi.

You bet.
We'll follow it to the end.

Okay, keep us updated.
Thank you.

Peggy wanted me to keep
following on this story

and keep, keep digging,
if you will,

like where's her daughter
'cause she believed those
weren't her daughter's bones.

The man that dug the grave
called me and we talked.

He said he definitely
did not see no bracelet,

he didn't see no booties.

He said I did not bring
that stuff up.

I don't remember ever saying
that, uh, you know,
because I... I was with Curtis

and the funeral director
and I actually saw,

you know, the remains coming up
out of the ground for myself,
you know.

So I... I never did call Peggy,
you know.

[Zach] Do you have any idea
why she would say that?

Maybe there was somebody else
named Steve?

There was a lot of people
involved. I don't know.

[Zach] Is it possible that
somebody could have seen
the news story on TV

and then called you pretending
to be Steve as kind of a prank?

Yes.

The other time
when it was in the paper

and on the TV,

received them constantly.

We would expect more remains
had the excavation been done

using controlled
archaeological techniques.

[Jodi] Peggy has hired forensic
anthropologist Tom Botkin.

He will put the bones back
together to see if they belong
to an infant.

The first thing that I will do
is determine whether they're
human or non-human.

At the time I was a forensic
anthropologist for the County
Medical Examiner's Office.

The analysis showed
that the remains were consistent

with a full-term infant.

I remember that they were going
to have them tested or checked
or something like that.

And the story that I got back
was that they were dog bones,
which... Wow.

Probably came from Peggy
you're saying?

Yeah.
Oh, I'm sure it came from Peggy.

Like I think that I... I don't
think that... I think... I don't
think I checked the report.

I never remember.
I would never...

I would remember if we checked
a report to see what the bones
were and it said dog bone.

-I think it all came from Peggy.
-Okay.

It never dawned on me to stop
and think, "Dog bones?"

Like, okay, so there was
a dead dog at the time to take
the bones to put him in a...

Like that never, never made me
stop to think like,
"Does this make sense?"

Because it was such
a fascinating story, right.

Like, it had everybody thinking
like, "Oh, my gosh, like,
I can't believe this story."

The extent they went to cover up
this... this child's life
and this baby,

this, you know, baby
that was born in such a...

in a... in a way
that was so shameful

that this is the level and the
extent that people went through.

You know, there's another piece
to this
besides the skeletal analysis

and that was the medical records
from Memorial Hospital

that I was given,

uh, not only about the birth
records, the OB/GYN records,

but the post-mortem autopsy
that the hospital performed.

[Zach] Tom sent me Peggy's birth records, 32 pages in all.

It's a minute-by-minute record
of Darlene's failing health
over the course of two days.

Included was the seven-page
autopsy report

whose final diagnosis states
that the child died of anemia

or a lack of oxygenated blood.

Specifically, the cause of death was an interatriel
septal defect,

a hole in the baby's heart.

[Zach] There is an autopsy
report, right?

[Peggy] Yeah.

[Zach] And does the... what does
the autopsy report say
is the cause of death?

A hole in the heart.

Is it difficult when you look
at these records in their detail

to reconcile that?

Yeah, I got them 10 years
before the grave was exhumed.

And after I read them, I put...
put it up again for a while.

When you say you read these
and then you put them up,

does that mean initially when
you saw them you thought
that they were?

-Accurate.
-You thought
they were convincing?

I was going to have DNA done
on the bones.

It would only be a 10 percent
chance that they would be able
to find the DNA.

If the remains in the grave
don't match what we expect,

then she doesn't need to pay
a lot of money for DNA testing.

I never was able to get the
money again to get the DNA done.

And I just... I felt like I was

at the right process that I'd
be able to do anything...

until I got the letter from you.

-[Peggy Phillips] Hi.
-[Barbie] Hi there.

My name's Barbie.

-Hi Barbie. I'm Peggy.
-It's good to meet you.

-I'm here to do your
DNA swap today.
-Okay.

[line ringing]

-That is it.
-All right.

Thank you, Ma'am.

[Zach] Mitochondrial DNA is inherited by both women and men

but it's passed from
one generation to the next
by women only.

It branches out to form
what is known as
a family's maternal line.

A mitochondrial DNA test can
determine if a mother and her
child, like Peggy and Darlene,

belong to the same
maternal line.

In light of the fact that we're
supposed to get the results back
in the next couple of days,

have you thought about
when you want to look at them?

Yes, I thought about it.

And I think I would like to look
at them...

right, maybe Friday
or Saturday...

um, because of it being
a New Year.

-[Zach] You ready?
-Mm-hmm.

Okay. So, you know, we weren't
able to get nuclear DNA
from the bones.

-We were able to get
mitochondrial DNA, okay?
-Okay.

We talked kind of about that
in great detail.

So, um, the mitochondrial DNA
from you and the remains

did match.

Okay? And what that means

is that, uh, there's I think
about a 96.7
or 96.8 percent chance

that that the results
are accurate.

Does that...
Do you understand that?

-Yes.
-Okay.

You okay?

[grunts]

Okay.

That means that my baby is dead.

Mm-hmm.

"Piggy Phillips
for any maternal relative

is not excluded as the mother
of the remains."

It... it means that, um, they
can't exclude you as the mother.

So they can...
So to put it in another way,

the test shows that you are
included in the mother

in somebody that shares the
same sequence as the remains.

[Jimmy Smith] Seems legit.

-I mean, it seems good
from reading the report.
-Yeah.

[Zach] Coming into this moment,
were you suspecting
this outcome?

Yeah.

I know it's hard for y'all
to imagine, but it feels like
it just happened.

Just so many unanswered
questions still.

That... that concludes it.

It's the beginning
of the... of the end.

But yet,
there'll never be an ending.

Not for your child.

I think I'm watching people
myself.

-[Jimmy] This still leaves a lot
of questions.
-[Zach] What did you say?

Oh, yeah.

[Zach] We did a mitochondrial
DNA test with the remains

and it's about 97 percent chance
that that was her baby.

Could that baby have been her
mother's miscarried baby or...

Her mother's miscarried baby?

-Was her mother...
-Her mother had a few...

I think it was her mother.

Her mother or her aunt had a few
babies buried in the same area,

that Peggy's baby's grave
was unmarked,

so that Peggy's baby actually
could be beside this baby.

Huh.

This test we did showed
a maternal match of 97 percent.

What do you make of that?

I just... I... I still think
that Suzanne was...

was her daughter
and my husband's daughter.

I mean...

to look at everything
the way it...

I don't know when I saw her
the way she...

when she come in the door,
it... it just...
I knew that it was her.

I don't know if it was...
what... what it was

but it just... that's the way
I've always felt.

[Zach] Do you think that the way
you feel necessarily means
that that's the truth?

Well, no, you know, that you can
feel a lot different things
and it not be the truth.

But as far as I am concerned...

it's truth to me right now.

This is Melanie take one.

-You see this?
-Yes.

-Did you get that?
-[woman 6] Yes.

That was Melanie take one.

You're my sister.
You're a therapist.
You have a newborn.

So I was hoping you'd be willing
to provide some
therapeutic context

to Peggy's story.

[Melanie] Okay.

As human beings we're animals,
we want to avoid pain.

Anything that's painful, we're
going to find avenues around it.

We construct exactly what we...
what we want in terms of our
narrative in any given moment.

We take snapshots.

We take that information very
quickly and put it into a story

that makes sense to us in order
to us to avoid anything further
painful from happening.

-You know,
maybe on some level...
-Yeah.

...unconsciously she knew
there was a loss.
There is a loss.

Whether the baby was, um, dead
or whether the baby was taken,
it's a loss.

I mean, I can't imagine,
you know, if somebody
just, like, took my baby

right after you carried it
and went through labor.

I mean, just the pain of that,
right, of... that's your baby.

She maybe lived her life not
wanting to accept

and not wanting to grieve the
pain of that because that was
going to overtake her.

If in truth those bones are,
you know, DNA connects her
to... to Peggy,

the... the bones connected
to Peggy,

I mean, how tragic, right,
how tragic

and how, um, how sick, like,
these people played with her.

Like, as a journalist, you know,
I've covered a lot of horrible,
horrible stuff,

shootings and car accidents
and fires and murders and, like,
all this horrible ugly stuff,

and that leaves an impact.

And Peggy's story
definitely left an impact.

We created this little program,
take your unwanted newborn
to an area hospital,

hand it to somebody, walk away,
no questions asked.

As long as that baby's not
harmed, there's no charges,
there's no crime.

The DA's not going
to press charges.

And ever since then I have been
on a mission,

you know, this... this theme
of these babies and promoting
the laws across the country.

Every state now has a law.
Over 4,000 babies
have been saved.

If... if there's anybody
to thank for all of this,
it's someone like Peggy.

I'll coordinate getting,
uh, Darlene back to you,

um, and get it all set up.

So I'll help you with all that.

That gravesite is a place that
you go back to and you can
remember your loved one.

But before you do that,
you have to bury them.

That is part of life.

When you're born, you die
and you have to be placed back
in the ground.

And for Peggy, that's what
she's going to need to do.

She's going to have to put
that sweet little girl back
in the ground, have a service,

and bury her and walk away
and begin that healing.

When she does that, I promise
that's when that healing
will start in her heart.

[knocking]

Hey.

[laughs]

-Hi.
-Hi.

How are you doing?

We're heading
to Hensley Cemetery

where my daughter was buried.

She'll be reburied tomorrow.

It's really given up
that she's out here somewhere.

She's gone, that I don't
have a daughter.

Do you remember...
Do they have to put
the headstone back over here

or was that about where it was?

I don't think it was
near that tree.

This doesn't look familiar
though, does it?

Uh-uh. No.

And see stones like that a lot
of them was my aunt's children.

She had about six children
and they couldn't afford...

markers, so they would just make
something like that and put up.

[inaudible].

Did any of them die young?

They died, a lot of them
when they were babies.

So you're saying these stones...

Are my aunt's children.

And your aunt on your mom's
side or your dad's side?

My mother's.

You know,
I know what you're thinking...

and if they had done that...

the DNA would have matched.

I didn't think about it until
today and I got the pictures
now,

so we would be sure
to get the right spot.

And...

it looked like
where he was down digging,

like there was one of those...

stones was down there.

It could be that the bones
washed down that hill.

-I'll show you when we get back.
-Okay.

[Zach] So what... are we saying
that, like, these things
represent children?

These are all infants.

-They only lived,
let's say she had twins...
-Okay.

...and one died,

I'd stay in bed with her,
I'd stay smothered.

-Okay, her... her name is what?
-Alice.

-Alice. And tell me
the last name again?
-Whalen.

-And how is she related
to you? Just so...
-She was my aunt.

Do you remember any
of the kids' names?

The twins was Paul and Pauline.

They died separately,
maybe six months...

-Apart?
-...apart.

As babies?

Yeah.

Were you... were you alive
when they were alive?

No.

It just keeps getting
deeper and deeper, doesn't it?

It does.

Hi.

How are you doing?

-[laughs] Hi.
-Hi.

[Suzanne]
You... you did go [inaudible].

Yeah, I lived there about--

First let me say I'm sorry here.

I'm sorry for all that bullshit
I've done because that was
all it was bullshit.

But, you know, I did that
because I think we've been
adopted children,

we have to do something to see
if we have unconditional.

And you pass the test
with flying colors but still yet
that was wrong.

I was on crack. You know, I kind
of forewarned you but, you know.

-Yeah.
-But it was, you know...

But I didn't know.
I really I was...

All that I did,
I did you guys wrong.

I opened the adoption records
and all that
and I was born in 1960.

-You were?
-Yes, I was.

-You weren't born in '62 then?
-No.

No.

No wonder your appearance was...

Well, it's no wonder my feet
were so big in...
in fourth grade.

No wonder I got boobs
in fourth grade

because I wasn't, you know,
I was two years old enough then.

They... she... they looked at me
so funny when I had your
birth certificate.

Mm-hmm.

Well, I still got your
picture up over there.

-Oh, you do?
-Mm-hmm.

[inaudible] how many
of those [inaudible].

The one that you wrote,
"Hi, Mom."

Oh, right, yeah.

-It's a prison picture.
-Mm-hmm.

Oh, Lord, mercy.

Well, I was pretty, wasn't I?

Yes, it's yours.

Now I have pictures
and they're all on my phone

and I don't have them like that
I can hold them in my hand
like they used to, so...

And I'm a ham kind of girl.
She is too.

We like ham sandwiches
and mayonnaise, don't we?

Mm-hmm.

-I love you, darling.
-I love you too.

And now you know
I'm not fussing at you.

-I just want you--
-I know you're not fussing
at me.

I just want you to do...

-I know you don't.
-...what's good for you.

I... I try to.

We took the bones back.

Do you think that's your baby?

Do you think that's her?
Or do you still think it's me?

Which one?
I'm... I'm just curious.

I thought that they were
my bones.

I've got a question
about them again now.

Oh, oh, watch out people,
she's on it.

But I'm not.

-It's okay.
-I don't think--

I believe... I believe really in
my heart that, you know,
she died

and... and they did...
they... they did tell the truth

but there was something
that wasn't...

-There was something
wasn't right about it.
-This is true.

I think Darlene did die.

Yeah. And, you know, she's in
heaven with God and it's okay.

Just let it be, okay, so you'll
have that peace in your heart,
you know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

You want the phone number?

Do you want me to have
your phone number?

'Cause I'm not far. I mean,
I might have to ride my bicycle.

But I'm refused
to get my driver's license.

[Zach Marion] Before the
funeral tomorrow,

there are a couple things
I want to talk through with you.

The first thing is that I talked
to Curtis about the markers

that might represent
buried children.

And he said those
are actually footstones,
they mark the foot of a grave.

So then I drove back out
to the cemetery

and I look down the line of the
markers near Darlene's grave.

Each marker
has a corresponding headstone.

Does that make sense?

-Yes.
-Okay.

Also, I found the death
certificates for your cousins
Paul and Pauline Whalen.

They both died in 1925.

Pauline was 16 days old
and Paul was one-day-old.

Paul's grave is closest
to Darlene's grave.

And when I say closest,
they're a good 15 feet apart.

And in that 15 feet
are the graves of your aunt
and your uncle.

Your aunt is buried kind of
kitty-corner to Darlene

and they are part of
the same maternal line.

But according to your aunt's
death certificate, she died
in 1988 at the age of 96.

So those bones...

Those bones
would have been much older.

Yeah.

So it was just
a passing thought.

Let's talk about why your mom
would have said what she said
when she passed.

The only other theory
I could come up with

is my mother was always afraid

that I would put her
in a nursing home.

So I don't know.

I don't know if her thinking was
that...

she knew that I wanted to find
my daughter so bad

that she thought
that if she told me that,
that I'd take her home.

Is it conceivable to think
that that was like
a false confession then

and she was saying that
so that she wouldn't be moved?

It could have been
a false confession.

Hey, Peggy, it's Zach.

Hey, I thought I'd just call
and check in on you.

Yeah.

Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah. It's a lot to process.

♪ Amazing

♪ Grace

♪ How sweet

♪ The sound

♪ That saved

♪ A wretch

♪ Like

♪ Me

♪ I once was lost

♪ But now I am found

♪ Was blind

♪ But now

♪ I see

Let's pray.

Lord God, please give comfort to
mom in this time when...

even though it's been years
this is going to be
extremely difficult.

We know that Darlene's in heaven
with You

and that one day we're all going
to get to see her again

and help us to be strong
and stay on that path

so that one day
we may be able to do that.

In Jesus' name I pray.

-Amen.
-Amen.

[Peggy] Sometimes down here you
don't always get the answers.

The puzzle pieces to all of it.

But I never gave up.

And I was able to get the puzzle to fit the right way

in my mind.

And I hope
what I've went through with it

for it to be able
to help other people.

That will help
with the lonely nights

the questions that'll come up
all at once.

And it won't be that many years I have before I can meet her.

[serene music playing]

Being able to talk to you

and know that you understand
means everything to me.

Because in this world
we all belong to each other.

[low tempo music playing]

[Peggy] Well...

-I guess we're at the end of it.
-Yeah.

May I see you again soon?

-Yeah.
-Yeah.