Original subtitles

ANNOUNCER: This program is about unsolved mysteries.

Whenever possible, the actual family members

and police officials have participated

in recreating the events.

What you are about to see is not a news broadcast.

[theme music]

ROBERT STACK: Tonight on "Unsolved Mysteries,"

the story of newlywed Shannon Davis

who died in a riding accident.

Shannon's husband had purchased secret insurance

policies totaling $330,000.

In Oklahoma, Aileen Conway died in a mysterious car crash.

The highway patrol ruled it an accident.

Her husband believes she was murdered.

In 1928, Glen and Bessie Hyde vanished

on a Grand Canyon River trip.

50 years later, a secret skeleton was found.

In Concord, California, housewife Dottie Caylor,

terrified of unfamiliar places, summoned the courage

to take a train ride.

She has never returned.

Our four mysteries tonight are connected by common threads--

unexplained circumstances, deceit,

the suggestion of foul play.

At the heart of each is a husband and a wife.

These mysteries will be difficult to solve.

But the stakes are high when people's lives are involved.

Perhaps you can help.

We've recreated the events of each story in precise detail,

in the hope that someone, somewhere, knows the truth.

Join me.

You may be able to help solve a mystery.

On July 23, 1980, in a small Michigan farming community,

newlyweds Dave and Shannon Davis prepared to go

for a sunset horseback ride.

Within an hour, Shannon was dead.

According to Dave, Shannon was not an experienced rider.

When they reached the edge of the woods,

she lost control and fell off the horse,

striking her head violently on the ground.

Dave's simple and plausible story

was immediately accepted by the couple's family and friends.

I felt that Shannon's marriage was made in heaven.

I really felt this.

I had began to love David.

I described him probably to a lot of people as a man's man.

He was an outdoor person, hunting, fishing.

He just was very manly and very likable.

LUCILLE MOHR: And she'd say, isn't he neat, Mom?

And I thought he was neat.

I thought he would protect her from anything.

I had no idea of what he was really like.

ROBERT STACK: After Shannon's death, Bob and Lucille Mohr

began to discover that Dave Davis was

not the man he seemed to be.

They began to find clues in Dave's behavior, which

led them to believe that their daughter's

death was not an accident.

Dave Davis has now disappeared.

There's a warrant out for his arrest.

But the Mohrs are afraid that their son-in-law

may have gotten away with a perfect crime.

At the hospital, Shannon was pronounced dead of the injuries

caused by her fall.

Minutes later, Shannon's parents were surprised and upset

when Dave insisted that their daughter's body be cremated.

Her request was to be cremated.

ROBERT MOHR: And I says, can we take Shannon back to Toledo

for burial?

Please, let's talk her back to Toledo.

Let's take her home.

DAVE DAVIS: It's not what she wanted.

ROBERT MOHR: I suppose our voices were

getting a little bit loud, because I

don't believe in cremation.

I knew Shannon didn't want that.

This is what she wanted.

I felt so strongly that if he was going to insist on it,

I was going to go try and find a judge

and get a temporary restraining order

to stop him from doing it.

ROBERT STACK: That night, Lucille couldn't sleep.

She remembered that her husband Bob had caught Dave

in a lie about life insurance.

LUCILLE MOHR: Bob says, David, do

you have insurance on Shannon?

He said no.

And it just shot right through me.

I remembered Shannon coming home from her honeymoon,

the very next day saying David took out

a large life insurance on me.

That was the first lie I picked up.

ROBERT STACK: Three days later, Shannon was buried.

Bob and Lucille Mohr noticed that Dave seemed unmoved.

PRIEST: I Bless the body of Shannon with the holy water.

ROBERT STACK: After the funeral, Shannon's parents

found out that Dave had lived a life of deceit.

He bragged that he'd been wounded in Vietnam.

His own parents said he was never in the service.

LUCILLE MOHR: All this was crowding in on me.

And I just-- all I could think inside is David,

did you kill my daughter?

And it just was there.

I knew that he had murdered my daughter.

I didn't know what to do with it.

I felt ashamed.

I just felt like I was going crazy inside.

ROBERT STACK: Two days after the burial, six separate insurance

companies contacted the funeral home, requesting copies

of Shannon's death certificate.

Her death left Dave Davis the beneficiary of $330,000.

Bob Mohr then discovered that Dave may have been involved

in other insurance scams.

ROBERT MOHR: He burnt the farm down across the road.

And he had other fires and the fake injury

from when he worked for the automotive company.

So I think he was just out to live on insurance money.

And he just kept getting bigger and bigger all the time.

He started out with a simple fire,

and now he was up to the point where he was

going to collect big insurance.

ROBERT STACK: At Bob and Lucille Mohr's insistence,

Shannon's body was exhumed.

The medical examiner found the injuries

on the body consistent with a fall from a horse.

Indications of an unknown drug, however,

were found in Shannon's body.

But the medical report still ruled

Shannon's death an accident.

Three months later, an article in the "Detroit Free Press"

exposed Dave's alleged insurance swindles.

The case was reopened.

And Dave moved to Florida.

Detective Don Brooks was assigned to the investigation.

DON BROOKS: And the information that

was contained in that newspaper article was phenomenal.

I thought if this was even 50% accurate,

we're onto something here.

ROBERT STACK: Brooks contacted the toxicologist

who had earlier found traces of the unknown drug

in Shannon's body.

DR. ROBERT FORNEY, JR: I explained to him

that we had a very large number of chemicals

that we were looking at.

There's over 250,000 chemicals in common use.

And we had searched for and ruled out maybe 1,000.

And I said what I need is some help.

DON BROOKS: Is that the metagraph right there?

DR. ROBERT FORNEY, JR: This is it.

You see the peak is right here.

Can you see how nice and clean it is?

Because it's so clean, that means that I think it's a drug.

This is important to the case.

It's got to be, if we can identify what that is.

He asked me actually for information

about Davis's background.

One of the things I told him was that he was a dirt farmer.

And he had some large animals on a farm.

Dr. Forney and I then discussed the idea

of contacting veterinarians in the area that

may have serviced Dave Davis.

DON BROOKS: I'm Don Brooks for the state police.

I talked to you a little bit earlier.

That's right, Don.

DON BROOKS: I happened to ask two or three different vets

in the area if they knew of any drugs that may affect

the muscular system or the nervous system

that they would use on large farm animals.

And when I did so, one of the veterinarians I talked to

provided me the name of a drug.

ROBERT STACK: Dr. Forney tested that drug,

an animal tranquilizer.

It matched perfectly the sample taken from Shannon's body.

Now Brooks needed to connect the drug to Dave Davis.

We were able to determine that several years ago, Dave Davis

took part in a deer hunting camp, at which members

of the camp used this drug to hunt deer

with, with bow and arrows.

ROBERT STACK: Shannon was exhumed a second time.

Two injection marks were found-- one on Shannon's

shoulder, and one on her wrist.

LUCILLE MOHR: Don Brooks called, and he said bingo.

They found Shannon is injected with something.

And we're going to move now.

We're going to get him.

ROBERT STACK: On October 13, 1981,

a grand jury issued a first degree

murder warrant for Dave Davis.

Detective Brooks believes that Dave Davis pushed or coaxed

Shannon off her horse, wrestled her to the ground,

then paralyzed her with a lethal tranquilizer.

Brooks believes that Dave then struck her head on a rock,

so that the injuries would appear accidental.

DON BROOKS: I don't think there's any question that this

is premeditated murder.

I believe he married Shannon Davis to kill her

and to profit.

I want to get him.

And I want him see him locked up.

And I want him to feel at all times

that we're breathing right down his back.

Because I will not let go.

That can't bring her back.

But put him, put him away, before he

does that to some other girl.

And he will, he will.

ROBERT STACK: After our broadcast,

a viewer recognized Dave Davis as an acquaintance living

in American Samoa, a small island in the South Pacific.

Davis was arrested nine days later by FBI agents.

At the time of his arrest, Davis was living in this house

with a 20-year-old Samoan wife.

He told her that his first wife had died in a tragic accident.

3 And 1/2 weeks later, Davis was returned to Michigan,

to stand trial for murder.

REPORTER: Any comment on the charges against you Mr. Davis?

I didn't do it.

REPORTER: Police say your wife was poisoned.

I didn't do it.

ROBERT STACK: After only 2 and 1/2 hours of deliberation,

a Michigan jury convicted Dave Davis of first degree murder.

For Shannon's parents, the verdict

brought an end to their nine-year struggle for justice.

ROBERT MOHR: This is what we waited for.

And we got what we wanted.

He's going to be locked up the rest of his life.

That's what we wanted.

But we'll go on the rest of our life missing her.

That's why I say he gave us the death penalty.

Now we're giving it to him.

ROBERT STACK: Last September, we presented the mystery

of George Marsh, a Kansas City laborer who died alone

in a nursing home in 1982.

He had no known heirs or relatives.

But he left behind a legacy of $175,000.

We hoped that someone watching the broadcast

might have known George Marsh or his heirs.

There were few clues.

A birth certificate, showing that George Marsh had changed

his name from Joseph Zelenka and some family photos,

including this portrait of a young woman,

inscribed, "Your loving niece, Eleanor."

ELEANOR TOLAR: When I looked up and saw

my senior high school picture on TV, I couldn't believe it.

So then, when they read, "Your loving niece,

Eleanor," that that's how it was signed, I was just stunned.

I was just amazed.

And then the very next picture was Uncle Joe.

And I said, my gosh, that's Uncle Joe.

ROBERT STACK: This woman, Eleanor Tolar,

is George Marsh's long-lost niece in the high school photo.

The Zelenka family lives in Rock Springs, Wyoming.

Joseph's brother Jim has been looking for Joe since 1931.

JIM ZELENKA: I would never know, no idea, why

he kept away from the family.

Because there was no hard feelings.

We were all united always, in everything.

ROBERT STACK: The Zelenkas are currently

waiting for a final judgment from the public administrator's

office in Kansas City.

Jim and Eleanor plan to divide the $175,000 among Joe's

surviving relatives.

But more importantly, they want to preserve Joe's memory.

They intend to bring his body back to the family burial site.

JIM ZELENKA: The money, it don't mean as much

as finding out where he's at.

I just feel good all over to know that I located him

and know where he's at.

And I'd be able to bring his body back to rest

with the rest of his family.

In our next story, we'll meet a man who returned home

to find his house empty, the bathtub full of water,

the phone off the hook, and his wife missing.

April 29, 1986, 10:40 AM.

A farmer in rural Oklahoma notices

an ominous plume of smoke rising from a nearby road.

[siren]

He called the authorities.

And 20 minutes later, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol

arrived at the scene.

They found a burning car embedded in a deserted bridge.

The heat was so intense that the car

had actually melted into the metal guardrail

into which it had crashed.

LARRY SALLEE: When the highway patrol arrived,

a body was inside the car at the time.

But it was a futile exercise whatsoever

to try to get to the car, due to the car

had already burned so bad.

ROBERT STACK: By the time the flames

subsided, the body behind the wheel

was burned beyond recognition.

Skid marks indicated that the car's speeded impact

was 50 to 60 miles per hour.

To the highway patrol, it seemed like just

another senseless accident.

A computer check revealed the car belonged to Pat Conway, who

lived with his family in Lawton, Oklahoma,

15 miles from the crash site.

The next day, the victim was identified as Pat's wife

of 33 years, Aileen.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol ruled

Aileen Conway's death as a one-vehicle fatality accident.

Within hours of the crash, however, a number

of mysterious discrepancies emerged,

which led Pat Conway to believe that his wife had in fact

been the victim of foul play.

There is no doubt in my mind it was murder.

And if I live to be 100 years old,

I'll still be pushing to try to find

the individual or possibly two individuals,

whoever was involved.

ROBERT STACK: Pat first became suspicious

when he returned home a few hours after the accident.

The patio door was wide open.

Aileen's purse, which she always carried with her,

was sitting by an arm chair.

Her driver's license and glasses were still in it.

An ironing board was set up, and the iron had been left on.

Water from a garden hose was running into the backyard

swimming pool.

And most significantly, in the master bathroom,

at the back of the house, the tub was still full of water.

And the phone was off the hook.

PAT CONWAY: The thing that really got my attention was

the phone being off the hook, as though she had

attempted to make a phone call, possibly

to the police department.

We have no way of knowing who.

Between me and the kids, one would

say one thing and one another.

And we started putting it together,

and right away we find out there was no accident at all.

ROBERT STACK: Another disturbing detail nagged at Pat.

What was Aileen doing out on that lonely country road?

Neither of them had ever been in the area.

And there was certainly no reason for Aileen

to be there by herself.

Nothing about his wife's death made sense.

Pat contacted Ray Anderson of the district attorney's office.

RAY ANDERSON: The first impression

that I had of this case, when I met with Mr Conway,

was that of a spouse that was left alone and behind, not

expecting the tragedy that happened

and looking for an excuse or looking for some reason

why this happened, other than it just being an accident.

However, when you start looking at the extenuating

and surrounding circumstances, the way that she left

her house, then it leads you to believe

that there is a possibility that there could be foul play.

Pat, you want to take that side of the road.

And I'll take this side.

And just look for anything that might look familiar or unusual.

ROBERT STACK: A few days later, Pat and Ray

Anderson went to the crash site, looking for clues, any clue.

Pat, could you come over here a minute?

ROBERT STACK: 200 feet from the bridge,

they found a church bulletin in the grass.

This look familiar to you?

PAT CONWAY: Yeah, this is the church building out of our car

from the previous Sunday.

And it was on the day she was in the car.

Are you sure that's out of your car, you think?

Yeah, I'm positive.

There's no doubt that's where it was.

ROBERT STACK: Aileen always drove

with the windows rolled up and the air conditioning turned on.

The bulletin could not have flown out of a moving car.

The car would had to have been stopped.

RAY ANDERSON: Someone else may have been with her.

Opened the door, set the accelerator,

and slammed it into drive, hoping to run Mrs. Conway off

into the creek, and make it appear

as though it was an accident.

ROBERT STACK: As a result of Anderson's investigation,

the Lawton district attorney changed

the official cause of death from accidental to unexplained.

The DA then asked the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation

and the state Fire Marshal to evaluate

the likelihood of arson.

What made me suspicious at first

was looking at photographs and seeing how much

burn that was in the vehicle.

This thing was completely burnt, destroyed.

The burn was similar to that were gasoline or something

like that was used in.

And another thing that brought my curiosity up

was the fact that the gas cap was missing.

And most arson cases-- and this is documented-- have a vehicle,

the gas cap is removed.

And that was the case here.

ROBERT STACK: Informal burn tests on dashboard

and upholstery samples from a car similar to Aileen's suggest

the inside of her car may have been doused with gasoline.

SONNY SANSOME: We took the material.

And we applied a blow torch to it, set the material on fire,

then removed the blow torch.

And the fire went out, which is consistent with a

flame-retardant type material.

And then we took some gasoline and soaked the material.

And then, of course, the thing was completely destroyed.

And the point being without some type of an accelerant

like gasoline, the fire would not burn that bad.

ROBERT STACK: If Aileen Conway was

murdered on a bridge that day, one question still remains.

Why?

We don't really have an answer for what put her out there.

A lot of theories floating around.

Perhaps she interrupted a burglary.

We backtracked a little bit into the neighborhood.

And apparently there had been reports

of burglaries in the weeks and months

preceding this situation.

So the possibility of an interrupted burglary is there.

PAT CONWAY: It had to be robbery.

Whoever came in didn't know she was here.

And once they found out she was here,

they didn't want to leave her to identify them.

So then this makes murderers out of them.

If this case is solved, it will be because that there

will be somebody that talks.

There will be somebody that admits

their involvement in this.

And of course, I'm a firm believer

that that's what normally captures

the criminals is their inability to keep their mouth shut.

ROBERT STACK: No one knows exactly what

happened to Aileen Conway on a remote country bridge

in Oklahoma that day.

A year later, Pat Conway is still searching for answers.

PAT CONWAY: Even though you're discouraged,

you keep pushing it every day.

You constantly think about it when you go to bed at night

or get up in the morning.

It's on your mind the whole time.

That somehow it needs to be solved.

I'll never quit as far as trying to solve the case.

ROBERT STACK: Next, the story of Glen and Bessie Hyde,

who disappeared on a perilous rafting

trip on the Colorado River.

Both were assumed lost, until a woman

claiming to be Bessie Hyde said she murdered her husband.

The Colorado River cuts through the Grand Canyon, a perilous

stretch of water that was once considered the most dangerous

in the world.

In 1928, two newlyweds set out to navigate

these treacherous whitewater rapids.

They were never seen again.

Emery Kolb, a Grand Canyon photographer,

was one of the last people to see them alive.

50 years later, when Kolb died, authorities

were surprised by a gruesome discovery in his boathouse

on the rim of the canyon.

Hidden in a canoe was a single human skeleton

that appeared to have suffered a violent death.

Whose bones were these?

And how did the victim die?

DR. WALTER BIRKBY: One good option

would be that the individual met death by homicide.

A second option would be suicide.

It would be nice to know who this individual was.

I mean, somebody is missing.

Somebody was out there.

And there may be friends or relatives who would very

much like to know who it is.

ROBERT STACK: The disappearance of the honeymoon couple,

and the discovery of the human remains in the boathouse

happened almost 50 years apart.

Yet they were connected by an article in an Idaho newspaper

and by the Arizona law authorities.

They suggested that the bones might

be those of the adventurous young river rafter, Glen Hyde.

Tonight we'll examine these mysteries of the Grand Canyon.

What happened to Glen Hyde and his bride, Bessie?

Is their disappearance connected to the secret

of the bones in the boathouse?

Glen And Bessie Hyde were married in Twin

Falls, Idaho on April 10, 1928.

Glen was 27, and Bessie just 18 years old.

That fall, they built a boat for a special honeymoon adventure,

a trip down the Colorado River to California,

through the dangerous Grand Canyon.

Glen was a thrill seeker.

This journey would mean instant notoriety.

SCOTT THYBONY: Glen wanted to make a record run

through the Grand Canyon.

He wanted to do it in a homemade boat.

He wanted to do it with a new bride, who had

never been on rivers before.

And he wanted to do it without life jackets.

In the fall of the year, about six

months after they were married, they were in Green River, Utah.

An experienced river man at Green River looked at the boat.

And he thought it looked to him like a coffin.

It was unlike anything that had run down the Colorado before.

ROBERT STACK: The Hydes took 26 days

to get from Utah to the Bright Angel

Trail in the heart of the Grand Canyon, a new record.

With the most dangerous stretch still ahead,

they stopped to see Emery Kolb who had already twice navigated

the Colorado River rapids.

Kolb had arrived at the Canyon in 1902

and set about documenting its grandeur.

His stunning photographs and immense knowledge of the river

soon made Emery Kolb a legend.

THELMA SELF: He was very enthusiastic about his river

trips and so proud of them.

Everybody that I know who's interested in the river at all,

in all the years I was there, first

came and talked to Emery Kolb.

EMERY KOLB: Frankly, I just don't think you should go.

No woman has ever traveled the river from--

ROBERT STACK: When the Hydes visited Kolb,

Bessie had grown tired of the river trip.

EMERY KOLB: Now Especially the idea

of not taking life jackets.

ROBERT STACK: Emery tried to warn them

of the certain dangers ahead.

He asked them to stay with him through the winter

and postpone their trip until the weather improved.

Glen, I just don't think--

ROBERT STACK: He even offered the couple

his own life jackets.

But Glen refused all Kolb's offers.

There's really no reason to fear.

Both Bessie and I are good strong swimmers.

Come on Bessie.

The light will be fading.

THELMA SELF: Mr Kolb told me that he tried his best,

every way in the world to talk him out of going.

He said you have no idea of what you're getting into.

He said, I've been there, and I know what it's like.

He begged them to take life preservers and even

inner tubes.

And Glen flat refused.

He said I'm going to do it without or else.

ROBERT STACK: Two days later, Glen and Bessie disappeared.

Army aviators flew into the canyon

and spotted the empty boat below Diamond Creek.

Emery Kolb was asked to lead the search

party to find the lost couple.

Surprisingly, when he discovered the boat, it was undamaged.

Glen!

Bessie!

SCOTT THYBONY: The boat seemed to be

intact-- the clothes, food, Glen's rifle

was on board, a camera with exposed film.

There was a very sketchy diary.

But a diary that Bessie Hyde had been keeping was on board.

They found everything there except for the people.

There's no sign of them.

ROBERT STACK: The bodies of Glen and Bessie Hyde

were never recovered.

50 years later, the discovery of the bones in Kolb's boathouse

fueled speculation.

Could these be the remains of Glen Hyde?

And how were they connected to Emery Kolb?

We'll get them examined.

ROBERT STACK: The authorities turned the skeleton

over to Dr. Walter Birkby, an expert

in the science of identifying human remains.

He discovered that the bones were

of a male Caucasian, 20 to 23 years of age,

six feet tall with light brown hair.

Dr. Birkby also discovered a bullet embedded in the skull.

What we found out from the bullet that was removed

from the skull was that not only was

this a 0.32 caliber projectile.

It came from a revolver that began

manufacturing in about 1902.

2.1 centimeters.

ROBERT STACK: The production date of the gun and clothing

fragments found with the skeleton suggest that death

occurred in the 1920s.

During that time, only two people-- Glen and Bessie Hyde--

are known to have disappeared in the Grand Canyon.

DR. WALTER BIRKBY: Somewhere along the line,

I heard a rumor to the effect that Emery Kolb could have

murdered Glen Hyde, in order that he could have,

I guess, beautiful Bessie.

It's so preposterous.

And that I just can't believe it.

That he would off somebody and then keep the damn body around.

You got verticality on these mirrors?

ASSISTANT: Yes.

DR. WALTER BIRKBY: We're going to have

to rotate that more than that.

ROBERT STACK: Dr. Birkby hoped to put the rumors to rest.

He superimposed a photograph of Glen over the skull,

to precisely compare bone structure.

DR. WALTER BIRKBY: Even more, even more.

ROBERT STACK: This was the only way

to determine if the skeleton was indeed Glen Hyde's.

DR. WALTER BIRKBY: The skull is of a different shape

than the face of Glen Hyde.

The eye orbits themselves are angled in a different

direction than Glen Hyde's.

The cheeks are wider.

Even the shape of the chin is wrong.

Glen Hyde's chin was somewhat rounded, as we

can see on the photograph.

Whereas the chin of the submitted skull

tends to be fairly squared off.

So those features alone, do not match.

These remains, these bones that were submitted for analyses,

are not the remains of Glen Hyde, period.

End of story.

ROBERT STACK: But the story, in fact, does go on.

And the mystery deepens.

If the bones do not belong to Glen Hyde, then

what happened to Glen and Bessie?

The answer may lie in the eyewitness reports

that claim Bessie Hyde is still alive,

and that she was seen back in the Grand Canyon,

retracing the steps of her ill-fated honeymoon adventure,

43 years after she disappeared.

In 1971, an unknown woman took a 20-day rafting trip

through the Canyon.

Geologist George Billingsley was also in the party.

She was a very serious person.

She was always just watching the Canyon

and helping out a little bit around camp, all the time

wanting to do something.

And fairly happy, but quiet.

And pretty much to herself.

ROBERT STACK: Towards the end of the trip,

they made camp at Diamond Creek.

The same spot where Glen and Bessie's boat

had been found four decades earlier.

To this day, we have no idea what happened.

ROBERT STACK: That evening, a river guide told the legend

of the missing couple.

WOMAN: I know.

ROBERT STACK: And the woman matter-of-factly

revealed her true identity.

WOMAN: I'm Bessie Hyde.

GEORGE BILLINGSLEY: She told us seriously enough, to where we

wasn't sure what else to say.

WOMAN: I killed him.

GEORGE BILLINGSLEY: But we all figured she was

just making up her own story.

MAN: How?

GEORGE BILLINGSLEY: But later on, we got to thinking,

maybe she really was Bessie.

Because the age was right.

WOMAN: I got a knife, and I stabbed him.

GEORGE BILLINGSLEY: And she never

smiled when she said what she said, as if she really knew.

WOMAN: It was right around here we had a bad fight.

And he beat me up.

ROBERT STACK: According to the woman,

Glen was obsessed with completing the trip,

no matter how dangerous.

When she tried to leave, a fight erupted.

SCOTT THYBONY: I got the full name

of the woman then eventually contacted her back in Ohio.

But when I asked her about the Hydes and their disappearance,

she denied everything.

She said she hadn't told the story.

She said she didn't know anybody named Hyde.

And she said she wasn't Bessie Hyde.

My gut feeling though is that she was.

ROBERT STACK: The mysteries surrounding this story still

remained unsolved.

If the bones in Emery Kolb's boathouse

are not Glen Hyde's, whose are they?

And why did Kolb keep them hidden in that canoe

for so many years?

The mysteries have survived the years.

And for now, they remain part of the legend of the Grand Canyon.

Next, the story of a woman trapped in her house

by agoraphobia, the irrational fear

of unknown people and places.

Strangely, she has vanished.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit system,

known to commuters as the BART trains,

that link San Francisco with the East Bay cities.

On June 12, 1985, Jule Caylor drove his wife Dottie

to the BART station in Pleasant Hill, California,

18 miles from Oakland.

She entered the station and purchased a ticket,

a simple task performed each day by millions.

But this was a test of courage for Dottie Caylor.

Dottie suffers from agoraphobia, an irrational, overwhelming

fear of being in public places.

Facing the unknown and the possibility

of panic shadows every step.

No one knows if Dottie overcame her fear that day

and actually boarded the train.

What is certain is that for 2 and 1/2 years,

there's been no trace of Dottie Caylor.

JULE CAYLOR: After the first few days,

I thought that she had left temporarily to-- well, simply

make things inconvenient for me.

I think that Dottie could have disappeared to get even

with her husband who had disappeared on her

for half of their married life.

She could have done that in the beginning.

It's very hard to imagine her doing

that for a great long period of time.

ROBERT STACK: Immediately after she disappeared,

Dottie's friends wondered why a woman so afraid of the unknown

would leave behind everything she had and everyone she knew.

At first, they thought she may have left

to escape an unhappy marriage and start

a new life in another city.

But as the months and years elapsed,

there was no word from Dottie.

Holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries went by.

Now Dottie's friends and family are wondering could she really

have vanished voluntarily?

Or was her disappearance more sinister?

In 1973, Dottie married Jule Caylor,

an entomologist with the National Forest Service.

They settled in the Oakland suburb of Concord.

But over the years, her home became a self-imposed prison.

JULE CAYLOR: Dottie had what doctors

have called agoraphobia.

She would stay inside most of the time.

She couldn't even apply for a job, much less hold one down.

It was a real problem.

ROBERT STACK: Dottie and Jule's marriage deteriorated.

Dottie was often home alone because Jule was working out

of town over 50% of the time.

Then in November of 1981, the relationship

erupted in violence.

PAULA POWERS: She told me that they got in an argument.

It escalated to the point where he finally hit

her with a board or something.

And she received a wound in her head.

And that she did grab some scissors and said,

you keep away from me, and protected herself.

And she was standing over top of me with those scissors.

ROBERT STACK: Jule says that Dottie started the fight.

Swearing at me and saying I'll kill you,

you son of a-- I'll kill you.

And I grabbed her little typing stand and hit her with it.

ROBERT STACK: Dottie needed to pull together the threads

of her disintegrating life.

So in 1984, she joined a support group

called "Women in Transition."

Without ever telling Jule, she attended

meetings for over a year.

PAULA POWERS: I met her in the fall.

And of course the last time I saw her was in late spring.

And I thought she'd made a tremendous amount

of progress, actually.

As time went on, I would notice she's adding a little

more color to her outfits.

She is taking a little more care with her hair.

She cut her hair in a new style, which

was a very scary thing for her.

It was as if a new Dottie were emerging.

JULE CAYLOR: She had secret lives, a secret existence

that I knew nothing about.

And she wanted it that way.

She pursued that.

I only began to become aware of it near the time

that she disappeared. I wasn't even aware of it.

I was just suspicious.

ROBERT STACK: Dottie secretly rented

a post office box so she could receive

mail without Jule's knowledge.

She opened a personal bank account

and transferred $5,000 into a cashier's check.

Then one month before Dottie disappeared,

Jule told her he had to accept a job transfer to Salt Lake City.

JULE CAYLOR: Dottie had said in the event

that I got transferred that she was not

interested in going with me.

So I wasn't expecting her to go with me

and wouldn't even have wanted her to, I guess.

ROBERT STACK: According to Jule, on Wednesday, June 12,

Dottie set off on an overnight trip.

He drove her to the Pleasant Hill BART station.

JULE CAYLOR: I took her down to the BART station.

She had with her a little overnight bag.

Bye, Jule.

JULE CAYLOR: And I dropped her off.

And she walked around the corner of the station and disappeared.

ROBERT STACK: Jule is certain that Dottie had her purse, as

well as her overnight bag, as she walked into the station

for the last time.

But he can't be sure that Dottie ever boarded the train.

The next day around noon, Jule returned home early from work

and got off the train at the Concord BART station.

In the parking lot, he was surprised to find Dottie's

Volkswagen next to his car.

JULE CAYLOR: So I walked over and looked inside.

And then I noticed her purse.

And that was very, very strange.

SHELLEY WILSON: She told me how important

it was to her to have her purse with her all the time.

She felt secure if she felt she had a lot of her things

with her.

And she felt safe out in the world.

That's one of the things that made me feel so terribly

upset, when I realized that she had

not taken her purse with her.

ROBERT STACK: Jule left a note on Dottie's car,

asking her to contact him.

Over the next four days, he left two

more notes, talking about problems

he was having with the house.

He also expressed his love and pleaded with her to come home.

SHELLEY WILSON: I spoke to Jule.

And Jule told me that he hadn't seen

her for three or four days, and he didn't know where she was.

And that her car was there, her purse was there,

and he didn't know where she was.

I was extremely upset.

I asked him if he called the police.

And he said that he had not.

And this made me very-- just almost hysterical.

ROBERT STACK: Five days after Dottie vanished,

Jule filed a missing persons report with the Bay

Area Rapid Transit police.

The following day, the Concord Police Department

was finally notified of Dottie's disappearance.

Not by Jule, but by the BART police.

Two weeks after Dottie vanished, Jule moved to Salt Lake City,

where he still lives and works.

Back in Concord, Diane hired a private investigator,

Francie Koehler.

FRANCIE KOEHLER: : The status of the case at this point is we

view it as-- I view it as 10% missing persons case

and 90% potential foul play.

ROBERT STACK: As their attempts to locate Dottie turned up

no new leads, Diane and Francie started to worry

that Dottie might be dead.

They began to consider Jule a suspect.

We don't know for sure if Dottie

ever got to the BART station.

The only one that has reported that Dottie went to the BART

station is her husband Jule.

We don't know if she ever got there.

If this proves to be anything other than a straight

disappearance case, Jule will be a suspect in her disappearance

or in her death, whatever it may be,

along with anybody else that may have been close to her

at the time or prior to her disappearance.

You would certainly consider those around that person

as being possible suspects.

No, that doesn't bother me at all.

I suspect that she either willfully disappeared and then

was helped to permanently disappear

or perhaps just got in with the wrong person,

right at the start.

ROBERT STACK: 2 And 1/2 years have passed.

And still, no one knows if Dottie Caylor built

a secret life for herself, to escape an unhappy marriage,

or if she was simply the victim of foul play.

DIANE RUSNAK: I think there's a chance that Dottie is dead,

which is very disturbing to think about.

I have many dreams about this.

And the authorities I speak to and the friends

I speak to come up with hundreds of ideas.

There's no peace.

There's no rest.

There's no conclusion.

And we won't forget her.

It was hell living with Dottie.

It was hell having her disappear the way that she did.

And yet, since I've gotten here and gotten settled

and into a new job and that whole problem is behind me,

things are really pretty good.

Tonight's mysteries are stories without endings,

all missing that one vital clue.

Perhaps someone watching tonight knows what happened

and can reveal the truth.

Perhaps it's you.