# The Darkest Unsolved Mysteries The Internet Ignores | Cold Case Compilation | 199

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 4 Apr 2026, 2 h 14 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO8940195886.mp3

Join me for the darkest unsolved true crime mysteries the internet ignores. Episode 199 of the true crime podcast btw, and a compilation of previous in the series. 👇 Youtube links: Lazy Chill History Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillHistory Lazy Chill Zone Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillZone 👇 Support My Work: 🛍️ Merch: https://lazy-chill-zone-shop.fourthwall.com ❤️ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lazychillzone 👇Social Media Links: https://www.instagram.com/lazychillzone/ 👇 Podcast links: ⚡History Video Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/7km5pLWpYWEj1mrPpEfRUr?si=0FHYnZf-Qs2FY1GyLevfig ⚡True Crime Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/0klIz08pAr7wR4we0Ia4sk?si=68qZxCeAQkysXzMZrHE0Iw 🍏 True Crime Podcast on Apple 🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lazy-chill-true-crime/id1815534472 unsolved mysteries, true crime, cold cases, unsolved mysteries, missing persons, murder investigation, forensic evidence, serial killers, crime scene analysis, dark history, criminal psychology, real life horror, police investigations, DNA breakthroughs, forensic genealogy, crime documentaries, criminal profiling, mysterious disappearances, solved cases, justice system, law enforcement stories, cold case files, creepy mysteries, true crime storytelling, crime reconstruction, chilling cases, investigative reporting, modern forensics, victim advocacy, unidentified remains, crime scene forensics, disturbing cases, true crime analysis, hidden clues, infamous crimes, real crime stories, forensic evidence, heists, art theft

## Transcript

[0:00] On the evening of October 24th, 1953, the city of Lacrosse,
[0:05] Wisconsin was wrapped up in one of those picture perfect autumn
[0:09] Saturdays that small town America does so well.
[0:13] The local college football team had just taken on River Falls in
[0:17] their annual homecoming game, and nearly everyone in town
[0:20] seemed to be at the stadium or celebrating somewhere nearby.
[0:24] It was the kind of night where nothing bad was supposed to
[0:27] happen, not in a place or time like this.
[0:31] But while lacrosse cheered and socialized, something terrible
[0:34] was unfolding in a quiet neighborhood on Hoschler Drive.
[0:39] Evelyn Hartley was 15 years old, a junior at Central High School
[0:44] and by all accounts the kind of teenager any parent would have
[0:47] been proud to raise. She carried a straight A
[0:50] average, participated in drama club and numerous school
[0:54] activities, sang in the choir at the First Presbyterian Church,
[0:58] and played piano. Like many teenagers of the time,
[1:03] she occasionally worked as a babysitter to provide a bit of
[1:06] money to go out with her friends.
[1:09] Her father, Richard Hartley, was a biology professor at Wisconsin
[1:13] State College, and the family had relocated from Charleston,
[1:17] IL, to Lacrosse in 1949. Evelyn was the youngest of four
[1:23] children, though the family had already endured tragedy when one
[1:27] of her older brothers died of polio in 1946.
[1:31] That Saturday night, Evelyn had taken a babysitting job at the
[1:35] home of Viggo Rasmussen, a colleague of her father at the
[1:38] college. The Rasmussen's regular
[1:41] babysitter had plans to attend the homecoming game, so Evelyn
[1:45] was brought in as a replacement, a decision that would prove
[1:49] fateful. She arrived to look after the
[1:52] couple's 20 month old daughter, Janice, bringing along school
[1:56] books with the plan to study while she slept.
[1:59] The arrangement included a routine check in call to her
[2:01] parents around 8:30 that evening.
[2:04] It was the sort of simple, trusting agreement families made
[2:07] without a second thought in the 50s.
[2:11] When 830 came and went without a phone call, Evelyn's parents
[2:15] grew uneasy and her father tried calling the Rasmussen house
[2:19] multiple times and got no answer.
[2:23] By around 9:00, Richard Hartley drove over to check on his
[2:27] daughter. The lights inside were on and
[2:29] the radio was still playing, but the doors were locked and Evelyn
[2:33] wasn't answering, which sparked this professor to drastic
[2:36] action. Richard entered through a
[2:39] basement window and found the living room in disarray.
[2:42] Furniture had been toppled over, Evelyn's school books were
[2:46] scattered, and her broken glasses and one shoe lay on the
[2:50] floor, with her other shoe later found in the basement.
[2:55] The baby was sleeping peacefully in her crib, completely
[2:58] unharmed, but Evelyn was gone when police arrived.
[3:04] The scene told a grim story. All the windows were locked
[3:08] except one in the basement at the back.
[3:11] The screen had been removed and was leaning against the exterior
[3:14] wall and a short step ladder belonging to the Rasmussen's was
[3:18] positioned beneath it. Primarks were found on several
[3:22] other windows. Sneaker footprints were
[3:24] discovered in the basement window box and inside the living
[3:28] room. Initially, it was unclear what
[3:30] had been caused by Richard's attempts to gain entry and what
[3:34] had been caused by the intruder. Unfortunately, since Richard
[3:38] wasn't yet ruled out as a suspect, this likely caused
[3:42] investigative delays. Blood matching Evelyn's type was
[3:47] found near the basement window and outside in the yard, quickly
[3:51] establishing what direction the perpetrator likely fled in about
[3:55] 100 feet from the house. Handprints were found on a
[3:58] neighbor's garage, providing further evidence and a more
[4:02] accurate starting point for further investigations.
[4:06] Tracking dogs picked up Evelyn's scent and followed it for two
[4:10] blocks where the trail abruptly ended.
[4:13] Investigators concluded she'd likely been placed into a
[4:16] vehicle and driven away by her abductor.
[4:21] One neighbor reported hearing screams around 7:00 but had
[4:25] assumed that this was just some kind of horseplay that was
[4:28] getting out of hand. Unfortunately, due to this
[4:32] incorrect assumption, she didn't alert the authorities at the
[4:36] time, unintentionally giving as much as an hour and a half lead
[4:40] to the abductor. 2 days after the disappearance, a local man
[4:45] named Ed Hofer came forward with a crucial account.
[4:49] Around 7:15 that evening, he'd nearly been struck by a speeding
[4:53] dark green 2 tone Buick sedan heading West.
[4:57] Inside, he'd seen two men and a girl, with one man driving while
[5:01] the other sat in the back seat with the girl who was slumped
[5:05] forward against the front seat. Hofer had assumed they were
[5:09] headed to the homecoming game and didn't realize what he'd
[5:12] witnessed until news broke. What followed was one of the
[5:16] largest missing person searches in Wisconsin history.
[5:20] Over 2000 volunteers joined the effort, including law
[5:24] enforcement officers, National Guard members, Boy Scouts, and
[5:29] students and faculty from Lacrosse State College.
[5:33] Hunters were told to remain on alert for anything suspicious,
[5:36] and local farmers were urged to search their properties.
[5:40] The Air Force was brought in to provide aerial support,
[5:44] supported by civilian operators who volunteered their time and
[5:47] their planes to the effort. Investigators also launched a
[5:52] wide-ranging vehicle inspection program aimed at checking every
[5:56] car in Lacrosse County, though this would be controversial.
[6:00] Recent graves were even reopened to determine whether Evelyn's
[6:04] remains had been concealed within them.
[6:07] A reward fund was established and community members quickly
[6:10] contributed over $6000, equivalent to roughly 80,000
[6:14] today. In terms of evidence, a pair of
[6:18] undergarments which may have belonged to Evelyn were found
[6:20] during the search, though this connection could never be
[6:23] definitively proven. Perhaps the most significant
[6:27] physical evidence was a pair of size 11 blood stained Goodrich
[6:31] sneakers. The suction cup pattern on the
[6:34] soles closely matched the footprints at the crime scene,
[6:37] and the blood matched Evelyn's type.
[6:40] The Goodrich Company identified the shoe model as the hood mogul
[6:44] sold across 5 Midwestern states. A denim jacket was also
[6:49] recovered nearby, and both items were displayed to an estimated
[6:53] 10,000 people across the region, but nobody could identify them.
[6:59] In May 1954, authorities took the extremely controversial step
[7:05] of administering mass lie detector tests to male students
[7:09] and faculty at Central High School.
[7:11] They'd plan to test over 1700 individuals but halted after
[7:16] roughly 300. Facing significant backlash and
[7:19] threats of lawsuits, Evelyn's father and Vigo Rasmussen both
[7:23] took polygraphs and passed, and they were both eventually
[7:27] completely ruled out as suspects.
[7:30] In a cruel twist, the Hartley family became the targets of an
[7:34] extortion attempt when a young man tried to sell them
[7:37] fabricated information. He was subsequently arrested for
[7:41] this and convicted for a variety of offenses as a result of this
[7:45] disturbing attempt to enrich himself from the tragedy.
[7:51] The most famous suspect emerged in 1957 when Ed Gein was
[7:55] arrested in Plainfield, WI, roughly 100 miles away.
[8:00] And I should make it clear here right from the start that he's
[8:03] often been depicted as definitively being responsible
[8:06] for Evelyn's disappearance, but more on that shortly.
[8:11] In fact, as you'll see, I personally believe that there's
[8:14] absolutely nothing to suggest that he was involved in this
[8:17] crime in any way whatsoever. That said, after police
[8:23] discovered human remains and horrifying artifacts in his
[8:26] home, a connection to Evelyn's disappearance seemed plausible
[8:30] at 1st Ed. Gein had been born in Lacrosse,
[8:34] reportedly had family nearby, and some residents claimed to
[8:38] have seen him in the city on the day Evelyn vanished.
[8:41] However, detectives determined he wasn't in Lacrosse that
[8:45] night, and Evelyn didn't match his known victim profile.
[8:49] His 2 confirmed victims were women in their 50s, and most of
[8:53] his other confirmed crimes primarily revolved around grave
[8:56] robbery. Notably, even the graves he
[9:00] robbed were from women who resembled his mother, not from
[9:03] anyone around Evelyn's age. Investigators found no physical
[9:08] evidence linking him to Evelyn, and he passed a polygraph test.
[9:14] Further, Gean wasn't known for working with others, and if
[9:17] Hofer's witness statement is accurate, two men were involved
[9:20] in this crime. He was officially cleared in
[9:23] November 1957, but despite this, speculation has persisted for
[9:29] decades, most recently through a fictionalized portrayal in the
[9:33] 2025 Netflix series. In this story, Ed Gein is
[9:37] depicted as the perpetrator, despite no solid evidence
[9:41] supporting that narrative. And honestly, I really have to
[9:45] question that decision by Netflix since they clearly used
[9:49] a real case to enhance this narrative, which is somewhat
[9:52] morally questionable to say the least.
[9:56] On the other hand, I do have to acknowledge that this is how I
[9:59] found out about her case, and as with any cold case, more
[10:04] attention is generally a good thing.
[10:07] However, that effect may be somewhat mitigated by the fact
[10:11] that Evelyn's case isn't portrayed as a cold case in the
[10:13] Netflix series. Over the years, investigators
[10:19] questioned more than 3500 people and dealt with dozens of false
[10:22] confessions. The cases most tantalizing lead
[10:26] didn't surface until 2004, when a man named Mel Williams came
[10:31] forward with something extraordinary.
[10:34] In 1969, Williams had been recording a band performing at a
[10:38] local bar, as was the style at the time.
[10:42] He'd left his reel to reel tape running long after the music
[10:45] stopped, and it inadvertently captured a roughly 7 minute
[10:49] conversation. On this tape, there was a man
[10:53] identifying himself as Clyde Peterson, a man named Jack
[10:57] Golfair, and an unnamed third party, all implicated in
[11:02] Evelyn's slaying. Another man at the bar pressed
[11:06] Peterson on the details, and the conversation claimed Evelyn had
[11:10] been buried in Lafarge, Wisconsin.
[11:14] In a very odd move, Mel Williams had tossed the tape in a box and
[11:19] forgotten about it for decades, until the 50th anniversary of
[11:23] the disappearance made headlines.
[11:26] Authorities described it as the best lead they'd ever received.
[11:30] But there was a serious problem. Peterson, Golfair and the
[11:35] unnamed third man, we're all dead.
[11:37] By the time the recording actually surfaced, Golfair had
[11:41] actually pulled the curtains on himself in Christmas Day 1967,
[11:46] which some believe may be related to the crime he
[11:49] allegedly committed. Despite the passage of time, the
[11:54] Lacrosse Police Department maintains that the investigation
[11:57] is still open. Some original physical evidence,
[12:01] including the sneakers and jacket, has reportedly been
[12:05] misplaced over the decades. However, other materials have
[12:09] been preserved and Evelyn's dental records remain available
[12:13] should her remains ever be located.
[12:16] In what may be the only thing approaching a silver lining in
[12:19] this tragic case, the Rasmussen's daughter Janice
[12:23] later came to believe that Evelyn had saved her life.
[12:27] While this is of course unconfirmed, all evidence
[12:30] suggests that Evelyn fought back and likely forced the home
[12:33] invader or invaders to flee immediately.
[12:40] Hey everyone, it's Jimmy here. Just jumping in with a quick
[12:42] reminder to hit the like and subscribe buttons and the
[12:45] notification bell if you're enjoying my content.
[12:48] Also, don't forget that you can help out my channel further by
[12:52] supporting through the YouTube membership or the Patreon.
[12:59] Gary Driscoll was born on April 18th, 1946, and he'd go on to
[13:04] carve out a place in rock history that most musicians can
[13:07] only dream about, even if he never became a star himself.
[13:12] His journey began in 1965 when he joined Ronnie Dio and the
[13:16] Prophets, a band fronted by a young Ronnie James Dio, who'd
[13:20] later become one of heavy metals most iconic voices.
[13:25] The group cycled through a series of name changes, the
[13:28] Electric Elves, The Elves, before settling on Elf in 1969.
[13:34] Through every transformation, Driscoll remained behind the
[13:37] kit, anchoring the music with a rhythm and Blues influence style
[13:42] that set him apart from harder edged drummers of the era.
[13:46] Elf caught the attention of Deep Purple bassist Rodger Glover,
[13:50] who produced all three of the band's studio albums.
[13:54] They weren't arena filling superstars by any stretch, but
[13:57] they built a solid following and a respectable touring circuit
[14:01] across the Northeast. Everything changed in 1975 when
[14:06] Deep Purple's legendary guitarist Richie Blackmore came
[14:10] calling. Blackmore had grown restless and
[14:13] disillusioned with Deep Purple, and he saw in Dio the perfect
[14:16] front man for his next venture. He recruited the entire core of
[14:22] Elf to form what would become Rainbow.
[14:25] The resulting debut album, Richie Blackmore's Rainbow, was
[14:29] a critical success that still holds up decades later, and
[14:33] Driscoll's drumming was a key part of its foundation.
[14:36] But here's the cruel twist. The album never led to a tour,
[14:41] and Blackmore fired everyone except Dio almost immediately
[14:45] after the recording sessions wrapped.
[14:48] The widely accepted explanation is that Driscoll's more relaxed
[14:51] style didn't mesh with the harder direction Blackmore
[14:54] envisioned. He was replaced by Cozy Powell,
[14:58] a thunderous British rock drummer who fit Blackmore's
[15:01] vision more neatly. Former band members were
[15:05] furious, feeling they've been used as leverage to secure their
[15:08] legendary front man services and then discarded.
[15:13] Unfortunately, that first Rainbow album would prove to be
[15:16] the high watermark of Gary Driscoll's career.
[15:21] The years following his dismissal from Rainbow weren't
[15:24] kind to Driscoll professionally. He played with a number of
[15:28] regionally acclaimed bands in the Northeastern United States
[15:31] throughout the late 70s and early 80s, but none of these
[15:35] efforts LED anywhere significant.
[15:37] Regardless of his lack of mainstream success, he was still
[15:40] highly respected and was, in essence, still able to live his
[15:44] dream, at least to a degree. By the mid 80s, though, it
[15:48] became clear that he was never going to get another shot at
[15:51] rock immortality. He settled into a modest life in
[15:55] Newfield, NY, a rural community about 9 miles South of Ithaca in
[16:00] the Finger Lakes region. He took up tile installation and
[16:05] supplemented his income with occasional session drumming.
[16:09] People who knew him in Ithaca remembered him as easygoing and
[16:12] friendly, a regular at local bars where he was still able to
[16:16] bask in his star power. He wasn't bitter about how
[16:20] things had gone by any means. He was just a guy who'd had his
[16:24] shot at the big time, came close and was now getting by.
[16:29] But as the years dragged on, Driscoll was lured by the appeal
[16:33] of quick money, a turn that would eventually cost him his
[16:37] life. The circumstances surrounding
[16:41] Gary Driscoll's slaying are rooted in the local drug trade
[16:44] operating out of downtown Ithaca.
[16:46] In the mid 1980s, Driscoll's close friend Robert Galenas ran
[16:52] a coke operation from his basement apartment on East State
[16:55] Street. Galenus had known Driscoll for
[16:58] roughly 35 years, and according to trial testimony, Driscoll was
[17:03] involved in Galena's operation as a buyer and seller.
[17:07] This was a far cry from the rock'n'roll stage, but it was
[17:11] the world Driscoll inhabited during the final stretch of his
[17:14] life. Galena's operation attracted a
[17:17] volatile cast of characters, and one of them was John Joseph
[17:21] Schillingford. He was a 37 year old local man
[17:25] who'd become a persistent and aggressive customer.
[17:29] On May 26th, 1987, which happened to be Schillingford's
[17:33] birthday, he'd come to Galenas's apartment looking to get his
[17:37] fix. An argument erupted when
[17:40] Schillingford wanted to be fronted the goods without
[17:42] paying, citing that he needed to party on his birthday.
[17:47] Galenas refused, and the confrontation was heated enough
[17:51] that Galinus essentially banned Schillingford from the apartment
[17:54] forever. Schillingford was known to be
[17:58] locked and loaded, which he claimed was for protection
[18:02] against other dealers he had slighted in the past.
[18:05] By early June, the tension around Galinus's apartment had
[18:09] become so severe that Galinus and his girlfriend, Lynette
[18:13] Tome, had to take drastic measures.
[18:17] They started sleeping at a local motel to avoid being disturbed
[18:20] by junkies showing up at all hours.
[18:23] Which, hey, if you're not into that, don't operate a trap
[18:26] house. On the evening of June 7th,
[18:30] 1987, Driscoll stopped by the apartment as the couple were
[18:34] heading out to their hideout for the night.
[18:37] They told him he was welcome to stay if he wanted to, and
[18:40] Driscoll remained behind in the basement apartment.
[18:44] It's unknown why he stayed at the apartment given the clear
[18:46] and present danger, and this would be the last confirmed time
[18:50] anyone saw him alive. Around midday on June 8th, 1987,
[18:56] Galenas returned to his apartment and found Gary
[18:59] Driscoll's body. He immediately called the
[19:01] authorities. The scene that greeted
[19:04] investigators was horrific. Driscoll, aged 41, had been
[19:10] severely beaten, cut with a knife and then shot multiple
[19:14] times in the head. An autopsy confirmed the
[19:17] injuries were consistent with a prolonged and violent struggle,
[19:21] suggesting that he had been deliberately kept alive as long
[19:25] as possible. Items appeared to have been
[19:28] taken from the scene, suggesting robbery may have played a role
[19:32] in the attack. However, given the nature of the
[19:35] business Gallinas was operating out of his apartment, it may not
[19:39] come as a surprise that the nature and quantity of what was
[19:42] taken was never ascertained. The sheer brutality of the event
[19:48] sent shock waves through the local community, and when news
[19:53] eventually spread through the rock music world as well, Police
[19:59] quickly focused their attention on John Schillingford and there
[20:03] was physical evidence tying him to the crime.
[20:06] Driscoll's car was found abandoned several miles north of
[20:09] the apartment at the Cayuga Shopping Center, and
[20:12] Schillingford's fingerprints were identified on the vehicle.
[20:16] A gun that matched the weapon used in the shooting was
[20:18] recovered on a roadway near the scene, its grip broken, and it
[20:23] matched the Roscoe Schillingford was known to carry.
[20:26] Schillingford was arrested and charged with the slaying, as
[20:30] well as robbery and weapons offences.
[20:32] But what happened next would be disastrous.
[20:35] But keep that weapon in mind, because let's just say it was
[20:39] going to be a bit of a problem for the prosecution, to put it
[20:42] very mildly. The trial of John Chillingford
[20:46] took place in the summer of 1988 at the Tompkins County
[20:50] Courthouse, and it was troubled from the start, to put it
[20:53] mildly. The prosecution's key witness,
[20:57] Robert Gallinas, proved deeply problematic on the stand.
[21:01] As one might expect facing his own pending drug charges,
[21:07] Galenas repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against
[21:10] self incrimination during nearly two hours of testimony.
[21:14] This actually ended up frustrating both the prosecution
[21:18] and the defense, since Galenas completely shut down cross
[21:21] examination by taking the 5th The Ithaca Journal, the local
[21:27] paper reported that the defense attorney expressed open
[21:30] exasperation with the witnesses refusal to answer questions,
[21:35] calling the proceedings A charade.
[21:38] But the defense attorney really didn't need any testimony
[21:41] whatsoever from this alleged local kingpin, since he had a
[21:45] much better defense in mind. But it was the physical evidence
[21:50] that ultimately doomed the prosecution's case, and
[21:53] Schillingford's defense attorney mounted A forceful challenge to
[21:56] the weapons evidence. The weapon had been found on a
[22:00] roadway with its grip shattered, and grip fragments were also
[22:03] discovered in a field. The defense alleged that police
[22:07] investigators had planted pieces of the broken grip at the crime
[22:10] scene. Specifically, the police file
[22:14] indicated fragments of the grip were reportedly found on the
[22:17] carpet of the apartment days after the initial search.
[22:21] This was problematic because there was an extremely thorough
[22:24] search immediately after the crime was reported, and the grip
[22:27] fragments weren't there then. This was a devastating blow to
[22:32] the prosecution's credibility, so much so that it eventually
[22:36] resulted in a special prosecutor launching an investigation into
[22:39] the conduct of the police. The defense lawyer was
[22:43] ultimately successful in having all the physical evidence
[22:46] related to the weapon discarded. That meant that the jury had a
[22:50] star witness who took the 5th at every possible occasion and no
[22:55] weapon. By way of reminder, the
[22:59] prosecution has to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt,
[23:03] and with the foundations of the case gone, they were essentially
[23:07] working on vibes alone. Because of this, the jury ended
[23:11] up acquitting Schillingford on all offenses, potentially
[23:14] setting a guilty person free. In the decade since the
[23:19] acquittal, the slaying of Gary Driscoll has taken on a life of
[23:23] its own. In certain corners of the
[23:25] Internet and in the rock community, some accounts have
[23:29] suggested that Driscoll was flayed alive, though there's no
[23:32] credible evidence to support these extreme claims.
[23:36] One particularly persistent theory involves A ritualistic
[23:40] satanic sacrifice, a rumor that appears to trace back largely to
[23:44] statements made by Jeff Fenholt. He was Driscoll's former Bible
[23:48] black bandmate who later became a born again Christian and an
[23:52] evangelist. He repudiated all his previous
[23:56] affiliations with the metal scene and claimed that the music
[24:00] was the work of the devil, at least in the way it was
[24:03] generally played. But he theorized that this
[24:06] weapon that was released on the world could be repurposed into
[24:10] Christian heavy metal, transforming this allegedly
[24:13] satanic music into something godly.
[24:17] Fenholtz claimed Driscoll was to be his drummer on an upcoming
[24:21] album, and that the forces of the Dark Prince decided to take
[24:25] him out to stop him from spreading the good word.
[24:29] Under this theory, the perpetrators were actually
[24:32] cultists who were into heavy metal music.
[24:36] Unsurprisingly, contemporaneous newspaper reports from Ithaca,
[24:40] however, describe nothing of the sort, and there's no indication
[24:44] that law enforcement ever investigated A cult angle.
[24:49] More grounded theories focus on the slaying being connected to
[24:52] the business operating out of Gelinus's apartment.
[24:55] Some accounts indicate that a second suspect, described as a
[24:59] person of interest, fled the United States before charges
[25:03] could be brought. This individual has never been
[25:07] publicly identified by authorities and no further
[25:10] arrests have ever been made. Others believe that the police
[25:14] had, in essence, framed the perpetrator.
[25:19] Though I do need to stress that Shackleford was found not guilty
[25:23] in a court of law. At the end of the day, Gary
[25:28] Driscoll's case is in essence, not only an unsolved mystery,
[25:33] but an unsolvable mystery. Given the evidence tampering
[25:37] that took place, any potential future trial would be tainted by
[25:41] the investigative misconduct. Further, if Schillingford was
[25:45] actually the one who committed the crime, double jeopardy is in
[25:49] play and he couldn't be brought to trial again regardless.
[25:54] That said, I don't necessarily think the evidence supports the
[25:58] fact that he actually committed the crime at all.
[26:01] Gary was staying in a trap house that was so dangerous that
[26:05] Galenas and Tome had decided that it wasn't safe to stay
[26:08] there overnight. Schillingford was just one of
[26:11] many distraught addicts who attended the apartment and
[26:14] apparently caused serious problems.
[26:18] There's also the fact that an unknown quantity of substances
[26:21] were taken as well, which may indicate that a business rival
[26:25] may have hit the apartment. It's also possible that Gallinas
[26:29] may have tried to double cross his supplier and that he was
[26:32] actually the intended target of the attack.
[26:37] For 35 years, she was known only by a first name and a borrowed
[26:42] label, the Becca Jane Doe. That's what investigators in
[26:47] Albuquerque, NM, eventually called the young woman found
[26:51] deceased in a motel room in June of 1991.
[26:55] They found her body hanging from a shower head by a suitcase
[26:58] strap, her identity a complete mystery.
[27:02] She had no identification of any kind, but what she did have
[27:06] would spark the interest of both the authorities and, much later,
[27:10] the Internet as a whole. She had a photo booth picture
[27:14] showing her alive beside an unidentified man, $500 in cash,
[27:19] a digital scale with a stranger's name on it, and a
[27:22] suitcase full of clothing. For over 3 decades, those items
[27:26] were the sum total of what anyone knew about her.
[27:29] Then on March 5th, 2026, what would have been her 53rd
[27:34] birthday, the Albuquerque Police Department announced that the
[27:38] Becca Jane Doe had a real name. She was Becca Malacoot, born in
[27:44] Tacoma, WA in 1973, and she was 18 years old when she died.
[27:51] This is the story of how her name was lost and how after more
[27:55] than three decades, it was finally found.
[28:00] But now that Becca has her name back, there's still more
[28:03] questions than answers in her case.
[28:06] On the evening of June 3rd, 1991, a man named Eduardo Collin
[28:11] walked into the Super 8 Motel at 2500 University Blvd.
[28:16] NE in Albuquerque and rented Room 233.
[28:20] He paid in cash, registered for two guests, and listed
[28:24] legitimate personal information on the registration slip.
[28:27] With one exception, a false license plate number.
[28:31] Collin was described as a local car mechanic.
[28:34] He was expected to check out by 11 the following morning, but he
[28:38] didn't. By June 5th, motel staff
[28:42] realized no one had vacated the room and a security guard was
[28:46] sent to investigate. The door was dead bolted from
[28:49] the inside and the windows were locked.
[28:53] The guard used a screwdriver to force his way in the room.
[28:57] Didn't look alarming at first. Alcohol bottles sat on the table
[29:00] alongside a purse, a pocketbook, A suitcase, and a photograph.
[29:06] But when the guard stepped into the bathroom, he found a young
[29:09] woman with curly strawberry blonde hair hanging from the
[29:13] metal shower head. She'd been dead for
[29:16] approximately 2 days, her body already decomposing in the dry
[29:20] Albuquerque heat. The air conditioning in the room
[29:24] hadn't been turned on, which accelerated the process
[29:27] significantly. The medical examiner ruled that
[29:31] she had done it herself while under the influence of heroin.
[29:35] Minor abrasions on her face and leg had already begun healing
[29:40] before she passed, suggesting that these weren't related to
[29:43] any sort of recent attack. The room showed no signs of a
[29:47] struggle, no blood and no disruption to suggest anything
[29:51] other than a solitary act. Investigators catalogued the
[29:56] scene carefully. The woman stood about 5 feet 7
[30:00] and weighed roughly 140 lbs. She had Hazel or Gray eyes and
[30:05] wore a multi colored tie dye tank top from a brand called
[30:08] Trends, white denim Guess jeans with zippers near the ankles and
[30:14] a wide metal bracelet. Her belongings included a dark
[30:18] blue suede purse, a Gray woven pocketbook, the $500 in cash and
[30:25] a digital scale bearing the handwritten name George
[30:29] Martinez. The now famous photograph
[30:32] appeared to have been taken in a mall photo booth.
[30:36] It showed the woman making a face at the camera beside a
[30:38] young Hispanic man who offered a slight smile.
[30:43] Motel staff identified the man as Eduardo Collin, the person
[30:47] who'd rented the room. But when police finally located
[30:51] Collins family several years later, they learned he'd already
[30:55] died of natural causes or perhaps an overdose.
[30:59] But then things got even more unusual.
[31:02] His relatives confirmed the handwriting on the registration
[31:05] slip was his, but stated that the man in the photograph wasn't
[31:09] Eduardo. Unfortunately, they had no idea
[31:12] who the woman was either, or whether Eduardo had any
[31:16] meaningful connection to these two individuals.
[31:20] The motel clerk had only seen Colin briefly at check in and
[31:25] couldn't recall with certainty whether a woman had been with
[31:28] him, making the earlier identification unreliable.
[31:33] The name George Martinez on the digital scale unsurprisingly LED
[31:38] absolutely nowhere. It's an extraordinarily common
[31:41] name in New Mexico, and the scale was the type commonly used
[31:45] for weighing substances. There was no evidence linking
[31:49] any particular person by that name to the case.
[31:52] Some theorized the name might have been a street alias
[31:56] scrawled on the scale by a dealer, while others believed it
[31:59] had nothing to do with Becca's death at all.
[32:02] Compounding the mystery, by the time a new detective was
[32:06] eventually assigned to the case, much of the original physical
[32:10] evidence had been destroyed. The detective believed the case
[32:13] could have been solved far earlier if those materials had
[32:17] survived. Instead, the woman remained
[32:21] nameless. At least 16 missing women were
[32:24] ruled out as potential matches over the years, and the case
[32:28] went cold. The case sat dormant for
[32:32] decades, but never entirely disappeared from public
[32:35] consciousness, largely due to the haunting circumstances in
[32:39] the photograph. Amateur true crime buffs kept
[32:43] the story circulating, debating whether the death was truly
[32:47] self-inflicted or not and speculating about who this woman
[32:51] might have been. These intrepid investigators
[32:54] would end up filing extensive records requests for the case.
[32:59] Podcasts and YouTube videos flourished discussing her case.
[33:03] And if you're a long time viewer, you may remember that I
[33:06] covered this case back in the hazy days of 2024.
[33:10] This sustained public attention may well have played a role in
[33:13] what happened next, though clearly I can't say that for
[33:17] certain without confirmation from detectives.
[33:21] In March of 2021, investigators announced a significant break.
[33:27] The man in the photograph had been identified and had come
[33:30] forward anonymously. He told police the woman's first
[33:33] name was likely Becca or Rebecca, and that she was
[33:37] possibly from the Reseda or Sylmar areas of Los Angeles
[33:41] County, California. He said she'd flown to
[33:44] Albuquerque from Los Angeles or Burbank shortly before her
[33:48] death. The nameless Jane Doe suddenly
[33:51] had a first name and a probable city of origin.
[33:55] Investigators began referring to her publicly as Becca Doe in
[33:59] official communications and appeals for information, but a
[34:03] first name and rough geography weren't enough to make an
[34:06] identification, and he was generally unsure of details
[34:09] about her. The genetic angle would
[34:13] ultimately solve Becca's case, an angle that got off to a rocky
[34:17] start in the second decade of the investigation.
[34:21] In 2009, the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator had
[34:27] submitted A genetic sample to the CADDIS system, but no
[34:31] matches were found. The system relies on a limited
[34:34] number of genetic markers, and without a family member already
[34:38] in the database, there's no chance of a hit.
[34:41] The comparison, unfortunately, couldn't bridge the gap between
[34:44] this anonymous young woman and anyone who might have been
[34:47] looking for her. What changed everything was
[34:51] investigative genetic genealogy, a relatively new forensic
[34:55] discipline. Unlike CODIS, this approach uses
[34:59] whole genome sequencing to compare DNA against publicly
[35:03] available genealogy databases. It's a far more powerful tool,
[35:08] capable of identifying distant relatives and building family
[35:11] trees that narrow down a subject's identity.
[35:14] It's also extremely expensive, which is precisely why many
[35:18] smaller law enforcement agencies have been unable to pursue it on
[35:21] their own. In December of 2025, an
[35:27] investigator contacted the Investigative Genetic Genealogy
[35:30] Center at Ramapo College of New Jersey.
[35:34] Founded in late 2022, the center was the first of its kind in the
[35:39] nation, offering pro bono casework, research, and hands on
[35:44] education in the discipline. It had already resolved numerous
[35:48] cold cases across the country, identifying individuals whose
[35:52] remains had gone unnamed for years or even decades.
[35:57] Critically, Ramapo performed the work entirely free of charge,
[36:01] removing the financial barrier that had stalled many agencies.
[36:05] But of course, being a free service and there being 10s of
[36:08] thousands of Doe cases in America, the demand is
[36:11] exceptional. But Becca's case had become so
[36:15] widely known and talked about that her case was able to be
[36:18] fast tracked. While genetic genealogy used to
[36:22] take years of painstaking manual research, modern technology has
[36:26] now changed the game. And the results came remarkably
[36:29] fast. By January of 2026, the
[36:34] investigation had produced leads pointing to 1/2 brother and
[36:38] indirectly A stepfather living in California.
[36:42] The Feds worked alongside Albuquerque police to locate the
[36:46] stepfather in Ventura, CA. He confirmed he'd had a
[36:50] stepdaughter and that the last time he'd seen her was in 1991
[36:55] when she left the Los Angeles area.
[36:58] A Sergeant from the Ventura Police Department then located
[37:01] the half brother who agreed to provide a genetic sample.
[37:05] The comparison confirmed with 100% confidence that the mystery
[37:09] woman was his long lost half sister.
[37:12] On March 5th, 2026, the Albuquerque Police Department
[37:17] announced that Becca Doe was Becca Malacoot.
[37:21] Her family, after 35 years of silence, finally had an answer.
[37:27] With identification came context, though less than one
[37:30] might hope, and it turned out that Becca was living in Los
[37:33] Angeles at the time of her death.
[37:36] She'd been dating a man there and they'd taken that photo
[37:39] booth picture together. Although they broke up, they
[37:43] stayed friends. The man's brother-in-law,
[37:46] Eduardo Collin, developed feelings for Becca, a situation
[37:50] that could lead to some bitterness potentially.
[37:54] However, that doesn't seem to have been the case here given
[37:57] what allegedly happened next. With her ex boyfriend's
[38:00] knowledge, she made plans to fly to Albuquerque to meet Eduardo.
[38:04] Her ex dropped her off at Los Angeles International Airport.
[38:08] This fills in key structural gaps, since we now know Eduardo
[38:12] Cullen wasn't a random stranger. The man in the photograph was
[38:16] her ex-boyfriend, the same person who came forward in 2021
[38:21] with the anonymous tip that ultimately cracked the case
[38:24] open. The photo was a keepsake from
[38:27] their relationship, carried across state lines and placed on
[38:30] a motel room table, perhaps the last thing she looked at before
[38:35] she died, but vast stretches of her life remain unknown.
[38:40] It doesn't appear she was ever reported missing, which is
[38:43] staggering for an 18 year old. Unconfirmed accounts suggest she
[38:48] may have aged out of the foster care system, which could explain
[38:52] why no family came looking for her.
[38:55] If true, it paints A devastating picture of a young woman moving
[38:59] through the world without anyone positioned to notice when she
[39:03] vanished. Becca Malakut's identification
[39:08] answers the fundamental question of who she was, but it opens a
[39:12] cascade of others. Eduardo Collin remains an
[39:15] enigma. He rented the room, listed a
[39:19] false plate number and vanished. He never checked out and never
[39:24] came forward. Some have speculated he may not
[39:27] have known Becca died in 1991. Without the Internet or
[39:32] widespread media coverage, it's plausible he simply left and
[39:36] never learned what happened afterward.
[39:38] Others point to the false license plate as evidence he
[39:41] wanted to avoid being traced. The locked room has generally
[39:45] been taken as strong physical evidence that Becca was alone
[39:48] when she died, but the circumstantial questions linger.
[39:52] Nonetheless, the official ruling remains that she did it herself
[39:58] and the available physical evidence does support it.
[40:02] Personally, I think this is likely the end of the line on
[40:05] Becca's case and we are unlikely to ever know much more.
[40:10] Based on the strong evidence to indicate she was alone when she
[40:13] perished. I don't believe there was any
[40:15] foul play here if the foster home story is true.
[40:20] Becca's case is yet another case all too common of someone who
[40:24] just slipped through the cracks in the transition to adulthood.
[40:32] On the morning of December 20th, 2009, paramedics rushed to a
[40:36] mansion on Rising Glen Rd. in the Hollywood Hills.
[40:40] Inside the bathroom, 32 year old actress Brittany Murphy lay
[40:45] unconscious. Her mother Sharon and husband
[40:48] Simon Monjak had found her collapsed and called 911.
[40:53] Firefighters attempted to revive her on the way to Cedars Sinai
[40:56] Medical Center, but it was too late.
[40:59] The woman who charmed audiences in King of the Hill, Clueless
[41:03] and Eight Mile was gone, and the circumstances surrounding her
[41:07] death would only grow stranger with time.
[41:11] A Los Angeles coroner initially told The Associated Press that
[41:15] Murphy's death appeared natural, but that assessment barely
[41:18] scratched the surface when the updated coroner's report arrived
[41:23] on February 4th, 2010. The official cause of death was
[41:28] listed as Community acquired pneumonia.
[41:31] Secondary factors included iron deficiency anemia and multiple
[41:36] drug intoxication, the latter despite no illegal substances
[41:40] found in her system. The drugs present were all
[41:44] prescription or over the counter medications, including elevated
[41:47] levels of hydrocodone, acetaminophen, and
[41:51] chlorfeniramine. Due to the combination of
[41:54] medications in her weakened state, Murphy's death was
[41:58] classified as an accident. In the weeks before she died,
[42:03] Murphy had been battling A staph infection that hit her hard.
[42:06] She developed severe laryngitis and was experiencing her second
[42:10] period in a single month, worsening her anemia.
[42:14] For roughly 6 weeks, she tried to push through the illness
[42:18] without seeing a physician, a fact that will become very
[42:21] suspicious given the context I'm about to discuss.
[42:26] She finally called to schedule a doctor's appointment on a
[42:29] Friday, setting it for the following Monday, but she didn't
[42:33] survive the weekend. The question that haunts this
[42:36] case isn't just how she died, but why nobody in her household
[42:40] got her to a hospital sooner. The circumstances of Brittany
[42:46] Murphy's death are completely baffling.
[42:48] Without a full understanding of the situation she found herself
[42:51] in at the time of her passing, Enter Simon Monjak.
[42:56] Manjak was a British screenwriter and director whose
[42:59] credits were thin and whose reputation, once examined, was
[43:04] devastating. Born in 1970 in Hillingdon,
[43:07] England, Manjak had a troubled history that predated his
[43:11] arrival in Hollywood by years. He'd been evicted from multiple
[43:15] homes, had outstanding warrants in Virginia for alleged credit
[43:19] card fraud, and was successfully sued by a bank for nearly half,
[43:23] $1,000,000. In February 2007, he was
[43:28] arrested and jailed for 9 days over an expired visa.
[43:33] He'd told people he was a billionaire, that he dated
[43:36] Madonna and Elle Macpherson, that he owned Ferraris.
[43:40] He claimed that he possessed the largest private collection of
[43:43] Vermeer paintings in the world. There was just a little wee
[43:47] problem with Simon's debonair billionaire persona.
[43:50] None of it was true. Before meeting Murphy, Monjak
[43:56] had been engaged to a woman named Elizabeth Ragsdale.
[43:59] He'd proposed with a Tiffany's ring just two weeks after they
[44:03] met and told her he was dying of spinal cancer, claiming he
[44:07] needed experimental treatments derived from shark cartilage.
[44:12] There's something so disturbingly poetic about him
[44:14] choosing a shark as the animal he would allegedly be receiving
[44:18] this treatment from. Much like the common shark.
[44:21] If the allegations are true, Monjak sensed weakness and
[44:26] struck upon it with ruthless efficiency.
[44:29] When Ragsdale became pregnant, Monjak abandoned her, leaving
[44:34] her absolutely devastated. She later contacted his mother
[44:38] about the situation, expecting to perhaps find out that Simon
[44:43] had passed and discovered the entire cancer story was
[44:46] fabricated to manipulate her. Years afterward, when Ragsdale
[44:50] saw a magazine photo of Mon Jack alongside Murphy, she said her
[44:55] first reaction wasn't jealousy, it was pity for Murphy.
[44:59] She tried to write a warning letter but never sent it,
[45:02] fearing it would seem like a ploy by a bitter ex lover.
[45:06] While she may have been bitter about her time with Mon Jack, if
[45:10] her treatment was anything like what happened with Murphy, that
[45:14] was quite honestly the only rational response to her
[45:17] interaction with him. Murphy and Manjak met in 2006
[45:23] and married in a private ceremony in April 2007.
[45:27] The relationship moved fast, and the changes in Murphy's life
[45:31] were immediate. According to multiple friends
[45:34] and colleagues who later spoke in documentaries, Manjak
[45:38] systematically isolated Murphy from everyone around her.
[45:42] He convinced her to fire her agents, managers, lawyers, and
[45:47] accountants, claiming that they were all scheming against her in
[45:50] some way. He became her sole
[45:53] representative in all professional matters, even
[45:56] serving as her makeup artist on some final projects.
[46:00] Her phone numbers were changed and friends who tried to reach
[46:03] her were told they had to go through Mon Jack actress Lisa
[46:08] Rifle, A close friend, later described it as though Murphy
[46:11] had simply disappeared. Actress Kathy Najimi recalled
[46:16] that everyone in Murphy's circle was frightened and bewildered by
[46:19] the situation. Celebrity trainer Harley
[46:22] Pasternak, best known for his Kanye interactions, tried to
[46:26] contact Murphy's team about a role and was told Monjak had
[46:31] taken over every function. There was no way to reach her
[46:35] directly and she was completely isolated from everyone she knew
[46:39] while being under his complete control.
[46:43] Under Mon Jack's management, Murphy's career deteriorated
[46:47] sharply. She went from starring in major
[46:50] studio films to working in low budget indie productions.
[46:54] In November 2009, the couple travelled to Puerto Rico for a
[46:58] film called The Caller, but Mon Jack allegedly showed up on set
[47:02] intoxicated and caused disruptions.
[47:06] Murphy was let go on the first day after she refused to
[47:09] dissociate herself from what everyone assumed was simply an
[47:12] ohfish husband disturbing the set.
[47:14] She'd also been dropped from happy feet to a major studio
[47:18] film that she was planning on lending her voice acting
[47:21] abilities to. The woman who'd once been one of
[47:24] Hollywood's most in demand young talents was struggling to find
[47:28] work, and the man controlling her professional life appeared
[47:32] to be the reason. Monjak also took control of
[47:35] Murphy's finances. It's been estimated that he
[47:38] spent approximately $3,000,000 of her money over the course of
[47:42] their three-year marriage. Meanwhile, Murphy was the sole
[47:47] breadwinner, supporting not only her husband but also her mother
[47:51] Sharon, who suffered from neuropathy after battling breast
[47:55] cancer. The household on Rising Glen Rd.
[47:58] had become a pressure cooker. Murphy was sick, overworked,
[48:03] probably broke and cut off from the support systems that might
[48:07] have saved her life. She was caring for everyone
[48:10] around her, while nobody, it seemed, was caring for her.
[48:15] If Murphy's death raised eyebrows, what happened next
[48:19] sent conspiracy theories into OverDrive.
[48:22] On May 23rd, 2010, just five months after his wife's passing,
[48:27] Simon Monjak was found dead in the same Hollywood Hills
[48:31] mansion. Sharon Murphy discovered him
[48:34] unconscious in the master bedroom around 9:20 PM and
[48:38] called 911. Paramedics arrived but couldn't
[48:42] revive him, and he was pronounced dead at 9:45 PM at
[48:46] the age of 40. The coroner's report on Monjak's
[48:50] death was eerily familiar. His cause of death was listed as
[48:54] acute pneumonia and severe anemia, nearly identical to
[48:58] Murphy's case. Unlike Murphy, the medications
[49:03] in Monjak's system were at therapeutic levels and were not
[49:07] considered a contributing factor.
[49:10] The fact that two people living in the same house had died
[49:13] months apart from what appeared to be the same ailment was
[49:17] deeply unsettling to the public and to investigators.
[49:22] The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health
[49:24] investigated whether toxic mold in the home might have
[49:27] contributed. This fatal mold story took over
[49:31] news headlines at the time, but the coroner stated there were no
[49:35] indicators that it played any role.
[49:39] In January 2012, Murphy's estranged father, Angelo
[49:43] Bertolotti, filed a petition in the Superior Court of
[49:46] California. He requested that the coroner's
[49:49] office release hair samples from his daughter for independent
[49:53] testing. The initial suit was dismissed
[49:56] after Bertolotti failed to appear at 2 hearings, but he
[49:59] eventually obtained samples of Murphy's hair, blood and tissue.
[50:05] He sent them to a private laboratory called the Carlson
[50:08] Company in Colorado, which reported finding elevated
[50:11] concentrations of 10 heavy metals in Murphy's system.
[50:15] These included antimony and barium, A substance commonly
[50:19] associated with rat poison, suggesting something much more
[50:23] sinister had happened. Bertolotti went public in
[50:26] November 2013, claiming the results were proof his daughter
[50:30] had been deliberately poisoned. The poisoning theory made
[50:34] national headlines, but it didn't hold up under expert
[50:38] scrutiny from forensic scientists.
[50:42] Toxicologist Bruce Goldberger, who served as president of the
[50:46] American Board of Forensic Toxicology, reviewed the lab
[50:49] report and raised serious objections.
[50:53] He noted that Murphy lacked A telltale sign of heavy metal
[50:56] poisoning at the time of death, specifically the distinctive
[51:00] horizontal lines across the fingernails.
[51:03] Without that marker, he concluded it was unlikely heavy
[51:07] metals contributed to her death. Another toxicologist pointed out
[51:12] that hair dye alone could account for heavy metals in a
[51:15] hair sample. Murphy had, in fact, prepared a
[51:19] will. In it, she left her entire
[51:22] estate to her mother and included a pointed statement
[51:25] declaring that she'd intentionally excluded her
[51:27] husband. It appears that she had
[51:29] significant insight into Monjak's nefarious nature, but
[51:33] ultimately, for whatever reason, she didn't leave him.
[51:38] From the evidence, I believe she may have been scared to leave
[51:41] him, worried about what consequences she would face if
[51:45] she fled. By the time the spell was broken
[51:49] and she evidently saw Monjak for what he really was, he had
[51:53] already fully isolated her from the entire world.
[51:57] She may have been slowly making moves so that she could
[52:00] extricate herself from the situation safely when she
[52:03] unfortunately passed away. Ultimately, it's not precisely
[52:08] clear to me what caused Brittany Murphy's death, and the answers
[52:12] don't appear to be satisfactory at all.
[52:15] The official record says Brittany Murphy died of
[52:17] pneumonia, anemia, and prescription drug intoxication.
[52:22] That said, this seems like a situation where she needed to be
[52:26] rushed to hospital urgently, and if she had been, it seems like
[52:30] she might have survived. That makes me question if
[52:34] perhaps Simon Monjak didn't want her going to the hospital for
[52:38] fear that she would use it as a way to escape the prison he had
[52:41] built for her. Of course, that's speculation on
[52:44] my part, and I can't say with any certainty that there's any
[52:48] veracity to the allegation. Interestingly, Monjak's ex
[52:53] fiance, Elizabeth Ragsdale may have offered the most incisive
[52:57] assessment of the entire tragedy.
[53:00] She stated her belief that even if Monjak didn't directly cause
[53:04] Murphy's death, but for his influence, she would almost
[53:07] certainly be alive. And it's hard to disagree with
[53:10] this assessment, since the entire trajectory of her life
[53:14] went off the rails the moment she met this individual.
[53:21] In January 1985, A 43 year old mathematics professor from
[53:27] Pennsylvania State University set out on a solo hiking trip
[53:31] through the remote wilderness of southern Chile.
[53:34] His name was Boris Weisfeiler, and he was an avid outdoorsman
[53:38] who'd made similar treks before. What should have been a routine
[53:42] missing persons case became one of the most haunting unsolved
[53:46] disappearances of the era. Surprisingly, it entangled a
[53:50] brilliant academics fate with a military dictatorship, A shadowy
[53:54] German cult compound, and decades of obstruction by
[53:58] multiple governments. To this day, nobody knows with
[54:02] certainty what happened to Boris Weisfeiler.
[54:07] Boris Weisfeiler was born in 1941 in the Soviet Union, where
[54:12] he grew up to become a remarkably talented and deeply
[54:15] dedicated mathematician. He earned his doctorate in 1970
[54:20] from the Leningrad branch of the prestigious Steklaw of Institute
[54:23] of Mathematics, studying under some of the world's leading
[54:27] minds in math. His broader specialty was
[54:30] algebraic groups, a demanding and abstract area of pure
[54:35] mathematics that deals with the intersection of algebra and
[54:38] geometry. Life in the Soviet Union,
[54:42] however, proved untenable for Vice Feiler.
[54:46] In the early 1970s, he was asked to sign a letter denouncing A
[54:50] colleague, and when he refused, Soviet authorities branded him
[54:55] as an anti Soviet. He left the USSR in 1975 and
[55:00] arrived in the United States, where he quickly found a place
[55:03] among the country's top mathematical minds.
[55:06] He worked initially at the Institute for Advanced Study
[55:09] near Princeton, one of the world's most elite research
[55:12] institutions. By 1976, he joined the faculty
[55:18] at Penn State, and in 1981 he became a naturalized American
[55:23] citizen. Weisfeiler flew to Chile during
[55:27] the Christmas break of 1984, planning a backpacking trip
[55:31] through the remote and rugged terrain of the Andes.
[55:35] Chile was at that time still under the iron grip of
[55:38] Pinochet's military dictatorship, a regime notorious
[55:42] for widespread systematic disappearances of political
[55:45] opponents. However, despite this, the
[55:49] country was, somewhat paradoxically, still known as a
[55:53] highly safe location for western tourists.
[55:56] Or so it seemed. On or around January 4th, 1985,
[56:01] Weisfeiler vanished in a remote area near the Nubel River in the
[56:05] Biobio region of South Central Chile.
[56:09] When he failed to return, a search was conducted and Chilean
[56:13] authorities eventually concluded that he'd attempted to Ford a
[56:16] fast moving river and drowned. They determined that his body
[56:21] was likely swept away and never recovered.
[56:24] The case was effectively closed, but from the very beginning
[56:29] there were problems with this explanation.
[56:32] Local fishermen reported that they'd camped with Weisfeiler
[56:35] and given him directions northward toward a bridge near a
[56:38] large, fenced off compound. This was no ordinary compound,
[56:43] though, and it was harboring an extremely sinister secret, but
[56:47] I'll get to that in a moment. Critically, there was a cable
[56:51] car crossing near the spot where authorities claimed he'd tried
[56:54] to wade across the river, making the drowning narrative hard to
[56:57] accept. The compound near where
[57:01] Weisfeiler was last seen was Colonia Dignidad, one of the
[57:05] most sinister and deeply disturbing places in modern
[57:08] Latin American history. Founded in 1961 by Paul
[57:12] Schaeffer, a German fugitive who'd fled abuse charges in his
[57:16] home country, the colony presented itself to the outside
[57:20] world as a charitable community. It was supposedly a hard working
[57:24] and friendly community of German expatriates in Chile, but in
[57:29] reality it was something far more disturbing.
[57:33] Schaefer ran the settlement as a cult, subjecting residents to
[57:37] forced labor, psychological manipulation, and much, much
[57:42] worse. The compound was surrounded by
[57:45] barbed wire, watchtowers and armed guards, and the people who
[57:50] had immigrated there were trapped by the leadership.
[57:54] When Pinochet seized power in 1973, Colonia Dignidad became
[57:59] something even worse than it was already.
[58:03] Schaefer forged an alliance with the regime, and the compound
[58:07] became a secret detention and execution Center for Pinochet's
[58:11] secret police, known as the Dina.
[58:14] Political prisoners were brought there, subjected to brutal
[58:17] interrogation, and in many cases eliminated or, quote UN quote,
[58:21] disappeared. It was into the orbit of this
[58:25] nightmare that Boris Weisfeiler apparently stumbled, though for
[58:29] the first decade and a half the only evidence was that Fisherman
[58:32] had said he was near the compound.
[58:35] Declassified US State Department documents released beginning in
[58:40] 2000 painted a picture dramatically different from the
[58:43] official drowning story. These documents suggested that
[58:47] Weisfeiler had been detained by a Chilean military patrol
[58:50] operating near the colonies perimeter.
[58:53] According to the declassified records, he was then handed over
[58:57] to Colonia Dignidad under suspicion of being a foreign
[59:00] spy. According to the documents, this
[59:04] was possibly because of his Soviet Jewish background.
[59:08] Tragically, if this is where Boris ended up, many
[59:11] high-ranking members of the cult had ties to the ideology of the
[59:15] Third Reich. The declassified documents
[59:19] indicated that he was subjected to brutal interrogation and may
[59:22] have been executed. An unidentified source within
[59:26] the US Embassy even reported having seen Weisfeiler alive
[59:30] inside the colony at least two years after his disappearance,
[59:34] living in appalling conditions. Weisfeiler's sister Olga, now a
[59:40] retired microbiologist living in Massachusetts, has spent the
[59:44] better part of four decades fighting for answers.
[59:47] She's traveled to Chile multiple times, including a visit to
[59:51] Colonia Dignidad itself, where mid level leaders received her
[59:55] reluctantly and neither confirmed nor denied her
[59:58] brother's presence there. Sadly, this is where this case
[1:00:02] remains today, though there does seem to be hoped that this
[1:00:05] mystery may one day be solved so that his family may have
[1:00:09] closure. Notably, in my research, I ended
[1:00:13] up finding that Colonia Dignidad has been turned into a tourist
[1:00:16] attraction of all things, which seems highly bizarre to me.
[1:00:21] And I'm not talking about a tourist attraction where you
[1:00:23] learn about the horrors that unfolded there, but rather a
[1:00:27] fun, quaint place where you can enjoy a beer and some Bratwurst.
[1:00:36] There are people in this world who can't sit still when they
[1:00:38] see injustice, and Bruno Monsieur was one of them.
[1:00:42] Born in Basel, Switzerland on August 25th, 1954, Monsieur grew
[1:00:48] up in a family of five children and showed an independent streak
[1:00:52] from a very young age. His parents hoped he'd become a
[1:00:55] doctor, but conventional life never quite fit him and he was
[1:01:00] drawn to the natural world in a way that couldn't be satisfied
[1:01:03] by textbooks. After completing his secondary
[1:01:07] education, he spent years working as a shepherd on Swiss
[1:01:11] Alpine pastures, developing interests in handicrafts,
[1:01:16] natural healing and caving. His refusal to serve in
[1:01:20] Switzerland's mandatory military led to a four month prison
[1:01:24] sentence, a consequence he accepted on principle.
[1:01:28] This would perhaps foreshadow the sort of thorn in the side of
[1:01:31] authority he was going to be throughout his life.
[1:01:35] In 1984, everything changed and Mancer traveled to the Malaysian
[1:01:40] state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo, initially joining a
[1:01:44] caving expedition to Gunungmulu National Park.
[1:01:49] There he encountered the Penan people, one of the last nomadic
[1:01:53] hunter gatherer groups on Earth, and something clicked.
[1:01:57] He separated from his caving team and walked into the
[1:02:00] rainforest. What was supposed to be a visit
[1:02:03] became a six year immersion into every aspect of their life and
[1:02:08] culture. He learned their language,
[1:02:11] adopted their customs, mastered jungle survival skills, adopted
[1:02:16] their traditional dress, and became fully integrated into
[1:02:20] their society. The Pennon gave him the name
[1:02:24] Laki Pennon, meaning Pennon Man, and the community's leader
[1:02:29] treated Bruno like his own adoptive son.
[1:02:32] During those years, Manser meticulously documented pen and
[1:02:37] culture through detailed illustrations, written
[1:02:40] observations, and over 10,000 photographs.
[1:02:44] These records would later be recognized as invaluable
[1:02:47] ethnographic and historical documents.
[1:02:52] But the paradise Manser had found was under siege.
[1:02:55] During the 1980s, logging companies, backed by powerful
[1:02:59] political interests, began systematically clearing the
[1:03:02] region's rainforests. The destruction was devastating
[1:03:06] for the Penan. Their hunting grounds shrank,
[1:03:10] their drinking water was contaminated, and the animals
[1:03:13] they depended on fled. At the center of this machinery
[1:03:17] of deforestation, according to Mansare, was Abdul Taib Mahmoud.
[1:03:24] He served as Sarawak's chief minister from 1981 and
[1:03:28] simultaneously held the portfolios of Finance Minister
[1:03:32] and Minister for Natural Resources.
[1:03:34] This concentration of power meant that Mahmoud had absolute
[1:03:38] control over the issuance of logging concessions across the
[1:03:41] entire state. Bruno Monsieur would later
[1:03:45] allege that he used this authority to enrich himself, his
[1:03:49] family and his allies, allegedly building a massive fortune.
[1:03:56] In 1987, the Pinon launched a series of peaceful Rd. blockades
[1:04:00] along logging routes in the upper Bahram region.
[1:04:03] These protests drew international media attention
[1:04:07] and infuriated the logging companies and the Sarawak
[1:04:10] government alike. Mahmoud declared Mansur an enemy
[1:04:13] of the state and sent a commando unit into the jungle to capture
[1:04:17] him. Mancer evaded arrest and,
[1:04:19] concluding that he could do more good for the Penan from abroad,
[1:04:23] managed to slip out of Sarawak in 1990 without being
[1:04:26] identified. Back in Basel, Mancer threw
[1:04:31] himself into activism with the same intensity he'd brought to
[1:04:34] jungle life. In 1991, he founded a nonprofit
[1:04:39] organization dedicated to rainforest conservation and the
[1:04:43] defense of indigenous rights in Sarawak.
[1:04:47] He published a book about his experiences and launched A
[1:04:49] relentless series of protest actions designed to draw global
[1:04:54] attention to the crisis unfolding in Borneo.
[1:04:57] The stunts were audacious. In 1992, he parachuted into a
[1:05:03] packed stadium during the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
[1:05:06] That same year he led a 20 day hunger strike outside the
[1:05:10] Marabini Corporation headquarters in Tokyo, targeting
[1:05:14] a major buyer of Sarawak timber. In 1993 he undertook a 60 day
[1:05:20] hunger strike in front of the Swiss Federal Parliament in
[1:05:23] Bern, demanding an import ban on tropical timber and mandatory
[1:05:28] labeling for wood products. Despite all this attention, the
[1:05:32] logging didn't stop and he figured the only chance he had
[1:05:36] was to negotiate directly with Taib Mahmoud himself.
[1:05:40] So he did the natural thing and flew a small plane onto the road
[1:05:44] outside his residence and attempted to negotiate directly.
[1:05:49] Unsurprisingly, this act ended up with him being taken into
[1:05:52] custody and promptly deported back to Switzerland without a
[1:05:56] meeting. By the year 2000, Mansor was a
[1:06:00] man running out of hope, and he admitted openly that his efforts
[1:06:04] had achieved less than nothing. In Sarawak, the logging
[1:06:07] continued unabated and more Pennant families were being
[1:06:11] pressured into selling their land.
[1:06:13] Yet he couldn't walk away. On February 15th, 2000, Mansur
[1:06:18] left Switzerland for what would be his final trip.
[1:06:22] He entered Borneo through the Indonesian province of
[1:06:24] Kalamantan, accompanied by a film crew.
[1:06:29] After a period of trekking, the film crew departed, leaving
[1:06:33] Mansur to continue with a Penin companion named Nari.
[1:06:37] The two traveled for roughly 2 weeks, crossing mountains and
[1:06:41] rivers on foot and by boat, with Monser still writing postcards
[1:06:45] to friends during this stretch. On May 25th, 2000, in the
[1:06:51] mountains near the isolated village of Barrio, Manser
[1:06:55] separated from his companion. He told Nari he wanted to
[1:06:59] attempt to climb of Bukit Batu Laui, a steep limestone pinnacle
[1:07:03] sacred to the Pennan. Manser had tried and failed to
[1:07:07] summit the mountain years earlier, and he apparently saw
[1:07:10] this as perhaps his last chance. Between May and October 2000,
[1:07:17] multiple groups of Penan tribes people searched the surrounding
[1:07:20] jungle without success. In November, through
[1:07:24] circumstances that remain unclear, his foundation was
[1:07:28] notified of the disappearance and they alerted the authorities
[1:07:31] in the media. A formal search was undertaken
[1:07:35] over the following months, but ultimately no signs of Bruno
[1:07:38] were found. Several theories have circulated
[1:07:43] about what happened. The most straightforward is that
[1:07:47] Mansur fell while attempting to climb Bukit Batulawi.
[1:07:51] The mountain is treacherously steep and a fall from its upper
[1:07:54] reaches would almost certainly be fatal in tropical Borneo.
[1:07:59] A body would decompose rapidly and scavengers would remove
[1:08:03] whatever remained. Another possibility is a snake
[1:08:07] bite or some other medical emergency in one of the most
[1:08:11] remote places on Earth, far from any help.
[1:08:15] He wasn't carrying a satellite phone, and he had absolutely no
[1:08:18] meaningful protective equipment, so if something went wrong, that
[1:08:22] was it for him. A darker theory, however, has
[1:08:27] never been fully dismissed. For years, there had been
[1:08:30] persistent rumors of a bounty on Manser's head, said to be around
[1:08:34] $50,000. Some have theorized that it
[1:08:38] wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that individuals
[1:08:41] connected to timber interests had played a role.
[1:08:45] However, those who have argued against this theory note that
[1:08:48] Manser had been captured and detained by the authorities
[1:08:51] before and simply been deported. Despite all these hostile
[1:08:56] encounters with government officials, Mansor himself never
[1:08:59] publicly recorded that his life was in danger.
[1:09:03] Ultimately, unless new evidence comes out, Bruno's disappearance
[1:09:07] is likely to remain forever an unsolved mystery.
[1:09:12] Long before Hollywood existed, and before the Lumiere brothers
[1:09:15] screened their famous footage of workers leaving a factory, a
[1:09:19] French born inventor had done something extraordinary.
[1:09:22] He'd captured the world's first moving pictures while he was
[1:09:25] working in his workshop in Leeds in England.
[1:09:28] His name was Louis E Mae Augustine Leprance and by the
[1:09:32] autumn of 1890 he was preparing to show his invention to the
[1:09:36] world. But he never got the chance.
[1:09:40] On September 16th of that year, Leprance stepped onto a train in
[1:09:44] Dijon, France and vanished without a trace.
[1:09:48] His body was never found. His luggage was never recovered,
[1:09:52] and more than a century later, nobody can say for certain what
[1:09:56] happened to him. La Prince was born in Metz,
[1:10:00] France, in 1841, the son of an artillery officer in the French
[1:10:05] army. His father's close friend
[1:10:07] happened to be Louis Daguerre, the man widely credited with
[1:10:11] inventing the Daguerreotype photographic process.
[1:10:14] As a boy, La Prince reportedly spent time in Daguerre's studio,
[1:10:19] absorbing early lessons in chemistry and photography that
[1:10:23] would profoundly shape the entire course of his life.
[1:10:27] He went on to study painting in Paris and postgraduate chemistry
[1:10:31] at the University of Leipzig in Germany.
[1:10:34] While this may sound odd, this gave him a rare and potent
[1:10:38] combination of artistic sensibility and rigorous
[1:10:42] scientific knowledge. In the 1860s, Le Prince moved to
[1:10:47] England where he married Elizabeth Whitley, a talented
[1:10:51] artist from Leeds. Together they founded the Leeds
[1:10:55] Technical School of Art and built a reputation for their
[1:10:58] innovative work in fixing colored photographs onto metal
[1:11:01] and pottery. Their clients included Queen
[1:11:04] Victoria and Prime Minister William Gladstone, but despite
[1:11:09] this big league patronage, Le Prince had financial troubles, a
[1:11:13] fact that'll be important shortly.
[1:11:17] Eventually, the family relocated to New York, where Le Prince
[1:11:20] managed a group of French artists specializing in
[1:11:23] panoramic paintings. But throughout all of this, his
[1:11:28] mind was consumed by a singular obsession, capturing and
[1:11:32] reproducing motion on film. His wallet was also consumed by
[1:11:37] it as well, because those financial troubles didn't come
[1:11:40] from mismanagement, but from reinvesting every penny back
[1:11:44] into his film obsession. In January 1888, the Prince was
[1:11:50] granted an American patent for a 16 lens camera device that he
[1:11:54] intended to function as both a motion picture camera and a
[1:11:58] projector. But it was his subsequent work
[1:12:01] with a single lens camera that proved revolutionary.
[1:12:05] On October 14th, 1888, in the garden of Oakwood Grange and
[1:12:09] Round Hay in Leeds, the home of his wife's parents, Leprince
[1:12:14] used this camera to film that work would be what's now known
[1:12:18] as the Round Hay Garden Scene. The short clip shows his son,
[1:12:23] his father-in-law Joseph Whitley, his mother-in-law and a
[1:12:27] family friend walking and laughing in the garden.
[1:12:31] It lasts only roughly 2 seconds, but it's arguably the oldest
[1:12:35] surviving motion picture in existence.
[1:12:39] During that same period, La Prince also filmed his son
[1:12:43] playing an accordion, and at some point in the following
[1:12:46] months, captured footage of horse drawn traffic crossing
[1:12:49] Leeds Bridge. Those close to him later
[1:12:52] testified that he'd successfully projected these films in his
[1:12:56] workshop, though no public demonstration ever took place.
[1:13:01] La Prince was a perfectionist, and he wouldn't show his work
[1:13:04] until he was absolutely certain it functioned.
[1:13:06] Florida State. Over the next two years, he
[1:13:09] continued refining his equipment, converting from paper
[1:13:12] film stock to celluloid, and improving his projector designs
[1:13:16] with the help of his assistant. By 1890, Laprance was finally
[1:13:22] ready for a public display in New York City.
[1:13:25] But then, just like that, the pioneering Frenchman
[1:13:28] disappeared. In September 1890, La Prince
[1:13:34] traveled to France following the death of his mother to visit his
[1:13:36] brother Albert in Dijon and settle family affairs.
[1:13:41] On the 16th, Albert allegedly accompanied him to the Dijon
[1:13:45] train station, where La Prince boarded an express train bound
[1:13:49] for Paris. Notably, Albert was the only
[1:13:52] person who witnessed this event, a fact that has drawn suspicion
[1:13:56] now for over a century. But I'll come back to that in a
[1:14:00] moment. The Prince was carrying his
[1:14:02] luggage and reportedly had materials related to his patents
[1:14:05] with him, though this has never been confirmed with absolute
[1:14:09] certainty. Friends were waiting to meet him
[1:14:12] in Paris before he continued on to England and then sailed to
[1:14:16] New York for his planned demonstration.
[1:14:19] He never arrived, and when the train pulled into Paris, the
[1:14:22] Prince wasn't on it. His friend searched for him, but
[1:14:26] there was no sign of the inventor.
[1:14:28] No fellow passenger reported seeing him aboard the train.
[1:14:32] Given that La Prince stood roughly 6 feet 3 inches tall and
[1:14:35] wore distinctive mutton chop sideburns, he wasn't someone who
[1:14:39] blended easily into a crowd. Both the French police and
[1:14:43] Scotland Yard launched investigations, but neither
[1:14:46] turned up a single lead. No body, no belongings, no
[1:14:50] witnesses. Nothing.
[1:14:53] In 1897, seven years after his disappearance, La Prince was
[1:14:58] officially declared dead under French law.
[1:15:02] The vacuum left by La Prince's disappearance has been filled
[1:15:05] with speculation ever since. Several competing theories have
[1:15:09] emerged over the decades, though none of them conclusively
[1:15:13] proven. The most sensational theory
[1:15:15] points the finger at Thomas Edison.
[1:15:18] La Prince's widow, Elizabeth, was the most vocal proponent of
[1:15:22] this idea. She believed Edison had La
[1:15:25] Prince kidnapped and slain to eliminate a competitor.
[1:15:29] Just weeks after La Prince vanished, Edison filed A
[1:15:33] preliminary patent application for a motion picture camera that
[1:15:37] bore A striking resemblance to La Prince's design.
[1:15:40] By May 1891, Edison's workers publicly debuted the
[1:15:45] Kinetigraph, and Edison went on to claim he was the sole
[1:15:49] inventor of cinematography. He aggressively used the patent
[1:15:53] system to assert dominance over the fledgling film industry,
[1:15:57] suing competitors into submission.
[1:16:00] However, no hard evidence has ever directly connected Edison
[1:16:05] or anyone in his employ to Leprince's disappearance.
[1:16:09] Personally, I would dismiss this hypothesis completely, since
[1:16:14] while we know that Edison was willing to crush the
[1:16:16] competition, he always did it by the letter of the law.
[1:16:22] Another theory focuses on Laprance's brother Albert, and
[1:16:25] this is the idea that I personally prefer.
[1:16:29] He was the last person known to have seen Laprance alive, and
[1:16:32] there was a financial dispute between them over their mother's
[1:16:35] estate. By 1890, Laprance had
[1:16:39] accumulated extremely significant debts working on his
[1:16:41] various projects. Albert was the executor of their
[1:16:45] mother's will, and Laprance was owed money that Albert appeared
[1:16:49] reluctant to pay. Some historians have speculated
[1:16:53] that the dispute turned violent and that Albert's account of
[1:16:57] waving his brother off at the station may have been
[1:17:00] fabricated. However, surviving letters
[1:17:04] between the brothers suggest a warm relationship, and
[1:17:07] Laprance's descendants have pushed back against this theory.
[1:17:11] That said, nothing comes between a happy family relationship like
[1:17:14] money, and Albert stood to benefit massively if his brother
[1:17:18] went missing. But while I did say this is the
[1:17:21] theory I prefer, it's entirely circumstantial and I fully admit
[1:17:27] that there's no hard evidence for it.
[1:17:30] I do find it very odd that no one on the train saw Leprince
[1:17:33] though, given how unusually tall he was, especially for the time.
[1:17:40] For decades, Laprance's contributions were largely
[1:17:43] forgotten and Thomas Edison received credit in America,
[1:17:47] while the Lumiere brothers took their share of the spoils in
[1:17:50] France. It wasn't until the 1920s that
[1:17:53] serious attention returned to Laprance's work, and recognition
[1:17:57] has grown steadily since. In 1930, a bronze memorial
[1:18:02] plaque was unveiled at his former workshop on Woodhouse
[1:18:05] Lane in Leeds. The University of Leeds later
[1:18:09] named its Center for Cinema, Photography and Television after
[1:18:13] him. At the end of the day, the story
[1:18:16] of Louis Le Prince is 1 of remarkable genius overshadowed
[1:18:20] by enduring mystery. He created the world's first
[1:18:23] moving pictures, years ahead of the famous names that would
[1:18:27] eventually receive the credit for his pioneering work.
[1:18:32] Whatever happened on that fateful September day in 1890,
[1:18:36] this inventor of cinema left behind a transformative
[1:18:39] invention that helped change the world forever.
[1:18:46] On May 26th, 2927, year old Tracy Ocasio left her parents
[1:18:52] home in Oco, Florida headed for a local bar.
[1:18:57] Her destination was the Florida Tap Room, a bar on Raleigh St.
[1:19:01] in Orlando's Metro West neighborhood.
[1:19:04] The Orlando Magic were playing against a young LeBron James and
[1:19:07] the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals.
[1:19:11] Tracy was a devoted Magic fan, the kind that was fully tapped
[1:19:15] in and planned her nights around the games.
[1:19:18] Before tip off, she spoke with her mother, Elizabeth, and said
[1:19:22] she'd be home later that night. Surveillance footage captured
[1:19:26] her leaving the bar around 1:30 in the morning on May 27th,
[1:19:30] accompanied by a man. Investigators identified him as
[1:19:34] 28 year old James Virgil Hattaway, an OCO resident with a
[1:19:39] lengthy and troubling criminal record.
[1:19:42] That record included robbery, burglary, theft and drug
[1:19:46] charges, amongst other offenses. When Tracy didn't return by
[1:19:51] morning, Elizabeth called her daughter's friends trying to
[1:19:54] track her down. That evening, around 7, an OCO
[1:20:00] resident called police to report an abandoned car sitting on a
[1:20:03] vacant lot on Franklin St. It was Tracy's yellow 2002
[1:20:08] Chevrolet Cobalt, and upon investigation, both front seats
[1:20:12] were pushed all the way forward. Her keys, cell phone and wallet
[1:20:17] were all missing. Though there didn't appear to be
[1:20:19] any other signs of a disturbance.
[1:20:22] Notably, the car sat roughly 150 yards from Hadaway's home on
[1:20:26] Lyle St. which immediately caused even more heat to come
[1:20:29] down on him. OCO police detectives quickly
[1:20:34] brought Hadaway in for questioning, and surprisingly,
[1:20:37] given his previous encounters with law enforcement, he didn't
[1:20:41] lawyer up. He said he'd met Tracy at the
[1:20:44] Tap Room a couple of weeks earlier and that she'd offered
[1:20:47] him a ride home. According to his account, they
[1:20:50] arrived at his house around 2:00 in the morning.
[1:20:52] He suggested they smoke pot together, but she didn't like
[1:20:56] the harder stuff he had around, got a bad feeling, and left
[1:21:00] shortly after on her own. It was a tidy story and, on its
[1:21:04] face, entirely plausible. But the problem was that Tracy's
[1:21:09] cell phone records told a very different tale.
[1:21:13] When Elizabeth called her daughter's phone around 7 that
[1:21:16] morning, it pinged near Hattaway's property.
[1:21:19] Tracy's phone had been near his home for hours after he claimed
[1:21:23] she'd already driven away. His story also failed to account
[1:21:28] for how close her vehicle was found to his house.
[1:21:33] On May 29th, detectives brought Hattaway back in, keeping him
[1:21:36] for 12 hours of questioning. He took a polygraph test during
[1:21:41] the session, which, according to detectives, he failed.
[1:21:45] When pressed further, Hattaway asked for a lawyer and the
[1:21:49] interrogation ended. Police executed a search warrant
[1:21:53] on Hattaway's home on June 1st, 2009.
[1:21:57] They found drug paraphernalia, enough to arrest him on
[1:22:00] unrelated charges, but nothing that directly linked him to
[1:22:04] Tracy's case. There were no keys, no phone, no
[1:22:08] wallet, nothing belonging to Tracy at all on his property.
[1:22:14] Bloodhounds were deployed to track her scent from the
[1:22:17] abandoned car, but the dogs didn't pick up a trail.
[1:22:20] Handlers believed she'd never exited the vehicle there on her
[1:22:24] own, suggesting someone else had driven and parked it.
[1:22:28] On June 3rd, a massive search was launched involving canine
[1:22:32] units, horses, 4 Wheelers, and the Sheriff's Office dive team.
[1:22:37] The dense Florida vegetation and swampland made the operation
[1:22:41] brutal, and at the end of the day, they found absolutely no
[1:22:46] trace of Tracy. Within minutes of Hattaway's
[1:22:50] arrest being broadcast on the local news, something happened
[1:22:54] that would sharply reshape the investigation.
[1:22:56] A woman named Rachel Clark called the detective assigned to
[1:23:00] the case, saying she recognized Hattaway.
[1:23:04] Clark told police that in August 2008, Hattaway had attacked her
[1:23:08] after she gave him a ride home from a party.
[1:23:12] Her account was chilling, and it's similarity to Tracy's
[1:23:14] disappearance. She said that as they arrived at
[1:23:18] an apartment complex, Hattaway grabbed her and began choking
[1:23:21] her inside the car. Clark managed to break free, but
[1:23:25] he chased her down, tackled her to the pavement and slammed her
[1:23:28] head against a curb. She'd filed a police report at
[1:23:31] the time, but Seminole County officers hadn't been able to
[1:23:35] locate Hattaway. Now, with his face on the news
[1:23:39] in connection to Tracy's case, Clark finally had a chance to
[1:23:43] pursue justice. Seminole County immediately
[1:23:48] reopened the case against Hattaway.
[1:23:50] Hattaway was extradited from OCO, and the substance charges
[1:23:55] were eventually dropped in favor of putting all resources into
[1:23:58] the far more serious ones. He was charged with the
[1:24:02] attempted slaying, burglary, robbery and false imprisonment
[1:24:07] of Clark. At trial, a jailhouse informant
[1:24:11] named Thomas Malloy testified against Hadaway from behind a
[1:24:15] curtain. Malloy, A convicted bank robber
[1:24:18] in the Federal Witness Protection Program, said Hadaway
[1:24:22] had confessed to strangling Clark in April 2011.
[1:24:26] A jury deliberated less than three hours before finding
[1:24:29] Hadaway guilty on all counts, and in May he was sentenced to
[1:24:33] life in prison. Hadaway's ties to violence and
[1:24:38] bizarre behavior didn't end with Tracy or Rachel.
[1:24:42] Acquaintances had told police he was fascinated by what they
[1:24:45] called the dark arts and the occult, and vampires in
[1:24:49] particular. For instance, around 1997, he'd
[1:24:55] either posed or attempted to pose for his driver's license
[1:24:58] photo wearing porcelain fangs, a goofy fact made sinister by the
[1:25:03] person wearing them. Police seized 2 computers and
[1:25:07] some hard drives from his home after learning about these
[1:25:09] interests. Notably, he'd used the cringy
[1:25:13] alias Vader Mcgurth on his Myspace page, styling himself as
[1:25:19] someone who wanted to be seen as a dangerous outlaw.
[1:25:24] But there was more. Three months before Tracy went
[1:25:27] missing, a 29 year old Apopka man named Christopher George had
[1:25:31] also vanished. He'd been spending time with
[1:25:34] Hattaway and an associate named Tyler Waters near a wooded area
[1:25:39] off Oco Apopka Rd. The next day, officers found
[1:25:44] Hattaway and Waters emerging from woods near Lake Carter.
[1:25:48] They claimed George had been on hallucinogens, crashed his truck
[1:25:53] and wandered into the vegetation.
[1:25:56] Both men later admitted to moving and cleaning George's
[1:25:58] truck from the scene and staging it to look like an accident.
[1:26:02] According to them, this was done to avoid any connection between
[1:26:07] the two of them and the substances that were in the
[1:26:09] truck. In February 2011, a drought
[1:26:15] caused water levels in Lake Carter to drop, exposing human
[1:26:18] bones. Those remains were positively
[1:26:22] identified as belonging to Chris George.
[1:26:24] In July 2011. The medical examiner couldn't
[1:26:29] determine A cause of death due to the advanced state of
[1:26:32] decomposition. He speculated George may have
[1:26:35] drowned while incapacitated by drugs, though this couldn't be
[1:26:40] proven. Hattaway was never charged in
[1:26:43] George's death, though police named him a person of interest.
[1:26:49] Detectives also uncovered another thread during the
[1:26:51] investigation. The authorities learned that
[1:26:54] Tracy had filed misdemeanor battery charges against a man
[1:26:58] named Paul Hutto. The information came through a
[1:27:02] letter from the State Attorney's office that arrived days after
[1:27:05] Tracy disappeared. The two had gotten into an
[1:27:08] altercation outside the Florida Tap room, and he'd pushed her to
[1:27:12] the ground. Police brought Hutto in for
[1:27:15] questioning, and his story and whereabouts during the
[1:27:18] disappearance were verified. Interestingly, investigators
[1:27:23] found a link between Paul and Hattaway, with Paul's family
[1:27:27] running a shoreline cleaning business where Hattaway had once
[1:27:30] worked. Phone records showed no recent
[1:27:33] contact, and Hutto was never considered a suspect, though
[1:27:37] they found this loose connection to be unusual.
[1:27:41] Hadaway remains in Blackwater River Correctional Facility in
[1:27:45] Milton, FL, serving life for the attack on Clark.
[1:27:49] He's never been formally charged with any crime related to Tracy
[1:27:52] Ocasio and continues to maintain that he wasn't involved.
[1:27:56] Detectives, for their part, have confirmed that he remains the
[1:28:00] only suspect in the case. In the late 1970s, Howard Beach
[1:28:09] was a tight knit middle class neighborhood in Queens, NY.
[1:28:13] Modest homes, tree lined streets, and the kind of place
[1:28:17] where kids played outside until their parents called them in for
[1:28:20] dinner. On the surface it looked like
[1:28:23] any other working class corner of the city, but Howard Beach
[1:28:27] had a resident who made it something else entirely.
[1:28:31] John Gotti, a rising captain in the Gambino crime family, lived
[1:28:36] on 85th St. with his wife Victoria and their five
[1:28:40] children. His backyard neighbor on 86th
[1:28:43] St. was a 51 year old furniture factory manager named John
[1:28:47] Favara. Favara worked at the Castro
[1:28:50] convertibles plant in New Hyde Park, Long Island.
[1:28:53] He and his wife, Janet, had two adopted sons, and his boy Scott
[1:28:57] was close friends with John Gotti Junior.
[1:29:01] The two families existed in an uneasy proximity that seemed to
[1:29:04] work just fine most of the time. Favaro was well aware of Gotti's
[1:29:09] reputation but kept his head down and lived his life.
[1:29:14] That fragile piece shattered on a single Tuesday afternoon in
[1:29:18] March 1980, and what followed was one of the most chilling and
[1:29:22] disturbing disappearances in the history of organized crime.
[1:29:28] On March 18th, 1980, twelve year old Frank Gotti had just made
[1:29:33] his school football team. He was excited and restless, and
[1:29:37] he spent the afternoon playing outside.
[1:29:40] A neighborhood kid named Kevin McMahon owned a motorized mini
[1:29:43] bike and was letting friends take turns, and Frank was eager
[1:29:47] to take a spin. When Frank's turn came, he
[1:29:50] hopped on before McMahon could give him instructions on how to
[1:29:53] handle it. Frank took off down the street
[1:29:56] without a care in the world, as 12 year old kids generally do,
[1:30:00] mob boss son or not. Around the same time John Favaro
[1:30:05] was finishing his shift and driving home from work, he
[1:30:08] turned onto the street and was allegedly hit by the glare of
[1:30:11] the setting sun. And he apparently wasn't wearing
[1:30:14] sunglasses. To compound matters, a large
[1:30:18] construction dumpster sat near the road, creating a blind spot.
[1:30:23] Frank Gotti on the mini bike darted out from behind the
[1:30:26] obstruction and directly into the path of Favara's car.
[1:30:31] The impact was devastating. Neighbors screamed and banged on
[1:30:36] Favara's windows, some even climbing onto the hood of his
[1:30:39] car. Frank had been pinned beneath
[1:30:42] the vehicle and dragged A considerable distance before
[1:30:44] Favara finally stopped. The boy was rushed to the
[1:30:48] hospital, but tragically, he was pronounced dead shortly after
[1:30:52] arrival. Police investigated thoroughly
[1:30:55] and officers conducted sobriety tests on Favara at the scene,
[1:30:59] including a breathalyzer, and confirmed he wasn't intoxicated.
[1:31:04] Investigators examined skid Marks and found no evidence of
[1:31:07] excessive speed or reckless driving.
[1:31:10] Multiple eyewitnesses confirmed that Frank had entered the
[1:31:13] roadway suddenly from a blind spot.
[1:31:16] The cops ruled the death an accident, and no criminal
[1:31:19] charges were filed. But the Gotti family would tell
[1:31:23] a very different version for decades.
[1:31:26] Victoria Gotti, John's daughter, later wrote in her memoir that
[1:31:31] Favara had been drunk and speeding and that he'd shown no
[1:31:35] remorse. Notably, some have theorized
[1:31:39] that given who the victim was, the police may have attempted to
[1:31:43] cover up any wrongdoing on the part of Favara.
[1:31:47] After all, if he'd been drunk or speeding or impaired in any way,
[1:31:51] his life would have been over. In the days and weeks after
[1:31:56] Frank's death, John Gotti was visibly devastated.
[1:32:01] Victoria De Giorgio, Frank's mother, dressed in black for
[1:32:05] weeks and reportedly walked to local baseball fields late at
[1:32:09] night, as though she might somehow find her son alive.
[1:32:13] A shrine of candles and photographs was erected in the
[1:32:16] Gotti living room, and the family's pain was real and
[1:32:20] profound. But alongside the grief, A
[1:32:24] darker current was allegedly building. 2 days after the
[1:32:28] accident, a woman called the local police precinct and
[1:32:32] announced that Favara would be eliminated.
[1:32:36] Officers relayed the warning to Favara, who dismissed it,
[1:32:40] telling the cop that kind of thing only happened in the
[1:32:42] movies. Little did Favara know that he
[1:32:46] was going to be going through a very cinematic period in his
[1:32:49] life. Anonymous threats began arriving
[1:32:53] by phone and mail, and a photograph of Frank Gotti and a
[1:32:57] mask card from his funeral were placed in Favara's mailbox.
[1:33:01] The community had turned against him and the message was clear.
[1:33:06] On May 28th, Favara went to the Gotti home to apologize, but
[1:33:12] Victoria De Giorgio met him with a baseball bat.
[1:33:15] Then, on May 28th, she attacked him in his own driveway, beating
[1:33:20] him with the bat in a rage that under score just how far beyond
[1:33:24] reconciliation this situation had gone.
[1:33:28] Favara sought advice from a childhood friend whose father at
[1:33:32] Torres Zappi was a Gambino crime family captain.
[1:33:36] Zappi's message was blunt and urgent.
[1:33:39] Get rid of the car immediately and leave Howard Beach, never to
[1:33:42] return. Favara took the advice
[1:33:46] seriously, and he put his house up for sale.
[1:33:49] With a buyer rapidly being found at a fire sale rate, the legal
[1:33:53] paperwork was expedited and a closing date was set for the
[1:33:56] last day of July. He and his family were preparing
[1:34:00] to leave the neighborhood for good, but perhaps they didn't
[1:34:03] move fast enough. On July 25th, 1980, John Gotti
[1:34:09] and his wife flew to Florida, ostensibly to grieve in sunnier
[1:34:13] surroundings and get away from the place where their son had
[1:34:16] died. The trip also happened to
[1:34:18] provide Gotti with a convenient alibi for what came next.
[1:34:23] Three days later, on July 28th, John Favarra left his job at the
[1:34:28] Castro Convertibles factory on Long Island.
[1:34:31] He never made it home and according to the authorities,
[1:34:34] multiple witnesses saw what happened.
[1:34:37] Several men confronted Favara near his workplace.
[1:34:41] He was beaten, possibly with a baseball bat, and shoved into a
[1:34:45] dark colored van. Some witnesses reported hearing
[1:34:49] what sounded like a shot, possibly from a silenced weapon.
[1:34:54] The van speed away and perhaps unsurprisingly, that was the
[1:34:58] last time anyone saw John Favara alive.
[1:35:04] His wife Janet reported him missing the following day, on
[1:35:07] July 29th. The Gotti family returned from
[1:35:11] Florida on August 4th and were immediately questioned by
[1:35:14] investigators. Victoria De Giorgio told
[1:35:18] detectives she didn't know what had happened to Favara, but
[1:35:21] wasn't sorry if something did. She added that he'd never sent a
[1:35:25] sympathy card, never apologized, and never even got in his car,
[1:35:29] repaired or cleaned up, simply leaving it as a cruel reminder
[1:35:33] to them. John Gotti, when informed that
[1:35:37] Favara was missing, reportedly shrugged and said that he
[1:35:41] wouldn't be helping at all given the circumstances.
[1:35:46] Favara's disappearance triggered a law enforcement investigation
[1:35:49] that would stretch across decades.
[1:35:52] The FBI took an early interest due to the case's ties to
[1:35:56] ongoing surveillance of the Gambino crime family, but
[1:35:59] without a body, a vehicle, or cooperative witnesses, the case
[1:36:03] stalled. Notably, despite this very
[1:36:07] extensive ongoing surveillance of made men and associates,
[1:36:11] nobody was ever caught on camera doing anything related to
[1:36:15] Favara. The dark colored Ford Econoline
[1:36:18] van described by witnesses was never located and no arrests
[1:36:22] were made. In 1983, John Favara was
[1:36:26] declared legally dead. His wife Janet and their two
[1:36:30] sons left Howard Beach and kept a low profile for the rest of
[1:36:33] their lives. Janet Favara died in 2000
[1:36:38] without ever learning what had happened to her husband.
[1:36:42] For years, the prevailing theory was that Favara had been knocked
[1:36:46] off by Gambino operatives while Gotti was out of town.
[1:36:50] Law enforcement and mob informants believed his body had
[1:36:53] been stuffed into a barrel of concrete and dumped at sea.
[1:36:57] Others speculated that he'd been dismembered and buried on the
[1:37:00] grounds of a chop shop. In November 2004, acting on tips
[1:37:05] from informants, the authorities excavated a parking lot in a
[1:37:09] desolate area of Queens known as the Whole.
[1:37:14] It was a low lying stretch of land on the Brooklyn, Queens
[1:37:17] border that had long served as an informal mob graveyard.
[1:37:21] Investigators were looking for Favara's remains, along with
[1:37:24] those of other suspected Gotti victims.
[1:37:27] They found two bodies of prominent mobsters, but Favara's
[1:37:32] remains were not among them. The most significant break came
[1:37:36] in January 2009 during the racketeering trial of Charles
[1:37:41] Carneglia. Carneglia was a Gambino soldier
[1:37:45] and a member of John Gotti's inner circle of enforcers.
[1:37:49] Federal prosecutors filed a 44 page evidence motion in Brooklyn
[1:37:53] federal court. The court documents contained
[1:37:56] allegations from 2 cooperating witnesses who claimed Carneglia
[1:38:00] had told them he'd eliminated Favara and disposed of the body
[1:38:04] in a barrel of acid. Carneglia had allegedly told one
[1:38:08] of the informants that acid was the most effective method for
[1:38:12] avoiding detection. In a deeply ironic twist, one of
[1:38:16] those cooperating witnesses was identified as Kevin McMahon, the
[1:38:20] same neighborhood kid who'd owned the mini bike Frank Gotti
[1:38:23] was riding the day he died. McMahon had grown up under the
[1:38:28] wing of the Carneglia brothers, becoming a Gambino associate
[1:38:32] before eventually flipping and entering witness protection.
[1:38:36] The jury in Carneglia's trial failed to reach a verdict on the
[1:38:39] Favara charge specifically. He was, however, convicted of
[1:38:43] racketeering and conspiracy involving four other hits and
[1:38:47] sentenced to life in prison. So yeah, perhaps not a great
[1:38:51] guy, to say the least. No one has ever been formally
[1:38:55] convicted in relation to the presumed hit on John Favarra,
[1:38:59] and his body's never been recovered.
[1:39:01] The case remains officially unsolved, though almost everyone
[1:39:05] connected to it, from law enforcement to mob insiders,
[1:39:10] believes John Gotti's hand was involved in the act to some
[1:39:13] extent. Gotti himself went on to become
[1:39:16] the boss of the Gambino family in 1985.
[1:39:19] After ruthlessly climbing his way to the top, he was finally
[1:39:23] convicted in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison, dying of
[1:39:28] cancer in federal prison in 2002.
[1:39:33] Notably, some have theorized that Gotti himself may not have
[1:39:36] actually ordered that Favara be taken out.
[1:39:39] It remains a possibility that someone working under him saw
[1:39:42] the opportunity to take action and win favor with his boss.
[1:39:47] After all, it was very clear that Gotti was personally
[1:39:50] distraught by the matter and clearly wouldn't be shedding any
[1:39:54] tears for Favara. Regardless of what actually
[1:39:58] happened, Favara's disappearance remains one of the most
[1:40:01] disturbing unsolved cases tied to the Mafia.
[1:40:05] It's a stark reminder that in the world of organized crime, an
[1:40:09] innocent accident, if that's what it was, was never going to
[1:40:13] be a defense. On a quiet summer night in 1998,
[1:40:18] a family of 6 drove E on Interstate 40 through the
[1:40:21] Arizona desert. They were traveling from
[1:40:24] Bakersfield, CA to Wisconsin with a U-Haul trailer carrying
[1:40:29] their belongings hitched behind their Toyota 4 Runner.
[1:40:33] It was around 2:00 AM on August 6th and the highway near the
[1:40:37] Arizona, New Mexico border was nearly empty at that hour.
[1:40:41] Chomping Tamavong, the father drove in the left lane while his
[1:40:45] wife, Bothong and their four children dozed inside, unaware
[1:40:49] of the danger approaching from behind.
[1:40:52] Two of their four children, Chansami and Abby Tamavong, lost
[1:40:56] their lives in an instant when tragedy struck on that highway.
[1:41:00] Suddenly, Chomping noticed 218 Wheelers approaching behind him
[1:41:05] in tandem, and he decided it was best to switch lanes, a decision
[1:41:10] which would prove fateful. As Chomping guided the SUV into
[1:41:15] the right lane, one of the overtaking semi trucks suddenly
[1:41:18] slammed into the rear of the family's U-Haul trailer.
[1:41:24] The impact was devastating and the Forerunner flipped over and
[1:41:28] went rolling out of control. In the chaos, 9 year old
[1:41:32] Chansami and six year old Abby were ejected from the tumbling
[1:41:35] SUV and died upon hitting the pavement.
[1:41:39] Their two older siblings, Samlith and Siphon survived the
[1:41:43] wreck but sustained serious injuries in the violent
[1:41:46] rollover. For the parents, the scene was a
[1:41:50] nightmare. Amongst the wreckage, 2 of their
[1:41:53] children were seriously injured, with the other two gone forever,
[1:41:57] and the highway around them was eerily silent after the brief
[1:42:01] eruption of violence. In the immediate aftermath, as
[1:42:07] dust settled around the overturned forerunner, the
[1:42:10] family realized that the trucks were gone.
[1:42:13] Both big rig drivers had fled into the night, leaving the
[1:42:16] tamavongs alone amid the wreckage.
[1:42:20] Arizona State Highway Patrol officers soon arrived at the
[1:42:23] scene and took charge of the investigation.
[1:42:26] They found little evidence to go on.
[1:42:28] The only clues were fragments of a semi trucks front bumper
[1:42:32] strewn across the road. Those broken pieces were key to
[1:42:36] identifying what kind of vehicle had caused the crash.
[1:42:40] Using these bits of wreckage, investigators determined the
[1:42:43] culprit vehicle was a tractor trailer rig, likely a Volvo semi
[1:42:47] or similar model. Bumper pieces and paint traces
[1:42:51] indicated a tan or light bronze cab, possibly accented with red.
[1:42:57] Investigators knew that Volvo had recently acquired GM CS
[1:43:00] heavy truck line. The suspect rig might have been
[1:43:03] sold under either the Volvo or white GMC brand.
[1:43:07] This forensic analysis gave authorities something concrete
[1:43:10] to hunt for. Bulletins went out to body shops
[1:43:13] and trucking companies, alerting them to look for any truck
[1:43:17] matching that description, especially one with recent front
[1:43:20] end repairs. The cops suspected that the
[1:43:25] truck had likely been quickly repaired to cover its
[1:43:27] involvement, perhaps by someone who was paid big money for a
[1:43:31] secretive job. For all intents and purposes,
[1:43:35] the ghost truck and its driver had vanished without a trace
[1:43:38] into the desert darkness. The investigation struggled to
[1:43:42] make headway in the aftermath of the crash.
[1:43:47] Desperate for new leads, authorities turned to the public
[1:43:50] for help. The case was featured on
[1:43:53] Unsolved Mysteries on national television in 1999.
[1:43:57] The show presented the Tamavong family's harrowing story to a
[1:44:01] wide audience and showed an image of a truck similar to the
[1:44:06] suspect vehicle, hoping someone might recognize it.
[1:44:10] And to put things in context, getting on Unsolved Mysteries
[1:44:14] was huge. In 1999, the show reached 10
[1:44:17] million viewers per episode in the United States and Canada
[1:44:21] combined. To put it another way, the
[1:44:23] perpetrator or perpetrators had a good chance of having seen the
[1:44:27] episode themselves, and someone who knew them saw it with
[1:44:31] virtual certainty. Viewers were urged to contact
[1:44:37] the Arizona State Police or the show's tip line with any
[1:44:41] information about the mystery driver responsible for the
[1:44:44] girl's deaths. For a time, investigators pinned
[1:44:48] their hopes on this exposure, praying that a colleague, a
[1:44:52] mechanic, or perhaps a witness from I-40 that night might
[1:44:56] finally come forward. But as weeks and months passed
[1:45:00] after the broadcast with no results, the tamavongs were
[1:45:04] again left waiting for a breakthrough that never came.
[1:45:09] With no suspect identified, speculation abounded about how
[1:45:13] and why the tragedy occurred. 1 theory is that the truck driver
[1:45:17] might have fallen asleep at the wheel, though this doesn't
[1:45:20] adequately explain why there were two trucks involved.
[1:45:24] Fatigue is a known hazard on long haul routes, especially in
[1:45:28] the pre dawn hours, and a dozing or impaired trucker might not
[1:45:32] notice the family's SUV until it was too late.
[1:45:36] Upon realizing the horror of what happened, the driver may
[1:45:40] have panicked and fled, afraid of facing the consequences of
[1:45:44] his action. Again, though, this doesn't
[1:45:47] explain why the second driver wouldn't have stopped.
[1:45:50] Another related theory is that the trucker who struck the SUV
[1:45:55] may have been under the influence of the Crystal Dr. all
[1:45:58] Night Delight. It's one thing to fall asleep at
[1:46:01] the wheel and cause a tragedy like this, but if the trucker
[1:46:05] did it while under the influence, he could be looking
[1:46:07] at extremely serious prison time.
[1:46:10] If he was hopped up on big rig rocket fuel, this may have been
[1:46:14] why he fled the scene. The presence of the second truck
[1:46:19] is another lingering question, and the role of this second
[1:46:22] vehicle still isn't entirely understood.
[1:46:27] It's a possibility that the two truck drivers were driving
[1:46:29] recklessly in a much more intentional manner.
[1:46:32] Perhaps they were racing each other or attempting a dangerous
[1:46:36] passing maneuver as they thundered down the Interstate
[1:46:39] together. The fact that both rigs
[1:46:42] approached in tandem suggests they might have been side by
[1:46:45] side, pacing each other aggressively.
[1:46:49] In such a scenario, one truck could have misjudged the space
[1:46:53] or timing when Chomping changed lanes, leading to the fatal rear
[1:46:58] end collision. If the truckers were in
[1:47:01] communication or knew each other, they might have decided
[1:47:04] together not to stop, each unwilling to incriminate the
[1:47:08] other or themselves in the aftermath.
[1:47:14] No one has ever been charged for the crime of running the
[1:47:16] Tamavong family off the road and the horrific consequences that
[1:47:20] followed. In Arizona, there's no statute
[1:47:24] of limitations for a fatal hit and run, so the driver could
[1:47:27] still face justice if identified.
[1:47:29] Even now, even decades later, investigators quietly hope for a
[1:47:34] break in the case, a confession, a new witness or a piece of
[1:47:39] evidence, But none has materialized thus far.
[1:47:44] To this day, the family still holds on to hope that someone,
[1:47:48] somewhere, will come forward with the truth about what
[1:47:51] happened on that desolate Arizona highway in 1998.
[1:47:57] Until that day, the story of Chansami and Abby's deaths
[1:48:00] remains a haunting reminder of how two young lives can be cut
[1:48:04] short in an instant. Hey everyone, it's Jimmy here
[1:48:11] with a quick reminder to like, subscribe, and share this video.
[1:48:15] Also, don't forget to check out my podcast, merch store, and
[1:48:19] other channels. Just click the links in the
[1:48:21] description below. Kathy Malcomson was a 16 year
[1:48:29] old from Stowe, Massachusetts, known for her bubbly, vivacious
[1:48:33] personality. In August 1985, she was eagerly
[1:48:38] anticipating a family celebration.
[1:48:39] That weekend, her older brother was hosting a high school
[1:48:43] graduation party. Kathy was a part time cashier at
[1:48:47] a local IGA supermarket in nearby Hudson, a job she had
[1:48:51] started that summer. She didn't yet have a driver's
[1:48:54] license, so she usually rode her white 12 speed bicycle for the
[1:48:58] three mile trip to work. Kathy was happy at home and
[1:49:02] excited about upcoming events, giving her family no reason to
[1:49:05] suspect she would ever disappear by choice.
[1:49:11] On Tuesday, August 13th, 1985, Kathy spent the early afternoon
[1:49:16] at home eating lunch in the backyard with her father, John
[1:49:19] Malcomson. It was a sunny day and around
[1:49:22] 1:30 PM she got ready to leave for her shift at the
[1:49:26] supermarket. Wearing a striped shirt, light
[1:49:29] blue slacks, sneakers and a few pieces of jewelry, she grabbed
[1:49:34] her Gray purse, hopped on her bicycle and headed down Route 62
[1:49:38] toward Hudson. The store was only about a 15
[1:49:42] minute ride away, and Kathy promised to be home in time for
[1:49:45] her brother's party preparations.
[1:49:48] As she peddled away from the house on her 12 speed bike,
[1:49:52] little did her family know it was the last time they would
[1:49:54] ever see her. When Kathy never showed up for
[1:50:00] her shift that afternoon, her Co workers grew concerned by three
[1:50:04] PMA supermarket employee phoned the Malcolmson home to ask why
[1:50:09] Kathy hadn't arrived. This was completely out of
[1:50:12] character for a responsible teen who was always punctual.
[1:50:16] Kathy's parents immediately knew something was wrong.
[1:50:20] They began calling around to friends and family, but nobody
[1:50:23] had seen or heard from her. Realizing Kathy had vanished
[1:50:27] during the short bike trip, the family contacted the Stowe
[1:50:30] police to report her missing. In the crucial early hours,
[1:50:37] police assumed Kathy might have run away, a common conclusion
[1:50:40] for a missing teen in 1985. Her parents adamantly disagreed.
[1:50:46] Kathy had left behind all her belongings and she had been
[1:50:49] excited for her brother's upcoming graduation party,
[1:50:53] leaving her family certain she did not vanish by choice.
[1:50:57] Unfortunately, this runaway label initially dulled the
[1:51:00] urgency of the police response. Despite the sluggish non
[1:51:05] response by the local cops, friends and family wasted no
[1:51:09] time mobilizing. They printed and distributed
[1:51:13] Flyers bearing Kathy's photo across Stowe and neighboring
[1:51:16] communities. Volunteers and in time, the
[1:51:20] local authorities scoured the route Kathy would have taken to
[1:51:23] Hudson, hoping for any clue. However, those initial searches
[1:51:28] turned up nothing. No witnesses, no accident scene,
[1:51:32] and no trace of Kathy or her bicycle.
[1:51:37] For a long time, the case stalled and months passed with
[1:51:40] no breakthrough. 18 months later, a tangible clue finally
[1:51:45] surfaced. In early 1987, a man walking
[1:51:49] through a wooded area along Route 62 in Hudson found an
[1:51:54] abandoned bicycle. A friend recognized it from news
[1:51:58] reports and alerted police, who confirmed it was Kathy's missing
[1:52:01] 12 speed bike. It had been hidden and brushed
[1:52:05] just a few yards from the road, about a mile from Kathy's house,
[1:52:09] just over the Stow Town line. The bike's rear wheel was warped
[1:52:14] as if it had been struck or thrown with force.
[1:52:19] This discovery spurred new search efforts in the area where
[1:52:21] the bike was recovered in early 1987.
[1:52:25] Police scoured that area with search dogs on 2 occasions but
[1:52:29] came up empty. These searches yielded no
[1:52:32] additional clues. No clothing, no personal
[1:52:36] belongings, and no remains were found.
[1:52:39] The bicycle ended up being the only piece of physical evidence
[1:52:42] ever recovered in Kathy's case. Its location indicated that
[1:52:47] Kathy never made it to her workplace that day, and it
[1:52:50] reinforced what her family had believed all along.
[1:52:54] She hadn't run away, but rather met with foul play.
[1:52:59] With the case now clearly an involuntary disappearance,
[1:53:03] investigators considered several theories.
[1:53:06] With the runaway theory ruled out, the focus turned to
[1:53:08] abduction. One possibility was that Kathy
[1:53:11] fell prey to a predator operating in the area during the
[1:53:15] mid 1980s. On October 9th, 1985, nine year
[1:53:20] old Sarah Pryor also disappeared from a nearby town under
[1:53:24] strikingly similar circumstances.
[1:53:29] In November 1985, just weeks after Sarah's disappearance,
[1:53:34] police arrested John Robert Wordy for attempting to abduct a
[1:53:37] woman at knifepoint in Newton. Wordy had a violent past.
[1:53:42] He'd been convicted of slaying a 15 year old girl in Texas in
[1:53:46] 1967 and was on parole in Massachusetts in 1985.
[1:53:52] Given his record and proximity, Wordy soon emerged as a prime
[1:53:56] suspect in both Kathy's and Sarah's cases.
[1:54:00] He lived in the area and couldn't provide a solid alibi
[1:54:03] for the days the 2 girls went missing.
[1:54:06] And just as a quick aside, I really have to question how this
[1:54:09] guy was out despite doing what he did to that 15 year old.
[1:54:14] That seems to me to be a situation where the offender
[1:54:16] should at minimum be locked up for life.
[1:54:22] In 1998, the Middlesex District Attorney publicly asserted that
[1:54:26] the Malcolmson and prior cases were likely linked.
[1:54:30] He noted that 2 girls had vanished in broad daylight
[1:54:33] within months of each other in the same region.
[1:54:36] This strong statement underscored the belief that a
[1:54:38] single culprit was responsible for both disappearances.
[1:54:43] Despite the suspicions, hard evidence was lacking.
[1:54:47] Wordy was questioned about Kathy and Sarah's cases multiple times
[1:54:51] over the years, but he always denied any involvement.
[1:54:54] He was never charged in either case due to the absence of
[1:54:57] concrete proof tying him to the crimes.
[1:55:02] After the 1985 Newton incident, Wordy served a prison sentence
[1:55:07] for that attack, which violated his parole for the earlier
[1:55:10] slaying. As a result, he was sent back to
[1:55:13] Texas on the parole violation and remained imprisoned until
[1:55:17] his death in 2022, still maintaining his innocence in
[1:55:21] Kathy's case. Investigators have not publicly
[1:55:25] identified any other major suspects in Kathy's
[1:55:28] disappearance. The prevailing theory remains
[1:55:31] that she was abducted by a stranger, quite possibly Wordy,
[1:55:35] or someone with a similar predatory profile as she rode
[1:55:39] her bike on that August afternoon.
[1:55:43] Aside from Wordy, no other suspect has ever been identified
[1:55:46] in Kathy's case. Some have speculated about
[1:55:49] unknown predators or even an accidental scenario, but nothing
[1:55:54] concrete supports those ideas. For instance, it's been
[1:55:58] theorized that she may have been struck by a drunk driver who
[1:56:02] disposed of her body in an attempt to cover up the crime.
[1:56:08] Today, Kathy Malcomson's fate remains unknown.
[1:56:11] No trace of her has ever been found.
[1:56:14] But the case is far from forgotten, and Kathy's family
[1:56:18] and the investigators continue to seek answers in her case.
[1:56:25] In the summer of 2002, a 19 year old traveller named Russell
[1:56:29] Turcott vanished while hitch hiking across the northern
[1:56:32] Plains. Turcott, a free spirited young
[1:56:36] man from Wolf Point, Montana, was on his way home from an
[1:56:40] event in Michigan when he disappeared in North Dakota.
[1:56:45] Nearly four months later, a grim discovery confirmed his family's
[1:56:49] worst fears. Turcotte's body was found in a
[1:56:53] remote shelter belt near US Hwy. 2, not far from Devil's Lake,
[1:56:58] North Dakota. His death was ruled to be a
[1:57:00] slaying, yet over 2 decades later, the case remains
[1:57:05] unsolved. Russell Turcotte was last seen
[1:57:10] alive on July 12th, 2002 at a truck stop gas station on the
[1:57:15] outskirts of Grand Forks, ND. He had spent the previous night
[1:57:19] with friends in Fargo and was planning to return to Montana
[1:57:23] for a family wedding. Despite this case taking place
[1:57:27] in 2002, Turcot was hitchhiking W along US Hwy. too.
[1:57:33] This was a time when hitchhiking had already gone out of style
[1:57:36] due to the associated dangers. Notably, reports on this case
[1:57:41] indicate that Russell was very trusting and easygoing, which is
[1:57:45] perhaps why he still had faith in the hitchhiking systems that
[1:57:48] previous generations enjoyed. Unfortunately, it's believed
[1:57:53] that this trust in others would be the end of him.
[1:57:59] Late on the night of July 13th, he phoned his mother from
[1:58:02] Simonson's Truck Stop in Grand Forks and told her he needed
[1:58:06] money for a bus ticket home. His mother promised to wire $100
[1:58:10] to him the next morning, which he could pick up and use to
[1:58:14] travel more quickly. However, Turcot never retrieved
[1:58:17] that money, and he never made it home.
[1:58:20] After that last phone call, he simply vanished off the face of
[1:58:24] the earth. Turcotte's family immediately
[1:58:28] grew concerned when he failed to check in or arrive as expected.
[1:58:33] His mother, Linda Hanson, later said that things were very wrong
[1:58:37] when the wired money went unclaimed, and sadly, Linda's
[1:58:41] motherly intuition would prove correct.
[1:58:44] The very next day, she sent one of her older sons to Grand Forks
[1:58:48] to report Russell missing and to search for any sign of him.
[1:58:52] Unfortunately, the initial response from law enforcement
[1:58:55] was not encouraging. Grand Forks police reportedly
[1:58:59] told the brother to come back the next day and instructed the
[1:59:02] family to file a missing person report with their local
[1:59:06] authorities in Montana instead. This procedural delay meant that
[1:59:11] precious early hours and days passed with little action.
[1:59:15] At 19, Turcotte was legally an adult, and it appears his
[1:59:20] transient hitchhiking lifestyle LED police to assume he might
[1:59:24] have simply moved on voluntarily.
[1:59:27] Family members, however, knew that his sudden silence was out
[1:59:31] of character and persisted in urging a search.
[1:59:37] For months, Turcotte's family and friends endured an agonizing
[1:59:40] uncertainty. Their worst fears were confirmed
[1:59:43] on November 5th, 2002, when a rancher in Ramsey County, North
[1:59:48] Dakota made a gruesome find. While checking a remote tree
[1:59:53] lined for stray cattle, the farmer stumbled across human
[1:59:56] remains lying face down among the trees.
[2:00:00] The body was identified as Russell Turcotte.
[2:00:03] Investigators noted the state of the remains indicated they had
[2:00:06] been there for quite some time, possibly since late July or
[2:00:10] early August 2002. This place, the location around
[2:00:16] 100 miles West of the Grand Forks truck stop where Russell
[2:00:20] was last seen. This remote spot, concealed by
[2:00:24] rows of trees amid open farmland, would be hard to find
[2:00:28] unless one knew the area. Authorities later revealed that
[2:00:32] his death was caused by blunt force trauma to the back of the
[2:00:35] head, confirming he had been violently slain.
[2:00:40] Notably, Russell's clothing and the backpack he had with him
[2:00:43] were never recovered at the scene, indicating that whoever
[2:00:46] was responsible may have taken or hidden his belongings.
[2:00:52] Multiple law enforcement agencies became involved, yet
[2:00:55] the investigation was Hanford by early missteps and
[2:00:58] jurisdictional confusion. Because Turcotte went missing in
[2:01:02] Grand Forks but was found in Ramsey County, questions arose
[2:01:06] about which agency should lead the case.
[2:01:10] Initially, North Dakota Highway Patrol officers secured the
[2:01:13] scene, but they wouldn't be taking lead in this
[2:01:16] investigation. The Grand Forks Police
[2:01:19] Department, the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department, and the
[2:01:22] North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation all played roles
[2:01:26] as the case unfolded. Eventually, the case was
[2:01:30] assigned under Grand Forks police jurisdiction as that was
[2:01:34] where he was last seen. Some have speculated this game
[2:01:38] of jurisdictional hot potato significantly Hanford the
[2:01:41] investigation. The cops have been tight lipped
[2:01:46] about the investigation to preserve the integrity of the
[2:01:49] case. While they did indicate that
[2:01:51] additional evidence was found at the scene, it remains unclear
[2:01:56] whether there was any DNA recovered which may be used to
[2:01:59] solve the slaying. With no arrests made and no
[2:02:05] publicly identified suspects, several theories have emerged
[2:02:09] about who might be responsible for Russell Turcott's death.
[2:02:13] One of the most prominent theories involves the late
[2:02:15] Joseph Edward Duncan, a convicted serial offender.
[2:02:20] It later came to light that he was living in Fargo at the time
[2:02:23] of Turcot's disappearance. However, law enforcement never
[2:02:28] declared Duncan an official suspect, noting that no direct
[2:02:32] evidence proved he was involved. Skeptics of this theory point
[2:02:38] out that Duncan's known victims were generally younger, whereas
[2:02:41] Turcot was 19. Even so, Turcot was described as
[2:02:46] trusting and somewhat vulnerable, and it's conceivable
[2:02:51] he might have accepted a ride from a stranger offering help.
[2:02:55] The Duncan theory remains unconfirmed, and Duncan died in
[2:02:58] 2021 while on death row, taking any secrets he held with him.
[2:03:04] That said, there's no evidence to tie him to the crime beyond
[2:03:08] the circumstantial theories. Another theory focuses on the
[2:03:13] possibility of a more local perpetrator, perhaps someone
[2:03:17] familiar with the rural area where Russell's body was dumped.
[2:03:20] The remote area near Devil's Lake isn't a place easily found
[2:03:23] by a passerby, which suggests the perpetrator knew the
[2:03:27] region's back roads. Ultimately, whether this case
[2:03:32] will be solved or not turns upon the nature of the evidence the
[2:03:36] authorities were able to gather from the scene.
[2:03:39] As I mentioned, they've been tight lipped about what they've
[2:03:42] got, but if they have DNA, the Duncan theory can clearly be
[2:03:47] ruled out. However, if they do have
[2:03:50] biological evidence from the perpetrator, it's only a matter
[2:03:53] of time before genetic genealogy cracks this case wide open.
[2:04:03] On September 25th, 1981, a disturbing tragedy struck the
[2:04:08] Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
[2:04:11] The afternoon sun filtered through the trees as 58 year old
[2:04:15] Polly Melton hiked along the Deep Creek Trail with two close
[2:04:19] friends. Polly was moving a bit slower
[2:04:23] than usual that day, prompting some playful teasing from her
[2:04:26] companions. Polly wasn't about to take the
[2:04:30] gentle ribbing lightly and decided to prove to her friends
[2:04:34] that she still had some athleticism left.
[2:04:37] She jogged ahead of them on the easy, familiar trail, rounding a
[2:04:41] bend and disappearing over a small hill.
[2:04:44] It was all in good fun, or so it seemed at the time, but when
[2:04:48] Polly's friends crested that same rise just moments later,
[2:04:52] she was gone over a hill and out of sight.
[2:04:56] Polly Melton had vanished without a trace.
[2:05:02] Polly's friends thought she must have jogged on back to camp and
[2:05:05] didn't initially think much of this.
[2:05:07] After all, they had teased her about how slow she was that day,
[2:05:11] so perhaps she wanted to get back in record time.
[2:05:15] It was around 4:30 PM when they reached the Deep Creek
[2:05:18] Campground where Polly and her husband were staying.
[2:05:22] They expected to find Polly relaxing at their campsite after
[2:05:25] the hike. Instead, they found only Polly's
[2:05:29] husband, Bob Melton, waiting inside their Airstream trailer.
[2:05:34] And he hadn't seen Polly at all. Bob, who was 20 years Polly's
[2:05:38] senior and in frail health, had stayed behind that afternoon.
[2:05:43] He assumed the women were simply enjoying a longer hike.
[2:05:47] When Polly's friends arrived without her, worry set in
[2:05:50] immediately. The group retrace their steps,
[2:05:53] calling out Polly's name and searching up and down the trail.
[2:05:57] Other hikers on Deep Creek Trail were asked if they'd seen a tall
[2:06:00] woman in a pink sleeveless blouse, but no one had.
[2:06:05] After nearly two hours of frantic searching on their own,
[2:06:08] Polly's friends and husband knew something was very wrong.
[2:06:13] They contacted Park Rangers around 6:00 PM and reported
[2:06:16] Polly Melton missing. Rangers and local authorities
[2:06:21] sprang into action that evening. Deep Creek Trail, normally a
[2:06:26] popular easy path near the North Carolina, Tennessee border of
[2:06:30] the park, was closed to the public as search teams poured
[2:06:33] in. Over the next week, more than
[2:06:36] 150 volunteers combed the woods, assisted by Park Rangers, law
[2:06:41] enforcement and search dogs. The searchers scoured miles of
[2:06:46] trails, thick forest and the banks of Deep Creek itself
[2:06:51] looking for any sign of Polly. Helicopters buzzed overhead and
[2:06:56] horse mounted searchers patrolled remote areas for four
[2:06:59] days straight. Teams methodically covered the
[2:07:02] area where Polly was last seen and beyond.
[2:07:06] They found nothing. No scraps of clothing, no
[2:07:10] footprints leading off trail, no broken branches or disturbed
[2:07:14] brush. The only clue was fleeting.
[2:07:18] One of the bloodhounds caught Polly's scent on the trail near
[2:07:21] the spot where she disappeared beside a downed tree, where it
[2:07:25] seems she may have paused to rest.
[2:07:27] But beyond that point, the scent trail evaporated.
[2:07:31] The canine handlers described the dogs circling and whining,
[2:07:35] confused, as if Polly had simply vanished into thin air.
[2:07:42] By October 2nd, 1981, after a week of fruitless effort, the
[2:07:47] official search was scaled back. Though the active search ended,
[2:07:52] the investigation was just beginning.
[2:07:55] Family, friends and authorities were left with a haunting
[2:07:59] question. What happened to Polly Melton?
[2:08:04] In trying to solve the mystery, the authorities had to
[2:08:07] understand who Polly was. Polly Melton was, by all
[2:08:11] accounts, a friendly, outdoorsy woman enjoying the dawn of her
[2:08:15] golden years. Born in 1923, Polly had seen a
[2:08:20] lot of life by her late 50s. She had been widowed twice
[2:08:24] before finding love again with Bob Melton, an elderly man whom
[2:08:28] she married in 1975. The couple split their time
[2:08:33] between Jacksonville, FL and the Great Smoky Mountains, where
[2:08:37] they spent the warmer months living out of their 19 foot
[2:08:40] Airstream trailer. Polly had no children of her
[2:08:43] own, so she poured her energy into friendships, her church
[2:08:46] community and volunteer work. Every fall at Deep Creek
[2:08:51] Campground, Polly volunteered daily at a local Senior Center,
[2:08:56] helping to serve meals to elderly residents.
[2:09:00] But everything wasn't sunshine and roses, and as investigators
[2:09:04] dug into her past more, they turned up some potentially
[2:09:07] groundbreaking clues. Investigators also learned that
[2:09:13] Polly had been under some emotional strain earlier that
[2:09:16] year. She was still grieving her
[2:09:19] mother's death in 1978, an event that had sent her into a period
[2:09:23] of deep depression. Friends, however, said Polly
[2:09:27] seemed to be feeling better lately and that she was back to
[2:09:30] her cheerful self. For the most part, however, the
[2:09:34] medical records ended up telling a somewhat different story.
[2:09:38] Interestingly, she had also been prescribed Valium a couple years
[2:09:42] before, but supposedly stopped taking it by 1981.
[2:09:47] After Polly vanished, Bob discovered that an entire bottle
[2:09:51] of his own prescription Valium was missing from their trailer.
[2:09:55] As the weeks and months passed, several credible theories
[2:09:58] emerged as to what happened to Polly Melton.
[2:10:04] One major theory was that Polly left of her own free will,
[2:10:08] essentially vanishing into a new life.
[2:10:11] Supporters of this idea pieced together a narrative from those
[2:10:15] odd clues. Perhaps Polly had been unhappy
[2:10:18] in her life and quietly planned to run away.
[2:10:22] Being married to Bob, who at 78 was much older and in poor
[2:10:26] health, might have left Polly feeling lonely on the hike.
[2:10:31] When the opportunity arose, Polly could have hurried ahead
[2:10:34] of her friends intentionally. Deep Creek Trail isn't very
[2:10:38] remote. In fact, it eventually leads
[2:10:41] near a road and parking area by the campground.
[2:10:44] Some have questioned whether someone could have been waiting
[2:10:47] there to pick her up. If Polly had a secret companion
[2:10:51] or lover, they might have used the brief window when she was
[2:10:54] out of sight to meet her, whisking her away by car.
[2:10:58] One tantalizing piece of evidence gives some weight to
[2:11:01] the voluntary getaway theory. In April 1982, about six months
[2:11:08] after Polly vanished, a check made out to Thelma Pauline
[2:11:12] Melton, her full legal name, was cashed at a bank in Birmingham,
[2:11:17] AL. The check was reportedly an
[2:11:20] interest payment from 1 of Polly's investments.
[2:11:23] It wasn't a huge sum, but it was enough to raise eyebrows.
[2:11:28] Investigators followed up on this, hoping it meant Polly had
[2:11:31] resurfaced. Birmingham was roughly 300 miles
[2:11:35] from where she disappeared, and coincidentally, Polly had been
[2:11:39] born in Alabama and still had some relatives there.
[2:11:43] Unfortunately, this clue LED nowhere conclusive.
[2:11:47] The bank couldn't definitively prove who cashed the check.
[2:11:50] The signature was Polly's name, but whether it was her
[2:11:54] handwriting or someone forging it was uncertain.
[2:11:57] No additional money was withdrawn from Polly's accounts
[2:12:00] and no sightings of her were confirmed in Alabama or anywhere
[2:12:04] else. Naturally, some have speculated
[2:12:07] that this had actually been 1 of Polly's family members forging
[2:12:10] her signature and cashing the check.
[2:12:13] Another factor I should mention here is the fact that no crime
[2:12:17] had been committed, so it's almost certain a forensic
[2:12:20] accountant wasn't retained to fully go through her finances.
[2:12:24] So it's always possible something was missed, which
[2:12:27] perhaps proved further financial activity by Polly after she
[2:12:31] vanished. Another theory considers foul
[2:12:36] play, though it's a perplexing scenario given the
[2:12:39] circumstances. If Polly was attacked or
[2:12:42] abducted on the trail, it would have had to happen in an
[2:12:45] extremely short window of time and space.
[2:12:49] It would have basically had to happen in the moments after she
[2:12:51] went around the bend and before her friends caught up.
[2:12:55] Park investigators noted there were no footprints or drag marks
[2:12:58] indicating someone left the trail, and no suspicious
[2:13:02] strangers were reported in the area.
[2:13:04] That said, she was believed to have been wearing expensive
[2:13:07] jewelry at the time of her disappearance.
[2:13:10] To give just one example, she was wearing a diamond studded
[2:13:13] gold watch, an item that could have attracted attention for
[2:13:16] someone who committed a crime of opportunity.
[2:13:23] There's also the very real potential that she used Bob's
[2:13:26] bottle of Valium to ensure September 25th was her final day
[2:13:30] on Earth. She had experienced significant
[2:13:33] depression after her mother's death.
[2:13:35] Further, her husband was in increasingly poor health, and
[2:13:40] reports indicate that Bob actually had to be moved to a
[2:13:42] nursing home after Polly went missing.
[2:13:45] It's possible that the weight of it all just finally broke her
[2:13:49] and she went deep into the woods, emptied the bottle, and
[2:13:53] was never found. Whatever the scenario, her case
[2:13:58] remains yet another instance of an individual seemingly
[2:14:01] swallowed up by the Great Smokies.

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