1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,560 This program is about unsolved mysteries. 2 00:00:07,560 --> 00:00:10,160 Whenever possible, the actual family members and police 3 00:00:10,160 --> 00:00:13,160 officials have participated in recreating the events. 4 00:00:13,160 --> 00:00:15,560 What you are about to see is not a news broadcast. 5 00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:24,560 Tonight on Unsolved Mysteries, 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmel 6 00:00:24,560 --> 00:00:27,240 was brutally stabbed in Casper, Wyoming. 7 00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:30,120 Yet, four weeks after police believe she was murdered, 8 00:00:30,120 --> 00:00:32,720 hundreds of people across the Western United States 9 00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:36,600 claimed they saw Lisa or her car. 10 00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:38,640 For over 100 years, fortune hunters 11 00:00:38,640 --> 00:00:41,520 have tried to find Arizona's lost Dutchman mind, 12 00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:43,840 and many men have died trying. 13 00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:49,080 Today, the goal could be worth over $200 million. 14 00:00:49,080 --> 00:00:52,960 Also a story of love and murder in a remote Louisiana by-law. 15 00:00:52,960 --> 00:00:55,480 An illicit romance led to one man's death 16 00:00:55,480 --> 00:00:59,800 and a young woman's mysterious disappearance. 17 00:00:59,800 --> 00:01:02,200 From a murder discovered in the swamps of Louisiana 18 00:01:02,200 --> 00:01:04,480 to a treasure lost in an Arizona mountain range, 19 00:01:04,480 --> 00:01:06,720 our stories have one thing in common. 20 00:01:06,720 --> 00:01:08,680 As yet, there is no solution. 21 00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:10,480 Perhaps you can help. 22 00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:11,480 Join me. 23 00:01:11,480 --> 00:01:14,800 You may be able to help solve a mystery. 24 00:01:55,640 --> 00:02:09,400 On a little used suspension bridge outside Casper, Wyoming, 25 00:02:09,400 --> 00:02:11,840 residents reported seeing unexplained lights 26 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:17,600 in the early morning hours of March the 26th, 1988. 27 00:02:17,600 --> 00:02:20,420 Police theorized that an unknown assailant operating 28 00:02:20,420 --> 00:02:24,240 under cover of darkness brought his victim, a young girl of 18, 29 00:02:24,280 --> 00:02:25,000 to the bridge. 30 00:02:30,320 --> 00:02:32,600 After stabbing her repeatedly, he threw her 31 00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:34,880 into the chill waters of a North Platte River. 32 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:48,320 The victim was later identified as Lisa Marie 33 00:02:48,320 --> 00:02:51,000 Kimmel from Billings, Montana. 34 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:53,920 She had been sexually assaulted prior to being killed 35 00:02:53,920 --> 00:02:57,040 in a manner that suggested some kind of bizarre torture. 36 00:03:00,440 --> 00:03:02,080 The savage nature of Lisa's murder 37 00:03:02,080 --> 00:03:05,480 is not the only perplexing aspect of this case. 38 00:03:05,480 --> 00:03:08,440 Lisa was last seen alive on the night of March the 25th. 39 00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:10,680 Police believe that she was killed a few hours later 40 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:13,400 in the early morning of March the 26th. 41 00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:15,160 But what complicates the investigation 42 00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:18,960 is that nearly 1,000 people claim they saw Lisa Marie Kimmel 43 00:03:18,960 --> 00:03:20,280 or her car. 44 00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:23,160 During a week when police believe she was already dead. 45 00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:31,080 Lisa was 18 years old and worked as a manager 46 00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:34,440 at a fast food restaurant in Denver, Colorado. 47 00:03:34,440 --> 00:03:37,720 On March the 25th, she left town and headed for Cody, Wyoming 48 00:03:37,720 --> 00:03:38,760 to visit her boyfriend. 49 00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:45,640 Lisa's car, a black 1988 Honda CRXSI, 50 00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:48,400 carry the spunky license plate Lil Miss. 51 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:54,360 The plan was that she was supposed to leave Denver 52 00:03:54,360 --> 00:03:58,440 and sometime after work and get to Cody to see me sometime 53 00:03:58,440 --> 00:03:59,520 late that evening. 54 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:03,680 I talked to her about 4.30 and she 55 00:04:03,680 --> 00:04:05,400 was going to be leaving in about a half hour. 56 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:08,920 I thought she'd be in about midnight or something like that. 57 00:04:08,920 --> 00:04:11,760 From Denver, Lisa had planned to travel to Casper, Wyoming 58 00:04:11,760 --> 00:04:14,520 on Interstate 25. 59 00:04:14,520 --> 00:04:16,480 From Casper, she would take a two-lane road 60 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:19,480 to Ed Jerick's house in Cody. 61 00:04:19,520 --> 00:04:21,160 After spending the night there, she 62 00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:26,240 planned to go on to Billings, Montana to visit her parents. 63 00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:28,200 Whether conditions were good, so Lisa 64 00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:31,000 should have made the trip to Cody in eight or nine hours, 65 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:34,400 arriving at Ed's house late Friday night. 66 00:04:34,400 --> 00:04:36,640 However, at 7 o'clock Saturday morning, 67 00:04:36,640 --> 00:04:40,400 she still had not arrived. 68 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:42,800 Ed Jerick frantically telephoned the highway patrols 69 00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:45,000 in three states. 70 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:47,080 Two days later, the Wyoming Highway Patrol 71 00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:49,360 reported that they had stopped Lisa for speeding 72 00:04:49,360 --> 00:04:52,520 about 60 miles south of Casper on March 25, 73 00:04:52,520 --> 00:04:54,360 the night she disappeared. 74 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:57,040 It was nearly 9 PM Friday night. 75 00:04:57,040 --> 00:04:59,160 Four hours after Lisa had left Denver, 76 00:04:59,160 --> 00:05:01,480 she was right on schedule. 77 00:05:01,480 --> 00:05:04,520 I was patrolling southbound on March 25. 78 00:05:04,520 --> 00:05:08,160 I noted a small car northbound at 88 miles an hour, 79 00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:09,440 quoting my radar. 80 00:05:09,440 --> 00:05:12,440 I turned around and pursued the car. 81 00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:14,840 I stopped her near Orange Junction. 82 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:20,800 Good evening, miss. 83 00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:22,480 Man, I see your driver's license. 84 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:25,760 She was well kept, driving a nice car, 85 00:05:25,760 --> 00:05:29,240 kind of a person you'd like to have for a daughter. 86 00:05:29,240 --> 00:05:31,120 Hey, miss, Kimmel, I had you on my radar back there 87 00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:33,120 at 88 miles an hour. 88 00:05:33,120 --> 00:05:34,920 Is there any particular reason for your speed? 89 00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:36,320 I'm trying to hurry to Billings. 90 00:05:36,320 --> 00:05:39,120 I've got a friend who's going in for surgery. 91 00:05:39,120 --> 00:05:42,160 This was the last confirmed sighting of Lisa. 92 00:05:42,160 --> 00:05:45,240 Her signature on the citation and a routine voice recording 93 00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:48,680 the policemen made verify that it was definitely Lisa Marie 94 00:05:48,720 --> 00:05:50,320 Kimmel who was stopped that night. 95 00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:57,480 As the week went on, we realized the gravity of the situation. 96 00:06:01,280 --> 00:06:07,520 We knew that the outlook was looking a little grim. 97 00:06:07,520 --> 00:06:12,480 But even if that, even if the outcome wasn't as we hoped, 98 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:14,080 we still needed to find her. 99 00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:20,800 On April 2, one week after she disappeared, 100 00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:23,480 Greg Bradford, the mechanic who was spending his Saturday 101 00:06:23,480 --> 00:06:28,480 fishing, brought the search for Lisa Marie to a sad end. 102 00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:31,840 When I came up to just about this spot right here, 103 00:06:31,840 --> 00:06:36,240 and I got a real bad feeling something was wrong, 104 00:06:36,240 --> 00:06:40,120 I felt that somebody died or somebody was hurt real bad. 105 00:06:40,120 --> 00:06:42,040 It just kept coming over me. 106 00:06:42,040 --> 00:06:42,800 I couldn't shake it. 107 00:06:45,080 --> 00:06:47,080 So I just stepped up. 108 00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:49,080 When I stepped up off the side of the bank, 109 00:06:49,080 --> 00:06:53,080 I looked over my shoulder and I saw the lady in the water. 110 00:06:55,080 --> 00:06:56,080 I knew it was a lady in the water, 111 00:06:56,080 --> 00:06:58,080 but your mind tells you it's not true. 112 00:06:58,080 --> 00:07:00,080 It's not real. 113 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:03,080 And then I remember when we were driving up from Cheyenne, 114 00:07:03,080 --> 00:07:06,080 they said this young girl was missing from Montana. 115 00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:11,080 So I looked again and I said, oh my god, it must be her. 116 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:15,080 When we went out there, the physical description matched Lisa, 117 00:07:15,080 --> 00:07:18,080 but at that point, because of the condition of the body, 118 00:07:18,080 --> 00:07:21,080 we weren't sure until we'd gotten her out of the water. 119 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:27,080 We're not sure at this point whether the body was placed 120 00:07:27,080 --> 00:07:31,080 in the river sometime on the 25th or the 26th. 121 00:07:31,080 --> 00:07:33,080 The body just didn't show any signs of decomposition 122 00:07:33,080 --> 00:07:35,080 because it was so cold. 123 00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:39,080 There were some stab wounds in the chest area. 124 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:41,080 She was sexually assaulted. 125 00:07:41,080 --> 00:07:46,080 She was found nearly nude, but not quite. 126 00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:50,080 They made stab wounds in such a manner that we feel are unique, 127 00:07:50,080 --> 00:07:53,080 and I can't tell you how they were done to the body, 128 00:07:53,080 --> 00:07:56,080 but it would lead the appearance that somebody took their time 129 00:07:56,080 --> 00:07:58,080 in doing this. 130 00:07:59,080 --> 00:08:02,080 It's hard to understand why somebody would do something like that 131 00:08:02,080 --> 00:08:04,080 to another human being. 132 00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:08,080 Police scouted the area where Lisa's body 133 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:10,080 was discovered. 134 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:13,080 On an old highway bridge, one quarter of a mile away, 135 00:08:13,080 --> 00:08:17,080 they found blood, which was the same type as Lisa Marie Kimmel's. 136 00:08:17,080 --> 00:08:21,080 Because the bridge is so inaccessible and so seldom used, 137 00:08:21,080 --> 00:08:24,080 police believe the murder may be someone local. 138 00:08:25,080 --> 00:08:28,080 Based on the eyewitness accounts of unexplained lights on the bridge 139 00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:31,080 and an analysis of other evidence, 140 00:08:31,080 --> 00:08:34,080 police believe the time of Lisa's murder was the early morning 141 00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:36,080 of Saturday, March the 26th. 142 00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:40,080 Approximately five hours after she was stopped for speeding. 143 00:08:41,080 --> 00:08:43,080 Strangely, in the next seven days, 144 00:08:43,080 --> 00:08:46,080 hundreds of sightings of Lisa and her car, 145 00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:49,080 many of them involving an unknown male companion 146 00:08:49,080 --> 00:08:53,080 were reported throughout the Northwestern United States in Canada. 147 00:08:54,080 --> 00:08:58,080 Up until this date, we've had over a thousand sightings of this vehicle. 148 00:08:58,080 --> 00:09:02,080 A lot of them from law enforcement officers. 149 00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:04,080 There's no pattern to them. 150 00:09:04,080 --> 00:09:07,080 They're not just enforcement part. There's no direction of travel. 151 00:09:07,080 --> 00:09:10,080 They went south, they went to the north, they went to the west. 152 00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:12,080 They just were everywhere. 153 00:09:12,080 --> 00:09:14,080 And we were deluged with them at the point that we thought 154 00:09:14,080 --> 00:09:17,080 they had gone to Canada. We had some sightings in Canada. 155 00:09:18,080 --> 00:09:21,080 Composites were made of at least 17 men, 156 00:09:21,080 --> 00:09:23,080 but none of them seemed to resemble one another 157 00:09:23,080 --> 00:09:26,080 closely enough to justify issuing a watered poster. 158 00:09:28,080 --> 00:09:31,080 Three of these sightings believed to be among the most reliable 159 00:09:31,080 --> 00:09:34,080 were reported on the 26th and 27th of March, 160 00:09:34,080 --> 00:09:38,080 after police believe Lisa Marie had already been murdered. 161 00:09:38,080 --> 00:09:41,080 One of them was in Casper, just 20 minutes drive away 162 00:09:41,080 --> 00:09:43,080 from the place her body was found. 163 00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:46,080 The other two sightings were in Buffalo, Wyoming, 164 00:09:46,080 --> 00:09:48,080 two hours drive outside Casper. 165 00:09:49,080 --> 00:09:51,080 In none of the three sightings, 166 00:09:51,080 --> 00:09:53,080 did Lisa appear to be signaling for help. 167 00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:57,080 The Casper sighting occurred on Sunday, March the 27th, 168 00:09:57,080 --> 00:10:00,080 two days after Lisa had been stopped for speeding. 169 00:10:01,080 --> 00:10:04,080 Diana Houston was driving a van through the downtown area 170 00:10:04,080 --> 00:10:06,080 of Casper, when she noticed the personalized 171 00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:08,080 little miss license plates, 172 00:10:08,080 --> 00:10:11,080 because her roommate owned a puppy with the same name. 173 00:10:13,080 --> 00:10:16,080 It was Sunday afternoon, about quarter to two, 174 00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:19,080 and I saw a Montana license plate on a vehicle. 175 00:10:19,080 --> 00:10:22,080 And being from Montana, I had caught my eye, 176 00:10:22,080 --> 00:10:25,080 so I looked, and the license plate said little miss. 177 00:10:27,080 --> 00:10:30,080 I went by, I saw somebody with blond hair driving, 178 00:10:30,080 --> 00:10:32,080 and had on a yellow sweater. 179 00:10:33,080 --> 00:10:35,080 22 hours earlier, Donna Kurtpatrick, 180 00:10:35,080 --> 00:10:37,080 the county sheriff's wife in Buffalo, 181 00:10:37,080 --> 00:10:40,080 reported that she had seen Lisa wearing a pink sweater. 182 00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:44,080 It was Saturday at noon, and I noticed 183 00:10:44,080 --> 00:10:47,080 a little black sports car had pulled out right in front of me. 184 00:10:49,080 --> 00:10:52,080 And then I noticed a license plate. 185 00:10:52,080 --> 00:10:55,080 It was a Montana license plate with little miss on it, 186 00:10:55,080 --> 00:10:57,080 LIL, M-I-S-S. 187 00:10:57,080 --> 00:11:00,080 And at that point, I decided that I needed to see 188 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:02,080 who was driving the car. 189 00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:05,080 I was most interested to see if the car went with whoever 190 00:11:05,080 --> 00:11:07,080 was driving it. 191 00:11:08,080 --> 00:11:12,080 I am absolutely positive there was a young gal driving it. 192 00:11:12,080 --> 00:11:15,080 I know the license plate, I know Montana license plates, 193 00:11:15,080 --> 00:11:19,080 I saw the plate on that car, at that time, on that day, 194 00:11:19,080 --> 00:11:21,080 and there's not a doubt in my mind. 195 00:11:22,080 --> 00:11:25,080 Curiously, Lisa's parents are not sure that she ever owned 196 00:11:25,080 --> 00:11:27,080 either a yellow or a pink sweater. 197 00:11:28,080 --> 00:11:30,080 And the highway patrolman who stopped her for speeding, 198 00:11:30,080 --> 00:11:32,080 the last person to have verifiable evidence 199 00:11:32,080 --> 00:11:35,080 that he saw Lisa alive, remembers that she was wearing 200 00:11:35,080 --> 00:11:37,080 a black and white sweater. 201 00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:40,080 Could Lisa have changed her clothes? 202 00:11:40,080 --> 00:11:42,080 Or did the eyewitnesses see another young woman 203 00:11:42,080 --> 00:11:44,080 who resembled Lisa? 204 00:11:45,080 --> 00:11:48,080 Two hours after Donna Kurtpatrick saw Lisa, 205 00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:51,080 another eyewitness also saw her in Buffalo. 206 00:11:52,080 --> 00:11:55,080 This time, a mysterious man was with Lisa. 207 00:11:56,080 --> 00:11:59,080 I was busy at the register, but a car pulled up 208 00:11:59,080 --> 00:12:02,080 and I said, little miss, on the Montana license plates 209 00:12:02,080 --> 00:12:05,080 on the front of it, and there were two people in the vehicle. 210 00:12:05,080 --> 00:12:08,080 There was a very attractive young lady at the wheel. 211 00:12:08,080 --> 00:12:11,080 The individual that was with her was a small man. 212 00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:14,080 I would say 135 to 140 pounds. 213 00:12:14,080 --> 00:12:17,080 Dark hair, dark eyes, rather large eyes. 214 00:12:17,080 --> 00:12:19,080 And he had very fine features. 215 00:12:19,080 --> 00:12:21,080 It wasn't blunt nose or anything like that. 216 00:12:21,080 --> 00:12:24,080 They were aquiline, I think, as the word, to the poet's use. 217 00:12:24,080 --> 00:12:27,080 And he was swarly-complected and he was small. 218 00:12:27,080 --> 00:12:29,080 He fit into the car. 219 00:12:29,080 --> 00:12:32,080 He didn't look out of place or anything like that. 220 00:12:32,080 --> 00:12:35,080 And a few minutes later, when I turned to look again, 221 00:12:35,080 --> 00:12:37,080 the car had gone. 222 00:12:37,080 --> 00:12:40,080 If the three sightings of Lisa Marie Kimmel are reliable, 223 00:12:40,080 --> 00:12:42,080 they raise some disturbing questions. 224 00:12:43,080 --> 00:12:45,080 Was Lisa killed as a police think she was 225 00:12:45,080 --> 00:12:48,080 during the early morning hours of March the 26th? 226 00:12:49,080 --> 00:12:51,080 If she was, who was a woman 227 00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:54,080 seen driving Lisa's car in Casper and Buffalo? 228 00:12:54,080 --> 00:12:57,080 If Lisa was not killed on the 26th, 229 00:12:57,080 --> 00:12:59,080 why was she in Buffalo more than two hours 230 00:12:59,080 --> 00:13:01,080 off the course of her planned journey? 231 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:03,080 And if she was in jeopardy, 232 00:13:03,080 --> 00:13:06,080 why did she not signal for help when she was sighted? 233 00:13:18,080 --> 00:13:21,080 Next, the story of the legendary lost Dutchman, Marie. 234 00:13:21,080 --> 00:13:24,080 The clues are scarce, but the stakes are high. 235 00:13:24,080 --> 00:13:26,080 Millions of dollars in gold. 236 00:13:26,080 --> 00:13:29,080 Next, the story of the legendary lost Dutchman, Marie. 237 00:13:29,080 --> 00:13:32,080 The clues are scarce, but the stakes are high. 238 00:13:32,080 --> 00:13:34,080 Millions of dollars in gold. 239 00:13:48,080 --> 00:13:50,080 The superstition mountains in Arizona cover 240 00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:54,080 160,000 acres of desolate, rugged terrain. 241 00:13:54,080 --> 00:13:56,080 According to legend, these mountains contain 242 00:13:56,080 --> 00:13:58,080 the richest deposits of gold in America, 243 00:13:58,080 --> 00:14:00,080 the lost Dutchman's gold mine. 244 00:14:06,080 --> 00:14:09,080 There are hundreds of stories hidden in its location, 245 00:14:09,080 --> 00:14:11,080 and they're all tied to one man, 246 00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:13,080 a German prospector named Jacob Waltz, 247 00:14:13,080 --> 00:14:16,080 who is said to have discovered the mine in 1876. 248 00:14:16,080 --> 00:14:19,080 His nickname was the Dutchman. 249 00:14:20,080 --> 00:14:23,080 Jacob Waltz was a student of mining, 250 00:14:23,080 --> 00:14:25,080 and he knew what he was doing. 251 00:14:25,080 --> 00:14:29,080 The old timers were very, very astute to the fact of geology. 252 00:14:29,080 --> 00:14:32,080 They knew what they were looking for. 253 00:14:32,080 --> 00:14:34,080 If you're going to go out in these mountains anywhere 254 00:14:34,080 --> 00:14:36,080 and look for gold, you really want to go to a place 255 00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:38,080 where gold has been found. 256 00:14:38,080 --> 00:14:40,080 Superstitions would be an exception. 257 00:14:40,080 --> 00:14:42,080 You wouldn't go in there. 258 00:14:45,080 --> 00:14:48,080 Waltz was one of the few who was prepared to prospect 259 00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:52,080 an unpromising location, and apparently he was rewarded. 260 00:14:56,080 --> 00:15:00,080 15 years later, in 1891, when Jacob Waltz was 80 years old, 261 00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:03,080 he decided to hide his mine. 262 00:15:03,080 --> 00:15:05,080 He is said to have dug a hole six feet deep 263 00:15:05,080 --> 00:15:08,080 at the entrance to the mine. 264 00:15:08,080 --> 00:15:11,080 He then laid in two solid layers of ironwood logs, 265 00:15:11,080 --> 00:15:14,080 filled a hole with dirt, and topped it with stones 266 00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:16,080 from the surrounding area. 267 00:15:18,080 --> 00:15:20,080 The Dutchman bragged that you could drive a pack train 268 00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:24,080 over the entrance to the mine and never know it was there. 269 00:15:24,080 --> 00:15:27,080 For over 100 years, fortune hunters have searched 270 00:15:27,080 --> 00:15:30,080 for Jacob Waltz's hidden treasure trove. 271 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:36,080 Several months after Waltz hid the mine, 272 00:15:36,080 --> 00:15:38,080 he contracted pneumonia and was taken to the home 273 00:15:38,080 --> 00:15:42,080 of a friend, Julia Thomas in Phoenix. 274 00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:45,080 She tried to nurse Jacob back to health. 275 00:15:45,080 --> 00:15:47,080 Before Jacob Waltz died, he told them 276 00:15:47,080 --> 00:15:50,080 that there was gold from the mine stashed under his bed. 277 00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:53,080 He said, that's what I've been living on all these years. 278 00:15:53,080 --> 00:15:56,080 He took out the box, they opened it, 279 00:15:56,080 --> 00:15:59,080 and their comment was, my God, that's rich. 280 00:15:59,080 --> 00:16:01,080 It's got to be just a pocket. 281 00:16:01,080 --> 00:16:02,080 And he said, no, it isn't. 282 00:16:02,080 --> 00:16:04,080 He said, it's a vein. 283 00:16:04,080 --> 00:16:08,080 He said, there's enough in sight to make millionaires out of 20 men. 284 00:16:09,080 --> 00:16:11,080 As his end drew near, the Dutchman gave Julia 285 00:16:11,080 --> 00:16:13,080 and Reinhardt Petrasch a local miner, 286 00:16:13,080 --> 00:16:16,080 clues to the location of the mine. 287 00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:19,080 The old northwest corner of the superstition mountains 288 00:16:19,080 --> 00:16:21,080 take the trail in. 289 00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:24,080 I left a number of clues, but several times he said, 290 00:16:24,080 --> 00:16:27,080 I've almost got to show you where it is, 291 00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:29,080 or you'll never find it, 292 00:16:29,080 --> 00:16:32,080 because you've got to know exactly where it is. 293 00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:35,080 Waltz died before he could give them a map 294 00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:37,080 that showed exactly where the mine lay. 295 00:16:38,080 --> 00:16:40,080 Even though there are hundreds of maps in existence today, 296 00:16:40,080 --> 00:16:43,080 none of them came from Jacob Waltz. 297 00:16:47,080 --> 00:16:50,080 The only direction that Julia and the Petrasch brothers had 298 00:16:50,080 --> 00:16:52,080 when they ventured into the mountains 299 00:16:52,080 --> 00:16:55,080 were the verbal clues Waltz had given on his deathbed. 300 00:16:58,080 --> 00:17:01,080 He said, the setting sun shines into the entrance 301 00:17:01,080 --> 00:17:04,080 to my mine and glitters on the gold, 302 00:17:04,080 --> 00:17:06,080 so it must have faced to the west. 303 00:17:06,080 --> 00:17:09,080 He said, you take the first gorge on the south side 304 00:17:09,080 --> 00:17:11,080 from the west end of the range. 305 00:17:11,080 --> 00:17:15,080 He said that you can see Weaver's needle to the south. 306 00:17:15,080 --> 00:17:17,080 From above my mine. 307 00:17:19,080 --> 00:17:23,080 Julia and the Petrasches were so anxious to get in the mountains, 308 00:17:23,080 --> 00:17:27,080 they actually went in mid-summer when the mountains were hotter 309 00:17:27,080 --> 00:17:29,080 than hell in a bucket, 310 00:17:29,080 --> 00:17:33,080 and it must have been a real ordeal for all of them. 311 00:17:35,080 --> 00:17:37,080 They went in there for almost five weeks. 312 00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:39,080 They came out without any gold, 313 00:17:39,080 --> 00:17:43,080 and this was noted in the Arizona Republican in 1892. 314 00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:48,080 In fact, they called it the Queer Quest in search of gold. 315 00:17:49,080 --> 00:17:52,080 Julia had invested everything she owned into this expedition, 316 00:17:52,080 --> 00:17:54,080 but she returned penniless. 317 00:17:54,080 --> 00:17:56,080 Julia Thomas never attempted to return 318 00:17:56,080 --> 00:17:59,080 to the superstition mountains again. 319 00:18:00,080 --> 00:18:03,080 Reinhard Petrasch was accused by his brother Hermann 320 00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:05,080 of not paying attention to Jacob's bedside 321 00:18:05,080 --> 00:18:07,080 and writing the clues down incorrectly. 322 00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:09,080 They never spoke again. 323 00:18:10,080 --> 00:18:12,080 Reinhard continued to search sporadically 324 00:18:12,080 --> 00:18:14,080 over the next 50 years. 325 00:18:14,080 --> 00:18:16,080 When his eyesight began to fail, 326 00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:18,080 Reinhard realized he would never find the mine 327 00:18:18,080 --> 00:18:21,080 and took his own life. 328 00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:30,080 For over a century, 329 00:18:30,080 --> 00:18:32,080 treasure hunters have occasionally claimed 330 00:18:32,080 --> 00:18:34,080 that they have clues to Waltz's lost mine. 331 00:18:34,080 --> 00:18:37,080 A few of them may even have found it, 332 00:18:37,080 --> 00:18:41,080 but curiously, they all died before they could tell their tale. 333 00:18:42,080 --> 00:18:44,080 When we return the story of Waltz Gassler, 334 00:18:44,080 --> 00:18:47,080 who five years ago claimed he'd found the mine, 335 00:18:47,080 --> 00:18:49,080 on his last trip to the mountains, 336 00:18:49,080 --> 00:18:52,080 he lost his life before he could reveal a secret location. 337 00:18:56,080 --> 00:18:58,080 The Lost Dutchman's gold mine 338 00:18:58,080 --> 00:19:01,080 is one of the greatest living legends of the American Southwest. 339 00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:04,080 Some people say that it's just that, a legend. 340 00:19:04,080 --> 00:19:06,080 On the other hand, government studies indicate 341 00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:08,080 that there's a large quantity of gold 342 00:19:08,080 --> 00:19:10,080 located somewhere in the superstitions. 343 00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:12,080 It is said that this matchbox 344 00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:14,080 was made from the high-grade ore 345 00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:17,080 that Jacob Waltz had in his possession when he died. 346 00:19:17,080 --> 00:19:20,080 The ore is so rich that if the mine were found today, 347 00:19:20,080 --> 00:19:23,080 it could be worth over $200 million. 348 00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:27,080 Almost 100 years later, 349 00:19:27,080 --> 00:19:31,080 a modern-day treasure hunter claimed he had found the mine. 350 00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:35,080 His name was Walt Gassler, 351 00:19:35,080 --> 00:19:38,080 head chef at the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix. 352 00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:42,080 Using clues handed down from Jacob's deathbed description, 353 00:19:42,080 --> 00:19:44,080 Gassler had spent most of his free time 354 00:19:44,080 --> 00:19:46,080 looking for the famous ore. 355 00:19:48,080 --> 00:19:50,080 Bob Corbin, Waltz. 356 00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:51,080 Walt Gassler. 357 00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:52,080 Nice to meet you. Have a seat. 358 00:19:52,080 --> 00:19:53,080 Thank you. 359 00:19:53,080 --> 00:19:54,080 When his health began to fail, 360 00:19:54,080 --> 00:19:56,080 he contacted two other prospectors. 361 00:19:56,080 --> 00:19:57,080 Walt, what you got? 362 00:19:57,080 --> 00:19:58,080 One of them was Bob Corbin, 363 00:19:58,080 --> 00:20:00,080 the attorney general of Arizona. 364 00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:03,080 This is a map to the area where I have my camp. 365 00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:05,080 He wanted to get together with me 366 00:20:05,080 --> 00:20:07,080 so that we could perhaps go with him 367 00:20:07,080 --> 00:20:09,080 and continue looking for the mine 368 00:20:09,080 --> 00:20:11,080 and with his directions after he had died. 369 00:20:11,080 --> 00:20:13,080 And he gave me his notes, 370 00:20:13,080 --> 00:20:15,080 as well as a map as to where his camp was 371 00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:17,080 and where he believed the mine to be. 372 00:20:17,080 --> 00:20:20,080 That's a good location. It could be there. 373 00:20:20,080 --> 00:20:22,080 Two months later, 374 00:20:22,080 --> 00:20:24,080 Gassler called Bob's partner Tom Collinborn 375 00:20:24,080 --> 00:20:26,080 a local historian. 376 00:20:26,080 --> 00:20:28,080 Gassler was excited and claimed 377 00:20:28,080 --> 00:20:31,080 that he had finally located the Dutchman's mine. 378 00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:33,080 Walt Gassler called me on Sunday evening. 379 00:20:33,080 --> 00:20:36,080 He said, I'm going to the mine. 380 00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:38,080 I know exactly where it is. 381 00:20:38,080 --> 00:20:40,080 You and Corbin have to go. 382 00:20:40,080 --> 00:20:42,080 I just can't possibly break away in the morning. 383 00:20:42,080 --> 00:20:44,080 I could if you just give me a little bit of notice. 384 00:20:44,080 --> 00:20:46,080 I sure want to go in with you. 385 00:20:46,080 --> 00:20:48,080 He said, no, I can't wait any longer. 386 00:20:48,080 --> 00:20:49,080 I'm going to it. 387 00:20:49,080 --> 00:20:51,080 I'll see you when I get back, 388 00:20:51,080 --> 00:20:53,080 but I'm leaving in the morning. 389 00:20:55,080 --> 00:20:57,080 Walt Gassler was convinced 390 00:20:57,080 --> 00:21:00,080 that the mine existed from the clues that he had. 391 00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:03,080 Some of those clues he would not reveal. 392 00:21:03,080 --> 00:21:06,080 And the next morning, his wife took him out to the trailhead 393 00:21:06,080 --> 00:21:07,080 and dropped him off. 394 00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:09,080 See you in three days. 395 00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:11,080 Walt hiked alone into the superstitions, 396 00:21:11,080 --> 00:21:14,080 never to be seen alive again. 397 00:21:15,080 --> 00:21:19,080 Three days later, he was found dead by ranch hand Don Shade. 398 00:21:19,080 --> 00:21:23,080 An autopsy proved he had died of a heart attack. 399 00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:27,080 I don't have a license to talk like a coroner. 400 00:21:27,080 --> 00:21:31,080 I thought he was dead probably two to three days. 401 00:21:31,080 --> 00:21:34,080 He looked to me like a nice little old man 402 00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:38,080 and found a lovely place to give up the ghost. 403 00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:40,080 Tom Collinborn? 404 00:21:40,080 --> 00:21:41,080 Yes. 405 00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:42,080 I'm Roland Gassler. 406 00:21:42,080 --> 00:21:43,080 How you doing, Roland? 407 00:21:43,080 --> 00:21:44,080 One month after Walt's death, 408 00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:46,080 Tom Collinborn had a surprising visitor. 409 00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:48,080 This man came over to my house 410 00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:52,080 and he said he was Roland Gassler, Walt Gassler's son. 411 00:21:52,080 --> 00:21:54,080 And we were talking a few minutes. 412 00:21:54,080 --> 00:21:56,080 He said, well, you know my dad found the lost Dutchman 413 00:21:56,080 --> 00:21:59,080 in the superstitions and he got out a piece of gold. 414 00:21:59,080 --> 00:22:00,080 Showed it to me. 415 00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:01,080 Boy, that stuff really looks good. 416 00:22:01,080 --> 00:22:03,080 It looked very similar to the gold 417 00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:06,080 that allegedly came out of the lost Dutchman mine. 418 00:22:06,080 --> 00:22:07,080 Where'd this come from? 419 00:22:07,080 --> 00:22:10,080 It came right straight out of my dad's backpack. 420 00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:14,080 Bob Corbin told me that you had a map that belonged to my dad. 421 00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:16,080 I wonder if you'd let me have that. 422 00:22:16,080 --> 00:22:19,080 Well, I don't have the map anymore, Roland, 423 00:22:19,080 --> 00:22:22,080 but I do have your dad's manuscript. 424 00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:23,080 Yes, that is my dad's. 425 00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:26,080 Apparently, Walt really had found the lost mine 426 00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:29,080 and his son, Roland, planned to use the map and notes 427 00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:32,080 to retrace his father's steps. 428 00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:33,080 Well, I knew that you'd be interested 429 00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:36,080 and I want to thank you for being very important on this. 430 00:22:36,080 --> 00:22:37,080 All right. 431 00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:38,080 We'll see you later. 432 00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:39,080 OK, bye. 433 00:22:39,080 --> 00:22:43,080 Two months later, as Tom was finishing a slide lecture, 434 00:22:43,080 --> 00:22:45,080 he was approached by another stranger 435 00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:49,080 who claimed he was Roland Gassler, Walt's son. 436 00:22:49,080 --> 00:22:50,080 Mr. Collinborn? 437 00:22:50,080 --> 00:22:51,080 Yes. 438 00:22:51,080 --> 00:22:52,080 I'm Roland Gassler. 439 00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:54,080 I've been wanting to meet you for a long time now. 440 00:22:54,080 --> 00:22:56,080 Well, I'm sure I met several Roland Gasslers, lady. 441 00:22:56,080 --> 00:22:57,080 Walt Gassler. 442 00:22:57,080 --> 00:22:59,080 And I think my jaw dropped 10 foot to the ground. 443 00:22:59,080 --> 00:23:00,080 It wasn't the same guy. 444 00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:02,080 I said, I ought to ask you for a driver's license. 445 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:04,080 I said, here's the second Roland Gassler 446 00:23:04,080 --> 00:23:07,080 I've run into in the last couple of months. 447 00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:09,080 Sure looks like you're Roland Gassler. 448 00:23:09,080 --> 00:23:10,080 Yes, sir. 449 00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:12,080 After meeting two Roland Gasslers, 450 00:23:12,080 --> 00:23:16,080 I wondered who was really Roland Gassler. 451 00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:20,080 Who was the first man who claimed to be Roland Gassler? 452 00:23:20,080 --> 00:23:23,080 It appeared that he was an imposter who needed Walt's map 453 00:23:23,080 --> 00:23:26,080 so he could search for himself. 454 00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:29,080 But how would he gotten hold of the gold ore sample? 455 00:23:29,080 --> 00:23:31,080 When Walt died, the Sheriff's report 456 00:23:31,080 --> 00:23:34,080 listed a backpack among Walt's belongings, 457 00:23:34,080 --> 00:23:37,080 but the real Roland Gassler never received it. 458 00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:40,080 Don Shade, the man who found Walt's body, 459 00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:42,080 also remembered seeing the backpack. 460 00:23:42,080 --> 00:23:45,080 And he said that there was a stranger in the area. 461 00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:49,080 There was another man in the area at the time. 462 00:23:49,080 --> 00:23:51,080 When Tom Collin born later, 463 00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:54,080 gave us a description of the man that came to him 464 00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:56,080 and showed him some gold, 465 00:23:56,080 --> 00:24:02,080 it jibed up with the man that we saw in here. 466 00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:04,080 Some believe that the fake Roland Gassler 467 00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:06,080 may have been in the mountains when Walt died 468 00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:10,080 and stolen the backpack with his precious ore. 469 00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:12,080 I'd like to believe Walt found it. 470 00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:14,080 He spent so many years looking for it. 471 00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:16,080 And the last thing he would have done in his life 472 00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:18,080 before he died would have found the mine. 473 00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:20,080 I'd like to believe that. 474 00:24:20,080 --> 00:24:22,080 When Jacob Walt's died, 475 00:24:22,080 --> 00:24:25,080 he left a trunk of ore, a list of clues, 476 00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:27,080 and a legend of lost treasure 477 00:24:27,080 --> 00:24:30,080 which has captured the dreams of three generations. 478 00:24:30,080 --> 00:24:32,080 I have good reason to believe 479 00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:34,080 that the Dutchman's legend could be true. 480 00:24:34,080 --> 00:24:37,080 I've seen the ore that was under his bed when he died. 481 00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:39,080 I've seen the assay report on it 482 00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:41,080 at the jewelry store in Phoenix, 483 00:24:41,080 --> 00:24:43,080 which did exist at that time. 484 00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:45,080 And at today's gold prices, 485 00:24:45,080 --> 00:24:47,080 it's $2.2 million a ton. 486 00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:50,080 It's the richest gold ore I've ever seen in my life, 487 00:24:50,080 --> 00:24:52,080 and I've seen a lot of gold ore. 488 00:24:52,080 --> 00:24:55,080 This could have been Gassler's trick in the trail 489 00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:57,080 because he went up here on Peter's mention. 490 00:24:57,080 --> 00:24:58,080 The Department of the Interior 491 00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:00,080 reclassified the Superstition Mountains 492 00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:03,080 as a federally owned wilderness area. 493 00:25:03,080 --> 00:25:05,080 And if the mine were found, 494 00:25:05,080 --> 00:25:09,080 all the gold would have to be surrendered to the government. 495 00:25:09,080 --> 00:25:13,080 But this does not deter Tom Collinborn and Bob Corbyn. 496 00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:15,080 The search for the lost Dutchman mine 497 00:25:15,080 --> 00:25:18,080 is a fascinating mystery and a tradition that keeps alive 498 00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:22,080 one of the most enduring legends of the American Southwest. 499 00:25:25,080 --> 00:25:27,080 In a moment, the story of two lovers 500 00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:30,080 who met secretly deep in the swamps of Louisiana, 501 00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:33,080 30 years ago, their illicit romance ended in murder. 502 00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:47,080 The Louisiana Bayou Country, 503 00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:50,080 surrounded by human swamp land lies Lake Pontchartrain, 504 00:25:50,080 --> 00:25:52,080 just west of New Orleans. 505 00:25:52,080 --> 00:25:56,080 November 24th, 1956. 506 00:25:56,080 --> 00:25:59,080 At 9 a.m. on this chill Saturday morning, 507 00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:01,080 a local hunter and his young son 508 00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:03,080 unintentionally surprised a pair of lovebirds 509 00:26:03,080 --> 00:26:06,080 in an isolated area known as Frenier Beach. 510 00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:08,080 The land was surrounded by a large lake 511 00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:10,080 and a small lake. 512 00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:12,080 They're about as big as a lake. 513 00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:14,080 And now they're trying to find a place 514 00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:17,080 where they can find a place where they can find lovebirds 515 00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:20,080 in an isolated area known as Frenier Beach. 516 00:26:20,080 --> 00:26:22,080 What are they doing, Daddy? 517 00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:25,080 Whatever you want. Let's go. 518 00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:34,080 The next morning, the two passed by the same spot 519 00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:36,080 and made a grisly discovery. 520 00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:38,080 The man they had surprised the day before 521 00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:40,080 was identified as Thomas Houtard, 522 00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:44,080 a 46-year-old engineer from nearby Laplace. 523 00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:46,080 Authorities later determined that the woman 524 00:26:46,080 --> 00:26:48,080 who had been with him the day before 525 00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:53,080 was 31-year-old Audrey Mote, a divorced mother of three. 526 00:26:53,080 --> 00:26:57,080 She has not been seen for 32 years. 527 00:26:57,080 --> 00:26:59,080 This was probably the largest case 528 00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:01,080 that ever hit the area. 529 00:27:01,080 --> 00:27:02,080 It was all over New Orleans. 530 00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:04,080 It was all over Baton Rouge. 531 00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:06,080 Everybody was talking about it. 532 00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:07,080 And they all wanted to know, where's the woman? 533 00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:10,080 Where did she disappear? Why did she disappear? 534 00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:12,080 Did they kill her? Did they bury her body? 535 00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:13,080 Did they throw her in a leak? 536 00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:15,080 Three months before this happened, 537 00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:17,080 my mother told my grandmother, 538 00:27:17,080 --> 00:27:19,080 if anything happens to me, 539 00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:22,080 take the kids and get as far away from here as possible. 540 00:27:22,080 --> 00:27:27,080 Why would a 31-year-old woman in 1956 541 00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:32,080 in an environmentally crime-free area say this? 542 00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:36,080 Three decades ago, the case of Thomas Houtard and Audrey Mote 543 00:27:36,080 --> 00:27:38,080 was one of the most publicized and sensational stories 544 00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:40,080 in modern Louisiana history. 545 00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:42,080 The case still provokes discussions 546 00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:44,080 among the old timers in the area. 547 00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:47,080 Most of those involved in the initial investigation 548 00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:49,080 have since passed away, 549 00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:51,080 but the mystery of the incident at Frenier Beach 550 00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:55,080 has remained a baffle the next generation. 551 00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:58,080 The newspaper Abituary's 1956 552 00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:02,080 described Thomas Houtard as a quiet, hard-working family man, 553 00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:05,080 active in the church and with a boy scouts. 554 00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:07,080 He worked for a local chemical company. 555 00:28:07,080 --> 00:28:11,080 It was here in 1952 that he met Audrey Mote. 556 00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:20,080 Audrey was a recently divorced mother, 557 00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:22,080 15 years younger than Houtard. 558 00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:24,080 In addition to their work, 559 00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:26,080 the two shared an interest in scouting 560 00:28:26,080 --> 00:28:28,080 and were often seen together in town 561 00:28:28,080 --> 00:28:32,080 organizing their troops' activities. 562 00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:35,080 My mother was a woman that was way ahead of her time. 563 00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:38,080 She was a single parent in 1956, 564 00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:42,080 and she was a kind of woman that was very loving, 565 00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:44,080 very giving. 566 00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:47,080 Perhaps she was the best friend I ever had. 567 00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:52,080 Even though Thomas was married, 568 00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:54,080 he and Audrey fell in love, 569 00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:57,080 but their romance was a deeply held secret. 570 00:28:57,080 --> 00:29:00,080 Audrey told her family that she had to work every Saturday, 571 00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:02,080 but it was a lie. 572 00:29:02,080 --> 00:29:05,080 For two years, Thomas Houtard kept the same schedule, 573 00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:08,080 telling his wife that he too was working on Saturdays. 574 00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:10,080 Unbeknownst to both their families, 575 00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:14,080 Houtard and Audrey spent these stolen days together. 576 00:29:14,080 --> 00:29:16,080 How you guys doing? 577 00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:17,080 Good now. 578 00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:18,080 Work your way in. 579 00:29:18,080 --> 00:29:21,080 I remember we used to go on picnics together. 580 00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:23,080 He taught me how to develop film. 581 00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:25,080 It was there on my birthdays. 582 00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:27,080 I thought they were friends. 583 00:29:27,080 --> 00:29:29,080 I didn't realize they were lovers. 584 00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:32,080 I found out later whenever the newspaper accounts, 585 00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:34,080 but I just thought they were friends. 586 00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:37,080 On Saturday, November 25th, 587 00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:40,080 Thomas and Audrey met in the plaza around 7.30 a.m. 588 00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:43,080 Then drove together to their secluded lovers lane 589 00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:45,080 at the edge of Lake Pontchartrain. 590 00:29:53,080 --> 00:29:56,080 Ironically, that Saturday was Audrey's birthday. 591 00:29:57,080 --> 00:30:00,080 It was a special day that was to end in tragedy. 592 00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:03,080 Police later estimated that by morning's end, 593 00:30:03,080 --> 00:30:05,080 Thomas Houtard had been shot to death, 594 00:30:05,080 --> 00:30:08,080 and Audrey Mote had vanished, apparently forever. 595 00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:30,080 When the hunter made his grim discovery the next morning, 596 00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:32,080 he went straight to Percy Abare, 597 00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:35,080 the sheriff of St. John the Baptist Parish. 598 00:30:35,080 --> 00:30:38,080 Abare was the first to arrive at the scene. 599 00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:42,080 Houtard had been killed by a single shot 600 00:30:42,080 --> 00:30:45,080 from a 16-gauge shotgun fired at point blank range 601 00:30:45,080 --> 00:30:47,080 through a side window. 602 00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:51,080 At first, Sheriff Abare thought that the missing woman 603 00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:54,080 had probably killed Houtard in a lover's spat. 604 00:30:55,080 --> 00:30:58,080 However, once he began to investigate the crime scene, 605 00:30:58,080 --> 00:31:00,080 he made some unusual discoveries. 606 00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:05,080 Scattered on the ground with a partial contents 607 00:31:05,080 --> 00:31:07,080 of a woman's purse. 608 00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:10,080 Inside the car, he found the car key still in the ignition, 609 00:31:10,080 --> 00:31:13,080 and women's clothes crumpled on the floorboard. 610 00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:17,080 From the articles of clothing that were found in the car, 611 00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:20,080 the only thing she could have been wearing was a bra and a slip. 612 00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:23,080 Her sweater, her underwear, her stockings, 613 00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:26,080 her shoes, skirt, all of that was in the car. 614 00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:29,080 The car had the bed made down in it. 615 00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:31,080 In other words, it was one of those old gnashes 616 00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:33,080 that had a bed that could be folded down. 617 00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:36,080 The evidence indicates that they were probably 618 00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:40,080 in the act of making love when the murder occurred. 619 00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:43,080 It appeared that the woman had tried to flee, 620 00:31:43,080 --> 00:31:46,080 spilling the contents of her purse in the process. 621 00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:49,080 50 yards from Houtard's car, 622 00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:52,080 Abare found a pair of footprints made by small bear feet. 623 00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:54,080 Probably Audrey's. 624 00:31:54,080 --> 00:31:57,080 Just behind them was a print of a man's heavy boot. 625 00:31:58,080 --> 00:32:00,080 Five feet away was an area where it appeared 626 00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:02,080 a scuffle had taken place, 627 00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:04,080 and a set of car keys was discovered. 628 00:32:05,080 --> 00:32:07,080 There was no other physical evidence 629 00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:10,080 and no indication that the murder had an accomplice. 630 00:32:10,080 --> 00:32:14,080 Significantly, the woman's purse itself was never found. 631 00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:16,080 It was not until ten hours later 632 00:32:16,080 --> 00:32:19,080 that the authorities decided the missing woman 633 00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:21,080 definitely was Audrey Mote. 634 00:32:23,080 --> 00:32:25,080 Only after a few hours 635 00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:28,080 did she hear Audrey Mote's voice. 636 00:32:30,080 --> 00:32:33,080 At 7.30 that same Saturday night 637 00:32:33,080 --> 00:32:35,080 Sheriff Abare 638 00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:37,080 found Audrey's car parked next to the cafe 639 00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:39,080 where she had met Houtard. 640 00:32:42,080 --> 00:32:44,080 The keys found at the crime scene 641 00:32:44,080 --> 00:32:46,080 fit the ignition. 642 00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:48,080 In a box on the back seat, 643 00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:50,080 he found the verses of a song from a music 644 00:32:50,080 --> 00:32:52,800 on the King and I, handwritten by Audrey 645 00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:54,720 on a small file card. 646 00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:57,960 It read like an obituary for her secret lost love affair. 647 00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:02,880 We kiss in the shadows. 648 00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:05,120 We hide from the moon. 649 00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:08,960 Our meetings are few, and over too soon. 650 00:33:08,960 --> 00:33:12,560 We speak in a whisper, afraid to be heard. 651 00:33:12,560 --> 00:33:16,200 When people are near, we speak, not a word. 652 00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:22,360 This was quite a scandal. 653 00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:24,520 It was quite a shock for this sleepy little town 654 00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:27,920 of Laplace back in 1956. 655 00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:30,080 Everybody was buzzing, was talking about it. 656 00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:32,800 They all had their own theory of what happened. 657 00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:36,280 They all had idea of who could have committed the murder. 658 00:33:36,280 --> 00:33:39,700 They all had an idea of where Audrey Mote was. 659 00:33:39,700 --> 00:33:42,160 And they all wanted to help the sheriff 660 00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:45,000 because they saw a woman answering that description, 661 00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:46,160 going door to door. 662 00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:48,680 And all kinds of confusion, believe me. 663 00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:51,640 Confusion ranged supreme about that time. 664 00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:57,960 On December 6, two weeks after the disappearance, 665 00:33:57,960 --> 00:34:00,600 Audrey's former mother-in-law received a strange phone 666 00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:01,880 call. 667 00:34:01,880 --> 00:34:04,000 Perhaps Audrey was still alive. 668 00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:05,000 Hello? 669 00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:06,440 Mom? 670 00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:07,340 Audrey? 671 00:34:07,340 --> 00:34:08,920 Mom, I'm in trouble. 672 00:34:08,920 --> 00:34:10,320 Audrey, is that you? 673 00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:11,800 I need help. 674 00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:13,400 Audrey? 675 00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:14,760 Audrey? 676 00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:17,400 Audrey? 677 00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:19,280 Then a waitress in New Orleans reported 678 00:34:19,280 --> 00:34:21,120 that she had seen Audrey in her restaurant 679 00:34:21,120 --> 00:34:24,680 around the same time that Mrs. Mote received the phone call. 680 00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:26,760 Yeah, or the reason, yes, then? 681 00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:27,680 No. 682 00:34:27,680 --> 00:34:28,960 The waitress said she recognized Audrey 683 00:34:28,960 --> 00:34:31,680 from seeing her picture in the paper. 684 00:34:31,680 --> 00:34:35,840 Audrey appeared to be very tired and her clothes were shabby. 685 00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:38,040 Audrey then left the restaurant when she realized 686 00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:40,160 the waitress was watching her. 687 00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:43,000 This was the last reported sighting of Audrey Mote. 688 00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:50,200 I couldn't let myself believe she was gone. 689 00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:53,760 I kept thinking she'd walk through the door. 690 00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:57,480 I couldn't relate to Mr. Holt's being dead at all. 691 00:34:57,480 --> 00:34:59,360 That didn't register. 692 00:34:59,360 --> 00:35:01,680 But my mother not coming back. 693 00:35:01,680 --> 00:35:04,400 I thought everybody was lying to me. 694 00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:05,480 I just couldn't accept it. 695 00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:10,520 As the years went by, the sensational story 696 00:35:10,520 --> 00:35:12,040 slipped slowly from the headlines 697 00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:15,760 and eventually disappeared from the newspapers. 698 00:35:15,760 --> 00:35:18,360 The murder of Thomas Holtard and the disappearance of Audrey 699 00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:22,680 Mote soon became an obscure footnote in Louisiana folklore 700 00:35:22,680 --> 00:35:28,320 until the case was suddenly revived more than 20 years later. 701 00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:31,040 In 1980, a sick and ailing old man 702 00:35:31,040 --> 00:35:36,080 told his family that he knew what happened to Audrey Mote. 703 00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:37,760 Do you remember that Holtard fellow 704 00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:39,960 who got killed in the swamp? 705 00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:41,920 And a big search for everybody looking around never 706 00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:44,160 did find out who killed him. 707 00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:45,880 And a moat woman, what they never found. 708 00:35:48,960 --> 00:35:50,200 But there ain't nothing in that swamp 709 00:35:50,200 --> 00:35:53,040 goes on, but I don't know. 710 00:35:53,040 --> 00:35:55,160 Several months before he died, Ernest 711 00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:58,120 accosted him at a startling confession. 712 00:35:58,120 --> 00:36:00,920 He claimed that his common law wife at the time, Caroline 713 00:36:00,920 --> 00:36:05,720 Slesher, had murdered both Thomas Holtard and Audrey Mote 714 00:36:05,720 --> 00:36:09,240 and that he had helped her dispose of the bodies. 715 00:36:09,240 --> 00:36:11,840 Caroline died in 1979. 716 00:36:11,840 --> 00:36:13,360 And it was Caroline. 717 00:36:13,360 --> 00:36:14,880 What shot both those two? 718 00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:23,120 Acosta and Slesher lived on the edge of the swamp, 719 00:36:23,120 --> 00:36:26,520 less than a mile from the Frenier Beach murder site. 720 00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:28,760 Both had surly reputations. 721 00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:31,000 And Acosta was known to sit in his front yard 722 00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:33,560 and take pot shots, and he passers by the strayed 723 00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:34,760 too close to the house. 724 00:36:34,960 --> 00:36:38,000 My father was a very mean person. 725 00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:41,000 He had no respect for nobody. 726 00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:45,360 And if he would come up to him and ask him anything, 727 00:36:45,360 --> 00:36:47,040 he wouldn't answer you. 728 00:36:47,040 --> 00:36:51,760 He would grab the gun, show it to you, and then tell you 729 00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:54,000 what the hell you want. 730 00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:59,000 And then if he didn't like what you wanted or what you said, 731 00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:01,760 he would tell you, hit the road jack. 732 00:37:05,560 --> 00:37:07,960 Caroline was in the same manner. 733 00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:12,760 She slept with a gun underneath her pillow at all times. 734 00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:17,920 And she was another person that the gun would come first. 735 00:37:17,920 --> 00:37:19,880 She would ask questions later. 736 00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:22,040 Because next week, I don't want them kids here. 737 00:37:22,040 --> 00:37:22,960 I don't want them around. 738 00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:24,400 I don't want them underfoot. 739 00:37:24,400 --> 00:37:25,880 You don't want them kids here next week? 740 00:37:25,880 --> 00:37:26,920 No, I don't want them. 741 00:37:26,920 --> 00:37:29,480 They were the perfect pair. 742 00:37:29,480 --> 00:37:32,560 They were two of a kind. 743 00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:33,720 And they loved guns. 744 00:37:44,720 --> 00:37:47,640 Marvel Corona claims to know of at least two occasions 745 00:37:47,640 --> 00:37:51,280 when Houtaughton Audrey came to the house. 746 00:37:51,280 --> 00:37:54,360 Both times, they apparently argued with Caroline. 747 00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:55,600 But no one knows why. 748 00:37:56,200 --> 00:37:59,200 My father said that they knew something 749 00:37:59,200 --> 00:38:02,200 about Mrs. Caroline Slusha. 750 00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:03,600 What you want here, Houtaughton? 751 00:38:03,600 --> 00:38:04,600 We don't want any trouble. 752 00:38:04,600 --> 00:38:06,200 What they knew, I do not know. 753 00:38:06,200 --> 00:38:07,800 We ain't got nothing to talk about, Boa. 754 00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:08,800 I'm Miss Caroline. 755 00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:14,000 But according to him, Mrs. Mott's was related to Mrs. Slusha. 756 00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:15,600 Some kind of way. 757 00:38:15,600 --> 00:38:16,400 All right, make sure. 758 00:38:16,400 --> 00:38:18,200 This is the last time, Boa. 759 00:38:18,200 --> 00:38:20,000 Come on. 760 00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:22,000 And you better watch your manners. 761 00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:23,000 And don't talk that trash. 762 00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:24,200 Talk in my house. 763 00:38:24,200 --> 00:38:26,000 The night before the body was found, 764 00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:29,800 Marvel says her father was away visiting his children. 765 00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:32,800 Apparently, Caroline phoned him and he rushed home. 766 00:38:43,800 --> 00:38:46,400 Acosta told his daughter that both Houtaughton and Mott 767 00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:49,000 had actually been killed by Caroline in the house. 768 00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:55,200 He claimed that he and the neighbor carried Houtaughton's 769 00:38:55,200 --> 00:39:00,200 body back to Frenier Beach and placed it in the car. 770 00:39:00,200 --> 00:39:03,900 They then tied Audrey's body to an old Civil War canon 771 00:39:03,900 --> 00:39:05,000 and dumped it in the swamp. 772 00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:10,900 I told him, I said, Daddy, how could you all 773 00:39:10,900 --> 00:39:15,000 have killed Mrs. Mott and Mr. Houtaughton? 774 00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:19,500 Because Mr. Houtaughton was killed in the car. 775 00:39:19,500 --> 00:39:21,500 He said, believe what you want to believe. 776 00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:24,500 I'm telling you what happened. 777 00:39:27,300 --> 00:39:29,840 I brought Miss Corona to the Sheriff's office 778 00:39:29,840 --> 00:39:33,540 and she was given a lie detector test on everything 779 00:39:33,540 --> 00:39:36,340 that she said and she passed it. 780 00:39:36,340 --> 00:39:40,140 It said that she was telling the truth. 781 00:39:40,140 --> 00:39:42,540 Wayne Norwood joined the Sheriff's Department of St. 782 00:39:42,540 --> 00:39:45,940 John the Baptist parish in 1983. 783 00:39:45,940 --> 00:39:47,960 He heard about the Houtaughton case 784 00:39:47,960 --> 00:39:50,340 and became intrigued by it. 785 00:39:50,340 --> 00:39:52,540 For the past five years, he's conducted 786 00:39:52,580 --> 00:39:57,000 an unofficial investigation on his own time. 787 00:39:57,000 --> 00:39:58,640 Right on the other side of the track, 788 00:39:58,640 --> 00:40:00,720 right at the edge of the swamp is where the old Acosta 789 00:40:00,720 --> 00:40:02,000 house used to be. 790 00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:04,780 And according to Miss Marvell, about where 791 00:40:04,780 --> 00:40:08,440 you see the big cypher stump is about where the canon used 792 00:40:08,440 --> 00:40:09,380 to sit. 793 00:40:09,380 --> 00:40:12,240 And we hope to go back in there a little later on 794 00:40:12,240 --> 00:40:14,580 when the water goes down and do some more diving. 795 00:40:14,580 --> 00:40:17,240 Hopefully we'll find something then. 796 00:40:17,240 --> 00:40:20,320 Wayne Norwood, as convinced Audrey's body was indeed thrown 797 00:40:20,380 --> 00:40:22,940 into the swamp tied to a canon. 798 00:40:22,940 --> 00:40:26,420 And he has combed the area with a metal detector. 799 00:40:26,420 --> 00:40:28,900 But he believes Acosta may have warped the truth 800 00:40:28,900 --> 00:40:31,460 when he told his daughter the other crucial details 801 00:40:31,460 --> 00:40:31,980 of that night. 802 00:40:34,620 --> 00:40:38,820 Mr. Acosta said that his wife had actually done the killing 803 00:40:38,820 --> 00:40:41,580 and that he had helped hide the body. 804 00:40:41,580 --> 00:40:44,540 But this is one of the things that I disagree with. 805 00:40:44,540 --> 00:40:49,580 I think that this was his way of telling what had happened 806 00:40:49,640 --> 00:40:53,880 but not letting the kids know that he actually did the murder, 807 00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:56,000 just relieving his conscience. 808 00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:57,640 I think this was his way of doing it. 809 00:41:02,720 --> 00:41:06,840 I would imagine since he watched the area back there 810 00:41:06,840 --> 00:41:10,080 real close and he run hunters off all the time, 811 00:41:10,080 --> 00:41:11,680 that he had to know what was going on 812 00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:15,400 because people had seen this automobile and a man and woman 813 00:41:15,400 --> 00:41:19,300 parked back there every Saturday just like clockwork. 814 00:41:28,660 --> 00:41:31,540 My theory is that he had been watching them 815 00:41:31,540 --> 00:41:34,220 in this particular time that he was watching them 816 00:41:34,220 --> 00:41:36,900 and probably got excited. 817 00:41:36,900 --> 00:41:38,740 I think it was a sex crime. 818 00:41:45,700 --> 00:41:46,600 Here you go. 819 00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:04,840 Had to be sheer panic. 820 00:42:04,840 --> 00:42:08,580 It had to be intense fear. 821 00:42:08,580 --> 00:42:12,580 I mean, to watch your lover get his head blown off 822 00:42:12,580 --> 00:42:15,500 And then fear for your own life, I'm sure. 823 00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:26,160 He only lived about a mile from the murder scene. 824 00:42:26,160 --> 00:42:30,580 There were no tire marks according to the investigation. 825 00:42:30,580 --> 00:42:36,320 And he only had to take her about a mile to the house. 826 00:42:36,320 --> 00:42:38,280 So this would be why there was no tracks 827 00:42:38,280 --> 00:42:39,640 and a quick disappearance. 828 00:42:42,580 --> 00:42:55,980 The scene of the crime has changed considerably since that tragic Saturday morning in 1956. 829 00:42:55,980 --> 00:43:02,140 The actual spot where Thomas Houtar died is now 100 yards offshore, reclaimed by the waters 830 00:43:02,140 --> 00:43:03,660 of Lake Pontchartrain. 831 00:43:04,140 --> 00:43:07,940 In Audrey Mote, her fate remains a mystery hidden 832 00:43:07,940 --> 00:43:10,220 in the murky swamps surrounding the lake. 833 00:43:13,420 --> 00:43:23,860 I think it's always going to be in the back of my mind, in my heart, to want to know what happened. 834 00:43:23,860 --> 00:43:35,140 I hope that whatever happened, that it was quick, that she didn't suffer, that she wasn't put through a lot. 835 00:43:35,140 --> 00:43:37,140 But I need to know. 836 00:43:54,620 --> 00:44:01,020 For every mystery, there is someone somewhere who knows the truth. 837 00:44:01,020 --> 00:44:02,820 Perhaps that someone was watching. 838 00:44:02,820 --> 00:44:04,300 Perhaps it's you.