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This program is about unsolved mysteries. Whenever possible, the actual family members

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and police officials have participated in recreating the events. What you are about

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to see is not a news broadcast.

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Tonight's cases feature ordinary people thrust into a vortex of mystery, heartbreak, and

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each one is searching for that vital clue to end a story that so far has no ending.

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Perhaps you can help. Join me. You may be able to help solve a mystery.

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Tonight is special report on one of the most fascinating mysteries of this century. The

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case of Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler's second in command. Hess shocked the world in 1941

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by flying to Britain on a secret peace mission. This special segment takes us to Scotland

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and Germany, where experts claim that it was not Hess who made that momentous flight, but

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a double impersonating it. Also two other intriguing mysteries, needing but one final clue to solve

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them. Someone watching tonight may know the truth.

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1933, Adolf Hitler sees his total power in Germany. By his side, Deputy Reichsführer Rudolf

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Hess is close as content. Hess would come to figure in one of the most remarkable mysteries

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of World War II. 1941, the world is astounded to learn that Rudolf Hess has been captured

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in Scotland while attempting to deliver a peace proposal to secret contacts in the British

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government. 1946, Nuremberg. Rudolf Hess is sentenced to life in West Berlin's Spandau

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Prison. 1987, Rudolf Hess is found dead in Spandau's prison garden. Though the cause

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of death is officially declared a suicide, his family and experts are convinced that

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he was murdered. I have no sympathy for the Nazi past or any crimes that Hess may have

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committed, but he was a human being, and he deserves a dignity at least to find out if

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he was murdered. Who did it? The story of Rudolf Hess is a mystery that spans almost

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50 years. Not only do some experts believe he was murdered in prison, but startling evidence

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suggests that a man of Spandau was not the real Rudolf Hess. What ties these events together

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is a global conspiracy that began at the start of World War II. It may still be going on

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today. Rudolf Hess was incarcerated in Berlin's Spandau prison from 1947 until his death.

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He was aloof, keeping his distance from fellow prisoners and his warders. In September 1973,

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a British surgeon named Hugh Thomas made a detailed physical examination of Hess. Thomas

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had earlier studied Hess' medical records and expected to find scars from bullet wounds

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Hess had received in the First World War. There were no scars, no bullet wounds, nor

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was there any evidence of an operation. They're not things that you can miss. At West Germany's

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Berlin Document Center, Thomas uncovered the original World War I military records of Rudolf

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Hess. For the first time, I became very, very seriously concerned about the identity of

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the man in Spandau. The record showed that he'd sustained a through shot through the

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lung in the First World War. So I'm left with a situation whereby a man has total evidence

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in surgical terms of no wounding and total evidence in documentary terms of such wounding.

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It can't be the same man. If the man Dr. Thomas examined at Spandau

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was not Rudolf Hess, then who was he? The answer may lie in a series of events that

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took place in May of 1941. On May 10th of that year, Rudolf Hess told his wife that he planned

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to fly to Berlin for an important meeting and that he would be home in three days. They

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would not see one another again for 28 years. The facts are that at 1745 hours, the real

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Rudolf Hess took off from Augsburg in Bavaria, southern part of Germany, flying north in

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the Messerschmitt 110D. We know the aircraft had the serial number 1545 and the letters

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NJC11 on the side. He was tracked by German radar and defence controllers right across

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Germany and across occupied Europe. And just after half past seven that evening was lost

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to German radar going north over the North Sea. Four and a half hours after Rudolf Hess

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left Germany, a lone Messerschmitt was picked up on British radar heading towards Scotland.

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At approximately 11 p.m. the Scottish farmer caught sight of an aircraft descending rapidly.

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A pilot gave his name as Alfred Horn. He asked for a meeting with a Duke of Hamilton,

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a member of the British Parliament who lived in the area. Surprisingly the man calling

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himself Alfred Horn carried no identification, but he was wearing the uniform of a Luftwaffe

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officer. The next morning a meeting was arranged with a Duke of Hamilton who was at the time

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serving as an officer in the Royal Air Force.

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How's your work gentlemen? So you're Captain Horn and I believe you want to see me.

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Sir I am not Captain Horn. I am Deputy Reichschurer Rudolf Hess.

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I don't recognize you sir. I am here on a mission of humanity from the

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Führer. The Führer fears that Hamilton ultimately was convinced that the prisoner was Rudolf

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Hess. But Winston Churchill remained suspicious. He sent Yvonne Kirkpatrick, a diplomat who

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knew Hess personally, to meet with a prisoner. Kirkpatrick thought the man was indeed Rudolf Hess.

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Hugh Thomas disagrees. The mistakes made by the man when he arrived were incredible.

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He claimed that he was born in 1899 and when he first landed said 1897, when in actual

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fact the real Hess' age as you know was 1894. So there's a discrepancy there.

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It is thought that Hitler and other members of the Nazi elite use doubles for security

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reasons. Thomas believes that a double was recruited to impersonate Hess on the flight

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to Scotland. Photographs taken upon Hess' departure support this theory as they appear

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to show a different plane from the one that crash landed in Scotland.

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The plane that took off in Germany was marked NJC11. Now the reason we know that is that it was

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photographed taking off and also Helmut Kardon, one of the airport assistants there at the time,

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logged it in his book whereby he denoted NJC11 was the plane that took off. The plane that landed

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in Scotland was marked on the side of the fuselage VJ or NJOQ, a totally different plane.

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The first people to get to the wreckage found an aircraft that was almost intact. The machine guns

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in the nose were still packed with grease. They'd never been used. This was obviously an

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aircraft that was so new it hadn't yet been devoted to operational work. British researchers know

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that that aircraft was based at a fighter airfield in northern Denmark called Alborg. It was tracked

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in from that direction and there really seems no reason to doubt that it came from Denmark rather

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than Germany. There is more evidence that a double had replaced the real Hess. Hess was a skilled

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pilot yet the man who flew to Scotland made a number of elementary mistakes. The man who approached

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Britain and flew over Scotland was an amateur in every sense of the word. He did everything wrong.

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He approached the British coast at the ideal height to be intercepted by radar instead of under it.

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Then he power dived using far too much fuel and then he flew at only 50 feet across the Scottish

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borders. Now that meant that people on the ground could observe the aircraft and track it every step

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of the way but the pilot was too low to even pick up his landmarks so whoever he was he was an amateur

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pilot. If the man who landed in Scotland was a double how and why was this deception engineered?

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The answer may lie with the only man in the Third Reich more feared than Edel of Hitler,

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the master of the dreaded SS Heinrich Himmler. In a moment we will examine a theory that Himmler

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may have been at the center of a conspiracy that reached from Hitler's inner circle to England's

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House of Parliament. Rudolph Hess had been Hitler's closest confidant but at the beginning of World

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War II his influence began to wane. Part of the reason can be traced to SS Reichsführer Heinrich

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Himmler. Hess had come to power purely by being one of the first of Hitler's loyal supporters.

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In such a position he was obviously a threat to Himmler who aspired to gain control of all of

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the world and from that point of view he was hated so in essence he was part of a power struggle.

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In early 1941 Hitler's inner circle including Himmler were planning for the invasion of the Soviet

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Union.

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Hess argued that peace with England must be secured before this attack and had secretly

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attempted to contact members of British Parliament. Himmler may have sensed an opportunity to eliminate

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his rival. Himmler had a double ready at hand and he used this double in conjunction with Göring

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to actually supplant Hess, get rid of Hess, kill off Hess and put the double into England to contain

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to carry over peace proposals to the English hierarchy. According to this theory if the

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double's initial peace overtures had been successful Himmler would have stepped in,

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finished the negotiations and claimed the credit. Hugh Thomas believes that Adolf Hitler was unaware

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that Himmler was secretly in contact with the clique of highly placed Nazi sympathizers in

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Britain. According to Thomas some were members of parliament and they plotted to depose Churchill

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and make their own separate peace with Germany. During the war both Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph

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Stalin were suspicious of the official British account of the Hess affair. Stalin was convinced

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that the British were plotting a separate peace with Germany. Dr. Thomas believes that he was

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correct. The Hess affair is the key to the understanding of the whole plot that was hatched by

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30 or so of the top ranking British hierarchical figures in the country designed to unite Nazi

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Germany and Britain against Soviet Russia and stop the war so that expansion into Russia by Germany

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could exist. There's no question that had the Hess affair gone to fruition had Himmler's plan

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gone right the result would have been a Nazi Anglo bloc which would have ruled the world.

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But the plan didn't work. Churchill refused to meet with Hess and his peace overture was rejected.

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Despondent Hess attempted suicide a few days later. Intelligence officers and psychiatrists

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continually interrogated the prisoner. He claimed amnesia and refused to answer the questions.

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In 1945 Hess was brought home to Germany for the beginning of the Nuremberg trial.

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During this trial Hess was forced to meet with two of his former secretaries.

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Officials hoped this confrontation would jog his memory.

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The prisoner's most significant lack of recognition is that of his secretaries and these women were

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greatly disturbed and greatly upset and kept on at the old man to try and recognize them.

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One of them showed in the picture of his son whom he didn't recognize

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yet he'd carried a picture of that son with him supposedly on his flight to England.

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So the man was behaving in a very bizarre fashion.

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The two secretaries left upset but still certain that the man they had met was Rudolph Hess.

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Hess was sentenced to life imprisonment in the converted fortress in West Berlin known as

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Spandau Prison. Hess's new home was to be jointly administered by the United States,

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Britain, France and the Soviet Union. One by one Spandau's six other Nazi prisoners had died

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or had been released but Rudolph Hess had his freedom blocked by a Soviet veto. In 1966 he was

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Spandau's only prisoner at a cost of over one million dollars per year.

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Rudolph Hess loved to walk in the garden this long trail about 267 paces around.

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To me he lived in a world by himself. For the first two years in my talking with Hess I never got

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beyond food, health and weather and everything was bad. It took me two years to even talk to him

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about anything political. He lived in this eggshell. Time seemed to have stood still for him since 1941

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since his flight. By the late 1960s Hess's health had greatly deteriorated. Even so he refused all

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visits with his family. The reason why he didn't accept visits beforehand was simply that the

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surrounding and the circumstances under which these visits take place in Spandau were so bad that

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he said it's better not to see each other and to write and after having paid these visits after

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1969 I can only completely agree with him. In December 1969 when Hess's health became critical

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he finally agreed to meet with his family. It had been 28 years since Frau Hess had seen her husband.

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Her son Wolf had last seen his father at the age of three.

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During this reunion the family was not allowed to touch one another or to discuss anything pertaining

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to Hess's past.

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Despite the fact that she felt his voice was lower in pitch Frau Hess still felt the managed Spandau

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was her husband. I was expecting a very difficult situation with all the borders and the director

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sitting around and they knew that under the circumstances the possibility is to really

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learn to know him they're limited. Mother, this is you so much. It can't be helped my son.

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I have the impression that my father was keeping some secret which he was not able to relieve

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to anybody. This is the reason why he was kept so long in prison and finally was murdered in prison.

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August 17th 1987 at approximately 2 30 in the afternoon 93-year-old Rudolf Hess went out for

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his daily walk in his beloved prison garden. Soviet authorities had indicated to Hess's son

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the general secretary Gorbachev was on the verge of allowing his father's release.

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Hess was accompanied by an American guard and as he continued his stroll the guard became distracted.

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Several minutes later the guard looked for his prisoner.

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He soon found him.

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Rudolf Hess was lying on the floor of a garden shed,

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electrical cord wrapped around his neck.

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The official inquiry declared that Rudolf Hess had committed suicide

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but almost immediately charges surface that Hess had been murdered.

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Now there are so many things against him committing suicide.

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He could hardly open his hands because of arthritis that he was suffering under

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and he couldn't raise his arms above shoulder level. Now the final report came out and said that

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he'd hung himself from that little lean-to in the garden that he was sitting under where he was found dead.

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Well to do that he's going to have to raise those hands, isn't he, above his head to put that

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cord around something to hang himself. He wasn't capable of doing that.

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I think he was murdered. I don't know who did it but that's my true conviction.

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There is every evidence that he was murdered but further than that disturbingly the cable that

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was actually used to murder him was the first thing to be destroyed on the specific orders of the

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British military governor and the British military governor also ordered the shed burnt down.

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As well as that they refused all measures of identification of the prisoner.

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Hess's family insisted on conducting their own autopsy and secured the services of a Dr. Spahn,

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a noted German forensic pathologist. His report showed bruises inconsistent with the

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official verdict of suicide. The final autopsy by Dr. Spahn shows quite clearly that the man was

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strangled and the degree of deep bruising and fracturing of the bones in the neck also indicates

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that he was strangled very forcibly. Dr. Thomas is convinced that the prisoner at Spahn was murdered

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before his release to keep him from revealing the treasonous conduct of his secret British

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contacts during the war. If the prisoner had ever revealed his part in these negotiations

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it would have led to the discovery of the whole plot. It would have led to the exposure of 30

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extremely powerful personages whose relatives even if they don't still exist themselves

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are still in control in hierarchical control of much of British finance and government and

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that would be totally and utterly unacceptable to any British government.

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If the prisoner Spahn was Rudolph Hess as his family and the authorities claim,

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then why were there no scars on his chest from his World War One bullet wounds?

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Why did his plane take off from Germany with one set of serial numbers and land in Scotland with another?

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But if the prisoner at Spahn was an imposter, why did he remain silent for 46 years?

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The remains of prisoner number seven rest in this small Bavarian cemetery,

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but who really lies in this grave? Rudolph Hess or an imposter, a willing participant in a global

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conspiracy of vast proportions. The only man who could answer these questions was Sanos before he

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could speak. The inscription on his grave reads simply, it was worth the risk. History may never

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know what truly lies behind those words. One final footnote to the story. The official British

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file on the Hess affair was scheduled to be made public in 1971, but that year only selected

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portions were released. The rest remaining classified at the order of the British government.

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It is further stipulated that this sensitive material remained locked up until the year 2016.

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Next, the story of a woman who walked away from a terrible car crash in rural Montana

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and has not been seen since. Her family believes she may be suffering from amnesia.

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April 20, 1989, a lonely country road near Circle, Montana.

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At approximately 8.15 in the evening, Peggy Buver was driving towards nearby Great Falls to visit

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her sister. Peggy's mother and father were with her. Behind her was another car driven by Carol

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Heights, an off-duty police dispatcher. Carol could see Peggy's car clearly. Then she saw a car

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approaching in the wrong lane. He was car narrowly missed a head-on collision. Carol pulled over

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to the side of the road, and it was too late. Peggy's father took the wheel from the shaken

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daughter and headed back down the road. Carol had emerged from the wreckage dazed but not seriously

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injured. Then a woman emerged out of the darkness. It was the driver of the car that had hit her.

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She just stared. Never said anything. Nothing. Just stared at me. I will never forget her.

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Then the Buvers arrived.

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Peggy's father went to assist the victims, and she began to go for help. But before Peggy

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drove off, she too saw the mysterious woman. As I looked out across the accident, I noticed

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someone on the other side of the fence standing there like a spectator, not like that it had

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happened to her. The woman vanished into the night. But within half an hour, police had traced the car

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to its owner, 38-year-old Patricia Meehan. They immediately began to search for her.

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We didn't know what was out there. We didn't know whether we're looking for a

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hurt person, sick person, or a fugitive. So, four officers and myself proceeded in, and we proceeded

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in behind the dog. Approximately three-quarters of a mile from the scene, we picked up some

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tennis shoe tracks, about a size six that appeared to be fairly narrow, belonging either to a young

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boy or probably a woman. At 3 a.m. Patricia's tracks disappeared, and the search was suspended

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until the following morning. For five days, this intensive search continued, land and from the air.

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All that was ever found were Patricia's original tracks.

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Two theories were developed to explain how she eluded her trackers.

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The first is that she may have stowed away on a hay truck that was parked about a half a mile

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from the accident. The other theory is that Patricia simply hitched a ride out of the area.

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She was a very caring individual. Never wanted to hurt anyone in here. She had a very traumatic

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accident where she may have thought instantly that she hurt or killed another person,

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and her mind blocked that out. She had walked away from the scene of that accident, and has not

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been found since. Since her disappearance, Patricia Meehan has been spotted throughout the United States,

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but has made no attempt to contact her family and friends. At first it was thought that her

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flight was an attempt to evade prosecution for leaving the scene of an accident, but eyewitness

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reports that Patricia's increasingly strange behavior had given police and psychiatrists

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good reason to believe that she is no fugitive. Patricia Meehan may be suffering from a rare

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and dangerous form of amnesia. Born in Pennsylvania, Patricia moved to Oklahoma to attend college

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in preparation for her career in daycare. She worked in that field until 1985, and then due

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to her love of animals, moved to Montana to work on a ranch. Before her disappearance, family and

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friends noticed that Patricia had become depressed, withdrawn. She was, I guess, taking

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all her own life, what had she accomplished. I think she missed having children, because I think

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now she found out she really does love them. After Patricia disappeared, her family found a role

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of undeveloped film still in her camera. In this haunting self-portrait, she looks out at a world

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that she may have decided to abandon. It appears that Pat was experiencing a very

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difficult time in her life, and was involved in a rather dramatic accident, which may have

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involved a head injury. The combination of these factors may have caused amnesia. She does not know

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who she is, has lost memories of the past, and is out searching for herself throughout the country.

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Since her accident, Patricia has been spotted at least 100 times between Montana and Seattle,

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mainly at truck stops. But Patricia has managed to hitchhike out of the area before authorities

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and her family were able to intercept her.

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I don't know how she's eating. I don't know where she's sleeping. From the sightings, quite a few of

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them, she was seen crying. And that really hurts when I hear this. Any mother would be afraid for

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her child. I don't care what age she is, and it seems like she needs help more than ever now.

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One of the confirmed sightings of Patricia occurred in May of 1989 in Bozeman, Montana.

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Ironically, this was only a few miles from her home.

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Patty came in the door and wanted to be sat quickly and served quickly. She asked me if she would be

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able to be out of there and rather of a hurry, and I said, well, we do breakfast in 10 minutes,

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you'll be out very quickly. And then I made a comment to her that she must have to be back

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to work at nine o'clock, since it was almost nine, it was about 8.30 to 20 till. She said, no, I'm just

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going shopping. I couldn't understand what it was so important for her to be there right at nine o'clock

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to go shopping. You know, she was in such a huge hurry.

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Waitress Brenda Clements also noticed that Patricia was acting strangely.

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What stood out in my mind is that she seemed really disorientated, really spacey, just looking

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off into space. And I heard her like talking to herself, but I really didn't hear what she was

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saying because they had other people and other customers to take care of. She sat at that table

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for an hour and a half or more easily. She was just, you know, looking out the window, looking at

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people walking by. That's when I walked up to her and I asked her, are you okay?

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I was just wondering if there's anything I could do, you know, because she was just like lost.

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I felt like she didn't know where she was or who she was.

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From all the evidence, Patricia's condition is not improving.

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If she is not treated soon, the damage could be irreparable. For when and if Patricia's memories

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return, the shock could threaten her sanity. More than anything else in the world, I want her back

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with us. We would then know that she'd be safe, not knowing who she's going to get a ride from.

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That's my biggest worry, I think. Just praise on your mind day in and day out. You pray to God

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and hope that she's with good people.

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In a moment, the story of a woman found murdered after she was seen with a man at a local supermarket.

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Was he a friend or an unknown killer?

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Wellington, Virginia, May 11, 1988, 3 a.m. Police arrive at a local schoolyard where the body of

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a young woman has been found. She has been raped and shot once at point blank range.

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Homicide detectives Bob Carrick and Gay Mercer said about examining the physical evidence.

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I think when you arrive at a crime scene at 3 o'clock in the morning and you find a young woman

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shot to death, she was sexually assaulted and then murdered, I think you start out with kind of a

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sick feeling in your stomach. Kind of a disgust for crime in general.

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The condition of Veronica's clothing indicates that the rape was not a random act of violence.

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In most rape cases, there are some signs of force. Maybe there are tears in the clothing,

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which there were not any on the scene. It may have been more like a date rape,

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someone that she knew and it went too far. Later that day, the victim was identified as

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Veronica Jefferson, a 24-year-old government accountant recently moved to the Washington,

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D.C. area from Oklahoma. Veronica had recently become a CPA and at the time of her death,

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she was working as a finance officer for the CIA. Nothing in her background suggested any motive

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for her murder. The day after the murder, Veronica's read Camaro with a distinctive

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personal place reading Ms. VLJ was discovered parked at a supermarket just two blocks from her

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apartment. The vehicle was unlocked, the keys missing. The vehicle was examined for fingerprints

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using a portable argon laser. The car appeared to have been wiped clean. The interior of the

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vehicle was also examined. John, looks like we have a receipt inside. Time and date stamped.

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This receipt showed that Veronica had left the market at 9.30 p.m. First on the left rear seat.

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Surprisingly, Veronica's cash and credit cards were found intact.

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This box cutter and the location of the car focused the investigation on workers at the supermarket.

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Detectives Carrig and Mercer began to question the store's 186 employees.

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One good suspect admitted that he had seen her the day that she was killed in the supermarket

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and he was able to describe her all the way down to her red shoes.

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When we were able to narrow the field down from 186 down to 6, it was my job to get

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a sample of their blood to either eliminate them and go on then to other investigative leads

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or possibly to find the individual that committed this crime.

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These tests were important as body fluid found at the crime scene showed a rare blood type

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common to only 4% of the population. The suspect could definitively be identified by

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cross-checking this blood type with a DNA sample also taken from the body fluid.

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However, in this instance, there were no match-ups. All six suspects were cleared.

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Four days after Veronica's murder, dramatic new evidence surfaced when an off-duty police

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officer claimed he had seen Veronica the night she was killed in the company of a man who was at

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the wheel of her car. That evening I was on my way to work. It was approximately quarter of

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10 in the evening while I was waiting to make a left. There was a car approaching me from the

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opposite direction. It had its bright lights on me. That's when I was able to see the car

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that's what first drew my attention to the car. As this car turned the corner, he ran over the

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curb and I don't mean just bumped it but really ran over the curb. As the car turned, I noticed the

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license plate on the car. They were personalized tags and they read Ms. VLJ. I figured the car

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belonged to the girl in the passenger seat. The driver was apparently very involved in conversation

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as he was driving slow and weaving up the road. It did not seem like there was any

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trouble in the car. It seemed like they were engaged in a very in-depth conversation.

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The woman got out of the car, she bent down and they had words for 15-20 seconds.

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She wasn't in any distress. She wasn't frantic. They just seemed to be friends and he was saying

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goodbye. I got tired of watching and went around the car and on my way. The more and more I thought

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about it, the more I wished that I could have pulled this person over at this time and in some way

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maybe that would have prevented the death of Ms. Jefferson. After Doug Taylor's account on what

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he saw and who was driving, we felt that it had to have been someone that Veronica was familiar

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with, a friend, an old friend, someone she really felt comfortable with in order to let her let them

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drive her car. From Veronica's roommates and family, we were able to get a list of male friends and

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acquaintances of Veronica's. All her male friends that we know of to this point have been interviewed,

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blood has been taken and all have been eliminated as suspects. After Veronica's friends were cleared,

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the investigation reached a complete standstill. But in May of 1989, a year after the murder,

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two eyewitnesses came forward. They remember seeing Veronica in the supermarket less than

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two hours before she was killed. On the night in question, my wife and I both went to the supermarket

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to pick up a few items. On arriving at the deli counter, I noticed this very attractive,

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I would say beautiful girl. Hello. Hi, have you helped me? Yes. A man approached her and started a

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conversation with her. Salad, right? No. Come on, I know it's gotta be salad if you're looking at

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girl. I had the distinct impression that he was trying to pick her up because I generally had

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the feeling that he did not know her or had not been in any previous company of hers.

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A few minutes later, Mrs. Flanagan saw Veronica outside the market talking with the same man.

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I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I could watch the body language. And I've had the

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feeling that something was wrong. She continually looked around the parking lot. She looked as if

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she was searching for someone who knew her or someone to get her out of this situation.

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But she did smile at him. She did laugh. And I had an uneasy feeling about it. But it wasn't

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that dramatic enough that would have made me push ahead to say, do you need help?

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According to the Flanagan's testimony, Veronica was approached by a stranger who later may have

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killed her. But Doug Taylor saw her with what appeared to be a friend at the wheel of her car.

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Did she meet two different men that night? And how did they escape detection?

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There's a possibility that the suspect was once involved with Veronica and no one else knew that.

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He feels that his identity will never be known because of that fact.

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The man described by the Flanagan's was a black male approximately six feet three inches in height

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and weighed about 170 pounds. He was described as a clean cut bodybuilder type.

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We continue to investigate unsolved homicides until the end. They may not be solved, but they're

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never forgotten. I think it's important that the killer understand that we will not stop looking for

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him. And it's important for him to know that so he doesn't think that because a year has passed

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that he's gotten away with this crime because he has not. We are still looking and we will find him.

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For every mystery there is someone somewhere who knows the truth. Perhaps that someone is watching.

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Perhaps it's you.

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You