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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 on Unsolved Mysteries, the heartwarming story of a Vietnam veteran's battle wounds

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nearly cost him his life, and the Army nurse who healed him both physically and emotionally.

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You may be able to help reunite them after 20 years. By all appearances, Gertrude Prou,

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it seemed to be the kindly grandmother you would find in a normal, rock-roll painting.

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But in reality, this sweet little old lady was a con artist who stole $3 million from

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investors. And in Missouri, we will investigate a baffling case of kidnapping, bank robbery,

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and murder. Did a bank president die as a victim in a simple holdup, or was his death

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a crew on a callous execution?

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Join me for these fascinating stories. Perhaps someone somewhere has that one vital clue

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that can help solve a mystery. Perhaps that someone is watching. Perhaps it's you.

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Jim Bacowski lives with his family in the small town of Grand Junction, Colorado. He and his

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wife Dolores have two sons. In 1968, Jim was wounded by enemy action during the Vietnam

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War. For over 20 years, he and his family have had to cope with his injuries, both

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physical and emotional. During the war, Jim was one of thousands of troops manning the

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constantly changing front lines. What he went through turned his life inside out. But one

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memory of the war, Jim, still holds dear. That memory has a name and a face, Linda Sharp.

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Captain Sharp was the only good memory I had. She had something about her that made you

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feel comfortable, warm, want to live, and go back home when you were dying.

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The hushed fields of gravestones here at the National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia,

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are a mute testimony to the tragic toll of the Vietnam War. Thousands of surviving Vietnam

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veterans have tried to put the war behind them. Some have succeeded, many have not. For them,

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the war continues. But one of the few memories that can still inspire a smile among vets

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is a selfless devotion and kindness exhibited by the nearly 10,000 nurses, who in many cases

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literally breathed the life back into their patients. Jim Bacowski was one such survivor.

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20 years ago, an Army nurse named Linda Sharp gave Jim the strength he needed to return

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home to his wife. He feels that if he can reunite with Captain Sharp, his private war

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will be much closer to ending.

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Jim was drafted in December of 1967, and after boot camp was sent for advanced training to

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Fort Polk, Louisiana. When he learned he was to be shipped to Vietnam, he placed a late

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night call to his high school sweetheart, Dolores, whom he'd been dating for five years.

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Dolores? Fine. Look, I've been giving this a lot of thoughts.

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I waited in line in the rain for over four hours, and I told her that I was going to

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Vietnam, and I said, will you marry me? What do you say? Give me a minute.

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I was 19, she was 18. You will? Oh, that's great.

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She said yes. I turned him down the first two times, and then I decided after that it

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was time to say yes, because I knew he was going to leave. So we got married before he

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left. I wasn't sure when he was coming back. I knew the time was the year. I just knew

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the year would have to hurry up and get by. Only a week after they were married, Jim was

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shipped off to Vietnam. We landed, and we're all scared. See, I know. Didn't know what

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I was going to get. Had no idea. But I found out.

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Within three months, Jim was wounded twice, once in the jaw and once in his leg. On August

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29, 1968, it was two days before he was to be reunited with his new bride in Hawaii,

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Jim's platoon was attacked by a group of North Vietnamese.

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They blew us to smithereens. We didn't even have a chance. There were 60 of us, somewhere

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between 250 and 300 of them. And it wiped out my whole company.

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At the time, I was operating the radio for Lieutenant because we were two people side

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by side. He was dead.

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And then the next thing I knew, I was reaching for a weapon. I went flying through the air.

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I landed 30 feet down the hill. I picked up my leg that was blown off, and I crawled

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back up the hill.

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Close the door, Dad.

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I think you better read this, Jim.

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A telegram was sent to Dolores's parents addressed to her.

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It's going to be all right, honey.

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It's stated, James P. Bacowski was wounded in Vietnam as a result of hostile action.

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He received traumatic amputation of the right leg when engaged by hostile force in a firefight.

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You will be kept informed of any significant changes in his condition.

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I just cried.

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It's okay.

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I couldn't believe it really happened because you hear things happen to everyone else, but

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not to your own family.

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I just kept looking at it like it can go away, and it doesn't go away. It just stays there,

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and you have to learn to live with it.

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Come and throw! Come and throw! Come and throw! We got a patient now! Come and throw! Come and throw!

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Jim had been rushed by helicopter to the 67th evacuation hospital in Quinyan. His prognosis

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was grim. His fever hovered at 105 degrees, and his wound was badly infected. He had also

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six pints of blood behind him in the jungle.

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Come and throw! We got a patient!

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I'll be right there!

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Come and throw!

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Okay, I need some of your russet.

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Come and throw!

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We got a patient!

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Has he been conscious at all?

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I don't know. He's coming in and out. I don't know.

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Be right there!

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He looks back.

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My first conscious memory was looking up and seeing this blonde lady in fatigues helping me.

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It'll be fine, soldier. It'll be fine.

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Captain Lynn Sharp.

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I just woke up in my eyes and she was looking over me.

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We need a doctor back over here!

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I heard people talking, and he ain't going to make it.

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And all I saw was her looking down at me.

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I don't care.

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She gave me the encouragement to live.

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Because of the extreme infection, what was left of Jim's leg was amputated, the hip.

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This was followed by frigid baths to lower his high body temperature.

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At this time, Jim began to become more aware of Captain Sharp's constant attention.

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Hi, Jim. How you doing?

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Going for a little swim?

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The lady was phenomenal.

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Hey, you know, we need a hurry up and get your...

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Every time I don't mind...

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Couple of guys.

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Ladies blue eyes would be looking down at me.

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Looks like you're feeling better.

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Hey, I promise if you get your temperature down, I can take you out and go get a couple beers.

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She told me when your temperature drops and you get into bed, I'll hold you outside and I'll bring you cold beer.

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I promise that's what I'm going to do if you weren't cold before.

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Over a period of six days, Captain Sharp was always there.

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And Jim slowly began to heal.

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You'll be going home soon. Good night, guy.

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With her help, Jim began his former spirit, his will to live.

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Want to go dancing or leave your bag home?

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You know it. I'm dancing right away.

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Time to go, Jim.

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Go where?

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You'll see.

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What are you talking?

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You'll see me quiet.

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Late one night, two days before Jim was scheduled to leave, Captain Sharp kept her word.

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Do I keep my promises?

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Wow.

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Stars were out, beautiful night.

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We're on stock.

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And she brought two cans of beer, popped them both, sat on the edge of the bed and smiled.

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So you're going to write your wife about your leg?

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I don't know how.

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You started with one word at a time.

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I just don't know what to say to her.

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You were not allowed to leave the Mass Unit until you wrote a letter to your wife.

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I didn't have the courage to write it.

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She forced me to do it.

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And then I didn't know she had sent a letter and a picture to my wife with it,

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telling my wife what to expect.

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Dear Mrs. Bacowski, I'm the head nurse on the ward where Jim is now.

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It truly is not possible for me, a poor letter writer, to tell you how very much Jim loves you.

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When he talks about you, his lovely blue eyes sparkle and he gets a wide grin on his face.

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In spite of his missing leg, he is probably the most cheerful and optimistic patient I have ever had the pleasure of caring for.

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His spirit determination are marvelous.

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And with your hard work and help, not pity, he'll make rapid progress.

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However, both of you have a long, difficult road ahead.

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There will be days when Jim will be discouraged, but don't you or any of your families ever feel sorry for him.

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He needs understanding, love and help, not pity.

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A missing limb doesn't make Jim less of a person and it certainly doesn't lessen his love for you.

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Jim leaves tomorrow for Japan and then home.

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We shall all miss him.

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God bless you both.

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Sincerely, Captain Linda Sharp.

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The letter helped me because nobody in my family's ever had anybody lose a leg or hurt in a war.

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They didn't understand.

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Her letter just let you know what to expect.

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I've always wondered why she wrote.

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I guess that's kind of a question I'll always be there.

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Finally on September 5th, 1968, Jim began his long journey home.

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When I left, she pushed me out on my bed to the chopper.

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She gave me a big hug.

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Take care, Jim.

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Go on.

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I've thought about her since the day I left Vietnam.

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I just think about her.

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The camaraderie when you make a friend in Vietnam is there until the person dies.

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I lived.

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I don't think that I would have came back to my wife without Captain Sharp.

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She just gave me all the encouragement and the strength and the motivation to live.

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In 1969, Jim was awarded two Purple Hearts for wounds sustained in combat

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and a Silver Star for his bravery under fire.

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But Jim's war raged on silently.

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Jim blocked out Vietnam for years and years.

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He didn't want people to know he was a Vietnam veteran.

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He would just assume people thought his leg was lost in a car accident or something.

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He really did not want people to know that he had been to Vietnam.

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By 20 years, Jim has suffered from what has become known as post-traumatic stress disorder.

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Only recently, as he began to come to grips with his war experiences,

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Linda Sharp helped Jim to transcend his physical wounds.

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He wants to find her today so he can say, thank you.

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He's ready to look for her now.

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Because now he's well enough mentally to look for her.

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And I think if he could meet her, it might help him to heal.

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Jim and Dolores have recently celebrated their 21st wedding anniversary.

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A life together they feel might have been impossible without Linda Sharp.

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I would very much like to get in touch with Captain Linda Sharp,

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if it's at all possible, and thank her for what she did for me.

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And all the other guys.

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Before the segment even aired,

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Linda Sharp saw a promotional announcement for Jim's story on Unsolved Mysteries.

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She immediately called our telecenter.

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Two weeks later, she and Jim were reunited.

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Hi, how are you?

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I can't believe it.

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Looks so good.

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You really do.

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When I opened the door, I was late and all I wanted to do was give her a great big hug,

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and just hug her, and thank her, and kiss her on the cheek, and just try to show my appreciation.

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I feel very blessed to be here, to actually see him, and talk with him,

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and hear his versions of what went on.

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Because sometimes what nurses don't realize that we have an impact on patients' lives.

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And I certainly didn't realize the impact I had on his life at all.

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Hello.

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How are you?

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Over the years, I've thought about Jim and Dolores, and wondered how they were doing,

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and if they were still together, and seeing the show on TV, and seeing them in the segment,

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was just the best news that just made it all worthwhile.

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It really pulled things together for me, and it reinforced that what I did over there was important.

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Linda's my son, Corey.

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Hi, Corey.

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After arriving, Linda received an unexpected gift, a portrait of a Vietnam nurse, which Jim had framed for her.

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There was so much I think of, I had this made up for you, and I thought she'd like to have this.

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When he gave me the plaque, it was just such a special moment.

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It's made this day very, very special, something that was like the culmination of a nursing career.

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Thank you.

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To be thanked in such a special way is very memorable, something I'll never forget.

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This meeting with Linda represents, in my healing, the final step,

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knowing that I, in my own mind, mentally, physically, and the way I feel right now, am all right.

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I've finally beat the battle.

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We lost a few battles, but I've won the war.

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Let me rephrase that. I have won the war.

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When we return, we will meet a sweet and charming little old lady who, in reality, is a cunning and elusive crook.

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Most of us consider ourselves decent judges of character.

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We'd think we'd know a crook if we saw one, but con artists come in all sorts of packages.

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Even a grandmother baking goodies could be out to take your money and run.

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Meet Gertrude Pruitt.

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Morning, everybody. Come on out, Katie.

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From 1979 to 1981, this grandmotherly 70-year-old con woman ran what appeared to be a flourishing investment business in Beverly Hills.

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Don't you have some of my fruit cake?

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Thank you very much. Thanks a lot.

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This crafty granny hid her seamy business activities behind a facade of southern hospitality and homemade fruit cake,

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while making off with the family of the woman who was the first to be found.

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You couldn't help but like her, and when you looked at the woman, she was so smooth and trusting and very soft-sell that she...

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you thought of as almost family.

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She was a homey businesswoman.

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Even though you knew she had the business skills, she was a very good woman.

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She was a homey businesswoman.

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Even though you knew she had the business skills, she also never lost her touch in the kitchen.

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I mean, I'm not a big fruit cake lover, but they were delicious, to be honest with you.

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As you see, this carpeting is so beautiful, isn't it? And all these lovely colors.

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Gertrude claimed that her investment opportunities came from special connections with carpet factories and textile mills in the south.

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And we have pre-sold a large order to hotel chains.

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What impressed me the most was that although the return seemed almost too good to be true,

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Gertrude seemed like such a loving, sincere person that it was a legitimate investment and that she could do no harm to her investors.

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Well, of course you should give it some thought. I think it would be nice if you would talk to Cecil about it a little more.

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Even when Gertrude didn't feed people her own home cooking, she insisted that they be fed.

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Here, why don't you take this and take my cup for lunch, the brown derby. It's just around the corner.

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You've got awfully good food. Awfully nice meeting you and you'll be hearing from me soon.

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Nothing was too good for Gertrude Pruitt's clients. She often hired limousines to pick up potential investors and bring them to her posh office building.

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One of those investors was a woman who had soon discovered that she had a weakness for charm and fruit cake.

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She has requested that her identity be kept secret. We will call her Myrna.

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Hi. Hi. I'm Myrna Patterson. I have an appointment with Gertrude Pruitt.

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Thank you.

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Gertrude selected a really magnificent outlay for just selling carpets. I mean, this was two stories high.

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Mrs. Patterson!

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Well, my first impression of Gertrude was that she was standing there sizing me up.

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And then because she was so cordial, she was southern and so sort of warm, that I forgot all about the fact that I was being sized up and just entered into her world of how bright she was and how able she was.

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I have a wonderful business opportunity for you. Have you?

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I originally invested about 20,000, but as I watched the operation from the sheets, the balance sheets that were coming out monthly and watched the fact that people were getting their interest, I invested more.

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And this is my secretary, Jennifer.

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Well, Gertrude really was the office. She was out working every day early in the morning until very late at night, handling the customers, handling the money.

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And Harold was in his office, but what he was doing, I never knew.

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Gertrude's 40-year-old son, Harold, was her partner in the business, but he had very little contact with the clients. He was a glowering, unfriendly man, in sharp contrast to his sweet southern mother.

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Oh, yes, I'd like to.

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Even though I was Gertrude and Harold's banker for two and a half years, I never really met Harold for almost the first year and a half.

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He was the kind of a person who you would not have trusted or bought a car from, you might say.

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Mernon invested $100,000 before she had her first inkling that something was wrong.

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Gertrude, Gertrude, you know that check you gave me, it bounced. I just came from the bank, they said insufficient funds.

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Oh, I don't believe that.

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Well, I do. I just came from the bank.

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I don't know what happened. Harold just deposited a large check and it was not a clue yet.

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Sick as I was inside, I was still playing it like a friend, which I thought she was.

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It was impossible for Mernon to believe that this charming, adorable woman could be conning her, so instead of pressing the issue, she took home a fruitcake and accepted a lunch date.

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Thank you. Aw, we put you to some trouble. So how about lunch next week?

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Mernon's bad check was not the only one. The Pruitt switchboard was jammed with angry calls. Both Gertrude and Harold made themselves scarce.

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Katie, have you heard from Gertrude? Here's more messages. Thank you very much for holding. No.

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Finally, employee Cecil Trussell secretly contacted the Pruitt's accountant and received a rude shock.

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The financial statements Gertrude had been showing investors were completely different from the accountant's records.

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Well, Steve, that can only mean that statements are fraudulent.

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It was at that particular period of time I knew that there were serious problems and I just didn't know where they had been stashing money.

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OK, I'll get back to you. Bye.

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So at night, sometimes between the weebity hours of one and three, I made midnight raids.

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I found every cancel check, every statement that had been paid, everything that I could remove out of that office.

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And by the end of the time, I had about four cardboard boxes full of stuff.

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Because his friends and family had invested heavily with the Pruitt's, Cecil confronted Harold with his evidence.

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Harold, I've got enough evidence to prove that this whole company is a phony and you've got two days to come up with the money or I'm going to go to the authorities.

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Are you threatening me?

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I'm not threatening you, Harold. I'm telling you the truth.

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He told me all of the people had done nothing but made investments and there was a risk to be made.

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And I looked at him and I said to him, I said, Harold, they made an investment on a pack of lies that you have presented to them and that's called fraud.

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Cecil reported both Harold and Gertrude Pruitt to the authorities, but the two of them had disappeared, taking their investors' money with them.

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Three years later, the FBI tracked down Harold Pruitt and in 1986 brought him to trial.

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None of the investors' money was recovered.

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Sweet motherly Gertrude Pruitt was nowhere to be found.

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It was really amazing that Gertrude would leave Harold behind to take the rap.

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Everybody thought that Harold was a little bit of a hard character, but Gertrude still was the sweet loving mama.

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And when she failed to show up and became a fugitive, everybody was surprised.

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Based on the trial testimony of 10 victims, Harold was convicted on 20 counts of male fraud.

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He is currently serving an eight-year sentence at a California state prison.

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His mother was never apprehended.

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Update. Gertrude Pruitt has been captured.

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Just minutes after this story originally aired, the Sacramento, California FBI office received several calls from viewers who recognized Pruitt.

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Five days later, she was arrested at a Bakersfield, California residence where she was working as a live-in housekeeper under the assumed name Martha Gray.

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On May 29, 1990, Gertrude Pruitt pleaded guilty to seven counts of male fraud.

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She was sentenced to eight years in prison and is currently serving her term at a federal penitentiary.

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Pruitt was also ordered to pay restitution to her former investors.

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Next, the baffling story of the murder of a popular bank president.

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Was robbery the motive or was it a brutal execution?

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At 8.30 a.m. the morning of October 6, 1989, an employee of the North Missouri State Bank arrived as usual to open the doors.

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Strangely, one of them was unlocked.

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Anybody here?

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What she saw inside shocked her. The vault was wide open. During the night, the bank had been robbed.

303
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The FBI, along with three different police forces, investigated.

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They discovered two .45 caliber bullet casings.

305
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$70,000 was missing from the vault, some of it in coins.

306
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Tried to end short again.

307
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Repeated attempts were made to contact the bank president, Dan Short, but he was nowhere to be found.

308
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It's just ringing.

309
00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:13,000
In the middle of the scandal, Dan Short had robbed his own bank.

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Dan Short was 51 years old and separated from his wife of 23 years.

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He had been president of the state bank of Knowles since 1983 and was popular with people in town.

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On October 11, 1989, five days after the robbery, Dan Short's body was finally found,

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floating in a grand lake 20 miles from the bank.

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From a copper truce, Dan Short had been alive while he was thrown into the water.

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He was tied to a chair which had a concrete block taped to it with duct tape with no apparent wounds to the extent it caused death.

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It appeared at that point that he had indeed been drowned by being thrown from the bridge.

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It was appalling to think that any human being would do this to another, particularly with the obvious motive being just to conceal a robbery, the identities of the perpetrators.

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If Dan Short's murder was simply part of a bank robbery, why would the robbers choose such a deliberately cruel way of killing their hostage?

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People no longer wondered if Dan Short had robbed his own bank, but they did begin to wonder if he might have had enemies bent on revenge.

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Could Dan Short's bizarre death have been an execution with a bank robbery used merely as a cover?

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Nole, Missouri, population 1200, is located just a few miles from the Oklahoma and Arkansas borders.

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Its economy centers around chicken farming.

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When Dan Short took over the state bank presidency in 1983, the local economy was in bad shape.

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Dan had the tricky job of balancing the needs of the local people with the bank's need to turn a profit.

325
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:06,000
In the process, he naturally alienated some people.

326
00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:08,000
Dan, could I talk to you about that appraisal?

327
00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:09,000
Sure.

328
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He had some difficulties that he had to straighten out in order for the bank to function properly.

329
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:24,000
There was repossessions, restructuring, denial of credit, but even though he had a difficult position, he was able to win the people over.

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He became a friend of the people.

331
00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:29,000
He wasn't particularly outgoing.

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He wasn't a back slapper, but people accepted him for what he was, and that was just a genuinely nice person.

333
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:44,000
Dan Short lived eight miles outside of Nole in an extremely isolated location.

334
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On the night of the robbery, he had a guest who left just before 11 p.m.

335
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The FBI's attempted to reconstruct what happened once Dan Short was alone in his home.

336
00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:04,000
They believe his abductor showed up sometime between the hours of 11 p.m. and 1.30 a.m.

337
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:06,000
Now use your telephone please.

338
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:07,000
What?

339
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:08,000
My car broke down at the road.

340
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:10,000
May I use your telephone?

341
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:19,000
Probably the perpetrators went to his front door, harmed, and when Mr. Short answered the door, they immediately restrained him and later took him to the bank.

342
00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:22,000
We want this money.

343
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:29,000
According to the FBI, Dan Short and his abductors arrived at the bank around 2 a.m.

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Indications are that the perpetrators forced him to turn the alarm off to unlock the front doors.

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Then after gaining entry into the bank, dealt with the surveillance camera to some extent, spray-painting the lens and turning the camera around backwards.

346
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Hey, where's the money?

347
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:54,000
Open it up.

348
00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:55,000
Right.

349
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Come on.

350
00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:08,000
The perpetrators took only what cash they saw in the vault, which was approximately $70,000 including coins.

351
00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:10,000
Where's the money?

352
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:26,000
Leaving behind approximately $100,000 that Mr. Short was aware of led us to believe that he was not willingly involved and probably did not volunteer that the extra currency was there at the time of the robbery.

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As the robbers left the bank, one of them fired at the surveillance camera, disconnecting it.

354
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People who lived nearby heard the shots.

355
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The time was shortly before 3 a.m.

356
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A few minutes later, in the outskirts of town, a caravan of three vehicles was sighted by a local trucker.

357
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The first vehicle looked like Dan Short's pickup.

358
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I was driving south through town.

359
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I've seen a red pickup with two vehicles falling across the bridge.

360
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I didn't pay that much attention to the ones behind it.

361
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I went on south and the little blue pickup passed me about a half a mile south.

362
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Cut me short and as he cut me short, he looked back out of the back glass and I seen his face.

363
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He was a heavy-set guy with long hair and beard, brown hair.

364
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Only the killers know exactly what happened during the next three hours.

365
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At some point, they ditched Dan Short's pickup and put him in the van.

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There, they chained him to a kitchen chair with weights attached.

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It's very possible that Mr. Short was even unconscious as they put him into the chair due to the fact that the chair was not a strong piece of furniture.

368
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And with the weight already on it, any kind of struggle would have likely broken the chair up prior to even arriving at the bridge.

369
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We know that Mr. Short was alive when he was thrown into the lake.

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What we don't know is if he was conscious or unconscious.

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But the fact that he was not gagged leads us to the belief that he was unconscious when he was thrown into the lake.

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At 6 a.m., witnesses cited a dark van stopped on the bridge, but it sped away before they could get a license number.

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Why had Dan Short's subductors killed him in such a cruel manner?

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It was a question no one could answer, but there were theories it seemed to lead back to the banking business.

375
00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:56,000
I'm sorry, I'm going to have to turn you down.

376
00:35:56,000 --> 00:36:04,000
Well, I'm certain that there are some people out there that have some real animosity, some hatred towards the state bank of Nolan, Dan Short.

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He had denied credit to people, and the denial of credit probably broke others.

378
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:16,000
Dan had worked in, I think, three other banks.

379
00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:20,000
Maybe something followed him here from someplace else.

380
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:24,000
Maybe he stumbled across something in this area he shouldn't have.

381
00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:29,000
Maybe a drug deal, maybe a money laundering.

382
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:36,000
There's any number of things that could have happened that none of us are aware of, and that's where the confusion comes from.

383
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There just was no reason.

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Police have few clues to go on, but they believe the medium blue Chevy Love may be vital to solving the case.

385
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One week before the robbery, the Love and its driver were sighted at a local gas station,

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and the same trucker who saw them on the night Dan Short was murdered.

387
00:36:54,000 --> 00:37:02,000
Well, there's an older model, Blue Chevrolet Love, with a white toolbox in the back, and they had the Oklahoma tags.

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I looked at the tag, and I looked back up at the guy, you know, as he turned around.

389
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I had just a heavy-sit guy big through the chest, big neck, big face, and lots of hair, lots of beard.

390
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:21,000
The Love was seen again four days before the robbery near Dan Short's house.

391
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Dan had told his brother that he felt he was being staked out, and that on one occasion his home had actually been broken into.

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Because of this, authorities believe that Dan's killers had planned everything in advance.

393
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The bank robbery may have been only a cover-up for his execution.

394
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Robber's amateur behavior supports this theory.

395
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They left behind numerous fingerprints.

396
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:52,000
They stole heavy bags of coins, and they fired unnecessary shots.

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I want them to find the people that did this, and to explain to me why they had to kill my brother over 50 or 60 thousand dollars.

398
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:11,000
And I want to know why that happened.

399
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:27,000
The Love was seen again four days before the robbery near Dan Short's house.

400
00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:30,000
The money was stolen from Dan Short's house.

401
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:33,000
The money was stolen from Dan Short's house.

402
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:35,000
The Love was seen again four days before the robbery near Dan Short's house.

403
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:41,000
When we return, the incredible tale of a Loch Ness-type monster that just might exist in British Columbia.

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Film footage shown for the first time on television appears to reveal this creature that has eluded searchers for decades.

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Over the last century, renowned scientists and amateur investigators have grappled with the mystery of the Loch Ness monster.

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00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:13,000
That elusive lake creature in Scotland sighted more than 3,000 times over the last 50 years, but never so far adequately explained.

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Some zoologists now actually theorize that the monster's home, Loch Ness, may be connected by underwater channels to the sea,

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and that the Loch Ness monster is in fact a sea serpent of some kind, traveling back and forth between the lake and the ocean.

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The zoologists also theorize that hundreds of other lakes located in the same approximate latitude band as Loch Ness

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00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:43,000
could have similar connections to the sea and could today also be home to mysterious sea creatures.

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There have been reported sightings of creatures like the Loch Ness monster and approximately 60 other lakes around the world.

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For example, here in Lake Storzion, Sweden, Lake Labinkir in the Soviet Union, and Lake Kushar, Japan,

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all these lakes fall into the same latitude band as Loch Ness in Scotland.

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So far there's been no scientific verification for any of the sightings.

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00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:17,000
The recent photographic evidence from the Canadian lake in the same latitude band suggests the bizarre but somehow enchanting thought

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that here in North America we may have a Loch Ness monster of our very own.

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Lake Okanagan, located in the Canadian province of British Columbia, has for more than 300 years been the reputed home of a water beast,

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which seems to resemble a sea serpent.

419
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:40,000
The lake is 79 miles long and it places 800 feet deep, an ample home for a large creature.

420
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In the 1700s, local Indians called the beast Naitaka, or lake demon.

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They routinely sacrificed small animals in order to appease the demon.

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Today, 300 years later, the local population still fervently believes in the existence of the creature,

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which they have dubbed Ogopogo.

424
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I saw it back in 1937.

425
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We were facing the lake at the time and there's this head of something or other swimming around out there.

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And we were all convinced that it was the Ogopogo.

427
00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:19,000
Very big. It was very scary.

428
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:26,000
About two feet out of the water, the head part, and the head itself was brown.

429
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:34,000
And then it, the kind of a neck part went down the water and it had a great big long tail.

430
00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:42,000
Like all you could see though was just a little bit of a hump sort of, just coming out of the splashes and stuff.

431
00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:46,000
And it went on for a little bit and like we saw it and then we didn't know what to do.

432
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:47,000
And then it went under.

433
00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:50,000
So we just got out of there because we were like scared and it can you.

434
00:41:51,000 --> 00:42:00,000
Hundreds of sightings of Ogopogo have been reported, but no film footage was ever captured until 1968.

435
00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:09,000
That year, a sawmill worker named Art Folham was driving beside the lake with his wife when he noticed something odd.

436
00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:18,000
We were on our way back from holidays and we seen something in the lake, near the shore.

437
00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:23,000
And I said, hey look, just jokingly, there's Ogopogo.

438
00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:26,000
And she saw it, it looks like a bunch of ducks.

439
00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:29,000
Anyway, I said I'm going to stop and see if I can get a picture.

440
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:33,000
I stopped filming every time it dove under the water.

441
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:37,000
And as it reappeared, I began to film again.

442
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:39,000
Yeah, it's Ogopogo, I tell you.

443
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:57,000
The film shows a dark object diving, reappearing in a sequence of moves that indicates that it's moving out from shallow water into deeper water for a large dive into deeper water and then did not reappear.

444
00:42:58,000 --> 00:43:10,000
Because the pine trees on shore are approximately 25 feet tall, the dark mass in Art Folham's film is estimated to be 40 feet long, about the same size as a creature in the Loch Ness sightings.

445
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:21,000
In 1980, 12 years after the Folham film was made, a group of vacationers thought they too had sighted Ogopogo.

446
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:25,000
One of them, Larry Thall, had a home movie camera.

447
00:43:27,000 --> 00:43:32,000
I was taking pictures of the kids and the wife and bingoed all of a sudden in Ogopogo.

448
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:37,000
Supposedly, whatever it may have been, appeared on Lake Okanagan and I was right there with my camera.

449
00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:43,000
It was a strange sight in the water.

450
00:43:46,000 --> 00:43:50,000
Played in slow motion, the Thall film reveals intriguing details.

451
00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:55,000
Larry's film shows how the animal swims.

452
00:43:55,000 --> 00:43:59,000
It shows the speed and the massive waves that it creates.

453
00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:04,000
It actually shows that it has some form of appendage that seems to puff up every now and then.

454
00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:13,000
But the interesting thing again is that the animal that Art Folham shot and the animal that Larry Thall shot, they're basically the same size.

455
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:15,000
They're very large creatures.

456
00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:22,000
And in Larry's film, we're seeing a creature at least 40 to 60 feet from head to tail.

457
00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:25,000
No doubt. No doubt.

458
00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:33,000
Nine years later, on July 18, 1989, 78-year-old Clem Chaplin showed his son, Cannon Inlet, where he thought he had seen Ogopogo.

459
00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:38,000
The creature was going to and from a boom of logs at the mouth of a nearby creek.

460
00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:42,000
Ken took his video camera and staked out the area.

461
00:44:43,000 --> 00:44:47,000
It paid off and this is the first time his videotape has ever been seen on television.

462
00:44:47,000 --> 00:44:58,000
What Ken Chaplin tape was a creature that appeared to be hairless, greenish in color, spotted in about 15 feet long, less than half the size measured in the Folden and Thall films.

463
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:03,000
I was probably 75 to 100 feet away.

464
00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:15,000
I saw its features very clearly as being a snake or lizard like no fur hair and you can see the body thrashing behind it and then brought its tail section out of the water.

465
00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:27,000
Dad and I were stunned into silence and then Dad turned to me and he said, you know, if that tail hit a man, it'd probably kill him.

466
00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:30,000
And I agreed. That was our impression as to size.

467
00:45:31,000 --> 00:45:36,000
Ken took his camera back to the Inlet a few days later along with his daughter, Corey and his father.

468
00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:39,000
Once again, Ken videotaped the creature.

469
00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:50,000
It appeared swimming parallel to the shore and swam right past us at maybe 60 to 75 feet away.

470
00:45:51,000 --> 00:45:55,000
And I got that on video and Dad and Corey and I saw it very clearly.

471
00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:08,000
It has a long, long snake like body. I estimated about the size of a long car, maybe 15 feet. Definitely like a snake.

472
00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:12,000
Its head poking straight out and then its body swimming and it starts to underlay through the water.

473
00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:21,000
Ken Chaplin's video caused a media sensation.

474
00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:28,000
Time magazine as well as several newspapers in the United States carried the amazing story of what appeared to be a new Loch Ness monster.

475
00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:33,000
However, opinion was widely divided and experts were called in to analyze the video.

476
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:43,000
It was not a hoax. There was nothing in there that gave us the impression this was fabricated in any way. It was a live living animal.

477
00:46:43,000 --> 00:46:50,000
The discussion revolved around the two species most likely and that is a river otter and a beaver.

478
00:46:51,000 --> 00:46:58,000
Ogo Pogo could exist elsewhere in Okanagan Lake but in our view this particular video was of a beaver.

479
00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:08,000
You know the largest recorded beaver in the interior is 4.5 feet long. Now it's 75 to 100 feet away. I guess I can't see Dad and I've been very impressed.

480
00:47:09,000 --> 00:47:15,000
A beaver when it slaps its tail, the head is either level to the water or else it's already starting to go down.

481
00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:22,000
Now in this sequence here the video that I did it's arch in its head up while the tail comes down.

482
00:47:25,000 --> 00:47:30,000
On this side we have a still photograph taken from the video recording by Mr. Chaplin.

483
00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:38,000
On this side we have a color photograph of a beaver with its tail held vertically in the air just prior to a tail slap.

484
00:47:39,000 --> 00:47:44,000
The two photographs seem for the most part to be mirror images of one another.

485
00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:55,000
Closer comparison of the photographs however does appear to substantiate Ken Chaplin's point that the creature he saw raised its head prior to slapping its tail whereas a beaver's head is at water level.

486
00:47:57,000 --> 00:48:04,000
Also Ken says the creature he and his family saw was 15 feet long not four like a beaver and had a long snake like body.

487
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:08,000
He also said it did not have fur and was green in color.

488
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:15,000
I've asked myself thousands of times is there a possibility I could be mistaken and I just can't see where I could be.

489
00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:20,000
For those who want to call it a beaver I'll say no way.

490
00:48:20,000 --> 00:48:22,000
At otter I can't buy it.

491
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:26,000
A miniature obopogo in all probability.

492
00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:35,000
Is it possible that there are several creatures living in the lake each of varying size but all belonging to the same unknown zoological family?

493
00:48:36,000 --> 00:48:44,000
Experts may disagree on the Chaplin footage but there has still been no adequate explanation for the large creature seen surfacing in Art Folden's film.

494
00:48:45,000 --> 00:48:48,000
Or clearly churning up awake in the Larry Thall footage.

495
00:48:49,000 --> 00:48:56,000
In addition hundreds of other sightings over the years attested the presence of something unusual in Lake Okanagan.

496
00:48:57,000 --> 00:49:11,000
I would be delighted to find that Ogopogo really existed in Okanagan Lake and I would encourage everybody to keep their not only their minds open but their eyes open when they're in the Okanagan.

497
00:49:12,000 --> 00:49:17,000
Who knows what really exciting wildlife encounter that they may enjoy.

498
00:49:19,000 --> 00:49:22,000
Is Ogopogo real?

499
00:49:23,000 --> 00:49:28,000
Well the Canadian government has declared Ogopogo an endangered species and hunting it is against the law.

500
00:49:29,000 --> 00:49:33,000
Most of the people who live on the shores of Lake Okanagan need no further proof.

501
00:49:34,000 --> 00:49:37,000
For them Ogopogo is very real indeed.

502
00:49:37,000 --> 00:49:53,000
For every mystery there is someone somewhere who knows the truth. Perhaps that someone was watching. Perhaps it's you.

503
00:50:37,000 --> 00:50:40,000
you