1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,680 This program is about unsolved mysteries. 2 00:00:03,680 --> 00:00:06,360 Whenever possible, the actual family members and police 3 00:00:06,360 --> 00:00:09,400 officials have participated in recreating the events. 4 00:00:09,400 --> 00:00:12,200 What you are about to see is not a news broadcast. 5 00:00:16,600 --> 00:00:20,520 In the 1920s, Edgar Cayce gained widespread notoriety 6 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:24,200 for his apparent ability to make complex medical diagnoses 7 00:00:24,200 --> 00:00:26,200 but in a self-induced trance. 8 00:00:26,640 --> 00:00:29,760 Even now, 45 years after Cayce's death, 9 00:00:29,760 --> 00:00:31,560 thousands claimed to have benefited 10 00:00:31,560 --> 00:00:33,760 and been cured by his knowledge. 11 00:00:33,760 --> 00:00:36,560 Some say it is merely a combination of luck 12 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:39,280 and the power of suggestion. 13 00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:42,480 28-year-old Crystal Spencer was a small town girl 14 00:00:42,480 --> 00:00:44,880 determined to make it big in the movies. 15 00:00:44,880 --> 00:00:46,400 But for Crystal, the road to Stardom 16 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:48,600 led through Hollywood's seamy underside 17 00:00:48,600 --> 00:00:51,840 and sadly a confusing and mysterious death. 18 00:00:51,840 --> 00:00:55,000 According to her father, the story of Crystal Spencer 19 00:00:55,440 --> 00:00:59,560 according to her family in France, Crystal was murdered. 20 00:00:59,560 --> 00:01:03,560 Easter Sunday, 1990, just outside Coldwater, Michigan, 21 00:01:03,560 --> 00:01:06,080 Ray and Marie Thornton were enjoying their weekly drive 22 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:07,160 through the country. 23 00:01:07,160 --> 00:01:09,760 Quite by accident, this quiet, Sunday outing 24 00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:11,640 would place the Thorntons at the center 25 00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:14,200 of an unsolved mystery. 26 00:01:14,200 --> 00:01:17,000 These intriguing stories all need one final clue, 27 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:20,520 one final piece of information before they can be solved. 28 00:01:20,520 --> 00:01:23,120 Perhaps someone watching tonight can help. 29 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:24,760 Perhaps it's you. 30 00:01:53,120 --> 00:02:06,600 MUSIC 31 00:02:06,600 --> 00:02:14,600 MUSIC 32 00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:19,600 KATHY, you have a condition called optic neuritis. 33 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:21,920 This is a condition where the optic nerve 34 00:02:21,920 --> 00:02:27,720 in 1986, 27-year-old Kathy Kamor visited her ophthalmologist. 35 00:02:27,720 --> 00:02:29,040 You can sit back now, Kathy. 36 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:31,000 Kathy thought she had a minor problem, 37 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:33,760 but the doctor's verdict was horrified. 38 00:02:33,760 --> 00:02:35,360 Kathy might be going blind. 39 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:39,600 It may return, it may not return. 40 00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:42,160 It was a very frightening experience. 41 00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:45,800 He said I wouldn't run out right away and buy a white cane, 42 00:02:45,800 --> 00:02:47,800 but it's very serious. 43 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:50,640 And I was scared. 44 00:02:50,640 --> 00:02:53,040 I mean, I suddenly realized that there was a possibility 45 00:02:53,040 --> 00:02:54,440 that I could go blind. 46 00:02:54,440 --> 00:02:58,200 I never, I hadn't taken it seriously all along. 47 00:03:01,440 --> 00:03:04,000 Kathy's trouble had begun one week earlier. 48 00:03:06,520 --> 00:03:10,000 I woke up one morning and I just saw that there was a little area 49 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:12,560 in my field of vision that I couldn't see out of. 50 00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:16,160 And I just thought there was a speck on my eye 51 00:03:16,160 --> 00:03:19,160 and that I tried to rub it away and nothing happened. 52 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:21,160 It didn't leave. 53 00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:23,000 I didn't really think too much about it. 54 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:25,640 I just thought it was unusual. 55 00:03:25,640 --> 00:03:26,720 And I just let it go. 56 00:03:26,720 --> 00:03:29,160 And throughout the day, it didn't disappear. 57 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:33,640 And the next day, it was a little larger area. 58 00:03:33,640 --> 00:03:35,920 By the end of the week, when I couldn't see it all out 59 00:03:35,920 --> 00:03:38,360 of the eye, I decided this probably isn't normal 60 00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:41,360 and I probably should do something about it. 61 00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:44,120 Kathy consulted two other ophthalmologists. 62 00:03:44,120 --> 00:03:47,800 The diagnosis was unanimous, optic neuritis. 63 00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:50,600 Possible consequence, blindness. 64 00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:52,840 There is no known cure. 65 00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:56,480 Her doctor recommended steroids. 66 00:03:56,480 --> 00:03:59,200 Kathy was strongly opposed to the use of steroids 67 00:03:59,200 --> 00:04:01,800 and was determined to find an alternative. 68 00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:04,000 She consulted a doctor who was well versed 69 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:06,920 in the mysterious methods of a man named Edgar Cayce. 70 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:15,480 Edgar Cayce became famous in the 1920s as a diagnostician, 71 00:04:15,480 --> 00:04:19,080 even though he had absolutely no medical training. 72 00:04:19,080 --> 00:04:22,840 In his lifetime, Cayce made more than 9,000 diagnoses, 73 00:04:22,840 --> 00:04:26,560 which he called readings, but in a deep, self-induced trance. 74 00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:33,640 In 1937, Cayce did a reading on this 18-year-old woman 75 00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:37,440 who suffered from scleroderma, a disfiguring chronic disease 76 00:04:37,440 --> 00:04:41,520 with no cure in which a person's skin hardens. 77 00:04:41,520 --> 00:04:43,560 Cayce prescribed a number of treatments 78 00:04:43,560 --> 00:04:47,000 and her scleroderma went into immediate remission. 79 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:49,000 The reading was given in January, 80 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:52,360 and the readings were followed to the letter. 81 00:04:52,360 --> 00:04:56,120 In an interview 40 years later, the woman gave Edgar Cayce 82 00:04:56,120 --> 00:04:58,000 full credit for her cure. 83 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:00,520 In June of 1936. 84 00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:04,040 In 1976, six-year-old Andrew Senzon 85 00:05:04,040 --> 00:05:06,720 suffered from severe psoriasis. 86 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:09,880 In desperation, Andrew's mother sought out a doctor who 87 00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:14,840 utilized methods set down by Edgar Cayce 30 years earlier. 88 00:05:14,840 --> 00:05:17,360 Within four months, the psoriasis was gone. 89 00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:23,680 Today, Andrew Senzon is 21 years old 90 00:05:23,680 --> 00:05:26,440 and has had only one recurrence, which also 91 00:05:26,440 --> 00:05:28,400 responded to the Cayce treatments. 92 00:05:31,080 --> 00:05:34,360 Some people write off Edgar Cayce's cures as lucky coincidence, 93 00:05:34,360 --> 00:05:38,120 or the power of suggestion acting on psychosomatic illness, 94 00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:40,600 but for those diagnosed with the disease of modern medicine 95 00:05:40,600 --> 00:05:43,920 cannot cure, or in some cases even explain, 96 00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:47,160 Edgar Cayce's methods continue to hold out hope. 97 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:49,800 Cayce died in 1945. 98 00:05:49,800 --> 00:05:52,120 Even so, each year thousands of inquiries 99 00:05:52,120 --> 00:05:54,760 maul over the world pour into Cayce's non-profit center 100 00:05:54,760 --> 00:05:56,920 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. 101 00:05:56,920 --> 00:06:00,440 The thriving center is an unlikely legacy for Edgar Cayce, 102 00:06:00,440 --> 00:06:04,080 a quiet, unpretentious man who came of age in rural Kentucky 103 00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:05,080 at the turn of the century. 104 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:12,120 My father was a very ordinary person. 105 00:06:12,120 --> 00:06:14,280 He liked to garden, he liked to fish. 106 00:06:14,280 --> 00:06:16,000 We had gardens wherever we lived. 107 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:18,280 He taught Sunday school. 108 00:06:18,280 --> 00:06:20,800 I mean, in everyday life, you wouldn't know him 109 00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:21,560 from anybody else. 110 00:06:21,560 --> 00:06:23,040 It was only when he was asleep that he 111 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:24,400 had extraordinary ability. 112 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:29,680 Edgar Cayce discovered his mysterious ability 113 00:06:29,680 --> 00:06:31,640 when he was 13. 114 00:06:31,640 --> 00:06:33,720 Time for your lessons, young man. 115 00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:37,280 A borderline student, Edgar fell asleep over a spelling book. 116 00:06:38,280 --> 00:06:39,960 When his father quizzed him, Edgar 117 00:06:39,960 --> 00:06:41,840 could spell every word in the book 118 00:06:41,840 --> 00:06:46,080 and even knew the page numbers or each word appeared. 119 00:06:46,080 --> 00:06:46,680 Cattle. 120 00:06:46,680 --> 00:06:48,640 From that time on, all he had to do 121 00:06:48,640 --> 00:06:50,160 was sleep on his books at night. 122 00:06:50,160 --> 00:06:52,800 And he moved along very rapidly, whether it 123 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:55,160 was spelling or math or history or whatever. 124 00:06:55,160 --> 00:06:57,200 And he became an exceptional student 125 00:06:57,200 --> 00:07:00,240 rather than an average student. 126 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:03,560 In 1900, when Edgar was 23, he suddenly 127 00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:05,560 lost the power of speech. 128 00:07:05,560 --> 00:07:07,560 For an entire year, physicians were 129 00:07:07,560 --> 00:07:11,920 unable to explain or cure his illness. 130 00:07:11,920 --> 00:07:14,600 Continue to breathe deeply. 131 00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:16,560 As a last resort, Cayce's parents 132 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:18,960 convinced him to see a hypnotist. 133 00:07:18,960 --> 00:07:22,000 His family physician attended and recorded the session 134 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:23,200 in minute detail. 135 00:07:26,440 --> 00:07:29,880 Cayce sank into a deep sleep. 136 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:32,560 Everyone present was stunned when, for the first time 137 00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:35,240 in a year, Edgar Cayce spoke. 138 00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:44,480 Yes, we have the body before us. 139 00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:47,000 Dad never had any form of medical training. 140 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:50,840 In fact, his educational career stopped 141 00:07:50,840 --> 00:07:52,760 to be equivalent to the ninth grade now. 142 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:58,880 Due to a paralysis of the interior muscles 143 00:07:58,880 --> 00:08:00,680 of the vocal cords. 144 00:08:00,680 --> 00:08:04,120 He would suggest things and describe things, 145 00:08:04,120 --> 00:08:07,000 the parts of the body, that he had no knowledge of. 146 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:10,480 This will remove the trouble to the speech. 147 00:08:10,480 --> 00:08:12,760 He started to talk and say, yes, we 148 00:08:12,760 --> 00:08:15,760 have the condition of the constriction to the throat, 149 00:08:15,760 --> 00:08:18,000 some constriction of the blood flow. 150 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:20,160 So we will correct it. 151 00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:22,280 The body will now awaken. 152 00:08:22,280 --> 00:08:26,240 And when Lane, the hypnotist, told him to wake up, 153 00:08:26,240 --> 00:08:30,040 he set up and coughed up a little blood, and he could talk. 154 00:08:31,680 --> 00:08:35,000 And I think that was probably the first reading, 155 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:36,760 though it was on himself. 156 00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:37,160 Hello. 157 00:08:39,880 --> 00:08:42,120 Cayce's doctor persuaded him to attempt 158 00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:44,240 diagnoses on other patients who had not 159 00:08:44,240 --> 00:08:46,800 responded to traditional medicine. 160 00:08:46,800 --> 00:08:51,400 Cayce agreed, but the end result left him disillusioned. 161 00:08:51,400 --> 00:08:54,640 The problem developed when, at the end of some of the readings, 162 00:08:54,640 --> 00:08:57,720 people would start asking him questions about who was going 163 00:08:57,720 --> 00:08:59,840 to, what horse was going to win a race, 164 00:08:59,840 --> 00:09:02,200 what was going to happen in the commodities, the stock market, 165 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:04,760 of the results of a ball game. 166 00:09:04,760 --> 00:09:07,000 And when he found out what had happened, 167 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:12,480 of what people were doing, he said, I'm giving it up. 168 00:09:12,480 --> 00:09:14,960 Cayce abandoned his psychic readings, 169 00:09:14,960 --> 00:09:17,160 married, and moved to Selma, Alabama, 170 00:09:17,160 --> 00:09:19,320 where he worked as a photographer. 171 00:09:19,320 --> 00:09:25,160 By 1914, he had two sons, Edgar Evans and Hugh Lynn. 172 00:09:25,160 --> 00:09:26,880 When Hugh Lynn was eight years old, 173 00:09:26,880 --> 00:09:31,640 he was terribly injured in a dark room explosion. 174 00:09:31,640 --> 00:09:35,120 A local doctor held out little hope. 175 00:09:35,120 --> 00:09:37,640 How is he doing? 176 00:09:37,640 --> 00:09:42,360 I managed to remove most of the powder from his eyes. 177 00:09:42,360 --> 00:09:45,000 But I found that the damage to the tissue 178 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:48,640 was so extensive that he may lose his sight. 179 00:09:49,560 --> 00:09:54,600 My brother was playing in the studio and dropped a match 180 00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:57,320 in a partially filled can of flashlight powder, 181 00:09:57,320 --> 00:10:00,920 and it blew up in his face and burned his eyes very badly. 182 00:10:00,920 --> 00:10:03,040 The doctors examined him and said, well, 183 00:10:03,040 --> 00:10:05,480 we think we're going to have to take out one eye. 184 00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:08,400 He's probably going to lose a sight in both of them. 185 00:10:08,400 --> 00:10:14,440 And my brother said, daddy, give me a reading. 186 00:10:14,440 --> 00:10:15,640 Let's go into the parlor. 187 00:10:19,640 --> 00:10:22,480 For Edgar Cayce, it was the ultimate test. 188 00:10:22,480 --> 00:10:25,840 He had not attempted a reading in years. 189 00:10:25,840 --> 00:10:29,520 Could he now save his own son from a life of blindness? 190 00:10:32,520 --> 00:10:37,640 Although tannic acid would not be normally used 191 00:10:37,640 --> 00:10:41,800 under these circumstances for a child, 192 00:10:41,800 --> 00:10:45,160 an application for the eyes that included tannic acid. 193 00:10:45,160 --> 00:10:46,920 Well, that was unheard of at the time, 194 00:10:46,920 --> 00:10:48,760 and the doctors thought it was too strong, 195 00:10:48,760 --> 00:10:50,760 but they thought he was going to lose his eyes anyway. 196 00:10:50,760 --> 00:10:52,600 So they wouldn't hurt to try it. 197 00:10:52,600 --> 00:10:55,400 And when they first put it on, well, you then said, 198 00:10:55,400 --> 00:10:57,040 this must be daddy's medicine. 199 00:10:57,040 --> 00:10:57,600 It doesn't hurt. 200 00:11:00,360 --> 00:11:02,240 It seemed like a miracle. 201 00:11:02,240 --> 00:11:07,320 Within six weeks, Hugh Lynn's sight was completely restored. 202 00:11:07,320 --> 00:11:09,720 Word of the boy's recovery spread. 203 00:11:09,720 --> 00:11:12,720 Edgar Cayce soon became famous. 204 00:11:12,720 --> 00:11:17,200 In 1925, he moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia. 205 00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:20,360 Within five years, Cayce established a center there 206 00:11:20,360 --> 00:11:23,960 to catalog and interpret the readings. 207 00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:25,920 The center received thousands of letters, 208 00:11:25,920 --> 00:11:28,240 most of them requests for readings. 209 00:11:28,240 --> 00:11:31,240 Although Cayce normally did only two readings a day, 210 00:11:31,240 --> 00:11:33,600 he was unable to turn his back on those who 211 00:11:33,600 --> 00:11:37,400 seemed to need him so desperately. 212 00:11:37,400 --> 00:11:39,240 He felt like he couldn't refuse people, 213 00:11:39,240 --> 00:11:42,520 so he started doing two and three and four and five 214 00:11:42,520 --> 00:11:45,960 and he'd got up to understand nine or 10 a day, 215 00:11:45,960 --> 00:11:49,400 and it was just too much for him. 216 00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:51,680 On the brink of exhaustion, Edgar Cayce 217 00:11:51,680 --> 00:11:53,680 suffered a massive stroke. 218 00:11:53,680 --> 00:11:59,800 He died on January 3, 1945, leaving behind more than 120,000 219 00:11:59,800 --> 00:12:02,360 pages of readings, which continued 220 00:12:02,360 --> 00:12:05,920 to serve as a wellspring of hope for those in search of cures 221 00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:08,280 that may have eluded established medicine. 222 00:12:08,720 --> 00:12:12,960 Now, Kathy, an X-ray examination of your neck 223 00:12:12,960 --> 00:12:14,680 shows that you have the deviation. 224 00:12:14,680 --> 00:12:18,560 When Kathy Camorra's optic neuritis was diagnosed in 1986, 225 00:12:18,560 --> 00:12:22,600 she went to Dr. John Pagano, a chiropractor in New Jersey, 226 00:12:22,600 --> 00:12:26,560 who has studied Edgar Cayce's readings for 30 years. 227 00:12:26,560 --> 00:12:30,560 Cayce was very specific on what areas of the spine 228 00:12:30,560 --> 00:12:32,040 to adjust. 229 00:12:32,040 --> 00:12:36,160 The fact that Cayce suggested the certain procedures 230 00:12:36,200 --> 00:12:38,880 for eye problems does not mean that he's specifically 231 00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:40,280 diagnosed it as optic neuritis. 232 00:12:40,280 --> 00:12:43,240 He talked about vision problems, blindness, 233 00:12:43,240 --> 00:12:46,320 and that's what I approached not as optic neuritis. 234 00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:48,960 A person will stretch you out a little bit, 235 00:12:48,960 --> 00:12:50,920 to sort of get the blood circulating. 236 00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:53,560 After I gave her an adjustment, she called me the next day 237 00:12:53,560 --> 00:12:55,760 to tell me there's an improvement. 238 00:12:55,760 --> 00:12:59,240 We continued treatment, and within seven days, 239 00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:02,320 her site was restored. 240 00:13:02,320 --> 00:13:04,280 Dr. Pagano, who was a doctor, 241 00:13:05,240 --> 00:13:08,200 Dr. Pagano believes that Edgar Cayce's treatments, 242 00:13:08,200 --> 00:13:11,160 set forth in several readings given decades earlier, 243 00:13:11,160 --> 00:13:13,480 brought back Kathy Camorra's vision. 244 00:13:13,480 --> 00:13:16,680 Skeptics disagree. 245 00:13:16,680 --> 00:13:18,880 I think much of the Cayce material 246 00:13:18,880 --> 00:13:20,720 is based upon illusion. 247 00:13:20,720 --> 00:13:23,640 And I think there's a placebo effect here at work. 248 00:13:23,640 --> 00:13:27,680 Often, if you believe that someone is going to cure you, 249 00:13:27,680 --> 00:13:29,680 you give them white sugar pills. 250 00:13:29,680 --> 00:13:30,560 They might be cured. 251 00:13:30,560 --> 00:13:33,560 So the power of the mind can have a powerful effect. 252 00:13:33,560 --> 00:13:35,680 I do believe in the power of the mind. 253 00:13:35,680 --> 00:13:40,240 And I tried to will the site back 254 00:13:40,240 --> 00:13:44,680 before I had gone to Dr. Pagano, and it didn't work. 255 00:13:44,680 --> 00:13:46,760 And it was only after I had gone to Dr. Pagano, 256 00:13:46,760 --> 00:13:48,800 and after he had adjusted my neck, 257 00:13:48,800 --> 00:13:52,320 that the site came back. 258 00:13:52,320 --> 00:13:55,960 I don't think that Edgar Cayce had any psychic powers. 259 00:13:55,960 --> 00:13:58,680 I don't think there's such a thing as psychic medicine. 260 00:13:58,680 --> 00:14:02,440 And I think one ought to be very cautious about the claim 261 00:14:02,440 --> 00:14:07,600 that you can diagnose illnesses in some mystical way. 262 00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:11,040 How can the unique life of Edgar Cayce be explained? 263 00:14:11,040 --> 00:14:13,440 He has been denounced as a soothsayer. 264 00:14:13,440 --> 00:14:16,120 He has been heralded as a prophet. 265 00:14:16,120 --> 00:14:20,240 The medical establishment refuses to endorse Cayce's methods. 266 00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:25,680 Yet at the same time, is unwilling to dismiss them. 267 00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:30,000 Before his death, Edgar Cayce wrote to a friend, 268 00:14:30,040 --> 00:14:32,800 In my life and in the lives of many who come in contact 269 00:14:32,800 --> 00:14:36,360 with the readings, there seems to be much that is of help. 270 00:14:36,360 --> 00:14:39,200 But you must judge for yourself. 271 00:14:39,200 --> 00:14:42,160 Facts and results are the only measuring rods. 272 00:14:42,160 --> 00:14:44,880 If this knowledge is to be of any lasting benefit, 273 00:14:44,880 --> 00:14:49,160 it will require open-minded, intelligent research. 274 00:14:49,160 --> 00:14:50,720 Perhaps the readings of Edgar Cayce 275 00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:52,600 are one mystery that will be solved only 276 00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:55,240 through patience, medical evaluation, 277 00:14:55,240 --> 00:14:58,880 and that greatest of all healers, time. 278 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:03,480 Next, an aspiring actress is found dead 279 00:15:03,480 --> 00:15:05,480 in her Los Angeles apartment. 280 00:15:05,480 --> 00:15:08,560 The corner ruled her death due to undetermined causes, 281 00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:09,960 but some say it was murder. 282 00:15:19,480 --> 00:15:23,800 Hollywood, California, the dream factory, 283 00:15:23,800 --> 00:15:26,000 the fantasy land of myth and legend fueled 284 00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:28,160 by the tantalizing fable that anyone 285 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:30,240 can become famous overnight. 286 00:15:31,880 --> 00:15:34,720 Ever since the movies began, beautiful young girls 287 00:15:34,720 --> 00:15:36,960 have flocked to Hollywood, lured by the glamour 288 00:15:36,960 --> 00:15:39,840 of Tinseltown on the promise of startling. 289 00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:42,240 It was this dream which brought 23-year-old 290 00:15:42,240 --> 00:15:45,880 Crystal Spencer to Los Angeles in the summer of 1982. 291 00:15:47,760 --> 00:15:49,720 For as long as she could remember, 292 00:15:49,720 --> 00:15:52,760 Crystal Spencer pictured herself as not just an actress, 293 00:15:52,760 --> 00:15:54,480 but a star. 294 00:15:54,480 --> 00:15:56,400 Sadly, her search for fame and fortune 295 00:15:56,400 --> 00:16:00,120 led only to frustration, failure, and some say murder. 296 00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:05,440 Crystal Lene Spencer was raised in the small Northern 297 00:16:05,440 --> 00:16:07,960 California town of Ucaya. 298 00:16:07,960 --> 00:16:09,960 When she was eight, her father died, 299 00:16:09,960 --> 00:16:12,640 leaving her mother to raise three small children alone. 300 00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:17,440 At 17, Crystal dropped out of high school 301 00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:20,240 and took a job to help support the family. 302 00:16:20,240 --> 00:16:23,640 Soon Hollywood beckoned, and she moved to the Los Angeles area 303 00:16:23,640 --> 00:16:25,240 to actively pursue her dream. 304 00:16:27,400 --> 00:16:29,520 Her early years were a struggle, 305 00:16:29,520 --> 00:16:32,000 resulting only in a few bit parts. 306 00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:35,360 Crystal quickly realized the true stardom was elusive 307 00:16:35,360 --> 00:16:36,840 and perhaps unobtainable. 308 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:44,800 Within two years of her arrival, 309 00:16:44,800 --> 00:16:47,640 Crystal reluctantly took a job as an exotic dancer 310 00:16:47,640 --> 00:16:49,200 to pay her bills. 311 00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:52,760 On a good night, she cleared up to $400 in tips. 312 00:16:52,760 --> 00:16:55,160 But Crystal never fully accepted the fact 313 00:16:55,160 --> 00:16:57,200 that in essence, she was a stripper. 314 00:17:01,400 --> 00:17:06,120 Sometimes she would just like start crying, 315 00:17:06,120 --> 00:17:09,840 like she felt degraded about herself, of what she'd done. 316 00:17:12,560 --> 00:17:16,200 In May of 1987, friends invited Crystal to an outdoor 317 00:17:16,200 --> 00:17:17,520 barbecue. 318 00:17:17,520 --> 00:17:19,840 She was eager to mix and mingle with people 319 00:17:19,840 --> 00:17:21,800 who might help further her acting career. 320 00:17:23,800 --> 00:17:24,800 Nice to meet you. 321 00:17:25,560 --> 00:17:27,880 Oh, this is your place, then. 322 00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:30,400 There was something very alluring and compelling 323 00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:35,920 about Crystal that would readily catch your eye. 324 00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:38,800 She knew that she would become not only an actress, 325 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:41,160 but she would become a very famous actress, 326 00:17:41,160 --> 00:17:44,640 and it was just a matter of time. 327 00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:47,200 Crystal was taken with Anton Klein, 328 00:17:47,200 --> 00:17:51,200 a would-be screenwriter and a PhD candidate in history. 329 00:17:51,200 --> 00:17:53,520 Though they came from totally different backgrounds, 330 00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:56,720 they soon fell in love. 331 00:17:56,720 --> 00:17:58,960 Anton took it upon himself to help Crystal 332 00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:00,880 broaden her horizons. 333 00:18:00,880 --> 00:18:03,320 He introduced her to art galleries, museums, 334 00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:04,480 and concerts. 335 00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:05,560 Crystal was dazzled. 336 00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:09,560 She loved classical music. 337 00:18:09,560 --> 00:18:12,000 She loved fine art. 338 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:18,440 She wanted to know more about these other wonderful things 339 00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:23,200 of life that she had never been exposed to before. 340 00:18:23,240 --> 00:18:26,520 Anton had no idea how Crystal earned her living. 341 00:18:26,520 --> 00:18:28,760 She walked a precarious tightrope. 342 00:18:28,760 --> 00:18:31,320 Discovering art and culture by day, 343 00:18:31,320 --> 00:18:33,840 immersed in Hollywood's dark side by night. 344 00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:40,800 Crystal loved Anton very much. 345 00:18:40,800 --> 00:18:45,840 She was very scared about him finding out. 346 00:18:45,840 --> 00:18:47,080 She says, well, I better change. 347 00:18:47,080 --> 00:18:50,240 I better quit dancing then before he finds out. 348 00:18:50,240 --> 00:18:54,400 I better quit doing this before he finds out. 349 00:18:54,400 --> 00:18:55,200 I want to get married. 350 00:18:55,200 --> 00:18:56,120 I want to have a future. 351 00:18:56,120 --> 00:18:59,760 I want to start doing something for my life. 352 00:19:02,800 --> 00:19:05,200 Finally, four months after they met, 353 00:19:05,200 --> 00:19:09,560 Anton found out about Crystal's other life. 354 00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:13,560 A neighbor saw her dancing at the club by the airport 355 00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:15,120 where she worked. 356 00:19:15,120 --> 00:19:18,880 And he said, I saw that girl on stage either night 357 00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:20,840 or so. 358 00:19:20,840 --> 00:19:22,080 No, you couldn't have. 359 00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:24,720 He said, that was her. 360 00:19:24,720 --> 00:19:26,640 Of course it was her. 361 00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:30,440 And I was shocked. 362 00:19:30,440 --> 00:19:32,680 He was very upset. 363 00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:35,280 But he said it was OK. 364 00:19:35,280 --> 00:19:39,320 He accepted it, which shocked her. 365 00:19:39,320 --> 00:19:41,960 And she didn't know what to say. 366 00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:44,440 I need to put it right here. 367 00:19:44,440 --> 00:19:45,840 I want so many cold hands on them. 368 00:19:45,840 --> 00:19:46,960 That's my cold. 369 00:19:46,960 --> 00:19:51,200 On Wednesday, May 4, 1988, Crystal was home with a cold. 370 00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:54,120 Anton stopped by, and they talked about a promising offer 371 00:19:54,120 --> 00:19:57,760 she had received to work in the Orient. 372 00:19:57,760 --> 00:19:58,400 Perfect. 373 00:19:58,400 --> 00:19:59,880 So what's happened with your hand? 374 00:19:59,880 --> 00:20:00,880 I don't know. 375 00:20:00,880 --> 00:20:03,440 They haven't called yet. 376 00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:05,120 When are you leaving? 377 00:20:05,120 --> 00:20:10,400 I'm not even sure if I have the job or not yet. 378 00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:11,880 She was very nervous. 379 00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:16,160 But excited about the possibility of traveling to Japan 380 00:20:16,160 --> 00:20:19,320 and seeing a whole different world in which she was accustomed 381 00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:20,320 to. 382 00:20:20,320 --> 00:20:27,040 I spoke to Crystal Thursday evening, the next evening, 383 00:20:27,040 --> 00:20:27,680 on the telephone. 384 00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:28,720 How are you doing? 385 00:20:28,720 --> 00:20:29,960 You feeling better? 386 00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:31,480 Much better, thanks. 387 00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:32,400 That's good. 388 00:20:32,400 --> 00:20:35,480 And the conversation lasted for 15 minutes. 389 00:20:35,480 --> 00:20:36,560 I said, I'll be in touch. 390 00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:37,760 And she said, OK. 391 00:20:37,760 --> 00:20:39,800 I hung up the phone. 392 00:20:39,800 --> 00:20:44,000 And that was the last time I ever spoke with her. 393 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:46,840 Three days later, Anton tried to reach Crystal, 394 00:20:46,840 --> 00:20:49,360 but continuously got a busy signal. 395 00:20:49,360 --> 00:20:52,040 An operator told him the receiver was off the hook. 396 00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:04,520 Good afternoon. 397 00:21:04,520 --> 00:21:06,440 Yeah, I'm looking for Crystal Spencer. 398 00:21:06,440 --> 00:21:08,480 She's not working tonight. 399 00:21:08,520 --> 00:21:10,040 Did she work here last night? 400 00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:11,560 She didn't punch in. 401 00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:15,120 Confused, Anton has seen the Crystal at Lefver, Japan 402 00:21:15,120 --> 00:21:17,360 without saying goodbye. 403 00:21:17,360 --> 00:21:18,840 Have you seen Crystal Spencer? 404 00:21:18,840 --> 00:21:19,520 What? 405 00:21:19,520 --> 00:21:21,200 Have you seen Crystal Spencer? 406 00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:23,200 No, I haven't seen her in a couple of days. 407 00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:24,240 Do you know where she is? 408 00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:28,720 I was expecting any day to receive a very excited phone 409 00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:33,160 call from a very excited Crystal saying, 410 00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:34,600 it's wonderful here. 411 00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:36,840 It's a whole different world here. 412 00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:39,840 And instead, I got a phone call from the Burbank Police 413 00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:40,320 Department. 414 00:21:43,600 --> 00:21:47,360 Friday, the 13th of May, 1988, police 415 00:21:47,360 --> 00:21:50,600 discovered the decomposed body of Crystal Spencer. 416 00:21:50,600 --> 00:21:52,560 She had been dead for nearly a week. 417 00:21:52,560 --> 00:21:54,880 Hi, Alway. 418 00:21:54,880 --> 00:21:59,840 They at first just said she was found dead in her apartment. 419 00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:02,280 And they wanted to know when I'd last seen her. 420 00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:04,520 And I said I last saw her on Wednesday. 421 00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:05,240 And how was she? 422 00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:07,760 I said, well, she had a cold. 423 00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:13,560 And they said they believed she died of natural causes. 424 00:22:13,560 --> 00:22:16,920 An autopsy revealed no trace of drugs or alcohol 425 00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:18,360 in Crystal's system. 426 00:22:18,360 --> 00:22:22,440 There were no obvious signs of foul play or suicide. 427 00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:24,440 The coroner ruled that her death was 428 00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:27,560 a result of undetermined causes. 429 00:22:27,560 --> 00:22:30,480 The body of Ms. Spencer was in such an advanced state 430 00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:33,000 of decomposition, they were not able to ascribe 431 00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:34,760 the cause of death. 432 00:22:34,760 --> 00:22:37,200 So they have no finding. 433 00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:39,360 I was suspicious because I did not 434 00:22:39,360 --> 00:22:42,680 believe that Crystal Spencer died of illness. 435 00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:48,080 She was not a sick woman when I last saw her or last spoke 436 00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:49,200 with her. 437 00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:52,120 She was a young woman for cold. 438 00:22:52,120 --> 00:22:54,960 I was suspicious because the way I was told the body was 439 00:22:54,960 --> 00:23:00,000 found in an obscure corner of her apartment, 440 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:02,120 nude from the waist down. 441 00:23:02,120 --> 00:23:05,000 The phone went off the hook for days. 442 00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:08,800 And I became extremely suspicious when 443 00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:13,200 I learned that neighbors had heard terrible screams 444 00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:16,840 and shrills coming from her apartment 445 00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:19,320 that some had described as a sound of torture. 446 00:23:23,360 --> 00:23:26,200 On the night of May 7, two of Crystal's neighbors 447 00:23:26,200 --> 00:23:31,320 had been awakened by a strange intermittent wailing. 448 00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:34,120 Two, three minutes after 4, I remember looking at the clock. 449 00:23:34,120 --> 00:23:37,280 And I heard some moans and some just funny sounds. 450 00:23:37,280 --> 00:23:39,120 And you know how you are when you wake up. 451 00:23:39,120 --> 00:23:42,320 You just don't know what's going on. 452 00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:44,080 Somebody's screaming. 453 00:23:44,080 --> 00:23:45,480 But even before I even woke him up, 454 00:23:45,480 --> 00:23:47,200 I laid there thinking someone's being tortured, 455 00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:50,120 someone's being hurt, something's going on. 456 00:23:50,120 --> 00:23:54,040 I had no past prior experience to what the sounds were 457 00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:56,960 because they were so blood curdling eerie 458 00:23:56,960 --> 00:24:01,080 that they frightened me very much. 459 00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:02,080 Sounds terrible. 460 00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:03,200 Do you think it's going from here? 461 00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:05,000 All I could think about for some reason 462 00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:07,800 was someone taking a cigarette and putting it 463 00:24:07,800 --> 00:24:10,560 against her body, torturing her. 464 00:24:10,560 --> 00:24:15,320 Because we had heard like choking and moaning. 465 00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:19,320 But then when this started, that's all we heard. 466 00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:22,400 The citizen was very adamant about calling the police. 467 00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:26,120 But out of my fear of what I heard, 468 00:24:26,120 --> 00:24:27,560 I didn't want to get involved. 469 00:24:27,560 --> 00:24:30,080 That was my first reaction. 470 00:24:30,080 --> 00:24:33,040 I don't think I'll ever be able to live with the fact 471 00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:35,200 that I didn't call the police. 472 00:24:35,200 --> 00:24:40,560 If I had, maybe she would still be alive. 473 00:24:40,560 --> 00:24:43,360 A week later, Crystal's body was discovered. 474 00:24:43,360 --> 00:24:46,000 And the tailors finally told their story to the police. 475 00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:46,800 You were the witnesses. 476 00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:47,920 You saw or heard something. 477 00:24:47,920 --> 00:24:49,120 About a week ago, about four in the morning. 478 00:24:49,120 --> 00:24:51,280 He just took my statement, took my name, 479 00:24:51,280 --> 00:24:53,600 asked me for my driver's license. 480 00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:54,640 That was it. 481 00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:57,520 It was just very nonchalant about it. 482 00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:03,200 I believe, most sincerely, as does her family, 483 00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:05,600 that Crystal and A. Spencer was murdered 484 00:25:05,600 --> 00:25:11,560 in the early morning hours of May 7, 1988. 485 00:25:11,560 --> 00:25:15,440 Crystal's family requested to view the body several times. 486 00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:17,720 The coroner's office continually refused, 487 00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:21,040 claiming the body was in no condition to be seen. 488 00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:23,600 For months, Anton Klein was denied access 489 00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:25,400 to the police records. 490 00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:27,680 However, in September of 1988, he 491 00:25:27,680 --> 00:25:30,840 was able to obtain the autopsy report. 492 00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:33,640 Anton was shocked by the discrepancies he found. 493 00:25:36,360 --> 00:25:39,520 Crystal Spencer was barely five foot tall. 494 00:25:39,520 --> 00:25:44,240 The autopsy report claims that she's an amazing five foot seven. 495 00:25:44,240 --> 00:25:48,480 Crystal Spencer weighed approximately 105 pounds. 496 00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:49,760 I last saw her. 497 00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:56,640 The autopsy claims the body is a well-nourished 140 pounds. 498 00:25:56,640 --> 00:25:58,080 I was stunned. 499 00:25:58,080 --> 00:26:01,360 I said, this is not the body of Crystal Spencer. 500 00:26:01,360 --> 00:26:04,280 Where is the real body of Crystal Spencer? 501 00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:07,520 You don't grow seven inches and gain 50 to 60 pounds 502 00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:09,040 when you're dead. 503 00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:11,600 The only thing that comes to my mind 504 00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:15,080 is a possible documentary error at the coroner's office. 505 00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:17,000 They are overwhelmed with work. 506 00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:20,800 However, we do have the remains identified 507 00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:23,400 by fingerprints from two different agencies, 508 00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:25,520 as I mentioned before. 509 00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:28,320 And those really eliminate any possibility 510 00:26:28,320 --> 00:26:33,240 of the coroner's autopsy and the wrong remains. 511 00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:38,080 I was told by one law enforcement official, 512 00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:40,880 quote unquote, bad things happen to bad girls. 513 00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:45,600 And I said, you mean bad girls die of natural causes? 514 00:26:45,600 --> 00:26:50,360 And he said, you know what I mean. 515 00:26:50,360 --> 00:26:51,560 And hung up on me on the phone. 516 00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:56,520 Two weeks after the discovery of her body, 517 00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:58,360 Crystal's family and friends gathered 518 00:26:58,360 --> 00:27:02,560 for a private memorial service. 519 00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:04,840 Fittingly, Crystal Spencer's ashes 520 00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:07,520 were scattered beneath the famous Hollywood sign. 521 00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:12,200 I believe the investigation is bungled. 522 00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:17,680 And I am angered that they are attempting now 523 00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:23,800 to suppress the police reports in this case forever. 524 00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:27,800 We need to know what happened to her. 525 00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:31,160 It's important to all of us who cared about her 526 00:27:31,160 --> 00:27:33,040 to learn the truth. 527 00:27:33,040 --> 00:27:34,640 That's all we want to know. 528 00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:36,960 To learn the truth. 529 00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:38,440 That's all we want is the truth. 530 00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:55,000 Next, police need your help to find 531 00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:57,920 a man suspected in the brutal murder of his ex-wife. 532 00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:11,760 Easter Sunday, 1990, a lonely road 12 miles outside 533 00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:14,280 of Coldwater, Michigan. 534 00:28:14,280 --> 00:28:16,960 Ray and Marie Thornton set off on a leisurely drive 535 00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:20,200 in the country as they did every weekend. 536 00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:23,400 But in just a matter of minutes, the routine sundiality 537 00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:26,200 would place this ordinary, orbiting couple 538 00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:30,800 at the center of a strange and ominous mystery. 539 00:28:30,800 --> 00:28:32,200 We were driving the solid time. 540 00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:35,920 We were driving south on the Snow Perry Road. 541 00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:40,520 And all of a sudden a van just on us and passed. 542 00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:42,120 Look at this guy coming around us. 543 00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:44,120 I need sure he's in a hurry. 544 00:28:44,120 --> 00:28:45,600 There he goes. 545 00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:46,480 Geeze. 546 00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:47,480 Geeze. 547 00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:50,400 He must be in a hurry. 548 00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:52,480 One of the things we do when we're out driving around 549 00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:55,320 is we make names out of license plates. 550 00:28:55,320 --> 00:28:58,280 And Marie came up with the G's. 551 00:28:58,280 --> 00:29:00,320 He's really in a hurry because the first two letters 552 00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:02,680 of his license plate were GZ. 553 00:29:02,680 --> 00:29:03,960 And it was just spontaneous. 554 00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:07,400 Really no thought behind it. 555 00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:09,800 Several miles down the road, the Thorntons 556 00:29:09,800 --> 00:29:14,200 came across the man and the van a second time. 557 00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:17,200 As we approached an old schoolhouse, 558 00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:19,280 I saw a man behind it. 559 00:29:19,280 --> 00:29:22,280 And he had what appeared to be a bloody sheet. 560 00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:24,040 Man, that's not a bloody sheet. 561 00:29:24,040 --> 00:29:26,240 He's behind the building. 562 00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:28,440 As we continued passing the school, 563 00:29:28,440 --> 00:29:32,680 I saw the van parked between the building and a big tank. 564 00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:34,640 There's the van that passed us. 565 00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:35,640 Where? 566 00:29:35,640 --> 00:29:36,640 It's right there. 567 00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:38,080 There was the one that passed us? 568 00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:40,080 Yes, I'm sure it was. 569 00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:42,320 The van that passed us. 570 00:29:42,320 --> 00:29:45,440 Minutes later, the van pulled up behind them again 571 00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:48,360 and rode their bumper for nearly two miles. 572 00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:50,760 I'm going to start writing this step down. 573 00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:54,280 Our game really paid off because that helped me remember 574 00:29:54,280 --> 00:29:57,720 the first two letters of his license plate number. 575 00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:00,960 But we wanted to get more if possible. 576 00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:03,920 He's got a white skull cap on right now like mine. 577 00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:08,080 Finally, a nervous Ray Thornton turned off the highway. 578 00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:10,720 When he did, the van pulled to the side of the road. 579 00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:18,440 We decided to turn around and come back and see 580 00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:20,680 if we get a license plate number. 581 00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:22,320 We felt if we could get the license number, 582 00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:23,520 then we could turn into a police. 583 00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:25,360 The guy was acting very suspicious. 584 00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:31,360 And we just felt that authorities should be notified. 585 00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:32,160 There he is. 586 00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:33,160 What is he doing? 587 00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:34,240 No, he's in the back of the van. 588 00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:35,160 He looks like he's changed. 589 00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:35,560 He is. 590 00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:36,240 He's changing plates. 591 00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:43,200 He was behind his van with the passenger front door open. 592 00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:45,160 You see the numbers on that plate? 593 00:30:45,160 --> 00:30:49,720 And I saw that the passenger door was covered with blood. 594 00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:51,320 There's blood all over that door. 595 00:30:51,320 --> 00:30:51,840 What door? 596 00:30:51,840 --> 00:30:53,440 The passenger door. 597 00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:54,760 That guy has done something. 598 00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:56,800 He has. 599 00:30:56,800 --> 00:31:00,360 The Thornton sphere, that something unspeakable had happened. 600 00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:02,800 They returned to the schoolyard to search for the sheet. 601 00:31:05,800 --> 00:31:07,520 Well, I was beginning to get nervous when 602 00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:10,960 we got back to the schoolhouse. 603 00:31:10,960 --> 00:31:13,440 We were very careful about where we walked. 604 00:31:13,440 --> 00:31:14,480 Where'd you see him? 605 00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:16,920 Back over this side. 606 00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:19,080 We tried to find what this white thing was 607 00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:22,000 that he had been carrying. 608 00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:23,080 Look, look. 609 00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:24,560 I see it. 610 00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:26,840 That's probably it. 611 00:31:26,840 --> 00:31:27,840 What is it? 612 00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:35,400 Partially stuffed into a small animal hole 613 00:31:35,400 --> 00:31:37,800 was a blood-soaked blanket. 614 00:31:37,800 --> 00:31:39,800 It's definitely a gland, all right. 615 00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:40,800 Let's go call him, please. 616 00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:47,200 On an otherwise pleasant spring afternoon, 617 00:31:47,200 --> 00:31:49,320 Ray and Marie Thornton had chanced upon evidence 618 00:31:49,320 --> 00:31:52,520 of a shocking crime, a crime which marked 619 00:31:52,520 --> 00:31:56,040 the complete and tragic disintegration of a family. 620 00:31:56,040 --> 00:31:57,760 Unwittingly, the Thorntons were witness 621 00:31:57,760 --> 00:32:00,280 to the final chapter of a bitter heated conflict 622 00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:04,600 between a husband and his wife, which ended in murder. 623 00:32:04,600 --> 00:32:05,720 He needs a man in the open. 624 00:32:05,720 --> 00:32:07,840 He's broke. 625 00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:10,040 Throughout what appearances, Dennis and Marilyn 626 00:32:10,040 --> 00:32:11,800 DePue of Coldwater, Michigan had 627 00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:13,520 a comfortable middle-class life. 628 00:32:13,520 --> 00:32:14,840 Now you be careful. 629 00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:16,880 Both had gratifying careers. 630 00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:19,880 Dennis was a state of Michigan property assessor, 631 00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:23,240 Marilyn, a high school counselor. 632 00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:25,480 Together, they were raising three healthy children. 633 00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:30,640 But beneath the surface, smoldering tensions 634 00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:33,120 threatened to erupt at any moment. 635 00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:37,280 After the children were born, Dennis grew sullen and withdrawn. 636 00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:39,680 He began to isolate himself from the family 637 00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:42,320 and accused Marilyn of turning the children against him. 638 00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:47,440 You know, it's not that they fought all the time, 639 00:32:47,480 --> 00:32:48,600 because they didn't. 640 00:32:48,600 --> 00:32:53,440 It was just, you know, they just didn't really talk. 641 00:32:53,440 --> 00:32:56,680 She would just say in general that she was unhappy. 642 00:32:56,680 --> 00:33:01,400 And when the lawyer or someone else would ask her why 643 00:33:01,400 --> 00:33:04,960 she wanted to get a divorce, she would say because the marriage 644 00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:09,680 is broken up and because there wasn't 645 00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:12,480 a longer marriage there. 646 00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:14,200 You want to make sure that you want to go through it 647 00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:15,000 at this time? 648 00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:17,440 If you do, you've got to sign it on this page 649 00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:19,400 and sign it on the last page. 650 00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:22,760 In 1989, after 18 years of marriage, 651 00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:25,400 Marilyn DePue finally gave up. 652 00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:26,680 Thank you. 653 00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:28,920 Now, do you have any questions at all, Marilyn? 654 00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:31,400 What about him seeing the children, then? 655 00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:33,400 We have to wait till the hearing a week from Friday. 656 00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:37,360 Marilyn wanted to be more of her own person, 657 00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:40,440 raising her family as she saw fit. 658 00:33:40,440 --> 00:33:44,240 I believe that she felt at that time that Dennis was, 659 00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:47,080 in effect, trying to domineer her, that has run her life 660 00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:48,480 and not allow her to make decisions 661 00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:50,240 that she wanted to make. 662 00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:53,160 He was agreeable to his wife having custody. 663 00:33:53,160 --> 00:33:55,480 As far as property was concerned, 664 00:33:55,480 --> 00:33:59,120 he was very willing to allow his wife 665 00:33:59,120 --> 00:34:03,120 to have almost most of the property that she wanted. 666 00:34:03,120 --> 00:34:05,160 Many times, I had to fight with him 667 00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:07,440 to, you know, get a fair share of the property. 668 00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:11,160 But he was very willing to give her whatever she wanted. 669 00:34:11,160 --> 00:34:13,120 I don't want this thing to happen. 670 00:34:13,120 --> 00:34:14,080 I don't want this divorce. 671 00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:18,240 It's not something I want or want to deal with. 672 00:34:18,240 --> 00:34:21,280 Despite Dennis's attempts to keep the marriage intact, 673 00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:24,360 the divorce became final in December of 1989. 674 00:34:35,200 --> 00:34:37,960 Dennis was granted bi-weekly visitation rights, 675 00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:40,560 but the children were often reluctant to spend time with him. 676 00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:46,760 Dennis was also granted access to the guest house, 677 00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:49,640 which he uses in office and has an excuse 678 00:34:49,640 --> 00:34:51,640 to maintain control over his family. 679 00:34:54,360 --> 00:34:58,920 Marilyn had to change all the locks on the doors. 680 00:34:58,920 --> 00:35:01,880 Even after she changed the locks on the doors, 681 00:35:01,880 --> 00:35:04,840 she would tell me that there were some times when she would 682 00:35:04,840 --> 00:35:08,400 come home, in unlock the house and go in, 683 00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:11,800 and there was Dennis sitting on the couch. 684 00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:15,440 She didn't know how he got in because she had different keys 685 00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:17,920 made and new locks and everything. 686 00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:21,520 And she seemed a little frightened about that. 687 00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:26,040 He sort of out of the blue just indicated to me one day 688 00:35:26,040 --> 00:35:30,400 that he was contemplating suicide and murder. 689 00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:41,360 Easter Sunday, April 15, 1990, Dennis 690 00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:44,240 arrived to pick up two of the children for a visit. 691 00:35:44,240 --> 00:35:46,240 His younger daughter, Julie, had already 692 00:35:46,240 --> 00:35:47,360 refused to go with him. 693 00:35:51,840 --> 00:35:53,720 Come on, Scott, get your things. 694 00:35:53,720 --> 00:35:54,480 Put the game down. 695 00:35:54,480 --> 00:35:54,880 Let's go. 696 00:35:54,880 --> 00:35:56,160 Get your jacket. 697 00:35:56,160 --> 00:35:56,600 No, we can't. 698 00:35:56,600 --> 00:35:58,560 Look, I came here now. 699 00:35:58,560 --> 00:35:59,560 You're going now. 700 00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:00,760 I'm not hanging around here anymore. 701 00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:01,760 But Julie doesn't have to go. 702 00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:02,840 I don't care what Julie says. 703 00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:03,340 Come on. 704 00:36:03,340 --> 00:36:04,240 Dennis, now stop. 705 00:36:04,240 --> 00:36:05,040 Just calm down. 706 00:36:05,040 --> 00:36:06,760 Every time you turn him again, he's 707 00:36:06,760 --> 00:36:08,240 old enough to make his own decisions. 708 00:36:08,240 --> 00:36:09,040 Everything. 709 00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:10,240 He's coming with you. 710 00:36:10,240 --> 00:36:11,200 Leave him alone. 711 00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:13,080 You're making things terrible. 712 00:36:13,080 --> 00:36:14,080 I hate you. 713 00:36:14,080 --> 00:36:15,080 No, stop. 714 00:36:15,080 --> 00:36:16,080 Get out of here. 715 00:36:16,080 --> 00:36:17,060 Get out of here. 716 00:36:17,060 --> 00:36:17,960 No, no. 717 00:36:17,960 --> 00:36:18,840 Don't do it. 718 00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:19,840 Don't do it. 719 00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:22,340 Don't do it. 720 00:36:22,340 --> 00:36:23,720 Betty, help her. 721 00:36:23,720 --> 00:36:24,720 No. 722 00:36:24,720 --> 00:36:25,720 No, stop it. 723 00:36:25,720 --> 00:36:26,720 Don't do it. 724 00:36:26,720 --> 00:36:27,720 No, no, no. 725 00:36:27,720 --> 00:36:29,440 You're hurting her. 726 00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:31,360 The depuse eldest daughter, Jennifer, 727 00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:34,040 ran to a neighbor's house to call the sheriff's office. 728 00:36:34,640 --> 00:36:35,540 Oh. 729 00:36:39,540 --> 00:36:42,800 She wasn't walking completely on her. 730 00:36:42,800 --> 00:36:44,720 We're going to the hospital. 731 00:36:44,720 --> 00:36:46,800 He was like pulling her up. 732 00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:47,800 We're going to the hospital. 733 00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:49,360 You kids stay here. 734 00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:54,320 And when they were walking by, I just said, ma, ma, 735 00:36:54,320 --> 00:36:56,240 she didn't even look at me. 736 00:36:56,240 --> 00:36:59,320 She was just kind of like in a daze. 737 00:36:59,920 --> 00:37:05,440 The depuse never arrived at the hospital. 738 00:37:05,440 --> 00:37:07,720 Sheriff's deputies and the Michigan State Police 739 00:37:07,720 --> 00:37:09,920 immediately began a search for the missing couple. 740 00:37:13,720 --> 00:37:16,600 That same afternoon, Ray and Marie Thornton 741 00:37:16,600 --> 00:37:18,760 found a bloodied blanket in the schoolyard. 742 00:37:23,720 --> 00:37:26,200 The area was quickly cordoned off. 743 00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:28,800 The authorities began to assume the worst. 744 00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:30,920 Maryland depue was probably dead. 745 00:37:35,160 --> 00:37:36,480 How's it look, guys? 746 00:37:36,480 --> 00:37:38,960 Deputies discovered several fresh tire tracks 747 00:37:38,960 --> 00:37:40,880 and a large pool of blood. 748 00:37:40,880 --> 00:37:42,520 Good reproduction here. 749 00:37:42,520 --> 00:37:45,800 The tracks are later matched to Dennis's van. 750 00:37:45,800 --> 00:37:47,480 The blood was Maryland's. 751 00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:56,560 All right. 752 00:37:56,560 --> 00:37:58,120 What time do you get off here? 753 00:37:58,120 --> 00:38:00,360 The next day, a highway worker discovered 754 00:38:00,360 --> 00:38:03,200 Maryland depused body just off a deserted road, 755 00:38:03,200 --> 00:38:07,080 midway between the schoolhouse and her home. 756 00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:09,760 She had been shot once in the back of the head. 757 00:38:13,720 --> 00:38:20,440 We had a ceiling that had really done something terrible. 758 00:38:20,440 --> 00:38:23,520 It was so brutal and premeditated 759 00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:26,800 that it makes you so angry. 760 00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:29,720 If she had been killed in an automobile accident, 761 00:38:29,720 --> 00:38:32,880 you could get over that, but not this. 762 00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:40,120 Just days after the murder, Dennis 763 00:38:40,120 --> 00:38:42,360 set a series of wild rambling letters 764 00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:45,080 to friends and relatives in which he tried to justify 765 00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:47,000 Maryland's death. 766 00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:50,880 To co-worker Jan Markowski, Dennis wrote, 767 00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:52,760 Maryland had many, many opportunities 768 00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:55,200 to treat me fairly during this divorce. 769 00:38:55,200 --> 00:38:59,840 And she chose to string it out, trick me, lie to me. 770 00:38:59,840 --> 00:39:02,880 And when you lose your wife, children, and home, 771 00:39:02,880 --> 00:39:05,080 there's not much left. 772 00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:08,960 I was too old to start over. 773 00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:12,160 All together, Dennis sent a total of 17 letters, 774 00:39:12,160 --> 00:39:17,480 postmarking Virginia, Iowa, and Oklahoma. 775 00:39:17,480 --> 00:39:20,000 It seemed as if Dennis was trying 776 00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:27,960 to say that those of us who were friends of Maryland 777 00:39:27,960 --> 00:39:32,440 were the ones who caused her death, when in effect it 778 00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:35,240 was Dennis who pulled the trigger. 779 00:39:35,240 --> 00:39:38,920 None of the rest of us did that. 780 00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:43,120 The only closure that we could get out of it 781 00:39:43,120 --> 00:39:45,520 would be to have Dennis caught. 782 00:39:45,520 --> 00:39:46,760 That's the only thing. 783 00:39:49,960 --> 00:39:56,320 I can't think of anything else that would help me. 784 00:39:56,320 --> 00:40:00,760 I think of it day and night, and I will the rest of my life. 785 00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:03,600 And nothing, even Dennis being caught, 786 00:40:03,600 --> 00:40:08,800 will not take this terrible feeling away and loss. 787 00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:10,200 A tooth for a tooth. 788 00:40:14,200 --> 00:40:16,200 An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, 789 00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:20,200 a lie for a lie, a life for a life. 790 00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:22,200 Three months after the murder, Dennis Tapu 791 00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:24,000 sent copies of this 13-page letter 792 00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:26,280 to a number of friends and relatives. 793 00:40:26,280 --> 00:40:29,840 It reads like a treatise, a chilling 5,000-word rationalization, 794 00:40:29,840 --> 00:40:33,600 which takes liberty from the Bible throughout. 795 00:40:33,600 --> 00:40:36,800 I realize that vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord. 796 00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:42,080 Sometimes the Lord is too busy doing other things. 797 00:40:42,080 --> 00:40:46,120 Dennis Tapu is six feet tall and weighs 200 pounds. 798 00:40:46,120 --> 00:40:50,120 He has dark brown hair and dark, deep-set eyes. 799 00:40:50,120 --> 00:40:53,960 He was last seen driving a 1984 cream-colored Chevrolet van 800 00:40:53,960 --> 00:40:57,280 with maroon stripes, which may now bear Illinois license plates. 801 00:41:01,720 --> 00:41:04,400 At around 8.30 on the night of our broadcast, 802 00:41:04,400 --> 00:41:07,320 a woman who asked that we call her Mary arrived at her home 803 00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:09,240 outside Dallas, Texas. 804 00:41:09,240 --> 00:41:13,960 Mary's boyfriend, Hank Queen, was already home. 805 00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:17,000 His van was parked in the driveway, 806 00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:20,360 which was out of the ordinary because he usually 807 00:41:20,360 --> 00:41:22,360 kept it inside the garage. 808 00:41:28,560 --> 00:41:32,400 He told me that his mother was very ill, 809 00:41:32,400 --> 00:41:35,760 and that he needed to make an emergency trip home. 810 00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:36,800 And I'm going to drive up here. 811 00:41:36,800 --> 00:41:38,920 Could you make me some sandwiches that I can take on them? 812 00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:40,440 It's a really long drive. 813 00:41:40,440 --> 00:41:43,800 I was sure that something else must really be going on, 814 00:41:43,800 --> 00:41:45,080 but I didn't know what. 815 00:41:48,880 --> 00:41:52,600 He was getting clothes out of the closet, 816 00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:56,440 clothes out of some drawers, gathering up some of his personal 817 00:41:56,440 --> 00:41:59,840 items, at the same time giving me instructions 818 00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:06,600 on preparing some food for him to take on the long trip. 819 00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:07,600 What do you want to drink? 820 00:42:07,600 --> 00:42:08,600 I don't care. 821 00:42:08,600 --> 00:42:09,600 Stop. 822 00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:10,600 Um. 823 00:42:10,600 --> 00:42:11,600 Sodas. 824 00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:12,600 A can of soda would be good. 825 00:42:12,600 --> 00:42:13,600 Everything. 826 00:42:13,600 --> 00:42:14,600 He's coming with you. 827 00:42:14,600 --> 00:42:15,600 Leave me alone. 828 00:42:15,600 --> 00:42:17,600 You're making things damn right. 829 00:42:17,600 --> 00:42:20,600 I hate you. 830 00:42:20,600 --> 00:42:22,600 Aren't you going to give me a hug? 831 00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:27,240 He just gave me a little peck of a kiss, 832 00:42:27,240 --> 00:42:30,240 and I gave him a big hug and said goodbye to him. 833 00:42:34,720 --> 00:42:38,080 I realized that something was troubling him, 834 00:42:38,080 --> 00:42:39,680 and I knew I would never see him again. 835 00:42:44,720 --> 00:42:46,600 Later that night, Mary was shocked 836 00:42:46,600 --> 00:42:48,920 to learn that her boyfriend, Hank Queen, 837 00:42:48,920 --> 00:42:51,440 was really dentist to pew and that he had just 838 00:42:51,440 --> 00:42:53,360 been featured on Unsolved Mysteries. 839 00:42:57,680 --> 00:42:59,800 For nearly a year, dentist to pew's whereabouts 840 00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:04,880 remained a mystery until the night of our broadcast. 841 00:43:04,880 --> 00:43:08,720 Looking back on it now, I'm sure he was watching. 842 00:43:08,720 --> 00:43:12,640 And I think that he was deliberately 843 00:43:12,640 --> 00:43:17,240 keeping my attention distracted in the kitchen 844 00:43:17,240 --> 00:43:19,240 so that I wouldn't see the segment 845 00:43:19,240 --> 00:43:22,480 and so that he could leave. 846 00:43:22,480 --> 00:43:24,680 A friend of Mary's called her telecenter. 847 00:43:25,280 --> 00:43:27,280 A friend of Mary's called her telecenter 848 00:43:27,280 --> 00:43:30,040 and provided authorities with a Texas license plate number 849 00:43:30,040 --> 00:43:32,080 of dentist to pew's van. 850 00:43:32,080 --> 00:43:36,120 Four hours later, the pew's life came to a violent end 851 00:43:36,120 --> 00:43:39,000 just across the Louisiana-Mississippi state border. 852 00:43:42,080 --> 00:43:44,760 When Louisiana state troopers spotted to pew's van, 853 00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:47,960 they attempted to pull him over. 854 00:43:47,960 --> 00:43:50,880 He led police on a 15-mile high-speed chase 855 00:43:50,880 --> 00:43:52,520 and broke through two police barricades. 856 00:43:55,680 --> 00:44:01,280 I told the debit is if the van refused to stop to shoot 857 00:44:01,280 --> 00:44:03,440 a tire off over the front tire. 858 00:44:03,440 --> 00:44:07,200 And they missed the front tire, but they got both back ones. 859 00:44:07,200 --> 00:44:10,280 He traveled about half a mile and just 860 00:44:10,280 --> 00:44:13,120 wouldn't go any further than he stopped. 861 00:44:13,120 --> 00:44:16,120 After firing two shots through his windshield at deputies 862 00:44:16,120 --> 00:44:18,080 and another through an open window, 863 00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:22,640 the pew turned his gun on himself and took his own life. 864 00:44:22,640 --> 00:44:27,280 It was a funny feeling to realize that the night before 865 00:44:27,280 --> 00:44:29,280 that you had been watching this man that he was 866 00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:31,400 wanted for murder someplace. 867 00:44:31,400 --> 00:44:34,760 And then you walk up to the van and you recognize him 868 00:44:34,760 --> 00:44:37,600 as being the person that was on on South Mistress. 869 00:44:37,600 --> 00:44:38,960 It's a funny feeling. 870 00:44:38,960 --> 00:44:41,520 But I think he intended to die whether he had to do it 871 00:44:41,520 --> 00:44:44,440 by his own hands or where he could get us to kill him. 872 00:44:44,440 --> 00:44:46,880 Otherwise, he would have stopped and we'd 873 00:44:46,880 --> 00:44:49,840 gotten him out of the van alive and never been in shots fired. 874 00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:54,960 While living as a fugitive, Dennis DePuce 875 00:44:54,960 --> 00:44:57,000 had a chilling letter to several friends 876 00:44:57,000 --> 00:44:59,840 trying to justify his ex-wife's death. 877 00:44:59,840 --> 00:45:03,480 He wrote, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, 878 00:45:03,480 --> 00:45:07,640 a lie for a lie, a life for a life. 879 00:45:07,640 --> 00:45:11,280 At the time, Dennis DePuce had no idea just how prophetic 880 00:45:11,280 --> 00:45:12,280 those words would be. 881 00:45:13,280 --> 00:45:16,280 For every mystery, there is someone, somewhere, 882 00:45:16,280 --> 00:45:19,280 who holds a final piece of the puzzle. 883 00:45:19,280 --> 00:45:23,280 Join me next time for another edition of Unsolved Mysteries.