1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,600 This program is about unsolved mysteries. Whenever possible, the actual family members 2 00:00:09,600 --> 00:00:13,680 and police officials have participated in recreating the events. What you are about 3 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:20,960 to see is not a news broadcast. 4 00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:26,320 1957. At the height of the Cold War, Army Lieutenant Paul Whipkey was an observation 5 00:00:26,640 --> 00:00:31,360 pilot for government atomic bomb testing. Almost immediately, he began to show symptoms 6 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:36,720 of radiation poisoning. Then Paul Whipkey vanished and was declared a deserter. Did 7 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:41,760 he get lost and perish in Death Valley or was Paul Whipkey recruited for a top secret 8 00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:43,920 mission? 9 00:00:43,920 --> 00:00:49,720 Tonya Koprick and Richard Bocklage, two lovers, a study in contrasts. She was a promising 10 00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:55,000 physician dedicated to her career. He was a struggling pharmacy student with an unpredictable 11 00:00:55,000 --> 00:01:02,280 temper and a penchant for murder. In 1936, the depression and the looming threat of 12 00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:08,240 poverty took Gary Rosman from his family. Now Gary's sister Gwen hopes you can help find 13 00:01:08,240 --> 00:01:11,280 her long lost brother. 14 00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:15,280 Join me. Perhaps you may be able to help solve a mystery. 15 00:01:55,000 --> 00:02:02,000 In March of 1980, Dr. Tonya Koprick fell in love with Richard Bocklage. She was a practicing 16 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:21,280 resident at the Truman Medical Center in Kansas City. He was a pharmacy student at the University 17 00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:28,280 of Missouri. It seemed an unlikely match. Richard was 10 years younger than Tonya. He 18 00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:34,840 had grown up in St. Louis, the quintessential all-American boy. Five years earlier, Tonya 19 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:41,840 had emigrated from Yugoslavia to study medicine, leaving behind all of her friends and family. 20 00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:48,080 Like many immigrants, Tonya Koprick dreamed of an America paid with gold. She was determined 21 00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:54,000 to overcome the tremendous obstacles of building a career and a life in a new country. At 34, 22 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:59,040 she seemed to have achieved the American dream, except for one thing. Tonya longed for someone 23 00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:05,520 to share her life with, and her Richard Bocklage. 24 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:10,360 Richard was young and dynamic and showered Tonya with attention. Soon after they met, 25 00:03:10,360 --> 00:03:17,360 he moved into Tonya's apartment. Six months later, Richard proposed and Tonya accepted. 26 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:25,080 But her friends had strong misgivings about the younger man Tonya intended to marry. 27 00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:32,080 I did not really like him because he was using her financially and morally. He was using 28 00:03:32,640 --> 00:03:39,640 her for a lot of things, like using her master's charge card and was kind of using car and 29 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:46,080 using everything. 30 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:51,280 Richard spent more and more time with Tonya and less time in class. Midway through his 31 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:56,960 sophomore year, he fell behind in his studies. Unbeknownst to Tonya, Richard was perilously 32 00:03:56,960 --> 00:04:01,560 close to flunking out of school. 33 00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:08,560 He was not real motivated. He wanted it. He wanted it to be a pharmacist. But he was 34 00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:17,120 you have to want it bad enough to devote many, many hours to the academic study end of it. 35 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:25,840 And I'm not sure he was willing to do that. 36 00:04:25,840 --> 00:04:32,840 On July 19th, 1980, university officials notified Richard that he was academically ineligible. 37 00:04:32,840 --> 00:04:39,840 Richard demanded that Tonya use her connections in the admissions department to have him readmitted 38 00:04:46,720 --> 00:04:53,720 to school. 39 00:04:54,360 --> 00:05:01,360 I was thinking maybe he's under drugs or alcohol because his behavior was changing. He was 40 00:05:01,720 --> 00:05:08,360 kind of a wild person. 41 00:05:08,360 --> 00:05:15,360 Richard began to exhibit violent mood swings. For three weeks, Tonya tolerated his outbursts. 42 00:05:15,360 --> 00:05:19,360 Finally on September 2nd, she broke off the engagement and ordered Richard out of her 43 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:25,360 apartment. 44 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:31,040 Two weeks later, Richard Baklis returned to class as if nothing had changed. One instructor, 45 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:38,040 familiar with Richard's explosive disposition, asked the assistant dean to speak with him. 46 00:05:38,040 --> 00:05:45,040 Richard, I need to talk to you for a minute. 47 00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:47,040 Sure. 48 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:52,040 Could we go out in the hallway? 49 00:05:52,040 --> 00:05:55,040 Richard, we don't show you being enrolled in this class. 50 00:05:55,040 --> 00:06:00,040 Well, the admissions said it would take a few weeks for the paperwork to go through. 51 00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:04,040 Richard, there's a proper procedure. 52 00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:09,040 Richard always gave me the impression that anything that happened was not his fault. 53 00:06:09,040 --> 00:06:16,040 It was just that he could not cope with the fact that this was his responsibility. 54 00:06:16,040 --> 00:06:23,040 And again, he just, you know, he just couldn't believe that this was happening to him. 55 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:29,040 Increasingly desperate, Richard wrote to the admissions office, begging school officials 56 00:06:29,040 --> 00:06:33,040 to reconsider his case. 57 00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:39,040 On September 18th at 3 p.m., the admissions committee convened to determine Richard's fate. 58 00:06:39,040 --> 00:06:41,040 The decision was unanimous. 59 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:45,040 Jackie, would you please take care of that as soon as possible? 60 00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:53,040 Richard's appeal was denied and a secretary was ordered to call him with the news. 61 00:06:53,040 --> 00:06:57,040 Hoping to avoid a confrontation, the committee quickly dispersed. 62 00:06:57,040 --> 00:07:02,040 At 3.45, two professors spotted Richard driving towards the dean's office. 63 00:07:02,040 --> 00:07:12,040 They immediately headed in the opposite direction. 64 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:14,040 Excuse me, have you seen Professor Strickland? 65 00:07:14,040 --> 00:07:18,040 Bucklage roamed the hallway searching for the dean of admissions. 66 00:07:18,040 --> 00:07:21,040 Under his arm, he carried a large manila folder. 67 00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:26,040 Some witnesses feared that it concealed a weapon. 68 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:27,040 The dean in? 69 00:07:27,040 --> 00:07:28,040 No, he's not. 70 00:07:28,040 --> 00:07:29,040 When will he be back? 71 00:07:29,040 --> 00:07:31,040 I'm not sure he's coming back today. 72 00:07:31,040 --> 00:07:32,040 I'll just wait for him, okay? 73 00:07:32,040 --> 00:07:33,040 Okay. 74 00:07:33,040 --> 00:08:02,040 Three hours later, Tanya Colbrick returned to her apartment after work. 75 00:08:02,040 --> 00:08:25,040 By the time police and paramedics arrived, Tanya Colbrick was dead. 76 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:31,040 She had been shot three times in the head with a 45 automatic. 77 00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:36,040 I came out and then I heard the first gunshot and I turned and he just, he shot her two 78 00:08:36,040 --> 00:08:37,040 more times. 79 00:08:37,040 --> 00:08:43,040 There was a witness at the scene and she saw this man walk up to the side of the doctor's 80 00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:46,040 car and shoot her three times in the face. 81 00:08:46,040 --> 00:08:53,040 She recognized him as being the man that dated Dr. Colbrick, Richard Bucklage. 82 00:08:53,040 --> 00:09:00,040 Later during the investigation, we found out that Mr. Bucklage had purchased a 45 caliber 83 00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:06,040 handgun himself and when we checked his residence to see if the weapon was there, we found out 84 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:09,040 it was gone. 85 00:09:09,040 --> 00:09:12,040 Authorities launched an immediate search for Richard Bucklage. 86 00:09:12,040 --> 00:09:17,040 Six days later, Royal Canadian Mounted Police found Richard's car in Thompson, Manitoba, 87 00:09:17,040 --> 00:09:22,040 Canada, more than 900 miles north of Kansas City. 88 00:09:22,040 --> 00:09:25,040 Richard was seen by two area residents. 89 00:09:25,040 --> 00:09:29,040 He then dropped from sight. 90 00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:33,040 I personally think he's back in the United States. 91 00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:39,040 I think he would have gotten tired of being that far north with no family and that's, 92 00:09:39,040 --> 00:09:41,040 that's not his style. 93 00:09:41,040 --> 00:09:46,040 His style was a little bit faster, a little flashier, a little looser and that might have 94 00:09:46,040 --> 00:09:49,040 been okay for a year or two but I think he's back. 95 00:09:49,040 --> 00:09:53,040 He's back here somewhere. 96 00:09:53,040 --> 00:09:58,040 Two months after Tanya was murdered, her parents in Yugoslavia notified police that they received 97 00:09:58,040 --> 00:10:05,040 an unsigned letter post-March, September 16, 1980, two days before the murder. 98 00:10:05,040 --> 00:10:09,040 The envelope was addressed in Richard Bucklage's handwriting. 99 00:10:09,040 --> 00:10:15,040 The letter was a vengeful diatribe which took the tone of a terrorist manifesto. 100 00:10:15,040 --> 00:10:23,040 Dear Copric family, your daughter Tanya Copric has been executed in Kansas City, Missouri. 101 00:10:23,040 --> 00:10:30,040 She has caused so much grief, anguish and turmoil to so many Americans that this act was necessary. 102 00:10:30,040 --> 00:10:35,040 Her execution was inevitable. 103 00:10:35,040 --> 00:10:39,040 At the time of Tanya's murder, Richard Bucklage was 24 years old. 104 00:10:39,040 --> 00:10:43,040 He is six feet tall and weighs 170 pounds. 105 00:10:43,040 --> 00:10:54,040 This computer-aged photograph shows how he might look today at the age of 34. 106 00:10:54,040 --> 00:10:58,040 Next, the haunting story of an army lieutenant who mysteriously vanished. 107 00:10:58,040 --> 00:11:05,040 His commanding officer believes he was on a secret CIA mission. 108 00:11:14,040 --> 00:11:21,040 August 17, 1958, Death Valley, California. 109 00:11:21,040 --> 00:11:28,040 Temperature, 120 degrees Fahrenheit. 110 00:11:28,040 --> 00:11:39,040 42 miles from the nearest town, a fishing game warden is surprised to come across an abandoned car. 111 00:11:39,040 --> 00:11:46,040 The keys are still in the ignition. There is no sign of foul play. 112 00:11:46,040 --> 00:11:53,040 The car is registered to Lieutenant Paul Whipkey of Fort Ord, California, nearly 400 miles away. 113 00:11:53,040 --> 00:12:00,040 The army states that Whipkey had been missing for five weeks and in fact has been declared a deserter. 114 00:12:00,040 --> 00:12:04,040 Surprisingly, Paul Whipkey had always been considered a perfect soldier 115 00:12:04,040 --> 00:12:09,040 and no one could understand why he would choose the deserter's post. 116 00:12:09,040 --> 00:12:14,040 I don't think Paul deserted. It was completely out of character for Paul to do such a thing. 117 00:12:14,040 --> 00:12:18,040 He was a loyal American soldier devoted to his work. 118 00:12:18,040 --> 00:12:25,040 I think the army knew exactly what happened to him and he was part of a big smoke screen cover-up. 119 00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:33,040 The strange and unsettling account of Paul Whipkey began at Pennsylvania State University where he was an ROTC honor graduate. 120 00:12:33,040 --> 00:12:40,040 In 1954, after basic training, he was granted a coveted slot at Army Pilot School. 121 00:12:40,040 --> 00:12:45,040 In July of 1956, Whipkey was posted to Fort Ord, California. 122 00:12:45,040 --> 00:12:52,040 Two years later, he was assigned the duties of captain, even though he remained a first lieutenant in rank. 123 00:12:52,040 --> 00:12:57,040 Paul was quite worried about his own capability if he had the leadership ability 124 00:12:57,040 --> 00:13:03,040 and if he could take care of this job or perform in a proper manner. 125 00:13:03,040 --> 00:13:10,040 He studied a lot and he spent many hours at night trying to learn the job and to do a good job. 126 00:13:10,040 --> 00:13:17,040 Whipkey seemed to undergo a personality change. He became withdrawn and somber. 127 00:13:17,040 --> 00:13:26,040 He also began to suffer several upsetting physical symptoms, which may have been a result of a temporary duty assignment in the summer of 1957. 128 00:13:33,040 --> 00:13:40,040 Paul spent two months at Camp Desert Rock, Nevada as an observation pilot for government atomic bomb tests. 129 00:13:40,040 --> 00:13:47,040 In that role, he was exposed to radioactive fallout. He soon noticed unusual blotches on his skin. 130 00:13:47,040 --> 00:13:52,040 Several months later, back at Fort Ord, he had to have all of his teeth extracted. 131 00:13:58,040 --> 00:14:04,040 July 10, 1958, late in the afternoon, Whipkey left Fort Ord. 132 00:14:04,040 --> 00:14:09,040 He said his destination was Monterey, California, less than a mile away. 133 00:14:14,040 --> 00:14:20,040 Paul Whipkey never returned to the base. The next morning, he was listed absent without leave. 134 00:14:20,040 --> 00:14:27,040 After 30 days, he was declared a deserter. The following week, his car was found in Death Valley. 135 00:14:28,040 --> 00:14:36,040 Army investigators traced a gasoline receipt found in the car to Mojave, California, 145 miles from Death Valley. 136 00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:42,040 Whipkey had purchased gas there on July the 11th, the day after he left Fort Ord. 137 00:14:47,040 --> 00:14:53,040 The evening before, Whipkey had signed the guest register at White's Motel and apparently spent the night. 138 00:14:54,040 --> 00:14:58,040 The next morning, he drove out of Mojave and vanished. 139 00:15:00,040 --> 00:15:09,040 The Army concluded that Paul Whipkey had broken under the stress of his new assignment, wandered off into the desert, and without food or water, perished. 140 00:15:09,040 --> 00:15:15,040 The Army report made no mention of Paul Whipkey's physical symptoms. His body was never found. 141 00:15:16,040 --> 00:15:20,040 Paul's brother, Carl Whipkey, immediately began to investigate on his own. 142 00:15:20,040 --> 00:15:26,040 More than 30 years later, he is still trying to piece together the truth about his brother's disappearance. 143 00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:34,040 On the very morning, Paul turned up missing. Two soldiers stripped his room at Fort Ord. 144 00:15:35,040 --> 00:15:39,040 Everything was removed, including Paul's personal belongings. 145 00:15:40,040 --> 00:15:49,040 Regulations state that the next of kin or legal representative must be notified before packing belongings, and they didn't notify us at that time. 146 00:15:51,040 --> 00:15:56,040 I was very suspicious of this action as soon as I discovered this had taken place. 147 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:05,040 Four weeks after Paul Whipkey disappeared, a rancher driving through Death Valley saw his car. 148 00:16:06,040 --> 00:16:13,040 It was driven by a man in military uniform. Paul Whipkey left Fort Ord wearing civilian clothes. 149 00:16:16,040 --> 00:16:23,040 When the car was found a week later, a pile of cigarette butts was beside it. Paul Whipkey did not smoke. 150 00:16:26,040 --> 00:16:34,040 Also troubling to Whipkey's family was the fact that the Army did not mount a search for Paul's body until nine months after his car was found. 151 00:16:35,040 --> 00:16:39,040 And it was only by accident that Carl Whipkey heard about the car at all. 152 00:16:41,040 --> 00:16:47,040 The only way that I learned about it was due to an official call to an enlisted man at Fort Ord. 153 00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:57,040 In a half an hour, he called back, very excited, and he said, this is classified information and requested that I did not tell anyone where I had received this information. 154 00:16:58,040 --> 00:17:03,040 After I was informed that Paul was a deserter, I called six Army headquarters. 155 00:17:04,040 --> 00:17:14,040 And I was inquiring about his status. I found it almost unbelievable that he would be classified as a deserter. 156 00:17:15,040 --> 00:17:26,040 I was curious what was the basis for it. And I was quickly and promptly advised that Charlie, forget this, the case has been closed, and I would recommend that you don't carry any further. 157 00:17:27,040 --> 00:17:31,040 And in essence, I was told to shut up and drive and blow away. 158 00:17:34,040 --> 00:17:39,040 In 1957, Lieutenant Colonel Lewis was a captain stationed at Cap Desert Rock. 159 00:17:40,040 --> 00:17:45,040 He recalled the day he saw two men in plain clothes talking to Paul Whipkey and another officer. 160 00:17:46,040 --> 00:17:50,040 On the way to the airfield one morning, there was two visitors on the airfield over talking with Paul. 161 00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:58,040 I noticed that they had gone directly to the airfield instead of reporting operations, which was required for a purpose of security. 162 00:17:59,040 --> 00:18:01,040 So I asked them for their identification. 163 00:18:02,040 --> 00:18:03,040 Excuse me gentlemen, did you see that sign over there? 164 00:18:04,040 --> 00:18:05,040 Yes, sir. 165 00:18:06,040 --> 00:18:08,040 This is a restricted area. Do you have any identification? 166 00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:10,040 Yes, we do. 167 00:18:11,040 --> 00:18:16,040 They showed me their military identification cards, and the picture did verify who the two were. 168 00:18:16,040 --> 00:18:20,040 Looks okay. Is everything all right here? 169 00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:22,040 Yes, sir. 170 00:18:23,040 --> 00:18:24,040 There we are. 171 00:18:26,040 --> 00:18:35,040 Lewis did not know which government agency the two men represented, but over the next few weeks, he often saw Paul Whipkey talking to the same two men. 172 00:18:36,040 --> 00:18:47,040 When Lieutenant Whipkey would come in after they had departed, you could feel and sense a rigidity in his personality traits and his mannerism. 173 00:18:49,040 --> 00:18:50,040 Whipkey, is everything okay? 174 00:18:51,040 --> 00:18:52,040 Everything's fine, sir. 175 00:18:54,040 --> 00:18:55,040 Sure. 176 00:18:56,040 --> 00:18:57,040 Sure. 177 00:18:58,040 --> 00:19:03,040 Finally, I asked him, Paul, is there something that is wrong, something you need to explain? 178 00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:06,040 And he said, no, I'm fine. I have no problems. 179 00:19:08,040 --> 00:19:14,040 Years later, Lewis realized there could have been a logical explanation for Whipkey's association with the men. 180 00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:20,040 During that era, there was a tremendous amount of nationwide recruiting conducted by the CIA. 181 00:19:20,040 --> 00:19:27,040 And with Paul's qualification, Lieutenant Whipkey's qualification, he would have been an exceptional candidate for such an assignment. 182 00:19:28,040 --> 00:19:37,040 January of the year he disappeared, he told me during a telephone conversation that he was going to be going on an assignment that he was going to make a name for himself. 183 00:19:38,040 --> 00:19:47,040 Before he could tell me what it was, he was interrupted by some officers moving in the proximity of his desk and he could no longer talk to me about the subject. 184 00:19:50,040 --> 00:20:03,040 I theorize that Paul was recruited into an Army CIA joint program. He was going along at that time. 185 00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:14,040 When Paul left Fort Ortega drove to the town of Mahoby, California and checked into Whites Motel, 186 00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:26,040 it's a possibility that he was met there by Army Intelligence Asians or the CIA and transported to Southeast Asia, possibly from Edwards Air Force Base, which is nearby. 187 00:20:27,040 --> 00:20:29,040 Lieutenant, good morning. Everything going alright? 188 00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:31,040 Yes, sir, thank you. 189 00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:33,040 Sleep okay last night? 190 00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:35,040 Yes. 191 00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:43,040 It's a good thing that when Paul left on his secret assignment, he turned his car over to the military, who kept it for four weeks before driving it into the desert. 192 00:20:48,040 --> 00:20:54,040 I think the Army took his car out to the desert to get rid of it, out of sight, out of mind. 193 00:20:55,040 --> 00:21:08,040 If they would just say, yes, he died on a secret assignment, we'd live with that. We're all oil, American citizens in our family and we would buy that. 194 00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:13,040 Until the Army tell us what happened, there will be no peace in our family. 195 00:21:16,040 --> 00:21:19,040 There is a final puzzling twist to the saga of Paul Whitkey. 196 00:21:20,040 --> 00:21:21,040 Charlie! 197 00:21:21,040 --> 00:21:26,040 One of Paul's closest friends, Lieutenant Charlie Gess, had served with him at Camp Desert Rock and again at Fort Ord. 198 00:21:27,040 --> 00:21:32,040 Gess disappeared in an airplane 11 days after Paul had vanished. 199 00:21:34,040 --> 00:21:39,040 Just over a year later, Gess' remains were found near a crashed plane northwest of Death Valley. 200 00:21:41,040 --> 00:21:46,040 Curiously, the wreckage showed a different serial number from the plane Gess had taken off in. 201 00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:59,040 In 1982, the Army board for correction of military records met to review Paul Whitkey's case and found no basis to support his status as a deserter. 202 00:22:00,040 --> 00:22:05,040 Two months later, the board officially changed Whitkey's status from deserter to died in the line of duty. 203 00:22:06,040 --> 00:22:15,040 Carl Whitkey hopes that someone watching tonight served with his brother at Camp Desert Rock or Fort Ord and has knowledge that will shed light on Paul's mysterious disappearance. 204 00:22:18,040 --> 00:22:24,040 Next, a woman's quest to find a long lost brother she has not seen for more than 50 years. Perhaps you can help. 205 00:22:36,040 --> 00:22:45,040 Catherine Bickford was 19 years old when she fell in love with Andrew Rossman, a man twice her age. 206 00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:50,040 It was 1932 in Lake Placid, New York, a height of the Great Depression. 207 00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:56,040 Rossman cut a dashing, romantic figure, a rugged outdoorsman who made his living, 208 00:22:56,040 --> 00:22:59,040 making a living, hunting and trapping in the Adirondack Mountains. 209 00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:02,040 That's the spot I was telling you about. 210 00:23:03,040 --> 00:23:05,040 Oh, Andrew, it's beautiful. 211 00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:13,040 Catherine knew that Andrew was not the marrying kind, but she was in love and nothing else mattered. 212 00:23:18,040 --> 00:23:22,040 For that time and place, Catherine and Andrew's relationship was certainly unconventional. 213 00:23:22,040 --> 00:23:28,040 They never married, but lived together and had two children, a daughter Gwen and a son Gary. 214 00:23:29,040 --> 00:23:35,040 Sadly, family life and responsibility proved too much for Andrew. He left Catherine when Gary was still an infant. 215 00:23:36,040 --> 00:23:42,040 Catherine went to work as a waitress to support her children, but was often made to feel ashamed of being an unwed mother. 216 00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:48,040 However, one family, the Winches, who had known Catherine from childhood, never wavered in their support. 217 00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:58,040 Suffer the little children to come to me and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. 218 00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:05,040 In the winter of 1935, Catherine had her son Gary baptized. 219 00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:10,040 Despite local gossip, the Winch family went to the baptism and stood by Catherine. 220 00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:12,040 Amen. 221 00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:17,040 This is Gary Bickford, the newest member of the family of God. 222 00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:22,040 By the time of Gary's baptism, Catherine was in deep financial trouble. 223 00:24:23,040 --> 00:24:26,040 After the ceremony, she took Florence, the Winches' daughter, aside. 224 00:24:32,040 --> 00:24:34,040 What is it, Catherine? What's wrong? 225 00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:40,040 I got kicked out of my boyfriend today, and I can't even get back into getting any of my stuff until I get work. 226 00:24:41,040 --> 00:24:42,040 What are you going to do? 227 00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:45,040 My uncle owns a restaurant in Scrooge Lake, and he said I could come there and work for him. 228 00:24:46,040 --> 00:24:47,040 But I can't take Gary with me. 229 00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:49,040 Would you like us to keep him for a few days? 230 00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:54,040 Catherine found herself facing the most difficult decision a mother could ever make. 231 00:24:55,040 --> 00:25:00,040 She had to earn a living to provide for her children, even if it meant being separated from them. 232 00:25:03,040 --> 00:25:05,040 Looks like we're all set. Ready to go? 233 00:25:06,040 --> 00:25:09,040 Daddy, Catherine wants to know if we can take in Gary for a few weeks. Is that okay? 234 00:25:09,040 --> 00:25:11,040 Oh, a few weeks, sure. 235 00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:17,040 Several days later, Catherine left Lake Placid to take the job at her uncle's restaurant, 236 00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:22,040 securing the knowledge that Gary would be well cared for by Florence and her family. 237 00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:28,040 Catherine's daughter, Gwen, who was three years old, went to live with Catherine's mother and father. 238 00:25:35,040 --> 00:25:38,040 Three years passed. Catherine visited whenever she could. 239 00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:43,040 Throughout this period, Gwen stayed with her grandparents, and Florence Winch took care of Gary. 240 00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:54,040 Florence and my mom were great friends, and when my mother left my brother with Florence, 241 00:25:55,040 --> 00:26:02,040 I think she felt that it was a temporary thing and that she would get herself together and be able to support the family, you know. 242 00:26:03,040 --> 00:26:07,040 But it never really worked out that way. There were really difficult times. 243 00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:16,040 Times were very hard, and Catherine was two hours away working, and she couldn't get there. 244 00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:22,040 It wasn't something that she didn't want to do. It was something that, a circumstance. 245 00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:29,040 In 1939, when Gary was three, county child welfare officials contacted Catherine. 246 00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:34,040 She signed papers which she thought would allow Florence to continue in the role of foster parent. 247 00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:40,040 In fact, the papers gave the county authorization to put Gary up for adoption. 248 00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:46,040 When they told me that he was ready for adoption, I tried to adopt him. 249 00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:52,040 But I wasn't married at the time, and in those days you couldn't adopt a child unless you were married. 250 00:26:53,040 --> 00:27:00,040 So then my mother and father tried to adopt him. They were too old. There was an age limit at that time. 251 00:27:01,040 --> 00:27:12,040 So we had very good neighbors, and the neighbors took up a petition at that time and asked the county if I could keep him. 252 00:27:13,040 --> 00:27:18,040 And of course that was unheard of, so I couldn't keep him. 253 00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:30,040 Finally, in the early spring of 1939, a county welfare worker informed Florence's family that Gary would be taken away for adoption. 254 00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:36,040 She gave them no idea when or where. Florence began to prepare Gary for the journey. 255 00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:49,040 Look at the train, Gary. It's very heavy. This train was all the way to New York. 256 00:27:50,040 --> 00:27:56,040 When we would go by the railroad station to go to church or go to the store and things, he was afraid of the train. 257 00:27:57,040 --> 00:28:04,040 I suppose because it made a noise, it was a steam engine. So in order that he wouldn't be afraid of it, I took him up to the train. 258 00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:13,040 The conductor saw us and I was talking to Gary about the train and it wouldn't hurt you. The conductor said, come on on to the train. 259 00:28:20,040 --> 00:28:26,040 We went on to the train and I sit in a seat with him. The train didn't go anywhere. I was sitting there. 260 00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:30,040 But I don't think he was afraid of the train after that. 261 00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:33,040 Do you mind if we sit here a while? 262 00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:46,040 I didn't talk to Gary at all about him leaving. I never told him that he might be going away. Now I could see maybe I should have, but at that time I didn't. 263 00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:49,040 I never told him that he was ever going to leave. 264 00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:58,040 Eight days after Gary's fourth birthday, the child welfare worker returned. 265 00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:09,040 One morning at nine o'clock, the social worker drove up and came into the house and said she was going to take him. 266 00:29:10,040 --> 00:29:19,040 I always thought that she wouldn't come and that one way or the other we would keep him. Either Catherine or our family would keep him. 267 00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:22,040 But of course that didn't happen. 268 00:29:25,040 --> 00:29:27,040 I've packed a few things for him. 269 00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:29,040 That won't be necessary. 270 00:29:30,040 --> 00:29:34,040 And I said, well, could he take a toy? No, he couldn't. 271 00:29:36,040 --> 00:29:42,040 So with that, she just took him by the hand and the car was down in front of the house and she took him. 272 00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:55,040 I think now as I look back on it that Gary thought he was just going for a ride with somebody. That he was coming back. I don't think he ever thought he was going to leave. 273 00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:06,040 By the time Florence was able to contact Catherine, it was too late. Gary had already been taken to New York City. 274 00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:16,040 Eventually Catherine and her daughter Gwen were reunited. But in 1984 Catherine died. She never had a chance to tell Gary how much she loved him. 275 00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:33,040 Well, I felt a real desire to find my brother in that I wanted to express to him how much guilt my mother had experienced through her life because of this loss. 276 00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:42,040 And to maybe be able to fill in some of the feelings that she had toward him and still carried onward even to her death. 277 00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:54,040 And I thought, well, I could give this to him on her behalf. I think it's about the last thing I can do for her. 278 00:30:54,040 --> 00:31:12,040 Gary Pickford was born in Saranac Lake, New York on June 6, 1935. He has brown hair and brown eyes. On Gary's birth certificate, his first name was probably spelled with two R's and his last name may have been listed as Rossman. 279 00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:29,040 When we return, the perplexing case of a missing millionaire, his family believes he was murdered. 280 00:31:42,040 --> 00:32:00,040 St. Croix, the U.S. Virgin Islands, a lush tropical getaway known as the American Paradise. In 1984 Jim Rice, a wealthy and successful contractor, came to the island of St. Croix with his wife Astarte to build their dream house and live the good life. 281 00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:05,040 But two years later the marriage was crumbling. 282 00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:09,040 Dalia, I wish you'd reconsidered coming to San Francisco with me. 283 00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:12,040 I've already told you, I can't. I've already made plans. 284 00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:26,040 In July 1986, Jim planned to fly to San Francisco for shoulder surgery. Astarte refused to accompany him, so Jim Rice was scheduled to make the trip alone. Now police believe he never made the trip at all. 285 00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:30,040 To get an operation without his wife, which is more important. 286 00:32:30,040 --> 00:32:41,040 My dad was scheduled to arrive on July 29th and he never showed up at my house. Never called from the airport or we just never heard from him again. 287 00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:55,040 Jim Rice was a man's man. He played football in college and was a highly decorated bomber pilot during the Second World War. Through his construction business, Jim amassed a sizable fortune worth nearly two million dollars. 288 00:32:56,040 --> 00:33:18,040 In 1970, Jim Rice met Astarte Davis and was instantly captivated. Jim turned his life upside down and left his first wife to marry Astarte. He proved to be a tumultuous union marked by business failures, separations, reconciliations, and finally Astarte's imprisonment in 1982 for bankruptcy fraud. 289 00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:28,040 Yet through it all, Jim Rice remained loyal to Astarte. Then, three years after Jim vanished, Astarte Rice also disappeared. 290 00:33:30,040 --> 00:33:41,040 She was born Esther Bell White, but as an adult changed her name to Astarte after a primitive goddess of love. She had three grown sons from a previous marriage which ended in divorce. 291 00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:57,040 She seemed to make my dad happy and I was happy for him. I figured he saw something in her that I didn't see. As long as he was happy, then that was okay. 292 00:33:58,040 --> 00:34:04,040 In 1979, Jim and Astarte moved to Kona, Hawaii and eventually started a charter fishing business. 293 00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:16,040 Two years later, while Jim was out of town, Astarte's son, Noble, was cleaning their boat when it was rocked by an explosion. Noble was seriously injured but recovered. 294 00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:22,040 By good fortune or design, Astarte just happened to be near the dock at the time. 295 00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:36,040 Well, there was a large debt on the yacht and they carried insurance on the yacht. Noble indicated that he was just aboard cleaning the ship, which is kind of strange because it was like two or three o'clock in the morning. 296 00:34:37,040 --> 00:34:46,040 It would be strange time to be cleaning a boat using gasoline and the yacht caught on fire and he said it was just purely an accident. 297 00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:55,040 But there was sufficient cause for the authorities back there in Hawaii to charge both Astarte and Noble with the arson of the yacht. 298 00:34:55,040 --> 00:35:04,040 After the explosion, Jim and Astarte separated, both returned to California. Astarte and her son were never extradited back to Hawaii for trial. 299 00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:15,040 In April 1981, Astarte filed for bankruptcy. A year later, she was charged with altering official court documents. She was convicted and sent to federal prison. 300 00:35:16,040 --> 00:35:24,040 When Jim visited Astarte in prison, she convinced him that she had mended her ways and they reconciled. 301 00:35:27,040 --> 00:35:36,040 After her release in 1983, Jim and Astarte moved to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands and built their dream house on an isolated bluff overlooking the Caribbean. 302 00:35:37,040 --> 00:35:49,040 He got down to St. Croix and expected to build his dream house and Astarte was going to go straight and not get into any trouble. 303 00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:56,040 And I think that he found out that she was not rehabilitated. 304 00:35:57,040 --> 00:36:08,040 On July 20th, 1986, Jim phoned his daughter Kathy in the States and told her that he would be flying to California for shoulder surgery in a week. He never arrived. 305 00:36:10,040 --> 00:36:20,040 Jim disappeared around the end of July, 1986. Kathy kept trying to reach him by telephone and was totally unsuccessful for about two weeks. 306 00:36:21,040 --> 00:36:32,040 When she finally was able to reach his home in St. Croix, she talked to Astarte and at that time Astarte had told her that Jim had run off with a woman from Australia. 307 00:36:35,040 --> 00:36:44,040 A few days later, when she talked to Astarte, the story was that Jim had gone on an airplane and flown from St. Croix to Miami. 308 00:36:44,040 --> 00:36:51,040 So we had two completely different stories and later on Astarte denied that either of these things had occurred. 309 00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:59,040 So we know that right from the beginning she lied about what had happened to Jim and how he disappeared. 310 00:37:01,040 --> 00:37:07,040 Two months later, Kathy Clements hired Dennis Chirac, a private investigator, to look into her father's disappearance. 311 00:37:08,040 --> 00:37:11,040 I'm looking for a gentleman by the name of James Rice. He's a missing person. 312 00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:23,040 Chirac came across a customs declaration dated July 28th, 1986. The day Jim was to leave for California. On the form, Jim Rice's signature appeared to have been forged. 313 00:37:23,040 --> 00:37:25,040 Chirac notified the FBI. 314 00:37:26,040 --> 00:37:32,040 I wonder if you do me a favor and hold this aside. I'll have one of the agents from the FBI stop by and pick it up so they can process it. 315 00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:42,040 We noted that Jim supposedly had flown on an airplane on July 28th, 1986 from St. Croix to Miami. 316 00:37:43,040 --> 00:37:58,040 In fact, the airplane ticket had been bought by a person using the name of Jim Rice and in fact the people who actually flew on that flight were Astarte, Astarte's son, Noble, and Noble's girlfriend. 317 00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:12,040 Private investigator Dennis Chirac also discovered that a week prior to Jim's scheduled flight to San Francisco, Astarte had filed documents which gave her control of Jim Rice's entire estate. 318 00:38:13,040 --> 00:38:15,040 He's a husband to Jim. Where is he? 319 00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:21,040 He's, we're meeting him in Miami very shortly and that's one of the reasons we're in kind of a rush. 320 00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:33,040 Probably the key document was a power of attorney in Astarte's name. Investigation however showed that this original power of attorney was in the name of Jim's daughter, Kathy Clements. 321 00:38:34,040 --> 00:38:40,040 And Astarte had done a cut and paste job on the document and inserted her name in its place. 322 00:38:40,040 --> 00:38:42,040 I hope you see you again. 323 00:38:43,040 --> 00:39:01,040 I feel because Jim would have known that his assets were beginning to be changed or taken away from him, that Jim's disappearance had to happen in that 12-hour period from the time that he last spoke to Kathy to the following morning when the documents were presented to the notaries. 324 00:39:02,040 --> 00:39:03,040 Hi ladies. 325 00:39:04,040 --> 00:39:08,040 I don't know if you had a chance to look at all the shirts and everything yet, but the jacket is really great. 326 00:39:08,040 --> 00:39:23,040 Our investigation showed that just days after Jim's disappearance, all of his personal effects, his tools, his truck were all sold in a garage sale that was conducted at the house and sold by Astarte and Noble Davis. 327 00:39:24,040 --> 00:39:39,040 Four months later, Kathy Clements received a typewritten letter from Australia signed by Jim Rice. Once again, Jim's signature appeared to have been forged and one other discrepancy cast doubt on the letter's authenticity. 328 00:39:40,040 --> 00:39:57,040 The most important thing was the fact that the letter throughout contained the words, I am, put together. We know that from letters which we can attribute to Astarte that that was a grammatical error that she frequently used. 329 00:39:58,040 --> 00:40:18,040 I just thought that was the coolest thing anybody could do, be to write a letter to a family of a missing person posing as that person still being alive, giving an ounce of false hope. I just thought that was so cool. 330 00:40:19,040 --> 00:40:32,040 Kathy Clements and Dennis Schirrar convinced that Jim Rice was murdered and that his body lay somewhere beneath the blue waters of the Caribbean and that Astarte Rice may hold the key to solving the mystery. 331 00:40:32,040 --> 00:40:43,040 In January 1989, Astarte Rice was charged with bank and mail fraud because of her attempt to seize Jim Rice's assets. She was released on bail and disappeared. 332 00:40:44,040 --> 00:41:01,040 In 1991, Astarte Davis Rice was arrested in Santa Barbara, California. Because Jim Rice's body had never been found, authorities were unable to charge her in his death, though the FBI still considers her a prime suspect. 333 00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:12,040 Astarte did, however, plead guilty to bank and passport fraud in the United States and in St. Croix and served the first portion of her 15-year sentence in a medium security prison in California. 334 00:41:12,040 --> 00:41:21,040 In 1997, Astarte was transferred to the minimum security federal prison camp in Dublin, California to complete the rest of her term. 335 00:41:21,040 --> 00:41:29,040 A year later, taking advantage of the lighter security, Astarte Davis Rice simply walked out of the facility. 336 00:41:30,040 --> 00:41:35,040 She was present during the morning count at approximately 5 and 6 a.m. 337 00:41:35,040 --> 00:41:42,040 Then during the course of the day, there was a fire drill conducted which resulted in another prison count being conducted at 10 a.m. 338 00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:50,040 She wasn't scheduled to work that day and so was the time frame between the first count and the second count that she had the opportunity to leave the facility. 339 00:41:50,040 --> 00:41:54,040 She's very cunning. She's smart, she's intelligent and she's very dangerous. 340 00:41:54,040 --> 00:42:01,040 She'll use anyone to plead their resources and she's been suspected of being involved in the disappearance of people. 341 00:42:20,040 --> 00:42:33,040 For every mystery, there is someone somewhere who knows the truth. Perhaps it's you. 342 00:42:50,040 --> 00:43:00,040 The first day of her 15-year sentence in a medium security prison in Dublin, California, was the day of her 15-year sentence in a medium security prison in Dublin, California. 343 00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:06,040 She was the first to be released from prison in the first 10 years of her life. 344 00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:12,040 She was the first to be released from prison in the first 10 years of her life. 345 00:43:12,040 --> 00:43:17,040 The first to be released from prison in the first 10 years of her life.