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

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

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to see is not a news broadcast.

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In New Mexico, a frantic emergency call to the police gives hope to a desperate mother

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that her daughter, kidnapped almost seven years ago, is still alive. Several years ago,

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a retired couple in Florida offered food and comfort to a poor itinerant stranger. Later,

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in the midst of their own hard times, their good deed was rewarded by a generous, unknown benefactor.

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Just before Christmas in 1982, seven-year-old Chucky McGibber is stricken with a rare,

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often fatal illness. But in a coma, Chucky is visited by a mysterious boy and given the gift

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of a Christmas miracle. Join me for these stories which capture the spirit of the season

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on our special holiday edition, Unsolved Mysteries.

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Even at Christmas time, it is easy to doubt the possibility of miracles unless you believe you

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have experienced one. The McGivron family of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania never imagined that

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they would be chosen to receive such a gift. Their remarkable story began during the Christmas

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season ten years ago. On the day, seven-year-old Chucky McGivron came home early from school with

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a case of the chicken pox. Three days later, Chucky's brother frantically called his parents upstairs.

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Chucky had taken a sudden terrifying turn for the worse. He had lost consciousness and slipped

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into a coma. Chucky, honey, it's ice cold. I'm going to call the doctor.

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Chucky was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital, his brain dangerously swollen.

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His parents waited for an hour while doctors stabilized his condition.

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The doctor warned me when I went in there. He says when you say him, he's going to look like he's dead.

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His skin was so hard and cold and pure white and he had all these, he had a bolt sewn into his head.

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He had tubes in his kidneys and in his, uh, up his nose. The main thing was the bolt that was in his

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head and just his liver. Everything was just hooked up to everything and I was shocked. I was really shocked.

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Chucky's diagnosis was grim. He had RISE syndrome, a rare disease of the nervous system,

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brain and liver that is virtually unique to children and often fatal.

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How is he? I have to be honest with you. Your son is very ill. But he's going to be all right.

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At this point, we're not sure. What exactly are his chances? They're not promising.

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Even if he does recover, in severe cases of RISE syndrome, there's a possibility of brain damage.

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I'm sorry, but I think it's best that you know exactly where we stand.

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Thank you, doctor. Sure.

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Despite the bleak prognosis, Nancy and Chuck McGivin refused to give up hope.

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They moved into the hospital to be closer to their son.

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They were soon joined in the vigil by other family members who brought religious medals for comfort and healing.

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Nancy's cousin, Jerry, gave her a particularly unique ornament,

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a relic from the robe of Saint John Newman, the patron saint of vocations.

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You remember when I was in that car crash in Italy? I should have been dead, but

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this was in my pocket and I swear it saved my life. I think it might help Chucky too.

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John Newman came to the United States from Bohemia in 1836.

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He was known as a simple, tireless priest who'd ultimately become the fourth bishop of Philadelphia.

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In 1860, Bishop Newman died. Almost immediately, people began praying to him for favors and blessings.

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In 1923, a young girl was cured of peritonitis when a picture of the bishop was placed on her abdomen.

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Before long, a number of miracles had been attributed to Newman.

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In 1977, John Newman was canonized and declared the first American male saint.

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Grasping at anything that could offer hope, Nancy McGivin pinned the relics to Chucky's pillow.

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Rice syndrome is a build-up of pressure on the brain and that's why I wanted those metals next to his head.

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The metals made me feel stronger and gave us more hope.

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Hey, go, Chucky. I'll take good care of you, babe.

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The McGivins had never been especially religious. In fact, they had not been to church in years,

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but now they found themselves turning to God, praying that their youngest son would not die.

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I've never prayed that hard in my life. Never. I mean, I was praying so hard that only blood

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was sweating down my forehead. Anything but your kid.

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Despite the prayers of his family and the efforts of his doctors,

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Chucky's condition continued to deteriorate.

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After a day or two, like, his lungs collapsed,

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pneumonia set in and there was two nurses and they didn't know I was there. In the room,

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they were behind this door there and they had an x-ray set up right in his room

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and when I came in, I heard them say he's not going to make it.

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Chucky's parents could only wait and hope. Little did they know that over the next 48 hours,

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something truly remarkable was going to occur.

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I noticed that the St. John Newman metal was turned face down on his pillow.

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So in order to turn this relic back around, I had to unpin it,

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take off the other ones and put, turn the St. John Newman metal around, put it back

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under the pin and put the other ones back on again in order for it to be face up.

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Next time I came back, it was face down again. Like, somebody came and kept switching it as

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I'm putting it up. Somebody was coming in and putting it down. And that's what it was just like.

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And I thought I was going crazy.

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That evening, another intriguing mystery. Someone taped a picture of St. John Newman

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in Chucky's room. Nancy asked around, but no one knew where it had come from or who had put it there.

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The next morning, Chucky's father had an odd encounter in the hospital waiting room.

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It was like 11 o'clock or something like that.

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And I was watching TV and all of a sudden this little boy walks in.

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He looks at everybody in the room. He looks at my wife and he looks, stares at me.

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I'm staring at him thinking, you know, let me, his parents are going to come in next.

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And I'm wondering why, like, why is he by himself or, you know,

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so that he just looked around, he looked at me again and he just walked out.

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So later that day, the nurse comes up and says, so he had a little incident.

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We don't want you to get worried, but a little boy came to visit Chucky.

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I came to see Chucky. How did you get in here?

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I, I only wanted to see Chucky. Wait, wait, come back here. Wait, wait a second. Excuse me.

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Later that day, Chucky received another unexpected visitor,

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Father Robert Ronkes. He had heard about Chucky's plight and felt compelled to

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administer what is commonly known as the last rites.

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There's something inside me was saying he needs to be anointed. He needs to receive

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the sacrament of the sick. It was an overwhelming feeling that I just had to go down and do this.

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And I left immediately. I went right down that day, right at that moment to go down to anoint him.

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And I do remember when I was anointing Chucky that I could feel that something definitely was

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happening. I could feel an overwhelming presence of the spirit and I could feel that he in some way

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was receiving grace and strength from God.

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Chucky.

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Less than an hour later, the unimaginable happened.

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Chucky. Chucky.

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Within hours, Chucky would be off of life support and sitting up in bed.

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To his parents, a miracle had come to pass.

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From being very low where you think, well, my son might die to he came through it was like great.

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I mean, we were calling everybody on the phone that he was getting better and you know,

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but he got better so fast. It was unbelievable.

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There you go, Chucky.

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Chucky began telling his parents about a bizarre dream he had while unconscious.

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Incredibly, he described the same young boy that his father and his doctor had seen in the hospital.

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What presence on it?

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Well, there were lots of kids in the room giving me presents and you and dad were here too.

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I remember when I got up, I was sort of confused because I didn't understand if that was all a

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dream or did that actually happen?

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And all these Asian kids would surround me coming in and out giving presents of all sorts.

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But there was one boy particular who was a stay by my bedside.

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This boy, my dream was my best friend and he was like the strength for me at all times when I wasn't

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feeling like in the stream when I wasn't maybe not feeling so good.

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He was there to make sure everything was all right.

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And he was I guess he was just like symbolized of the best friend I would have even outside of dream.

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One week after he had lapsed into a coma and a week before Christmas,

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Chucky McGivin was released from the hospital.

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The doctor said they never had anybody so gravely ill recover so fast.

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And three months later we went back and they went through everything and

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he came out like he was never sick is what the doctor said like nothing ever happened to him.

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Two weeks after Chucky left the hospital, his parents took him to the shrine of St. John Newman

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in Philadelphia.

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They have right here the real body of St. John Newman.

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When he died as Bishop of Philadelphia in 1860, he was brought to St. Peter's Church here to be

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buried and for many years he was under like a stone roof in a crib.

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What is it honey?

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That was my best friend in my dream in the hospital.

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Are you sure?

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Yeah I'm sure that's him.

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The McGivins were startled when they realized that the portrait was of St. John Newman as a boy.

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I was said taken back. I then I started thinking it really hit me that something happened here

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that St. John Newman interceded for him in some way there was some kind of a connection there.

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It's hard to believe I don't know why even now I don't know because he's he's just like any other

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person he's just like any other kid at his age but there must be a reason for it I don't know.

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The reason why St. John Newman came to my aid I had no idea. I saw him I'll never never be able

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to explain but I I know like St. John will always like be there for me which is always good

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you know I know I'll always be like near my side.

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Did the McGivin family actually experience a Christmas miracle or were they the recipients

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of incredible good luck? Perhaps it doesn't really matter. In the case of this unsolved mystery

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a rational explanation is hardly necessary.

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Sunday February 28th 1988 9 p.m. firefighters in Odessa Texas were called to the scene of an

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untended trash fire in the parking lot of an abandoned bar. Within minutes they discovered

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that in reality they had been called to the scene of a grisly murder. Buried in the ashes was a

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charred body of a man who had been beaten and shot twice in the back before being set afire.

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The victim was identified as 59 year old Neil Jennings an RV dealer from Dallas who dabbled

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in restoring classic cars. As the Odessa police began to look into the death of Neil Jennings

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a macabre scenario began to unfold and they found themselves faced with one of the most

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bizarre homicide cases it ever investigated. The key was a man named Bill Roberts an enigmatic

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drifter who worked for Neil Jennings and was apparently the last person to see him alive.

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On February 26th 1988 Neil Jennings and Bill Roberts stopped off at Neil's brother's house just

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outside of Dallas. Neil this car looks great. Bill helped me restore it did a pretty good job.

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Eight weeks earlier Neil had hired Bill to do the finished details on his latest project

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1959 Ford Thunderbird. Tell me about this new guy you hired. Bill he's okay but I only paid $50

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a week plus we're in the board. You're kidding well that keeps him off the street. In private

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Neil let on that he was having financial problems. In fact he could not even pay Bill the $50

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weekly salary he had promised him. Bill glad to have met you. Yeah bye now.

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That Friday evening Neil and Bill drove 300 miles across the barren Texas prairie to the

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oil town of Odessa. At 8 30 p.m. they checked into a motel at the edge of town. That would be the

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last time anyone ever saw Neil Jennings not so Bill Roberts over the next 48 hours he was all over

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Odessa engaged in a number of suspicious activities.

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An hour after arriving in town Bill Roberts showed up at the home of a man named Jack

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who had introduced him to Neil a few months earlier.

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Hey Bill come on in. Jack. Jack could not help noticing that Bill was very nervous and sweating

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profusely. Jack can I get a glass of water from you. Oh sure you can Bill. Where's Neil?

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We just got back in town and dropped him off at his lady friend's house.

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Guess they having some dinner or something. Here you go. Thank you. Well you sure look like

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you're out of breath. Yeah I had to walk in this little bar down the street about even

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with dead in the truck. I was wondering if you'd give me a jump. Well sure I can. Jack agreed to jump

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and start the pickup. Bill parked the truck in Jack's backyard and went to sleep in the cab.

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The next morning Jack noticed that the truck bed was covered with a tarp.

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He also noticed that Bill was circling the vehicle in a strange manner his eyes fixed on the cargo

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bed. 10 30 a.m. Saturday Bill stopped at a rundown motel where he attempted to sell Neil's

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truck for $1,200. Well that's a nice truck Bill but $1,200. When he found no buyer Bill asked the

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residents if he could park the truck in the back of the motel hidden from view. All right well I

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appreciate that. All right.

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About six hours later at 5 p.m. Bill Roberts returned to the motel. Listen I wonder if I might have

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a pick in the shovel I could borrow. I need to fix the broken water line for an old lady.

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Sorry about that Bill I don't think we have a pick or a shovel around here.

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Wish I could help you though. That's okay. Look I'll just see y'all a little later then.

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Bill then drove the truck to a convenience store less than a mile away.

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I was sitting on the store behind the counter and Bill came in and asked me if he could park the

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truck behind because he's the truck was overheating. Thank you I'm just gonna go ahead. No problem.

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15 minutes later Saul heard two gunshots in the distance.

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Another 45 minutes passed and Bill was back.

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This time flashing a large wad of cash.

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Later Bill was seen back at the motel where he again spent the night in Neil's truck.

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Saturday night he came back and he said he'd done done the job. He acted real nervous

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and he acted especially nervous whenever he went over there to get something out of

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the truck that had a tarp on it. All right. The next morning another odd encounter.

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Would it be okay if I did some laundry?

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And I noticed that blood was on his shirt. Well I didn't think anything about it because you

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know it just looked like maybe he cut himself and wiped it off on his shirt.

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So I told him okay you know yeah you can use the laundry.

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A few minutes later another resident noticed a small amount of blood on the back bumper of Neil's

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pickup. Around noon Bill left the motel and never returned.

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Eight hours later the police were on the scene of the trash fire.

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Our investigation at the scene showed there was two pools of blood.

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We found shotgun shells, casings and wadding there at the scene. There was drag marks leading from

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the parking lot over to the concrete slab where Neil was was actually found on fire.

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There's no doubt in their mind that the fatal shots happened in that parking lot.

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Sheriff's deputies now believe that Bill Roberts shot Neil Jennings on Saturday night

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and hid his body in a trash heap. For some unknown reason he waited 24 hours

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and then returned to set Neil's body on fire.

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Roberts apparent motive to murder Neil Jennings so that he could steal his truck and sell it.

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The thing that makes this case so strange to us is we know Neil got here Friday night and he was with Bill.

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Neil was never seen again after Friday night. Now Saturday morning we've got Bill by himself in the truck.

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Saturday evening we've got Saul hearing the gunshots.

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And Sunday evening is when the body was actually found due to the fire.

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The question is where was where was Neil from Friday night until Sunday?

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You know when did the murder actually take place?

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In the course of their investigation police learned that Bill Roberts was actually Bill Blackwell.

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Who had served time for larceny and theft. He was wanted by the Texas Department of Corrections

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on a parole violation. Authorities determined that Bill Blackwell left Odessa within 24 hours

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of setting the fire. He then drove to Albuquerque, New Mexico where he sold Neil's truck in a flea

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market. He has not been seen since.

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Next the strange odyssey of a little girl kidnapped in 1986.

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Gallup, New Mexico 140 miles west of Albuquerque lies within what was for centuries the territory

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of a Navajo Indian nation. On April 6, 1986 this quiet community of 18,000 was rocked by the

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mysterious disappearance of a nine-year-old Navajo girl, Antoinette Cayadito. On her mother and

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two sisters awoke that morning they were surprised to discover that Antoinette was not in the house.

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We went looking for around the house nothing.

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Antoinette? I didn't start panicking until we checked with all the neighbors, went to every house

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and nobody had no sight seen of her and that's when I panicked.

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Penny Cayaditos neighbors fanned out through the surrounding foothills looking for Antoinette.

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The three days they searched along with the police but no one found a trace of the little girl.

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Authorities were almost certain she had been kidnapped.

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The days stretched into weeks then months. Police could offer little to bolster Penny's hopes of

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ever finding her daughter alive. Finally after a year had passed and all seemed lost,

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a dramatic call for help came into the Gallup police station.

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Hello? I'm Antoinette Cayadito.

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Excuse me. I'm Antoinette Cayadito and I'm in Albuquerque.

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Okay, whereabouts to now the curtain?

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Before the girl could answer, the call was abruptly ended by an unidentified man.

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Who said you could use a boat? Hello?

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Antoinette, where are you? Antoinette? Hello?

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Detectives played a recording of the call for Penny Cayadito.

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If the voice was indeed her daughter's, it would be an agonizing glimmer of hope.

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Hello? I'm Antoinette Cayadito.

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What? I'm Antoinette Cayadito and I'm in Albuquerque.

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Okay, whereabouts to now the curtain?

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Ready to use a boat? Hello?

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I listened to that tape over and over and over and just by the way she says her last name

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and the way she screamed sent chills all over my body because a mother knows

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and I know that was her. She knew that was her daughter's voice on that tape and she just couldn't

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figure out who the male's voice was in the background and where Antoinette was at. We know

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Antoinette had indicated that she was in Albuquerque but the call was so short that it couldn't even

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be traced as to what line it was coming from. The phone call nourished renewed hopes for Antoinette's

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safe return. However, four torturous years passed without any further clues. Once again,

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authorities began to fear that she would never be found alive. In desperation, the FBI finally

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released two computer enhanced photographs showing what Antoinette might look like at the age of 14.

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Four months later, the last ditch effort paid off. A possible sighting of Antoinette was reported

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in Carson City, Nevada, 870 miles from Gallup. A waitress at a restaurant in Carson City told the

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Carson City police about a strange incident that she had witnessed that particular day.

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Okay, three cheeseburgers. She waited on a table at which sat a male and a female,

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rather unkempt, and a small girl about the age of 14 or 15. The little girl would deliberately

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drop a utensil on the floor. The waitress put the utensil back on the table and the little girl

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grabbed her hand and squeezed it hard. The waitress thought nothing of it and went about her business.

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The threesome left the restaurant and the waitress went and back to the table and began to bust the

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table. She lifted up the plate belonging to the girl and underneath was a napkin that said,

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please help me call the police. By the time she realized what had happened, the couple and the

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girl were gone. One month after the Carson City sighting, detect has re-interviewed

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Antoinette's younger sister Wendy, who was five years old when Antoinette disappeared.

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Now 10, Wendy made a stunning revelation. We went to Wendy's school with the intention of just

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talking to her about what her recollections were of that particular night.

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There was a knock at the door and then Antoinette went to go answer and then I followed her.

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Who's there? Open up. Who's there? Uncle Joe. Open up. She goes, who is that? And then they say,

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Uncle Joe. So she opened the door and they grabbed her. She started kicking and she goes, let me go,

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let me go. And then they took her to a van, a brown van. Did you see what these guys looked like?

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No, I didn't see the faces. Wendy, why didn't you tell anybody about what you saw that night?

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Because I thought since my mom was crying and everything, I thought I was getting in trouble.

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I strongly believe that she was fearful in that people would think that for a five-year-old,

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she's just making stories up. I don't believe she's making this up. I strongly feel that she's

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telling us the truth with that. Uncle Joe at that time in 1986 was Penny's brother-in-law.

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He was married to Penny's sister. We recently interviewed him and he provided an alibi and

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a witness corroborating his alibi and he is not a suspect. I believe that the people that took

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Antoinette are not family members but is somebody that is close to the family. Otherwise, Antoinette

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would not have opened that door had they not stated that it was her Uncle Joe. I strongly believe that

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somebody had to have known who Uncle Joe was and had to have known what to say to get Antoinette to

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open up that door. Finally, Penny Cayadito turned to her own Native American heritage in the search

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for Antoinette. She and her other daughters visited a respected Navajo medicine woman skilled in

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performing traditional tribal ceremonies. Unsolved mysteries was allowed to film portions of the

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crystal ritual or as it is called in Navajo, des chi. It is a centuries-old rite with a specific

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purpose of contacting the spirit of a missing person. According to the medicine woman,

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Antoinette is still alive and may have a child. She is being held against her will by threats of

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violence far from any city, somewhere in the southwest. Detectives were amazed that additional

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information provided by the medicine woman was consistent with elements of their own investigation.

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Going to the medicine lady gives me a lot of strength and it helps me to just know that

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she is alive. I want her to be safe wherever she is. No matter who she's with, they got to have some

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compassion not to hurt another human being as small as she is. And I pray that God will help guide her

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and help guide all of us to keep the strength to go on to find her and bring her home safe.

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When we return, a series of anonymous gifts shows a Florida couple that no good deed goes unrewarded.

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Around Christmas time, even the most hard-boiled among us seems to soften up.

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We'll look for the best in others to give more freely of ourselves. It's a time we'll begin to hope

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for little miracles. This is a story of a simple good deed which in a charming and mysterious way

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returned itself 500-fold. The setting is not the snow and ice and fir trees of the north,

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but rather the palm trees, balmy breezes and blue waters of Florida.

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Behind its ritzy facade, Florida harbors a very different subculture of retired couples

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living on meager, fixed incomes. Gene and Russell Johnson are just such a couple. Russell, a former

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fire chief in Wayne, Michigan, was forced to retire after a severe heart attack. Now Russell

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spends most days in his workshop building custom dollhouses and repairing church organs.

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Gene is a homemaker who raised four children before she and Russell moved to Florida.

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Despite some continuing health problems, the Johnsons are managing to make ends meet

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and their lives were routine and uneventful until the winter of 1985.

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Well, this day started out about the same as any other day down here. It was in November

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and it was unusually warm as I remember it and humid. I was working out in the shop. It was

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about 10.30 in the morning. All of a sudden the door of the house came open and Gene came out in

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frightened, scared. There's a man outside. He said he wanted some work for some to eat.

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He's out here from? Yeah. Okay.

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Do you have any work that I could do to get something to eat? I'm really hungry.

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You know I don't have any work for you to do. You sure won't leave here hungry.

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Do you ever get anything to make sandwich out of? I can make you sandwich.

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Well usually we don't have much for lunch, you know, but we just happened to go in to town,

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got some lunch meat and so I had lots of stuff to feed them. How about a glass of iced tea cold?

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That would taste real good. Gene, would you bring a glass of iced tea? Make it two glasses. I have

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one with them. You look tired. Would you like to cheers it out? Yes. The stranger had asked for

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help from a couple who had very little themselves. Russell had recently undergone open heart surgery

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and Gene has successfully battled cancer. Their financial resources were depleted.

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Nevertheless, they were willing to share what they had.

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Tired? Yeah, well, come a long way, you know. I'm from Houston and there are no jobs out there.

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Just talking with him, you could tell the man was not a bum.

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He was very articulate in his speech, friendly and basically a gentleman.

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He may have been down on his luck, but he was no bum.

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He ate quite a while. I think probably he had about three sandwiches to begin with.

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And then he rested a bit and had some more tea. He was just really too tired to talk,

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so he just sat there and kept him company.

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After a period of time, oh, I don't know, I would say five minutes or so,

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he said, well, he says, I guess I better be on my way. Thank you, sir.

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Lots of luck on your job. Thank you. Just a minute. Do you have any money?

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First thing in the sense. I reached into my pocket and I had some change

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and Gene turned. At that time, went back in the house, hit the hypothetical sugar bowl,

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and she came up with some change and another dollar bill and I imagine the man

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who probably gave him about five dollars.

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As we gave it to him, we noticed his eyes. There was just such a sparkle of life came back into them

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and he just reacted so differently. He didn't seem to be the man that he was when we first talked

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with him. And that was only a matter of everything within a half an hour.

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God bless you. Well, as he said that, the strangest feeling came over Gene and I,

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but just feeling of such goodness and love.

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Gene and Russell Johnson walked through their house into the garage, then out onto a side porch.

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They wanted to wave to their visitor one last time.

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Where is he? He was nowhere to be seen.

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Are we losing it? We walked back through the garage.

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Nobody. We walked out to the street, looked both ways, walked out to the main street in front of

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our house. Nobody. The mysterious stranger had vanished as quickly as he appeared, yet the

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special warmth Gene and Russell Johnson felt lingered. They began to remark half in jest that

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perhaps they had been visited by an angel. Then about 10 days before Christmas, the

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Johnson's received an anonymous card. Make some place clean.

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Christian friend. The check for five hundred dollars. I can't, I don't believe this.

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Five hundred dollars. We don't know any friends that have that kind of money to give away,

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especially anonymously. Love your Christian friends.

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And that looked at Gene, she was crying. It's a matter. Can't believe it.

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It is a very opportune time because we didn't have anything.

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And the only remark that I could make at the time was, has to be our angel.

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Good morning Russ. Gene, how are you today?

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I'm good. How can I help you? Well, we've got a bit of a problem perhaps.

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We got this in the mail and we think it might be a practical joke and if we didn't know you,

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I don't think we'll even try to cash it. Isn't it any good? Take a look at it.

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What is gold Russ? How would you like it?

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Something. Put the checking counter in it. I'll do it right now.

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We couldn't believe it. We tried to check to see if there's somebody that we knew that could have

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sent it. We looked at the postmarks, where it was from. We checked handwritings. We'd say to

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everybody, if you sent this, thank you. But nobody, nobody did.

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The following Christmas, another anonymous car deride. It was signed,

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your friend. It contained another $500 check. The next three Christmases brought three more checks

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and three more cards, all mail from the Orlando area. Gene and Russell Johnson have never been able

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to find out who their benefactor is, but they have a pretty good idea. We've often thought back,

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we took $5 that we didn't have and gave to somebody that needs it more.

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We don't know if there's any connection, but in return from somewhere, we've gotten $500

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for five years. Could it be from our angel? We don't know. We have no identification,

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but we would like to say thank you to somebody. It was a gift well received.

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Did the Johnson's experience a Christmas miracle? Perhaps. Or perhaps they simply

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experienced the everyday miracle of kindness, which is never out of season.

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From all of us at Unsolved Mysteries, I'd like to extend to you and your family our best wishes

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for a safe, happy holiday. Join me next time. Perhaps you may be able to help solve a mystery.