1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000 This program is about unsolved mysteries. 2 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:06,800 Whenever possible, the actual family members and police 3 00:00:06,800 --> 00:00:09,800 officials have participated in recreating the events. 4 00:00:09,800 --> 00:00:13,000 What you are about to see is not a news broadcast. 5 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:20,000 Legend has it they're off the coast of northern California. 6 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:23,000 Divers have glimpsed the remains of a sunken World War II 7 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:27,000 submarine. But is there more to the story than mere legend? 8 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:31,000 Several Navy veterans remember seeking a sub near San Francisco 9 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:35,000 in 1945, and now they fear it might have been one of our own. 10 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:38,000 In Oklahoma, abject poverty forced a couple along with their 11 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:41,000 six children to set up housekeeping in an old school bus. 12 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:45,000 When that meager shelter was taken away, Leela and Roy Lee 13 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:48,000 Stallings were arrested and the children were separated. 14 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:51,000 Perhaps someone watching can help reunite the story of the 15 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:54,000 family members and police officers. 16 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:58,000 Perhaps someone watching can help reunite the school bus family. 17 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:03,000 And the strange saga of John and Linda Sohas. 18 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:07,000 In 1985, the young couple left their home in a well-to-do 19 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:10,000 Los Angeles suburb for a two-week trip to New York. 20 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:14,000 They never returned. Then this past spring, 21 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:17,000 workmen installing a pool at their former residence were stunned 22 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:20,000 by the discovery of a dismembered human skeleton. 23 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:24,000 Almost overnight, an inactive missing persons case became 24 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:27,000 an intriguing murder mystery. 25 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:31,000 Join me for these intriguing new stories and more 26 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:34,000 on another edition of Unsaw Mysteries. 27 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:37,000 May 1994, San Marino, California, just north of Los Angeles. 28 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:41,000 Excavation for a backyard swimming pool came to an abrupt halt 29 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:44,000 when workmen made a grim discovery. 30 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:47,000 Three plastic bags and a fiberglass box containing dismembered 31 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:50,000 sections of a human skeleton. 32 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:58,000 We didn't really know who this person was, 33 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:03,000 and we were later told by uniformed officers from San Marino 34 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:07,000 that in 1985, the people that lived in that house had reported 35 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:09,000 two people missing. 36 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:15,000 The two missing persons were John Sohas and his wife Linda, 37 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:17,000 both in their late 20s. 38 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:21,000 Their sudden disappearance had mystified everyone who knew them. 39 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:24,000 The grizzy discovery was a macabre twist in a nearly 40 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:26,000 10-year-old mystery. 41 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:29,000 It suddenly appeared that either John or Linda Sohas 42 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:32,000 may have been the victim of foul play. 43 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:37,000 Detectives probing the disappearance and counter-acast 44 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:40,000 the characters that might have been dreamed up by a mystery writer. 45 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:44,000 Though married for two years, John and Linda still lived 46 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:48,000 with John's mother, Dee Dee Sohas, by all accounts an alcoholic. 47 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:51,000 However, the most intriguing character would prove to be 48 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:56,000 a mysterious young man who went by the name Christopher Chichester. 49 00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:00,000 For about two years, Chichester was a tenant in a guest house 50 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:03,000 in the Sohas property located behind the main house 51 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:06,000 occupied by Dee Dee, John and Linda. 52 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:11,000 Hi, honey. 53 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:14,000 According to friends, John and Linda felt trapped 54 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:16,000 living with Dee Dee Sohas and looked forward 55 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:18,000 to escaping to a place of their own. 56 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:20,000 That looks great. 57 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:24,000 John held several part-time computer programming jobs 58 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:27,000 and Linda was beginning to find success as an artist. 59 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:35,000 Linda was happy with her life and John approved of everything 60 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:38,000 she had to do and say about life and what she wanted to do 61 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:40,000 and be in life, and I thought that was great for her 62 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:43,000 because she'd never had a supportive man in her life. 63 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:47,000 Early in 1985, it appeared the young couple had finally gotten 64 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:49,000 the break they'd been hoping for. 65 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:52,000 Linda announces she and John had been asked to interview 66 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:55,000 for important new jobs. 67 00:04:55,000 --> 00:05:01,000 Linda called me and informed me that John had a job with the government 68 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:03,000 and she couldn't release any information to me. 69 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:06,000 All she could tell me was that he's got a job with the government 70 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:09,000 and they want us both and we have to go to New York. 71 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:16,000 Linda told Sue that the trip was scheduled to last about two weeks. 72 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:19,000 However, the return day came and went. 73 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:21,000 No Linda and John. 74 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:26,000 The mystery would deepen in the coming months. 75 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:28,000 I think we've gone for about two weeks. 76 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:29,000 I'll uncover it. 77 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:32,000 Prior to the trip, Linda had boarded her six cats 78 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:35,000 at a local kennel and paid in advance for a two-week stay. 79 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:40,000 But at the end of eight weeks, she still had not claimed her pets. 80 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:44,000 The kennel owner tracked down Linda's sister, Kathy. 81 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:48,000 I immediately thought that something was wrong. 82 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:53,000 If they were not going to return, they would have taken their pets with them. 83 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:59,000 I feel that inside very strongly that Linda would not have left her animals behind. 84 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:04,000 Kathy telephoned John's mother, Dee Dee Sohas, 85 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:06,000 leaving she had an explanation. 86 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:07,000 Hello. 87 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:09,000 Dee Dee, it's Kathy, Linda's sister. 88 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:11,000 Is Linda back from her trip yet? 89 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:14,000 I'm not supposed to tell you anything. 90 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:16,000 Tell me what? 91 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:18,000 What can't you tell me? 92 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:20,000 A mission. 93 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:23,000 Mission? What mission? What are you talking about? 94 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:27,000 It was very frustrating in all my conversations with Mrs. Sohas 95 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:30,000 to get the same stories, slightly altered, 96 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:34,000 but still the same story about Linda and John being on a secret mission 97 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:37,000 and unable to contact any family members. 98 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:39,000 Well, that's all I can tell you. 99 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:42,000 It did appear to me as though she had been drinking. 100 00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:45,000 Sometimes it depended on what time of the day you called 101 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:48,000 as to how wild the story became. 102 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:52,000 April 1985. 103 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:55,000 Responding to a missing person's report filed by Linda's family, 104 00:06:55,000 --> 00:07:00,000 San Marino police tried their hand at getting information from Dee Dee Sohas. 105 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:03,000 Did you report on John and Linda Sohas? Do you know where they are? 106 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:05,000 They're not missing. 107 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:10,000 Everybody keeps asking me and I keep telling them they're on a secret mission. 108 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:14,000 OK. Can you tell us how we can reach them? 109 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:16,000 I have a source. 110 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:18,000 Everyone keeps calling here and I keep telling them... 111 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:22,000 Dee Dee refused to identify the person she called her source. 112 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:27,000 With no evidence of foul play, the authorities were powerless to investigate further. 113 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:34,000 Finally, a full three months after the Sohas's had supposedly left, 114 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:37,000 Linda's friend Sue received this picture postcard, 115 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:41,000 but it had not been mailed from New York, far from it. 116 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:48,000 I have no clue as to how going to New York could ever wind up being France. 117 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:51,000 And I read the back of it. I was just like, I can't wait. 118 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:53,000 She's finally going to tell me where she is, what's going on. 119 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:58,000 And all it said was, dear Sue, kind of missed New York. 120 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:01,000 Oops. But this can be lived with. 121 00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:03,000 John and Linda. 122 00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:06,000 Nothing about, I'll call you later, can't talk now. 123 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:09,000 Nothing. It just didn't sound like her. 124 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:15,000 Another card was sent from France to Linda's family. 125 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:19,000 My mother received a postcard from Linda. 126 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:21,000 I believe it to be from Linda. 127 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:28,000 It did not say when she would return or how she had come to be in Paris. 128 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:33,000 If they were planning a trip to Europe, she would have been very excited about going 129 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:39,000 and would certainly have expressed that to my mother and perhaps myself as well. 130 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:43,000 When I first talked to the police, I thought I knew what was going on. 131 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:46,000 Three months after refusing to help the police, 132 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:49,000 Didi Sokars had an inexplicable change of heart. 133 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:53,000 She too found a missing persons report on John and Linda. 134 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:56,000 Have you had any contact at all since they left? 135 00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:59,000 Well, I've been sending their mail through my source. 136 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:01,000 The man has been in contact with them. 137 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:04,000 He's been the one telling me what's been happening. 138 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:06,000 We'll need to talk to this individual. 139 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:08,000 You can't. 140 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:10,000 That's why I'm worried. 141 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:11,000 He's gone too. 142 00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:13,000 He just disappeared. 143 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:18,000 According to Didi, the mysterious contact was none other than her guest house tenant, 144 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:20,000 Christopher Chichester. 145 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:24,000 However, he had recently moved, leaving no forwarding address. 146 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:28,000 Didi also reported that her son's pickup truck was now missing, 147 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:31,000 though she could not say when it had disappeared. 148 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:39,000 However, there still was no proof that a crime had been committed and the investigation stalled. 149 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:42,000 If I think of anything else, I'll call you. 150 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:45,000 Soon after finding her missing person report, 151 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:49,000 Didi Sokars would sell her house and move to a trailer park. 152 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:52,000 She died in February of 1988. 153 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:55,000 The fate of her son is still a mystery. 154 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:01,000 Nine months later, the case unexpectedly sprang to life. 155 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:06,000 The Sokars' truck turned up 3,000 miles away in Greenwich, Connecticut. 156 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:12,000 A man calling himself Christopher Crow had tried to sell the pickup to the son of a local minister. 157 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:14,000 Well, this is it. 158 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:15,000 That's a great looking truck. 159 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:17,000 Yeah, I told you you'd like it. 160 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:19,000 One thing, though, I don't have the title paper, 161 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:21,000 so you're going to have to get them from the California DMV. 162 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:23,000 The Reverend's son decided not to purchase the vehicle, 163 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:27,000 based on the fact that there was an outstanding lien on the truck. 164 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:31,000 The San Marino Police Department wanted me to also look for an individual 165 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:34,000 by the name of Christopher Chichester, 166 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:38,000 who ultimately felt had information on the whereabouts of John and Linda Soas. 167 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:44,000 My continued investigation and attempting to locate Mr. Chichester 168 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:50,000 ultimately ended in me discovering that Mr. Chichester and Mr. Crow were the same individuals. 169 00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:55,000 It was a stunning discovery. 170 00:10:55,000 --> 00:11:01,000 Crow, Chichester, by any name, the enigmatic ex-tenant seemed to be one person 171 00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:05,000 who might be able to shed light on the Sohas' disappearance. 172 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:10,000 But Christopher Crow, alias Christopher Chichester, had vanished again. 173 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:13,000 Consequently, the investigation stalled again, 174 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:18,000 until the dismembered skeleton was uncovered in May of 1994. 175 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:24,000 After extensive analysis, a forensic anthropologist determined 176 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:29,000 that the remains were consistent with physical descriptions of John Sohas. 177 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:33,000 However, a lack of dental records prevented conclusive identification. 178 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:37,000 Police could only speculate about how the body came to be buried 179 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:41,000 in the backyard of the one-time Sohas residents. 180 00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:45,000 Nothing about the bones themselves that say there was murder. 181 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:48,000 There was no bullet holes, anything like that. 182 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:52,000 But the fact that the bones were buried in three separate plastic bags 183 00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:58,000 and the head in a separate bag makes one think that there was murder involved. 184 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:05,000 Detectives hope to learn more in using a controversial chemical called luminol. 185 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:08,000 Though it is highly toxic and dangerous to use, 186 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:12,000 luminol will emit a distinctive glow when it comes into contact with blood, 187 00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:16,000 even where the stains were wiped away years before. 188 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:22,000 Luminol was applied to the cement floors in the guest house on the former Sohas property. 189 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:28,000 Within moments, it would become apparent if there was evidence of murder. 190 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:35,000 The telltale glow was unmistakable. 191 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:38,000 Cat, what do you think about that? 192 00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:40,000 Looks like it could be blood. 193 00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:42,000 It's all out of blood, Ron. 194 00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:48,000 Although luminol can detect chemicals in other compounds, 195 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:51,000 this was not just a trace element situation. 196 00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:56,000 There was a copious amount of something put on that floor. 197 00:12:56,000 --> 00:13:00,000 And in our opinion, that was blood. 198 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:02,000 But whose blood? 199 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:07,000 Was John Sohas murdered in the guest house and buried in the backyard? 200 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:09,000 If so, what happened to Linda? 201 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:13,000 Officially, both John and Linda Sohas are still missing, 202 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:17,000 perhaps having the time of their lives gallivanting across Europe. 203 00:13:19,000 --> 00:13:24,000 I believe that it would have been possible for John and Linda to relocate and have a new life 204 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:29,000 and choose not to contact family members. 205 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:33,000 But I do believe that after so many years have passed 206 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:38,000 that at some point, at least once, Linda would have made contact. 207 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:44,000 There is one curious footnote to this perplexing case. 208 00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:47,000 According to the kennel operator, in June of 1985, 209 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:50,000 a woman showed up and asked for Linda's cats. 210 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:53,000 Faced with the alternative of destroying the animals, 211 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:55,000 a kennel owner complied. 212 00:13:55,000 --> 00:13:57,000 She never saw the woman again, 213 00:13:57,000 --> 00:14:02,000 and there is no clue to her identity or whether she has any connection to the case. 214 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:10,000 Authorities would like to speak to the young man known as Christopher Chichester. 215 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:15,000 They now know that he is Christian Gerhard Streiter, a native of Germany. 216 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:38,000 Music 217 00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:43,000 Next, a mystery submarine, sunk during World War II. 218 00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:47,000 Could it have been one of our own, attacked mistakenly? 219 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:56,000 Music 220 00:14:56,000 --> 00:15:01,000 The 840-mile coastline of California is a treasure trove of natural beauty. 221 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:05,000 Its long stretches of beach, coupled with fabulous rock formations, 222 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:09,000 have made it a haven for deep sea divers. 223 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:14,000 Over the years, a kind of beach town urban legend has sprung up along the coast. 224 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:18,000 Rumor has it that divers between Santa Barbara and San Francisco 225 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:21,000 have sighted something very unusual. 226 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:26,000 We're about 15 miles off the point, around a six-pack, we're down about 120 feet. 227 00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:29,000 Listen, I got real good visibility, maybe 30 or 40 feet. 228 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:30,000 Really? 229 00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:33,000 And sitting off the point there, at the bottom, right on the reef, 230 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:36,000 is what I think a World War II submarine, a U-boat. 231 00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:37,000 A submarine? 232 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:38,000 Yeah. 233 00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:39,000 Out here? 234 00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:40,000 Yes. 235 00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:42,000 Deck guns, the whole thing in place, right there at the reef. 236 00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:43,000 Crystal clear. 237 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:45,000 Today it seems preposterous. 238 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:49,000 The enemy sub, that close to the continental United States. 239 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:55,000 But in World War II, America's coastline was vulnerable to enemy sub-attack. 240 00:15:55,000 --> 00:16:00,000 A German U-boat was sighted off the coast of New England in May of 1945. 241 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:04,000 Later that year, an oil rig near Santa Barbara, California, 242 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:08,000 was fired upon by a Japanese submarine. 243 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:11,000 Music 244 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:14,000 Despite the obvious threat that existed 50 years ago, 245 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:18,000 the rumors of a sunken sub-remain, just that, rumors. 246 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:21,000 But in fact, there are a few aging American sailors 247 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:27,000 who remember a submarine hit in 1945, just off the coast of Northern California. 248 00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:30,000 At the time, of course, he assumed it was the enemy, 249 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:33,000 but curiously, no record of the incident exists. 250 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:40,000 Now the old sailors are afraid they might inadvertently have sunk one of our own. 251 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:46,000 In 1944 and 1945, the USS Willard Keith was one of a fleet of navy destroyers 252 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:48,000 patrolling the Pacific coast. 253 00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:53,000 For the most part, life on board was all practice and drill with a K-guns, 254 00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:55,000 better known as depth charges. 255 00:16:55,000 --> 00:16:59,000 Music 256 00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:02,000 Then came March 21st, 1945. 257 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:05,000 The Willard Keith was cruising south of San Francisco 258 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:10,000 when a general quarters alarm sounded, an enemy sub was below. 259 00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:16,000 Music 260 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:20,000 Chet Gardner was a 19-year-old seaman on the Willard Keith. 261 00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:24,000 His duty set the depth of the explosive charges. 262 00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:28,000 Music 263 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:32,000 Well, I can see it just playing today as I could the day that it happened. 264 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:34,000 Starboard K-gun ready to fire, sir. 265 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:39,000 It's something I'll never forget because I was probably pretty excited about it. 266 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:51,000 Music 267 00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:55,000 Boy, the water flew everywhere as I thought, my gosh, we made a mistake. 268 00:17:55,000 --> 00:18:00,000 It looked to me like we were going to blow the ship right out of the water that was so shallow. 269 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:10,000 But as we watched then, word came down from the bridge that they had got a hit. 270 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:12,000 There's an oil coming up. 271 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:15,000 It was a tremendous explosion, you know. 272 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:20,000 Eugene Sheridan, then 24 years old, manned a K-gun on the Willard Keith. 273 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:27,000 We see all greenish looking, oilish looking stuff coming to the top of the water 274 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:30,000 and it's not sea water, you're in there all the time. 275 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:33,000 You can tell the difference of color of it. 276 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:39,000 And we made three or four passes around and back and forth and crisscrossed and everything else 277 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:41,000 and we never did pick it up again. 278 00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:43,000 Music 279 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:49,000 After we had made our turn and came back, they couldn't pick it up on the sonar anymore. 280 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:51,000 There was no more sound. 281 00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:56,000 We assume it was just weighing on the bottom there someplace. 282 00:18:56,000 --> 00:19:03,000 Bill Anderson, a laundryman on the main deck, was just 18 years old. 283 00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:10,000 Even then, Bill had his doubts and began to wonder whether in fact the sunken submarine did belong to the enemy. 284 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:15,000 Indeed, Bill felt strongly enough to question a junior officer. 285 00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:17,000 Calls her too close to shore Anderson. 286 00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:21,000 But sir, if it was an American submarine, it'd be on the surface. 287 00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:23,000 Not below it. 288 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:25,000 Yes sir. 289 00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:27,000 It was kind of a sobering thought, you know. 290 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:35,000 I mean, you had maybe 50, 60 men dying below you at that time or we thought this was the case. 291 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:39,000 Bill Anderson has never been able to shake that haunting image, 292 00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:45,000 nor the nagging suspicion of the dying men or his own comrades. 293 00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:50,000 He has petitioned the Navy and received the deck log and war diary for the Willard Keith. 294 00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:53,000 But there is no record of the submarine hit. 295 00:19:53,000 --> 00:19:58,000 The war diary we got doesn't mention any enemy contact, 296 00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:03,000 doesn't mention this depth charge run whatsoever. 297 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:13,000 There didn't seem to be any information in Washington on a submarine being sunk off the coast of California. 298 00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:20,000 In 1992, Bill Anderson and a partner pooled the resources and bought a boat called the Echo Hunter. 299 00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:27,000 Using radar, underwater sonar and divers, they are determined to find the sunken submarine. 300 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:30,000 Just make a circle on that plane. 301 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:38,000 We think the odds are good enough that we've spent most of our money on this project to find it. 302 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:48,000 It's became an obsession with us to find the sub. 303 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:55,000 I say we either sunk it right there or we crippled it bad and it crawled off someplace else. 304 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:59,000 Maybe got away or maybe who knows. 305 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:05,000 But I definitely do know that we dropped the depth charges on them. 306 00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:12,000 The Navy denies that it happened, but it did happen. 307 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:15,000 Why they say it didn't happen? I don't know. 308 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:28,000 Unless they're covering it up, you know. Unless it is one of our subs and they don't want it known. 309 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:34,000 Did the USS Willard Keith make a direct hit that day in 1945? 310 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:39,000 If so, regardless of whether the dead are American, Japanese or German, 311 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:44,000 the Willard Keith's Saders hope to turn the sunken submarine into a monument 312 00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:53,000 to honor the memory of those who fought and those who died. 313 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:58,000 At our request, the U.S. Navy checked their archives. They gave us the following statement. 314 00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:04,000 We have no record of the USS Willard Keith sinking a submarine in the spring of 1945. 315 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:10,000 Additionally, we have no record of any subsinkings in the eastern Pacific Ocean during that same time frame. 316 00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:19,000 Bill Anderson and his comrades remain undaunted. They plan to continue their quest. 317 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:23,000 Next, the mysterious death of a Cook County, Illinois police captain. 318 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:28,000 Was it suicide or was it a contract killing? 319 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:45,000 According to those who knew him best, Captain Michael O'Mara of the Cook County, Illinois Sheriff's Police was the straightest of straight arrows. 320 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:52,000 He was a devoted husband and father, the only officer in the Sheriff's Police trained at the FBI Academy. 321 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:59,000 In the 60s, O'Mara became celebrated as a scourge of the Illinois Mafia. 322 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:05,000 By 1988, however, Michael O'Mara had been relegated to a desk job in the records department. 323 00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:15,000 It should have been the gentle twilight of a brilliant career. Should have been, but wasn't. 324 00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:22,000 May 30, 1988, shortly after 9 p.m. 325 00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:30,000 At the Cook County Courthouse, the Sheriff's Police patrolman pulled into the private service area to gas up his car. 326 00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:38,000 An unmarked police car was parked at the pumps with a gas nozzle in the tank. Yet no officer was in sight. 327 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:48,000 Anybody here? 328 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:58,000 As the patrolman's flashlight played over the lawn around the service area, he caught a glimpse of a gruesome scene. 329 00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:05,000 Michael O'Mara's body was slumped over a rock in the middle of the lawn. He had been shot once through the head. 330 00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:15,000 His wallet and his briefcase had not been touched. Even though there was no sign of a robbery, Michael O'Mara's reputation as a crusader against organized crime 331 00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:20,000 made murderers seem a distinct possibility. 332 00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:28,000 The approach of death scene is possibly a homicide initially, that, you know, who did this? 333 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:40,000 There was a gun to the right side of the body, near the right hand, and there was a very visible gunshot wound to the forehead. 334 00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:48,000 There was a flashlight found next to a rock that we can identify as his flashlight. The gun is his gun. 335 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:54,000 And there was one bullet that was discharged from that cylinder of that weapon. 336 00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:59,000 You've got nothing in any way, shape, or form to say that there was anybody else there. 337 00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:05,000 The victims' pockets were intact. His money was intact. His car was intact. 338 00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:15,000 If you were going to weigh this, there would be more weight towards a suicide or an accident than there would be towards a murder. 339 00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:23,000 Two weeks after Michael O'Mara died, a Cook County coroner handed down a ruling which confirmed investigator suspicions. 340 00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:30,000 The official cause of death was listed as suicide. 341 00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:38,000 It all seemed so final, a tragic end to an otherwise spotless career. But it was not the end. 342 00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:42,000 Michael O'Mara's friends and family felt there had been a rush to judgment. 343 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:47,000 Despite the coroner's ruling, they were convinced that Mike had been murdered. 344 00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:55,000 What they didn't know was who could have done it and why. But they were sure that Michael O'Mara had not killed himself. 345 00:25:56,000 --> 00:26:02,000 The last person known to have seen Mike alive was his wife, Barbara. 346 00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:09,000 She recalls he left the house at night in good spirits, saying he had to fill his department vehicle with gas. 347 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:16,000 Right before he left, he said he was going to stop on the way back to get yogurt and he asked everybody what flavor they wanted. 348 00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:24,000 And of course, it was the day before payday and he didn't have any money in his wallet, so he asked me for some money to go. 349 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:26,000 Barbara, do you have any cash? 350 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:29,000 Yeah, my purse is in the hallway on the table. 351 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:40,000 Why wouldn't he take my last couple of dollars to get the yogurt if he was planning on not coming back? It doesn't make any sense. 352 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:50,000 In this case, you can take any isolated fact and say it can be consistent with suicide. 353 00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:56,000 The problem is, is the whole scenario, when you look at that, is not that of a suicide. 354 00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:07,000 In 1989, Barbara O'Mara hired Dr. DeMio to review the case, including the coroner's findings and the events leading up to Mike O'Mara's death. 355 00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:19,000 When I reviewed the background information in this case, it was evident that there was no reason for the individual to have committed suicide. 356 00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:24,000 There was no financial problems, no personal problems, no fatal disease. 357 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:34,000 That does not completely rule out suicide, but it kind of makes the conclusion that a death is suicide a little more difficult. 358 00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:39,000 The man is found dead in the field with a flashlight next to him and his gun. 359 00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:47,000 His car is parked nearby with the gasoline nozzle inserted into the tank. 360 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:54,000 This does not sound like a suicide unless the man just drove up there and as he was filling his gas tank says, 361 00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:59,000 hey gee, I don't have anything else to do, might as well commit suicide. It was kind of bizarre. 362 00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:06,000 Based on his investigation, Dr. DeMio has come up with a scenario for murder. 363 00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:16,000 The evidence of the scene suggests that Mr. O'Mara began to fill the tank of his car when he saw or heard something in the field. 364 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:21,000 He then took a gun from his briefcase and went to investigate. 365 00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:29,000 When he got into the field, he met somebody or a number of people and he was shot. 366 00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:41,000 I think that if someone was screaming that a crime was occurring and he was standing right at his vehicle, I don't know why he wouldn't ask for help first. 367 00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:51,000 Also, it's my understanding from reading the file and talking to the investigators that persons who heard a shot fired did not hear those other things. 368 00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:58,000 They didn't hear somebody calling for help. When our investigators went to the scene and they looked in the field, 369 00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:06,000 it didn't appear that there was any struggle in the field. If not by him and somebody else, by that quote, a possible offender in a third party, 370 00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:10,000 there was no evidence of a struggle. 371 00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:20,000 Who would have had a motive to kill Mike O'Mara? Could it have been a long forgotten enemy nursing a vendetta for more than 25 years, 372 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:30,000 ever since O'Mara and his raiders went after the mafia in the 60s? Or could Mike O'Mara have had an enemy closer to home, perhaps even in the sheriff's police? 373 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:39,000 If anyone knows, he's not saying. But Dr. DeMio points to one additional fact which he believes argues against suicide. 374 00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:54,000 When people shoot themselves, they tend to put the gun firmly against the head at the time of discharge. In this case, the muzzle of the weapon was between two and four inches away from the skin. 375 00:29:54,000 --> 00:30:00,000 And you could see that by the powder tattooing on the skin around the entrance wound. 376 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:12,000 He may have chosen to have it not be a contact wound because he did. He taught homicide investigation. I mean, he taught courses and he taught about suicide. 377 00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:19,000 So he knows if he wanted to make it look like something other than it was, he may have deliberately done that. 378 00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:27,000 Well, I don't think you can really get into someone's head when they're, if they're about to go and do something as drastic as this. 379 00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:39,000 He left the house with the intent to get gas. He told his wife, they're going to bring some frozen yogurt home. So he played that scenario out. And he just didn't come home. 380 00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:58,000 Based on the information that I have in front of me, in reading the entire case, it tends to be suicide. I don't have any evidence in front of me that would conclude that this was a homicide and we need, and we're looking for the offenders. 381 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:17,000 What happened to Captain Michael O'Mara on the night of May 30th, 1988? Is it possibly chose to end his own life? A life which would have been the envy of any police officer? Or is there a killer still at large, still unidentified, still a danger? 382 00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:25,000 Michael O'Mara's friends and family believe the answer is obvious. Michael O'Mara is not a man to commit suicide. 383 00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:35,000 One of the reasons that I don't believe this would have been a suicide, it just wouldn't have been his nature to do something like this, either to his family or to his religious beliefs. 384 00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:46,000 It wasn't an accident. He was purposely shot. And why it's being covered up or whether they know or anybody knows, I don't know. 385 00:31:46,000 --> 00:32:06,000 I can't believe it's a suicide at all. Knowing Mike, it was totally foreign to his nature. He was never one to give up on something. It just doesn't fit him. What happened out there, I'll never know. But suicide, I'll never believe. 386 00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:27,000 On the evening of October 2, 1961, Mr. and Mrs. Earl Betcher and their son, Alan, were leaving Baptist Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida. 387 00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:36,000 When Alan ran ahead to the family car, he made a startling discovery. A baby girl had been carefully placed in the back seat. 388 00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:48,000 The child became a local celebrity. Newspapers dubbed her Baby Girl X. Within a year, she was adopted by Mary Lou and William Christie of Tallahassee and named Terry. 389 00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:59,000 Terry grew up happily, doted on by her parents and an older brother and sister. By the time she was a teenager, however, she began to ask questions. 390 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:12,000 I kind of rebelled and wanted to know. This one went to the library, looked it up, and then I got excited. I was proud, you know. 391 00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:20,000 Together, Terry and her adoptive mother, Mary Lou, searched for clues to the identity of Terry's birth mother. 392 00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:23,000 Let's roll it some more and see what else we see. 393 00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:33,000 I believe she had a heart. She put me somewhere safe where I was going to be well taken care of, and I appreciate that. 394 00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:40,000 I just want to meet her and see how she is. I would like to find a beginning. 395 00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:44,000 Did you see anybody around? No. 396 00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:45,000 No. 397 00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:52,000 Thanks to our broadcast, Terry Christie Derby now knows the answers to all of her questions. 398 00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:59,000 Sadly, Terry's birth mother, Edith Campbell, died on August 17, 1993, just a few months before our segment aired. 399 00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:07,000 But out of this sadness, a happy ending did emerge. Terry was delighted to learn that she had a sister and three brothers. 400 00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:12,000 They were delighted as well. None of them had ever known that Terry existed. 401 00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:26,000 On July 8, 1994, Terry went to a hotel in Miami, Florida to meet three of her siblings, Phillip, Paul and Cecilia, face to face for the first time. 402 00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:41,000 It was the neatest experience of my life. I walked in and there was everybody I wanted to see. 403 00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:50,000 Next to me giving birth to my own kids, this is the best thing that's ever happened to me. Best thing. 404 00:34:52,000 --> 00:35:04,000 My experience is that there's more than just a biological thing in a family. There's also a karmic sense of underlying destiny that lies underneath the whole thing. 405 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:12,000 And this, you know, you meet somebody, I meet Terry and it's like, she is my sister. I knew it right away, you know? There's no doubt. 406 00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:19,000 At the reunion, Terry and her adoptive mother finally saw a picture of Terry's biological mother, Edith Campbell. 407 00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:27,000 According to a family member, Edith had given Terry up only because of extreme financial desperation. 408 00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:36,000 Knowing what a loving person she was, she cared about nothing but her children, her whole life. 409 00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:44,000 And I can only imagine the anguish that she went through when she decided to do this. 410 00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:55,000 They make me feel wanted. They make me feel like I'm not an outcast. I kind of felt like I was in the past, but... 411 00:35:56,000 --> 00:36:04,000 I can feel their vibes, love, whatever, you know? It's kind of cool. 412 00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:07,000 Come on, let's go. Let's go. 413 00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:13,000 The next day, Terry met her other brother, Chris, who had been called out of town on business on the day of the reunion. 414 00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:16,000 That's right, snuggle up, brothers and sister. 415 00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:20,000 At last, the family circle is complete. 416 00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:32,000 When we return, perhaps you can help reunite a family torn apart by poverty and misunderstanding. 417 00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:48,000 In the year 1948, a family tragedy began to unfold just north of Tipton, Oklahoma. 418 00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:50,000 You coming home after work today? 419 00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:55,000 Roy Lee and Leela Stallings, along with their six children, existed on the edge of abject poverty. 420 00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:58,000 The Stallings actually lived in an old school bus. 421 00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:02,000 Roy Lee worked sporadically as a sharecropper and was rarely at home. 422 00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:06,000 He gambled away what little money he brought in. 423 00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:15,000 In his own way, he was fatherly by trying to make a living for us. 424 00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:20,000 But as far as being home, he wasn't home that much. 425 00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:31,000 The mother was the one that was the disciplinarian to cook and to feed and supply the meals and everything. 426 00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:33,000 It was mother's job. 427 00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:43,000 In spite of almost insurmountable odds, Leela Stallings struggled to maintain a home life that was as normal as possible. 428 00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:46,000 Mary, why don't you take them? 429 00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:50,000 Thank you. 430 00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:53,000 We always had something to do. 431 00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:56,000 And we had toys to play with and each other to play with. 432 00:37:57,000 --> 00:38:00,000 So we didn't think of ourselves as being different. 433 00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:04,000 Do you want to hear the story of Noah's Ark again? 434 00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:06,000 Okay. 435 00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:10,000 One day the Lord told Noah to build an ark. 436 00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:15,000 Mother couldn't read and write, but her Bible meant a lot to her. 437 00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:19,000 And she'd see pictures and she'd tell us Bible stories from the pictures. 438 00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:23,000 And we grew up with a very direct sense of what was right and wrong. 439 00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:31,000 To the children, the old school bus was home, a haven and a safe place. 440 00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:36,000 But others, notably Melvin Purdy, a family friend, had different ideas. 441 00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:40,000 And Melvin did not hesitate to make his feelings known to Leela Stallings. 442 00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:43,000 Melvin, you want to separate our family? 443 00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:47,000 Leela, you don't have a prayer over in that old bus with him again. 444 00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:49,000 Melvin, I will see you dead before you get my kids. 445 00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:51,000 Leela, that's no way where you're gonna act now. 446 00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:54,000 I want you to leave and never, never come back here. 447 00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:56,000 You're not gonna let me take Leela David Ray tonight. 448 00:38:57,000 --> 00:38:58,000 No, you can't have him. 449 00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:00,000 Well, I'm gonna take him. 450 00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:02,000 I think you ain't gonna have any of him, kid, very long. 451 00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:16,000 The only child Melvin wanted to raise himself was four-year-old David Ray, the youngest boy. 452 00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:25,000 But Melvin thought all the children were neglected, from the baby two-year-old Norma Ruth, to the eldest, 12-year-old Roy Jr. 453 00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:30,000 Mary was then 10, the oldest girl and second mother to the younger ones. 454 00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:36,000 Joe was both big brother and role model to six-year-old Ernest Lee. 455 00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:42,000 The bus is gone. 456 00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:47,000 The final straw came a few weeks later when the old school bus was taken away. 457 00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:51,000 Apparently, Roy Lee Stallings had lost it in a poker game. 458 00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:56,000 Melvin Purdy, along with several others, wasted no time contacting the authorities. 459 00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:00,000 State of Oklahoma versus Lee and Leela Stallings. 460 00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:05,000 You've been charged with the crime of admitting to provide for the care of minor children. 461 00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:07,000 How do you plead to these charges? 462 00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:09,000 Not guilty. 463 00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:14,000 Based on evidence presented to this court, there is due cause to have you bound over for trial. 464 00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:20,000 Until further decision, the children are placed in the care of the child welfare department under your supervision. 465 00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:22,000 Yes, Your Honor. 466 00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:28,000 Mr. Mrs. Stallings, at this time, you are placed in the custody of the Tillman County Sheriff's Department. 467 00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:34,000 I remember seeing them both in handcuffs. 468 00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:41,000 And that was the last time I saw Mother as they let her out the side door. 469 00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:45,000 And that was something very strange to us. 470 00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:52,000 Over the next few days, the Stallings children would all be taken to foster homes. 471 00:40:56,000 --> 00:41:01,000 Mary vividly remembers the last time she saw her three youngest siblings. 472 00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:10,000 I put Ernest Lee in the car, told Ernest to get in the car, and I put David in the car. 473 00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:14,000 And they, Normie was holding on to me and wouldn't let go. 474 00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:17,000 And they pulled her out of my arms and put her in the car. 475 00:41:21,000 --> 00:41:22,000 You go in the house. 476 00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:29,000 Ernest Lee was pulling at the window. They had rolled the windows up. 477 00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:35,000 And that's the last time I saw him. 478 00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:42,000 Within a week, the charges against Lila and Roy Lee Stallings were dropped, but the damage had already been done. 479 00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:48,000 Lila was told that all of her children, except the oldest, Roy Jr., had been put up for adoption. 480 00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:55,000 The Stallings children were taken to foster homes. 481 00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:58,000 And they were taken to foster homes. 482 00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:01,000 And they were taken to foster homes. 483 00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:10,000 Two years later, after Roy Lee and Lila divorced, Mary was allowed to go home and live with her mother. 484 00:42:11,000 --> 00:42:13,000 Joe was reunited with them in 1959. 485 00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:21,000 Lila passed away in 1989, but Mary and Joe still desperately want to be reunited with their brothers and sisters. 486 00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:29,000 We've never given up hope that they are still alive and that we will be able to find them. 487 00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:36,000 I'm curious as to what they've grown up like, their family life, what they've made of themselves. 488 00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:41,000 And definitely hoping that if I do find them, none of this will ever hurt them. 489 00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:52,000 I have tried every avenue that I have came before me to try and locate these brothers and sisters. 490 00:42:54,000 --> 00:43:00,000 And I'll never quit until the last day of my life. 491 00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:05,000 Unsolved mysteries appeared to be the last hope. 492 00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:11,000 And happily the day after our broadcast, 35 years of frustration came to an end for Joe and Mary. 493 00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:15,000 A man named Lee Shulian of Owaso, Oklahoma called our phone center. 494 00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:21,000 He identified himself as Ernest Lee Stallings, who was only five when the family was split apart. 495 00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:26,000 Lee was thrilled to hear that his brother and sister were looking for him and was anxious to meet them. 496 00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:36,000 Three weeks later, Lee arrived at a hotel in Tulsa, Oklahoma to be reunited with Joe. 497 00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:41,000 The two brothers had not seen each other in nearly half a century. 498 00:43:43,000 --> 00:43:45,000 I've been talking to you on the phone quite a bit. 499 00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:51,000 I've been waiting for this moment so much. 500 00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:57,000 I don't know how to describe it. It's such a wonderful feeling. 501 00:43:57,000 --> 00:43:59,000 It's about time. 502 00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:02,000 It's definitely time for this. 503 00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:09,000 Walking in this morning, we walked in and we met, hugged each other. 504 00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:17,000 Nobody can realize the feeling. 505 00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:21,000 We've been talking to each other for too many years. 506 00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:24,000 Yeah, about 40, 47 years. 507 00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:27,000 I really didn't know how I was going to react. 508 00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:30,000 We've been separated 46 years. 509 00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:33,000 I felt a lot better than what I thought I might. 510 00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:38,000 I felt real good to hug him. 511 00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:44,000 We've already started making some plans to get together and go fishing. 512 00:44:45,000 --> 00:44:52,000 So we've got a future ahead of us to be together and enjoy each other. 513 00:44:55,000 --> 00:44:59,000 Sadly, Joe and Lee's sister, Mary, was unable to attend the reunion. 514 00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:05,000 However, she has spoken with Lee on the phone and they plan to get together in the very near future. 515 00:45:06,000 --> 00:45:08,000 Right, yeah. 516 00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:31,000 On our next Unsolved Mysteries, a remarkable story of faith and healing. 517 00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:37,000 When Vera Marie Calandra was two years old, her parents were told that she had just weeks to live. 518 00:45:38,000 --> 00:45:44,000 Vera Marie's mother immediately undertook an arduous journey to Italy to ask for a special blessing from her. 519 00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:47,000 Today, Vera Marie Calandra is a normal healthy adult. 520 00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:50,000 Was she saved by a miracle? 521 00:45:51,000 --> 00:45:55,000 Join me next Friday for this uplifting story and more. 522 00:45:56,000 --> 00:45:59,000 Vera Marie's mother, Mary, was a very young woman. 523 00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:02,000 She was a very young woman. 524 00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:05,000 She was a very young woman. 525 00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:08,000 She was a very young woman. 526 00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:10,000 Was she saved by a miracle? 527 00:46:11,000 --> 00:46:17,000 Join me next Friday for this uplifting story and much more on Unsolved Mysteries.