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Next on Unsolved Mysteries, a desolate road, a teenage girl driving alone in one fatal

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bullet.

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Under hypnosis, a witness may have described her killer.

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Guests at the southern end get something extra with the price of Mayor Williams, ghosts of

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former residents who died of foul play.

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She's brutal, cunning and responsible for 10 murders and 50 rapes.

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Authorities need your help to catch her.

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Is Earth on a Doomsday collision course with a deadly asteroid?

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It's happened before and it will happen again.

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Cunning, deceit and lies, maybe you can guess who's telling the truth.

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I'm Dennis Farina and this is Unsolved Mysteries.

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Valdez, North Carolina.

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On the night of December 22, a recent high school graduate, Rhonda Hinson, attends her

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first ever company Christmas party.

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Midnight, Rhonda leaves with two girlfriends.

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After dropping off her companions, Rhonda plans to make the 10 mile drive to her home,

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where she lives with her parents.

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At exactly 1 a.m., Rhonda's mother wakes up from a sound sleep with a strange premonition.

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I woke up feeling panicky, scared because I felt like something had happened, Rhonda.

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I felt like Rhonda was dead, I felt like she had been in an automobile accident.

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I got up and I had a little sleepy scanner that you listen to, you know, accidents and

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all that stuff on it.

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And for some odd reason I just turned it on, you know, thought maybe, you know, if it

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had been an accident out here on the scanner and the minute I turned it on, it came over

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which, you know, it had been a homicide.

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1.20, check a vehicle in the ditch, put a mineral spring mountain at high 40, complainant

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reports blood in the front seat of sign.

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Rhonda's car was discovered just a half a mile from her house.

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The driver's door was open and a few feet away, Rhonda was found dead.

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She was lying on her back and her arms appeared to have been deliberately placed at her side.

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She had been killed by a single bullet fired by a high powered rifle.

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It tore through the trunk of her car, through her seat and penetrated her heart.

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The hardest thing is living every day wondering who did this.

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Rhonda was the most loving, caring person that you've ever known.

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Rhonda was the type of daughter that everybody would like to have.

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At first, the murder of Rhonda Henson appeared to be a random act of violence, but as the

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investigation unfolded, disturbing clues emerged suggesting that Rhonda may have been murdered

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by someone she knew.

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Several weeks after Rhonda's graduation, she began to act strangely.

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Previously happy to drive alone, she started asking her father to go with her on trips

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into town and on one of these trips, she made a disturbing statement.

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Dad, I've got something to tell you, but I'm afraid to.

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I said, no matter what it's good or bad, tell me.

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And she said, I'll think about it.

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And she never did explain, never did tell me why, what it was, you know, she's afraid

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to tell me.

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Well, you keep your mind on your job, okay?

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Her mother also recalled a strange conversation shortly before Rhonda's death.

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I was wondering if it's ever okay to go with the married man.

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I said, Rhonda, there's never a time that it's all right to go with the married man.

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The only thing that comes from that is people getting hurt.

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Rhonda's comments suggested that she was under some kind of personal pressure.

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The police investigation began to uncover evidence that someone may have been stalking

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her the night that she was killed.

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Between 1215 and 1230, on the morning that Rhonda Henson was murdered, a witness drove

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under the Interstate 40 Bridge on Mental Springs Mountain Road.

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She observed a blue Chevrolet facing in a northerly direction with two white males in

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the vehicle.

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The car was parked next to the same off-ramp that Rhonda used to exit.

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It was spotted 30 minutes before the fatal bullet was fired and just 200 yards from where

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her body was found.

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Later that evening, another witness traveling down the same road passed a similar blue car

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with a single man at the wheel speeding away from the murder site.

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As he continued down the road, the witness saw Rhonda's vehicle parked at the same spot

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where her body was found.

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A woman was slumped over the steering wheel and a man was standing at her door.

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The witness did not get a close look at the man and drove on, assuming the couple had

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been drinking.

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There were some latent prints on the driver's door, but these latent prints have not been

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identified.

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Police put the witness under hypnosis and asked them to recall more details.

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This is the actual audio tape of that session.

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The witness also remembered seeing a second car parked down the road from Rhonda's vehicle.

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It was a black or dark blue trans-am.

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Some believe that car may have been driven by the murderer.

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Who killed Rhonda Henson and why?

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Authorities are certain that she would never have stopped for a stranger.

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Was Rhonda pulled over by someone she knew who then fired the fatal shot?

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Was the man seen at Rhonda's car the murderer or was he someone who happened by and then

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left the area when he saw that Rhonda was dead?

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We have some different stories, but to really be able to substantiate these stories, we

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don't have that information.

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That's what we're looking for.

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Those little pieces of information that we've been substantiating, what happened?

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A $20,000 reward is being offered in this case.

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If you have any information, please log on to our website at unsolved.com.

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Next a 200-year-old mansion is now a hotel where ghosts are as common as guests.

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In St. Francisville, Louisiana sits the Myrtles Plantation, a 200-year-old mansion that's

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been converted into a bed and breakfast.

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It claims to be one of America's most haunted houses.

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Shoot, poisoning and lynching.

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At least eight people have died violent deaths here and some say their spirits are still

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on the property.

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I've had enough happen to let me know that other people live here that we can't always

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see.

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The Myrtles Plantation is said to be a window into the supernatural.

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Here know there's they might include a ghostly encounter.

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I guess I have to say I really didn't believe that there were actually ghosts or spirits

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there that it was just folklore and legend.

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And it wasn't until I was already in that things began to happen that convinced me that

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yes, they are here.

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But by then it was too late.

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Financially I couldn't afford to be scared.

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When Amy Campbell and her friend Michelle came to stay at the B&B in one October, they

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were well informed of its ghostly past.

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We were very hesitant if we were going to stay all night because we had heard that the

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place was haunted.

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We had heard that there were ghosts that visit people at night that tuck you in, fix your

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clothes.

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We weren't sure we wanted to experience any of that.

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I was sleeping for a little while and I woke up feeling bouncing on the end of my bed and

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I saw a little girl jumping on the end of my bed and I thought surely I'm dreaming and

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I stuck my head back under the covers.

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It kept bouncing and bouncing and bouncing.

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It felt like forever and all of a sudden it stopped.

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And I looked back at the little girl that was jumping on the bed and was gone.

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The child ghost is thought to be Cornelia Woodruff, one of four people who died in a

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series of tragic events 175 years ago.

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Cornelia was the daughter of Judge Woodruff, whose family lived at the Myrtles in the early

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1800s.

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When the Woodruff's house slave Chloe was caught eavesdropping on the judge, he decided

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to punish her.

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This is the third time I've caught you.

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I wasn't listening.

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I will not tolerate this.

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The judge ordered Chloe's ear cut off.

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Afraid of also being sent to the fields to do heart labor, she devised a plan.

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She ground poisonous oleander leaves into a birthday cake hoping to make the family

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sick.

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And then she would redeem herself by nursing them back to health.

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I baked your favorite cake, Miss Sarah.

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She may have thought she was boiling just enough oleander to make the family sick.

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Already knowing what was wrong, she would take care of them, be the hero, and be left

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in the household to take care of them.

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But Chloe's scheme backfired.

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Young Cornelia, her mother and sister, all died from the poison.

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A lot of guests want to know what happened to Chloe after the poisoning.

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It's believed that she was killed by a mixed mob.

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Black and whites were probably together.

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Of course, the other slaves were probably afraid of what was going to happen to them.

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She was supposedly beaten, hung, and then thrown into the river.

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It's believed that Cornelia, along with her mother and sister, has joined Chloe in haunting

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the house.

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Several years ago, Mark and Holly Parenti spent a frightening night at the Myrtles.

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Mark had been reluctant to visit, but knew that his wife would be intrigued by the hotel's

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history.

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It's known as one of the most haunted plantations in America, and I wasn't looking forward to

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finding out why.

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Come right up.

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It is.

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It's a beautiful house.

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It was scary.

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The thought of being in this haunted house was very scary, more probably tomorrow than

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me, but I was scared to.

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As Mark and Holly had reason to be nervous, another of the resident ghosts, a former owner

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named William Winters, was supposedly gunned down during the late 1800s.

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He is said to haunt the main staircase.

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Mark and Holly's room was just beyond that flight of stairs.

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My mind had gotten to me a little bit because I wouldn't let her turn the lights off.

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So we're laying in bed and she's sort of having a nervous chit-chat, and what I heard

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was a very deep sounding bang.

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Sounds like someone's got the steps.

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As soon as I heard that noise, you know, the adrenaline rush.

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No, no.

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Holly, stay here.

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Oh, come on.

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No.

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I want to look.

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If I had to venture a guess, it sounded like footsteps.

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The reason William Winters was murdered remains a mystery.

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Winners!

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William Winters!

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It was late one night in 1871 when a mysterious horseman appeared on the Myrtles front lawn.

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Who's there?

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Are you William Winters?

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Yes, I'm William Winters.

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Covered.

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Covered.

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Whoever was there shot him in the chest.

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He made it back through the double doors trying to reach his wife, Sarah.

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She was upstairs.

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Sarah!

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Sarah!

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Sarah!

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Sarah!

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Sarah!

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He only made it to the 17th step.

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He died there in her arms.

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All I know was that it was enough for me.

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You know, it was enough for me to make me want to leave.

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In a way, I think we were both hoping it might have been our imagination, but it definitely

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wasn't.

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There are certain times that I'm uncomfortable here.

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Certain times that you could say I get the creeps.

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You can feel a sadness.

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Or you can walk in and you hear, especially upstairs, footsteps.

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You know you hear them.

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Someone is right behind you.

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You can stop.

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The footsteps stop.

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Once you have the encounter and you feel the sensation, you will know that their intention

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is not to harm you.

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They are truly here to protect you.

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They protect this home.

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This is their station.

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This is their life.

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This is where they live.

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Next, a series of brooding rapes stretches across 400 miles.

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And a DNA match links them to the same suspect.

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Sacramento, California.

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I remember waking up with a flashlight shining in my face.

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Sailor.

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And I was looking down the barrel of a gun and he said, don't move.

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Don't make a sound or I will kill you.

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Give me your hands.

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And within a moment's notice, my life was all of a sudden in the control of somebody

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else.

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Just do as I tell you.

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This rape victim, whose identity we are not revealing at her request, is one of more

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than 50 women believed to have been assaulted by a serial rapist who terrorized the Sacramento

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area during the 1970s.

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The mysterious attacker known as the East Area Rapist has never been identified.

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Now, advances in law enforcement technology have linked him to a series of murders that

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happened a decade earlier.

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These need your help to track down this very cunning and very dangerous criminal.

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The East Area Rapist displayed some unusual habits, including lingering in the victim's

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homes for hours.

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I know that at some point he was out in the living room smoking and the police felt that

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he maybe had gotten into my refrigerator.

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I think he was in the house anywhere from two and a half to three hours.

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I lay there for what seemed like a long period of time with no noise.

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And then all of a sudden, I couldn't see, I couldn't move, and I couldn't yell.

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And I remember wondering, is this it?

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Is this the way I'm going to die?

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After sexually assaulting his victims, the rapist would quietly sneak away.

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Can you tell me maybe a little of what he looked like, maybe how tall he was?

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The East Area Rapist very definitely did a psychological rape along with the physical

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rape in the manner in which he would threaten the victims the length of time that he stayed

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in the home.

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His crime was different and unique.

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The first 15 attacks occurred in houses where only women and children were at home.

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But then the rapist began targeting homes in which a man was also present.

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When the rapist would come in, he would at gunpoint order the female to tie up the male

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in the house.

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And then he would remove the female to the other part of the house where he would also

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tie her up.

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And then he would put the dishes on.

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The husband.

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If I hear one click, I'll kill everyone in the house.

250
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While he was in the other room occupied with the sexual assault, he could hear whether

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or not the male was trying to get free.

252
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There was so much fear in the community.

253
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So we were holding town hall meetings.

254
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We understand your concern.

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They were in sense to think that a man could have been in the home when these rapes occurred

256
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and not have done anything about it.

257
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I think that he liked the excitement of the game.

258
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I think it was as much a game with the investigators as it was for what he was doing to the victims.

259
00:20:05,520 --> 00:20:12,200
The rapist's sadistic game sometimes extended beyond the attack itself.

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Several victims reported getting disturbing phone calls from the rapist years later.

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Who is this?

262
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I felt by what he said to me that he had been still watching me and stalking me.

263
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I felt absolutely terrified.

264
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I think the phone calls were just his way of saying, you're still my hostage.

265
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Even though I'm not in your house, psychologically you're still my hostage.

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Police believe that this recording, made by one of the victims, is the actual voice of the rapist.

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By the late 1970s, the East Area Rapist had apparently moved 50 miles to Contra Costa County.

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Five more assaults were reported there.

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Then the attacks abruptly stopped.

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Everybody speculated on where this guy might have gone or why he might have stopped.

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There was nowhere to go with it.

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We had no real physical description.

273
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The trail grew cold, but over the years criminalist Paul Hoves continued to work the case.

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He ran DNA profiles on Seaman recovered from the five rapes in his county.

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And then he tried to track down the rapist.

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Hoves began contacting agencies across the state.

277
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400 miles south in Orange County, forensic scientist Mary Hong had used DNA to link six

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00:22:08,240 --> 00:22:12,520
rape murders in her county to a single killer.

279
00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:16,600
In 2001, Mary got a call from Paul Hoves.

280
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Let me grab that file.

281
00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:23,080
Independently, he was thinking that this guy has to be committing these crimes somewhere

282
00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:24,080
else.

283
00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:28,960
He was actually calling these agencies and finding out if they had any cases that fit

284
00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:29,960
his profile.

285
00:22:29,960 --> 00:22:32,800
Okay, I've got D3-15-16.

286
00:22:32,800 --> 00:22:37,080
I had him read me the profile that he had on this case.

287
00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:41,640
And I compared that to the profile that I had in our cases and they matched all the way across.

288
00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:43,720
Wow, looks like we've got a match.

289
00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:48,960
At that point, we knew that we had just connected the series of sexual assaults in Northern

290
00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:54,400
California with a series of homicides down in Southern California.

291
00:22:54,400 --> 00:23:00,520
In Southern California during the 1980s, the East Area rapist began murdering his rape

292
00:23:00,520 --> 00:23:03,520
victims and their partners.

293
00:23:03,520 --> 00:23:08,120
He was the suspect in 10 such killings.

294
00:23:08,120 --> 00:23:09,360
I don't know of anyone like him.

295
00:23:09,360 --> 00:23:11,320
He's a very unique offender.

296
00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:16,120
50 rapes that we're aware of, 10 murders that we're aware of.

297
00:23:16,120 --> 00:23:22,440
I suspect that he's probably responsible for more rapes and murders and crimes outside

298
00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:25,760
of what we've identified.

299
00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:31,800
Police think a clue to the attacker's identity might be found in his habit of stacking plates

300
00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:36,480
on the victim's partner during the assault.

301
00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:39,840
It's a signature aspect of our offender.

302
00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:45,720
Is it possible that someone abused him and treated him the same way?

303
00:23:45,720 --> 00:23:52,200
Pararizing him perhaps as a boy when he grew up is possible.

304
00:23:52,200 --> 00:24:00,280
Somebody out there has to know something about this person and if the information could come

305
00:24:00,280 --> 00:24:04,520
forward will it ever bring closure to the victims?

306
00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:09,920
Only that they would feel safe that he is not out there to attack again.

307
00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:12,240
I don't want to end my career without having solved this.

308
00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:19,000
If it's not solved by the time I retire, I'll think about it till the day I die.

309
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:22,040
Update, there are new developments in this case.

310
00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:25,480
Here's one of our staff with details.

311
00:24:25,480 --> 00:24:31,920
A suspect in the case of the East Area Rapist, now popularly known as the Golden State Killer,

312
00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:33,440
was arrested.

313
00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:39,680
More than 40 years after the initial crimes, Joseph James D'Angelo admitted to committing

314
00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:42,160
more than a dozen murders.

315
00:24:42,160 --> 00:24:48,120
He pleaded guilty to 26 charges and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility

316
00:24:48,120 --> 00:24:49,640
of parole.

317
00:24:49,640 --> 00:25:09,320
Next is Planet Earth on a collision course with a deadly asteroid.

318
00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:15,040
In the entire country devastated in less than a minute, a large city wiped off the

319
00:25:15,040 --> 00:25:17,560
map in a matter of seconds.

320
00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:19,240
A nuclear nightmare?

321
00:25:19,240 --> 00:25:20,240
No.

322
00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:31,800
A natural disaster unlike anything in human history and it will come from outer space.

323
00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:39,800
July 16, 1994, a frightening preview, the most powerful chain of explosions ever witnessed

324
00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:41,760
by scientists.

325
00:25:41,760 --> 00:25:48,000
They began when huge fragments of a giant comet called Shoemaker-Levy slammed into

326
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:50,000
the planet Jupiter.

327
00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:55,520
Well out of this series of fragments, there were actually 15 that survived that we saw

328
00:25:55,520 --> 00:26:00,280
hit the planet and of those about four or five were the big ones.

329
00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:06,040
When each of those largest fragments hit Jupiter, it had about the same energy as if you had

330
00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:09,800
taken all of the nuclear bombs in the world.

331
00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:14,240
Dr. Gene Shoemaker is code discoverer of the Shoemaker-Levy comet.

332
00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:18,880
Put them all in one big pile and set them off all at once.

333
00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:25,800
That's about 10,000 million tons of energy.

334
00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:30,760
One of the explosions created a cloud of debris as large as the Earth.

335
00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:38,280
If it happened there, can it happen here?

336
00:26:38,280 --> 00:26:44,200
Large collisions like Shoemaker-Levy occur only once every 100 million years, but we're

337
00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:46,160
not entirely safe.

338
00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:51,280
There are thousands of asteroids and comets streaking through our solar system.

339
00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:54,680
Is it possible that one could collide with our planet?

340
00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:59,440
Well in fact, it's already happened and more than once.

341
00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:06,080
40 miles east of Flagstaff, Arizona is Meteor Crater.

342
00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:13,040
Long before the dawn of civilization, a massive asteroid slammed into the desert floor.

343
00:27:13,040 --> 00:27:19,520
Scientists estimate its velocity at more than 40,000 miles per hour.

344
00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:23,240
Meteor Crater is the first recognized impact crater on the Earth.

345
00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:27,600
It's 4,000 feet across, about 600 feet deep.

346
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:32,360
It was formed by an iron asteroid about 50 yards in diameter.

347
00:27:32,360 --> 00:27:35,880
And it was formed very close to 50,000 years ago.

348
00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:39,200
But if you had been there, you wouldn't want to have been too close.

349
00:27:39,200 --> 00:27:44,000
If you had been standing where Flagstaff is today 40 miles away, you would have probably

350
00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:46,440
been knocked over by the shockwave.

351
00:27:46,440 --> 00:27:49,560
Buildings would have been collapsed.

352
00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:53,280
Large meteors striking the Earth aren't just ancient history.

353
00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:58,600
In 1908, a fireball raced through the sky over Siberia.

354
00:27:58,600 --> 00:28:05,440
It exploded above the remote area of Tunguska, spraying debris with the force of a thousand

355
00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:06,920
atomic bombs.

356
00:28:06,920 --> 00:28:12,960
To get a good idea of the devastating effect of this impact event, a city that I know very

357
00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:19,040
well, Houston, has surrounding it a highway, a Beltway Highway, 610 Loop.

358
00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:23,920
Everything inside the 610 Loop would have been flattened and charred.

359
00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:29,000
All the buildings, all the infrastructure, nothing would have been standing inside that

360
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:30,000
area.

361
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:33,960
Anyone who lived there would have been dead.

362
00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:39,160
Such devastation did occur on a worldwide scale, at least once in the history of our

363
00:28:39,160 --> 00:28:40,160
planet.

364
00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:45,640
It was 65 million years ago, during the age of the dinosaur.

365
00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:51,640
A giant meteor, five miles across, plowed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, where the

366
00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:56,600
small town of Chixaloupe now stands.

367
00:28:56,600 --> 00:29:01,640
The surface expression would not lead you to believe that there is an impact crater

368
00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:02,640
there.

369
00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:08,560
You have a nice, flat Yucatan Peninsula with really no topographic signs that a crater

370
00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:14,920
180 to 200 miles across exists below.

371
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:20,040
So what would it be like to witness such a cataclysmic event?

372
00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:26,720
Well, immediately before the impact, we think you would see a comet.

373
00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:31,800
Keep in mind that this object is traveling at about 140,000 miles per hour.

374
00:29:31,800 --> 00:29:37,400
You don't have a lot of time between the time it goes into the atmosphere and the time

375
00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:42,440
it actually strikes the Earth, much less than a second, obviously.

376
00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:48,120
The impact at Chixaloupe was heard and felt in every corner of the Earth.

377
00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:49,640
The ground surged upward.

378
00:29:49,640 --> 00:29:56,800
Tons of rock and dust formed a massive curtain, hundreds of miles across and hundreds of miles

379
00:29:56,800 --> 00:29:58,120
high.

380
00:29:58,120 --> 00:30:03,480
As this dust started to make its way into the atmosphere, it would block the sunlight completely.

381
00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:06,800
It would be as dark as night.

382
00:30:06,800 --> 00:30:11,080
As some of this material started to re-enter the atmosphere, however, things would begin

383
00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:12,240
to light up.

384
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:16,840
Not by the illumination of the sun, but by the illumination of countless meteorites

385
00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:21,720
shooting stars streaking through the upper atmosphere.

386
00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:28,400
These balls of fire ignited a raging inferno that spread across the entire Western hemisphere.

387
00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:35,320
The smoke joined with the impact debris and covered the Earth with a suffocating cloud.

388
00:30:35,320 --> 00:30:40,320
For at least a year, there was no sunlight triggering a new ice age.

389
00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:45,800
Roughly 75% of Earth's plant and animal life died.

390
00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:49,920
The most well-known victim was the dinosaur.

391
00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:57,640
The consensus is today that dinosaurs were doing very nicely up until this event, and

392
00:30:57,640 --> 00:31:04,000
immediately after this event, they were gone and they never came back.

393
00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:10,640
In the next generation, the NASA, more than 5,000 asteroids can be classified as near-Earth.

394
00:31:10,640 --> 00:31:16,920
Of those, nearly 1,000 are considered potentially dangerous for the planet.

395
00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:24,920
In 2004, scientists discovered a new asteroid named Apophis, a chunk of interplanetary rock

396
00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:29,240
between 700 and 1,000 feet across.

397
00:31:29,240 --> 00:31:33,760
Although it's too soon to know for sure, there's a small chance this near-Earth object

398
00:31:33,760 --> 00:31:36,920
will eventually collide with our planet.

399
00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:37,920
The date?

400
00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:42,680
April 13th, 2036.

401
00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:49,520
The hazard of impact in terms of loss of life on the Earth, you don't take out just 100,000

402
00:31:49,520 --> 00:31:51,000
lives lost.

403
00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:55,800
You could wipe out half or more of the entire human population.

404
00:31:55,800 --> 00:32:01,360
If an event similar to the one that formed Chicksalub happened tomorrow, then there would

405
00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:03,360
be no civilization.

406
00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:05,360
There is no doubt about that.

407
00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:14,000
There would be widespread devastation, death like we have never even imagined.

408
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:15,800
And there's no protection for it.

409
00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:18,920
It's just one of those things that we have to live with.

410
00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:23,400
Fortunately, however, events like Chicksalub are extremely rare.

411
00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:34,600
Next, the amazing encounter of identical strangers who may be long-lost relatives.

412
00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:51,920
And later, a horrific accident leads to a rescue by a mysterious good Samaritan.

413
00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:57,960
In December of 1943, Ken Palmer was a second lieutenant in the Army Air Corps.

414
00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:01,200
He was traveling from Texas to Wisconsin.

415
00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:08,280
During a change of trains, he had the most remarkable encounter of his life.

416
00:33:08,280 --> 00:33:13,800
Ken had the feeling that someone was staring at him, and then he saw why.

417
00:33:13,800 --> 00:33:19,200
He was being watched by his exact double.

418
00:33:19,200 --> 00:33:22,040
I was amazed.

419
00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:26,880
And both of us saw it, and both of us reacted so much to it.

420
00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:30,560
Both of us sat down our bags and stared.

421
00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:37,400
And until I got ahold of myself and extended my hand, he didn't move.

422
00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:44,720
He was just frozen, looking at himself in a different uniform.

423
00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:49,240
I'm Ken Palmer.

424
00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:51,480
My name is Palmer.

425
00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:56,040
My first thought, of course, was that he's closely related.

426
00:33:56,040 --> 00:34:02,280
We began to exchange our father's names, our grandfather's names, where we lived,

427
00:34:02,280 --> 00:34:04,400
things of this nature.

428
00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:06,120
And that didn't get it.

429
00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:08,280
My grandfather's from Brownsville.

430
00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:11,720
The two men couldn't find a single relative in common.

431
00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:17,920
But when Ken mentioned an old family legend, he was stunned by the stranger's response.

432
00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:22,920
My family often talks of this lost treasure in India.

433
00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:26,840
Two Palmer brothers were at a party in the Court of St. James.

434
00:34:26,840 --> 00:34:29,720
They cut the cue off a court official.

435
00:34:29,720 --> 00:34:31,480
Yeah, that's right. They had to flee England.

436
00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:32,880
I mean, that's the story.

437
00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:35,360
Well, not alone did he know about it.

438
00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:39,720
He added details that I checked out with dad later, and they were accurate.

439
00:34:39,720 --> 00:34:41,280
Things that I didn't know.

440
00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:49,400
So it was perfectly obvious that we were related, and yet we couldn't understand how we could be.

441
00:34:49,400 --> 00:34:52,480
You write down your name and address.

442
00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:55,120
When I get back home, I'm going to contact you.

443
00:34:55,120 --> 00:34:58,920
I took his name and address, stuffed it in my pocket.

444
00:34:58,920 --> 00:35:04,040
I'll write you. Goodbye. Goodbye.

445
00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:08,880
I picked up my luggage and scooted off from my train.

446
00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:15,400
If I'd had the sense that God gave geese, I would have stopped right then,

447
00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:21,800
and we would have spent some time together.

448
00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:28,320
When I got on the train and settled, I reached in my pocket to get that slip of paper.

449
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:30,160
It wasn't there.

450
00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:36,480
It all fell apart at that moment. I was devastated.

451
00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:45,480
Ken never saw his double again, and all attempts to find him have been unsuccessful.

452
00:35:45,480 --> 00:35:49,680
These pictures of Ken Palmer were taken in the 1940s.

453
00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:53,080
The man he met looked virtually identical.

454
00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:56,000
Like Ken, his last name was Palmer.

455
00:35:56,000 --> 00:36:02,400
His first name may have been Robert or James.

456
00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:07,840
I would like very much to find him or part of his family.

457
00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:14,800
How many times are you going to walk across the station and see that double?

458
00:36:14,800 --> 00:36:19,080
Out of all the people in the United States, we walk into one another,

459
00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:23,760
and we set down our bags and stare at one another.

460
00:36:23,760 --> 00:36:27,600
Magical moment.

461
00:36:27,600 --> 00:36:31,360
Ken believes that his double lived in the eastern United States,

462
00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:33,240
possibly New Jersey.

463
00:36:33,240 --> 00:36:38,920
At the time, the man was either a technical or staff sergeant in the Army Air Corps.

464
00:36:38,920 --> 00:36:44,120
If you have any information that could help clear up this case, please log on to our website

465
00:36:44,120 --> 00:36:46,120
at unsolved.com.

466
00:36:51,120 --> 00:36:54,960
Ocala, Florida.

467
00:36:54,960 --> 00:36:58,960
Forty-eight-year-old Wilma Drew was just a mile from home.

468
00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:02,960
She had driven up this hill hundreds of times.

469
00:37:02,960 --> 00:37:08,000
But a few miles away, a car had entered the highway, going the wrong direction.

470
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:14,000
It was headed straight for Wilma at 55 miles an hour.

471
00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:18,240
David Vittato was driving right behind Wilma.

472
00:37:18,240 --> 00:37:22,880
As we were approaching the crest, I saw headlights approaching us.

473
00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:26,880
And the minute the lights came into view, I immediately tried to get over in the right

474
00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:30,880
Ham Lane to avoid the collision.

475
00:37:30,880 --> 00:37:38,880
I automatically, just in my gut, knew that somebody was going to be dead.

476
00:37:38,880 --> 00:37:42,320
David stopped to help.

477
00:37:42,320 --> 00:37:46,240
The driver and passenger in the wrong way car seemed to be moving.

478
00:37:46,240 --> 00:37:48,280
But Wilma was not.

479
00:37:48,280 --> 00:37:50,280
She was pinned in her car.

480
00:37:50,280 --> 00:37:53,600
The steering column wedged up against her chest.

481
00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:59,600
The driver's window was open, but the other windows and all the doors weren't jammed.

482
00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:01,600
Go out to my truck.

483
00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:06,600
I decided to run back to the truck to grab a tire tool, try to pry the door open, or

484
00:38:06,600 --> 00:38:10,600
whatever I could do to try to get into a sister possibly better.

485
00:38:10,600 --> 00:38:15,600
Another good Samaritan, Matthew White, also stopped to help.

486
00:38:15,600 --> 00:38:21,600
The two men didn't know it, but Wilma's neck had been broken, cutting off her air passage.

487
00:38:21,600 --> 00:38:23,600
She was suffocating.

488
00:38:23,600 --> 00:38:25,600
All the doors are jammed.

489
00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:29,600
Her driver's side window was busted out, and we couldn't break the windows out, so we

490
00:38:29,600 --> 00:38:33,600
were trying to get someone who had something that could break the window.

491
00:38:33,600 --> 00:38:37,600
David tried flagging down help.

492
00:38:37,600 --> 00:38:39,600
A tanker truck stopped.

493
00:38:39,600 --> 00:38:45,600
Remarkably, the driver seemed to know exactly what to do and how to do it.

494
00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:47,600
Get it open.

495
00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:49,600
Get it open.

496
00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:51,600
Stand back.

497
00:38:53,600 --> 00:38:59,600
After I busted the window, he climbed in into the back seat and reached over and lifted

498
00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:03,600
and held Wilma's head up.

499
00:39:03,600 --> 00:39:06,600
Wilma took a breath.

500
00:39:06,600 --> 00:39:09,600
Let's get this thing off her and give her some room.

501
00:39:09,600 --> 00:39:11,600
You got it?

502
00:39:11,600 --> 00:39:16,600
Matthew and David struggled to lift the steering column off Wilma's chest.

503
00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:19,600
The trucker kept her neck motionless.

504
00:39:19,600 --> 00:39:24,600
The ambulance arrived ten minutes later.

505
00:39:24,600 --> 00:39:26,600
Sir, I need you to let go and come out of the car, okay?

506
00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:29,600
I'm not letting go until you put a brace around her neck.

507
00:39:29,600 --> 00:39:34,600
The paramedic was just insistent that he let go of her head and go out of the car.

508
00:39:34,600 --> 00:39:42,600
And the man would not let go of her head until I held it while he got out and the paramedic got in.

509
00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:43,600
You got her?

510
00:39:43,600 --> 00:39:44,600
Yeah.

511
00:39:44,600 --> 00:39:50,600
Wilma was stabilized, but during the confusion, no one saw the truck driver leave.

512
00:39:50,600 --> 00:39:54,600
No one had a chance to get more than a glimpse of what he looked like.

513
00:39:54,600 --> 00:40:00,600
Wilma's husband came upon the crash scene a short time later.

514
00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:05,600
When I saw the vehicle, in my mind, nobody could have lived through it.

515
00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:11,600
I remember a lady asked me if that was my car and I said, yes, and my wife's dead.

516
00:40:11,600 --> 00:40:12,600
And she says, no, she isn't.

517
00:40:12,600 --> 00:40:17,600
They just, you know, left here where they're in the helicopter.

518
00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:22,600
It took 11 operations and almost a year to begin to repair the damage.

519
00:40:22,600 --> 00:40:25,600
Wilma's right leg had been nearly torn in half.

520
00:40:25,600 --> 00:40:27,600
Her left ankle was shattered.

521
00:40:27,600 --> 00:40:32,600
Her brainstem was so damaged that it caused permanent double vision.

522
00:40:32,600 --> 00:40:38,600
And one of the vertebra in Wilma's neck was completely severed.

523
00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:42,600
The neurosurgeon told us he's never seen anybody survive that injury.

524
00:40:42,600 --> 00:40:45,600
And he can't understand why she's still alive.

525
00:40:45,600 --> 00:40:49,600
And that was kind of eerie.

526
00:40:49,600 --> 00:40:55,600
I don't know why it happened to me, but I know that there is a purpose for it.

527
00:40:55,600 --> 00:41:01,600
And it's even peculiar that I've never experienced any anger.

528
00:41:01,600 --> 00:41:04,600
I'm just very thankful to be alive.

529
00:41:04,600 --> 00:41:05,600
Is she breathing?

530
00:41:05,600 --> 00:41:06,600
Yeah.

531
00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:09,600
And the neurosurgeon said he did it exactly right.

532
00:41:09,600 --> 00:41:12,600
Had he done it any different, it wouldn't have worked.

533
00:41:12,600 --> 00:41:15,600
He gave the doctor something to work with.

534
00:41:15,600 --> 00:41:20,600
And he just saved her life and gave her back to us.

535
00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:27,600
Thank you just really seems so insignificant as far as the way we feel.

536
00:41:27,600 --> 00:41:35,600
That someone would take the time to get involved and to do all he did for me and then just disappear.

537
00:41:37,600 --> 00:41:41,600
Update

538
00:41:41,600 --> 00:41:49,600
After seeing himself portrayed on Unsolved Mysteries, the truck driver contacted our phone center.

539
00:41:49,600 --> 00:41:52,600
We put him in touch with Wilma.

540
00:41:52,600 --> 00:42:00,600
He explained that he used to be an E&T and that's why he just knew what to do when he came upon the scene.

541
00:42:00,600 --> 00:42:07,600
Three years after her accident, Wilma was finally able to thank the man who had saved her life.

542
00:42:07,600 --> 00:42:11,600
He was thrilled to hear that she had survived the accident.

543
00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:14,600
Music

544
00:42:14,600 --> 00:42:26,600
Music

545
00:42:30,600 --> 00:42:52,600
Music