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Tonight on Unsolved Mysteries.

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The name alone is enough to make you stop and think twice.

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Welcome to the devil's backbone in central Texas.

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Locals say it's the most haunted spot in the country.

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A mother load of restless spirits should have frightened you.

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Or perhaps even possess you.

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A Romeo and Juliet love affair ends tragically

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when Leroy's father, the late Prince,

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writes goodbye to his girlfriend

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and just minutes later smashes his car into a tree.

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The coroner called it suicide,

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but Leroy's sister Vicki believes she has compelling evidence

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that Leroy was murdered.

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When David Kempton invited a new friend home to dinner,

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he never imagined his wife and this friend would become lovers.

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Within months, David's wife left him.

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Then she dropped from sight along with David's four-year-old daughter.

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Join me. Perhaps tonight you can make a difference.

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Perhaps you can help solve a mystery.

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Well County, Colorado, Memorial Day, 1968.

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Leroy Dreyth is killed instantly.

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The coroner's ruling is suicide.

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25 years later, at his family's request,

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the body of Leroy Dreyth is exhumed for an autopsy.

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It is a combination of a long strife

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for Leroy's sister Vicki, who is convinced that her brother was murdered.

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I took a vow that I would do this for my brother,

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and I don't feel like I can stop until it's done

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because I would be letting him down.

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I already feel like the authorities let him down

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and that obviously someone took his life

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and that he can't, I can't let him down.

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Someone has to be responsible for his death.

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He can't, I can't let him down.

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Someone has to stand up and talk for him.

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Vicki Marling is a woman on a relentless quest.

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A quarter of a century may seem like an eternity,

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but for Vicki, time has stood still since the day her brother died.

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Her mission is simple, to bring Leroy's killer to justice,

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no matter how long it takes.

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Leroy Dreythe was the oldest of four children.

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At 17, Leroy fell in love with a 16-year-old Hispanic girl named Patty.

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A year later, they were engaged.

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On the day he died, Memorial Day 1968,

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Leroy attended a party at Patty's house.

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He left in the late afternoon.

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A block and a half away, Leroy's car smashed head-on into a tree.

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Word of the accident spread quickly.

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The first people on the scene were Leroy's father and brother.

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I tried to hug him and I said,

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how gets up, gonna go get you some help?

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So I run to the truck and told Doug,

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let's run to the grocery store and call the ambulance.

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Got away, sir.

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Need to clear that.

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Need to clear this area.

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Out of the way, sir.

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Folks, does anybody know what happened here?

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He had a fight with his girlfriend.

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He said he's gonna kill himself.

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It was that off-handed remark from a bystander

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that set the suicide scenario in motion.

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OK, on three, four, two, and three.

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Ambulance driver, Delbert Mickelson remembers.

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The coroner come to the hospital and went over what happened.

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And then I was the first one to relay the story to him

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that he'd had a fight with his girlfriend

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and was going to kill himself.

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Based on that information,

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the coroner deemed no autopsy was necessary.

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He attributed Leroy's death to quote, auto suicide.

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I went to the hospital and I found out

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I went to the district attorney in Greeley

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and I said, I don't believe this was a suicide.

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I believe it was a murder.

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And I need for you to investigate it.

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And he was very rude.

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He said, you're just a distraught parent.

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There's no reason for us to investigate this.

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You just go on home and get over it.

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I just cried and went home.

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I never got over it.

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Why don't you take this?

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You always liked it.

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For 11-year-old Vicki, Leroy's death

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would prove to be the defining moment in her life.

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I remember that my mom was crying for a long time.

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And even though I was only 11, I knew there was something wrong.

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But I had to wait until I was an adult

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to attempt to solve the problem.

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I never did believe that Leroy committed suicide.

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June 1988, Vicki paid a surprise visit

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to the Boulder County Coroner's office.

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She fully expected to be stonewalled.

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Instead, she discovered that the current regime

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had already noted the lack of a thorough investigation

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into Leroy's death.

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Well, you see, there's only three recorded auto suicides

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in the whole history of Colorado.

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Only three?

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And also because, you see, the other two cases,

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you know, had six-month investigations

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with reams and reams of paperwork.

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And as you can see with this report,

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it's very minimal.

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Well, yeah, two pages.

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Why is there only two pages?

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I really couldn't tell you,

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but I want to encourage you to look further into this.

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And if I were you, I would hire a private investigator.

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I felt like it was a real strange thing for them,

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for the authorities to bring it to my attention

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as dramatically as they did,

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that something's wrong here.

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Vicki became her own investigator.

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She knocked on doors.

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She talked to Patty's neighbors,

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looking for anyone who had any memory

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of the day her brother died.

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Yeah, well, that's what they said, that there has been a fighting.

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Oh, they said there was a big fight.

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According to the townspeople,

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there was a party going on at Patty's house.

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And there had been a fight,

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but that it had not been between Patty and Leroy.

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Yeah, it wasn't me and the fight.

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That there had been several other family members there

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that did not like Leroy

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and that had been drinking all day.

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Vicki heard similar stories from a number of people,

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but not everyone was convinced

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that he was a criminal.

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After the situation then suicide,

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Vicki had little luck with the son of the original coroner.

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I'm very sorry, but I just want you to know one thing.

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My father was a coroner here for 25 years.

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He was very good at what he did.

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I'm sure he did everything he could.

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Now there's really nothing more I can help you with.

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I'm sorry, excuse me.

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Finally, Vicki placed an ad in the local paper,

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urging Leroy's former girlfriend Patty to contact her.

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It worked.

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Patty was a coroner and got the coroner's report

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and it stated that you had told the authorities

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that he was going to leave your house to kill himself.

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Did you say that?

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No, no, I never said that.

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Can you tell me anything about that day?

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Anything else?

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No.

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I felt like Patty knew answers, but was reluctant to talk.

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As far as Vicki was concerned,

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the evidence was becoming undeniable.

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I just, I don't think about that day anymore.

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Next came the exhumation.

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At long last, after 25 years,

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the body of Leroy Dreith would be autopsy.

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It was a tough decision.

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It took me about six months to finally decide

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that they weren't going to do anything

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and couldn't do anything unless we did the exhumation.

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It almost didn't seem right,

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but on the other hand, it seemed wrong to just stop there

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and say, oh well.

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It was immediately apparent that this young man

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had sustained some sort of incised wound to the neck,

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actually two incised wounds to the neck.

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And they were very characteristic of what I see all the time

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and other persons who have received stab or slash wounds

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to the neck from a knife.

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Vicki was stunned.

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In simple layman's terms,

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the two incisions translated into a stab wound

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nearly two inches long and a slash four inches long,

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a severed Leroy's windpipe.

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Based upon Dr. Allen's findings,

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the cause of Leroy's death was changed

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from auto-suicide to undetermined,

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for Vicki, crucial questions remained.

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Who killed her brother and why?

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In retrospect, everything leads back to Patty's house.

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Every time I think of a scenario,

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think of what happened, the same conclusion

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and the same thought that it started at Patty's house

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with an argument.

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Leroy arrived at around 5 p.m.

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Hi.

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How are you?

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Good, how are you?

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You look beautiful.

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Thank you.

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One of the guests was Patty's sister-in-law, Carolyn.

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Leroy come over that day and a lot of Patty's family was there

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and everyone had been drinking quite heavily that day.

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I was married to Patty's brother

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and I was living in the house with the family

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for about eight months before and after this happened.

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Looking away from you.

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Looking away from you.

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Patty's family and Leroy had a slight argument,

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kind of a racial argument over girlfriends and boyfriends.

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I love her and she loves me, OK?

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You're a punk.

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Soon after the argument, Patty escorted Leroy to his car.

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Vicki is convinced that just before he drove off,

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Leroy was attacked by one of Patty's family members.

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I believe that they continue to arguing

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and that a male person just quickly reached out

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and cut Leroy's throat.

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I feel that Leroy was probably fleeing for his life in the automobile

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and then lost consciousness or lost control of the vehicle

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because of the injuries.

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He would have been in pain and would have been extremely afraid,

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but the actual cause of death were injuries sustained

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from the automobile crash.

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I feel like I have become a cop in this whole scenario,

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which is very difficult at times because I have no training

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and I don't know what to do

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and I'm sure I've made the wrong mistakes at times,

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but I also know that I care deeply about my family

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and that I love my brother very much

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and I know that as long as I'm doing this,

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it's my heart pure and doing it for the good reasons

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that there is going to be a conclusion.

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Here at Unsolved Mysteries,

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each and every case solved brings his feelings

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of immense satisfaction.

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Tonight's update is particularly gratifying.

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It involves a young man sentenced to life in prison

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for a murder most people are convinced he did not commit.

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On Sunday night, April 13th, 1986,

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fire and rescue squads raced to a raging house fire

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in Alora, Missouri.

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When firemen were finally able to search the wreckage,

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they found the body of 79-year-old Pauline Martz.

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She had been bound, gagged, and left to die.

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Investigators concluded the fire had been deliberately set.

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Five days later, the police questioned

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a local 20-year-old named Johnny Lee Wilson.

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Wilson is mildly retarded with an IQ in the mid-60s.

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And he sat here and looked you right in the eye and said,

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John, you was there before that fire started.

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After a grueling four-hour interrogation, Wilson confessed,

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a confession he would later recant.

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At the end of the interrogation, he forced my head back

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and that's when I said, OK, OK, I did it.

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But when I really did, that's when I lied.

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Johnny's attorneys recommended that he plead guilty

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to avoid the possibility of the death penalty.

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In doing so, he waived his right to a trial by jury.

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In April of 1987, Johnny Lee Wilson

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was sentenced to life in prison.

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He was immediately remanded to the Missouri State Penitentiary.

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Several legal experts incensed by this apparent injustice

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sprang to Johnny's defense.

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It's one of those cases, perhaps there's only one in 1,000

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where an innocent man is doing time in the penitentiary.

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And Johnny Lee Wilson is innocent.

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And if he had a trial, he would probably be acquitted.

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I don't think the jury would deliberate more than an hour

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00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:19,000
before they acquitted him.

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00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:24,000
And it's a shame that he never got a chance to prove his innocence.

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All I want somebody to believe me, you know,

265
00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:33,000
just that I didn't do this.

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Over the years, a case against Johnny Lee Wilson began to fall apart.

267
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A key witness recanted his testimony.

268
00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:44,000
An inmate in another prison actually confessed to the crime.

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00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:46,000
Nevertheless, both the State Court of Appeals

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00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:50,000
and the Missouri Supreme Court refused to grant Johnny a trial.

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00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:55,000
Johnny Lee Wilson had only one other option, one last hope.

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00:15:55,000 --> 00:15:58,000
Here's Keely Shaysmith with the details.

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00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:02,000
In July of 1994, Johnny's case came before Missouri Governor

274
00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:04,000
Mel Carnahan.

275
00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:07,000
Johnny's attorneys had requested a pardon on the grounds

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00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:10,000
that there was no evidence against their client.

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Only, quote, a pathetic, desperate confession after hours of interrogation.

278
00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:21,000
My counsel re-interviewed the witnesses, talked to the prosecutors and the police,

279
00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:26,000
looked at the evidence, read the transcripts, a year-long study.

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00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:29,000
And we became convinced that it wasn't appropriate,

281
00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:34,000
not only wasn't appropriate for him to remain in prison, but that he was innocent.

282
00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:36,000
The pardon was granted.

283
00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:41,000
On September 29, 1995, Johnny Lee Wilson was finally a free man,

284
00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:46,000
exonerated of all charges.

285
00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:51,000
I never thought that I would see the day that I would walk out to his door

286
00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:54,000
and be driving away from that place.

287
00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:58,000
It felt great.

288
00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:04,000
Altogether, Johnny had spent nine years, five months and ten days behind bars.

289
00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:11,000
At a hastily assembled news conference, Johnny's thoughts turned to Pauline Martz.

290
00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:15,000
Why would someone hurt a nice lady like Pauline?

291
00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:27,000
She was a wonderful person, a friend of my grandmother's, and she was a very good person.

292
00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:32,000
Following his release, Johnny was reunited with his mother and grandmother.

293
00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:38,000
My mother and I cried, and we just, you know, we hugged each other and all of us,

294
00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:40,000
and we were really happy.

295
00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:47,000
We could hardly believe it, you know, after all those years.

296
00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:51,000
Johnny now lives with his mother and grandmother in his hometown of Aurora, Missouri,

297
00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:55,000
where he hopes to put his long-ordeal behind him.

298
00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:59,000
I have no bitterness or nothing.

299
00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:04,000
I got so much faith, you know, I knew sometimes, somehow, that I wasn't gonna get out.

300
00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:08,000
I just, I'm just glad I did.

301
00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:21,000
The New Year's Eve, 1952

302
00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:28,000
A time of hope and guarded optimism.

303
00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:30,000
I could have been elected president.

304
00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:34,000
The conflict in Korea was drawing to a close.

305
00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:41,000
But in Glendale, California, David Kempton's world was about to come apart.

306
00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:43,000
I'm here with my wife.

307
00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:44,000
Oh, my beautiful wife.

308
00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:47,000
David's wife, Barbara, was in love with another man.

309
00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:48,000
Hey, what's wrong with you?

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00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:50,000
Well, we don't hug anymore.

311
00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:51,000
We don't kiss anymore.

312
00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:52,000
David!

313
00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:57,000
Nine months later, Barbara would disappear, along with a couple's young daughter, Donna.

314
00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:03,000
The last time I saw her was just a few weeks after I got married.

315
00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:08,000
A few weeks after her fourth birthday.

316
00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:12,000
It's been a very long time.

317
00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:15,000
So I'm sitting there with this guy, I'm at down at the plant.

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00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:16,000
He says, watch this.

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00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:21,000
David Kempton's troubles began in July of 1951, when he brought a co-worker home for dinner.

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00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:25,000
And a couple seconds later, he flags me over and I meet Barbara, Stanwyck.

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00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:28,000
At the time, the Kemptons lived in Ohio.

322
00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:36,000
David and Barbara had been married for five years and had two children, Steven and Donna.

323
00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:39,000
David's new friend, Charles, was an engaging storyteller.

324
00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:46,000
He entertained everyone with delightful tales of his adventures around the country.

325
00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:52,000
Charles was a person who lived an unusual kind of life.

326
00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:59,000
Almost anything or any place you wanted to talk about, he had some stories related to it.

327
00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:03,000
There's restaurants, there's nightclubs, there's dancing.

328
00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:07,000
Charles never stopped talking about California, the promised land.

329
00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:12,000
Eventually, David and Barbara decided that was a place to be.

330
00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:17,000
All went well, until Charles joined the Kemptons on the West Coast.

331
00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:19,000
I'm in love with Charles.

332
00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:21,000
What?

333
00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:23,000
I want a divorce.

334
00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:25,000
Son of a...

335
00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:28,000
I was totally unhorsed.

336
00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:29,000
Charlie!

337
00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:30,000
Stanwyck!

338
00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:32,000
I had never considered such a thing.

339
00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:35,000
I didn't know there was anything that wrong with the marriage.

340
00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:37,000
Sorry, but I'm leaving.

341
00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:44,000
Eventually, what we decided was that if that's where things were going to be,

342
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:50,000
I would step out of the picture, he would step into my shoes.

343
00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:56,000
It would be as little disruption as possible with the kids.

344
00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:59,000
And I went back to Cleveland.

345
00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:03,000
David, it's Barbara. I'm in Arizona.

346
00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:09,000
But within about a month or five or six weeks, I got a phone call.

347
00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:11,000
Charles is gone.

348
00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:16,000
It was totally out of the blue, a thunderbolt.

349
00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:19,000
I'm with the kids and I want to come home.

350
00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:27,000
I sent her the bus tickets and I tore out and dug up a house for us to live in.

351
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:29,000
David's joy was short-lived.

352
00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:32,000
Within weeks, Charles was back in the picture.

353
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:35,000
Barbara moved out again. She moved back in.

354
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:38,000
Then she dropped another bombshell.

355
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:43,000
I'll live here and I'll take care of our children.

356
00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:48,000
But don't ask me for anything more.

357
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:51,000
At the time David left, and he took the children with him.

358
00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:56,000
A judge soon granted David temporary custody of both Stephen and Donna.

359
00:21:56,000 --> 00:22:01,000
Barbara received weekend visitation rights.

360
00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:07,000
On the occasion of the first weekend visitation, she called me ahead of time to say

361
00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:12,000
that she was in a rooming house and couldn't accommodate both kids.

362
00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:14,000
Could she just take Donna?

363
00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:16,000
See you guys Sunday afternoon.

364
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:18,000
Bye, sweetie.

365
00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:21,000
So on Friday I had delivered Donna.

366
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,000
I'm just here to pick up my daughter Donna.

367
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:27,000
And Sunday evening, I went back to pick her up.

368
00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:29,000
Do I just go on inside?

369
00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:31,000
Oh, no. They left yesterday.

370
00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:33,000
They packed up some family business and had to leave.

371
00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:36,000
Wait, that's not right, ma'am. I'm supposed to pick up Donna today.

372
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:38,000
She wasn't there.

373
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:41,000
They weren't there.

374
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:46,000
It was devastating because I had no way, not a way in the world,

375
00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:51,000
to know where they might have gone.

376
00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:54,000
More than 40 years have now passed.

377
00:22:54,000 --> 00:23:02,000
40 years of birthdays, dances, graduations, perhaps a wedding, and even grandchildren.

378
00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:08,000
I'd like Donna to know that she's always been a part of my feeling.

379
00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:13,000
Whenever anyone mentions what kids do I have,

380
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:18,000
usually I'll include her in the count.

381
00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:23,000
I want to say hello and that I love you.

382
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:28,000
If in whatever way that's possible under the circumstances,

383
00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:31,000
I have love for you.

384
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:45,000
We'll be back in a moment to investigate the mysterious disappearance

385
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:47,000
of a young woman named Bonnie Haim.

386
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:52,000
Some people believe her husband knows more about Bonnie's fate than he is saying.

387
00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:59,000
Christmas Morning, 1992.

388
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:05,000
In Jacksonville, Florida, a young wife and mother, Bonnie Haim, opened presents.

389
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:10,000
Bonnie's husband, Michael, captured the moment forever on videotape.

390
00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:12,000
Less than two weeks later,

391
00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:17,000
Bonnie's husband, Michael, was found in a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.

392
00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:22,000
Police began to suspect that Bonnie was dead, a victim of foul play.

393
00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:25,000
Their suspicions soon focused on Michael Haim.

394
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:30,000
Among the most damning evidence was the extraordinary testimony of a surprising witness,

395
00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:36,000
Michael and Bonnie's three-year-old son.

396
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:41,000
Bonnie Haim's unsurpassed, unbeknownst to her husband, Michael,

397
00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:46,000
was found in a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.

398
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:49,000
Bonnie Haim's uncertain fate and the clot of suspicion

399
00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:53,000
that hangs over her husband, Michael, has spawned a contorted family dispute.

400
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:57,000
On one hand, Bonnie's own parents believe that she was unhappily married

401
00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:59,000
and willfully abandoned Michael and her son.

402
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:04,000
And yet some members of Michael's family are convinced that Bonnie is dead,

403
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:07,000
murdered by Michael Haim.

404
00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:11,000
Bonnie, I'm sorry to say, is gone.

405
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:16,000
She's not alive. If she was alive and had one ounce of life in her,

406
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:20,000
she would have contacted someone.

407
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:28,000
There are thousands of women that leave their husbands and families every year.

408
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:33,000
And it's always a complete surprise to their families.

409
00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:39,000
Michael worked as a manager,

410
00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:43,000
an instruction supply company owned by his aunt, Yvonne, and her husband.

411
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:45,000
Bonnie did their accounts.

412
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:47,000
Bonnie, let's go to lunch.

413
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:51,000
Yvonne claims that Michael was often abusive to Bonnie at the office.

414
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:53,000
Well, just go without me.

415
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:55,000
What is so important that you can't go to lunch?

416
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:57,000
Bonnie, don't start.

417
00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:03,000
Yvonne also claims that at least once, Michael's abuse became physical.

418
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:07,000
One day they got into an argument in a fight in the parking lot

419
00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:11,000
and she came in crying and he had slammed her hand in the door and her nails were broken.

420
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:14,000
She was very upset at that point.

421
00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:20,000
Yvonne says that Bonnie eventually decided to leave her husband

422
00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:24,000
and in preparation opened a bank account in her own name.

423
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:29,000
To keep her plans secret, Bonnie had the bank statements mailed to her at work.

424
00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:33,000
According to Yvonne, Michael was enraged when he found out.

425
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:36,000
Michael, what are you doing?

426
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:38,000
No, what are you doing, Bonnie?

427
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:40,000
Why don't I know about this?

428
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:42,000
We're married.

429
00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:44,000
This is our money. It should be in our account.

430
00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:46,000
Well, it's from my paycheck.

431
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:49,000
Well, you're going to close it. You're going to close it today.

432
00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:51,000
Do you understand me?

433
00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:00,000
Bonnie closed the account.

434
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:05,000
But according to those closest to her, Bonnie never wavered in her plan to divorce Michael.

435
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:08,000
She secreted money with a friend for safekeeping

436
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:11,000
and went so far as to put a deposit on an apartment

437
00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:14,000
and enroll her son in a new preschool.

438
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:24,000
On the evening of January 6, 1993, Bonnie came home from work at around 7.30 p.m.

439
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:30,000
She intended to drop by Yvonne's at 8 to finalize plans for a co-worker's baby shower.

440
00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:32,000
Hello?

441
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:34,000
Hello?

442
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:38,000
About 8.30 that evening, she called me on the phone.

443
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:43,000
Hi. Listen, about tonight, I'm not going to be able to make it.

444
00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:46,000
She was crying and she was upset.

445
00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:48,000
Bonnie, is something the matter?

446
00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:53,000
I asked why. She said that her and Mike had gotten into a discussion.

447
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:57,000
And I asked her if she wanted me to call her back later.

448
00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:02,000
And she said no, that she would just talk to me in the morning.

449
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:06,000
Actually, not too good. I think I'm coming down with something.

450
00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:10,000
But the next morning, neither Bonnie nor Michael showed up at work.

451
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:16,000
She's not here. I don't know. She, uh, we had an argument.

452
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:21,000
I know she got mad at me last night and took off. I don't know where she's at.

453
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:28,000
However, hopes for Bonnie's safe return began to dim that same morning.

454
00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:32,000
Her purse turned up roughly five miles from home,

455
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:36,000
buried in a motel dumpster near the Jacksonville airport.

456
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:43,000
Robbery, apparently, was not a motive due to the amount of money and the credit cards being there.

457
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:47,000
It had, uh, all of her identification checkbook,

458
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:50,000
and the purse was secured by the maintenance worker

459
00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:54,000
and a police officer was called to the scene along with family members.

460
00:28:55,000 --> 00:29:00,000
One hundred, one sixty, seventy, one hundred and seventy-three.

461
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:03,000
Does there appear to be anything missing from the purse?

462
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:05,000
No, it's all there. As far as I can tell.

463
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:08,000
Hi, John. You okay, Michael?

464
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:14,000
When I walked into the room, Mike and his dad were in there.

465
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:16,000
You didn't tell me anything.

466
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:20,000
Michael didn't say much about Bonnie being missing.

467
00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:22,000
What the hell was Bonnie doing with all that money?

468
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:27,000
He didn't just come out and, like, oh my God, my wife is gone.

469
00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:31,000
Where is she? Um, just nothing, nothing.

470
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:39,000
Michael has insisted from the start that he was not involved in his wife's disappearance.

471
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:42,000
He says it on the night of January 6th.

472
00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:46,000
He's alone after an argument at around 11 p.m.

473
00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:48,000
Mom, thanks for calling.

474
00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:50,000
He stated that he called his mother, Carolyn Hayman,

475
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:52,000
asked her to come over to the house in early morning hours

476
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:56,000
and watch the child while he went and looked for Bonnie.

477
00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:58,000
I won't be long. You be careful.

478
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:03,000
According to Carolyn, Mike, he was gone approximately 45 minutes.

479
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:08,000
Then after he allegedly did that, he returned to the house

480
00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:10,000
where he waited until the next morning,

481
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:14,000
never calling the police and called in and told his employer

482
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:17,000
that he was going to be sick that day.

483
00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:23,000
Detective Henson was less than convinced by Haymes' account.

484
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:27,000
His instincts led him back to the Jacksonville airport near the motel.

485
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:29,000
Herb, isn't that it?

486
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:32,000
Sure enough, there was Bonnie's car,

487
00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:35,000
abandoned in a lot for long-term parking.

488
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:39,000
What was unusual about Bonnie's car when we found it at the airport

489
00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:43,000
was the positioning of the seat, the driver's seat of the car,

490
00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:45,000
which appeared to be farther back

491
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:49,000
than would have been comfortable for Bonnie to have driven the car.

492
00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:54,000
It was more in relation to someone about Michael Haymes' size.

493
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,000
After the vehicle was processed, we found a shoe print

494
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:00,000
in the driver's side floorboard.

495
00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:02,000
It was a very pristine print.

496
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:07,000
Police concluded that the print had been made

497
00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:10,000
by the last person to drive the car.

498
00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:14,000
The distinctive tread pattern was traced to a rare style of athletic shoe.

499
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:18,000
One pair was owned by none other than Michael Haymes.

500
00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:27,000
The shoe print in the car is interesting,

501
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:35,000
but beyond that, if it's his footprint, I'm not sure it means anything.

502
00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:37,000
My footprint is in my wife's car.

503
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:42,000
That doesn't mean I've ever done her any harm.

504
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:46,000
Did you ever see your mommy's that?

505
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:47,000
Mm-hmm.

506
00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:49,000
Was she okay or was she hurt?

507
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:50,000
He was hot.

508
00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:52,000
In a bold attempt to uncover the truth,

509
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:55,000
investigators arranged for child psychologists

510
00:31:55,000 --> 00:31:57,000
to interview Bonnie and Michael's son.

511
00:31:57,000 --> 00:31:58,000
I think it hurt.

512
00:31:58,000 --> 00:31:59,000
Yes.

513
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:01,000
How did she get hurt?

514
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:03,000
I think she was hurt.

515
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:05,000
I think she was hurt.

516
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:07,000
It's not her damn.

517
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:10,000
From what the child told us that day,

518
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:14,000
my only conclusion was that there had been a domestic fight,

519
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:16,000
and that Michael Haymes had killed his wife

520
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:18,000
and had removed her,

521
00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:21,000
and that their three-and-a-half-year-old son had witnessed this.

522
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:23,000
I don't know if my mommy was hurt.

523
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:25,000
I don't know if my mommy was hurt.

524
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:28,000
The credibility of a child is something that you have to,

525
00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:31,000
like I said, judge in perspective.

526
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:36,000
He's said a couple of things that we know were not true.

527
00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:39,000
Mom's car is in the lake.

528
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:41,000
We know her car wasn't there.

529
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:47,000
The issue of child witness credibility is always a concern,

530
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:51,000
but generally, children do not lie about what they see,

531
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:55,000
and they do not lie about what happens to them.

532
00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:59,000
At this point, custody of Bonnie and Michael's son

533
00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:01,000
is still in litigation.

534
00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:03,000
However, he is safe.

535
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:07,000
Meanwhile, the families remain split about what, if anything,

536
00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:12,000
Michael Haymes knows about his wife's disappearance.

537
00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:19,000
I'm not saying that I'm 100% convinced that Mike is innocent.

538
00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:23,000
I haven't seen any evidence that convinces me he's guilty.

539
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:33,000
His behavior and general attitude convinces me that he's not guilty.

540
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:39,000
I think that Michael did something to Bonnie.

541
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:45,000
I think her son was there, and I think he's seen exactly what happened.

542
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:49,000
I think he witnessed his mother's murder.

543
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:53,000
I refuse to give up hope that Bonnie is alive

544
00:33:53,000 --> 00:34:02,000
until we get some proof, some evidence that Bonnie's dead.

545
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:06,000
Through his attorney, Michael Haymes declined our request for an interview.

546
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:09,000
He has not been formally charged with any crime.

547
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:14,000
However, authorities still consider him to be the prime suspect in Bonnie's disappearance.

548
00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:18,000
In addition, investigators believe Michael may have had an accomplice,

549
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:21,000
someone who picked him up after he left Bonnie's car at the airport

550
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:24,000
and also helped the dispose of his wife's body.

551
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:29,000
The possibility remains, of course, that Bonnie Haymes is still alive.

552
00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:55,000
Next, if you like a good fright, you love the Devil's Backbone.

553
00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:58,000
Many believe it's the most haunted spot in America,

554
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:01,000
and the eyewitness accounts leave little doubt.

555
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:24,000
I was feeling extremely scared.

556
00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:29,000
It was a ghost. It had to be. I didn't tell anybody about it.

557
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:34,000
That chilling sensation I got kind of stayed with me.

558
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:36,000
There's something here.

559
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:38,000
What it is, I don't know.

560
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:43,000
I've had probably 25, 30 recordings of different spirits and ghosts from different people.

561
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:45,000
They'll never leave.

562
00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:49,000
I'll be dead and gone. They'll be here.

563
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:54,000
They call it the Devil's Backbone.

564
00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:56,000
And when it comes to ghosts per square mile,

565
00:35:56,000 --> 00:36:03,000
few places shown to purgatory can match these 4,700 acres in central Texas.

566
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:07,000
To get here, you head south, out of the state capital Austin,

567
00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:11,000
about 50 miles and some 200 years.

568
00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:15,000
The gnarled canyons of the Devil's Backbone

569
00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:18,000
are once home to Comanche and Apache Indians.

570
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:22,000
And the 1700s Spaniards pushed through on the road to conquest.

571
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:25,000
Among them was a Franciscan monk named Espinosa,

572
00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:28,000
infamous for his ruthless ambition.

573
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:30,000
More than a century later,

574
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:33,000
renegade Confederate soldiers on a doomed quest for gold,

575
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:36,000
breathe their last in the Devil's Backbone.

576
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:38,000
Today, their spirits live on.

577
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:41,000
Or so says longtime resident Bert Wall.

578
00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:56,000
I had a situation one time where I was finishing a particular thing I was riding.

579
00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:58,000
And it was late at night, about midnight,

580
00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:01,000
and the dogs started barking a little bit but not loud.

581
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:04,000
The wind was blowing. It was a cold night.

582
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:13,000
I looked through the window, that's when I saw the Spanish monk.

583
00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:20,000
I don't believe it could have been a person.

584
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:24,000
There's no way he was definitely from the 1700s.

585
00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:28,000
He was dressed that way in his habit or whatever, his crosshanging.

586
00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:34,000
I probably watched him for all 15 seconds maybe, which is a long time.

587
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:40,000
He disappeared in a way that was more of a... gone.

588
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:53,000
The luminous Spanish monk is but one of many spirits at Prowl the Ranch.

589
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:55,000
Just ask John Myers.

590
00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:58,000
He came to Bert Wall's place to hunt deer,

591
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:02,000
but hunting in the Devil's Backbone isn't like anywhere else in the world.

592
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:08,000
The stand I was on was a tree stand.

593
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:14,000
Once I got up and situated myself, you have to be real quiet, real still,

594
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:16,000
and watch for the deer.

595
00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:20,000
As I was sitting up in the stand waiting, and that's what you do a lot,

596
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:22,000
deer hunting is just wait.

597
00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:32,000
I heard footprints or footsteps, I should say, walking around the tree, the base of the tree.

598
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:39,000
I couldn't see because I was sitting on a platform,

599
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:43,000
and it kept just walking in a circle, whatever it was.

600
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:53,000
I started getting a little eerie feeling because it wouldn't move away from the tree,

601
00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:55,000
it just kept going in this circle.

602
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:59,000
And finally, it just stopped.

603
00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:03,000
It didn't walk away, the sounds just stopped.

604
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:08,000
And the sun started going down, and it started getting darker.

605
00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:13,000
And I thought, well, I'm just going to get out off the tree, walk back to the house.

606
00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:19,000
Didn't see any footprints, twigs broken or branches broken or anything like that.

607
00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:23,000
I kept getting this feeling that someone was watching me.

608
00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:29,000
So I stopped and I turned back and looked toward the tree, and there was an Indian.

609
00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:35,000
It was a very cold night, it was in the 20s, and he was without a shirt.

610
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:40,000
And he was looking at me rather strangely, like, who are you?

611
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:45,000
So immediately I turned around and started back toward the house.

612
00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:50,000
I noticed to my right, out of the corner of my eye, that he was there,

613
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:53,000
and he was walking parallel with me.

614
00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:59,000
I didn't feel threatened by him, it's just, you know, like, who are you and what are you doing here?

615
00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:05,000
And I made about two steps toward him, and when I did, he vanished.

616
00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:15,000
It was a ghost, it had to be, you know, to be able to do that.

617
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:21,000
The Bonk House was a sight of yet another extraordinary vision.

618
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:26,000
If you believe Lynn Gentry, one-time foreman at Burt Falls Ranch.

619
00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:31,000
I was kind of relaxing off in the distance, I heard.

620
00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:33,000
What at first I thought was thunder.

621
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:44,000
Then as the sound came closer, I realized that it was horses hooves in a very fast run.

622
00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:50,000
There were several horses with probably 15 or 20 riders on them,

623
00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:53,000
what I believed to have been Confederate soldiers.

624
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:06,000
They certainly looked real to me at the time, but then when you begin to slowly realize that,

625
00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:08,000
hey, what I'm looking at is not real.

626
00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:12,000
You know, this is, these are ghosts.

627
00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:20,000
Perhaps most amazing of all was the experience of John Villarreal.

628
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:25,000
A few years back, John was hiking with two friends in an area known as the Haunted Valley.

629
00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:32,000
John claims he not only saw a supernatural vision of a wolf, but that the spirit actually possessed him.

630
00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:40,000
Cory and B.C. were often another part of the creek, and I got this sensation,

631
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:44,000
and basically saw a vision of a wolf.

632
00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:55,000
I was looking up, watching it come towards me, and it leapt at me.

633
00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:07,000
And where it would have hit me, I felt the just chilling sensation go through me.

634
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:14,000
We didn't see anything mysterious. It's all what John says that he saw.

635
00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:20,000
When we got back into the truck, it got extremely cold in the truck.

636
00:42:20,000 --> 00:42:25,000
He was sitting in between B.C. and I. I was sitting on the passenger side,

637
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:30,000
so the whole left-hand side of my body got extremely numb and cold.

638
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:36,000
It's almost like if there was a big block of ice sitting next to me.

639
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:42,000
When we got back to the ranch that night, I didn't know what was going on.

640
00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:48,000
I didn't know if my friend was going to be all right. I was actually pretty worried about him.

641
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:56,000
According to his friends, John initially lapsed into a silent trance.

642
00:42:56,000 --> 00:42:59,000
When he did speak, his voice was an unearthly baritone.

643
00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:03,000
John suddenly seemed obsessed with Indian massacres, ambushes,

644
00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:07,000
and other little-known events from the history of Devil's Backbone.

645
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:12,000
While I was standing there, I was feeling extremely scared,

646
00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:18,000
and all of a sudden a big gust of wind came out of the kitchen.

647
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:24,000
I was just in shock. I didn't know what that was.

648
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:28,000
I stood there kind of frozen and kept asking questions,

649
00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:30,000
what was that? What was that?

650
00:43:30,000 --> 00:43:36,000
And that's when someone said, I think the spirits left him. I think it's gone now.

651
00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:40,000
I don't know for sure what kind of spirit was inside of me,

652
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:46,000
but something that knew about this ranch, that knew about the history of the ranch,

653
00:43:46,000 --> 00:43:48,000
had to be going through me.

654
00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:56,000
And it's hard to believe, but it, you know, basically that's what would have had to happen.

655
00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:04,000
Here in the Devil's Backbone, ghosts are as common as spines on a cactus.

656
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:09,000
But why should this particular patch of land prove so irresistible to spirits?

657
00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:14,000
The Devil's Backbone is haunted because it's loved.

658
00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:19,000
It's loved by the spirits. It's loved by myself.

659
00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:25,000
And I imagine someday when I'm gone, I will haunt the same son of a gun.

660
00:44:29,000 --> 00:44:32,000
If the local accounts are anything close to true,

661
00:44:32,000 --> 00:44:36,000
Burt Wall would join a host of other souls who once called his place home,

662
00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:40,000
a bold company in which to spend the rest of eternity.

663
00:44:58,000 --> 00:45:05,000
Join me next time for another intriguing edition of Unsolved Mysteries.

664
00:45:28,000 --> 00:45:33,000
The Devil's Backbone