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The End

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Tonight on Unsolved Mysteries

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For more than 20 years, Mary Clamser suffered from the debilitating effects of multiple

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sclerosis.

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Then a violent summer storm swept over Mary's house and brought with it what can only be

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called a miracle, a powerful bolt of lightning that apparently released Mary from the shackles

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of her devastating disease.

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July 1986.

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A young Marine is nearly killed during a brutal hazing ritual called a Code Red.

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If it sounds like a movie plot, it's because the film A Few Good Men starring Tom Cruise

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and Jack Nicholson was based on the incident.

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Tonight the disturbing untold story behind the movie.

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Most people know Reggie White as one of the most feared players in the National Football

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League.

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He's also an ordained minister.

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In January a tragic fire ravaged White's church in Knoxville, Tennessee.

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In the ruins, investigators found the unmistakable signs of arson and the ugly taint of racism.

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They call him a taunting bank robber, but now his flamboyant criminal career has come to

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an end thanks to one of our viewers.

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Join me for these intriguing cases.

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Much more, perhaps you may be able to help solve a mystery.

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Almost everyone knows about the hit movie A Few Good Men starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson,

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and to me more.

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Not everybody knows that A Few Good Men is based on an actual event.

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It tells the story of Marines on trial for attacking a squad member in a brutal hazing

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ritual known as a Code Red.

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Amazingly that event still has repercussions today.

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Repercussions that may have led to the mysterious death of one of the Marines who executed the

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Code Red.

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David Cox of Needham, Massachusetts joined the Marines straight out of high school.

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Being one of the proud and the few was all he ever wanted.

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In 1986, David was stationed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

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A naval base the U.S. had refused to give up when Fidel Castro came to power in the 1950s.

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Political tensions kept the base on constant alert.

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Trouble filtered down to David Cox when another platoon member, PFC William Alvarado, wrote

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to his senator about Marine misconduct.

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We didn't actually decide to have a Code Red for Alvarado on our own.

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Our platoon commander had given us an implied order that if we were good Marines something

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should happen to Alvarado.

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Saturday night we went into Alvarado's room.

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We blindfolded him and gagged him and then dragged him off of his bed.

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Dave started shaving his head and within five minutes he had stopped struggling so we knew

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something was wrong with him.

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David Cox convinced his platoon mates to stop the hazing.

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So we removed the gag and tied him and he still didn't come around.

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He was still unconscious.

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So at that point we started to panic.

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Everybody else get to your rooms.

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Alvarado was rushed to the hospital.

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He recovered but his 10 attackers were slapped with charges.

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Relax, Cox.

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Yes, sir.

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That's relaxing.

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Come on.

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Sit down.

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Don Marquari was appointed to defend David Cox.

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They're going to charge you with attempted murder.

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They got a confession from you and they got a pretty beat up Marine.

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It doesn't look too good.

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Sir, I was just following orders, sir.

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David claimed the Code Red started with implied orders from his superior officers.

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They're prepared to offer you an administrative discharge.

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It's less than honorable but there'd be no court martial proceeding and you wouldn't

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be looking at 20 years if you were found guilty.

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Sir, but I'm not guilty, sir.

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I told David that this was a defense obedience to orders that had not been successful at

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Nuremberg, had not been successful with Lieutenant Calli at Mylie and plus we had a colonel denying

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he ever gave an order.

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So we had the additional burning of now saying he was following an implied order.

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Then it was a very difficult case to win and I told David that.

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All right, Cox, we'll do it your way.

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He decided he wanted to fight it because he believed in his heart that he didn't do any

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wrong.

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David's gamble was a qualified success.

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He was convicted only of simple assault and sentenced to time already served in the brig.

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He then completed his hitch, received an honorable discharge and returned to civilian life in

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his hometown in the Boston area.

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Jack Nicholson was so mean.

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Six years later, when a few good men hit the theaters, David felt the movie makers had

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stolen his story.

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Other than that, there was a lot of parts that didn't really happen like that.

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I mean, for one, the guy didn't die.

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I mean, you know that.

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I saved him.

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David's reaction was that he was stunned.

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Here he was.

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He was watching his life in front of him and he wasn't getting any of the credit from it.

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The anchor came a little bit later because he was this movie company that was making

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tons, millions of money off of his story.

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And if it weren't for him, the story never would have existed in the first place.

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David and some of the other Marines involved in the Code Red filed suit against the movie

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production company.

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While it was pending, David spoke out about his case on radio talk shows.

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By January of 1994, David and his girlfriend, Delaney, had set up housekeeping together.

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David was hoping a temporary job at United Parcel Service would become permanent.

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Good.

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And what about the job?

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Are they going to keep you?

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Oh, I don't know.

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I mean, I'm doing everything I should do.

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David was very enthusiastic about getting on board with them.

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I think it was something where he felt that he could have a full-time, steady occupation.

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David expected to hear about the UPS job on January 5, 1994.

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Because of a back problem, he spent the night before on the couch.

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I hope UPS calls.

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Have a good day.

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Elaine left about 8.30, shortly after noon she called home.

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David didn't answer, but there was a message for him on the machine.

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Hi, message for David Cox.

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This is Jim at UPS.

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Cut some good news for you.

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Give me a call.

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Thank you.

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So I was really excited.

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I was like, oh, Cole, Dave's going to get this job and he's going to be so excited.

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And then I called back again at 1 o'clock to check the messages, and that message was

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still there, and the UPS guy had called again, too.

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David!

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At 5.30, Elaine returned home.

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David?

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When I came into the house that night after work, I realized right away that the doors

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to all the rooms were open, and our rabbit, who we usually just kept in the kitchen, was

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hopping all over the place.

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Hi, David.

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It's Jim again at UPS.

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Please come back home.

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Thank you.

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David's truck was still in the driveway, the keys and the ignition.

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David left an uncashed paycheck on the dashboard and his 9-millimeter gun in the glove box,

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but David himself was gone.

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I immediately had a feeling of dread because I know David well enough, David would not

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just disappear.

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And right from the start, I was very concerned.

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As the days went on, and there was nothing, there was no news from him.

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I mean, we checked his bank account and his bank account.

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There was no activity on his bank account.

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You start to believe that maybe something did happen, but why?

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There would be no answers until the spring thaw.

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On April 2, 1994, the body of David Cox was discovered on the banks of the Charles River

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in Medfield, Massachusetts, approximately five miles from his apartment.

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He was shot, according to the ME, four times, once at the base of the rear of the neck and

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three times in the left-side torso area.

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David's wallet was still in his back pocket, cash and credit cards intact.

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It seemed obvious that robbery was not the motive, and police have since ruled out a

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random attack.

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They are convinced David left his home with someone he knew.

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It's our belief that he'd get in the car willingly, that he knew who was coming to pick him up,

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and that he went to this area and walked into the woods with this person.

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We really believe that David was what we would call a scrapper.

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If he knew there was some danger loitering ahead, he would do his best to get out of that.

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I think that if it was somebody that was just holding a gun in him or something like that,

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they would do it within the first 30 or 40 yards into the woods.

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Someone was found almost three-quarters to a mile walk into the woods.

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I don't know why David was killed.

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I personally believe it had something to do with the military.

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He was taken out of his house without signs of struggle.

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He was wearing his Marine Corps jacket, which he never wore.

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He was found between two hunting ranges where gunshots would not be unusual, and he was

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murdered execution style.

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Now, there is a movie opening tonight called A Few Good Men.

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After the release of A Few Good Men, David had been highly vocal about his story and

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the U.S. activities in Cuba.

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David's family believes he may have talked too much.

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To say the least, we were trying to provoke a war pretty much every day.

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Because of this colonel?

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Yeah, he would never say anything directly, but it was certainly implied, absolutely.

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After I heard that interview on the radio, I spoke to him and I said, I don't like what

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you're doing. I think what you're doing is dangerous.

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The colonel had implied...

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I think he felt far too free to just speak his mind.

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...to his congressman saying that...

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Police checked out the military angle to David's murder.

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We realized there was something going wrong because he wasn't fighting back after a while.

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There's nothing there that shows us that the military in any way, shape or form, are involved

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with David's death. But we're certainly open to anything that comes our way in regards

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to the military.

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There's this guy there. He's a supervisor.

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David's brother suggested another possible scenario, a UPS connection.

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They're taking the good packages and taking them away from the regular...

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Stealing.

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Yeah, they're stealing.

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A couple of months before David disappeared, he had mentioned to me that he had come upon

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a supervisor and one of the drivers involved in some type of activity, what he believed

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to be, was theft.

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I interviewed a number of people. They were candid with me, I felt. Certainly if there

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was anything there with UPS, I think as far as they were concerned, Paramount was David's

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death and they would have certainly told me anything that UPS was involved with.

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At this point, the investigation's still open. It'll remain open until we solve it.

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Again, we'll follow any leads that come through vigorously and remain to do that until it

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is solved.

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I'm angry what happened to my son. I'm angry that someone can do that and get away with

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it.

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My life has been devastated by his murder. It really has. A death would be bad enough.

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A murder is just dreadful.

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At this point, police have only one hope. Someone saw David Cox leave his home between

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8.30 a.m. on January 5, 1994. Perhaps someone saw the person who picked him up for the vehicle

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they left in.

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Coming up, for a disabled woman, a harrowing brush with death apparently culminates in a

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miraculous rebirth. But first, NFL superstar Reggie White asked for your help to find the

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arsonist who burned down his church.

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The capture of a criminal suspect always brings us great satisfaction. Tonight, another fugitive

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is in custody, thanks to your calls.

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Thomas Dixon is the walking definition of career criminal. He was paroled in May of

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1984 after serving 10 years of hard time for armed robbery. It hadn't reformed him one

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bit.

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This is a hold up. Just stay cool.

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During the five months following his release from prison, Dixon and a series of accomplices

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knocked off seven banks in North Carolina. An FBI raid brought down Thomas Dixon in October

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of 1984, and he spent another decade behind bars. He was paroled in 1994 as unrepentant

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as ever.

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This is a hold up.

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Dixon again hit banks in the Carolinas, five and a seven week spree. He showed up in one

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surveillance tape after another.

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Have you FBI ever heard of Thomas Dixon?

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No, should we?

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But there was a disturbing new twist to Dixon's MO. Now he taunted the FBI with advanced

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notice of his bank jobs.

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When one of Dixon's getaway cars was discovered, federal investigators concluded that he had

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deliberately left it for them to find. Inside were photos of Dixon's impressive arsenal.

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In a note, Dixon threatened future robberies and warned of a bloody showdown if anyone tried

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to stop him.

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Dixon was alerting us to the fact that he is heavily armed and he has every intention

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of using those arms in a confrontation with law enforcement.

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One week before our broadcast, Thomas Dixon struck again this time in Pennsylvania. Here's

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Kealy with a dramatic conclusion to the case.

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Bob, thanks to one of our viewers, Dixon's most recent heist will probably be his last.

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After the robbery, Dixon fled Pennsylvania and eventually made his way to Clarksville,

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Tennessee.

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In Clarksville, Dixon took a room in this motel. Pam Poteet, a resident housekeeper,

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first became wary of Dixon when she cleaned his room.

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It's the way you act it. He was weird. I mean, he stood by the beds, in between the beds,

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by the luggage. He wouldn't ever sit down. He didn't want you to make the beds, you know,

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stuff like that. It's like he was on guard, you know, his luggage. He just was, you know,

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ready, watching you.

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When Dixon's story aired, Pam Poteet recognized him instantly. Within minutes, Pam had contacted

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both the Unsolved Mysteries Phone Center and the authorities in Tennessee. By sunrise, FBI

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agents had Dixon's hideaway staked out.

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We knew he was armed and dangerous and he'd vowed not to be taken alive. With that information,

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obviously you want to approach the subject with extreme caution. But once we got him

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seduced, he was very cooperative. All he said is, you got me good. Basically, that the way

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that you guys arrested me was the way you needed to arrest me. It was a lot better that way

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than, quote, throw bullets at each other.

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January 8, 1996. Fire ravages the inner city church in

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Knoxville, Tennessee. At first, it seemed an isolated tragedy, but it would soon become

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linked to what may be a series of vicious hate crimes targeting black churches. This

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church, however, has a famous voice speaking out on its behalf. Reggie White, the most

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feared defensive end in professional football, but the man opponent sees a six-foot-five,

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300-pound brick wall with legs, has another career. God sent Moses away for about 40

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years to get him ready to face Pharaoh. Reggie White is an ordained minister. When he's not

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tackling quarterbacks, he's back in his home state of Tennessee, saving souls. In 1993,

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Reggie White and two longtime friends in Knoxville founded the inner city church by merging two

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congregations into one. Their goal, to create a church that would serve poor people of all

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races, their motto, together we can make a change. It's very important and it's very

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vital. I believe that our church is doing things in our communities that no other churches

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are doing. You know, the most sacred gate that already is in our country is on Sunday,

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11 to 12, because black school to black church is white, goes to white churches. We wanted

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to try to have a church to everybody with people well, but no matter what the color

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was. It was a noble undertaking with aggressive community outreach and self-help programs

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that church thrived. Then disaster. I believe in my heart that it was an attack from the

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devil himself, that there were devil inspired people that he used to fire by my church.

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We had a big snow on the ground. David Upton is a church's senior pastor. When I arrived

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there, it was a sickness feeling in my stomach to see the things we had fought for, the things

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we had worked so hard to establish over the years of a ministry, just to see it, just

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go up in flames. Within hours, agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco

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and Firearms began to investigate. An immediate visit to this location indicated to us that

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it was a very deliberate criminal act. The sanctuary portion of the building had been

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totally destroyed, but there's another building that sets on the backside of the property

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that adjoins the rear of the sanctuary. It's a building in which there are classrooms and

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offices. As the agents went through that portion of the structure, they found multiple Molotov

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cocktails. They found that both floors of this structure had been saturated with gasoline

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and kerosene, and they found gasoline cans and kerosene cans scattered throughout this

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portion of the building.

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Agents also found racial epithets scrolled on the walls, leaving little doubt that the

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arson was a hate crime. Reggie White was appalled. That turned to outrage when he learned that

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his church had not been the first.

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The only reason that you're hearing about my church is because of me, but there have

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been 22 other churches that's been firebomb. That's a problem, and this problem needs to

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be rectified.

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00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:36,120
The statistics are alarming. The count is now at least 24 black churches hit by arson

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00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:41,760
in the past three years. The attacks have occurred throughout the south in Louisiana,

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Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, North and South Carolina. The most recent

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arson fire occurred on March 5th, 1996.

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Both the FBI and the ATF are looking to see if there are any links. We recognize that

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someone in Kansas, for example, might say, let's burn black churches, and associates

285
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in Tennessee and Alabama and Florida might go out and do those things, but they might

286
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use entirely different methods.

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I don't believe it was anyone that would be what you would call a professional. Based

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on the way the fuel was in the building, the way the setup was in the building, I think

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that they just thought if a little's good, a whole lot's better, and that's what they

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tried today. They just put enough fuel in there to do the job.

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Three days after the inner city church fire, fliers from two white supremacist groups,

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the BFI Brotherhood and Skinheads for White Justice, turned up in a bank that had ties

293
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to the church. However, the possibility remains that both the fliers and the graffiti were

294
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planted as decoys.

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With the deliberate act of arson, the arsonist wants us to look in a different direction

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00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:04,760
away from him. So we have to consider the possibility that the racial graffiti was

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00:23:04,760 --> 00:23:10,160
placed there to divert us into a different direction. So we have to consider the racial

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00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:16,280
motivation as a possibility, but we also have to look at other motivations as well.

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The inner city church did not have enough fire insurance to cover all the damage, but

300
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with hard work from the parishioners and donations from the community, both black and white,

301
00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:26,880
they hoped to rebuild.

302
00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:34,160
But the problem is, because racism has alienated itself so that you can't touch it when it

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afflicts you.

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In the meantime, Reggie White and his fellow pastors keep the congregation's spirit strong

305
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with church services held at a local school auditorium.

306
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That's why we're shooting each other today. That's why we're allowing...

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This just makes me more determined, and I know that the only way that you defeat the

308
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devil is that you have to do it as a group. And that's why I would say I would call whites

309
00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:03,400
and blacks to come together and find how to work together because what kills the enemies

310
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of tactics is if a bunch of people of all ethnic backgrounds start loving each other.

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When we return, for many years, Mary Clamser struggled with the crippling effects of multiple

312
00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:37,280
sclerosis. Though her faith never wavered, Mary certainly didn't believe in miracles

313
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until a freak accident changed her life.

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The State of Oklahoma is a natural laboratory for studying the world's worst weather.

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Here at the National Weather Service in Oklahoma City, meteorologists track an average of one

316
00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:13,920
severe thunderstorm every week. Sometimes the storms bring tornado force winds, sometimes

317
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softball-sized hail. Not long ago, one of those storms brought with it a gift from the

318
00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:23,000
heavens, but one woman calls a modern-day miracle.

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August 17, 1994. Mary Clamser never thought of herself as a warrior, but for 23 years

320
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:40,000
she had fought a battle against multiples sclerosis, a battle she was losing fast.

321
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:48,000
Mary had no idea that this day an extraordinary event would erase her years of torment and

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give her back her freedom.

323
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In 1972, Mary was 19 years old, vibrantly healthy, and recently engaged to marry Ron Clamser.

324
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Six months before the wedding, she went to the hospital with what she thought was a bad case of flu.

325
00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:13,000
We didn't know whether I had some kind of intestinal bug or whatever, and shortly after being admitted

326
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:18,000
to the hospital, a lot of neurological problems started coming up that we weren't even aware of.

327
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Mary and Ron were certain something was seriously wrong, but the doctors tried to shield them from the brutal facts.

328
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Can you move your legs at all?

329
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:34,000
No.

330
00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:36,000
Can you feel this?

331
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:39,000
I can't feel anything. I feel pain.

332
00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:46,000
It was extremely frustrating not knowing what was going on, feeling so many different changes in my body.

333
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:53,000
The left leg was going out, there were bladder complications, so many things were going wrong.

334
00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:58,000
It was like I had no control over my own body.

335
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:04,000
The final diagnosis was devastating. Mary had multiple sclerosis.

336
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:08,000
Ron set out to learn exactly what that meant.

337
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:14,000
It's a degenerative nerve disease. It affects the impulses from the brain to the muscles.

338
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So what stage is Mary in?

339
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:20,000
They don't know. I mean, one good thing is that she's young.

340
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:25,000
Ron found out that MS could attack Mary in waves, each episode lasting a few weeks.

341
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Between bouts, Mary would appear to be disease-free sometimes for months.

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00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:36,000
Over the years, however, attacks could get worse and more frequent.

343
00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:45,000
They told me that I probably would never walk again, and if we did proceed to go ahead and get married,

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I would not be well enough to have children if I could have children at all.

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And Ron came in shortly after that, and we talked, and I said to him, you deserve better.

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You deserve a wife that can walk and a wife that can grow with you and have children with you,

347
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:05,000
and they're telling me I can't do any of this.

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And I took off the engagement ring and said to him, as much as I loved him with all my heart,

349
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the only way I could give love back to him was to let him go.

350
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I just gave it right back to her, and I said, no, I mean, I just have faith that things will work out,

351
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and, you know, when you get married, you get married for better or worse.

352
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We're engaged to be married for better or worse.

353
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To me, it was the same thing.

354
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Mary spent the months before her wedding in the hospital,

355
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two weeks to address the invitations herself.

356
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:41,000
Just two weeks before the ceremony, the disease relented,

357
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giving Mary enough strength to walk down the aisle.

358
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The wedding day was only a brief respite.

359
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The MS soon returned.

360
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Despite her illness, Mary refused to give up her dream of being not only a wife, but a mother.

361
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Over the next 10 years, Mary struggled through three difficult pregnancies

362
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:07,000
so she and Ron could have a family, two sons and a daughter.

363
00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:12,000
Our children have grown up with a mom that was in the hospital many times,

364
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:15,000
a mom that couldn't walk many times.

365
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:21,000
And it was incorporated into the family life because even when I was ill,

366
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my focus always was Ron and the children.

367
00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:28,000
It wasn't something that was easy.

368
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:31,000
Not that I want to say she was a burden, but, you know, we had a carrier to the car,

369
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we had to take the scooter apart and put the wheelchair in.

370
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:38,000
So it became not a hassle, but it was a lot of work.

371
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:45,000
After 23 years, the cycles of Mary's illness have become almost routine.

372
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A few weeks, perhaps a few months of disability, and another precious period of normalcy.

373
00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:56,000
In the summer of 1992, that cycle abruptly changed.

374
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This attack was different because it went past a year,

375
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:05,000
and prior to that, no attack had gone past six months.

376
00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:10,000
So we began to wonder when it went past a year, how long it was going to last.

377
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:17,000
I could not leave the bed literally, and I would hear the children arguing amongst themselves.

378
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:22,000
It was your turn to do this or that, or Ron coming home from work very frustrated.

379
00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:28,000
And I remember one night feeling really kind of, the only way to describe it was,

380
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:35,000
as if I had died, but I was laying in the back room listening to my family fall apart.

381
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Then came August 17, 1994.

382
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:51,000
It could have been a metaphor for Mary's life, a beautiful day that suddenly turned dark and stormy.

383
00:30:52,000 --> 00:31:00,000
Mary decided to take a bath while she could, as the tub filled the storm intensified.

384
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:10,000
I would have to say on that particular day was one of the worst storms I've ever seen in the 12 years we've been in Oklahoma.

385
00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:17,000
At that particular time, the leg brace was up against the porcelain part of the tub,

386
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:24,000
and when I went to turn the knob, I saw the flash of lightning, but I never heard the thunder.

387
00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:38,000
At least 10,000 volts of electricity had coursed through Mary's body,

388
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:41,000
enough force to launch her six feet across the room.

389
00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:43,000
Mom, are you all right?

390
00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:45,000
Mom, wake up.

391
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:51,000
Mary was alive, a miracle by any standard, but there was an even greater one to come.

392
00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:54,000
Mary? Mary, I'm Dr. Lee.

393
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:56,000
Tell me, what happened today?

394
00:31:56,000 --> 00:32:03,000
I remember feeling like my body was on fire, pins and needles shooting up and down my arms,

395
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:06,000
and being totally confused.

396
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:08,000
Just one second, sir.

397
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:10,000
Okay, Mary?

398
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:14,000
Mary, listen to me. Take a deep breath. Breathe, honey. Breathe, man.

399
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:17,000
All of a sudden, I'm feeling my legs.

400
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:19,000
What's he doing?

401
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:21,000
I can feel that.

402
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:23,000
Oh, no, she can't.

403
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:25,000
Yes, I can. I can feel that.

404
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:29,000
And I started to get really, I guess, agitated.

405
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:33,000
It was like, I feel you touching me. Why do I feel you touching me?

406
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:40,000
Because you have to remember, for 23 years, I couldn't feel my left leg, and for two years, my right leg.

407
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:46,000
And now, all of a sudden, for no reason, to my knowledge, I feel both of them.

408
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:48,000
I can't feel it.

409
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:53,000
I mean, I was dumbfounded and shocked, and I didn't know what to think.

410
00:32:55,000 --> 00:32:57,000
Neither did anyone else.

411
00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:03,000
Medical literature includes accounts of lightning making blind people see, and deaf people hear.

412
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:10,000
But the doctor warned Ron that the effects are often temporary, usually lasting no more than 30 days.

413
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:14,000
More often than not, the patient can go back to her prior conditions.

414
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:16,000
It could just be a temporary situation.

415
00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:18,000
She ran that thing up and down, and she felt it.

416
00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:20,000
I know. I can't explain it.

417
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:22,000
In the next two weeks, I was in quite a bit of pain.

418
00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:24,000
I mean, I was miserable.

419
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:27,000
I couldn't even get to enjoy feeling my legs.

420
00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:30,000
And every few hours, Ron would even call me and say,

421
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:33,000
I know you're hurting, but can you still feel your legs?

422
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:35,000
I mean, that was the $64 question.

423
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:37,000
You know, I was like, yes.

424
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:45,000
Incredibly, Mary could soon do more than feel her legs.

425
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:51,000
Two weeks after being struck by lightning, she walked across her kitchen without a second thought.

426
00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:58,000
She didn't even realize what she had done until she found herself at the refrigerator a dozen feet from her wheelchair.

427
00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:00,000
Ron, honey.

428
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:05,000
I was at a part of the kitchen that to this day, I can't tell you how I got there.

429
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:07,000
What are you doing over here?

430
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:13,000
And I thought, well, I can't handle this anymore, because now I'm doing things I don't even know how I did them.

431
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:14,000
You walked?

432
00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:16,000
Yes.

433
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:18,000
You want to try it again?

434
00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:21,000
OK.

435
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:22,000
Hold on a minute, OK?

436
00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:23,000
OK.

437
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:24,000
All right.

438
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:34,000
I took some real robotic toddler type kind of walk, and I mean, it was like three or four steps and went into his arms.

439
00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:36,000
It was like, I just did that, didn't I?

440
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:38,000
And he's like, yeah, mom, you did.

441
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:43,000
Mary improved rapidly.

442
00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:49,000
A few days later, when Ron's senior arrived home from work, Mary was waiting with a big surprise.

443
00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:55,000
She had walked out the front door and down the sidewalk, completely under her own power.

444
00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:57,000
No leg brace, no support.

445
00:34:58,000 --> 00:34:59,000
No, stand back.

446
00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:00,000
Stand back.

447
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:01,000
Watch.

448
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:06,000
The clamzers were thrilled, but not yet ready to call the cure permanent.

449
00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:07,000
Oh, my.

450
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:15,000
In the beginning, we did worry about, well, the 30 days, you know, what if they were wrong and it was 60 days?

451
00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:26,000
And then I started thinking, I'm not going to worry about it, because whatever amount of time, that's the time I had, we never thought I would have.

452
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:29,000
It's almost like a second honeymoon.

453
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:34,000
I mean, it's almost like year one starts over again.

454
00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:43,000
Today, almost two years later, Mary exercises regularly and lives a completely normal life.

455
00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:47,000
I mean, we can dance again.

456
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:51,000
We can go out together and walk again, go shopping together.

457
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:57,000
There's just so many things that we're missing that we have back.

458
00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:00,000
And it's just, it's just like a rebirth.

459
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:15,000
When we return, a tragic accident claims a life of a young woman.

460
00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:20,000
Now her daughter needs your help to uncover the secrets of her family's past.

461
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:27,000
Recently, we received an unusual request from a woman named Ladonna Alfano.

462
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:31,000
Ladonna was just a little girl when her mother died in a terrible accident.

463
00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:37,000
35 years later, Ladonna has no memories of her mother and only scant details about her mother's family.

464
00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:40,000
Tonight, she hopes that will change.

465
00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:44,000
December 29, 1961.

466
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:48,000
In the early afternoon, a train left Dallas, Texas, heading west.

467
00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:57,000
The route would take it through the heart of downtown Abilene, Texas.

468
00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:01,000
The route would take it through the heart of downtown Abilene, Texas.

469
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:05,000
The route would take it through the heart of downtown Abilene, Texas.

470
00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:12,000
Around the same time, two Army wives and Abilene, Darlene Alfano and Pinkie Johnson,

471
00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:15,000
gathered up their children for a trip into town.

472
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:17,000
Got your dolls?

473
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:24,000
At around 2, Pinkie and Darlene were heading north on Shelton Street towards the center of town.

474
00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:26,000
No one knows how or why it happened.

475
00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:32,000
But the route would take it through the heart of downtown Abilene, Texas.

476
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:37,000
The route would take it through the heart of downtown Abilene, Texas.

477
00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:41,000
The route would take it through the heart of downtown Abilene, Texas.

478
00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:47,000
No one knows how or why it happened.

479
00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:50,000
But the car ended up right in the middle of the tracks.

480
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:56,000
Pinkie, there's a train! What's wrong?

481
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:02,000
What are you doing? You can't get into the tracks!

482
00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:04,000
It won't start! Look at our train coming!

483
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:06,000
It won't start! There's a train!

484
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:14,000
It's a train!

485
00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:30,000
The car was literally torn to shreds.

486
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:32,000
Its roof sheared completely off.

487
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:35,000
The human toll was incalculable.

488
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:39,000
Two of the children died almost immediately.

489
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:45,000
A third would die in the hospital, as would one of the mothers, Darlene Alfano.

490
00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:48,000
Her husband Fred was by her side.

491
00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:56,000
I was sitting with her, talking to her, and I was holding her hand.

492
00:38:56,000 --> 00:39:03,000
She took a very deep breath, held it for a few seconds, and very slowly let it out.

493
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:06,000
And I knew she had expired.

494
00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:12,000
Fred Alfano found himself almost completely alone.

495
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:15,000
He had lost his wife and two of his children.

496
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:19,000
His other child, Ladonna, had survived, but was barely hanging on.

497
00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:24,000
They never gave me any hope for any of them surviving.

498
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:30,000
They were all almost universally sure that Ladonna would not survive

499
00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:34,000
because her facial damage extended all the way down to the base of her brain.

500
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:40,000
It's me.

501
00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:42,000
Hi, Daddy.

502
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:44,000
Hi.

503
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:47,000
Ladonna had suffered catastrophic injuries to her face and head,

504
00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:50,000
but against all the odds, she began to recover.

505
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:52,000
See?

506
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:58,000
Two weeks passed before Fred could bring himself to tell Ladonna about her mother and sisters.

507
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:02,000
What happened to Rosa and Liz when they were in Trisha?

508
00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:07,000
They're in heaven.

509
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:10,000
And in a playground.

510
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:15,000
So they can play together.

511
00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:18,000
What happened to Mommy?

512
00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:24,000
Mommy's an angel.

513
00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:27,000
Is she really an angel, Daddy?

514
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:29,000
She sure is.

515
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:33,000
When my father told me that my mother and my sisters had died,

516
00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:36,000
I thought, oh, the angels had come down and gotten them.

517
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:38,000
I was happy that they were angels.

518
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:42,000
Everybody would talk to her in the hospital, and first thing she would tell them

519
00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:45,000
was that my mommy and my sisters are angels in heaven.

520
00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:48,000
I've got three angels watching me.

521
00:40:48,000 --> 00:40:50,000
I knew she would be fine.

522
00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:54,000
I felt if she had taken that attitude, she would be fine.

523
00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:58,000
Well, I used to think, why did I live?

524
00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:00,000
Why was I the one that survived?

525
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:04,000
I believed that when I was a child, that I lived for my father,

526
00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:06,000
that my father wouldn't have survived it.

527
00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:09,000
I think her strength gave me strength.

528
00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:14,000
And my only direction in life then was to take care of Ladonna

529
00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:18,000
and make sure she survived and had a normal childhood.

530
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:24,000
Over the years, Ladonna underwent a series of reconstructive surgeries on her face.

531
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:27,000
But there was one thing the operations could not correct,

532
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:30,000
the loss of her mother, Darlene.

533
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:33,000
I have no memories of my mother at all.

534
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:37,000
I look at pictures of her, and I try to remember something.

535
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:41,000
It's like looking at a magazine article of a woman.

536
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:45,000
I have recollections of my twin and my father and my little sister.

537
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:50,000
My father has told me stories about us as children with my mom,

538
00:41:50,000 --> 00:41:55,000
and it doesn't bring back any memories whatsoever, none whatsoever.

539
00:41:57,000 --> 00:42:00,000
Compounding Ladonna's heartbreak was a fact that her father

540
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:03,000
had only met her mother's family a few times.

541
00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:07,000
Eventually, what little contact they did have ceased altogether.

542
00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:11,000
After the accident happened, it was just probably too painful

543
00:42:11,000 --> 00:42:13,000
to keep in touch with them.

544
00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:17,000
And now I've just decided I need to get in touch with them.

545
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:21,000
I'm trying to, you know, get some connection with my past

546
00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:26,000
and try to remember something so it will fill in the holes of missing my mother.

547
00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:33,000
One of the only clues Ladonna has is a letter she received

548
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:36,000
from her maternal grandfather when she was 13.

549
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:40,000
It contained a photograph of her mother's sister,

550
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:43,000
Ladonna's aunt, Patricia Ann Hintz.

551
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:48,000
My aunt Pat is the only survivor of my mother that I know of.

552
00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:52,000
I think finding my aunt Pat will definitely fill my emptiness.

553
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:57,000
Just being able to touch her and knowing that she was a part of my mother

554
00:42:57,000 --> 00:42:59,000
is the only thing that I have of my mother.

555
00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:02,000
And just knowing her and meeting her and hugging her

556
00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:05,000
would be really even enough for me right now.

557
00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:13,000
Meanwhile,

558
00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:29,000
Join me again this Friday at our regular time

559
00:43:29,000 --> 00:43:32,000
for an all-new edition of Unsolved Mysteries.

560
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:42,000
I'm not sure what to do with this.

561
00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:44,000
I'm just going to go back to the hotel.

562
00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:46,000
I'm going to go back to the hotel.

563
00:43:46,000 --> 00:43:48,000
I'm going to go back to the hotel.

564
00:43:48,000 --> 00:43:50,000
I'm going to go back to the hotel.

565
00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:52,000
I'm going to go back to the hotel.

566
00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:54,000
I'm going to go back to the hotel.

567
00:43:54,000 --> 00:43:56,000
I'm going to go back to the hotel.

568
00:43:56,000 --> 00:43:58,000
I'm going to go back to the hotel.

569
00:43:58,000 --> 00:44:00,000
I'm going to go back to the hotel.

570
00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:02,000
I'm going to go back to the hotel.

571
00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:04,000
I'm going to go back to the hotel.

572
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:06,000
I'm going to go back to the hotel.

573
00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:08,000
I'm going to go back to the hotel.

574
00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:10,000
I'm going to go back to the hotel.