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The Story of the Dead

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Tonight on Unsolved Mysteries

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A woman is listed among the hundreds of missing following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

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She would be assumed dead if it weren't for one troubling fact.

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She disappeared the night before the Twin Towers collapsed.

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Best Friends' Childhood

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Diane Shockroth and Jennifer Luth moved to a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona

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and immersed themselves in the local single scene.

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Two months later, both would be dead.

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Authorities now need your help in finding their killer.

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A divorced mother disappears under bizarre circumstances.

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Suspicion focuses on her estranged husband, who is ascribed by some as a loving father,

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but by others as a sadistic psychopath.

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And now he is a fugitive from justice.

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A young, beautiful girl becomes lost in the neon glitter of Reno.

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She leaves behind paranoid emails, gruesome drawings, and books on how to change her identity.

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Her family prays that someone in our audience can help start Palumbo find her way home.

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Join me for these fascinating stories.

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Perhaps someone somewhere has at one vital clue that can solve a mystery.

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Perhaps that someone is watching. Perhaps it's you.

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Everywhere you looked, they stared back.

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Painful reminders of the human toll taken by the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

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Following September 11th, New York City was blanketed with homemade posters of missing loved ones.

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Joining the thousands of distraught family and friends canvassing the city was Ron Lieberman.

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His wife, a 31-year-old physician of Indian descent named Sneha Philip,

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was last seen in the vicinity of the World Trade Center.

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But Sneha's story is drastically different from the other hundreds of people still listed as missing and presumed dead.

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In fact, Sneha Philip disappeared on September 10th, 14 hours before the Twin Towers catastrophic collapse.

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While she may have been caught in the World Trade Center disaster,

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Sneha may have also succumbed to foul play.

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Her fate remains a mystery.

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I think this is a very difficult situation because of the confusion with September 11th that leaves every single possibility open.

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I mean, in our heads right now, anything is possible.

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I pronounce them, they are husband and wife in the name of God.

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Only one year earlier, Ron and Sneha were exchanging vows of everlasting love.

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Their future happiness seemed assured.

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There are certain people that you meet in your life who just, you connect with so strongly and right away we knew

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and basically inseparable since the first day we met.

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The newly-wed shared an apartment in Battery Park City,

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an exclusive neighborhood just four blocks from the World Trade Center.

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At 11.15 a.m. on September 10th, Ron left for his shift as a doctor at Jacobi Hospital.

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Sneha, who is also a doctor, had the next three days off.

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Kissed her, I told her I loved her and I left.

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Luckily I left my keys at home, so I went back and I got to kiss her again,

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and that was the last time that I saw her.

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When Ron returned at 11.15 that night, Sneha was not home,

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but Ron felt there was no reason to be concerned.

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My schedule is so crazy, so sometimes she would feel uncomfortable staying by herself at home

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and her brother lives very close by and her cousin also lives very close by.

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So she would sometimes go spend the night with them and I thought,

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well, maybe she just decided to stop at her brother's house or her cousin.

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The following morning Ron rose early and headed to work for an 8 a.m. meeting.

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He expected Sneha to call him once she woke up.

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September 11th began as a perfect day.

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The weather was unseasonably warm and the sky a brilliant blue.

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Like Ron, millions of New Yorkers went about their daily routines,

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unaware that the entire world teetered on the verge of disaster.

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What happened?

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There was an accident, a plane hit the World Trade Center.

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After the meeting I came outside and we saw the TVs were on and we saw the first plane hit.

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So I immediately went and called home.

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Sneha, if you're there, pick up the phone.

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And there was just the message machine on.

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I need you to call me and let me know that you're okay.

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I love you.

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And then we learned that there's a second plane hit and now everyone realized that this is an attack.

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And then when the buildings came down, everyone was just, you know, people were crying but still trying to work.

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And it was a very, very emotional time, I think, obviously for everyone.

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I called back again about 10 o'clock in the morning, still just the message machine was on

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and then after that the phones went dead.

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I was frightened for my wife because I could get in touch with her.

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I was sad of what happened, devastated by the whole situation.

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You know, there's so many emotions, everyone is in shock.

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And where's my wife? I don't know.

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Ron Lieberman's personal nightmare.

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Cone sided with one of the worst global nightmares in history.

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Imagine trying to find your wife in the chaos and confusion following the tragedy of the World Trade Center.

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Any evidence of what happened to Sneha Philip was most likely buried under 1.2 million tons of rubble.

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Still, Ron Lieberman prayed that Sneha was simply lost in the turmoil enveloping New York City

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and that she would soon find her way home.

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Ron's hopes were based on Sneha spending the previous night with her brother or cousin.

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But when he finally got through to them, both said they had not seen or heard from Sneha in over 48 hours.

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Realizing that no one had spoken to her yet, I realized that this is a serious situation.

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At that point I decided, you know, I'm going to try to get down to the apartment.

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All roads into Lower Manhattan were closed.

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Only emergency vehicles were being permitted through the barricades.

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Ron hitched a ride in an ambulance.

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And then made his way on foot to the apartment.

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The scene down there was just chaos.

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It was one of the most scariest sights I've ever seen in my life.

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As I started approaching my apartment building, I started seeing trucks blown up,

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fire engines turned upside down, pieces of the building, or what looked like the building on the ground also.

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Ron's apartment in Battery Park City was changed shut.

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He soon learned from a neighbor that Sneha was not in the building.

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So now at this point I didn't know what to do.

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With all the chaos going on, I thought, well, how am I going to find her right now?

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And I went back to my friend's place and I spent the night.

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And that was a very difficult night.

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I was by myself on the couch, wondering where my wife was, frightened that something awful happened.

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The day following the attacks,

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Ron filed a missing persons report with the NYPD.

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We knew she was missing since Monday.

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And when we told the detective, they just said, OK, we'll take your missing persons report.

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But that was lumped into the World Trade Center.

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You got the feeling that the police were just completely overwhelmed

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and that they had very little time or effort to be able to put forth towards this.

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The NYPD believes that Sneha was more than likely one of the many lost in the World Trade Center disaster.

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But Ron was convinced that she disappeared the night before.

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He hired a private eye and launched an investigation of his own.

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They would uncover several disturbing questions.

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But one above all others had haunted Ron from the start.

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Where was Sneha on the night of September 10th?

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Ron discovered that an employee at the couple's apartment building

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remembered seeing Sneha that evening.

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At 5.15 pm, he saw her leaving alone, wearing a brown dress and sandals.

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By tracing credit card receipts,

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Ron found evidence that Sneha may have then gone shopping

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at a department store near the World Trade Center.

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At 7.15 pm, shoes, lingerie and bed linens were purchased with Sneha's credit card.

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But was it Sneha who used the card or an imposter who had stolen it?

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Excuse me.

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From what was purchased, it sounded like it was her.

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Sheets for the beds and things like that, so we assumed it was her, without proof yet.

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Ron hoped to find that proof on the department store's surveillance video.

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For about two weeks, I sat and watched this tape for about five hours a day.

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Frame by frame, it's one of those stop-action photos.

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Where I actually found my wife on the tape shopping alone.

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After the department store, Sneha's trail turns completely cold.

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She leaves the store and then she just disappears.

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There is not a trace of her, nothing.

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Not a credit card transaction, no money taken out of her account,

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no emails, no phone calls, nothing.

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How does that happen?

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It's a complete mystery.

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Where did Sneha go after leaving the department store?

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She was carrying two large bags of merchandise.

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But neither the bags nor the merchandise were found at Sneha's apartment,

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suggesting that she never made it back home.

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Near the department store stood the Millennium Hotel.

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Inside was a Connoisseur barn grill.

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The private investigator hired by Ron

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theorized that Sneha could have stopped in for a drink.

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Is it possible that something happened here

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that ultimately led to her disappearance?

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The Millennium Hotel was closed down after the attack,

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frustrating Ron and the investigators' efforts to see if she went there.

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In fact, the entire area where Sneha was last seen lay in ruins.

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As a result, any theory about what happened to her was virtually impossible to prove.

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Was Sneha a victim of random violence?

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Could she have left on her own accord to start a new life?

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The question seemed endless.

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Any answers were surely destroyed along with the Twin Towers.

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But then a mysterious clue emerged,

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spinning the investigation into an entirely unexpected direction.

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A clerk at the department store saw the missing flyer of Sneha and stepped forward,

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giving Ron and Sneha's family renewed hope.

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From the shoe sales clerk, told us that she remembers my wife

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and that she'd known her as somewhat of a regular customer.

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Is that your sister?

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Oh, no, she's just a friend of mine.

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And that she remembered her there that day

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and said that she was with another person, an Indian woman,

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that she just said was her friend.

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You too.

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Bye-bye.

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Have a good day.

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You too.

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And then they said after she went to buy shoes

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that they were thinking about going to the lingerie area.

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Based on this new information,

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Ron reexamined the department store's surveillance tape.

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Two women are captured leaving the store together.

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Could this be Sneha and her companion?

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Kay, do you want to get something to eat?

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More all-evers to identify the mysterious woman have failed.

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We have no idea who this person is

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and that she never existed in Sneha's past.

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We've gone through her phone books.

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We've gone through her email.

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There is no, like, phone call even made to this person during that day.

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She doesn't exist anywhere else.

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I mean, it could be very possible that Sneha ran into her.

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It could be an old-time friend.

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Is it possible that Sneha stated the unidentified woman's house

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on the night of September 10th?

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If that was the case,

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then Sneha could well have been heading home the next morning

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at the approximate time of the World Trade Center attack.

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If Sneha was near the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11th,

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knowing the kind of person she was,

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it would just be instinctual with her to try to help

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and she might have gone into the building

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or she might have helped people out.

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It would have just been...

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That's the kind of person she is.

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She just cares about people.

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If Sneha was inside the World Trade Center,

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she had no chance of surviving.

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But that scenario assumes that Sneha was alive the previous night

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and spent it somewhere other than with Ron, her family,

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and all of her known friends.

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She's never just spent a night out

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without informing us where she is, informing her husband where she is.

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It's never happened.

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Why would this night be any different?

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So, I mean, I really think that something happened to her September 10th.

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It's difficult to continue.

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Each day is a day that we suffer because we don't know.

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Sometimes I think she might just walk through the door

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or she might just call.

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But it just... Each day doesn't happen.

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And it's really torture.

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The Cedar Creek Apartments

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Outside of Phoenix, Arizona

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A brutal heat wave passes through the region.

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After graduating from high school,

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Diane Shaw-Crawl,

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a former state college student,

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and a former state college student,

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she has been a part of the Cedar Creek Apartments

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outside of Phoenix, Arizona.

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A brutal heat wave passes through the region.

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After graduating from high school,

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Diane Shaw-Crawl,

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20, and her best friend Jennifer Luth, 19,

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had left their homes in Colorado

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for the sunny suburb of Glendale, Arizona.

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They moved in with Diane's older sister, Christina.

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But three young women living in a one-bedroom apartment

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soon led to tension.

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When did you become mom?

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I said no smoking.

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That was my last cigarette.

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Fine. Maybe I'll just go then.

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Maybe you should.

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They said they were going to walk to the store

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to get cigarettes and a pop,

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and that they would be back in a little while.

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They didn't take anything with them,

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and they never went anywhere without their makeup,

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so that's what made me think they were coming right back.

242
00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:01,000
Come on. I'll talk it out with her.

243
00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:03,000
No.

244
00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:06,000
Diane and Jennifer headed for the mini-mart two blocks away.

245
00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:09,000
They never returned.

246
00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:11,000
For the first time in their lives,

247
00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:15,000
Diane Shockcroft and Jennifer Luth were living away from home.

248
00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:17,000
The girls began to explore the boundaries

249
00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:19,000
of their newfound freedom.

250
00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:21,000
They were swept into an accelerating whirlwind

251
00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:25,000
of late nights, new friendships, and lively parties.

252
00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:27,000
But authorities now fear that Diane and Jennifer's

253
00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:33,000
carefree lifestyle may have ultimately put them in harm's way.

254
00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:35,000
Diane and Jenny were very, very close.

255
00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:38,000
They were probably closer than most sisters.

256
00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:40,000
I think he was a little more flirtatious.

257
00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:42,000
Diane was a little quieter and more shy,

258
00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:45,000
but she's the one that basically took care of both of them,

259
00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:47,000
I believe.

260
00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:49,000
We're so happy now.

261
00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:51,000
Hi.

262
00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:53,000
Hi. You guys having fun?

263
00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:56,000
They were pretty open to just about anybody.

264
00:17:56,000 --> 00:17:58,000
They liked to hang out. They liked to have lots of friends.

265
00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:00,000
But they liked to go, go, go.

266
00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:02,000
They wanted to be doing something all the time.

267
00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:04,000
They didn't care if it was three in the morning

268
00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:06,000
or three in the afternoon.

269
00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:08,000
On the day they disappeared,

270
00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:10,000
Diane and Jennifer were seen at a mini-mart

271
00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:13,000
at approximately 7 p.m.

272
00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:15,000
Hey girls. Hey.

273
00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:17,000
How are we doing? Good.

274
00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:20,000
According to the cashier, the girls bought cigarettes and soda.

275
00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:22,000
They came out.

276
00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:26,000
But instead of going home, they lingered outside the store.

277
00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:33,000
Two hours passed.

278
00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:35,000
The girls were still in front of the mini-mart

279
00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:38,000
when the cashier saw a man pull up in a blue truck.

280
00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:45,000
They conversed for quite a while.

281
00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:48,000
They got into the truck and then the truck drove off.

282
00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:51,000
And that's the last time that anyone that we know of

283
00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:53,000
has seen them alive.

284
00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:57,000
I believe she knew this person

285
00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:00,000
because she would never, ever get into a vehicle with strangers.

286
00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:02,000
She just wouldn't do it. She wasn't the kind that would hitchhike

287
00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:04,000
or do anything like that.

288
00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:06,000
She was very careful and very cautious.

289
00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:12,000
Three months later,

290
00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:16,000
two men were hunting in a remote desert 100 miles north of Phoenix.

291
00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:19,000
As they traversed a steep incline,

292
00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:21,000
they came across a gruesome sight.

293
00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:28,000
Diane Lynn Shockroft lay on top of Jennifer Sue Luth.

294
00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:30,000
Both had been murdered.

295
00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:32,000
Even in death,

296
00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:35,000
Diane seemed to be protecting her best friend.

297
00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:39,000
Because the investigation is ongoing,

298
00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:41,000
police are withholding the cause of death.

299
00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:43,000
But the location of the girls' bodies

300
00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:47,000
offered several clues as to who the killer or killers might be.

301
00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:54,000
The area is extremely isolated,

302
00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:56,000
16 miles from the nearest highway,

303
00:19:56,000 --> 00:20:00,000
and accessible only by pickup truck or four-wheel drive.

304
00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:06,000
We feel that this person has probably been in this area,

305
00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:08,000
or frequent in this area,

306
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:10,000
or certainly was aware of this area in some way

307
00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:13,000
by their own four-wheel driving or hunting

308
00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:17,000
or at least some personal knowledge of the area.

309
00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:24,000
The deepness of the ravine also raised another troubling possibility.

310
00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:28,000
They were both fairly decent-sized girls,

311
00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:31,000
so you would have had to have handled each one of those.

312
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:33,000
So, either we had a very strong person,

313
00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:35,000
or we had more than one person possibly that were involved

314
00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:37,000
in taking these bodies out.

315
00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:41,000
Jennifer was a strong girl,

316
00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:44,000
and she was a scrapper if she needed to be.

317
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:48,000
It wouldn't be easy for one person to overpower Jennifer alone,

318
00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:50,000
but with two of them,

319
00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:53,000
it's just sort of inconceivable to me

320
00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:58,000
that one person was able to do that to two girls.

321
00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:02,000
The police investigation centered on finding

322
00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:05,000
the mysterious man in the blue truck,

323
00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:07,000
believing that both girls knew this man.

324
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:10,000
Police delved into their personal lives.

325
00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:13,000
Ron and Phoenix,

326
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:17,000
Diane and Jennifer had attended numerous parties and nightclubs.

327
00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:27,000
They had a lifestyle with a lot of males involved in it.

328
00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:31,000
They were a lot of male friends, male relationships.

329
00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:33,000
They were involved in so many people's lives.

330
00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:36,000
They were involved in many strangers' lives to the point

331
00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:38,000
it could have been somebody they just met.

332
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:40,000
Where are you from?

333
00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:43,000
I'm from Colorado.

334
00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:47,000
From this really small town where it's like zero degrees right now,

335
00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:49,000
we're so happy to be here.

336
00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:53,000
I think both Ginny and Diana were very naive and very innocent.

337
00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:55,000
I think like most 19-year-olds,

338
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:58,000
they think they're invincible and can just conquer the world.

339
00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:01,000
It reminds me of my friends having a little pool party tonight.

340
00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:02,000
There's going to be gangs, lots of people.

341
00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:04,000
The guys should come down.

342
00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:05,000
Really?

343
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:06,000
Yeah.

344
00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:09,000
And I think whoever got involved with them knew that,

345
00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:12,000
could read them like a book and took advantage of them.

346
00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:17,000
There is one final strange twist to this case.

347
00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:22,000
The family is erected a shrine where the bodies were found.

348
00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:31,000
Pictures of both girls were placed at the foot of two wood crosses.

349
00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:34,000
Police decided to occasionally survey the site,

350
00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:37,000
hoping for a morbid visit from the killer.

351
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:40,000
No one ever showed up,

352
00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:42,000
at least while authorities were at the scene.

353
00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:45,000
On September 29, 2000,

354
00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:48,000
detectives discovered that both photos of the girls

355
00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:50,000
had been removed from their frames.

356
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:56,000
Only police and the victim's family knew the precise location

357
00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:58,000
where the girls' bodies had been found.

358
00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:03,000
Nothing else seemed to be disturbed

359
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:07,000
and definitely raised questions as to who would want to be found.

360
00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:10,000
The police found that the victims were not found.

361
00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:12,000
As to who would want the pictures,

362
00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:16,000
who would go to that much effort to go back in as far as it is,

363
00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:19,000
get the pictures and take them.

364
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:24,000
Hard to even imagine who it would be or why they would do it,

365
00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:26,000
unless it's the perpetrator.

366
00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:32,000
Had the killer returned for a macabre souvenir of his brutal act,

367
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:34,000
police can only speculate.

368
00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:39,000
No evidence that might identify the murder has ever been found.

369
00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:45,000
The search for Diane and Jennifer's killer or killers continues.

370
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:53,000
Authorities would especially like to question the man

371
00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:55,000
who was the last person seen with the girls.

372
00:23:56,000 --> 00:23:59,000
He may be driving a blue pickup truck.

373
00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:08,000
Hello.

374
00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:13,000
Two friends of 44-year-old Brenda Bowen

375
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,000
arrive at her rural Alabama home

376
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:18,000
after she fails to show up for a prayer meeting earlier that morning.

377
00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:21,000
Brenda.

378
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:23,000
But Brenda is nowhere to be found.

379
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:25,000
Hello, anybody home?

380
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:31,000
Within hours, the Shelby County Sheriff's Office responds to the scene.

381
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:37,000
Brenda's clothes were laid out on her bed as if to dress

382
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:39,000
after she got through with her shower.

383
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:42,000
On her dresser was her jewelry.

384
00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:44,000
Everything was laid out real nice and neat.

385
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:51,000
Also, they saw her curling iron was in the own position in the bathroom.

386
00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:56,000
But there was no other signs that, you know, Brenda was there at all.

387
00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:00,000
Brenda Bowen lived a life most of us would envy.

388
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:03,000
She was blessed with two healthy teenage children,

389
00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:05,000
a thriving real estate business

390
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:09,000
and a sprawling home in the beautiful Alabama countryside.

391
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:14,000
Her friends and family could find no reason why she would suddenly vanish.

392
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:18,000
When Brenda went missing, it was devastating to us.

393
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:20,000
I stayed at home.

394
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:22,000
I thought she might call, you know.

395
00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:26,000
But in my heart, I knew that something had happened to Brenda, something bad.

396
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:32,000
The only source of friction in Brenda's life was her ex-husband, Jerry Lee Bowen.

397
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:39,000
Two years earlier, Brenda's long-lasting marriage to Jerry had abruptly fallen apart.

398
00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:46,000
They were together for about 18 or 19 years and they'd worked good together.

399
00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:54,000
But Jerry, Jerry got out and found a girlfriend.

400
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:56,000
He asked her for a divorce.

401
00:25:56,000 --> 00:26:02,000
Jerry, you've agreed to give Brenda complete and un-cumbered use of the house

402
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:05,000
until your daughter turns 19.

403
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:10,000
Brenda, you will give Jerry use of the guest house in the back as his own.

404
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:15,000
With the help of a divorce attorney, Jerry and Brenda separated on good terms

405
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:18,000
and even agreed to a very unusual living arrangement.

406
00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:24,000
Jerry would reside in the guest house behind the main residence.

407
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:28,000
He also gave Brenda the bulk of the couple's assets.

408
00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:36,000
Jerry lived quietly in the shadow of his ex-wife until he ran into financial difficulties.

409
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:39,000
Brenda, I'm asking for your help here.

410
00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:43,000
I don't know, Jerry. You're asking me to live a lie.

411
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:46,000
It's only a business arrangement.

412
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:51,000
And he told us he was in financial trouble and they had to get back together.

413
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:53,000
He had to have some relief.

414
00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:58,000
Brenda's answer was, I'd have to think about that, Jerry.

415
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:02,000
So you're not going to help me?

416
00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:06,000
I don't know, Jerry. Can't we talk about this in the morning?

417
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:13,000
Jerry? Jerry, we can talk about it in the morning.

418
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:18,000
I'm going to take you back to court.

419
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:23,000
Four days later, Brenda Bowen vanished.

420
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:30,000
Anything you'll find, I want a bag, I want it filed.

421
00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:34,000
Police began their investigation at the Bowen Home.

422
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:40,000
Jerry Bowen was fully cooperative and even offered his own theory on what happened to Brenda.

423
00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:46,000
As I started to leave, Jerry says, well, Don, what do you think happened to Brenda?

424
00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:51,000
Well, let's just hope she's on a beach somewhere down on Florida, tanning her bun. You're wrong.

425
00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:55,000
She's dead.

426
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:59,000
I said, well, if she's dead, where do you think we could find her?

427
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:03,000
And Jerry looked at me and he says, you could find her in water somewhere.

428
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:11,000
That same night, Brenda's car was found stuck in the mud 43 miles from her home.

429
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:18,000
We found personal items belonging to Brenda there. We found her purse. We found this cell phone.

430
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:24,000
There was checkbooks there. So that told us that this was not a robbery.

431
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:30,000
That perhaps the car was left where it was just as a decoy, that Brenda would not be found there.

432
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:37,000
Brenda's own son raised an even more troubling question about the car.

433
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:41,000
I was wondering what the position of the driver's seat was in.

434
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:43,000
All the way back, right?

435
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:45,000
Yeah, it was all the way back.

436
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:48,000
Well, my mom, she's only five or two.

437
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:55,000
With the car seat completely pushed back, Brenda's feet could not have reached the pedals.

438
00:28:55,000 --> 00:29:02,000
But the strangest question of all came out of Jerry Bowen's own mouth when he unexpectedly appeared at the crime scene.

439
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:05,000
Is that the car that belongs to the woman who's missing?

440
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:07,000
Yes.

441
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:13,000
Now, this was his ex-wife's car. He knew whose car that was.

442
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:21,000
And it turned out later to be a question that we felt was very important to pinning down who was responsible for Brenda's death.

443
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:30,000
Jerry was taken to the Shelby County Sheriff's Office for an interview, where his behavior continued to raise red flags.

444
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:34,000
He was not of any help to us whatsoever.

445
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:37,000
He showed no concern for her well-being.

446
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:42,000
And during the process of the interview, he actually went to sleep.

447
00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:51,000
But Jerry's friends and family adamantly claimed that he was in a state of shock and overcome with worry for his former wife.

448
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:58,000
Jerry was very concerned about her, but he was also upset that the police thought it might be him.

449
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:05,000
He said often that he was innocent, so there was no way he was going to be pinned with a murder.

450
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:12,000
They stripped him down. They checked him for any cuts or bruises or bites or anything.

451
00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:15,000
They didn't find a scratch on him anywhere.

452
00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:21,000
But they got in his face and told him, we know you did something to her, whatever happened to her.

453
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:24,000
We know you did it, and we will prove it.

454
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:27,000
And they had television from that night on.

455
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:34,000
My honest, zero doubt in my mind that Jerry Bowen killed my daughter Brenda.

456
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:36,000
No doubt.

457
00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:43,000
But there was no evidence linking Jerry Bowen to his wife's disappearance, and he was released.

458
00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:52,000
Several months later, three fishermen saw something floating in the murky waters of the Cousa River.

459
00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:58,000
It was the body of Brenda Bowen, bound and tied inside a sheet.

460
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:05,000
The advanced state of decomposition made it impossible for the coroner to determine the cause of death.

461
00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:13,000
When Brenda Bowen's body surfaced, she was, for lack of a better way of saying it, packaged in a certain manner.

462
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:17,000
We got the call late this afternoon. Three fishermen found the body.

463
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:24,000
Around her body was a green top sheet off of a bed.

464
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:30,000
Around that was a length of nylon rope.

465
00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:35,000
Secure the area all the way up to the road before the forensic boys get here.

466
00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:39,000
The sheet was positively identified as coming from the Bowen home.

467
00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:43,000
And there were several curious aspects about the rope.

468
00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:51,000
It was tied with two specific knots, a bowline and a slip, and the ends had been deliberately burnt.

469
00:31:52,000 --> 00:32:02,000
The son asked to look at the rope that was around his mother's body, and he looked at it and tears filled his eyes.

470
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:07,000
He said, I've seen that same combination of knots from Jerry Bowen dozens of times.

471
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:10,000
He said, I've never seen anybody else do it.

472
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:18,000
In addition to that, every time Jerry Bowen cut a piece of nylon rope, he would take a cigarette lighter and burn the ends of it.

473
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:27,000
The knots, the car seat, the burned ends of the rope, it all starts pointing back to Jerry Bowen.

474
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:32,000
Jerry Bowen was arrested and tried for the murder of his wife Brenda.

475
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:38,000
The case against him was almost entirely circumstantial, except for one crucial element.

476
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:44,000
Jerry could not account for his whereabouts prior to 9.30 in the morning of Brenda's disappearance.

477
00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:47,000
Jerry took only six hours to decide his fate.

478
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:49,000
Guilty.

479
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:53,000
But the bizarre story of Jerry Bowen did not end with his conviction.

480
00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:59,000
While awaiting sentencing, Bowen was released on bond.

481
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:03,000
The day of the hearing, Jerry's sister received a blunt letter.

482
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:11,000
It read, this may be a dumb move on my part sis, but I don't feel I should serve time for a crime I didn't commit.

483
00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:13,000
Therefore, I am running.

484
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:18,000
When Jerry was convicted, my thought was, it's payday.

485
00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:23,000
When Jerry fled, I felt like payday evaporated.

486
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:27,000
And it did.

487
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:33,000
The FBI descended on Jerry's home looking for any clues as to his whereabouts.

488
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:38,000
But no one was prepared for what was found on Jerry's computer.

489
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:43,000
Thousands of violent and sadistic pornographic images.

490
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:48,000
Jerry is very polite, respectful to others.

491
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:56,000
But when he's back in his own secret place, within his own residence, the bizarreness of his behavior starts to emerge.

492
00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:08,000
When he's visiting websites of women being abused, tied up, shackled and tortured, as well as a fascination for pregnant women that are naked.

493
00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:16,000
No other evidence was recovered from Jerry's home that would lead detectives to the convicted killer.

494
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:20,000
He has now evaded capture for over a year.

495
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:26,000
He's still on the loose and we can't have closure until he's found.

496
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:32,000
And come back to the Sheriff's Department where he belongs. I hope they bring him and change.

497
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:08,000
In the early morning hours of April 26, 2000, a young woman is spotted wandering in a restricted area of the Reno Tahoe International Airport.

498
00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:14,000
She appears disoriented and frightened. An airport police officer is called.

499
00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:18,000
He finds a woman cowering near a truck.

500
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:20,000
Are you okay?

501
00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:28,000
The woman identifies herself as star Palumbo. She then claims she's trying to find her younger sister who was running loose on the tarmac.

502
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:35,000
Okay, we searched the grounds for your sister with the description that you gave us. She knows where to be found.

503
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:40,000
The airport police officer felt there was a possibility the star's story was not true.

504
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:45,000
But he also believed the star had no criminal intent for being out on the runway.

505
00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:52,000
He had no idea why she was out there. She could give no logical explanation. But instead of arresting her, he decided to release her.

506
00:35:56,000 --> 00:36:02,000
Star Palumbo has dropped off near a hotel and disappears into the kaleidoscope of blinding neon lights.

507
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:07,000
The next day, an illegally parked car is discovered at the airport.

508
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:16,000
And while I ran a routine license check on it, to put on the impound sheet, the registered owner came back to start Palumbo.

509
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:23,000
As I was going through the vehicle during the impound, I found it appeared to be loaded with all her personal possessions.

510
00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:29,000
Also in the car were stars Cell Phone and Purse, including $600,000 in cash.

511
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:33,000
And Star had left behind other items that caused even more concern.

512
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:39,000
Copies of three emails sent to the White House indicated the star felt the government was trying to murder her.

513
00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:44,000
A morbid drawing depicted a woman who looked like Star bound and gagged.

514
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:49,000
And finally, there were two books on how to change your identity.

515
00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:55,000
Star never showed up to claim her car. She has now been missing for over a year.

516
00:36:55,000 --> 00:37:04,000
There are two very likely possibilities. The first is that she is suffering from some type of either organically caused or drug induced psychosis and is a sick woman and doesn't know who or where she is.

517
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:14,000
And the second possibility, sadly, is that she's been the victim of a serious crime and has either been murdered or is in a position where she can't contact her.

518
00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:21,000
The mystery of what happened to Star Palumbo began long before the 25 year old woman vanished.

519
00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:25,000
Star was once a vivacious brunette full of hope and promise.

520
00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:33,000
But authorities believe that she tragically drifted into another world of drugs and desperation, placing her life in a state of emergency.

521
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:38,000
Her family is convinced that Star is alive. And with your help, one day, will one day come home.

522
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:46,000
Star lived very happy childhood. She's very dependable and she's a very trusting person.

523
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:54,000
She has a life-giving services. Not only has she turned past her marriage but is also very sophisticated and humble and skeptical of her ​individuality.

524
00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:56,640
Star lived a very happy childhood,

525
00:37:56,640 --> 00:37:59,200
and she's very dependable.

526
00:37:59,200 --> 00:38:02,760
And she's a very trusting person.

527
00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:05,480
She's a very happy person, sociable person,

528
00:38:05,480 --> 00:38:12,480
and she really, I guess, trusted people too much.

529
00:38:12,480 --> 00:38:14,480
One year prior to her disappearance,

530
00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:16,760
Star left her home in Tucson, Arizona

531
00:38:16,760 --> 00:38:18,760
and moved to Reno, Nevada.

532
00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:22,440
She lived there with her grandmother.

533
00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:25,960
It was in Reno investigators believe the Star's life began

534
00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:28,240
a Karinov course.

535
00:38:28,240 --> 00:38:30,120
Interviews with Star's friends there

536
00:38:30,120 --> 00:38:35,440
revealed a portrait of a troubled woman who had lost her way.

537
00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:38,600
In this particular case, Star seems

538
00:38:38,600 --> 00:38:41,640
to have fallen in with a very bad crowd

539
00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:47,960
and had been involved in a more increasing degree of drug

540
00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:51,160
use, and specifically with methamphetamine

541
00:38:51,160 --> 00:38:56,200
at a level that could only be disastrous.

542
00:38:56,200 --> 00:38:58,400
According to her friends, in the weeks leading up

543
00:38:58,400 --> 00:39:00,720
to her disappearance, Star's drug habit

544
00:39:00,720 --> 00:39:05,200
costs more than she could make as a cashier at a pawn shop.

545
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:07,680
Police believe it is possible that the increasingly

546
00:39:07,680 --> 00:39:12,000
distraught woman began to look for other ways to make money.

547
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:15,120
There is an indication that Star had been

548
00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:17,600
dabbling in prostitution.

549
00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:21,800
In her phone books, there was reference to a number of men.

550
00:39:21,800 --> 00:39:23,280
We really don't have a good feeling

551
00:39:23,280 --> 00:39:25,600
for the extent of the relationships

552
00:39:25,600 --> 00:39:27,680
with a number of those men.

553
00:39:27,680 --> 00:39:32,120
However, certainly prostitution is a high risk occupation

554
00:39:32,120 --> 00:39:34,760
and one of the factors that causes us concern

555
00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:39,680
about what has befallen Star in her disappearance.

556
00:39:39,680 --> 00:39:42,320
While in Reno, Star continued to call her mother

557
00:39:42,320 --> 00:39:45,640
on a weekly basis and seemed in good spirits.

558
00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:49,160
But on the day she disappeared, Star made a final phone

559
00:39:49,160 --> 00:39:53,840
call that took on an ominous and paranoid tone.

560
00:39:53,840 --> 00:39:57,440
She would only talk to us for a little bit.

561
00:39:57,440 --> 00:40:01,120
She said that she felt somebody was following her.

562
00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:03,120
And when she talked on the phone,

563
00:40:03,120 --> 00:40:05,320
she thought maybe the phones were tapped

564
00:40:05,320 --> 00:40:06,800
and somebody was listening.

565
00:40:06,800 --> 00:40:10,080
And she mentioned how something was going on

566
00:40:10,120 --> 00:40:12,960
and she was afraid for her life.

567
00:40:12,960 --> 00:40:15,760
And she wouldn't discuss it any more than that.

568
00:40:15,760 --> 00:40:18,360
According to her mother, Star expressed the desire

569
00:40:18,360 --> 00:40:20,520
to turn her life around.

570
00:40:20,520 --> 00:40:24,280
She then talked about flying home to Tucson and starting over.

571
00:40:24,280 --> 00:40:26,320
I love you.

572
00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:28,720
OK, bye.

573
00:40:28,720 --> 00:40:31,640
Gail Palumbo has not heard from her daughter since.

574
00:40:36,440 --> 00:40:38,560
Following Star's disappearance, her parents

575
00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:41,480
mounted a massive effort to locate their daughter.

576
00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:43,520
Thousands of flyers were distributed

577
00:40:43,520 --> 00:40:47,320
and Star's picture was posted throughout the state of Nevada.

578
00:40:47,320 --> 00:40:51,440
It appears that those efforts have paid off.

579
00:40:51,440 --> 00:40:54,200
Linda Fields, owner of the Silver Dollar Casino

580
00:40:54,200 --> 00:40:57,440
in Elko, Nevada, claims to have seen Star there

581
00:40:57,440 --> 00:41:00,640
a full eight months after her disappearance.

582
00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:02,240
Honey.

583
00:41:02,240 --> 00:41:04,160
Honey, are you all right?

584
00:41:04,160 --> 00:41:08,000
Miss Fields described seeing a young woman who,

585
00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:12,800
in her mind, she was very certain, was Star Palumbo,

586
00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:19,080
who had come into the bar one evening, had looked frightened,

587
00:41:19,080 --> 00:41:23,720
was alone, and that the young woman had volunteered to her

588
00:41:23,720 --> 00:41:27,680
that her name was Star and that she was being chased

589
00:41:27,680 --> 00:41:32,360
or was trying to escape from a pimp.

590
00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:35,440
Linda Fields says that Star became extremely agitated

591
00:41:35,440 --> 00:41:39,240
when a man peered through the bar's window.

592
00:41:39,240 --> 00:41:41,840
A short time after that, Star left the bar

593
00:41:41,840 --> 00:41:44,280
with another young woman.

594
00:41:44,280 --> 00:41:46,800
If the woman was Star, then where did she go

595
00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:49,000
after leaving the bar?

596
00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:51,960
Maybe there really was somebody after her.

597
00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:53,880
Could she have used the books found in her car

598
00:41:53,880 --> 00:41:57,200
to change her identity and escape?

599
00:41:57,200 --> 00:42:00,960
It is this scenario the Star's family clings to.

600
00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:04,520
I'd like to say Star, that your mom and dad really love you.

601
00:42:05,600 --> 00:42:10,280
And no matter what you've done or anything,

602
00:42:10,280 --> 00:42:13,960
that we should contact us to see if we could help you.

603
00:42:24,800 --> 00:42:28,280
Join me next time for another fascinating edition

604
00:42:28,280 --> 00:42:29,960
of Unsolved Mysteries.