A nurse is found murdered in her Texas home and her live-in boyfriend and his nine-year-old son have vanished.

Suspect:

Gender: Male
DOB: 9/19/53
Height: 6’4”
Weight: 240 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde (maybe gray)

CASE DETAILS

On December 27, 1993, Jack White went to visit his daughter, Latricia, at her home in Lockhart, Texas. Latricia, a 38-year old nurse, hadn’t been seen or heard from in almost 24 hours. Jack said that he was worried:

“Everyone was concerned about Latricia because she just hadn’t gone to work Monday.   And she never fails to go to work or at least call.”

Jack rushed into the home and found his daughter in her bedroom:

“I just called her name and then I went over and felt her. And I knew that she was dead.”

Latricia White. murder victim

Latricia White had been shot six times in the head with a .22 caliber weapon. Her death stunned her friends and neighbors. She left behind two children and lots of unanswered questions. Despite the violent nature of the crime, there were no signs of a struggle, and nothing in her house had been disturbed.

Just as puzzling was the disappearance of Latricia’s live-in boyfriend, Lee Wackerhagen, a local trucker nicknamed Dub. Also missing was Dub’s nine year old son, Chance, who had been visiting for the Christmas holidays. Sheriff Mike Bading of the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Department said that meant they had two possible scenarios to investigate:

“The fact that her boyfriend, Dub Wackerhagen, could not be found led us to several different areas to investigate. Number one, is he a suspect? Could he have committed this crime? The other one, is he a victim?   Has he also been injured?”

Police believe Dub murdered Latricia

Three days later, Dub’s pickup truck was found abandoned in Austin, Texas, about thirty miles from the crime scene. In the truck, investigators found Dub’s hunting rifle, which had not been fired, his checkbook, and his wallet. In the back were a toolbox, a spare tire, and Christmas gifts. Some of the gifts were unopened, and they were all streaked with blood. According to Sheriff Bading:

“Initially in the investigation we felt that this blood could have come from our victim.   That was later ruled out. The blood type was not the same as our victim. So we feel that someone else was injured.   Not seriously, but someone else was injured.”

Could that someone else have been Dub or Chance? The question could not be answered. All of the blood tests were inconclusive.

Dub’s hunting rifle was found in the truck

The police and the White family believe that Dub murdered Latricia in a jealous rage. But Dub’s family and friends are convinced that he and Chance also met with foul play.   Barbara Stage is Dub’s sister:

“We haven’t heard anything from him at all.   And that tells me that he’s got to be dead.”

Dub’s friend, Melissa Reagan, was shocked:

“I don’t know who did it.   I just know that he couldn’t have done it and then just disappear off the face of the earth.”  

To the police, however, Dub was the obvious suspect, especially after they began to take a close look at his relationship with Latricia. According to Latricia’s family, Dub was extremely jealous and suspicious. Dub’s ex-wife and Chance’s mother, Gaye Williams, agreed:

“I saw that he was a good man when I met him, and when I left him I was scared to death of him. He had a temper. He treated my oldest boy terribly and I was scared.”  

Dub’s son, Chance, is missing

Dub’s son, Chance, was often the focus of his arguments with Latricia. Two days before Christmas, a heated argument led to Dub packing his bags and threatening to leave. Just three nights later, Dub, Chance, and Latricia were seen enjoying themselves at a local restaurant. The argument was apparently forgotten. But late the very next day, Latricia’s father found her shot to death in her bedroom. Dub and Chance had disappeared. Three days later, Dub was formally charged with first-degree murder.   Four months passed with no sign of Dub or Chance. Then, Chance’s maternal grandfather, O.P. Williams, got an anonymous phone call at his home:

“All he said was, ‘Help me.’   And then the phone was jerked out of his hand and slammed down. I looked over at my wife, and I said, ‘That was Chance.'”

Was Dub the killer or a victim?

Could the plea for help actually have come from Chance? Dub’s family is convinced the answer is no. They believe that the phone call was a hoax and that Dub and Chance were murdered.   But Latricia’s family and the police believe that Dub is a killer and that he’s still very much alive.

UPDATE: Investigators now have evidence that Lee and Chance Wackerhagen were victims of foul play. It is believed that this was a crime of passion and that they were murdered by someone closely associated to the family.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season seven with Robert Stack and in season six with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

An abusive ex-boyfriend kidnaps a young woman at gun point, but escapes from custody before he can be tried.

Randall Utterback

Suspect:

Gender: Male
DOB: 12/24/62
Height: 5’8”
Weight: 148 lbs.
Eyes: Hazel
Hair: Reddish brown

CASE DETAILS

Denise Williams

In January of 1994, in a small Missouri town called Mexico, 19 year-old Denise Williams was shot at and run off the road by her ex-boyfriend, 31-year-old Randall Utterback. They had met at a party a year and a half earlier. According to Denise, Randall seemed just dangerous enough to be exciting:

“I met Randall a week before graduation. I just thought he was the cutest thing. He had been known around town for his motorcycles, and he owned a mountain lion at the time.   And everyone had talked real highly of him. He was really outgoing.   He would take me out to nice places and concerts. And then after two weeks of Randall and me being together, it all changed. It was gradual. He started out saying, ‘Don’t wear makeup.   Don’t wear hair spray. Don’t wear perfume.’ And then it grew to, “Don’t hang out with this person. You have to choose them or me.'”

When Denise went away to college, she hoped the distance would improve the relationship. She said it didn’t:

“Randall was very controlling and manipulative. I’d have to call him if I was going down to the cafeteria, just in case he called and I wasn’t there to accept his phone call, he’d think I’d be out with some other people or having friends, doing something that I wasn’t supposed to do.”

Utterback grabbed Denise and drove off

According to Denise, her family was shocked when Utterback talked her into enrolling in a community college closer to him:

“He had me convinced he was the only one there for me because he had gotten me so isolated from my family and my friends. And I got to the point where I started to believe that.”

Several months passed. The abusive pattern continued until Denise reached her breaking point:

“I would be called names. I’d be torn down. I wasn’t allowed to have an opinion with Randall.”

When, during an argument, Utterback became enraged and broke up with Denise, she said it came as a relief:

“I wanted to get away from him. I had just had enough.”

He dropped his gun in the struggle

But Utterback was stunned when Denise didn’t come crawling back. Denise says he began to stalk her, waiting until she was alone and unprotected.

“Randall hit the back of my car and it ran me off the road. And he told me that if I didn’t take him back, something bad would happen to someone I love. He wanted me to marry him. I told Randall I wouldn’t marry him.”

Utterback was arrested for felonious restraint and aggravated stalking. He was in jail for a week before posting bond. A restraining order barred him from seeing or talking to Denise. By Januray 1994, Denise finally began to relax, but she had let down her guard too soon.

“I was driving home from school and I saw this black car behind me. I didn’t think it was him. I thought it was just some school kids driving home from school. The next thing I know, that car pulls up beside me and it was Randall. Again, he was motioning me to pull over and I wouldn’t. I sped up. And as I sped up, he sped up and went beside me again.”

Randall is still on the loose

Utterback then fired at Denise and ran her car off the road. As she tried to run away, Utterback came after her. Denise tried to spray him with mace. In the struggle, Utterback bit her hand and dropped his gun. He then managed to drag Denise into her car and he drove off with her. According to Denise, Utterback begged her to take him back:

“He said that if I wouldn’t take him back, there was no need for him to live, and then he asked me to kill him. He asked me to stab him through the heart.”

Denise pleaded with Utterback to stop the car. He finally pulled over and fled. Denise’s father and a sheriff’s deputy, along with several other people, gathered around the car. A deputy immediately began to question Denise. He then drove her to the emergency room to have her checked out. On the way, they spotted Utterback in his car. The deputy pulled him over and Utterback was placed under arrest.

Randall Utterback was charged with stalking, felonious restraint, and armed criminal action. He was imprisoned without bond. Several months later, while being transported to the hospital, he managed to escape. He’s still on the loose, a fact that keeps Denise awake at night:

“As of today, I’m still living in fear. I don’t know when he’ll come back, but I have a feeling he will. I don’t go anywhere by myself. I’m just scared he’s going to come back and I won’t be able to convince him a third time to let me go.”

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season seven with Robert Stack and in season two with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

The killer of a young woman escapes from jail.

Richard Bare

Suspect:

Gender:Male
DOB: 7/6/64
Height: 5’7”
Weight: 145 lbs.
Eyes: Green
Hair: Brown, dyed blonde
Defining Characteristics: Panther tattooed on his right forearm
Remarks: $10,000 reward

CASE DETAILS

She was found at the bottom of a cliff

In Ashe County, North Carolina, a body was discovered at the bottom of a 200-foot cliff that the locals call “The Jumping Off Place.” Police quickly identified the body as Sherry Lyall Hart, a local woman who had disappeared without a trace eleven months earlier.

Sherry was last seen alive outside a local restaurant in January 1984.   The 24-year-old divorcee was supposed to meet a date. Sherry’s daughter, April, was just six years old at the time:

“I just thought she hated me and didn’t want to come back cause she had me.   And she didn’t feel like she was responsible for me. And I just didn’t think she loved me anymore.”

They pulled off to the side of the highway

For months afterwards, April heard rumors that her mother had run off to Florida with a lover. But now that a body had been found, investigators immediately reopened the case.   They located a witness who had seen Sherry on the night she vanished.   She was seen with two high school friends, Richard Bare and Jeffrey Burgess.

Special Agent Steven C. Cabe laid out a possible scenario that involved Sherry accepting a ride with the men:

“We interviewed many people, and as a result of those interviews we feel that we have developed a scenario as to what occurred that evening. At some point in time, this riding around led them to an area.   And during this riding around, Sherry Hart asked to make a rest stop.”

Sherry Hart

Authorities allege that Sherry and the two men pulled off the highway about a quarter mile from the “Jumping Off Place.”   Bare, who was apparently carrying a handgun, attempted to sexually assault Sherry.   When she resisted, he forced her at gun point to the edge of the cliff then pushed her off.

Richard Bare and Jeffrey Burgess were charged with the murder of Sherry Hart. Conviction could have led straight to the gas chamber. But four months after his arrest, Bare escaped from the county jail.   Burgess was released on bail pending his friend’s recapture. Years later, the trial has yet to begin.

Sherry Hart’s gravestone

Terry’s daughter, April, has said she’s had trouble moving on:

“It won’t never get behind me. I can’t take looking at her grave knowing that she’s down there.   I want her to be here with me so I can just give her a hug. And just have her in my life again.”

The FBI still includes Richard Lynn Bare on its list of “Most Wanted” fugitives.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season eight with Robert Stack and in season two with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

Two fugitives rob and shoot a woman in her own garage.

Lance Bedgood

Suspect:

Gender: Male
DOB: 4/16/44
Height: 5’8”
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown
Defining Characteristics: Tattoos on his arms and legs and a scar over his left eye

CASE DETAILS

Opal Zacharias was murdered in 1987

One day in 1987, 64-year-old Opal Zacharias left her home in Houston, Texas, for work. She had no idea that two men waited in her garage. Their plan may have been to simply rob her, but as she struggled, Opal was shot. She died at the scene and authorities could not identify either suspect.

The killing had remained unsolved for over a decade when it was assigned to one of the most successful cold case detectives in America, Roben Talton. Over the years, Detective Talton has repeatedly proven herself with amazing results. She found her career by accident… literally. In June of 2000, she and her partner were chasing a wanted felon at a Texas machine shop:

“We were told he had escaped three different times. So he was a known ‘rabbit.’   And we figured that he would run from us. I tripped and fell chasing him, but the detective that was with me kept after the defendant.   And he did get him.   I did not want this crook to know that I was hurt. And we walked him down to where the unit was.”

Was Lance the triggerman?

Detective Talton had chipped her left kneecap and fractured her lower leg in two places. While Talton recovered from her broken leg, she was assigned to the newly created “Cold Warrant Unit.”   The unit was set up to trace and apprehend Harris County’s wanted felons. Many of these criminals had been on the lam for more than a decade.

After ten years working the street, Detective Talton found herself armed with faded warrants and outdated information. But she proved to have a talent for tracking down fugitives:

“By the time I get the warrant, it’s old enough that I feel like these guys have settled down and they think they’re safe. Sometimes I start with just a name, an age range and an old address. I put together past acquaintances, family members, trying to find somebody that could fit. It’s kind of like a game of, ‘catch me if you can.'”

Roben Talton worked the cold case

Detective Talton’s work has led to the arrest of more than 400 fugitives. But despite her success, Talton is troubled by the cases she hasn’t yet cracked, cases like the killing of Opal Zacharias, which she received in 2001. Charles Padon is Opal’s nephew:

“The gunshot wound apparently entered the thigh and came out the back of the hip. So the shot itself was not a fatal shot. But they had her purse and car keys, and ended up stealing the car and backing over her. And that’s actually what killed her.”

She has a talent for tracking down fugitives

A witness reported seeing one of the suspects flee the scene by climbing over a fence.   Later that day, authorities found Opal’s abandoned car, however, it yielded no clues that would lead to the killers. A year later, a police informant identified the triggerman as Lance Bedgood. He was still at large when Roben Talton got the case:

“While trying to locate Lance Bedgood, I came across some post office boxes. Three, in fact, that are still being looked at today. What we’re assuming is that he’s using three different post offices, basically as a mail drop.”

Detective Talton discovered the mailboxes were registered to three of Bedgood’s relatives and paid for by a fourth.   But that’s as close as she got to nabbing her man.

Bedgood is still at large.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season eleven with Robert Stack and in season seven with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

Who struck Jenny Pratt in the head, causing permanent brain damage?

Attacked with a 2×4

The victim: Jenny Pratt

CASE DETAILS

Investigators surveyed the scene

Sixteen year-old Jenny Pratt of Carlsbad, California, had hopes of one day becoming a model. In 1987, she was pretty, popular, and a sophomore at her local high school. But what mattered most to Jenny was her boyfriend, Curtis Croft. Curtis drove a Porsche, had plenty of money, and was a good-looking surfer. As far as Jenny’s mother, Diane Strom, knew, he was just a year older than Jenny:

“He looked 17. Further on down the road I found out he had been in jail for drugs and that he was 24 years-old. Just bad news for a 16 year-old kid.”

Against her parents’ wishes, Jenny went out with Curtis on the night of April 25th, 1987. He borrowed

The crime was recreated

a friend’s motorcycle and promised Jenny he would get her back before her midnight curfew. Jenny never made it home. That night, Jenny Pratt was struck in the back of the head with an unusual weapon: a heavy wooden board, six and a half feet long, swung by someone in a passing vehicle. Police speculate the assailants were local teenagers. Jenny’s parents hope that someone will finally have the courage to step forward with the truth.

On the night of the attack, Jenny’s parents received a call that their daughter had been airlifted to a nearby hospital.  Diane Strom:

Scripps Medical Center in La Jolla, California, takes only the most severe cases. When Jenny’s parents arrived, they were given the worst possible news: their daughter was brain dead and probably had only hours to live. Dr. Jerry Stenhjem:

Diane Strom was horrified when she finally saw Jenny:

“They said I could see her and what I saw was horrible. Her hair was red from all the blood. She was bleeding out of her nose, her ears, her mouth. She had tubes all over her.  And it was like her whole body was just distorted.”

Jenny will never fully recover

Miraculously, Jenny survived, but she lapsed into a deep coma. Sgt. Jim Byler of the Carlsbad Police Department was one of the officers involved in the investigation:

“Our first involvement in the case was to examine the evidence that was found at the crime scene, which consisted of the two-by-four that was used to hit Jenny and Curtis. So we examined that for physical evidence and didn’t find any fingerprints. There were some blood stains on it, which were determined to be Jenny’s. Curtis was interviewed that same day at the Carlsbad police station. His account of what happened basically was that he was giving Jennifer a ride home and they were driving down Rancho Santa Fe Road, getting ready to make a left turn.”

Curtis remembers that night vividly:

“We were just approaching the intersection, going pretty slow, and all of a sudden something struck me and I just go ‘Ow, what was that?’ It hurt really bad, and then the car zoomed by. I turned around to tell Jenny that someone threw something at me or something, I didn’t know what happened. She was out of it and so I just thought ‘Oh my God what’s happening?’”

Sgt. Jim Byler pieced the rest of the evening together based on Curtis’s descriptions:

“We believe it was a case where a truckload of juveniles had committed this crime. The white pick-up truck went by them at a high rate of speed. Curtis had the impression that there was a large group of juveniles in the back. That they were laughing as they went by and that the board came flying from the pick-up truck. Quite frankly, we expected it to be a crime that would’ve been solved just by the nature of juveniles having a tendency to talk. But to this date, we have yet to have anybody come up and supply us with any direct knowledge of what happened that night.”

Jenny’s parents hired private investigator Louie Crisafi, who interviewed students at Jenny’s high school. He surmised that Curtis was the target of the incident, not Jenny. Two years before the attack, Curtis had been convicted of dealing cocaine. By cooperating with the police, he had served less than half of his sentence. Sgt. Jim Byler:

“He developed a reputation as a snitch when he got himself in trouble. And young people, particularly young people involved in drugs, tend to look down on somebody who develops that reputation.”

Police investigated several people who might have had a grudge against Curtis. They learned that he had confronted one of his enemies on the night before the attack. Jenny’s parents believed that the boy he confronted might have attacked Curtis and Jenny because of the argument.

According to Curtis, the white pick-up truck was traveling too fast for him to see the attackers. He said it went by at about 55 miles an hour. Louie Crisafi didn’t believe Curtis. Using mannequins as stand-ins for Jenny and Curtis, Crisafi reconstructed the incident at two different speeds:

“We used the identical pick-up as far as the model year and the size and the same type of motorcycle and we used the same conditions. There is no way it could’ve happened the way he said.”

In the 55 mile-an-hour reconstruction, the board swung by the assailant fell about fifty feet from the scene of the crime. But after the accident, police found the board only a few feet from the spot where Jenny was attacked. The second reconstruction played out at only 10 miles an hour. The mannequins sustained injuries very similar to the ones Curtis and Jenny actually received, and this time, the board fell right next to the motorcycle.

Crisafi felt that Curtis did actually see the people in the pick-up truck. Crisafi pressed him for more information. Finally, Curtis named names. One of them was the same boy he had fought with on the night before the attack. Later, Curtis recanted, telling police he had given them the names because he felt pressured:

“The truck went by really fast and people try to say maybe I saw someone, but I really didn’t. And we’ve done lie detector tests on me. I’ve passed everything, I’ve told the truth. I’ve always been there to help. I’ve always caved to everything they’ve wanted me to do and cooperated with everything.”

Crisafi remains skeptical:

“We do believe that Curtis did, in fact, see those people. Curtis continuously told us that he has been threatened, that he has basically informed on people before and was very, very frightened that he would be killed. And he was already being threatened not to talk in this case. And we have reason to believe that what he’s saying to that effect is true.”

Amazingly, three months after the attack, Jenny Pratt came out of her coma. At first, she seemed incapable of thought or action, but after 12 weeks, she started physical therapy.  Seven months later, Jenny began to speak. A year later, she could walk. Jenny Pratt can’t understand who would be motivated to commit such a brutal attack:

“Why was somebody mad at me? What did I do to them to hurt them?”

Louie Crisafi:

“We need somebody in the community with half the courage of Jennifer Pratt. Somebody who just knows the one missing link, the one thing that’ll tie this whole case together, because I really think that all we’re missing is one small link. And someone out there has it.”

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season one with Robert Stack and season seven with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

Two unidentified men rob a bowling alley, killing four people and wounding three.

7 people were shot at the Bowling Alley

Suspect #1

Suspect #1: Gender: Male DOB: Approx. 1960 Height: 5’10” Weight: 170 lbs. Eyes: Light Hair: Dark, wavy Remarks: Speaks excellent English with no Spanish accent

Suspect #2

Suspect #2: Gender: Male DOB: Approx. 1940 to 1950 Height: 5’7” Weight: 140 lbs. Hair: Salt & pepper Remarks: Speaks with a slight Spanish accent

CASE DETAILS

On February 10, 1990, at the local bowling alley in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Ida the cook, was in the kitchen preparing for the lunch hour rush. It was about 8:00 A.M. and just an hour before opening time. The day manager, Stephanie, was in the office adding up the previous night’s receipts. Stephanie’s 12-year-old daughter, Melissa, and Melissa’s friend, Amy, were with her.

At about 8:20, Ida was surprised in the kitchen by a stranger with a pistol. He forced her towards the office where Stephanie and the girls were being held by a second gunman.   According to Ida:

“I just thought they were gonna get money and then take off, especially when they told us, ‘All of you put your heads down.'”  

The second gunman took $4,000 from the safe while the other gunman continued to yell, “Heads down!” Ida said she followed the instructions:

“When he said that, I thought, ‘These guys are leaving.’   And that’s when I felt they had shot me in the head.”  

A witness saw the two men outside

Seconds later, employee Steven Teran arrived at the bowling alley with his two young children. Like the other witnesses, they were shot in the head.   All three died, along with Melissa’s friend, Amy.   Somehow, Stephanie, Melissa and Ida survived the vicious attack. Captain Fred Rubio of the Las Cruces Police Department:

“We assessed the scene immediately. We canvassed the neighborhood, and thank god we were able to come up with a couple of witnesses that were able to give us some pretty decent composites.”  

The gunmen shot the witnesses in cold blood

One of the witnesses was Stephanie’s brother, who we’ll call Michael. He said he had stopped by the bowling alley on his way to school:

“I saw two Hispanic gentlemen walking from the back of the building towards the front.   The older gentleman handed the younger gentleman a small case. The older gentleman squats down, and looks right at me as I’m driving towards them.   I took notice of what they were wearing, and their descriptions, hair color, skin, eyes.”  

Based on this and all the eyewitness descriptions, police were able to draw up composites of the killers.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season two with Robert Stack and season seven with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

A woman’s nightmare comes true when she’s raped and murdered by a co-worker.

Carlos Berdeja

Suspect:

Gender: Male
DOB: 11/4/63
Height: 5’7”
Weight: 180 lbs.
Eyes: Dark
Hair: Dark
Remarks: May be using an alias and should be considered extremely dangerous

CASE DETAILS

Jeanne Molina

Jeanne Molina had a frightening, violent dream that she believed was a premonition. She told her husband, Frank Reed, about it:

“She’d had a dream that I was going to badly beat her up, and she felt that she should get out of my house. And I never understood why she would have a dream like that and believe that dream.”

Jeanne Molina was raised in Merced, California. Following a tour of duty with the Navy, she returned home, married Frank Reed, and had three children. According to Frank:

“We had a lot of fun. We had a lot of respect for each other. She just had all of the things that I’ve always wanted. She made me want to be married for a long time.”

Police found the rock used to beat Jeanne

But when her youngest child was two years old, Jeanne needed a change in her life. She also wanted to escape the savage beating predicted in her dream. Jeanne left Merced and moved some 300 miles south to the city of Tustin, California. Her experience as a cook in the Navy helped her land a job with a restaurant chain. Ernestine Hitchcock is Jeanne’s mother:

“Within six weeks she had been promoted. She was going to be training all of the new hires at each restaurant as they opened up. She had planned to take Joanna with her, so it was gonna be kind of a neat experience for her. She was real excited about it. She was real happy.”

Jeanne had been at her job for about two months when she arranged for her oldest daughter, Joanna, to come down from Merced to live with her. Jeanne’s parents agreed to drive 10 year-old Joanna to Tustin on July 17. But when they arrived at Jeanne’s home as planned, no one was there.

Berdeja was seen cleaning his car

Jeanne’s parents went to the restaurant where she worked. They were told Jeanne did not report for work that day. The next morning, they went back to Jeanne’s room hoping to find her. There was no note, no clue as to where she might be.

Finally, they went to the local police and reported her missing. Little did they know that on the same day that they had driven to Tustin, a gruesome discovery was made in Westminster, a town 10 miles away. The crushed and beaten body of an unidentified woman was found near an abandoned construction site. Michael Proctor spoke for the Westminster Police Department:

“It was one of the more vicious crime scenes that we’ve investigated, and we’ve investigated an awful lot of homicides.”

The car provided a wealth of evidence

According Michael Proctor, just after daybreak that Sunday, a husband and wife witnessed a man acting suspiciously near his car:

“He picked up some type of a large object, and we later found that to be a piece of asphalt, and with both hands above his head, he just thrust it down hard, and then looked up and saw her, and in her words, he panicked and jumped back in his compact vehicle and sped off from the scene at a high rate of speed.”

Terry Selinske also works for the Westminster Police Department:

“We didn’t feel that robbery was a motive. She had some money on her. She had a ring on her finger. We felt that probably under the circumstances, the suspects that did this knew her in some way. They were trying to prevent us from finding out who she was. She was so badly damaged that we couldn’t tell if she was a female Asian, white, Hispanic.”

An autopsy revealed that the woman had been sexually assaulted, strangled, and bludgeoned, then run over by a car. Jeanne Molina’s landlord read a newspaper article about the victim and thought it might be Jeanne. He called police, who contacted Jeanne’s husband, Frank Reed:

“Possibly the most difficult thing I ever had to do was to go down and identify somebody who was beaten so badly.   She was unrecognizable.”

It wasn’t until Frank was shown the victim’s ring that he was certain it was Jeanne.    Despite Jeanne’s dream about her husband beating her, investigators were able to quickly eliminate Frank as a suspect:

“I’ve kind of come to believe that the dream wasn’t about me. It was a dream about something else, and she had foreseen what was going to happen to her.”

Detectives went to the restaurant and questioned Jeanne’s coworkers. Terry Selinske:

“One of the things we found out was that she had worked on July 16, just about till 11:00 at night. One witness stated that she did come back after signing out on the timecard and talked to a particular individual for a few minutes.”

That individual was short order cook Carlos Garcia Berdeja. Jeanne might have gone out with Berdeja to celebrate her daughter’s pending arrival. What she probably didn’t know was that Berdeja had a history of violence and a hair-trigger temper. According to Michael Proctor, Berdeja had once threatened a fellow cook and then bragged about killing a man in Mexico.

Carlos Berdeja quit his job the day Jeanne disappeared. At Berdeja’s apartment, police learned that he and his common-law wife had left suddenly on the day of the murder.

That afternoon, another neighbor saw Berdeja cleaning out his car. When Berdeja’s car was later found abandoned, it provided police with even more proof that he was the killer. Terry Selinske:

“Evidence not only in the vehicle, but on the undercarriage of the vehicle, secured in my mind, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this was the vehicle that had been used to run over Jeanne Molina.”

Authorities have been searching for Carlos Berdeja ever since.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season twelve with Robert Stack and in season six with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

A despondent college drop-out murders his ex-fiancée a few weeks after she breaks up with him.

Richard Bocklage

Suspect:

Gender: Male
DOB: 7/12/57
Height: 6’0” 
Weight: 170 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown
Defining Characteristics: Vertical scars under each armpit

CASE DETAILS

On September 18, 1980, police in Kansas City, Missouri, responded to reports of a shooting. Investigators found a murdered female victim. Her name is Tanya Kopric. She had emigrated from Yugoslavia to study medicine in the United States. She was determined to beat the odds, to build a career and a life in a new country.

Tanya Kopric

By the age of 34, Tanya had achieved her goal; she was a doctor at a Kansas City hospital and she had also found someone to share her successful life. Richard Bocklage was a pharmacy student at the University of Missouri. He was young and dynamic and quite attentive to Tanya. Soon after they met, he moved into her apartment. Six months later, Richard proposed and Tanya accepted. But her friends weren’t so sure it was the perfect match. Tanya’s friend, Ivan Gregoric, had his reservations:

“I did not really like him because he used her financially and morally.   He was using her for a lot of things, like using her credit card, and her car, just everything.”

Richard spent more and more time with Tanya and less time in class. He was on his way to flunking out. Jane Leigh was Richard’s academic advisor:

“He was not real motivated.   He wanted to be a pharmacist, but you have to want it bad enough to devote many, many hours to the academic study end of it.”

Witnesses saw Bocklage shoot Tanya

On July 19, 1980, university officials notified Richard that he had been expelled.   Richard begged Tanya to use her connections to get him re-admitted. Finally, on September 2, after months of Richard’s increasingly erratic and sometimes violent, behavior, Tanya broke off their engagement and kicked him out of her apartment.

Two weeks later, Richard Bocklage returned to class pretending he had not flunked out. But university officials refused to accept him back. Bocklage wrote to the admissions office begging school officials to reconsider his case. His appeal was denied and a secretary was ordered to call him with the news.

Tanya was shot 3 times in the head

On September 18, at 3:45, right after Bocklage got the call denying his request, two professors saw him driving towards the dean’s office. They immediately headed in the opposite direction. Bocklage roamed the hallways searching for the dean of admissions. Under his arm, he carried a large manila folder. Some witnesses thought it hid a weapon. The dean wasn’t in, so Richard left.

Three hours later, Tanya returned to her apartment after work. But before she could get out of the car, she was shot three times in the head with a .45 caliber semi-automatic.

By the time police and paramedics arrived, Tanya Kopric was dead. According to Detective Warren Miller with the Kansas City Police Department:

“There was a witness at the scene who saw this man walk up to the side of the doctor’s car and shoot her three times in the face. She recognized him as being the man that dated Dr. Kopric, Richard Bocklage. Later, during the investigation, we found out that Mr. Bocklage had purchased a .45 caliber handgun himself.”

He told Tanya’s parents she had to die

Six days later, Royal Canadian Mounted Police found Bocklage’s car approximately 935 miles north of Kansas City. Richard was seen by two people in the area. He then dropped from sight.

Two months after Tanya was murdered, her parents in Yugoslavia notified police that they had received an unsigned letter that had been postmarked two days before the murder. The envelope was addressed in Richard Bocklage’s handwriting: It read, in part: “Dear Kopric family, Your daughter, Tanya Kopric, has been executed in Kansas City, Missouri. She has caused so much grief, anguish and turmoil to so many Americans that this act was necessary. Her execution was inevitable.”

Richard Bocklage is wanted for capital murder.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season three with Robert Stack and in season six with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

A Detroit businessman embezzles over $10 million dollars, then disappears.

Philip Breen

Suspect:

Gender: Male
DOB: Approx. 1946
Height: 5’9”
Weight: 160 lbs.
Hair: Dark brown

CASE DETAILS

Philip and Kathleen Breen were married in Detroit, Michigan in the spring of 1988. They were both successful business executives, and together, they enjoyed the good life. They had expensive, grownup toys paid for by Philip’s investments in the stock market. For Kathleen, the marriage was a dream come true:

“There were a lot of things that were really great about him. I think it was his sense of humor was one thing that I thought was really great. And we were crazy about each other. I mean I… really loved this person and I believed that he really loved me. And I believed that I could trust him.”

Philip and Kathleen Breen: a happier time

Philip was the president of a highly successful Detroit mortgage company. His position gave him the authority to purchase mortgages for the company.

A year after his marriage to Kathleen, Breen purchased the Orlando Juice baseball team for $700,000. The team was one of eight franchises in the Senior Professional Baseball Association, a new league built around retired ball players. It was a risky enterprise, but by the end of the year Breen’s investment had ballooned to more than $2 million dollars.

Kathleen thought the franchise put extra pressure on her husband:

“It seemed like it was something that he really wanted to do. It was important to him. But in a lot of ways I didn’t like it because… he was just at that point running himself into the ground. And it didn’t make sense to me.”

Living the good life

Kathleen became concerned about her husband’s mental state. There was a recognizable change in his behavior. He started spending more money and began drinking heavily.

Back in Detroit, the mortgage company where Philip was employed made an unsettling discovery. They’d been servicing loans that Breen had purchased from companies that did not exist. The company suspected Philip Breen of embezzlement.

Philip and Kathleen returned from a Florida vacation to their home in Detroit on Friday, January 5 th , 1990. Kathleen immediately noticed that something wasn’t right:

“He looked very upset. I mean he had a very funny expression on his face and it frightened me to see him freaked out like that… He had records piled all over the floor, papers were strewn all over… That evening, he revealed to me that he had somehow been the victim of people selling phony mortgages.”

Kathleen and Philip

By Monday morning, Philip convinced Kathleen that he could straighten everything out. He left for work at around eight o’clock. But he never arrived at his office.

That night, Kathleen discovered that Philip had taken some of his clothes and luggage:

“I was really upset. The idea that he would’ve actually gone just was incomprehensible to me. I… couldn’t believe it.”

The FBI was brought in to investigate. They found that in less than two years, Breen had created close to 100 fake loans, netting himself more than $10 million dollars.

He had used the money to support his extravagant lifestyle. The FBI also discovered that Breen had been convicted of fraud and embezzlement in Florida twelve years earlier. Kathleen Breen was shocked to learn of her husband’s double life:

“There was just this whole person that I didn’t even know existed.”

On the advice of her attorney, Kathleen Breen filed for divorce. But it was too late. The courts held her legally responsible for Philip’s debts. She was forced to sell nearly everything she and Philip owned, including their cars, boats, Florida condo, and Detroit home.

For Kathleen Breen, the dream was not just over, it had been shattered:

“I felt like I was married to a monster from outer space. And it almost just sickens me…”

Phillip Breen has never been located.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season four with Robert Stack and in season three with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

Fifteen large paintings celebrating the final journey of Christ are stolen.

Ben Stahl

Ben displayed his paintings in a museum

CASE DETAILS

The artist Ben Stahl was born in Chicago in 1910. As a young man, he honed his skills on beautiful illustrations for books and magazines. Norman Rockwell once wrote in a letter to Ben, saying: “The rest of us are just illustrators. But you are among the masters.”

All his paintings were stolen from the museum

At the height of Ben’s career, the Catholic Press commissioned him to paint the Stations of the Cross for a special edition of the Bible. The 14 small paintings were so popular that Ben decided to paint them again on a much larger scale. David Stahl remembers his father’s work:

“He spent two years painting these paintings. There was something very special going on while he was painting them, because when he did the face of Christ or the head of Christ, he pulled it off in 30, 40 brush strokes, without ever having to do it over again. He was really amazed at that.”

In November of 1966, with the paintings completed, Ben opened the Museum of the Cross so the public could enjoy his work. To David, the exhibit was an unforgettable experience:

“It was almost holy. Just the atmosphere of the museum, people would come out with tears in their eyes. It was very moving for a lot of people.”

Then, in 1969, 10 days after Easter, thieves broke in. Somehow, they knew that there were no security guards on duty and no alarm system in place. Instead of cutting the canvases out, the thieves painstakingly removed each staple, then rolled the paintings up and made a clean getaway. According to Sarasota Sheriff’s Department, Captain John Townsend:

“There had to be at least three to four people to do this. And we felt that they were probably in there a minimum of four hours.”

What happened to Ben Stahl’s paintings? In 1987, Ben died without ever finding out. His children have offered a reward for their safe return. The statue of limitations has run out on this theft, so anyone who might have unknowingly bought the stolen paintings would not be prosecuted.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season five with Robert Stack and in season eight with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

A State Department employee murders his mother, wife, and three sons.

William Bradford Bishop

Suspect:

Gender: Male
DOB:8/1/36
Height: 6’1”
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown

CASE DETAILS

An age progressed photo of Bishop

The victims’ clothes had labels from expensive department stores in Bethesda, Maryland. The shovel came from a hardware store in the same area. However, the Bethesda police had no missing person’s reports that they could link to the bodies, until six days later. The call came from a neighbor of William Bradford Bishop, a respected economist with the State Department.   Lt. Joe Sargent of the Montgomery County Police Department was first to arrive at the Bishop home:

“There was a common driveway to the neighbor’s home and to the Bishop home. And I met the neighbor there to investigate the whereabouts of the family. It was rather routine to do an investigation like this. It’s not unusual. And I wasn’t overly concerned about it until I reached the front step of the home and I noticed there were blood drops on the front step. Upon opening the front door I saw blood droplets leading from the doorway thru the foyer and up a set of stairs that led to the upper bedroom level of the home. In going up the stairs I observed blood splatterings on the wall and in the one bedroom that I could see into, almost the entire ceiling and wall was completely splattered with blood. There was hardly a place you could put your hand where there wasn’t blood splatterings. I’d been a police officer for approximately 12 years and this was the worst scene that I’ve ever observed.”

Authorities were finally able to identify the five bodies: Brad Bishop’s wife, Annette, his three sons, and his mother. There was no sign of Brad Bishop. Was he also a victim?   Or was there a far more sinister explanation for his disappearance?

Police believe Bishop killed his family

Bishop worked for the State Department as a director of commercial practices and trade. To most of his co-workers, he seemed to be on the fast track to a high level job. But a co-worker, Roy A. Harrell, saw a different side of Brad Bishop:

“Brad Bishop had extensive experience overseas. He liked the international scene from the time he was in the army in Italy. Brad’s career was very much on track.   Although he was exceedingly despondent about not getting a promotion.”

Roy ran into Bishop just outside the State Department on the day the annual promotion list came out. Bishop said he had been once again passed over for a promotion.   According to Roy:

“He said, ‘I think I’m getting the flu. I don’t feel well at all and it’s the reason I’m leaving work now.’ So I helped him hail a taxi and I watched him drive out.’

The next day Brad Bishop’s family was found dead and he had disappeared.

The bodies were burned in the woods

On March 18, 1976, almost three weeks after the murders, a ranger in Tennessee discovered an abandoned station wagon. In the back he found what looked like dried blood. The car was registered to William Bradford Bishop. Bishop was now the prime suspect in the slaying of his own family. Wiley D. Thompson was an assistant special agent with Baltimore FBI:

“The courts will have to determine whether Brad Bishop is guilty of killing his family.   But there was enough evidence for a warrant to be issued for his arrest for homicide, based on the fact that there appeared to be premeditation in connection with the events that occurred on March 1st.”

He abandoned the car in Tennessee

The authorities pieced together Bishop’s activities leading up to the murders. According to Lt. Sargent, on the day he left the State Department, Bishop withdrew several hundred dollars from his bank account and went to a local hardware store and gas station:

“And as far as we know, after that he returned to his home, probably around 7:30 to 8:00 at night, after the children were put to bed.”

Assistant Special Agent Thompson:

“Our investigation shows that Mrs. Bishop was probably killed first. She was found beside a book which she may have been reading at the time that she was killed.   The children were probably killed next, followed by Bishop’s mother. They were all killed with a blunt instrument and none of the victims had an opportunity to defend themselves.”

Is Bishop living in Italy?

According to the FBI, Bishop loaded the five bodies into the family station wagon and headed 200 miles south to the countryside near Columbia, North Carolina.

According to Bishop’s co-worker, Roy Harrell, Bishop suffered from feelings of inadequacy:

“Brad Bishop felt, from the time I knew him, that there was something lacking in himself.   This feeling was nourished constantly by both his mother and, to some degree, his wife, who constantly told him that he was inadequate and washed up and wasn’t going anywhere in his career. And I think that he conceived in his mind that this was a way to, as he often said many times about other people, ‘This would be a way of putting them in their place.'”

After buying a pair of tennis shoes near the site of the fire, Bishop drove 400 miles to the Great Smokey Mountains in Tennessee where his station wagon was found abandoned.

Brad Bishop successfully covered his tracks and was not seen for two years.

Then, in 1978, 5,000 miles away in Sorrento, Italy, a bizarre coincidence. Roy Harrell says he came face to face with Bishop in a bus station restroom:

“I was washing my hands and this bearded disheveled looking man came in. In my mind’s eye I took the beard and his grubby clothes off of him and I saw the Brad Bishop I had seen coming out of the State Department. I followed him and watched him disappear down the cliffs going towards the boat landing where boats go to Capri.”

Bishop is wanted by the FBI, Interpol, and the US Marshals. He has evaded capture for over 30 years. Authorities believe he is living in Europe.

Update:

On October 8th, 2014, the FBI announced a new theory as to William Bishop’s whereabouts: he may have been killed by a hit and run driver in Alabama in 1981, and become a John Doe. The DNA results came back, and they are not a match. William Bishop’s whereabouts are still unknown.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season three with Robert Stack in season five with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

Two men rob a small-town post office and take the postmaster hostage.

Suspect #1

Suspect #1:

Gender:Male
DOB: Approx. 1968
Height: 5’5”
Weight:130 lbs.
Eyes: Green
Hair:Brown

Suspect #2

CASE DETAILS

Opal Johnson was held at gunpoint

On October 30, 1987, around 11 A.M., two men, one black, the other white, entered the post office in the little town of Epes, Alabama. They asked for stamps, then declared it was a robbery. Postmaster Opal Johnson was working that day:

“The black male jumped on the counter and immediately began to give orders. He seemed to be very familiar with the operation of a postal service. The black male gave all the orders. He told the white male what to do, and he did it. I never took money to work with me. I had a dollar and 38 cents.”

They took $700 in cash and stamps

When Opal had no money for the men, they decided to take her hostage. The thieves made off with about $700 in cash and stamps. One forced Opal into her car and followed his partner out into the country. For Opal, is was the most frightening ten minutes of her life:

“He put his gun across his lap. He was extremely nervous with his finger still on the trigger. It was poking me in the side.”

Opal was forced into the trunk of a car

Finally, they pulled into a remote clearing near Goggan’s Lake, three miles from town. The gunman forced Opal out of the car and into the trunk of her car:

“He said, ‘Give me your rings. I like those rings.’  As I was taking my rings off, I looked at him and his eyes looked as if he hated the world. I was sure the men were going to kill me.  I thought, ‘They’re going to drive my car off into the lake.’ Then they got in their car and they left. When I could not hear them anymore, I began to feel around in the car and found a tire tool.  I took it and began to work on the lock until it broke enough to pop the trunk. And I came out of that trunk running.”

She managed to escape

Within an hour, Opal had provided police with a detailed description of the two men. Police believe the white suspect was not from the South and the other may have been from the area.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season eight with Robert Stack and in season seven with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

A Nevada US Forest Service ranger and his family are the target of a bombing attack.

The Forest Service office was bombed

The bomb ripped through the living room

CASE DETAILS

Guy Pence is a U.S. Forest Service ranger in Carson City, Nevada. He goes to work each day knowing his job has made someone angry enough to try to kill him. But Guy has vowed to continue serving the public despite the risk.

On March 31, 1995, Guy arrived at work to find his office had been ripped apart by a bomb the night before. The FBI initially believed the bomber had targeted just the building, but Guy thought there was more to it than that:

“I really always felt that it was aimed as a direct statement to me. Now, it may be aimed as a direct statement to me as a district ranger or as a federal employee, and not so much at me specifically.”

They are against federal control

Why would Guy Pence or the Forest Service be a target? Perhaps because they are on the front line of a war most don’t even know about.  Some call it the Sagebrush Rebellion. It’s a group of ranchers, loggers, and miners who are opposed to federal control of local public lands. For nearly a century, many of them have had permits that give them access to huge tracts of that land. But gradually, federal regulations to protect the land have restricted their use. Rangers, like Guy, have to enforce those new laws, which brings them face to face with angry protesters. And in some cases, rebellious ranchers have the support of their local officials, such as Nye County Commissioner Dick Carver:

“The issue that we have here is these people have a right to graze forage. They have a right to mine minerals. They have a right to harvest timber. And the bureaucrats have exceeded their authority by trying to stop them one way or the other. And we are standing up as county governments to protect their rights.”

Although local leaders support the land use, none of them support the use of violence, like the bombing of Guy’s office. According to Commissioner Carver:

“We were devastated by it. We want to put a stop to it as bad as anybody else.”

Four months after the bombing, any question about whether Guy had been personally attacked was erased. On August 4, 1995, while Guy was out patrolling the backcountry, his home was targeted. His wife and their two oldest daughters were there at the time.  The homemade bomb, which had been placed directly beneath Guy’s van, exploded into the living room. Fortunately, no one was hurt. According to Guy:

“It’s a very hard thought to accept that someone would try to kill your family. There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that, whoever did this, knew my family was at home. The windows were open, the lights were on, the TV was on. My own daughter heard their footsteps. And the fact that they left a killing device and then ran into the darkness, I have a hard time comprehending how any human could do that.”

Like the first bombing, there are few solid clues and no suspects. William Jonkey is a special agent with the Carson City FBI:

“The FBI laboratory in Washington, D.C. has advised us that these bombs are very similar in construction, and most likely were manufactured by the same individual. We’re not looking for a sophisticated bomber in this particular case. We’re looking for someone who knows the basics and the basic use and application of explosives to make this bomb. But this was not a mastermind by any stretch of the imagination.”

Guy and his family have moved to another location. He could have quit his job, but Guy chose to keep working for the Forest Service because he thinks the stakes are high:

“Those stakes are our natural resources. Those stakes belong to all of us 300 million Americans and those unborn today. Those resources belong to them.”

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season nine with Robert Stack and in season seven with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

A young student organizer is killed by a drunk driver.

Wanted: Gloria Schluze

Suspect: Gender: Female DOB: 10/26/62 Height: 5’5” Weight: 115 lbs. Eyes: Green Hair: Red

CASE DETAILS

Angela was active with S.A.D.D.

Angela Maher grew up in a close-knit family in Scottsdale, Arizona. On July 29, 1994, Angela was home from college to celebrate her mother’s birthday.   At 10:00 PM she left the house to pick up a friend who needed a ride.   Around the same time, 31-year-old Gloria Schulze was leaving a local bar.   Moments later, the paths of these two strangers, Gloria Schulze and Angela Maher, would collide.   Angela’s mother, Rose Marie Maher, was devastated when she received the news:

“There was a knock at the door. It was the police officers. And they said there had been an accident.   And my question was, was my daughter ok? And they said no.”

Schluze was drunk when she crashed into Angela

Angela had suffered massive blunt-force trauma to her head.   By the time paramedics were able to cut her out of the car, it was too late.   Gloria Schulze survived.   Although she sustained a broken jaw, she was lucid enough to be questioned at the scene.   Tests later revealed traces of marijuana in Schulze’s system and a blood alcohol content of point-one-five, nearly double the legal limit.   The tragic irony of Angela’s death is that she was active in the crusade against drinking and driving.   According to her brother, Donald, Angela helped establish a chapter of Students Against Drunk Driving:

“What’s really an awful irony is the night my sister was hit, she was on her way to pick up a friend who had called from a bar here in Phoenix for a ride home. My sister felt strongly enough that if she knew she was going out with friends and that they were going to drink, she would not drink so she could drive everybody home and make sure that everybody got home safe and sound.”

Schulze was offered a plea bargain

On September 6, 1994, Gloria Schulze was arraigned on charges of manslaughter and reckless endangerment.   Schulze was represented by a prominent attorney experienced in handling drunk driving cases.   To the Mahers’ dismay, Gloria Schulze was released without being required to post bond.   The judge, however, did stipulate that Schulze submit to drug testing three times a week and that she report to the court by phone once a week. It was the beginning of months of frustration for Angela’s family.   Gloria Schulze’s attorney received six trial postponements.   Schulze was also be permitted to leave the state on three separate occasions, despite the prosecutor’s objections.

Students carry on Angela’s work

Finally, more than a year after Angela Maher’s death, Gloria Schulze was offered a plea-bargain arrangement.   If Schulze waived her right to a trial and pleaded guilty to the reckless endangerment and manslaughter charges, she would serve a reduced sentence.   A pretrial hearing was scheduled for September 15, 1995, a day Rose Marie Maher will always remember:

“When I didn’t see her in the courtroom, all I could think of was where was she? Had she skipped?   We discovered that she had missed six drug testings. And then to find out the last time that she called in was the end of August or the first of September.   She could have called in from anywhere.”

Gloria Schulze is wanted on manslaughter charges in the death of Angela Maher.   She is 5’5″ tall and, when last seen, weighed 115 pounds.   She has red hair and green eyes.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season eight with Robert Stack and in season eight with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

Two brothers are abducted from a local shopping mall, but escape.

Two men wanted in abduction

Suspects: Gender: Male DOB: 1978 to 1980 Height: 5’8” Weight: 160 to 170 lbs. Eyes: Black Hair: Brown Defining Characteristics: Driving a Chevy style Astro maroon van

CASE DETAILS

They took off with their victims

The drawings made by police sketch artist, Lois Gibson, have been praised for their amazingly accuracy. Lois’ sketches have resulted in the arrest of more than 1,000 criminals. But Lois’ story goes far beyond artistic talent. She, herself, was the victim of a vicious crime.

Lois Gibson has been a police sketch artist in Texas for more than 20 years:

“To be able to look through the eyes of the victim, I think you have to have a lot of empathy. You have to be in their shoes. And I’ve gotten real good at that and I empathize greatly.”

Lois’ ability to relate to a victim of crime comes from an incident that happened when she was a young aspiring actress in Los Angeles. According to Lois, a man pretending to be a neighbor pushed his way into her home:

“He immediately started choking me. He went to my throat and just almost snapped my head off.”

The assailant sexually assaulted Lois and nearly strangled her to death before fleeing.   Lois said she never reported the crime because she was overwhelmed with shame:

The brothers jumped out of the moving vane

“I was so destroyed I couldn’t even walk out of my apartment. And the idea that I would actually tell anybody was ridiculous. It was absurd. It was undoable.”

Lois said that six weeks later, an amazing coincidence happened:

“I drove up this street that I didn’t mean to drive up. And then when I got to the top of this winding hill, I looked on a balcony, and I saw the guy who attacked me. And he was cuffed. I got to see justice. And that’s when I fell in love with what police do.”

They hit the ground with devastating force

Lois could still not bring herself to tell the authorities what the man had done to her.   But what happened that morning changed her life forever. Following her attack, Lois moved to San Antonio, got married, and had a family. She continued to keep her traumatic memories to herself. As an outlet, she began to develop her talent for art. It would become her answer to the rage she felt when she would hear news of crimes:

“I was over visiting my girlfriend and the news came on talking about a dance instructor who had been raped in front of her 11 and 12 year-old students. So I had these vicious feelings, I couldn’t stand it. And then all of a sudden, in less than a second, it hit me. And I told her, ‘Diane, I could draw that guy.   That would help the cops catch him.’ And if they did, I knew in my mind– I didn’t tell her– that would make me healed. That would heal all my bad feelings from my attack.”

But Lois realized she needed to prove to herself and the police that she could draw someone only from an eyewitness description. So a friend of hers went to a nearby gas station, looked at the attendant, then returned to describe the man to Lois:

“All of a sudden, I started reliving my attack. And I realized I needed to be able to do this really badly, and that it was gonna kill me if I couldn’t do it.”

The victim recalls his attacker’s face

The two women brought the sketch to the gas station and compared it to the attendant. It matched perfectly. The Houston Police Department decided to give Lois a shot. The results were astounding. Her sketches have helped capture suspects in 30% of the cases she’s worked on. According to Detective Curtis Mills of the Humble Texas Police Department:

“The drawings that Lois has done in the past for us have proven to be extremely accurate. It is almost uncanny the resemblance that the composite carries to the actual physical appearance of the individuals that we have arrested.”

Houston Police Lieutenant Ron Walker said that Lois’s drawings are different from most police sketches in a significant way:

“There’s a 3-dimensional depth there. It’s like Lois is seeing the suspect just the way the victim did.”

Lois Gibson, sketch artist

Lois was called in to help with a case that involved the abduction of two brothers, Jason and Phillip Bomer. The boys were at a shopping mall when they were approached by two well-dressed men who said they had a computer to sell for cheap. The men led them to a van in the mall’s parking lot. At gunpoint, Jason was forced into the back seat of the van and Phillip into the front. According to Philip Bomer, the kidnappers then headed for the freeway:

“A lot of stuff goes through your mind when you’re sitting there with a gun pointed at you, how are you gonna get out of the situation or what? That’s basically the main thing that was in my head, how am I gonna get out of this?”

As the van approached 70 miles per hour, the brothers became convinced they were going to die. Both felt there was only one thing to do: opened the door and jump out.   They both hit the freeway shoulder with devastating force. Phillip suffered cuts and asphalt burns from head to toe. Jason’s collar bone was shattered and his leg was severely fractured. Shortly after being released from the hospital, Jason sat down for a session with Lois Gibson:

“I tell the witnesses immediately, ‘Someone tried to kill me for fun, so I understand.’ And they always like hearing that. My attack has turned into a tool to relax my witnesses and help them get justice.”

Police are still looking for two men in connection with the kidnapping and attempted robbery of Jason and Phillip Bomer.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season eleven with Robert Stack and in season three with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

A devout Hassidic Jew is also a brilliant con man.

Joseph Prushinowski

Suspect: Gender: Male DOB: 4/12/39 Height: 5’10” Weight: 165 lbs. Eyes: Brown Hair: Brown, gray

CASE DETAILS

The bogus bank was based in Anguilla

You are about to meet a devout Hassidic Jew and father of 12.   Incredibly, he’s also the mastermind of one of the greatest cons in recent history.   His name is Joseph Prushinowski, and by all accounts, he abided by the religious laws of the Hassidic Jews… except when it came to the eighth commandment, “Thou Shalt Not Steal.”   By adhering to strict religious values, the Hassidim have acquired a reputation for honesty and rock-solid integrity.   It was the perfect camouflage for Joseph Prushinowski.

Joseph, his wife, and their children lived in a Hassidic community near Montreal.   Prushinowski supposedly ran an export/import business from the basement of his modest home, but the reality was quite different.   He was also the brains behind a brilliant scam–one that would net him close to $200 million dollars.   The first step of his swindle was to open his own bank.   An unsuspecting clerical assistant named Allen Finegold helped with the arrangements.   The Caribbean Island of Anguilla is notorious for having some of the most lenient banking standards in the world.   Prushinowski supplied two names to be the owners, or principals of his newly created bank.   What Allen Finegold didn’t know was that Prushinowski had made up the names:

“The application form required a witness.   So I witnessed the signatures… which I found out afterwards, wasn’t exactly a legally accepted procedure…”

He ran the scam from his basement

Chartering an actual bank was a measure of Prushinowski’s sophistication.   He could now issue official looking bank cashier’s checks, which were much more convincing than simple personal checks.

The second step of his plan was to write out checks in amounts of up to $1 million dollars, which the bank in Anguilla guaranteed.   He would then deposit the checks in business accounts he had set up all over the world.   Prushinowski would then contact the bank in person or by phone and, using his incredible talents of persuasion, convince the bankers to advance him large amounts of cash even though the checks had not yet cleared.

Reporter Michael Gillard covered Prushinowski’s cons for several news media outlets:

“He’s a very clever, very, very persuasive man, a man who trades on his being a very religious person when he deals with banks.   Very good at persuading them to cash his checks written on funny banks in faraway places with strange sounding names.   Eventually the checks all bounced or most of them bounced.   By the time the bouncing stopped, the bank was a million dollars short.”

Canadian Mounties busted the operation

Meanwhile, Allen Finegold found himself taking calls from angry bankers demanding their money.   Ultimately, a Japanese company filed a lawsuit against both Prushinowski and Allen Finegold:

“Being sued for a million dollars was something relatively shocking to me and I didn’t understand what was going on here, being cited as a codefendant.”

Allen’s faith was completely shattered in March of 1987, when agents of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police stormed Joseph’s office.   According to Corporal Norman Denis of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Finegold was cleared of any involvement:

“Allen Finegold was hired by Prushinowski when he was 21-years-old and was very naïve.   He didn’t know very much about the business world.   So he could not even contemplate the possibility that Prushinowski had the criminal mind whenever he was asked to do things for him.”

Reporter Michael Gillard covered the case

Canadian authorities also raided Prushinowski’s home, but came up empty-handed.   The basement office had been cleared out and Prushinowski had fled, taking his wife and children with him.   From his Canadian operations, Prushinowski left a trail of rip-offs totaling more than $2 million dollars.   According to Michael Gillard, it was just a hint of what was still to come:

“After Joseph Prushinowski left Montreal, he disappears off the face of the earth, no one seems ever to see him, hear from him again.   But what then happens is all of a sudden, Joseph Weiss starts to appear.”

It didn’t take long to figure out that Joseph Weiss and Joseph Prushinowski were the same person.   But now, his swindles were becoming absurdly huge. Between 1990 and 1992, financial institutions across Europe lost more than $100 million dollars.   In the United States, they lost $30 million dollars and in Australia more than $35 million.   The astounding total, worldwide, exceeded $190 million.   Finally, this master con man came up with one more brilliant plan, one that keeps him safely beyond the reach of the law.   According to Reporter Michael Gillard, Prushinowski negotiated to return a portion of the stolen money:

“He knows that banks don’t like to go to the police.   They don’t like to prosecute people.   What they want is their money back.   So they will settle and what that of course does, is by and large, it removes the lender from being a complainant to create a criminal prosecution problem from Prushinowski in that particular country and he’s used that tactic very successfully all over the world.”

However, a few banks were not willing to settle and arrest warrants were issued for the conman.   Authorities now believe that Prushinowski used the stolen money to set up numerous legitimate businesses, and then used those profits to provide housing, education and other services to the Hassidic community.

Update:

After more than ten years on the run, Joseph Prushinowski was arrested in Israel.   He was convicted of seven fraud charges in a Jerusalem court and sentenced to seven years in prison.   Here in the United States, Prushinowski is still wanted by the FBI on multiple counts of bank fraud.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season six with Robert Stack and in season five with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

A woman is shot in the face on a rural Connecticut highway.

Police sketch of suspect

Suspect:

Gender: Male
DOB: 1958 to 1964
Height: 5’10”
Hair: Brown, curly
Defining Characteristics: Medium build
Remarks: Driving a well-maintained black step-side pick up truck with flared fenders, standard width blackwall tires and shiny plain wheel covers

CASE DETAILS

The man shot at her from just a few feet away

On August 22, 1988, a woman we’ll call Carol, was headed to work along a quiet, two-lane highway near the town of Putnam, Connecticut.   Carol worked as a social worker at a local hospital, where she counseled depressed and mentally ill patients.   This particular morning, Carol was running thirty minutes late:

“The road I took that morning was my normal road and the way that I always go to work.   Sometimes I think I was at the wrong place at the wrong time… As I was driving, I all of a sudden came upon a black truck that was in front of me.   It was driving very slow, so I slowed up right behind it.”

As Carol followed the pick up, it began to behave in a bizarre fashion.   The pick up began to swerve and speed up and slow down erratically. Carol began to sense that something was clearly wrong:

“Shortly after that, he stopped the truck in front.   I can see it all happening in slow motion.   He just lit out of his truck and I realized he had a gun in his hand.   I can remember seconds after it happened that I was going to die.   I just felt or heard a rushing in my ears.   And then I heard the radio on.   And I knew that I wasn’t going to die.   So my next thought was I’m paralyzed.”

The bullet hit just below her eye

Carol was shot in the face at point blank range.   Because she was slumped across the front seat, she was out of view of the other drivers.   A few minutes elapsed before a utility serviceman drove by.   From his elevated cab, he could see into Carol’s car.   He immediately called for help.   EMTs knew they were racing against the clock–Carol had already lost two pints of blood.

Carol was barely alive when she reached the emergency room.   The bullet had torn through her face about two inches before her left eye.   Her carotid artery had been severed, paralyzing her left vocal chord.   Detective Michael Foley of the Connecticut State Police later determined that the assailant was just ten feet away when he pulled the trigger:

“Immediately following the shooting, we had troopers and detectives on Brayman Hollow Road and all the main intersections looking for both the suspect’s vehicle and also a vehicle similar in style to the one driven by the victim.”

He left her for dead and drove away

Two drivers told Detective Foley that, in the hour before the shooting, a black pick up truck had pulled on and off the highway repeatedly, taunting other motorists:

“It’s entirely possible that all of the incidents are related and it was the same black pick-up truck involved in all these incidents, interfering with the traffic. It appears that it’s a totally random shooting and the victim just happened to be the next motorist to encounter this fellow on Brayman Hollow Road.   It’s the general feeling of investigators that the suspect is still out in the area, still going to work, still going to the same gas station.   He’s just your average citizen, who for whatever reason on this particular morning, was either under the influence or angry; we just don’t know what provoked him to do this.”

Three months later, Carol’s condition had improved dramatically.   But she was left with a grim physical reminder of the incident.   The bullet that pierced Carol’s cheek is still lodged in the back of her neck:

“… I will just leave the bullet in me …”

“I think of it every day, especially when I look in the mirror and I see the scars and think about the incident, that I’m afraid and I’m also angry that this happened to me and that he’s still out there and may be leading his normal life without any cares to what happened to my life.”

The shooting took place near Putnam, Connecticut, on Brayman Hollow Road.   The suspect is a white male, 5’10”.   He has a medium build and brown curly hair.   He was driving a well-maintained black step-side pick up truck.   It had flared fenders, standard width blackwall tires and shiny plain wheel covers.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season two with Robert Stack and season eight with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

A drug cartel leader escapes an FBI sting operation.

Jesus Florentino Penalver

Suspect:

Gender: Male
DOB: 4/1/53
Height: 6’
Weight: 165 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Receding, black, curly
Remarks: Uses the alias surnames of Gomez, Partamena, and Brito.  He is considered armed and very dangerous

CASE DETAILS

The FBI set up an electronics shop

In the South American nation of Colombia, a life and death struggle has been raging for decades. It’s a battle over drugs, and one that promises the victors both money and power. Here, drug cartels have made terrorism and political assassination a way of life. Their violent influence is felt around the world, especially in the United States. Special Agent William A. Gavin of the Miami, Florida, FBI:

“The cartels, the leaders of the cartels, the member of the cartels in South America and their representatives in the United States are particularly vicious. There is no premium on human life. These people make the Mafia look like Boy Scouts. They are totally violent. They will kill almost for the sake of killing.”  

Eighty percent of the world’s cocaine comes from Colombia and the drug lords aim to keep it that way. To fight the cartels, the FBI initiated one of the riskiest sting operations in history, the impact of which is still felt today.

Agents recorded Penalver’s conversations

During the late 1980’s, drug runners were seeking out the latest communication devices, especially ones that couldn’t be traced. Seizing on this opportunity, FBI agents set up a small shop called R.A. Communications in Miami, Florida. The store specialized in electronics. The receptionist, Sandy, and the manager, Jay, were both highly trained FBI agents. According to Agent Gavin, the drug runners showed up, asking for the latest in car phones, ship-to-shore radios, beepers, remote phones, and airplane telecommunications devices:

“We did everything we could to provide them. By so doing, of course, we knew how they were operating. We knew what frequencies they were operating on and it gave us the leg up.”

The Coast Guard was tipped off

Word on the street was that R.A. Communications had the best in untraceable phones. The drug runners began to trust the people who worked there. FBI Assistant Special Agent Tim McNally was one of the men on the task force:

“We held ourselves out as being a service component of the drug business. We made it attractive for them to hang out, talk, converse and that became a place to congregate. It took on an aura of a clubhouse type of place. Our clientele, probably six months into the operation, was comprised entirely of drug traffickers.”

Soon, major players in the drug world began to drop into the R.A. “club house”. One of them was a Colombian national named Jesus Penalver, a man who handled regular shipments of cocaine, often worth as much as $50 million. Agent McNally:

“Jesus came to trust the undercover agents and cooperative parties working at R.A. Communications. He bragged that he had been involved in some violent incidents in Colombia, South America. He talked about his desire to flood the United States with cocaine. He freely discussed with us the movement of drugs from Colombia, through the Bahamas and into the United States.”

Agents found over 800 lbs. of cocaine

Inside the “club house”, Penalver felt safe enough to make drug deals using the company phone, and soon, Penalver’s drug buddies began to join him. It was not uncommon to see three different drug dealers doing business at the same time. One of those traffickers was cartel operative Julio Marco Cruz, a customer and purchaser who, in November of 1988, was preparing to receive a shipment in excess of 100 kilos of cocaine. The plan called for the large shipment to be delivered to the United States on a boat called the Tremolo. The FBI had just enough time to alert the Coast Guard.

On November 19th, 1988, when the Tremolo entered U.S. waters, the US Coast Guard moved in. Under the Tremolo’s floorboards, agents discovered over 800 pounds of cocaine. The street value was nearly $40 million.

The next day, Cruz showed up at R.A. Communications with his bodyguards. Amazingly, he seemed to know nothing about the Tremolo’s capture. Jay, the undercover agent at R.A., made a quick decision. To keep his cover intact, Jay told Cruz about the drug bust on the Tremolo. Cruz was furious, but he never suspected that the men who told him about the bust were, in fact, responsible for it. He continued to use the same telephones he had used before, and the FBI continued to gather information.

It appeared as if the R.A. sting might go on indefinitely. But things got tense when Penalver began forcing himself on Sandy, the female undercover agent working there. The FBI feared that Sandy and their other agents might be at risk. Agent McNally:

“The agents that were involved in undercover activity were exposed to potential danger at any given time. We very closely reviewed and evaluated everything with the FBI headquarters and the other agencies that participated. We realized that we had accomplished a great deal and it was the appropriate time to bring the matters to a prosecutor phase.”

Eighteen months after they began the operation, the FBI brought charges against nearly 100 drug traffickers. R.A. Communications was shut down. For Tim McNally and the others, it was a huge success:

“We had a significant amount of arrests to undertake. We had a very detailed plan. Of the 93 people indicted throughout the United States, we were able to apprehend 68 people.”

Julio Marco Cruz, the mastermind behind the Tremolo drug run, was sentenced to 17 years for drug trafficking. He has since been released, but his boss remains at large.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season three with Robert Stack and in season seven with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

Mail bombings target two prominent televangelists.

Police sketches of suspect

Suspect:

Gender: Male
Height: 5’10” to 6’
Weight: 160 to 175 lbs.
Hair: Brown
Defining Characteristics: Neatly dressed, average build

CASE DETAILS

The package exploded without warning

Televangelist Pat Robertson’s daily broadcasts over CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network, are seen in nearly a million households nationwide. But his outspoken stance on controversial issues has made him the target of hate mail and death threats. Robertson’s broadcasts originate from his headquarters in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Each day, thousands of letters and packages arrive at the CBN mailroom, most of them donations from viewers. But on April 27, 1990, Scott Scheepers, a CBN security guard, was called to the mailroom to check a package addressed to Pat Robertson:

“When I looked at the package on the monitor of the x-ray machine, I didn’t see anything that led me to believe there was a problem or it was really suspicious.”

The explosion left shrapnel in his leg

Scheepers remained on guard and decided to check the contents of the package. He was baffled by several strips of newspaper sticking out of the box:

“I was still somewhat skeptical about it. So I stepped away from the box as far as I could get and took my left hand and extended it out, grabbed the lid of the box.”

As Scott opened the box, he was suddenly thrown to the floor by an explosion:

“I had severe pain in the upper part of my left leg and my abdomen, over to my right leg. I made the determination that this is it. You know it’s either lay here and possibly die or get up and get help. So that’s when I made the determination to help myself and pick myself off the floor and try to get to the front of the building.”

Scott Scheepers was rushed to a nearby hospital where he underwent emergency surgery to remove shrapnel imbedded in his leg:

“I’m very fortunate. The trauma room doctor said if I’d have been holding the package… I might not even have made it out of the room itself. So I consider myself very, very fortunate that it wasn’t any worse than it was.”

Investigators found evidence of a pipe bomb

Authorities determined that the package contained a homemade pipe bomb. They quickly linked the bomb to an earlier attack aimed at another televangelist–Pastor John Osteen. In 1960, Pastor Osteen founded the Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. The church was one of the largest in America and seated more than 8,000 worshipers. Like Robertson, Pastor Osteen used television to spread the gospel. And he was also the target of a similar mail bomb. On January 30, 1990, three months before the CBN bombing, John Osteen’s daughter, Lisa Cines, arrived in her office to open the day’s mail:

“I felt like it was safe to open the package because I open a lot of packages because we’ve never had any problems and this looked like an ordinary package. It had a label addressed to my dad, typewritten to my dad and then it had a return address. And… you’re not really suspicious of things like that. It was just a cardboard box. It had one piece of tape on it. I opened the box when I was sitting down. And really the next thing I remember is I was standing about five feet away from my chair and I was very shaken as if I’d had an electrical shock.   I’ll never forget that feeling.”

The bomber made two explosive packages

Lisa had been the victim of a pipe bomb wrapped in newspaper. She suffered third degree burns and cuts on her right leg and abdomen. But she recovered quickly, and just four weeks later returned to the pulpit. According to Kenneth Weaver, Chief Postal Inspector of the Eastern Region, the box used in both bombings was the type used by candle distributors:

“And there was some printed material on the outside of the box, which had been scratched out with the word ‘Burgundy’ with the box. We found that both of these packages were mailed from small towns near Fayetteville, North Carolina. The National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crimes researched al the evidence in both the bombing cases. They said number one that this individual responsible for the bombings had some type of stress or turmoil in his life at the time of the bombings. Secondly, they felt that anyone around or in the presence of the bomber would’ve known a difference in this person’s behavior.”

A composite sketch depicted the man who was seen mailing the bombs. He’s described as a neatly dressed, white male with brown hair. He has an average build and weighs between 160 and 175 pounds. Both bombs were mailed from within twenty-five miles of Fayetteville, North Carolina. The US Postal Inspection Service is offering a reward of up to $50,000 in this case.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season four with Robert Stack and in season eight with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

A drug dealer shoots two policemen during a raid, then flees while out on bail.

Roberto Ramirez

Suspect: Gender: Male DOB: 7/20/57 Height: 5’6” Weight: 210 lbs. Eyes: Brown Hair: Brown

CASE DETAILS

Police raided Ramirez’s home

Acting on a tip in February of 1989, detectives in Oakland, California, staked out a liquor store parking lot. They watched as a suspected drug dealer named Roberto Ramirez conducted a sale. Ramirez was no ordinary dealer. He distributed cocaine from Oakland to Los Angeles. According to former Oakland Police Detective Clint Ojala, word on the street was that Ramirez would do absolutely anything for money:

“He would often deal out of his house. But most often, he’d meet people at different locations. He’d often have his two small children, grammar school age, carry the cocaine in back packs and bring it to the buyers that way.”

Days later, after obtaining a search warrant, police converged on the Ramirez home. Oakland and Fairfield officers were in on the raid. No one knew what to expect from Ramirez. Marc Burrell was part of the Oakland police team:

“My assignment was to pry open the iron grate on the front door. The safest entry that we make is a quick entry. It gives the people inside less time to prepare and normally we catch them in surprise mode.”

An officer was shot and evacuated

Det. Mark Smith of the Fairfield Police Department:

“My position was to cross in front of the house and I would cover the window and the side of the house to catch anybody trying to flee or any attack coming through the front window.”

At 1:42 A.M., the raid came down. As the authorities pried open the iron gate and kicked in the door, Ramirez suddenly appeared at a side window and began shooting. Two officers were hit. Severely injured, Detective Smith was dragged from the line of fire. Officer Burrell took refuge under Ramirez’s window. Burrell said that when the shooting stopped, he was helped by other officers to a patrol car:

“I took a physical check of myself. My legs worked. I was thinking clear. My left arm didn’t work. My shoulder was numb.”

Police arrested Ramirez

But the other officer wasn’t so lucky. Detective Smith was bleeding and had to be quickly evacuated to a waiting ambulance.

Using a bull horn, the police urged Ramirez to surrender. But he stayed put. Reinforcements arrived from eight other police departments until 30 heavily armed officers surrounded the house.

After a two-hour standoff, Ramirez finally came out, hiding behind his wife, who was eight months pregnant, and their children, ages 10 and 6. According to Det. Ojala, it was a tense moment for everyone:

“He had already shot two of our police officers and he had a lot of time to think about what he had done. Anything can happen. You don’t know what’s going through their mind at that point.”

Ramirez and his wife disappeared

Thankfully, Roberto Ramirez surrendered peacefully. He was arrested on two counts of attempted murder, as well as a laundry list of drug and assault charges. Ramirez was released after posting bail of one million dollars. Six months later, just before his trial, he and his wife packed up their children and disappeared. They’re still on the run.

Marc Burrell eventually recovered from the shooting, but not completely:

“I was shot through the upper left arm. It severed the nerves in my left arm and left me with no feeling, although I have strength and muscle flexibility in the arm. I just don’t have any feeling in it.”

Detective Mark Smith’s wounds were more serious:

“I remember muzzle flashes, and then my next memory was that it felt like I’d been hit with a baseball bat in the stomach. I can’t remember or pronounce most of the things that it damaged, but it was most of the internal organs in my abdomen. I’m always going to have the scars and the pain. But it would give me some satisfaction if he was caught and was in jail and serving his time and paying for what he’s done.”

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season eight with Robert Stack and in season four with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

An out of control speed boat permanently disfigures a woman.

Stephanie: before and after

The speedboat plowed into them

CASE DETAILS

It happened on Lewisville Lake, Texas, 20 miles north of Dallas.   Stephanie Booker and two friends, Sabra Scott and Kim Colvin, spent the day swimming and sailing on the lake.   June 17, 1995 was a typical outing, until nightfall.

The suspects fled the scene

After a break for dinner, the three friends decided to take one last cruise on their boat.   Near midnight, the young women headed back to the boat slip.   They slowed down as they entered the no-wake zone where boaters are required to stay under five miles an hour.   Then, a hundred yards away, a speedboat raced out of the darkness.   Stephanie and her friends never had a chance as the speedboat plowed into them.   Stephanie was severely injured:

“It was as if my mouth felt sewn shut.   And so I had to brace myself with my hands to push my body up.   And then I felt this terrible weight hanging off of my face, as if dough was hanging off of my face, and I reached up and realized that my face was in my hand.”

The speed boat’s propeller had slashed across Stephanie’s face, literally slicing it from the bone. Kim Colvin came to the immediate aid of her injured friend:

“Her lips were detached from her face, I couldn’t see any gums or teeth, there was skin hanging down from her eye.   So I was seeing her exposed face, and I could tell she was having a hard time breathing.”

On the other boat, a man and a young woman appeared at the driver’s side.   They stared.   Neither said a word.   According to Sabra Scott, her calls for help went unanswered:

“He stood there as if contemplating the pros and cons. I’m sure he thought he already killed someone.   I remember one of the individuals making the other person to kind of, like, ‘Be silent. Don’t say anything.’   So it was total silence with me yelling and screaming at them. They made no motions to say one word or make any actions to come to help us.”

Stephanie underwent many surgeries

When the driver finally did do something, it was to save himself.   He gunned his engine and took off.

Sabra got the boat started and headed for shore. Kim turned her attention back to Stephanie:

“I’m thinking to myself that Stephanie’s going to quit breathing any minute now. I can’t give her mouth-to-mouth, ’cause I’m afraid if I put any pressure, it’ll cave in any facial structure she has, and also, I didn’t think there was an airway big enough to get any air in her.”

Stephanie was rushed to surgery.   Meanwhile, police began looking for the driver of the speed boat or anyone who might have seen him.   Weldon Lucas was a Sheriff of Denton County, Texas, at the time of the accident:

“Right after the accident, we have two witnesses that were there. They heard the screaming.   They heard the noise coming from the accident.   And then about 15 or 20 seconds after that, they saw a boat fitting this description just come hauling butt.”

The suspects drove a Miami Vice style speedboat

Five minutes later, another eyewitness saw two people load the same boat onto a trailer towed by a white 4×4 pickup truck.   Without even bothering to tie down the boat, they sped off into the night.   They remain unidentified. The community was outraged.   Local businesses raised reward money.   Meanwhile, it took 12 reconstructive surgeries to rebuild Stephanie’s internal facial structure:

“I’m not able to breathe very well.   I’m not able to smell as well, nor can I taste the way I used to be able to.   And my teeth that I have are very much for aesthetics, for looks.   Memory, concentration skills, the ability to do more than one task at a time, all the things that I used to do and take for granted are gone.   And I walk by a mirror after I’ve had one of my many surgeries and look at myself and just wonder: why did someone do this? Why did they not come forward? Why don’t they care?”

However, one person did seem to care.   According to Sheriff Lucas, police have heard from the same anonymous caller three times:

“He stated emphatically that he knew who it was, that he was going to talk to the person and try to get him to turn himself in. From just the tone of his voice and the way he was talking, we think that he does know who it is, and we would like for him to at least contact us.”

The suspects were driving a 25 to 30 foot-long Miami Vice style speedboat painted white with teal green markings.   The driver of the speedboat was a stocky, clean-shaven white male with light hair.   His companion was an athletic-looking woman with very long dark hair. They drove a white 4×4 pickup.

Although her wounds have since healed, for Stephanie Booker, she will never fully recover until the man who nearly killed her is brought to justice.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season nine with Robert Stack and in season three with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

A couple robs $3 million from a Las Vegas armored car company.

Roberto Solis

Suspect: Gender: Male Height: 5’10” Weight: 152 lbs. Eyes: Hazel Hair: Brown Defining Characteristics: Has a tattoo on his right forearm reading, “Esta Vida Loca”

CASE DETAILS

Las Vegas: the city where gamblers risk it all for a chance at a big score.   Twenty-one year-old Heather Tallchief seemed like any other young woman trying to make a start.   But Heather had a much bigger plan.   She was going to get rich… quick.

Roberto Solis, mug shot

On Friday, October 1, 1993, Heather was working at her job as a driver for the Loomis Armored Car Company in Las Vegas. She and her two co-workers were responsible for refilling the ATM’s of several local casinos with cash. The van was loaded with over $3 million in preparation for a busy weekend.

The final ATM was near the casino’s side entrance. Heather dropped off her co-workers. While they went inside to refill the ATMs, she was supposed to drive around to another entrance to pick them up.   According to Scott Stewart, one of Heather’s co-workers, that’s not what happened:

“When my partner and I exited the casino, we did not see the van anywhere. We assumed that maybe she’d got lost, that she was stuck in traffic, or that maybe she might’ve been in an accident. We didn’t know. So I, in joking, suggested that she might’ve taken the vehicle.”

Solis and Tallchief planned the perfect crime

Later, a check of the surveillance camera showed Heather simply drove away from the casino and never returned. She and the money had disappeared.

Special Agent Grant D. Ashley, of the Las Vegas F.B.I., says the heist was premeditated:

“Heather Tallchief applied for the job with the armored car company approximately two months before the robbery. And the investigation has led us to believe that this entire event, from the moment of applying for the job to the robbery, was all planned in advance for the sole purpose of committing this crime.”

Heather Tallchief had once worked as a volunteer nurse and had no criminal record, so why would she commit such an audacious crime?   As police combed through her apartment, answers began to surface.

They chartered a private jet to Denver

Two distinct sets of fingerprints were found. Heather had not acted alone.   The prints were identified as those of convicted murderer Roberto Solis. Solis had a record for shooting and killing an armored car guard during an unsuccessful robbery.   According to the FBI, Tallchief and Solis met in San Francisco, began a relationship, and planned the perfect crime.

Two hours after Heather and the armored car disappeared from the casino, an unusual couple arrived at a small local airport. They had chartered a private jet to Denver, Colorado.

Investigators found two forged passports

Retired FBI Agent Joseph Dushek says it was Solis and Tallchief in disguise:

“Solis looked like an older gentleman, a doctor, and Tallchief like a sickly invalid older lady. Only three small suitcases were taken.   If he had a million dollars to $3 million, it would take approximately 8 to 10 suitcases to transport that much money. We surmise that they must’ve shipped the money on ahead.”

Three days later, the FBI traced Heather and Solis to Denver.   But by then, it was too late. Denver had only been a stopover.   Clues seemed to lead in all directions: Florida, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.   It seemed the couple had covered their tracks well.   The FBI had no solid leads.

Heather Tallchief surrendered

Two weeks later, investigators discovered the armored van in a commercial building Solis had rented for a phony business.   According to Special Agent Grant D. Ashley, it was all part of the master plan:

“Solis opened his business under the guise of retrofitting vehicles to be used as armored car vehicles. In that manner, it didn’t draw any attention to the other people in the area when the real armored vehicle was brought into the facility.”

Inside the building were packing materials.   They confirmed the FBI’s suspicions that the money had been shipped to some unknown destination.

The trail went cold.   Law enforcement could find no trace of Heather Tallchief or Roberto Solis.

Roberto Solis

Then, in September 2005, Tallchief appeared at the Las Vegas courthouse and turned herself in. She claimed that she had been brainwashed by Solis and only committed the crime because she feared for her life. She said she left Solis when she learned that she was pregnant with his child. Her reason for turning herself in was to give her ten year-old son a chance at a normal life.

After 12 years in hiding, Heather Tallchief was sentenced to 63 months in prison.   When the judge read her verdict, she told reporters that at last she felt free. Heather Tallchief served her time and has been released.

Roberto Solis is still at large.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season eleven with Robert Stack and in season one with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

Five people die by cyanide in phony voodoo ritual on St. Croix.

A body was discovered on the side of the road

The beautiful island of St. Croix

CASE DETAILS

St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands is a vacation paradise to more than one and a half million visitors from the United States each year. But even paradise can have a dark side.

They were told it was a voodoo potion

On November 18 th , 1988, just after 9:30 P.M., police arrived at the scene of what was reported as a minor traffic accident. They found a local woman, Radha Maharaj, apparently suffering from internal injuries. She died on the way to the hospital.

Sixteen miles away, a body was discovered on the side of the road. The dead man was Krishnadath Maharaj, Radha’s husband.

The clothing of both victims was saturated with seawater. Twenty-five thousand dollars in cash that the couple had borrowed was missing. And the cause of both deaths was cyanide poisoning. This brought to five the number of cyanide victims on St. Croix since 1984. Authorities suspected that all the deaths were linked to Voodoo.

At first, police suspected suicide

Contrary to popular belief, there is nothing inherently sinister about Voodoo. It’s a blend of Roman Catholicism and African tradition, practiced mainly in Haiti and Louisiana. Curses, hexes, effigy dolls, and potions are more often a part of Obia, an underground form of sorcery that is not connected to voodoo.

Police in St. Croix came to believe that the five cyanide poisonings were the work of a master con man. He practices Obia, but pretends to use Voodoo.

Radha and Krishnadath were both born in the Caribbean. Their parents had come from India. The couple ran a small grocery store where Radha’s two daughters from her first marriage helped with the business. According to one of the daughters, the family was doing relatively well at the time:

“We were paying our bills and we had food to eat. We were all well. We were strong and healthy, and we were all working hard, especially my mother

All three cases were similar

Several months before they died, the Maharajes took out a guaranteed loan to expand their store. They soon found themselves in financial trouble. Another of their daughters said it created stress in the household:

“They were very tense. Especially when I spoke to my mother about what they were doing, she didn’t like for me to ask some of those things. And she tried to answer me as quickly as possible and then changed the subject.”

Something else was wrong. The Maharajes had been receiving mysterious phone calls from a strange man. According to the daughters, it was all kept private:

“Usually I answer the phone and this man would ask to speak to my stepfather. As soon as I gave it to him, he would ask me to go outside because he had something private to discuss.”

Then, three weeks before the Maharajes died, they brought home $25,000 in cash, borrowed from Radha’s relatives. One of the daughters questioned their mother about it:

“She told us that this is what they had to pay to the gentleman. So I asked her, ‘Well, why?’ She said, ‘Well, don’t ask me any questions. By Monday, you will know what it’s all about.'”

But by Monday, Radha was dead. On the previous Friday, the daughters said, she left home without explanation:

“For her to actually go out alone is something very strange for me. And for her to go out at night, that is even more strange, because she didn’t ever go anywhere at night. Never.”

Haig Caesar, the first victim

Thirty minutes later, Krishnadath drove off in the opposite direction, presumably to meet the mysterious man. Two hours later, Radha’s car coasted to a stop near a local beach. Her dress was soaked with seawater. She was unconscious and near death, but there were no outward signs of struggle or foul play.

Sixteen miles away, Krishnadath was found lying by the side of a beachfront road. He was dressed only in a pair of shorts, which were also soaked with seawater. Once again, there were no signs of foul play. When police spoke to the daughters, they were told their mother had most likely taken her own life:

“The police told me that they believe that, you know, Mom tried to commit suicide, probably because she and my stepfather had quarreled about something so very big that there was no way that they could, you know, patch it up. That is nonsense.”

Krishnadath and Radha Maharaj

Autopsies of the bodies revealed that they had both died from cyanide poisoning. Oddly, another St. Croix couple, Edsel Striden and Carmen Torres, had recently died under similar circumstances. Edsel and Carmen had owned a small neighborhood bar. Like the Maharajes, they had also taken out a loan to expand their business: $54,000 in cash.

At dusk, Edsel and Carmen left home in their pick-up truck. Their daughter later recalled that her father had slipped a small bottle into his pocket before he left. It was the last time she saw her parents alive.

Carmen Torres was discovered, near death, less than a half a mile from the spot where Radha Maharaj was found. She, too, died on the way to the hospital.

Edsel Striden was found dead in his truck on a nearby beach. Both Carmen and Edsel’s clothes were soaked with seawater and both had died of cyanide poisoning. Plus, the $54,000 in cash was missing.

The four deaths were clearly related and were linked by investigators to yet another previous cyanide poisoning. The first victim was 38 year-old Haig Caesar. On May 24, 1984, a young girl on her way to school found Haig in his car, which had apparently run off the road. He, too, had been poisoned by cyanide. Sgt. James Rhyme of the St. Croix Police Department suspected a connection to Voodoo:

“He appeared to be dead for several hours. There was no indication of foul play or any struggle. And we later found out that he had made contact with an individual that might be involved in Voodoo.”

According to Haig Caesar’s wife, Rosmund, her husband told her that he had paid $100,000 in cash to an Obiaman, who claimed that he could remove the evil spirits:

“What he said is, that the man had told him that there were three large jars of coins buried on the property that we owned and that the coins were being guarded by spirits, ancient spirits. And in order to get those coins, they would have to get rid of the spirits.

When I found out about all the money he was borrowing, and all the cash that he had taken out of our accounts and everything, without even letting me know, I really was very angry about it. I was shocked, overall, just shocked that he would have taken it so far.”

On the night he died, police believe Haig returned to the spot where the Obiaman had said a treasure of priceless coins was buried. The Obiaman’s scam called for him to drink a potion that would drive away the spirits guarding the coins. That potion turned out to be cyanide. By the time Haig’s body was discovered the next day, both the Obiaman and the $100,000 had vanished.

Rosmund said she couldn’t understand why her husband had become involved with such a practice:

“I knew that he was aware of Obia and Voodoo. I mean, most people living on the islands are. I thought he was smart enough, intelligent enough, aware enough to know that, you know, it wasn’t real.”

Were all five deaths the work of an Obiaman? Was the man who promised buried treasure to Haig Caesar the same one who telephoned the Maharajes? Was he also the man Edsel Striden and Carmen Torres went to meet on the night they died?

The similarities in all three cases go far beyond mere coincidence.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season three with Robert Stack and in season two with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

A drug dealer may have faked his death to avoid capture.

Wallace Thrasher

Suspect:

Gender: Male
DOB: 6/27/40
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 175 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown
Defining Characteristics: Athletic build, likely to be employed as a pilot, has a scar on his arm

CASE DETAILS

On October 17, 1984, in western Virginia’s remote mountain wilderness, state troopers arrived on the scene of a small airplane crash.

Still strapped in the cockpit was a body, charred beyond recognition. In the back of the plane: twelve-hundred pounds of high-grade marijuana worth more than one million dollars.

A plane crash touched off the investigation

Eventually, authorities would connect both the plane and the dead pilot to Wallace Thrasher, of Bland County, Virginia.

In high school, Thrasher was a member of the Key Club and the Latin club. He played on the football team and earned the nickname “Squirrel” for his ability to outrun trouble. Thrasher didn’t seem the type that would end up peddling drugs, but somewhere along the way his life took a wrong turn.

Beginning in the 1970s, Thrasher allegedly built an operation that flew tons of marijuana and cocaine into the western region of Virginia. Distributors then smuggled the drugs north to Chicago, Detroit, and other big cities. According to W. J. Evans, of the Virginia State Police, Thrasher often piloted the plane himself:

“He wasn’t afraid to let everybody know what he was doing. Basically, everybody that had contact with him at the airport and in the areas where he was doing his drug business knew he was transporting drugs.”

Thrasher used the drug money to live the good life. He and his wife owned a 10-acre country estate and basked in opulence and luxury.

They found 1200 lbs. of pot near the crash site

For 10 years, Thrasher stayed two steps ahead of the law, until the night of October 17, 1984, when one of his pilots slammed an airplane full of marijuana into a mountainside.

Two weeks later, investigators finally proved that Thrasher owned the plane. Detectives were planning to move in, but then an article appeared in the local paper. It said that Wallace had died in another plane crash, this one in Jamaica.

Virginia authorities tried to interview Thrasher’s widow, but she never made herself available. She remained in seclusion, but produced a death certificate documenting her husband’s fatal crash in Jamaica.

Police were able to prove that the death certificate was fraudulent. They also found no evidence of the Jamaican crash or any witnesses.

Small planes were used to smuggle the drugs

Believing that Thrasher was still alive, the police filed charges against him. Eventually, his wife agreed to tell investigators all she knew.

When talking about the crash in Virginia, she said there had been a second pilot on board the aircraft. The pilot was injured badly, but managed to drag himself to a pay phone and call Thrasher.

Thrasher picked him up at the very moment police were racing to the crash scene. He knew that the plane could be traced back to him and only a matter of time before the authorities would be knocking at his door.

One report said he died in a different crash

Thrasher took the injured pilot to an out-of-state hospital, then dropped from sight. Thrasher’s wife said he stuffed a quarter of a million dollars in cash into a travel bag and left Virginia for Belize, in Central America.

She thought her husband was planning to buy a load of marijuana and return to the U.S. But some think that the Squirrel never intended to come home, and that the $250,000 was a down payment on a new life.

About a week later, Mrs. Thrasher received a call from one of her husband’s associates. The man told her that her husband had been killed in a plane crash on takeoff. Agent Donald Lincoln, of the Drug Enforcement Agency, described the crash:

“The fire had been so intense that, literally, the plane was burned down to the outline of a plane on the ground, and that there would be very little for them to send back and no reason for her to come down.”

The death certificate was a fake

Thrasher’s wife finally admitted that she had bought a fake death certificate and concocted the tale of a Jamaican plane crash. She said she was worried that her property would be c

onfiscated if authorities found out her husband was on a drug run when he died.

Then, in May of 1986, one of Thrasher’s former associates showed up. He had something he claimed was recovered in the crash: Wallace Thrasher’s wedding ring. The ring was in perfect condition, the inscription as sharp as the day it had been engraved. Agent Donald Lincoln, of the Drug Enforcement Agency, was suspicious:

“We find it kind of tough to believe that an aircraft could cause that amount of destruction to the point where literally the substructure of the plane was melted, and the ring itself would still be in that kind of condition.”

Did Thrasher really die in a fiery crash in the jungles of Central America? Or did “The Squirrel” once again dash to freedom? Agent Donald Lincoln believes he survived:

“I think that at the time that Mr. Thrasher disappeared, he was facing a lot of different problems, and it may have been opportune for him to, as they say, exit stage left.”

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season seven with Robert Stack and in season one with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

A con man may have faked his own suicide.

Daniel Tondevold

Suspect:

Gender: Male
DOB: 1933 approx.
Height:6’3″
Weight: 200 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde

CASE DETAILS

Tondevold with Ellen McClung Berry

Like much of the American South, the state of Tennessee is dotted with majestic estates. Ellen McClung Berry lived in one of them. Known as Berrymount, it was perched on a mountaintop outside Knoxville, a city founded by her great-great grandfather. Arthur Ballard was Ellen McClung Berry’s friend:

“I think she would have been considered definitely one of the local grande dames of the old school, and probably there were not many. That means you can live on the mountain like she did and have everybody come to you. Like Muhammad.   It’s just that simple.”

She signed anything he asked her to

One of the people who came to the mountain back in 1978 was Dan Tondevold, a mysterious man who claimed to be from Denmark. He had corresponded with Ellen Berry for 15 years, but the true nature of their relationship was unclear.   Sometimes, the 85-year-old Ellen said Tondevold was her godson. Other times, she said that he had been a friend of her late son, Hugh. Arthur Ballard said he didn’t completely trust him:

“I had the strangest gut feeling that this kid was bad news. But he was making Ellen happy. If he was, in fact, a friend of her late son Hugh, for lots of reasons, I was happy that she was happy and at least somebody was on the mountain with her at night in case she fell or got sick and could get help.”

Marcia Robinson was Mrs. Berry’s former aide:

“He was taking the place of her son. He looked like her son, apparently, and I know that was Mrs. Berry’s attraction to Dan, that he was playing that role.”

Was it really Tondevold’s body?

And it was a role that needed to be filled. Ellen Berry’s only child was her son, Hugh. At the age of 18, Hugh killed his grandmother in a rage over his inheritance. A judge ruled that Hugh Berry was mentally incompetent to stand trial. Rumor had it that Hugh was given a lobotomy and then sent to live in Mexico, where he died. When her husband passed away 27 years later, in February of 1978, Ellen was left all alone.

Almost too conveniently, the mysterious stranger from Denmark stepped in to fill the void in Ellen Berry’s life. Dan moved into her guesthouse and quickly took over the operation of her estate. Ellen signed anything Tondevold put in front of her. In fact, according to Arthur Ballard, in April of 1982, she granted him power of attorney:

“She was a willing pigeon, so to speak. Other people, I think, tried to tell her there was something wrong that just didn’t make sense, possibly that he was a con artist, I don’t know. But she ignored it.”

In 1984, Dan talked Ellen into taking a winter vacation in Charleston, South Carolina. Before they left, he secretly placed a classified ad for a chauffeur. The ad requested only men who were single and asked that applicants submit a photograph.

A suicide note was found in Tondevold’s suite

At the end of their four months in Charleston, Ellen and Dan made plans to return home. She and a female companion would take a flight, while Tondevold drove the Mercedes back to Berrymount.

When they arrived home on March 31 st , 1985, there was no sign of the Mercedes, or of Dan Tondevold. The telephone and all the other utilities at Berrymount had been cut off.   When she checked with her accountant, she learned that the bank was planning to foreclose on the house and that her checking and savings accounts had been drained. Seemingly over night, Ellen Berry was virtually bankrupt. Tondevold had even borrowed almost $85,000 against Berrymount. For the first time in her life, Ellen had a mortgage to pay. And for the first time in her life, she had no way to pay it.

Meanwhile, Tondevold was one hundred miles south of Charleston at an exclusive resort, living in high style on Fripp Island, South Carolina.   After he ran up huge bills on Ellen Berry’s credit cards, he was told by the front desk that all the cards were over their limit.

Tondevold’s classified ad for a chauffeur

The next day, a handwritten suicide note and will were found in his suite. Two weeks later, in a swampy, deserted area of Fripp Island, a man’s body was found. He had apparently shot himself in the left temple.

An antique gun, which belonged to Ellen Berry, was found a few inches from the body.   The dead man carried no identification, but he did carry Ellen Berry’s credit cards. The body was partially decomposed, but the coroner brought in a resort security guard to identify it.   He identified the man as Tondevold.

Tondevold’s death was ruled a suicide. The body was immediately cremated, just as he had requested in his will. But, according to Officer Dean Smith, the police aren’t sure that the man found in the swamp was Dan Tondevold:

“I’m not sure he’s dead. Nobody that knew him identified him. You know, the coroner found him, a police officer and a security guard said, ‘Yeah, that’s him’, and he hadn’t seen him but just driving by in a little security shack.”

Arthur Ballard is also suspicious:

“Well, you can’t negate the possibility that he did indeed kill himself, that’s possible. I just don’t believe it.   It doesn’t make sense to me that somebody who went to all that trouble to get all that money and to be as nefarious about the whole thing from beginning to end as he was, was out to kill himself.”

A month after the cremation, Arthur Ballard found a copy of Tondevold’s classified ad for a chauffeur:

“Now, I would find it ridiculous that he would need to put an ad in the Charleston paper for a chauffer for Berrymount. You can get them in the area, I’m sure, just as easily. And I suddenly realized that maybe he was looking for a look-alike.”

Ballard is convinced that Tondevold remained in South Carolina not to hire a chauffeur, but to find a victim:

“The look-alike would have been the person he ultimately killed. And then he just sort of scooted off, to wherever he had planned to go.”

The authorities still believed that Tondevold committed suicide. Yet, there was a shadow of doubt which sparked a disturbing theory. Curt Copeland is the coroner of Beaufort County, South Carolina:

“The idea is that Dan Tondevold is, in fact, Mr. and Mrs. Berry’s son, who was supposed to have died in Mexico. A very easy way to bring somebody back, under an assumed name, to get off the hook, after having shot and killed his grandmother.”

No one really knew who Dan Tondevold was or where he came from. Then, a search of Ellen Berry’s papers turned up his resume. It listed his hometown as Las Vegas, Nevada.

A yearbook from Las Vegas High School proved, that in 1951, Dan Tondevold was a member of the senior class and president of the Thespian Club. The rumor that Dan Tondevold and Hugh Berry were the same person was finally put to rest.

Ellen McClung Berry lived out her final years in a small apartment near Knoxville. No one knows exactly how much money she lost to Dan Tondevold, but estimates run into the millions. Authorities believe he may have transferred the money to accounts in France or Denmark.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season four with Robert Stack and in season three with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

The leader of an extensive drug and money laundering ring has eluded the FBI for more than 20 years.

Wanted: Pedro Uribe

Suspect:

Gender: Male
DOB: 1954
Height: 5’8”
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown

CASE DETAILS

The quiet, wealthy neighborhood of Cliffside Park, New Jersey, seemed to be an unlikely place to find a criminal gang. But its isolation and security was exactly what the mastermind of a drug and money-laundering ring was looking for. Pedro Uribe was a 38-year-old Colombian with direct ties to the infamous Medellin cartel. According to FBI Special Agent Gary Penrith, he ran his criminal organization with a ruthless hand:

“Pedro Uribe ran this organization by fear. Informant information tells us that one of his couriers lost 75 kilos of cocaine. On hearing this, Uribe had this individual, as well as his family members, murdered.”

It later turned out that the man was innocent. But that only added to Uribe’s fearsome reputation.

To FBI agents, the boxes seemed suspicious

In May of 1986, the FBI set up around-the-clock surveillance of several of Uribe’s known properties. They soon learned that, in order to appear normal, people pretending to be family members were trucked in on weekends. The surveillance showed that these fake families changed from week to week. Special Agent Penrith investigated the case:

“One of the primary features that they looked for in these houses was an attached garage with an automatic garage door opener. And if it didn’t have it, they’d install one.   This was done so they could get in and out with different individuals and less chance of being seen by the neighbors.”

Using these houses as a base, Uribe developed a simple but effective money-laundering scheme. Low-level operatives, nicknamed “smurfs” by the FBI, were dispatched from the houses to banks throughout the New York Metropolitan area. These smurfs used small amounts of Uribe’s drug money to buy legitimate money orders from many different banks. At the height of the operation, seven of Uribe’s smurfs were identified laundering $50,000 a day, or almost $2 million a week.

The FBI raided the house and found the drugs

The FBI knew Uribe was laundering millions, but they had yet to prove that he dealt cocaine. Then, on September 3, 1986, they got lucky. Outside of one of Uribe’s safe houses, agents observed the delivery of some mysterious boxes. Gambling that they contained cocaine, the FBI tried to catch Uribe red handed. In the summer of 1986, they made their move and swarmed the house.   In their search, the FBI found 307 kilos of 95% pure cocaine wrapped in small plastic bags.   The total amount had a street value of $7 million.

FBI agents searched Uribe’s other safe houses. In one, a specially trained dog led the FBI directly to a large potted plant. When the plant was examined, agents found $800,000 in cash covered with enough traces of cocaine to have attracted the dog’s attention.

However, Uribe and his henchmen had been tipped off about the raids and managed to escape. Today, he and his associates are wanted fugitives.

Pedro Uribe could be commuting between Colombia and the United States.   He is known to have relatives in New Jersey.   Two of Uribe’s partners in crime are also Colombian nationals.   They have been identified as brothers Luis and Ivan Arango.   Another Uribe henchman, Miguel Villegas, is believed to be in the Los Angeles area.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season two with Robert Stack and in season six with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

A North Carolina woman is shot in the face, but still manages to survive.

This man is wanted in the attempted murder

Suspect:

Gender: Male
DOB: 1975 approx.
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 150 to 160 lbs.
Hair: Black

CASE DETAILS

“A lady walked out of the woods about 75 yards away and started towards us, staggering.   She had blood on her shoulders and she was coming in our direction… I laid her on the ground and the other trooper went to his car and called for an ambulance, and shortly thereafter an ambulance arrived, and transported the lady to the hospital.”

A woman stumbled out of the woods

The young woman had been shot in the face with a twelve-gauge, double-barreled shotgun.   Her left jaw was completely shattered and she was unable to speak.   She had no identification.   It was not until ten hours later, when her condition stabilized, that she was able to write down her mother’s name and telephone number.   Police discovered that the victim was from Winston-Salem, 120 miles away.   Detective Ken Bishop, of the Winston-Salem Police Department, worked on the case with Fayetteville investigators:

“We conducted probably, a thirty minute interview with her.   It was probably the most severe injury I’ve ever seen for a person that survived.”

Although the victim could not speak, she was able to write down a detailed description of the savage attack and the attacker.   Police fear that if the man responsible for this hideous crime is not caught, he could easily strike again.   The young victim who was attacked, courageously agreed to be interviewed.   Because she has requested that we not use her real name, we will call her Debbie.   This is Debbie’s story…

He shot her in the jaw with a shotgun

On the morning of March 22, 1990, Debbie made a large cash withdrawal from the First Union Bank in Winston-Salem.   When she left the bank at 9:40 AM, a gunman entered her gray station wagon and forced her to drive to a liquor store, three miles away.   The man went inside to buy whiskey, holding Debbie’s car keys and keeping a close eye on her.   Debbie was terrified because he threatened to kill everyone in the liquor store if she tried to escape.   The man then ordered Debbie to head towards Fayetteville.   For four agonizing hours, he threatened her life, drank heavily, and bragged that he had once killed a man in New York.   For Debbie, the journey was a living hell:

“A lot of the time, he just wouldn’t talk to me at all, and when he did, he was very abusive, very angry.   It got worse as time went on because he was drinking also, the liquor, and he would just get more angry and more irrational.   And I got more afraid knowing I could not reason with him.”

About three miles north of Fayetteville, the man forced Debbie to pull off the road. Debbie made an attempt to escape, but she was unable to flee from her kidnapper.   At almost that same moment, State Trooper Ron Knight noticed Debbie’s gray station wagon:

“I was going to cross over and check the vehicle and at just about this time I met a speeding vehicle traveling south on I-95 Business, so I turned, and pursued that vehicle.”

He wore a blue jacket and gloves

Debbie was beaten and sexually assaulted, then left for dead after being shot in the face.   The next day, Debbie’s station wagon was found abandoned three hundred miles away, in northern Florida.   Authorities in Fayetteville investigated the crime scene.   Their search turned up a dark blue pea jacket and brown cloth gloves.   According to Ken Bishop, both smelled like petroleum:

“We think we’re looking at a person that works around that type of a product, and could possibly be a mechanic, somebody who works with greasy grimy motors, that kind of thing.   Possibly even somebody who drives a… heating oil type truck.”

Debbie’s assailant was about five feet ten inches tall and weighed between 150 and 160 pounds. For Debbie, until her attacker is found she’ll never feel completely safe:

“I’m going to continually feel like he’s there, he’s out there… I know it’s an unlikelihood that he’ll… try to find me, but it’s that fear of him being there, and that he also might hurt someone else.”

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season three with Robert Stack and in season five with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.