1. Pepper
A woman named Pepper was kidnapped at the age of four and raised by a woman named Shirley
Berthelot along with another girl, a little older, named Renee. She remembered a few details from her previous
life. Her name was Rhonda (before Shirley changed
it to Pepper) and her parents named Barbara and Bob. Barbara had a big blonde bouffant hairstyle
and she had a yellow canopy bed. Pepper always knew Berthelot was not her grandmother,
and begged her to tell her who her real family was. But even up until her last gasp Berthelot
continued to torture them and repaid their kindness by refusing to put the girls out
of their misery and she took her secret to her grave. Which left pepper without a social security
number or birth certificate. So pepper began her search for her real family
at the hall of records in Los Angeles. Frustratingly, wherever she looked, she discovered
that she simply did not feature in any official records. Pepper had all but given up hope of finding
her birth parents before a fluke breakthrough in 2009 when a church friend offered to adopt
her in order to get her an official identity. During the adoption process a government official
came across her original adoptive birth certificate. On it, her name was Rhonda Patricia Christie,
with Barbara and Bob Christie listed as her parents
She found Barbara and Bob , who were elderly by that point. As it turns out, Bob and Bobby were her adoptive
parents and it was Shirley, the woman who kidnapped her, who initially brought Pepper
to their doorstep when she was 3 months old. According to her adoptive parents, Shirley
told them the child's mother was a drug addicted prostitute who couldn't care for the child. Bob and Bobby legally adopted the child and
had her for four years when Shirley showed up with Renee and suggested the girls have
a sleepover. The girls had played together before, so they
agreed. As it turns out, Renee was actually the biological
sister to Pepper. At some point, Renee told Shirley she wished
she had a sister...so Shirley made it happen. She left town with Pepper in the middle of
the night. Their story was covered by NBC in a Dateline
episode called The Girl Who Didn’t Exist, which aired in March 2011. In it Pepper and Renee are seen reuniting
with the Christies. After seeing the episode, the biological mother
for Pepper and Renee named Jehri Coleman came forward with another crazy claim: the children
were kidnapped not once, but twice. And she has more news: they have a brother
too. Jehri claims that she had employed a babysitter
named Shirley Berthelot to look after Pepper and Renee in a motel in nearby Gardena, while
she was in hospital with complications following the birth of their little brother Raymond. According to Jehri when she was discharged,
her children, and their babysitter, had simply vanished. Berthelot, for reasons that are not all together
clear and their mother cannot even today fully explain - had given Pepper to Bob and Bobby
. Berthelot then handed Ray to another couple,
but kept Renee to herself. Again, why she did this, nobody has ever been
able to answer. Eventually that couple couldn't care for Ray
and he ended up in foster care. Dateline tracked him down and everyone was
reunited. Pepper, Renee, the adult brother, and their
biological mother. Now this is where things start to get fuzzy. Pepper really was kidnapped from Bob and Barbara,
That much seems to add up. But the claims that whole brood was kidnapped
from jehri by Shirley right after the son's birth is problematic. You see pepper was adopted by Bob and Bobby
when she was 3 months old and jehri claimed the brother is a couple years younger than
pepper. So how is it possible then that pepper was legally adopted by bob and barbara at age 3 months if raymond was few years younger than her. It possible that jehri was a drug addict and willingly gave the children to Shirley. Nonetheless, the family
has now reconciled and, Pepper (who changed her name back to Rhonique, her birth name),
had been legally adopted by her birth mother. 2.The murder of Dorothy Donovan At around midnight on June 22, 1991, factory
worker Charles Holden was leaving a fast food restaurant when a stranger came to his truck,
asking for a ride. The stranger said that his sister was having
a baby and that he needed to get to the hospital. Charles first said he couldn't because he
lived just a few blocks away but eventually changed his mind and took the man . But a few minutes after being picking up the
stranger, Charles stopped at an intersection where he would normally turn to drive home,
and the stranger attacked him, demanding his money as well as his truck. Charles ran to a store to get help, but the
stranger, armed with a screwdriver, raced after him, at which point Charles said he
would take the violent man wherever wanted to go. However, as the stranger went around to enter
the passenger side of the truck, Charles sped off and the stranger tried to run after him
but gave up quickly. Charles then began to drive around a bit trying
to shake off his experience at almost being car-jacked . When Charles finally started
to return home, he noticed the stranger was lurking around his house and he promptly drove
away again to call the police from a pay phone. A police officer went with him to his home and that of his mother, Dorothy Donovan, who
lived in the main house behind his. They found that the back door window had been
broken and there was blood inside the house. They then went up the stairs to her bedroom
and found her dead. She had been stabbed to death. Nothing had been stolen from the house, and
authorities suspected that Charles was the one who was responsible, until physical evidence
was found that did not belong to him. The stranger remained unidentified. At first, the police suspected Charles of
the murder given the complexity of the crime, but they soon found witnesses at the fast
food restaurant who confirmed that the stranger asking for a ride did exist, and Police also
found a bloody palm print on a banister and DNA evidence that did not match Charles and
he was cleared. The stranger is described as being in his
late 20s or early 30s, 5'8", with a slender build and pock-marked complexion, he was also
described as having worn plastic framed glasses with over-sized lenses. Authorities believe that he may have been
on drugs at the time of the murder. In February 2006, DNA evidence at the scene
along with the bloody palm print on the banister identified Dorothy's killer as Gilbert E.
Cannon of Delmar, Maryland, who was arrested and charged with first degree murder. He told authorities that he was on drugs at
the time of the murder and was looking for a place to stay. Furthermore, the killer said he chose Dorothy's
house because it was the first one he could find that didn't have any lights on, and not
because of any connection to man he had just attempted to car-jack. He pled guilty to the murder and was sentenced
to life in prison without the possibility of parole. 3.Murder of Elise Makdessi
Shortly before 10pm on May 14, 1996, emergency services in Virginia Beach receive a call
from Eddie Makdessi, screaming that his wife Elise is being raped and stabbed by an intruder. The paramedics arrive at their house to find
Elise tied to the bed in critical condition and another man lying dead on the floor having
been shot. At the hospital, Elise dies of her injuries. Elise’s husband told the police that he
and his wife were entering their apartment when he was struck from behind. He lost consciousness, and when he came to,
he saw a man raping his wife. Makdessi claims that the man then stabbed
his wife before attacking him. Makdessi claimed he shot him dead in self-defense. Eddie's injuries seem to back up his story. The dead man is identified as Quincy Brown,
a man who worked with Elise in the air traffic control base in the navy. The police searched the apartment and found
a videotape of Elise in which she tearfully recounts that she was sexually assaulted and
raped multiple times while serving in the Navy. She claimed that these assaults happened when
she was on duty at the Naval Air Station, Oceana. Elise kept a list of the people who assaulted
her, and Quincy Brown’s name was included. Though the police say that they felt something
was wrong, they checked the scene of the crime and seemed to believe Eddie Makdessi’s version
of events. One month before this double homicide, Makdessi
took out a $500,000 life insurance policy on his wife. Makdessi also collected Elise’s $200,000
Navy life insurance policy, and then left the United States. He went to Russia, remarried, and settled
down into a new life. Makdessi thought the case was closed, but
the police continued to investigate it. Police begin to doubt Eddie's story-it seems
odd that he just came back into consciousness, then had the presence of mind to get his gun
and accurately shoot Quincy. Friends begin to report that he was controlling
of Elise. Blood spatter analysts find that Quincy had
been on his knees when he was shot. Also, it is found that on the night of the
murder, Eddie and Elise had gone out for dinner. That night, Elise had made a lengthy phone
call to Quincy from a pay phone. Also, although Eddie insists that Quincy was
in their house when they got home, Quincy was found to have made a cell phone call to
the Makdessis' house that evening, so they must have been at the house before he was. There is no evidence of forced entry. They finally reached the conclusion that Makdessi
and his wife conspired to extract money from the Navy and murdered Brown as part of their
plan. According to police, Makdessi and Elise lured
Brown to their apartment to have sex with Elise. Brown tied Elise up and without Brown realizing,
Makdessi shot him dead. Then Makdessi double-crossed his own wife
and stabbed her to death. Elise made this videotape of false accusations
as part of their plan to defraud the Navy. He hurt himself to make it appear that Quincy
invaded the house, knocked him out, raped and killed Elise, and then he awoke from unconsciousness
and shot the intruder. Eddie staged the crime scene and he almost
got away with it. But investigators figured out this was a ‘set
up’ based on the crime scene evidence, interviews with Elise’s co-workers, the video tape,
and the large insurance policy. They also Found that Elise’s sexual harassment
and sexual assault claims were in fact fabricated. All the men she accused of sex crimes in the
video passed a polygraph examination and her supervisors testified that Elise never reported
sexual harassment or sexual assault like she claimed in her video testimony. Eddie Makdessi was arrested when he landed
in the States, and in 2006 was convicted of the double murder of Elise Makdessi and Quincy
Brown. 4.The Murder Of Baby Hope
On July 23, 1991, construction workers found what looked to be a normal cooler, the kind
people use to carry food, ice and cold drinks for camping or picnicking. When they opened the cooler, they found the
decomposing body of a child. The child would go unrecognized for 22 years,
though her headstone bore the name "Baby Hope". Baby Hope was malnourished and after being
examined and tested, it was shown that she had suffered sexual abuse and her cause of
death was asphyxia. No claims of missing children had been filed
and her body was so badly decomposed that it was hard to make out her facial features. Baby Hope was naked except for a hair tie
with yellow baubles attached to it. Over a week before the discovery, a witness
had seen a Hispanic couple walking alongside the Parkway with a cooler. Since the child’s identity was unknown,
authorities appealed to the public for information. Police made every effort to find out who this
little Angel was and their attempts failed. Baby Hope was buried two years later with
the Police of the 34th Precinct coming together to raise the money to give her a proper burial. Baby Hope was wearing a white communion dress
when she was buried and her gravestone bore the name she had been given by those who seemed
to have cared about her more than anyone who actually knew her. Complete strangers gave her a headstone with
the inscription: "Because We Care" During the summer of 2013, the Baby Hope case
was reopened and re-publicized. Shortly thereafter, authorities received information
leading them to a woman named Margarita Castillo, who claimed that her four-year-old daughter,
Anjelica, had gone missing two decades earlier. According to Margarita, Anjelica’s father
had taken off with the child in 1991, but she was never reported missing. DNA samples extracted from Baby Hope’s body
were compared with Margarita’s DNA, and they proved to be a perfect match.In October,
the investigation led to Margarita’s cousin, Conrado Juarez, a 52-year-old dishwasher from
Manhattan. After being questioned by police, Juarez confessed
to sexually abusing Anjelica before smothering her to death. With the help of one of his sisters, he then
placed the child’s body in a cooler and left it alongside the Parkway. Juarez was indicted for the murder and is
currently awaiting trial. After 22 years, Baby Hope was finally laid
to rest under her real name, Anjelica Castillo. 5.Benjaman Kyle
One of the most mysterious amnesia cases of all time involved an individual known as “Benjaman
Kyle.” On August 31, 2004 at 5:00 am a beaten naked
man was found unconscious behind the dumpster of a Burger King. The man had no driver’s license, wallet
or any other identification. After waking up at the hospital from being
unconscious, the hospital staff asked for his name. He could not remember his name or social security
number. The man suffered from cataracts on both eyes
which he was able to operate 9 months after a charity raised the money. Upon seeing himself in the mirror, he was
surprised to see he was 20 years older he thought he was. Doctors determined that he was suffering from
retrograde amnesia. He took the name ‘Benjaman Kyle’ due to
it having the same initials as Burger King and he believed ‘Benjaman’ might be his
first name. He was certain that he had lived in Indianapolis,
Indiana, and in Boulder, Colorado. He had memories of a state fair in Indianapolis,
a cemetery, and the downtown area as it had looked years before. He also remembered the University of Colorado
library and a specific seat he used there, and a restaurant he frequently visited. Benjaman spent many years between shelters
and hospitals. With no identification or social security
he was unable to obtain legal employment or a place to stay. He was the only person on the missing database
that was not missing. In 2007 he was diagnosed with dissociative
amnesia which he suffered since 2004. Benjaman was featured in Dr.Phil, Jeff Probst
and even on a segment of News4Jax. In 2011 he caught a big break when he was
asked to be featured in a short documentary named “Finding Benjaman”. The purpose was meant to help his situation
from a legal standpoint and perhaps even find his family. Despite the many efforts to get the word out
nobody came forward. DNA testing and fingerprint checks turned
up empty, and even though Benjaman’s story received a lot of media coverage, no one seemed
to recognize him. Finally, in September 2015, Benjaman publicly
announced that CeCe Moore of theDNAdetectives.com had used his DNA samples to match him with
his biological family. He was originally from Indiana and had apparently
broken off all contact with his family, who had not seen him since 1976. The former Benjaman Kyle has since tracked
down his original birth certificate and Social Security records and used them to obtain a
new identification card under his real name. He did not release any further details at
this time for privacy reasons. On November 21, 2016 Benjaman Kyle’s true
name was revealed to be William Burgess Powell. It was also reported that he found his family. The case of benjamin kyle was finally solved
after 11 years.
