ANNOUNCER: This program is
about unsolved mysteries. Whenever possible, the
actual family members and police officials
have participated in recreating the events. What you are about to see
is not a news broadcast. ROBERT STACK: Tonight on
"Unsolved Mysteries," a story of a lonely housewife
in Maine who searched for love in her
newspaper's personal columns. Two years ago, she went on
a blind date and vanished. And on the "Queen Mary,"
dozens of eyewitnesses claim they have seen
or heard ghosts. Last month, parapsychologists
tape recorded phantom sound of what some believe
is a shipwreck that took place 40 years earlier. We'll also examine
the case of a man awaiting trial for the
murder of two teenage girls. Joe Shepherd has escaped. Perhaps you can help catch him. Tonight's cases
feature ordinary people thrust into a vortex of mystery,
heartbreak, and intrigue. Each one is searching
for that vital clue to end a story that,
so far, has no ending. Perhaps you can help. Join me. You may be able to
help solve a mystery. [theme music] This is the "Queen Mary,"
now permanently moored in Long Beach, California. On her decks and
in her corridors people have seen and heard
things they can't explain. I'd been here
about 14 years when I had the first experience
with actually seeing what I thought to be a ghost. It was a December morning. I was in the work area. And for some reason, I
picked up a cup of coffee, went out to the table, and
there was a lady sitting there. I was so fascinated
by her dress. She appeared to be in a
late-afternoon cocktail type dress from the '40s. She had dark hair rolled
at the side, no makeup on. She seemed to be very pale. But I never saw a movement. I left the table,
went up about 10 feet, turned around because I
wanted to take another look, and there was nothing there. I am probably the
last person that should have had
these experiences because I'm such a skeptic. One day, I was standing
on the stairs of the pool and out of the corner
of my right eye, I saw a woman, probably in her
60s or 70s, in black and white. So I went down the stairs
and around the pillar, expecting to find
her standing there, and she wasn't
anywhere to be found. It was only a matter of seconds. She couldn't have gone anywhere. Several others besides
Carol and Nancy say they have seen or heard ghosts
here in the "Queen Mary's" first-class pool. How do we explain
these sightings by reportedly well-balanced,
level-headed people? Could they simply
result from the power of suggestion stimulated
by an eerie location? Some parapsychologists believe
that all locations are haunted. That is, they retain
memories of past events that some people with psychic
sensitivities, or ESP, experience as hauntings. Whatever the explanation,
the "Queen Mary" seems to be inhabited
by something ethereal that has been seen
and heard, but not explained. [music - "queen of the sea"] Oh, I'm happy and gay
'cause I'm sailing away. ROBERT STACK: The "Queen
Mary" took her maiden voyage on May 27, 1936, and
transported the titled and elite from both sides of the Atlantic. The "Queen Mary". How'd you like to come with me-- ROBERT STACK: During
that five-day voyage, the "Queen Mary" was a
floating party, a living symbol of luxury travel. --by a British crew. So when I go over the sea,
the "Queen Mary" takes me. ROBERT STACK: In the
second World War, the "Queen Mary" was
turned into a troopship. Due to her ghostly grey
camouflage, she was ironically nicknamed "The Grey Ghost." After the war, she reverted
back to her former glory and crossed the ocean
a total of 1,001 times. In the over-30
years the ship was at sea, she witnessed
four births, and at least 49 recorded deaths. After her arrival in
Long Beach in 1967, one of the first
people to work onboard was Marine Engineer John Smith. Part of my duties was to check
and learn the ship thoroughly, and so I explored
it in the evenings when my regular
day's work was done-- ROBERT STACK: His job took
him into the remote regions of the ship's bow. And several times over
a two-month period, he heard something where there
should only have been silence. [metal moving] He heard the sounds
of metal tearing, water rushing, and
then men screaming. [men screaming] It sounded like there had been
a rupture of the ship's hull. It was frightful. I went up to the extreme
bow section of the ship, and the sound was here,
but there was no water and nothing to cause it. I don't believe in
supernatural things, but in all my experiences
as a marine engineer, I've never seen
anything like this. ROBERT STACK: Years later, Smith
read about a wartime tragedy, the "Queen Mary's"
accidental collision with a British cruiser
named the "Curacoa". [booming] Over 300 men were killed. The "Queen Mary's" bow
sliced the "Curacoa" in half. After I read
that article, I was so shook up and so overwhelmed. The very area I heard that
mysterious water rushing was the exact same area that was
damaged when the ship hit the "Curacoa," I said,
this is what it would have sounded and felt like if I
had been in that compartment at the time. But I knew it couldn't be. That was 30 years earlier. It couldn't be anything. ROBERT STACK: Over the
years, dozens of sightings had been reported. Late one night in the
pool area, Maintenance Supervisor Kathy
Love and a coworker heard mysterious sounds. KATHY LOVE: We
came into the pool and I heard giggling--
sound of a little girl or a child playing in the area. [giggling] And at that point, I
noticed there was splashing. These splashings stopped. The giggling continued. And we observed the footprints
of a small child walking across into the locker room. I know that I saw what I saw. I'm not sure exactly why I saw
it, but I know it was there. ROBERT STACK: Several
unexplained encounters have occurred in shaft
alley deep within the ship, near the engine room. Here, in 1966, during
a routine fire drill, a man named John
Pedder was crushed to death in a watertight door. Some believe Pedder
still haunts shaft alley. Where'd they-- uh,
where'd they say he was? It was down here in
shaft alley somewhere. ROBERT STACK: Both tour members
and employees have experienced hauntings in shaft alley. Blue coveralls and a beard? Yeah. Said they was dressed in blue
coveralls, and he had a beard. There was two different
tour groups that said it. NANCY ANNE: I had a second
experience down in shaft alley. It was about 5:30 or 6
o'clock in the evening. I was working in the capacity
of a lead guide, which meant my job was to close
down the tour route and make sure that there
weren't any stragglers behind. And I don't know why I turned
around, but I turned around. And standing right behind
me on the step was a man. He had blue overalls
and they were dirty. When I stepped aside to let
him go by, he wasn't there. He was gone. I don't necessarily believe
any other ghost stories that other people have come up with. I only know what I
saw, and I only believe what I saw with my own eyes. ROBERT STACK: Last month,
"Unsolved Mysteries" brought to the
"Queen Mary" a team of experts who've spent decades
investigating hauntings. Using sophisticated
recording equipment, they would attempt to verify
the eyewitness accounts. --to head out, and as soon
as I got around the corner, it started in again. He came in here
and he came out-- ROBERT STACK:
Danish-born William Roll is one of the
world's leading authorities on poltergeists. I'm often asked the question,
do you believe in ghosts? And what I expect
I will be asked when I finish this
investigation, are there ghosts on this ship? And these are questions
that I cannot answer. ROBERT STACK: Tony Cornell has
researched paranormal activity for 25 years. I am a skeptic,
but, at the same time, I must allow for the fact
that other people who are very sane and
sensible have seen things and experienced things. The apparitional
stuff, I think, is probably the most interesting. The stuff in the pool and
the stuff in shaft alley look as if they are
repeated cases-- so often that they must be genuine. ROBERT STACK: Cornell set up
his surveillance equipment. William Roll led a team
of psychics onboard. All six claimed to know nothing
about the ship's history or about the
haunting occurrences. Armed with maps and their
psychic sensitivity, they struck off in many
different directions alone. After the search,
the psychics gathered together to compare notes. Though some had
nothing to report, others sensed a great deal
of activity that coincided with eyewitness reports. --the bow of the ship. Did you mention something
about a collision or something like that?
- Yeah, I felt a collision. WILLIAM ROLL: I see.
Uh-huh. I felt the impression
of a collision. I see. TONY CORNELL: You know the
histories of "Queen Mary"? No, I don't. But I definitely felt
the movement of the ship and I felt the jerking hit and
the sensation from the body, and I did hear footsteps. WILLIAM ROLL: I see. So let's go to the next one. ROBERT STACK: In shaft
alley, one psychic sensed a 20-year-old tragedy. Janice, would you describe
your experiences in that area? I felt that there had been--
not that I was hearing it physically, but that at times,
someone could hear a very rhythmical banging as
if someone had a wrench or a large piece of iron-- TONY CORNELL: A wrench? --banging against-- a wrench.
TONY CORNELL: A wrench. A wrench. That was the-- TONY CORNELL: Not a hammer? No. Would be a wrench. Someone had apparently
gotten trapped-- TONY CORNELL: It is a
fact that some psychics manage to pick up
things and you can't quite see how they got it. But you've got to be
suspicious about this because there's a
thing called feedback. I mean, I've met enough mediums
now who've read what they want to tell you in the newspaper. ROBERT STACK: One investigator
did find something. While William Roll was
surveying the bow area, he heard some unusual
sounds he couldn't explain. There was the sound
of two men talking. And it was heard by
the security guard who brought me there and by myself. And it seemed to
come from the lower levels of the bow of the ship. ROBERT STACK: In 30
years of investigation, this was the first
time that Roll had heard an
unexplained sound that had been reported by a witness. In this case, he believes
what he perceived was genuine. Roll placed a voice-activated
tape recorder in the bow area at the same spot where
the voices were heard. RECORDER: It's 3:15 AM. ROBERT STACK: For
most of the night, this is what was recorded. Nothing. In the early morning,
for a full two minutes, the tape recorder
picked up sounds where no sounds should be. This is a condensed
version of the actual tape. [metal rumbling] Earlier, the bow
had been sealed off. The researchers attempted
to duplicate the sounds through mechanical means. They were unsuccessful. WILLIAM ROLL: What
we can conclude is that there is a physical
source for the sounds. Now, is it parapsychological
or does it have some other kind of source? That still remains uncertain. Man has had this
kind of experience as long as recorded history. It is a human experience. It's going to
continue going on, and somebody's got to look at it. It's a challenge. And it's a mystery that
has got to be solved. ROBERT STACK: What can
explain these hauntings? Overactive imagination? A quest for publicity? Or something more intangible,
something supernatural? Is the "Queen Mary" haunted? We cannot say yes,
but we cannot say no. [theme music] February 27, 1978. Tellico Plains, Tennessee. [girl yelling] In a parked car,
16-year-old Roxanne Woodson fought off the advances of
a man named Joe Shepherd. Two friends watched
from the back seat. Roxanne escaped and
ran off into the night. Joe chased after her. Roxanne never returned. When Roxanne failed
to come home, her family began to worry. You'd just wring your
hands and there's no outlet. There's no relief because
you haven't got her. She's gone and you don't
know what's happened to her. And she's out there and
you can't reach her. And you can't help her. After 10 years, the
case of Roxanne Woodson still haunts her family
and everyone living in Tellico Plains, Tennessee. For weeks, there was
no trace of Roxanne. And as her
investigation unfolded, the police became convinced that
the last person who saw her, Joe Shepherd, was a
psychopathic killer. The night after Roxanne
Woodson was reported missing, police went to
the home where Joe Shepherd lived with his parents
to take him in for questioning. Gonna have shoes on. ROBERT STACK: The
officers waited while Joe went into his
bedroom to put on his boots. DA just wants to
talk to him, ma'am. JOE'S MOM: Well, what does
he wanna talk to him about? Joe'll talk to him
over and over again. ROBERT STACK: Joe
reached for his shotgun. OFFICER: He's got
a gun, [inaudible]? The officers fired
two warning shots. After a brief struggled, they
wrestled the gun away from him. He was then brought
in for interrogation. When was the last time
you saw Roxanne Woodson? RICHARD FISHER:
Joe's initial story was that he had attempted
to seduce Roxanne and she had gotten mad at him--
at his persistent efforts-- and had jumped from the
car and run into the woods, so he went running after her. And finally, Joe came
back, telling the two boys that he'd tried to get
her back and that he didn't know where she'd gone. ROBERT STACK: Joe
Shepherd was booked for assaulting a police officer,
made bond, and was released. For several days, over 60
people combed through the woods looking for Roxanne. Joe voluntarily joined them. The police brought
in dogs to follow Roxanne's scent into the woods. They tracked her only
a few yards and then the trail abruptly stopped. Still the searchers found
no trace of Roxanne, and the girl's family
began to panic. We just fell on our
knees and said, oh god, no. Oh god, no, not her. She loved her daddy
so much and he knew she would not have ran off. ROBERT STACK: After a
few frustrating days, the search was called off. Roxanne Woodson had
vanished until the afternoon of April 8, 1978. DAVID GUY: Roxanne's body was
found after Joe's mother was standing at the window in
the kitchen looking out, and she noticed that the dogs
were digging and going on at one specific location there. And she became alarmed. She went outside and walked up
on what proved to be two hands sticking out of the ground. Oh! Louis! Louis! Louis? She notified the
authorities at that time and they came to
the Shepherd home and did remove the
body of Roxanne Woodson from Joe Shepherd's
mother and father's yard. ROBERT STACK: Roxanne had been
buried in a shallow grave. Some of her clothes were
missing and her pants had been wrapped around her head. At that point, the Monroe
County sheriff's deputy took out a warrant charging
the suspect, Joe Shepherd, with first degree murder. We went to his mother-in-law--
ex-mother-in-law's home to conduct a search and they
told us he wasn't there. We went in and searched
the house and found him. There was a child in the
bed and he was rolled up in the covers under
the foot of the bed-- like, the cover was just rolled
onto the foot of the bed. He was hidden in there. Joe, look at me. We found Roxanne, Joe. We found her, Joe. Look here, Joe. Found her buried
in your front yard. Look at 'em, Joe.
Found her buried in your yard. ROBERT STACK: During a
second interrogation, Joe's story began to change. - I didn't kill her.
- Come on, Joe. Just tell us the truth. What happened to her? Joe began to fill in the
blanks of the segment that he had earlier given. And he said that when
Roxanne ran from the car and into the woods, he gave
chase and that, as she was running through the
woods, that she had fallen and [inaudible] her head. Roxanne? Roxanne! She had hit her
head or something. I tried to-- I come
up on her and she-- I tried to revive her. I thought maybe she
was just knocked out. ROBERT STACK: He
told investigators that he panicked and returned
to his car and companions. They left the area. Joe claimed he
returned to the scene later that same night,
unsure whether Roxanne was dead or alive. He carried her back to his car. He placed the girl inside
and drove off into the night. I didn't do nothing to her. All I did is I
figured-- you know, something could
happen to her out there-- animal or something--
so I-- I buried her. That's all I done. So I did. I took her-- I took her back
to the house and buried her. WAYNE ADKINS: According
to Joe Shepherd, not knowing what to do with
in his previous encounters with the law, he was afraid to
contact any law enforcements. So then he decided to bury her. And he could find no other
place other than his residence there in Tellico Plains. He never did actually
admit to being responsible for her death. He admitted he had been with
her and that she had died with some sort of
head injury that she had attained when she fell. As a result of
your investigation-- ROBERT STACK: Joe was
brought before a judge. He recommended that
Joe be formally charged with the murder of
Roxanne Woodson. --to the grand jury. Bond is set at $150,000. ROBERT STACK: As the
Roxanne Woodson story begin to draw to a close,
another murder case was about to be reopened. DAVID GUY: After Joe had
been charged in regards to the homicide, the
investigators who had talked with him and
questioned him, they had became pretty much buddies. Joe had learned to
trust these people. And he wanted to help them. ROBERT STACK:
Detective Joe Graves had received an anonymous
phone call linking Joe to another disappearance--
that of a girl named Kathy Clowers, a
local 14-year-old who had vanished two years earlier. I can take you to the
last place I saw her. I need you to take us and
show us where she is now. Can you do that? Yeah. I-- I can take you there. ROBERT STACK: Joe
told them that, not only did he
know Kathy Clowers, but he knew where
she was buried. He offered to take them there. About a half a mile. RICHARD FISHER: We
went into the woods probably a couple hundred
yards off of the highway. Joe had designated a spot
where we ought to dig. We had taken along a
pickax and shovel and such and started digging
in the ground. We'd gone down some depth and
hadn't uncovered a body at all. I took the pickax
just to sort a relieve the guy who had been
doing the digging, and after about the second
effort, a piece of red cloth came up on the
head of the pickax. I'll never forget Joe
Shepherd was hunkered down beside the hole we
were digging, and he looked up with this cold smile
on his face and said, see? I told you so. He was proud, I
think, of the fact that he had produced
a body for us and showed no emotion at all. ROBERT STACK: Though The
body was badly decomposed, Dr. William Bass, a noted
forensic anthropologist, was able to identify it
as that of Kathy Clowers. WILLIAM BASS: Looks to be
fairly young, maybe mid-teens. Kathy Clowers had chipped
tooth and this matched the chip tooth that she had. Dr. Bass, is there anything
that indicates a culpability? There was no evidence on the
skeleton of cause of death. There were no gunshot wounds,
no stab wounds, no broken bones. Whatever caused death did not
leave its mark on the skeleton. The clothing of this girl--
the a pants leg had been wrapped around her
head very similar to the manner in which the
Woodson child had been buried. There had been a pants leg
wrapped around her head. ROBERT STACK: On
April 17, 1978 Joe Shepherd was formally
indicted for the murder of Kathy Clowers. While awaiting trial for
the double homicides, Joe was held at the
Bradley County jail. On July 17, 1978, one
of the jailers was summoned to a cell near Joe's. What's the matter
with you, boy? ROBERT STACK: The jailer
was lured into the cell by a man feigning sickness. - What's your problem?
- I don't know. I'm sick. You make a move
and I'll kill you. ROBERT STACK: After
locking up the jailer, the two men went to
Joe Shepherd's cell. They released him, and the
three men fled the prison. While the other
two escapees where recaptured the following week,
Joe Shepherd remains at large. I feel certain that Joe
is a danger to society. The methodology that
he put into each act was that of a very criminal
mind-- a mind that feels no guilt. Or he is just there
and he's capable of doing it at any time. We don't know what sets him off. I would like to see
him brought to justice. I'd like to see justice done. For personal reasons and for
the love of my granddaughter I would like to see it,
but also for the mothers out there that their
daughters might be in danger. ROBERT STACK: These pictures
of Joe Arlin Shepherd were taken in 1978. He is six feet tall and
weighs about 150 pounds. He has brown hair, a
scar on his left forearm, and he may be working
as an auto mechanic. Shepherd has recently been
seen in El Paso, Texas. The authorities believe
he may be living somewhere along the Mexican border. Update, London, Ontario, Canada. A 10-year search for
Joe Shepherd has ended. After the "Unsolved Mystery"
show on October the 5th, we received a phone call
from a local resident saying that he
believed the guy called Shepherd was, in
fact, living in London under the name Joseph Tripp. We began an investigation. And when we had identified
him to our satisfaction as Shepherd, he was arrested. ROBERT STACK: At the
time of his arrest, Shepherd was living in a
government housing project in London, Ontario
with his common-law wife and their two children. It seems apparent that Mr.
Shepherd was in London, Canada within a matter of days after
his escape from Bradley County. [theme music] ROBERT STACK: Wiscasset,
Maine, a picturesque town of 3,000 people. Each year, vacationers
come here to escape. But for Gail DeLano,
who lived in Wiscasset, this vacation
paradise was a prison. She wrote about it in her diary. GAIL DELANO (VOICEOVER):
"Maine seems to bring out the worst in me. I don't see an end
to my loneliness. It just seems to go on forever. I need someone so desperately
that nothing seems to work." ROBERT STACK: Gail
DeLano was twice divorced and the mother of
two teenage boys. She looked for companionship
in the personal ads of her local newspaper. When she placed the ads, she
described herself exuberantly. GAIL DELANO (VOICEOVER):
"Unique female, 34, attractive, trim, intelligent,
affectionate, independent, slightly crazy night owl. Likes music, movies,
dance, dining. Seeks easygoing, intelligent,
responsible, not overweight male for growing relationship. I'm in Wiscasset. Where are you?" ROBERT STACK: June 21, 1986. Gail DeLano drove alone to a
restaurant in Brunswick, Maine to meet a blind date. Gail's family never saw
or heard from her again. Despite the tone of
her personal ads, Gail DeLano was
shy and withdrawn. For Gail, placing these
ads was an act of courage. It was also an act of hope. The last entry in
her diary read, "it would be nice
to find someone to date over the summer. Who knows? Maybe I'll get lucky and
find someone interesting." Gail was searching not
only for companionship, but also for a father
figure for her two boys. Her desperate need to find
love placed her in the center of an unsolved mystery. Friday evening, June 20, 1986. Gail's sons recall that she had
a two-and-a-half-hour telephone conversation with
a man named John, a man they assumed
their mother had met through the personal ads. Mom, this isn't like you. Well, I'm in a
pretty good mood today. Why? I got a call from
John last night. ROBERT STACK: The next
morning, Gail told her sons she planned to have
coffee with John at the Howard
Johnson's in Brunswick, and then, if things went well,
spend the afternoon with him. Be good while I'm gone, OK? ROBERT STACK: That night, Gail's
13-year-old son, Ryan, returned home from a friend's house. He discovered that his
mother was not at home. Mom? ROBERT STACK: Ryan was
concerned, but not alarmed. RYAN DELANO: Mom? ROBERT STACK: When Gail did
not return home the next night, her family called the police. 10-4, Brunswick. En route. ROBERT STACK: It was now 37
hours by the time Gail DeLano had left home to meet her date. The police immediately searched
the Howard Johnson's parking lot and located Gail's car. DAN BRADFORD: There was no
indication at that point that there was any foul play. Basically, it was an
adult woman who has gone out and spent the night. The history we got was
that that's not unusual for her to spend the night out,
although it was unusual for her to do it without calling. When she'd been
gone that long, it just wasn't right
because she was so careful about keeping
track with the children where she was. We knew if she'd been
gone for that long that something was haywire. ROBERT STACK: Gail's family was
forced to wait until 11 o'clock Monday morning to
have her officially declared a missing person. Only then could the
police search her car. PLATT MONFORT: When
we got the car open, we tried to see if there would
be a note or anything that would be from Gail that would
explain particularly who she was with because,
at this point, we figured this guy that
she had the date with had done something. Is there anything in there? DAN BRADFORD: No,
it's pretty clean. PLATT MONFORT: And we
looked the car over and there was
nothing in the car. Normally I know the
person's first and last name and where he's from, but
this one time we just missed. It had to be that one time. I had spoken with her
earlier that afternoon and she said, I have a feeling
I'm going to have a date and I'm going to
do something happy, and I'm going to have
fun this weekend. And then look what happened. ROBERT STACK: Two hours
after the police had removed Gail's car, a Howard
Johnson's busboy made a startling discovery. DAN BRADFORD: The manager
of Howard Johnson's called the Brunswick police
department to notify them that one of their busboys
had found a set of keys in the parking slot where Gail
DeLano's car had been parked prior to their moving it. And when the policeman
handed those keys and said, are these Gail's keys? And I thought, oh, my god. I said, they'd have
to kill her short of getting those keys from her. And I just about
came unglued then. And I guess I said to Platt,
you've got to find my baby. Where is she? Where is she? ROBERT STACK: Two weeks later,
a nine-year-old boy playing on the other side of
the Howard Johnson's made a second startling
discovery-- Gail's purse. Finding the purse at
the parking lot kind of raised our concern about the
possibility of foul play. I was just heartsick when I
found out because, again, she would not let go of that
handbag short of being bopped in the head or dragged away. See what we can find in
there that might help us. Actually, the
pocketbook was very nice inside and quite orderly. So it appeared right
from the beginning that it had not been
rifled through by anybody looking for any type of money
or things of this nature. ROBERT STACK: Curiously, while
the purse appeared untouched, there was no money in it. Folding wallet with-- ROBERT STACK: Even
the emergency $5 bill that Gail always kept
tucked in a secret compartment was missing. Using a datebook they
found in her purse, Detectives Mallet and Bradford
compiled a list of the men that Gail might have
dated in the last year. June 20. The last entry in
there is, "John called. Talked 2 and 1/2 hours." ROBERT STACK: One of
them was a man named John from Old Orchard Beach. This man swore he
had never dated Gail. He said the only time he might
have talked to her on the phone was months before
she disappeared. Not really. It wasn't arranged. ROBERT STACK: He had
a rock-solid alibi for the day Gail vanished. So did all the other men
the police questioned. You're next. ROBERT STACK: The police
were totally baffled. Gail kept detailed records
of the men who responded to her ads, yet there
was no record of a man named John in her files. Who had called Gail and
talked for 2 and 1/2 hours the night before
she disappeared? Yeah, yeah. Right. ROBERT STACK: Why were her
keys found in exactly the spot where her car had been parked? Why was Gail's purse
found on the other side of the restaurant,
apparently untouched, but with no money in it? Were the keys and purse
thrown where they lay by someone who attacked Gail? Or is it possible Gail placed
the keys and purse herself? 2:35 This Sunday morning-- ROBERT STACK: A new theory
about Gail's disappearance emerged when police interviewed
a local late-night disc jockey. --for being with us. We're WIGY. CHRISTIN ROY: I was working the
overnight at this radio station and Gail would call
sometime after 1 o'clock in the morning just to talk
and to go on in general about life experiences. And then Gayle finally asked
if I would like to meet her. Gail always seemed
to be very, very sad or depressed almost to the
point of not being able to move. Always you felt that Gail was
just going to perhaps give up at any moment, just cease to
exist, disappear, literally, sitting there on the couch. ROBERT STACK: For years, Gail
had struggled with depression and had been on
medication for it. Several times, she had
considered taking her own life and had talked about
it with her sister. Gail's family
reluctantly considered whether her disappearance
might have been a suicide. I don't feel that Gail
committed suicide because I don't believe that she
would ever have left and left us to go
through this kind of pain and not knowing if she's
out there somewhere. I think that she definitely
doesn't know who she is and that would be,
of course, our best scenario is that she's
out there somewhere and that we can find her. ROBERT STACK: With the
help of truck drivers, Gail's fairly distributed
missing posters throughout the
eastern United States. Over a year after
Gail disappeared, a truck driver spotted
her missing poster in a Georgia truckstop. DAN BRADFORD: On
Friday, August 14, 1987, I received a phone
call in the evening from a man named John Scott
of Swansea, South Carolina. Earlier that day he
had seen a missing person's poster of Gail DeLano. He recognized that woman as
one that he had given a ride to several months earlier. JOHN SCOTT: I was
with her somewhere in the neighborhood of 24 hours. She didn't talk too much. But she had that northern
accent pretty bad. You could tell she
was from up north. She was sort of a
neat type of woman. And mostly you catch
these regular hitchhikers, I'd call them, in
truckstop [inaudible]. They don't care how they dress. You don't have to go. But this woman was
dressed pretty neat. You could tell she was
different than the regular one, you know what I'm talking about? You can't travel on the
road without any money. You take that $20. JOE MALLET: I asked him, did
he notice anything about her-- whether she was on medication,
or took any medication, or anything of this sort. He did notice some pill
bottles, but he had no idea what might be in them. My next question to him was
how sure he felt that this was, in fact, Gail DeLano. Leno I would bet money on
it that that was her. ROBERT STACK: The
truck driver's story suggested another
possibility, that Gail had engineered her
own disappearance from the Brunswick restaurant. JOE MALLET: Gail could have
told the children that she was going to a restaurant
to meet a gentleman by the name of John. Gail could have easily driven to
the restaurant, parked her car, either concealed the key
somewhere under the car or merely tossed them under
the car, stating to herself she was going to
give up her identity, throw the purse
in the shrubbery, and either catch a ride
with somebody leaving the restaurant area or
perhaps even a truck driver leaving the area. The Gail DeLano
I met did not seem to have it together enough or
brave enough or sure of herself enough to just
pack it up and head for another part of the
country without telling anyone what she was doing. They couldn't even get Gail
DeLano to go for a Sunday drive or out to a restaurant
or for an ice cream, and I really cannot
picture Gail DeLano as just getting in a car and
just going to the other side of the country. She could just
as well have thrown her hands up and said, the heck
with it all, and just took off. But what we're afraid
of is that she's out there wandering around,
possibly not knowing who she is, need our help. I want her to know that if she's
well and happy-- and I pray she is-- she doesn't
have to come home. She doesn't even have
to call if she'll just let somebody know that
she's alive so that we can put ourselves at peace. ROBERT STACK: Gail's parents
are no closer to the truth than on the day their
daughter disappeared. Was she the victim of foul play? Or is she wandering somewhere,
unaware of her own identity? Or could the blind
date with John merely have been an elaborate
ruse Gail concocted to cover up her own disappearance? GAIL DELANO (VOICEOVER):
"The only thing I want is to find a man
to share my life. I know I'm lonely and tired
of doing it all by myself. Time is becoming
a big enemy to me. To say it passes
slowly is a laugh. For me, it seems to stand still. ROBERT STACK: Update,
Mobile, Alabama. A two-and-a-half-year search for
Gail DeLano has come to an end. Tragically, she
took her own life shortly after she disappeared. A forensic administrator in
Mobile watched our program and recognized Gail's photo
as a woman who had died in a local hotel room in 1986. CHUCK ELLIOTT: When
I saw the photograph, I immediately saw the
resemblance between Ms. DeLano and an unidentified
body that we had in our laboratory in Mobile. ROBERT STACK: After two
weeks of forensic tests, positive identification
was made. Police now theorize that
Gail DeLano orchestrated her own disappearance. They believe that, after
she drove to the restaurant, she hid her keys
somewhere on the car, removed all the
money from her purse, discarded it, and
then flew to Alabama. That evening, she
checked into a hotel in Mobile, where she registered
under the name Jackie Stafford. Three days later, police
discovered her body. She had died from
a drug overdose. On November 11, Gail's family
held a memorial service for her in Brunswick, Maine. Gail's family showed remarkable
courage as, for two long years, they searched for the truth. Her loss saddens us all. And to her parents and sons,
we send our deepest sympathy. For every mystery, someone,
somewhere knows the truth. Perhaps that
someone is watching. Perhaps it's you. [music playing]
