Original subtitles

On this episode of Expedition File, The Exorcist, perhaps the scariest horror

film of all time, but behind the terror is a true story.

For decades, the identity of the real child said to be possessed by the devil

was buried in mystery.

Now, we reveal all.

Then...

2 ,000 years ago, a hallucinogenic honey is said to have brought down an entire

Roman army in what is considered history's first act of biological

For centuries, the deadly recipe was considered lost, but has it now been

And we expose the shocking story of a man who posed as a member of America's

richest family, the Rockefellers.

leaving behind a trail of deception, outrage, and possibly murder.

In the corridors of time are mysteries that defy

explanation.

Now, I'm traveling through history itself on a

search for the truth.

New evidence.

Shocking answers.

I'm Josh Gates.

And these are my expedition files.

Did you know Abraham Lincoln was a licensed bartender? How about that

is wider than the moon?

or that it's illegal to own only one guinea pig in Switzerland.

Those facts may sound crazy, but they're all 100 % accurate.

Look them up. And tonight, we embrace this strange but true concept to the

fullest, delving into three historical mysteries that all seem too bizarre to

believed. But in each case, real answers are about to be revealed.

We begin in 1949.

I'm standing on Bunker Hill Road in Mount Rainier, Maryland, a peaceful,

neighborhood. But something is about to shatter that silence, something

disturbing.

Inside that house, the young boy who lives there is anything but at peace.

He's growling in a strange, almost demonic voice and lashing out

Soon, the Catholic Church will get involved, leading to a terrifying

The events will inspire a best -selling novel, which in turn becomes the iconic

horror film The Exorcist. The real child behind it all will become known to the

public only by the alias Roland Doe. But who is he really? What becomes of him?

And most importantly, is he actually possessed by the devil?

In 1971, William Blatty's terrifying novel The Exorcist hits bookshelves.

Inspired by rumors of a real -life possession of a young child, it sells

millions of copies and becomes a cultural phenomenon.

Two years later, the story leaps onto the big screen and becomes a massive

Audiences scream.

Critics rave. It is widely considered one of the greatest horror films of all

time.

But none of this would have been possible without the real boy, known by

nickname Roland Doe.

In 1949, he's 13 years old, an only child who lives with his parents in the

Maryland suburbs.

Roland loves spending time with his Aunt Tilly, playing with her spirit board.

She's a spiritualist, someone who believes the dead can communicate with

living.

It's seen as a bit of harmless fun.

They spend evenings together asking questions in the dark.

So far, pretty straightforward.

But from here on out, the story will take terrifying twists and turns, the

details of which are gathered from those involved.

Is it all true? Is it not?

Well, buckle up, because things are about to get supernatural.

According to his mother and father, it starts small.

A phantom dripping sound.

Scratching beneath the floorboards.

And a picture of Christ shaking and falling to the ground.

The noises continue for ten straight nights, and then they suddenly stop.

Three days later, a new sound begins.

The phantom creak of shoes pacing softly around Roland's bed.

Then, in late January, tragedy strikes.

Aunt Tilly dies.

After that, the strange activity only seems to grow worse.

And Roland's mother begins to wonder if her sister's spirit has joined the

voices from the beyond.

Aunt Hilly, if that's you, knock three times.

Or perhaps it's something worse.

The knocking in the night continues, and the scratching only grows louder.

According to the family, Roland's behavior also becomes disturbing.

He speaks in a strange, guttural voice, murmuring Latin phrases he does not

know.

Objects near him move without being touched.

He lashes out at his family with a frightening fury, then says

he doesn't remember a thing.

Roland's family is deeply religious, and so, desperate for help, his mother

turns to Father Edward Hughes, a local Jesuit priest.

Over the course of two weeks of meetings with the boy, Hughes grows alarmed as

Roland's condition worsens.

With no clear answers, in February of 1949, Hughes arranges for him to be

admitted to Georgetown University Hospital for observation.

But doctors find no medical explanation for his outbursts.

So, Father Hughes decides to act, performing an unsanctioned exorcism on

According to Father Hughes, he begins his ritual by sprinkling holy water and

praying for Roland.

But midway through, the agitated boy suddenly breaks free.

And strikes Father Hughes, slashing his arm.

The exorcism is abandoned.

With both doctors and the priest apparently unable to help, Roland is

Let's be clear, everything we've just told you is what happened according to

Roland's family.

Weeks later, it is said the manifestations take a disturbing new

Roland apparently wakes with scratches on his skin. At first, they're just

lines. But then, an enigmatic word appears.

Louis.

To the family, the message is unmistakable.

They have relatives in the city of St. Louis. They need to go there now.

They leave Maryland and make the trip west, staying with family in the quiet

suburb of Belnor.

But the frightening disturbances continue, and soon word reaches local

priest, Father Bowdern.

At 52, Bowdern is a scholar and seasoned Jesuit priest.

who served as a military chaplain in World War II.

But what he hears from the family is serious enough that he takes it straight

the Archbishop of St. Louis, who agrees the child must undergo a second exorcism

immediately.

It will become one of the most well -documented exorcisms in U .S. history,

it is one of the rare times the Church formally sanctions the rite on American

soil.

Father Baudern prepares to leave the deliverance, joined by his assistant,

Father Bishop, who documents the ordeal in a handwritten journal.

To guide the exorcism, Baudern turns to the church's ancient manual, the Rituale

Romanum, a book of rites written in Latin, unchanged for centuries.

He memorizes the prayers.

and gathers what is required, a crucifix, holy water, and the relic of a

saint. Because once the ritual begins, there's no turning back.

Much of the event takes place here, in a secluded psychiatric wing.

Astoundingly, the exorcism goes on for over a month, as Bowdern battles what he

believes is the devil himself.

Mother of God.

Pray for us.

The session grows ever more violent, more profane.

Bowdern and his assistant recount the litany of the saints.

Pray for us.

Saint Michael, pray for us.

As they invoke the saints, it's recorded that the bed begins to shake.

Our Christ compels you.

Roland lashes out, breaking the priest's nose.

But the men continue their prayers.

Then Father Bowdern notices a shift. The boy grows suddenly calm, almost himself

again. Seizing the moment, Bowdern acts.

Will you accept this baptism?

Yes. Almighty and ever -loving God. To their surprise, Roland agrees. He

renounces Satan.

According to the priest's diary, what happens next is unforgettable.

Roland cries out, declaring himself to be the archangel St.

Michael, wielding a fiery sword.

And after a hellish month of ritual, violence, and perceived possession, just

like that, it's over.

Roland themes at last to be a thief.

Whatever dark presence had haunted him now appears to be gone.

After the ordeal, Roland returns home to Maryland.

He and his parents never speak publicly of what happened.

The only record of all of this is the remarkable diary kept by Father Bishop.

For the next 70 years, two huge questions will remain unanswered. Who

real boy behind this incredible story?

And was he truly possessed by the devil?

Now, we may finally have the answer.

For 70 years, the true identity of Roland Doe, the boy who inspired the

exorcist, was shrouded in secrecy. What was his real name, and was he actually

possessed by the devil?

Now, Reverend Anthony Holmes, who's spent years studying and observing first

-hand cases of exorcism, pulls back the curtain on this spine -chilling story.

Roland was a teenager.

He was in an emotional place.

He was grieving his aunt. And in the middle of his grief, strange things

happening. While it's impossible to know whether or not something supernatural

took place, when you step back and look at it, the events don't necessarily

point to the supernatural.

They point to stress, trauma, and isolation.

They are psychological conditions that could explain what the family and priest

believe they saw.

Much of what we know about Roland's case comes from the religious perspective of

Father Bishop's diary.

Skeptics argue that those strange events, the banging sounds in the house,

the scratches on Roland's skin, could have been produced by a boy in the

of despair.

But how does that explain the fact that he was speaking Latin, a language he

didn't know?

Some believe it was a case of impressive mimicry.

echoing terms he'd previously heard in the church and during the exorcisms

themselves.

The power of suggestion could deeply take play in this case.

The family was deeply religious.

The priests were around him at all times, people speaking about God or the

and things of this nature around him and the family.

For Roland's religious family, the devil is seen as a real and terrifying force.

And once strange things started happening, they prioritized seeking help

the church over the medical community.

Being exposed to that kind of influence at a young age, while also processing

the loss of his beloved Aunt Tilly, could have conditioned Roland's mind to

believe he was possessed.

If your family believed it, If your pastor believes it, if the church

it, then you might end up believing it too.

Reverend Holmes is convinced that Roland's ordeal may have been less about

demons and more about the fragile boundaries of the human mind.

In 1999, the Vatican revisited its understanding of possession.

Priests must first rule out mental illness.

But in the case of Roland, another huge mystery still remains.

Who was he?

and what became of him after his harrowing experience.

In 2021, more than 50 years after the ordeal, the man once known as Roland Doe

dies at the age of 86.

And at that point, journalists around the world reveal his name, Ronald Edwin

Hunkler.

After the exorcism, Ronald Hunkler went on to live a seemingly ordinary life.

He graduated from high school in 1954.

He pursued an engineering career and worked at NASA for over 40 years.

He was even part of the team that helped develop technology for the Apollo

missions. But he never spoke publicly about the exorcism. To colleagues, he

just another engineer.

While the detailed accounts in Father Bishop's diary firmly suggest a

supernatural culprit, we now know this infamous story may be more about

childhood grief than the dangers of the devil.

Ronald Hunkler built a quiet, grounded life, raising three children and

distancing himself from those events in the Maryland suburbs in 1949.

And who can blame him when your most terrifying childhood experience becomes

of Hollywood's biggest blockbusters?

Who wouldn't want to stay out of the spotlight?

From a demonic mystery to something strangely sweeter.

The year is 65 B .C., and we are deep in the hills of the Pontic Kingdom, what

will eventually be called Turkey.

The Pontics are at war with the Romans, and they are vastly outnumbered. But not

to worry, they've got a plan to strike back, which brings us to these clay

So what's inside?

Weapons? Maybe explosives.

Actually, it's honey. And soon it will be deployed into one of the wildest

military maneuvers of all time. One that ends in the complete massacre of a

thousand attacking Roman soldiers.

So how does honey kill an army? To find out, we comb through the evidence to

finally reveal the secret of history's stickiest trap.

Two thousand years ago in ancient Turkey, two great armies are battling

dominance, the Romans and the Pontics.

Rome at this time is a mighty republic, controlling a vast swath of the globe.

Practically every piece of land that touches the Mediterranean Sea is Roman,

except for a rather large chunk known as the Pontic Kingdom.

For the next several years, the Romans and the Pontics violently clash over

valuable territory.

under the command of two opposing and legendary leaders.

On one side is Pompey, a notorious general in the Roman army. He cultivates

reputation for ruthlessness and is known as the teenage butcher, after winning

several great victories as a young man.

On the opposite side is the Pontic king Mithridates, a legend in his own right,

and not about to go down without a fight.

After all, he's resisted the Romans since before Pompey was born.

But who is Mithridates? To really understand him, we need to rewind a bit.

Mithridates ascends to the throne as a boy after his father's sudden and

suspicious death.

Widely believed to be the work of poison, administered by none other than

Mithridates' own mother.

Talk about family drama.

With her husband dead, Mithridates' mom rules in his place until the boy comes

of age and claims what is rightfully his.

Fearing that his mom might now poison him, he imprisons her where she dies.

With his power secured, King Mithridates becomes famed for his shrewd

intelligence, supposedly speaking 22 languages.

He also turns all that poison -related childhood trauma into a lifelong

Toxicology becomes Mithridates' true expertise, learning how to create

poisons and measure the perfect dose.

He often tests out deadly ingredients like nightshade, hemlock, arsenic, and

lead on criminals, observing their effects and looking for potential

Over the years, Mithridates becomes so engrossed with elixirs of death, at

he even tests them on himself.

Kids, don't try this at home.

But his obsession with poisons doesn't end there. He also turns his lethal

recipes into weapons of war.

From venom -tipped arrows and flaming oils to unleashing wasps and wild beasts

into enemy tunnels, he fights dirty and brilliantly.

Which brings us back to his war with the Romans and General Pompey, and a

poisonous plan to take the general out.

In 65 BC, more than a thousand of Pompey's Roman soldiers trudged through

treacherous Caucasus Mountains on their way to attack the Pontic Kingdom.

Starving and spent, they stumble upon what looks like a gift from the gods,

bowls of delicious golden honey.

left out in the open near a quiet village.

Too hungry to question it, the Romans dig in.

But this is no sweet treat. It's a trap.

And soon, the Roman army will be dead.

But how?

Modern science finally has the answer.

In 65 BC, an army of soldiers under the mighty Roman general Pompey stumble into

a literal honey trap laid by enemy king Mithridates.

Over the next few hours, the men dip into the sugary bounty.

But then they begin to feel strange.

Some hallucinate.

Others become physically ill. And soon they grow weak, collapse.

and slip into unconsciousness.

With the Romans helpless, Mithridates' forces face no resistance at all.

Sources say around a thousand legionnaires are all wiped out in a

ambush.

As for their leader, Pompey, he survives the trap, but is purportedly enraged,

swearing revenge.

Over the next two years, he unleashes hell.

crushing the last of Mithridates' forces one by one.

Realizing defeat by Pompey is inevitable, Mithridates decides to take

life with, you guessed it, poison.

But in a cruel twist, his suicide attempt doesn't work.

Turns out years of testing small doses of poison on himself has made him

With poison off the table, he asks his loyal bodyguard to do what no toxin

could, finish him with a sword.

Despite losing the war and his life, Mithridates' honey trap becomes one of

greatest triumphs and an enduring historical mystery.

For centuries, experts have wondered exactly how he managed to concoct a

so deadly that it alone incapacitated the Roman army.

But in 2023, historian and emergency doctor Matthew D. Turner discovered the

truth about what turned this sweet nectar into a biological weapon.

Given Mr. Davey's wide knowledge of poisons and his reputation for

you might think that he had spiked the honey with something, something like

arsenic, which he was fond of using.

This was not actually the case.

After combing through the historical records, I found that the valley where

Mithridates is said to have laid its trap contains a large amount of plants

called Rhododendron ponicum, also known as Mountain Rose, a plant which is well

known for the poison in its nectar.

And what's more, the bees in this valley only pollinate a tiny two square miles

around their beehive. And what flower do the bees pollinate in this valley?

Mountain Rose.

When the bees consume the nectar of the mountain rose plant, the toxins make

their way into the honey.

Locals call it mad honey, but science calls it granotoxin poisoning.

This stuff doesn't mess around.

It hijacks your nervous system, slows your heart, and blurs your vision. The

result? Up to 24 hours of wild, woozy misery with vomiting and diarrhea.

Sounds fun.

Essentially, when you're poisoned by granotoxins, your body is unable to

stop or slow down any of its processes.

You just keep sweating and sweating and sweating. Your body is just unable to

stop itself.

Granotoxins can have wildly different effects at very different dosages.

Even today, very small amounts of mad honey are actually used for medicinal

purposes, for treating high blood pressure, diabetes, and even low libido.

even a tiny change in the dosage can be very toxic and deadly.

It seems Mithridates had perfected his own secret formula.

If the poisoned honey had been too weak, the Roman soldiers could have fought

back. But if the mix was too strong, the first few to drink it would have fallen

ill immediately, warning off their comrades from taking a taste.

Mithridates diluted the poison just enough so that the Roman soldiers all

the honey, but had a high enough concentration so that they were poisoned

honey. This was very much a Goldilocks scenario of poisoning.

So, according to Dr. Turner, we now know how Mithridates pulled off his honey

trap so effectively.

But one question still lingers. How did Pompey not anticipate this kind of

attack? Given Mithridates' reputation for using poison against his enemies,

you'd think Pompey would have seen this coming a mile away.

It seems pretty unlikely that Pompey would not have been unaware of this as a

possibility. However, it's possible he simply didn't care.

I think part of it may have been arrogance on Pompey's part. At this

seemed inevitable that Pompey's resistance would soon be crushed, as it

Mithridates actually sent Pompey a peace offer, but Pompey refused it because he

wanted, like, a total crushing victory.

And he got it, even at the cost of thousands of his own men.

Although the Romans claimed ultimate victory on the battlefield, no one will

ever forget the deadly sweet legacy of their enemies.

Mithridates masterfully created a blend of honey that wiped out an army. But he

also did something else. He laid the groundwork for the concept of biological

warfare. From poison -tipped arrows and plague -ridden corpses tossed over

medieval castle walls, all the way to the 2001 anthrax attack, biological

warfare has long been a tragic fixture of human conflict. And it all stems from

a simple pot of honey.

Sickly sweet, indeed.

It's August 2nd, 2008, and I'm in front of an apartment complex in Baltimore,

Maryland. This man has just been told over the phone that his boat is sinking,

but it's a trap. The call came from these officers, and they're arresting

for kidnapping his 7 -year -old daughter.

So who is he? Well, he claims to be Clark Rockefeller, fine art collector,

Street phenom, and a guy with a last name that makes him heir to one of the

powerful families in the nation.

But in the weeks that follow...

Investigators and the world will discover this Rockefeller is in fact an

imposter, one of the most prolific fraudsters in American history. And

new details reveal he may also be a cold -blooded murderer.

The man who would claim to be a Rockefeller is born in 1961 in Germany

very different name.

Christian Carl Gerhardsreiter. His childhood is unexceptional, growing up

modest working -class family.

Then, as a young man, he moves to the United States, landing in Connecticut as

an exchange student.

He develops a passion for acting, but for him, life itself is a performance.

His first lie sets the stage.

He convinces his American host family he comes from wealthy German nobility.

When in truth, his background is anything but.

Two years later, he heads to the Midwest and briefly enrolls as a film student

at the University of Wisconsin.

There, he adopts his first new persona, naming himself Christopher Gerhardt.

In 1981, the so -called Christopher hits a bump in the road. His visa is about

to expire.

so he comes up with a manipulative scheme.

He persuades a woman named Amy into marrying him just so he can get his

card. He's now a permanent U .S. resident, and before the ink is dry on

wedding certificate, he skips town.

Ultimately, Amy will file for divorce, never hearing from Christopher again.

In 1982, Christian lands in the wealthy suburb of San Marino, California.

Using a fake ID under a new alias, Christopher Chichester, he cons his way

the city's elite social circle, claiming to be descended from British

royalty, with ties to Lord Mountbatten and Sir Francis Chichester.

To strangers, he's posh, but his living arrangements are far from upper crust.

Still, with charm and cunning, he manages to land a rent -free spot in the

house of Ruth Sohus, a wealthy widow he meets through San Marino's high society.

But tensions start to rise when Ruth's family comes to stay, her son John, a

computer programmer, and his wife Linda, an artist.

John grows uneasy.

The more time he spends around him, the more questions John has about this so

-called Christopher Chichester, a man who claims he has noble British roots,

lives in a pool house with no clear job and, stranger still, no clear past.

After a year of rising tension, John and Linda apparently head out of town,

leaving a message for Ruth that they've taken a business trip to New York.

When they don't return, Ruth grows anxious.

Until postcards arrive claiming the couple is now traveling through Europe.

Two months go by and there's no further communication.

Distraught, Ruth files a missing persons report.

John and Linda are never seen again. And the man living with Ruth, known as

Christopher Chichester, vanishes soon after.

Questions swirl.

Did he have something to do with the couple's disappearance?

The Trail of Clues will lead us to one of the richest and most famous families

in American history.

After the suspicious disappearance of his landlord's son and daughter -in

conman Christian Gerhartsreiter ditches his alias Christopher Chichester and

moves across the country.

He pops up in Greenwich, Connecticut as Christopher Crowe, a smooth -talking

finance guy. That is, until his lack of business experience gets him fired. In

the mid-'90s, he lands in New York, where he takes on his most outrageous

persona yet.

Meet Clark Rockefeller, eccentric heir to the affluent Rockefeller family.

The Rockefellers are one of the wealthiest dynasties in America's

Patriarch John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil.

His grandson Nelson would go on to be U .S. Vice President.

Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York dominates the scene in the early hours.

To be clear, Christian has no actual connection to the Rockefellers.

Instead, leaning on his charisma, thorough research, and keen ability to

questions to make his adopted persona work.

And he has a fake social security number and forged documents handy just in

case.

But living life like a Rockefeller, all while avoiding actual Rockefellers, is

expensive. Christian needs to find a source of funding fast.

In 1993, while hosting a party, he meets Sandra Boss, a Harvard Business School

graduate earning over a million dollars a year at a global management consulting

firm. Christian makes Sandra laugh, and Sandra makes Christian rich.

They're married in Nantucket in 1995.

None of his relatives attend, as he claims to have disinvited them over an

undisclosed family drama.

After tying the knot, the honeymoon ends fast.

Christian seizes total control over their lives, from their finances to

social lives, even dictating what Sandra can eat.

Honey, that's enough calories for today.

Then, in 2001, Sandra gives birth to a daughter, Ray, who they nickname

Snooks.

Ironically, for a man always living a lie, Christian's love for his biological

daughter seems to be the one true thing in his life.

But that love will also be his undoing.

As years pass, Sandra grows suspicious of why she's never met any of her

husband's Rockefeller relatives.

After they relocate to Boston in 2006, she hires a private investigator.

I'm so sorry, Miss Boss. I've got some bad news for you. Although her husband's

true identity remains unknown, she learns one undeniable truth.

He is not Clark Rockefeller, because there is no Clark Rockefeller. He

exist. In shock, Sandra divorces him and wins custody of Snook.

Losing his beloved daughter apparently devastates Christian.

At the end of his rope, during a supervised visitation on July 27, 2008,

kidnaps seven -year -old Snooks, triggering a nationwide manhunt that

days, until a Maryland resident recognizes the fugitive's face on the

calls police.

He's got a boat at the local marina, and authorities fear he's about to use it

to flee with his daughter.

Which brings us back here, August 2nd, 2008, outside the Baltimore apartment

where so -called Clark Rockefeller has finally been found and is being placed

under arrest.

After 30 years of living lie after lie, for serial impersonator Christian Carl

Gerhartsreiter, the jig is finally up.

In June of 2009, he's sentenced to five years in prison for custodial

kidnapping.

But his legal troubles are only beginning, because soon the path he's

hard to outrun will come back with a vengeance, exposing a dark secret that

long been buried.

The Exorcist, inspired by the real -life case of Roland Doe, is one of the most

successful horror movies ever made.

But what's less well -known is that the film's production was plagued by eerie

events. Two actors who played characters that die in the movie tragically passed

away in real life shortly after filming.

A mysterious fire also destroyed most of the set, except, unsettlingly, the room

of the possessed child played by Linda Blair.

The crew became so concerned that director William Friedkin brought in a

priest to bless the production.

And the horrors would continue when the film was released, with multiple viewers

reportedly fainting, and some theaters even arranging to have ambulances on

standby. We know that art imitates life, but maybe also the afterlife.

Christian Gerhardt's writer has been arrested for kidnapping and exposed as a

fraud for assuming the identity of Clark Rockefeller.

As investigators dig deeper, they begin to suspect that Christian's past may be

darker than anyone realized.

Vanity Fair journalist Mark Thiel spent years investigating the story, and he

uncovered the shocking truth about one of Christian's former lives.

In 1994, workers were digging a hole for a new swimming pool in this home in San

Marino, California, and the blade hit something hard.

and it turned out to be a badly decomposed body.

The authorities later identified the bones as belonging to John Sohas, who

been missing with his wife, Linda Sohas, since 1985.

This is the home of Ruth Sohas. That's right, John Sohas' body was found on the

same property where Christian Gerhartsreiter lived in the mid-'80s

alias Christopher Chichester.

right before he skipped town and took on yet another identity.

It's certainly suspicious, but also circumstantial. And while the police had

tried to track down this Christopher Chichester for questioning, their search

came up empty.

However, after Clark Rockefeller was arrested for kidnapping, and his story

image were splashed across the media,

A neighbor of Ruth Sohus noticed Rockefeller and Chichester appeared to

and the same.

Now that they found the prime suspect in the John Sohus murder case, they just

needed the evidence to prove it.

And it turns out the key to cracking the case was a plastic bag.

There were two plastic bags that contained some of the remains of John

one of them had the logo of the University of Wisconsin on them, which

odd.

That's where Christian had studied, just before he moved to California and

reinvented himself as Christopher Chichester.

The prosecution felt this was the smoking gun that clearly showed

was the killer.

But what was the motive?

The police investigator later told me that Christopher needed money to start a

new life and that somehow he figured he could get some of Ruth's money.

Maybe John and Linda somehow suspected that things were not right with

Christopher. He really wasn't who he said he was.

The prosecution's theory was that Christian realized he was about to be

as a fraud.

A confrontation may have followed, leading to the murder of John and

Linda as well.

Lawyers argued it was exactly the kind of manipulative scheme you'd expect from

a career con man. The jury agreed.

They found Christian guilty and sentenced him to 27 years in prison for

murder of John Soas. As for Linda, she remains missing.

The tragedy of this whole thing is John and Linda Soas.

This isn't just a fun story about somebody who fooled people with a big

It's a tragic story about the loss of a young man who was in the prime of his

life. And Linda was an artist. And this young couple, who everyone seemed to

love, are gone.

Christian Gerhart's writer left untold damage in his wake.

His deceptions ripped lives apart, including those of the people who loved

the most.

Christian was a master at making people believe. His wife, Sandra,

said in the trial that she may have had a blind spot because he was very

charming, very intelligent, had all of the trappings of sophistication.

Christian just shedded one identity for another and just kept moving forward.

But that kidnapping of his daughter caused his whole world to be exposed to

crash.

And as for Christian, to this day, he insists that while he's guilty of living

borrowed lives, he's innocent of murder.

He fought his conviction on appeal twice, in 2015 and 2016, but both

were denied.

In the end, the man who fooled so many couldn't escape himself or his fate.

I'm Josh Gates, and I'll see you on the next expedition.