All language subtitles for Unsolved.Mysteries.S10E02.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-AJP69_track3_[eng]

Tonight on "Unsolved Mysteries."

[music playing]

HOST: Brooke Baker
was a reporter

for her campus
newspaper, a small town

girl with big-time ambitions.

What was it about her life
that led to this brutal attack?

It is one of the strangest
stories we've encountered--

people who call themselves
walk-ins and claim their bodies

have been inhabited--
in fact, taken

over-- by invading spirits.

Could it be that walk-ins
are walking among us?

It had all the signs
of a tragic accident

until police found evidence
of an elaborate setup--

cold-blooded murder.

Now this man stands accused
of killing his own wife,

but he insists that
he is innocent.

When a terrifying
accident left Wilma

Drew unconscious and
trapped in her car,

death seemed inevitable.

Then salvation
arrived in the form

of an unknown good Samaritan.

Now Wilma needs
your help to thank

the man who saved her life.

20 years ago, a
young Korean woman

said goodbye to her GI
husband and her daughter,

then boarded a train and
for some unknown reason

never came back.

Since then, her
daughter has grown up,

married, and hopes that
someone watching tonight

can reunite her with
her long-lost mother.

Join me.

Perhaps you may be able
to help solve a mystery,

or perhaps you may
encounter one that

simply cannot be explained.

[theme music]

Every autumn,
thousands of parents

send their sons and
daughters off to college,

assuming they'll be safe and on
their way to a bright future.

The parents of a young
woman named Brooke

Baker thought exactly that.

They were wrong.

Her campus experience
proved fatal.

[music playing]

Brooke Baker, a
college sophomore,

stabbed to death in her own bed
just half a block off campus--

[police dispatcher over radio]

Police in Vincennes, Indiana,
started their investigation

certain the case would
be solved easily,

but more than a year
later, Brooke's killer

remains unidentified.

OK.

How about the right shoulder?

JANET BAKER: I'm
obsessed with it.

I can't live without
justice for Brooke.

I can't go on with my life.

That's all I can think.

I want justice.

HOST: Who killed Brooke Baker?

Of the many theories
police are pursuing,

several point to a direct
link between Brooke's

life and her brutal murder.

Was it angry
fraternity brothers out

for revenge, a psychopath
posing as a potential roommate,

or perhaps Brooke's landlord?

He allegedly
watched her closely.

Then there's a puzzle
of Brooke's cousin.

Does she know something
she hasn't told police?

[chuckling]

To me, the real key
in solving this case

is going to be when we answer
the question, who was Brooke

Baker, and what was
there about her life

in the last few
years of her life

that led up to this
extraordinary conclusion?

HOST: Brooke Baker
was a small town

girl with big city ambitions.

She planned to be somebody--
a top flight journalist.

I need the photographs.

HOST: At Vincennes
University, Brooke

became very active
on the school paper,

and she made sure
everyone knew it.

Can you call me back, please?

Because I'm waiting,
and I need them.

MICHAEL MULLEN: I think one
of the things Brooke really

enjoyed was the power
that came from being

a reporter on the paper.

It gave her,
certainly, recognition,

visibility on campus.

And I think she
enjoyed the attention.

HOST: Few 19-year-olds
make deadly enemies.

Brooke may have
been an exception.

In the spring of 1997, she
heard rumors of a date rape

at a fraternity party and went
after the story aggressively.

Are you in a sorority?

Right.

So would you describe
some of the incidents

as if it happened to you?

MICHAEL MULLEN: It
would have been very

easy to work on the story
and have nobody know about it

but members of the staff, but
the word was out everywhere,

and I think the word was
generated from Brooke.

I think she wanted people
to know what she was doing.

[chatter]

HOST: At the fraternity
where the alleged

rape had taken place, Brooke's
investigation was not welcome.

You better not write
anything about us.

Look, I can write
whatever I want about you.

I'm serious.

And you better
watch your back.

You better watch your back!

JANET BAKER: She didn't
worry about who she offended

or whose toes she stepped on.

If it was the truth,
it was the truth.

HOST: Fraternity
members allegedly

started sending Brooke
email threatening

her if she ran the rape story.

Brooke was unfazed, but her
mother was very concerned.

JANET BAKER: I feared for
Brooke's safety all the time,

and I'd question her on it.

And she'd say if it
could save one girl

from being raped
or abused, she was

willing to write the story--

investigate the fraternity.

[yelling]

HOST: The harassment
allegedly climaxed one night,

when a truckload of
fraternity brothers

confronted Brooke
at a friend's house.

I'm not afraid of you guys!

HOST: They reportedly called her
names and shouted more threats.

Get out of here!

[yelling]

HOST: Did a conflict between
Brooke Baker and the fraternity

ultimately lead to murder?

[music playing]

A few months later, Brooke
moved into a new house

where she thought
she'd be safer.

The landlord was a
campus police officer.

LANDLORD: Do you need
any help with the boxes?

Oh, no, I got it.

Thank you.

You sure?

HOST: Within weeks, however,
Brooke allegedly started having

trouble with the landlord.

What are you
doing in my house?

LANDLORD: Just looking
for all my bug spray.

HOST: Brooke told her parents
she discovered him prowling

around her house at all hours.

You have to--

you need to come in here.

You would have to call.

You can't come into my house.

HOST: According to her parents,
the landlord once shined

a light through the windows.

On another occasion,
Brooke said he came

in while she was in the shower.

MICHAEL MULLEN: She felt
uncomfortable enough

that she told a number
of people that she

just was just
generally uncomfortable

about the whole situation.

HOST: What happened
the night Brooke died?

Did her landlord let himself in?

Did an angry confrontation
escalate to murder?

Vincennes police also identified
a third theory of murder.

Only days before
her death, Brooke

placed an ad for a roommate
in the campus newspaper.

Someone who wants to
come over to Brooke's house

and knock on the door and say,
hey, I'm here about your room.

I want to be a roommate.

What's Brooke's natural
reaction going to be in that?

[knocking on door]

Open the door and let them in.

HOST: Brooke's ad may have
become an invitation to murder.

Police found no
evidence of forced entry

and no signs of a struggle.

Their most vital clues are
several samples of DNA.

To date, they have
interviewed 400 people

and tested 52 against
those samples.

[music playing]

They say parents who
bury a child never

really stop grieving.

It goes too hard
against the heart.

For Brooke's parents,
however, answers would

at least be a great comfort.

[music playing]

Update-- two years after
Brooke Baker's death,

police got their first
break in the case.

Tragically, it came at
the cost of another life.

On July 5, 1999,
investigators searched

the apartment of missing
Vincennes college

student Erica Elaine Norman.

There, they find a crime
scene eerily similar to Brooke

Baker's, including
the identical odd

characteristic in the bathroom.

There was water
running in the bathtub,

and I knew right
then that it was

the same person
who had committed

the murder of Brooke Baker.

HOST: Erika had last
been seen leaving

a local restaurant with a man
by the name of Brian Jones.

He was immediately brought
in for questioning.

ROBERT DUNHAM: When we
interviewed Brian Jones,

it turned out that he was a
roommate of an individual that

was seeing Brooke Baker
within the last couple

weeks of her death.

HOST: Brian Jones consented
to give a sample of his DNA.

It linked him conclusively to
the murder of Brooke Baker,

and Jones was arrested.

When Erica Norman's body
was found two weeks later,

Jones struck a plea bargain.

He admitted to killing
Erica, and in exchange,

prosecutors did not
seek the death penalty

in the Brooke Baker trial.

On December 14, Brian Jones
was sentenced to life in prison

without the
possibility of parole.

ROBERT DUNHAM: Brian presented
himself to me as someone

that would have not stopped.

That case stop a serial
killer, in my opinion.

[music playing]

HOST: Next, meet
some people who claim

their bodies have been taken
over by someone else's soul.

[music playing]

Paris.

A brooding artist and teacher
nearly dies in a hospital.

During a near-death
experience, he

has a nightmare vision of Hell.

[yelling]

He survives and becomes
a minister in his church.

The experience forever
changes his life.

During a thunderstorm,
a self-centered bully

is struck by lightning.

--be on the phone when
there's lightning flashing.

[sizzling noise]

HOST: The 180,000 volts
nearly killed him.

When he recovered, he began
having psychic experiences,

and he's changed
his violent ways,

becoming a hospice volunteer.

Glad to see you again.

HOST: These individuals
say near-death experiences

made them behave like
different people.

Tonight, we'll tell you
about a group who say they

really are different people.

They call themselves walk-ins.

They say their bodies have been
taken over by other spirits.

It sounds unbelievable, but at
a recent convention in England,

500 people claiming to
be walk-ins showed up.

Is there any truth to
their strange tales?

I began to feel that I had
to change my name, and this

happens very often to walk-ins.

And I didn't know why.

I felt like a stranger
in a strange land.

I didn't fit here.

I didn't understand this world.

I didn't understand
how it worked.

The doctor patted me
and he said, young lady,

you gave us quite a scare.

And I said, oh, I'm
not who you think I am.

HOST: Those who believe
say it's not possession.

It's an even trade of
one soul for another,

and they say it could
happen to anyone of us.

[music playing]

Oh, I'm just feeling
a little bit of--

HOST: For Carol Parrish, the
routine life of a housewife

in the South would lead to
the extraordinary experience

of being a walk-in.

Carol had five children,
with a sixth on the way.

[groaning]

It hurts!

HOST: During childbirth
in 1958, doctors

gave Carol a shot of sodium
pentothal to ease her pain.

DOCTOR: All right.

We're going to give
you something to make

you a little more comfortable.

Nurse, 2 cc's of
sodium pentathal.

HOST: But Carol had an
allergic reaction to the drug,

and her lungs collapsed.

DOCTOR: All right.

We've gotten an
anaphalactic shock.

Nurse, let's get
some oxygen going.

HOST: She was on
the edge of death.

DOCTOR: Let's do an IV.

Bring in an IV, STAT.

CAROL PARRISH: Suddenly,
I wasn't there.

It was just like I had
been totally engaged

in that struggle, and
the next thing, it's cool

and I'm floating.

And I looked down, and you
hardly know that that's you.

HOST: Carol watched
her baby being born.

Then she says her soul entered
a tunnel of light, where

she felt she wasn't alone.

She described it as a
near-death experience.

But then, something
even stranger happened.

CAROL PARRISH: I stood
there, and in that light,

it began to tell me things.

It was like a whole
flow of information

just came into my mind, and
this love and this wisdom

just permeated.

Wave after wave of
understanding, wisdom,

richness just flowed into me.

HOST: Carol wasn't
expected to live,

but she says her body was given
new life with a different soul.

The old Carol was gone, and a
new identity had taken over.

--lucky to be alive.

CAROL PARRISH: And I saw young
Carol move off into the care

of some other beings.

I'm not who you
think that I am.

DOCTOR: It's OK.

CAROL PARRISH: As I look at
each person, their eyes just--

the veil comes over their eyes.

And I turned my head
toward the wall,

and big tears started coming
in my eyes and down my cheeks.

And I thought, how will I ever
get anybody to believe me?

Who's going to listen?

HOST: From then on,
Carol says everything

about her life changed.

She began having
out-of-body experiences.

CAROL PARRISH: One day
I was nursing the baby,

and I found myself standing
in the door looking at myself

and immediately thought, oh,
that's happening to me again.

When I thought that, I popped
back together, and it passed.

And I tried to talk
about that to my family.

HOST: Her husband
said she was insane.

Where's your medicine?

HOST: Her doctor tried
to put her on valium.

I'm not taking it anymore.

Why not?

It's not good for the baby.

Carol, the doctor said you've
got to take that medicine.

HOST: The new Carol made
radical changes in her life.

Bill, I am not taking
the medicine anymore.

HOST: She started school
to study bookkeeping.

She got a job and
eventually became

a manager at a local bank.

Carol believes her new
identity was a threat

to her husband, a firefighter.

He left her in 1967.

CAROL PARRISH: The years
after the experience

and before I was
really doing what

I consider to be
my spiritual life

and my life work
were very lonely.

I was lonely for other
people that valued the things

that were so meaningful to me.

HOST: In 1965, Carol began to
study metaphysical religion.

It led to her becoming
a minister at the Light

of Christ Community Church.

She remarried.

A timid southern
girl had blossomed

into an outspoken leader.

There was no way she
could be the same person.

Carol realized
she was a walk-in.

CAROL PARRISH: I believe young
Carol went as all souls do

into tender hands to care
for her and help her reorient

herself to the world of spirit.

The idea that life is
ongoing and if you are,

you always will be--

that's the piece that I
think is so important.

Partly it's important
because we would

live life more courageously
if we really believed that.

HOST: An exchange of souls?

Is it really possible?

A woman named Sherry
claims it happened to her.

She was a high school principal.

While visiting a
friend in Wyoming,

Sherry says her old soul
was exchanged for another.

Sherry began to
feel disoriented.

She asked her friend, who
was a metaphysical healer,

to lay her hands on her.

Suddenly, the room
began to change.

[music playing]

JUELLE: There was a glow of
golden, pulsating energy.

The core of the energy
just punched right

into the base of my spine.

I raised up on my knees and sat
immersed in this colorful light

and found myself wanting
to just flow with it

and dance with it with
my hands and my arms.

[music playing]

HOST: Later, Sherry's
friend said she had changed.

Her husband knew
something was very

different, especially
when she explained

that she had a new name.

I'm Juelle.

DONOVAN: I think some of
my most difficult moments

were when I would have a
certain something come up

and I needed some
help, for instance.

And usually, in
the past, I could

give a little shout or
something and somebody

would come and help me.

And with Juelle, I'd
say, OK, let's go.

And it was kind of like I'm
waiting to hear nothing.

There's a different response.

That was something
to get used to.

I don't know.

What's wrong?

JUELLE: I'm afraid.

Oh, there's nothing
to be afraid of.

It's over.

It's like things are changing.

It's--
- What?

HOST: Besides helping
her husband come

to terms with her
new identity, there

were other problems as well.

Mundane tasks became
nearly impossible.

JUELLE: There was
a hypersensitivity

to energy fields around people,
energy fields around things.

So to go into a supermarket,
see the energy fields,

hear all the thoughts--

it was so difficult to stay
focused on what my task was.

I tried to narrow my task
down to 5 to 10 items

so I could get
through that express

line as quick as possible.

HOST: Over time,
Juelle says she managed

to accept her new identity, as
did her husband and daughter.

It's as though
there are two chapters

in our lives as a family.

There's the before,
and there's the after.

And in many ways,
our life as a family

started after my mother
experienced the walk-in.

A lot of the healing that
wasn't able to take place

before did after.

We are so much stronger
as a family unit.

HOST: Juelle now dedicates
herself to educating others

about her walk-in experience.

I travel the country, I
travel the world speaking

to different groups of people,
doing private counseling

sessions with people.

I'm an author.

One of the beautiful
memories that

came from Sherry was
her ability to teach,

was her ability to
speak to people.

I've taken that
aspect, and I've just

taken it to the next phase.

HOST: Are the stories
of walk-ins valid?

Can one soul truly
enter the body

and replace another that
is ready to move on?

The people we have met
tonight, and many others,

do claim a new spirit,
a positive spirit,

resides inside them, a
spirit that has changed

their lives for the better.

When it comes to
walk-ins, perhaps that

is all we need to know.

Next, judging by
the family photos,

Steve and Kathy Page had
a storybook marriage.

But when Kathy turned up
dead, a grieving husband

became the prime suspect.

[music playing]

It was early dawn
on May 14, 1991,

when police in Vidor,
Texas, discovered the wreck.

The woman behind
the wheel was dead,

her skin cool to the touch.

At first glance, a
tragic accident--

but within seconds,
anomalies began to emerge.

The dead woman had
no obvious wounds,

and the car was barely damaged.

Soft drinks in the front
seat hadn't even spilled.

The list grew longer.

The woman's feet were
pushed back against the seat

rather than stretched
out toward the pedals.

She wasn't wearing
a seat belt, yet she

had not pitched forward.

Being no damage to the
interior of the vehicle

and very little,
if not any, damage

to the exterior of the vehicle
and the deepness of the ditch--

plain to see this
was a staged incident

instead of an accident.

So at that point,
they thought they had

probably a questionable death.

HOST: The woman was identified
as 34-year-old Kathy Page.

She was a wife and mother.

She lived at 450 Green
Street, curiously just

100 yards from the crash site.

Kathy's husband, Steve,
answered the door.

Who is it?

OFFICER: Vidor Police.

I'm Sergeant Moseley of the
Vidor Police Department.

Are you Mr. Page?

Yes.

Mr. Page, do you know
where your wife's at?

My wife--

RAY MOSELEY: He said, well,
his wife was not home,

and directly looked
straight down the street

towards where the car was.

This about my wife?

Yes, it is, sir.

I'm sorry to advise you,
sir, we found her deceased

in her vehicle this morning.

Can we step inside the residence
and discuss this matter?

RAY MOSELEY: Steve
seemed to be quite upset.

He began to cry at
times, and at times threw

himself on the couch crying.

But yet he would jump right
back up and we would talk,

and there would be no
signs of tears in his eyes.

This seemed strange to me.

Was she in a car accident?

RAY MOSELEY: Sir, we don't
know all the details.

We're still investigating--

HOST: From that moment
on, police concentrated

their attention on Steve Page.

Six years later, he is
still the prime suspect.

For Page, those years
have been an ordeal.

Barely a day passes
that he doesn't fend off

accusations that
he killed his wife,

the mother of his children.

Of course I did
not kill my wife.

The evidence clearly shows
that the perpetrator was

someone other than Steve Page.

HOST: Is this the
face of a killer?

Many people in the small
town of Vidor, Texas,

are convinced it is.

They are certain
only Steve Page had

both the opportunity and motive
to murder his wife, Kathy.

Her family claims he
would be in prison today

if his personal relationships
with police officials

had not dirtied
the investigation.

Steve Page insists
he is innocent.

Tonight, we'll
examine both sides

of this controversial case.

Kathy and Steve Page had been
married for almost 13 years.

They had two daughters--

12-year-old Erin and
7-year-old Monica.

They seemed like a perfect
family, but according to Steve,

he and Kathy had
drifted apart, and she

was no longer happy with
her role as Steve's wife.

STEVE PAGE: Mainly, she was
uncomfortable with who she was,

or at least that was what
she explained to me, that she

didn't know who she was.

She wanted to try to
find out who Kathy was.

Because of that, we
talked about separating

for a short period
of time and allowing

her to hopefully find herself.

HOST: Kathy's sister
Sherry disagrees.

She says the marriage
was beyond repair.

Kathy was definitely moving
on in her life at that point

because a decision was
made for the divorce,

and that, in itself,
having a decision like that

finally be resolved, in itself,
was a real relief off her back.

And she was making
plans for that.

HOST: Steve moved
out of the house,

but he says his relationship
with Kathy remained friendly.

The next day, Kathy
asked him to babysit

their daughters while she
went out with a friend.

Kathy was getting ready
when Steve arrived.

STEVE PAGE: She
said she was going

to meet one of her
girlfriends after work,

and so I went over there.

She left at proximately
11:15 to 11:30 to head

to Beaumont to meet her friend.

Charlotte was the friend's name.

HOST: By 4:15 AM,
Kathy Page was dead.

When her body was
found, she wasn't

wearing makeup or jewelry.

The autopsy showed she
had been strangled,

her nose broken,
her eye blackened.

There were blood stains on
Cathy's underwear and skin,

but strangely, not on
her outer clothing.

RAY MOSELEY: Kathy Page was
not killed in her vehicle.

She was killed at
another location,

cleaned up, redressed, and
placed back in her vehicle,

and after the vehicle had
been rolled into the ditch.

HOST: And there was more.

Sometime shortly
before Kathy Page died,

she had engaged in
sexual activity.

Was that mysterious
someone Kathy's killer?

Police soon learned
that Kathy had not

gone to meet her
friend Charlotte

but had instead
spent the evening

with a boyfriend in a
motel in Beaumont, Texas,

about 10 minutes from Vidor.

Goodbye.

HOST: The boyfriend
acknowledged that he

and Kathy made love that night.

RAY MOSELEY: He came
to the police station.

He gave us a statement and
also voluntarily gave us

a polygraph examination, which
he passed with flying colors.

HOST: However, the
autopsy report included

one more critical detail.

Kathy's sex partner
had had a vasectomy.

The boyfriend had not.

That meant Kathy
must have had sex

that night with someone else.

Could that man have
been Steve Page?

He had had a vasectomy
several months earlier.

When police questioned him, he
admitted having sex with Kathy

but claimed it was before
she went out that night.

She's expecting me, Steve.

Come on.

STEVE PAGE: She
was getting ready.

She'd just got out the shower.

I approached her about sex, and
we had sex before she left--

before she got dressed, even.

SHERRY VALENTINE:
I personally don't

believe that that happened.

She wouldn't have
been with Steve

before being with another man.

She hadn't been with
Steve in a long time.

He was already
sleeping on the couch.

Him coming over to
take care of the kids

was more of a kindness gesture
for him to be around his kids,

not for him to be around Kathy.

HOST: For Kathy's family, there
is only one possible scenario,

a deadly scenario,
sparked when Steve

discovered two phone numbers.

One belonged to Kathy's
friend Charlotte, the other

to the motel in Beaumont.

I was talking
to a sister-in-law

of Steve's, and she said
that she knew for a fact that

Steve made two phone calls.

Steve called this one number
and the girl answered,

and he hung up.

And then the second
phone number was called

and they said the name of
the hotel, and he hung up.

And so he already knew
where she might be or was.

I feel like she came in that
night and come in the back door

after she done parked the car.
and he was asleep, sitting

in a chair in the front room.

And when she went on in the
bathroom and changed clothes,

took her makeup, took
her jewelry and all off,

and he heard her
probably in the bathroom.

And he got up and
demanded sex with her

or whatever and got in a fight.

HOST: Kathy's family
believes the fight escalated.

Steve Page raped Kathy.

In the process,
he strangled her.

SHERRY VALENTINE: Then Steve,
realizing what had happened--

he wants to redress her.

If you look at the
violent crime profile,

if fits him to a T. The
remorse-- you wants to redress.

You don't want them to
be found naked or bloody.

So there was an attempt to
clean her up and redress her,

but things were
forgotten-- for instance,

her jewelry and her socks.

The reason it comes down on
me is because I'm the husband.

I'm the estranged husband,
to make it even worse.

And because of her actions, I
am being blamed for her actions.

She was out seeing another
guy, so therefore, it

could only have been me.

I must have found out somehow,
according to the police,

and became enraged
and committed murder.

HOST: Steve Page has his
own theory on the identity

of Kathy's killer.

STEVE PAGE: I received
threats on the phone

that the same thing
that happened to my wife

could happen to me.

There is a name of a certain
person here in Beaumont

that was bandied
about as a person

who may have been involved.

It's a very prominent family--

an Italian family, even--

to let you know that
they are considered

part of the Beaumont mafia.

[music playing]

HOST: Next, a frightening
accident-- a woman

on the brink of death
but timely rescue

by an unknown good Samaritan.

[music playing]

September 7, 1995, dusk
on a four-lane highway

near Ocala, Florida.

48-year-old Wilma Drew
was just a mile from home.

She had driven up this
hill hundreds of times,

but this night,
disaster was lurking.

A few miles away, a car
had entered the highway

going the wrong way.

Now it was headed straight
for Wilma at 55 miles an hour.

[music playing]

David Vittitow was driving
right behind Wilma.

DAVID VITTITOW: As we were
approaching the crest,

I saw headlights approaching us,
and the minute the lights came

into view, I
immediately tried to get

over on the right-hand lane
to avoid the collision.

[tires screeching]

[cars crashing]

I automatically, just in
my gut, knew that somebody

was going to be dead.

[music playing]

HOST: David raced
to help the victims.

The driver and passenger
in the wrong way car

seemed to be moving.

Wilma was not.

She was pinned in her
car, the steering column

wedged up against her chest.

The driver's window was
open, but the other windows

and all the doors were jammed.

[grunting]

A saw's in my truck.
I'll get a tool.

I'll be right back.

I decided to run back to
the truck to grab a tire tool,

try to pry the door
open or whatever

I could do to try to get in
to assist her possibly better.

HOST: Another good
Samaritan, Matthew White,

also stopped to help.

Ma'am, can you hear me?

HOST: The two men
didn't know it,

but Wilma's neck
had been broken,

cutting off her air passage.

Wilma was suffocating.

All the doors are
jammed from the impact.

Her driver's side
window was busted

out on the driver's side door.

So that's all we could do,
is reach through there.

And we couldn't break
the windows out,

so we were trying to get
someone who had something

that could break the window.

Hey, we need some help!

Stop!

Stop!

HOST: David tried
flagging down help.

A tanker truck stopped.

Remarkably, the driver seemed
to know exactly what to do

and how to do it.

[music playing]

Did you get it open?

No, it's locked.

Stand back.

[glass shattering]

DAVID VITTITOW: After
I busted the window,

he climbed into the back seat
and reached over and lifted

and held Wilma's head up.

[groaning]

HOST: Wilma took a breath.

MATTHEW WHITE: Is she breathing?

Yeah.

Let's get this thing off
her and give her some room.

[grunt]

You got it?

HOST: Matthew and David
struggled to lift the steering

column off Wilma's chest.

[inaudible]

Come on!

HOST: The trucker, meanwhile,
kept her neck motionless.

It seemed like hours,
but the ambulance

arrived 10 minutes later.

[siren blaring]

DISPATCHER: --7 roger, 18637
correct [inaudible] 701.

OK, Sir, I need you to let
go and come out of the car, OK?

I'm not letting go until you
put a brace around her neck.

You need to get out of the car--

And the paramedic
was just insistent

that he let go of her head
and got out of the car.

And the man would not
let go of her head

until I held it while he got
out and the paramedic got in.

No, I can hold her.
MAN: You got her?

Yeah.
MAN: You got her gently?

MAN: Yeah, I got her.

PARAMEDIC: OK, I need a
C-collar bottom [inaudible]..

HOST: Wilma was stabilized.

In the midst of the
commotion, no one

saw the truck driver leave.

No one had a chance
to get more than a

glimpse of what he looked like.

Wilma's husband came upon the
crash scene a short time later.

When I saw the
vehicle, in my mind,

nobody could have
lived through it.

I remember a lady asked me if
that was my car, and I said,

yes and my wife's dead.

And she says, no, she isn't.

They just left here with
her in the helicopter.

HOST: It would take 11
operations and nearly a year

to begin to repair the damage.

Wilma's right leg had
nearly been torn in half.

Her left ankle was shattered.

Her brain stem was
so damaged that it

caused permanent double vision.

And the C2 vertebra and Wilma's
neck was completely severed.

BILL DREW: The
neurosurgeon told us

that the break
that she sustained

is called the hangman's break.

And it's typically what
would happen in the old days

in the West when somebody
would drop from a gallows,

the way the body would
pull and jerk at the end.

And what he told
us was he's never

seen anybody
survive that injury,

that she's the only one
he's ever seen survive it.

And he can't understand
why she is still alive.

And that was kind of eerie.

I consider myself
extremely fortunate.

And I've never really
questioned why me.

I mean I don't know
why it happened to me.

But I know that there
is a purpose for it.

And it's even peculiar that I've
never experienced any anger.

I'm just very
thankful to be alive.

BILL DREW: The neurosurgeon
said it was a miracle

that he didn't actually
kill her in the process

of lifting her head.
- She breathing?

Yeah.

BILL DREW: But that he just--
he did it exactly right.

Had he done it any different,
it wouldn't have worked.

He gave the doctor
something to work with.

And he just saved her life
and gave her back to us.

She is not the same person
physically that she was.

She has limitations.

There's very little
that she can do.

She tires easy.

And she has different
sensations in her hands,

like she can't
tell heat and cold.

And-- but no, I consider myself
the most fortunate person

in the world to have her back.

Thank you just really seem so
insignificant as far as the way

we feel about the
gratitude we have,

that someone would take
the time to get involved

and to do all he did for
me and then just disappear.

[music playing]

HOST: Next, a young
woman would like

your help to find her mother,
who disappeared 20 years ago.

A beautiful bride, a handsome
groom, a fairytale wedding,

except for one sad detail--

the mother of the
bride is missing.

She vanished from her
daughter's life 23 years ago

and never returned.

STELLA HUTT: She's
still my mother,

and I still love
her as a mother--

just to see her, just
to know that she's OK.

HOST: But the father of
the bride, Robert Wortman,

has always been there for his
daughter, Stella Wortman Hutt.

He has raised her
since she was three.

And he believes
that his former wife

would have cherished
her daughter's

special day and more.

She's miss so much
of Stella's life--

you know, slumber parties,
chicken pox, graduation,

and stuff like that there.

There's no need for
her to miss anymore.

Stella is now in her late 20s.

Her mother disappeared in 1975.

Stella often lies awake
at night and wonders,

why did her mother walk
out of her family's life?

In 1972, Stella's
father, Robert Wortman,

was a 22-year-old
serving in the Air

Force in Seoul, South Korea.

He fell in love with a
20-year-old Korean woman

named [inaudible].

Robert nicknamed her Sunny.

ROBERT WORTMAN: I realize
now, we're both from two

different cultures.

And both of us were
very young at the time.

HOST: Despite the odds against
them, the couple married.

They welcomed their
new baby a year later.

She was named Stella
after Robert's mother.

The new family relocated
to Tokyo, Japan.

Robert was to be stationed
there for the next four years.

STELLA HUTT: I remember my mom.

She worked at a
ice cream parlor.

And This was when
I was about three.

That's basically
that all I remember.

Thank you.
OK.

HOST: Sunny worked on the
base to help support them.

Life was good, at
least for the moment.

SUNNY WORTMAN: Hi.

You want some ice cream?

OK.

[music playing]

HOST: Her mother
took on a second job

working nights as a waitress.

Sunny seemed to
live a double life.

She was rarely home.

STELLA HUTT: My dad said that
she hung around people who

were kind of into
the wrong things,

weren't really family oriented.

And he believes that,
you know, she just

wanted to be around those
people all the time, that that

basically came first for her.

HOST: Tensions between
husband and wife

continued to drive them apart.

Finally, they agreed that Stella
should spend time with Robert's

relatives in New Jersey.

ROBERT WORTMAN: Well,
like most people,

we had some family
problems and stuff

and tried to work them out.

I thought it'd would
be best to get her

into a more stable
family, so which

I brought her back
to the United States

to my mother's, to her grandma.

How ya doing, honey?

Oh, it's so good to see you.

Give me a kiss.

Give your grandma a ki--

[smack] Oh, girl,
you're looking so good.

Hi.

Hi, Robert.

Come on inside.

Oh, it's so good to see you.

HOST: Robert returned to Japan
hoping to patch up his marriage

and bring Sunny back
with him to America.

Robert and Sunny worked
out their differences,

or so it seemed.

They were granted a transfer to
New Jersey to be with Stella,

but there was one hitch.

So you'll be back on the 19th?

Yes.

I just need a couple of weeks.

HOST: Sunny said she
wanted to see her family

in South Korea one last time.

ROBERT WORTMAN: Bye.

Goodbye.

HOST: But Robert had
no idea that his wife

had other plans in mind.

She was about to walk out
of his life and Stella's.

What would motivate a
mother to leave her child

without even saying goodbye?

Why would she keep this terrible
secret from her husband?

Those very questions
haunt Stella to this day.

STELLA HUTT: I want to be able
to ask her why she didn't show

up for the day when she was
supposed to come with my father

to New Jersey.

HOST: Why Sunny disappeared
remains a mystery.

Robert eventually remarried
and had another daughter.

Stella adored her stepmother
but often struggled

with her own identity.

STELLA HUTT: I know
being oriental, you know,

that I had a mom
who was oriental.

I knew back-- in
the back of my mind

that I had a real mother
somewhere, just didn't know

who she was or where she was.

I thought about her,
and I did miss her.

Like on Mother's Day, I
would think about her.

On my birthday, I
would think about her.

And it would cross my mind like,
did she ever think about me.

HOST: But in 1985,
Stella received

a surprise in the mail.

Out of the blue, Sunny
had sent her daughter four

dresses and a stuffed animal.

STELLA'S STEPMOTHER: Wow!

Wow.

Oh, look at that.

Oh, that's going to
look nice on you.

[laughs]

STELLA HUTT: It made me
feel really, really good.

It felt good to know that
she still thought about me,

that I crossed her mind.

I remember, I cried.

Every I held the stuffed animal,
I would just cry and hold it

and go to sleep with it and
just snuggle it and just

take it everywhere I went.

HOST: Now, there's an
extra incentive for Sunny

to reunite with Stella.

She could meet her grandson,
six-year-old Darius.

ROBERT WORTMAN: It's time
to forgive and forget.

She probably has a new life.

I do too.

But Stella is part of our life.

So you know, life's
too short, let's enjoy

the time that we have left.

[theme music playing]

Join us next time.

Perhaps you may help
us solve a mystery.