Original subtitles

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]