- 7 months ago
This episode includes: Edgar Cayce, Crystal, War of the Depues & UD.
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00:01This program is about unsolved mysteries.
00:07Whenever possible, the actual family members and police officials have participated in
00:11recreating the events.
00:13What you are about to see is not a news broadcast.
00:16In the 1920s, Edgar Cayce gained widespread notoriety for his apparent ability to make
00:26complex medical diagnoses, but in a self-induced trance.
00:30Even now, 45 years after Cayce's death, thousands claim to have benefited and been cured by his
00:36knowledge.
00:37Some say it is merely a combination of luck and the power of suggestion.
00:4328-year-old Crystal Spencer was a small town girl determined to make it big in the movies.
00:48But for Crystal, the road to stardom led through Hollywood's seamy underside, and sadly, a confusing
00:53and mysterious death.
00:55According to her family and friends, Crystal was murdered.
00:59Easter Sunday, 1990, just outside Coldwater, Michigan, Ray and Marie Thornton were enjoying
01:05their weekly drive through the country.
01:07Quite by accident, this quiet Sunday outing would place the Thorntons at the center of
01:11an unsolved mystery.
01:14These intriguing stories all need one final clue, one final piece of information before
01:19they can be solved.
01:20Perhaps someone watching tonight can help.
01:23Perhaps it's you.
01:24Perhaps it's you.
01:25Perhaps it's you.
01:28Oh, it'll be funny.
01:29We will listen to Anne-Marie from the domestic violence versus General
01:54Kathy, you have a condition called optic neuritis.
02:20This is a condition where the optic nerve
02:22in 1986, 27-year-old Kathy Camora visited her ophthalmologist.
02:29Kathy thought she had a minor problem,
02:31but the doctor's verdict was horrifying.
02:33Kathy might be going blind.
02:35It may return.
02:37It may not return.
02:39It was a very frightening experience.
02:42He said I wouldn't run out right away and buy a white cane,
02:45but it's very serious.
02:47And I was scared.
02:50I mean, I suddenly realized that there was a possibility
02:53that I could go blind.
02:54I never, I hadn't taken it seriously all along.
03:01ROBERT STACK OF CATHY'S TROUBLE HAD BEGUN ONE WEEK EARLIER.
03:06I woke up one morning, and I just saw
03:08that there was a little area in my field of vision
03:11that I couldn't see out of.
03:12And I just thought there was a speck on my eye,
03:16and I tried to rub it away, and nothing happened.
03:19It didn't leave.
03:21I didn't really think too much about it.
03:23I just thought it was unusual.
03:25And I just let it go.
03:26And throughout the day, it didn't disappear.
03:29And the next day, it was a little larger area.
03:33By the end of the week, when I couldn't see it all out of the eye,
03:36I decided this probably isn't normal,
03:38and I probably should do something about it.
03:41Kathy consulted two other ophthalmologists.
03:44The diagnosis was unanimous, optic neuritis.
03:47Possible consequence, blindness.
03:50There is no known cure.
03:52Her doctor recommended steroids.
03:56Kathy was strongly opposed to the use of steroids
03:59and was determined to find an alternative.
04:01She consulted a doctor who was well-versed
04:04in the mysterious methods of a man named Edgar Cayce.
04:07Edgar Cayce became famous in the 1920s as a diagnostician,
04:15even though he had absolutely no medical training.
04:19In his lifetime, Cayce made more than 9,000 diagnoses,
04:22which he called readings, while in a deep, self-induced trance.
04:29In 1937, Cayce did a reading on this 18-year-old woman
04:33who suffered from scleroderma, a disfiguring chronic disease
04:37with no cure in which a person's skin hardens.
04:41Cayce prescribed a number of treatments,
04:43and her scleroderma went into immediate remission.
04:47The reading was given in January,
04:49and the readings were followed to the letter.
04:52In an interview 40 years later,
04:54the woman gave Edgar Cayce full credit for her cure.
04:58In June of 1937.
05:00In 1976, six-year-old Andrew Cenzon suffered
05:04from severe psoriasis.
05:06In desperation, Andrew's mother sought out a doctor
05:09who utilized methods set down by Edgar Cayce 30 years earlier.
05:14Within four months, the psoriasis was gone.
05:20Today, Andrew Cenzon is 21 years old
05:23and has had only one recurrence, which also responded
05:27to the Cayce treatments.
05:31Some people write off Edgar Cayce's cures
05:33as lucky coincidence, or the power of suggestion
05:35acting on psychosomatic illness.
05:38But for those diagnosed with a disease
05:39that modern medicine cannot cure, or in some cases,
05:42even explain, Edgar Cayce's methods continue to hold out hope.
05:47Cayce died in 1945.
05:49Even so, each year, thousands of inquiries from all over the world
05:53poured into Cayce's nonprofit center in Virginia Beach,
05:55Virginia.
05:57The thriving center is an unlikely legacy for Edgar Cayce,
06:00a quiet, unpretentious man who came of age
06:02in rural Kentucky at the turn of the century.
06:09My father was a very ordinary person.
06:12He liked to garden.
06:13He liked to fish.
06:14We had gardens wherever we lived.
06:16He taught Sunday school.
06:18I mean, in everyday life, you wouldn't know him
06:20from anybody else.
06:21It was only when he was asleep that he
06:23had extraordinary ability.
06:27ROBERT STACK
06:27Edgar Cayce discovered his mysterious ability
06:29when he was 13.
06:31Time for your lessons, young man.
06:33ROBERT STACK
06:34A borderline student, Edgar fell asleep
06:36over his spelling book.
06:37Cabin.
06:38ROBERT STACK
06:39When his father quizzed him, Edgar could spell every word
06:41in the book and even knew the page numbers
06:43where each word appeared.
06:46Cattle.
06:46From that time on, all he had to do was sleep
06:49on his books at night.
06:50And he moved along very rapidly, whether it was spelling
06:53or math or history or whatever.
06:55And he became an exceptional student
06:57rather than an average student.
07:00In 1900, when Edgar was 23, he suddenly
07:03lost the power of speech.
07:05For an entire year, physicians were unable to explain
07:09or cure his illness.
07:12Continue to breathe deeply.
07:14As a last resort, Cayce's parents convinced him
07:17to see a hypnotist.
07:19His family physician attended and recorded the session
07:22in minute detail.
07:23One.
07:26Cayce sank into a deep sleep.
07:30Everyone present was stunned when,
07:31for the first time in a year, Edgar Cayce spoke.
07:35Um, hmm.
07:39Yes, we have the body before us.
07:44Dad never had any formal medical training.
07:47In fact, his educational career stopped
07:50to be equivalent to the ninth grade now.
07:52Due to a paralysis of the interior muscles
07:58of the vocal cords.
08:00He would suggest things and describe things,
08:04the parts of the body that he had no knowledge of.
08:07This will remove the trouble to the feet.
08:10He started to talk and say, yes, we have the condition
08:13as a constriction to the throat, some constriction
08:17of the blood flow, so we will correct it.
08:20The body will now awaken.
08:22And when Lane, the hypnotist, told him to wake up,
08:26he sat up and coughed up a little blood, and he could talk.
08:31Are you all right?
08:31And I think that was probably the first reading,
08:35though it was on himself.
08:36Hello?
08:40Cayce's doctor persuaded him to attempt diagnoses
08:43on other patients who had not responded
08:44to traditional medicine.
08:46Cayce agreed, but the end result left him disillusioned.
08:51The problem developed when, at the end of some of the readings,
08:54people would start asking him questions about who was going to,
08:57what horse was going to win a race, what was going to happen
09:00in the commodities, the stock market,
09:02the results of a ball game.
09:04And when he found out what had happened,
09:07what people were doing, he said, I'm giving it up.
09:12Cayce abandoned his psychic readings, married,
09:15and moved to Selma, Alabama, where he worked as a photographer.
09:19By 1914, he had two sons, Edgar Evans and Hugh Lynn.
09:25When Hugh Lynn was eight years old, he was terribly
09:27injured in a darkroom explosion.
09:31The local doctor held out little hope.
09:35How is he, doctor?
09:37I managed to remove most of the powder from his eyes.
09:42But I found that the damage to the tissue was so extensive
09:46that he may lose his sight.
09:48My brother was playing in the studio and dropped a match in a partially filled
09:58can of flashlight powder and it blew up in his face and burned his eyes very badly.
10:02The doctors examined him and said, well, we think we're going to have to take out one eye.
10:08He's probably going to lose the sight in both of them.
10:10And my brother said, Daddy, give me a reading.
10:16Let's go into the parlor.
10:17For Edgar Cayce, it was the ultimate test.
10:22He had not attempted a reading in years.
10:24Could he now save his own son from a life of blindness?
10:29Although tannic acid would not be normally used under these circumstances...
10:38He described an application for the eyes that included tannic acid.
10:43Well, that was unheard of at the time and the doctors thought it was too strong,
10:47but they thought he was going to lose his eyes anyway, so they wouldn't hurt to try it.
10:51And when they first put it on, well, Hugh Lynn said, this must be Daddy's medicine, it doesn't hurt.
10:57It seemed like a miracle.
11:01Within six weeks, Hugh Lynn's sight was completely restored.
11:05Word of the boy's recovery spread.
11:09Edgar Cayce soon became famous.
11:11In 1925, he moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia.
11:15Within five years, Cayce established a center there to catalog and interpret
11:21the readings.
11:23The center received thousands of letters, most of them requests for readings.
11:28Although Cayce normally did only two readings a day,
11:31he was unable to turn his back on those who seemed to need him so desperately.
11:37He felt like he couldn't refuse people, so he started doing two and three and four and five,
11:42and he got up to, I understand, nine or ten a day, and it was just too much for him.
11:49On the brink of exhaustion, Edgar Cayce suffered a massive stroke.
11:53He died on January 3, 1945, leaving behind more than 120,000 pages of readings,
12:01which continue to serve as a wellspring of hope for those in search of cures that may have eluded
12:07established medicine.
12:11Now, Cathy, an x-ray examination of your neck shows that you have the deviation.
12:16When Cathy Camorra's optic neuritis was diagnosed in 1986, she went to Dr. John Pagano,
12:23a chiropractor in New Jersey who has studied Edgar Cayce's readings for 30 years.
12:27Dr. Casey was very specific on what areas of the spine to adjust.
12:34The fact that Cayce suggested this certain procedure for eye problems
12:39does not mean that he specifically diagnosed it as optic neuritis.
12:43He talked about vision problems, blindness, and that's what I approached her, not as optic neuritis.
12:49First, I'm going to stretch you out a little bit to sort of get the blood circulating.
12:53After I gave her an adjustment, she called me the next day to tell me there's an improvement.
12:58We continued treatment, and within seven days, her sight was restored.
13:05Dr. Pagano believes that Edgar Cayce's treatments, set forth in several readings
13:09given decades earlier, brought back Cathy Camorra's vision. Skeptics disagree.
13:16I think much of the Cayce material is based upon illusion.
13:20And I think there's a placebo effect here at work. Often, if you believe that someone is going
13:26to cure you, you give them white sugar pills, they might be cured. So the power of the mind
13:31can have a powerful effect. I do believe in the power of the mind. And I tried to will
13:39the sight back before I had gone to Dr. Pagano, and it didn't work. And it was only after I had gone
13:45to Dr. Pagano, and after he had adjusted my neck, that the sight came back.
13:52I don't think that Edgar Cayce had any psychic powers. I don't think there's such a thing as
13:57psychic medicine. I think one ought to be very cautious about the claim that you can diagnose
14:03illnesses in some mystical way. How can the unique life of Edgar Cayce be explained?
14:10He has been denounced as a soothsayer. He has been heralded as a prophet. The medical establishment
14:17refuses to endorse Cayce's methods, yet at the same time is unwilling to dismiss them.
14:25Before his death, Edgar Cayce wrote to a friend,
14:29in my life and in the lives of many who have come in contact with the readings, there seems to be much
14:34that is of help. But you must judge for yourself. Facts and results are the only measuring rods.
14:42If this knowledge is to be of any lasting benefit, it will require open-minded, intelligent research.
14:49Perhaps the readings of Edgar Cayce are one mystery that will be solved only through patients,
14:53medical evaluation, and that greatest of all healers, time.
14:57Next, an aspiring actress is found dead in her Los Angeles apartment.
15:05The coroner ruled her death due to undetermined causes, but some say it was murder.
15:19Hollywood, California. The Dream Factory. A fantasy land of myth and legend fueled by the tantalizing
15:27fable that anyone can become famous overnight. Ever since the movies began, beautiful young girls
15:34have flocked to Hollywood, lured by the glamour of Tinseltown and the promise of stardom. It was this
15:40dream which brought 23-year-old Crystal Spencer to Los Angeles in the summer of 1982. For as long as she
15:48could remember, Crystal Spencer pictured herself as not just an actress, but a star. Sadly, her search for
15:55fame and fortune led only to frustration, failure, and some say murder.
16:02Crystal Lene Spencer was raised in the small northern California town of Ukiah. When she was
16:08eight, her father died, leaving her mother to raise three small children alone.
16:15At 17, Crystal dropped out of high school and took a job to help support the family. Soon, Hollywood
16:21beckoned, and she moved to the Los Angeles area to actively pursue her dream.
16:27Her early years were a struggle, resulting only in a few bit parts. Crystal quickly realized that true
16:33stardom was elusive and perhaps unobtainable.
16:43Within two years of her arrival, Crystal reluctantly took a job as an exotic dancer to pay her bills.
16:49On a good night, she cleared up to $400 in tips. But Crystal never fully accepted the fact that,
16:55in essence, she was a stripper.
17:01Sometimes she would just, like, start crying.
17:06Like she felt degraded about herself, of what she'd done.
17:09In May of 1987, friends invited Crystal to an outdoor barbecue.
17:17She was eager to mix and mingle with people who might help further her acting career.
17:23I'm Anton. Nice to meet you.
17:24It's nice meeting you.
17:25Oh, this is your place, then.
17:27There was something very alluring and compelling about Crystal that would readily catch your eye.
17:34Come on.
17:35Come on.
17:36She knew that she would become not only an actress, but she would become a very famous actress.
17:41And it was just a matter of time.
17:43Oh, that's wonderful.
17:44Crystal was taken with Anton Klein, a would-be screenwriter and a Ph.D.
17:49candidate in history.
17:51Though they came from totally different backgrounds, they soon fell in love.
17:56Anton took it upon himself to help Crystal broaden her horizons.
18:00He introduced her to art galleries, museums, and concerts.
18:04Crystal was dazzled.
18:08She loved classical music.
18:09She loved fine art.
18:12She wanted to know more about these other wonderful things of life that she had never been exposed to before.
18:23Anton had no idea how Crystal earned her living.
18:26She walked a precarious tightrope, discovering art and culture by day, immersed in Hollywood's dark side by night.
18:38Crystal loved Anton very much.
18:40She was very scared about him finding out.
18:45She says, well, I better change.
18:47I better quit dancing, then, before he finds out.
18:50I better quit doing this before he finds out.
18:52I want to get married.
18:55I want to have a future.
18:56I want to start, you know, doing something for my life.
19:02Finally, four months after they met, Anton found out about Crystal's other life.
19:08My neighbor saw her dancing at the club by the airport where she worked.
19:15And he said, I saw that girl on stage the other night.
19:18And I said, no, you couldn't have.
19:22He said, that was her.
19:24Of course it was her.
19:26And I was shocked.
19:28He was very upset, but he said it was okay.
19:35He accepted it, which shocked her, and she didn't know what to say.
19:46On Wednesday, May 4th, 1988, Crystal was home with a cold.
19:51Anton stopped by, and they talked about a promising offer she had received to work in the Orient.
19:56So what's happening with Japan?
19:59I don't know, um, they haven't called yet.
20:03When are you leaving?
20:05I'm not even sure if I have the job or not.
20:07Yet.
20:10She was very nervous, but excited about the possibility of traveling to Japan
20:16and seeing a whole different world than what she was accustomed to.
20:19I spoke to Crystal Thursday evening, the next evening, on the telephone.
20:27How are you doing?
20:28You feeling better?
20:29Much better, thanks.
20:30That's good.
20:31And the conversation lasted, what, 15 minutes.
20:35I said, I'll be in touch.
20:36And she said, okay.
20:37I hung up the phone.
20:39And that was the last time I ever spoke with her.
20:41Three days later, Anton tried to reach Crystal,
20:46but continuously got a busy signal.
20:49An operator told him the receiver was off the hook.
21:03Can I help you?
21:04Yeah, I'm looking for Crystal Spencer.
21:06She's not working tonight.
21:08Did she work here last night?
21:09She didn't punch in.
21:11Confused, Anton has seen that Crystal had left for Japan without saying goodbye.
21:16Excuse me.
21:17Have you seen Crystal Spencer?
21:18What?
21:19Have you seen Crystal Spencer?
21:21No, I haven't seen her in a couple of days.
21:22What?
21:23Do you know where she is?
21:23I was expecting any day to receive a very excited phone call
21:30from a very excited Crystal saying, it's wonderful here.
21:34It's a whole different world here.
21:36And instead, I got a phone call from the Burbank Police Department.
21:43Friday, the 13th of May, 1988.
21:47Police discovered the decomposed body of Crystal Spencer.
21:50She had been dead for nearly a week.
21:52I owe you.
21:53They at first just said she was found dead in her apartment.
21:59And they wanted to know when I'd last seen her.
22:02And I said, I last saw her on Wednesday.
22:04And how was she?
22:05I said, well, she had a cold.
22:06And, uh, they said they believed she died of natural causes.
22:13An autopsy revealed no trace of drugs or alcohol in Crystal's system.
22:18There were no obvious signs of foul play or suicide.
22:22The coroner ruled that her death was the result of undetermined causes.
22:26The body of Ms. Spencer was in such an advanced state of decomposition.
22:31They were not able to ascribe the cause of death.
22:34So they have no finding.
22:35I was suspicious because I did not believe that Crystal Spencer died of illness.
22:42She was not a sick woman when I last saw her or I last spoke with her.
22:49She was a young woman for cold.
22:52I was suspicious because the way I was told the body was found in an obscure corner of her apartment,
22:59nude from the waist down, the phone went off the hook for days.
23:04And I became extremely suspicious when I learned that neighbors had heard terrible screams and shrills
23:14coming from her apartment that some had described as the sounds of torture.
23:23On the night of May 7th, two of Crystal's neighbors had been awakened by a strange intermittent wailing.
23:31Two, three minutes after four, I remember looking at the clock.
23:34And I heard some moans and some just funny sounds.
23:37And you know how you are when you wake up.
23:38Yes, I do.
23:39You just don't know what's going on.
23:40Mm-hmm.
23:42Everybody's screaming.
23:43But even before I even woke him up, I laid there thinking someone's being tortured.
23:47Someone's being hurt.
23:48Something's going on.
23:49You know, I had no past prior experience to what the sounds were because they were so
23:55blood-curdling eerie that they frightened me very much.
24:01Sounds terrible, doesn't it?
24:02Do you think it's going from here?
24:03All I could think about for some reason was someone taking a cigarette
24:06and putting against her body, torturing her. Because we had heard, like, choking and moaning.
24:15But then when this started, that's all we heard.
24:19Susan was very adamant about calling the police.
24:22But out of my fear of what I heard, I didn't want to get involved. That was my first reaction.
24:28I don't think I'll ever be able to live with the fact that I didn't call the police.
24:35If I had, maybe she would still be alive.
24:40A week later, Crystal's body was discovered.
24:43And the Taylors finally told their story to the police.
24:45If there were any witnesses, you saw or heard something.
24:47About a week ago, about 40 more.
24:49He just took my statement, took my name, asked me for my driver's license.
24:53That was it. It was just very nonchalant about it.
24:57I believe, most sincerely, as does her family, that Crystal and A. Spencer was murdered
25:05in the early morning hours of May 7th, 1988.
25:11Crystal's family requested to view the body several times.
25:15The coroner's office continually refused, claiming the body was in no condition to be seen.
25:21For months, Anton Klein was denied access to the police records.
25:25However, in September of 1988, he was able to obtain the autopsy report.
25:30Anton was shocked by the discrepancies he found.
25:36Crystal Spencer was barely five foot tall.
25:39The autopsy report claims that she's an amazing five foot seven.
25:42Crystal Spencer weighed approximately 105 pounds when I last saw her.
25:49The autopsy claims the body is a well-nourished 140 pounds.
25:55I was stunned. I said, this is not the body of Crystal Spencer.
26:01Where is the real body of Crystal Spencer?
26:04You don't grow seven inches and gain 50 to 60 pounds when you're dead.
26:08The only thing that comes to my mind is a possible documentary error at the coroner's office.
26:15They are overwhelmed with work. However, we do have the remains identified by fingerprints
26:21from two different agencies, as I mentioned before. And those really eliminate any possibility of the
26:28coroner's autopsying the wrong remains.
26:32I was told by one law enforcement official, quote, unquote, bad things happen to bad girls.
26:40And I said, you mean bad girls die of natural causes?
26:45And he said, you know what I mean, and hung up on me on the phone.
26:51Two weeks after the discovery of her body, Crystal's family and friends gathered
26:58for a private memorial service.
27:02Fittingly, Crystal Spencer's ashes were scattered beneath the famous Hollywood sign.
27:07I believe the investigation was bungled. And I am angered that they are attempting now to suppress
27:24the police reports in this case forever. We need to know what happened to her.
27:30It's important to all of us who cared about her to learn the truth. That's all we want, is the truth.
27:52Next, police need your help to find a man suspected in the brutal murder of his ex-wife.
28:00Kindergarten
28:10Easter Sunday, 1990. A lonely road 12 miles outside of Coldwater, Michigan.
28:16Ray and Marie Thornton set off on a leisurely drive in the country as they did every weekend.
28:21I don't like the style of that.
28:22But in just a matter of minutes, their routine Sunday outing would place this ordinary law-abiding couple
28:28at the center of a strange and ominous mystery we were driving south on snow prairie road
28:35and uh all of a sudden a van just on us and passed look at this guy coming around us honey
28:42sure he's in a hurry there he goes jeezy jeez he must be in a hurry one of the things we do
28:51when we're out driving around is we make names out of license plates and uh marie came up with
28:57the g's he's he's really in a hurry because the first two letters of his license plate were gz
29:02and it was just spontaneous really no thought behind it several miles down the road the
29:09thortons came across the man and the van a second time as we approached an old schoolhouse
29:17i saw a man behind it and he had what appeared to be a bloody sheet
29:21the man back there's a bloody sheet where he's behind the building as we continued passing the
29:27school i saw the van parked between the building and a big tank there's the van that passed us
29:34where it's right there it was the one that passed us yes i'm sure it was the van that passed us
29:42minutes later the van pulled up behind them again and rode their bumper for nearly two miles
29:48i'm gonna start writing this stuff down our game really paid off because that helped me remember
29:54the first two letters of his license plate number but we wanted to get more if possible
30:00well he's got a white skull cap on right now like mine finally a nervous ray thorton turned off
30:06the highway when he did the van pulled to the side of the road
30:10we decided to turn around and come back and see if we get a license plate number
30:20we felt if we could get the license number then we could turn in the police the guy was acting very
30:24suspicious and we just felt that authorities should be notified there he is what is he doing now he's in
30:33the back of the van he looks like he's changing he is he's changing plates
30:38he was behind his van with uh the passenger front door open you've seen the numbers on that plate and
30:45i saw that the passenger door was covered with blood there's blood all over that door what door the
30:51passenger door that guy has done something he has the thorntons fear that something unspeakable had
30:59happened they returned to the schoolyard to search for the sheet well i was beginning to get nervous
31:07when we got back to the schoolhouse we were very careful about where we walked where'd you see him
31:14back over this way okay we tried to find what this white thing was that he had been carrying
31:20look look i see it that's probably it what is it oh my god partially stuffed into a small animal hole
31:35with a blood-soaked blanket it's definitely blood all right let's go call it please
31:44on an otherwise pleasant spring afternoon ray and marie thornton had chanced upon evidence of a shocking
31:50crime a crime a crime which marked the complete and tragic disintegration of a family unwittingly
31:56the thorntons were witness to the final chapter of a bitter heated conflict between a husband and
32:01his wife which ended in murder yeah he's a man in the open he broke him
32:07through outward appearances dennis and maryland depew of coldwater michigan had a comfortable
32:12middle-class life now you be careful both had gratifying careers dennis was a state of michigan
32:18property assessor maryland a high school counselor together they were raising three healthy children
32:28but beneath the surface smoldering tensions threatened to erupt at any moment
32:33after the children were born dennis grew sullen and withdrawn
32:37he began to isolate himself from the family and accused maryland of turning the children against him
32:42you know it's not that they you know fought all the time because they didn't it was just you know
32:50they just didn't really talk she would just say in general that she was unhappy and when when the
32:59lawyer or someone else would ask her why she wanted to get a divorce she would say because the
33:04marriage is broken up and because uh she was there was no longer a marriage there you want to make
33:12sure that you want to go through with it this time if you do you're going to sign it on this page
33:17and sign it on the last page in 1989 after 18 years of marriage maryland depew finally gave up
33:25thank you now do you have any questions at all maryland
33:28what about him seeing the children then we'll have to wait till the hearing a week from friday
33:33maryland wanted to be more of her own person raising her family as she saw fit
33:40i believe that she felt at that time that dennis was in effect trying to domineer her that has run
33:46her life and not allow her to make decisions that she wanted to make he was agreeable to his wife having
33:51custody as far as property was concerned he was very willing to allow his wife to have almost most of
34:00the property that she wanted many times i had to fight with him to you know get a fair share of the
34:06property but he was very willing to give her uh whatever she wanted i don't i don't want this
34:12thing to happen i don't want this divorce it's not it's not um it's not something i want or want
34:17to deal with and despite dennis's attempts to keep the marriage intact the divorce
34:21became final in december of 1989
34:35dennis was granted bi-weekly visitation rights but the children were often reluctant to spend time
34:40with him
34:44dennis was also granted access to the guest house which he uses an office
34:48and as an excuse to maintain control over his family
34:54marilyn had to change all the locks on the doors
34:59even after she changed the locks on the doors
35:01she would tell me that there were some times when she would come home
35:06and unlock the house and go in and there was dennis sitting on the couch
35:11she didn't know how he got in because she had different keys made and new locks and everything
35:17and she seemed a little frightened about that he sort of out of the blue just indicated to me one day
35:26that he was contemplating suicide and in murder
35:30easter sunday april 15th 1990
35:41dennis arrived to pick up two of the children for a visit
35:44his younger daughter julie had already refused to go with him
35:47come on scott get your things put the game down let's go get your jacket
35:55well can i go a little later no we can't look i came here now you're going now i'm not hanging
36:00around here anymore but julie doesn't have to go
36:01i don't care what julie says come on now stop just calm down
36:04no look every time he's old enough to make his own decision
36:08everything he's coming with you leave him alone you're making things terrible i hate you
36:29the depues eldest daughter jennifer ran to a neighbor's house to call the sheriff's office
36:38she wasn't walking completely on her own we're going to the hospital he was like holding her
36:46up we're going to the hospital you kids stay here and when they're walking by on you know i just like
36:52you know said mom mom you know and she she didn't even look at me she was just like kind of like in a daze
37:02the depues never arrived at the hospital
37:04the police immediately began a search for the missing couple
37:13that same afternoon ray and marie thornton found the bloodied blanket in the schoolyard
37:23the area was quickly cordoned off the authorities began to assume the worst
37:28maryland depew was probably dead
37:35how's it look guys deputies discovered several fresh tire tracks and a large pool of blood
37:40good reproduction here the tracks are later matched to dennis's van great the blood was maryland's
37:47the next day a highway worker discovered maryland depew's body just off a deserted road midway between
38:04the schoolhouse and her home she had been shot once in the back of the head
38:09we had a feeling that he had really done something terrible
38:20it was so brutal and premeditated that it makes you so angry if she had been killed in an automobile
38:28accident you could get over that but not this
38:32just days after the murder dennis sent a series of wild rambling letters to friends and relatives in
38:43which he tried to justify maryland's death to co-worker jan markowski dennis wrote
38:50maryland had many many opportunities to treat me fairly during this divorce
38:54and she chose to string it out trick me lie to me and when you lose your wife children and home
39:02there's not much left i was too old to start over
39:08all together dennis sent a total of 17 letters postmarked in virginia iowa and oklahoma
39:15it seemed as if dennis was trying to say that those of us who were friends of maryland
39:27were the ones who caused her death when in effect it was dennis who pulled the trigger
39:35none of the rest of us did that the only closure that we could
39:41get out of it would be to have dennis caught that's the only thing
39:49i can't uh think of anything else that would help me i think of it day and night and i will the rest of
39:59my life and nothing even dennis being caught will not take this terrible feeling away and loss
40:11a lie for an eye a tooth for a tooth a lie for a lie a life for a life
40:20three months after the murder dennis depew sent copies of his 13-page letter to a number of friends
40:24and relatives it reads like a treatise a chilling 5 000 word rationalization which takes liberally
40:30from the bible throughout i realize that vengeance is mine saith the lord but sometimes the lord is too busy
40:38doing other things dennis depew is six feet tall and weighs 200 pounds he has dark brown hair and dark
40:47deep-set eyes he was last seen driving a 1984 cream-colored chevrolet van with maroon stripes which may now
40:55bear illinois license plates
40:57at around 8 30 on the night of our broadcast a woman who asked that we call her mary arrived at
41:06her home outside dallas texas mary's boyfriend hank queen was already home his van was parked in the
41:16driveway which was um out of the ordinary because he usually kept it inside the garage
41:22he told me that his mother was very ill and then he needed to make an emergency trip home
41:35and i'm going to drive up here could you make me some sandwiches that i can take on there
41:38it's a really long drive i was sure that something else must really be going on but i didn't know what
41:44he was getting clothes out of the closet uh clothes out of some drawers gathering up some of his
41:55personal items at the same time giving me instructions on uh preparing some food for
42:03him to take on the long trip what do you want to drink um sodas cans of soda would be good
42:14leave me alone you're being a big devil i hate you aren't you gonna give me a hug
42:22he um just gave me a little uh peck of a kiss and i gave him a big hug and said goodbye to him
42:34i realized that something was troubling him and i knew i would never see him again
42:39later that night mary was shocked to learn that her boyfriend hank queen was really dennis depew
42:50and that he had just been featured on unsolved mysteries
42:59for nearly a year dennis depew's whereabouts remained a mystery until the night of our broadcast
43:05looking back on it now i'm sure he was watching and i think that he was deliberately keeping
43:16my attention distracted in the kitchen so that i wouldn't see the segment and so that he could leave
43:25a friend of mary's called our telecenter and provided authorities with a texas
43:29license plate number of dennis depew's van four hours later depew's life came to a violent end
43:36just across the louisiana mississippi state border
43:42when louisiana state troopers spotted depew's van they attempted to pull him over
43:47he led police on a 15-mile high-speed chase and broke through two police barricades
43:52i told the deputies if uh the van refused to stop to shoot a tire off over the front top
44:03and they missed the front tire but they got both back ones he traveled about uh half a mile and
44:10just wouldn't go any further than he stopped after firing two shots through his windshield at
44:15deputies and another through an open window depew turned his gun on himself and took his own life
44:21uh it was it was a funny feeling to to realize that uh the night before that you had been watching
44:28this man that he was wanted uh for murder someplace and then uh you walk up to the van and you recognize
44:34him as being the person that was on unsolved mysteries it's a funny feeling but i think he
44:39intended to die whether he had to do it by his own hands or where he can get us to kill him otherwise
44:45he would have stopped and we've gotten him out of the van alive and had never been the shots fired
44:51while living as a fugitive dennis depew sent a chilling letter to several friends trying to
44:57justify his ex-wife's death he wrote an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth a lie for a lie a life for a
45:06life at the time dennis depew had no idea just how prophetic those words would be
45:12for every mystery there is someone somewhere who holds a final piece of the puzzle join me next time
45:28for another edition of unsolved mysteries
45:47so
45:58so
46:04so
46:06so
46:08so
46:10so
46:12so
46:14so
46:18so
46:20You
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