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00:06There's a movie about a cave man, think Brandon Frazier is in this movie, and he was frozen
00:13at one point. They found him in an ice block, and the movie is they dethaw him, and he has
00:25to be integrated into normal society.
00:30In some ways, I felt on that level. Me and my brother, we grew up off the grid. We lived
00:41pretty isolated in a cabin out in the woods. We didn't have exposure to the outside world.
00:51And like, I want more. I want more.
00:54They were dubbed the wild boys. So-called wild boys. After they caught the country's attention
00:59with an unbelievable tale. They definitely weren't like my children, or any teenagers or
01:05young adults that I've been in contact with. The community was a little on edge when two
01:12strangers showed up unexpectedly at our doorstop. Who are these guys? Why are they here? It was
01:21my job to get to the bottom of it.
01:25I'm thinking I might be aiding and abetting people who I really shouldn't be, right? I
01:30do believe them. I mean, I don't know what to believe.
01:33All these people are looking at me, deciding whether or not they can trust me and my story.
01:40And I'm thinking whether I should trust them and their story of why society is so great.
01:51Go to work and get your rent. You'll die one day and end up in the cemetery. But that's
01:56good. That's how it should be. And I'm like, no. It sucks. I don't want your cemetery.
02:01I don't want your normal life.
02:23In 2003, Vernon was a small town frozen in time. The best analogy might be it was an AM radio
02:33station in an FM stereo world. You know, we couldn't get national media to pay attention
02:43to Vernon on its best day. But it was a great place to visit and an even better place to
02:50live.
02:53It's a small town. But you go two kilometers any direction out of town, you're in the wilderness. You are
03:01in the primeval wilderness.
03:10The people are friendly. You go down to the grocery store and you run into a dozen people who know
03:14you by your first name.
03:17And as Canadians, there's a tendency to help your neighbor and your fellow man.
03:25But at the end of that summer, these two rough kids, you know, popped up on our radar.
03:38My husband would say I'm the type of person that just when I see something that needs to be done,
03:44I get it done.
03:44I'm not going to wait around for other people to do it.
03:51Back in 2003, I was 34. My kids were my main focus, so I was always helping out in the
04:00classrooms.
04:02My kids' school was near the library. That's where I first saw the boys.
04:11They caught my eye. The younger one was extremely thin and looked sick.
04:21And he was just following behind the older one.
04:27I remember thinking something was wrong. You look, you take a second look.
04:34I just couldn't get them out of my head.
04:39Like, what was that that I saw? It was so foreign. And it was a young child.
04:43I started thinking, like, where do they come from? Like, what's their story?
04:48So I made it my mission to find these boys and help them.
04:56It's a small enough town that you could talk to a few people and someone would know.
05:02Somebody said they're living near Cal's store.
05:06So I asked the store owners if they'd seen these two guys.
05:10And they knew right away who I was talking about.
05:13Looked like, you know, the, what did you say? Alien.
05:17Almost like an alien. Yeah.
05:19They said, oh, they're living behind the store in a tent.
05:24So they come in and use the pay phone a lot.
05:29I remember them using the phone and, uh, they were getting a real chuckle out of that.
05:36So I left quarters in an envelope with my phone number.
05:42I said, I can help you if you need help.
05:45And I didn't expect them to call me right away. It was quite soon.
05:49The older one was the only one that spoke.
05:58Hello? Who is this?
06:00It was very quiet, subdued.
06:03Um, my name's Tom. I got your note.
06:06So that was strange too, right? For young people to be like that.
06:12I was like, hey, this sounds strange. You don't know me.
06:16I'm just a community member.
06:18And I wanted to reach out and see if I can offer any assistance.
06:24And they right away said, yes, we'd love your help.
06:31So we met.
06:33I brought them food.
06:38And they, you know, were very thankful.
06:40But they didn't want any junk food, chips, nothing that teens would eat.
06:48They were both painfully shy.
06:51The younger boy was a young teenager, 15, 16.
06:57And he just seemed so thin and his, you know, his cheekbones, you could see them.
07:04It was really shocking.
07:09And then the other one seemed to be early 20s.
07:14You know, your mind goes to, is there something else going on?
07:18Is he being deprived of food?
07:19Maybe they're in some sort of cult or something.
07:25And I just said, I want to help them.
07:29And that's when they started to tell me their story.
07:47My name is Tom Green.
07:49I was born and raised in the wilderness of Canada, up near Revelstoke.
07:55That's up north of Vernon.
08:02My mom and dad and my younger brother, we grew up off-grid in a cabin.
08:15It was a very peaceful way to grow up, completely separate from the rest of society.
08:33My name is Will Green, and I was raised in the forest.
08:46Our parents taught us the story of Neverland, where it's literally about never getting old.
08:57That that's possible.
09:00It's very powerful because Neverland inspires us to be very childlike.
09:08To maintain it, to not lose it.
09:17Life in the woods for a while, it was just beautiful.
09:32They'd never been to school.
09:36Never been to a doctor.
09:41There's something different there.
09:43They definitely weren't like my children or any teenagers or young adults that I've been in contact with.
09:49They're not socialized like a lot of us, and I could tell by that.
09:59Just because somebody tells you something, that doesn't mean it's real.
10:05I need fact.
10:07As soon as the story started bubbling,
10:11the first thing that came to my mind
10:14was, okay, number one, who are these people?
10:17Why are they in Vernon?
10:18And then the natural thing is, what are they hiding from?
10:21Who are they hiding from?
10:22For months, no one knew they were here.
10:25Two mysterious brothers living on the outskirts of Vernon.
10:31There was two things going on.
10:33One was finding out who they were and where they're from.
10:36And then there was a group of people, including myself,
10:39that were advocating for them to get help first.
10:44It was just, you know, on the ground trying to get everything for these guys in organized housing, food, clothing.
10:53It was quite a lot of money, and there was a lot of people upset with that.
10:56Their story is the talk of the town, but not everyone is buying it.
11:01Scammer.
11:02Yeah, they're a scammer.
11:03Yeah.
11:04It seems a bit suspicious to me.
11:06I don't know how come they haven't been seen by other people.
11:11It's a little bit suspicious.
11:12Maybe.
11:13Maybe.
11:13But on the other hand, maybe it's true.
11:15I remember Tammy saying at one point, I think, that like,
11:18hey, people don't even know for sure that you're really brothers.
11:21So do you believe their story?
11:25I don't know.
11:26I couldn't tell you, no.
11:30Prior to the boys arriving, the community had gone through a number of gang-related murders.
11:37And it caused a lot of tension, a lot of anxiety in the community.
11:44People started feeling unsafe.
11:50There was a definite split in the community as to whether the boys were telling the truth or not.
11:56And I sat down with Inspector Kalababa, and we had a really frank conversation about, is this real?
12:08In the 70s, Americans coming north of the border to dodge the Vietnam War often settled in the surrounding area.
12:15So if a young man in his early 20s had decided to cross the border and go off the grid
12:23in an attempt to avoid deportation...
12:27In theory, it was possible that two kids had lived completely unplugged from civilization.
12:38They'd lived in secrecy for all those years, and they didn't want to expose their parents, I guess.
12:46Is that something far-fetched to you?
12:47No. No, not really.
12:49You really think that happens?
12:50I actually grew up up north, so I know it can happen.
12:52Yeah, I believe what they're saying.
12:54I don't see anything wrong with that.
12:55I think it's unique that we have people that are a little bit different for a change.
12:58Parents who are in hiding, and the world doesn't have to know what's going on.
13:10We lived pretty isolated.
13:15Part of you always knows, yeah, there's this whole other world out there, and if I wanted to, I could
13:20become part of that.
13:25You wonder, am I going to join them one day?
13:28Or am I going to continue living out my whole life out here?
13:34At first, when I arrived at Vernon, I was afraid. I was fearful all the time.
13:41I was suspicious of society.
13:45The way we grew up, there's a feeling that people are dangerous.
13:52They kept things close to their chest.
13:55Didn't really know, like, were they fleeing from an abusive situation?
14:02I didn't ask them a lot of questions at the time, because I didn't want to scare them off.
14:08I was thinking, they just needed help with food and shelter.
14:16Tammy was a resourceful person, and she found a way to get us a place to stay.
14:25There was a hostel in town.
14:28I knew it was just a really nice vibe. It was good energy, and they moved upstairs into a room.
14:36I brought my blow dryer and shampoo.
14:41Will was kind of fighting me on the shower thing, and I thought, is he scared of the shower or
14:47hot water? What's wrong?
14:48And then he absolutely did not want me to blow dry his hair and said that the noise bothered him
14:53or something.
14:54My ears started to literally, like, feel like they're going to explode.
14:58With all these details and idiosyncrasies in my mind, I'm thinking, clearly they did not live a normal life.
15:07The hostel is really perfect.
15:10You know, they had a computer that anyone there could use.
15:17And that was a crazy experience.
15:21Growing up, you know, computer, TV, we didn't have any of that stuff.
15:32Tammy was taking care of so much on our behalf and helping us integrate into society.
15:42She accepted us like we're family and just led us into her home.
15:46Thank you, Tom.
15:50Happy birthday to you.
15:55I remember it was Tom's birthday, so we got him a cake.
15:59Okay, Tom, let's see what it tastes like.
16:01Don't do that to the poor guy. He's going to have to bake it.
16:05They may have had maybe a taste of the cake, but they weren't eating the cake, that's for sure.
16:17It was kind of an excitement to be able to, you know, introduce them to these things that are normal.
16:24My kids really liked them.
16:26You know, you just go by what your kids think.
16:31Will related to them more, and that's where he kind of opened up more.
16:36Tammy and her family were adopting me a bit.
16:40She was just filled with compassion, empathetic, sensitive.
16:46She really cared.
16:49I felt loved.
16:50Yeah, to be part of other people's family when you're missing your own family, because I was missing my family.
17:14There are people that choose to live off the grid.
17:17Okay, their story, it's plausible.
17:22But the community was responding with emotion.
17:26We needed, as police, to respond with reason.
17:31We didn't know who they were.
17:33Are they dangerous?
17:35Did they commit crimes?
17:37And that's when I assigned Corporal Henry Prosay to find out what was going on.
17:44I would have to admit I like being in a position of authority, which is nice as a police officer.
17:51I like solving crime.
17:53I love this job.
17:57Inspector Kolobaba dropped the file on my desk because I was the media relations officer, and people wanted answers.
18:05We're going to do some investigation, trying to determine the background of the two males, where they're from, this sort
18:11of thing, their identity.
18:14We had the names, Tom and Will Green.
18:18I did run them through our various systems, and nothing came up whatsoever.
18:24There's no record of these boys being born within British Columbia.
18:27There's no record of their parents.
18:28There's no driving records, criminal records.
18:30Nothing tangible, nothing concrete that we could follow up on.
18:34At that point, I'd been a police officer for almost 30 years, so I'm somewhat cynical.
18:39And if I say something is too far-fetched, it usually is.
18:44I thought, okay, these guys are lying from start to finish.
18:49And it was my job to get to the bottom of it.
19:03At that point, they hadn't committed any offences, they were not arrestable.
19:08So, now we go talk to them, now we interview them, and we see what's really going on.
19:14And that was the plan.
19:24When you grow up living off the grid, isolated from the rest of society, you don't have police.
19:32You don't have people above you telling you what you can do.
19:38So, when Pro Se came by the hostel, it was our first interaction with authorities.
19:46It was clear to me that he didn't believe us.
19:49So, he was trying to intimidate me, you know, trying to get more information out of me.
19:54I guess that's what police do.
19:58I don't think that kind of confrontation happened.
20:04I mean, we're professional, we have integrity, we're very thorough.
20:10Um, I was answering all his questions, and the details that we gave were just the truth.
20:19Who are you?
20:20My name is Tom Green.
20:22Where are you really from?
20:24I was born in Canada, in the wilderness of Revelstoke.
20:27Why weren't they ever seen?
20:28Uh, for starters, our house was covered up, so you couldn't even see it from overhead.
20:33That was all intentional.
20:34So, if there's helicopters flying around, they wouldn't see it.
20:37You're far out there, you're in nature for sure.
20:40What are you doing here?
20:42Why are you taking advantage of these people?
20:44Um, he definitely was having trouble even understanding what I meant by things.
20:49Because I would answer his questions so precisely.
20:53Like, he was frustrated by my answers, I could tell.
20:57And then when they said their parents were Mary and Joseph, I thought, oh, this is going nowhere.
21:06I was just telling the truth.
21:09That's their job to identify people.
21:11If they don't know who we are, that's on them.
21:14They were not very cooperative.
21:17And you can't force a person to cooperate with you, obviously.
21:23But I can't remember the younger one saying almost anything.
21:27Like, he was so quiet.
21:30And he would just nod and look at his brother.
21:34That was a concern, that he was that young.
21:39Being supervised and under the care of his brother, who did all the talking.
21:46The only thing that we knew was that he had this ridiculous diet.
21:54He would not eat anything that involved killing the plant.
21:58So you couldn't eat a carrot because you got to pull it out of the ground.
22:02With Will, it was like more avocados, more vegetables, more fruits, but nothing else.
22:08As the weeks went by, he was losing weight and he was getting thinner and thinner.
22:15He was so malnourished.
22:18Very low energy speaking, very monotone.
22:21Just not like a regular teenager.
22:27In my mind, it was almost like Tom was the one feeding him all this stuff.
22:33And that's what I thought was happening.
22:37It seemed like Tom was controlling what he said and didn't say.
22:43And the more and more I hung out with him, the more firm he became.
22:50I kept telling her, you know, he was in control.
22:53Will's choosing to eat that way for now because he believed that was the right way for him.
22:59We butted heads on that a lot because Will was just a kid.
23:04And Tom was very nonchalant about it.
23:09Was Tom part of why he's so skinny?
23:12I just wasn't sure.
23:19Growing up, our parents, they would go and hunt.
23:24And so we ate meat.
23:28There was a stream close by for water.
23:33We would supplement our diet with things like fish.
23:36We would fish.
23:38But at some point, I remember I was telling my parents, look, I don't want to be eating meat in
23:43general.
23:44I really started to just be hyper obsessed with health.
23:49I decided to become a fruitarian and just eat fruit.
23:54My mom and dad would just fight with me all the time about that.
23:58And they didn't give me the option.
24:01You know, they didn't know what to do with us.
24:05We wanted to pursue our vegan diet.
24:09But it's just not, um, it's not how it's done out there.
24:13So that's why we had to go.
24:35At the same time, I was saying to Tammy, hey, um, you know, I'm willing to work.
24:41Um, can you get me help so I can just get a job?
24:45We didn't have, like, birth certificates.
24:47We didn't have IDs.
24:50It all came down to getting identified.
24:54I was panicking because I thought, without ID, how are we going to help them to live independently?
25:02So at that point, I wanted to get their picture in the paper.
25:07Tammy said there was a local reporter who wanted to put out a little article on us.
25:11I thought, okay, it's just a local paper anyway.
25:14It doesn't matter.
25:19This is Tom Green, one of the so-called Bush Boys.
25:23The boys talked to the local Vernon newspaper in the hopes that someone would recognize them
25:27and help them confirm their identities.
25:30Media coverage went valley-wide.
25:32CHBC TV out of Kelowna started to get involved.
25:35BCTV showed up.
25:37These two young men talked about living their entire lives in the bush.
25:41That's a pretty bizarre story, don't you think?
25:42Oh, it is.
25:44Bizarre things happen.
25:45I do remember it being on the news and going, oh, gosh.
25:49This is really going to a different level now.
25:52And I'm involved and, you know, people are going to know I'm involved.
25:58The story took on a life of its own.
26:02It became a media event.
26:07Well, the old saying is, you know, no media is bad media.
26:11These two wild children appear in our community and suddenly everybody wants to talk to us.
26:17I had a press briefing with television, radio, print media.
26:24I would meet weekly with them and update them.
26:29Most of the time I just sort of said, I, we don't know.
26:32We just simply don't know.
26:36You know, now they're getting help.
26:38Financial help, okay?
26:40Is it a scam?
26:43There was a community member that called me in the middle of the night.
26:47Drunk, freaking out and basically accusing me of helping these boys who probably didn't need the help.
26:55She was just convinced they were lying.
27:01I remember just feeling a lot of pressure.
27:04Like, I don't know what to do.
27:05I'm just a mom.
27:09This story raises far more questions than it offers answers.
27:13Perhaps that's because the community has squirreled away these two boys.
27:16They're being kept well away from the media.
27:19That is perhaps slowing any positive identification of who they might be.
27:22Without hearing from either one of the two, it is impossible to verify any of the story.
27:27They just flatly refused to speak to the press.
27:33The media were really starting to hound everyone.
27:36So, in my mind, I was wanting to protect the boys.
27:40I mean, I couldn't imagine the anxiety they would have had.
27:44They were secluded in the hostel and no one was getting near them.
27:49At one point, Henry Prosay knocked on the hostel door.
27:52He said, you're here. Why are you here?
27:56That's when I realized I think they need a lawyer.
28:01I could never understand why they had to be lawyered up.
28:05Tammy, when the lawyer, you know, formed a team.
28:08And I was seen as on the other side.
28:12Like, he wanted me basically to hand over the boys, I think, and let them talk.
28:17He was more black and white.
28:18I want to know the facts. There's facts to this.
28:21And I was getting in the way of that, and he didn't like that.
28:26I didn't want them to get scared and flee.
28:29And then that's it. All this work was for nothing.
28:32We could clear this whole matter up within a half hour if they simply told us
28:35who their parents were, where they live, and how to get there.
28:40Maybe everything they're saying is true.
28:42And there's some cabin, you know, somewhere near Revelstoke
28:46where their parents still hide underground, read National Geographic.
28:58Tom and I would get into some arguments
29:02and me saying, you need to tell me more.
29:04Like, I can't help you unless you're more forthcoming here.
29:07And he just wouldn't.
29:11They said, well, if you go talk to your parents,
29:14it would help lead me to be able to get an ID.
29:21And I said to her, anyone could possibly go take a dog
29:24and find out where I went and find them. I'm not going to do it.
29:28It was all centered around this fear.
29:32They were really wanting to protect their parents' identity
29:35and where their parents lived.
29:38But I was like, I've done all this for you
29:40and you're not giving me anything here.
29:41Like, I can't help you without ID or information.
29:45She was just very serious about it.
29:48And after assessing the situation,
29:50I thought, like, it's a goodwill thing.
29:53Like, okay, if you go make this attempt,
29:55that's what they want to see.
30:05We drove to Revelstoke.
30:08And they would say, okay, turn here, turn there.
30:16I was a little nervous, right?
30:20I'm in the middle of the bush with these people.
30:23But I really don't know.
30:31And so I said, okay, here's the spot.
30:34Pull over. I can get there from here.
30:43It was quite cold.
30:44And they said they would go talk to their parents
30:46and they went in the bush and disappeared.
30:52And I just started spinning at that point,
30:54being like, are they criminals?
30:55Like, are we in danger?
31:00In my mind, I'm like, oh my gosh, they've been with my kids.
31:02You know, they know where I live.
31:07And also the family.
31:10Like, how do I know they're not dangerous, right?
31:19I was sitting in the car for what seemed like forever.
31:25You're a little nervous, right?
31:26Is Mary and Joseph going to come out here now?
31:28And I'm picturing them in these, like, religious cloaks.
31:39And then they came out by themselves.
31:44With no Mary and Joseph and no ID.
31:51I went back.
31:53And I told them that, oh, yeah, I did talk to my parents
31:56and they said, no, no, no, we can't give you anything
31:59and don't come in and go away.
32:02Just didn't sit with me.
32:03And I kept questioning him and questioning him.
32:05I don't, I don't get it.
32:06You were so cold when we came back to get you.
32:09And if you were hiked in an hour and back,
32:11that wouldn't have happened.
32:12And he said to me, I'm sorry.
32:14I had to lie to you.
32:19She said, you didn't really go see your parents, did you?
32:22And I said, that's right, I didn't.
32:25So you admitted to that?
32:26Yeah.
32:27I said, yeah, I'm not going to.
32:29You know, so there, I pretended to.
32:31I played along.
32:32I'm not going to go back.
32:33I'm not going to go compromise the location.
32:38The fact that they were sent on this wild goose chase
32:41out to Revelstoke.
32:42I mean, I found out about it after the fact.
32:45It's not like they came to me and said,
32:46would this be a good idea?
32:48I would have said, no, it's a total waste of time
32:50because it's not going to happen.
32:54One of the first things I did was check out Revelstoke.
33:00And they had never heard of Tom or Will Green either.
33:08No, I do believe, I do believe them that they,
33:12I mean, I don't believe, I don't know what to believe
33:14because just like everybody else, I don't have concrete facts.
33:20And on the way back, the lawyer's office called and said
33:24that the police were looking for us.
33:28And now I'm thinking I might be aiding and abetting people
33:31who I really shouldn't be, right?
33:36I was getting more and more frustrated.
33:40You know, we wanted to get to the bottom of us.
33:43I think what's going through your head first and foremost
33:45is I don't want to screw this up.
33:50And I didn't want to screw it up.
33:52I didn't want to fail.
33:57There was a sense of urgency, especially around the younger brother
34:00because as time went on, it became apparent that
34:04he continued to lose weight.
34:06He continued to become more emaciated.
34:09There was a concern.
34:11What do we do as a community if he, God forbid, dies?
34:16I was worried about Will
34:18because he was getting seriously worse and worse every day.
34:24I just remember being like cold and like bony.
34:28So if you sit down, like, you got to make sure he was patting,
34:31you know, like...
34:34Yeah, it's not good.
34:35It's not good to be that skinny.
34:38We were always trying to encourage Will to get food
34:41to make him gain weight.
34:43He acted like we were going to make him eat these foods
34:46that were going to kill him.
34:49Back then, I'm thinking, like, I will only eat something
34:52if I'm convinced it's good for my body.
35:00I don't think the older brother, Tom, appreciated the seriousness
35:03of the situation.
35:05That his younger brother was slowly dying in front of his eyes.
35:09I think at that point he was 85 pounds.
35:13A young man that was over six feet tall.
35:17It was really scary.
35:19And it was just so frustrating because Tom still wasn't willing
35:23to get him help.
35:27So at that point it was like, where do your loyalties lie?
35:33Tammy contacted me and said the situation was getting dire.
35:37The lawyer couldn't help, and we had to do something.
35:43And Tammy told me, he's in the store, you should go get him.
35:54That day I walked to the health food store.
35:57I was buying oranges and all my fruit that I normally buy.
36:02I approached him, told him he was being apprehended
36:05under the Mental Health Act of British Columbia.
36:09He put me in caps and put me in like a freaking, you know, cop car.
36:14I just remember being intimidated and afraid.
36:19I thought they were just taking me for another interrogation or something.
36:22But then like somewhere along the line, in the car, in the cop car,
36:26I realized he was taking me to the hospital.
36:31So I'm thinking the worst of the worst at this point.
36:38You visualize things, like them literally forcing a tube down your throat.
36:45He was making comments that like, made me think,
36:48oh, they're going to make cheeseburgers and like, you know.
36:51It's horrifying.
36:53Maybe I said something to that effect.
36:55I don't deny it.
36:57I may have said you need a cheeseburger.
36:59But I mean, I had empathy for him.
37:02I mean, he was suffering and he did not have the common sense to do something about it.
37:13They just decided, hey, you don't get freedom anymore.
37:18We're going to take it away because we love you.
37:20That's kidnapping.
37:24The Mental Health Act is the act under which we can apprehend people who are a danger to themselves or
37:30others.
37:30And in this case, he was a minor and clearly a danger to himself.
37:36There's a definite feeling of shame and guilt.
37:42They trusted me.
37:44So I felt like I betrayed them.
37:47But I knew that he needs help and that's, you know, what I'm trying to do.
37:53How serious is his condition?
37:56Very serious.
37:58Life-threatening?
37:58Yes.
38:07Back in 2004, I was a TV producer for an investigative program called Disclosure.
38:17I remember I was reading a newspaper and that's where I saw the story.
38:22And it was a story of two young men walked out of the bush and needed help.
38:28Despite all of the attention around them, the boys had never spoken publicly.
38:33And that was our goal was to see if we could get an interview with them, get them to talk
38:38and learn more about them.
38:44I went to Vern and not knowing how long it was going to take.
38:50I didn't have a return ticket.
38:54Yeah, when we landed, Will had been placed in the hospital against his will.
38:59Without ID, without a presence in the system, they were stuck.
39:06Now that Will's up in their hospital system, it's going to get worse and worse.
39:11How is anyone going to solve it?
39:13No one's going to.
39:14Are we ever going to be able to get out of that?
39:18My pitch to Tom was, look, tell your story and maybe there'll be sympathy.
39:24If this is all you've got left to try and make it happen, why not?
39:27I was telling them, no, I wouldn't do it.
39:31But they kept trying to talk me into it.
39:33And we would take a step forward and then five steps back.
39:36And you just didn't really know what was going on in his head.
39:43Right as they were going to give up, I flipped and said, okay, I'll do it.
39:59Tom Green has never been interviewed on television.
40:02But after months of negotiations, he agreed to talk to us.
40:06Do you understand why people are so intensely curious about you and your brother?
40:11I think so.
40:12People are curious about anything that's unusual.
40:16They wanted to talk to me, get to know me.
40:19They also wanted to meet Will.
40:24Everybody, meet skinny raw foodist Will.
40:30Do you see a resemblance?
40:36Ah, greens.
40:38At 16, he's a minor.
40:40And with no parents, he could be made a ward of the state.
40:44Oh, I can't wait to get out of here.
40:48We had no idea where the story was going to go.
40:51We hoped it would lead to the truth.
40:53Tom, what do you know about your parents?
40:55Are they here legally?
40:58I'm not certain.
41:00And if they're not even, they could be.
41:05Are they criminals?
41:07Have they committed some criminal act that they're escaping from?
41:09No, no.
41:10If they are, I don't know anything about it.
41:18And at one point, while talking with Tom off camera, trying to figure out more about their parents,
41:25it became clear there was two versions of their story.
41:30The one of them raised in the wild, and the one where it was a little less wild.
41:41The hostel owner had said, hey, they were on the computer quite a bit.
41:46That's where it started to be like, I think they know a little more than what they're telling us.
41:51And so, how can someone who was literally raised in the forest with no electricity have these skills?
42:00Will would slip and say, oh yeah, I watched that movie, or oh, I love Cinderella or something, right?
42:07And I'd be like, well, how do you know that?
42:11The older brother would show up occasionally with, you know, nice designer sunglasses.
42:18And we discovered that they couldn't chop wood, which is kind of a prerequisite if you're living in the bush
42:24around Revelstoke.
42:29I don't see why I should have to prove myself.
42:34Do you think people are going to be sympathetic when they hear that?
42:39I think some will. I think some will see things the way I do.
42:46We got the story done, put it together, got it to air.
42:49It was the first time people could put eyes on these guys.
42:55But we still don't know who these guys are.
43:04Once the CBC story ran, all the pieces of the puzzle started to drop into place.
43:15Eventually you get to the bottom of things.
43:17In this case, it certainly exploded once we found out the true story.
43:22I spent so much time with them thinking they were these people.
43:26I just remember being like super hurt and just going, what is going on?
43:32This is all unfolding in a matter of days.
43:35Like our story airs and we got this email from someone who recognized the boys on TV.
43:41That changed everything.
43:53I'm just like, okay, well, we've got to confront them.
43:56I was completely shocked.
43:58Maybe this is all lies.
44:01Blue, where are you going?
44:02No, you have to let me in here.
44:03I have my own way of seeing what is right or what is wrong.
44:07At some point, you even don't trust your own parents.
44:09What happened in Vernon is probably just a footnote compared to what they're into now.
44:14If it's not true,
44:18is the truth darker?
44:33Like, what do you think?
44:34What is wrong?
44:41You're supposed to be wrong.
44:43We can't do everything.
44:45You're not a real part.
44:46I'm not a real part.
44:46You're not a real part.
44:49You're not a real part.
44:56That's why I don't trust you.
44:57I don't trust you.
44:57You're a real part.
44:57You're a real part.
45:00You're a real part.
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