TV specials that helped catch real-life criminals – abductions, buried bones and pirates

True crime fans are often left with a whole bunch of unanswered questions after watching a new documentary or listening to a podcast about serial killers, kidnappers or worse.

Sometimes having the facts laid out on the screen can just lead to a deeper unsolved mystery.

But other times, highlighting the crimes on TV can lead to a new lead, a different witness coming forward, or even a missing person returned to their families after several years.

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One young girl was just nine years old when she went missing back in 2017 – but, thanks to a Netflix show, was finally found six years later.

Other true crimes might not have as happy an ending, but can lead to convictions for those responsible for slayings that were eventually highlighted on TV.

Missing girl found

We’ll kick things off with a story that does have a happy ending.

In 2017, nine-year-old Illinois native Kayla Unbehaun went missing. She was with her mother Heather at the time, who was supposed to return her to her dad Ryan Iskerka on July 5, 2017.

But Heather – who wasn’t granted custody of her daughter – didn’t show up.

It took six years to find Kayla, after Heather deleted all of her social media pages and packed up all her belongings – missing court dates and ignoring warrants issued for her arrest.

But eventually, a woman living in North Carolina recognised Kayla from Netflix series Unsolved Mysteries.

Now 15, Kayla was reunited with her father in May 2023, who said: “I’m overjoyed that Kayla is home safe.

“We ask for privacy as we get to know each other again and navigate this new beginning.”

Pirate sting op

Somali pirate leader Mohamed Abdi Hassan committed a number of high-profile crimes in his life – including “dozens” of vessel hijackings, drug-related incidents and ransoms.

He was hailed a “national hero” and gained a cult following in the noughties, and even received an official pardon from then-Somalia governor Mohamed Aden.

But eventually, INTERPOL Red Notices were issued by Belgium and Seychelles for his arrest, after allegedly masterminding the 2009 hijacking of Belgian vessel Pompei.

Despite Hassan at one point renouncing piracy and attempting to reform himself, things fell apart when he offered to release his captives for a $2million payout.

The negotiations ended in the death of one of the pirates, fund misappropriation and various internal disagreements.

Things went downhill for Hassan from there. In 2013, he was invited to participate as a consultant on a documentary about his exploits – and finally flew out to Brussels to take part in the project.

However, the documentary was a dud, and was in fact part of a sting operation to capture Hassan, leading to his arrest.

He was finally sentenced to 20 years behind bars in 2016.

New Bonnie and Clyde

In the 1980s, Unsolved Mysteries helped to bring down the new ‘Bonnie and Clyde’, Melissa ‘Missy’ Munday and her boyfriend Jerry Strickland.

Missy and Jerry met when she was 15 and he was in his early 20s, and decided to run away together. But eventually, Strickland used his girlfriend as bait to shoot a gas station worker and steal more than $10,000 in cash from the safe.

The pair ran off to Washington State together and settled down for two years, until an episode of Unsolved Mysteries aired featuring their faces.

That episode had numerous locals calling the hotline within minutes to report their whereabouts in 1988, and the pair – who had also seen the episode – were found waiting for the cops to show up at a friend’s house.

The pair were charged with armed robbery, kidnapping and murder.

But Missy’s charge was reduced to just the armed robbery when she elected to testify against her partner, with whom she had welcomed two children.

She served time in juvie and was released after around two years, while Jerry was handed two life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Long lost daughter

1953 saw white high school student Eleanor Wozniak fall in love with a black man named John Elias – but not everyone was happy with their huge age gap or interracial romance.

Eleanor was just 17 when she met John, who was 28.

A year later, Eleanor was pregnant, and Elias arrested for statutory rape as she was still under 18. Her alcoholic father sent Eleanor to a home for unwed mothers, and was forced to surrender her daughter when she was born.

Eventually, she was threatened into giving up her child for adoption, while John was run out of town by racists.

In 1992, the former couple – who each remarried other people – appeared on Unsolved Mysteries to plead for information about their daughter, Rose Marie.

Thankfully, a New York viewer recognised her, and Rose Marie – now named Sally Lou Briggs Riley – had a happy reunion with her birth parents and their now grandchildren.

Gabby’s bones

In a shocking Unsolved Mysteries episode in season five, a man known only by the name Gabby moved out of his house in Wyoming back in 1986.

He left some of his things in his neighbour Newell Sessions’ shed, including an antique footlocker, which Sessions decided to open with a blowtorch.

And inside was none other than a decomposing human skeleton, belonging to a male in his 50s or 60s.

The autopsy report confirmed the man died from a bullet wound to the head, from a weapon manufactured in the early 1900s. It was assumed that the trunk was used in one of the World Wars, when Gabby would have still been a child.

But in 1993, the Unsolved Mysteries episode also mentioned that a grocery bag from an Iowa supermarket was also found in the chest.

Shelley Statler got in touch with the show, suggesting the skeleton actually belonged to her grandfather Joseph Mulvaney, who disappeared a few decades earlier.

Joseph was last seen in Iowa in 1963, and was living with his stepson John David Morris – who actually turned out to be Gabby.

In 2017, a DNA test finally confirmed that it was Joseph in the trunk.

He was given a full military funeral in 2019, with Shelley explaining: “I do believe John Morris knows more than he is saying, but I don’t believe he pulled the trigger.”

Speaking of how ‘Gabby’ reacted to the news of human remains amidst his belongings, his neighbour Sessions said: “He acted probably as surprised as I did when I opened the trunk, that he couldn’t believe it.

“He thought I was kidding him. And I told him, no, I’m not kidding with you. There is a human skeleton in there.”

Joseph’s murder still remains unsolved.

Amnesia – or something more sinister?

In 1993, fisherman Craig Williamson disappeared after heading off to sell the tilapia he raised, bidding farewell to his wife Christine and heading off.

And for two years, Craig remained missing.

In 1994, his disappearance was the subject of an episode of Unsolved Mysteries, which initially received no new leads. But when it was shown a year later on repeats, Craig recognised himself on the show, confirming that he was alive and well – living in Florida and working as a diver.

Craig’s claims were nearly unbelievable. He said he was mugged while in Colorado Springs and developed amnesia as a result, forgetting who he was.

However, authorities suggested Craig faked the memory loss and simply ran away to escape his marriage, a theory that was strengthened when he and Christine divorced after he was found.

Podcast solves disappearance

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In 1996, 19-year-old college student Kristin Smart vanished after attending a party at the California Polytechnic State University.

The last person to see her was Paul Flores, who claimed he walked her home from the party and headed back to his own room. But cadaver dogs brought in to search the dorm reacted to his room.

Eventually, a necklace that seemed to match the one Kristin was wearing the night of her disappearance was found at Paul’s mother’s house. It was turned into police but went missing before it could be marked as evidence.

Despite an investigation turning up nothing, podcast host Chris Lambert was interested enough in the case to launch his show Your Own Backyard.

Enough interest was launched to bring in a few new leads, with biological evidence found under a deck at Paul’s dad Ruben Flores’ home in 2021.

It led to Paul being charged with murder and his father Ruben charged with being an accessory to the crime after the fact.

Ruben was found not guilty, but a jury convicted Paul for Kristin’s murder.

He was sentenced to 25 years to life behind bars in March 2023.

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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk