Does anyone remember the case....

[skunk ape]

......where a mother disappeared and her car was found in a Howard Johnson's (correct me if I'm wrong) parking lot with clues left nearby? The segment as well as the update creeped me out. Apparently, in the update, she went to a hotel and checked into a room where she commited suicide. Does anyone have any details on this case?

[DarkDante]

This is the case of Gail Delano - She was a woman suffering from depression who lived in Maine and had two sons. Most of her depression circled around not being able to find someone to share her life with. She had been divorced twice and used the personal ads as means of meeting new people.

The really sad thing about this case is as you are watching it - it is really this long drawn out odyssey about what happened to this woman. Family members, friends and police are both interviewed extensively and they give different theories about what happened to Gail.

Gail told her children the day she vanished that she was going to meet a man named "John" at a Howard Johnson's resturant and maybe spend the day with him. After Gail vanished this of course gave rise to the thought that this unknown man Gail was with apparently had caused her disappearance.

Other theories were put forward including amnesia, a voluntary disappearance and even suicide but what really is sad is when the segment is updated you realize what a cold hearted woman Ms. DeLano must have been.

I know its not right to speak ill of the dead but in this case I have to get it off my chest: Gail DeLano concocted this situation where she would disappear and masked it around a scenario that her family members would think that she had been abducted or murdered.

The night before she vanished Gail's sons recalled she had a two hour phone conversation with the man thought to be "John" (It is now obvious that Gail was probably talking to herself on the phone) - She discarded her keys and purse at the Howard Johnson's so it would look like she was abducted and would point her family and the authorities to persue that route. In fact there was even a truck driver who thought he remembered giving a ride to Gail DeLano shortly after she vanished (which of course wasn't possible as DeLano took a plane out of the state and was dead a few days after arriving at her destination)

In reality she flew to Alabama registered in a hotel under an assumed name (further delaying the process of identification) and overdosed on drugs.

I'm sorry but this is one cold selfish woman to make her family go through that entire ordeal nevermind that she obviously had other options besides killing herself.

[skunk ape]

Thanks for the info. I forgot that she flew out of state to commit suicide. That was f'ed up that she would plant all of that evidence to get her family and the police thinking that she was dead or at least abducted and that there was a kidnapper/killer on the loose. Wasn't she raising some boys at the time? I feel bad for them.

[crystaldawn]

Wasn't she raising some boys at the time? I feel bad for them.

Yes she was a single mom to two boys at the time. One of the most interesting UM segments IMO. I remember how shocked I was when I first saw the update. I think its a one in a million shot that the ME from Alabama happened to be watching UM and recognized the photo as matching that of a Jane Doe that was found in the hotel room. UM was great in that it gave her family some answers as to what happened to her.

[LooksLikeCRicci]

This case has always creeped me out. Although I have a degree in Psychology and should understand that as a depressed person, Gayle couldn't see past her own pain, but I echo the earlier sentiments made about her. It's one thing to commit suicide. It's another to create a situation in which your family doesn't know your fate and they are left to wonder for two years.

Although, in Gayle's defense, she may have committed suicide in another state under a different name in an effort to not be a burden on her family. Perhaps she thought that if her family didn't know what happened to her, they wouldn't be ashamed that she committed suicide. Just a thought.

[rerungirl]

A very memorable episode...with an actress reading passages from Gail's diary. There was also the overnight announcer at a local radio station saying the Gail he knew was reluctant to leave the house, let alone take off to start a new life. Do you think the two hour phone conversation she had with "John" was actually fabricated...that she was talking to herself the whole time? Just bizarre.

[mphs95]

I remember seeing this update and thinking "How f'ed up was she?". I understand she was depressed, but suicide does not just affect the victim, but everyone involved w/ the vic. It leaves scars that do not always heal. The fact that she staged this whole disappearance and put her family through this is completely selfish. I feel for what she was going through, but suicide is NOT the only way out. DD, thanks for stating what I feel others were thinking.

[WatchYourLips]

I remember seeing this update and thinking "How f'ed up was she?". I understand she was depressed, but suicide does not just affect the victim, but everyone involved w/ the vic. It leaves scars that do not always heal. The fact that she staged this whole disappearance and put her family through this is completely selfish. I feel for what she was going through, but suicide is NOT the only way out. DD, thanks for stating what I feel others were thinking.

I agree that suicide isn't a solution, but there's a reason that sayings referring to the fact that you shouldn't judge a man or woman until you've walked in their shoes have been around so long.

You don't know what demons she was fighting.

[RightOnDude]

I'm serious when I say I wonder how her sons coped with the whole thing. I mean, first off, your mom is constantly depressed about how she can't find a man, is advertising in the personals, calling up radio stations just to talk to someone ... that's gotta be kind of embarrasing. It's awkward enough being a teenager ... having a mom like that would be too much for me. Then, to think she was abducted for 2 YEARS before finding out the truth ... that she flew to south Alabama, checked into a hotel room under an assumed name, and then OD'd on pills.

Man, I feel for those kids more than anyone else in this case.

[mphs95]

I agree that suicide isn't a solution, but there's a reason that sayings referring to the fact that you shouldn't judge a man or woman until you've walked in their shoes have been around so long.

You don't know what demons she was fighting.

WatchYourLips, I do understand the demons she was fighting, all too well. My father fought them also, and he committed suicide when I was a teenager. So I have an idea of what I'm talking about. We can just agree to disagree.

[WatchYourLips]

WatchYourLips, I do understand the demons she was fighting, all too well. My father fought them also, and he committed suicide when I was a teenager. So I have an idea of what I'm talking about. We can just agree to disagree.

I don't disagree with you and I'm certainly very sorry about what you had to go through with your Father.

[wiseguy182]

I agree with Dante. It is very difficult to sympathize with Gale (Gayle?) Delano after all she did. I understand that Gayle was lonely, but some people go their entire lives without meeting anybody, and Gayle had at least married twice, and had several people interested in her through the personal ads (she might have gotten even more hits had she not been so picky). I think the old expression is true: "better to have loved and lost than not loved at all." I do not know the nature of Gayle's two marriages, but it's possible that the boys' father(s) never saw their Dad and Gayle was all they had. So to lose both parents would have been very difficult for them I would imagine.

But Gayle's selfishness doesn't stop there. After leading everyone to think that she may have been abducted, she causes everyone who responded to her personal ad to be put under an umbrella of suspicion, leading all of those innocent people to go through that uncomfortable process, including "John".

But it still doesn't end there. She heads to the opposite part of the country and committs suicide, and her family, sons included, were probably thinking that the worst case scenario was possible, and that she had been abducted and going through a living hell.

Then she makes some hotel employee go through the horror of finding a dead body, and makes the police go through investigations when it was totally avoidable.

I am sorry Gayle Delano, but you were not the only lonely person in the world and you don't evoke much sympathy from me.

[JRA2000TL]

Just dug this one up since she was found in my home city. She was found in her room at the highrise Hilton by the mall (it's now a Marriott). I actually worked at this hotel for a short time in college. One of the veteran employees told me he remembered it. He claims to have been the one that checked her in. This is the part of the story where I don't know that I really believe him. He said she asked for room 1313 on the 13th floor. (How would she know the hotel had a 13th floor with that room number?) Anyhow, there actually is a room 1313 there.

I don't think any of the other employees were around back then except for him. This guy had worked there from the age of 18 to then about 40 yrs old so I was told.

Seems to me like other than Kenneth Robert Stanton and Gayle Delano, that there was also another wanted suspect that was caught in Mobile. Anyone remember? It was an update and I can't remember the case.