View Full Version : Does anyone remember these 2 cases?


mah79
12-22-2009, 11:43 PM
Hi Everyone!
I am trying to remember these 2 cases that I saw years back, when UM was still broadcast on Lifetime. would any of you be able to identify them, or to tell me if they were solved?
1. I only recall seeing this story ONCE on lifetime. I know that it is a lost loves story, but for the life in me I can't remember the specifics. All Iremember is the opening scene. A young husband and wife are riding in a sleigh circa Christmas 1932, somewhere in upstate New York. They are in love, and they start a family. But somehow or another, the family disintegrates and the children get all split up.
Sorry if the details are so vague. But I think this story was about the grown children trying to reunite with each other. Does anybody remember more about it?

2. A man wants to know more about his father, who died in the 1960's. The father led a mysterious life. He was a WWI or WWII veteran who then spent the rest of his life repairing vending machines. The father also had some training in first aid; when the mother cut herself while cleaning blinds, the father knew exactly what to do about pressure points and tourniquets, almost as if he had been a doctor, himself. When he died, the son could find no record of his father ever having served in the war. The father's family was also a mystery. The son also learned that the father had had a marriage prior to marrying his mother. When the father was on his deathbed, the son was asking where the rest of the father's family was, and the mother tried to quiet him by saying, rather cryptically, "WE'RE daddy's family." The mother never talked about the father after his death, and took his secrets to her own grave.
To my knowledge, i know that there is another thread out there on this story. I think that the story was solved somehow, and the son did learn some of the father's secrets, including the fact that the father had had a first wife in Maine.
If anybody remembers this story, or the link to the solved mystery, I greatly appreciate it!
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday! :wave:

bell83
12-23-2009, 05:47 AM
Hi Everyone!
I am trying to remember these 2 cases that I saw years back, when UM was still broadcast on Lifetime. would any of you be able to identify them, or to tell me if they were solved?
1. I only recall seeing this story ONCE on lifetime. I know that it is a lost loves story, but for the life in me I can't remember the specifics. All Iremember is the opening scene. A young husband and wife are riding in a sleigh circa Christmas 1932, somewhere in upstate New York. They are in love, and they start a family. But somehow or another, the family disintegrates and the children get all split up.
Sorry if the details are so vague. But I think this story was about the grown children trying to reunite with each other. Does anybody remember more about it?

2. A man wants to know more about his father, who died in the 1960's. The father led a mysterious life. He was a WWI or WWII veteran who then spent the rest of his life repairing vending machines. The father also had some training in first aid; when the mother cut herself while cleaning blinds, the father knew exactly what to do about pressure points and tourniquets, almost as if he had been a doctor, himself. When he died, the son could find no record of his father ever having served in the war. The father's family was also a mystery. The son also learned that the father had had a marriage prior to marrying his mother. When the father was on his deathbed, the son was asking where the rest of the father's family was, and the mother tried to quiet him by saying, rather cryptically, "WE'RE daddy's family." The mother never talked about the father after his death, and took his secrets to her own grave.
To my knowledge, i know that there is another thread out there on this story. I think that the story was solved somehow, and the son did learn some of the father's secrets, including the fact that the father had had a first wife in Maine.
If anybody remembers this story, or the link to the solved mystery, I greatly appreciate it!
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday! :wave:


I very vaguely remember the first one, but no specifics. The second one I remember a little better. The son had found US Army Medical Corps insignia and a First Lieutenant pin in his dad's stuff. I don't remember there being an update for it, though. Sorry:(

justins5256
12-23-2009, 09:32 AM
Hi,

I don't recall the first story offhand. I may have seen it, but I wasn't a huge fan of lost love cases so that could be why it's not so memorable for me.

The second story is the one about Richard Coleman. He was in the army as you said, either WWI or WWII. I think the son found some old discharge papers among his father's possessions. The strange thing was that it was very apparent that the papers belonged to another soldier and someone had scratched this person's name off the papers and stenciled in the father's name. The documents were very obviously forged. I think the mother had told the son that his father "did something he wasn't proud of" while in the army. I often wondered if the father did something worthy of a dishonorable discharge, or possibly he deserted and that was why he kept these forged documents around.

As I said, I'm not a fan of the "lost loves" category, but I thought this was one of the more compelling segments. I still remember the son commenting on how he didn't want to judge his father, he just wanted to know more about his life. That always stuck with me.

Ah-ha, just found this:
http://www.ancestrymagazine.com/2007/01/breakthrough/names-places-and-mis-information/

nohwheregirl
12-23-2009, 11:00 AM
I wonder if Richard Coleman's family watches Mad Men. Or maybe the writers of Mad Men are fans of Unsolved Mysteries!!! I'm glad that Bob Coleman was finally able to discover his father's true identity.

mah79
12-23-2009, 02:35 PM
Hi Justin,
Thanks so much for the link to Bob COleman's article. Very intriguing!

justins5256
01-17-2010, 06:37 PM
BUMP

Does anyone recall the first story? I want to see it now.

WishfulDreamer
01-18-2010, 03:07 AM
I know the first case was the one where the boy was taken away from the family and the woman watching him tried to adopt him but she wasn't married at the time so it wasn't allowed and her parents were considered too old. All I remember is that I think the biological mother's name was Katherine and the woman watching him was named Florence (I think, not quite sure). That was the one where the social workers gave the family warning before taking him away and the woman watching him tried to prepare him for the trip by letting him see what the train would be like (because he was very young and afraid of it) and the conductor was very kind and let them sit on it while it was at the station. I believe the case took place in the late '30s but I can't remember specific names. I know that crystaldawn's discs had the case, though.

wiseguy182
01-18-2010, 03:36 AM
i might have that first segment that was mentioned, it sounds familiar.