Does anyone remember an Unsolved Mysteries segment that featured a radio talk show host who started receiving mysterious phonecalls about a murder or possibly a missing persons case?This segment aired years ago and I haven't ever seen it repeated. From what I remember, the calls came in on the talk show host's private line and he had no idea how a stranger had gotten access to it. The caller said he was with Interpol and gave him the name and phone number of a doctor he claimed was involved in the murder. Was this the Judith Hymes case or something different?

Finally, I can't say enough good things about this site. It's great to read what other UM fans have to say and to finally get updates on some of the old cases.

I may be getting two different episodes confused here, but...There was an episode of UM a few years back that to date I've only seen that one time. In it, a man phoned a DJ, and confessed on air to murdering a woman in a fit of rage, either by stabbing or strangling . His call was anonymous but recorded, and it was played over and over over the next few days in the hopes that someone would hear it on the radio and recognize the voice.

Meanwhile, the police compared unsolved murders in the area to the one the caller described, and found one from about a year and a half ago that matched closely. There were no leads or suspects, and the cops had the woman's friends and family listen to the tape in the hopes that someone would recognize the voice. They could not, but the murdered woman's sisters became very excited at the idea that the murderer might be getting close to cracking and turning himself in.

Finally, UM stepped in and re-enacted the case. Still no luck.


I saw the rerun of that segment. Afterwards, Robert Stack gave an update : The DJ confessed that he had a coworker/friend phone in as a publicity stunt. All they had wanted was to create a "buzz" for their call-in program. When the police and then UM stepped in, they got scared and played along. And so a murder victim's friends and her two (?) sisters had their hopes raised and dashed, the police spent time and money investigating a phoney call, and then UM spent more $$$$ recreating the event...For nothing.

What punishment the two radio employees received , I don't recall. And whether the true murder they accidentally matched was ever solved...I don't know.

I do know that Robert Stack looked very, very irate as he gave THAT update.

Oh, yes. I remember the story about the publicity stunt that the two DJ's made. They were given community service for all of the wasted time the police spent on the case. They were temporarily suspended from the radio station, but were hired back a couple weeks later.

Playing with people's emotions for publicity, and THAT'S their punishment? Sad.

I saw this case too about a month ago. Was that radio station KROQ?

When I heard there was update on that case, I was hoping it would be good. I was also prepared for disappointment if the update was a sad one. But in this case, I was not quite prepared to find out the call was a hoax, a "publicity stunt". :doh: I thought that was one of the worst stunts ever pulled. :rolleyes:

The one other case that iritated me like this was the Amy Bradley case, who was missing while on a cruise with her family. Her family spent about $200,000 to some people who claimed they had info on Amy's whereabouts. Unfortunately, the Bradleys were actually ripped off because those people were actually after the money and had no info on Amy at all. At least the person who came up with that scheme to steal the money was jailed. Still, what those people had done was so low. :(

-Makoto_4

One of the cases done on UM is the Amy Billig story. Her mother wrote a book about her plight called Without a Trace , and in it she describes an attempted scam just days after the disappearance, perpetrated by two teenagers. They called pretending to be the kidnappers, and the Billigs went to the rendezvous witha suitcase of money. The boys were picked up and charged for that little stunt.

Now, that's bad enough, two kids playing with the minds and hearts of a grieving family. But they were young , and the young often lack empathy. But get this : YEARS later, when one of those two is pushing or past THIRTY he runs into Mrs Billig, greets her, and gets all put out because she's still angry over what was "just a dumb joke". How can people so callous and selfcentered be alive and breathing?