For me, perhaps the most heartbreaking one had to do with that elderly WWII vet whose young wife had died in childbirth decades earlier and, after he was wounded in combat, had found out that his daughter had been put up for adoption after her foster mother had died. He remarried but had no more children but became a beloved Radio Santa to try to cheer up other children yet despite decades of searching had NO idea what had become of his only child but carried her faded snapshot in his wallet. It turned out that the girl had died at age 18 in an explosion- having grown up thinking both her parents were also dead!:(

One of the saddest updates is about Bill Day, who was searching for his son Kristoff. His ex-wife had taken him and he finally tracked her down years later (in another country) only to find out his son had died of leukemia! How heartbreaking!

That was the first case that came to mind for me, crystaldawn.

I hope Betty Day was punished for kidnapping their son all those years. The unsolved mysteries update didn't mention whether or not she was punished.

I think the update on the Carrie Lynn Nixon story was one the really tugged at my heart...but it was not the one the ednduced the most tears.


That honor goes to the 1991 story of the fmaily of Charley Best from tennessee. This was not long after I first started watching UM, and it was the first episode I ever taped. I must have watched the tape at least 40 times between late 1991 and May of 1992 when the Update was aired. The images, the music, and the short little monologue by Robert Stack saying that Charley had died 8 weeks after the Update was filmed....well....I was only 12 then, and it was the first time television ever made me cry.

Yeah, that update with Charlie Best was sad, but at least he was reuninted with Ada before he died. His family said that the reunion brought him great comfort in his final days.

It's hard for me to choose the #1 saddest update, but I will admit that one of the saddest updates that I have ever seen on Unsolved Mysteries was the one on the disappearance of Trisha Ann Autry. She was the fifteen-year-old teenager who met someone online, only to vanish not long afterwards. Her disappearance took place in June of 2000.

In the spring of 2001, Trisha's remains were found buried near a facility. Last month, Cody Lynn Nielsen was convicted of her murder, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

A story about an elderly man looking for his wife. She simply disappeared one day. Then they showed an updated where a man who knew her confessed to her rape and murder and that he burried her somewhere on either their property or his.

Another is about a man who's house burned down but they couldn't find him. Then somet time later they found his body some distance behind his house and he appeared to have a fractured skull.

A lady named Susan vanished and her two sons were looking for her. Some hunter found her remains in the forest. Her husband at the time said she was drunk and became very mean with him like she always used to. According to him anyway. He said he went to bed and the next morning she was gone. Her car was found at the airport parked but they never found out who took it there. I think he had something to do with it.

The first two were listed as special alert.

Yeah, I remember the second one. I thought it was kind of silly, actually. Since it was a special alert at the end of the show, it was very short, and it was basically "his house blew up, but his body hasn't been found", followed immediately by the update "we found his body near the site of the explosion". Um, OK? Not the best search team in the country I guess?

The third case was the one that came to mind when I first saw this thread. It gets my vote. The update music was so sad and creepy. She was found in the dead of winter more than two years after she vanished. They probably found just bones. I didn't want to go to sleep the night I saw it. I also think the ex-husband was involved.

Originally posted by Zero
A story about an elderly man looking for his wife. She simply disappeared one day. Then they showed an updated where a man who knew her confessed to her rape and murder and that he burried her somewhere on either their property or his.


In the not-too-distant past, that case was featured on the Discovery channel series The FBI Files. When I realized that the story was about the 1992 disappearance of a Tennessee elderly woman, I started to put two and two together that it was a case that was briefly profiled on Unsolved Mysterties. The missing woman, Doe Roberts, was found buried in her neighbor's property, one year after she vanished. Her neighbor was eventually found guilty, and was sentenced to life in prison.

Remember the one about the mother (single mom with two kids) who disappeared and they thought she might have gone to meet a man. It was later determined she had committed suicide and her body was found in a hotel room somewhere. Does anyone know the name of that case?

Remember the one about the mother (single mom with two kids) who disappeared and they thought she might have gone to meet a man. It was later determined she had committed suicide and her body was found in a hotel room somewhere. Does anyone know the name of that case?

Gayle Delano.

How about the one where a woman (she had really black hair) was looking for her twin sister, but found out that she had passed away only a few months before the update/reunion. But her twin sister did have 5 grown sons and the woman was able to meet all of the them. During the reunion, she was standing in the middle of all these people and she had this lost look on her face and was crying, she was so heartbroken that she never got to meet her twin sister. She said in the interview that her sister "will always be in my heart". My heart broke for her.:(

Another sad one was that story about a woman who was stricken with a rare but life threatening disease and was looking for her estranged sister (sorry, I can't remember the names) as she needed bone marrow or something similar that she could only get from a family member or else she would die. Her sister was her only living relative, or at least the only relative she could get a workable donation from. She hadn't spoken with the sister in many years and had no current contact information. I think she hired a PI who was also unable to trace the sister. The UM broadcast was pretty much her last hope. I remember watching the original airing in '94 and I felt really bad for her. I never saw an update until many years later when the story was shown on Lifetime with a quick blurb at the end indicating that she had not been able to locate her sister and had died soon after the original story aired. :(

Another sad one was that story about a woman who was stricken with a rare but life threatening disease and was looking for her estranged sister (sorry, I can't remember the names) as she needed bone marrow or something similar that she could only get from a family member or else she would die. Her sister was her only living relative, or at least the only relative she could get a workable donation from. She hadn't spoken with the sister in many years and had no current contact information. I think she hired a PI who was also unable to trace the sister. The UM broadcast was pretty much her last hope. I remember watching the original airing in '94 and I felt really bad for her. I never saw an update until many years later when the story was shown on Lifetime with a quick blurb at the end indicating that she had not been able to locate her sister and had died soon after the original story aired. :(

I'm confused. I was thinking she had found her sister but that she wasn't a match and Diane Hahnlein passed away from her illness. I even thought I saw a reunion about it. I couldn't find anything about it on the board so maybe I'm just remembering it wrong.

I'm confused. I was thinking she had found her sister but that she wasn't a match and Diane Hahnlein passed away from her illness. I even thought I saw a reunion about it. I couldn't find anything about it on the board so maybe I'm just remembering it wrong.

Hmmm, how curious. I seem to remember a text only over bluescreen type update indicating that she had died before locating her sister. I don't think this is one I have on tape from Lifetime, I'll have to check.

In the mean time, does anyone else remember?

Slightly OT but can someone clarify the Craig Williamson update? I recall one indicating that he was located and reunited with his wife. This may have been a text only deal again. Then I saw another version of the update that went into detail about them breaking up because the feelings just weren't the same. I maybe saw this version like one or two times. I can't recall if it was on Lifetime or NBC. However, I never saw it again and whenever I caught the episode in reruns they always had the first update saying that Craig had been located and reunited with his wife and that more information would be forthcoming.

Slightly OT but can someone clarify the Craig Williamson update? I recall one indicating that he was located and reunited with his wife. This may have been a text only deal again. Then I saw another version of the update that went into detail about them breaking up because the feelings just weren't the same. I maybe saw this version like one or two times. I can't recall if it was on Lifetime or NBC. However, I never saw it again and whenever I caught the episode in reruns they always had the first update saying that Craig had been located and reunited with his wife and that more information would be forthcoming.

Yes, they ended up reuniting but Craig didn't remember his life with Christine and he had no feelings for her anymore. It was really sad because Christine went through so much to find him and then ended up being disappointed in the end. At least she did find him and has closure with the whole thing.

Remember the one about the mother (single mom with two kids) who disappeared and they thought she might have gone to meet a man. It was later determined she had committed suicide and her body was found in a hotel room somewhere. Does anyone know the name of that case?
That was Gayle Delano. This one made me both sad and angry. I won't speak ill of the dead so I'll leave it at that.

Bill Day....I cannot even imagine his grief. To look for your child all that time and come to find out, he's died. Just thinking about the case makes me sad all over again.

There was a lost loves case involving a woman looking for her twin sister who she was seperated from as a young child. The update said that her twin had actually died not long before the UM segment aired. There was some good to come from it because the woman got to meet her sister's kids and everything.

It hasn't aired yet an may never air on these new UM shows. The Baskins case. I hope at some point, the kids (well they're not kids anymore) will speak to their parents.

That was the first case that came to mind for me, crystaldawn.

I hope Betty Day was punished for kidnapping their son all those years. The unsolved mysteries update didn't mention whether or not she was punished.
I would dearly love to know what happened to Betty Day and if she was prosecuted at all. I felt so sorry for Bill Day when I saw that the update(think it was text only) mentioned his son had died of leukemia years before. I think for that alone, not telling his father that his son had died, Betty Day needs to be punished.

Ironically, Betty Day was only charged with passport fraud. She was not charged with parental kidnapping because she was still the custodial parent and she was never served with the court papers that gave custody to Bill as she had fled the country and because she was never served with the papers, by Maryland law she could not be charged with parental kidnapping.

rachael runyon i dont even want to comment on it beyond that absolutely horrible.

I thought the update on the woman who was looking for her paternal half sister was sad because the sister had passed away.

Ironically, Betty Day was only charged with passport fraud. She was not charged with parental kidnapping because she was still the custodial parent and she was never served with the court papers that gave custody to Bill as she had fled the country and because she was never served with the papers, by Maryland law she could not be charged with parental kidnapping.
Does anyone know how Bill Day is doing today? Just out of curiosity? And what happened after he discovered his son died?

I think for me...The end of the Brook Baker story was sad. Her mother was so mad and she had a passion for justice and then when it was updated...she looked like her life was over. She no longer had that passion...she was just existing. I found that to be so sad. How hard it must be for a parent to lose their child in such a brutal was.

justin5256: Wow, thanks for identifying that case so quickly. Very impressive! I love it. That was a sad case for sure.. stuck with me.

A story about an elderly man looking for his wife. She simply disappeared one day. Then they showed an updated where a man who knew her confessed to her rape and murder and that he burried her somewhere on either their property or his.

In the not-too-distant past, that case was featured on the Discovery channel series The FBI Files. When I realized that the story was about the 1992 disappearance of a Tennessee elderly woman, I started to put two and two together that it was a case that was briefly profiled on Unsolved Mysterties. The missing woman, Doe Roberts, was found buried in her neighbor's property, one year after she vanished. Her neighbor was eventually found guilty, and was sentenced to life in prison.
I don't think she was raped just killed. The killer who was an pretty old man was after money. He tried to blackmail the husband saying his wife was still alive...