Dennis Maher "Final Appeal" Case?

[RobinW]

I was surprised to find a listing on the "Unsolved Mysteries" Wikia site that claimed that a "Final Appeal" segment once aired in 1993 for Dennis Maher, a Massachussets man who was wrongly convicted of rape and eventually exonerated via DNA in 2003:
http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Dennis_Maher

This was one of the pet cases of the Innocence Project as the guy was just a victim of some HORRIBLE bad luck since he happened to be wearing a red sweatshirt and khaki jacket on the same night that another man wearing the same style of clothes raped a woman in the area.
http://www.innocenceproject.org/Cont...nnis_Maher.php

Maher's story was heavily featured in a 2005 documentary about wrongly convicted people called "After Innocence":
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436039/

Anyway, I had no idea UM featured this case! Does anyone out there actually remember seeing this segment, or is this just an example of someone entering inaccurate info into Wikipedia? I suppose it could have been just a brief Special Alert, but I can't see them doing that for a Final Appeal case.

[TracyLynnS]

I don't know how accurate the info is on that wikia entry, but I have noticed that if they include something that actually didn't air on UM they state the show that it was on and why they decided to add it to the unsolved wikia.

[TheCars1986]

I want to say I vaguely remember seeing the "Redux" version of this case, but I thought the real rapist had been caught. Not sure if I'm remembering this one or not, but I seem to remember a guy who targeted women on a bike path/jogging trail and raped them.

[RobinW]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

I want to say I vaguely remember seeing the "Redux" version of this case, but I thought the real rapist had been caught. Not sure if I'm remembering this one or not, but I seem to remember a guy who targeted women on a bike path/jogging trail and raped them.

No, that's a completely different case about a serial rapist in Buffalo, where another wrongly convicted man was exonerated for two of the rapes.
http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/w...ke_Path_Rapist

Curiously enough, the Maher case is listed both on Wikia and this forum's UM Case List as having aired on June 16, 1993, which would be during UM's rerun period. Maybe they just snuck in a new case which was aired alongside bunch of repeats, which they sometimes did during the summer. This could be one those ultra-rare UM segments that only aired once and is nearly impossible to find today, such as the Todd McAfee case. Either way, I'm glad the guy was eventually exonerated.

[justins5256]

TJ's episode guide has this description for 6/16/93:

"June 16, 1993

A final appeal resulting in the release of a wrongly convicted Lowell, Mass., man from prison after serving time for murder. Repeat segments include the search for a fugitive couple suspected of killing two people."

It is worth noting that on January 6, 1993, (that same season) UM aired the Rick McCue story. McCue was subsequently exonerated, I want to say a few weeks after the first UM broadcast.

If McCue's story was repeated that summer, it would probably have carried the update about his acquittal; hence the "resulting in the release" part of the description.

That being said, I tend to think the 6/16/93 episode description in TJ's guide is referencing McCue and his story aired that night.

I have no idea how Maher's name got dragged in to this. However, I tend to think it's a mistake. Perhaps someone was going through TJ's guide looking for "lost" or unfamiliar segments, and drew an inference to Maher based on the location mentioned in the guide. It's possible. Also, think of how many people will come on here and swear up and down they saw a UM segment on a specific case, person, event, yet it doesn't exist.

I find it really hard to believe this segment could have been aired and someone here not know about it.

[RobinW]

Ah yes, this explanation makes the most sense because Rick McCue was released only a few weeks after his story aired and Dennis Maher wasn't exonerated until 2003, so I'm pretty sure the June segment would be an update on McCue. The only inconsistency is that the McCue case took place in New Hampshire while the Maher case happened in Lowell, Mass., but I believe McCue originally hailed from Lowell, so that's probably how the info got crossed up.

You're right, it is fairly common for people to mistakenly believe they saw certain cases on UM. How many posters on here have sworn they saw the Springfield Three profiled on UM yet I've seen no evidence that such a segment ever aired?

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by RobinW

How many posters on here have sworn they saw the Springfield Three profiled on UM yet I've seen no evidence that such a segment ever aired?

Are you sure the Springfield Three wasn't a "Special Alert" that aired on UM?

Originally Posted by RobinW

No, that's a completely different case about a serial rapist in Buffalo, where another wrongly convicted man was exonerated for two of the rapes.

Thanks, the picture of Dennis Maher on the UM Wiki site looked similar to the man who was exonerated on the "Bike Path Rapist" segment.

[RobinW]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

Are you sure the Springfield Three wasn't a "Special Alert" that aired on UM?

The UM Wikia does claim it was a "Special Alert" segment and a couple other articles have claimed the case aired on UM. It very well could have been on the show, but not many people seem to have actually seen it. I think at least one poster here has claimed they used to have an UM segment about the Springfield Three on tape, but I think that if UM had actually devoted a full segment to such a high-profile case, more people would remember it.

[TheCars1986]

I distinctly remember Robert Stack standing on a darkened street and them showing the three missing women's pictures, the only thing I don't remember is whether or not it was a full segment, but the lack of a memory tells me it was simply a "Special Alert".