Unsolved Mysteries
(2017-2018)
Unsolved Mysteries opening segment (1990s)
The original Unsolved Mysteries was a weekly anthology featuring stories about true crime, missing persons, and unexplained paranormal phenomena. As a kid, I found the show's melodramatic atmosphere terrifying yet oddly moving. The cinematography of real locations across America's Heartland had a romantic quality, despite the often tragic endings.
The show poetically dealt with the lack of conclusions. Missing persons walked into the night, never seen again, and investigators struggled to solve crimes. The stories had gaps, with artistic license filling in the blanks, much like commissioned portraits. Artists create these portraits to idealize their subjects, memorializing them in the best possible light.
Unsolved Mysteries captured its subjects in the same way but from a different angle—not depicting the idealized moments of their lives, but their final or most infamous ones. A woman leaving work, unaware of her impending fate, or the final self-portrait of a woman never seen again.
Gretchen Burford
2017
Oil on canvas
18x24 inches
On Friday, February 26, 1988, Gretchen Burford left her law office and deposited a check for $449 at a nearby bank. Authorities believe that while she was at the ATM, an unknown assailant hid in her unlocked car and threatened her with a knife when she returned. It’s unclear what happened in the next twenty minutes, but she may have tried to talk him out of the crime. At 7:02pm, Gretchen attempted to withdraw more money at another ATM but aborted the transaction, possibly to discourage the assailant. She then drove away quickly, crashing into a parked car. The assailant exited, shouting, "He stabbed me!" as two men arrived to help.
Authorities believe Gretchen caused the accident to escape, but the assailant stabbed her in the chest before fleeing. Her car stopped just 150 yards from the ATM, and she died shortly after in the emergency room. Her killer’s identity remains unknown.
Father Reynaldo Rivera
2017
Oil on canvas
18x24 inches
On the evening of Thursday, August 5, 1982, a call was placed to the rectory of St. Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The caller claimed he was with his grandfather, who was about to die, and needed a priest to give him the "last rites", also known as the Anointing of the Sick. Fifty-seven-year-old Father Reynaldo Rivera received the call. The caller wanted him to administer last rites for his dying grandfather at a rest stop near Waldo. Father Rivera agreed since the rest stop was twenty miles away. He reported the situation to the abbot and then left in his car at approximately 8:45PM. When Father Rivera did not return the next day, he was reported missing.
Hundreds of citizens from Santa Fe volunteered to search for Father Rivera. Three days later on Saturday, August 7, his body was found in a remote field, three miles from the rest stop; he had been shot. Evidence also suggested that he had been tied up. His 1974 Chevrolet Malibu was found abandoned about 110 miles from the crime scene at a rest area on Interstate 40 near Grants, New Mexico, suspecting that the killer stole the car and used it to escape until the car's gas tank was exhausted. Father Rivera’s murder remains unsolved.
Tina Resch
2017
Oil on canvas
18x24 inches
Tina Resch, adopted by Joan and John Resch in Columbus, Ohio, was 14 when she saw the movie Poltergeist. Shortly after, objects in their home were reported to fly. The Columbus Dispatch interviewed Tina and published photos of a telephone allegedly flying through the air. Parapsychologist William Roll investigated the case, claiming "spontaneous psychokinesis," though he never witnessed any object move on its own. James Randi, from the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, was denied access to the house but suspected Tina was faking the events.
Despite numerous investigations, no one ever saw an object move independently. The Disptach photographer could not capture movement unless he looked away. One photo, widely circulated, was later analyzed and suggested Tina was throwing objects when no one was looking. Randi's further analysis confirmed this. The editor of The Columbus Dispatch, Luke Feck, suppressed evidence of Tina’s trickery, refusing to publish Randi’s findings.
Randi concluded in Skeptical Inquirer: "The evidence for the validity of poltergeist claims in this case is anecdotal and thin, at best. The evidence against them is strong and convincing."
Johnny Lee Wilson
2017
Oil on canvas
18x24 inches
On April 13, 1986, seventy-nine-year-old Pauline Martz was found dead in her home in Aurora, Missouri. She was beaten, bound and gagged, and left for dead in her house, which had been set ablaze. An autopsy would reveal that Martz died of carbon monoxide poisoning as a result of the fire. Several days later, the police brought in Johnny Lee Wilson, a mentally challenged twenty-year-old, for interrogation. He was interrogated for over four hours, before confessing to the murder.Wilson was charged with first-degree murder and, in order to avoid the death penalty, pleaded guilty. He received a life sentence without parole.
In 1993, Wilson requested a pardon from then governor of Missouri Mel Carnahan, and was granted in September 1995, after a one-year investigation of the case. It concluded that there was no physical evidence tying Wilson to the crime, and that the authorities took advantage of Wilson's mental defect to coerce a confession. However, Brownfield has not been prosecuted for the crime, nor anyone else, and the murder of Martz remains unsolved.
Killer of Dick Hansen
2017
Oil on canvas
11x14 inches
On the night of April 29, 1991, Dick Hansen and his friend Jean went to a bar and left around 1am in her car. At 1:30am, they arrived at a restaurant where Dick had left his pickup. While sitting in her car, another vehicle pulled up behind them. When they left separately, the car followed them. At a traffic light, they made left turns, and Dick followed the car as it did the same. On another road, Jean changed lanes, and he followed her exactly. At the next light, Dick signaled for her to follow him onto the freeway. The car continued to follow them for over ten miles, despite Jean’s attempts to lose him by changing lanes and braking.
Dick signaled to exit, and Jean nearly missed it, but the car followed them off the freeway. They pulled over, and Dick confronted the man. After asking what he wanted, Dick was shot twice. Jean froze in fear, and the man stared at her for a moment before fleeing. Dick was dead by the time paramedics arrived, and his killer has never been identified. The case remains unsolved.
Patricia Meehan
2018
Oil on canvas
16x20 inches
On the evening of April 20, 1989, Carol Heitz was hit head-on by a car driven on the wrong side of a remote Montana highway. Heitz was unharmed, as was the other driver, a blonde woman. The woman, who appeared emotionless, walked into a nearby field and vanished. She was later identified as 38-year-old Patricia Meehan.
Investigators traced a trail of footprints they believed to be Meehan’s, but it disappeared in a wooded area. Authorities speculated she may have hitchhiked away. Meehan's parents arrived from Pittsburgh to help search. No one knew why she was so far from her home in Bozeman at that hour, 400 miles away.
While searching Patricia's belongings, her parents found a roll of undeveloped film. One photo was a self-portrait of Patricia with the same vacant expression Heitz had described. Over the following months, there were reports of Patricia sighted at truck stops and highways from Montana to Washington state. She remains missing.
Tommy Burkett
2018
Oil on canvas
16x20 inches
On November 30, 1991, 21-year-old Thomas Burkett left his parents' home in Fairfax County, Virginia, to visit old friends. Around midnight on December 1st, Tommy withdrew money from an ATM and was approached by three white males. Later, he called his parents to say he'd stay at his friend's place. The next evening, his parents found his Mustang parked outside, and inside the house, his beaten body was found sitting upright on his bedroom sofa. Tommy's jaw was broken, his ear severely damaged, and he had multiple cuts and bruises. A gunshot wound to his head and a gun in his hand were also present. On his desk was a bank statement with the message "I want to be cremated."
The crime scene investigation was poorly handled. No photographs were taken, prints were not dusted, and no blood samples were collected despite the spatter's inconsistency with the body's position. The bullet and gun were not examined. Tommy, a junior at Marymount College, had faced repeated harassment by students, including theft and assaults. An informant later suggested he was murdered because he was an undercover DEA agent planning to expose campus drug activities. No charges have been filed, and Tommy's murder remains unsolved.