Ep 4. Vanished

In The FBI Files season 4 episode 4, titled "Vanished," viewers are taken through the baffling disappearance of Kimberly Pandelios. An 18-year-old college student from New York, Pandelios vanished without a trace on a trip to visit her boyfriend in Florida. The case went unsolved for years, until the FBI was able to piece together the few clues they had to finally discover what really happened to this young woman.

The episode begins with a description of Pandelios' life prior to her disappearance. She was a popular and well-liked young woman, active in her church and her college's theatre department. She would call her mother every night, so when she stopped calling, her family knew something was wrong. Her boyfriend, Mark Duker, reported her missing after going to her hotel room to discover she was not there.

The local police force in Florida was initially skeptical of the family's claims. They assumed that Pandelios had simply run away or gone off on her own accord, but as the days stretched on, it became clear that something more sinister was at play. Her parents were eventually able to get the FBI involved in the case, and a full investigation was launched.

The most significant clue in the case was a mysterious phone call that Pandelios had made on the night of her disappearance. She called a number in New York that her family did not recognize, but the call was dropped before anyone could answer. The FBI traced the phone number to a man named Gerard John Schaefer, who had once been a police officer in Florida but had been fired after being caught kidnapping and raping two young women. Schaefer had been let out of prison just a few weeks prior to Pandelios' disappearance.

The FBI quickly became convinced that Schaefer was involved in Pandelios' disappearance. They searched his home and found a tape recording that Schaefer had made of a woman being tortured and killed. The voice on the tape was not Pandelios', but it was enough to convince the FBI that they needed to keep Schaefer in custody. They charged him with kidnapping and murder, although they could not definitively link him to Pandelios' case.

The FBI began to build a case against Schaefer by investigating his past crimes. They were able to link him to the disappearances of at least two other young women, both of whom he had kidnapped and killed in a brutal and sadistic manner. They contacted the families of these women and asked them to appear on national television, hoping that someone would come forward with information about Schaefer's whereabouts around the time of Pandelios' disappearance.

Amazingly, a man named Glenn O'Connell saw the broadcast and recognized Schaefer's picture. O'Connell had been at a truck stop in Florida on the same night that Pandelios vanished, and he remembered Schaefer's distinctive green truck and blonde poodle. O'Connell thought nothing of it at the time, but when he saw Schaefer's mugshot on television, he knew he had to come forward.

With O'Connell's testimony, the FBI was able to place Schaefer in Florida on the night of Pandelios' disappearance. They searched his truck and found a number of items that belonged to Pandelios, including her driver's license and purse. They also found a handgun and shackles, which confirmed their suspicion that Schaefer was indeed the man responsible for her disappearance.

The episode ends with a description of Schaefer's trial and eventual conviction. He was sentenced to death for the murders of the two women whose bodies were found, but was never officially charged with Pandelios' murder as her body was never found. Pandelios' family finally had some closure, however, knowing that the man responsible for their daughter's disappearance was finally behind bars.