Crime Scenes Nbc Film Crew Stages Dramatic Reenactment Of Two Valley Bombings And Bank Robberies For An Unsolved Mysteries Segment That May Help Break Deadlock In Cases

Two men in long olive-green coats, masks to match and black knit stocking caps sprint across the parking lot.

One points a black shotgun in the air as he storms through the east entrance to the Spokane Valley U.S. Bank branch at Sprague and Mullan. The other, waving a handgun and carrying a tan satchel, follows closely on his heals.

This time, the people inside the branch are expecting them.

“Cut,” director Dan Gomez yells. The robbery stops.

The Saturday afternoon heist was part of a reenactment. It was the first of two bank robberies played out by local actors working for NBC’s Unsolved Mysteries.

A film crew from the show was in town for four days to film a segment scheduled to air this fall. Actors also recreated two bombings that preceded both robberies.

Law enforcement officials hope the show’s national television audience will help them solve a pair of bombings and bank robberies that shook the Valley in April and July.

The bank was first robbed April 1. Minutes earlier, a bomb exploded at The Spokesman-Review’s Valley office, apparently served as a diversion for the robbery. Another bomb also exploded at the bank, damaging the lobby.

The bank was robbed again July 12. This time an explosion at Planned Parenthood’s Valley office at Second and Pines preoccupied deputies minutes before the robbery.

A task force of more than 50 federal agents and sheriff’s detectives has been following leads trying to solve the cases. As many as six people may be responsible. No arrests have been made.

“I hope this helps,” said sheriff’s Lt. David Wiyrick.

Besides the bank, the Unsolved Mysteries crew shot scenes near the Planned Parenthood office and at The Spokesman-Review.

Bill Atchison watched Monday’s filming session at the newspaper office from his car. He was waiting in the shade for his wife to finish shopping at a nearby crafts supply store.

“I was just about on the verge of walking over a little closer so I could listen,” Atchison said.

The crew was shooting one of the last of the 20 rolls of film - roughly 8,000 feet - that now must be edited. Back in California, writers will script lines for host Robert Stack, who will narrate between interviews.

“This four days will come down to about an eight- or 10-minute segment,” said Kathy Cumbo, the segment producer.

The segment is scheduled to be aired early in the 22-show season, which begins in mid-September, Cumbo said. A firm date will not be known until about two weeks before the piece airs, Cumbo said.

Unsolved Mysteries began research for the segment three days after the latest incident. Research producer Angela Smith stumbled across the Valley bombing and bank robbery while watching the Friday evening news on a Los Angeles television station.

“I didn’t take any interest in it until I heard them say this is the second time this happened,” Smith said.

Smith scribbled a few notes and called the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department, the FBI and U.S. Bank on Monday. She also began collecting newspaper stories.

Smith sold producers on the story two days later. The story’s unique spin from the typical bank robbery kept their attention.

“I thought they were smart,” Smith said of the robbers. “I thought they were clever, obviously sophisticated and probably dangerous.”

Crews began arriving in the Valley from Burbank, Calif. and San Francisco last Wednesday. They auditioned local actors to play the parts of a bank teller, a Spokesman-Review employee and two bombers/robbers.

Friday they interviewed Spokane County Sheriff John Goldman, FBI and ATF agents, and a witness.

Reenactments began Saturday.

Two custom vans - one of which was used by the real robbers - were parked side-by-side in the bank parking lot. A motor home, moving truck and semi-truck packed with equipment also were parked in the lot.

Inside the bank, more than a dozen members of the Unsolved Mysteries production team scurried about. Equipment scattered around the branch ranged from a simple roll of duct tape to expensive camera equipment.

Florescent light bulbs lit up the set. Large shades directed light around the room.

The scene was enough to give the bank a Hollywood flavor.

But the action, which closely followed news accounts of the incidents, was realistic enough that no one mistook the Valley bank for a sound stage on an NBC back lot.

Before the bank robbery scene, two actors dressed in fatigues and blue jeans selected their weapons from an arsenal of seven guns resembling the ones believed to have been used during the robberies. The four shotguns, two revolvers and an AK-47 lay neatly on cases.

A propane tank and a mock, shiny pipe bomb also served as reminders of the violent nature of the incidents.

“I got the taped-up shotgun?” asked a scruffy, stringy-haired actor.

Spokane actor Patrick Treadway, 36, played the featured robber who planted the bombs. He learned about the part only the day before auditions began, and was glad to be a part of the recreation.

“I certainly would do it again,” said Treadway, who has had some minor film and television rolls in Los Angeles. “It was big for up here.”

The reenactment of the Planned Parenthood bombing was filmed Sunday in front of a small crowd.

Crews used the adjoining chiropractic office to recreate the scene at the woman’s health clinic.

Actors raced up to the front door where Treadway smashed out a window and lit a fuse leading to two pipe bombs taped together.

“You think it’s going to blow then, but they quit,” said Carol Reisdorph, a receptionist at the dentist’s office next door, who was waiting to see the explosion. Reisdorph noticed the film crew while she was driving by and ended up staying to watch for four hours.

Garth Werner, owner of the Blue Dolphin, also was among the couple of dozen people gathered across Pines to watch.

“It was the first time I’d seen an explosion,” Werner said.

But most people did not stop. Their faces only tighten when they caught a glimpse of the masked actors and kept on driving.

The blast finally came at 5:49 p.m. Special effects crews spent the entire day setting it up. Unlike some of the smaller, less expensive scenes, camera crews only get one try at the shot.

“I just bet it was what it was actually like,” Reisdorph said after the blast.

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