Skinwalker Ranch Update / Mistaken Identity Case

About the show

In the first half, George Knapp welcomed Brandon Fugal, owner of Utah's Skinwalker Ranch, along with members of his team from the Secret of Skinwalker Ranch television show: Thomas Winterton, Eric Bard, Kaleb Bench, and Dr. Christopher Lee. Calling the group's appearance "historic," Fugal said "I don't think anyone would have imagined in years past a broadcast live from the most scientifically studied paranormal hotspot." As researchers and experiencers of the paranormal, Fugal went on, none of the team ever expected to be on a TV show, so the recent media focus on their work is new for all of them. Fugal explained that one of the conditions agreed to by its network is that nothing about the show is ever to be scripted, planned, or contrived.

Bard, who's the Ranch's Principal Investigator and Chief Scientist, acknowledged the inherently difficult task of studying the high strangeness Skinwalker is known for. Much of the evidence of paranormal activity reported there, for example, is fleeting and subjective in nature: sensory experiences like vertigo and unusual sounds, a sense of predation, and so on. The key, he and Fugal agreed, is to continue to vet the evidence collected as rigorously as possible and piece together his conclusions accordingly. Assisting in their efforts is an extensive network of surveillance equipment installed at the Ranch, they went on.

Investigating the activity at the Ranch is hazardous as well, Winterton related. Threats to the health and safety of those working and visiting there have reportedly included a mysterious head injury, virus-like symptoms, and other medical episodes. Bench added that providing security at the Ranch is especially challenging, given the chaotic and sometimes malevolent nature of the supernatural entities that may inhabit the property. The dangers of the Ranch even extend beyond its borders, Bard claimed: negative consequences have followed people from the Skinwalker to their homes, even affecting family members who have never visited there in person.

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For most of his life, the guest in the second half believed that he was Paul Fronczak, a man who was kidnapped as an infant in Chicago but eventually returned safely to his parents. A woman posing as a nurse, Fronczak said, took him as a newborn from his mother and left the hospital. After about eighteen months without a trace of baby Paul, police in New Jersey discovered an abandoned child fitting his description; following their investigation, they determined that they had in fact found the missing Fronczak infant. Having no reason to doubt this conclusion, baby Paul's parents happily resumed their life together with him.

But growing up, Fronczak sometimes felt a strange lack of connection to his family. His suspicions grew to the point of asking his parents to submit a DNA test, and to the shock of them all, it revealed that he was not biologically related to the people he knew as his parents. The discovery resulted in Fonczak's kidnapping case being reopened, and his search for his real parents began. Through genetic research, he was able to find out who he really was: Jack Rosenthal, who was abandoned by his parents as an infant. Alhough his real parents had since died, Fronczak/Rosenthal did meet some of his extended family. Investigators also learned who the real Paul Fronczak—the baby kidnapped decades prior—was: a man who grew up as Kevin Baty.