is there anybody here? >> tonight, on "20/20," family secrets. he became a legend for disappearing into the wild and dying there alone. you saw the movie. you read the blockbuster book. but now, what his sisters say you haven't heard about his parents. >> i do hold them accountable for his disappearance. >> why he left his family without a trace, and the letter his sister kept secret for 20 years. >> with one abrupt, swift action, i'm going to completely knock them out of my life. >> "20/20," right there with them as they retrace his final steps to the abandoned bus he called home. >> what are your parents going

to think when they see you all here together? >> the wild truth. and, she was a baby aband abandoned in the phone booth. >> i would see women on the street, thinking, that could be my mother. >> he's looking for his brother. she's looking for the baby she was forced to give away. what did you promise her? >> i promised i would find her. >> now, meet their last, best hope to find their families. "20/20," with her every step of the way. the door knocks. dna swabs, and false starts. why is it so hard to find these people? the reunions, the rejections. >> he said, don't you ever call me again. >> click. >> and results that are too much to bear. >> sometimes people want those secrets to stay hidden. >> family secrets. good evening, i'm elizabeth vargas. and thank you so much for joining us tonight on this holiday weekend. we have a very special reunion program in store for you, as we set out to solve the ultimate

family secret. what happened to a loved one who went missing? a long lost relative? and, we start with my trip to a telephone booth, just a few blocks away from our studio here, where a woman was abandoned as a baby. just two days old. new york city, 1965. the beatles play shea stadium, a massive blackout turns out the lights, and that summer, on a street corner on the upper west side of manhattan in a grimy phone booth, somebody abandons a baby. it's a little girl, apparently born just a day or two before. there is no note and no one saw anything. the only clue dangles from the baby's blanket. a st. jude medal. the patron saint of desperate causes. >> so, it was on this corner, 88th and columbus. >> there it is. >> this is the phone booth. 49 years later, that desperate cause, the abandoned baby is all grown up.

her name is louise jones. what does it feel like being here? >> it feels more strange every time i come. >> a successful stockbroker and mother, satisfied with her life. but somehow, that phone on the corner keeps calling her back. so what scenarios have you come up with about what might have happened? >> at the end of the day, i think she was really young and really scared and there was shame involved somehow. and there still is some shame involved, because she hasn't come out to look for me at this point. >> and so louise is now looking for her, and she has questions. >> where have you been? >> why didn't you look for me? >> what could it have been that was so awful that made you do that? >> like louise jones, john keller was also abandoned as a baby. the 56-year-old family man works for a motorcycle dealership. he's always been grateful for his adoptive parents. but as a young man, he began wondering where he came from. so, how old were you when you

found out that your biological mom abandoned you when you were not quite 2 months old? >> i was in my 20s. and i had written a letter to the adoption agency. >> the adoption agency revealed a disturbing past. in 1958, his birth parents lived in a basement apartment in the bronx in new york. when he was just 6 weeks old, john's father left his mother and then john's mother left him. >> my mother had walked across the street and called the police. >> in that basement apartment, next to the infant, clean clothes, baby formula and a note from john's mother. it says, "i found this hard to do, but i am desperate." was there a time when you were angry? >> i was very angry. i was very angry for a long time. >> there was another thunder bolt in that adoption agency letter. john wasn't the only one abandoned. he was shocked to find out when police found him in that apartment, there was another child there, a little 14-month-old boy.

that is how john discovered, at the age of 24, he had a brother. what did you think? you opened this letter and, holy cow. >> exactly. it was, holy cow. it was like, i couldn't believe what i was reading. >> so, you never saw your brother again? >> i've never seen my brother. ever. >> authorities separated the brothers, who were then adopted by different families. finding his missing brother becomes an obsession for john, he didn't even know his name until he made a trip to the new york public library. john searches old newspaper archives. suddenly there in black and white, the story of "two infants abandoned," complete with the names of john's mother and father and brother. your own life buried deep in the archives of this library. >> to this day, when i read that article, i get the chills.

>> john imagines that on that traumatic day, his big brother was somehow taking care of him. >> to me, he's the hero. >> why? >> when mommy was gone, he was there. >> john longs to find his brother, to see his face, to know his name. there are questions he's been waiting 56 years to ask. and what is it you wonder most? >> i just want to know who my brother is. >> then, there's candy wagner, searching from the other side of the divide. a 62-year-old retired physical therapist, hoping to find healing. for nearly 20 years, she has been searching for a baby she was forced to give up for adoption in 1967. at 14, with an absent father and difficult mother, candy was dating a boy three years older. your first boyfriend? >> my first for everything. there was no question that i was in very deep young love. >> when this picture was taken,

they didn't know it, but life was about to change drastically for the two young sweethearts. candy was pregnant. >> at that time, in a small town where there's no place to hide, it is absolutely traumatic. >> when candy began to show, her mother placed her far away, in a salvation army home for unwed mothers in new york city. and she left you there? >> yes, she did. >> alone? >> correct. >> alone, and on her own for months, candy waits for her baby to arrive. but it's a baby she knows she will not be allowed to keep. her mother was already planning to put the baby up for adoption. when candy and the other unwed mothers went into labor, an elevator took them through a back entrance into the adjoining hospital. so no one would see them. on april 17th, 1967, the baby arrived. it was a girl.

candy asked for her. >> may i see her? may i see her? >> and they said? >> no. no. >> what did you do? >> i yelled. i screamed. >> and then, did you get to see or touch her? >> i got to see her. and i asked to hold her, please, let me hold her and they said, no, that would not be a good idea. >> candy secretly named her baby cindy, but she never saw her again. back home, she was expected to resume her life as if nothing had happened. >> i begged to keep her. and i cried nightly. >> when did the crying stop? >> oh, off and on. it's lasted about 47 years. >> were you looking for her in crowds? >> all my life. all my life. >> you had noticed when you saw her when she was a baby that she had a little red mark on her cheek. >> she had a forceps burn. >> not realizing it was temporary, for years afterward, candy was on the lookout for a

little girl with a scar. so, would you find yourself looking at little girls in crowds and -- >> wondering if she had a mark on her cheek. >> the ordeal left a mark on candy, too. although no one could see it. she graduated second in her class, went to college, got married, adopted a son of her own. but she never forgot about her secret conversations with her unborn child back in that home for unwed mothers. >> i could talk out loud to her. and i made promises. >> what did you promise? >> i promised i would find her. >> 47 years later, candy is so determined to keep that promise, she breaks a lifetime of silence to ask for help. she hires an unusual expert -- a professional people finder. pam slaton, the last resort for those desperate to find the missing branch of their family tree. can she find candy's baby? how about john's brother, or louise's mother?

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three searchers, trying to find the missing pieces of their lives. louise, left in a new york city phone booth as a newborn baby. candy, a teenaged mother who promised to find the baby she was forced to give up for adoption. and john, abandoned with a brother in a basement apartment when they were just babies. for half his life, john keller searched in vain for his missing brother, and then one day, several years ago, he happened to see a tv show about searchers just like him. >> my name is pam slaton, i'm a professional genealogist. >> and i had to be home, every week, when that show hit. >> because you knew that this was somebody who might be able to help you?

>> this woman -- this woman was real. >> john hired pam slaton to help look for his brother. >> come upstairs. i basically live here. this is my office. this is where it all happens. my stacks are kind of broken up by current, not feeling it, driving me crazy. >> pam slaton is a one-woman department of missing persons. >> i put in the biological father's name. >> she calls herself an investigative genealogist. >> i find your case completely intriguing. >> pam knows firsthand that not all searches end well. you yourself were adopted as a baby. >> i am. >> and, you yourself went on a hunt to find out who you were. >> i did. >> but pam says her birth mother did not want to be found. she rejected pam for a second time. years later, the memory still hits a nerve. >> wow. you know, it's been 20 years. i don't usually -- it just -- it was -- it changed my identity.

it's really the only way i can explain it. >> pam not only survived that trauma, she wrote a book about unlocking family mysteries and discovered her calling. helping other searchers, like louise jones, searching for the mother who left her in a manhattan phone booth in 1965. >> how are you? >> good. >> pam slaton goes to meet louise to look at the little information she's gathered over the years. >> do you know what kind of investigation took place? >> i think the investigation was simple. they sent my footprints to four hpts in that area. nothing came back. >> pam has louise swab her cheek for a dna test. >> all right, now it's going on. >> next, she goes to that manhattan pay phone where louise was left. putting up posters in the neighborhood, looking for anyone who might remember anything about an abandoned baby, 49 years ago.

asking for information. and listening to total strangers. >> this is what i do for a living. i help people that are looking for their birth families. >> what is it about louise's story that is so dif skult? >> most can go back to their agency and get some information. the moment louise's life begins, essentially, is in that phone booth. >> pam slaton meets john and his girlfriend in the bronx. >> hi, how are you? how are you? >> their rendezvous was right outside the basement apartment where john and his brother were abandoned and separated in 1958. >> that's where it all started. and it's emotional. >> that missing brother is the focus of john's search. >> there's nothing. it's like he doesn't even exist. >> you think there are separate entrances? >> they ring bells and knock on doors, looking for a neighbor who might remember the family. >> do you happen to know the people that live here?

>> but if there are answers to john's questions, they are no longer to be found in the neighborhood where the mystery began. >> all right, so, listen. i will be in touch with you, okay? and then we'll talk about what happens next. >> john is disappointed, but pam, back at home at her computer, gets a break. >> i found something really interesting that i want to show you. >> searching for john's biological father on ancestry.com, pam finds he was from west virginia. >> just on a hunch, i put in the father's name and i put in west virginia. >> an old city directory from a small town in west virginia pops up, and there, looking back at her from the dusty digital pages, john keller's biological parents, both of them. >> we have dewey and helen. they lived in the rear of a home on main street in a little town called huntington, west virgina. we finally now have a starting point in this case. >> pam and john fly to west virginia. >> all right, ready? >> let's go.

>> let's do this. good luck. >> hoorah, let's hit it. >> reporter: they drive around the town his parents once called home. they visit the post office. >> take exit 58. >> they stop at the office of vital records, hoping to get a look at his brother's birth certificate, but it's not there. they ask for directions to the house where his parents once lived. >> hello. got a question for you. we are trying to find an old address of 225 main street? >> i don't know, actually. >> but even the mail carrier can't help. like john's brother, the house seems to have disappeared. the west virginia road trip yields no direct evidence of his brother's whereabouts. >> it's part of the journey, and you have to pick yourself up and start over. >> pam doesn't take every case that comes her way. when candy wagner asked her to help find the daughter she'd given up for adoption nearly 50 years before, pam said no. >> it's funny. i didn't want her case.

>> why not? >> because upstate cases are known to be extremely difficult, because -- >> why? >> new york laws for adoption are so strict. >> but pam's husband, driver and usually silent partner, mike, spoke up. >> he's like, oh, you know, she sounds so nice. just take a look at it. okay, mike, go ahead. >> candy had been told that her baby would not have been adopted by anybody living near her small town. but pam didn't rule that out. >> and i came up a list of everyone up in that region. >> every baby girl born in that region on that day. >> when we come back, the hunt for candy's daughter leads to the unexpected. a confrontation with her past that may be too much to bear. stay with us. wishas quickly asuld bounit used to? neutrogena hydro boost water gel instantly quenches skin to keep it supple and hydrated day

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half a century after two baby brothers were abandoned in a bronx new york basement

apartment building, after years of fruitless searching, at last, a breakthrough. the moment of truth for john keller comes when professional people finder pam slaton arrives unannounced at his house. >> how are you? >> so, she surprises you with the news -- >> and she pulls out a paper and she goes -- i think this is your brother. >> i have to be honest. this looks really good. this looks really, really good. >> pam discovered a mistake in the records. she and john had been searching for years using the wrong birth date for john's brother. it was one day off. now, pam tells john a search with the correct date has turned up his brother. >> oh, my god. really? >> really. you okay? you're giving me goosebumps. >> yeah. i'm okay. >> i think that it's time that we call him and get to the bottom of it. >> okay. >> i'm actually tremblintrembli.

>> please let this be. >> my name is pam slaton. how are you? i'm calling you because i'm trying to find someone who was born on a particular day that might have been adopted. >> sure enough, john's long-lost brother is on the line. >> i am legitimately sitting next to your biological brother who is your full-blooded brother. so, i guess the question is, you know, how do you feel about this? >> but the phone reunion takes a devastating turn. >> i mean, this is someone that has -- >> located after 32 years of searching, john's newfound brother wants nothing to do with him. >> really? it went from, "yes, yes, yes, this is me." to, "you better not have my medical records." "you better not have my social security number."

i have no interest in your personal information. your social security number. and i had to just take a step back and say, "wait a second, that's not what this is about at all." my client was also adopted. he would be your younger brother. >> and what did he say to that? >> he just basically said, "i don't give a damn, and don't you ever call me again." and hung up the phone. >> okay. all right, thank you. that, unfortunately, did not go well. >> click. >> that must hurt. >> that's the heartbreak. it's the abandonment again. >> yeah. >> and this is the one part of it, i don't think i ever prepared for. >> if, for some reason, your brother were watching this segment, what would you want him to hear from you? tonight? >> just want him to know that i love him, unconditionally. i want him to be a part of my life.

all he's got to do is pick up the phone, call me. door's open. and i just pray someday that he does. >> perhaps things will work out better for candy wagner, who has searched for one face in the crowd all her life. the daughter she was made to give up for adoption. pam has stunning news. 47 years after candy's daughter disappeared from her life, pam thinks she may have found her. she spent 17 years looking for her daughter. it took you how long to find her? >> i think it was a day. >> a day? >> yeah. >> pam compared birth records with likely adoptive families in the county where candy lived. she found several possible matches. including this woman, barbara jo gowan. by the strangest coincidence, she and candy were practically neighbors, living in the same community in upstate new york. >> so, i focused in on barbara and i thought, "wow, her parents are the right age, she's an only

child. let me take a look and see if i can find her on facebook." >> really? she was the first one that popped out at you? >> there were, like, four. but she was the one that her information really looked dead on to me. >> barbara was adopted. she was born on the right birth date and at the right hospital. pam got in touch. >> to be quite honest, i thought it was somebody trying to sell me something. excited. and now, a mother/daughter moment 47 years in the making. the daughter candy has not seen since the day she was born, the daughter she was never even allowed to touch, is at the door and about to be in her arms. >> there it is. >> hi, mom. >> oh, my gosh. so beautiful. you're so beautiful.

look at you. >> don't cry. thank you for finding me. you have given me something i didn't know i had. >> you have always had. i just hope that you could sense it. i've been out there, you've been in me all my life. in my heart every day of my life. >> what was the biggest question in your mind at that point? >> is she going to like me. >> is she going to like me? >> yeah. is she going to be happy with what she sees? >> come on in. >> as they get to know each other, mother and daughter compare notes, and marvel at living practically next door. amazingly they discover, they'd even been in the same room three months before their reunion, when they had both attended this dance recital. barbara watching her daughter perform, candy watching her granddaughter. together, mother and daughter have one more memory to exorcise. they drive out to the hospital

in queens, new york, where barbara was born. the staff warm and welcoming to candy this time. everything is going well until memories come flooding back. do you remember that? >> this hall -- i do remember this hall. >> and then, we come across that same ancient elevator, still there. >> this was the back entrance. >> yeah. >> the one that carried candy and the other unwed mothers in disgrace, through the back door to deliver their babies. the painful ghosts of the past suddenly present. it is too much. >> yep, she's going down. >> candy collapses. >> doc? >> okay. >> back on her feet again, shaken, the teenaged unwed mother who wasn't allowed to touch her own baby so long ago now comforted in her daughter's embrace. what does a mother look for? what do you want to feel? >> are you okay?

and, were you cared for and loved? and she was. that was the closure i really needed, that her life was good. her parents were wonderful. >> a door to the past swings closed and another door opens. which leaves only the perplexing unsolved case of louise jones. abandoned as a baby, left to fend for herself in a new york city phone booth. and 49 years later to the day, she's going back. >> it's that far corner where that white car is. >> hi, birthday girl. >> you marked the occasion of your discovery at the phone booth for a number of years by actually going to the phone booth and -- >> did, yes. >> widedy you do that? >> because i thought, if this woman is anything like me, she may show up one of these years, on that day, at that time and we may meet that way.

the romantic thought, you know? wouldn't this be nice if she showed up? i mean, that's a fairy tale. >> pam slaton is there. she does not have any news. she says, at this point, the best home for louise may be you. or somebody else watching tonight. >> we were hoping that in doing this piece, somebody out there would know something and call in. we just have to hope and pray someone comes forward. >> meanwhile, at the pay phone on the corner, it's a party. >> you got champagne? >> we do. we have having a party. >> and a toast. the searcher celebrating what she's already found, a lucrative career in finance, and a family of her own. >> woo! >> wow. that's nice. >> are you positive somebody out there knows something that might -- >> there has to. there would have to. how do you hide something like that forever? the truth always comes out at the end of the day, doesn't it? somehow?

♪ happy birthday to you >> as every birthday girl knows, when you blow out the candles, you always get a wish. you can guess what louise wants, ♪ happy birthday to you >> even if the most important things have already come true. next -- the famous hiker who disappeared into the wild. who lived and died in an abandoned bus. you know the book. the movie. but now, his sisters say it's time for the truth you haven't heard. >> i'm not ready to go in yet. >> but what really spurred him into the wild? this is boring. wanna watch something else? yes.

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we turn now to another family secret. millions of you might know the real life story behind the hit movie and book, "into the wild." about chris mccandless, a 24-year-old who went into the alaskan wilderness and sought shelter in an abandoned bus. but his sisters say you've been kept from the real truth for years. here's bob woodruff, taking us back to that bus and back into the wild. >> reporter: the alaskan interior is remote and wild. but there are family secrets that lie buried off this lonely stretch of road. secrets about a story so many people think they know so well. >> you start making your way. >> reporter: good. let's get on. >> very special to take two of my sisters. >> reporter: today, these three sisters are retracing the steps of their famous brother, a young hiker named chris mccandless.

you three sisters ready? >> rock and roll. >> rock and roll. >> reporter: chris' two-year odyssey across the american west and into the wilderness here was immortalized in a book. required reading in schools across the country. and then, an award-winning movie called "into the wild." >> is there anybody here? guess not! >> reporter: it's the tale of a man -- played by emile hirsch, looking remarkably like chris -- bright, educated, compassionate and full of promise, who gave up creature comforts in search of adventure. >> i don't need money. makes people cautious. >> reporter: the sisters' journey in their brothers footsteps will be by chopper. it took chris four days to cross this same snowy terrain. after 20 minutes or so, we finally spot it. a bus, chris' final stop, literally frozen in time. a shrine.

it's breathtaking, so very empty. all you can hear is the river. >> ready? >> as i'll ever be. >> reporter: and somehow, so haunted. >> is this -- whose is this, by the way? >> i think this was chris' bible. >> reporter: the abandoned bus stands at the end of a mining trail. chris' goal was to survive here for 100 days, living off only the land. on day 43, he shot a moose. when he recorded it in his daily journal, he was exuberant. >> he always said, nature might be harsh in its honestly, but it never lies to you. >> reporter: but by day 100, he wrote "death looms." "too weak to walk out. have literally become trapped in the wild." he was in a weakened state, unable to find enough food. he died here of starvation. he has been criticized for being selfish and unprepared. he was there without a map, without proper gear and without telling a soul.

still, every spring, young hikers make the two-day trek to the bus. >> it's something about being here brings out something deep within them. >> reporter: chris' voyage has inspired many. a young man who lived by his ideals and gave his life for it. >> live before you die. you know how many of us actually do that? how many of us actually live? or do we just exist? >> it kind of taps into this longing to wander or to do something unconventional or just live a different life. >> reporter: but the sisters say there is something those who admonish and admire chris don't know. tonight, they tell what they say is a vital part of the story. one they think better explains why he was here all alone. >> he wanted to really separate himself from a situation he felt was very toxic. >> reporter: it was something carine didn't want to talk about back in 1997, when "20/20" first interviewed her, soon after her brother died.

>> people try to focus a lot on what is was with chris and why he did what he did and they look for something that's going to be sensational. but of course it's nothing i'm going to get into. >> reporter: but now, in carine's recent memoir, "the wild truth," she says that chris' your snee stjourney stemd from dark family secrets. the traumatic childhood that she says she and chris shared. why did you write this book? >> frankly, i was asked every time i met with a group of people why chris left the way he did. i really watered down those answers for a long time and i really felt and learned that i was doing a disservice to chris and a disservice to all those people, because the greatest inspiration comes from truth. >> reporter: the trust, carine says, doesn't begin at the bus, but rather, at this house some 3,000 miles away in el segundo, california. chris was carine's adored older brother. >> he was my protector. he was always strong. he succeeded at everything he tried. >> reporter: the mccandlesses were a portrait of happiness.

dad, walt, was a renowned rocket scientist who had worked for nasa. mom, billie, built a consulting business with him. carine fondly remembers family vacations and peaceful times spent outdoors. >> our parents introduced us to nature very early on. we did a lot of tent camping and a lot of hiking. >> reporter: chris was confident and charismatic. >> people were drawn to chris. >> reporter: but family life, for him, had been much more complicated than it appeared. when walt started having children with billie, he was still having children with his first wife, marsha. shawna is walt and marsha's third child. >> both women were pregnant at the same time. i think a lot of people don't realize that. >> reporter: dividing his time between the two homes, 30 miles apart. your father really had kind of a double life. >> he did. but it's funny, even as a little girl, that was just what i knew.

this was a man that was in and out of our house. he would spend four, five days or however many with us and then be gone for awhile and then he would come back. >> reporter: walt and marsha finally divorced when chris was four and chris and carine grew up with their half siblings, even going on vacations with them. but they say there was a darker family secret, something chris' sisters are talking about tonight. that may help explain why chris took that fateful hike. >> my earliest memories are just -- you would feel the charge in the air. i mean, it was always there, but it would intensify. >> reporter: next, domestic strike brought to life. >> dad just hauled off and, you know, punch him right on the spine. >> reporter: and, secrets between siblings. what drove chris mccandless into the wild? carine reveals letters from her brother that she's kept hidden for over 20 years. >> i'll be through with them once and for all, forever.

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it was the adventure of a lifetime. chris mccandless, the famed hiker whose journey into the wilderness was made famous in this movie. but what drove him into the wild? his sisters say the whole story has never been truly told. they say their father, walt, was controlling and domineering, with a hair trigger temper that expressed itself sometimes in angry verbal outbursts. and often in physical attacks on his first wife, marsha, and his second wife, billie. shelly lived with chris and

carine her senior year in high school. >> i remember a lot of throwing and shoving. >> we would hear raised voices and it would get louder and louder. chris would grab me and get me outside of the house. if we couldn't get out in time, we were always called in to witness the violent. >> reporter: called in by your father? >> both. >> we would hear my mom said, kids, kids, come look what your father is doing to me. and he would scream right after her, look at what your mother is doing to me. >> dad would throw mom down on the bed and he would be choking her and she would be screaming out for help. >> carine's half sisters say they, too, were witness to walt's temper with their mom, marsha. in 1972, shortly before their divorce, marsha obtained this restraining order against walt. alleging that he had struck her in the arm and face. that he threatened her on

numerous occasions and that they feared her safety. carine describes an incident in her book where walt's aggression was directed at chris. >> dad punched him right on the spun a spine and chris just turned and looked at him and just sort of, like, a puff of disgust across his lips and i saw this fear come across my father's face and then chris just turned around and walked away. >> reporter: walt and billie declined to appear in this "20/20" report. in a statement to abc, they said this about carine's boox. "this fictionalized writing has absolutely nothing to do with our beloved son, chris, his journey or his character. this whole unfortunate event in chris' life 22 years ago is about chris and his dreams." before he left, chris wrote carine letters, letters she has kept secret for over two decades. but tonight, she's sharing them. >> i'm not releasing his letters

to hurt my parents. i'm releasing parts of his letters for people to get a better understanding of chris. >> reporter: in a pbs documentary, carine reading a portion of them. >> once the time is right, with one abrupt, swift action, i'm going to completely knock them out of my life. i'm going to divorce them as my parents. i'll be through with them once and for all, forever. >> reporter: and forever it would be. although his parents tried to locate him, even hiring an investigator, he made himself impossible to find. using the name alexander supertramp. and four months into his journey, chris' body was found in his magic bus. he had starved to death, weighing just 67 pounds. he had written this final note. >> when i learned of chris' death, it was like telling me that there's not going to be oxygen in the air tomorrow, i mean -- it's just not possible.

>> reporter: healing has been a long journey. the sisters say all of the mccandless children are estranged from their father. the mccandless sisters have found solis by retracing their brother's steps. for them, chris' magic bus is say credit ground. shawna and shelly have never been here. >> all right, are you ready, sisters? >> reporter: each sister taking their time, hesitant to walk towards the bus. >> it's so -- peaceful, like, it's a little cul-de-sac. all right. you want to just walk around? >> i'm not ready to go in yet. i just need a moment. you know what, it's not just chris, it's just a lot of things. >> reporter: although rust has

spread and the windows are crack and open, the bus is a lot like how chris had it. the mccandless sisters are eager to add their names to the hundreds of people who have come to this bus before them. my brother, i love you. >> yeah. infinitely. i love you infinitely and unconditi unconditionally. there's journals in here. >> reporter: in this small bus and in the wilderness, the sisters take in every moment. you have a lot of heart here. >> i come to visit the space where he lived and died. >> reporter: but even this powerful moment doesn't feel quite complete. what are your parents going to think seeing you all here together? >> i think they'll feel sad, bob. >> you know, walt and billie deserve sympathy for losing their son, absolutely. you know, i don't blame walt and

billie for his death, but i do hold them accountable for his disappearance. the fact that we didn't know where he was and the reason he felt that he needed to become alexander supertramp and not chris mccandless. >> reporter: chris was planning a life full of adventure. his sisters are certain it was never his intention to die here. >> you know, you asked me yesterday, bob, if -- if i thought that chris was a -- a casualty of domestic violence and that's -- i never really thought about it that way. and i do think that he was. >> well, he didn't survive it. we all survived it. >> reporter: before leaving, the sisters do what so many pilgrims from done before them. they pose for a photo.

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that's our program for tonight. thank you so much for watching. i'm elizabeth vargas. for david and the rest of us here at "20/20" and abc news, we hope you continue to enjoy this wonderful holiday weekend with your family. good night.

fans pack the linc to cheer on the birds fighting to keep postseason hopes alive and deadly tornadoes touchdown near postseason hopes alive and deadly tornadoes touchdown near dallas next. >> after a warm christmas day the mild conditions return tomorrow and once monday roolz