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She was just so beautiful. They found each other and their own tropical island. We saw the lump in the water and said, that's it.
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That'll be our spot for the rest of our lives. She said it's like living in a postcard.
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A picture-perfect life. Until she disappeared. I imagine you were calling, leaving messages.
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Texting, and we started wondering. Why would she just leave? I called her best friend and said, did she ever meet somebody?
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Does she have a man that I don't know about? Is there something going on? Where would she go?
00:00:32
She wasn't selling that place. She loved it. And why did someone new now own her piece of paradise?
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This guy fooled us all. He fooled everybody. He got away with murder. He got away with murder.
00:00:47
I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline. Here's Kate Snow with Stealing Paradise. It's a dream that seems so out of reach.
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Quit the rat race, move to an exotic land, and buy your very own private island.
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Even when she was young, she wanted to travel. She wanted to see the world. Cher Hughes had the dream, and she made it come true in the most unlikely place,
00:01:17
the tiny, faraway islands of Bocas del Toro, Panama. She would just take a picture of the sunset and send it to me.
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She said, it's like living in a postcard. Life was beautiful and simple, an escape from the pressures of modern living.
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Who could have known that evil could find a place in paradise too, that beneath all that beauty was a dark secret?
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It still seems very unreal. I don't want to believe it. This is a really, really bad guy.
00:01:52
Just sent chills down my spine. But before the nightmare came the dream. Bocas del Toro is the kind of place where people come to escape.
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A group of islands off the coast of Panama and way off the beaten path, it's the kind of place where things move more slowly, and life is supposed to be easy.
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Cher first visited the islands with her boyfriend Keith Worley in 2000. For the outdoorsy Cher, it was love at first sight.
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What's more, it was affordable. For the same money Cher had been saving up to sail around the world,
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she bought her little piece of paradise, a rental property, a small house, and that tiny round island.
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We saw the lump in the water and said, that's it. That'll be our spot for the rest of our lives.
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Cher and Keith met seven years before that, when the vivacious blonde walked into a little bar Keith owned in Florida.
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She came in with those big blue eyes and a big smile, and I was hooked. She was just so beautiful.
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Cher grew up in St. Louis, where her all-American good looks got her into modeling as a teenager.
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She'd walk in a room and just beep. Everybody knew she was there. She was always happy.
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She always had a smile for everybody. Eventually, Cher moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, where her sister Judy Barber says she became a savvy businesswoman, running her own neon sign company.
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She would always make sure she had that income. She made sure she was setting herself up for what exactly what she wanted to do was retire and travel around the world.
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Cher did travel, but mostly in the U.S. Then a friend invited her to visit exotic Bocas del Toro.
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Good morning. And Cher jumped at the chance. It took us seven days to decide this way.
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We could live the best of our lives. It just hit us that hard. The people here are just phenomenal.
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We love you. And Cher loves children in Panama with lots of kids. Keith is a carpenter, so he built their dream home,
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a collection of shiny wooden buildings on top of their lush green island. Cher planted tropical gardens and adopted lots of animals,
00:04:03
including a pet monkey and a beautiful brown Doberman Pinscher named Jack. He adored Cher and followed her wherever she went.
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She loved the local school kids, planned movie nights with popcorn, and celebrated the holidays with enthusiasm,
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even though her friend Sean Trainor says the kids didn't always get the significance.
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She would do the Easter egg hunts for all the kids. They had no idea what this crazy white woman was doing,
00:04:30
coloring eggs, you know, and then hiding them around on the island. They'd never participated in anything like that before.
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Keith and Cher's relationship blossomed on the islands. In 2005, they married in front of their many friends in the close community of expats.
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It's a small place. You go to the grocery store and you meet, you know, 20 people you know.
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Kristen Roberts, who'd moved to Bocas from Norway, became part of Cher's group of friends.
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We kind of stick together, you know, and treat each other like family and take care of each other.
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Everyone went by their first names or nicknames. Keith and Cher were known as Ken and Barbie.
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The man who owned one of the local watering holes, another American, was known as Wild Bill, Viking hat and all.
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Bill and his wife Jane opened a bar on their secluded property, accessible only by boat, where the expats sometimes gathered for drinks.
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Bill had these Saturday parties at his place at the bar and restaurant once or twice a month.
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Draws everybody. There's everybody there. It was Cher's tropical dream come true, a beautiful backdrop for family reunions, like the time her Aunt Mary came to visit.
00:05:43
Her grandmother my mother and I came down and visited and got the whirlwind tour and they met us at the airport with a big bouquet of flowers and it was just wonderful There was another big trip in the works Cher sister Judy was planning to visit for the very first time She wanted to show you her paradise
00:06:05
Oh, yeah. The trip would be a good distraction for Cher. Her life had recently turned upside down.
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Her five-year marriage to Keith had hit a rough spot. He'd even moved out. When Keith had moved off the island, she was pretty devastated.
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But then again, I also thought, whose marriage is perfect, and hopefully they'll work it out.
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I knew they still loved each other. The sisters were excited about the trip. Plans were in full swing.
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And then what happens? Then I don't hear from her. One day passed, then another, and still nothing.
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Too much time has gone by, and now I know something's happened. Judy was worried, and Cher was gone.
00:06:53
Coming up. Where's Cher? And they're going, I don't know, but we're mad at her too, doggone it.
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But maybe her mysterious disappearance could be solved. A text message from Cher to Keith with some bad news.
00:07:06
She just said, I met somebody else who's better than you. And she was running away with that person.
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So maybe she just got on a boat with some new friend that you didn't know about,
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and she'd be back in a week. Right. Yeah. It wouldn't have surprised me that, oh, Mary, I went sailing and then my phone fell off the deck when I dropped my purse.
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That would be Cher. But who was this new mystery man? And where was Cher? When Dateline continues.
00:07:41
On the exotic coast of Panama, Cher Hughes had been living out the dream of owning her own island.
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But then she vanished. I imagine you were calling, leaving messages. Calling, texting, Facebooking.
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And then I started reading her Facebook. And it's like, Cher, where are you? People that were in Panama, in Bocas.
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Haven't seen you around town. Where you at? Give me a call. And we started wondering.
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When Cher's husband Keith realized she'd left town, he was surprised, but he thought he might know why.
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Cher had been talking about spending time in Panama City, a place where she could blend into the scenery more easily
00:08:23
and wrap her head around their breakup. She told me she wanted to have an apartment in Panama City
00:08:27
and just spend some time in the city and get out of Bocas because it is such a small community.
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She was getting a little tired of it? Yeah, you just keep bumping into the same people
00:08:35
and having to tell the same story. She was ready for a little break of Bocas. It's not unusual for people to come and go around Bocas.
00:08:43
After all, the easygoing lifestyle is part of the island's charm. But Cher's friends and family said it wouldn't be like her to leave so abruptly,
00:08:52
leave her cherished island with all of her belongings still there. Cher's Aunt Mary started phoning Cher's friends in Panama.
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We immediately started calling your friends and everyone going, what's going on?
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And everyone was saying, you know Cher, she might have just gone for a week and she lost her phone.
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And I'm like, well, okay, maybe. Mary logged on to Cher's Facebook page and reached out to those friends.
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Where's Cher? And they're going, I don't know, but we're mad at her too. Doggone it. She always calls me. She calls me every day.
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Where does she go? Why would she not call me? And we were aggravated with her, like, dang it, Cher, what are you doing?
00:09:29
And then some good news. Cher's friends received a text message from her saying she'd gone sailing.
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She's a free spirit, right? She's adventurous. If she had an opportunity, she'd go.
00:09:40
So maybe she just got on a boat with some new friend that you didn't know about,
00:09:45
and she'd be back in a week. Right. Yeah. It wouldn't have surprised me that, oh, Mary, I went sailing,
00:09:51
and then my phone fell off the deck when I dropped my purse. That would be Cher for three to four days.
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The messages were reassuring, but not for long. A few days passed, and Cher didn't return.
00:10:06
Then another text message, this one from Cher to Keith. She just said, I met somebody else who's better than you.
00:10:13
She said she had met someone else. Yes. And she was running away with that person.
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A mystery man? Keith wanted to get to the bottom of it. Well, I called her best friend and said, did Cher meet somebody?
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Does she have a man that I don't know about? Is there something going on? She said, she would never mention a guy to me, ever.
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She's waiting for you. There's no man in life. She didn't run away. But Keith noticed something strange about the messages.
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They weren't written in Cher's usual style. Instead of small letters, it would be all capitals.
00:10:41
And she would always write A-R-E, and this would be an R for R. Or 2, the number would be there rather than T-O.
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So it was just, it just changed. And then the text messages simply stopped. Cher's Aunt Mary called the U.S. Embassy in Panama and begged for help.
00:10:58
The embassy made a big point of saying people disappear all the time. And if she wants to be found, she will contact you.
00:11:04
And so I had a hard time shouting into the darkness of the embassy, saying, help me, help me.
00:11:11
Things got worse. Cher didn't call her father on his birthday. It was a huge alarm bell.
00:11:17
I knew how she felt about her dad, and she would never, ever miss his birthday. So something had happened to Cher for sure in my heart, I knew then.
00:11:25
After two months, it was staring everyone in the face. the unanswered phone calls, the strange messages, the missed birthday,
00:11:33
all the clues pointing to a horrible conclusion. Did you start to panic? Yeah, I knew something was wrong.
00:11:41
The whole family started to panic. The terrible realization sank in. Cher hadn't gone off sailing or run away with a mystery man.
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She wasn't hiding out in an apartment in Panama City. Something had happened to her.
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Friends in Bocas racked their brains for answers and they started thinking about another American from their group who also left abruptly Had anyone heard from him What if Cher wasn the only person missing What if there were two
00:12:10
I just woke up one morning. It's like one of those weird things, and I just knew.
00:12:15
Coming up, another American who apparently just walked away, leaving his home and a lot of questions behind.
00:12:24
Some shoes by the door, his canes next to the front door, there's dirty dishes in the sink.
00:12:29
Just gave me a really weird vibe. I knew right off the bat that this was like, whoa, hey, what's going on here?
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I couldn't ignore it anymore. I just couldn't. Somebody had to do something. When Dateline continues.
00:12:48
In the picturesque islands of Bocas del Toro, Panama, a crisis was brewing. Cher Hughes had been missing for two months.
00:12:57
Now her family and friends wondered if her disappearance had anything to do with another American who'd left the islands abruptly four months before Cher, a man named Bo Islar.
00:13:09
Bo was quiet, you know, introvert. He was a really great guy. Bo kept a low profile since moving to Bocas from Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2004.
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The former antique dealer was so quiet that no one really noticed when he took off.
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A lot of people say, hey, let's go to Argentina for six weeks, get out of the boat and go.
00:13:30
So they don't necessarily email everybody and tell them they're leaving. So it's pretty easy to be not missed for a while.
00:13:37
It made even more sense when they found out that Bo had sold his home to Wild Bill,
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another American in their group famous for throwing lively parties many of the expats attended,
00:13:47
including Cher's friend Kristen. I knew that he wanted to sell and move somewhere different.
00:13:53
And so I assumed that I had come to understanding over the price and that Bo had just left.
00:13:59
Still, as Keith thought back to the days after Bo moved out, an image kept returning to his mind.
00:14:06
An image of Bo's house right after he'd left. I walked in and looked around and it looked as if Bo had gone to the store, not moved out.
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I went back and told my friends, I can't believe that house. It's really weird. It's his towels on the back of the chair,
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there's some shoes by the door, his cane's next to the front door, there's dirty dishes in the sink.
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It just gave me a really weird vibe that Bo would just walk away. Two Americans missing.
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Rumors began to swirl. Could their disappearances be linked? The more you think about something like that,
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you know, it didn't add up. Did it kind of eat at you? Did you keep thinking about it?
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I kept thinking about it. Because it wasn't right that Cher would leave without a party. I knew that this girl would not leave town without throwing a big party.
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And Bo could leave, but the two of them going together and just like sending their belongings
00:14:58
after the fact didn't sound right. And then Kristen heard something that made the floor
00:15:05
drop from under her. Bo had abruptly stopped paying his bills, something totally unlike him.
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I just woke up one morning. It's like one of those weird things. And I just knew I couldn't
00:15:16
ignore it anymore. I just couldn't. Somebody had to do something. Kristen went to the police. Did they immediately investigate?
00:15:24
No. They just put in a file and they just go, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because they say, oh,
00:15:28
people get lost in Panama all the time. Kristen reached out to someone she thought could help,
00:15:33
another expat, Don Winner, who ran Panama Guide, a news website for foreigners living in Panama.
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I was contacted by one of her friends that was concerned that she was missing. and they asked for my help.
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Don had lived in Panama for decades and acted as a consultant on this story. He had originally come to Panama with U.S. military intelligence.
00:15:58
The case of the two missing Americans caught his attention. I knew right off the bat that this was like,
00:16:03
whoa, hey, what's going on here? And I knew that I had to apply a lot of time to it
00:16:08
and a lot of attention to it, and I also knew that I had to get it right. He hopped on a flight from his home in Panama City
00:16:13
to Bocas del Toro and tapped into the coconut telegraph. What's the coconut telegraph?
00:16:20
That's just the rumor mill. You know, they call it the coconut telegraph. You know, when something happens, the word spreads quickly.
00:16:28
And from what Don was hearing, things just weren't adding up. He checked to see if Bo and Cher might have left the country.
00:16:35
I knew that Bo and Cher, both of them, their passports had not gone through the airport.
00:16:39
And if you look at immigration movements, both of them you could track. Okay, they come in, they leave.
00:16:44
They come in, they leave. They're still in Panama. They came in, they never left.
00:16:47
All right, so they're still in Panama somewhere. But where? There was one more piece of the puzzle falling into place,
00:16:54
and that would point a finger of suspicion at someone living right among them. Two Americans had vanished from tropical bogus del Toro, Panama.
00:17:16
And now, after months of searching, their friends and family were convinced that their disappearances were linked
00:17:23
and that something terrible had happened to both of them. They both disappeared and neither of them contacted anybody and the same story, both of them had their personal belongings that was going to be sent to them.
00:17:36
You know, one and one is two. American Bo Islar had been the first to leave. At the time, no one thought it was unusual, especially when they learned he'd sold his house to someone else in the expat community, Wild Bill.
00:17:51
Bill had this persona of I got buckets of cash I can just pay it for you outright Blogger Don Winner did some digging He pulled documents from the public registry and found out that Wild Bill had actually bought more than just Bo home
00:18:06
Bill Cortez had taken over Bo Islar's company, and the company owned the property.
00:18:12
So shortly after Bo goes missing, Bill Cortez and his wife are now the president and secretary of this company.
00:18:18
They own it. Bill was in a hurry to get Bo's house remodeled and flipped to a new owner.
00:18:23
He even placed an ad in the local paper trying to sell it. In fact, while Bill seemed to be on a real estate buying and selling spree,
00:18:31
he got his first property in 2007 from a reclusive family living on an estate close to Shares Island,
00:18:38
the Browns, a father, mother, and teenage son. And now he'd acquired Bo's house as well.
00:18:44
But it was Bill's next purchase that grabbed everyone's attention. Bill showed up and said, yep, I bought everything.
00:18:51
Everything? Everything. Meaning your rental properties? The four properties. The house that you built together with five buildings and this beautiful estate?
00:18:58
Exactly. Bill said he'd bought Cher's entire estate, even her beautiful island, and that Cher had simply taken off.
00:19:07
My dogs were there, my tools were there, everything, you know, belongings were still on the island,
00:19:10
and so where's Cher? Where's all that stuff? And when she gets back, you can deal with that.
00:19:15
That's between you and her. Keith asked Bill to bring his dogs and his stuff back.
00:19:19
back. He placated me. He brought me one of my dogs. Well, here's one dog. And here's a table
00:19:24
and two chairs. And here's a toolbox. You know, that's a lot more missing here, Bill.
00:19:29
To Keith, the whole story just didn't add up. She would have never sold the island.
00:19:34
Would never happen. Did you have an interest in any of that property? We put everything in
00:19:38
Cher's name. So she had the right to she had the right to sell it. Absolutely not telling me
00:19:41
anything. But you don't think she would have done that. No, I don't think so. I mean,
00:19:44
it was never about the stuff or the money. It was like it was our home. It was, you know,
00:19:48
we set it up to live there forever. It all sounded wrong to Aunt Mary as well. She wasn't selling that place.
00:19:56
She loved it. She loved it. Mary wanted answers. She picked up the phone and called Wild Bill.
00:20:05
And he told me, yeah, I got a great deal on Cher's property. I bought everything at 50 cents on the dollar.
00:20:11
I said, I'd like to see that receipt. Well, I signed a confidentiality statement.
00:20:16
And I said, well, I'll take a look at that. Where did he tell you she had gone? He goes, oh, you know, I heard she got an apartment in Panama City.
00:20:24
And I said, so where's her stuff and everything? He goes, oh, yeah, she got there and had me send her some jewelry and money, air cargo.
00:20:34
I said, well, I'd like to see the receipt on that, because this girl's not going to have you looking through her drawers finding her jewelry.
00:20:40
And another curious thing was happening over at Bill's place. no one could figure out why Cher's devoted dog, Jack,
00:20:48
kept leaping off Cher's island and swimming to Bill's house over and over again.
00:20:54
They kept putting him back at your old home, and he would swim over? He'd swim right back and stay right there.
00:21:00
But for Bill, it was business as usual. He even threw one of his famous parties at Cher's place, with all her things still there.
00:21:08
It all seemed a little odd to her friend, Sean Trainor, who stopped by that night.
00:21:13
It wasn't very well attended. Why didn't people go? I just think that everybody kind of had the same thing.
00:21:18
It was kind of like really weird that it was at Cher's house and he was doing it.
00:21:22
Bill even made a toast at the party to friendship. And Bill gave a speech? Yeah.
00:21:28
This really was something about having good friends. Was it just like a here's to good friends?
00:21:32
Yeah, yeah, just like that. Wild Bill lived about an hour's boat ride from the main island in Bocas del Toro.
00:21:40
Big guy with a big personality. He was known for throwing parties at his place. And even in a place that's full of colorful characters, Wild Bill stood out.
00:21:51
He was always the loudest voice in the room. He'd text everybody and say, you know, your Lord commands you to come to my party.
00:21:57
Your Lord commands you? Yeah. He always talked to himself in the third party in a royal sense of some sort.
00:22:03
You know, everyone just took it as another one of Bill's quirks. Another quirk, a pirate club Bill created called the Jolly Roger Social Club.
00:22:12
Bill joked that only 90% of its members survive. By now, an uneasy feeling about Wild Bill was spreading throughout Bocas,
00:22:21
and the normally rowdy party guy was suddenly lying low. Every time I saw him, he was in a hurry.
00:22:26
Whatever he was doing, he was trying to get it done and get out of there, and didn't want to answer a whole lot of questions.
00:22:30
He was definitely nervous. And with good reason. The more Don Winner tapped into the island's legendary coconut telegraph,
00:22:37
the more he became convinced that Wild Bill was the key to finding Bo and Cher. This was the common denominator between the two of them,
00:22:46
that this guy had supposedly bought their property for cash, and then both people disappeared.
00:22:51
The flares went off in my head. The Wild Bill's dealt with both these people, and they're missing.
00:22:55
So you remember that moment? Oh, yeah. Dread came over me like, oh, my God. They really could have done something to these people.
00:23:03
Coming up, the dark side of paradise. Execute a search warrant on his house, find the AK-47, get him in custody.
00:23:12
And then the police went up with shovels. Then they came down about two hours later and said, we need you to come up and take a look.
00:23:18
When Dateline continues. In the tiny expat community of Bocas del Toro, all eyes were on one of their own, Wild Bill Cortez.
00:23:35
In four months' time, he'd snapped up the homes of two people who'd mysteriously vanished, Bo Islar and Cher Hughes.
00:23:43
Now, Cher's husband Keith was telling anyone who'd listen that the disappearances and property transfers
00:23:49
were no coincidence. I right away thought that Bill has done something to these people.
00:23:54
I was telling people in Bocas, obviously, the suspicions in a small community were all saying
00:23:58
the same thing. Still living nearby. Bill's still in the area. And he told people he was going to come and shut me up.
00:24:05
He told people that? He told three or four people that. I moved out of my house and moved into a hotel that had security.
00:24:10
Keith wasn't the only one who was nervous. I just got to the point where I became convinced that this guy, Cortez,
00:24:17
had killed these people in order to steal their property. That's when I said, I'm going to the authorities.
00:24:22
He urged Keith to do the same. He said, you need to come to Panama City, get to the prosecutor, get to the DIJ,
00:24:28
and really turn up the heat. Keith went to Panama City and laid out the case against Wild Bill to the DIJ, the Panamanian FBI.
00:24:38
From that point on, kudos to the Panamanian police, and they just stepped it up.
00:24:43
But for all the suspicion, there was still no hard evidence of a crime. That's when Don Winner got an idea.
00:24:51
He'd heard a lot of stories about Wild Bill and his AK-47, how he'd even fire it off sometimes to impress his friends,
00:24:58
But in Panama, it's illegal for a civilian to own that type of weapon, so Don made a suggestion to police.
00:25:05
Execute a search warrant on his house, find the AK-47, get him in custody. Get him on possession of a firearm.
00:25:11
Find the gun, lock him down. And then figure out what role, if any, he might have had in the disappearances of two people.
00:25:18
Police drew up the warrant. On a steamy day in July, authorities descended on Wild Bill's home.
00:25:25
Bill and Jane were nowhere to be found. Police began the search. Police are looking around. They're here.
00:25:31
They have a search warrant on this property looking for a gun. They're executing a search warrant for an AK-47.
00:25:38
And when they got here, they encountered Cher's dog. Jack, the Doberman who adored Cher, was already at Bill's place.
00:25:47
No one knew exactly how he got there, but the dog was anxious, pacing nervously.
00:25:52
Jackie was really animated and agitated and just kept circling and running up into the jungle.
00:25:58
And the dog would come down and bark at the people that were doing the search and then run up the hill.
00:26:05
And it'd follow me, guys. And the dog led him up there. This hill right here. Right here.
00:26:09
And went up into the back of the property. Jack bounded up and down the hill until police followed him.
00:26:15
And there they found something shocking. A mound of disturbed dirt. They began to dig.
00:26:22
Cher's husband Keith waited at the bottom of the hill. The police went up with shovels,
00:26:27
and then they came down about two hours later and said, we need you to come up and take a look.
00:26:32
In a shallow grave, hidden under a mound of garbage, the police made a horrible discovery.
00:26:37
The body of Cher Hughes. She had been shot once in the back of the head. Imagine that was one of the hardest days of your life?
00:26:44
Yeah. Cher is. I mean, no one should ever see someone they cared about look like that.
00:26:51
Now, Keith finally understood why Jack kept swimming to Bill's place. He'd swim that mile back and just stay right there.
00:27:00
He was staying true to Mommy. But the horror wasn't over. As police continued searching Bill's property,
00:27:06
they discovered another mound of disturbed dirt, another shallow grave. And there, buried beneath more rubble, the body of Bo Islar, the other missing American.
00:27:17
When they found the bodies, that's when they realized that it's not just people with suspicions and making accusations.
00:27:23
It's all, it's really happening. Keith watched as authorities raided Bill's home.
00:27:28
He says they found evidence of the ghastly crimes. Bo's ID, Cher's passport, her purse, and her cell phone,
00:27:35
used to send those text messages saying Cher had simply gone for a sale. And there was more.
00:27:42
Nazi memorabilia, strange satanic signs, jewelry that may have belonged to the victims,
00:27:48
and the most gruesome discovery, about a dozen gold teeth. He lived with these things.
00:27:54
He lived with corpses and people's personal effects around him. The expats in Bocas were in turmoil Two of their friends were dead their bodies found in the backyard of a man they once trusted Wild Bill Cortez To know that he lived next to me for two and a half years and I had him in my home I invited him to dinner we did the social neighbor thing with him and he shot my wife It just inconceivable
00:28:19
Authorities launched a search for Bill and his wife, who they also suspected was involved, but it was too late. They had already fled.
00:28:26
This is now a major manhunt. Right. I knew he was probably out of the country already, that he was on the fly.
00:28:32
So the most important thing at that point was to get his picture out there on every television screen,
00:28:39
on every newspaper cover, on every computer monitor. It's got to get out there in a big way to get him caught.
00:28:45
By then, Wild Bill and his wife Jane were in Costa Rica. Someone recognized them there and contacted the police.
00:28:52
As the search intensified, Bill and Jane made a desperate attempt to cross into Nicaragua by boat,
00:28:58
but they were stopped by soldiers at a checkpoint. They got the drop on him with machine guns and basically said, halt or die, and he stopped.
00:29:07
He gave himself up. The end of the line. That was the first time he had ever had handcuffs on in his life.
00:29:12
It was also the first time anyone on the island heard Wild Bill's real name. Fun-loving Bocas del Toro bartender Wild Bill Cortez was in fact William Dathan Holbert,
00:29:24
a 30-year-old who'd been on the run from American authorities since 2006. As the islanders absorbed the headlines of a killer among them,
00:29:33
they discovered that Wild Bill had a long and notorious past that stretched nearly 2,000 miles
00:29:39
from the white sand beaches of Bocas del Toro all the way to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
00:29:45
That's where he grew up, going by his middle name, Dathan. He played high school football, married his sweetheart, had three kids, and worked as a landscaper.
00:29:54
His old boss at a gym, Kevin Hoover, liked Dathan until Dathan had an affair with one of his employees.
00:30:02
And, Hoover says, embezzled $25,000 from the gym's accounts. He had told me he had thought that was part of his pay, his package.
00:30:11
And I said, no, Dathan, it's not part of your package. And that was just the beginning.
00:30:16
Dathan left the job and his wife. He ran off with Laura Michelle Reese, who would later be known as Jane Cortez in Bocas.
00:30:24
In 2005, police say Dathan started in on real estate scams. He sold a home that wasn't his for $200,000.
00:30:32
Police charged him with obtaining property under false pretenses. By the time the owner realized what had happened, Dathan was on the run.
00:30:41
That landed him on the television program America's Most Wanted. Somewhere along the line, police say Dathan sold a stolen car in Montana.
00:30:49
And when cops pulled him over for speeding in Wyoming, he took off. Stop right now!
00:30:55
Leading them on a high-speed chase before escaping. It seems it was only after he moved to Panama that Dathan's scams took a sinister turn.
00:31:05
The change was he killed people to get the documentation in order to take over the property.
00:31:10
And not only did he steal the property, he would steal everything in the house, cars, boats, right down to the toothbrush and the underwear and their dogs.
00:31:18
Who took on their entire lives. Yeah, right down to the change in their pocket. Four years after fleeing from the states, Wild Bill was finally in police custody, charged with heinous crimes, the murders of Bo Islar and Cher Hughes.
00:31:32
There are dozens, if not 100 people in this town, in Bocas, that all knew Cher, that all knew Bo, and they're all thinking, wow, man, this guy fooled us all. He fooled everybody.
00:31:43
He got away with murder. He got away with murder for a while. Little did everyone know that Wild Bill had actually gotten away with a lot more.
00:31:54
Coming up. There a guard in this jail that brings me a cell phone and gives me death threats from these people and threats on my wife life A jail cell interview with Wild Bill I never tried to paint myself as a good guy I not I a bad guy I getting what I deserve When Dateline continues
00:32:17
The search for Cher Hughes and Bo Islar had ended tragically. Both were found dead, shot in the back of the head, and buried in shallow graves.
00:32:28
After being caught at the Nicaraguan border, Wild Bill and his wife emerged from the jungle in shackles, charged with the murders.
00:32:37
Bill's wife was subdued and denied any involvement. Bill, however, appeared surprisingly cheerful, saying he was happy to be back in Panama.
00:32:46
Those first days when Bill was brought back to Panama, what was he like? He was making jokes and he was laughing on it and he was really, he wanted people to see him.
00:32:59
He was really trying to show off. Gustavo Perez, then the national director of police, interrogated Wild Bill and said he talked openly about the killings.
00:33:11
Bill admitted to shooting Bo Islar on his boat. For Cher, it started with a friendly dinner at Bill's place.
00:33:18
Afterwards, Bill took her outside to see some animals behind his house. When she turned to look at them, he shot her.
00:33:26
Did Bill tell you why he murdered the people that he confessed to murdering? Money.
00:33:32
He said money. He said, yeah, I wanted to have the things. But even the most hardened cops were shocked to hear what else Bill had done.
00:33:42
While Bill drew a map of his home with X's marking where the bodies were buried,
00:33:47
Only there were more than two exes on Bill's map. There were five. Five victims, not just Bo and Cher,
00:33:56
but three more people who died at the hands of Wild Bill. This time, it was a father, mother, and their teenage son, the Brown family.
00:34:05
They were the original owners of Bill's property, Cher's neighbors. After the bodies were discovered, Wild Bill was seen as a monster in Panama,
00:34:15
a serial killer who kept his victim's personal things right in his own house. We wanted to speak with Bill Holbert, so we reached out to his attorney.
00:34:25
We did get a return call. It was the lawyer, with Wild Bill himself on the phone, calling from his jail cell in Panama.
00:34:33
He had already confessed to the murders, but he said he wanted to explain himself.
00:34:38
I am not denying criminal activity. I'm only saying that what's been portrayed in the media as like this crazy serial killer thing is completely untrue.
00:34:48
I'm telling you that I am not a serial killer. I have never taken the pleasure in arming another human being.
00:34:54
And the things I've done in my life haunt my nightmares like you wouldn't believe.
00:34:57
And I'm left down here to die, basically, in a Panamanian jail. You also have to understand that the victims of these crimes, their families are incensed.
00:35:04
Their families say that you had parties at their homes. How can you possibly defend that action?
00:35:09
Defend it? I'm not trying to defend my actions. I'm a criminal. I'm a bad guy. I'm your worst nightmare.
00:35:15
But what I'm also saying is that I didn't wake up one morning and decide to kill my neighbors.
00:35:20
Shortly after our call, Bill Holbert gave an interview to a local Panamanian TV station from his jail cell.
00:35:27
I planned it. I did it. I'm guilty of it. I'm going to be punished for it. In cold and chilling detail, Holbert recounts how he murdered the Brown family.
00:35:36
I separated them. This is gruesome, and I understand it's very... But, I mean, you're asking me, and I'll answer your question, sir.
00:35:44
I separated them. I asked Mike Brown to show me a well that he'd just dug in the back of his property.
00:35:50
I took him there, and without him knowing what was happening, I shot him from behind and killed him.
00:35:54
Holbert also admits to another victim, number six, American expat Jeffrey Klein.
00:36:01
Holbert claims he died when the two got into a fight out on a boat. Too afraid to go to authorities Holbert came up with his own solution for getting rid of the body So I just panicked took it home and buried it and then everything of course the next couple of days I built a little picnic area over it I know it horrible and stupid It
00:36:16
was definitely the wrong thing to do, but I never, never have been in that situation
00:36:19
before. I didn't know what to do. I've never tried to paint myself as a good guy. I'm not.
00:36:22
I'm a bad guy. I'm getting what I deserve. But there's nothing I can say. I am sorry,
00:36:27
but I can do nothing to bring those people back, especially Cheryl Hughes, who was an
00:36:30
innocent person. Holbert repeatedly says he's sorry for what he's done and he does shed tears,
00:36:36
but not for the victims, for his wife, Laura, who he says is innocent. If she was sitting here,
00:36:41
I would tell her I'm sorry she ever met me because she didn't deserve this. If I could give my life to make her free, I would.
00:37:00
That's it. And the man who said he killed six people had time to sit in a cell and think about his
00:37:07
own death. William Holbert and his wife, Laura Reese, apparently received threats in prison.
00:37:13
There's a guard in this jail that brings me a cell phone and gives me death threats from
00:37:17
these people and threats on my wife's life. I'm a dead man. I don't even care. That's not important.
00:37:22
But my wife don't deserve this. You talked to Elijah about this. I mean, what are the options that they have?
00:37:31
Options? What options? Excuse me. Just give me a second to compose myself. This is a really, really bad guy.
00:37:38
I mean, it doesn't get any worse than this kind of a guy. He's just like the worst of the worst.
00:37:42
Do you think the trail of bodies is longer than we even know? I have no doubt. Exactly how many people did this guy kill? Nobody knows.
00:37:49
Angel Calderon, Panama's auxiliary prosecutor on the case, said he reached out to other countries to see if any of their missing persons
00:37:57
may have crossed paths with Wild Bill. Once they verify and confirm any persons who have had contact with him and have disappeared,
00:38:06
they will take measures to verify where they are. If there are other victims out there,
00:38:12
they may be hard to find. Wild Bill mostly targeted loners, people whose disappearance might not be noticed.
00:38:19
It wasn't until Bill killed Cher, the woman who had a smile for everyone, that he was caught.
00:38:27
His mistake of targeting Cher is what was his downfall. You couldn't have picked a girl more loved.
00:38:35
He picked someone that absolutely stood out everywhere she went and would be missed and loved.
00:38:39
Someone the family cared so much about that they would start calling immediately.
00:38:43
This is our girl. How dare you mess with our girl and think we're not coming far.
00:38:49
It would take seven long years for the wheels of justice to turn in Panama. During that time, Holbert's wife divorced him while they both sat in separate Panamanian jails.
00:39:01
But Cher's family finally got the news they had long waited for. In August 2017, William Dathan Holbert, the man the people of Bocas del Toro knew as Wild Bill Cortez,
00:39:14
was found guilty of the robbery and homicide of five people, according to a tweet from the Panama Ministry of Justice.
00:39:22
He was sentenced to 47 years in prison, and the woman, once known as Jane Cortez,
00:39:29
she was sentenced to 26 years for her role in the crimes. For Cher's sister Judy, there are only good memories and appreciation for the big sister
00:39:40
who followed her adventurous spirit all the way to paradise. You're not bitter that she ever went to Panama, to Boca Steltoa.
00:39:49
I'm happy that she went because I know what it meant to her. The peace in her heart of being able to live there.
00:39:57
I wouldn't have wanted her to miss that. That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.