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suspect at all. >> then they read the search warrant affidavit, which detailed the audiotaped conversations between pam phillips and ron young. >> when you sit in a women's prison for murder, would you sit in a woman's prison for murder? >> and it's at that point, that we realized something was wrong. that the whole thing was not right. >> what was it like you for you that she would have been your stepmother, and your friend. >> a very good friend. >> that she was implicated? >> i wanted to throw up. >> in november of 2007, 11 years after the murder, heather and brian along with gary's youngest daughter elliott, filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit against pam phillips, and ron young. elliott's mother, robin. >> it was not to recover money? the idea was to serve subpoenas,
playing golf? >> man or woman? >> man, never identified. >> it made an impact on camber's boss. then sheriff clarence dubnick. >> i've never seen an assassination of this kind. if in fact it was a hit, it probably was a professional hits. >> reporter: could the sheriff be right? if so, who hired a hitman? who wanted triano dead? >> he was very flamboyant, very outgoing, engaging. he ran in real big circles, running around with donald trump, people like that. >> and he was throwing money around? >> yes. >> and so when a flamboyant guy dies in a flamboyant way -- >> yeah. >> people start thinking? >> you tie him with big money, flamboyant lifestyle, casinos, then killed in a car bombing? everyone makes this automatic assumption that that has to be some mob related hit. >> reporter: and as
was found on his computer. it is not like he had a workshop in his garage and tinkered on the weekends, and he had a slight tremor in his hands. he did not have the ability to do this. not at all. >> and this defense expert analyzed some trace dna found on the bomb parts. >> my conclusion is that ron young's markers or not president. >> it was in his dna? >> it was not. >> and it was not pam phillips dna? >> it was not. that is correct. >> but there is all the evidence police discovered in his abandon van a month before the murder. maps of tucson, paperwork related to pam and here is divorce, a notepad with names of some of gary's friends and family, and a receipt showing ron spent 18 mysterious days in tucson the summer before the murder under a fake name. what was all that about? >> he was looking to help them get more child support by investigating the hidden assets of gary triano.
and maybe get the investigation going? >> it had came to just a slow halt. and it just seemed as if it was as cold as cold could be. so the children got together, and as you said, not for revenue. but to simply get the ball rolling. >> despite all the evidence investigators had uncovered in ron young's possession. prosecutors in tucson, still didn't feel there was enough to charge either ron young or pam phillips with murder. why do you think prosecutors didn't want to bring a case? >> i don't know if there was an official reason, or if it was a reluctance on just the sheer size of the case. how big this case was, would it be a career ender case? so... no one ever gave me a solid answer. >> frustrating? >> a little bit yes. >> but the civil suit change things. prosecutors decided, it was time to move. you think the wrongful death suit is sort of what guilted prosecutors into going forward? >> or it showed them how valid
former wife. and it was because of this insurance policy. >> reporter: pam phillips, gary 's ex was someone that investigators wanted to talk with, especially afterward came from aspen that pam had been connected in some way to a fugitive on the run from fraud charges named ron young. nine days after the murder, investigators got their chance. pam phillips voluntarily came in for questioning. >> i didn't give pamela out of what i knew. i let her talk and let her give me what she wanted to give me. >> reporter: detective keith st. john spoke with him three times, twice in person. >> for the record, tell me your full name. >> pamela and phillips. >> he asked him to talk about her relationship with gary, starting with how they met. >> was he already divorced? >> no. he was happily married. >> did she know about those meetings?
discovered eight large number of financial files and secret recordings in ron young's apartment with detective robin gardner outlined the details of a murder for hire plot, to kill gary triano. when you listen to the tapes, and you look at the documents that you have found in ron young's possession. what arrangement that spell out? >> basically he was entitled to $400,000 of the 2 million dollar life insurance policy. and he was using pam phillips at his bank he was earning 4% interest on his 400,000. >> why would someone who had committed a murder, a murder for hire, keep detailed records that would essentially prove their own involvement and that of the person they hired? >> two reasons, i think one if your ego is that big. if you think you will not get caught you are too smart to get caught. and to, your saving it as evidence or as a threat something to hold over your coconspirators. >> in case she stops thing? >> yes. >> ron young was sentenced to ten months in federal prison on gun possession charges. the fraud charges were
an arrest warrant, ron young disappeared. >> he knew you were on his trial, and he skipped town? >> yes. >> young fled in a rented mini van that later turned up in southern california. young himself was nowhere to be found. but what was found in the mini van was very curious. >> a note in the car that was kind of like a laundry list. buy toothpaste, down the list further was sawed off shotgun. >> reporter: ron young was not known as a violent criminal. but when police found a shotgun and a taser in the van, it may detective crowley that a man wanted for white collar crimes may possibly more be more dangerous than he thought. in ron young's mini van, investigators found something else peculiar. paperwork related to the divorce of pamela phillips and gary triano. >> at the time the name gary triano meant what do you? >> nothing. >> but pam phillips, that was a name that crowley had heard before. he knew her as another aspen resident who claimed she had been ripped off by ron young. pam said ron had stolen money from her business, starbabies. com. >> did she have a case?
aspen. >> i mean, i'm living in fear. >> -- embarrassment to you. >> living in total fear. >> i think he was trying to threaten her by saying, look, you see all these things that are in the press right now with regard to you being a suspect in this murder, i'm going to make sure that it goes to the front pages of the aspen times. >> so he's blackmailing, her even though she'd into anything wrong? >> she did not do anything wrong. she was concerned about her reputation, because reputation is everything in the business that she did. >> okay, let's follow that out, even though she hadn't committed any crime, even though she didn't hire ron young or anyone else to kill her husband, she couldn't go to the police when she got extorted? >> do you know how many people don't go to the police when they are extorted. >> somebody threatens to frames you for a murder i had nothing to do with, it read --
a man, d'antonio says, suffered from a couple of maladies. >> one was a drug addiction, the other one was exceeding wealth. >> the doctor says he first met him around 1989, and says neil 's mother paid him to block off his schedule and look after her son, who was at the time, addicted to heroin and cocaine. >> he had a very sweet types humble personality when he wasn't on drugs, -- >> but then when he would use -- 180-degree, change very paranoid, blamed all his problems on select people, and then went after them with conventions. >> and there was his storage locker full of weapons. >> it was all military weapons, it was all m16s, militarized shotguns, and you could see hand grenades laying on the ground. >> and his use of dynamite for sport. >> and he throws dynamite on firecrackers -- >> and then there was a company
♪ ♪ ♪ >> reporter: aspen, colorado. a year-round playground for the rich and famous. amd sometimes for the people who pray on them. that's the kind of case that then aspen police detective jim crowley called back in 1996. two local businesses said they had been defrauded by a man named ron young. >> but the scam was is that he would become a business manager, help you grow the company, and he did that part of it. but at some point he would have all your credit information so we would apply for credit cards and your name. at himself as a sign or. uses credit cards to pay bills. >> as far as you can tell, he stole how much money? >> probably between 80 and $120,000. >> but before crowley could get