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Mother and their teenaged son -- the brown family. they were the original owners of bill's property, cher's neighbors. he was seen autos -- we wanted to speak with bill, so we reached out to his attorney. we did get a return call. it was the lawyer, with wild bill himself on the phone. calling from his jail cell in panama. he already confessed to the murders. but he said he wanted to explain himself. >> i'm not denying criminal activity. i'm only saying that what's been portrayed in the media as this crazy serial killer thing is completely untrue. i'm telling you that i am not a serial killer....

That? >> he told three or four people that. i moved out of my house and moved into a hotel that had security. >> reporter: keith wasn't the only one who was nervous. >> i got to the point where i became convinced that this guy cortez killed these people in order to steal their property. that's when i said i'm going to the authorities. >> he encouraged keith to do the same. >> he said you need to get to the prosecutor 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. >> from that point on, kudos to the panamanian ...

Cher's aunt mary called the us embassy in panama, and begged for help. >> the embassy -- made a big point of saying people disappear all the time. and if she wants to be found, she will contact you. and so i had a hard time shouting into the darkness of the embassy saying "help me, help me." >> reporter: things got worse. cher didn't call her father on his birthday. it was a huge alarm bell. >> 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. >> reporter: after two months, it was staring every...

>> calling. >> leaving messages? >> texting, facebooking. and then i started reading her facebook. and it's, like, "cher, where are you?" people who were in panama, in bocas, "haven't seen you around town, where you at, gimme a call." and we started wondering. >> reporter: when cher's husband keith realized she'd left town, he was surprised. but he thought he might know why. cher had been talking about spending time in panama city. a place where she could blend into the scenery more easily, and wrap her head around their breakup. >> she told me she wanted to have an apartment in panama city an...

>> the change was he killed people to get the documentation in order to take over the property. >> reporter: and not only was he stealing their property, he would steal everything in the house -- cars, boats, right dowg to the toothbrush and the underwear and their dogs.to he took on their entire lives? >> yeah, right down to the change in their pocket. >> reporter: four years after fleeing from the states, wild bill was finally in police custody, charged with heinous crimes -- the murders of bo icelar and cher hughes. >> there are dozens, if not a hundred people in this town, in bocas, that a...