introvert. he was a really great guy. bo kept a low profile since moving to bocas from santa fe, new mexico in 2004. the former antique dealer was so quiet that no one even noticed when he took off. a lot of people say, let s go to argentina for six weeks. get on a boat and go. they don t e-mail everybody and tell them we re leaving. that is easy to be not missed for a while. it made more sense when they found out that beau sold his home to wild bill, another american in their group famous for throwing lively parties many of the people attended including cher s friend kristen. i knew that they wanted to sell and move somewhere different. and so i assumed they sold and that beau had left. still, as keith thought back to the days after beau moved out, an image kept returning to his mind. an image of beau s house right after he left. i walked in and looked around. it looked as if beau had gone to the store, not moved out. i went back and told my friends, i can t believe that h
her five-year marriage to keith hit a rough spot. he even moved out. when keith had moved off the island, she was pretty devastated. but then again, i also thought who s marriage is perfect and hopefully they ll work it out. i know they still loved each other. the sisters were excited about the trip. plans were in full swing. and then what happened? then i don t hear from her. one day passed, then another, and still nothing. too much time has gone by. and now i know something s happened. judy was worried and cher was gone. coming up, maybe this solved the mystery, a text message from cher to keith with some bad news. a text image from cher to keith with bad news. she just said i met somebody else who is better than you. and she was running away with that person? yes.
reporter: on the exotic coast of panama, cher hughes had been living out the dream of owning her own island. but then last spring, she vanished. i imagine you were calling? 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 and just spend some time in the city and get out of bocas. cause it was such a small community and she was getting a little tired of it? yeah, you just keep bumping into the same people, having to tell the same story. and sh
. but the horror wasn t over. they discovered another shallow greater bay and there buried beneat more rubble, the body of bo icelar, the other american. when they found the bodies, they realized, it s not people with suspicions and accusations, it s all really happening. reporter: keith watched. he says they found evidence of the ghastly crime, bo s i.d. cher s passport, purse and cell phone used to send those text messages saying cher had simply gone for a sail. there was more, nazi memorabilia, strange say thanic signs, jewelry that may have belonged to the crimes. and a dozen gold teeth. he lived with these things, corpses and people s personnel effects around them. two of their friends were
wild bill cortez ran the jolly rogers social club where a group on a panamanian island liked to gather. he seemed interested in gathering local real estate. how far did bill go to get these local properties? local police were about to find out. continuing with stealing paradise, here is kate snow. reporter: in the tiny ex-pat community of bocas del toro, all eyes were on one of their own wild bill cortez. in four month s time, he d snapped up the homes of two people who d mysteriously vanished bo icelar and cher hughes. now cher s husband keith was telling anyone who d listen that the disappearances and property transfers were no coincidence. i right away thought that bill has done something. to these people. i was telling people in bocas, obviously, of the suspicions. and, in a small community, we re all saying the same thing. reporter: and bill s still living nearby. and bill s still in the area. and he told people he was going to come and shut me up.