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.
florida where her sister judy says she became a savvy businesswoman, running her own neon sign company. 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. cher did travel but mostly in the u.s. then a friend invited her to visit exotic boca del toro. . good morning and cher jumped at the chance. it decided to live there in seven days. the people here were phenomenal. children love panama and kids. keith is a carpenter. he built their dream home, a buildings on top of their lush green island. cher planted a tropical garden and adopted lots of animals including a pet monkey and a beautiful brown doberman pincher named jack. he adored cher and followed her wherever she went.
she loved the local school kids, planned movie nights with popcorn and celebrated the holidays with enthusiasm even though her friend sean trainer says kids didn t always get the significance. she would do the easter egg hunts for all the kids. they had no idea what this crazy white woman was doing. coloring eggs. and then hiding them around on the island. they never participate in anything like that before. keith and cher s relationship blossomed on the island. in 2005, they married in front of their many friends in the close community. it s a small place. you go to the grocery store and, you know, you run into people you know. christen roberts who moved to boca from norway became part of cher s group of friends. . we kind of stick together, you know, we treated each other like family. we take care of each other. everyone went by their first names or nicknames. keith and cher were known as ken and barbie.