my heart breaks. casinos, charisma, connections. he was mr. big. he was very dark flamboyant. extremely charming. his murder was big to. a car explosion at a posh resort, somebody wanted to make a statement. who would want him dead? or who wouldn t? a string of angry investors, even whispers about the mob. everybody went, oh, this is mob connected. so why would police focus on her, a beautiful socialite, ex-wife number two? she was very intoxicating. i think she was cold and calculating. maybe her former husband was worth more dead than alive. it s easy to blame the rich, beautiful woman. she s the person everyone loves to hate. but she is completely innocent. or maybe it was someone else entirely. he is obsessed with gary triano, obsessed with him. it s a case we investigated for more than five years. now a stunning new end. we are going back up under a rollercoaster. spend a little time in tucson, arizona and here, in the shadows of the majes
well detective james gamber and keith st. john were there when the call came into the sherrif s department at tucson. it certainly got investigators attention, especially when they learned more about what was found in that van. there was a map of tucson and handwritten notes with the names and types of cars driven by some of gary triano s business associates, family and friends, including his niece melissa and one time girlfriend taylor. and there was more. and then we found a receipt for a hotel here in tucson, where ron young stayed in the hotel, for 18 days, during the summer of 1996. which would be, what, a few months before gary triano was killed? yeah. and what was interesting about his choice of hotels, it was geographically almost halfway between where gary triano lived and the la paloma country club. where he played golf every day? yes. and even more suspicious, ron young stayed under a phony name. the name of one of the people he was accused of defrauding in a
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
gary had a presence, he had charisma. and the beginning of a mystery that would span nearly two decades. never, ever felt that it wouldn t be so. a tucson native, gary triano was a successful real estate developer and entrepreneur and he was known around tucson for his big spending ways. he chauffeured limousines, and for rubbing elbows with folks like donald trump. like the song made famous by sinatra, the forceful and determine gary liked doing things his way. he was very, very brilliant. reporter: gary s niece, melissa triano. he had this wonderful personality that was charismatic. people were drawn to him. reporter: melissa says her uncle made her see the value in herself.
happening in tucson, arizona. reporter: lupita murillo has covered tucson for decades. she reported from the resort. people kill each other for all kinds of things. exactly, but a car explosion at a posh resort. obviously, someone wanted to make a statement. so this is a powerful bomb? yes. pima county sheriff s detective detective james gamber and a alphabet soup of investigative agencies, including the fbi and atf started looking closely at the homemade bomb that had found its way to gary triano s passenger seat. we were able to determine that the vice was a 17 inch piece of pipe, about an inch and a half in diameter. reporter: the pipe was filled with explosive powder and it detonated by remote control. using something that is normally used to control boats, planes? correct. handheld planes? yes.