supposedly rare dragon jars, ancient pottery, found on a remote, volcanic island. the site was very interesting. they had maybe 20, 25 jars recovered by the time i got there. but they weren t what i expected. they were these kind of earthen clay, brown-type jars. they were reporter: pottery. yeah. they were like alien pots, is the best way i can describe them. reporter: the look of the jars wasn t the only surprising thing about them. they also turned out to be not ancient, but worthless. standefer claimed his contacts had cheated him. once again, karl returned home empty-handed. did it ruin your faith in this man? no, it didn t ruin my faith. but it made me a little more cautious. i began to realize he might be a poor manager of money. but then, so am i, obviously. reporter: by the end of 1994, karl says he spent almost
reporter: than in actually finding any treasure. exactly. reporter: the artifacts karl had seen from the various ships and digs? according to kirk, they were planted there by dennis himself. it is called salting the site. it was, it now seemed, the teacher all a big lie. the adventure, the dreams come true, the friendship with dennis standefer. for that, karl, completely overtaken by his dreams, had left his own father behind, in his time of need. ever want to be able to say you were right, dad, after all? yeah, i would. i never had that opportunity. reporter: what do you do about a thing like that? i took it out on myself a lot. i mean, i was depressed. and then it became, you know, more of an anger because i felt that standefer had taken advantage of the situation. he knew the situation with my
myself going over there. yeah, he committed a lot of fraud. he did this to me, did that. lock him up. i don t think that would have gone over too well. reporter: and then, to make matters worse, the trail went cold. dennis standefer slipped away. but back in los angeles, diver kirk shaffer, who worked with standefer, remembered a box the treasure hunter left behind months before. shaffer dug it out of storage. and what he found inside would set karl ryll on a very different path. in the box, shaffer says, were who appeared to be an underaged filipina girl. photos suggesting a romantic relationship. the girl, she had no mother and father. she was being raised by her grandparents. and somehow they got connected. i think through correspondence. and they met. reporter: in 1999, during a school break, karl headed back to the philippines alone. his mission, find the girl from
happen. i was ready to give up. i said if they don t get him today, i m out. reporter: as time ticked by, karl became convinced that dennis had escaped once more. i was due back at school in about ten days. i was out of money. i was frustrated. and i just reporter: maybe you should just give up this whole i said, this is enough. i mean, this was important to me. but i did give it a real good shot. i gave it an honest shot. reporter: over a year of near misses and phantom sightings like some big foot always on the move. and all this flashed through karl s mind as he waited. how would this end? coming up, would standefer get arrested or get away? i really wanted to sit down and confront him. and say, you know, why did you do this?
by the summer of 1999, high school teacher carl, hoping to stand off against dennis standefer. i wanted to say to him, why did you do this? you didn t need to do this. it seemed it was over. but not quite. i got the call. they got him! carl ran to the police station, too late to confront him. he is already inside. carl gave his video camera to one of the officers who taped