says, embezzled $25,000 from the gym s accounts. he had told me he had thought that was part of his his pay, his package. and i said, no, dathan, it s not part of your package. reporter: and that was just the beginning. dathan left the job and his wife. he ran off with laura michele reese, who d later be known as jane cortez in bocas. in 2005, police say dathan started in on his real estate scams. he sold a home that wasn t his for $200,000. police charged him with obtaining property under false pretenses. by the time the owner realized what had happened, dathan was on the run. that landed him on the television program america s most wanted. reporter: somewhere along the line, police say dathan sold a stolen car in montana, and when cops pulled him over for speeding in wyoming, he took off, leading them on a high speed chase before escaping. it seems it was only after he moved to panama that dathan s scams took a sinister turn.
and killed him. holbert also admits to another victim, number six. american ex-pat jeffrey kline. hole bert claims he died when the two got on a fight on a boat. too afraid to go to authorities, holbert came up with his own solution to get rid of the body. so i just panicked, took it home and buried and in the next couple of days i built a picnic area over it. it s horrible and stupid. but i never had been in that situation before. i didn t know what to do. i never tried to paint myself as a good guy. i am sorry, but i can do nothing to bring those people back especially cher hughes who was a good person. he does shed tears but not for the victims, for his wife laura who he says was innocent.
to turn in panama. during that time holbert s wife divorced him while they both sat in separate panamanian jails. but cher s family finally got the news they had long waited for. in august 2017 william dathan holbert was found guilty of the robbery and homicide of five people. according to a tweet from the panama ministry of justice. he was sentenced to 47 years in prison. and the woman once known as jane cortez, she say sentenced to 26 years for her role in the crimes. for cher s sister judy, there are only good memories and appreciation for the big sister who followed her adventurous spirit all the way to paradise. she was never bitter that she ever went to panama. i m happy that she went because i know what it meant to
and he stopped. he gave himself up. reporter: the end of the line. that was the first time he had ever had handcuffs on in his life. reporter: it was also the first time anyone on the island heard wild bill s real name my name is william dathan holbert. reporter: fun loving bocas del toro bartender wild bill cortez was in fact, william dathan holbert a 30-year-old who d been on the run from american authorities since 2006. as the islanders absorbed the headlines of a killer among them, they discovered that wild bill had a long and notorious past that stretched nearly 2,000 miles. from the white sand beaches of bocas del toro all the way to the blue ridge mountains of north carolina. that s where he grew up, going by his middle name dathan. he played high school football. married his sweetheart, had three kids, and worked as a landscaper. his old boss at a gym, kevin hoover, liked dathan until dathan had an affair with one of his employees and hoover
if she was sitting here, i would tell her i m sorry she met me. because she didn t deserve this. if i could give my life to set her free, i would. that s it. and the man who said he killed six people, now has time to sit in a cell and think about his own death. holbert and his wife have received threats in prison. there s a guard in this jail that brings me a cell phone and gives me death threats from these people. i m a dead man. i don t even care. that is not even important. but my wife doesn t deserve this. have you talked to authorities about this? what are the options they have? options? what options? excuse me. give me a second. this is really, really bad guy. he s just like the worst of the worst. do you think the trail of bodies is longer than we ll ever know? i have no doubt. exactly how many people did this guy kill? nobody knows.