Together they made a killing in the gold business. Then, someone else made a killing too. The only purpose of the crime was to make sure she was dead. His wife, ambushed by a shadowy man in black. Was someone after their fortune . I called her to warn her. Was the answer on this tape . His wife was being killed at that exact moment . A crime of grief and gold. Would detectives hunting for a killer strike gold too . He wasnt someone that i would think could ever be involved in Something Like this. The goldfinger mystery. Welcome to dateline extra. Im craig melvin. This is a story about a couple who made it big in a way you almost never hear about these days. They made a fortune in gold. But as the saying goes, money did not buy them happiness. In fact, it just might have been a motive for a murder. Now, pay close attention to the Security Camera video that starts our report because you just may see the key to this mystery. Heres josh mankiewicz. Take a look at this security video, and tell me what you see. A woman walks alone to her car in a parking garage in century city, california. Is she in danger . Same building complex. Different angle. A man focuses on his cellphone. Oblivious to those around him. Who is he calling . You are, in fact, watching scenes from a marriage, the final scenes, as it turns out. The woman is pamela fayed, and the man is her husband, jim. At the time this video was recorded, one of them had just minutes to live. Rewind the video to just a few minutes earlier. The fayeds have just had a meeting with their lawyers. Theyre in the midst of a bitter divorce. Its 6 30 p. M. The meeting is over. Pamela hurries to catch the elevator and gets off at the third floor. She walks to her car and reaches for the keys inside her purse. Thats when she was attacked. Los angeles prosecutor alan jackson would spend many hours scrutinizing that video. Tell me about the attack. Brutal. Vicious. Heartstopping. Pamela was completely defenseless. She was attacked, i believe, from behind first, with a knife. Somebody much larger than her, somebody much stronger than her, who had an absolute mission, and that was to cut her throat, to kill her. On the video you can see people in the complex starting to walk toward the sound of pam fayed screaming. One man ran to the scene and saw a tall man in a black hooded sweatshirt jump into the back seat of a red suv that was parked behind pams car and be driven away. That witness then tried to help pam fayed. And then, as he walked around to where the attack took place, thats when he first saw pamela. He said that when she looked at him he went into a little shock because the only thing that was not covered in blood was the whites of her eyes. She stood, and she walked toward him, even after having suffered these horrible, mortal wounds, and she reached out her arms and simply said help me. It was too late for anyone to help pam. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene. Century city is only 176 acres. Its gleaming Office Towers and highdollar townhomes lying entirely within the city of los angeles. And what makes this place run is money, because century city is home to agents, film producers and attorneys. Usually around here when someone talks about bloody murder, theyre talking about a deal that went south. This time it was the real thing. The lead detective for the lapd investigating pam fayeds murder was salaam abdulrahman. Mrs. Fayed wasnt robbed. No she wasnt. Mrs. Fayed wasnt sexually assaulted. No, she was not. So the purpose of that crime was to kill her. It was to kill her. That was the only purpose of the crime, to get rid of her and make sure she was dead. Abdul rahman says the murder was carefully planned. Mrs. Fayed comes out at about 6 30 at night. Thats correct. And shes walking to her car, what, alone . By herself. At some point, what, the killer comes up behind her . Well, the killer pulled up in the burgundy suv behind mrs. Fayeds vehicle. So blocking her. Blocking her so she cant move her car from the parking spot. The killer gets out of the back passenger seat and approaches mrs. Fayed from behind. How long did the attack take start to finish . From start to finish i would say anywhere from one to three minutes. Police found no eyewitnesses to the actual stabbing but there were people close by. There was an individual in a building across the street from where mrs. Fayed was killed. That individual observed her grab the railing and then observed an arm come around mrs. Fayed and bring her back into the parking structure. And at that time he didnt see mrs. Fayed any longer. That was the killer. That was the killer. Police combed the crime scene looking for answers and they also started looking at the victim, pam fayed, and her husband, jim. The couple had been married nine years. Together they ran a gold trading business called goldfinger and together it had made them rich. But what had been a good marriage had deteriorated even as the money came in. Now it was no secret that pam fayed and her husband were involved in a nasty, high stakes divorce. It was also no secret that jim fayed could not have committed the murder. When mrs. Fayed was killed, it was impossible that he was holding a knife because he was with his attorneys at that moment. In the same building. In the same building. He couldnt have gotten away from them long enough to get down to the parking garage and kill his wife. No. And also, after mrs. Fayed was murdered there was video footage that put mr. Fayed in the courtyard. So it was impossible for him to be in two places at one time. That security video shows jim fayed trying to make a cell phone call at exactly the moment you see people reacting to pams screams. Not only that, but a tall man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt clearly was not a description of jim fayed. A woman murdered, a bitter divorce. But certainly the husband wasnt the killer. So who was . A very rich mystery was under way. [thud] [screaming crying] [screaming crying] [screaming crying] [phone ping] with esurance photo claims, you could have money for repairs within a day. Wow that was really fast. Huh. So it doesnt have to hurt for long. Hmm. Thats insurance for the modern world. Esurance. An allstate company. Click or call. Want us to do about what woulthis president . Fathers im tom steyer, and when those patriots wrote the constitution here in philadelphia, they created the commander in chief to protect us from enemy attack the Justice Department just indicted 13 russians for an electronic attack on america. So what did this president do . Nothing. Hes failed his most important responsibility to protect our country. The question is why is he still president . With 150 hours of usa events in stunning 4k. 50 olympic channels dedicated to all the mustsee moments, and the ability to find anything with the sound of your voice. [ upbeat music playing ] show me bobsled. Catch all the action. Every moment, every medal, every screen. X1 is the ultimate olympic winter games experience. After the brutal attack on pamela fayed, investigators began to look closely at her life and marriage, hoping to lead to a motive for the murder. Here again is josh mankiewicz. Pam fayed was dead. Stabbed to death in a century city parking garage. Lapd detective salaam abdulrahman has seen enough cases to know that, in his line of work, murder and marriage go together like a horse and carriage. The ongoing fayed divorce, therefore, got his attention. Acrimonious, nasty, bitter. Mr. Fayed was really upset with his wife, mrs. Fayed. So that marriage would bear much more scrutiny. Investigators set about talking to friends and family to solve the mystery of pams death. They needed to start with the story of her life. Pamela had a spirit that was infectious. Carol neve was pams best friend. She was always happy. She had a personality that just sucked you in and kept you there. Carol met pam 22 years ago. We were neighbors and we did become best friends, to the tune of every day we talked. Every single day. That was long before jim came into the picture, of course. Good morning, baby desiree. First christmas. Pam was a single mom. She and carol babysat for each others kids, walked their babies together, went shopping, shared recipes and hung out during the holidays. Pamela was very much family to me. Pam was the most caring, loving, giving person you would ever meet. Life was about other people. Tina holland is another friend. She and pam met when their youngest children started attending the same school. They planned Family Vacations together and trips to disneyland. One year pamela bought her daughter jeanette and tinas sons costumes just for the sake of creating happy memories. Her daughter was a princess. Tinas sons, a pirate and peter pan. She wanted to make sure her friends were happy and taken care of, no matter what it took. And i realized that when i first met her. That, you know, she was one of the people that i was going to have as a lifetime friend. Pam made and sold jewelry, and she worked hard at it. But she wanted more than that. She wanted happiness and not to be alone. Her dreams were to have a family life and find a mate to share her life with who would love her children. Which is why it seemed so perfect when, in 1989, an electrician named jim fayed came into her life. He was single, no children. They seemed to get along very well. Pammy always smiled when she would look at him. They sat close and snuggled and after dinner sat on the couch next to each other. It seemed to be a very good fit. But more important to pam was that jim treated pams young daughter desiree as if she were his own. He came into our lives when i was about 6 years old. They started dating. And slowly, you know, she started introducing this man to me, and i actually i grew attached to him. I looked at him as that father figure that i needed in my life. I kind of get the feeling that he sort of seemed to step up to the job of stepfather, which a lot of guys dont do. He did. He actually did want to take on that responsibility. I think he was proud to do it. We actually got really close to each other. He was very caring and loving towards me. What did you like most about him . He was funny. I just liked being around him. Funny but not nearly as social and outgoing as pam. Jim was a gentle soul. Very quiet kind of soul. Very private back then. She saw jim as someone who would provide for the family, had a good, honest job, doing electrical work. When they learned pam was pregnant, they decided to make it official. Jim and pam were married in vegas in 1999. Now they were the parents of two girls. Young desiree and even younger jeanette. With more mouths to feed, the couple began to experience some rough patches financially. Jim often worked as an Electrical Contractor for the government, a job that would take him on the road for weeks at a time. Then there were times when the work would run out and he would have to scramble to find more. It was a struggle. They argued. Pam felt abandoned a lot. At one point pam went on public assistance. It was something she had promised herself would never happen, but now pam had to go down that path. Its possible she blamed jim for that reversal of fortune. It was a point to where they would argue and she wasnt sure she wanted to still be there. She would call me and ask me for help. And ask me to send money. I sent her money twice or three times to start divorce proceedings. And then they would always make back up and move on. And that was fine. I just wanted my friend to be happy. Wracking her brain, trying to think of ways to provide for her husband and daughters, pam came up with the idea of mixing her love of working with Precious Metals with jims interest in coin collecting. Together the couple started buying and selling gold and silver coins. Soon that grew into an internetbased company they could manage from their home, and it started bringing in money. They called their business goldfinger coin and bullion. The year was 2001. And there was a new gold rush in america. The fayeds had found their way to an online sutters creek. A getrichquick scheme that worked. But as investigators would discover, what tripped them up were many of the same human frailties that so bedeviled those 49ers who panned for gold instead of clicking on it. Lawlessness, pride, and simple greed. And so heres another question. If money is the root of all evil, then what is gold . Coming up, someone else had a close eye on this lucrative business, and the color of money was about to turn very dark indeed. I called her to warn her. When the goldfinger mystery continues. You wouldnt accept an incomplete job from any one else. So why accept it from your allergy pills . Most pills dont finish the job because they dont relieve nasal congestion. Flonase allergy relief is different. Flonase relieves sneezing, itchy, watery eyes and a runny nose, plus nasal congestion, which pills dont. Flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. Most pills only block one. And 6 is greater than 1. Start your day with flonase for more complete allergy relief. Flonase. This changes everything. Bundle and save big, but now its time to find my dream abode. Right away, i could tell his priorities were a little unorthodox. Keep going. Stop. A little bit down. Stop. Back up again. Is this adequate sunlight for a Komodo Dragon . Yeah. Sure, i want that discount on Car Insurance just for owning a home, but im not compromising. Youre taking a shower . Water pressures crucial, scott its like they say location, location, koi pond. They dont say that. Pamela and jim fayeds financial woes eased with their growing business success, but their relationship began to crumble under the weight of newfound wealth. Here again is josh mankiewicz. Jim and pam fayed had staked their claim in the online gold trading business. They began by buying old gold coins and selling them at a profit. Then they expanded, setting up what was essentially a small bank, storing gold for customers, and allowing them to borrow against it. The market grew. And so did the bottom line. Pams best friend, carol neve. They went to gold shows, trade shows in las vegas, san diego, l. A. , do all the meet and greet kind of thing. Pam was very good at that. She was very charming. Jim was more the laidback, stay away, sit in the booth. The timing was good. In 2001 gold was hovering around 250 an ounce. Then it started to take off like a rocket. By 2008, gold was listed at 800 an ounce. Soon the fayeds were getting rich just off the fees they charged for selling the gold online. It doesnt take much to be able to turn a profit. Every transaction, whether its 100 or 2,000 or 100,000, if you are making anywhere from 3 to 5 per transaction, youve got money coming in. Very quickly the fayeds started making a lot of money. They moved their Home Business into this building in camarillo outside l. A. And hired employees to staff it. They bought a 2,800squarefoot home. A 200acreplus second home nearby which they called happy camp ranch complete with horses for pam and jeanette. They were nouveau riche perhaps but they were determined not to flaunt it too much. Even their oldest daughter desiree, who started working for the company as a teenager did not realize how much her parents were raking in. So when you hear figures of tens of millions of dollars coming in, thats news to you . It is, yeah. Did they live that way . We had an average house, a twostory home. We werent living in a mansion. We had extra money to do things we wanted but it wasnt enough to show they were millionaires, to be honest. You never felt like you were rich or living lavishly. I knew that we were well off, but not to the millionaire status. One thing the fayeds income did mean was that pam could be a fulltime mom. Something she always dreamed of. Shed always wanted to stay home, raise her kids, work if she wanted to, when she wanted to, which is part of owning your own company. And jim liked it that way too. He may have liked that a little too much. Though pam was the Vice President of goldfinger coin and bullion, jim fayed was the president. He seemed to like the sound of that, and he apparently loved controlling just about every aspect of the business. He originally was a really humble guy, and i feel like, as the business grew, so do his ego and basically changed the person he was into thinking almost as if he was someone who was invincible. And then one day jim discovered that he wasnt. His health started to slip. He developed Rheumatoid Arthritis and started taking a lot of pills to dull the pain from that. And perhaps a different side of jim fayed began to emerge. There became a point where jim was addicted to pain medications. And it wasnt the same jim that pam knew. By this point jim wanted total control of her and the company and her job was to stay home and be a wife. As controlling as jim was, he couldnt control the arthritis in his joints. It forced him to give up going to the office. Was he in the hospital or bedridden or he was bedridden, yes. For how long . For a couple of years. Really. So he barely got out of bed for a couple of years . Yes. I felt that as he became bedridden he wasnt as social with us anymore. He kind of stayed in his bedroom. He basically i feel like he kind of left us as a family. We didnt really see much of him at that point. It kind of angered me seeing the kind of person he was turning into. The year was 2006. Desiree says as jim became harder to get along with it started to push away pams attempts to be more involved with the company while her husband was ill. I heard them bickering about the business on a daily basis. Specifically . Nothing specific but just Little Things here and there that needed to be changed. The disagreements grew daily and festered. To the point where the couple separated. Jim started spending more and more time at the ranch home in moorpark. And while the fayed marriage was crumbling, federal prosecutors were taking a look at the booming online gold trading business. They were looking for evidence of fraud, of tax evasion, and of the transferring of money without the proper government license. Pams friend carol did not want to see pam caught in a federal net. I called her to warn her. I told her she needed to get the money transmitters licenses. And you have to start that process. Once you start that process, the feds cant touch you. Carol says pam agreed. All she ever wanted was for a legitimate company. Thats all. She just wanted to be on the up and up. She was going to tell jim, even though they were separated. Pam urged jim to apply for the licenses. He appears to have been adamantly opposed to a move that would have essentially opened goldfingers books to scrutiny by the federal government. Pam decided she was not going to allow jim to roll the dice on their business. The business that had let pam live the life she had always wanted. Pamela was a girl scout. She wanted to do it right. Pamela knew that they were making plenty of money. They as a family, the fayed family, were flus