the benders shared their extraordinary home with lots of animals, nurturing and rehabilitating some, like toff, the great black hawk, leo, the jaguarundi, and lily, the three-toed sloth. in the kitchen, ann showed me the sink that became lily s personal toilet. and she would grab this, and i would create like an infinity pool of water. and that s where she would do her business. wow. for ann, animals have long been important companions, says her brother, ken patton. so she developed that bond with animals at a very early age. ken and ann grew up in rio de janeiro. what was your sister like? as a little girl and as a teenager? very popular in school, she hung out with the cool crowd definitely.
dr. arturo lizano-vincent is ann s psychiatrist. i thought that they must have been both psychotic. and in that case they feed off each other s manic moments? yes. shared craziness. shared craziness, yeah. i know that there is definitely something to the concept of the two of us having gone mad together. ann was also physically deteriorating. she says at times she was too weak to walk. during this time, ann flew to the u.s. on a trip for their gems business. she says they had been buying and stockpiling precious stones as an investment. while she was gone, ann received a startling e-mail from an angry and despondent john. he wrote, i wish i were [ bleep ] dead, i deserve to [ bleep ] die, i feel so utterly ill that there aren t even words. i haven t felt this bad in
was responsible for john s death. i was officially charged august 3rd of 2011. so that s almost two years? 20 months later. 20 months after john s death. ann then hired the attorney to take over her defense. translator: she wasn t satisfied with the attorneys that were representing her during that year and a half. ann had begun to question the honesty of waunl juan dedias alvarez, the man who had hired the attorneys. something was wrong, but i did not know exactly what. alvarez had played an important role in the benders realizing their dream, helping them acquire dozens of properties that make up the refuge. he is also the man they turned to when they decided to funnel most of their fortune, about $70
how many did you have? 550. seeing clouds roll through your living room with the lamps was lamps lit up every day it was beautiful and it was changing. still beautiful outside, ann s house is now dark, cold and empty. empty because the police confiscated almost everything of value, including the colorful jewels and lamps she adored. even the kitchen appliances. two refrigerators and one industrial size freezer, two ranges, i had two, one with six burners, one with four. the refrigerator and stove top, why were those things taken? translator: the money used to purchase those things may have come from illicit sources. i mean, in this case, we found that the benders had bank accounts in tax havens like
i did not shoot my husband. you can tell me right here and now you did not kill john? i did not shoot my husband. i tried to stop him. on january 14th, 2013, three years after john bender s death, in a courtroom in san ysidro, costa rica, ann bender went on trial, charged with murdering her husband. [ speaking in foreign language ] her lawyer asked about her claim that she saw john holding a gun to his head. [ speaking in foreign language ] [ question answered in foreign language ] on cross-examination, ann