blow eyes and embezled $25,000 from the account. he told me that was a part of his pay, his package. i said, no, it s not a part of your package. that was just the beginning. he left the job and his wife. he ran off with laura michelle reese, who would later be known as jane cortez in bocas. in 2005, he started in on real estate scams. he sold a home that wasn t his for $200,000. police charged him with obtaining property under false pretences the. by the time the owner realized what had happened, he was on the run. that landed him on the television program america s most wanted. somewhere along the line he sold a stolen car in montana and when cops pulled him over for speeding in wyoming, he took off. stop, right now! leading them on a high speed chase before escaping. it seems it was only after
hadn t gone off sailing, or run away with a mystery man. she wasn t hiding out in apartment in panama city. something had happened to her. friends in bocas wracked their brains for answers, and they started thinking about another american from their group who d also left abruptly. had anyone heard from him? what if cher wasn t the only person missing what if there were two? i just woke up one morning. just like one of those weird things. and i just knew. coming up, another american who apparently just walked away leaving his home and a lot of questions behind. just gave me a really weird vibe. a crisis was brewing. cher hughes was missing for two months. now her family and friends wondered if her disappearance had anything to do with another american who left the island abruptly, four months before cher. a man named bo icelar. . when dateline continues.
introvert. he was a really great guy. bo kept a low profile since moving to bocas from santa fe, new mexico in 2004. the former antique dealer was so quiet that no one even noticed when he took off. a lot of people say, let s go to argentina for six weeks. get on a boat and go. they don t e-mail everybody and tell them we re leaving. that is easy to be not missed for a while. it made more sense when they found out that beau sold his home to wild bill, another american in their group famous for throwing lively parties many of the people attended including cher s friend kristen. i knew that they wanted to sell and move somewhere different. and so i assumed they sold and that beau had left. still, as keith thought back to the days after beau moved out, an image kept returning to his mind. an image of beau s house right after he left. i walked in and looked around. it looked as if beau had gone to the store, not moved out. i went back and told my friends, i can t believe that h
reporter: on the exotic coast of panama, cher hughes had been living out the dream of owning her own island. but then last spring, she vanished. i imagine you were calling? calling. leaving messages? texting, facebooking. and then i started reading her facebook. and it s, like, cher, where are you? people who were in panama, in bocas, haven t seen you around town, where you at, gimme a call. and we started wondering. reporter: when cher s husband keith realized she d left town, he was surprised. but he thought he might know why. cher had been talking about spending time in panama city. a place where she could blend into the scenery more easily, and wrap her head around their breakup. she told me she wanted to have an apartment in panama city and just spend some time in the city and get out of bocas. cause it was such a small community and she was getting a little tired of it? yeah, you just keep bumping into the same people, having to tell the same story. and sh
wild bill cortez ran the jolly rogers social club where a group on a panamanian island liked to gather. he seemed interested in gathering local real estate. how far did bill go to get these local properties? local police were about to find out. continuing with stealing paradise, here is kate snow. reporter: in the tiny ex-pat community of bocas del toro, all eyes were on one of their own wild bill cortez. in four month s time, he d snapped up the homes of two people who d mysteriously vanished bo icelar and cher hughes. now cher s husband keith was telling anyone who d listen that the disappearances and property transfers were no coincidence. i right away thought that bill has done something. to these people. i was telling people in bocas, obviously, of the suspicions. and, in a small community, we re all saying the same thing. reporter: and bill s still living nearby. and bill s still in the area. and he told people he was going to come and shut me up.