in the air to search the area. though they saw tracks in the snow near where monica said they would find weinberger s camp, bad weather forced them to abandon the aerial search. but even then, luck seemed to be with the police. hikers just down from the mountain reported seeing something strange. colonel di vita: on the same day, people coming down from mountain told us that there was a strange male leaving the tent. rob stafford: finally, on the morning of december 15th, 2009, three days after monica had first tipped them off, a team of police officers set out on a cross-country trek to a remote area near the swiss border. colonel di vita: in the distance, we could see a man working around a tent. did he seem startled to see you? yes. rob stafford: and what does he say? colonel di vita: they were not wearing their uniform, and they approached him asking, what are you doing here? he answered, i want to live a quiet life. i want to live a quiet life.
a quiet life, yeah. and they asked the man, who are you? and he answered, i m my name is mark weinberger. rob stafford: and that was that. after five years on the run and four months on the mountain, the search for mark weinberger was over. no confrontation, no dash for freedom. instead, the fugitive doctor posed for pictures. inside the tent, police found euros worth about $3,000, top notch equipment, a stockpile of food and medicine. - cialis. - cialis? cialis. all ok, i think it is viagra. like viagra. like viagra, yes, and some survival medications. rob stafford: under italian law, weinberger could be held for 24 hours while police verified his identity. so mark weinberger was taken back down the mountain to the police barracks in courmayeur. he was in very good shape, very quiet. i asked him, are you married? i m divorced. what s your job? i m a surgeon. rob stafford: a surgeon? - surgeon.
tears started coming out of my eyes, and i didn t know if they were tears of joy or tears of sadness. i couldn t even identify what my emotions were. rob stafford: out in california, shawn barnes, a college student, was heading home for the holidays when her aunt called to tell her. i got that news, and you have all this time to think going across the country, and it was just like the strangest christmas present i ever could have imagined. rob stafford: shawn s mother, phyllis barnes, remember, had been a patient of weinberger s and had filed the first malpractice suit against him. shawn: i wasn t sure, at first, if it was a good or a bad thing or what. rob stafford: by february, 2010, arrangements for weinberger s extradition had been completed, and he was back in the united states and facing a world of legal trouble. first, there was a 22-count federal criminal insurance fraud indictment charging him with billing for surgeries he didn t do and overbilling for those he did do. then, t
narrator: whatever mark weinberger was doing in the office those days was also a mystery to employees like suzette dennington, weinberger s top medical assistant at the sinus clinic. he started being one of the first people to arrive in the office and one of the last people to leave every day. what was he doing in his office? i don t know. the door was closed. it was very quiet. we would have to knock on the door and let him know that there was another patient ready to be seen. he definitely withdrew. narrator: suzette says that wasn t the only strange thing going on that summer. suddenly shipments of camping gear began arriving at the weinberger clinic. one of his treatment rooms in one wing of the building that was full of camping equipment. i really don t see him as being much of a camper. he s more or four seasons hotel kind of guy. right. but he was almost frantically packing it up. what kinds of equipment did he have? there were several backpacks. there were just bags that were s
narrator: even a man with expensive taste, such as mark weinberger, could live large on a cash flow like that. and according to writer buzz bissinger, he did. at home, there were uniformed maids, a personal trainer, and a masseuse. he would go on these spending sprees, he lived in a $2-1/2 million condominium. he had three drivers on call by limo. narrator: who could have known in those first blissful days, as the music played and champagne flowed, how it would all end? certainly, not mark weinberger s new bride, michelle. a northwest indiana doctor s apparently on the run tonight, and he s left behind serious legal trouble. narrator: in the weeks and months after her husband left her in greece, michelle was bound and determined to find out why her husband had abandoned her. coming up, lying low, living large. he had apparently packed two huge suitcases full of water