-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> the following is a cnn special report. ♪ ♪ i recall it as being a relatively peaceful day. that evening we had dinner because we had never talked about guns, it never occurred to me to even think about that. i got into bed first. i dropped off to sleep. and i opened my eyes because i heard him talking. and i saw the gun.

he had it pointed at his head. i immediately reared up on my knees and lunged for the gun. i touched his hands. and i don't know exactly what happened. but what i do know is, i did not shoot my husband. ♪ ♪ >> costa rica, the ultimate tropical paradise. -- ultimate destination. paradise, but within its tropical beauty and and beaches,

an american has fought for her freedom. fought the charge that she killed her husband john, on january 8th, 2010. her passport taken, unable to leave the country. trapped. she spoke with me while waiting to stand trial for a second time. was it murder? or suicide? prosecutors claimed ann is a cold-blooded killer. ann is adamant she did not murder her husband. >> you will be tried twice on the same charge. >> if there were any merit to this, i could respect it. and i could have some sense of peace. >> peace ann bender has been seeking since she first moved to costa rica here with john. they hoped to escape to this -- in the clouds of the jungle. the isolation, instead would lead to a descent into madness.

bora kion dell sur, john and ann bender's unique refuge in the beguiling costa reek an rainforest. the stuff of dreams. their dreams at first. >> i had never seen a place as beautiful as this. >> it's remote. with their one of a kind 80,000 square foot circular house. nicknamed the bender dome, which ann and john designed and built from scratch. >> we built it to take advantage of the incredible views. >> their goals? for themselves, a life of quiet isolation and purpose. a balm, to calm their inner demons. for the refuge? help native wildlife and flowers return and flourish, by keeping poachers and farmers off the

thousands of acres. the benders shared their extraordinary home with lots of animals, nurturing and rehabilitating some, like the toff, the great black hawk, leo, the jaguar undy 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.

>> outgoing and popular, but something wasn't quite right. >> when i was in my pre-teens, 10, 12, i knew something was weird. something was different. >> weird and different turned out to be early signs of what would later become serious mental illness. >> i didn't have any suicide attempts or anything like that until my 20s, that is when it really hit. >> ann would be diagnosed as bipolar. a condition characterized by episodes of severe mood swings. she says that might explain her making sometimes rather impulsive decisions, like moving to virginia. >> one morning i woke up and i said, i'm done with cities. i want to move to the country, i want to live in a log cabin. >> virginia is where she would meet john, the man she would one day be accused of killing. >> and so when you first met him, what was your first impression?

>> i'm in love. >> right away? >> absolutely. >> that very first meeting, ann tells john that she is bipolar. >> and he started telling me about his issues with mental illness in his own family and we started talking about that. >> and about his own history with depression, which his parents, margy and paul bender, say started at a young age. >> john would get depressed. not unfrequently. >> he would go through times of everything is going wrong, usually it got over quickly. >> they say that young john enjoyed natures, animals, and -- >> he got into minerals, almost immediately he saw in the minerals something that he could create and kind of make a profit on. >> john bender liked trading and was good at it. he was something of a numbers whiz. and decided to use his math skills in casinos. >> he started going to atlantic

city. and card counting. and he did it until they kicked him out. it was a challenge. it wasn't for the money. it was the idea of being able to use your mind to create -- trade profitably. >> eventually, john would become a trader at the philadelphia stock exchange and work with and mentor pete delici. >> john did everything to an extreme. so if he believed in something or he felt statistically or mathematically he had an edge, he would exploit that as much -- as big as he could. >> part of john's strategy was to have competitors on the trading floor underestimate him. >> he wore scrubs on the floor because he wanted people to think he was, you know, a goof ball and didn't know what he was doing. >> but john did know what he was doing and became a multi-millionaire. but wealth didn't necessarily bring happiness. >> i think he was a tortured genius.

there were times when his depression could last for a period of weeks. >> john used some profits to move himself here to west virginia. was he looking to escape people? >> i think he would. >> ann would move in with him two weeks after they met. he soon proposed. >> our wedding was 19 people, and all family, including the two of us. >> there was the feeling that they were at the same place, that they had exactly the same goals, and the same values. >> all they seemed to need and want was each other. >> neither of us liked having people around. >> so they went even farther away and deep into the remote costa rican rain forest, leaving family and friends behind. >> and was he looking for the same tranquility that you had in virginia? >> yes, oh very much so.

>> next, the tranquility is shattered. >> when john did not move, they fired between his feet and held the gun up to his head. >> and a decline into depression, paranoia, and what ann claims were suicide rehearsals. >> had i been in my right mind i would have behaved differently. y packages you want to return you should just give them to us i mean, we're going to be there anyway why don't you just leave it for us to pick up? or you could always get in your car and take it back yourself yeah, us picking it up is probably your easiest option it's kind of a no brainer ok, well, good talk when you take advil you get relief right at the site of pain. wherever it is.

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it happened in san ysidro, a short drive from ann and john bender's refuge, in april 2001. >> so we were driving along and john mentioned there was a car behind us that just keeps following us. we pulled into where we were going to go. i looked at john and said this is a kidnapping. he just sat down on the ground because he knew they wouldn't be able to move him. >> they were not kidnapping him, they were acting as muscle for a past business associate of john's. john and ann no longer felt safe in costa rica. >> the first thing we did is, we left the country. we went to canada. >> three months later they returned to their home in the rain forest. >> to come back, we had to be safe. so that is when we hired the private security. >> she and john also armed themselves. >> we both got gun permits.

i never in a million years would have thought, and john said the same thing, i can't believe i'm learning how to shoot a gun. both of us were very anti-gun. >> she says soon their safety was threatened again. when their mountain-top sanctuary was invaded in 2002 by armed men. >> and how far did they get onto the property? how close to you? >> they got within 15 feet of the corner of our house. >> ann says the security team scared off the intruders. she and john felt targeted. it was all quite unsettling for two people trying to cope with mental health issues. on top of that, ann soon contracted lyme disease, an infection transmitted by tics

that can cause agonizing pain. >> so that's why i walk with the cane. i have permanent nerve damage in my hands and my feet. the infection passed the blood barrier so it is in my spinal cord and it's in my brain. >> it was 2002, the beginning of what would become an eight-year downward spiral for both of them. an unraveling that would end with john dead. >> he entered into a very severe depression in the end of 2008, and it was triggered by the death of a particular bird that he was taking care of. whacker was his name. >> when a possum hiding in their kitchen killed wacker, john was devastated. >> he told me the day after, he said, the house has betrayed me. >> so this will be here for 200 years. >> paul myer has a tree farm next to the bender's property. >> i remember ann very well, from the first meeting, beautiful woman, hair up in a

ponytail. >> white tank top, tanned, two-way radio on the hip. okay, i'm living next to lara croft, tomb raider and investing legend. >> myers remembers his last get-together with the benders in 2009. six months before a bullet would end john's life. >> ann didn't look good. she looked pale, like she had lost weight. both of them seemed sad or depressed. >> the last six to eight weeks i was not eating, i was not drinking, i was not bathing. i wasn't doing anything to take care of myself. >> john began talking suicide. ann says she had to repeatedly take part in what she calls dress rehearsals. >> we would gather all the pills that were in the house and put them on the table. and he would ask me, what do i do with these? i had tried to commit suicide before myself.

and so i would tell him, this is what you do, but i could tell that doing these things would calm him down. and he would feel better. >> practicing suicide to calm him down. it seems an absurd notion. almost unbelievable. what about another extraordinary claim? that to get john through another day she would do anything, anything. including let him think he could cure her by injecting her with water gathered from a stream on their property. >> he was absolutely psychotic. >> he really believed this could help you? >> yes, absolutely. i knew that it was something that was allowing him to survive another day. >> dr. arturo laz ano 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 years. >> i could read in the intensity of his words and in the conversation we had over the phone that he had passed over a certain line. that -- he had never passed it before. and i was terrified.

>> two months later she sent an e-mail to john's parents, telling them, for the first time in 11 years we find ourselves in the unfortunate position of both being depressed at the same time. two days later, john was dead. coming up, was it murder? suicide or an accident? >> i heard that sound. i will never forget it. the rattling breath that i had read about, heard about. ♪ time. (announcer) the subaru xv crosstrek. symmetrical all-wheel drive plus 34 mpg.

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ann bender remembers all too well the joy before the madness of january 8th, 2010. here, inside her home, she took me up the elevator leading to her bedroom. the place where her husband died. is it hard to come in here? >> it's a little tough. >> though she still finds it hard to be in this room, ann was willing to take me step by step through the final hours she and john spent here. how did you spend your last day? what did you and john do? >> i recall it as being a relatively peaceful day.

he was much calmer. i wasn't feeling so much of the angst coming from him. we watched the sunset and did all the positive things that we always did. that evening we had dinner and then we played the video game that we usually played. >> ann and john played the post-apocalypse game, killing super mutated creatures as a way to relax. >> i was feeling that he was more at peace, so i was more present in the moment for those few hours that evening. and i wasn't quite as watchful as i had been before. >> so did you finish the video game and both come upstairs together? >> that night, i wasn't able to walk, so he would carry me to the elevator. >> ann says they followed their nightly routine. john turned out the lights and

they got into bed. ann says she began to doze off. >> i was lying on my belly. face down. my head facing towards him. and i opened my eyes because i heard him talking. >> so what was he saying? >> he referred to my suicide attempts where i had been in bed next to him, and he said something to the effect of knowing how it feels to wake up with your spouse dead. >> though it was dark, ann says she could see that john had a gunpointed at his head. ann says she took action, almost instinctively. >> i reared up on my knees, lunged towards him. and in the process of putting my hands around his, we fell towards each other.

and he had the gun loaded and cocked. i lunged, we fell towards each other, and the gun went off. >> a single gunshot entered the back of john's head. ann would watch as her husband drifted away. >> i heard that sound. i'll never forget it. that rattling breath that i had read about, heard about. >> ann said she walked around john's side of the bed, held his hand, and stroked his arm. >> as i was kneeling next to him all the blood started to fall through the mattress and was pooling at my feet.

>> ann grabbed a radio and called for help. the head of bora kion security was one of the first to respond. >> when you first arrived here at the house what did you see? >> translator: john was in his bed. he was lying there lifeless, he was dead. i gave all of my attention to ann, who was very upset. she hugged me, saying, i tried to stop it. i tried to stop it, but i could not. >> ann says she called her older brother ken to deliver the news. >> phone rang, i think it was about 2:00 a.m. eastern time. >> i called him and i don't remember what i said. >> the first thing she said to me was, he finally did it. >> the police arrived and began processing the scene.

eventually, ann was taken to a police station. >> when i got there, the first thing they did was test my hands for gun powder residue. and i remember they unbagged my hands and they were commenting about stuff that was underneath my fingernails. >> what did you tell police that night? >> what i remembered. >> did you ever tell them, i didn't shoot him, i didn't kill him? >> yes. i said i didn't -- i said i lunged for the gun and the gun went off. >> after being questioned, ann was released. pizzaro then urged her to go to the hospital because he said she was emotionally and physically frail. >> he said to me, you need to go to the hospital. and i argued with him. i said, no, i want to go home. he said, you need to go to the

hospital. >> ann would spend the next six months at the hospital in san jose. coming up -- >> translator: the cause of death was homicide. >> prosecutors don't buy ann's story. >> translator: ann intended or had planned to kill john bender that night of january 8th, 2010.

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the gory scene of her husband's death earlier that day and years of struggling with mental illness had taken her -- their toll on ann bender's mind and body. she was brought to this hospital in san jose. ann's long-time psychiatrist, dr. arturo vincent, was the first to see her. how would you describe her mental condition when you first saw her after john's death? >> flat, is what we call it in psychiatry. >> like a blank stare? >> yeah, a blank stare. her psychosis was monumental. >> ann's physician found her shockingly frail and thin, weighing only 66 pounds.

>> ann was severely malnourished with pockets of pus abscesses on her skin. >> treating her would not be easy. >> she was in a trance-like state, not cooperating too much in terms of what her needs were, how she was feeling. >> though ann was in no condition to communicate she says the police would not leave her alone. >> i do remember police officers coming into the room. and they were unnecessary. it was cruel. >> give me one example. >> having four police officers walking in with their weapons and guns to make sure i was still there. that was not necessary to do every day for two weeks. >> ann had plenty to be concerned about. lead prosecutor edgar ramirez says the evidence was pointing

to murder. and ann's guilt. there was the single shot to the back of john's head, a spot, he says, makes ann's story impossible. >> the only wound mr. bender had had was located in the right ok sip tal region, shot like this. experience tells us, when a person is going to commit suicide, they will shoot themselves in a central location, specifically here, here, and here. or directly to the heart. >> what about the position of john's body? >> translator: the position of john bender's body when found shows that he was in a fetal position, asleep, when shot. >> no gun powder residue found on john's hands. their. >> translator: the gun powder residue only appears on ann, in her hands and in her clothes. >> but forensic tests found no significant residue on ann's hands. and ann's attorney says the

residue on her clothes does not prove she fired the gun. >> translator: if someone shoots a firearm, the gun powder residue can end up coating another person's clothes. >> what would have been ann bender's motive for killing her husband? >> they were having problems because ann was frequently taking trips out of the country to buy precious stones and jewels. >> jewels found around the couple's mansion during the investigation. authorities removed them from the house by the suitcase load. >> we actually met. >> ann says the gem business was not a source of contention. >> it was a collection we had wanted to make. we both loved gems and minerals since we were young. to him it was a sound investment.

>> not only was it a sound financial investment but ann says john bought her the stones also as a way to cope with their mental illnesses. >> whenever i was acutely ill, john always wanted to buy me stuff. so he started buying me at first small things like beads. these are sapphire, a particular type of sapphire that changes color based on the light. >> john did more than surround ann with precious jewels, he also bought her hundreds of beautiful replicas of stained glass tiffany lamps. >> we both loved art glass. the tiffany lamps are something that we both fell in love with. >> how many did you have? >> 550. seeing clouds roll through your living room with the lamps was

beautiful. every day 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 grand caymans, for example. >> an allegation of tax evasion, that john and ann smuggled jewels into costa rica. >> how do you feel about the

allegations that you were involved in illegal activities? >> it is an absolute fabrication. we were doing nothing wrong. >> the prosecutor and ann seemed to agree on one thing. both believe mental illness led to john's death, but for different reasons. ramirez suspects ann had a psychotic break. >> both of them were bipolar and obviously had personality disorders. but in ann's case, she knew what she was doing and planned to kill him that night. >> ann blames john's death on his severe depression. >> three months before he died he was talking about killing himself every day. every day. >> coming up, ann goes from suspected murderess to defendant. >> i was officially charged august 3rd of 2011. >> ann discovers her fortune may be gone. >> i'm absolutely broke.

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i was in shock when i arrived at the hospital. >> ann bender's husband john was dead. and the enormous home they once shared in the rain forest was empty. >> the main reason i didn't live at the refuge initially was health reasons. here, i'm ten minutes away from the hospital. >> ann moved hours away to this small city apartment in san jose. although no longer confined to a hospital room, she would soon discover her freedom had limits. ann surrendered her passport as prosecutors continued to investigate. eventually they concluded she

was responsible for john's death. >> i was officially charged august 3rd of 2011. >> so that is almost two years >> 20 months later. >> 20 months after john's death. ann then hired the attorney to take over her defense. >> translator: she was -- wasn't satisfied with the attorneys that were representing her during that year and a half. >> ann had begun to question the honesty of 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 million, into a trust, which he

established and controlled. >> the purpose of setting it up was to ensure that the refuge would have a structure that would protect it after we were gone. >> in the event of john dying first, it was also meant to provide financial security for ann. but that isn't how things went, according to milton jiminez, an alvarez employee who helped to manage the trust. >> translator: after john bender died, the first thing mr. alvarez did was take away ann's credit card. he declared himself the only heir of the trust, he said the trust no longer existed and now everything belonged to him. >> jiminez says he was so disturbed by what he calls alvarez's lying ways and soaring ego that he left the company. >> i found out he had quit and i got in touch with him.

he told me verbally some things and things fell together. >> jiminez had accused alvarez of stealing from the trust. >> translator: almost around the same time the trust was created, mr. alvarez began investing the funds in personal projects and paying for personal expenses. his life-style changed completely. >> ann sued alvarez for fraud and gained access to his files on the trust. the case is pending. from what you saw how much money do you estimate mr. alvarez stole from that trust? >> by the time i left the office, i calculated $20 million. >> in the end, jiminez believes alvarez wanted ann put away so that he could get away with embezzling millions. >> what he wanted most was for

ann to go to jail. there is no way he wanted anything else. >> how has this affected you? what has been the impact? >> i am beyond upset in terms of the degree of betrayal and how long it was going on. >> you're basically broke, right? >> i'm absolutely broke. >> translator: i requested that mr. alvarez be removed as a trustee. the court named a substitute to take his place. >> we've reached out to juan alvarez but he has declined to speak with cnn. in this e-mail he says he is following the advice of his attorneys in not giving us an interview. with the civil suit and potentially a criminal trial against alvarez in motion, ann still had her own criminal trial to worry about. next, ann goes on trial.

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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 ] >> no. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> her lawyer asked about her claim that she saw john holding a gun to his head. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> on cross-examination, ann told the prosecutor that she had

lost her grip on john's hands, started falling back and the gun went off. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> on the fifth day of trial, testimony ended and closing arguments began. the prosecutor demonstrated how easy it was to shoot the gun. [ speaking in foreign language ]

>> and he called john's death a cold-blooded killing. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> three judges would decide ann's fate. if found guilty, she faces a sentence of up to 25 years in prison but most likely she'd be committed to a mental institution instead. >> as soon as the judges sat and i was looking at them, i was just -- i waited and i remember now just being one solid,

tensed-up muscle. >> before rendering their decision, the judges cited problems with the investigation. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> moments away from the verdict, ann says she never felt more alone in her life. >> fabio reached behind me and held my hand and i remember just being so grateful for that contact. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> because there is reasonable doubt, the judges' decision, not

guilty. defense attorney fabio believes this john bender e-mail was key to ann's acquittal. >> translator: in an e-mail john sent ann months before he passed away, he said he wanted to kill himself and everyone around him after discovering issues with his finances. >> issues like getting money from the man who managed the benders' financial trust. john wrote, i am such a total [ bleep ] loser for ever getting involved with the total scum bags. for ann, the verdict was relief and vindication. >> you must have thought it was over. >> yeah, i thought it was over. >> but it wasn't. in costa rica, such a verdict can be appealed, so a defendant can be tried twice for the same crime. and that's what prosecutor edgar ramirez did. >> why did your office appeal

the decision and on what basis? >> translator: the decision took us by surprise. and after analyzing it, we did not agree with the court's assessment of the case evidence. >> prosecutors won their appeal and a new trial got under way in may. >> it was devastating to know that i have to go through this again. this is a travesty in terms of the use of the justice system. >> friends and family, including john's parents, do not believe his death was premeditated murder. >> absolutely not. >> oh, it is just so impossible. the moon could be made of green cheese, actually, before something like that. not only did ann not have a motive to kill him, i know she asdor -- adored him and could not possibly benefit by his death. ♪ >> months before ann would learn her fate, i asked about her future.

if you are again acquitted at the retrial and it ends there -- >> yes. >> -- what do you want to do with the rest of your life? where do you go from here? >> i know what john wanted me to do with the refuge, and a lot of that will depend on the resources that are left. he wanted me to start helping people with mental illnesses and to create an aspect of the refuge that would allow for retreats for people with mental illnesses. >> what do you want for you? >> i want peace for john. because i know he's not at peace now. >> john bender's ashes are in an urn at what ann says was his favorite view, looking out from the refuge. a refuge she's trying to save, a paradise that will never be the same.

♪ ♪ when a popular high schoolteacher was found dead of a gunshot wound, investigators believed it was an accident. >> this is january 29th -- >> but an audiotape recorded by the victim just three days before his death raised serious questions that required answers. historic durham, north carolina, is both a big city and a small town. best known as the home of duke university and its world famous medical center. but it is also a close-knit southern community where families stay for generations.