how big was flying in the life of robert bierenbaum? >> flight 230. >> flying was his passion. >> he loved to fly. >> the airplane was a key part of his life. ♪ fly me to the moon ♪ >> one of the first dates he took gail on was a flight around manhattan in the evening on the skyline. so romantic. >> bob fits the "tall, dark, and handsome." this perfect renaissance man. spoke several languages. >> it was the first date. he said, do you want to get high

tonight? we flew around the lights of las vegas. it was sparkling. >> pilot, surgeon, brilliant guy. >> gourmet chef. >> expert skier. >> top of his class. a big catch, right, for any young lady. >> yeah, well, you can look so good on paper and have a whole other side that can just erase it all in a heartbeat. >> flying is the crux of the story. it's the method that he tries to cover up his crime. >> her disappearance made headlines in 1985. >> i get a phone call. turn on the tv. they've arrested robert bierenbaum. i started screaming. >> so shocked i dropped to my knees. >> you must have been shocked. >> i was, shocked. >> gail bierenbaum vanished from the apartment she shared with her husband robert, a manhattan plastic surgeon. >> bob tells police that they had an argument and she came here to the park. >> yes. >> never in a million years you'd think he's be using cold, calculated murder in the same

description of dr. bierenbaum. no way. >> no body. >> no forensics, no eye witnesses. >> the investigative theory was that he wrapped the body up, drove it to his plane in new jersey, flew the plane over the ocean -- >> you know, they've charged that you took her in an airplane and threw her out. >> yes, no comment. >> disbelief sort of switched to, good good, this guy was a psychopath. >> my god. you got to think it's a movie. >> crime and punishment. >> that's the story. >> that's stuff you see on tv. that's not real. right? >> the bierenbaum story, when you get down to it, is dr. jekyll and mr. hyde. >> as physicians we all take that oath to above all, do no harm. ♪ i love you ♪ in the 1980s, new york city was a very different place. it was a grittier place. it was a dirtier place. there was graffiti everywhere covering all parts of every subway car. >> the homicide rate in the '80s was astronomical. i mean, there was thousands.

there was a lot of drug gangs. it was a very violent time in new york, the '80s. >> throughout the city, there were bubbles of safety. on the upper east side, that was one of them. the upper east side was the place where you wanted to live. >> the upper east side was the music to the beginning of "the jeffersons" when it was on tv. ♪ we're movin' on up at the time east side ♪ >> and on east 85th street, in that iconic high rise featured on "the jeffersons," there lived a handsome doctor and his beautiful wife. a young couple with their whole lives ahead of them. >> from the outside looking in, robert and gail bierenbaum should have been the perfect couple. >> tell me about your sister. what was she like? >> gail was a very gentle soul. she was sensitive, she was

loving, she was creative and gorgeous in that damsel in distress way. my sister gail beth katz was the first child in our family of three children. born on march 8, 1956. we were all living in brooklyn. i was one year behind gail in school. we were best friends. we lived that idyllic, carefree life. we walked to the penny store. we could chalk the street and play hopscotch. >> when she was in fourth grade, my parents moved to long island. that was really exciting for us. all of a sudden, gail and i were going further than the candy store, into the city, to broadway shows. it seemed to us to be a very normal childhood.

>> this is my yearbook from high school. that's gail. there's me. on the same page. gail was on honor roll. she was so smart, so bright. she was soft-spoken and yet very powerful presence at the same time. she was a very special person. >> she was beautiful, smart, and unfortunately, anxious. there was a little bit of a depression early in life. she never thought she was good enough. she never knew how good she was. >> after high school, she went to the state university of new york in albany. while she was there, she fell in love with a musician in a rock band. >> i don't think i've ever seen gail so happy. gail fell head over heels. she was going to design the costumes for the band.

>> gail moved to manhattan to pursue a degree in dance at new york university and to try to help her boyfriend land a record deal. >> gail's a single gorgeous woman in manhattan. bar tending, meeting rich and famous musicians, record executives. and the relationship ends. >> alayne says things went downhill for gail from there. she has an arm injury, drops out of school, and is drifting without a purpose. it all comes to a head on a traumatic night in 1979. >> on a night that i'm supposed to meet her, i get a call. she's in the hospital. she's tried to commit suicide. in my heart of hearts, i believe it was more of a really, really big cry for help than a true suicide attempt. how did gail recover from that experience? she didn't.

>> over time, elaine says, gail appeared to bounce back, landing a job at an ad company and building her way back up. >> and that's when one of her friends decides that she's got to introduce gail to dr. robert bierenbaum. >> robert bierenbaum grew up in west orange, new jersey. it is upper middle class. very nice area. his father was a physician. >> attended local high school, where he was brilliant. he was always interested in flying. in high school, he got a pilot's license and was allowed to fly out of a number of small airports dotting northern new jersey. >> but he decided to pursue a career in medicine, following in his father's footsteps. he graduated from albany medical college and was a surgical resident at the time he was

introduced to gale. >> he's close to her age. jewish, classical guitar player. he spoke several languages. he was a gourmet cook, an expert skier. he wasn't just a pilot. he had mastered instructor level piloting. >> he loved to fly. and one of the first dates that he took gail on was a flight around manhattan, you know, in the evening on the skyline and everything. she was so enamored with this. >> it was magical. it was romantic. they could go anywhere. en why, they'd hop on a plane, go to a beach some place. she had a private pilot chauffeur, and bob loved being

in control, so this was a place where bob really got to shine. >> however, in spite of all of his pluses, there were problems with the relationship. and it was obvious early on. >> there were red flags. when we would be together with them as a couple, he would be very controlling of her. even if she had to go to the bathroom, he would be like, where are you going? and, when are you coming back? >> the first time i went on a double date with the two of them, the four of us are in a sushi restaurant, and bob starts using chopsticks and picking up food and shoving it in my sister's mouth. it was so odd. i was so embarrassed. and then he starts doing the same thing to me. >> he starts feeding you? >> he starts feeding me. it was so uncomfortable. he was such a weirdo. >> but gail had made up her mind, bob was marrying material, and the two get engaged. but then, all of a sudden, those red flags about gail's seemingly

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by august of 1982, gail katz was flying high, engaged to her pilot boyfriend dr. robert bierenbaum. her mother couldn't have been happier. >> voila. here it is -- young, jewish doctor from new jersey is marrying her. what could be better? >> that's how he seemed on paper. in reality, the more i got to know him, the more i realized he was very awkward, very controlling. >> then during the summer of '82, i get the hysterical call from my sister. i must come into the city. i must pick her up. she gets into the car holding her little cat in her arms, crying. what happened, gail? bob tried to kill the cat.

he had the cat in the toilet, choking it, with its head submerged underwater. >> he was offended because she seemed to love the cat more than she loved bob, and so he wanted the cat dead. >> no, no, no, alayne, we're going to get rid of the cat and then everything's going to be fine because he's going to believe that i love him. no, not really. you really have to get rid of bob. >> it turns out that this wasn't the first cat that bob had attacked. earlier in their relationship he had told a story about having accidentally, in his words, strangled a prior girlfriend's cat. her cat got loose in the car, and he said he strangled and killed that cat in the car. >> this is nuts. this is scary. and i'm like, you know, he's done this before. it's not about loving a cat.

it's not about you loving the cat. it's about being violent. no, no, no, no, no. en why, she had two years of a psych degree. she knows better. and i'm like, i can't believe you're marrying this guy. and i was sworn to secrecy. i never told my parents. >> in spite of this extremely upsetting incident and warnings gail and bob were married august 29, 1982 in a manhattan synagogue. >> she's wearing a white dress. she's gorgeous. she was happy. we had great champagne, we had a great band, but bob was awkward. bob couldn't dance. bob doesn't drink. my sister told me, i'm smart, i'm loving, my love will cure. this is going to work out. >> the newlyweds enjoy an idyllic honeymoon on the island of crete. when they get back to new york, they continue trying to live in an upper-class lifestyle. >> they are doing ski trips. there's beach vacations in the

caribbean with other couples that are doctors and their wives. she enjoys that. >> he also was still involved heavily with his passion of flying during that time. whenever he could get a chance, he would head over to jersey, that's where he rented a plane. >> they in january of '83 moved into a two bedroom 12th floor apartment at 185 east 85th street, a building actually that america knew from "the jefferson's" sitcom. this was making it for them. >> he was a resident doctor. he didn't have a lot of money. how could they afford this? >> bob's parents paid the rent. >> after they got married, he was in a residency at maimonides. he was working very long hours with the intention of opening, some day, his own plastic surgeon practice. >> back in the '80s, i worked in maimonides medical center in brooklyn, where i met bob bierenbaum. bob was socially awkward. he was socially awkward with the

patients as well. he did not have a connection with his patients. i think he was very into himself, and i don't think he was really interested in his appearance all that much. he would have his pants halfway down in the back, very wrinkled shirt on. >> gail was an undergraduate finishing her b.a., taking classes at hunter college. money was tight, and gail decided that one way to make it was to try to be a personal assistant to women living on the upper east side. and so she put out an ad. >> i responded and in no time, she was working for us. >> francesca beale was a high powered attorney at cbs tv at the time, and she puts gail to work as her assistant. >> she was beautiful. she was delightful. everyone who met her said how wonderful she was. and she glowed with happiness at that point.

>> did she ever talk much about her husband at that point? >> no much, but when she did it was in terms that i would say were affectionate and that she was proud of him. >> to people on the outside, it might have looked like the perfect couple had the perfect life and the perfect spot, but the reality was a lot bumpier than that. they were fighting a lot. >> dr. bierenbaum's controlling nature was the prime move which caused tension in the marriage. he wanted to control every aspect of her life. there was always screaming and fighting going on in the apartment. >> she came to my apartment and studied, because she didn't feel comfortable staying around the house. she would complain that he was verbally abusive, that he would put her down, undermine her all the time, tell her she wasn't any good. >> she lived by these laws he set up. she had to be home by a certain time. she had to dress a certain way. >> my sister would go to turn on a light. he would literally hold her hand as she's moving for the light

and with his other hand, turn the light switch on. there wasn't a thing that was too small for bob to control. >> i had a 30th birthday party in a restaurant, and bob and gail were there. bob insisted that she sit on his lap through the dinner. and at some point, i think that she was feeding him his food. i said, gail, why don't you sit down in your own seat? and she seemed intimidated. she said, no, no, this is okay. it's okay. i just got the feeling she didn't want to cross him. >> by the end of the year she is certainly complaining to others. bob is never home. she's lonely. this is not a happy marriage. and then it was like a house of cards. >> that house of cards would soon start to collapse, following a shocking outbreak of violence.

>> bob sees her smoking, leaps over a couch to get at her as quickly as possible. >> and it would all lead to an alarming letter warning of imminent danger. >> i wish i had known about that letter way before. i think i would have scooped her up in my arms and taken her home! (birds chirping) ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ (phone beep) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (music quieter) ♪ (phone clicks) ♪ ♪ when you hear, cough cough sneeze sneeze. [ sneezing ] it's time for, plop plop fizz fizz. alka seltzer plus cold relief. dissolves quickly. instantly ready to start working.

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robert bierenbaum and his wife, gail, seemed to be the perfect couple -- young, attractive, with a bright future. but behind the walls of their upper east side manhattan apartment, the relationship had turned toxic. >> their marriage went into a downward spiral of constant arguing, fighting over just about anything. like a neighbor told us, like cats and dogs, and it was constant. >> she definitely told me she was not happy. he'd pay attention to her, but more in the way of watching her, watching what she was she doing. who she was talking to. he really was a cold guy. >> bob had rules and you better follow those rules. bob had this thing about smoking. nobody should smoke because it's bad for their health. >> back in november '83, my

sister was studying for her graduate record exams, her gres. she thought bob had left to go to work that day. she was feeling nervous, and as she tells it, she went out on the balcony to smoke a cigarette. the door opens, and he smells the smoke. and he literally leaps over the living room furniture, strangles her to the point of unconsciousness, then revives her and apologizes, saying that it would never happen again. >> gail would have gone into the 19th precinct, and she reported the incident to a police administrative aide. if this had happened in 2021, robert bierenbaum would have been in handcuffs immediately. the fact that this was 1983, nothing was done about it. >> this time she doesn't say, oh, he just loves me. this time she says, you're a sick bastard.

go get help. i am not staying in this marriage unless you get help. and bob goes to see a therapist, michael stone. >> gail charged that her husband, dr. robert bierenbaum, had tried to strangle her in a rage. >> so in the course of looking at the case, you know, i find dr. stone and i interview him. at the end of seeing him, did you have the impression that he was under control? >> no, i had the impression that he was not in good control. the more trivial the incident that sparked it, in my way of thinking, the more potentially dangerous the person. this was a minor incident, which means that he had a hair-trigger kind of temper. >> he says, i realized she was not going to be safe living with him. and he tells me, i wrote a letter memorializing this. it's a letter of warning to gail. >> the letter went as far as being a hold-harmless letter.

he didn't want to be held liable for not warning her about the danger. >> the letter says, i have been advised by dr. stone that for reasons of my own safety i should, at this time, live apart from my husband, dr. robert bierenbaum. i further understand that if i do not heed this advice, i must accept the consequences, including the possibility of personal injury or death at the hands of my husband, and absolve dr. stone of responsibility for any such eventuality." >> this letter says that you are worried about her husband killing her. >> yes. >> and that you're trying to warn her. >> that's right. >> have you ever written a letter worded that strongly to or for another patient? >> it's the only letter i've ever written to a patient of any sort in all those years. >> when she left your office the last time she left your office, did you feel then, even then, that she was in serious danger? >> yes.

and had rather a sinking feeling about the future, because i had warned her every way i knew how and she wasn't heeding my warning. >> when gail got the letter, i know that she -- of course, she kept it. she didn't just destroy it or read it and throw it away. she put it away. >> were you aware of the letter? >> gail told me about it approximately a year after she got it. she's like, it says he's a psychopath and he's going to kill me. >> why in the world would she stay with this guy after she received that kind of warning? >> i think she didn't believe it. no, no, no, alayne, i'm just about finished with my ph.d. i understand psychology. i'm safe. don't worry about it. she said to me that i'm -- i want to get divorced. he really has to do right by me. and if he doesn't, i am going to publicize this letter, and it's going to ruin him. >> after she received the letter, i mean, the marriage

continued, they continued living under the same roof. > the situation was calmer at home, but it was the calm before the storm. it was all going to blow up for them come the 4th of july weekend. 3 >> i called my mom and said, do you know gail is? i said, what do you mean do i know where gail is? i think something terrible happened to her. >> gail has suddenly gone missing, vanished into the air. could that ominous warning in dr. stone's letter have come true? >> my heart went into my throat. and i said, he killed her. i knew it. i knew it right away. year-ish, fter the pt everyone deserves something new! so at&t is giving everyone our best deals on every iphone - including the iphone 13 pro with its amazing camera. like everyone that worked from home. or welcomed a new family member. they were all out of dogs. our deals are for everyone! it's not complicated. at&t is giving new and existing customers our best deals on every iphone, including up to $800 off the epic

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♪ the dynamic in the relationship, i think, changed dramatically after the strangulation incident to the extent that she would go to bed fully clothed. >> we're talking about people who are in the third year of their marriage and they're not having sex. gail admitted to me that she was dating a little bit. she told me how lonely she was. >> on july 6, 1985, we took a walk. she liked to hang out by the metropolitan museum of art. we sat down and we talked. and she had a copy of the real estate section of "the new york times" with her. she said to me, i'm going to look for apartments, and i'm going to tell bob that i'm leaving.

i was like, yay. thank god she's going to leave him. >> sunday, july 7th, was a turning point in this story. sometime that morning, francesca beale, a sometime employer of gail, called. >> i had not been in touch with gail for a long time. she was extremely happy to hear from me. >> but it turns out francesca wasn't calling for gail at all. she wanted gail to ask bob for a referral to a doctor. >> she didn't seem angry, but she seemed quiet and sad. >> it sounds like she was deflated that it wasn't about her. >> yeah. >> but rather her doctor husband. >> and maybe she thought i needed her for a friend. >> it wasn't quite the phone call that gail was looking forward to. what we do know for certain is that something sparked another argument, and we know from their downstairs neighbors that the argument was loud and it continued for a while until there was silence in the

apartment. >> later in the day, dr. bierenbaum left the apartment, showed up at the in new jersey at a birthday party for his nephew. where he was telling people that she had left the apartment in a huff. he doesn't know where she went. he hasn't seen or heard from her since she left the apartment, and he was worried about her. >> i call my mother, and my mother says, do you know where gail is? and i'm like, no. and she's like, bob called. they had a fight this morning, and gail never came home. >> bob calls me. he says, is gail still with you? i said, what do you mean is gail still with me? i left her yesterday at 5:00. my heart went into my throat. >> she's not with me. and she's not with my parents.

and at that moment, i know that my sister's dead. >> i just put the phone down for a second. i said, he killed her. i knew it. i knew it right away. >> and if she's not alive, there's only one person who is a likely suspect to murder her. and it's bob. there's no other suspect. >> on monday, july 8, 1985, about 9:00 in the evening, robert bierenbaum came into the precinct to report his wife, gail, missing. i interviewed him at length. robert mentioned that some time that morning, gail and he had an argument. she left to go to central park to cool off. she was dressed to go lay out in the sun -- pair of shorts, i believe a halter top, and a towel. and that was not unusual for

gail. >> bob tells police that they had an argument and she came here to the park? >> yes. and by the very following weekend, we had missing posters made of gail. my family and my sister's friends all came to the park and plastered -- >> this poster. >> this poster. we plastered the entire loop of the park. we never spoke to a single person that said, i recognize gail. >> it was almost like pulling teeth to get robert bierenbaum to help. it was almost like they had to drag him almost kicking and screaming. >> meanwhile, the tension is building between the katzs and the bierenbaums. the bierenbaums are portraying gail as a mentally unstable person who might be responsible for her own disappearance. >> in front of us, they're saying to the police, she was suicidal. she must have killed herself. >> yeah.

>> now, this is ridiculous. my sister has a therapist who says she's healthy. the other lie that he starts to float is, it must have been a drug deal gone wrong. my sister wasn't buying drugs on the street. they just kept floating alternate theories. all of them defamed my sister. >> a search was made, and every effort to locate someone that might have been a victim of a crime was made. there weren't any bodies. there weren't any victims that were injured that were discovered in the park. gail was not discovered. she did not commit suicide in the park. >> weeks after his wife's disappearance, bierenbaum seems the opposite of a grieving husband. >> i heard he was out in the hamptons partying with a lot of elite people. >> he's dating. he's bringing women back.

>> but then investigators make a shocking discovery at a new jersey airfield, a discovery that could bring robert bierenbaum back to the earth. >> they struck gold. >> this was a bombshell discovery. >> it was. it turned things upside down. welcome to allstate. where you can pay a little less and enjoy the ride a little more. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ now, get new lower auto rates with allstate. because better protection costs a whole lot less. you're in good hands with allstate. click or call for a lower auto rate today. it's kohl's lowest prices of the season you're in good hands and the perfect time to start your holiday gifting. get pillows and towels for just $2.99... women's jeans starting at $14.99... and boots starting at $24.99... even better? you can also earn kohl's cash!

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♪ just weeks after his wife, gail, vanishes in new york city, robert bierenbaum starts spending time in an exclusive spot out on long island. >> gail and he had a share in a hamptons house, and robert continued to go out there on every weekend he possibly could.

he was seen partying in a notorious disco in the hamptons called marrakech. >> even his dress changed. from l.l. bean to "saturday night fever." this wasn't the concerned husband, and the summer house people they thought that his behavior just was rather cold and dismissive of his missing wife. >> bob's coworker at his hospital, karen caruana, was also out in the hamptons at the time. some mutual friends suggest that the two of them meet for a date, even though it had only been a few weeks since gail went missing. >> went out to dinner. he drove back to this house. and i remember sitting in his kitchen and asking him, you know, tell me what happened with gail. and what he told me was gail had left and flown out to california

and gotten some kind of a waitress job on the coast. he had hired a private investigator and this private investigator had found her out there. >> that wasn't true. what we know for a fact is after having spoken to the investigator that there was never any evidence of her in california. >> i asked him about the police. have they gone and searched his apartment, et cetera. and he told me the police had already been there, they had already searched his apartment, and everything was clean. >> that was far from the truth. the scope of our search in that apartment with the forensic team was limited to finding fingerprints on personal items that gail may have come in contact with in her normal daily activities. i tried to get a broader scope to get evidence of any crime,

and that was objected to by scott greenfield, robert's attorney. >> how the night progressed. okay. i'm not sure how we got up to the bedroom, but we did. and we had, you know, sex quite a few times that night. i kind of questioned on my judgment on, you know, doing that and, you know, i had let my guard down. and that was probably not a good move on my part. >> he told that lie to karen caruana because he wanted to sleep with her that night. this is a man whose wife has been missing now for weeks, and at the first opportunity he has, he's jumping at the chance to get into bed with another woman. >> in august of 1986, so a year's gone by, the manhattan district attorney's office decides to take a look at the case.

and it goes to chief investigator andy rosenzweig. andy rosenzweig is a criminal's worst nightmare, because he's extraordinarily intelligent, he's extremely detail-oriented. >> when you look for a case, what did you look in the folder to say, this one looks good to go? >> we looked at a case that, you know, presented a challenge, that we thought perhaps other agencies wouldn't be equipped to do as well as us. >> what andy rosenzweig did initially to further this investigation was that they knew he was a pilot, and they began canvassing various airports to see if they could find any evidence as to whether he had rented or flown a plane on july the 7th, 1985. >> they started out looking at private aviation companies in new jersey. the second choice was essex county airport. and they struck gold. >> so they came here, went through that door? >> went through that door, and

they said, yes, as a matter fact, we do know robert bierenbaum. do you have records of him flying? yes, we do. robert bierenbaum, the day his wife disappeared, drove to caldwell airport sometime in the afternoon. flew a plane for over an hour and a half. returned to the airport, and then went to his sister's house for the party. >> this was a bombshell discovery. >> it was. it turned things upside down. he spoke to detectives, and he told them, i stayed at home till 5:30. when he knew that by that time, he was already probably 75, 80 miles out over the atlantic ocean. >> once they figured out he had gone up in the plane, how quickly did they say that was how he disposed of the body? >> that was immediate.

the working theory was that he folded her up, put her in a duffel bag, came out to where we are today, rented his plane, loaded her in the plane, flew out over the ocean and dumped her in the ocean. >> my parents and i are like, great, we've got that missing link. now we can prove he did it. >> the existence of the airplane, the existence of the flight, it was all suggestive and circumstantial, so the d.a.'s office at the time felt we don't have a murder case. >> i remember the district attorney's office bringing my parents in and saying, it's not enough. >> how hard was it on your parents? >> it was a death sentence for my parents. >> then, in may of 1989, three years after the investigation goes cold, there was another heartbreaking development for gail's family.

>> a torso washes up off of staten island, headless, legless and armless. >> we found these x-rays, and an x-ray technician compared this x-ray with the torso and said, this is gail. now we have a body to bury. we have some closure. >> while the discovery of the body still isn't enough for police to press charges, alayne's crusade to hold gail's husband accountable hasn't been laid to rest. >> alayne katz was determined to get justice for her sister, and that meant staying after robert bierenbaum. >> i would send clippings to the doctors that he worke with, to the people that lived in the building. and i would leave messages on his answering machine, you know, telling the woman he was living

with he's dangerous. you know, be careful. >> your intent was? >> well, my intent was to make every day of his life miserable, to make him walk down halls and have people think, oh, my god. he's a murderer. >> alayne's relentless efforts appear to pay off. in 1989, robert bierenbaum pulls up stakes and leaves new york city behind. >> i believe that i ran him out of new york. ♪ >> but the next chapter in the bierenbaum saga would come as a complete surprise ♪ you are all i long for ♪ >> the startling new life and yet another transformation. he had undergone quite a makeover and he started wearing fancy suits. >> yes, he loved his armani suits. >> sometimes though, it's not so easy to bury the past.

>> the rumors started coming in from new york that bob potentially murdered her. >> he feels completely safe, completely confident that he's gotten away with murder. >> robert bierenbaum had absolutely no idea what was coming. >> what was coming was a startling demonstration in the sky. one that could prove the key to clipping dr. bierenbaum's wings for good. >> i don't think spielberg could have done it better.

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>> her disappearance made headlines in new york in 1985. gail bierenbaum vanished from the apartment she shared with her husband robert, a manhattan plastic surgeon. >> turn on the tv. they've arrested robert bierenbaum for the murder of gail katz. i started screaming. >> dr. bierenbaum, we have to ask you, did you kill your wife? >> bob bierenbaum is the last person anybody would think that would commit a murder. unless you saw his other side. my life went flashing in front of my eyes. >> he was moving all over. maybe to get as far away from new york as he could. >> after he left i'm confident he thought the ball game was over. >> i didn't want him to get away with it.

i wanted every day of his life to be miserable. >> i said, were you ever married before? i thought, whoa, i touched a nerve. >> did he do it? could he have done it? >> could it have been me? >> the first thing that stood out to me were the flight records. oh, my god. there's the anxioexplanation whl not around anymore. >> i didn't want anybody to dig her up. >> literally, they're going to have to exhume the body they think is games. >> i am so devastated. >> what was this that grave? >> he has no idea what is coming down the road, and it's us. vegas 19, 1990, we had dazzle. lots of glitz. lots of beautiful, beautiful

showgirls. cocktail waitresses. >> plastic surgeons were starting to flock here. this was the wild wild west. >> it was a feeding frenzy for plastic surgeons. >> it was december 31, 1989. i decided to have a new year's eve party. it was a huge party, and my boyfriend wanted to bring a new plastic surgeon in town. >> i went around the corner to the party, and we were having a good time, and somebody introduced me to bob. >> your first impressions of him? i thought he was very nice. he was tall, dark, and handsome. >> it turns out bob is none other than robert bierenbaum. he had been the target of an investigation in new york city after his wife, gail, had gone missing in 1985 under highly suspicious circumstances. >> bierenbaum was a suspect because the police discovered that he had lied about where he

was. they found out that he had been up in a plane and he had never mentioned it. >> the d.a.'s office had closed their end of the investigation without bringing charges. >> i didn't want him to get away with it. i wanted every day of his life to be miserable. i believe i ran him out of new york to vegas. >> in las vegas, bierenbaum transforms himself from a surgical resident in new york to a hotshot plastic surgeon. he befriends colleagues like dr. julio garcia, the man who reattached evander holyfield's ear after mike tyson bit it off. >> keep your eye on mike. you can see him. >> we all knew he was from new york, but he played that card close to the chest.

he did not disclose any chips on that table. he kept his secrets to himself. >> he called me up and asked me, do you want to get high tonight? and i really didn't know what he was talking about. >> and suddenly you were here? >> yes. this is the airport. we went flying on our first date. ♪ fly me to the moon ♪ >> it was fun. las vegas is fun to fly around at night with all the glitz and lights. the first year was perfect. fun, fun, fun. we went to social events all over town. we went to medical black tie events. we went on a lot of ski trips. >> vegas bob 2.0 was certainly new and improved from the new york version he had left behind. he had traded in his wrinkled plaid shirts for armani suits. >> he had a way of taking an

armani suit and making it look a little sloppy. >> he had a sports car and a jeep truck. >> las vegas, we're big on vanity plates. nipntuk and nip and truck? it's the way we roll here in vegas. >> in vegas, there was another side that emerged to bob, and that was a charitable side. he joined a group called the flying doctors, which several times a year would fly down to a specific community in mexico and provide medical care to poor families. >> bob was a perfect fit for this, especially being a plastic surgeon doing cleft palates. he changed these children's lives forever. i loved going to mexico and doing that work. it was kind of a glue that held us together. >> she did call me and said, you'll never believe it, but this guy flies to mexico and helps children that are disadvantaged. i can't even believe i met a person that was so great.

>> but one thing dr. bob hasn't been so eager to share with stephanie are details of his previous life in new york. stephanie says she found it odd he was so reluctant to have his palm read by her close friend, a palm reader. >> he had this dark energy, and his eyes, they were the strangest thing that i've ever seen. his eyes would go like this. well, by then he'd figured out what i did for a living, and so he didn't want to have anything to do with me. there was something secretive about him. one time i saw his luggage tags that said gail bierenbaum on them, so i'm like, okay, maybe a cousin. no biggie. and then after a while. i'm just like, bob, who's gail bierenbaum? and it took him a long pause,

and he got kind of emotional. and he told me he had been married before and they had a big fight and she took off for central park and she disappeared. >> stephanie says bierenbaum told her he had been thoroughly investigated by the cops and cleared of all wrongdoing. >> the way he told the story, it was believable. about a year and a half into the relationship, he gave me a fortune cookie, and i opened it up, and there was a diamond ring. and i'm like, bob, we can't get married. because bob wanted kids. i did not. so that's when our trouble began. >> bob's image on paper was real, but cracks started to appear. one time we went flying when we went down to sedona with doctor

thalgott. it was a very intense landing. >> she simply bumped the door of the airplane when it was parked. the demeanor changed just like that, and went into a rage. tight eyes, tight mouth, focused, red in the face. screaming. i thought he was going to strike her. i thought, this guy's crazy! >> on another trip, this time on a boat, stephanie says she feared for her life. there was an explosive incident after she asked the host for a glass of red wine. >> and when he went to open that bottle of wine, it was like opening a bottle of champagne that sprayed everywhere. bob went ballistic. that's when i saw his laser eyes that just pierced my soul. he just raged on me like it was my fault, and i thought, ooh, this is not good. my life was flashing in front of my eyes. that was like a tipping point in

our relationship. >> alarmed by that incident, stephanie says she demanded they see a therapist just like gail had done a decade before. >> we only had one session and she goes, there are issues there. that my life could be in danger with him. and so i started to build a strategy to leave. >> i definitely said, stephanie, you dodged a bullet. >> but bierenbaum quickly bounces back, dating and proposing to one woman after another. >> bob took the same diamond and set it in one ring after another after another, until bob finally met the woman of his dreams, janet chollet, a gynecologist in las vegas. and in june of '96, they were married. >> there would be a next stop, fodrbob when his wife gets offered a new job out of

las vegas. >> i learned that he was in some real rural place, sounded like the antithesis of new york city life. >> but it turns out dr. bob was about to become a hero after a terrifying incident. >> the tiger reared up on his hind legs. (birds chirping) (clapping) [beep to indicate recording has started] ♪ i like it like ♪ ♪ i (hey) ♪ ♪ (phone snaps) ♪

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minot, north dakota, is known as the magic city. that dates back to the early days when the railroads came through and a city emerged out of the prairie and grew like magic. but when we talk about the magic city today, the magic in minot is the people. how friendly everyone is and willing to do something for a complete stranger. >> people tend to just accept you and not ask a bunch of questions. if one was escaping something, perhaps that's a great place to go. >> robert bierenbaum came to minot in the mid-'90s and made quite a splash. >> when bob was in north dakota, there were, i believe five plastic surgeons in the entire state. >> bierenbaum had followed his wife janet from las vegas to minot after she landed a job there. they both worked at trinity medical center, janet as a

gynecologist, bob as a plastic surgeon. they lived in a small condo. >> the first time i spoke with him, he got real close, and kind of got into my face and touched my face. because i had a mole on my face. and i'm kind of backing up, and he says, i can fix that. >> he didn't quite fit in. his style was more new york than it was minot. so he stood out. but he made an effort to be part of the community. >> the jewish community was very small. we all knew one another. i started a bagel shop in minot. he was a customer sometimes, and he was also well-known in the community for making his own bagels. he always came across as being a nice, kind of disheveled, not quite put together guy, you know, and smart. people in the medical community were impressed with him. he had great credentials. >> i think people in minot would have imagined that

dr. bierenbaum was a kind of gift. >> then on july 30, 1998, there was an incident at the north dakota state fair that thoroughly cemented bierenbaum's reputation in minot. >> every year our biggest event in minot in north dakota is the north dakota state fair. you've got rides and carnivals and every kind of food imaginable. >> okay, let's hear it for mckenzie, our tiger tamer. >> there was a tiger exhibit at the state fair. they were offering pictures on a table with a cub tiger. >> we had been extraordinarily busy. we had a vast, large attendance on the day. in the photo ops, a cub was being fed a bottle of milk. and all the tigers had been overfed at that point, except for a roughly 280-pound tiger named luten.

and i thought we were coming up to a break. but, you know, the manager said, well, let's get this one family. >> the tiger, luten, was a last-minute substitute for this photo. it was taken with ron gottus's family gathered behind him. >> the trainer had the tiger by the leech, and the tiger was reared up on his son's hind legs, pulled my son back towards him into its mouth, and commenced to making a chew toy out of my son's head. my son was a fraction of an inch from losing his right eye and a quarter of an inch from losing his left ear. they were expecting to have to fly my son, medevac to fargo. but there just so happened to be a plastic surgeon that they were able to get ahold of, and it happened to be dr. bierenbaum.

he sewed his eye back in. he tucked it nice and tight. and put his ear back on. i believe dr. bierenbaum saved m son's life without a doubt, hands down. >> while the incident with that tiger makes bierenbaum a local hero, he's apparently still touchy about details of his past life. >> i just in passing sort of said, were you ever married before? his reaction was so immediate and so stiff, surprised, shocked. you know, that i thought, whoa, i touched a nerve. >> soon after arriving in minot, janet decided to go to law school, and she moved to grand forks, north dakota, which was 200 miles away. >> he had his domestic situation with a wife in grand forks, but he had a patient base in minot. he got into his plane and flew

between the two cities. he'd be working in minot. and then see janet on the weekends. in november of '98, janet and bob had a baby daughter. >> my name is barb cooper, and i was one of the nannies for robert bierenbaum and his wife janet in grand forks, north dakota. it looks like he must have come home from work. he has his suit on and is just sitting down on kitchen floor, just right where he was, and playing with his little girl and his dog. this is one where bob would have come home. he's got a name tag on. his face would just light up when he would see her. he looked good, wore suits, loved his child, loved dogs, just all overall things that you think would be great characteristics to have in somebody. >> he becomes a family man, has a daughter. >> he has a child.

>> at that point do you think he may well live out the rest of his life never having to pay for this? >> i think i began to feel even in vegas that that was the life we were going to have to live. >> after he left las vegas and moved to north dakota, i am confident that he thought the ball game was over. that he's never going to have to deal with this again. >> and then one day, something really strange happens while you're at work. >> i had a strong, loud knock on i opened it up. there were a couple gentleman standing outside. they wanted to talk to me about dr. robert bierenbaum. >> he has no idea what's coming down the road. >> one of the stops on that road would be the cemetery, where gail was laid to rest, and what they'd find in her grave would surprise everyone. [sigh] ♪ dramatic music ♪

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in north dakota, robert bierenbaum has created a new life for himself as a

highly respected doctor and a pillar of the community. >> dr. bierenbaum was a guy who did good stuff. in new york, he'd be called a mensch. here he'd be called a good guy. somebody that you might think is a little bit odd, but you appreciate because of the good deeds he's doing. >> while bob was building a new life in the dakotas, back in new york, there was somebody, somebody important, who couldn't forget the disappearance of gail 14 years earlier. that guy was andy rosenzweig, the chief investigator of the manhattan district attorney's office. >> how long did you guys work at this on the first go round? >> probably between nine months and a year. >> as andy rosenzweig is getting towards retirement, he's also looking at cases that are still haunting him, and the bierenbaum case was top among those. >> within the d.a.'s office, they had just created a cold

case unit, and rosenzweig decided to give this cod case to steve saracco and dan bibb, two seasoned investigators who he knew if anybody could find out if bierenbaum did it, they would. >> andy came to steve and i with a file and said, i want you guys to take a look at something. the first thing that stood out to me when i reviewed the file were the flight records. oh, my god, he flew for two hours the day his wife disappeared. and the fact that he doesn't tell anybody, there's the explanation why gail is not around anymore. >> that coupled with his visits to his psychiatrist, dr. michael stone -- his sessions with dr. stone were so intense and upsetting, the psychiatrist was ethically bound to send his wife gail a letter that warned her that she was in danger of her life.

>> the letter says, if i do not heed this advice, i must accept the consequences, including the possibility of personal injury or death at the hands of my husband. >> i called stone, cold called him, and i said, dr. stone, my partner and i are re-investigating the disappearance of gail katz-bierenbaum. and he said, of course he killed her. dr. bierenbaum's a dangerous psychopath. this case has been burning on my brain. then i said to dan the next day, i think we're onto something here. that's when we started rolling. >> andy rosenzweig calls me. and he says, i want to reopen gail's case. and i had mixed emotions. i did not want my life turned upside down. i didn't want the wound opened for nothing. >> and for alayne, it would become even more difficult. back in 1986, a female torso that washed up off staten island had been identified as belonging to gail. her family laid it to rest in a cemetery in queens. >> in the summer of 1998, we cis

body exhumed. >> the body had been identified through an x-ray. of course, we had the technology now to do dna. and to our surprise, it came back that gail katz had been eliminated as a contributor of that sample. >> i am so -- devastated. that little, little shred of closure that i had has now been ripped away. and i looked up at dan and at steve, and i said, now you better get a conviction. >> bibb and saracco decide to re-interview everyone associated

with the case in person, including a woman bierenbaum dated in new york city after gail's disappearance. >> one of the things she related involved a phone call that came in the middle of the night. the police called from the port authority bus terminal, thought that they had found gail. bob's initial response is, can i talk to you in the morning? he hangs up. and he says, i doubt it's gail. go back to sleep. >> bibb and saracco also traveled to las vegas to interview the women bierenbaum dated there. you get a knock on the door. investigators wanting to know about your old boyfriend. >> they were from the new york investigative bureau. >> you must have been blown away. >> i was. shocked. last thing i expected. >> in late november of '98, we decided to send investigators to

north dakota to see if we could get some kind of statement. >> he's feeling as safe as you possibly can. all of a sudden, now he sees these guys from manhattan telling him we're here because we're investigating -- re-investigate, your wife's disappearance. >> dr. bierenbaum reacted with shock and disbelief. it was a baseball bat upside his head. >> then in september of 1999, 14 years after gail's disappearance, a grand jury indicts robert bierenbaum for second-degree murder. >> authorities accuse the plastic surgeon of killing his wife gail in this apartment, packaging her body, and dumping it somewhere over the atlantic. >> to see your boss' face on the 10:00 news, accused of murdering his first wife, it's pretty shocking. when that came on, i was standing and i actually dropped to my knees. i was just like -- i couldn't believe it. >> never in a million years

you'd think he's be using cold, calculated murder in the same description of this guy, dr. bierenbaum. just no way. >> the bierenbaum story, when you get right down to it, is "dr. jekyll and mr. hyde." and that's a hell of a story. >> robert bierenbaum will be returning to new york city. this time to stand trial for gail's murder. but with no body, no physical evidence, will he be convicted? >> we knew it was going to be the toughest trial that we'd ever had. there was no foregone conclusion to this case by any stretch of the imagination. >> and there was a huge unanswered question that would involve a demonstration in the sky. was it even possible to toss out a body out of an airplane flying more than 100 miles an hour? if you can help heal your skin from within. with dupixent adults saw long-lasting, clearer skin

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44-year-old bierenbaum turned himself in this morning. i get a phone call from my sister. she says, turn on the tv. they've arrested robert bierenbaum for the murder of gail katz. and i start screaming. >> authorities accuse the plastic surgeon of killing her in the apartment, packaging her body and dumping it somewhere over the atlantic during a two-hour flight in his plane. >> it was such an unusual case. what doctor pushes his wife out of a plane from the upper east side? >> i'm delighted and happy that this day had come. i saw my mother, father and sister cheering up there. >> bob, why don't you tell the public that you're innocent? why don't you tell me that you didn't kill my sister? 15 years i'm waiting to hear you say that you didn't kill my sister.

it's the moment that i was waiting for that bob knows, you didn't get away with it. you were going to stand trial for my sister's death. >> we spent a lot of time digging into this story, and i wanted to ask dr. bierenbaum in person, point blank. did you kill your wife? >> i have no comment, john. thank you. >> you have nothing to say about this? the charge that you took her in an airplane and threw her out? >> no comment. he's in the middle of a prosecution. we'll say what we have to say in court. >> we knew it was going to be the toughest trial that we'd ever had. no forensics, no eye witnesses, entirely circumstantial. >> on september 18, 2000, there at 100 center street in lower manhattan, the trial begins. and on the bench, you have judge leslie crocker snyder. her reputation was no nonsense,

tough judge. >> well, it was an unusual case with a lot of difficult legal issues, and one of them would be, of course, that there was no body. because then you wonder how the prosecution is going to prove that there was, in fact, a murder. >> in the opening statement, i tell the jury right off the bat, i have no forensic evidence. i said, nonetheless, it's going to point in only one direction to the guilt of the defendant in this case, dr. bierenbaum. >> it was a key thing for the prosecution to let the jury see how bierenbaum had abused his wife during their marriage, including the 1983 choking incident where it was so serious that she lost consciousness. >> now, you would think that the prosecution has a huge card up their sleeves, that ominous letter from dr. michael stone to gail. it warned of possible death at the hands of her husband, but it turns out there's a big problem with showing that letter to the jury. >> the prosecution wanted to

admit, as evidence, this devastating letter. but the real issue here is a legal one, and that involved doctor-patient privilege, and i didn't allow the admission of the letter. >> although the jury couldn't see the exact letter, the witnesses, her sister, her friend, were able to describe the letter, the existence of the letter. >> dan had done a terrific job of preparing me to testify. he says, you're going to be able to testify to more than i thought you would be able to. >> it just helped the case to build and build and build. it was another factor that demonstrated the nature of their relationship. >> another critical part of the prosecution's case, the discovery that bierenbaum had flown his plane on the afternoon of july 7th, the day gail went missing. remember, he told police he was alone in their apartment during that time. prosecutors, though, are able to show jurors bierenbaum's only personal flight log where the 7

for july had been altered to an 8. >> not very professionally, either. looked like a child had done it. >> a big hurdle for the prosecution was to persuade the jury t the door and not crash. >> i was told by the defenders of robert bierenbaum that actually doesn't work. you're flying this airplane at 100 miles an hour through the sky. you have a 120-pound victim. and somehow, you're supposed to lean over to throw it out. the physics of it just make it impossible. >> we thought, what better way than to show somebody it can be done than by doing it ourselves? >> we were going to find a plane, that model, and take 110-pound bags of dead weight and throw them out of the plane over the ocean. >> the sergeant showed that not

only was it possible to dispose of the 110-pound bag, that it actually was very easy. you could do it either from the pilot's door, which he did, or from the passenger door. the trailing helicopter actually filmed the bag going into the ocean. i don't think spielberg could have done it better. >> i thought the demonstration with the airplane was extremely effective, probably one of the critical moments in the case. >> but it turns out the defense has its own ace in the hole. >> the defense has only one witness. if the jury believes him, it's a huge problem for us. >> a bombshell eyewitness who threatens to overturn the entire prosecution case.

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over the course of the trial, the prosecution calls 34 witnesses, including those close to gail, who testify about how she had become fed up with her husband's treatment of her. >> i talked about his controlling behavior. and i talked about the fact that she was looking for another place to live. she was going to leave. it was imminent, and i think that that was part of the reason why he did what he did. >> the defense used cross-examination effectively to tarnish the reputation of gail, to portray her as unstable, a risk-taker. >> the defense did go into other reasons why she could have gone missing other than her husband murdering her. they brought up mental health issues, possible drug use, her infidelities. >> ultimately, i think what they did led nowhere.

the evidence didn't amount to anything. >> the defense had one witness, joel davis, and i think they pinned their hopes for their entire case on him. >> joel davis was a retired textile manufacturer, who told police early on that he had seen gail in an h&h bagel shop near where she lived. at 3:00 in the afternoon, standing there in shorts with a beach chair, with a friend. >> he essentially blows up the people's timeline as to when she was dead. if a juror believes that sometime 3:00 to 4:00 that afternoon that she's alive, that's a huge problem. >> what hurt joel davis the most was his description of the woman that he saw in the bagel store, that she was large, statuesque, full-figured. so you lead him even further down that road. you're saying like, she had a big chest?

yes, she was voluptuous. >> and steve blows up, like a poster board size, this photo of my sister. and i get to say, that's gail. she was an "a" cup. she barely filled that. >> i think everyone in the courtroom, and there was a lot of buzzing that the defense case had gone down the tubes. >> the message i wanted to deliver to them in summation was that he's the right person, he's the guilty party. one of my favorite movies is "north by northwest." alfred hitchcock, tale of a businessman caught in international intrigue. the movie, there's a discussion of how to get rid of a body. and james mason says -- >> this matter is best disposed of at a great height, over water.

>> that made it into my summation because i thought it was entirely appropriate. >> in their summation, the defense tried to take the prosecution's case apart piece by piece. no physical evidence at all. the body out of a plane-- nice, but just a theory. gail's own personal behavior could have been a problem that led to her own demise. >> 15 years after gail's disappearance, the case finally goes to a jury. after just five and a half hours of deliberation, there's a verdict. >> once everyone heard there was a verdict, it was very, very tense. >> my heart is pounding. i can feel it in my chest, and i can feel the tension in the courtroom. >> the foreperson stands up and says, yes, we, the jury have reached a verdict. and then the foreperson said, guilty. and there was a buzz in the courtroom.

>> it was just a sense of complete satisfaction. for not only justice, but for the sister and the family. >> guilty verdict against plastic surgeon robert bierenbaum. >> when you heard that conviction, your reaction? >> i'll never forget squeezing my brother's hand and slamming it down on his thigh and saying, guilty? with a question mark at the end, because, did i just hear that? and then, of course, the reaction of my brother as he grabbed me and held me, and we trembled and we cried. then i knew it was true. i was in shock. >> to finally see the handcuffs go on his wrists, to finally see him walk into a jail cell, the feelings are indescribable. >> a typical sentence for me would have been 25 to life

because of the enormity of the crime, but there are very few cases in which someone has been a law-abiding citizen and has done good things, so i gave him 20 years to life. >> since that sentence in 2000, few people thought they would ever hear about bierenbaum again, but just recently, shockingly, bierenbaum would reemerge, and what held say would stun everyone involved in the case. >> i was like, holy [ bleep ] are you kidding me? the earth shifted. the classic hollywood story.

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for many, many, many years, i stopped thinking about him. >> bierenbaum offered no apologies to the katz family when he was sentenced, insisting he was innocent. and he spent the first ten years behind bars trying to prove his innocence and get his verdict overturned. he appealed in state courts, federal courts, got nowhere. >> back in north dakota, there are still those who believe he might not have been guilty of the crime. >> it didn't add up. you didn't think it would be possible for somebody that nice to do something that ugly. >> just last december, after 20 years behind bars, bob bierenbaum was up for parole. parole board denied him freedom. >> there was no public reason given for the decision, but "20/20" obtained this transcript of that parole hearing, and in it is a shocking revelation.

>> for the first time in 35 years, bierenbaum finally admits to killing gail. >> to the parole board berenbaum said, i wanted her to stop yelling at me, and i attacked her. when he's asked, how did you attack her? he responds, i strangled her. berenbaum goes on to say, i went flying. i opened the door and then took her body out of the airplane over the ocean. >> i was stunned when i heard he admitted it. >> i was like, are you kidding me? >> he admitted doing it just the way we told the jury that he did do it. >> the earth shifted. i was in shock. he admitted killing gail. and i cried. >> he said he killed gail because he was immature and didn't understand how to deal with his anger. the parole board noted that at

the time he was a 29-year-old medical doctor. >> and you were immature? really? said he was a danger to the community and needs to stay in. >> when i read those minutes, oh, my god, this is exactly the same man i knew 35 years ago. he is incapable of a shred of remorse. >> it's a very sad story because it's an unnecessary one. and this is what happens so often in domestic violence cases. the victim could have been saved. >> this is the home of the pace women's justice center. 20 years ago, we named it gail's house to raise awareness of the pervasiveness of domestic violence. the first time bob strangled my sister to unconsciousness, we

just didn't have the knowledge about domestic violence. we didn't have the services. my sister's body has never been found. gail's house gave my sister a resting place. i feel my sister's spirit is here. it is warning others, inspiring others >> still to this day, i think about her constantly. so young, such potential. >> i would like to believe that my sister's energy has been out there for 35 years, cheering me on, motivating me, encouraging me, holding me up. the world's a lesser place for the loss of my sister.

some really moving words from her sister here tonight, and we should point out that robert bierenbaum's next parole hearing is scheduled for november. he turned down our request for a interview. >> if you or someone you know is zeelg with domestic violence, please go to our website for resources that could help. thanks for watching. i'm amy robach. >> i'm david muir. for everyone here at "20/20" and abc news, thanks for watching, good night.