she was smart and she had a future. and she just happened to make one bad decision. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. >> i remember it being so unbelievable, that a plane has landed in our families like. >> a couple of young people on. >> we're trying to locate with fish finders. >> they found it, and her. >> she was a pretty girl. >> some of her long hair was caught in the door. >> she looked like she was actually sleeping. >> but where was the pilot? >> they were pretty sure he was heading to mexico. >> i can remember getting calls

to interpol even. >> 24 years later, a woman uncovers a little white lie. >> he said that he was actually 43. i was like, so what else have you lied to me about? >> was he a monster? was he romeo? you just don't know. and those are the best stories, aren't they? >> now, we hear his version of the story. you're the only person on the planet who knows the truth. it is, in its own strange way, a dissertation on love. love, intoxicating, impetuous, foolish. love that lives, like a fugitive. a long secret tunnel of regret. >> there's a reason that the story of romeo and juliet, has held up over centuries. >> or maybe, could you tell me? maybe it wasn't love at all. maybe it was something else

altogether. >> oh diana, why did you take that ride? why did you, why did you put your life in his hands? how did it all go so terribly wrong? >> it began, the way myths sometimes do. with a whispered story. which started right about here. at traveled, mouth to, ear, to mouth among the camps and cabs and won the cold deep lake in the rockies of northwestern montana. one of the countless glacial lakes carved eons ago. just west of glacier national park. this one called, little bitter route. named for the royal local plant, that fed ancient tribes. now the name for a magical summer place. with this woman's grandfather built a cabin in the 19 twenties. in where generation after generation distort up of centuries of memories. >> it was a family gathering place. we'd swim to the rock

out there, and stand on it. a simpler time. >> you have to have a strong constitution is so minute. lake >> is beautiful clean water, but it is a little brisk getting in. >> twins jim in john young grew up on the shores of the lake to. free and easy. back in the day's parents did not worry so much. breakfast and we're home by dinner, we were fine. we used to meet down here in those swimming and stuff. >> camp right here. >> swim off the dam. that was kind of the big thing. it's right over here. >> it sounds so idyllic. >> yeah it was fun. >> it was the summer of 1982. when the whole weird saga began. jim and john were 15 years old, kim was 20 about to head off to her junior year at college. when she and her mom

drove off to the cottage for a final summer visit, and encountered a surprise. >> as we pulled up we saw someone in this corner of the deck that we did not recognize, and i did not even have the pick up stopped, i was slowing down to pull into the drive there. mom opened the door and hopped out. to find out who was on our deck. >> she wouldn't run the other way? >> not my mother. so i got the truck in gear, and came up here as quickly as i could. and she was talking to this young man. >> what did he look like? >> he did not look like a lake person to me. he was very well kept looking. he had a white, kind of polo shirt and. in it looked like it had just come out of a suitcase. it was just great weight. >> kim's mother made it clear to the young man no matter how player well dressed, he was trespassing. >> were you worried about him? i was actually more worried about my mother, she wanted to know who he was of course, in what he was doing there. and he was very vague in his answers.

and i remember asking him, where did you come from? any pointed over here, and he said, over the mountains. well again we thought, no one comes from that way. you are not dressed like a hiker or a backpack or. and it did not make sense. >> how unusual would it be to find a stranger here? this place is been in the family for generations. so? >> it had never happened. that i am aware of. to have someone on our deck, that we did not know. >> anyway the young stranger was clearly not dangerous. and after the talking to he got from her mom, he got up and wondered off the shoreline, and out of sight. it was maybe 50 yards away, where jim and jon had already encountered him. maybe earlier that day. but the

fellow they saw looks very different. they remember him as not being well kept it all. in fact he was soaking wet, and it appeared, injured. >> he had some pretty good bruises and scratches, across his neck. you could see it coming out of his shirt. it was pretty good gouges. >> and he explain this how? >> he said he had a bare chasing. >> through the woods. >> he said you guys wouldn't have matches or later would you? >> what did you do? >> we jumped on her motorbikes and went down to the store down here. >> off to buy matches. the sort of thing people would do for a stranger around here. except well, was it a coincidence? around the same time as those unusual encounters, some other folks notice that the lake itself, looked kind of odd. there seemed to be a sheen of some sort on the water. unusual oil slick maybe? pat walsh was

a young deputy sheriff at the time. >> one of the time of the people that saw the oil in the lake was a pilots. in so he informs the deputies at that time, that that is not oil from a boat motor. >> i was going to say. there's lots of boats in that. lake >> he said that's not oil from about one or. >> so what? there had been rumors of smugglers around here from time to time. a smugglers airplane did it land on the lake? and then take off again? >> how can an airplane go down in a lake without anybody hearing? >> probably would not have made much more than a splashing noise. and if you are in a cabin on the shore, if you hear splashed, it's not going to be anything to you. >> then people around the, lake heard about the young stranger, and wondered, are these

incidents somehow related? jim and john remember that the guy was carrying a duffel bag, wrapped in green plastic. in when they return from the store and gave him those matches, he whipped a fire, and guess what he did. >> he started to burn, they were probably maps. they just looked like newspapers. and then it went to some clothing and stuff. and he burned everything. there >> he burnt clothes and everything? >> yes. >> then they said, this strange man, just slaughtered off. just like he did after running into kim and her mom. >> we watched him go a little bit and i, thought this is probably spying on him. so we went inside the cabin. we went inside the cabin, and we watched him through the window. until he was out of sight. that was basically the last we saw of him. >> oh, but not the last they heard of him. myths in mysteries can lie a round in haunt you for decades. and the revelation that was coming to little bitter route lake, made very sure of that. coming up. >> the sheriff believed there was a plane in this lake. and we are trying to locate it with

fish finders. >> but no one was prepared for what they found. >> she was a pretty girl. and she was a young girl. and it was just a shame. >> she just looked like she was actually sleeping. that was the erie part about. it >> when dateline continues. >> when dateline continues. and auto insurance saves. isn't that right phil? sorry, i'm a little busy. what in the world are you doing? i'm in the metaverse, bundling my home and auto insurance. why don't you just do that in the real world? um, because now i can bundle in space. watch this. save up to 25% when you bundle home and auto. call a local agent or 1-888-allstate for a quote today.

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every step you take, i'll be watching you. the internet doesn't have to be duckduckgo is a free all in one privacy app with a built in search engine, web browser, one click data clearing and more stop companies like google from watching you, by downloading the app today. as summer came to a close in duckduckgo: privacy, simplified. 1982, they were were rumors in the water. the crazy idea was making the rounds, that a mysterious airplane that landed maybe even crashed, on pristine little bitter root like. and that the odd young man who onto the shoreline, in court third several locals, was perhaps the pilot. >> i don't remember being afraid he might come back we are anything like that. >> so you forgot about it? >> i think we kind of forgot

about it. >> but naturally the share of heard about all of this. set a young deputy named jim dupont, to look around. >> by the time we talk to dupont, back in 2008, he'd be looking at a mystery for most of his career. in fact our own video here, hints at how long we'd be following the story. anyway, dupont was assigned the case way back in 1982. hardly because he was a private pilot, as well as a deputy. so he knew a thing or two about small planes. we and low and behold, in the very spot where twins jimmy john's of the young men

had built a fire. >> we indeed found a little firing, and right away i found, what's called a gust lock. >> agus lock? >> it is a bend piece of metal that actually feats into the yoke of an airplane. >> in the fire? >> burnt up in the fire. i'm plus there was some wires, and a jack plug of a microphone jack. and i knew was a mic jack from an airplane. >> so what then? >> actually took that gust doc, and found the 1:50, and indeed it fit the 1:50 that i looked. at >> a 1:50 would be a cessna one five zero. so, did that mean the rest of the system was indeed in the lead just like the officers were saying? dupont reported all of this to the boss, the share called in a couple of expert divers. we

>> the sheriff believe that there was a plane in this lake. and bernie and i suited up. we and we were on boats trying to locate it with fish finders. >> you can only imagine the challenge back then. technology being what it was. in the 19 eighties, the lake being well over 200 feet deep. still, the sheriff had confident that they find the plane. and alerted the media. which certainly came to watch the divers diving, and listen to the sheriff optimistic daily predictions. overly, optimistic predictions. >> we texted the media quite a few times, today's the day. we yes, we go out and everybody would work hard and it wouldn't have been. what so they would all go home again. >> and then the next day, today's the day. >> just as everyone was doing

with they could do. >> that went on for days. more than a week. so maybe all of that talk about an airplane and the lake was just that. talk. and then the share of heard about a thing imaging that was new at the time called, side scanning sonar. so they brought one of those in. and lowered way down to the bottom. >> if we don't get results here today or tomorrow, we will call off the search because there's a limit to the resources and time and effort. >> but just as the sheriff was

about to give up, a breakthrough. when >> we got a hit on the sonar. we also brought a remote camera with that had an umbilical, basically flow that camera down to the aircraft. there was, the plane. right there on the video screen. >> what was it like to see that thing? do you remember? >> it was, actually, somewhat satisfying. to know all the hours that you spent out there looking, it was actually there. >> except now there was another problem. the plane was more than 250 feet down. way too deep to safely send the divers. so they use this summer's jib camera, the guide hooks onto the airplane, and they pulled it up to the depth of about 100 feet, where the divers were sent down to retrieve it. the water was very clear. they could see the plane almost like it was flying down in the cold water. but then they saw something else. the plane wasn't empty. inside -- >> it's not pleasant when you see it. the body of a woman. just a girl really. >> she was sitting in the

passenger seat. seatbelt was still on. >> whether to look like? >> as i recall she was a pretty girl, and she was a young girl. and it was just a shame. >> the divers each got behind a wing, and short of flew the wings up to the surface. as the plane came out, the crowd watching saw something many of the people here would never forget. the girl's hair, was stuck in the door. and her long locks were weaving in the water. the twins were there. crowded up close. >> it was a little more than i expected. they pulled it up, and the hair was for. now never seen a dead person before. >> they push it over the aircraft, window while the law men moved. in >> we removed or and tucker mediately down to our state pathologists. >> what sort of condition was or body? >> she was in excellent condition. she just looked like she was actually sleeping. with that was the eerie part about. or >> the girl in the league. who was she? what was she doing alone in the passenger seat of a cessna 1:50, at the bottom of montana lake? and if she was the passenger where. was the pilot? >> coming up. >> a modern twist on shakespeare. >> what emerged was the suggestion that they were kind of a romeo and juliet, that their families have been disapproving of their relationship. >> they were wealthy? >> that was the suggestion. >> when dateline continues.

♪♪ add downy to your wash for all the freshness and softness of home. even when you're not at home. feel the difference with downy. okay, snacks and popcorn are gonna be expensive. let's just accept that. going to the movies can be a lot for young homeowners turning into their parents. bathrooms -- even if you don't have to go, you should try. we all know where the bathroom is and how to us it, okay? you know, the stevensons told me they saved money bundling their boat insurance with progressive. no one knows who those people are. -it can be painful. -hand me your coats. there's an extra seat right here. no, no, no, no, no. we don't need a coat wrangler. progressive can't save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home, auto, and more with us. no one who made the movie is here. events around a little bit

arugula, eight were beyond puzzling. and the autumn chill ended. a strange young man, a plane in the lake, the dead girl trapped in the plane, then deputy sheriff jim dupont had trouble shaking that image. >> everything starts to transform in your, brain of what happened that day. of what happened to her when she went

down. you know knowing that you're doomed type of thing. >> but where did she come from? and why. a few hundred miles northwest of little bitter, rule across the border in canada, in the heart of british columbia. is a sweet small city. where on a monday morning, almost a month before they fish that plane out of the lake, ron peterson, then a constable with the royal canadian mounted police, noted unusual activity, out of the airport. >> i saw the search and rescue aircraft, because that always has been a search base. >> so they're looking for somebody. >> when i see things like, that i like to know what's going on. >> what was going on, was this

search. for a small plane gone missing the previous evening. the constable found out it was a training aircraft from vancouver, four hours to the west. which had flown the day before, with two on board, both teenagers. >> i found that a little bit unusual especially in those, days of his 19 to 20 year olds didn't fly over in small planes. >> now in that terrain can be very treacherous. >> so the constable, though no one asked him to, started poking around. >> i spoke to the main review will, or he service the aircraft to fill them up with fuel, in the spent the afternoon inside the aircraft on a blanket, in the emory organizing stuff out of the

airplane, and putting it in >> i wonder if maybe they were smuggling something. >> we didn't know. >> then constable peterson went looking for witnesses who may have seen the plane flying by. and yes, several did. >> they noticed because it had gone up into a narrow win the valley, that posted no fly zone, and not on a flight plan. it buzzed a ski mountain outside of town. in a nearby observatory, with its massive radio telescopes. >> i spoke to the fellow there, and i said, what happens if someone flies over? does anything trigger an alarm or anything like that? >> and he said yes this is a no fly zone over here. and there was a disturbance registered. he said that was a small airplane. he said we've seen them before. >> after, that no idea where the plane went. and there was no emergency located transmitter on. board since it was a training aircraft, that was not used more than 25 miles from vancouver. >> did you think maybe they crashed in the bush somewhere in maybe just in survive? >> absolutely. everyone was looking for this. plain absolutely. >> that very same summer monday, a reporter, brand-new, 22 years old, had just started working at the vancouver sun newspaper. margo harper, heard about the missing plane. she dug a

little. and came up with the names. the people on board. jerry ambrozuk, the pilot's name is jerry. a 19 year old who had solo just a year before, an immigrant from poland in the age of, ten and a boy scout, with dreams of becoming a commercial airline pilot. in his patched enduring girlfriend, 18 year old dianne babcock. >> she was a very good student she was a runner and set on a career in nursing she was ambitious and determined to be successful. >> when margot harper started nosing around the high school which jerry and dianne hits recently graduated, she learned a theory was rapidly circulating here. he theory with an ancient in universal theme. >> what emerged right away, was this suggestion that, they were kind of a romeo and juliet couple. that their families had been disapproving of their relationship. in this suggestion emerge that they were trying to run away together. >> they were eloping. >> that was the suggestion, that they had been trying to get away from parental pressure. from an unhappy social scene. >> they jerry had a strong

parental influence that he was trying to get away from, and she had a family that did not want or involved with this polish kid. >> from kind of the wrong side of the tracks etc, indeed. >> that's one way to romeo and juliet. >> according to dianne's family, i spoke with mr. babcock, dianne's father who suddenly dismissed that theory, insisted there was no reason that they would've had to elope. and if jerry and dianne had wanted to be together, that they could've been together. >> and i remember thinking at the time, it didn't quite ring true, and i wondered whether mr. babcock was appealing to his daughter, through the media to come home, if she was out there somewhere. that everything would be okay. they were absolutely out of their minds with the you know, worry, desperation, fear. at that point, their daughter was simply missing. and so is

jerry. and so is the plane. >> then so it went, families frantic with worry, search and rescue missions flying all over british columbia, wondering where those teenagers could've gone. and then a week later, everything changed. with a strange and alarming phone call. from new york city. >> what was that? like >> stunning. i said what? >> coming up, >> one mystery solved. so many more not. >> they're gonna look for you, you know, forever. >> and they'll never find me. >> when dateline continues. >> when dateline continues. >> when dateline continues. >> when dateline continues. >> when dateline continues. >> when dateline continues. >> when dateline continues. >> when dateline continues. ♪ ♪ ♪ [eerie shrinking sounds] (brad) congratulations! you're having an out-of-apartment

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last days of august in 1982, canadian search and rescue had been scouring the mountains for a week, for probably a crashed airplane. and the missing teenagers, jerry, and dianne. but what happened then, stop them cold. back in vancouver a close friend of the couple had received a phone call. and it

was hard to believe that the call had said to be from the missing pilot himself, jerry ambrozuk. >> what did you think when you heard that? >> i was just floored. i couldn't comprehend. i don't think anyone could. >> when i first heard this, i thought you have to be kidding me. >> but it was true. it lisa courting to the friend. a young man named, tom pulaski reported the jury with annexed honest story. a story that explained what happened to that small plane that they had been looking for. the plane had been ditched, jerry claimed to his friend. crushed on purpose. on to the surface of the late across the border of the lake in montana. and then was still in the plane. with deep in the cold cold water of litter bitter route. like and jerry, in shock, told his friend, and that phone call, had fled the scene of the crash. calling his

friend somehow from a bus terminal in new york city. >> i think one of the things that was so captivating about the story for everyone was, yet this notion that somehow this young couple could actually pull off this incredible magical disappearing act. look, the idea that they successfully runway to be together. and that they had defied all laws. and they made. it and then you hear that, well, he crashed the plane and her body is at the bottom of the lake, and he's on the run. it becomes a completely different story. >> investigators and reporters alike wondered, was jerry's friend tom telling the truth about that phone call? >> they put him to the polygraph. and he was to be found truthful. >> all this was pre-internet of course. and that's probably why the rcmp, had no idea that a sheriff found there in montana,

had just begun investigating an oil sheen on the water. and reports of a stranger wandering the shoreline. and then, after that phone call from jerry, the rcmp called the sheriff, and told him about the young couple and the plane way down deep and the young woman still inside. constable peterson went to montana to help out. and in vancouver, the mounties put a tap on thompson. just in case jerry called again. and sure enough he did. >> hello? >> yes i'd like to talk to tom pulaski, >> from? where >> it's to tom pulaski from lewis gomez, in dallas. >> yes. >> the fact that he would use an alias was strange. but he was at a phone booth near this store in east dallas, texas. >> hi? how are you? doing >> what the hell are you doing there? >> and then as they talk. jerry offered a version of the story that didn't sound much at all like the one of romeo and juliet in all the headlines. >> i want because i was going,

and she was because she was in love with me or something like that. but it wasn't because we both wanted to run away from home and you know -- >> what was it? >> it was because i wanted to get away, that's all. she just tagged along. and she says i can't live without you and all that, that's what she said. >> like he didn't really care. >> but then later same conversation, he said that losing dianne was like half of him dying. >> she's gone. that means i am alone, and i mean it's lonely. >> jerry was calling, he told his friend, to try and make sure dianne was found. but giving the circumstances of die instead, he said that he would not be coming home. would not turn himself. and >> they find the plane with a dead body. inside >> then that's, find its murder, that's what it's, that's what it's gonna be so -- >> why you didn't killer, so why would you, you know why would you make that free. >> i don't know why, you tell me to look for, me than i don't want to look for. me >> but listen, i mean you can't be -- you know you don't want

somebody to look for your for something that you did not do. >> i didn't do anything. i told, do i mean, it's not like i killed or, they -- they can see that there's no wounds on, her knife or anything like that. >> but jerry had already told tom his decision was already made. he was not coming home ever. >> why don't you come back? jerry? >> i told you i'm not coming back, why. >> because that stupid everyone's looking for you. everyone because, they're going to look for you you know forever. >> and then they'll never find. >> did you wonder why, why he would kind of throw himself at the mercy of a court and come back and apologized and try to get on with his life? >> i believe that too, and tom his friend really worked on him

to do that. because you know the longer you leave, the worse it gets. the story gets bigger and bigger. as to why you runaway. and now becomes more suspicious. >> and a bigger story. so reporter margot harper, embarked on her first international assignment. to little bitter root lake. where they believed they were very close to finding the airplane. and dianne. >> i remember thinking, i'm kind of hoping that somehow she escaped somehow. it seemed conceivable that the body in the plane could be anyone but her. but you don't know until you actually see. >> and see, she did. she arrived at the lakeshore just in time to see the plane emerged from the water with that image of the girl's hair stuck in the door, long blond locks went from waving around in the water. >> i remember looking at it and thinking, oh my god, she looks like affiliate. from hamlet. i

remember just walking over to the plane, and i looked inside and she was perfectly preserved. the lake was so cold, she was kind of slumped over, my recollection was her head was on the side of the door. her hair was dreaming. out and she just looked like she was. asleep >> [inaudible] >> that image with her streaming out of the window, and the watery great lake has really haunted me. i think almost like no other image in my career. >> after dianne was taken away, the sheriff invited margot back to the hangar, to see what else is on the plane. >> they had taken out a life raft, some kind of disguises, survival gear, there was another duffel bag, sleeping bags, extra clothing. and it became, in that moment, crystal clear what the plan had been. it was clear that they were going to crash the plane, dump the plane, digit, and jump into a life raft, and make their way to shore. tried to disguise themselves somehow. and so i filed a story the next day in the vancouver sun, which was front page, confirming the, i would like to say, the allotment theory, but it's

hardly an allotment, it's escape fantasy really. >> but the reality, dianne was dead. and two law enforcement agencies, from two countries, we're not work to solve the mystery of what really happened on little bitter route. like >> coming up. >> he could've gotten her out of there. well that's my opinion. >> more questions about would have been and suspicions about. why >> did he really want to run away with her forever? if that's the woman i was going to eloped with. and i couldn't get out of the airplane, i -- you would've found minute. to would've found minute. to >> when dateline continues. fos to their parents.

bathrooms -- even if you don't have to go, you should try. we all know where the bathroom is and how to us it, okay? you know, the stevensons told me they saved money bundling their boat insurance with progressive. no one knows who those people are. -it can be painful. -hand me your coats. there's an extra seat right here. no, no, no, no, no. we don't need a coat wrangler. progressive can't save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home, auto, and more with us. no one who made the movie is here. it was when the royal canadian

mounted police showed, up that the mystery behind what happened that little bit of lake finally when the plane itself, emerged into something like clarity. or at least who was who in what they were doing there. the young pilot, 19 year old jerry ambrozuk, jerry's

girlfriend 18 year old dianne babcock, descending in the plane, to her death. >> i remember it being so unbelievable, first of all that a plane had landed, in when i considered our families lake, and that someone was killed, and that we had actually met the person who is flying that plane. >> now detectives said about trying to find out what exactly happened when the plane came down, in how and why death came to dianne. >> we concluded that she died by drowning. >> dianne did have a broken collarbone, a fracture in her neck and bruised to the right side of her forehead, almost likely incurred when the plane hit the water. but they were all survival injuries. except, when they found dianne, she was still strapped in. so, maybe

the seatbelt instead staving her life help and. it may be the buckle jammed. this man is a retired detective, he was a deputy back then. >> her lap battle it flipped over so the buckle was against her body, where she couldn't have reached it in a hurry. without realizing. >> so the buckle it actually flipped around? >> yes it flipped around, which is going to happen, if it's a little bit loose and not cinched down tight. >> aside from, that the belt was not malfunctioning in any way. >> it wasn't jammed, it wasn't. locked >> and yet, it was obvious that dianne did not even tried to get it opened. >> not like you think a person would if her life depended on it. >> one of the first thing i checked during the autopsy was your fingernails, none of her nails were broke. there was no bruising or anything of the fingertips, you can just imagine yourself being in a craft that sinking, and you're holding your, breath and your

scrambling, and you know the belt is stuck. and you can't get the belt free, i probably break my fingers trying to get the thing loose. if nothing else. by straining pulling just on the belt fruitlessly, until you have to give it up. there was none of that. and i don't understand that today. why did that happen? >> then suddenly a new twist. dianne's doctor revealed to investigators that just days before the crash and her death, she had had an abortion. >> that raised deputies antenna, especially given what jerry had said in one of those calls to his friend. taped by the rcmp, after the crash. >> she won because i guess she was in love with me or something like that. and she says, you know, like can't we i can't live without, you and all this. >> it thing go through your mind at that point? >> did he really want her to be there? did he really want to run away with her, forever? she is the one that was madly in love with him, it probably

wasn't the same type of issue in reverse. >> maybe the crash presented an opportunity, to not have a clingy girlfriend, or maybe as dianne's family later claimed, she was a vulnerable young woman afraid of being left by the only lover she never had, and her emotions told her to get on board, even if jerry did not really want her to. jim, a pilot remember, i've been doing some informed thinking. and he figured jerry would certainly have had time to save dianne's life, if he wanted to. >> i would guess, you'd be lucky to get five minutes, five minutes is a long time when you're in a hurry. you can do a lot of things in five minutes. you can get two people out of an airplane and get what you want out of it. >> and if there was that much, time why didn't jerry get her out of there. why did he not even take out the two person rubber raft stashed in the cargo compartment? my theory begin to harden, in the deputies head. >> he could've gotten her out of there.

>> that's my opinion, my opinion is he could. >> and you must of been thinking that at the time. >> i was concerned as to why. because he also he also got out with his equipment. >> oh, yes jerry's equipment. that duffel bag, wrapped in green plastic. he was seen with an onshore after the, crash it contained his clothes, and money, though they didn't know that for quite awhile, $2200, he and dianne, mostly dianne, had saved for the trip. >> i thought it was very convenient, that he got that back, and he was not able to get her out. >> convenient. >> it's convenient for him. >> not so convenient for her >> now. >> we've all been 18 in love and we know how intense that, is if that's the woman i was going to eloped with a run away with, and i couldn't get her out of the airplane, you would've found me into. >> in that really was the heart

of your belief that this guy had done on purpose. >> i think he took advantage of an opportunity, in letter go down, or just in try. >> he saved himself and not her, one of the two things happened, i don't know how you could explain it any other way. >> and there was one more thing troubling jim dupont. maybe more important than all of the other clues. mainly, if jerry did not do anything wrong, why did he run? not long after dianne was lifted out of little bitterer lake, she was laid to rest in a small family plot in the cemetery across the border in british columbia, and in montana, lawmen decided, what jerry did was a crime, they filed charges, negligent homicide, so, jerry was now a wanted man, a fugitive. in the man hunt was on. coming up,

from canada to the u.s., to south of the border. >> i was not sure he was not in mexico. >> and more tragedy for dianne's father. >> how much more can a family endure? >> when dateline continues. [interpreter] ♪ i'm the latest hashtag challenge. and everyone on social media is trying me. i'm trending so hard that “hashtag common sense” can't keep up. this is going to get tens and tens of views. ♪ but if you don't have the right auto insurance coverage, you could be left to pay for this... yourself.

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aberration on the lakeshore, and then gone. vanished? where there is just one clue to me where have disappeared. telephonically at least. >> a phone call, place from dallas texas, the last phone call he made to his friend tom. was traced to a phone booth, you remember those don't? you long gone now, it was near a grocery store. in these dallas. rick calk, one of the divers who pulled the plane out of the,

lake was also a detective, and he was assigned to find jerry. he knew about the phone booth. >> there would've been much of a guarantee he'd go back to that same phone booth. in my sheriff was not about to send me down to texas to sit on a phone booth for an unspecified number of hours, days, weeks, months. he was an 18 or 17 year old kid. he got all the way to texas somehow and disappeared. >> i thought he was under a cactus someplace. >> a reasonable assumption, one would think. it was like the guy just didn't exist. months pass, ten years. they kept looking but wouldn't rapidly diminishing expectations. jerry did non contact anyone, as far as they could tell. >> i was not sure he was not in mexico. he certainly could've been. >> what's the point of trying

to chase around, after a ghost? >> well, that's my job. >> by 1990, one nine years after the crash, deputy jim dupont had become the elected sheriff, and jerry ambrozuk, and join the list of america's most wanted. appearing on several versions of the popular tv program, and including final justice. he stayed on that very big deal list all the way through the 19 nineties. >> about the third time it was featured on america's most, wanted i actually went back to d. c.. >> when you do when you take part in a show like that? >> my job was to be on the phone, in case a tip came in, that sounded real, and none of the calls that came in were credible. >> it was depressing. not a tip is short of jury turning himself, in there was almost nothing law enforcement could go on,

>> and this was kind of a lost cause. >> i can remember, we had calls from interpol, people called and said i think it's this guy, in an attempt not to be him. >> in canada, dianne bob cox father called the rcmp once a week for years. and then once a month, hoping for news, and it never came. then, in 1999, 17 years after the crash, dianne's father and mother, were driving to the cemetery where she was buried, as they had done so faithfully, each year since her death. it was a bus that collided with them, smashed into their car, dianne's mother adele was killed, she was 65. >> i thought how much more can a family endure? >> by 2000, rcmp council tim peterson retired. >> those unsolved cases stick with you. in your line of. work >> they do. yes. >> sometimes you wake up in the middle and thinking about. them

long after. >> and is the 25th anniversary of the crash closed in, with sheriff to pop pondering retirement after four terms, he wondered if what he considered the biggest case he could not solve, would haunt him long after he took off the sheriff star for good. >> this case seemed to really get under your skin. >> jim spent a lot of time talking to the family. and whenever, there was any communication with the victims father, jim would be the one that would talk to him. and he always tried to stay in touch. >> yes, that will certainly get you invested in the case, if you know the family. >> i felt he had a personal investment in it, yes. >> but would share of two pawns investment ever payoff? and, it will cost? coming up. a twist quite out of the blue. she wanted an honest man. >> he deliberately, was untruthful. and it really

bothers me. >> she ended up with a wanted man. >> i was like, so would also be lied to me about? >> when dateline continues. ♪ i'm the latest hashtag challenge. and everyone on social media is trying me. i'm trending so hard that “hashtag common sense” can't keep up. this is going to get tens and tens of views. ♪ but if you don't have the right auto insurance coverage, you could be left to pay for this... yourself. get allstate and be better protected from mayhem

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>> it was unbelievable. >> it was also a mystery. a young couple possibly eloping, ditch their small plane into montana lake. >> they were kind of a romeo and juliet couple. >> dianne was found dead, in the plane. >> she just looked like she was actually sleeping. >> but her lover jerry had disappeared, and for decades he has been a fugitive. >> they were pretty sure he was heading to mexico.

>> now, a little way lie was about to lead to the astounding truth, did you confront him about these discoveries of yours? >> i didn't want him to know it's in the article. >> after 24 years, the mystery finally be dissolved? >> should i make that call? or should i just let it be. >> the incredible story, made public. >> some people probably see it as a crime story. some people see it as a love story. how do you see? it dianne babcock diana terrible de. around in a fridge in, they trapped inside a ditch the airplane. the pilot, her boyfriend jerry ambrozuk was now a fugitive, wanted for negligent homicide in dianne's death. he had successfully done if you would ever pulled off, he disappeared, without a trace. as if he were at the bottom of some leak himself. >> i often wondered, what

happened, to jerry. over the years, i had all kinds of theories. probably the theory that was floating around the journalistic community here was, that he was a broken man, sitting in a mexican bar somewhere. >> and then, it was almost like it happens in the movies. a twist quite out of the blue. once again there was a woman. this woman. this is about what happened back in 2000, 6:24 years after the cessna won 50 went down a little bit unruly. gina had gone through a divorce, and she had somewhat reluctantly made a decision to put herself out, they're online. >> this getting on line, was that a big decision for him? >> my work schedule does not allow for a lot of going out

and meeting new people. >> when we met, virginia work for texas instruments in the dallas area, what matters in her story, is what she did for that giant semiconductor company. >> my job, is to help when they are bringing up a new technology, the sender lab a sample, so it's my job to find very small minute things that look off, and then look closer. >> jeanne's job title? technician in failure analysis. >> i guess it's a good job for me, because i do that in every aspect of my life. >> have you always done? that >> i'm generally a very trusting person, but when something does not add up or just looks off, i automatically feel the urge to look closer. >> a kind of built in bs detector. honed just then, on the raw in recent wounds inflicted, by a certain x meets cheating lies. so, as she row in her online profile. >> i hate dishonesty. being deliberately, untruthful really bothers me. >> anyway, men responded. and

in the spring of 2006, one reply in particular caught her eye. >> he had a nice picture. he was close to my age. at the time it was 33. he wanted to find someone, he wanted to settle down and have a family. in mary, in indifferent. order >> saying all the right. things >> he seemed intelligent in seemed to like a lot of the activities, that i would like. >> something else in that ad collagen's eye, the words, i am honest in don't cheat or play games. >> and i was like, good. because that's very important to me. >> so gina and this guy, with a

rather vanilla sounding name of michael smith, made dinner plans. at a local restaurant. >> and you met him there? >> yes. i met him there. he drove a vapor. >> he showed up in a? vapor >>. we even back in 2000, six a dodge viper headed stick route praise upwards of $80,000. >> when i saw that i thought okay, it appears that he makes a good living. >> so they were having dinner, well, remember, gina is a paid professional notice or. >> and i noticed his class during, so i took a closer look, and it said he had a bachelor in aerospace engineering. and i thought, well that's odd. >> when exactly made it odd? well, gina and michael were supposedly about the same age, but michaels class ring said he'd finish college, around the same time jean it was finishing high school. so gina being gina, she said something. >> wow, you must be pretty intelligent, and he just smiled

really big. and let it go. but, that stuck in my head. lake, i just couldn't quite get it out of my head. >> as the days past, they talked about all kinds of things, as people do the fresh end of a relationship? >> did he talk much about his past? >> now. he said he'd only been in love once in this was this girl, that he had known from when he was a teenager. but that she had been killed in a horrible accident. and that he was just heartbroken, over her loss. >> in fact they bonded, in a way, over their respective personal losses. more is just good friends at first. >> we did not kiss for a couple of weeks. >> really?

>> he was patient, and i appreciated that. >> but when they did get intimate, jeanne's radar went off again. remember, michael smith and told her he was 34. >> maybe into your thirties, most people can still really maintain that youthful, i might be 20 something look. speaking from experience, between those thirties and forties, aides just starts to do things to you. >> odd isn't it? >> it doesn't seem to matter how good of a shape here in. there's little things, the details, that he looked older than he actually was. >> gina did not say anything then, just pondered, silent, in her heart. and then,

>> we are going to the grocery store and saying how good he looked weir's age. don't you agree. i looked at him and said? you want me to be honest with you? well, actually, you look older than you say you are. >> how did he react to that? >> he was not real pleased with that. we kept discussing this. and he, he's like well, actually, i am older. and then i was instantly enraged. >> well i should think. here's the one that want somebody. >> because i've been harping on how important honesty was to me. the entire month we've been going out. >> any lie to you about is. age >> in how much i hated being lied to. and i was like okay how old are you? and he said he was not 34, that he was actually 43. >> did you get up and walk out on? >> now, i grape that him. so what else if you lied to me about? because if you lie to me about, that would elves if you

lied about? >> did you lie about your name? is michael smith even your real name? and he just kind of hung his head. any goes -- and i was, like you're kidding me. >> well, as you and i know, he certainly was not some guy named michael smith, was he. coming up. should she stay or should she go? >> i was a little nervous about going on the trip. >> that was the easy decision. >> should i make that? call or should i just let it be? >> when dateline continues. >> when dateline continues so i said, "yeah you're saving hundreds with the home and auto bundle from progressive, but there's no saving that casserole!" [ both laugh ] i just love that word "bundle." it's so fun. two things coming together like a force of nature, like it was really meant to be, y'know?

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suspicious tongue for one whole month. gina that detail noticed there didn't believe for a minute that the man she met online with just 34 years old, in fact, she had noticed multiple red flags in the story he had spun. and then one day she couldn't hold back, she finally bell the cat. careful what you wish for. >> okay what's your real name? tell me what is it? and he told me. >> what was it? >> jerry ambrozuk. i think he said he went by jerry or something. >> there was, his real name. man at the center of our mystery. >> so why do you change to michael smith? did he tell you? >> no. he did not. then all i could think was on his profile how he was so honest and how

dishonest this was. >> if you ever needed red flags, the walkout, that would be. >> huge red flags. >> did you do it? >>. i don't break up with him and that's what you're asking. >> so did you give him another chance? >> yeah, the next day i went to work and i actually googled his real name. >> oh. >> and the very next thing that came up was the story of the plane crash. jerry was wanted.

that freaks me out. it said he was the most, the longest running fugitive from america's most wanted. >> wanted, the article said, for negligent homicide in connection with the death of sweet young dianne, killed in the ditching of that plane. all those many years ago. >> it was pretty shocking. >> did you confront him about these discoveries of yours? >> i didn't want him to know i had seen the article. >> why not? well for one thing gina said she wasn't sure if he was guilty, and she's not proud of what you told us but my correct had invited her to come along on his business trip to japan. >> i was a little nervous about going on the trip because there

was that thing in my head saying is he somebody i need to worry about? or is he harmless? >> but he liked you. >> he very much like. me he hadn't been nothing but nice to me. you don't really want to believe that he had engaged in homicide? >> who do you want to. do you ever really want to believe that somebody is capable of that? >> so did you fool yourself there? >> no. no i went in with wide-eyed open. >> but before the chip gina just credit not say something, could she? jerry took it while she said. not defensive, more wistful. >> he talked about wanting to go back and being able to go with his family again. and being able to one day not have to hide his true identity. >> and i was like well if you're innocent, just go ahead and turn yourself in. go up there and i will support you through it, i just can't see myself being with someone who is living a lie. >> you have all people. >> but he's like no i'm just not ready. >> so to japan they went. >> notice the manning at the top to keep the pigeons out of the raft is very clever >> here she was in kyoto one of the world's most beautiful cities with the cherry blossoms in full bloom >> the place is gorgeous. >> and he took me to lots of great places, he was patient, but he decide to get impatient

with me. because i love taking pictures, and i was on lots of beautiful scenery in japan, so i was snapping pictures most of the time. >> maybe wiping quite enough attention to him. >> yes it was the end of the trip he got a little bit testy with me, because i wasn't warming up to him. >> so eventually they had words the trip to the far east went south. mind you michael, yeah eric ever the gentleman's gave up his first costly home to dallas, so gina could experience flying up front on that international flight. when the plane hit the ground, the relationship--. >> it really bothered me. that somebody could live the fly, and he was calm, he was cool about it, he said well if you ever change your mind my door will always be open to. >> but it was a breakup? >> it was a break up. >> then for a few months gina danced on the head of her dilemma.

>> how often do you think about him? >> all the time. i mean in my head, i'm thinking if he's innocent why is he so hesitant to turn himself in. should i make that call? or should i just let him be? >> after all, you trusted her to keep his secret. but by that time gina had also read about dianne's family. her father has no closure. i would want the person who was there to be held responsible. >> it just so happen that while gina was moving all this over, that sheriff up in montana jim dupont sent out one wistful

vacation before he officially retired. >> i was with a friend and we were reminiscing over a beer -- and he asked me is there any cases you are leaving behind that are unsolved or anything? and this case popped immediately in my brain and i wish we had some answers to it, i wish we had found him just to find out what happened and what occurred. >> then sheriff dupont went back to his office to pack it all up, unaware that 1800 miles south a woman in the dallas suburbs is about to present him with the ultimate retirement

gift. >> i picked up the phone and i was shaking. i just left a message saying that i think i had been dating this suspect and i said give me a call, and i will talk to you about it. >> and when the soon to be retiring sheriff got that message, >> i almost fell out of my chair. >> so happy ending. all straightened out. or maybe not? >> coming up, meet michael smith what went through your mind when you realized --? when dateline continues. i assumed dust always stayed put. turns out? it can be on the move. we were breathing that day and night! that's when we started using swiffer. in just a few minutes, duster captures dust before it gets airborne. it traps and locks dust in one swipe. yes! for our floors, sweeper's heavy duty cloths easily trap dust, dirt and hair... locking it in. see ya, dust! and swiffer partners with the american lung association to support clean air.

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-- county sheriff's office

about a certain ex-boyfriend, shouldn't have to wait long for sheriff jim dupont to repeal her call. >> he sounded excited, he sounded very excited. i guess he knew i was telling the truth because i told him details that had not been published. that jerry ambrozuk had actually told me. >> i don't know one of last broken to somebody who brought an end to an international manhunt before. >> really? >> i figured it happened all the time. >> didn't take long after that, dallas pd found an old mugshot of this michael smith. turned out he'd been arrested back twice in those early years in dallas. so on a wednesday morning on august -- after a cessna sank into the fridges death of -- lake. a team of plainclothes officers knock at the door of an upscale house in

plano texas. and there he was. >> i know some guy, and a pillow short ask for michael smith. i go yeah. he jumps out of the side and he said get out of my face. >> this is eureka mosaic. a fugitive so many had it looked for. vanished for decades. did you know immediately? >> i was very disoriented. so i have been the guy had the papers in his hands in the top of the papers that had jerry ambrozuk so when i saw that i pretty much for the dots together pretty quickly. he asked one of the officers to fetch the pet parrot to put catch the morning sun. what one through your mind when you realized okay finally they got me? >> i was very calm, i didn't really process all this. >> and then just like that he

was in jail. in a cell as he recalls it. he was a suicide risk. but there was an offside he got to call home to practice parents for the first time in nearly a quarter century. what was that conversation like? you know surprisingly was very calm it was like nothing ever happened. what was it like to catch up with them? >> they never lost hope over the years. they never actually moved and switch houses, or switch number because they always thought i would come back. >> they never forgot you? >> they never forgot me. >> so why? why did he and dianne babcock decide they have to run away in the first place? why come up with that crazy plan? and why did he run after she was killed? how did he pull

off his decades long disappearing act? now that is quite a story? straight out of a movie. >> when people say what is the story about? and some people probably see it as a crime story? some people see it as a love story? how do you see it? >> most definitely a love story. and unfortunately a tragic accident happened and dianne ended up drowning, i went into shock and lost my mind. after he left that lake in montana he took a train to new york, then hitchhike to texas, where the man he was writing with stole the 20 $200 he had managed to save in one of those duffel bags. so there he was in texas, totally destitute, hungry, hopeless. and then he met a guy who gave him a place to stay for free. told him how to get a new identity. >> i went to a cemetery, and found somebody that had deceased that was less than a year old, and they wouldn't

have any record on him, dental records, anything he was about my age. michael least mid of all the names, pretty generic name. we went through the records building in dallas asked for a birth certificate with his name, his birth date, five minutes later a guy came out with a certified copy stamped. >> that's a little harder these days? >> i don't think he could do that these days. >> but back then he could, and he used it to get a social security card, a drivers license, a job as a carpenter, energy the. eventually a degree from the university of texas at arlington. aerospace engineering. >> when you start applying for security clearances with the aerospace jobs, they're gonna dig deep into her background and i kind of knew that they would probably find i'm not michael smith. so i kind of pretty much decided to switch into computers. he turned out to be quite an entrepreneur, his tech support private less than web design company made lots of money. >> you had a nice big house,

you had about two or three cars? >> yeah i had a couple cars. viper. yeah it was toys. it was a lot of hard work over the years, eventually the work we salvation. >> eventually he landed honda racing as their clients. and with a u.s. passport now he could travel the world. including that trip to japan with, that we told you about. >> and then a few months after their breakup those officers were at his door and he was in the clink. >> was there kind of a lightbulb moment?

>> the first few days i figured out the only person who actually knew about my past that would do anything, had been gina. >> so was this relationship revenge? >> that's what it looks like to me. >> was it a blessing in disguise though? >> it was, as crazy as it sounds after 24 years of living as michael smith. i finally got my family back again. >> a blessing or not, remember there was a steep penalty waiting to be paid. jerry ambrozuk was facing a charge of negligent homicide back in montana. no longer that he had matured into that business owner in plano texas, who is facing as much as a decade in the very humble confines of a state prison. coming up, we did something stupid this was not my idea, this was not just me, and that's not negligent homicide. >> for the first time in club like the pilot tells a story, like the pilot tells a story, -- trying to hold the door open.

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moment, september of 2006 when's jerry ambrozuk was escorted off the plane in montana. >> i remember looking at the wire late in the afternoon one day, what's, it was just unbelievable. the fake name, the career as a successful software developer, it was the furthest thing from when i had imagined as jerry ambrozuk her ex -- he was in a broken man in a mexican bar. when jerry ambrozuk he marched through the airport into an eagerly awaiting jim dupont. >> i just wanted him to physically see what he looked like. >> you've been thinking about him all these years? >> yeah i've been thinking about him a lot. he was intelligent, and my pinion he was a social path. i don't know if you had any feelings or not but i don't think he did. >> you believe he was social? pass >> this good ones and bad ones and i don't believe he had feelings. you lose your mom your dad your family or friends, and your loved one out of bottom of the lake. i don't get it, i guess i never will. >> it was pretty obvious the

sheriff didn't exactly hold jerry ambrozuk in high regard. but there was a legal question now -- put him in montana state prison for ten years. in montana negligent homicide you do something very stupid that could cause the death of a person, and sure enough somebody dies? negligent homicide? >> well we did something stupid, this was not my idea, this was not just me, and that's not negligent homicide. that's two kids in love we did something stupid. that's when it comes down to. >> so jerry ambrozuk pleaded not guilty. jack wilson was the defense attorney. >> the word homicide, was extremely problematic for jerry ambrozuk he takes responsibility for the fact that he screwed up landing the airplane, he takes

responsibility for the fact that he shouldn't have left, but i guarantee you he hasn't gotten over her death to this day. >> do you see this as a romeo and juliet story? >> there is an element of that in the case. these are two young people who thought they were star crossed, and decided to take the future into their own hands. >> exactly said jerry ambrozuk. the sheriff and prosecutor was so determined that it was homicide, but it wasn't anything like that. he let the lawyers do the talking waiting for the consequences. now sitting with us here years later, he was finally ready to get his account in public for the first time. where they're crazy idea came from? and just what happened when it all went wrong. here goes. >> you know we just too crazy kids and love, and there are some barriers that guest in a relationship that we saw that would be difficult to overcome. we ended up watching this movie

called -- apocalypse now. so we came up with a crazy plan to elope and live in a jungle and survive off the land. that's nuts? >> it didn't seem nuts at the time. >> where did you plan to end? up >> south america is where. >> hitchhike down there? >> hitchhike. take buses. back then the borders were not a strict. so we have already passed the canadian u.s. border by that time. it was just a matter of the u.s. mexico border and onwards the idea of e came from taking flying lessons. they would land on water and get out before the plane sank. >> we take the dinghy, but the bags in the big, he wrote to shore, and nobody knows any better. >> but as they were getting ready to go -- there was a hitch. dianne got pregnant. >> it just sort of happened. she went to the doctor and they aboard the baby, it was a few days before we took off. she went to the theater the night before and i said how you feeling, she said 100 and 10% good to go. so on sunday august 22nd 1992, they went to the vancouver airport went to that

says no 1:50, and full of excitement flew east to pancaked in where they hung out all afternoon, and then fooled people a bit when they flew north before turning around to how the southeast into montana. how did you prepare for the landing on the lake? >> we ended up switching our clothes to swim close, we distributed everything to two bags. >> three hours later they were flying on fumes, as they descended in the near dark shimmering surface of little bitter rudely. >> as you are coming in for landing it must have been pretty nervous? >> sure nobody price this is the land on water. >> he's slow to stall speed. he took off a seatbelt, figured his grip on the control to hold the flight. dianne kept her seatbelt fasten. -- and then come. >> when the wheels hit the water it was like hitting a cement wall. >> suddenly year in some cold

water. >> cold water, and i remember tasting blood, blood in my nose, my mouth. >> did you see anything? >> no outside is pitch black. i was spinning around trying to orient myself. once i came to the surface that was yelling out dianne, where are you, are you okay. she said yeah i just can't get my seatbelt off. she probably did say quite so calmly? >> she was actually fairly calm i believe. >> that's really he said he try to get to her, i know where that when the plane hit the water it flipped. so he ended up behind the airplane. when he struggled through the water to what he thought was the passenger door, it was actually on the wrong side across the plane from where she was hanging upside down trapped in her seatbelt. >> by the time i got to the door, and try to open it, and when i did open in the water started rushing in. the plane was all most in the water. --

i'm laying halfway in the, water halfway on the wing with my arm trying to open the door, trying to reach him to get dianne. all of a sudden the plane summer just below the water, and that's how it ended. >> the plane did not float, a sank in mere seconds. dianne could not get out of her seat belt he said. and he couldn't help, because this simply wasn't time. >> i had 20 seconds the plane went down. >> his last glimpse of dianne was not that haunting image of her hair in the airplanes door, no one knows how that happen. the last he saw dianne he said, the say he cannot stop seeing, is dianne trapped in her seat belt, upside down and thinking, calling out for him to save her. >> what was that? like >> horrifying. >> watching it go down with her inside. >> it was 22nd we were the most happiest people in the world. and our lives are just too expresses in that moment. we never, ever, ever anticipated something like. this >> what did you right then when that plane went down? >> i was hoping somehow she would be able to get that seatbelt off. some swimming

around, just to see if i can show pop up somewhere. that if she got to see about offering him up somewhere. >> but she did not. the only thing that floated up was that one duffel bag, the one continuing has closed and the $2200 they have for the ship. a fact pointed to by many law officers as suspicious. >> they would say why did he only get his clothes? and the money? and let her clothes go sink down to the bottom of the lake? >> just random luck. >> officers say it was no accident, things happen on purpose. >> people always speculate but it was always a random by chance. >> speculate, that's what people did all right. that a man who truly loved her, might have tried harder, might have sacrificed. afterwards this became a problem for some of the people looking into the incident. numbers of them would say, gosh that was me i would've done anything, i would've gone if i had, two i would've gotten into that point if i had to, i would've saved her somehow even if i died in the process. why don't you do

that? >> it's easy to say that when you stay on the couch with a cup of coffee, but not so easy when you have 15 20 seconds in the plane is thinking funny you and you can open the door, and the plane is underwater. people don't visualize a picture of what this was, and how quickly this happen. >> but what happened then was overwhelming, numbing, and shock. >> my limbs were starting to get numb, i could barely do the paddling in order to stay afloat, so i had to take that one back paddling and got to shore spent the next few days in shock. >> and in shock he ran he said, around the country for weeks. to new york city, and finally to dallas, where turning himself in seem like a very bad idea. does that sound like romeo and juliet? or something else altogether? coming up, the only thing i can prove is that he left? that he ran away. >> justice delayed, or justice denied? >> this is one of those kind of cases we are really, you are

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than a quarter century old, follow order. memories fade. witnesses die. a fact not lost on each -- attorney. if you take this case the part the only thing they can prove beyond reasonable doubt is that

he left, that he ran away. he just made the wrong decision. but it was understandable decision. a forgivable decision. >> not surprisingly, dianne's family is pushing hard for a prison sentence. they did not believe dianne was some actress and shakespearean love tragedy. they did believe she was an unwilling participants who did not live to tell her side of the story. this is one of those kind of cases where really, you're the only person on the planet who knows the truth. >> sure. >> mr. babcock was hoping he would spend not least ten years in prison. he was quite understandably wanting to blame somebody for the death of his daughter, do you understand why felt that way? >> no. i find their attitude almost are appalling. this was not some crime that you see on tv. this was two people in love, eloping and an accident happen. >> in may 2007, after he spent nine months in county jail, the prosecutor cut a deal. he dropped a charge of negligent homicide. and he agreed to plead guilty to criminal

mischief, and criminal endangerment. the sentence, ten years on each count. suspended. which meant he would not spend a single day of that sentence behind bars in montana. did he go, yay! let's take this? >> no. no not at all. well it is really change anything for him except what was going to happen. it didn't absolve him from the sense of the responsibility that he had been carrying for 30 years. for the death of somebody who he cared a lot about. and for the suffering that he caused other people. formerly her family and his family. >> the county attorney

acknowledged that her family did not like the outcome, but alas what could he do. >> she was essentially kidnapped and murdered. and that is a terrible burden for the family to deal with the loss of a child, and if i were dealing with the prosecutor who did otherwise i wouldn't be happy with him either. >> dianne's family declined a request to participate in this report, and sheriff dupont he is no longer with us he died in 2012. but in his last years he grew close to babcock and he

spoke for them as much as for himself. i was a tragedy that family. we could've executed jerry and he wouldn't have helped them. >> they needed to see some kind of justice done? >> they needed to see some, and they didn't. >> mind you, his legal troubles were not over, back to texas he was to face federal charges including passport fraud. after all he had gotten a u.s. passport under a false name, michael lee smith. but again after a four months behind bars and thumbs defiance, he was set free. the federal government why and that was for punishment to deport him back to where it all started to vancouver. he got a free ride home. so the very place he and dianne so desperately sought to escape as teenagers, where no criminal jeopardy awaited. a theft charge she faced for essentially stealing that airplane had long since been dropped by canadian authorities. jerry ambrozuk was on final approach to freedom, back where it all began. >> did it feel like home? >> it does. but you know with my parents, and my sister and

kids being here it's definitely. >> it's a very interesting life you have now. these pieces that none of them seemed to belong together, and yet but that one over there, and this one over here. >> it looks like 24 years and living as michael smith as a model citizen, as a model fake u.s. citizen >> nonetheless then we lost money. paid lots of taxes. i was an exemplary citizen model -- whatever you call it.

>> still even after all this time their questions. did he truly love dianne and do all he could to save her way? after all there was that phone call to his friend tom. >> [inaudible] how do you explain all that? it's there. it's part of the record. it supports their theory that you are very bad dude who killed his girlfriend. you're saying i was in love it was romeo and juliet. >> well if people read anything they want into it, the only way i can explain this is. you know a lot of people won't believe you even when you go through the whole story. how much she did love her. they still won't believe that. >> all i can do is tell them what happened, how it happened, the rest i can control. >> he wrote it all down, every bit of his story in a bookie published called a tear in my life, the brutal truth. to set the record straight he said. and he created an elaborate website, with all the documents from his cases, all of them. he's an unusual person this jerry ambrozuk stubborn,

particular, hooked on the tiniest details. >> was he a crazy man? was he a monster? was he romeo? was he a grief stricken burrow's friend? you just don't know. >> does it help to tell the story? does he feel responsible? guilty? if your jerry ambrozuk it's complicated. you send your lifelong catholic, is it important for you to feel somehow? >> i don't expect anybody to forgive me, i know i happened, unfortunately i lost something very precious to me we could've had a great life together but it ended that night. getting people to accept that i don't think it really matters to me. >> and if we can believe him, he is still deeply in love with his teenage sweetheart, that innocent young woman who entrusted her faith to her romeo. dianne babcock a vision so haunting who rose from the lake as if merely asleep. dianne babcock so long in her

grave.

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