tune in tomorrow to "the sunday show" when new york city mayor eric adams talks to us. and i'll speak to barbara lee to talk about her distinguished, 25-year tenure in congress. 6:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. follow us on x, instagram, tiktok, threads and bluesky, using @weekendcapehart. and listen to every episode as a podcast for free. scan the qr code to follow. to w michelle weinberger: i woke up to a nightmare. i see an empty side of the bed. i love you baby. >> i love you baby. >> this is the best vacation ever. yay! >> i woke up to a nightmare. i see an empty side of the bed. he's not there. >> he could have been kidnapped. he could have been attacked. >> the captain says mark is not coming back.

>> he was a slippery guy. he's in miami. he's in new york -- israel. >> it's not anything i've ever heard done. a physician -- just abandoning a practice. >> i said to him, "mark, i know who you are. i know what you did." >> did you hear anyone mention the scary room? >> yes. the staff hadn't gone into that room in months. >> i began to -- to slowly put the -- the puzzle pieces together. >> this is a story about heroes. >> every one that he touched, and tried to hurt only grew stronger. ♪♪ ♪ ♪ host (voiceover): how far would you go for the truth, especially when go for the truth? especially when it could solve the mystery around someone you love? >> i began to tape together the

shredded documents until i could see the name of a hotel in paris. so i go to paris. and looking at that point just for the reason why. >> reporter: why? why it happened to her, to them, to those they loved? the lives destroyed. >> i was angry. i'm still angry. i just wanted justice for my daughter. the fact that he did that to a child. >> reporter: how did you get through it? >> somebody had to fight for phyllis. >> reporter: it's a story two decades in the making of massive greed and betrayal. a tale as tall as a mountain, as cold as a jail cell. that has taken one more bizarre turn. what do you think looking at that? >> i guess the unfairness in the world. from losing cars, almost losing my house -- to see that picture is hard. >> that's horrifying. like it's straight up

horrifying. >> reporter: michelle and mark weinberger were going on vacation. it was september, 2004. she was turning 30. >> the plans for my 30th were that we were going to fly out to greece, and that we would take the yacht. >> reporter: that's right -- a yacht. this was a successful, young couple from chicago. michelle studying to become a psychologist. mark, 11-years-older, was an established doctor running a sinus clinic. >> i just saw him as a very successful, ambitious, intelligent doctor. i thought that we were set on a course for a beautiful life. >> reporter: though lately, she said, he had been consumed with his patient load and worry. on top of that, the couple, married almost three years, had just suffered a miscarriage. >> it was devastating. i was already almost six months pregnant at the time. >> reporter: they both needed this vacation.

mark seemed determined to make sure it topped their previous, romantic getaways to europe. >> it's a beautiful day here at parrot cay. >> reporter: and the caribbean. >> i just wanna say this was the best vacation ever. i love you, baby. >> he said, you know, "you're gonna have this huge birthday surprise, and it's gonna be bigger than, you know, what the stars have. you're not gonna be able to even comprehend what the surprise is." >> reporter: you get there -- you're on the yacht. tell me about it. >> i'm, like, this might actually, you know, be a good, healing time. this is exactly what i need. >> reporter: for you this is a fresh start. >> it was supposed to be a fresh start, yup. you know, i was kinda looking forward to my 30s. >> i never had doubt the two were loving each other. >> reporter: captain lupo clerici was hired by mark to steer the couple's 80-foot yacht around the islands of greece, and into the memory books. mark told the captain about the surprise gifts he had in store

for michelle. he hinted one would be a small sailboat that he would pay for in cash. >> i don't remember exactly how much money there were in the safe, but quite -- quite an allowance. i would say around 30,000 euro? >> reporter: roughly $24,000 in 2004. their first night there, the couple dined in mykonos. afterwards, mark and michelle headed back to the yacht. >> and as we went to sleep that night, he did this thing where we clinked our wedding rings together and he said, you know, "we'll never say goodbye." and we fell asleep. >> reporter: michelle woke up the next morning to a small surprise. >> so i see an empty side of the bed. i go to touch that side of the bed, confirming that he's not there. usually would not be a big deal. usually maybe he's running early, got up to look at sunrise. >> reporter: she went to the captain and asked, "had he seen

mark?" the captain had. he was certain mark had gone into town to buy another birthday gift for michelle. the captain assumed it was a secret. >> he says, "oh, i'm sure he's gone somewhere, he'll be back." and the captain's saying this as if he knows more information, but he's trying to reassure me, but i wasn't reassured. >> reporter: she even went out jogging on the beach to see if she could find him. no luck. she tried to distract herself. >> i went to breakfast at the hotel. i had the most amazing greek yogurt and honey. and i just remember that it was such a sweet taste, but i had this bitter feeling in the pit of my stomach. >> reporter: that grew as each hour passed. as the morning gave way to late afternoon, and still no sign of mark. you pushed the captain, and you get more information. what does he tell you? >> you know, "you're becoming way too worried. let me just tell you that mark decided to go pick up diamonds or some kind of birthday present for you." >> reporter: but that didn't calm her. mark was smart. he wouldn't be gone this long

without touching base. without picking up his phone. he was in trouble of some kind. she just knew it. >> there was an impending sense of doom. there was a big storm coming, and in my gut, i could feel it. >> reporter: it was time to panic. it was time to call the police. >> announcer: coming up, what had happened to the doctor? >> i sounded like a crazy person. all these ranting ideas of possible horrible things. >> announcer: and then, a knock on michelle's door. >> it's the captain coming in, and he says "it's already dark out, mark is not coming back." >> announcer: when "dateline" continues. announcer: when "dat continues.

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vanished. >> had he been murdered? had somebody taken him hostage and tried to steal money? was there gonna be a ransom note? >> reporter: she remembers calling police. >> i sounded like a crazy person, all these ranting ideas of possible horrible things that could have happened to him. >> reporter: michelle, in meltdown, believed the captain knew more than he was letting on. he was convinced mark was running a last minute birthday errand. >> still i was thinking that it was just a big mistake and the guy was coming back. >> reporter: mark had even given the captain the number to a secret cellphone -- all part of the elaborate birthday ruse, he said. >> i was trying to call mark on the mobile and i left thousand of messages 'cause i didn't really know what to do. >> reporter: now he was starting to worry. michelle, desperate for clues, called mark's assistant back at the sinus clinic he ran just outside chicago.

michelle was hoping mark had been in touch with her. as luck would have it -- >> he called me. he said, "thank you for taking care of everything." and i said "you're welcome." and he hung up. >> reporter: suzette dennington was mark's right hand at his clinic. she had reached out to him earlier about work and thought he sounded fine. what michelle was telling her now unnerved her. >> he could have been kidnapped, he could have been attacked. in my mind you open yourself up to -- as a risk when you're a -- an american and you're spending a lot of money in foreign countries. >> reporter: which is exactly what worried michelle. after all, mark knew how to flash the cash. ever since they met in 2000 in chicago. >> the first date, i drove into the city. and he had a bottle of champagne and a candle that was scented like champagne. and i just remember being awestruck by all of this. and we went out to some fancy restaurant. there was like a seafood tower with crab legs and oysters and

lobster tails. i was taken aback by the whole thing. >> reporter: you were swept off your feet, and it happened fast. >> yes, i was swept up off my feet, and it did happen fast. >> reporter: within months they were in rome. >> a moment in time that felt perfect. he gets down on one knee, and there's huge diamond from bulgari, and i'm dressed in a black gown. i thought that it would be just a fairytale story. >> reporter: that became more fantastical by the day. in 2001, after a year of dating, they got married. then followed that up with two more celebrations -- one at chicago's field museum, and another in italy. a princess and her prince. >> there was an old palace, and -- it was on the hill. i had on a big gown, and we kinda traipsed around town. and it was -- it was very much

from a movie set. >> reporter: and mark was happy to foot the bill? >> uh-huh, yeah. he liked to do everything in a very grand style. >> reporter: how do you top a wedding like that? >> secret place with diamonds, our last night here at the resort. >> reporter: with more memorable vacations, of course. >> i really love him a lot. >> reporter: several, in fact, throughout the year. >> help! >> yes, i'm holding him here as a prisoner. >> reporter: along the way, mark indulged them both with expensive toys. like that yacht, chauffeured limos, even a jet. and they could afford it all thanks to mark's hard work at his clinic. clearly he was making millions of dollars. what was your most extravagant weekend? >> you know, sometimes we would be out at dinner, and he would decide that he wanted to get the private jet and go to miami or go to las vegas, and it would be very last minute.

he had the yacht waiting in the mediterranean, would take out ten days a month, take it out. my head was spinning with it, drivers and maids and a sushi chef and a masseuse and boat captains and pilots. >> reporter: now, with her husband missing in a foreign country, she had to wonder -- had someone noticed mark waving money around and targeted him? by day's end, exhausted from worry, michelle went to her cabin. >> and i hear a knock on the door. and it's the captain, coming in. and he says, "it's already dark out, mark is not coming back. he's never coming back." >> coming up -- mark's final birthday surprise for michelle. >> i couldn't comprehend the words. i lost my breath. >> and a strange phone call. >> he said, "hello."

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host (voiceover): michelle weinberger was celebrating her 30th birthday aboard a yacht in greece when her husband, mark, disappeared. >> reporter: michelle aiweinberr was celebrating her 30th birthday aboard a yacht in greece when her husband mark disappeared. now, the boat's captain was delivering more bad news. >> it's, like, when someone tells you that someone's passed away, sometimes you can't comprehend the words. >> reporter: the captain said he'd just spoken to a local taxi driver. the man insisted that he drove mark -- hours earlier -- to the airport and that mark boarded a private jet. >> and i just remember thinking, "what are you talking about?" and i lost my breath. >> reporter: the captain handed her mark's secret cellphone

number. for hours she dialed it. nothing. and then, the call connected. >> he answered very joyfully, very cheerfully. and he said, "hello." and i was, like, "mark?" and i was, like, "what are you doing?" and then he just hung up the phone. and that was the last communication. >> reporter: ever. >> ever. >> reporter: michelle had just gotten her husband's birthday surprise. he had left her -- in spectacular fashion, like everything else he did. he'd apparently even taken that money he had stored on board, the cash supposedly tucked away for her birthday presents. >> what was left on the boat was 2,000 euros and my passport. >> reporter: that was it. >> that was it. kind of, find your way home. >> reporter: michelle would indeed find her way home -- to chicago. with about $1,500 to her name. >> i just kept thinking in the back of my head, "you can't do this to someone. this is not allowable." it was beyond my comprehension that anyone would think they

could do this. >> reporter: her shock was mixed with grief over abruptly losing the man she loved. >> i was brought to my knees by this whole situation. >> reporter: we first met michelle in 2005, just months after her husband walked off that boat and into a mystery that would take years to unravel. >> i really believed he was my soul mate. he believed it, too. we believed from the beginning we were meant to be together. the kindest, gentlest man i ever met. >> reporter: you truly believed if there was one man meant for you, mark weinberger was the guy. >> absolutely. >> reporter: but you don't feel that way anymore about him. >> i don't think i know who he is right now. i still love the person who i was with, the person i was married to. >> reporter: her first impulse on returning home to chicago was to start tracking him down. >> and i traveled out to indiana to his office. >> reporter: once at his clinic,

she got to work. >> i found a shredder. and i began to tape together the shredded documents until i could see the name of a hotel in paris in his handwriting. and then i took the next plane in my sweatpants to paris. >> reporter: and what was your plan if you found him? >> i had a vision in my mind of, you know, finding him in this casino and over a blackjack table or something. really, what i wanted to know is, why did you do this? >> reporter: when she landed she headed right for the hotel, walked in and -- >> the women behind the counter, i showed a picture, and they said, "yes, that man was here last night. he was alone sitting at the bar." >> reporter: so you missed him. you were within 24 hours of finding mark weinberger. >> i was within 24 hours of finding mark weinberger. >> reporter: dejected, she headed home -- but kept digging. credit card statements suggested he might have gone from paris to the south of france.

his former employees offered this tidbit, though it was bizarre -- they said in the weeks before he disappeared, mark had brought luggage to the office. >> he had apparently packed two huge suitcases, and he shipped one of the bags to cannes, and another bag to athens. >> reporter: two bags sent to two locations? that didn't make sense to her. she tried tracing the lead but couldn't pinpoint where he was. in the meantime, another grim reality was setting in. her husband hadn't just broken her heart, he'd also broken her financially. >> i was sitting there just trying to figure out how to pay the water bill. and i have his credit card statements in front of me where he's going to the biggest fashion houses across france and buying clothing. and he's at casinos, and i had a -- i don't know if he was just extracting money at casinos or

gambling, but i had a vision of him in monte carlo in casinos like james bond playing craps or balk araut, and that infuriated me beyond believe. >> reporter: and you can't pay the water bill. >> yeah, and he's in the south of france. >> reporter: mind you, she wasn't the only one he deserted. he left behind his patients and a staff of roughly a dozen people. like michelle, they had trouble believing he would do such a thing. >> it's not anything i've ever heard done, a physician ever just abandoning a practice, a pat -- you know, his patients. >> reporter: suzette dennington, mark's assistant, says this was not in keeping with the man she knew. >> he was an excellent physician. he was respected. his primary concern was his patients. his technique was incredible. >> reporter: so were his credentials. >> the guy's not stupid.

>> reporter: writer buzz bissinger covered the strange case of the missing doctor for "vanity fair" magazine. >> university of pennsylvania, ivy league school, u.c.l.a., great medical school, very hard to get into outta state, 3.7. >> reporter: he says in the late '90s weinberger picked merrillville, indiana -- about an hour outside chicago -- to start his ear, nose and throat practice for a very specific reason. >> merrillville, indiana. it's in the shadow of the steel mills of indiana and chicago. the air quality is very bad. people get sinus problems. and they also have health insurance 'cause they work at these mills. >> reporter: within a few years, weinberger decided he'd only do sinus surgeries. he built a new, hi-tech facility with diagnostic and surgical suites. he advertised heavily, calling himself "the nose doctor." >> we could see 40 to 50 patients on an office day. out of those, 10 to 16 would be

new patients. >> reporter: how many surgeries was he performing? >> on an average, within 15 to 22 a week. >> reporter: 15 to 22 surgeries, one man, every week? >> yes. >> reporter: you've worked in this business a long time, how busy is that compared to your average surgeon? >> huge. >> reporter: dennington said patients that walked into his clinic were told his sinus surgeries were an alternative to taking medicine every day. >> i was driving down the street in northwest indiana, and i saw one of the many billboards that said, if you have a headache, i can help. >> reporter: valerie thomas saw weinberger's ad in early 2004, about eight months before he disappeared. doctors had been stumped by the headaches and nausea crippling her then 8-year-old daughter kayla. >> she would just cry and say, "my head hurts, mommy, my head hurts."

and she would hold her head and then she would start vomiting. >> reporter: valerie says mark weinberger quickly diagnosed kayla's problems and offered treatment. >> he says she needs to have sinus surgery right away. and my office staff is already working on getting her insurance approval. he said this is why she's having the headaches. >> reporter: you were impressed? >> yes, i was. >> reporter: state-of-the-art facility. >> it was state of the art. >> reporter: ivy league doctor. >> yes. >> reporter: and one stop shopping with a ct scan right there. >> everything. and surgery, surgical center right there. >> reporter: to many it seemed like dr. weinberger was the best thing to happen to sinuses in indiana. and now he had left it all behind. it's one thing to abandon your patients and thriving business. quite another to walk out on your wife. suzette couldn't imagine why he would have left michelle. >> he spoke of her so highly. everything about michelle was wonderful, everything about michelle was amazing. >> reporter: so how do you explain him? >> i can't. >> reporter: maybe there was

another reason for mark weinberger's abrupt departure from his livelihood. maybe another problem he didn't want to face. maybe another woman who felt betrayed. >> coming up -- the doctor's outrageous conduct didn't stop at his love life. >> i said have you gotten hold of the doctor or seen him again? because you sound worse now than before the surgery. >> reporter: what did he say? >> he laughed and told her that things take time. >> reporter: he laughed? >> he laughed. >> when "dateline" continues. nus for your pigment is just the same. it's time you found a proven choice to help restore what's yours. opzelura is the only fda-approved prescription treatment for nonsegmental vitiligo repigmentation. restoring what's yours over time. with a steroid-free cream that you can apply yourself.

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a news update. a u.s. army base in georgia put on lockdown after a deadly shooting. a housing area at the ford eisenhauer army institution.

house speaker emirata nancy pelosi undergoing hip replacement surgery after falling in luxembourg. back to "dateline." >> reporter: in the fall of 2004, michelle weinberger was only just learning the scale of devastation left by her husband mark. if she felt she had been betrayed, her anguish paled beside that of another woman. did he mention the name phyllis barnes? >> it wasn't till later that i realized what the story of phyllis barnes was. >> reporter: phyllis barnes's story goes back to 2001, three years before mark vanished. >> phyllis was a very compassionate person. she -- she sort of lived to help other people. >> reporter: her sister, peggy, says phyllis took pride in her job counseling workers who'd been laid off from the steel mills. but the most important person in phyllis's life was her daughter

shawn. >> reporter: you're the only child? the total focus of your mom? >> yeah. i definitely grew up with kind of all the focus on me. >> reporter: phyllis was the center of her family's world, too. >> but i love you phyllis! >> well good >> reporter: family life was filled with backyard and holiday parties phyllis made special. >> c'mon you gotta blow 'em out now. >> reporter: but when shawn turned 16 she noticed a change in her mom. phyllis's voice was hoarse and she had trouble breathing. >> i definitely noticed that she'd gotten sick, but she just kept reassuring me that like, "well, i think it's just sinuses. i think it's just my allergies." so we didn't think it was any big deal initially. >> reporter: but phyllis, a long-time smoker, got worse. >> she had a harder time breathing, and she was coughing more, and she'd gone to the doctor, but the doctors hadn't really figured anything out. >> reporter: shawn says one of

her mom's friends at work recommended sinus doctor mark weinberger. >> she was really feeling positive about that, like, i can finally kick this sinus infection. my sinuses won't bother me anymore. >> reporter: that september, phyllis saw dr. weinberger, and he devised a quick treatment plan. >> she needed sinus surgery. >> reporter: just like that? >> yes. >> reporter: about three weeks later phyllis went back for the surgery. which lasted all of 30 minutes. >> the nurse, or somebody, came out and got me and said "your sister's ready to go." which really threw me, because it, it had been such a short time, and i said, "is the doctor gonna come in and talk to us?" and she said, "oh, he doesn't see patients after the surgery." so i thought that was really unusual. >> reporter: a week or two later peggy says her sister was not getting any better. >> she's still got a really raspy, hoarse voice and i said, "have you gotten a hold of the doctor or seen him again? because," i said, "you sound worse now than before the

surgery." >> reporter: so phyllis called weinberger. what did he say? >> he laughed and told her that things take time. >> reporter: he laughed? >> he laughed. >> reporter: a few months later, phyllis went to another doctor. >> phyllis came to me with pretty severe hoarseness. she had lost most of her voice. >> reporter: dr. denis han says he only needed to give phyllis a cursory examination to figure out what was wrong. >> she had two masses on the left side of her neck, and when you looked at her, you pretty much knew right away she probably had cancer. >> reporter: a biopsy confirmed his worst suspicions -- phyllis had advanced throat cancer. >> stage four larynx cancer. her voice box was bulky by appearance, and by touch just because it was full of cancer. >> reporter: at home, as she was coming to terms with the diagnosis, phyllis's condition became suddenly acute, and shawn and her dad had to act fast. >> she couldn't breathe anymore, and we called 911, and he ended up doing rescue breathing on her

until they got there. and they whisked her away to the hospital, and they got her stabilized and they rushed her into surgery. >> reporter: in surgery, dr. han did a tracheostomy, creating a breathing hole for phyllis. he was incredulous she had gotten such shoddy treatment. >> her cancer would have been obvious to a first-year medical student. so there is no way, unless he had extreme blinders on or didn't care, that he couldn't have realized that she had throat cancer. >> reporter: dr. han later removed phyllis's voice box, and the cancer in her neck. the drastic surgery saved phyllis's life, but it also altered her voice and her appearance withering her self-confidence. that had to be heartbreaking for you to see your mom like that. >> yeah. my reaction to horrible news, uh, is usually to just kinda shut down. and that's mostly what i did. >> reporter: the following year, phyllis and her husband

divorced. and then tragically, he died suddenly. shawn, just 17 at the time, felt lost. >> mom was in the hospital, power bill was something mom was gonna pay, and i came home one day from school, and there just weren't any lights on in the house. and it's just like, when you're going through something really horrible, it just takes one thing to sort of break you. and that was my point where i just, like, lost it. >> reporter: as broken as phyllis's family was, they launched a quest to hold mark weinberger accountable. you knew this was gonna be a big fight. this is a powerful doctor with a lot of money. >> i knew it was gonna be a big fight. >> reporter: so it was time to call in back-up. knowing she'd have to battle her condition and weinberger, phyllis and her family hired another local professional in merrillville who liked to advertise on billboards. a man who was ready for a brawl. >> coming up --

a brawl that would be too late for some. >> she is going to be speaking to this jury from the grave. >> but this battle had just begun. >> i wanted him to spend the rest of his life in jail. >> when "dateline" continues. >>s h meaning? shutterfly, make something that means something. enjoy 40% off your order with code gifts40. order now for holiday delivery. type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. i got the power of 3. i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. i'm under 7. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease. i'm lowering my risk. and adults lost up to 14 pounds. i lost some weight. ozempic® isn't for type 1 diabetes or children. don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles.

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like eye pain, vision changes, or blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma or other medicines without talking to your doctor. show off to the world. ask your eczema specialist about dupixent. ask your eczema specialist host (voiceover): mark weinberger had apparently overlooked phyllis barnes's obvious throat cancer, and she was determined to stop him doing the same thing >> reporter: mark weinberger had apparently overlooked phyllis barnes's obvious throat cancer, and she was determined to stop him doing the same thing to someone else. >> if weinberger had examined her throat, he couldn't have missed it. he couldn't have missed it. >> reporter: after her 2001 cancer diagnosis, phyllis, who had smoked, hired personal injury attorney ken allen. >> reporter: how could she blame dr. weinberger? wasn't it really just the smoking? >> well, i don't think she blamed dr. weinberger for her having developed cancer. what weinberger, uh, was

responsible for was not catching it, and not treating it in a way that would have preserved the quality of her life. >> reporter: if he was going to make phyllis's case in court, allen needed to document her story. recording her dramatically changed voice. >> and your first visit to dr. weinberger was the beginning of september, 2001? >> right. that would have been about september. >> reporter: and you depose her because you need to capture that on video before she's gone. >> right. >> reporter: what was that like? >> it's difficult because, you know, that she is going to be speaking to this jury from her grave and, uh, you want to make sure that she is able to express herself in a way that the jury needs to hear. so the jury can do it's job and hold this guy to account. >> reporter: if not for phyllis, then for her daughter shawn. >> i am my only daughter's only

surviving parent. i just want to make sure she goes to school. >> i promised her that i would fight for her daughter, just as if she were my daughter. >> reporter: as ken allen continued to gather evidence he found phyllis barnes wasn't the only person with a horror story. >> she was screaming. she was crying. she said her head was just really like someone was stabbing her. >> reporter: valerie thomas, whose eight-year-old daughter, kayla, suffered from blinding headaches, also had a painful story. at first, valerie had been so impressed with weinberger. >> reporter: four days after diagnosis. kayla's on the operating table. >> yes. >> reporter: what's going through your mind? >> i was happy because i thought my baby's going to get relief. >> reporter: but, like phyllis, in the weeks after weinberger's surgery, kayla did not get better. >> reporter: did you call dr. weinberger? >> yes, i did. i took her back several times. the last time he yelled at me and said, obviously, i did not follow the post-surgical protocol. so he said that's why she wasn't getting any better. and i was kind of insinuated,

don't call him anymore. >> reporter: he blamed you? >> yes. >> reporter: did you follow the post surgery protocol? >> yes i did. it was very simple. it was some saline solution just squirted in her nose. >> reporter: how did you react when he said that? >> oh, i went mama bear. i was angry. >> reporter: kayla's condition got worse. >> not only did she have pain in her arms, but her head started swelling. her head was huge. >> reporter: valerie took kayla to the university of chicago medical center where she says doctors were baffled to learn her daughter had undergone sinus surgery as an eight-year-old. after kayla had another ct scan, her new doctor delivered some grim news. >> he said, we're going to admit her to the oncology unit and, i just lost it. i was screaming and crying because the doctor just told me that my daughter had a massive brain tumor. >> reporter: sounds like cancer. >> yes. >> reporter: you think you might lose her? >> yes. >> reporter: it turned out the tumor wasn't cancer, but it was growing.

so kayla went back into surgery. only it was tricky now. >> they said that there was significant amount of scar tissue in her nasal cavity. >> reporter: so kayla's surgeons were able to remove only a small part of her tumor. >> they only got 10%. >> reporter: because the scar tissue from the weinberger surgery was blocking them from getting the rest of it? >> yes, that is correct. >> reporter: so 90% of the tumor is still inside your daughter? >> yes. >> reporter: as valerie braced herself for what lay ahead, ken allen tracked her down, and told valerie kayla was not alone. >> along the lines of phyllis, he didn't bother to do a proper examination. these patients who are putting their faith in you. they're trusting -- they're trusting the doctor and he's betraying them. >> reporter: valerie hired allen to file a civil lawsuit against mark weinberger. >> i was angry because of this surgery. he did an unnecessary surgery. i wanted him to go to jail and just spend the rest of his life in jail. >> reporter: this was a crime in your mind?

>> yes. >> reporter: as 2004 rolled on, the number of cases against mark weinberger was growing, and michelle says her husband's stress began to show at home. he was irritable. what did he tell you about what was happening at work? >> there were legal cases against him, and it was all unwarranted. and he was basically being targeted and persecuted. >> reporter: so in mark's telling, he's the victim? >> exactly. >> reporter: did you agree with that assessment? >> i really held him up on a pedestal, and almost every surgeon kind of faces some type of malpractice throughout their careers. you know, we live in a litigious society. perhaps that's what we're dealing with. >> reporter: she says she had no idea how badly some patients were suffering. and while phyllis soldiered on in 2004, her cancer took over her body and she told her daughter she didn't have long. >> reporter: and what did she say to you? >> she just told me that she loved me. like, i know if somebody told me

i was going to die, i don't know if i could be that stoic about it. but she just kind of nodded and was like, "ok." i remember, i just hugged my mom and just, like, clung onto her. and basically just sobbed and she just sort of held me. um, so and that was like the last real memory i think i have before she went into hospice, and then she couldn't talk anymore. >> reporter: on september 16th, 2004, phyllis barnes died. days later mark weinberger left with michelle for that vacation in mykonos. >> and i was putting two and two together with what attorney allen was saying there was more to the story. there had to be more to what was going on. >> reporter: she was right. but she didn't know the half of it. how many victims? how much money? and the sheer scale of what would turn out to be weinberger's criminal scheme. >> coming up -- >> one guy cannot legitimately

bill $13 million. >> not without an escape hatch. >> reporter: did you hear anyone mention the scary room? >> yes. the staff hadn't gone into that room in months. months ooo! our car's value went up! maybe we should track all our cars' value on carvana? >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues we need more trackers! i'll track the van! gotcha! is that my belt? ah, parts of it, yeah. oh! i'm getting a value update! do you see which one is going off? how's it trackin'? good! got some dips, some rises. now what? "hold?" sold. did we get a little carried away? noooo. room for more! track your car's value on carvana today. if you're living with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis or active psoriatic arthritis symptoms can sometimes hold you back. but now there's skyrizi, so you can be all in with clearer skin. ♪things are getting clearer♪ ♪yeah, i feel free to bare my skin♪ ♪yeah, that's all me.♪

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host (voiceover): in the months after michelle's husband, mark weinberger, vanished, horror stories from his patients continued piling up. >> reporter: in the months after michelle's husband mark weinberger vanished, horror stories from his patients continued piling up. and as michelle learned the excruciating details, she says she was floored. >> i just didn't fully understand it. >> mark hurt you. why was it difficult to believe he hurt so many other people as well? >> i think i still clung to the fact that he was a good doctor. it's mindboggling to me to think that someone would go into the helping profession and actually harm people. >> reporter: and weinberger's harm extended to his own clinic. his staff told michelle that in the days after he went on the

run, they watched in real time as weinberger hollowed out one business account after another. >> they would click on another account, and money would disappear. they would click on another account. the money would be drained at that moment. so he was somewhere purposefully taking all the money outta the business. >> and there was a lotta money to take. >> he had just gotten another loan from a bank. >> the bank was very, very nervous. the bank had lent millions of dollars to the clinic that mr. weinberger ran. >> reporter: bob handler is what's known as a turnaround specialist and was contacted by mark weinberger's bank to stop the clinic from going under. assisted by physicians, he jumped in to salvage weinberger's cutting-edge surgical complex. >> every doctor that we took into the surgical suite tried to act cool, but you could tell they were trying to prevent their jaw from dropping on the floor when they saw the facility. >> reporter: and they were in awe of weinberger's

state-of-the-art equipment. ahead of its time. >> he had a setup so that he was almost like playing a video game. his hands are down here while he's manipulating, you know, the tools that he needs to do the surgery. >> reporter: and he is look at the screen to determine where he cuts next? >> exactly. >> reporter: the same facility where staff bragged mark often did multiple surgeries in a day was, to bob handler, something sinister. >> it was a production line. >> reporter: a surgery mill. >> yes. >> reporter: meanwhile, personal injury attorney ken allen was learning how that mill operated. how phyllis barnes's cancer got past mark weinberger. >> he didn't examine her. he didn't examine her. she was just a number like the rest of his patients. come in, get a diagnosis. and say oh yeah, you got polyps, you need surgery and show them a picture which typically wasn't even theirs. bam, that's it. >> he'd show them pictures of >> reporter:

someone else's polyps >> oh,yeah. >> and say that they were yours? >> yeah. and uh, it's only gonna get worse, so let's get this fixed. >> reporter: how many surgeries was he doing a day? >> weinberger did 15 to 22 surgeries a week. which is an incredible amount of surgery. >> reporter: and allen learned weinberger often didn't do the surgeries he said he did. >> some people he would just fiddle around in their sinuses. some people he would drill holes to drain their sinuses. but bill. the bills went out before these patients left the office. >> in 2003 he billed, $13 million. >> reporter: $13 million? >> yes. >> reporter: in one year? >> in one year. i consulted with one of my best friends. another doctor, a decent business man. he said, bob it's fraud. >> reporter: fraud? >> he goes, one guy cannot legitimately bill $13 million. >> reporter: as kayla's mom

valerie learned about weinberger's operation, she was outraged. >> with his education, the knowledge that he had, he could have had a very successful practice and done well. it didn't need to be that greedy. >> reporter: is that what this is about? >> to me, it was about greed. he wanted it all. as much money as he can get. why else would he do something like that? >> reporter: but bob handler wasn't done. weinberger's staff directed him to a place in the clinic that didn't jibe with the rest of the facility. a secret room that, maybe, held the key to where weinberger might be. the employees had a name for it. did you hear anyone mention the scary room? >> yes. the staff hadn't gone into that room in months. it really scared them. >> it was a room in his practice where he had hoarded all of these survival items. things to make saltwater into regular water. >> guide books, um, translation guides.

a lot of camping equipment. we found his book list on amazon.com. one of the books was how to hide your assets and disappear. >> reporter: clue number one! >> that's right. >> reporter: another clue he got from the staff was about an unexpected group of visitors. >> there were men in black suits and briefcases that came to the office to meet with him. >> reporter: they turned out to be from new york city's famous diamond district. >> he bought a bunch of raw diamonds, or uncut diamonds. that's an easy way to carry cash without carrying cash. >> reporter: but there was cash too. handler found out about the suitcases weinberger had sent to europe before the mykonos trip. the same ones michelle had learned about. and recovered one of them from a hotel in paris. it contained more survival gear and guide books. >> one of the guide books had the pages glued shut. so, you know, natural curiosity says, yeah, take a look.

>> reporter: what happened? >> one of my guys used a little knife to pull open the pages, and sure enough 5,000 euros fell out. >> reporter: that was nearly $4,000. >> the more people i spoke to, the more i began to slowly put the puzzle pieces together that this was very methodically planned. >> reporter: as the lawsuits against him piled up, weinberger must have seen the walls closing in and decided to run. the "piece de resistance" of his escape plan was the romantic vacation on his yacht in mykonos to celebrate michelle's 30th birthday. the perfect cover for him to slip away. you were about to get the surprise of your life. >> i was pretty much like a lamb walking into the slaughter. >> reporter: and "poof." he was gone. as the whole horrifying picture of mark weinberger's scheme came together, michelle says she had a profound change of mood. >> fear and sadness started to turn more into a deep desire to bring him to justice.

>> reporter: but how? nobody knew where he was. in fact, he was far away, starting a new life in a place he was sure no one could find him. off the grid, untraceable, and free. or so he thought. >> coming up -- >> he was a slippery guy. he's in miami, he's in new york, israel. >> reporter: but then, opportunity knocked: >> the fbi contacted me and said if you still are interested in having him be found, this is the best chance. and i thought, "okay, i can't pass that up." >> when "dateline" continues. especially when they're eggland's best. taste so fresh and amazing. ( ♪♪ ) deliciously superior nutrition, too. for us, it's eggs any style. as long as they're the best. eggland's best.

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no matter where life takes you, biktarvy can go with you. talk to your healthcare provider today. i'll be honest. by the end of the day, my floors...yeesh. but who has the time to clean? that's why i love my swiffer wetjet. it's a quick and easy way to get my floors clean. wetjet absorbs and locks grime deep inside. look at that! swiffer wetjet. reporter: no one knew exactly where mark weinberger was. but the ruin he left behind, that was hard to miss. for starters, all those expensive toys he'd amassed over the years, he left the bill with michelle. how much debt did he leave you with? michelle kramer: oh, my gosh, there's so many big numbers here. i think it was $30 million worth of debt.

it was the number that was just i never would have been able to pay off. millions of dollars in debt. tens of millions of dollars in debt. and how much did you have in your account to cover it? [scoffs] nothing. i had the 2,000 euros that he left me with. reporter: about $1,500. within months of her husband leaving, michelle filed for divorce. she later declared bankruptcy. still, she was determined to keep the story of his betrayal in the public eye. michelle kramer: i was like, ok, my ex-husband, he's on the run. what part of that can i change? i want to change the part where he's running. reporter: despite the emotional toll, she spoke to the press often, including to "dateline" in 2005 and to nbc's wmaq. and it was like peeling, like the scars away from my heart, telling the whole story each time. reporter: and she tried to move on, going to grad school for psychology. eventually, she gave up that dream of chasing her ex around the world and confronting him. she left that to others.

ken allen: we have investigators that we hire in cases like this that follow up leads. but he was a slippery guy. he's in miami. he's in new york, israel. reporter: but those leads fizzled. time dragged on. meanwhile, lawsuits mounted. the state revoked weinberger's medical license and the us attorney in indiana opened a criminal fraud investigation against him. remember those shredded documents michelle recovered from her husband's office? she held on to them and now gave them to federal investigators. then in 2006, two years after his disappearance, a federal grand jury indicted weinberger on 22 counts of health care fraud, saying he billed for procedures he never performed. the fbi later issued a warrant for his arrest. michelle kramer: it's shocking to think back that i married someone that ended up being a fugitive and was on the run. if you would have told me that as a little girl when i pictured my wedding, i would have been horrified by that.

reporter: weinberger now had the us government chasing him for criminal violations. and yet, no one was having any luck catching up to him. those who filed civil suits against him in indiana, including shawn barnes, felt he might never be brought to justice. she was just a teenager when she lost both parents and had to take on the world. i kept my house by a hair. i barely was able to keep my house. reporter: she worked multiple jobs. her aunt peggy, who runs a popular steakhouse in their town of valparaiso just outside chicago-- kelsey's steakhouse. reporter: --spread the word that her niece needed help. peggy hood: anybody that heard about it, they would send donations, some as much as $3,000 or $4,000, some as little as a crumpled up dollar bill with a beautiful letter saying that was all they could send, but they hoped it would help her. reporter: it did. those donations helped shawn attend college, usc, where she got a degree in animation.

and they helped peggy, too. peggy hood: i think it made me see the worst of people and the best. people stepped up. they did. reporter: despite all that, shawn couldn't help but resent weinberger, still on the lam, for how he treated or did not treat her mother. shawn barnes: he's the chaos agent that entered my otherwise possibly boring, normal life and just sort of shook it up. and i never had any say in that. reporter: and kayla thomas, the little girl whose tumor could not be removed because of weinberger's surgery, she survived, but struggled in her own way. kayla thomas: there was so much healing that i still had to do. i had to, like, relearn how to walk. reporter: her childhood was full of hospital visits. kayla thomas: i had lost most of my hair from surgery. i had to be homeschooled so that i didn't fail the grade, per the state. i was just trying to keep everything at home together. people don't realize that he did much more

than take my daughter's health, take her childhood. he wiped me out financially as well. he took my retirement and everything. there's just-- there's a much bigger picture, all because of him being selfish, him being a monster. reporter: kayla's mom, valerie, dreamed of weinberger being captured. did you imagine what might happen if you had a face to face? yes, i did. actually, i imagined that he had long hair and i would grab him by the hair and punch him. reporter: you saw that in your-- as you went to-- i dreamt that. reporter: as you went to sleep at night-- yes. reporter: --you thought of mark weinberger? yes. reporter: how would you describe what he did, by skipping town and running away? cowardly. i mean, he had done all of these actions for greed or for whatever other purpose. and then someone starts calling him on his actions, and he thinks that he's above the law. reporter: they knew his arrest wouldn't undo their misery, but it would allow their lawsuits

to move forward, bring them a step closer to justice. and michelle wanted to help. in 2008, almost four years after she'd last seen her ex, michelle got a call. "america's most wanted" decides to do another story. why did you agree to do that? oh, at that point, i think the fbi contacted me and said, we aren't gonna find him. if you still are interested in having him be found, you know, this is the best chance. and i thought, ok, i can't pass that up. did you think anything would come of it? i hoped. i always hoped. reporter: the show aired that year and was followed by nothing. no new leads. michelle was undeterred. michelle kramer: all someone has to do is google or watch a television show across the world, an you can, you know, possibly find someone. i just was gonna put it out there as the last hail mary pass. reporter: how could she know that right then another woman, an ocean away, had just fallen for a mysterious american,

about to commit to all his promises and dreams, and about to learn the truth? narrator: coming up-- monica specogna: i was not thinking, what are you doing, monica? it was just because, yeah, love. narrator: --love and more lies-- monica specogna: apparently, mark is not who claimed to be. narrator: --when "dateline" continues. on medicare? living with diabetes?

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learn more and try for free at freestylelibre.us reporter: courmayeur, nestled on the italian side of the alps, looks like something you'd find in a storybook, an appropriate setting for a saga like this. it is absolutely beautiful. reporter: writer buzz bissinger painted the picture for us back in 2011, when he was a consultant on this story. it's got this cobbled main street and all these beautiful shops, and it's very, very moneyed. reporter: the kind of place you might go to lose yourself and stay lost. in 2006, a quiet american came to this ski village. buzz bissinger: it's not that well-known resort, because it's basically hard to get to. the italian alps are set against it. what a perfect place to land. reporter: but someone did take notice of the new man in town. i was cashier, into my store. reporter: monica specogna was working in her family's small grocery.

it was an american, evident. we began to talk about music, talk about snow condition. what was his name? mark stern. reporter: mark stern? yeah. reporter: this american, mark stern, told monica he wanted to improve his skiing. could she help? could she ever. she shushed down slopes like most kids skip to the park. she took the newcomer on and they became friends. we skied every same day. is he a good skier? not really a good skier, but with personality and that was impressing me, sure. reporter: monica and this mark stern chatted on the slopes and ski lifts. they shared interests, nature, sports. monica specogna: we had a strange connection with music, beastie boys. beastie boys. "fight for your right to party."

ooh. [hammering] reporter: monica was drawn to this quiet american, who seemed reluctant to talk about his past. he mentioned he was married but divorced, had been on wall street. he told me to be-- to be a broker in new york city. reporter: it was obvious he was rich and eccentric. he's always is full of money. wow, incredible. more money than you'd seen. absolutely, yes. did he have a credit card? no, never. cash. great, great cash. cash. still cash every day. reporter: enough to take off for months at a time. that was odd, too. summertime, he left. did you ask him where he'd been? he was talking to me, i ride bicycle around switzerland. he was always on ride, on ride his bicycle. [wind howling] reporter: but the beginning of 2009 signaled a change. after spending more than two years

off and on in courmayeur, mark seemed to get serious about the village and monica. on valentine's day, he surprised her. he was romantic. did you tell him you loved him? monica specogna: yeah, i did it. i did it, yeah. reporter: she thought he loved her, too. she introduced him to her family. did your parents like mark? oh, absolutely. yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. he was-- he was nice with them. reporter: but he said their future together would have to wait just a bit. first, he wanted to write a survival book, he wanted to live on the mountain in a tent by himself for a year. so this is base camp. reporter: monica recorded this video of mark stern and his campsite on her cell phone. it was in the shadow of the world famous mont blanc, in the middle of nowhere, but close enough to somewhere. this direction is switzerland. this direction is french. reporter: both the swiss and french borders were nearby,

in case he wanted or needed to travel suddenly. it's a place 6-- 6,000 feet. reporter: to her, it seemed crazy. but writer, buzz bissinger, says monica's mark stern was actually behaving true to form. buzz bissinger: i think we decided, i'm living this philosophical, ascetic, monk-like life, i have to do it big time. i'm gonna go to the mountain and i'm gonna live up to my butt in snow in 15 degree below weather and prove my manhood unlike anyone else has ever proved it. it makes perfect sense to me because that's exactly what a narcissist does. and there's a little-- reporter: mark said he was prepared with big ticket camping equipment. of course, he'd need a little help. throughout the fall of 2009, monica bicycled often and for hours to bring him supplies. i was not thinking, what are you doing, monica?

it was just because, yeah, love. reporter: but even with all her help, all that equipment, the storms were brutal. the isolation intense. she could see him faltering. monica specogna: he told me, it's too much. i want to end. i was interpreting this as i am tired to stay up there, because it's difficult. reporter: he wouldn't have to stay up there for much longer. it was the middle of december. mark had been on the mountain for several months. monica got a call from a friend. he had something urgent to tell her. he said, me, be clear, monica, because apparently mark is not who claim to be. mark is not who he claimed to be? exactly. reporter: the friend was vague on the details, but he thought mark's last name was not stern at all.

it was weinberger. stunned, she typed the new name into the computer and stumbled on an american tv show. i don't remember the program, but it was-- "america's most wanted." exactly, exactly. reporter: that's how she learned her mark weinberger, not stern, was a wanted man in the united states. monica specogna: who is mark? and why to-- to lie to me? were you now scared of the man you loved? when you realize that your story with someone is totally lie, yeah, you're scared. you're scared. it's normal. reporter: as she stared at the computer screen, a choice stared back. she could pretend this wasn't happening or she could go to the police. you have a decision to make. monica specogna: i was in a strange position what to do.

what do you expect from-- reporter: say what you will about mark weinberger, the man definitely knew how to surprise the women in his life. maybe this time, this one would surprise him back. narrator: coming up, monica goes to the police. monica specogna: i said, listen, i have discovery. and we found that there was this international warrant of arrest. all because of a copy of his real passport? yes. reporter: that cracked the case? yes. narrator: and a fugitive comes in from the cold to a hot meal-- - he was hungry? - he was hungry. reporter: and you fed him? guido di vita: a good pasta with olive oil. narrator: --when "dateline" continues.

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reporter: winter was coming to courmayeur. snow blowing in, days growing shorter, as if time were running out, which it was in a way for monica specogna. how difficult was that decision, monica? rob, it was very difficult. i was fighting with myself. reporter: monica was wrestling with whether to tell police what she'd just learned about her lover or to ignore it. she quickly realized, she couldn't do that. you go to the police department, and what do you tell them? monica specogna: i said, listen, i have discovery. reporter: it was inside this carabinieri station in mid-december 2009, that monica specogna recounted what she found out on the internet, about the man who

called himself mark stern. she was very upset. reporter: guido di vita is a colonel with italy's carabinieri, who spoke with "dateline" in 2011. she told us, i thought i was living with mark stern. but after a check in the internet, we could realize that the same person whom i'm in love with is not mark stern. reporter: he says locals knew very little about the newcomer. they remembered he rented this apartment. and that when he first came to town, he did so in style. in a large limousine with a driver. traveling first class. yes. reporter: the officer says people assume mark stern chose courmayeur because of its seclusion, its proximity to france and switzerland, and this. do you forget how spectacular this is when you live here? you can't. you can't because it's very, very spectacular. reporter: he says the american was known to come and go, but when here, he spent big in its high-end shops.

always paying in cash? always paying in cash, yes. reporter: otherwise, mark stern kept a low profile. guido di vita: people here are respecting the personal privacy. so they don't ask. they don't want to know. it's-- especially if you're paying in cash, i gather. yes. and, oh, if you're paying in cash. reporter: now, monica specogna was filling police in on what she'd learned about him, how he might not be mark stern at all, but someone called weinberger, wanted by the fbi. what was the crime? the fraud. reporter: health care fraud. it was a fascinating story, but police were going to need more than monica's word. they needed proof of what she was telling them. here, on the left, we have the agency where he rented his flat. reporter: around the same time monica was telling her story to police, a rental agent in town contacted them.

the caller said mark stern had skipped out without paying rent on his apartment. number 39? yes. and he didn't pay rent for how long? three months. reporter: the agent in town had a copy of the renter's passport with the name, mark weinberger. it was the proof they needed. next, they ran a check on the name. and we found that there was this international warrant of arrest. reporter: all because of a copy of his real passport? yes. reporter: that cracked the case? yes. now, they had to find him. monica had already told police mark was likely hiding in his tent on the mountain. that's where this man came in. your mission is to find this fugitive, mark weinberger, and capture him. [speaking italian] interpreter: firstly, our mission was to find out if he was in the area. so i sent out a helicopter. reporter: but commander giuseppe balistreri's team found nothing.

then he got a tip directing him to a specific area called val feret in the shadow of mont blanc. it was december 15, 2009. weinberger had been on the run for five years. temperatures that day were below freezing, the going treacherous. [wind howling] balistreri and his team took us back to the spot. did you think he was dangerous? [speaking italian] interpreter: yes, we were concerned that he may be dangerous. [speaking italian] reporter: after a few hours searching, balistreri and his team spotted the tent. soon, a man emerged, matching the description they'd been given. what did he say his name was? mark weinberg. reporter: mark weinberg, not mark weinberger. balistreri knew mark was lying, but played it cool. this is one of several photos they took. that's mark on the far right next to the commander. balistreri told mark they were looking for someone else

on the mountain, but needed him to come to the station to fill out a few forms, strictly procedure. was he willing to go? [speaking italian] interpreter: no, not right away. he tried to get out of coming down to the police station. reporter: they insisted and prevailed. they led him off the mountain and back to the station. he was a very, very quiet people. reporter: and they say cooperative. in return, they showed him some world famous italian hospitality. hungry? - hungry. he was hungry? guido di vita: he was hungry, ok? reporter: and you fed him? ok. a good-- a good pasta with olive oil. reporter: there he is at the dinner table, not realizing it would be his last supper as a free man, because soon his host would receive that formal arrest warrant from the fbi. when they did, commander balistreri asked his guests the pivotal question, are you mark weinberger? [speaking italian] interpreter: and at that point, he didn't deny it.

finally, he said he was mark weinberger. yes, mark weinberger. reporter: and with that, mark weinberger's great escape from the fraud and misery he inflicted on others was over. he was finally in custody. did you search him? yes, completely. no weapons. reporter: or so they thought. mark weinberger had just come up with a new escape plan. narrator: coming up, news of the nose doctor's arrest traveled fast. i started crying. i was definitely-- it was tears of just joy and feeling like, gosh, they finally caught this person. narrator: and the wheels of justice start turning-- i thought, you know what? we're gonna bring you in front of a jury and you're gonna get your just desserts. narrator: --when "dateline" continues. when you want something, you pursue it. and with vitiligo, the pursuit for your pigment

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hi, i'm richard lui with a news update. frustration over drone sightings are reaching a boiling point is reports a mysterious flying objects continued to pour in. the fbi is one of several agencies asking residents to share information they may have about the drones. president elect trump tapped dylan to lead the department of justice civil rights division. she's a republican are known for championing causes in committeewoman for california. committeewoman for california. reporter: in december 2009, mark weinberger was here in the custody of italian carabinieri police. commander giuseppe balistreri says his officers had apprehended a fugitive on the fbi's wanted list, but they treated weinberger only with kindness, respect, and humanity. did you have any idea what was about to happen next? no. [speaking italian] interpreter: no. no, there's no way i could have imagined

what would happen next. we were just about to put the handcuffs on him when he asked to go to the bathroom. reporter: he says a guard stood in the open doorway of the bathroom, but weinberger was too quick. giuseppe balistreri: [speaking italian] interpreter: in an instant, he pulled out a knife. reporter: commander, show me what he did with the knife. as weinberger cut his own throat, the guard jumped on him and pulled his knife away. was he seriously injured? giuseppe balistreri: yes. [speaking italian] interpreter: yes, the wound was bleeding profusely and we used tablecloths, anything we could find to stop the bleeding. reporter: weinberger was taken to the hospital and patched up. it wasn't long before word of his dramatic move reached monica and she came to be at his side. monica specogna: in the hospital, i said to him, mark, i know who you are. i know what you did. did he say he was sorry to you? never.

reporter: mark's thoughts were elsewhere, like how he was going to pay for his treatment. what did he say to you? he had a problem with medical insurance. reporter: monica still didn't know the extent of what mark had done. and as betrayed as she felt, she still wanted to help him. i was still in love. you gave him some money, right? yeah, i did. reporter: more than $12,000. did he pay you back? [scoffs] it's a joke. no. no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. reporter: as weinberger recovered in the hospital, back home, sensational news headlines screamed, the nose doctor had been nabbed at an alpine hideout in italy. it had been five long years since michelle had seen her ex-husband. she was putting her life back together, pursuing a career in psychology with an internship when her phone rang. michelle kramer: it was the producer from "america's most wanted."

and she said, we found mark weinberger. and i was just in complete shock. and then she said, and he's, you know, in a hospital in torino, and he tried to kill himself. and again, complete shock. and i started crying. i was definitely-- it was tears of just joy and feeling like, gosh, they finally caught this person. reporter: ken allen says he didn't miss a beat. december 15, 2009, you get the call. it's time to go, baby. i thought, you know what? we're gonna bring you in front of a jury and you're gonna get your just desserts. reporter: he immediately got on the phone to phyllis barnes's sister, peggy, whose family had been suffering for nearly 10 years. what goes through your mind? it was so crazy. i couldn't believe that he finally was found. our whole family had gone through a lot at his expense. and there was no amount of justice that would make

up for what she went through. i wanted him to be held accountable, but there was nothing that was going to bring her back. reporter: valerie thomas had similar thoughts about her daughter, kayla. she wanted to see weinberger in court as soon as possible. you want to face him? yes. and what do you want to say? valerie thomas: why? why would you do something like this? why would you do something like this to a child? reporter: as for weinberger's supposed attempt to take his own life, michelle wasn't buying it. michelle kramer: no, i don't think that that was a genuine suicide attempt at all. i think it was most likely a manipulative act to, you know, end up in a hospital instead of a prison. reporter: do you think he's capable of suicide? michelle kramer: i don't think that he would destroy himself. everything that he's done has been to protect himself and, you know, obviously at the detriment of everyone around him. he's a coward. this guy is a coward. i think he might have liked the idea, the bravado of saying, i--

you're not gonna take me alive. i think he knew exactly how to kill himself if he wanted to. reporter: two months later, weinberger was extradited to the united states. back in indiana, he faced hundreds of lawsuits and 22 federal charges of health care fraud that could land him in prison for up to 10 years. but weinberger cut a deal and agreed to plead guilty if he was given four years in prison. you look at the agreement. what do you think of that agreement? ken allen: well, i can't say that on television. the original agreement that the us attorney put out there was crazy. i mean, this is nuts. reporter: the judge agreed and intervened. fortunately, the judge was brave enough, smart enough, man enough to throw it out and tell him, he's gonna have to do time. reporter: that meant weinberger's criminal case could go to trial. and the hundreds of civil lawsuits against him marched forward, too, one of them

by a woman who likely triggered weinberger's five-year-long escape. phyllis barnes had died in 2004, but now she was about to tell a court her story from the grave. narrator: coming up, would mark weinberger tell the court his story? reporter: before trial, you get to depose mark weinberger? yes. this guy was really full of himself. and he seemed to be indignant about it all. indignant? indignant, yeah. and i just wanted to strangle him. when "dateline" continues. why just give a gift, when you can give a gift with meaning? shutterfly, make something that means something. enjoy 40% off your order with code gifts40. order now for holiday delivery. type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone.

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ask your eczema specialist reporter: mark weinberger was in custody in indiana facing a blizzard of criminal and civil charges. the plea deal he'd made in his criminal case to serve four years in federal prison had been roundly rejected by a judge, so he prepared for trial. then in 2011, more than six years after phyllis barnes's death, ken allen finally presented her lawsuit in civil court. i want a jury to render justice and honor phyllis's memory as a mother, as a person, as a contributor to the community. reporter: attorney allen was salivating. before trial, you get to depose mark weinberger-- yes. reporter: --in the phyllis barnes case. yes.

this is your first face-to-face with mark weinberger? ken allen: yes. you know, at first, he seemed like a wounded animal. but then as i got into the deposition, it became evident to me that this guy was really full of himself and he seemed to be indignant about it all. indignant? ken allen: indignant, yeah. and i just wanted to strangle him. [laughs] but, you know. there were guards in the room. ken allen: there were guards in the room. you can't do that, you know? [chuckles] so you ask 150 questions. and what does he say? well, he essentially refused to answer the questions, asserting his fifth amendment privilege. over and over again? yes, over and over. reporter: in court, weinberger's defense was that phyllis's cancer wasn't obvious when he examined her, that other doctors hadn't caught it

either, and that he did the surgery phyllis hired him to do. then it was ken allen's turn. he rolled out his key witness, phyllis barnes, in that video deposition she gave before she died. and he told me that-- reporter: in her drastically changed voice, phyllis described weinberger's production line sinus treatment. reporter: and then she laid out the agonizing downward spiral of symptoms that followed her missed cancer diagnosis. ken allen: do you remember being-- reporter: phyllis told the court about her excruciating loss of confidence, about the, "what's wrong with you?" look she got and how hard it was just to live.

in the end, the jury found weinberger liable and awarded phyllis's family $13 million. $13 million. peggy hood: justice. but, you know, after everything was said and done, she's still gone. what did the verdict mean to you? it honestly mostly meant that the jury determined that that was how wronged they felt we were. reporter: but despite the verdict, at the time, indiana capped medical malpractice awards at $1.25 million. so attorney allen pushed for more with the state's patient's compensation fund. how much were you able to get? ken allen: there is a confidentiality involved. but i can tell you, it was multiple of the cap, because they wanted us to go away. [chuckles] so i knew that i had done what i promised phyllis i would do, and that is fight for her daughter

as if she were my daughter. reporter: one year later, weinberger had his next reckoning as his criminal trial approached. but he decided, after all, he didn't want to take his chances with a jury. he walked into federal court and pleaded guilty to 22 counts of health care fraud, saying, quote, "i'm sorry, i lied, i stole, i betrayed a sacred trust." this is what he said at his sentencing in 2012 to the judge. "to my family, my teachers, my mentors, my colleagues, my employees, my patients, i am profoundly and sincerely sorry." he doesn't mention you. i think i noticed that at the time. i'm sure in his mind he thinks all kinds of horrible things about me or how i contributed to him being the person

that he is. but that's his reality, which is kind of a sad reality. reporter: as weinberger awaited his sentence, michelle believed he might never have faced justice if not for two strong women, monica and herself. michelle kramer: i feel like if you're in a volleyball tournament, i set up the ball and she spiked it in. as, you know, fast, and free, and smart as he thought that he was, two women were able to bring him to justice. so hats off to monica. reporter: but if michelle was hoping her ex-husband would get the max, she would be sorely disappointed. the judge sentenced weinberger to seven years in federal prison. what do you think he deserves? michelle kramer: i would be, you know, justfully saying he deserves life in prison. reporter: even more galling, taking into consideration the time weinberger had spent in custody awaiting trial,

the judge allowed him to serve the rest of his sentence in florida, so he could be near his father. valerie was beside herself for her daughter, kayla. i lost it. i was so angry and upset. i was nonfunctional that day because i didn't think that was enough, because at that point, she had suffered over seven years. reporter: and while michelle and former patients hoped the more than 280 lawsuits would ruin weinberger forever, the massive $55 million settlement was paid out to plaintiffs from the compensation fund. i think that there should have been other charges to account for what he did that affected the lives of his patients directly, not just the insurance companies. reporter: if that was what kayla and other former patients were thinking when they spoke with us, they might want to sit down right now, because "dateline" found mark weinberger, the man

who was once an ent doc. and would you believe what he's up to now? narrator: coming up, mark weinberger's new life-- he hasn't changed. that's horrifying. like, it's straight up horrifying. narrator: --when "dateline" continues. ooo! our car's value went up! maybe we should track all our cars' value on carvana? all of them? all of them. we need more trackers! i'll track the van! gotcha! is that my belt? ah, parts of it, yeah. oh! i'm getting a value update! do you see which one is going off? how's it trackin'? good! got some dips, some rises. now what? "hold?" sold. did we get a little carried away? noooo. room for more! track your car's value on carvana today. if you're living with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis or active psoriatic arthritis symptoms can sometimes hold you back. but now there's skyrizi, so you can be all in with clearer skin.

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reporter: it was all over for the one time nose doctor, mark weinberger. he'd been caught, convicted, sent away.

but it wasn't over for those whose lives he'd changed. and it still isn't, not really. michelle kramer: i think when you get the wool pulled over your eyes, you start to question yourself. like, why didn't i see this? what's wrong with me? reporter: for those betrayed, it's been a journey from self-doubt, grief, physical pain. you had nine specialists. there's a team of us to get me-- to get me through life. it was-- it was really-- it was a village effort. reporter: community, family, and friends were there for shawn barnes, too. but even with her settlement against weinberger, she feels cheated. it feels like if you screw over an insurance company, you get to go to jail. but if you ruin the lives of regular people, you just get your assets taken away. and he didn't have any assets by the time that we won the case. so he never really suffered for what he did to us.

like, if anything, the only thing that happened because of what he did to us is that he got caught. so he never really had that much in the way of justice from what he did to our family and what he did to my mom. reporter: weinberger served his time on the fraud conviction, less than five years of a seven-year term behind bars. he was released to a halfway house in 2014. since then, it looks like he's dabbled in cryptocurrency-- but you still want to invest in crypto. reporter: --and started a marketing business. as for his personal life, he's written a whole new chapter. there he is looking fit with his new family by the beach in florida, cuddling in a pup tent, playing catch with his daughter, and practicing yoga moves. but look a little deeper, it seems mark weinberger's new life has taken a cue from his old one. we did some searching online and we're

surprised to find mark weinberger is still calling himself a doctor, sort of anyway. he's now yoga doc, selling classes that turn from a nerd to a ninja, from a zero to a superhero. his web page has all the come-ons of a late night infomercial. using video and slick phrases, he holds out the promise of fitness through badass muscle poses with minimal effort. his downloadable classes, some $200, offer results through his expertise. sound familiar? only the goal isn't to feel better through surgery, but to look cool with superhero yoga moves. he says, people work out for two reasons. and if you guess, to get healthy and feel better, nope. he says, it's to get hot chicks and look great naked. yep. we wanted to find out more about those classes, so we tried to sign up. we filled in all the information, put in the credit card, but it doesn't seem to be working,

won't take the money. looks like the site might be down. and it's not clear if the business is even in operation. still, we wanted to know what they thought of weinberger's new life and his latest venture in health care and business. he hasn't changed. his entire website comes across as like one giant narcissistic ad. like, congratulations. that's horrifying. like, it's straight up horrifying. what do you think looking at that? i guess the unfairness in the world, doing yoga on a beach and my sister to have gone through the horrible, horrible death, partly because of him. life's not fair. reporter: we wanted to ask him directly about his present and past. our calls, letters, and emails went unanswered. [upbeat rock music] monica rarely thinks about her old boyfriend.

she's too busy creating music with her new rock band. monica specogna: i'm alive. i'm taking my life. i'm enjoying my life, 100%, for sure. reporter: kayla thomas is graduating from medical school. she'll be both an internist and pediatrician. she says she became a doctor not because of weinberger, but in spite of him. kayla thomas: i didn't do it to, like, somehow right his wrongs. i did it because when he decided to run, there were other doctors that were like, hey, i'll take care of you. and that's something that he should have done. so i did it for the people that stayed. and if we don't have the doctors that are willing to stay, that are willing to say, like, hey, i will walk through you with this, that's when are-- we lose our humanity. so he might have lost his, but that does not mean i have to lose mine. reporter: shawn is back living at her parents' old home in indiana. she has put some of her settlement money into fixing it up-- the one thing she could save from the wreckage.

she also focuses on volunteer work and conservation causes. i mean, this is a story of strong women surviving all this stuff, if you look at it in a number of ways. yeah. the little girl whose tumor he missed is becoming a doctor. the woman he met in italy has her own rock band. yeah. and you are standing on your own two feet. yeah. i'm doing good. what do you think that says about the victims of mark weinberger? i'd say that he has left a lot of ruin in his past. and i'd say that women are-- we're good at overcoming horrible things. like, obviously, everything he's ever done to try to ruin the lives of other people hasn't worked. we've all moved on without him. we're doing good. like, he tried to hurt a lot of really strong women and it didn't work.

reporter: which leaves us, more or less, where this story began with michelle. she had just been vacationing at sea when we caught up with her for this interview. michelle kramer: i woke up today, and i looked up outside of the cabin and saw the water and thought, wow, what a different day, what a different place, and what a different person i am than i was in greece at the beginning of this whole horrible saga. reporter: since then, michelle has dedicated herself to her work and others. she got her phd and became a psychologist for a major hospital. michelle kramer: so i became, you know, a scientist and a doctor in my own right. and i take patients very seriously. i think the most important thing that i've done since we spoke last was care for my mother, who had frontotemporal dementia. that, by far is the hardest thing i've ever gone through in my life and it's the most important work i've ever done. reporter: as for the past, she wants to let it go. then again, it is her story to share,

even if it is a cautionary one. michelle kramer: if it's able to help young women avoid something like this happening to themselves or make them realize, you know, it doesn't make you stupid, it doesn't mean that your life is destroyed, then maybe it all happened for a reason. and you are stronger than ever before. i definitely feel like i'm a resilient and strong person now, yes. [wind howling] you ever contemplating committing the perfect murder? and he said, yes. the key element to that is making sure that someone is caught. once they have somebody, they'll stop looking, and that's how you can get away.