Case 333: Dianne Babcock

On the evening of Sunday, August 22 1982, a Cessna C150 disappeared during a flight to Vancouver, Canada. On board were 19-year-old pilot Jerry Ambrozuk and his 18-year-old passenger, Dianne Babcock. As fears of a crash prompted an urgent search, a close friend of the couple received a mysterious phone call…
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Narration – Anonymous HostResearch & writing – Milly RasoCreative direction – Milly RasoProduction & music – Mike MigasAudio editing – Anthony Telfer
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A cast recommends Hello, this is blind By.

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Please see the show notes for this episode on your
app or on our website. On the morning of Sunday,

(01:28):
August twenty two, nineteen eighty two, a white two seat
Cessna C one fifty aircraft with red trims departed from Vancouver, Canada.
At the controls was nineteen year old Yaroslav Ambrosiic Yarick
for short, and better known to friends and family simply
as Jerry. Beside him in the passenger seat sat his

(01:51):
high school sweetheart, eighteen year old Diane Babcock. After flying
over the rugged forested mountain ranges east of the city,
the Cessna landed at the Regional Airport in Penticton and
Inland City, between Okanagan and Skaha Lakes. From the airport
lobby and upbeat, Diane phoned her family to let them

(02:13):
know that she and Jerry had arrived safely. The weather
was nice and they planned to visit Skahar's lakefront for
a swim before returning to Vancouver later that afternoon. Jerry
and Diane returned to the Cessna at around four thirty pm.
Before taking off again, Jerry filed a detailed flight plan

(02:35):
with Penticton air Traffic Control outlining their route home. The
couple planned to head west over the small town of Princeton,
then north toward the community of Spuzzum. From there, they
would cross Harrison Lake and the nearby resort village of
Harrison Hot Springs before continuing to Pit Meadows at the

(02:56):
eastern edge of Metropolitan Vancouver and final land in the
city itself. The journey spanned roughly two hundred miles and
would take about two and a half hours. The skies
above Panicton were clear just before six pm, when Jerry
received clearance for takeoff. With Diane beside him. He taxied

(03:20):
onto Runway thirty four, climbed steadily into the air, and
banked left toward Vancouver. The Cessna reached cruising altitude and
stayed on course for ten minutes until it soared out
of range of Penticton's air traffic control radar. The following

(04:01):
afternoon of Monday, August twenty three, nineteen eighty two, Penticton
Police received reports of a missing Sasna S one fifty
that was overdue on its flight to Vancouver. Two teenagers
from Vancouver's Lower Mainland were on board the pilot, Jerry Ambrosick,
and his passenger, Diane Babcock. The couple had departed Penticton

(04:25):
the previous evening without incident, but hadn't been seen or
heard from since Jerry's car was still parked at Vancouver Airport,
where the Sasna was conspicuously absent. The trip had been
intended as a one day adventure for Jerry and to Diane,
a last fling of sorts before school resumed in the autumn.

(04:48):
Jerry was planning to study geographics at university, while Diane
had enrolled in a psychiatric nursing program at the British
Columbia Institute of Technology was volunteering at a children's hospital
in the meantime. The Ambrosic and Babcock families had mixed
feelings about the flight. Diane's father was particularly uneasy about

(05:12):
the idea. On the morning of the trip, he warned
her to be careful. However, Diane and Jerry had both
been excited, expressing no apprehension at all. Jerry even turned
down his mother's request to attend church that morning, explaining
it would cut into his time with Diane and delay

(05:32):
their return until after nightfall. The start of their journey
home had been relatively smooth. Penticton lies between two long lakes,
nestled on a narrow valley floor. After take off, the
Cessna ascended over the city, gliding above the surrounding lakes,
vineyards and orchards that stretched across the open rolling hills.

(05:57):
The scenery was as easy to navigate as it was
Tarasque Beyond the valley, though the landscape quickly became far
more treacherous. Approaching Princeton, the rolling hills gave way to
forested ridges and.

Speaker 4 (06:13):
Sharp eroded cliffs.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
The terrain tightened further at Spasm, with the jagged peaks
and sheer rock faces plunging towards the roaring Fraser River. Cedar,
hemlock and fir trees covered the slopes, while moss and
ferns created a damp, darker atmosphere inside the deep cut gorge.
Further west, Harrison Lake stretched out like a fiord, its

(06:39):
deep blue waters framed by more steep forested mountains. At
its southern tip lay the small resort town of Harrison
Hot Springs, the only sign of civilization in the otherwise
vast wilderness. Beyond the mountains, the land flattened into Fraser Valley,

(07:00):
A patchwork farmland spread across the plain. From there, the
eastern suburbs gave way to Vancouver itself, with its sprawling
grid of streets and neighborhoods stretching out to the Strait
of Georgia. Although conditions were ideal when the Cesna took off,
it hadn't been spotted over any settlements along its intended route,

(07:23):
which immediately raised concerns. Its last confirmed sighting came from
the air traffic controller at Penticton, who oversaw its departure,
but troubling reports were emerging elsewhere. The first waypoint on
Jerry's flight plan was Princeton, west of Skahar Lake, yet

(07:46):
multiple witnesses on the ground reported seeing the Cessna veering
south towards a narrow, windy valley. This was significant because
the area was in a no fly zone. Snow allegedly
passed over the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory, which was equipped
with monitoring devices that detected aircrafts entering its airspace. Early

(08:11):
that evening, a disturbance resembling a small airplane was recorded
in the zone, but it quickly vanished without a trace.
Jerry hadn't radioed any flight service stations, nor did he
broadcast a Mayday call, the international aviation signal for a
life threatening emergency. The only plausible explanation for the Cessner's

(08:35):
sudden disappearance seemed to be that it had run into trouble,
leaving Jerry and Diane with no chance or ability to
call for help. While piloting an aircraft was an unusual
hobby for a teenager. Jerry held a private pilot's license
with about eighteen months of flying experience, including a solo flight,

(09:00):
was working towards earning his commercial license, with ambitions to
fly for an airline one day every Monday night. Jerry
attended flight school at Vancouver Airport, studying everything from aircraft
mechanics to emergency landings. He was well acquainted with the
Cessna C one fifty, a simple, compact and reliable training aircraft.

(09:25):
Its high wing design provided excellent visibility below and to
the sides, while its fixed tricycle landing gear made ground
handling straightforward. Jerry's instructor described him as an average pilot
who had not been night or mountain checked, meaning he
hadn't received specialized training to fly at night or safely

(09:47):
navigate mountainous terrain. Even so, he had previously flown to Penticton,
completed another cross country trip, and earned a top score
for flight planning. His instructor believed Jerry was fully capable
of completing the Penticton round trip, though acknowledged that a
young pilot could easily veer off course by misreading their compass.

(10:13):
The Cessna wasn't equipped with a fixed emergency locator transmitter
or ELT, making immediate efforts to locate it challenging. In
the event of a crash. This distress beacon automatically transmits
a signal to help rescuers find the aircraft, even if
no one survives.

Speaker 4 (10:33):
Because the Cessna.

Speaker 3 (10:34):
Was primarily used for training and typically remained within a
twenty five mile radius of Vancouver, regulations didn't require it
to have an ELT. Portable ones were available, but Jerry
and to Diane hadn't taken one on their flight. Consequently,
rescuers had to meticulously comb both the couple's flight path

(10:57):
and the surrounding terrain in case the aircraft had traveled
off course. Armed Forces aircraft searched from the skies between
Penticton and Vancouver, supported by volunteer, private and commercial planes. Meanwhile,
military and provincial Emergency Program personnel treked the traversible areas below.

(11:20):
The search had to be conducted three times over with
negative results before it could be called off, a process
that could take three to four weeks, depending on equipment
availability and weather conditions. The situation was undeniably grim. A
controlled emergency landing was nearly impossible in the mountains, gorges,

(11:43):
and forests. A hard crash into trees, cliffs, or water
was unlikely to spare the cessna's occupants, who had only
seat belts for protection.

Speaker 4 (11:54):
Even in summer.

Speaker 3 (11:55):
The high mountain elevations were cold, damp, and unpredictable. Anyone
who did survive the impact would still face hypothermia, exposure,
or dehydration within hours or days. Landing in one of
the few open valleys offered the only realistic chance of survival,

(12:16):
yet the Cessna wasn't spotted in any of them. A
water landing on a lake might have been survivable if
the plane hadn't sunk quickly, but the glacial water would
have brought on hypothermia within minutes. Survival also heavily depended
on a timely rescue, and the wilderness was vast. Even

(12:38):
with the dozens of aircraft searching, the wreckage could remain
hidden in the dense terrain for days, weeks or longer
without a distress signal or radio contact. The odds of
being discovered in time were slim. Searches deployed an electrical
parabolic microphone, a device previously used to locate missing children

(13:01):
and other lost individuals if the cessna had crashed and
anyone remained alive on board. The microphone could amplify even
the faintest sounds of life. It was used to detect
irregular noises throughout the search zone, but produced no worthwhile results.
By Monday, August thirty, the search had been under way

(13:25):
for a week, covering more than thirteen thousand square miles,
no clues and no traces of the Sassna. Jerry Ambrosiic
or Diane Babcock had been found. That morning, at ten o'clock,
Vancouver teenager Tom ash Pelowski received an unexpected phone calls.

(13:51):
Better known as Tom, he was Jerry Ambrosik's longtime best friend.
Both had immigrated to Canada from Poland, and their family
standing within the local Polish community had brought them together.
Their close bond, combined with their names, led to people
playfully comparing them to the famous cartoon cat and Mouse

(14:13):
duo Tom and Jerry. Tom was also close friends with
the Diane Babcock, and the trio formed a tight knit
group that spent most of their time together. On Monday,
August thirty, Tom's home phone rang with a collect call
from someone who had given the operator the name Lewis Gomez.

(14:36):
Although Tom didn't know anyone by that name. He accepted
the call and was stunned to hear a familiar voice.

Speaker 4 (14:44):
It was Jerry.

Speaker 3 (14:46):
Tom couldn't believe it was really him, after all, Jerry
and Diane had now been missing for a week. The
voice sounded strange, but after hearing a few words, Tom
was certain it was his friend on the other line.
The pair normally spoke English, but Jerry switched to their

(15:08):
native Polish during the call, making him difficult to understand.
Tom missed much of what he said and had to
ask him to repeat himself. When Jerry mentioned being in
New York City, Tom was baffled. Flying straight east from
Vancouver to New York is roughly two to half thousand miles.

(15:31):
The journey would require days of careful route planning, numerous
fuel stops, perfect weather, and a high level of expertise.
The idea that Jerry could have pulled it off seemed absurd.
When Tom asked how he had gotten to New York,
Jerry changed his story. He now claimed that he didn't

(15:52):
know his exact location, only that it was a very
small town. As for why he hadn't returned home. Jerry
explained that there had been an accident. He described the
Cessna crashing into a lake and flipping over with the
Diane trapped by her seatbelt inside. He tried to rescue her,

(16:15):
but water rushed into the cabin and rapidly sank the plane. Helpless,
Jerry swam to shore as Diane went down with the Cessna.
Although Tom wasn't sure what to make of the story,
Jerry sounded genuinely distraught and possibly in shock. Tom tried

(16:36):
to reassure him by insisting there was nothing he could
have done for Diane, but this only seemed to irritate Jerry.
He insisted that he loved Diane and accused Tom of
not understanding everything is finished. Jerry said he was unwilling
to return home, certain his parents would soon forget him. However,

(17:00):
when the conversation turned to Diane's parents, his voice grew
more upset. While Tom was still on the phone, Jerry's
father to Dayush Ambrosik, walked through the door. Coincidentally, he
had just retrieved to Jerry's abandoned car from the airport
with Tom's father and brought it to the Pulowski residence.

(17:24):
After realizing who Tom was talking to today, USh took
over and immediately asked his son what had happened. Initially silent,
Jerry eventually spoke up and admitted that he felt like
a murderer because Diane was dead Todayush urged him to
come home. When Jerry resisted, his father promised to find

(17:48):
him a lawyer. After speaking with his father for three minutes,
Jerry appeared receptive to the idea of returning, but when
Tom picked up the phone again, Jerry accused him of betrayal,
believing Tom had deliberately involved to dushin the call. Tom

(18:08):
denied this, insisting it had been unplanned and reassuring Jerry
that they were still best friends. But Jerry was now
withdrawn and no longer wanted to talk. He promised to
call back later, said bye, and ended the fifteen minute calls.

(18:31):
At this stage, nothing had been found in or around
any bodies of water between Penticton and Vancouver to support
Jerry's account, and despite sounding cooperative with his father, he
didn't return home, though he did keep his other promise.
The next day, at around five pm, Jerry called Tom

(18:54):
Polowski again and the pair had another long conversation. Jerry
was just as frantic and difficult to understand as before,
but this time he managed to convey a few crucial details.
Despite previously claiming to be in New York City, Jerry
clarified he was actually in Whitefish, a resort town in

(19:17):
the rocky mountains of northwest Montana. While much closer than
New York, Whitefish was still nearly five hundred miles east
of Vancouver. It was reachable in the Cessna, but would
be pushing the aircraft's fuel limits. Whatever the case, Jerry's
whereabouts implied he had traveled east from Penticton, rather than

(19:41):
west as originally planned. Surprisingly, he wanted Tom to contact
the police to tell them where to search for the
downed Cessna. He didn't know its exact location, but said
it was in Little Bitterroot Lake, a small mountain lake
outside the the town of Marion, less than an hour

(20:02):
southwest of Whitefish. Tom kept his word and relayed the
information to the authorities, who were in utter disbelief the
notion that the missing teenagers had flown nearly four hours
to Montana, attempted a perilous water landing that killed Diane,
and that Jerry was now phoning a front to confess

(20:24):
it all sounded absurd To prove he was telling the
truth about the calls, Tom submitted to a polygraph test
and passed. Although Jerry's first call couldn't be traced, records
revealed that someone using the name Lewis Gomez had been
systematically attempting to reach individuals with the surname Pelowski in

(20:48):
the days following August twenty two, before eventually connecting with Tom.
The second call was traced to a telephone booth at
a bus depot in New York City, not Whitefish, as
Jerry had claimed. Why he was in New York remained
a mystery. He had no friends or relatives in the city.

(21:12):
His only connection was through Tom, whose mother lived there.

Speaker 4 (21:16):
However, she had a.

Speaker 3 (21:17):
Different surname and her details were not listed in the
telephone book, making it unlikely that Jerry could locate her.
Following Tom Pulowski's tip off, authorities descended on Little Bitterroot Lake,
nestled in a remote valley, The lake stretches roughly one
mile long and a quarter mile wide. Its edges are

(21:41):
fringed with rocky outcrops, dense undergrowth and occasional wetlands, while
its clear waters mirror the steep forested slopes that rise
around it. A few cabins are scattered among the trees,
most of which serve as seasonal law vacation homes rather
than per eminent residences. Although investigators remained skeptical of Jerry's story,

(22:06):
inquiries with Montana authorities revealed some unusual information. They just
recently begun investigating an oily sheen on the surface of
Little Bitterroot Lake. There had also been reports of a
strange man seen wandering along the shoreline. John Taylor lived north.

Speaker 4 (22:27):
Of the lake.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
At around eleven o'clock the morning after the August twenty
two flight, John noticed that an old shag rug was
missing from his front porch, along with a brand new
hammock he'd left folded on an outdoor table. After speaking
with his wife, the couple concluded that the items had
been taken. While searching the area for the missing items,

(22:52):
John encountered a young man. He was wearing a dark
hat and white shorts with no shirt, odd attire for
the depths of the cold forest, where the weak August
sunlight barely filtered through the trees. Weirder still, he was
soaking wet and carrying a duffel bag. The young man

(23:15):
told John that he was just passing through, which struck
John as peculiar given that he lived on a dead
end road in the remote wilderness. The young man politely
asked if he could build a fire in a neighbor's
fire pit. John said it wasn't a good idea and
suggested he use a pit on a vacant lot about

(23:36):
nine hundred feet away. The stranger thanked him and went
on his way. A short time later, John passed the
lot and saw the young man standing beside the fire
he had lit. A total of six people reported seeing
the young man around Little Bitterroot Lake in the week

(23:56):
following August twenty two. He was boded sitting alone on
cabin porches and repeated the line that he was just
passing through. When asked by inquisitive teens about some cuts
visible on his legs, he claimed a bear had chased
him over a hill. When these witnesses were shown a

(24:17):
photograph of Jerry Ambrosiic, they confirmed to varying degrees that
he was the person they'd encountered. However, some noted a discrepancy.
The man they saw had no mustache, whereas Jerry did
in the photo. At no time was a young woman
seen with him. Because the local community kept to their

(24:42):
surroundings pristine, investigators quickly noticed a few out of place items.
One was a green plastic garbage bag silled with black
tape but torn open at the side. They also found
the clear plastic cover of a disposable razor. Among the
remnants of the stranger's campfire were the charred remains of

(25:04):
a radio microphone cord and a gust lock used to
keep a parked plane from moving in the wind. Both
items were from a Cessna CEA one fifty. Local reports
from the night of August twenty two varied. Some residents
heard nothing unusual, while others recalled a loud noise like

(25:27):
metal law tin falling rapidly. According to Jerry Ambrosic, the
answer to the mystery lay at the bottom of a
little bitterroot lake. The task ahead was arduous. Chilly, blustery
weather made entering the choppy water a challenge. The lake

(25:48):
was fed primarily by snow molt from the surrounding ridges,
making it freezing cold. Its bottom was also extremely rugged,
resembling a mountain range, with the deepest point reaching two
hundred and sixty feet. A layer of silt blanketed the
lake's floor, ranging from two to sixteen feet thick. Based

(26:13):
on the probable flight path from Canada, the Cessna likely
approached a little Bitterroot Lake from the north and went
down somewhere.

Speaker 4 (26:20):
In the south.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
Authority spent a week scouring the southern half of the
lake but found no trace of the aircraft. A local
sheriff told the media they would search until we feel
we have done the best we can to search the
whole lake. Still, the possibility that Jerry had deliberately misled

(26:44):
them lingered. After all, he delied to Tom regarding his whereabouts,
suggesting he was trying to throw authorities off his trail.
If Jerry's account was true, he might have been so
shaken by the crash and Diane's day that he wasn't
thinking clearly or acting rationally. But investigators couldn't dismiss the

(27:07):
possibility that the Cessna had never crashed at all. While
Diane's loved ones clung to hope that she was still alive,
others skeptical of Jerry's story wondered whether the little Bitterroot
Lake lead was a calculated diversion to obscure the truth
of what really happened.

Speaker 4 (27:26):
To the pair.

Speaker 3 (27:31):
As the investigation deepened, more peculiar clues and theories emerged.
A witness at Vancouver Airport record seeing Jerry and Diane
at the fuel station before takeoff. They were studying a
map and were overheard mentioning a destination possibly starting with
K or C and ending in the letter A, which

(27:54):
didn't align with anywhere listed on their flight plan. Right
before takeoff, Jerry hurried back to his car to collect
a Duffel bag, joking to the witness as he passed aby,
I can't forget this, it's very important. He and Diane
were also observed reorganizing items from the plane into bags,

(28:17):
leading investigators to speculate whether they had been transporting something unusual,
possibly even smuggling. Another theory came from classmates and friends
of the couple. Jerry and Diane had been going steady
for about fifteen months and were by all accounts happy together,

(28:37):
though discreet about their romance. However, their parents weren't as
thrilled by the pairing. The Ambrosics had hoped that Jerry
would date a Polish girl. While the Babcocks rarely engaged
with the Jerry at all. They appeared in denial about
their relationship, insisting the pair were just close friends and

(29:00):
objecting to how late Jerry sometimes brought Diane home. The
couple were compared to Romeo and to Juliet, the timeless
tragedy of young lovers doomed by their disapproving families. This
fueled speculation that Jerry and Diane had fled Vancouver to
be together, free from parental expectations. Perhaps Jerry had concocted

(29:25):
a scheme to convince the world Diane had perished, hoping
the search would be called off. Diane's father strongly rejected
this theory, telling the media that the teens had no
reason to elope. He insisted that if they had truly
wanted to be together, they would have been able to
do so with support in Vancouver. Some remained unconvinced by

(29:49):
his assertions, wondering if his diplomatic words were merely a
desperate attempt to persuade Diane to return home. If Jerry
and Di Dianne had truly run away for good, they'd
left behind no clear evidence of it. Jerry had rented
the Sasna for just one day. He and Diane had

(30:11):
packed lightly, only taking a change of clothes, swimwear, and lunch,
while every day essential such as their toothbrushes remained at home.
They carried only small amounts of cash, with no savings,
credit cards, or other financial means to support an extended absence.
They had never expressed any desire to run away together

(30:34):
to anybody else, and were making plans for a future
in Vancouver. Yet rumors surfaced that Jerry had recently tried
to sell his car and some personal belongings, and a
review of Diane's finances suggested she had close to sixteen
hundred dollars in her possession, which she hadn't disclosed to anyone.

(30:58):
Even though she had this money, she hadn't paid for
her school books or tuition, so what was she saving
it for. By Monday, September thirteen, the Search of a
Little Bit of Root Lake had entered its thirteenth fruitless day.
That same day, Tom Pulowski received another collect call from

(31:20):
Lewis Gomez case file will be back shortly. Thank you
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A Cast recommends.

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Speaker 4 (32:47):
As expected. Jerry M.

Speaker 3 (32:49):
Brosick was on the other line. Roughly ninety percent of
the call was in English, with the Jerry speaking Polish
the rest of the time.

Speaker 4 (33:00):
Hi, how are you doing? He began.

Speaker 3 (33:04):
Tom immediately asked why he hadn't returned yet, to which
Jerry replied, I told you I'm not coming back. Did
they find the plane? Jerry asked, no, not yet. Tom responded, adding,
I told them where it was. They can't find it.

(33:26):
Jerry insisted it was in Little Bitterroot Lake, saying, looking
from the lake, I guess it's well south southeast or
close to the south part of the lake or something,
but it's pretty well right in the middle. He was
confident that if authorities sent in divers they would find it.

(33:49):
Tom explained they had been searching the southern area for
several days with no success. You're kidding, Jerry replied, I'm serious,
Tom assured him. When Tom mentioned Diane, Jerry remarked, well,
she's dead. If they find the plane, she'll be inside.

(34:13):
Throughout the call, Jerry opened up more about what had
allegedly happened on Sunday, August twenty two. He admitted that
he and Diane had been planning to leave Vancouver and
had spent months secretly planning their escape. After considering several options,
they decided to use a plane as it would get

(34:34):
them over the US border more easily. They could then
travel further and be hard at a trace. They had
no intention of returning to Canada, going so far as
to provide a fake flight route home to avoid suspicion
and give the impression that they must have crushed somewhere
along the way. They'd hoped that after a week of searching,

(34:58):
everyone would assume they were dead and give up looking
for them. They planned to take the Sassena as far
as its fuel would allow, then put it down on
a lake before continuing their escape on foot. Jerry's flight
instructor had once explained that in the event of an
emergency water landing, a plane could float for ten to

(35:20):
thirty minutes. This would provide the couple enough time to
gather their belongings, disembark, and reach the shore in an
inflatable two man raft, leaving the Sassna to sink and vanish.
Once on land, Jerry and Diane intended to hitchhike to
New York City, reasoning that its size would allow them

(35:42):
to blend in unnoticed. Once they had gathered enough supplies,
they would proceed to their ultimate goal of relocating somewhere
remote to live off the land. Using topographical maps, they'd
calculated the maximum distance they could cover from Panticton and
identified large bodies of water within range. Timing was everything.

(36:08):
If they left too early, much of the journey would
be in daylight, increasing the risk of detection too late,
and the darkness would make it nearly impossible to safely
navigate through the mountains or pick out landmarks below. They
settled on Flathead Lake in Montana, far enough away to

(36:28):
give them a substantial head start and so far off
course that no one would suspect they could have ended
up there. Although they understood the risks of a water
landing and had no opportunity to practice it, they spent
countless hours discussing every detail, including their exit strategy. Jerry

(36:50):
used his flight training to practice aerial maneuvers and emergency
recoveries such as stalls, spirals, and engine failures. To prevent
their families from suspecting that their trip would last longer
than expected, they deliberately left behind many essentials. Each packed
only a small bag of items to get them through

(37:12):
their first few days on the run, including a razor,
hair dye and a hair permit kit to walter their appearances.
After touching down in Penticton, the couple wandered over to
a grassy patch near the rumway and spread out their
spare clothes as a makeshift picnic rug.

Speaker 4 (37:31):
For the next.

Speaker 3 (37:32):
Several hours, they ate lunch watched aircraft come and go
and studied their navigation maps while going over their plan
one last time. Back at the Sasna, they sealed their
travel bags in garbage bags and changed into their swimwear
in preparation for the lake crossing. Once in the air

(37:56):
and out of range of Penticton's air Traffic Control RAIDAR,
Jerry and Diane followed their secret route south, navigating with
the cessna's flight instruments to remain below US border radar
and away from checkpoints and observation towers. However, as they
approached Flat Haired Lake on the night of Sunday, August

(38:18):
twenty two, the numerous lights from nearby residences deterred them,
and they quickly switched to a more remote location. They
settled on Little Bitterroot Lake, which was twenty five miles
closer and secluded enough to avoid detection. It was also
small enough that swimming to shore would be feasible if necessary.

(38:43):
No one nearby would have heard the plane approach as
Jerry killed the engine during the final descent. He planned
to stall the plane and to glide it gently onto
the water's surface, but the Cessna was now low on
fuel and the pitch black night severely limited visibility. As

(39:03):
Jerry descended from the north, he realized his timing was
off and feared he was coming in too close to
the southern shore. He unfastened his seat belt, trusting that
his tight grip on the controls would keep him in place,
and attempted to slow the plane by dragging the tail
along the water, a technique he'd learnt in flight school,

(39:25):
but he miscalculated. The cessner's wheels hit the water first,
which felt like hitting a brick rock and caused the
aircraft to immediately flip over, propelling Jerry through the plastic windshield.

Speaker 4 (39:40):
The next thing he remembered.

Speaker 3 (39:42):
Was tasting blood as he desperately tried to orientate himself
in the dark, freezing water. He had sustained injuries, including
a bleeding nose, cuts on his legs, and a suspected
broken rib. Meanwhile, Diane called out for help. Jerry shouted
to her, asking if she was okay, yarick, She replied,

(40:07):
I can't get my belt off. He then realized she
was trapped inside the Cesssana strapped into her seat. The
seat belt consisted of a harness across her chest and
a strap across her waist secured by a buckle she
couldn't release. Jerry himself wasn't even sure how to unlock

(40:28):
the mechanism, and despite having been told the plane would
float on water for up to thirty minutes, it began
sinking within seconds. Likely con cast, disoriented and blinded by
the dark, Jerry struggled to find his bearings. He crawled
over the aircraft towards the passenger door, but just as

(40:51):
he managed to open the door, water rushed into the
cessna's cabin as if a dam had burst. It surged
around to Jerry's head, filling his mouth and blinding him. Frantically,
he reached inside for Diane, but couldn't feel her. He
suddenly realized the impact had flipped the plane, reversing the

(41:14):
pilot and passenger side. Diane was suspended upside down on
the other side of the cabin. Within twenty seconds, the
Sassna sank beneath the surface of the lake, taking Diane
with it. Referring to the botched landing as the stupid thing,

(41:34):
Jerry admitted on the phone to his friend Tom Polowski
that it was mostly his fault, yet he also criticized
the Diane, adding her big fault is she couldn't even
take the seat belt off. Jerry noted how there was
so much emphasis on the importance of seat belts, yet

(41:56):
the one time he didn't wear his and Diane did,
it saved his life and killed her. Crazy, isn't it,
he told Tom real ironic. After watching the Cessna vanish,
Jerry treaded water in a circle for what felt like

(42:17):
an eternity, hoping Diane would eventually resurface.

Speaker 4 (42:22):
She never did.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
Once the adrenaline wore off, Jerry realized he was numb
with cold. Remarkably, the garbage bag containing his duffel of
belongings floated out of the sassana. He used it to
stay afloat as he swam the mile to shore. Sitting
alone in the woods, freezing and in shock, he felt

(42:46):
as though he was stranded in the middle of a
desert with no compass or water. He visited a nearby cabin,
stole a rug and hammock to keep warm, then spent
the rest of the night curled up and struggling to sleep.
The next morning, Jerry encountered a local man who advised

(43:07):
him to light a fire at a nearby pit. He
used it to incinerate most of the evidence of his
and Diane's plan that had been in his duffel bag,
including their navigational maps and items removed from the sassana's
glove compartment. He also burnt his id, having decided to

(43:27):
continue with the original plan as intended even without Diane.
His bag contained a few items to kickstart his journey,
including cash he'd saved up, some spare clothes, a few
cans of food, and a razor he used to shave
off his mustache. Despite his desire to leave everything behind,

(43:50):
he couldn't abandon Diane at the bottom of the lake.
He therefore kept a one map showing the Sassena's location,
and after wandering aimlessly through the forest for several days,
he began his journey to New York. Once in the city,
he used a phone booth to call various Pulowski listings

(44:10):
in the phone book until he finally reached Tom After
sharing details of the incident and Diane's whereabouts, Jerry left
in New York and traveled nearly fourteen hundred miles southwest.
Along the way, a man who had given him a
ride stole his back, leaving him with virtually nothing. He

(44:33):
eventually arrived in Dallas, Texas, destitute and homeless, but soon
met someone who offered him a place to stay. Jerry
told Tom that while he wanted Diane to be found,
he had no intention of ever returning to Vancouver. He
was certain that once police found the Cessna with the

(44:54):
Diane's body inside, he would be charged with murder, despite
being innocent. I didn't do anything, he said. I told you,
it's not like I killed her. They know the plane
crashed and she died. They can see that there are
no wounds on her or anything showing I killed her.

(45:15):
It was an accident. But it doesn't make sense that
you're running. Tom counted, implying that if it truly was
an accident, Jerry had nothing to fear. Jerry remained determined
to start a new life, saying I think I'll like

(45:36):
it this way. I don't know why, but it seems
kind of I guess adventurous or something.

Speaker 4 (45:43):
You know.

Speaker 3 (45:44):
I was always a freak for that. He even expressed
the desire to write a book, telling Tom, I'll bring
it back to you in twenty years. Okay, you can
read it the whole story, detailed by detail. Although Jerry
sometimes sounded indifferent about what had happened to Diane. He

(46:06):
also expressed sadness about her loss and being by himself.
It's like half of you dying, he confided. He admitted
to feeling remorse over her death and blamed himself as
he had encouraged her to wear her seatbelt. When Tom
mentioned that Diane's parents still hoped she was alive, Jerry replied,

(46:31):
so do I, though he couldn't imagine facing them again.
Even though he didn't believe he had done anything wrong,
he knew he would feel guilty if he returned home
to Tom. It seemed as though Jerry was still in
a state of shock. He even admitted to trying to

(46:52):
erase the incident from his subconscious memory as a way
to cope. Tom continued to words Jerry to turn himself in.
The police were working over time, and it was only
a matter of time before they tracked him down. The
case was even making the news, prompting Jerry to exclaim, Hey,

(47:14):
I'll be famous. Tom pressed on, saying they'll find you.
They will sooner or later. Jerry replied sooner or later, Tom,
before jokingly suggesting he'd bet money that they wouldn't. Tom
appealed to Jerry by describing the toll the situation was

(47:37):
taking on his mother. She had stopped working and eating,
and her health was deteriorating. Jerry was sympathetic but resolute.
When Tom warned that his family would never stop searching
for him, Jerry replied, confidently, and they'll never find me.

(48:00):
During the final minutes of the call, Jerry assured Tom
that once the Sassana was found, the truth would come
to light and he would be vindicated. Okay, well, I'll
see you later than he concluded, Yeah, Tom replied. The
pair exchanged goodbyas and wished each other well in Polish

(48:23):
before ending their nearly one and a half hour conversation.
Unbeknownst to Jerry, the police had put a tap on
Tom's phone and recorded their entire conversation. They wondered, if
Diane's death truly was an accident, why would Jerry be

(48:44):
so adamant about staying away. If his goal was to
go into a self imposed exile and to begin a
new life, then his action seemed contradictory. Surely, the longer
the case dragged on, the more attention it would tract,
therefore reducing his chances of remaining undetected. Meanwhile, the search

(49:08):
at Little Bitterroot Lake continued. Echo sounders' devices used to
detect objects underwater, had uncovered something in the depths towards
the southern end. Searchers placed six boys around the location,
but divers were unable to locate anything During two separate dives.

Speaker 4 (49:30):
A salvage expert.

Speaker 3 (49:31):
Experienced in recovering underwater objects was called to the site.
He brought in sophisticated electronic sonar, which created a detailed
image of the water over a wide area, including objects
on or.

Speaker 4 (49:45):
Near the bottom.

Speaker 3 (49:48):
The sonar equipment detected an object about two hundred and
fifty feet below. The search crew dragged an anchor across
the spot and hauled it back up. It came back
streaked with red and white paint, the colours of the
missing SASSNA. A remote controlled submersible camera was then lowered

(50:10):
into the water, transmitting a live fee to a monitor
on a pontoon boat above. The camera's propellers stirred up
the thick silt, clouding visibility and resulting in no further breakthroughs.
The camera was redeployed the following day of Thursday, September sixteen,

(50:32):
three days after Jerry Ambrosick's third call. This time, the
unmistakable outline of the missing Sassna came into view, resting
intact on the lake bed. Apart from the pilot's side
door being open and some damage to the tail fin,
the aircraft looked almost undisturbed, positioned upright, as if it

(50:55):
had simply been parked there. The camera soon revealed the
body of nineteen year old Diane Babcock inside the cessna's cabin,
perfectly preserved due to the cool temperatures of the water.
Salvage crews raised the aircraft, and just as Jerry had described,
Diane was strapped into the passenger seat. Her long hair

(51:19):
was caught in the closed passenger door, her shoulder harness
hung loose, but her lap belt remained fastened, twisted with
the buckle reversed, holding her securely in place. An autopsy
determined that Diane had sustained a bruised forehead, a broken
collar bone, and a neck fracture, likely caused by the

(51:41):
shoulder strap during impact, though her cause of death was drowning.
The autopsy also revealed that in the days before the flight,
Diane had undergone an abortion. This came as a surprise,
as she had not mentioned it to her family. Also

(52:02):
recovered from the Cessna was an inflatable raft, tools, survival gear,
sleeping bags, and a backpack in a green garbage bag
that contained the few belongings Diane had packed for the trip,
including a change of clothes, some food, and a roll
of toilet paper. Among these items were a bottle of
hair dye and a hair perming kit. They lent credence

(52:26):
to Jerry's account that the pair had planned to disguise
themselves and start.

Speaker 4 (52:31):
A new life together.

Speaker 3 (52:36):
Speculation had run rife that the Cessna might have been
carrying illicit drugs or other incriminating items, suggesting an alternative
explanation for the incident. However, no such evidence was found.
US Federal Aviation inspectors thoroughly examined the aircraft and discovered
no signs of mechanical failure or any other factor that

(52:59):
could explain the crash. They ultimately concluded that the Sassena
had gone down as the result of a botched landing attempt,
just as Jerry had described. The aircraft was not designed
for water landings, and it appeared that Jerry had misjudged
both his attitude and angle of dissent. Even expert pilots

(53:22):
attempting night landings on smooth, reflective water found the task
extremely challenging. Not everyone was convinced it was an accident.
Diane's family couldn't reconcile that their intelligent and compassionate daughter
would choose to run away. Diane was preparing to go

(53:43):
to school the next day. Her mother pointed out the
Babcocks made public appeals for Jerry's return, believing he's the
only one who really knows what happened. They wondered why
he was still running if he had nothing to hide.
He had volunteered information about Diane's whereabouts, details that might

(54:05):
never have surfaced had he remained silent. Doing so placed
him at the center of a police investigation, but that
hadn't deterred him. This made for a puzzling contradiction. Another
pressing question remained, what motive could Jerry have had to

(54:25):
harm Diane. There were no reports of any conflicts between
the couple. There was no life insurance policy or inheritance involved,
no shared finances, property in dispute, or children to fight over.
And was it really plausible that a nineteen year old
could or would plan such an elaborate crime months in advance.

(54:50):
Using an aeroplane as a murder weapon was a unique idea,
but it was fraught with uncontrollable variables that would make
predicting and executing such a scheme nearly impossible. Then there
was the fact that Jerry had invited Tom Polowski on
the Penticton trip, a detail the two referenced during their

(55:11):
recorded phone call. Why would Jerry consider bringing another person
along if he intended to kill Diane. Whatever the case,
many felt that if Jerry had any compassion, he would
return to Vancouver and face the music. Authorities were divided

(55:34):
in their assessments of the case. Canadian officials accepted Jerry's account,
and although they initially pursued him for the theft of
the Cessna, they ultimately dropped the matter. In contrast, American
authorities remained highly suspicious and weren't willing to let the
case go. Firstly, his account appeared far from a tale

(55:58):
of star crossed lovers fleeing disapproving parents. On the recorded
call to Tom Polowski, Jerry admitted, it's not that we
wanted to run away from home. We just wanted to
get away. He vented that he had suffered for the
past eighteen years, claiming his parents yelled at him daily,

(56:19):
constantly badgered him to get a job, and criticized everything
he did. They never spoke openly and affectionately like a
normal family, leaving many things unsad Jerry emphasized that his
desire to leave was entirely his own and had little
to do with Diane or their relationship. According to Jerry,

(56:43):
she had tagged along because she was in love with
him or something like that. She had told him she
couldn't live without him, and in his words, all.

Speaker 4 (56:53):
This shit like that.

Speaker 3 (56:56):
To Jerry's critics, it sounded like his primary mode of
was to escape his home life, not to elope with Diane.
In his account, she came across as the devoted, almost
to desperate partner who was deeply in love with him,
while he seemed far less invested in their relationship. Critics

(57:18):
also questioned why Diane had struggled to release her seat belt,
which functioned no differently to a standard car seat belt.
The buckle wasn't jammed, and there was no evidence of
any malfunction. Diane's fingers were carefully examined for bruises, cuts,
or broken nails signs that she had desperately tried to

(57:39):
free herself, but none were found. Speaking about the case
for Datelines program at the bottom of the Lake, Detective
Pat Walsh said, imagine being in a craft that's sinking
and you're holding your breath and you're scrambling, you know,
the belt stuck. You can't get that belt free. I'd

(58:02):
probably break my fingers if nothing else, by straining, pulling
just on the belt fruitlessly until you have to give
it up. There was none of that. In Walsh's view,
Jerry could have rescued Diane if he intended to. He
also doubted Jerry's claim that his belongings had conveniently floated

(58:25):
free from the sinking plane, suggesting instead that Jerry retrieved
the bag himself while ignoring Diane's please for help. Then
his first act upon reaching the shore was to burn evidence,
hinting at a cover up. American police believed that Jerry
deliberately allowed Diane to die. They issued a warrant for

(58:49):
his arrest, intending to charge him with a negligent homicide.
The last call Jerry made to his friend Tom Plowski
was traced to a phone booth outside a grocery store
in Dallas, Texas, exactly where Jerry claimed to be. Beyond that,

(59:10):
the lead went cold. Although the search for him began
with urgency, it lost momentum. Within weeks. Jerry neither contacted
Tom again nor reached out to anyone else. With no
further clues in Dallas, investigators began to suspect he had
fled the city, possibly to Mexico. Then, in late nineteen

(59:36):
eighty two, four months after the ill fated flight, Jerry's
parents received a Christmas card from him, postmarked to Dallas,
confirming he'd remained in the city. The card depicted a
cat outside in the snow, peering into a cozy home
with a lit fireplace and Christmas stockings hanging across the mantle.

(01:00:00):
Inside a handwritten message in Polish read family in the
first place, I wanted to wish everyone a merry Christmas
and a happy New Year. Everything is well with me.
I'm healthy, and I'm sure I'll somehow make it on
my own. After sending the card, Jerry went silent.

Speaker 4 (01:00:24):
Again.

Speaker 3 (01:00:27):
As time passed, media coverage dwindled, reduced to occasional mentions
on anniversaries of the incident or sporadic televised features seeking
information from the public. American authorities sometimes received potential tips
from Interpol, with possible sightings of Jerry reported around the globe. However,

(01:00:48):
none proved credible. The Babcocks called the detectives who were
handling their daughter's case every week for years, seeking up
dates that never came. The mystery persisted through the nineteen
nineties and into the two thousands, with speculations swirling over
the question whatever happened to Jerry and Brosick. As original

(01:01:14):
case detectives retired and the investigation slipped down the list
of priorities. A Montana police spokesperson assured the press nobody's
given up on it. It's just that we haven't had
a break. Case file will be back shortly. Thank you

(01:01:39):
for supporting us by listening to this episode's sponsors.

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Thank you for listening to this episode's ads. By supporting
our sponsors, you support case File to continue to deliver
quality content. In two thousand and six, twenty four years
after Diane Babcock's death, thirty three year old divorce Gina

(01:03:23):
Johnson decided to try online dating. She joined the website
Yahoo Personals, where she sought a man who could be
her best friend and lover in one package, someone with
whom she felt chemistry on every level. I'm looking for
something real and lasting. Her profile raad not a fling

(01:03:45):
or a one night stand. For Gina, nothing was more
important than honesty. Her ex husband had cheated on her,
and men she'd subsequently met online had lied about their
relationship history, marital status, career or lifestyle, which only served
to make her warier. On her dating profile, she clearly

(01:04:09):
outlined her values. Do you understand the importance of mutual trust, respect,
and teamwork in a relationship. If the answer is yes,
I'd be interested in hearing from you.

Speaker 4 (01:04:24):
Soon.

Speaker 3 (01:04:25):
The profile of a thirty four year old fellow Texan
named Michael Smith caught Gina's eye.

Speaker 4 (01:04:32):
He wrote about.

Speaker 3 (01:04:32):
Being fortunate in his career and grateful for the friends
who made his days enjoyable, yet he felt that something
was still missing. Like Gina, Michael wanted a lasting relationship,
someone to share his life with and possibly have children with.
His profile read to be honest. I guess I'm still

(01:04:54):
a little old fashioned when it comes to relationships and
believe that you marry once, you marry for life, and
marry for love. I also believe that there are people
that you come across in your life that are very special,
but there are very few of them that you can
call soulmates. I want to meet that someone special, to

(01:05:16):
share things with, spend more time with, and eventually grow
old with. Michael intrigued to Gina, he seemed intelligent, attractive,
and shared many of her interests. Most importantly, Michael had
written the words Gina needed to see. I am honest

(01:05:37):
and don't cheat or play games. I would like to
meet someone that has the same philosophy. On the night
of Wednesday, March one, two thousand and six, Gina reached
out to Michael through email. To her surprise, he replied immediately. Encouraged,

(01:05:57):
she responded with her phone number in vice him to
call the next morning. Michael did just that, and their
first conversation flowed effortlessly. Gina did most of the talking,
but the call stretched on for two hours and still
left both eager for more. From that point on, the

(01:06:19):
pair spoke daily for hours at a time. By the
end of the week, they agreed to meet in person
for dinner. Any lingering doubts evaporated as soon as they
met face to face. Both were exactly who they appeared
to be online. In fact, Michael pulled up in a

(01:06:39):
sleek two thousand and three Dodge Viper, a sports car
that cost eighty thousand dollars at the time. He broke
the ice with a smile and the question, are you disappointed?
Gina beamed and replied no. When she asked the saying,

(01:07:00):
he looked her up and down, grinned and said no,
definitely not. Their first date was going well when Gina
suddenly noticed something peculiar. As a failure analysis technician for
a major semiconductor company, she was trained to spot small

(01:07:24):
inconsistencies and examine them further. Her eyes landed on a
ring on Michael's finger. It was a class ring from
the University of Texas, awarded when he completed a bachelor's
in aerospace engineering. Although Michael's online dating profile suggested he
and Gina were only a year apart in age, the

(01:07:47):
year inscribed on his ring indicated he had graduated college
the same year she'd finished high school. Wow, she remarked,
you must be really intelligent, smiled broadly, then quickly changed
the subject. Gina, did I'm press the matter further, But

(01:08:07):
the strange observation lingered in her mind. Over the following month,
the two grew closer and shared personal stories with one another.
Michael confided to Gina that he had only ever been
in love once, with a girl he had known in
his teens. He said she'd died tragically in a plane accident,

(01:08:30):
and he was left heartbroken. Despite this, he worked hard
to build a successful life, channeling his interest in computers
into a highly successful software company. His upscale home in
the city of Plano boasted a massive theater system, multiple
big screen televisions, a California King bad a swimming pool,

(01:08:52):
and a hot tub alongside his Dodge Viper. He had
apprized nineteen ninety six Pontiac five Bird Formula and a
nineteen eighty one Chevrolet Corvatte. He traveled the world and
owned two additional lakefront properties. Michael was currently working on

(01:09:13):
a project for Honda Formula one, which supplied engines to
various auto racing teams. He had an upcoming business trip
to Japan and to Gina excitedly agreed to accompany him.
To Gina, Michael was a considerate, calm and patient man
who respected her boundaries and genuinely enjoyed her company. However,

(01:09:37):
when they first became physically intimate, Gina noticed something else odd.
Certain features of Michael's body suggest that he was older
than thirty four. Later, when he remarked that he looked
a good for his age, Gina replied honestly. He was
initially displeased, but as the conversation canntinued, he reluctantly acknowledged, well,

(01:10:04):
actually I am older. Gina was furious she had made
it clear to Michael from the beginning how much she
valued honesty. Demanding the truth, she asked, how old are
you really? He admitted he was actually forty three, and

(01:10:25):
that he hadn't found the right moment to tell her sooner.
While Gina felt some empathy for Michael, she remained guarded. Later,
Michael opened up more about his high school sweetheart, explaining
she hadn't died in just any plane accident. It had
been a flight where he was the pilot. He shared

(01:10:48):
how they had been deeply in love and concocted a
daring plan to elope by plane. Teary eyed, he described
how the plane sank in a lake with his girlfriend
and trapped inside. When he mentioned arriving in Texas and
obtaining a new ID, Gina asked, is Michael Smith even

(01:11:10):
your real name? He hung his head, shook it, and
then confessed that his real name was Yarick Ambrosiic, before
clarifying that he went by Jerry. That night, Gina tied
up to Jerry Ambrosick's name into Google. The first result

(01:11:33):
was a newspaper article from Montana's Daily Interlake headlined pilot
holds answers in woman's death. The story read a Canadian.
Jerry Ambrosick was nineteen when his brief and unexpected trajectory
through Montana set off a nationwide man hunt and a

(01:11:54):
quest for answers about what happened here. On August twenty two,
nineteen eighty two, Ambrosick piloted as Cessna one fifty from
Penticton with his girlfriend Diane Babcock, eighteen in the passenger seat.
They somehow veered into Montana on their way to Vancouver.
The plane and Babcock wound up at the bottom of

(01:12:17):
Little Bitterroot Lake. Ambrosick has evaded law enforcements questions ever since.
Gina Johnson became even more unnerved upon reading that Jerry
was wanted for negligent homicide. She felt compelled to confront him,
but based on the story he'd told her about the incident,

(01:12:40):
she wasn't entirely sure of his guilt, and admittedly she
still wanted to accompany him on the all expenses paid
trip to Japan. Gina knew she had to address the
matter before they left. She called Jerry and told him
what she'd discovered. Harmley asserted his innocence without defensiveness, and

(01:13:03):
spoke wistfully about wanting to return to Vancouver, reunite with
his family, and live openly without hiding his true identity.
Gina suggested that if he was truly innocent, he should
turn himself in. She promised her support, but explained she
couldn't stay with him while he continued living a lie.

(01:13:26):
Jerry replied that he simply wasn't ready. In the lead
up to the Japan trip, Gina wrestled with conflicting feelings.
The trip itself was ultimately marred by the growing tension,
and by the time Gina and Michael returned to the US,
their relationship was effectively over. Gina couldn't make peace with

(01:13:49):
his deception, and they parted ways. Months passed, yet not
a day went by without Gina thinking of Jerry Ambrose.
If he was truly innocent, why was he so hesitant
to turn himself in. Gina researched Diane and the Babcock family,

(01:14:11):
discovering that Diane's mother had died in a car accident
in nineteen ninety nine while on her way to visit
her daughter's grave, a trip she'd made faithfully with her
husband every year. Diane's father was still alive, awaiting closure
and accountability. Tormented, Gina agonized over whether to contact the

(01:14:34):
authorities or let Jerry.

Speaker 4 (01:14:36):
Remain a free man.

Speaker 3 (01:14:39):
In the end, she picked up the phone and made
the call. August twenty two, two thousand and six, marked
the twenty fourth anniversary of Diane Babcock's death. A little
over a week later, on Wednesday, August thirty, the front
door bell rang at Jerry m Roaick's home in Plano, Texas.

(01:15:03):
He opened the door to find a man dressed in
plain street clothes and holding papers, who asked him, are
you Michael Smith? Yeah, Jerry responded. Just then a second
man appeared, aiming a gun at Jerry. The two men
quickly ushered him inside, cuffed his hands behind his back

(01:15:25):
and seated him on a dining room chair. What is
your real name, one demanded. Disorientated, Jerry had no idea
what was happening until he caught a glimpse of the
papers in the man's hands and saw Yaroslav Ambrosik printed
in bold at the top. Realizing the men were police,

(01:15:46):
Jerry remained calm but largely silent. He was swiftly taken
to the city jail, where he was questioned again. When
asked for his name, Jerry replied Michael Smith. He was
pressed about who Yaroslav Ambrosick was and his country of citizenship.

(01:16:07):
After a brief pause, Jerry answered Canada. Unwilling to respond
further without consulting a lawyer, he was taken into custody.
Jerry's capture both surprised and thrilled investigators, as it brought
an end to a decade's long international manhunt. When they

(01:16:30):
checked their database, they realized that Jerry had two encounters
with police after nineteen eighty two, having been arrested twice
for burglary during his early years on the run. At
the time of these arrests, he was known as Michael
Smith because he had no prior police record under the

(01:16:50):
name Jerry Ambrosick. There was nothing to connect the two identities.
The story of how Jerry became Michael began shortly after
he arrived in Texas. He'd wandered through a cemetery and
found the grave of a boy named Michael Smith, who
had died in infancy. This meant his financial and medical

(01:17:12):
records would be blank. The name was also common, and
their birth dates were less than a year apart, making
the identity easier to assume. That same day, Jerry obtained
Michael's birth certificate from a records office with no questions asked,
and used it to secure a Social Security number, a

(01:17:34):
driver's license, and a job. From that point on, he was,
on paper, an American citizen with a fabricated backstory. He
enrolled in university, built a career, and established a new life.
Following his arrest, Jerry spoke with his parents for the

(01:17:55):
first time in twenty years over the prison phone. The
conversation was surprisingly calm, as if nothing had happened. His
parents picked up right where they had left off, updating
him on everything he had missed. They shared that they
had prayed for him every day and never moved from

(01:18:16):
their home so he could always find them if he returned. Overwhelmed,
Jerry broke down in tears. Jerry maintained the same account
he had given in nineteen eighty two that he never
intended for Diane to die. They were simply two naive

(01:18:38):
kids who fell in love, eloped, and suffered a tragic
accident that claimed her life. He hoped that his exemplary
conduct in the US afterwards would persuade the federal government
to drop all charges. His case was supported by twenty
five character references, including one from his old best friend Tom,

(01:19:02):
Yet the US government was unmoved, adding counts of criminal
mischief and criminal endangerment as well as negligent homicide. Jerry
was prepared to fight the accusations, but just before trial
he accepted a play deal.

Speaker 4 (01:19:19):
He pleaded guilty to.

Speaker 3 (01:19:20):
Criminal mischief and criminal endangerment in exchange for the negligent
homicide charge being dismissed. He received two concurrent ten year sentences,
all suspended, meaning he served no prison time for Diane
Babcock's death. He did, however, spend four and a half

(01:19:41):
months in federal custody for passport fraud. He was also
awarded to pay approximately thirty four and a half thousand
dollars in restitution and fines, including core costs, damages to
the owner of the Sassna, and five thousand dollars to
Diane's family to help cover funeral expenses. After completing his

(01:20:02):
short sentence, Jerry was deported to Vancouver, where Canadian authorities
maintained their long standing view that Diane's death was accidental
and declined to lay further charges. To this day, the
circumstances surrounding Diane Babcock's death remain a matter of debate
and interpretation. Without Diane to share her side of the story,

(01:20:28):
any conclusions drawn about the case remain purely speculative. Some
see the case as Jerry Ambrosic intended a Romeo and
juliad esque love story with a tragic ending. He has
since self published a book titled A Tear in My Life,
The Brutal Truth. He also created a companion website, ambrosic

(01:20:52):
dot com, with extensive information, evidence, and documentation about the case.
In his work, his goal was to demystify the case
and set the record straight by correcting misinformation in Jerry's explanation.
He clarifies that conflict with his parents influenced his decision

(01:21:14):
to leave, but it was nothing more than typical teenage angst.
He confirms that he invited his friend Tom Polowski on
the Penticton trip, hoping to include him in their escape,
before ultimately deciding it was too risky to involve a
third person. Jerry also knew that Diane had an abortion

(01:21:35):
days before the flight. She had chosen to end the
pregnancy with his support, and remained fully committed to their plan.
Jerry claims that his dismissive remarks about Dianne during the
recorded call with Tom were cherry picked. At other points
in the call, he expressed his love for her and

(01:21:56):
his devastation over her death. Finally, Jerry believes Gina Johnson
turned him in out of personal spite and felt American
investigators were similarly biased, citing multiple instances where their reporting
directly contradicted the evidence. Jerry has described his relationship with

(01:22:19):
Diane as the kind of youthful passion that left no
room for reflection or consequences. He claimed their fatal plan
began in nineteen eighty one, inspired by the films Tarzan,
the Ape Man and Apocalypse now the untouched at golden beaches,
blue lagoons, and a vibrant rainforests depicted in these movies

(01:22:42):
captured their imagination. They shared a wild idea to survive
in the jungle, where they would build a treehouse as
their home and to live off whatever they caught or killed.
As they continued to discuss their imagined utopia, it gradually
became a realistic and bit.

Speaker 4 (01:23:01):
Part of the.

Speaker 3 (01:23:02):
Allure was the desire to disappear without a trace. They
didn't want to be searched for. They simply wanted to
be forgotten. Eventually, they devised a plan involving landing a
plane on a lake with the hopes of reaching South
America to live out their dream together. Speaking exclusively to

(01:23:25):
Dateline in his first media interview after his release, Jerry
admitted their plan was nuts, but added it didn't seem
nuts at the time. For Jerry, witnessing Diane's death was horrifying,
He told Dateline, twenty seconds before we were the two

(01:23:47):
happiest people in the world, and my life was just
torn to pieces in that moment. When asked why he
didn't try harder to save Diane or essentially sacrifice him
as some claimed they would in that situation. Jerry replied,
it's easy to say that when you're sitting on the

(01:24:08):
couch with a cup of coffee, but not so easy
when you have fifteen or twenty seconds the plane is
sinking in front of you and you can't open the door.
By the time you do, the plane is almost completely
under water. People don't visualize it this way or how
quickly it happens. The only way Jerry could justify his

(01:24:34):
actions after the crash was to attribute them to shock
that caused him to lose his mind. Quote that only
thing that made sense was my instinct to carry on.
We had a goal, and I was determined to execute it.
If I fulfilled our plan, somehow it felt like I

(01:24:56):
would not let Diane down. As for the part where
his duffel bag allegedly floated out of the Cessna with
his belongings and cash, Jerry described it as simply random luck.

Speaker 4 (01:25:10):
He referred to the moment when.

Speaker 3 (01:25:12):
His former girlfriend Gina Johnson turned him into the police
as a blessing in disguise, saying, as crazy as it sounds,
after twenty four years of living as Michael Smith, I
finally got my family back again. He maintains that Diane
was a fully receptive, consenting, and involved participant in the

(01:25:35):
plan to leave Vancouver, which is why he never accepted
the negligent homicide charge. While taking full responsibility for having
screwed up the aeroplane's landing, he argued both he and
Diane were equally responsible for the events that led to
the tragedy. He told Dateline, we did something stupid. This

(01:25:59):
was not my idea, this was not just me, and
that's not negligent homicide. That's two kids in love who
did something stupid. That's what it comes down to. For
those unwilling to accepted Jerry's version of events, Diane Babcock's
death is a crime story, possibly one of abduction and murder.

(01:26:25):
This belief is still held by US authorities, as well
as the Babcock family, who pushed for Jerry to face prison.
They believe that Jerry is hiding deep, dark secrets and
view him as a sociopath, pointing to the lavish life
he built as evidence that he was not a grieving
man mourning the love of his life. Lingering questions remain,

(01:26:49):
such as how Diane's hair came to be trapped in
the cessna's passenger side door if Jerry claimed he had
mistakenly opened the pilot's side. Detective Pat Walsh told Dateline,
I think he took advantage of an opportunity and to
let her go down, or just didn't try. He saved

(01:27:12):
himself and not her. One of the two things happened.
I don't know how you can explain it any other way.
Jerry's lawyer offers a different perspective. The only thing they
can prove beyond reasonable doubt is that he left, that

(01:27:32):
he ran away. He did make the wrong decision, but
it was an understandable decision, a forgivable decision. Jerry told
Dateline that he found the Babcock's attitude towards him appalling
and their assertions against him slanderous. Nevertheless, he offered both

(01:27:56):
them and his family an apology, which he read aloud
in court. I now know the hurt and the pain
that I have caused my family and the Babcock family
with my foolish ideas that resulted in the loss of
Diane Babcock. There is no apology sufficient enough to erase

(01:28:17):
the pain and suffering of all those involved. But I
would also like to say that the one and most
important reason I could not come forward earlier is because
of the pain and sorrow in my own heart due
to the loss of Diane, whom I still cherish and
hold dear to this day. I am hopeful that someday

(01:28:39):
the Babcock family will be able to find peace. I
am very sorry for all I did and did not
do in their eyes. I ask God to help us all,
and that He may someday allow them to forgive me.
During his interview with the Jerry Ambrosiic Dateline, host Keith

(01:29:02):
Morrison remarked, this is one of those kinds of cases
where really you're the only person on the planet who
knows the truth. After a moment of silent nodding, Jerry
calmly replied, true,