Dark Side of Paradise | Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] That's the wind dancer. That's my uncle's boat. You can see on the bow that used to say
wind dancer. The boat is just trashed. Something really bad happened there. [Music]
I'm Ezra North and Don North is my uncle. Don decided that he was going to go do
what everyone dreams to do. He sailed the entire Caribbean and found absolute paradise.
It is breathtaking. We understand why Don loved it so much there. My uncle lived on this boat for 22
years. This was his life. Don just wanted to live his life in nature. He was a beautiful person.
[Music] Don knew that bad things did happen, that there were pirates. He did have a gun. He bought a taser
just in case something did happen. In mid January, we started asking each other around the family, "Have you heard
from Don?" And all of us said no. We sent an email to him. I said, "Don, hey, what's up, buddy? Um, people are
looking for you. Where are you?" But, you know, Don didn't write back. It was as if he had sailed into a black
hole. I remember just thinking, I don't think this looks very good. Time was of the essence. We knew there
was one person who could make things happen and that was Don Winter. I can't walk away from something like
this. If I can get involved and help, I'm done. There's a lot of moving pieces in this
thing. Different physical locations, people using aliases. There's all kinds of opportunities for
bad things to happen. Oh my god. I gave him this hat. This isn't good. This was Don's worst nightmare.
Our friend Don was missing. Something terribly evil penetrated this this utopia.
Dark Side of Paradise. Tonight's 48 Hours Mystery. [Music] [Music] [Music] My uncle was an absolute free spirit.
[Music] Loved people, loved animals, loved plants. He was just a lover of life. When Don North and his sailboat, the
Wind Dancer, disappeared in the waters off Panama in January 2011, his nephew Ezra was sick with worry.
It's hard to work. It's hard to eat. It's hard to sleep. You're thousands of miles away from someone you love, and
you've got a million scenarios playing out. Ezra, an engineer for an oil company,
was determined to unravel the mystery of what had become of his uncle. Friends recommended the one American in
Panama who might be able to find Don North. All they said to me was, "Call Don Winner. This man can help you."
Don Wy is a former intelligence officer with the US Air Force and an investigative journalist who runs a
website for expats. He's also a CBS news consultant. When I get involved in something like
this, I drop all the other stuff and I go focus on the on the the most important thing. What is it about you
and who you are that makes you want to get involved? Why not? Why wouldn't you? If you knew that there was a family
member that was asking for help, wouldn't you drop what you were doing to go help that guy? I mean, it's just the
right thing to do. Winner told Ezra that he needed to file a missing person's report.
This should do it. I love you. Keep in touch. Okay. Ezra abruptly said goodbye to his wife in
Houston, Texas, and headed for Panama. What was it like for you to arrive here in Panama City that first time?
Overwhelming. [Music] Ezra and Winter hit the ground running north, searching for any information about Don
North. For Ezra, being in the Caribbean brought back memories of happier times with his
uncle, Dawn. My uncle was like one of my best friends. He taught me how to scuba
dive. He taught me how to hunt. Is everything that you want from an uncle, you know?
Look at the life he lived. And what a life it was. Back in the 1990s, Don North sold his
stateside gardening business, bought a boat, and set sail, cruising from Florida to Curissau to
Colombia, kicking back and just enjoying life. Every day of his life, he did what
he wanted to do. And he was a beautiful person. Don was a member of a tight-knit cruiser
community. People who choose to live their lives on the water. Tell me about the cruising lifestyle. For a lot of
people who live their life on a couch with a remote in their hand, it is extraordinary what you do. I think we
cruisers enjoy the the the freedom of being out there and being self-sufficient. Glenn Tuttle and his
wife Eddie are friends of Don North. Both are retired FBI agents who've been cruising the Caribbean for years.
You can literally catch dinner under the boat. You can snorkel and spear fish and
and catch lobsters and it's it's a paradise. He loved life. I know he loved me. Um we
had a lot of fun together. Becky Reynolds, Dawn's former girlfriend, recalls the first time she set eyes on
Dawn. And I just remember just seeing the yellow dinghy with a pink motor and I thought, "Oh my gosh, who's this
character?" And he just struck me as just a very kind of funny guy and interesting
character. And um we exchanged numbers. Becky and Dawn wound up living together for five years.
Their sailing days were idyllic. Even though Don didn't actually do much sailing. In the five years that I have
known Don North, we sailed probably seven times. Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. He lived on his boat. It's it
it's on the water. He liked to be on his boat, but that was his home. He liked his boat. He liked his radio.
He liked his dog kuna. He liked his plants. That was Don. Captain Jack Vonolan and Dennis Morris were fellow
cruisers who knew Don well. Oh, Don was a classic guy. His claim to fame was that he never went anywhere fast and if
there was any wind, he wouldn't go. After cruising the Caribbean for 20 years, Don North finally found his
little piece of paradise. and he dropped anchor here in the beautiful Sand Blas Islands off the coast of Panama.
Don spent most of his time on the island of Chichime where he had a special bond with the
Kuna Indians. [Music] Tell me about your uncle's relationship with the indigenous people here, the
Kuna. He He loved him. He respected him. He helped them garden. He helped them dig a water well. And what' they think
of your uncle? They loved him. But by mid January 2011, no one, not the Kunas or any of Dawn's
friends, had seen or heard from him in weeks. December 20th, 2010. Ola, this will be the last email for a while as my
phone modem broke. In one of Don Nor's last emails to his nephew, he told of a series of terrible
storms ravaging the Sandlas Islands. Don did his best to help out, rescuing this man,
Javier Martin, whose boat had sunk after hitting a reef. As Ezra and Winter tried to pick up
Dawn's trail, all they had to go on was a handful of clues. When we started looking for him, we were told by other
cruisers that, yeah, he's sailing to Colombia. He's sailing with Captain Martin.
Supposedly, Don was making the 5-day trip to Cartahena to renew his visa and took along Javier Martin for company.
When he was missing, at first I thought, "No, Donald, show up." I just kept thinking, "Don, show up."
One of the last times I spoke to him, he said, "Please don't forget me." And I said, "Don, how could I ever forget
you?" So, but then came the worst news imaginable. A man's body was discovered floating
near the Sand Blau Islands. [Music] [Music] [Music] With Dawn North missing for more than
three weeks and a body discovered, And floating off the Caribbean coast of Panama, Don's
former girlfriend, Becky Reynolds, got a horrible feeling. I called Ezra and he just said, "Pray as hard as you can."
And that scared me that if their concern was like that just doesn't happen. Fortunately, the body was not Don Norse,
but friends and family remained deeply worried. I I felt sick. I I at that point I realized that there's something
very wrong going on and and something bad must have happened. The bulletridden body was identified as
a Frenchman, Jean Pierre Buard, captain of a large catamaran. He'd been shot in the head, tied to an anchor, and thrown
overboard. Don's friend Glenn Tuttle. We knew immediately it was more than a coincidence that this Frenchman had been
found murdered and our friend Don North was missing. But what was the connection? Working his
sources, Winter learned that the dead Frenchman was last seen with Javier Martin, the same man Don North was with
when he set sail for Colombia. It instantly became, "All right, everybody focus. Find Javier Martin.
Wy was convinced Javier Martin would lead them to Dawn North. What was going through my mind was we got business to
do. Their first stop, the headquarters of the National Police Force. We went to the office of the uh chief of operations
and uh and I sat Ezra down in his office and said, "Here's the deal. This is what
happened. This is what we think is going on and uh we want to get the ball rolling on it."
And when Wter talked, the Panameanian police listened. Just months earlier, he had helped them catch accused serial
killer Wild Bill Halbert, an American who prayed on retired expats. How many murder cases have you solved here in
Panama? Four. And that's in a year, year and a half. Don't mess with Don Wy. Don't kill anybody.
Winner convinced Panameanian authorities to form a special task force to look for
Don North. They also enlisted the FBI which has agents stationed in Panama City. So because of all that then the
the the investigation went from from zero to 100% literally in a matter of 2 or 3 hours.
Ezra and Wy joined the task force as it began the hunt for Javier Martin. The biggest fear was that he might split
and be gone and be on the run for years before he finally turns up. I consider him as a pirate. A pirate because he was
committing crimes during his travelers. A pirate who became the focus of a manhunt overseen by this man, Gustavo
Perez, national director of police at the time. He leads thousands of officers like
these commandos and personally oversaw the pursuit of Javier Martin. So you have people like this this officer ready
to move. You got a task force together in this case and off you went. Exactly. Using all that manpower, the police
quickly picked up Martine's trail. It led to Captain Jack's where Don Nor's friends were told the lead suspect had
stayed in their hostel. The hero would stand up on my my arms and my back. The more Ezra learned, the scarier
Javier Martin became. Um, one lady at one of the hostels had said, "That guy is a psychopath. He he caught a snake
one time and cut the head off and ran around shaking the snake everywhere." Javar Martin. Yes. Yes. Where are we
right now and where are we going? Okay, we're uh on the road to a town called Porerto Lindo. Retracing Winter's
investigation, we head to a sleepy port village near the Sand Blouse Islands when you come into a little village like
this? I mean, what are your instincts? What are you trying to do as an investigator? Well, it was all related
to tracking the movements of Javier Martin, trying to find out where he went, what he was doing. He stayed in
this room and this is the bed that he would always stay on. Did you sense something right away? Did
you sense this man was troubled? He he said he he I didn't think he was a drug trafficker. I thought he was more
like just crazy. He just somebody that doesn't that's that's out of control. In late January 2011, after Dawn North
went missing, locals reported that Javier Martin, who had always lived hand-tomouth, suddenly was living large.
They they said that he had he bought he went out and bought a like a large screen plasma TV, brand new. He bought a
sound system. He bought a guitar. And he may have bought all that stuff using Dawn's ATM card. I believe that these
are the ATM machines that were used by uh either Javier Martin himself or uh people that were helping him to uh pull
money out of the bank accounts of the victims using their ATM. He he got their cards, he got their pin numbers.
Taking into account the dead Frenchman, the missing money and Javier Martine spending spree, Wy knew in his gut it
wasn't looking good for Don North. No doubt in your mind that Javar Martin is the man responsible for the
disappearance of Don North? I got no doubt. I I've got no doubt whatsoever. Ezra realized he had to face the hard
truth. His uncle was most likely murdered by Javier Martin. This bastard killed my uncle and we need to make sure
he's in jail. [Music] Javier Martin, the man at the center of this manhunt, had spent years fing
backpackers between Panama and Colombia. He came into contact with a lot of Americans like Garrett Paul and Jessica
Stout. We were at the start of a six-month backpacking trip and we needed to get from Colombia to Panama. And
along the way, they were looking for adventure. We usually like to think outside the box and do do things that
are a little different and unique. He's not kidding. Garrett and Jessica were contestants on the CBS program, The
Amazing Race in 2009, a year after they happened to meet Javier Martin. came across a pamphlet for Javier Martin with
a number of recommendations and called him up to see if we could meet him and see the boat. The couple signed on with
Martin and spent the next 5 days aboard his boat, the Twilight. Javier was a little salty in that he just, you know,
you could tell he'd been spending some time out on the ocean. He was, you know, flirtatious, fun captain, hanging out
with all of us. Even had a barbecue on one of the islands, so it was social. They liked Javier well enough to later
recommend him, never suspecting he might be dangerous. It was shocking to us, but you know, you
never know what people are capable of. I think there were two sides to Javier Martin. The side that could, you know,
have the persona of a businessman and hang out with the passengers and sail them, you know, and cook for them. and
the side that obviously Don eventually found out. Becky can imagine how the two men became
friends after Dawn rescued Javier from his sinking ship. I think that they probably broke bread, probably had a
drink together, hung out. I'm I'm speculating, but Don, you know, was a friendly guy. a friendly guy who
investigators now believe had been killed at the hands of Javier Martine. Do you believe this was a calculated
murder? A spur-ofthe- moment killing? What do you think? I think it was calculated.
Determined to bring Martin to justice, Ezra went allin with Don Wy. I trusted him with my whole heart and whenever he
asked me to do something, I was going to do it. Not only had Winter convinced the
Panameanian police to form a task force, he's a big believer of putting things out there, he also coraled a group of
local reporters to begin spreading the word that a man who allegedly killed Don North and Jean Pierre Buhard was at
large. I said, "Hey guys, you know, huddle up. I got one for you. Here's a deal."
[Music] I said, "Apparently, there's a another serial killer on the loose and we're
looking for this man." When you tell these reporters there's a potential serial killer out there, right? Are they
interested? Oh, absolutely. Ezra, that night the story about Ezra and his missing uncle went national
in Chich in Samblas. That clip aired on the prime time news that night and it was headline news.
Winner kept digging. He got a tip that a Spaniard named Louise once had Don Norse
ATM card. The same card used to drain his bank account. Tell me where we're going and why. All right, we're going to
go take a look at this uh yellow triaran right here. This is a boat that's owned
by uh Luis. Uh, Luis was the guy who's associated with Javier Martin. Wy suspects Louise may have played a
role in draining Don Nor's bank account. Hello. Hola. Yeah, someone's head just popped up
there and went down. I saw him through the window. Winner warns us to be alert that Louise might be armed and
dangerous. You saw somebody hit I saw someone's head. They they popped up there and they looked right back down.
It was on this right window here. Long hair guy. That's Luis. Luis. Buenas. Luis. Okay, there he is. Hola, Luis.
See, Buenardes, we're with CBS News. We're doing a a story about the death of Don North. The
murder of Don North. I was a friend of of Don. You were a friend of Don North. Were you also a friend of Javier
Martinez? Yes, I know. Wasn't a friend of him. I know that guy. I know that guy. I talk with this guy, but it was
not a friend of me. I I'm I was a friend of Don and me and my wife. Luis admits he did have one of Don's bank cards, but
insists Don gave it to him to get some money because he was running out of dollars there and he didn't like to move
and they give me Don give me his car. Who gave you the car? Don relevance with this case. I don't know.
And then this come with this That is our name. Finish for today. All right, let's go. Amigo,
[Music] based on your experience as an intelligence officer, you can read people, you can read body language. What
were you seeing with all the folding up and the attitude? Scared, nervous, afraid.
He wasn't putting out that I had nothing to do with it vibe. Two days into the manhunt, Javier
Martine's whereabouts remained a mystery. While the task force spread out over a
vast area, including these scores of islands off of the coast of Panama, he was actually hundreds of miles away here
in the tiny village of Santa Fe, not far from the border with Colombia. This Panamaeanian cowboy says he met
Javier Martin and sold him two horses. And did he say where he was going to go? [Music]
and head off into one of the most treacherous jungles on Earth, making his way toward Colombia, where it would be
nearly impossible for any law enforcement to follow him. The question was, could anyone stop him?
We knew that Javier Martin was a dangerous killer. We knew that he had killed two people.
We knew that he was going to flee the jurisdiction of Panama. The trail to Javier Martin led to
Panama's Darian Jungle. 50 m wide and hundreds of miles long. It's a dangerous corridor. But Martin
had no choice. It was the only way he could flee Panama and get to Colombia. His
plan was going to be to ride via horseback through some of the most impenetrable jungle in the world and to
escape into Colombia. Authorities knew Martin was equipped with guns and money. So time was of the
essence. You know, you got to wonder, is he going to get away? You know, is is he
never going to get caught? But luckily, Don Winner's strategy of plastering Javier Martine's face on
national television was about to pay off. town on the edge of the Deren jungle. This hotel clerk watched that news
report and was stunned. She knew that guy and more importantly, she knew where he was
upstairs in room 27. And he wasn't using the name Javier Martin. What name did he register under?
Don. Don North. Yes. Don North. Javier Martin had assumed the identity of the man he
allegedly killed. And he didn't stop there. And then he's hitting on her and trying
to get her to come up to his room and saying, "It's Valentine's Day and I don't want to spend Valentine's Day
alone." You just learned that Don North is actually Javiar Martin, an accused serial killer and he's hitting on you.
She says, "I got afraid." Afraid that a killer was in the hotel, she called her boss, who called police.
After a massive three-day manhunt involving dozens of investigators, searches in the Caribbean and the
jungle, Javier Martin was arrested. And what he had with him was damning. They found Don Nor's passport.
They found three weapons. They found like $13,000 cash that he had stolen from his victims.
The day after Martine's arrest, authorities located Don's missing boat, the Wind Dancer.
Its name had been changed to the Green Twilight. That was done by Javier Martin.
And that of course is not the name of the boat. That boat's my uncle's home. Without the
boat, he he he wouldn't live without the boat. That boat once so alive when Don owned it
was now empty and a drift. What was that moment like for you when you came to the
realization that he was gone? I was in shock in all the stages of grieving. shock
comes first and disbelief and it just to know how he I mean I don't know how he died but I can only
imagine the fate of him. It that makes it hard and I just hope that it went quickly for him.
He was killed on the boat. They found DNA on the boat. Investigators treated the wind dancer as
a crime scene, sharing their findings with Ezra. They found blood in the top of the
cabin, indicating that maybe a gunshot had to head. And then they found blood up the stairs
and then on the deck indicating that Javier Martin had pulled him off the boat and thrown him overboard.
There's very little question that he was killed on his boat. And that's hard to think about.
Well, it was just incredibly sad. Um, you know, Don, Don, nobody deserves to die like that.
The evidence against Javier Martin continued to pile up and was even found on Dawn's beloved
island of Chichim. One tent was right here. He put here another year. Kuna Chief Ombberto showed us where police
found two tents rented by Javier Martine. Inside, Martin allegedly had stashed many of Don Norse possessions, including
a gun and equipment from his boat, electronics. It was navigational equipment. So, your uncle's boat had
been stripped essentially. Yeah, apparently. So, so what was Javier Martine's plan?
And more importantly, why did he allegedly kill two innocent boat owners, JeanPierre Buard and Don North?
I think that he killed Don because there were things on the boat that he wanted.
Remember, Martine's own boat had sunk in a storm. Authorities believe he was desperate to
restart his business, fing backpackers between Panama and Colombia. And if you're charging them 450 bucks
ahead, what you want is a big boat that can carry more passengers. And Jean Pierre Buhard's big boat was
perfect. Which is why police say Martin shot the Frenchman and dumped him overboard
just days after killing Don North, looting his boat and stealing his money. A cold-blooded killer basically. I mean
that's that's sounds like he's used to killing people. It's just beyond anybody's comprehension
that there are people in the world as evil as that to to do something like that.
And Ezra is about to confront that evil head on, setting foot on his uncle's boat for the
first time since the murder. Oh my god. [Music] This boat was his life, plain and
simple. So, it's literally a part of him. Yeah. Yeah. It's part of his identity. This This is to see it without
him on it just it it doesn't it ain't right. We were with Ezra as he boarded his
uncle's boat for the first time since the murder. Finally made it. Doesn't look so good in there. What's the
emotional connection for you to be back on this boat? I remember things, but they're all destroyed. I'm having a hard
time looking at him because it's been ruined. There's just stuff everywhere. But as he looks closer, that's Don.
That's your uncle as a young man. Mhm. Ezra discovers more remnants of Don Norse's life. There's my uncle at at his
nursery. There he is. And there's Becky. Becky Reynolds is right here. Yeah. This
was his dog he had in Trinidad. His name was Jesse. Ezra then searches for a precious family heirloom. All right.
Well, I think this is the bag that my dad described. Something he assumed the killer must have stolen.
Wouldn't that be cool if there was some gold in here? [Music] [Music] Oh my god. Four solid gold Krueger rans.
I found them. My god. Unbelievable. Your uncle's gold. The killer didn't get the gold. Had found
the gold. Your uncle Don right now has got a smile on his face. He does. This belongs to the family. He does.
I've traveled thousands of miles to to get to this moment and here they are. It's unbelievable. But it still doesn't
bring him back. But as you find the gold, the storm is kicking up. The rain is hitting.
Maybe he knows. Thanks, Uncle Don. What would your uncle be saying to you right now, Ezra?
He'd be proud of me. He He always told me he's proud of me. He'd call me and told me he's proud of
me. And uh I just do what I think I can do is right. That's all I can do. I don't I
don't feel like I've done anything special. Well, we've got one more search to do,
don't we? Yes. And if he's if he's got any say in it, we'll find him, too. With that in mind, Scott, what is this?
What we have is an acoustic camera that allows us to see things using sound in motion.
48 hours brought sonar expert Scott Walters down to the Sand Blouse Islands to look for the one thing that could
lead us to Dawn's body. We're looking for an anchor. If we're lucky enough to go over one, will this device detect it?
Absolutely. This is this is the best thing that we could have for a search of this kind.
Authorities believe Don's body was tied to his anchor and thrown overboard. We scan the channel that sources tell us
Javier Martine sailed after the murder. And so this yellow tint we're seeing through here, that's the bottom.
Correct. Yep. This line is the bottom. But after four multiple attempts, we all come to realize the water is just too
deep. And if a body was here, is it almost impossible to find? It makes it a lot
more difficult. Not impossible, but more difficult. Not possible. It's just more
difficult at these these types of depths. While Don North may be lost at sea forever, we head off to meet the one
person who may know where his body was dumped. We're just outside the worst, most
notorious prison in all of Panama, Laouittita. And this is where Javier Martin lives a wedding trial. We've been
trying for months to get to this man and we'll see what he has to say. Javier Martin, now facing more than 70 years in
prison and a trial date later this year, agreed to an interview with 48 hours. We're just outside the uh director's
office. We've been told this is the place we can interview Javier Martin. But with the cameras ready to roll,
the accused double murderer backs down. He's not in the word to get any interviews. He's not interested.
Surprisingly, he did manage to contact producer Chris Okonnell the next day. First by email. Javier and then on a
phone that someone had smuggled in. It's Peter Vans. And this is a story I know you want the world to hear. Immediately
it's clear Javier Martin has only one thing on his mind. He's like I need I need the money. The only way I would do
it is um Javier, we can't pay for an interview. He's cutting you off. He's like I'm not going to do anything. Okay.
Did you kill Don North? He says I'm not going to do it anymore. Okay. In other conversations with 48
Hours, Javier Martin claimed his innocence, but Don Wy is sure he got his man and he's proud of it. I really do
like the idea of being responsible for putting the bad guys in jail. I think that is a noble service.
Despite the many unanswered questions, friends and family of Dawn North take some solace in the knowledge that his
body is most likely in the waters that he called home. Where do you think Don is today? Don's watching. He's around.
He'll send his little signal some way. [Music] It is kind of ironic also that he is in
the sea. [Music] And actually when I went snorkeling a few weeks ago in the Grand Caymans, I
remember just that the quiet of being underwater and I thought about him. It's peaceful.
It's definitely his resting place and he would have told me cremate my body, spread my ashes here in Chich.
I am at peace though. I'm at peace that he's with the sea. That's where I would want to be.
[Music]

When an American goes missing from his sailboat in a Caribbean paradise, his nephew follows the trail with the help of a journalist-turned-man hunter. "48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant reports in this episode that aired in August 2012. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

True crime. Real justice. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

Ezra North searches for his missing uncle Don, uncovering a murder mystery involving Javier Martin in Panama.

Key points

The Disappearance of Don North. Don North goes missing while sailing in Panama, leaving his family worried and searching for answers.
The Search Intensifies. Ezra North teams up with Don Winter to investigate his uncle's disappearance, leading to a manhunt.
The Arrest of Javier Martin. Javier Martin, an accused serial killer, is arrested after a massive manhunt.
Discovering the Truth. Ezra confronts the reality of his uncle's death and the evidence against Martin.
Finding the Gold. Ezra discovers a bag of gold belonging to his uncle, a bittersweet moment.
Seeking Closure. Ezra reflects on his uncle's legacy and the search for his body.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This was Don's worst nightmare.

Ezra describes the situation surrounding Don's disappearance.

2:53WatchJan 6, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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