Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 11, Episode 8 - Full Episode | Forensic Files

tonight on unsolved mysteries Shawn and Jody Bordeaux had been married two years
they had great jobs at a casino on the Kickapoo Indian Reservation in Kansas and Jody was expecting their first child
tragically their dream wife would be dealt a devastating blow who wanted to kill Jody Bordeaux for hundreds of
working-class families a school that offered affordable music lessons for the kids seemed too good to be true
it was one owner loved the limelight the other was a chameleon who mysteriously changed identities allegedly both were
ruthless con artists over the course of a decade at least four young girls vanished under similar circumstances
from towns in the San Francisco Bay Area many suspect the cases are somehow connected
one day Gilbert Ortiz was a happily married family man and the next fighting for survival after his wife allegedly
poisoned him and ran away with her son we'll bring you an update on Ortiz's heart-wrenching journey
join me for these intriguing stories and more you may be able to help solve a mystery
[Applause] [Applause] [Music] a dark November night in Powhatan Kansas a small farmhouse on the edge of the
Kickapoo Indian Reservation Jodi Bordeaux and her husband Sean have lived here for over a year for weeks he have
been receiving disturbing anonymous phone calls but on this night they weren't just calls Jodi was sure someone
was in their yard one night she had heard noises outside of the house and I tried to convince her
that it was probably a raccoon or a coyote or something and as she really didn't have nothing to be a work to be
afraid of but Shaun was wrong the danger Jodi proceeded was very real and would ultimately lead to her murder Shaun and
Jodi worked at the Golden Eagle it was a first Indian owned casino in the area it
held great potential for the Kickapoo tribe with an annual revenue stream in the millions and job opportunities for
the local tribes people Shawn who is part Lakota Indian and Jodi were part of the management team hired to run the
casino although the Kickapoo tribal council retained the final word in all decisions
Shawn and Jodi were also trying to start a family after several miscarriages Jodi
sought out a fertility expert and within a few months the couple's dream had come
true Jodi was pregnant with a baby girl she was absolutely ecstatic over this pregnancy and that her happiness was
something that spilled over into her friends and her acquaintances and everybody were just pretty much felt
happy for her and with her everything seemed to be going Jodi's way soon her take-charge personality got her promoted
to staff supervisor of the [ __ ] machine department so he was a little fireball
she put a lot of energy a lot of effort into everything she did so to see her in
the casino you would think she was running most things and even that perception in and of
itself is kind of a little bit it can draw jealousy and envy some from some of the people who may be in the same
position saying how does she get all the attention judi believe the some of the staff were
resentful over a new position her grandmother died for instance one employee a slot
technician accused her of fabricating excuses to get extra time off our busiest weekend good time to have to go
out to a funeral there's some competitiveness when it comes to these jobs and having two
people coming from other tree no one from another tribe and one from no tribe at all and going into high positions in
the casino I'm sure rubbed a lot of people on the Kickapoo reservation the wrong way to complicate things as a
department supervisor Jody's position required her to oversee job performance according to Shawn
Jody often had to report the slot Tech's bad attitude and tardiness he kept coming back with more problems for her
and eventually you know she had to take a little bit more of a hard line on him and start writing him up and holding him
to the letter of the law as our policies and procedures mandated we're here to talk about some reports we have about
you being late for work when things didn't improve the employee was brought before the casino management board for
review I don't even know why some of those reports are even written it's like everybody else gets away with everything
he was reprimanded and put on probation but the problems persisted and the slot tech was eventually fired it was just
weeks later when Shawn believes out of vengeance the slot tech brought a grievance against Jody directly to the
Tribal Council the complaint ultimately led to Jody losing her job so judy spent the next
month petitioning to get it back she hoped the tribal council would reconsider Jody was hoping that she
would be rehired at the golden eagle and that was discussion that her and I had participated in and there was a
possibility that she would have come back to work after golden eagle when the news spread that Jody might return to
the casino the anonymous phone calls began never in my wildest dreams did I think they had anything to do with
having to worry for our lives I had no idea that we were being threatened [Music]
late on November 21st Shawn and Jody was spending a quiet night at home on a strange noise startled the Bordeaux's
dog Shawn followed him to the back porch the next thing I hears a popping noise kind of over and behind my head and then
it was like somebody lit a 20 pack of firecrackers Jody got to the bedroom and she turned to see if I was okay and one
bullet went into the bedroom Jody Jody and that one bullet struck her in the head
[Music] Shawn could see that Jodi was dead he quickly dialed 911 to save his unborn
baby and as I pick up the phone and I look up at the wall I notice that it's riddled with bullets
Jody didn't suffer and that she died instantly my baby suffered you know here's my
little baby in there and she's relying on mom and next thing you know there's no mom and she dies too slow death
that really hurts so I think when I kissed her I think it was her calling me in a spiritual way is to say I have to
go now and that was goodbye that night Shawn lost both Jodi and the baby and despite an exhaustive
investigation four years later no one has been charged with the murder the Bordeaux's home was so isolated
there were no witnesses no weapon was found today a killer is still on the loose
Kevin Hill is a County Attorney assigned to the bordeaux murder he has been working with local estate authorities on
the investigation gone from a point where just about everyone was the possible suspect to a point where we're
focusing on an individual or group of individuals that may have been responsible for this these individuals
were not strangers to Jodi Bordeaux individuals knew her and they would have had an axe to grind with her due to
employment issues but there are a few key roadblocks to capturing anyone involved I believe that part of the
problem is just that there's not a lot of trust with Indian people and non-indian law enforcement and that's
probably part of the problem with with the Inquisition and any other investigations that are taking place
there's been serious question about retribution of anybody coming forward if there are members of the Kickapoo
tribe that have any information that would help us solve this they have a responsibility to their fellow tribal
members to their fellow community members to come forward this is an unsolved crime here on our lands let's
do something about it I I go through each day thinking of my family thinking of what could be thinking of my little
girl and so the most difficult thing is just watching my life go by without a family since the murders Shawn has left
Kansas but he still holds out hope that someday there will be justice for Jody despite Shawn's belief that a casino
employee was somehow involved in his wife's murder authorities at this time have not
released a list of official suspects they seek your help in providing new information necessary for an arrest in
this case in a mostly working-class Hispanic neighborhood in North Hollywood California something extraordinary was
going on [Music] a new music school had opened and hundreds of pairs eagerly signed up
their children for low-cost lessons the school was owned by Mario Yunus and Omar
Arroyo who hired veteran instructors that teach students a lost art of playing the accordion I knew they had
hold of something big and I knew it was gonna be a lot of money I just knew it and I wanted it to work
Mario unis and Omar OTO Leah were an odd couple Eunice was a studio musician flute in several languages
Arroyo an aspiring salsa singer and used-car salesman however there was nothing unusual about their carefully
crafted sales pitch their enthusiasm hit all the right notes Wow that was excellent I'm very very proud
of you and I I think it's time for you to move up to the next level they said that my daughter had won a scholarship
to learn piano accordion in Oregon I thought oh great you know this is the perfect opportunity for my daughter to
to get some lessons what I need for you to do is to choose one of those I'm gonna recommend that Vaudrey take the
Mercedes back Mario unis acted as a frontman charming and persuasive he often met with parents
about his partner work behind the scene was the Mercedes package is 2500 and the
Toyota package is 1,800 see I think I'll take that to you in a package the package was that it was the
accordion that you were fine but they were gonna teach three different instruments by the end of the three
years $32 increments every month that's okay and part of it would be also taking
them on field trips like Disneyland however the ink was barely dry on the contract when everything fell apart
early one morning Martha Guyardo dropped off Vaudrey for her weekly lesson it was
a day mother and daughter would never forget she said nobody's there they're gone and I first like the oho don't be
silly you know but then he just like hit me and I said oh my god fraud that's the
first thing that came into my mind because I knew I had given them my credit card
according to police Martha's instincts were right she had been targeted for fraud
reportedly arroyo and Eunice even duped their own employees lying about the credit card scheme and paying them with
bogus checks that tired of getting bad checks I don't know how many bad checks I got from how many different banks and
they said well we got another class for it it's a job I gotta be paid and they said well after you do this class we'll
pay you John : well taught the class but he says he never saw the money and let Martha
gang out he'll receive her credit card bill she found a single charge for the entire cost of the accordion more than
eighteen hundred dollars allegedly it was a cheap import worth about $300 however many other unsuspecting families
unaware of laws designed to protect consumers from credit card fraud were reportedly hit much harder
the parents were mad they were angry they were hurt because you know they felt like okay wait a minute we have no
money and what are we gonna do these people the credit cards were up to like 10,000 20,000 one particular guy was
39,000 according to police Omar or you and Mario Yunus had swindled the money through identity theft by using personal
information lifted from music school applications Arroyo on you know cerebral open fraudulent credit card accounts
some with substantial lines of credit in just over a year authorities say their take was an
incredible one-and-a-half million dollars but these alleged con men also had another trick up their sleeves one
that would surprise and shock everyone the alleged scheme began two one rival when Martha Guyardo and some of the
other parents found out the music school had reopened at a new location a confrontation with a school's director
the police believe was also a part of our oil and unis quickly became heated especially when a TV reporter shoulder
leave right now I'm calling the police moments later officers arrived on the scene unaware that the school was
allegedly a front for fraud the irate parents were immediately escorted from the building and told to take their
grievances to civil court however many families chose to file criminal complaints including Martha and her
husband do you have a copy of the contract with you I've seasoned some real unique case but I've never handled
a case as this were you know it has so many victims we have over I could say 200 victims and
it involves a large amount of monies have you seen any two males that might have looked like the owners of the place
detected by your quickly discovered that the two alleged swindlers ran a number of music schools under a variety of
aliases and cash is OK yes meanwhile according to police homer Arroyo and Mario Yunus went on separate
spending sprees with some of the stolen cash Royer reportedly spent more than $100,000 to cut a salsa CD under the
name Luis Omar Yunus had also crafted a new identity but he was playing a very different tune
I am his twin sister she's from Israel are all yours real estate Asian did a double-take and with good reason
Mario Yunus had undergone much more than a makeover he was now a she using the name Delia
Leon placed on take a look at ya Mario Yunus had undergone a sex change operation up in San Francisco and paid
for this operation with one of the kids parents credit card charges amounted to over $33,000 and that was only a portion
of the cost the rest was also reportedly charged to various credit cards then according to police Omar Arroyo and
Delia Leone became lovers the couple lived like royalty running a luxurious home in LA's Woodland Hills they give
the impression they were a family Arroyo brought his two daughters from a former marriage over from Puerto Rico
however life in shangri-la soon hit a sour note when a new office assistant reportedly received by complaints from
angry parents decided to go to the police so why are you working I'm working at kids music and that's in
Mission Hills it was a break detective Bao needed but with only a dia sister gone he would need to conduct a stakeout
to nail the alleged con artists we conducted a surveillance in order to try to identify the true identity of our
suspects we were able to come up with their true names [Music] detective bio then followed the suspects
to their upscale neighborhood a few days later armed with a search warrant police
raided the home reportedly Delia Leon attempted to escape through the backyard but was quickly apprehended she denied
any involvement in the credit-card scam police weren't so lucky with her alleged
partner in crime Omer Arroyo had left town just hours before the raid I was surprised I'm not
finding Omar and I later learned that he had left to Puerto Rico the night before
Omar was in the process of doing promotions on his CD thanks to some parents who refused to be victims
skillful police work by Detective by old Delia Leon aka Mario Yunus was in custody and the music schools were
closed down fortunately Martha Garda was able to clear the excessive charges from her
credit card but many families paid a heavy price [Music] on a previous broadcast we presented the
puzzling case of Sandra Oriana she plummeted ten stories to her death from this hotel balcony in Southern
California investigators run certain if it was an accident suicide or murder Sandra had come to California on a
business trip with her boss Robert Salazar they checked into adjacent rooms on the eighth floor
the next morning Sandra's body was found sprawled on the ground below police interviewed Robert Salazar he said he
had escorted Sandra to her room around midnight he left her alive and well but suspicions arose and detectives found
articles of his clothing in her room when questioned again he offered a very different story he said that he had in
fact gone into the room with Sandra and that they had engaged in sex and that at
one point they were on the balcony Sandra had positioned herself on the railing of the balcony in such a way
that she threw one of her legs over the top of the balcony and lost her balance and had fallen
[Music] Sandra's family was outraged by Salazar's allegations they asserted she would never have consensual sex with him
that she was devoted to her fiance police used a dummy to test Salazar's account of what happened we tried it
several times and we actually ended up trying to make it land where she landed and we had to basically throw the dummy
in that direction to make it land there despite the suspicions of the police Robert Salazar was not charged with any
crime until now on March 2nd 2001 nearly five years after Sandra's death Robert Salazar was arrested for her murder on
May 30 if he appeared at a preliminary hearing in West Covina California investigators said a reevaluation of
evidence as well as DNA tests led to the district attorney finally charging Salazar
[Music] one Friday afternoon Kim Schwartz was preparing dinner when her seven-year-old daughter Amber asked
permission to play in front of the panel california home but our friends are gonna be here in five minutes me
no amber asked if she used to jump rope in the hall closet and jump rope outside
so I walked with her over the closet open up the door and she grabbed the jump rope and on her way out the door
she just stopped and turned said I love you mommy and then out the door she went
Amber planted jump rope until Kim's friend Debbie and her daughter Marissa came by
[Music] they walk in the door and you know Maurice instantly asks where amber was
and I said she was outside jumping rope and so both of them at that point said we didn't see her out there so I said
well maybe she was over in the vacant lot she's out there it's a Marie so quickly ran right up back outside
looking for amber she came running back inside saying she didn't see her so at that point I went outside I started
hollering Amber's name and she wasn't there so I would called the only two people that I thought that amber may
have wandered off to and I got answering machines so obviously they weren't there I couldn't
find amber it was afraid I didn't want anything to be wrong I wanted her to be home Kim Schwarz would never see her
only daughter again the disappearance of amber was a second devastating tragedy Kim Schwartz was
forced to endure her husband Bernie a Pinole police officer was killed in the line of duty when Kim was pregnant with
amber this latest tragedy would transform the widowed mother of three into an activist following hours of
searching investigators concluded amber Schwartz had been abducted the morning after she disappeared a pair of pink
socks was discovered in a park a short distance from Amber's home when the park had been searched the previous night the
socks were not there to come back the next morning and find these socks in a place that had already been searched
certainly sent up a lot of red flags they were just like the socks at amber had on her feet I could say that because
I had helped amber put her new shoes on the we had just bought we knew fairly quickly that this was going beyond our
resources and we reached out to the FBI and to the neighboring agencies and pulled in other resources so that we
could conduct a proper investigation mrs. Swartz I just have a few more questions that I'd like to ask you okay
okay okay when FBI agents visited her home Kim was struck by the unusual questions they
asked and even is social security in the last two or three days no questions like
had I or amber received anything in the mail there's someone that we didn't know
she had amber come home with anything she couldn't really explain who it came from to me had I received phone calls
from anyone I didn't know it just really bizarre questions but the way they were
being asked kind of led me to believe they were so specific that they had to be about somebody in the days following
Amber's disappearance many strangers offered to help but three days after her daughter vanished
Kim was visited by a man she will never forget his name was Tim bindler my name's
Timothy I'm with the search for amber for your dear amber he looked like he'd been up
all night basically was saying how he wanted to be the one to save places her he wouldn't be the one to bring her home
to me I've been searching in a lot of places that and I think some of the authorities might not be searching for
because I know kids I'd been nurse Val it's also caught Kim's attention she didn't almost have like a van that he
painted himself he's got these plates that say love you he's got that posters on the outside of the van I said want
you to know want to be the one to find her according to Kim bender became extremely emotional as he talked to
members to be the one is safer and bring her back to you thank you see amber sports on June 3rd no Tim bender was
questioned extensively by the FBI following Amber Swartz's abduction according to authorities the results of
his polygraph were inconclusive did you speak to Amber Sports on June 3rd no Tim
bender is a very bright man he's he's very intelligent man he's a Berkeley grad right up John Phil pin is a trained
forensic psychologist he spent more than 1,000 hours interviewing Tim bindler for
his book stalemate there are law enforcement agencies which consider him a suspect there's also the perception
shared by a number of people that Tim has done absolutely nothing wrong and and that he is a misunderstood good
Samaritan to vendors attorney John Burroughs maintains that benders actions should
not be viewed with suspicion point of fact is he is trying to be helpful he does that voluntarily it is a sense that
he has that he has an obligation and a duty to go out and try to find missing children according to John Filton Tim
bender seemed to have a particular interest in the grave of a girl named Angela boug a five year old Angela
disappeared four and a half years before amber and was later found sexually assaulted and strangled the FBI placed
Tim bender under surveillance his alleged habit of visiting Angela bougas grave site up to 90 times a year had
caught their attention to have been to this little girl's grave this little girl that he never knew I just can't
imagine anybody going to somebody's grave that many times in a that period of time unless there's something else
going on in that person's mind according to John Burroughs the fact that Ben their business grave sites should not
cast suspicion on his client for him it has a special kind of significance that is personal to him but
certainly not an indication that he's putting by in that graveyard 11 days after amber vanished a bloodhound from
the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department tractors sent to Angela's gravesite police say the dog also picked
up amber sent in benders van however California courts are often leery about the reliability of bloodhound evidence
[Music] sadly five months after Amber's disappearance the East Bay Area was shot
by the abduction of another young girl nine year-old Michaela Garrett outside a hayward market as Michaela went to
retrieve her scooter a man forced her into his car by now parents and the surrounding
communities were living in fear then two months later and nearby Dublin thirteen-year-old Eileen Mitchell off
disappeared despite the fact that some suspicions had been directed at him Tim bender helps search for Eileen a few
years later a mother in the town of Fairfield informed the police that her daughter had begun receiving mail from a
man they didn't know one young girl was getting letters from Tim oddly enough these letters were written backwards and
had to be held up to a mirror to read which I'm sure would set any parent on edge you know to have your kid all of a
sudden get this really weird letter just a few blocks from where the letter was received another young girl disappeared
four-year-old Nicky Campbell was playing in her driveway Nicky lived on Salisbury Drive in
Fairfield and she had been out playing with her brother in the afternoon mom came home from work mass where's Nicky
while she's out playing they couldn't find her four days after Nicky's disappearance her scent like amber
Swartz's before her was allegedly tracked by bloodhounds to angela Bugis grave the gray that Tim Binda reportedly
visited so regularly you put all of these coincidences together you see them pile up the dogs the cemetery the the
various sense in the various places and and you really have to question which is
what I believe law enforcement was doing and I think it's their role to do it you
you really have to question you know is this a coincidence or is there something
to it if there was something more to it then you would think after all this time
there's been some more evidence that was more definitive and there hasn't been any following a Nicky Campbell
disappearance the Fairfield Police Department searched Tim benders home and found nothing believing that his
reputation had been unfairly tarnished by the Fairfield Police Department's handling of the Nicky Campbell
investigation Tim bender brought a defamation lawsuit against the city of Fairfield the city settled out of court
for $90,000 citing the advice of his attorney Tim bender turned down our request for an interview although he has
been questioned by police it's important to note that bender has not been charged
with any crime relating to the disappearances of these girls and he has consistently claimed he is innocent
Kim Schwartz refuses to give up even though amber would today be in her 20s Kim will not rest until she finds out
what happened to her daughter within weeks of Amber's disappearance Kim Schwartz created the amber
foundation for missing children the Foundation's goals continue to be educating parents on ways to prevent
child abductions so that what happened to Kim Schwarz may never happen to them [Music]
[Applause] the previous broadcast we brought you the story of Gilbert Ortiz who was
looking for his young son Jonathan authorities suspected that Gilbert's wife had taken Jonathan after she'd been
accused of committing a heinous crime after eight years Gilbert and his son had finally been reunited after serving
in the military gilbert ortiz moved with his wife and child to Redwood City California though
they were happy at first gilbert and elizabeth fought frequently over money and gilbert received a promotion at work
he thought that his future suddenly seemed brighter but within a week gilbert ortiz was in a hospital
suffering from cardiac arrest kidney failure and pneumonia and fighting for his life doctors worked feverishly to
determine what had caused him to become so violently ill after lapsing in and out of consciousness for two weeks
Gilbert told police he thought he might have been poisoned I lift weights and of
it I I I could never get picked that's the kind of guy she likes Gilbert said Elizabeth met him in a store parking lot
to give him a special bodybuilding drink which had already been mixed in a plastic sports bottle he looked like a
real shake I mean like a chocolate shake and then I want to try to sort of like burn my throat and then my throat really
really burning you know and I was all shaky and then I feel like getting sick paramedics came and washed we'll go to
the hospital Elizabeth Ortiz met them in the emergency room doctors hoped that she
could provide an explanation for Gilbert's sudden mystery illness we needed to know where that sports
bottle came from if it was something that was purchased from a fast-food store and it was really a bad mixture
that really made him sick or whether it was a deliberate mix after he had had been determined that the shake had been
tainted with a common insecticide police obtained a search warrant to see if they
could trace it or the plastic bottle to Elizabeth but when they arrived at the Ortiz apartment they discovered that
Elizabeth Ortiz had vanished along with Jonathan then that's when it hit me she did want to tell me so where's the baby
sure he's gone that's that's the main point that when he got me with the evidence they gathered police are able
to make a case against Elizabeth went is Ortiz accusing her of attempted murder with special circumstances for torture
after following thousands of tips with possible sightings of Elizabeth Ortiz sergeant Catherine Anderson finally
received a phone call from an FBI agent basically March 14th of 2000 - call from
the FBI telling me that they had Elizabeth Ortiz in custody in Mexico when Elizabeth was arrested in Mexico
she was by herself the FBI gave me their word that they would continue to look for the little
boy in Mexico in the area that they had arrested Elizabeth in Elizabeth Ortiz was brought to Redwood City for trial
but where was Jonathan assuming that Elizabeth would want to see her son Anderson had an H progressed composite
created and posted at the jail then sergeant Anderson received the second phone call she had been hoping for I
received a phone call it from a deputy telling me that they had a little boy at the jail and the little boy was a dead
ringer for the composite picture that we had Jonathan had been brought to the jail by a relative according to the
police the boy had been living in Mexico during the time he was missing the following day Gilbert finally was able
to see the son he had never stopped thinking about it was two years old when he disappeared and when I got him back
he was 10 oh yes soon as I saw him you you just come and hug me that's all it took
one big hug I cannot explain what that feel like it's too much of an emotion I guess
[Music] Gilbert and Jonathan have begun the long process of healing and getting to know
one another as father and son the hardest part of this experience was losing a little movie that I really
loved now what she did now what I went through just wasn't him [Music] [Music] join me more intriguing true tales on
the next unsolved mysteries [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Brief Summary

This episode features Jody Bordeaux's murder, a music school fraud, and Amber Schwartz's abduction case.

Key points

The Bordeaux Tragedy. Jody Bordeaux was shot and killed, leaving her husband Shawn and unborn child devastated.
Unsolved Murder Investigation. Despite an exhaustive investigation, no one has been charged in Jody's murder.
Fraudulent Music School Scheme. A music school in North Hollywood turned out to be a front for fraud, scamming families.
Amber's Socks Found. Socks were discovered in a park, raising red flags about Amber's disappearance.
Tim Bender's Emotional Search. Tim Bender, a man determined to find Amber, became a person of interest.
Mysterious Letters. A young girl received strange letters written backwards from Tim Bender.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Never in my wildest dreams did I think we were being threatened.

Shawn reflects on the anonymous phone calls they received before the tragedy.

7:10WatchMay 23, 2019

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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