48 Hours - Paradise Lost

Episode Date: July 26, 2015

A husband shot dead in his Costa Rican paradise, his wife's murder conviction tossed out -- who killed the Wall Street millionaire? "48 Hours" correspondent Susan Spencer updates the case.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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He was brilliant, phenomenally handsome. He was everything that to me symbolized a future with a capital F. And it just clicked. And from that first day, there was never any doubt that we were meant to meet. I saw the outline of the gun, and he had it pointed at his head. He was going to die that night no matter what. This is a story about two people, John and Ann Bender, who, from the outside world, seemed perfect. John Bender was a Wall Street genius, and very quickly made upwards of half a billion dollars by the time he was in his early 30s. Their whole worlds

were each other and when they found each other they really didn't need anything else. We built the house with the idea of it being our home, to our taste. They said, let's retreat to Costa Rica, to the deepest part of the rainforest, and set up a nature preserve. Not many people are willing or want to live in a house that has no walls. Our architect said we were nuts. You were happy. I loved it. And John was happy?

Yes. As happy as John could be. What you think is paradise isn't necessarily paradise. John and Ann had problems that money just couldn't fix. They were living a very inward life. They'd cut off the world. He had decided that the world would be better off without it. There were no lights on.

All I knew was he had a gun, and I tried to get it away from him, and I couldn't, and it went off. It comes down to basically two people in a room with a gun. I tried to stop him, and I've been accused of killing him. I never saw a motive explaining why she would have shot her husband. saw a motive explaining why she would have shot her husband. Only when you see the forensics and you see the photographs that you begin to think it's possible. It sure looked like this guy was shot in the back of his head while he was sleeping. I did not kill my husband. I'm Susan Spencer. Tonight on 48 Hours, Paradise Lost. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals.

However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marcia Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases,

and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now.

Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bolder risk-takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans,

discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. idea yet. In 2000, Ann and John Bender move to the jungles of Costa Rica to live an extravagant, idyllic dream. Fourteen years later, Ann stands in a Costa Rican courtroom on trial for the murder of her husband. The dream she was living is now very far away.

In a way, this trip is like going home. It is going home. Home was this, called Boracayan, rising from the middle of the Costa Rican rainforest. It was once Ann and John Bender's vision of paradise. The phrase over the top doesn't begin to do this house justice. It's like some bizarre combination of Disneyland, an art museum, and something you'd really only see in a James Bond movie. Does this strike you as astonishing every time you're here, or are you just totally used to it? I'm used to it by now. It's home. Four floors. There he comes. Oh, my goodness. I just saw a bird.

Nearly 50,000 square feet. This is your kitchen. Tons of gleaming granite. Kitchen, that was the dining room. And the living room is on the other side. And no windows or walls at all. I think that's one of the things I miss the most, is the sounds of the birds.

Where is the bathroom? Right here. We built the house to our taste, which is crazy. John and Ann always had been a bit eccentric, from the moment a friend introduced them in Virginia in 1998. It was love at first sight for both of us. The daughter of an international banker, she'd grown up all over the world. And he was smitten.

He proposed after just two weeks. They married the next year. We both found in each other a future. They shared many interests and one unfortunate problem. Both struggled with depression, specifically in Anne's case with bipolar mood disorder. I had just been diagnosed with bipolarity. He could go from being extremely happy to extremely sad very quick. His friend, Pete DeLisi, says John hated doctors and dealt with his problems mostly in private. He was absolutely a genius.

John Bender had been a math and science whiz in high school, then studied physics at the University of Pennsylvania. His looks got him work as a male model, and his smarts helped him beat the odds at the local casinos. He had an unusual talent for making money, a talent that blossomed at the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. money, a talent that blossomed at the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. In just about five minutes, he developed a way of trading options that had never been done before. And within just a few years, he was one of the top traders. By the time he was 25, I think he'd amassed about 80 million. By the time he was in his early 30s, he set up a hedge fund that was worth $500 million to $600 million. Ned Zeman is a reporter and CBS News consultant. He says that by 1998, Bender was looking for both a safe haven for his money

and a purpose for his life, and that for all his brilliance and his bank balance, he never really fit in with the Wall Street crowd. He just walks away from it. Just walked away. But not without a plan. He and Ann, both animal lovers, decided to use their fortune to start a refuge for wildlife.

In the dense rainforest of Costa Rica, they found the ideal location, 5,000 pristine acres. They named it Boracayan, after a native plant. I mean, this is as out there as you can get. Setting up a sanctuary for wildlife gave the Benders a sanctuary too, an escape to an extravagant private universe of exotic flowers, animals, and waterfalls. private universe of exotic flowers, animals, and waterfalls. Here, nothing was ordinary,

not even the lights in the house. Many were custom-made of stained glass. How many lamps are we talking about here? Approximately 400. You just said 400. Yeah. She says John thought the lamps would brighten her outlook on the world. Depression was an immense bond between them. It's a very isolating disease that people tend to pull away from society.

Although construction of the house brought in running water, reliable electricity, and dozens of jobs to the area, the project and the vendors got a chilly reception. There was definitely a degree of, who are these rich ringos and who the hell do they think they are, coming down and doing all of this. Then came April 2001. It happened on this mountain road. Ann says armed men in an unmarked car forced them onto the shoulder. The men claimed to be police, but wore no uniforms. I thought it was a kidnapping. One pulled John from his car, and when he protested...

This guy had fired the gun between John's legs and held up the gun to John's head. I was terrified. All this, it would turn out, just so Costa Rican authorities could serve him with papers naming him in a lawsuit stemming from his days on Wall Street. But John Bender spent six hours in police detention before he knew that. And Ann says the

incident completely unnerved him. That's when our entire lives changed. She says an attempted break in at the house months later only made things worse. The couple bought guns, hired guards, and turned the refuge into a virtual fortress. They lived in fear. It makes me very sad to think back on how painful life could be for him. In 2005, perhaps trying to right the ship, Bender set up a $70 million trust to manage the refuge and provide for Ann's living expenses. He named this man, attorney Juan Alvarez, to run it. Alvarez was then a trusted advisor.

Later, Ann would point to him as a key figure in the events surrounding John's death. But neither the trust, nor the guards, nor the guns stopped the couple's continuing slide into depression. Ann says John saw a psychiatrist but refused antidepressants. She, however, was taking an enormous amount of medication. And by the fall of 2009, says she had all but stopped eating. I was 40 pounds lighter than I am now. Desperate to cure her, John began injections of spring water, a home remedy. She broke out in boils and lesions. What he was doing was making her sicker and sicker. I think both of them had lost touch with reality. You thought you could manage this?

Yeah, we both did. We had been through very difficult situations together before. Did never at one point occurred to you to say, oh my God, you know, I got to get him out of here. I can't. He wouldn't have gone. By 2010, after a decade at Boracayan, they had become prisoners in their own paradise. The natural beauty that brought them here lost in irrational despair. Ann says John became convinced that every problem, her illness, even the death of a pet bird, was his fault. He became suicidally depressed. The stage was set. He wanted to die.

That night, he would die. But was it suicide or murder? Suicide or murder? As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was.

Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, wherever you get your podcasts. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal.

There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reached the age of 10 that would still have heard it. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years, I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with.

In the Pitcairn trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I'm sure this seems as real to you today as it did that night. So what happened? John brought a gun to bed. It was the last thing I expected that him to be doing even though I knew that he was suicidal. even though I knew that he was suicidal. On January 7, 2010, Ann Bender says it was nearly midnight when she got in bed and turned out the lights. She had just drifted off to sleep when...

I opened my eyes and I saw the outline of the trigger of the gun. And he had it pointed at his head, at himself. Horrified, she says she recognized their 9mm Ruger pistol. From what I could tell, he was holding it with both hands. And what'd you do? I got up on my knees and reared towards him, and I tried to grab the gun. Were you able to get it?

No. I was able to get my hands around his, and the gun slipped, and it went off. Just minutes later, their security guard, Oswaldo Aguilar, was first on the scene. She said to me, I tried to stop him, and I couldn't do it, he told us. Was there a long struggle? No. Was it just almost instantaneous?

I remember it as being instantaneous. It couldn't have been any more than two seconds. When it went off, who was holding it? I don't think anyone was holding it. How does a gun go off when no one's holding it? I think that it fell. He dropped it. I never touched the gun.

Ann told roughly the same story to the first responders who arrived here at Boracayan some two hours later. But reporter Ned Zeman says that their examination of the scene actually raised more questions than it answered. Why does somebody who's suicidal shoot himself back here? They said, first of all, that John was left-handed. And how does a left-handed person lying in bed shoot himself here? Prosecutor Edgar Ramirez has a simple answer. He doesn't. If somebody wanted to commit suicide, he says, the way they do it is here, here, or here.

here, or here. But if a left-handed person did fatally shoot himself behind the right ear, the gun presumably would end up on the same side as the bullet hole. Just to be clear, the gun is on the opposite side from the wound. Yes, the wound is on this side of John's head. He's laying on his back. The gun is over there on this side of his bed, near his arm. So, you know, that doesn't look good. There were no lights on. All I knew was he had a gun, and I tried to get it away from him, and I couldn't, and it went off. But investigators puzzled over the bullet's path, entering just below the right ear and ending up behind the left eye.

the right ear and ending up behind the left eye. Odd, too, was the location of a spent cartridge found some 13 feet behind the bed. All, they thought, inconsistent with Ann's story of a struggle. Did you move anything, touch anything, change anything in that room? The only thing I remember doing is using the radio, unlocking the elevator, and touching John. But as far as the gun, the shell casings, the pillow? I don't remember. I don't remember anything. A pillow near John's head had a tear with gunpowder in it, A pillow near John's head had a tear with gunpowder in it, which means the pillow was positioned over his head and the gun was fired, the prosecutor told us. Within hours, investigators began to think John Bender may have been shot in his sleep and died where he lay. There were pools of blood on both sides of his body, the earplugs he always wore still in place.

Starting from the fourth floor down, we started looking, says Inspector Luis Aguilar, who led a sweep of the house and quickly discovered something that stopped him cold. We found a great amount of jewels, precious stones, gems, thousands of them, diamonds, rubies, opals, some on display, others in suitcases, worth roughly $20 million. When you talk about the jewelry collection, you know, I have jewelry. I don't think that's what you're talking about. No, no, no, in no way, shape, or form. Investigators didn't see it as a jewelry collection either. To them, it looked a lot more like a smuggling operation. Do you think that the fact that when the police got here, they find all these amazing jewels, do you think that it prejudiced them?

So what? Strange doesn't mean that you're a criminal. Ann says the gems were merely a hobby and an investment, and says she did her best to cooperate that night. I was falling to pieces. Within hours of John's death, after calling her family and Juan Alvarez, the trustee of Boracayan, I went into some sort of shock mode. She was rushed to the hospital, emaciated and covered with sores from John's injections. My understanding is they were giving me a 40 percent chance of survival for the first two weeks. What was her condition then? Terrible. In what way? Dehydrated. Extremely thin. Her psychiatrist, Carlos Lozano, who Ann authorized to speak with us, met her in intensive care just hours later. Was she in touch with reality?

In the doubt. Do you think she was even physically capable of doing what the prosecution alleged no and could not even hold a fork when she was here and bender would remain hospitalized for seven months under dr lasano's care and under a growing cloud of suspicion. They were beginning to say, this doesn't look like an accident. This doesn't look like suicide. This looks a lot like a murder. And they began looking at her as a suspect.

Did you, for one second until it actually happened, think that you were going to be charged? No. She was skin and bones. I mean, she looked horrid. The bender's friend, Paul Meyer, visited Ann in the hospital just days after her arrival. She weighed 84 pounds. She literally looked like someone who had just walked out of a concentration camp. Sick or not, she already was investigators' number one murder suspect. Police confiscated

her clothes and her computer, but it's unclear if they examined John's messages or ever saw these chilling excerpts, dated just weeks before he died. I wish I were effing dead, it reads. I feel so effing horrible, I want to kill everyone, and then myself. A window, Ann says, on a tormented soul. John was the most loving, generous person I've ever met, but also loving, generous person I've ever met, but also the most tortured person I've ever met. He had been wanting to kill himself for weeks. She thinks the lawyers Bender trustee Juan Alvarez hired for her should have used John's messages

in her defense. They wouldn't comment on strategy. They never manifested that I was innocent. So their position was, oh yeah, she did do this. By not doing anything, they were making it inevitable that I would be charged. Nineteen months after Bender died, Ann was officially charged with murder. Convinced the gems had been smuggled into the country, authorities later also charged her

with possessing contraband. All, she is sure, just what Juan Alvarez wanted. Why? To hide the fact, she claims that he had siphoned money from the $70 million Bender Trust. I'm the only person that can stop him or bring scrutiny into what he's done. In July 2012, with murder charges hanging over her head, Ann Bender took Juan Alvarez to court for fraud. The suit claimed Alvarez used the Bender Trust as his personal piggy bank, Alvarez used the Bender Trust as his personal piggy bank, buying horses for his horse farm and paying his credit card bills. Authorities raided his office and confiscated 135 boxes of documents. The court then removed Alvarez as trustee.

The investigation is still going today, Alvarez told us. Prosecutors haven't interviewed me. At the end of the day, this investigation will go nowhere because the accusations are bogus. But whatever Juan Alvarez did or did not do, he did not shoot John Bender. And prosecutors see Ann's lawsuit as an attempt to distract them from their firm belief that she did. They just didn't see how that gunshot could have been in that part of his head by suicide. Was this suicide or an accident or murder? The forensic evidence is so vital in this case. It's incredible.

We brought in outside experts to Boracayan and asked them to take a look at it. This was the bedroom. This is where John Bender died. In the rarefied world of forensic science... You can see there's a lot of blood on the crime scene. Selma and Richard Eichlenbaum are internationally recognized experts.

Like this and this one. From the start, they say, some Costa Rican authorities had a preconceived idea that this was murder. The pathology report is very straight from the beginning. This is a homicide. This is a homicide and let's prove it's a homicide. He does look like he's sleeping. A lot of people who die with their eyes does look like he's sleeping. A lot of people who die with their eyes closed look like they're sleeping and they might have been wide awake when it happened. The prosecutor said if you're going to shoot yourself everyone knows it's here or it's here or it's here. Well that's completely unscientific. If that's an example of the logic

they used in this case then I'm really very worried. They cite other monumental mistakes. Not immediately testing for gunpowder residue. Not fingerprinting the gun. Not testing the sheets for blood spatter. What is the most vital thing that they missed? I think the trajectory. Then you can place the shooter on the scene in relation to the victim. It's like this.

They told us the trajectory, the path the bullet followed, was critical to understanding where the gun was when it was fired and if Ann, or John, fired it. Looking at this investigation, how would you grade it? Very poor. How would you grade it? Um, very poor. In January 2013, Ann Bender went on trial for murder before a three-judge panel. Costa Rica has no jury system.

Prosecutors argued that the evidence from the body, the bullet casing, the entry wound, blood stains, and pillow case all made it impossible that this was anything but murder. Once you see the forensic photographs of John lying on his back with his arms down, and you see the blood trails, and you see the bullet hole in the back of his head, it's hard not to at least stop and think, wait, how could he have done that himself? Defense experts were just as insistent on their suicide theory. And psychiatrist Carlos Lozano testified about the Bender's ongoing mental health struggles, describing a syndrome called folie a deux, when two mentally ill people reinforce one another's illness. She was out of her mind and he was out of his mind.

And it's just getting worse and worse and worse. There must have been folie a deux going on for three months before John's death. In court, Paul Meyer, the Bender's neighbor, put a different slant on it. What you have here is a genius who is losing his mind, and I think in a moment of sanity, really, he took his life so that he didn't start killing the people he loved around him. El estadounidense John Felix Bender. After a week-long trial, the judges decided they could not rule out suicide,

and Ann Bender was acquitted of murder. But not for long. After her acquittal on murder charges, Ann Bender hoped for a new start. Hey, hey, uh-uh. She got an apartment in the capital, San Jose. When the trust stopped paying her bills, friends and family helped. And she began dating her now boyfriend, Greg Fisher. Not once, she says, did she even consider leaving Costa Rica.

That was the last thing I was thinking about. Perhaps it should have been the first, because prosecutors have decided to charge Ann Bender with John Bender's murder a second time. She has never not done what this court system has asked her to do, never not done what this government has asked her to do. I know what I need to do. I'm telling the truth. I have all the confidence in the world that things will turn out the way they're supposed to be.

It may seem odd to Americans, but in Costa Rica, there is no double jeopardy rule. So if a prosecutor doesn't like a verdict, he can appeal. And if he wins, try the defendant all over again, with the same charges, the same evidence, and the same witnesses. A new panel of judges will hear the case. Prosecutors tell them John was sleeping when Ann decided to take his life. Ann's attorney, Fabio Oconotrio, tells the court there is just no motive here.

In all homicide, there's a reason. In this case, there's no reason. And in a risky move, he decides there is nobody better able to make that point than Ann Bender herself. I want to make a statement. Costa Rican law allows her to speak whenever she wants, for as long as she wants, without facing any questions. I was so happy here when we moved here. She stays on the stand all day. John and I used to talk about how we felt we were destined to meet.

Describing the dream she and John shared, the jobs the preserve would create, the species it would protect, the fight they had waged to keep it all alive, and the accident that ended their dream forever. He was talking about suicide every day for at least four weeks. It was an issue of getting through every day. You seem to be saying that there was no way to prevent him from attempting suicide. I tried my hardest. I'm not saying just no way for you.

There was no avenue open. No. Period. This was destined to be. He wanted to die. That evening, I had no indication of what was going to happen. After the shot, I don't remember exactly what happened. Security guard Oswaldo Aguilar describes the scene, but he also raises questions about one of the prosecutor's key assumptions. The main point of evidence for the prosecution was

John was left-handed. The bullet wound is behind the right side of his head. You're lying in bed. How does a suicidal man possibly end up shooting himself like this? Aguilar tells the court Bender may have been a lefty, but he always carried his gun on the right side. For Ned Zeman, the possibility that John was ambidextrous is an eye-opener. So it's conceivable that he could have done this. is an eye-opener. So it's conceivable that he could have done this. But testifying for the prosecution,

forensic pathologist Gretchen Flores doesn't care if John Bender was right or left-handed. She insists suicide is inconceivable. Another person, she says, would have to fire the weapon. Her conclusion from the blood evidence and the position of the body, John Bender never saw the shot coming. Okay, it's six centimeters from the midline. At Boracayan, our independent forensics experts Richard and Selma Eichlenbaum tested that idea that John's body never moved. It would explain the blood we find over here, but it doesn't explain the blood over there. In their view, it had to have moved for the blood to have pooled as it did on both sides of his body.

So his head was completely different. This was the position of his head when he was shot. The blood pattern analysis support the hypothesis that there was some sort of fight. I lunged forward towards him with my hands. I fell towards the center of the bed and the gun went off. The hypothesis that he was shot in the position he was found is not supported by this evidence. Also unlikely, the Eichlenbohms say, is the prosecutor's theory that Anne shot her husband from behind the bed. This trajectory is not very likely. It doesn't make any sense. No, I mean, just look at me. If I would shoot him through the head, I would go like this. And they showed us why they think the odd location of the spent cartridge,

such damning proof according to the prosecution, such damning proof, according to the prosecution, really proves nothing at all. The casing can end up in that position if the gun is twisted far enough around. Correct. And what we see very often on crime scenes is that somebody kicks a shell casing and then, of course, it ends up, you don't know, you cannot relate it to the crime. Even John Bender's own parents told us they think there was no crime. They aren't at the trial, but Ann's supporters and brother Ken make the point for them in court.

There is no chance she murdered her husband. If I thought Ann had anything to do with this, in any way, shape, or form, I wouldn't be here. in any way, shape, or form, I wouldn't be here. Whose version is the truth? For Ned Zeman, it's far from clear. So you can see a scenario where it's an accident? Yes. Where it's suicide?

Yes. And where it might be murder? You can see all these? Yes. I absolutely can. And I think anybody who sat in that courtroom would probably say the same thing, except for maybe Ann and her attorney, because it's any of those make sense.

Perhaps concerned the judges also might find reasonable doubt, Prosecutor Ramirez plays his trump card. A forensics expert named Donald Montero. The defense hired him for the first trial, but he never testified. Ann's lawyer furiously objects now that this witness is tainted. Why? Because of who paid his original fee. Then, Bender trustee Juan Alvarez. That is the same Juan Alvarez Ann claims could profit if she were convicted. But Montero does testify, and it's clear why the

defense was worried. I can't imagine a suicidal person shooting themselves like this, he says. I rule out a suicide. In his closing, Prosecutor Ramirez insists this case is straightforward. Ann Bender shot her husband. Defense Attorney Okonotriyo pleads for reason, saying Ann is not an assassin. Facing a possible 25 years in prison, Ann herself has the last word. I did not kill John. I know what I remember.

I know I did not bring that gun to bed. I did not shoot my husband. After four years and two trials, there is perhaps no way Ann Bender can prepare herself for this verdict. Translation, guilty of murder. Her friends and family sit stunned. She is sentenced immediately to 22 years in prison and is led away. It's like a ton of bricks, so it's tough. My worst fears came true.

Anne's boyfriend, Greg Fisher, is frantic about her fragile health. I don't think she's going to live. I don't think she's going to survive. In fact, no sooner is she behind closed doors than Ann reportedly faints. She is rushed to the hospital, where she spends 10 days on suicide watch. The hardest thing for us right now is just to focus on getting her stabilized, because I think this verdict is so unexpected, so harsh. To me, this reeks of corruption. An entirely different view from the man Ann considers her arch enemy, Juan Alvarez.

Though he insists he has no axe to grind and no financial interest, he thinks this time the court got it right. Based on what the tribunal found, he says, she killed him. And Alvarez continues to insist that when he was trustee, he always acted in her best interest. We paid for Anne's hospitalization, he says, for doctors, lawyers, trips for her parents. After removing Alvarez as trustee in 2013, the Costa Rican authorities continued their investigation. The Eichlenbaum's forensic review did turn up disquieting questions about Ann's story.

For someone lying next to a person who shot himself, she had very little blood on her. And the tear on that pillow looked a lot like the one Richard made in his experiment. Does this confirm or dispute Ann's story? This could be against Ann's story. But overall, their experiments support Ann's story far more than they do the prosecution's version. Okay, so show me what you think happened. Especially when they recreated those few deadly seconds at Boracayan.

So what happens is he pulls his body a little bit like this. So he's there. Okay, wait. The vehicle goes like this. And he starts bleeding. They showed us how a struggle could have happened. How Anne's efforts to get the gun could make it fire, how John's body then might have moved.

And he slowly falls back in this position. Which accounts for the blood on this side. Looking at the facts we have here, the scenario of the prosecution is wrong. I'm pretty convinced that it was an accident. I tend also to more that it's an accident than this was a homicide. No comfort to Anne Bender, who continued to protest her innocence from prison. I'm still surviving and I refuse to give up. This won't be what pushes me

over the edge. She's a fighter. My sister's not going to give up, and I'm behind her every step of the way. Ann appealed the verdict. Her lawyer is working pro bono. She says the Bender fortune is in limbo. The second trustee didn't pay her bills or release any money for the nature preserve. nature preserve. What matters at the end of the day is what John wanted being allowed to happen. A few devoted staff are working without pay to keep the jungle from engulfing Boracayan. Once the site of dreams,

now a silent witness to whatever really happened the night John Bender died. Last February, nine months after Ann Bender was convicted of murdering her husband, an appeals court overturned that decision. It's finding that the prosecution's evidence was insufficient proof of murder. Ann was released from prison. She told us she barely survived her time behind bars.

But her ordeal is not over yet. The court has ordered a third trial. Sadly, her boyfriend, who fought so hard to bring attention to her case, She has never not done what this court system has asked her to do. died while she was in prison. Ann Bender must remain in Costa Rica pending her next trial.