Latest / NO FILTER / Millionaire CEO fakes death by pretending to have mad cow disease(MP3_160K)

Transcript

Millionaire CEO fakes death by pretending to have mad cow disease(MP3_160K) · NO FILTER

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I'm Chris Hanson right now on Crimewatch Daily from here
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: in New York. So he was the millionaire king of
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Discount Furniture in Jacksonville.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Florida by America until.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Jose Lantigua mysteriously dropped dead. But his untimely demise is
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: all part of a wicked game.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: And you really couldn't have made this up.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: The secrets and lies he took to the grave.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: At any point. Are there any red flags going off?
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: How he turned his own wife into a pot.
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: That's all a lie. He were duped and.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: I'm like no in the trail of clues that lead
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: detectives to one final shocker.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: That's why I call it dead man walking.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Right now, Andrea Isisenser with Crimewatch Daily.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: Jason Matara a crime Watch dairy.
• 0:54
  Speaker 5: This, I'm Elizabeth.
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: I'm here with Crimewatch and Michelle from Crimewatch Daily.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Anagarcia from Crimewatch is crime Watch Deal.
• 1:02
  Speaker 5: We'll find you again.
• 1:03
  Speaker 6: We always there.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to crime Watch Daily, everyone, I'm Chris Hansen. We
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: begin today with a crime Watch Daily exclusive. The woman
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: at the center of one of the wildest fraud cases
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: I've ever seen is finally breaking her silence, Anna Garcia
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: has the explosive interview you will only see here.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: A millionaire CEO living large is suddenly dead.
• 1:32
  Speaker 6: Getting him to describe his alleged activities.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: Would be like reading a Jason Bourne novel.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: But did wealthy and mysterious Jose Lantigua die a natural death?
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Or was this something more ominous?
• 1:48
  Speaker 6: Sometimes the truth the stranger than fiction. And you really
• 1:53
  Speaker 6: couldn't have made this up.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: A fatal, rare disease, international intrigue and family ensnared in
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: a twisted tale of deception.
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: You know, I'm so blessed? How did I get so lucky?
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Spun by a master storyteller?
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: Yep, I thought it was like a fairy tale and
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: I was the princess.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: But as you're about to learn her, Prince Jose Lantigua
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: is really a dead man. Walking stand with us at
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Circle K by American. Everyone in Jacksonville, Florida, knew Lantigua's face.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: The owner of discount furniture stores, his commercials for the
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Circle K chain even made him a local celebrity.
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: America.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: We have a choice.
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: We can't save our country.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: And selling dining room tables and bedroom sets made Lantigua
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: very rich.
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: Would you say it was a millionaire? He told me
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: he was. He said that he had millions.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Crime watch daily. Sitting down with Lantigua's wife, Daphne in
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: an exclusive inter about the man she thought was her
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: night in Shining Armor.
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: He was a really fascinating person, very kind, very thoughtful.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Daphne Simpson is a deeply religious woman. Her first husband
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: was a pastor, and like many singles, Daphne logged on
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: for Love, hoping to meet a nice guy through a
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Christian dating site. It wasn't long before a match was
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: made in Heaven with the successful Cuban immigrant turned furniture king.
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: When I told the girls at work, you know, that
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: I had gone out with this particular gentleman, and they
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: were like, oh my gosh, you know, he's so awesome. He's,
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: you know, great person here in the community. He's contributed
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: to so many, you know, charities and everything.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Daphne, who's originally from Texas, moved to Jacksonville, and when
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: she went back to the lone Star state to visit
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: her kids, they could tell she was smitten with her
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: new Romeo.
• 4:00
  Speaker 7: She was, I mean just so giddy, and tell me
• 4:02
  Speaker 7: about this amazing man that she had met, and at
• 4:05
  Speaker 7: how much she liked him.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: After four months of dating, Daphne's Cuban Casanova, popped the question.
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: It was in his.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Usual grand style and a fancy restaurant with long stemmed
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: red roses and champagne on ice waiting table side. Sounds
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: like a TV show The Bachelorette, right, I know.
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: I was just like, whoa, It just blew me away.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: After dinner, Jose gets down on bended knee and outcomes
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: the only thing sweeter than chocolate covered strawberries, a five
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: carried diamond engagement ring.
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: That's a big ring. Yeah it was. It was like
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: I said, very wow, it was huge, very blingy.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Was your mom in love with him?
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: Oh?
• 4:51
  Speaker 8: Yeah, absolutely she was, I would say, infatuated with.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Them, and why wouldn't she be. Jose was divorced his
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: children grown adults. Daphne says he rolled out the red
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: carpet for her own adult children, even inviting them to
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: move into his mini mansion on exclusive Fleming Island, an
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: upscale coastal community about fifteen miles from Jacksonville.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: He brought all of us into his fold.
• 5:17
  Speaker 8: My sister is myself immediately he was like, you know,
• 5:20
  Speaker 8: I want you guys to move here into Florida.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: Jose even dazzled Daphne and her kids with intriguing stories
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: about his past as a high ranking military officer, but
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: he embellished those tales, saying he worked with the CIA
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: carrying out top secret missions in South America.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Sounds like have you killed people before? What kind of
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: operations did you do? So he would tell me in depth.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Everyone's future looked bright, especially when Lantigua made Circle K
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: a family business, giving the kids jobs. It was one
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: big Brady bunch in the making.
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: It was like we were one beautiful, big, happy family.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: And the wedding was amazing too, Daphne and Jose surrounded
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: by their eight kids at an intimate beachside affair.
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: I had always wanted a beach wedding with family and
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: a few friends.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: The Pear honeymooned in North Carolina, where they quickly snapped
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: up a rustic mountain retreat.
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: Beautiful views. I mean, it was gorgeous. He wanted to
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: start renovating on it.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: And renovate they did. Jose even building, of all things,
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: a panic room, just like in the movies, a secret
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: layer completely concealed to the naked eye.
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: So he had the safe room built so that the
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: family would be safe. We could all go up there.
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: If you know, chaos broke out.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Daphne was living a dream come true. The newly blended
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: family enjoyed vacations, celebrated holidays together, and welcomed new grandchildren
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: into the world. I mean, honestly, he sounds perfect.
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's what I thought. I thought, wow, And he
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: told me we're soulmates.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: But the dream of a marriage was about to become
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: a nightmare, Daphne says. Just a few months later, Jose
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: drops a shocker, telling her he's dying from a rare
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: condition called CJD, better known as mad cow disease. So
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: he told you he had mad cow disease? Yes, how
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: did he go about explaining this?
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: He has me in his arms and he says, I
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: have something I have to tell you. I have CJD.
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: And I didn't even know what CJD was. And he
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: explained that it was a brain disease and that there
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: was no cure for it, nothing could be done, and
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: that he had maybe six months to live. And I
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: remember I started bawling because we don't even married for
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: a short time, and now I think he's dying and
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: that I'm only going to have six more months with.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Him, Daphney says. Jose told her he contracted the disease
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: while he was in the military and had to eat
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: monkey brains while on assignment in the jungle.
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: He said that one of the missions that they had
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: gone on, he had to interact with the locals where
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: he had been the guest of honor, and therefore you
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: had to eat what's given to you, and he had
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: eaten raw monkey brains at that time. You spoke with
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: the doctor, Yes, I did.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: And what did the doctor tell you?
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: That he had CJD and he would answer any questions
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: I had. We went to an MRI clinic and he
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: had an MRI done of his brain. Did he show
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: you the MRI or any X rays or anything. I
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: did look at it, but I didn't know. I mean,
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: it had a bunch of white spots everywhere, so I
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: just assumed, you know, that's part of the disease.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Daphne and Jose went to Miami, breaking the devastating news
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: to their extended family members, but not long after they
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: at home, Jose makes a completely different and even more
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: shocking admission to Daphne.
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: He sat me down and said, I have something to
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: tell you. I needed to let you know that all
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: that stuff I told you about the CJD you was
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: a lie and I did it to protect the family,
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: and I didn't want anybody to know what the real
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: truth was to protect you.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Suddenly, Jose writes up a dark second chapter in his story.
• 9:29
  Speaker 6: Antiqua tells his wife Daphne, my background is catching up.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: On me, coming up now. Jose claims, it's worse than
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Matt Cow. There is a great danger lurking for the family.
• 9:42
  Speaker 6: As I told you, I was a special Forces operation,
• 9:44
  Speaker 6: the officer that actually took out and assassinated a cartel
• 9:49
  Speaker 6: leader in South America. And I need to fake my
• 9:52
  Speaker 6: death now otherwise my life is at risk, in your
• 9:55
  Speaker 6: life and your family as well.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: And Jose needs everyone but Daphne to believe he would
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: soon die in the jungles south of the border from
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: horrible disease.
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: He was going to Venezuela from mad cow disease.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: At any point, are there any red flags going.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Off the story of successful businessman Jose Lentigua have made
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: headlines around the world, but you've never heard the story
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: behind the story until now. Today our Ana Garcia has
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: an exclusive look at how Lentiga tried to fool the world.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: Jose Lanigua was considered the furniture king of Jacksonville, Florida,
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: but he was about to lose his crown.
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: He looked amazing and treated me like I was a princess.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Daphne's Prince Charming was dying, he said, from mad cow disease.
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: He explained that it was a brain disease and that
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: there was no cure for it, no nothing he could
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: be done, and that he had maybe six months to live.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: But Jose's twisted tale of having mad cow had just
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: one fatal flaw. It was all a load of bull,
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Daphney tells me. Jose lied about his fatal disease for
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: the wildest of reasons. Jose told her his past as
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: a CIA special ops agent south of the border was
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: dangerously haunting him. He claimed a Mexican drug cartel ordered
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: a revenge hit and he needed to protect the family.
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: I was terrified, but I didn't want my children's lives
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: to be in danger, and I believed him, because why
• 11:36
  Speaker 5: would you lie about something like that to your wife.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: But as you're about to see, they were all tall tales.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Daphney says she had no idea her husband was in
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: debt up to his lying eyeballs. His seemingly successful Circle
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: K furniture chain had been in the red for years.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: He believed that at one point in his life he
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: really was successful and had a lot of money.
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: I don't know again, that could be all lie too right.
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: I don't know what everything he told me. I don't
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: know what's true anymore.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: It seems Jose owed the banks millions of dollars after
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: taking out loans he couldn't repay. Instead of filing for bankruptcy,
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: Assistant US Attorney Mark Devereaux says, Jose concocted an elaborate
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: plan to rake in over eight million dollars in life
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: insurance payouts.
• 12:29
  Speaker 6: He thinks it's gonna happen, Everything's going to be better,
• 12:32
  Speaker 6: just like the gambler.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: I'll win the next hand.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: But it doesn't, And in order to get the insurance
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: companies to cough up the cash, Jose had to fake
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: his own death. So he closed up shop and told
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: his family he was going to Venezuela for treatment, but
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: he needed Daphney's help to pull off the plan.
• 12:51
  Speaker 6: He needed a conspirator, a co conspirator, and it ended
• 12:54
  Speaker 6: up being his wife. But he knew his wife, and
• 12:58
  Speaker 6: he knew that if he told her that truth, she
• 13:01
  Speaker 6: wouldn't have jumped on board.
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: So he tricked her. We've all heard.
• 13:04
  Speaker 6: There's no honor amongst thieves. Here, he had no honor,
• 13:09
  Speaker 6: and he was very cruel in what he told his wife.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: To convince Daphne to help him, Lantigua whipped up a
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: tale of death so outlandish it could be ripped from
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: the pages of a spy novel.
• 13:21
  Speaker 6: Antigua tells his wife Daphne, my background is catching up
• 13:26
  Speaker 6: on me, as I told you, I was a Special
• 13:28
  Speaker 6: Forces operations officer that actually took out and assassinated a
• 13:33
  Speaker 6: cartel leader in South America. I was the team leader,
• 13:37
  Speaker 6: and I need to fake my death now otherwise my
• 13:40
  Speaker 6: life is at risk, in your life and your family
• 13:42
  Speaker 6: as well.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: Meanwhile, Lantigua had Daphne's kids hoodwinked into believing he was
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: going to Venezuela for experimental treatment for mad cow disease.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: The crafty con man even wrote a personal letter to
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: his kids. Preparing for his imminent death.
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: Had left a letter in his personal effects for me
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: to share with the family, stating that he didn't want
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: to pass away in front of his family. He wanted
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: to be alone so they would remember him as he was,
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: you know.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: When he was still healthy, and wouldn't you know it.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: Months after disappearing deep in the jungles of South America,
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: Lantigua drops dead, or so he said, at any point,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: are there any red flags going off?
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, the whole time.
• 14:32
  Speaker 7: I mean, when you don't see a body and then
• 14:34
  Speaker 7: they just disappear, it's weird, you know, to just disappear
• 14:38
  Speaker 7: and then die in a foreign country.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: But Lantigua moved pretty well for a dead guy.
• 14:44
  Speaker 6: While in Venezuela, he ends up purchasing death certificate, has
• 14:50
  Speaker 6: a doctor sign He ends up also purchasing a certificate
• 14:55
  Speaker 6: of cremation.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: Daphne is instructed to tell her kids that she's lying
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: to Venezuela to collect his ashes. She boards the plane
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: loaded with about twenty thousand dollars in cash.
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: What was that money for?
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: He had told me it was to get the records
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: that they needed to show that he was dead.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: The couple goes to the US Embassy in Venezuela to
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: get a certificate of death, a document Daphne will need
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: to get the eight million in insurance. He's outside the
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: embassy waiting for you. You're inside the American Embassy in
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: Venezuela with his death certificate, trying to get it approved.
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: Wow, that really takes a lot of to pull off.
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: Everything he did takes a lot. I don't know how
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: you can do what he did and wake up every
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: morning not hating yourself.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: At this point, Daphne claims she's just protecting the family
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: and has no idea of her husband's plan to rip
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: off the insurance companies.
• 16:03
  Speaker 6: Plantigua tells Daphne, Daphnie, you have to do this. If
• 16:07
  Speaker 6: you don't go through everything, it's going to be clear
• 16:10
  Speaker 6: to the cartel that I'm not dead.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: But back in Jacksonville, as the children are processing their
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: stepdad's death, Daphne had become a pawn in her husband's
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: wicked game. You come back with a death certificate, You
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: come back with a box of something that could be dirt,
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: but everyone's supposed to believe it's your husband's remains, And
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: what do you do do you have a funeral?
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: No, his son did a memorial service.
• 16:37
  Speaker 6: He ends up having his wife do all the things
• 16:42
  Speaker 6: that a grieving widow would do.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: And it's all a sham.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: And shortly after the memorial service, Lantigua miraculously rose from
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: the dead, telling Daphne to hire a lawyer to start
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: the insurance claims on seven. That's right, seven pouls.
• 17:00
  Speaker 6: How many times do you have a situation where a
• 17:03
  Speaker 6: person is so bold to use a federal court, a
• 17:08
  Speaker 6: presidentially appointed judge to basically unknowingly assist them in their
• 17:15
  Speaker 6: fraud for eight million dollars.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: That takes some guts or stupidity.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: Stupid would be an understatement. Up next, something was rotten
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: in Venezuela.
• 17:31
  Speaker 6: That's why I call it dead man walking, because if
• 17:33
  Speaker 6: he's walking, he ain't dead.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: And it wasn't the decomposing body of Jose Lantigua, businessman.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Jose Lanigua I had seven, yes, seven life insurance policies,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: so when he died from of all things, mad cow disease,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: his family received quite the financial windfall. Except there was
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: one tiny little problem. You see, Jose wasn't dead, and
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: I Garcia is back with our exclusive new and investigation.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: From his secret hideaway in a South American jungle, Jose
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: Lantigua did something probably no other person on the planet
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: could do. He read his own obituary.
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: I started bawling because we don't even married. For a
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: short time.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: Jose Antigua says he died, but he's the dead man talking.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: He says mad cow disease killed him, or so he
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: wanted his life insurance company to believe.
• 18:29
  Speaker 6: This is a very unique insurance fraud because in order
• 18:33
  Speaker 6: to accomplish this and be a success, one has to
• 18:37
  Speaker 6: cut their ties and basically be a lone wolf for
• 18:40
  Speaker 6: the rest of their lives and say goodbye to their
• 18:42
  Speaker 6: family and loved ones. And that's a hard thing to do,
• 18:44
  Speaker 6: if not almost impossible.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: The Fed say, Jose faked his own death, paying off
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: local Venezuelans to create a paper trail, and even conning
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: his wife Daphne into helping him pull off the scam.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: And how long did this lie go on?
• 19:00
  Speaker 7: For?
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: Way too long? A long time.
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: That was the hardest, having to lie to my kids.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: My family. But I thought I was protecting.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: Them, protecting them, she was led to think. From a
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: Mexican drug lord with revenge on his mind.
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: He think that's how he manipulated you. Oh, I'm sure
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: he knew how much family meant to me and how
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: much I loved my children and my grandchildren.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: And what Daphne did next sounds like a plot out
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: of a hit thriller.
• 19:39
  Speaker 6: We then learn Daphne travels to the Bahamas on a
• 19:43
  Speaker 6: carnival cruise line that leaves out of Jacksonville.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: It leaves here twice a week.
• 19:48
  Speaker 6: She carried money, She met with Lantigua, and Daphne then
• 19:54
  Speaker 6: returns back on the cruise ship.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: The Bahamas. How was that part of the plan.
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: He had been telling me that he wanted me to
• 20:04
  Speaker 5: come and see him in the Bahamas.
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: He missed me.
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: He wanted to see me. He said, you know, just
• 20:10
  Speaker 5: come for a week so we can be together. And
• 20:14
  Speaker 5: at this time, I'm madly in love with him, still
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: not realizing what he had been doing.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: Even though Daphne insisted she wasn't in on any scam,
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: she immediately filed the claims on Jose's policy after returning
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: to the United States. That's when insurance adjusters smelled a rat.
• 20:32
  Speaker 6: The beneficiaries are saying, pay up and the insurance company, saying,
• 20:37
  Speaker 6: you haven't proved.
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: That your dad is dead.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: The only proof Jose died this official looking Venezuela in
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: depth certificate, but suspicious insurance Fraught investigators dove into the
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: thick of the jungle in search of the truth.
• 20:52
  Speaker 9: The first red flag that we had was the fact
• 20:56
  Speaker 9: that mister Lentiwa, was apparently an affluent individual, had actually
• 21:01
  Speaker 9: traveled to Venezuela, a country that was basically in a
• 21:06
  Speaker 9: civil war, to obtain medical treatment.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: The clues Richard Marquez and his pis found laid out
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: like breadcrumbs in a fractured fairy tale.
• 21:17
  Speaker 9: Another red flag that we noticed immediately was that he
• 21:21
  Speaker 9: had allegedly passed away in a very small town in
• 21:24
  Speaker 9: the remote location, approximately two hours away from Caracas, and
• 21:28
  Speaker 9: we thought that was very suspicious. Once we arrived into town,
• 21:34
  Speaker 9: we found out that he was allegedly staying at a
• 21:36
  Speaker 9: lodge that had not been in operation for several years.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Of course, Jose had no clue. They were hot on
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: the trail of his cold body, his forged death documents,
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: decomposing like a fake corpse in the humid Venezuelan heat.
• 21:52
  Speaker 6: He dies in the location a and it's five days later.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: Is when he's cremated.
• 21:57
  Speaker 6: A body in five days in the heat in Venezuela
• 22:00
  Speaker 6: would not be a good sight.
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: It would blow and it would smell.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: Investigators are told that Lantigua's body was driven two hundred
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: and fifty miles from where he supposedly died to a
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: crematorium in another town. One more red flag, given there
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: were dozens of crematoriums closer.
• 22:20
  Speaker 9: The cremation manager in this she told us that he
• 22:23
  Speaker 9: had in fact cremated the body. After a couple of
• 22:26
  Speaker 9: days of interviewing him and pointing out some discrepancies, he
• 22:31
  Speaker 9: had no recourse. But that tells the truth that he
• 22:35
  Speaker 9: had in fact never received the body. He had never,
• 22:38
  Speaker 9: in fact cremated the body.
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: That he had.
• 22:41
  Speaker 9: Swept the floor of some mashes and debris, put it
• 22:45
  Speaker 9: in an urn, and shipped it to the family, to
• 22:48
  Speaker 9: the wife.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: And then the first tangible clue that Jose Lantigua is
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: in fact alive. Remember that death certificate. Investigators discover it
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: was also fraudulent.
• 23:01
  Speaker 6: It's identified somewhat easily by somebody that knows what they're
• 23:05
  Speaker 6: looking for, and that's because they didn't have a notary process.
• 23:09
  Speaker 6: There's a number on that documents and it has to
• 23:12
  Speaker 6: correspond to a notary's book. They go to try to
• 23:15
  Speaker 6: find word that the notary's book is there isn't one.
• 23:19
  Speaker 6: They start doing more interviews and what they're able to
• 23:22
  Speaker 6: establish is he isn't dead.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: Jose's elaborate plan was about to topple. Like a house
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: of cards.
• 23:28
  Speaker 9: We can only hit people with one thing, the facts,
• 23:34
  Speaker 9: and the facts never lie.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: The agents track down the doctor who signed the bogus
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: death certificate.
• 23:40
  Speaker 9: He threw us out of this office several times, but
• 23:43
  Speaker 9: we kept going back and ultimately told us, hey, listen, okay,
• 23:46
  Speaker 9: So the truth is I never saw this person. I
• 23:49
  Speaker 9: have never met him before. I've never examined him, and
• 23:53
  Speaker 9: the funeral home people as a favorite, asked me to
• 23:56
  Speaker 9: sign this certificate. But I have never met this person.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Back in the States, Daphne says she was still haunted
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: by the specter of the drug cartel at this point,
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: do you think that there are people following you?
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 24:09
  Speaker 5: I was always so paranoid because he told me, you know,
• 24:13
  Speaker 5: you got to watch out. Every time I'm driving, I'm
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: looking in the mirrors thinking is somebody following.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: Me Meanwhile, attorneys from both sides were battling it out
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: over the eight million dollar payout.
• 24:25
  Speaker 6: They file a motion in federal court here in Jacksonville
• 24:31
  Speaker 6: for a declaratory judgment finding that the insurance companies don't
• 24:34
  Speaker 6: have to pay the insurance because he's not dead. They
• 24:37
  Speaker 6: haven't provided sufficient proof of death, and so at that
• 24:41
  Speaker 6: point in time, we know or have firm evidence really
• 24:46
  Speaker 6: that he's not dead.
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: Now the question is where is he?
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: But no one really knows where the fully alive, slippery
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: scam artist is hiding. Coming up, Jose thinks he's pulled
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: all off the white collar crime of the century, and so.
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: The hunt was on. He makes a dreadful mistake.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: And what he does next will shock everyone.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Theefne Simpson says she would do anything to protect her family,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: so when her husband, Jose Lentiga, told her they were
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: in serious danger and he needed her help, she of
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: course said yes, even though she knew some of the
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: things she.
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: Was doing might be illegal. Here's Anagarcia.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: Chris Jose Lantigua had a plot to make himself disappear,
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: and he convinced everyone that it was real, including his
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: wife and kids. Well, today they sit down to tell
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: us just how far those lies went. Jose Lantigua is
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: laying low in his secret hideaway in Venezuela.
• 25:44
  Speaker 9: He went through quite a bit of trouble and paining
• 25:46
  Speaker 9: quite a few people who cooborated their story to show
• 25:51
  Speaker 9: that he actually passed away.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: But now Jose's about to do something even more dramatic
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: than rising from his own dead ashes.
• 25:59
  Speaker 6: Apparently, mister Lanigua is an extremely convincing storyteller.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: By sneaking back into the United States.
• 26:07
  Speaker 6: Lantigua then pays five thousand dollars to get a boat
• 26:10
  Speaker 6: ride because it's just about sixty miles off the coast
• 26:13
  Speaker 6: for Nassau across to Fort Lauderdale. He takes a Greyhound
• 26:19
  Speaker 6: up by ninety five, comes to Jacksonville, stays at that
• 26:23
  Speaker 6: airport hotel.
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: The next morning, Daphne picks him up.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: Lantigua holds up in the couple's mountain retreat, nestled at
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: the end of a long driveway hidden by tall pine trees.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: His children have no idea daddy's home.
• 26:40
  Speaker 6: His wife Daphne did have family visit in that house
• 26:43
  Speaker 6: in North Carolina at Christmas time and Thanksgiving and he
• 26:46
  Speaker 6: would stay at a hotel because he'd move out, so
• 26:49
  Speaker 6: they didn't know he's alive.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: But Lantigua apparently did see trouble coming. Remember that panic
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: room we told you about.
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: It's a house, a safe room, that's what it was called.
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: It was something he had insisted on having built into
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: the house.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: The bunker in his basement was designed to withstand a
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: nuclear attack. It was equipped with twenty inch thick steel
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: doors and something like that can come in handy when
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: you're hiding, which is interesting because this house was purchased
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: on your honeymoon.
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and he said he wanted to do renovations. He
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: renovated the whole house.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: Yes, so he was already planning apparently. Jose then gets
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: busy creating a new identity. He applies for a North
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: Carolina driver's license using a stolen ID. But his next
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: move to create a new life will be his last.
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: He makes a dreadful mistake.
• 27:50
  Speaker 6: He applies for the passport in the United States government.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: On his passport application, Jose uses the name of Earnest Wills,
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: an African American postal worker. But that was just the
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: beginning of Jose's missteps. Jose actually listed the address of
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: that mountain house in North Carolina and Daphne as the
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: emergency contact. What turns out to be another dumb move.
• 28:18
  Speaker 6: He had the Department of State on him and they
• 28:21
  Speaker 6: knew the passport was supposed to be delivered to a
• 28:23
  Speaker 6: post office box in North Carolina.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: Though he changed his look for his passport picture, going
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: from gray hair to a brown two pay and a
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: fake goateee. It seems three mistakes was a charm.
• 28:37
  Speaker 6: What had happened is Lentiga previously had a passport. He
• 28:42
  Speaker 6: submits a passport again. Both of them were handwritten, same handwriting.
• 28:49
  Speaker 6: Pictures come back and they matched the faces because of
• 28:52
  Speaker 6: the measurements between the nose and the eyes and the ears,
• 28:56
  Speaker 6: and so the hunt was on.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: The FEDS run secret surveillance on Lantigua, and after a
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: year and a half they finally get their man.
• 29:10
  Speaker 5: He had been having work done on his jeep. When
• 29:14
  Speaker 5: we got to the place to pick up his jeep.
• 29:17
  Speaker 4: These agents were already.
• 29:19
  Speaker 5: There and they got him and they handcuffed him and
• 29:24
  Speaker 5: arrested him.
• 29:26
  Speaker 6: Jose Lantigua immediately confesses and confirms that he is Jose Lantigua.
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: He was wearing a tupe. He had dyed his facial hair.
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: The couple is immediately separated for questioning.
• 29:40
  Speaker 5: One of the agents came over to me, and this
• 29:43
  Speaker 5: whole time that this has been going on.
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: He's always been telling me, I have to be this person.
• 29:50
  Speaker 5: Identity was supposedly the CIA had given him. So when
• 29:55
  Speaker 5: the agent came and said who is that, and did
• 29:58
  Speaker 5: what he had told me to do, and I said,
• 30:00
  Speaker 5: that's my friend, and I gave his name, and the
• 30:03
  Speaker 5: agent looked at me and he said, I'm going to
• 30:05
  Speaker 5: ask you again.
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: I'm a federal agent. You can't lie.
• 30:09
  Speaker 5: But I was so terrified and so thinking of protecting
• 30:14
  Speaker 5: him and my family, I lied again, and that's when
• 30:21
  Speaker 5: they arrested me.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: The evidence is overwhelming. Remember his life insurance policy supposedly
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: worth six million. It turns out he forged it. Jose
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: really only had about thirty eight thousand dollars. Jose and
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: Daphne eventually both pleaded guilty. He's convicted of conspiracy and
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: bank fraud. The judge sentenced him to fourteen years in
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: the pen.
• 30:49
  Speaker 6: I think it was well deserved. He will be in
• 30:54
  Speaker 6: his seventies when he gets out of prison. He made
• 30:57
  Speaker 6: a decision. He made a bed, and he's going to
• 30:59
  Speaker 6: have to sleep in it.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: And Daphne faced up to five years in jail for conspiracy.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: She wound up serving seventeen months, but even while sitting
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: in the slammer, Jose still had her under his spell.
• 31:13
  Speaker 5: My family hired a lawyer to defend me, and I
• 31:18
  Speaker 5: sat with him for three hours and I told him everything,
• 31:24
  Speaker 5: and he kept telling me.
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: He said, Daphne, that's all a lie. He were duped,
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, no, it's the truth.
• 31:34
  Speaker 5: And you'll see because the government's going to expose it
• 31:37
  Speaker 5: and tell the truth.
• 31:39
  Speaker 4: It's all the truth.
• 31:42
  Speaker 6: She was in there for months and believed heartily that
• 31:47
  Speaker 6: her husband was telling the truth, and she was waiting
• 31:50
  Speaker 6: every day for the CIA to come and fix it all.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: Do you blame her for having gotten herself in this position?
• 31:58
  Speaker 8: You know, looking from the outside in, you're you know,
• 32:01
  Speaker 8: how could you be so naive? Why would you let
• 32:04
  Speaker 8: this happen? You should have seen the signs. But being
• 32:08
  Speaker 8: there and in the moment with him, and how great
• 32:12
  Speaker 8: of a con artist he was, he would have fooled anybody.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: Even though she served her time, Daphne remains under house
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: arrest and must wear an ankle bracelet for three months. So, Daphne,
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: how far can you go outside?
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: Just here whereas I can go.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: She can leave only to go to church and hopes
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: to find a job so she can somehow pay back
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: the eight hundred and seventy one thousand dollars Jose collected
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: in insurance money. So now your mom is stuck with
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: paying the restitution for both.
• 32:48
  Speaker 7: Of them, right, which I think is very unfair because
• 32:52
  Speaker 7: even before she met Jose, my mom had a house,
• 32:55
  Speaker 7: she had a home, she had vehicles, she had a career,
• 32:58
  Speaker 7: she had her life together.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: Daphne is filing for divorce and refuses to answer the
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: dozens of letters he has written to her from jail.
• 33:07
  Speaker 5: It's just junk, it's just garbage in there. So that's
• 33:11
  Speaker 5: when I started returning them and just saying I don't
• 33:14
  Speaker 5: want them for what to hear more lies.
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: I lie to his wife as he did.
• 33:21
  Speaker 6: That's nothing but cruel and Barbara, because he turned her
• 33:25
  Speaker 6: from being a person of good character to a person
• 33:29
  Speaker 6: that's going to die as a felon.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: The ghost of Jose Lantigua finally busted, and as for Daphne,
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: the fairy tale is broken. The glass slipper from her
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: Prince Charming never fit.
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: The fairy tale. It doesn't exist.