Dianne Babcock: Dateline: Unforgettable - Why did Jaroslaw "Jerry" Ambrozuk disappear for 24 years?

June 07, 2024

Jaroslaw "Jerry" Ambrozuk, a 19-year-old Canadian, was involved in a plane crash with his girlfriend Dianne Babcock in a rental aircraft accident in the Little Bitterroot Lake in 1982 while eloping to the US. He left 18-year-old Babcock to die after the accident. She was later discovered dead, strapped into the passenger seat at the bottom of the lake.

Ambrozuk reportedly fled the scene with extra clothes and £10,000 from his girlfriend's savings account to fund their plan to start a new life in the US, and he went missing for 24 years before resurfacing in Texas in 2006, when police discovered him living under a different name and identity. He later pleaded guilty to certain charges and was handed concurrent sentences.

Oxygen's Dateline: Unforgettable chronicles Jaroslaw "Jerry" Ambrozuk who was a fugitive for 24 years before his arrest in 2006. The episode titled At the Bottom of the Lake will air on the channel this Thursday, June 1, at 9:00 pm ET.

The synopsis for the upcoming episode reads:

"Keith Morrison looks back on this haunting mystery he reported on for more than 10 years; a pilot flees following a plane crash, becomes a fugitive and lives a double life for decades."

Jaroslaw "Jerry" Ambrozuk fled the crash site with money, leaving his girlfriend to drown, and disappeared

Jaroslaw "Jerry" Ambrozuk, a Canadian origin man responsible for the 1982 drowning death of his 18-year-old girlfriend Dianne Babcock after crashing a plane into Bitterroot Lake, was arrested in Texas, in 2006, about 24 years after the incident occurred.

A Daily Inter Lake report stated that in August 1982, Ambrozuk, then 19, crashed a rented plane into Bitterroot Lake. His passenger, the 18-year-old Diane Babcock, was found at the bottom of the lake. The couple were reportedly attempting to flee Canada to start a new life in America. Following the crash, he left his girlfriend to die and disappeared with clothes and £10,000 which belonged to Babcock.

Authorities claimed that the case first caught their attention because of the shady circumstances surrounding the accident. They stated that the plane was supposed to fly from Penticton, British Columbia, to Vancouver, but somehow wound up 220 feet underwater in a Montana lake.

According to investigators, in the weeks after the incident, Ambrozuk informed one of his friends that he was able to swim clear of the debris, but Babcock's seat belt got stuck due to which he couldn't rescue her. The 18-year-old's body was still inside the aircraft when police arrived. They noted that the seat belt wasn't jammed and that she had not sustained grave injuries during the crash.

How was Jaroslaw "Jerry" Ambrozuk arrested 24 years after the 1982 plane crash incident?

Jaroslaw "Jerry" Ambrozuk did not report the crash or ask for assistance after it occurred. Instead, he fled, changed his address, took on a new name, and obtained a new social security number. His disappearance spurred a manhunt in both Canada and Montana and he was charged with negligent homicide.

Then in August 2006, a woman tipped authorities about a man named Michael Lee Smith, whom she met via a lonely hearts advertisement. The two exchanged e-mails before meeting in person when Ambrozuk told her his real name and date of birth. The woman conducted a Google search and found out about the decades-old case.

Owing to this information, authorities were able to arrest Ambrozuk from his wealthy Dallas suburb home in Plano, Texas. Reports state that at the time of his arrest, he owned a £38,000 Dodge Viper car and also had a swimming pool in his backyard. He ran a computer software company and had a fake social security number and US passport.

In October 2007, Jaroslaw "Jerry" Ambrozuk was sentenced to four-and-a-half months for illegally obtaining an American passport. Before that Ambrozuk had pleaded guilty to one count of felony criminal endangerment and one count of felony criminal mischief in Montana and was given two 10-year concurrent sentences.

Dateline: Unforgettable will further delve into the case in an upcoming episode this Thursday.

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