True Crime Vault: Doctor Deceit

[0:02] Welcome to the 2020 True Crime Vault, where heart-stopping headlines come to life. [0:07] Maria Cruz came to New York from the Philippines to fulfill her dreams, her ambition. [0:21] Maria Cruz is kind of an example of the best possible of immigrant success story, the reason people come to America. [0:29] She was a tiny woman, quiet, incredibly religious, Catholic. [0:33] She was so devout that when Maria first arrived in New York City, she lived in a dorm that was run by nuns. [0:39] I met Maria actually 20 years ago because that's when I moved to the dorm. [0:48] Maria is kind of quiet. She's very professional, go-getter, very ambitious. [0:56] She has all this dream, you know, American dream. [1:02] She got an MBA at Fordham. She got a job at Barclays. [1:07] She worked in an office on Park Avenue. How amazing is that? [1:11] She moved from... [1:12] She moved from a residential place for women to her own apartment in a high-rise on the West Side. [1:18] Maria wanted to make the most of her appearance. [1:22] She took great care with her skin and got facials and used products to help her skin's health. [1:30] And she was very much aware of how she dressed, how she carried herself, and how other people saw her. [1:36] Who better to fit into that desire for Maria Cruz but Dean Fiello? [1:46] Who relished making people look and feel good. [1:49] According to Dean, she had some scarring on the inside of her legs that she basically wanted erased with a laser. [1:57] And that's what Dean says he treated her for. [2:00] How many times did you see her? [2:04] I would say somewhere between 10 and 15 times. [2:07] You know, we spent many hours during the treatment, talking with each other. [2:12] How did she strike you initially? [2:15] Quiet and shy. [2:16] But then I learned that she was a woman. [2:21] But she was a very smart, successful person. [2:26] Maria Cruz, like so many other clients of Dean Fiello, acted on faith. [2:31] He played the part. He looked the part. He acted the part. [2:35] They had no clue that he was not qualified to inject anybody with lidocaine or use a laser wand. [2:44] Did you ever tell her that these treatments are supposed to be accompanied by a medical doctor? [2:49] No. [2:51] She never asked? [2:52] No. [2:53] She trusted you? [2:54] Yes. [2:56] I trust you. I don't have to worry. [2:57] Well, that doesn't mean you can trust me. [2:59] Why would you be practicing medicine without a license, Dean? [3:02] Imagine what Maria and other clients must have thought in October of 2002, [3:11] when the news came out that Dean was not a doctor, but was practicing as if he was. [3:20] You were all over the news at that point. [3:22] So what happened to all your longtime patients? [3:25] Were they not all almost simultaneously alerted [3:28] that you were bad news? [3:30] They were all alerted. Amazingly, a few of them still stayed with me. [3:34] Dean actually got out of all this with, you know, a pretty sweet deal. [3:39] He was given a four-year sentence, but it was cut down to six months [3:42] because he agreed to alert authorities to other people [3:46] who were doing the same type of things illegally that he was. [3:49] And part of the stipulations regarding his plea agreement [3:53] was that he had to close down his business and never work with lasers again. [3:59] Frank Spinelli worked out of the same office building as Faella. [4:04] To our surprise and shock, he showed up the next day. [4:09] Patients started showing up. [4:11] He had every intent of continuing to work. [4:14] My boss had to threaten him by calling the police, but he thankfully went. [4:19] Dean had hurriedly taken the laser out, of course. [4:22] Finally, Dean is forced to shut down Skinnovations for good. [4:25] But now he's not just a man without a practice. [4:28] He's a man with no source of income. [4:30] I couldn't even afford to buy food. [4:34] I had to borrow money from Greg Bach to buy food. [4:37] This is a turning point for Dean, [4:40] but it's also a turning point in his relationship with Greg. [4:44] He's out, like, $7,000 on bail, on legal fees, [4:47] and Greg foots it because Dean is in debt, [4:50] and Greg believes there's something there that's salvageable. [4:53] He's not a bad guy. He's just broken. [4:58] I was paying the mortgage. I was paying for all the home repairs. [5:01] I paid up on the back mortgage. [5:03] I paid up on the back utility bills. [5:06] And so, all told, it was coming up to about, like, $85,000. [5:10] Greg was paying for everything. [5:14] Greg was chasing Dean around the house with a promissory note, [5:19] and Dean wouldn't sign it. [5:21] You owed Greg tens of thousands of dollars at that point? [5:25] Mm-hmm. Other people, too? Yeah. [5:27] People who loved you, who helped you? Yeah. [5:34] What does that say about Dean Fiello? [5:36] That I didn't face up to my responsibilities. [5:40] That I used people. [5:42] That I didn't care how I hurt them. [5:44] He has gone to New York, made it. [5:52] He was the center of nightlife. [5:54] He had become this practitioner in the beauty industry. [5:58] He had lots of friends, a beautiful mansion, [6:01] a handsome boyfriend. [6:03] All of it crumbles right at his feet. [6:06] For Dean Fiello, this was hell on earth. [6:09] It was a hell of his own building, [6:11] but he was in a bad, bad, bad place. [6:14] I had gotten to the point where the demons were around me. [6:19] Despite his drug addiction, his debt, [6:24] his criminal charges, his closing down, [6:27] Dean Fiello is not going to stop. [6:31] Now he's taking everything underground, [6:34] and that means he has not seen the last of his clients, [6:38] including Maria Cruz. [6:40] On Palm Sunday, she had disappeared, [6:43] and I was looking for her. [6:46] I was looking for her. [6:47] I was looking for her. [6:49] I was very concerned that this was going to end badly. [6:52] In the weeks and months after his arrest, [7:00] Dean goes into a deep depression. [7:02] The only career he's ever really had, [7:05] certainly the only place he's ever made serious money, [7:08] is gone. [7:11] The cold reality is that Dean is out of money. [7:15] Greg has been sustaining him as much as possible, [7:18] but it's getting ugly. [7:20] There's only one thing for them to do, [7:23] and that's to sell the beloved historical mansion. [7:28] I had no choice. [7:30] I had to sell the house. [7:31] I had lived in the house for 18 years. [7:34] I loved the house. [7:35] He would be despondent and feel defeated and depressed. [7:41] He didn't have access to that state hall. [7:44] You know, I felt that he was using whatever he could get, [7:46] like whatever street drugs, whether it be cocaine. [7:48] He was unraveling. [7:53] It's pretty clear that Dean thought [7:56] the only way he could get out of this hole was to make money. [7:59] The only way he knew how to make money [8:01] was to go back and do his procedures. [8:03] Where did those treatments take you? [8:07] I had a friend's apartment on 16th Street. [8:10] And how would the word even get out to patients at this point? [8:14] Phone contact, me reaching out and letting people know [8:18] if they wanted to continue treatment, I was available. [8:20] It's just so beyond the pale. [8:24] This was a back-alley laser procedure. [8:27] I mean, it's just bad on top of bad on top of bad. [8:31] It's April 13, 2003. [8:37] It is Palm Sunday. [8:39] And for Maria Cruz, that means attending mass at home. [8:43] At her church and her parish, St. Malachi's. [8:46] Maria would have been one of the people in the congregation [8:50] listening to the reading of the scriptures. [8:54] I led the mass, you know. [8:56] Maria would have approached the altar to receive communion. [9:00] She didn't show up for work on Monday. [9:05] Her co-workers were worried. [9:10] When she didn't show up the second day, [9:12] the co-workers find an aunt, [9:14] who was the emergency contact number in New Jersey. [9:18] And the aunt called two of her sons. [9:20] They went to her apartment [9:22] and saw Wall Street Journal's laying outside of her door. [9:25] And that wasn't like Maria. [9:28] The Wall Street Journal was the next thing to the Bible to Maria. [9:33] And all her co-workers are very concerned. [9:36] Tuesday, April 15, Maria's uncle walks into the 13th precinct in Manhattan [9:43] and files a missing persons report. [9:47] The detectives were concerned because her uncle, [9:50] who came in, was so concerned [9:52] that this was out of her normal course of behavior. [9:55] A thorough search was conducted of her apartment [9:58] and the building where she lived in. [10:00] Her apartment was meticulous. [10:02] There was no sign of foul play. [10:06] Police are able to uncover more details [10:08] of Maria's activities on that Palm Sunday. [10:11] They even find surveillance video of Maria [10:13] stopping by her office building to pick up some paperwork. [10:17] We got information back that her credit card [10:22] had been used in Lowman's department store [10:25] on the day we suspected she had disappeared. [10:28] She went to an ATM, [10:29] and withdrew money. [10:32] And we were concerned that maybe she had been followed [10:35] and abducted while she was taking money at the ATM. [10:38] But we reviewed the ATM video, [10:40] and there was no indication of that. [10:43] Maria's siblings flew over from the Philippines. [10:48] They started putting up flyers in the neighborhood. [10:52] One of Maria's uncles went up one street every day [10:59] putting up 500 flyers. [11:01] Every block got a flyer. [11:03] Manhattan was papered with those flyers [11:06] about their missing loved one. [11:08] The parishioners came forward and then said, [11:12] Father, what can we do to help? [11:15] So I said, let's disseminate the flyer all over the city. [11:18] Everybody was upset as soon as we found out [11:21] that she was missing. [11:22] We looked everywhere in the city, [11:25] downtown, uptown, just like forever searching for her. [11:30] At this point, the investigation or frustration is mounting. [11:33] You're hoping for a break, [11:35] for some kind of call from the public, [11:37] or some kind of tip, [11:38] something that can point us in a direction [11:40] that we haven't already looked in. [11:42] Meanwhile, Dean Fiolo is over in New Jersey [11:48] still trying to sell his house, [11:50] and he has, in fact, found a buyer. [11:53] But there's a litany of repairs that have to be made, [11:57] and his friends have all come in to help. [12:00] When the real estate agent came and saw the house, [12:02] she gave us four typed pages [12:05] of stuff to be done. [12:08] When you get ready to sell a house, [12:10] they do an inspection and make a list of things [12:12] that have to be repaired, [12:13] and there were some repairs that had to be done [12:15] to the sidewalk. [12:16] Well, I ended up buying between 30, [12:19] maybe 35 bags of cement. [12:22] One day, right before the closing, [12:25] Greg notices that Dean is out in the garage area [12:30] of the mansion, [12:31] and he's looking at a concrete slab, [12:34] and Greg's thinking, well, what is that for? [12:37] It just didn't make a lot of sense to me, [12:39] so I, like, walked up to him and said, like, [12:41] what are you doing? [12:42] And he starts screaming at me, you know, [12:44] to get out of the garage, leave him alone, [12:46] get out of here, don't come back. [12:48] Five months have passed since Maria's disappearance, [12:53] and the case has gone cold. [12:55] But then detectives finally get the break [12:58] they're looking for. [12:59] So we go to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office [13:02] to get a subpoena to access her e-mail account. [13:05] We were able to determine that she had made an appointment [13:09] for the day she was missing [13:11] to see a doctor. [13:13] In the vicinity of where she had last used her credit card, [13:17] and we know that doctor was identified as Dean Fialo. [13:22] Obviously, police want to find Dean Fialo. [13:26] The problem is he, too, has vanished. [13:29] Now they couldn't find Dean. [13:32] He's got a date to appear in court in October, [13:36] but Dean didn't show up for that court date. [13:39] Didn't tell his attorney, didn't tell the prosecutor, [13:41] didn't tell anybody. [13:42] He just doesn't show up. [13:43] We have a connection to Maria, [13:47] who we know is Dean, [13:48] but we can't find either of those people. [13:50] Missing man, missing woman. [13:55] And when detectives finally draw the nexus [13:58] between those two people, [14:00] the revelation is minor. [14:03] Lights and sirens, lights and sirens. [14:09] Disappeared. [14:15] Everybody began to ask questions of why. [14:19] This once handsome toast of the town [14:22] now has the law chasing after him [14:24] for practicing without a license. [14:26] And then there's that other man, [14:27] and then there's that other matter of a missing client. [14:30] We have a connection to Maria, [14:33] who we know is Dean, [14:34] but we can't find either of those people. [14:36] How somebody who seemed like they had so much going for them [14:42] could have everything go so completely and totally wrong. [14:45] Now a fugitive on the run. [14:47] He was the housemate from hell. [14:50] I'm going into the city, and I'll see you later. [14:54] I never saw Dean again. [14:55] This guy could be literally anywhere in the world. [14:57] He's narcissistic. [15:01] He likes to make a splash. [15:03] Dean Fiello makes an impression. [15:05] He said he was a doctor. [15:06] Dean's whole adventure is just crazy. [15:10] All I could think of is, [15:11] I have to find Dean Fiello. [15:14] He's just bad on top of bad on top of bad. [15:17] This is the pictures of me and Dean. [15:36] This is at the very, very end. [15:39] No, we actually look kind of happy. [15:40] You wouldn't be able to see the stress behind her eyes. [15:43] Now that I look back at these images, [15:46] I mean, I just can't help but be angry. [15:48] Dean Fiello. [15:52] Dean Fiello had everything. [15:55] Extraordinary good looks. [15:56] He has money. [15:58] Stature. [16:00] He's got love. [16:01] He's got a beautiful mansion. [16:03] And this man takes all of it and chucks it over a cliff. [16:08] Everywhere Dean turned was bad, Greg. [16:16] But in a nasty way. [16:18] He owed him $85,000. [16:20] Now everything's coming to a head. [16:24] You know, Dean's legal problems from forging scripts [16:27] to being busted for practicing medicine. [16:30] Without a license. [16:31] It wasn't the destruction of the work that bothered me so much [16:36] as my personal descent into hell. [16:39] I was terrified of who I had become. [16:42] With no money and no business, [16:50] Dean sets up an illegal practice [16:52] out of a friend's 16th Street apartment in downtown New York, [16:55] where one of his patients had happened to be Maria Cruz, [16:59] the young banker who'd gone missing. [17:03] Still is depressed and lethargic, sleeping all the time, [17:07] and Dean moves in with a neighbor. [17:09] It's really like a picture-perfect suburb. [17:16] Yes, it really is. [17:17] And very quiet. [17:18] And here's your old house. [17:21] This is where I lived. [17:22] Not what's going on. [17:23] On the first day, it became a nightmare. [17:29] He was the housemate from hell. [17:32] I was a spoiled brat at times. [17:35] I didn't want to do the things that I was supposed to do [17:37] because I was getting away with what I was doing. [17:41] Dean eats all his food and starts wearing his clothes. [17:45] And Mark's like, [17:46] Dean, dude, quit wearing my clothes. [17:48] I even put a note on it. [17:50] Dean, do not wear my jeans. [17:52] Directly on top of them. [17:53] He had to move it to get the pair of jeans he had on. [17:55] And so I was furious. [17:58] And then all the liquor was gone. [18:00] All the wine was gone. [18:03] And the noise. [18:04] I had it. [18:05] I had enough. [18:06] Then he had a month to leave. [18:09] He said, [18:10] I'm going into the city and I'll see you later. [18:13] And I never saw Dean again. [18:18] Meanwhile, Maria's family is mired in this horrible mystery. [18:27] Where is their daughter? [18:30] As the investigation into the disappearance of Maria Cruz continues, [18:34] investigators' frustration is mounting. [18:37] They ran out of clues, [18:38] and they were hoping somebody would come in. [18:40] The angry boyfriend, [18:42] the person who saw something. [18:44] Something's going to have to break for us to break the case. [18:48] It's now September of 2003. [18:53] Summer has come and gone. [18:55] Guess what else has come and gone? [18:57] All of Dean Paolo's court dates. [19:00] Dean did not make a court appearance [19:02] to answer for the charges of practicing without a medical license. [19:05] There's a warrant issued for Dean's arrest. [19:10] So I get a call from the bail bonds company [19:13] telling me that Dean did not show up for his sentencing. [19:16] Now I'm responsible for the rest of that bail. [19:20] And I was just so infuriated by the way I'd been treated. [19:25] And I was determined that I was not going to let him get away with it. [19:28] I was going to hunt him down and hold him accountable for what he did to me. [19:32] And now suddenly he's gone? [19:38] And everybody realized, [19:41] oh, we just thought we hadn't seen him because his life is falling apart. [19:44] No, there seems to be something else at work. [19:47] But for the moment, nobody could figure out what it was. [19:49] It's frustrating for myself and investigators [19:52] because at this point we have a connection to Maria, [19:56] who we know is Dean, [19:57] but we can't find either of those people. [19:59] When you find out where Dean went, [20:14] you go, of course, that's so Dean. [20:22] The phone rings. [20:23] They said, is this Dean Paolo? [20:25] I said, yes. [20:26] And they said, well, this is Blah Blah Airlines, [20:28] and we're trying to fill up when you might be coming back from Costa Rica. [20:36] So now I know where he's at. [20:45] Was the plan to hide out? [20:47] I can't say it was a plan. [20:49] It was an escape. [20:51] So you first went to San Jose, right? [20:53] Yeah, I landed there. [20:55] He went to the underbelly. [20:58] Let's get freaky. [21:01] It was all nice and dancing and strippers. [21:05] He was doing the same thing he did when he was younger in New York City. [21:10] I went to a few bars down there, [21:13] but I really felt uncomfortable. [21:17] What am I doing here? [21:18] I just didn't know what to do. [21:22] So I looked for resort hotels [21:27] and wound up in Guanacaste, [21:29] absolutely beautiful on a mountain top, [21:31] where I watched the sunrise and the sunset every day. [21:34] Then I went to the hotel and met somebody who was a manager there. [21:40] He and his wife were living in Esparza. [21:42] It got to the point where they said to me, [21:45] like, this is ridiculous. [21:46] You're spending all this money here at this hotel. [21:48] So I decided to go live with him. [21:51] Do you know your backstory? [21:53] No. [21:57] In just a few short months, [21:59] Dean Fiello has managed to create a brand new life for himself [22:03] in beautiful Costa Rica. [22:05] Meanwhile, up in New Jersey, [22:07] brand new clues emerge [22:09] that may just lead to revelations [22:12] in the disappearance of Maria Cruz. [22:15] I find a gym bag. [22:18] I thought, well, this is really odd. [22:20] So I opened it. [22:39] Dean Fiello has moved along, [22:41] literally and figuratively, [22:43] basking in the sun and warmth of Costa Rica [22:46] with not a care in the world. [22:54] I didn't have a plan. [22:56] My intention was to enjoy Costa Rica. [22:59] Expression, la pura vida, [23:07] you know, the wonderful, pure life [23:09] where you enjoy the beauty of Costa Rica. [23:12] So did you lose yourself in that idea? [23:15] Yeah, it was easy. It was too easy. [23:17] He fits right in in Costa Rica. [23:26] He's moved in with a local family [23:28] from Esparza, [23:30] but he cannot hide [23:35] from the collateral damage of his past. [23:38] Finally kicks Dean out. [23:45] He leaves a bunch of stuff in Mark's garage. [23:47] And I find a gym bag, [23:50] a great big gym bag. [23:53] And when I pulled it open, [23:56] I found a woman's purse. [23:59] I thought, well, this is really odd. [24:02] Why does Dean have a woman's purse? [24:04] I opened the purse, [24:06] and I found Maria's wallet. [24:08] It's her driver's license. [24:09] And all of her credit cards. [24:13] Maria is Maria Cruz. [24:16] Now, at this point, [24:18] Mark Ritchie has no clue who she is [24:21] or why her identification ends up in his garage. [24:25] But he sees a phone book, [24:27] he calls three numbers, [24:29] really doesn't get anywhere, [24:30] and then decides, well, I did what I could. [24:33] Well, I thought maybe Dean [24:37] was using somebody's credit cards [24:40] to buy drugs. [24:44] And then I thought, [24:47] well, maybe he's into credit card fraud. [24:50] Before I put everything back in the bag, [24:53] I said out loud in the garage, [24:56] I don't want to know. [24:58] I really don't want to know. [24:59] Now it's the Christmas season. [25:03] Great Bach is angry. [25:05] Dean owes him $85,000. [25:08] He decides he's going to call Brian Ford, [25:10] the investigator from the Attorney General's Office, [25:13] and find out how can I get my money back. [25:16] So he calls me up and he says, [25:17] hey, Detective Ford, [25:18] I have some information you might be interested in. [25:20] Long, productive conversation. [25:24] And at some point, [25:25] Greg says, it just doesn't make sense. [25:27] This, you know, this probation he's on, [25:30] it's not that bad. [25:31] Why would he jump bail and just disappear? [25:34] Brian Ford, the investigator, says, [25:39] well, maybe it's because we just went and asked him [25:41] about a missing person. [25:42] And Greg asked him, [25:45] when did you go missing? [25:46] And he said, oh, it was back in April 2003. [25:50] And Greg was like, April, April, April. [25:52] That was the first eureka moment. [25:54] Greg decides to share a rather interesting story. [26:00] It had to do with a phone call [26:02] with a mutual friend of he and Dean's. [26:05] Dean had called him [26:10] under really dubious circumstances [26:12] that he had been treating a woman [26:14] who went into anthropolactic shock [26:17] and he didn't know what to do. [26:19] But I had understood [26:20] that he had gotten her medical help [26:22] and that she was fine. [26:24] A series of light bulbs [26:27] began to appear over people's heads. [26:29] Maybe she didn't go to the hospital, [26:31] like maybe he is responsible for her being missing. [26:34] And then so in my mind's eye, [26:38] I walked myself through every room of that house [26:42] just trying to think. [26:44] I had made mention to Dean [26:48] that like if you wanted to lose something forever, [26:50] like put it in the garage and you'll never find it. [26:52] The second eureka moment came when Greg was like, [26:58] Dean was building something like a concrete block [27:01] or a concrete slab out in the garage [27:03] before they moved the house. [27:04] And then it clicked about that concrete project. [27:08] And it was like, is that where she could be? [27:12] We can only see the front of it here, [27:15] but it goes back further? [27:16] Yeah. [27:17] That's where he was pouring a slab. [27:21] Pouring a slab of concrete. [27:23] He was strangely guarded [27:28] about his garage project though, right? [27:30] Yeah. [27:31] I was just curious as to what he was doing [27:32] and why it was taking so long. [27:34] But one thing that I hadn't realized is that [27:36] there was a suitcase in the garage, [27:38] like a black carry-on, [27:39] but then I do remember having seen it [27:41] the day of the cement project and then not seeing it. [27:44] And he started thinking and thinking [27:46] and he put two and two together. [27:48] My concerns was that my hypothesis might be right. [27:53] Greg decides he has to sit down [27:57] and write a letter to detectives saying [28:00] he just might know something about a missing person. [28:03] I had composed a letter to Brian Ford [28:09] that I might have pertinent information [28:11] as to the whereabouts of this missing person. [28:13] It was a very tenuous moment. [28:16] I knew that like once I did this, [28:18] like there was no turning back. [28:21] I was really concerned about [28:22] what I'd be putting into motion. [28:26] Mr. Bach was very forthcoming with information. [28:29] At this point, the break in the investigation [28:31] we were hoping for. [28:32] This, we hoped, was going to lead us [28:36] to solve the mystery as to what happened to Maria. [28:42] 20 minutes outside of Manhattan [28:44] on a beautiful tree-lined street in Newark, New Jersey, [28:48] police have their eyes on us [28:52] at a certain mansion, one belonging to Dean Fiello. [28:56] When Greg told us about the cement block and all that, [29:00] we wanted to go on out there. [29:02] And we desperately would like to see what's in that garage [29:06] and get a hold of Dean. [29:11] They show up at the house and show the poor new owners, [29:14] hey, here's a search warrant, and by the way, [29:16] we're going to dig up a concrete slab in your garage. [29:27] It was a big house, a couple of stories, [29:31] big fences around it, guest house in the back. [29:35] It looked like an estate. [29:36] Before they started the jackhammer, [29:38] I said, look, I have to film this. [29:41] So I turned the film on, and I said, go ahead. [29:44] At that point, emergency service, jackhammers, shovels. [29:49] Jackhammered through the cement, the cement floor [29:53] and the cement foundation that he was building. [29:55] Once they broke the concrete, [29:58] the smell of decomposition was very strong. [30:01] You could see that they knew they hit something, [30:07] and as they pulled apart the rubble, [30:10] shoveled out the debris, [30:12] one of the police officers reaches in, [30:14] pulls out a suitcase covered in dust in the suitcase. [30:19] We begin with a woman's body found in a basement. [30:26] Police made the discovery in Newark, [30:28] and they say the remains may be linked to a bank worker [30:31] who disappeared from Manhattan nearly a year ago. [30:34] At some point, you had to figure out what to do with her body. [30:39] Yeah, without thinking, I put Maria in the suitcase [30:43] and put her in my car and took her to my house. [30:47] Weeks passed. [30:48] Weeks passed. [30:50] I don't know where she sat. [30:51] In my garage. [30:54] I was getting ready to close on the sale of the house. [30:57] And in the garage, [30:58] there was a slab that had to be repaired. [31:03] And the idea came to me to make Maria part of that slab. [31:10] So I just can't believe I did it, but that's what I did. [31:15] It was like really, really shocking. [31:17] I was trying to convince myself that I had been wrong, [31:21] and for it to come to such a dark and sinister conclusion [31:24] was just like devastating. [31:26] The decomposing body discovered in a home in Newark [31:31] is indeed that of Maria Cruz. [31:33] a New York woman who had been missing for nearly a year. [31:36] When I found out, a lot of things hit me all at once. [31:41] The extra cement. [31:42] I bought a Home Depot. [31:45] The woman's purse. [31:46] And when I looked at the handle of that luggage, [31:50] I said, you son of a... [31:52] It was the exact piece of luggage that I moved. [31:58] I unknowingly moved that body. [32:00] Maria's family flew in. [32:03] They had a memorial service. [32:06] Where's the justice of God? [32:08] How come this terrible thing happens to a good person? [32:12] It was a test of faith for the family of Maria. [32:15] The funeral was very sad. [32:17] One of the saddest funerals that I've ever attended. [32:23] It was painful. [32:25] And it brought with that pain a sense of relief. [32:30] Now they knew they could bring her remains back to the Philippines. [32:36] The discovery of the body obviously changes everything. [32:43] Dean's situation goes from being a young woman [32:45] a year ago he was Dr. Quack, [32:47] to now suddenly he's the prime suspect in a murder case. [32:51] My phone rings and it's the City Desk editor. [32:55] And he's like, Genie Mac, Genie Mac, lights and sirens, lights and sirens. [33:00] Your guy Dean Fiello killed Maria Cruz. [33:03] I stopped for a beat and I thought, [33:05] how would Dean Fiello know Maria Cruz [33:08] and how would this all come together? [33:12] At this point, all we know is that Dean has disappeared. [33:17] We don't know if he's in Yonkers. [33:19] We don't know if he's in Miami. [33:21] There's a guy who could be literally anywhere in the world. [33:25] This story has exploded and all I can think of is [33:29] I have to find Dean Fiello. [33:32] Genie Macintosh has some good law enforcement contacts [33:35] and she learns through one of them [33:37] who did a passport search that Dean has fled to Costa Rica. [33:42] At the New York Post it was, [33:44] why are you standing here and why aren't you on a plane? [33:47] I wonder what Dean Fiello was thinking. [33:56] When he first touched down here in San Jose 20 years ago. [33:59] He couldn't have picked a more beautiful country to escape to. [34:03] We flew down to San Jose to meet up with Genie Macintosh, [34:09] retracing her hunt for Dean Fiello [34:11] to see what we could learn about his time on the run. [34:14] Does it look like it did 18 years ago when you first stepped foot in? [34:21] It looks more crowded than I remember. [34:24] It's a lot busier, more people. [34:27] I have no plan. [34:30] It's just this big adrenaline rush. [34:33] It's the thrill of the chase. [34:34] It's big. [34:35] It's a country I've never been to. [34:37] And so the only thing I could think to do immediately [34:40] was go to the U.S. Embassy. [34:42] I just walked over to this guard station and I said, [34:50] hi, we'd like to see someone about a fugitive from the United States. [34:56] This man, Dean Fiello, he's wanted in New York for murder. [34:59] They knew nothing. [35:01] They said, look, we don't have any correspondence, [35:05] any phone calls, anything from New York. [35:07] We just need someone from New York to go look for this guy. [35:10] So we can't look for him until we have a warrant. [35:14] Back in New York, the wheels of justice are grinding slowly. [35:18] Police are still trying to determine cause of death. [35:21] Jeannie McIntosh is staying ahead of the police [35:24] because she's in Costa Rica, boots on the ground, [35:27] doing her own investigation. [35:33] We just went from place to place showing this picture. [35:37] We showed it in the public square. [35:39] We showed it at restaurants. [35:41] We showed it at bars. [35:43] We got lucky and we found this internet cafe. [35:46] He was recognized immediately. [35:48] They even said, oh, he's in here a couple times a week. [35:54] I felt like we were really hot on his trail. [35:56] We went out at night because I knew he liked clubs and gay bars, [36:00] and we started going to those. [36:03] We walk in the door with the picture. [36:06] The woman says, hey, yes, see, see, see, see. [36:10] She's seen him and he's been there. [36:13] It's very distinctive. [36:15] I think that Dean would be incapable of going into somewhere [36:18] and just saying, I'm just going to sit here quietly in the corner. [36:21] He's narcissistic. [36:23] He likes to make a splash. [36:25] Dean Fiello makes an impression. [36:27] Dean Fiello makes an impression, yeah. [36:29] Dean's whole adventure and what he's doing [36:34] is just crazy in juxtaposition to there's a dead woman [36:41] under the concrete in his house. [36:45] I would come back to the hotel in the evenings [36:50] and I was just trying to make a grid [36:52] to just kind of centralize where he might be. [36:56] People had seen Dean, but no one had seen Dean today or yesterday. [37:02] It was maybe last week. [37:05] I thought, I wonder if he's left. [37:08] And that's about the time that I started to hear [37:10] that he'd taken off west to this town called Samara. [37:15] Could you feel the net start to tighten? [37:24] At that point, I was fleeing. [37:28] And what better place for a showdown with police than the pooled bar? [37:32] Was there a sense that you were just going to go out with a bang? [37:44] Dean has been living pretty comfortably in Costa Rica for several months, [37:48] but now there's this news of the discovery of Maria's body, [37:52] and it's hitting the Costa Rican headlines. [37:55] And Dean is really feeling the heat. [37:58] One day, I went to check my email, [38:00] and for some reason, I clicked on the news. [38:03] I remember seeing Maria's photo. [38:05] The same one that was on those missing posters? [38:07] Yeah. [38:08] The same panic and fear that I felt [38:11] when I realized that Maria had passed away, [38:14] that returned. [38:17] I just reacted and grabbed stuff and fled. [38:22] The Viola Trail continues to a beach resort [38:31] that's less than 100 miles away, [38:33] but several hours' drive because the roads are so windy. [38:36] We're going to try and go to that beach resort, [38:38] see if anybody's there. [38:39] Maybe if anybody can tell us more [38:41] about why Dean would have chosen [38:43] such a public place to hold up. [38:48] You covered the reception desk. [38:50] Take me back to the first time you met him. [38:52] I see the one guy is coming. [38:54] He say, you have room available. [38:56] I don't care how money. [38:58] I want the best room. [39:00] He didn't care how much it cost? [39:01] How much it cost. [39:02] I didn't know the guy is rich or the guy is crazy. [39:04] I say, what do you do in the United States? [39:06] He says, the doctor. [39:08] He said he was a doctor. [39:09] The doctor. [39:14] My name is Philippe. [39:15] My family has owned this property for the last 30 years. [39:17] We're at villa number one. [39:20] This is where Dean was staying when he stayed with us. [39:25] He wanted to have the most secluded villa in the complex. [39:29] He was just in his element, [39:37] having a great time, [39:40] spending tons of money. [39:42] He was known to be a big tipper. [39:44] Every time he'd give me $100, [39:47] the propina, the tip. [39:48] 100 US dollars? [39:49] Yes, 100 US dollars. [39:54] He spends a lot of time sleeping, [39:55] spends a lot of time drinking, [39:56] and I'm going way out on a limb here, [39:59] chasing a couple of pool boys. [40:01] I mean, this was not a guy who was overwhelmed with grief or worry. [40:05] This was Dean Viallo at the beach. [40:08] What did you serve him? [40:11] Melon, coconut cream, and vodka. [40:16] Drinking, drinking, drinking. [40:18] Many drinks? [40:19] Many drinks. [40:20] Every day? [40:21] Every day. [40:24] I believe that he knew his arrest was imminent, [40:27] because he decided to come and enjoy the most of life at the time. [40:31] It is a measure of Dean's areas, [40:34] that while as a fugitive, [40:36] he didn't even travel under another name. [40:38] He was Dean Viallo at this beach resort. [40:41] You were spending a lot of money. [40:44] You bought the best room in the whole hotel. [40:47] Was there a sense that you were just going to go out with a bang? [40:51] Yeah. [40:52] I was on a suicide mission. [40:53] I was just doing things to just enjoy the last moments, [40:56] and it happened. [40:57] It was hedonism. [41:00] Pure hedonism. [41:01] We found out about Dean through the local newspaper. [41:08] Our on-site manager called us in the morning and said, [41:11] look at the picture. [41:12] The guy is staying here in one of our units. [41:16] He had committed murder. [41:18] I believe my father called one of his friends, [41:20] the lawyer Vincenzi. [41:22] They decided to come down and talk to Dean first. [41:26] I told him, [41:27] you are going to be arrested in the next few hours, [41:31] or a day or two. [41:33] One way or another? [41:34] Yeah, exactly. [41:35] Did he seem nervous at all? [41:37] No, no. [41:39] He was very calm. [41:41] He just got outside the pool, [41:43] ordered his cocktail, [41:44] and he was drinking it. [41:46] And what happens next? [41:47] Almost like an hour or two hours later, [41:50] the immigration police came up. [41:51] What's the first visible sign to you that the jig is up? [41:57] Seeing police in flak jackets walking around the hotel. [42:04] After four months of living on the run, [42:11] a day of reckoning has arrived. [42:14] Dean Paolo is arrested by Costa Rican immigration police [42:18] for overstaying his visa. [42:20] In Costa Rica, [42:25] they don't do what we do in New York. [42:27] They don't do a perp walk. [42:29] I said, look, [42:30] since we couldn't see him arrested, [42:32] could we have a perp walk? [42:35] When they brought him back to San Jose, [42:39] sure enough, [42:40] there was their perp walk, [42:43] with all the Costa Rican guys walking him into the jail. [42:47] Is that guy out of shot? [42:49] Mr. Payala, [42:51] do you have anything to say about the case in Jersey? [42:56] I was overwhelmed by the amount of attention. [42:59] There was lights and cameras and flashes going off. [43:03] That was a surprise. [43:04] I really was like, [43:05] I'm unsure of what was going to happen next. [43:07] We walk into the jail, [43:09] and it was like really a creepy spot. [43:12] The floor was just dirt. [43:14] I said, wow, [43:15] what kind of a jail is this? [43:16] You know? [43:17] I said, you know why you're in here, right? [43:19] He goes, yeah. [43:20] I says, we can't talk to you, [43:22] but you know what we're bringing you back for? [43:24] He goes, yeah, I do. [43:25] Are you related with Maria Cruz's death? [43:28] New York City detectives want Dean Payala [43:32] back in their custody fast. [43:34] But it's not going to be so simple. [43:36] What's the next step? [43:37] Because Dean Payala has another trick up his sleeve. [43:41] We are in a small town [43:56] about two hours from the capital city San Jose [43:59] called Esparza. [44:00] It was here that Payala lived for about three months [44:06] with that couple he met earlier in his travels. [44:09] They were living in this house [44:11] that was just really run down. [44:14] And so I found a nice place [44:16] and convinced them to move and pay the rent. [44:19] After Dean's arrest, [44:21] he spent months fighting extradition. [44:23] But it was his time spent with that couple [44:25] that gave his new immigration attorney an idea. [44:29] The attorney I was working with [44:30] went to them and asked them, [44:31] you know, would you consider adopting me? [44:34] And they said, sure. [44:36] Did that not strike you as absurd? [44:39] Yeah, I thought, this is not going to work. [44:41] They were younger than I am. [44:42] But, you know, at this point we were desperate. [44:45] On its face, it seems to be a brilliant idea [44:49] because there's a loophole in the extradition policies [44:54] that if you're a citizen of Costa Rica, [44:56] you cannot be extradited. [44:58] So why not let Dean get adopted? [45:02] There's nothing in the law that says it cannot be done. [45:05] But I said, okay, let's give it a try. [45:06] Hail Mary? [45:07] Yeah, Hail Mary passed. [45:08] So Dean's attorney fought for months [45:11] to try and get the adoption approved. [45:13] But ultimately, [45:14] because the couple was younger than middle-aged Dean, [45:17] a judge ruled against it. [45:19] And then after it was turned down, [45:24] I think two, three days later, [45:26] they woke me up at 5 o'clock in the morning [45:28] and said, get dressed, you're going. [45:30] Our detectives worked closely with Costa Rica [45:32] to get through the extradition process [45:34] and eventually fly back to New York. [45:36] I didn't know what was ahead, [45:38] but there was also a sense of relief. [45:39] That, okay, finally, the truth is out. [45:42] When I realized that they were going to charge me [45:46] with a form of murder, [45:47] the gravity of the situation took hold. [45:50] In October of 2006, [45:52] nearly three years after Maria died, [45:56] Dean Fialo stands before a Manhattan Supreme Court judge [46:01] and admits that Maria had come to see him [46:04] on that fateful day for a procedure. [46:07] Dean Fialo sat down with me [46:10] to reveal for the first time [46:11] what he says are the full details [46:13] of what really happened to Maria [46:15] that tragic late afternoon on 16th Street [46:17] when he says she came to him [46:19] seeking laser treatment for scarring on her thighs. [46:22] I was drunk and high in her final treatment. [46:27] She was in a lot of discomfort, [46:29] and it was a long treatment, [46:32] and I used too many vials of lidocaine. [46:34] And you're doing this drunk and high? [46:38] Yeah. There's no logic to it. [46:40] There's no justification. [46:43] I knew it was wrong, [46:44] and deep down inside, [46:46] I was afraid that something was gonna go wrong. [46:49] What was the first sign of trouble, Dean? [46:51] Labored breathing. [46:52] She was conscious? [46:55] Yep, but I didn't recognize [46:57] that she was on the verge of going into shock. [47:00] Dean told me her labored breathing [47:02] continued for about ten minutes [47:04] before things took a terrible turn. [47:06] She stopped breathing. [47:08] I was working on the area, [47:10] and I looked up. [47:11] There were bubbles emerging from her mouth. [47:13] Did you call for help? [47:16] I delayed calling for help. [47:21] I tried CPR. [47:22] Could not get her to start breathing again. [47:25] Had you been trained in what to do [47:28] if a patient goes into shock? [47:32] The proper training? No. [47:33] Dean takes the time to call another doctor, [47:36] someone he knows, [47:37] to say, this is what's happened. [47:39] What should I do? [47:40] An actual doctor who says, [47:42] how about calling 911? [47:43] How about taking me to the hospital? [47:45] But he didn't either. [47:46] People can understand panic ravages addiction. [47:54] Very hard to understand how you could not react. [47:56] By calling 911, [47:59] trying whatever you could [48:01] to get this young lady saved. [48:05] Yeah, I can't understand that either. [48:07] I can't. [48:08] I can't give you a logical explanation, [48:10] because there is an explanation. [48:11] What was Maria's posture at that point? [48:15] She was completely limp at that point. [48:17] I put my head on her chest, [48:20] and I checked to see whether she was breathing, [48:24] and she had no vital signs. [48:25] Did you check for a pulse? [48:26] No, I did not. [48:27] Do you even know how to do that? [48:30] No. [48:31] Dean then described [48:33] what he says he decided to do with Maria's body [48:36] after he believed she was dead. [48:38] The cover-up began immediately. [48:40] This is the scary part [48:41] as to how it was an automated reaction. [48:46] Without thinking, [48:48] I put Maria in the suitcase [48:50] and put her in my car [48:51] and took her to my house. [48:52] But obviously, [48:54] this requires deliberation. [48:58] I don't think there was thinking involved. [49:01] It was just reaction. [49:03] I went upstairs to my room [49:05] and I just laid on the sofa. [49:06] Maria's body stayed in my car. [49:08] I was there for two days. [49:09] I didn't know anything. [49:10] I didn't know what to do. [49:13] Soon there would be [49:14] missing persons posters, [49:17] an all-out effort by her family, [49:18] her colleagues, [49:19] to find her. [49:20] I didn't see any posters. [49:21] I did get some voice messages. [49:23] Her sister called and left a message [49:26] on my voicemail. [49:27] You never returned those calls? [49:30] No. [49:33] What was it like to hear [49:34] the voice of Maria's desperate sister [49:36] on the phone? [49:37] Absolutely horrible. [49:39] On December 4th, 2006, [49:45] Dean was originally charged with murder [49:47] and he was able to bargain [49:49] and plead that down [49:50] to one count of first-degree assault [49:54] and practicing medicine without a license. [49:57] The judge calling Dean's actions [50:00] senseless and depraved. [50:02] He was sentenced to 20 years behind bars. [50:05] You walk in through the gates of Attica [50:07] to begin a long prison sentence. [50:11] What's going through your mind now? [50:15] Fear. [50:17] Uncertainty. [50:18] I had no strategy there [50:19] other than to work on my education, [50:22] to do something with my time there. [50:24] So I read. I read voraciously. [50:26] At this point, [50:27] are you out of the grips of addiction [50:29] and thinking differently, thinking clearly? [50:32] Well, the sobriety and the lucidity [50:35] allowed me to figure out, [50:37] okay, what am I going to do? [50:39] What he did do was take all that time [50:41] and use it to his advantage. [50:43] He became a Quaker, [50:44] learned a lot about criminal justice reform. [50:47] He began writing very intensive pieces [50:50] regarding criminal justice. [50:52] You really threw yourself into the writing. [50:54] It gave me purpose. [50:55] There was a hope that I could make sense [50:57] of what I had been through. [50:59] After all these years in prison, [51:02] has Dean Fiello really changed? [51:05] I started to think about it, [51:07] and I realized that I haven't truly expressed [51:11] my sorrow and my regrets, [51:14] you know, for what I've done, [51:17] not only to Maria, but to her family also. [51:19] Dean Fiello now finally has something to say [51:23] to Maria Cruz's family. [51:25] After serving 18 years behind bars, [51:34] Dean was finally paroled just this January. [51:37] His life is a bit more humble now. [51:40] He's working as a maintenance man at a grocery store. [51:42] Dean, what's life like for you now [51:45] that you're out of prison [51:46] and settling back into the free world? [51:48] You know, what I love is the simplicity, [51:51] doing very simple things like going to the gym, [51:56] coming back to my apartment, [51:57] putting on YouTube, and cooking. [52:02] I think part of my mission now [52:06] is to talk about, okay, what happened, [52:10] what led to it, and what I'm doing now [52:14] to recover and reenter society [52:17] as a law-abiding citizen. [52:19] What about people like Greg Bach and other friends? [52:23] Do you have plans to account to them? [52:28] I am not refusing to account to anybody. [52:32] It's unfortunately, because of the magnitude [52:35] of what I've done, it's a big task. [52:37] Long list? [52:38] Yeah, long list. [52:39] But I have a lot of work ahead, [52:41] and I'm not going to shy away from doing that work. [52:44] I've heard Dean is expressing remorse, [52:49] but my immediate response is to just, like, [52:52] don't believe anything he has to say. [52:54] He's been released, and there's this understanding [52:59] that he has paid his debt to society, [53:02] but he hasn't paid his debt to me. [53:04] Is he back to his old tricks, [53:09] saying one thing and doing something else? [53:11] Because I wouldn't believe the man [53:13] if he was sitting at this table. [53:16] Maria Cruz's family can only be the ones to know [53:20] if they would forgive him or not. [53:22] What was unforgivable was his whole behavior [53:28] and dooping the public. [53:33] Do you wonder, am I still the man that did that thing? [53:37] I don't think that I am the same person. [53:41] I don't believe it. [53:44] But I have fooled myself many times, [53:47] and I've fooled other people. [53:49] That worries me. [53:51] I believe people can be rehabilitated. [53:53] Dean deserves a chance now. [53:55] He's out of jail, and he has a life to live. [53:58] What he does with that life is up to him. [54:01] Dean and I had several conversations [54:05] about his journey, where he's been, [54:08] what he did, and what he hopes to achieve. [54:10] One of the things that he said, [54:12] he wanted to share a statement of apology [54:15] to Maria's family. [54:16] Words cannot express the depth of my sorrow and remorse [54:21] for causing the death of Maria Cruz. [54:24] Not a day passes by [54:26] as I do not think of Maria or think of her family [54:31] and why I acted like such a coward. [54:35] I used more than the usual or recommended amount [54:38] of lidocaine for the pain. [54:40] She had a reaction, went into shock, and stopped breathing. [54:43] I did not get her the medical help [54:47] that she needed and she deserved. [54:49] I panicked, and I covered up her death. [54:53] I hope that I am no longer the person [54:56] who took such a risk with Maria's life. [54:58] I get inspiration from Maria. [55:03] She was forgiving and supportive. [55:06] And I like to think that she's helped me [55:09] to transform and atone for what I did, [55:13] for what I did to her family, [55:15] and helped me to become a better person [55:18] one day at a time. [55:19] When we shared Dean's statement with Maria's family, [55:22] her sister responded, [55:24] We have wanted to know what really happened [55:27] on that fateful day for such a long time. [55:29] This has shed light. [55:31] I ended up crying so hard while reading this. [55:34] The pain doesn't really go away. [55:37] And that's our program for tonight. [55:45] Thanks so much for watching. [55:46] I'm David Muir from all of us here at 2020 at ABC News. [55:49] Good night. [55:50] And you can find all new broadcast episodes [55:54] of 2020 Friday Nights at 9 on ABC.