Florida Man Murders (2021–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Musclehead Murders - full transcript
(man)
miami's kinda unique.
Florida in general
is kinda unique.
We get the weirdest
of the weird.
(man)
this case, it had it all.
(narrator)
it was a notorious crime spree
Fueled by sex, drugs,
and miami's fast lane.
(man)
it was a wild, wild tale
That had a cast
of real shady characters.
(man)
the glitz and glamour of miami.
(narrator)
a lamborghini
is mysteriously abandoned
-In the everglades.
-We knew something terrible
Had happened
to frank and krisztina.
This was one of
the biggest cases,
The fbi, the us marshals.
(man)
these meatheads
dressed as ninjas.
(man)
they called themselves
batman and robin.
(man)
they proceeded to torture him.
(man)
he was treated worse
than any prisoner of war.
(man)
they used a butane lighter
to burn his body.
They return the chainsaw
that they'd just used.
-It was almost comical.
-It was one stupid attempt
After another.
(man)
they were
a dumb group of criminals
Who almost got away
with one of the most vicious,
Disturbing crimes
-That I have ever seen.
-It was evil.
(narrator)
located on the southern tip
of florida,
Miami is a tropical paradise.
Sugar-white beaches,
Year-round sultry temperatures,
And a vibrant nightlife
make this international city
A hotspot for tourists
and celebrities.
(davidson)
in the '90s,
Miami was glitz and glamour.
Madonna was here.
Jennifer lopez was here.
People were coming
from around the world.
It was the hottest place
to be in america.
(narrator)
miami's south beach,
With its celebrity glam
and sizzling temperatures,
Becomes a haven for partygoers
who want it all:
Sex, drugs,
and lots of money.
But life in the fast lane
also has a dark side.
In the 1990s, miami was also
a hotbed for crime
And a gateway
for drug trafficking.
(garafalo)
crime in the '90s
was running rampant.
(siren wails)
The narcotics industry
was going crazy.
(weinstein)
we had homicides, robberies,
Large-scale conspiracies
that involved
Some money-launderings.
-One call for a doa.
-Strange things tend to happen
In miami.
♪
(unintelligible
police radio transmission)
(narrator)
on may 27th, 1995,
A florida state trooper
discovers a yellow lamborghini
Conspicuously out of place
in the everglades,
A giant swamp made up
of coastal mangroves
And sawgrass marshes
Just miles from downtown miami.
(garafalo)
the lamborghini was found
by a state trooper,
And she discovered
that this was a stolen vehicle.
(narrator)
further investigation reveals
That the vehicle
has been reported stolen
And the owner is a resident
of an affluent neighborhood
North of miami.
(davidson)
the florida highway patrol
officer noticed
On the windshield of the car
was a golden beach sticker.
Golden beach is just north
of miami beach.
It's just an enclave
of 1,000 houses.
(weinstein)
the people who live there
are very wealthy.
It's very highly guarded
and protected.
(davidson)
so she called the
golden beach police department
And they connected
that lamborghini to frank griga.
(narrator)
frank griga and his girlfriend,
23-year-old krisztina furton,
Were reported missing
three days earlier.
(garafalo)
frank and krisztina
were reported missing
On the 24th of may
by their neighbor, judi bartusz.
(narrator)
frank and krisztina
were planning to leave
For a sun-soaked private weekend
aboard frank's yacht.
(davidson)
frank and krisztina
were going to the bahamas.
He had a condo there,
he had his boat there,
And they were going
to chill out.
(narrator)
when the housekeeper arrives
at 8 a.M.,
Their beloved dog chopin
is home alone,
But there are no signs
of frank and krisztina.
(davidson)
the housekeeper
went to the house.
She saw the dog had torn up
some furniture,
There was poop on the floor.
(ferrer)
krisztina and frank
would never do that.
They would never
leave their dog behind.
(narrator)
the housekeeper calls
frank's close friend judi,
-Who immediately comes over.
-Judi bartusz
And her husband gabor
and frank were best friends,
And they lived
within walking distance.
When judi got into their house,
She knew something was wrong
too,
Not only because of the dog,
But because their tickets
to the bahamas were on a desk.
Now, in those days,
you didn't have e-tickets,
And that's how she knew, also,
that something was wrong.
They wouldn't leave the dog,
And they never came back
for their tickets.
Judi bartusz is the first one
to sound the alarm.
(narrator)
when judi notices that
the lamborghini is missing,
She calls frank's pager
but he does not respond.
Judi immediately files
a missing persons report
With the golden beach police.
She tells them that she saw
the couple the previous night
With two unidentified men.
And judi was able to give them
a description
Of what krisztina was wearing
the last time judi saw them.
Krisztina was dressed
in a red leather skirt,
Red leather top,
red leather boots.
The chief there called
miami-dade police department
To let them know
what was going on,
And miami-dade said,
"oh, they'll come back."
You know, "let us know
if you need anything else."
And that's where that
portion of the case stalled.
(narrator)
miami-dade police department
does not start
Their formal investigation until
they find frank's lamborghini
Three days later.
Although the crime scene
investigators process
The lamborghini for clues,
They do not find
any evidence of foul play.
(garafalo)
we knew that there was
something wrong here,
That these people didn't just
arbitrarily disappear.
♪
(narrator)
after notifying
frank and krisztina's family,
Investigators immediately begin
to look into the couple's
Background for clues
as to where they could be.
♪
(alvarado)
frank was a hungarian immigrant
Who came to the united states
chasing the american dream.
(davidson)
frank griga grows up in hungary
Behind the iron curtain.
(burst of static)
He's able to watch miami vice.
And he gets completely taken
by this miami lifestyle--
Don johnson, armani suits,
Fast cigarette boats.
So eventually,
he comes to south florida.
(alvarado)
that miami lifestyle,
It's a place where people think
that in order to show
That you've made it,
You have to go get
an exotic car,
Go hang out at nightclubs,
Having boats,
And these are all things
that require a lot of money.
And sometimes, the only way
you can make a lot of money
Really fast is by being
involved in shady behavior.
♪
(weinstein)
frank got involved
in the 900 sex numbers business.
He set up an operation
where people would call in
-To 900 numbers.
-Before long,
He's a millionaire from this.
(weinstein)
he became the success story
of an immigrant
Who came to america with nothing
and ended up very wealthy.
(davidson)
he owned a boat
that he kept in the bahamas
Called the foreplay.
(alvarado)
frank bought himself
a big mansion.
He had three exotic cars,
Including the lamborghini.
He was living
the lavish lifestyle.
(narrator)
frank's american dream
came true,
And the only thing missing
was a beautiful woman
To share it with.
(davidson)
frank met krisztina
at a club in miami.
They were both from hungary.
She had been an athlete
in hungary,
She was a swimmer.
She was lovely.
They were hopelessly
head-over-heels in love
With each other.
(narrator)
now, three years later,
They wind up missing,
And police are searching
for answers.
(ferrer)
frank griga,
He and his girlfriend krisztina
were well-liked.
Might not like the area
of business he went into,
But as a person,
everybody liked them.
They were a nice,
likeable couple.
(garafalo)
we were able to determine
That frank and krisztina
were good, quality people.
No records, they were
hardworking people.
Our investigators did procure
a search warrant
For frank's residence
in order to process that scene.
(narrator)
police do not find
any signs of foul play
In frank's house,
And without a body or evidence,
Investigators are perplexed.
The good-looking couple
is well-known
In the vip lounges of miami,
Yet no one knows where they are.
A lamborghini can attract
a lot of unwanted attention.
Did the couple's
flashy lifestyle
Make them a target?
♪
(davidson)
police make a connection
Between the kidnapping
of marc schiller
And the disappearance
of frank and krisztina.
(garafalo)
mr. Schiller had been
held captive in a warehouse,
So we're hopeful
that frank and krisztina
Will be found somewhere,
alive.
(narra
Just north of miami
is shattered
When a-list couple
frank griga and krisztina furton
Mysteriously vanish.
The only clues
investigators have
Are frank's abandoned
lamborghini,
The airline tickets
that were left behind,
And the two mysterious men
who were last seen
With frank and krisztina.
Police learn that
frank and krisztina
Were living their dream life.
Frank's business
was skyrocketing,
And the couple were
madly in love.
(davidson)
krisztina and frank
were a perfect couple.
They fit together
like a hand in a glove.
(narrator)
police theorized
that this may have been
A carjacking gone wrong.
But if it was a carjacking,
Then where are
frank and krisztina?
Detectives launch an aerial
search of the harsh terrain,
Looking for any signs
of the couple,
But they come up empty-handed.
Judi tells police
that the last time she saw
Frank and krisztina
Was on Wednesday night
at 10 p.M.
The couple was on their way
to one of miami's hotspots,
A restaurant called don shula's.
Was the couple randomly targeted
by a carjacker
On their way to dinner?
(garafalo)
we had learned
that frank and krisztina
Were supposed to have gone to
some type of business meeting
In the miami lakes area.
(davidson)
frank is a risk-taker.
He was looking for other ways
to use his money
To invest in other things.
(narrator)
according to judi,
Frank and krisztina were
going to dinner with two men
Who wanted to pitch
a business idea to frank.
Judi tells police
that frank met the men
Through a friend.
(davidson)
it's about 10:00 at night.
Judi happened to be
walking her dog
When she saw this gold mercedes
in the driveway
Of frank and krisztina's house.
She went to see
what's going on
And she met the two guys.
(narrator)
judi tells police that they were
typical miami guys,
Buffed and flashy,
But the taller one
left an impression.
(alvarado)
she described him
As a dark-skinned
chiseled adonis
With long black hair.
He was a very good-looking man.
That's the last time
anybody has seen them.
(alvarado)
the police started
retracing their steps
And found that the restaurant
they were supposed
To go have dinner happened
to be closed that night.
(narrator)
why would the two men
invite frank and krisztina
To a restaurant that was closed?
The restaurant is an hour from
where the lamborghini was found.
How did the lamborghini
get there
And who drove it?
Was it frank and krisztina,
Or was it the two mystery men
they had dinner with?
As investigators dive into frank
and krisztina's background,
They learn that the couple
had been living
Their american dream life.
Frank works hard
and plays hard.
Both frank and krisztina
flaunt frank's success
By throwing money around
at solid gold,
The club where the couple met.
(davidson)
solid gold was a strip club
in miami.
They were considered to be
big spenders
And that's where they spent
most of their time.
(alvarado)
miami is a very flashy city.
People come from other countries
to achieve the american dream,
And sometimes they want
to achieve that dream
In the fastest way possible.
(narrator)
krisztina was a model
in hungary.
When she turns 20,
Krisztina leaves
everything behind
To follow her dream
of moving to america,
And she is immediately drawn to
the glitz and glamour of miami.
Little does she know
that this sunny paradise
Has a dark side.
(davidson)
krisztina came to the us
And she started working
at solid gold.
Now, for a lot of these girls,
They just stayed here
beyond their visas
Or whatever documents they had,
And they can't get a job
unless you have a green card.
But they can work
at places like solid gold.
(weinstein)
krisztina worked as a dancer.
Frank worshipped her,
He wanted to get together
with her after he found her
As a stripper in solid gold.
(narrator)
it's an intense romance
for the couple.
Frank became
her prince charming,
Showering her with gifts.
Their relationship went from
him just being a customer
To something more serious.
But krisztina
wasn't the first woman
Frank had a relationship with
at solid gold.
(davidson)
frank would go
to the strip clubs
Looking for models to appear
in his commercials and ads,
And that's how
he met beatriz.
Beatriz had an affair
with frank griga,
But it was over,
they remained friends.
-She really cared for frank.
-Beatriz tells detectives
That she has moved on
from frank
And she is happy that he found
the love of his life.
However, beatriz is still
a dancer at solid gold.
Could jealousy have led
to something sinister?
Police ask beatriz
if she noticed that frank
Was associating with
anyone new lately,
And she says no.
(garafalo)
it was questionable,
But who knows what her motive is
or if she's lying.
(narrator)
although police
do not have any evidence
That beatriz is guilty
of any wrongdoing,
She remains a person of interest
Because of her previous
relationship with frank.
With no other leads,
Detectives turn
to frank's family
With the troubling news
that no one has seen the couple
In a few days,
And they are hopeful
that the family can point them
-In the right direction.
-We contacted frank's sister.
She didn't know much
about the disappearance
Of frank and krisztina
(narrator)
without a body or evidence,
The investigation stalls.
Detectives circle back
to the two men last seen
With frank and krisztina.
Although judi cannot id the men,
She told police that
they were weightlifter types.
Police continue
to investigate the case.
That's when
the homicide detective
Recalls a wild story.
(garafalo)
our homicide captain at the time
Was an individual named
al harper,
And was acquainted
with ed du bois,
A private investigator.
(du bois)
received a call
from a maj. Al harper
With miami-dade police
who said,
"you know that situation
you told me back
A couple months ago,
Your client was kidnapped
by weightlifters?"
I said, "yeah."
He said, "I think
they're at it again."
I said, "well,
what do you mean?"
He says, "there's a missing
hungarian couple."
I said, "oh, god."
(narrator)
ed's client, marc schiller,
Was tortured by a violent gang
who stole $2 million from him.
(garafalo)
mr. Schiller had been
the victim of an abduction
In November of 1994
And was held captive
in a warehouse
By a group of individuals,
big muscle heads,
In the miami lakes area.
(narrator)
the night frank and krisztina
went missing,
They were headed to miami lakes.
Could these be the same men who
kidnapped frank and krisztina?
If these two cases are related,
Is there a dangerous gang
targeting millionaires in miami?
♪
In may 1995,
Multimillionaire frank griga and
his girlfriend krisztina furton
Mysteriously vanish
after leaving their home
With two men described
as bodybuilders.
It's a head-scratcher
for police
Until the homicide captain
recalls a story he heard
A few months back
About a group of muscle heads
who fit the description.
(davidson)
the police make a connection
Between what happened
to schiller
And the disappearance
of frank and krisztina.
(narrator)
three months earlier,
Multimillionaire marc schiller
told detectives
That he was kidnapped
and tortured by weightlifters
Who extorted $2 million
from him.
Although police
initially dismissed
Marc schiller's crazy story,
With no other leads or suspects
in frank and krisztina's case,
-They are now willing to listen.
-I was more interested
With frank and krisztina's
whereabouts,
Their survivability,
than schiller.
But I interviewed marc schiller,
And he was well-spoken,
well-educated,
He was a cpa.
He told me the story
of how he was abducted.
(davidson)
they grabbed him,
Tased him many times,
Threw him in the back
of the van,
Put duct tape around him,
shackled him,
And kept on tasing him.
(alvarado)
and the next thing you know,
Marc schiller woke up
tied up to a chair
-In a hialeah warehouse.
-Marc schiller was kept prisoner
By this violent gang
for over a month.
(alvarado)
they proceeded to torture him
With all kinds
of weird shenanigans,
Including burning him
with cigarettes.
(davidson)
blindfolded, shackled,
They didn't feed him.
(ferrer)
he was tortured
and treated worse
Than any prisoner of war.
♪
(narrator)
marc schiller tells detectives
That while he was held captive,
The men wore hoods
and referred to each other
As the sun gym gang.
After getting their kicks
by torturing him,
The gang drains
marc schiller's bank accounts.
(ferrer)
they brought him
documents to sign.
He couldn't see what they were
because he's blindfolded.
(alvarado)
they would force him
to sign paperwork
Turning over his assets
while they were torturing him.
(ferrer)
they transferred
ownership of a condo he had.
They transferred the ownership
of his cars.
They moved into his house.
They were living his life.
(alvarado)
the whole goal was just to,
like, wipe this guy clean
Of everything he owned
so that they could have it
And then live
a lavish lifestyle.
(narrator)
while he is held captive,
The gang tells schiller
that they are spending his money
On drug-fueled nights
at the solid gold strip club.
(ferrer)
they used his money.
They'd been living
off his money,
They'd been going
to solid gold strip club,
Dating all the strippers,
Dropping $2,000, $3,000 a night
on them.
Their girlfriends were
strippers at the club,
Their friends were
strippers at the club.
(narrator)
if this gang was mingling
with the solid gold crowd,
Did they cross paths
with frank and krisztina?
(ferrer)
they took marcelo schiller
for every penny he had,
And that's when they realized,
"we can't let him go."
(du bois)
the next step was to kill him
And make it look like
a car accident.
(ferrer)
they drive marcelo schiller
West of
miami international airport.
They get him very drunk.
They put him
into the driver's seat.
They crash his car
into a light pole,
And they torch the car.
He gets himself out of the car.
They thought that marc schiller
was gone, dead,
But marc schiller did not die.
♪
(narrator)
after narrowly escaping
the grips of this barbaric gang,
Marc schiller is too afraid
to call police,
And he reaches out to
private investigator ed du bois.
(du bois)
so the first big lead
I had in the investigation
Was the notary, john mese.
(narrator)
the documents
schiller was forced to sign
Were notarized
by a man named john mese.
He is a cpa
And the owner of a popular
weightlifters' paradise in miami
Called the sun gym.
They needed john mese
for his notary,
And they needed him
to help them launder the money.
He was sophisticated
in moving money around,
He knew what to do.
Without him, they couldn't
have done as much as they did
In terms of the transactions.
(narrator)
john mese tells ed du bois
that he had
A lucrative business deal
with marc schiller,
And he invites ed to his office.
(du bois)
and I go to john mese's
miami lakes office,
And they put me
into a waiting room.
We notice that
the trashcan in there
Was overflowing with paper,
And we started
just to go through it
To see if there was
anything relevant in it,
And it was all relevant.
I took it all,
I stuffed it down my pants,
I stuffed it in my jacket,
And it was a glory hole
of evidence.
It had copies of bank accounts
from the sun gym,
Where they had deposited
the checks from schiller.
They had copies
of the checks they used
To pay each one
of the bad guys.
It gave us the entire network.
There were 11 men involved
in this criminal enterprise.
They were called
the sun gym gang.
These morons had taken documents
That were evidence
of their crime
And threw 'em away
in the garbage can
In the conference room
where they put the investigator.
Marcelo schiller goes
To the miami-dade
police department headquarters
With ed du bois,
the private investigator.
(alvarado)
unfortunately,
Law enforcement authorities
do not take the case seriously.
(ferrer)
it doesn't make sense.
He was kidnapped, tortured.
They tried to kill him,
They ran him over with a car,
And when he gets out,
he just leaves?
He doesn't call the police?
When he's in the hospital
and he gets a phone,
He calls this
private investigator,
Not the cops?
So the police,
I think understandably,
Don't believe his story.
They think that
he is a drug dealer.
Miami is still
awash with cocaine,
And they think that
he's trying to eliminate
A rival drug dealer
with this outlandish story.
It was terrible,
It was just terribly
outrageous, unprofessional.
(narrator)
ed du bois warns police
That the sun gym gang
is very dangerous
And they will target
more victims.
(davidson)
du bois is telling the police,
"these guys are gonna
do it again.
They're getting away
with it once,
They're gonna do it again."
♪
(narrator)
the spine-tingling tale
from marc schiller
Turns the investigation
on a different course.
Detectives are beginning
to see parallels
Between marc schiller
and frank griga.
Both men are immigrants
who obtained the american dream.
They were self-made
millionaires,
But then marc schiller
throws police a curveball
When he reveals
what he does for a living.
(garafalo)
schiller was involved
in medicare fraud.
(narrator)
marc schiller tells detectives
That the sun gym gang
threatened him.
If he went to the police about
the money they stole from him,
They would turn him in
for his illegal business.
Did the sun gym gang
kidnap frank
Because they believed
he was also involved
In illegal activity?
(garafalo)
people associate 900 numbers as,
Oh, they're not
paying their taxes,
Or it's pornography.
Well, lemme tell you,
Frank was a hardworking guy,
An ingenious type of guy,
Who paid his taxes,
who worked hard.
(narrator)
if these two cases are related,
Is the sun gym gang draining
frank and krisztina's
Bank accounts while they are
being held captive?
Detectives jump into action.
The couple has only been missing
for a few days.
Can they find them
before it's too late?
(garafalo)
because they did find
schiller alive,
I had hoped that we would find
frank and krisztina
In a warehouse or wherever.
♪
(narrator)
after hearing a wild story
about a multimillionaire
Who was tortured and extorted
by the sun gym gang,
Detectives race to the warehouse
Where marc schiller
was held captive.
But it's empty.
(garafalo)
I hoped that we would find
frank and krisztina alive,
But time went on
And who knows
where they were being kept.
(davidson)
the business plan
for the sun gym gang
Was to kidnap wealthy miamians,
hold them prisoner,
Force them to sign over
all their assets,
And then when they had
everything signed over,
They would kill the victims.
(alvarado)
you know, whatever they stole,
They would just turn it into
excursions at the strip club,
Buying a lot of cocaine,
And just living
that miami lifestyle
And partying with people
all night long.
(narrator)
although detectives
are following a hunch,
They have no solid evidence
that the sun gym gang
Actually kidnapped
frank and krisztina.
There has been no activity
on frank's bank accounts,
And besides the lamborghini,
Nothing else has been touched,
including his house.
Ed du bois gives police a list
of the entire network
Of people involved
in marc schiller's kidnapping.
(garafalo)
ed du bois ended up
giving us information
That we were able
to piece together.
(narrator)
detectives zero in
on a man named danny lugo.
(du bois)
danny lugo was the ringleader
of the sun gym gang.
He was the mastermind,
And he was the one that plotted
the entire criminal activity.
Danny lugo is
a convicted felon,
Recently out of federal prison.
(narrator)
32-year-old danny lugo
spent two yearsrison
For bilking elderly people
out of millions of dollars
In a fraudulent
insurance scheme.
He pulled off a medicare scam,
And he defrauded old people
out of their money.
(narrator)
danny is a natural con artist.
-He knows how to seduce people.
-Danny was smart,
He was personable,
he was charismatic,
He was 6'2",
he was built,
And he was flashy,
And he was an excellent liar.
(narrator)
in 1993, danny is
released from prison.
Lured by the glitz and glamour
of miami,
He heads south
to start a new life.
An avid bodybuilder,
Danny applies for a job
at the sun gym.
(alvarado)
the sun gym was
a weightlifters' gym
In miami lakes.
It's the kind of gym where
people that want to lift weights
And be bodybuilders,
That wanna have
the biggest muscles ever.
(narrator)
danny lugo is exactly
what john mese,
The owner of the sun gym,
is looking for:
A smooth operator
with a gift for the gab.
(du bois)
danny was hired by john mese
To be the manager
of the sun gym facility.
(narrator)
it wasn't long
before danny leveraged
His position of power
to begin organizing
His little group of criminals.
They called themselves
the sun gym gang.
(du bois)
danny lugo took the opportunity
to solicit people
In the sun gym to help him
in a criminal enterprise
Of kidnapping and extortion.
(narrator)
danny recruits
28-year-old adrian doorbal.
(davidson)
doorbal is from trinidad.
He's younger than danny lugo.
Doorbal is pretty much
a disciple of lugo.
In fact, they call themselves
batman and robin.
(narrator)
34-year-old george delgado
Hires danny lugo
to be his trainer,
And it's not long before
he's under danny's spell.
Delgado tells danny
about his boss,
Multimillionaire marc schiller.
(alvarado)
so lugo and delgado
were the ones
That came up with the plot
to kidnap marc schiller.
(narrator)
armed with this new information,
Detectives begin searching
for danny lugo,
And they start at solid gold.
(weinstein)
they spoke to
lugo's girlfriend, sabina,
Who had worked at
the solid gold strip clubs.
(narrator)
when police interview sabina,
She admits that she does know
frank and krisztina,
But she did not
introduce them to danny.
(weinstein)
danny lugo was known
as a very scheming guy.
He never told anybody the truth,
And that included
people like sabina.
He told her
he was this double agent
And that he was
working for the government,
-And she believed it.
-Sabina tells police
That danny is
on a secret mission
And she doesn't know
when he will be back.
(garafalo)
by the time
we had started presenting
Information to them
about the disappearance
Of frank and krisztina,
People started to talk.
(narrator)
while at solid gold,
Detectives question
frank's ex-lover, beatriz,
And this time,
she cracks under pressure.
Beatriz admits to police
that she is the one
Who introduced frank to
her boyfriend, adrian doorbal,
-Danny lugo's sidekick.
-One day,
Doorbal is flipping through
her photo album
And sees this young guy standing
next to this yellow lamborghini,
And immediately,
dollar signs pop up in his eye,
And he goes, "who's that?"
And she says, "oh, that's
my ex-boyfriend, frank.
He made a lot of money
in 976 numbers."
Danny and noel
develop this plan,
And they tell noel's girlfriend,
"I'd like to set up
a meeting with him,
Because we have ideas
that he might like
And we can expand
his business," et cetera,
And she introduces
frank griga to noel doorbal
And danny lugo.
(narrator)
with the statement from beatriz,
Detectives now have
a solid connection
Between the sun gym gang
and the missing couple.
The investigation ignites,
And police begin putting
together pieces of the puzzle.
(garafalo)
there was identification
by judi bartusz.
"yes, those were the people
that I saw there at the house."
She described a vehicle,
it was george delgado's car.
And all of a sudden,
everything explodes.
♪
(davidson)
there's no face,
There's no fingerprints.
(weinstein)
it was their intent
That nobody would ever
find these bodies,
And if they did, they'd never
be able to prove the crime.
♪
(narrator)
after detectives identify
the two men last seen
With frank and krisztina,
They launch a manhunt
for ringleader danny lugo
And the sun gym gang.
They race against the clock
to find the couple.
(dramatic music)
(garafalo)
the investigation was
A cooperative effort
Between the metro-dade
police department, the fbi,
The us marshals'
violent crimes task forces,
The state attorney's office.
This was one
of the biggest cases
During that time period.
♪
(ferrer)
they find out
where doorbal lives;
They found out where
danny lugo is staying.
They start seeking
search warrants,
And I happen to be
the emergency duty judge
Who's signing
all the search warrants.
(davidson)
it was June 3rd.
It's before dawn.
A whole task force meets
at a park in miami lakes.
They're armed
with search warrants
And they're gonna fan out
across miami-dade county.
They're looking for
the sun gym gang.
Well, they find delgado
and they find doorbal,
But they don't find danny lugo.
(narrator)
when police raid
adrian doorbal's apartment,
They find evidence
of marc schiller's kidnapping.
(garafalo)
there were guns
and assassin kits recovered
At doorbal's place.
We found evidence
that belonged to schiller.
(narrator)
investigators are combing
Adrian doorbal's apartment
for evidence they can link
To frank and krisztina.
(ferrer)
they were looking
for evidence of blood,
Luminol testing
in an apartment.
♪
(garafalo)
we found blood evidence
In doorbal's apartment when
we executed search warrants.
(narrator)
without a body,
Detectives cannot confirm
if the blood belongs
To frank or krisztina.
But they do confirm
that the couple
Was in the apartment.
(davidson)
they find frank griga's
business card.
♪
They find krisztina's
red outfit that she wore
The night that she went to eat,
And judi was able to give them
a description
Of what she was wearing
the last time judi saw them.
(narrator)
after two days
of interrogating adrian doorbal,
He finally breaks down
and admits to police
That he was involved
in the marc schiller kidnapping.
Adrian tells detectives
that this was not an easy job,
And he gives police
a play-by-play.
(ferrer)
these meatheads
were so ineffective
In their attempts
to kidnap marcelo schiller
That it was almost comical.
They kept messing up.
(alvarado)
there was a lot of, you know,
harebrained schemes.
(davidson)
they went to a place
called the spy shop
And they bought all kinds
of gear that would help them--
Night vision goggles,
And they staked out
schiller's house.
(ferrer)
they dressed as ninjas
And hid in his yard
to kidnap him at 5 a.M.
When he came out for the paper.
They ended up running
through people's backyards
With these headsets on,
yelling, "abort! Abort!"
Like they were seal team six.
So it was like one stupid
attempt after another.
(narrator)
after hours of interrogating
adrian doorbal
About frank and krisztina,
He finally cracks and gives them
what they have been waiting for.
(garafalo)
adrian doorbal
had been interviewed
By two other detectives.
He eventually told them
that he participated
In the abduction
and the homicide
Of krisztina and frank.
Poor frank and krisztina.
(narrator)
adrian doorbal tells police
That two months after
they kidnapped marc schiller,
The sun gym gang targets
businessman frank griga.
(weinstein)
their plan was to get
frank to sign over money
That frank had made
in the 900 phone sex business,
And an additional
other amount of properties
And bank accounts,
Much the same as they had done
with schiller.
(narrator)
on may 24th, 1995,
Danny lugo and adrian doorbal
arrange to meet
Frank and krisztina for dinner
to discuss a business deal.
(alvarado)
daniel and adrian decided to
Take out frank to dinner,
But it was all a story,
it was a ruse, it wasn't--
They weren't really gonna
take him out to dinner.
It's about 10:00 at night,
restaurant's closed.
♪
So doorbal says, "why don't you
come up to my townhouse?
It's only three blocks away,"
and they agree.
Frank and krisztina,
unsuspecting, agree to do this.
♪
(alvarado)
and then once they got
to doorbal's apartment,
That's when all hell broke loose
and they went after frank.
(davidson)
as soon as frank enters,
Doorbal comes from behind
and he gets him in a chokehold.
Frank starts fighting back,
And they're tumbling
around the room.
♪
Krisztina hears the yelling
that was going on
And she starts running
to help frank.
As she's running,
danny lugo tackles her,
Pulls her down to the floor,
Starts beating her.
These guys kept a kidnap kit.
In the kidnap kit,
among other things,
Were tasers, duct tape,
and horse tranquilizer.
So he injects krisztina
with the horse tranquilizer
And knocks her out.
♪
She never gets upstairs.
Doorbal kills frank.
In addition to choking him,
He hit him over the head
with something.
♪
Frank griga is the guy
with all the money,
And he's dead.
So they throw his body
into a bathtub
And just let his blood
drain down the pipes.
And they try to extract
information from krisztina.
But she's so drugged
from the horse tranquilizer
That she's not making sense,
And she's trying
to give them numbers.
♪
Doorbal walks over
to krisztina and says,
"the bitch is cold."
She had died.
They gave her
enough horse tranquilizer
To kill four
1,000-pound horses.
And now, they have frank dead,
krisztina dead.
They can't get in the house.
They have no way
to get any money.
They got two bodies
to dispose of.
Danny lugo says
to george delgado,
"I got somebody
who's gonna fix this."
♪
In walks john raimondo.
This is the cleaner.
And he says to them,
"you guys are
a bunch of amateurs."
♪
(davidson)
john raimondo was
A florida department
of corrections jail guard,
And he was working out
at sun gym.
That's how he knew them.
And he told 'em what to do,
they did it.
♪
(weinstein)
they came up with this plan
That they were going
to cut up the bodies.
♪
So how were they gonna do it?
They were gonna use a chainsaw.
♪
♪
(narrator)
adrian doorbal's
jaw-dropping tale
Of how the sun gym gang murdered
multimillionaire frank griga
And his girlfriend
krisztina furton
Shocks even the most hardened
miami detectives,
Who until now
thought they had seen it all.
(garafalo)
poor frank and krisztina.
I've seen death countless times,
But these individuals were
evil human beings.
(ferrer)
these meatheads buy
a gas-operated chainsaw
To cut krisztina furton's
head off,
But it gets tangled
in her hair and it won't work,
It won't do the job.
So, geniuses that they are,
they go back to home depot
And return the chainsaw
That they just used
To try to cut off
krisztina furton's head.
(weinstein)
they ended up
having to use brute force.
They used hatchets
and just literally
Chopped up the bodies.
(davidson)
the bodies are put
into 50-gallon drums,
And they're driven out
to the everglades,
And they're dumped in a canal
there in the everglades.
♪
(garafalo)
the only asset
they did get from frank
Was his yellow lamborghini.
No one wanted to get caught
driving that car.
Raimondo drove
that lamborghini
To a desolate area
where a state trooper discovered
That this was
a stolen vehicle
And that it was
tied into our case.
♪
(narrator)
adrian doorbal
tells investigators
That danny is the only one
who knows where
Frank and krisztina's bodies
are located.
(weinstein)
they had to track
danny lugo down.
He had fled south florida.
(narrator)
on June 8th, 1995,
Authorities hunt down danny lugo
in the bahamas.
♪
(garafalo)
daniel lugo admitted that,
yes, he was there
When they were murdered.
(narrator)
three weeks after
frank and krisztina vanished,
Daniel lugo is arrested
for their murders.
(ferrer)
well, danny cuts a deal
with them.
"you waive the death penalty,
I'll take you
to where the bodies are."
♪
(blades whirring)
(davidson)
he took them
to the location where
The 50-gallon drums
were dumped.
(narrator)
just three miles
from where frank's lamborghini
Was found.
(weinstein)
those detectives who
went out there described it
As just a surreal situation,
Having to take those drums
out of the everglades,
And then finding what they found
inside those drums.
(davidson)
they opened up the drums,
Only have two torsos.
♪
There's no face,
there's no fingerprints.
(narrator)
danny lugo is
up to his old tricks.
Without fingerprints,
Law enforcement cannot identify
frank or krisztina.
It was their intent,
Doorbal, lugo,
and the rest of them,
That nobody would ever
find these bodies,
And if they did,
they'd never be able
To tie them back to them
and prove the crime.
♪
(narrator)
two days later,
Law enforcement receives
an anonymous tip.
(ferrer)
somebody called and tipped off
the prosecution
To where the hands, feet,
and heads could be located.
It was on alligator alley
in a drainage ditch,
And metro-dade police went
out there with helicopters.
And flew over
the drainage ditches
And found the buckets
with the hands, feet, and heads.
♪
(davidson)
they found a breast implant
That had a serial number on it.
They traced the serial number
to the doctor,
Who told them
it was krisztina furton.
They identified frank
from one of the mandibles
That were in the paint can,
And forensic dentists
matched that molar to frank.
♪
(garafalo)
this was heinous
and atrocious and cruel,
What they did
to frank and krisztina.
♪
(weinstein)
frank's sister zsuzsanna
Really cared for her brother,
And she was very appreciative
of what we were able to do
To help bring closure to her
and to her family for this.
(jury foreperson)
daniel lugo is guilty,
Noel doorbal is guilty.
(ferrer)
I sentenced danny lugo
and noel doorbal to death
For the crimes
that they committed
Against frank griga
and krisztina furton.
(davidson)
all in all,
11 people were charged.
(weinstein)
john mese was not
charged with a homicide
Because he didn't get involved
with what was happening
With frank and krisztina,
But he owned sun gym,
And that was really the center,
The hub
of this whole conspiracy.
(ferrer)
people have said, well,
it was 'roid rage, you know,
These people were
probably on steroids
And it led to that.
Okay, what about
all the other people
Who just went along with it?
What about the people
at the gym who were
Doing curls next to them
and they said,
"hey, you want to babysit
some guy that we've got
Kidnapped in a warehouse,"
and they did.
♪
Evil, pure evil.
But yet it fits into what
was going on in miami, again,
The glitz and the glamour.
These guys wanted some of that.
They were just
consumed with greed.
If you have any kind of brain,
You don't let yourself be seen
by neighbors and best friends
When you go to pick up
a couple
If you're gonna take them
and kidnap them.
(du bois)
I think crooks always think
they're smarter than the system,
And they'll beat the system.
(alvarado)
if they had been
a little more careful,
They probably would have
gotten away with the murders
And they probably would have
gone on to find more victims.
To target
and more money to steal.
(ferrer)
had the police listened
to marcelo schiller,
Frank and krisztina
would be alive.
♪
But it was just
Too crazy of a tale.
♪
miami's kinda unique.
Florida in general
is kinda unique.
We get the weirdest
of the weird.
(man)
this case, it had it all.
(narrator)
it was a notorious crime spree
Fueled by sex, drugs,
and miami's fast lane.
(man)
it was a wild, wild tale
That had a cast
of real shady characters.
(man)
the glitz and glamour of miami.
(narrator)
a lamborghini
is mysteriously abandoned
-In the everglades.
-We knew something terrible
Had happened
to frank and krisztina.
This was one of
the biggest cases,
The fbi, the us marshals.
(man)
these meatheads
dressed as ninjas.
(man)
they called themselves
batman and robin.
(man)
they proceeded to torture him.
(man)
he was treated worse
than any prisoner of war.
(man)
they used a butane lighter
to burn his body.
They return the chainsaw
that they'd just used.
-It was almost comical.
-It was one stupid attempt
After another.
(man)
they were
a dumb group of criminals
Who almost got away
with one of the most vicious,
Disturbing crimes
-That I have ever seen.
-It was evil.
(narrator)
located on the southern tip
of florida,
Miami is a tropical paradise.
Sugar-white beaches,
Year-round sultry temperatures,
And a vibrant nightlife
make this international city
A hotspot for tourists
and celebrities.
(davidson)
in the '90s,
Miami was glitz and glamour.
Madonna was here.
Jennifer lopez was here.
People were coming
from around the world.
It was the hottest place
to be in america.
(narrator)
miami's south beach,
With its celebrity glam
and sizzling temperatures,
Becomes a haven for partygoers
who want it all:
Sex, drugs,
and lots of money.
But life in the fast lane
also has a dark side.
In the 1990s, miami was also
a hotbed for crime
And a gateway
for drug trafficking.
(garafalo)
crime in the '90s
was running rampant.
(siren wails)
The narcotics industry
was going crazy.
(weinstein)
we had homicides, robberies,
Large-scale conspiracies
that involved
Some money-launderings.
-One call for a doa.
-Strange things tend to happen
In miami.
♪
(unintelligible
police radio transmission)
(narrator)
on may 27th, 1995,
A florida state trooper
discovers a yellow lamborghini
Conspicuously out of place
in the everglades,
A giant swamp made up
of coastal mangroves
And sawgrass marshes
Just miles from downtown miami.
(garafalo)
the lamborghini was found
by a state trooper,
And she discovered
that this was a stolen vehicle.
(narrator)
further investigation reveals
That the vehicle
has been reported stolen
And the owner is a resident
of an affluent neighborhood
North of miami.
(davidson)
the florida highway patrol
officer noticed
On the windshield of the car
was a golden beach sticker.
Golden beach is just north
of miami beach.
It's just an enclave
of 1,000 houses.
(weinstein)
the people who live there
are very wealthy.
It's very highly guarded
and protected.
(davidson)
so she called the
golden beach police department
And they connected
that lamborghini to frank griga.
(narrator)
frank griga and his girlfriend,
23-year-old krisztina furton,
Were reported missing
three days earlier.
(garafalo)
frank and krisztina
were reported missing
On the 24th of may
by their neighbor, judi bartusz.
(narrator)
frank and krisztina
were planning to leave
For a sun-soaked private weekend
aboard frank's yacht.
(davidson)
frank and krisztina
were going to the bahamas.
He had a condo there,
he had his boat there,
And they were going
to chill out.
(narrator)
when the housekeeper arrives
at 8 a.M.,
Their beloved dog chopin
is home alone,
But there are no signs
of frank and krisztina.
(davidson)
the housekeeper
went to the house.
She saw the dog had torn up
some furniture,
There was poop on the floor.
(ferrer)
krisztina and frank
would never do that.
They would never
leave their dog behind.
(narrator)
the housekeeper calls
frank's close friend judi,
-Who immediately comes over.
-Judi bartusz
And her husband gabor
and frank were best friends,
And they lived
within walking distance.
When judi got into their house,
She knew something was wrong
too,
Not only because of the dog,
But because their tickets
to the bahamas were on a desk.
Now, in those days,
you didn't have e-tickets,
And that's how she knew, also,
that something was wrong.
They wouldn't leave the dog,
And they never came back
for their tickets.
Judi bartusz is the first one
to sound the alarm.
(narrator)
when judi notices that
the lamborghini is missing,
She calls frank's pager
but he does not respond.
Judi immediately files
a missing persons report
With the golden beach police.
She tells them that she saw
the couple the previous night
With two unidentified men.
And judi was able to give them
a description
Of what krisztina was wearing
the last time judi saw them.
Krisztina was dressed
in a red leather skirt,
Red leather top,
red leather boots.
The chief there called
miami-dade police department
To let them know
what was going on,
And miami-dade said,
"oh, they'll come back."
You know, "let us know
if you need anything else."
And that's where that
portion of the case stalled.
(narrator)
miami-dade police department
does not start
Their formal investigation until
they find frank's lamborghini
Three days later.
Although the crime scene
investigators process
The lamborghini for clues,
They do not find
any evidence of foul play.
(garafalo)
we knew that there was
something wrong here,
That these people didn't just
arbitrarily disappear.
♪
(narrator)
after notifying
frank and krisztina's family,
Investigators immediately begin
to look into the couple's
Background for clues
as to where they could be.
♪
(alvarado)
frank was a hungarian immigrant
Who came to the united states
chasing the american dream.
(davidson)
frank griga grows up in hungary
Behind the iron curtain.
(burst of static)
He's able to watch miami vice.
And he gets completely taken
by this miami lifestyle--
Don johnson, armani suits,
Fast cigarette boats.
So eventually,
he comes to south florida.
(alvarado)
that miami lifestyle,
It's a place where people think
that in order to show
That you've made it,
You have to go get
an exotic car,
Go hang out at nightclubs,
Having boats,
And these are all things
that require a lot of money.
And sometimes, the only way
you can make a lot of money
Really fast is by being
involved in shady behavior.
♪
(weinstein)
frank got involved
in the 900 sex numbers business.
He set up an operation
where people would call in
-To 900 numbers.
-Before long,
He's a millionaire from this.
(weinstein)
he became the success story
of an immigrant
Who came to america with nothing
and ended up very wealthy.
(davidson)
he owned a boat
that he kept in the bahamas
Called the foreplay.
(alvarado)
frank bought himself
a big mansion.
He had three exotic cars,
Including the lamborghini.
He was living
the lavish lifestyle.
(narrator)
frank's american dream
came true,
And the only thing missing
was a beautiful woman
To share it with.
(davidson)
frank met krisztina
at a club in miami.
They were both from hungary.
She had been an athlete
in hungary,
She was a swimmer.
She was lovely.
They were hopelessly
head-over-heels in love
With each other.
(narrator)
now, three years later,
They wind up missing,
And police are searching
for answers.
(ferrer)
frank griga,
He and his girlfriend krisztina
were well-liked.
Might not like the area
of business he went into,
But as a person,
everybody liked them.
They were a nice,
likeable couple.
(garafalo)
we were able to determine
That frank and krisztina
were good, quality people.
No records, they were
hardworking people.
Our investigators did procure
a search warrant
For frank's residence
in order to process that scene.
(narrator)
police do not find
any signs of foul play
In frank's house,
And without a body or evidence,
Investigators are perplexed.
The good-looking couple
is well-known
In the vip lounges of miami,
Yet no one knows where they are.
A lamborghini can attract
a lot of unwanted attention.
Did the couple's
flashy lifestyle
Make them a target?
♪
(davidson)
police make a connection
Between the kidnapping
of marc schiller
And the disappearance
of frank and krisztina.
(garafalo)
mr. Schiller had been
held captive in a warehouse,
So we're hopeful
that frank and krisztina
Will be found somewhere,
alive.
(narra
Just north of miami
is shattered
When a-list couple
frank griga and krisztina furton
Mysteriously vanish.
The only clues
investigators have
Are frank's abandoned
lamborghini,
The airline tickets
that were left behind,
And the two mysterious men
who were last seen
With frank and krisztina.
Police learn that
frank and krisztina
Were living their dream life.
Frank's business
was skyrocketing,
And the couple were
madly in love.
(davidson)
krisztina and frank
were a perfect couple.
They fit together
like a hand in a glove.
(narrator)
police theorized
that this may have been
A carjacking gone wrong.
But if it was a carjacking,
Then where are
frank and krisztina?
Detectives launch an aerial
search of the harsh terrain,
Looking for any signs
of the couple,
But they come up empty-handed.
Judi tells police
that the last time she saw
Frank and krisztina
Was on Wednesday night
at 10 p.M.
The couple was on their way
to one of miami's hotspots,
A restaurant called don shula's.
Was the couple randomly targeted
by a carjacker
On their way to dinner?
(garafalo)
we had learned
that frank and krisztina
Were supposed to have gone to
some type of business meeting
In the miami lakes area.
(davidson)
frank is a risk-taker.
He was looking for other ways
to use his money
To invest in other things.
(narrator)
according to judi,
Frank and krisztina were
going to dinner with two men
Who wanted to pitch
a business idea to frank.
Judi tells police
that frank met the men
Through a friend.
(davidson)
it's about 10:00 at night.
Judi happened to be
walking her dog
When she saw this gold mercedes
in the driveway
Of frank and krisztina's house.
She went to see
what's going on
And she met the two guys.
(narrator)
judi tells police that they were
typical miami guys,
Buffed and flashy,
But the taller one
left an impression.
(alvarado)
she described him
As a dark-skinned
chiseled adonis
With long black hair.
He was a very good-looking man.
That's the last time
anybody has seen them.
(alvarado)
the police started
retracing their steps
And found that the restaurant
they were supposed
To go have dinner happened
to be closed that night.
(narrator)
why would the two men
invite frank and krisztina
To a restaurant that was closed?
The restaurant is an hour from
where the lamborghini was found.
How did the lamborghini
get there
And who drove it?
Was it frank and krisztina,
Or was it the two mystery men
they had dinner with?
As investigators dive into frank
and krisztina's background,
They learn that the couple
had been living
Their american dream life.
Frank works hard
and plays hard.
Both frank and krisztina
flaunt frank's success
By throwing money around
at solid gold,
The club where the couple met.
(davidson)
solid gold was a strip club
in miami.
They were considered to be
big spenders
And that's where they spent
most of their time.
(alvarado)
miami is a very flashy city.
People come from other countries
to achieve the american dream,
And sometimes they want
to achieve that dream
In the fastest way possible.
(narrator)
krisztina was a model
in hungary.
When she turns 20,
Krisztina leaves
everything behind
To follow her dream
of moving to america,
And she is immediately drawn to
the glitz and glamour of miami.
Little does she know
that this sunny paradise
Has a dark side.
(davidson)
krisztina came to the us
And she started working
at solid gold.
Now, for a lot of these girls,
They just stayed here
beyond their visas
Or whatever documents they had,
And they can't get a job
unless you have a green card.
But they can work
at places like solid gold.
(weinstein)
krisztina worked as a dancer.
Frank worshipped her,
He wanted to get together
with her after he found her
As a stripper in solid gold.
(narrator)
it's an intense romance
for the couple.
Frank became
her prince charming,
Showering her with gifts.
Their relationship went from
him just being a customer
To something more serious.
But krisztina
wasn't the first woman
Frank had a relationship with
at solid gold.
(davidson)
frank would go
to the strip clubs
Looking for models to appear
in his commercials and ads,
And that's how
he met beatriz.
Beatriz had an affair
with frank griga,
But it was over,
they remained friends.
-She really cared for frank.
-Beatriz tells detectives
That she has moved on
from frank
And she is happy that he found
the love of his life.
However, beatriz is still
a dancer at solid gold.
Could jealousy have led
to something sinister?
Police ask beatriz
if she noticed that frank
Was associating with
anyone new lately,
And she says no.
(garafalo)
it was questionable,
But who knows what her motive is
or if she's lying.
(narrator)
although police
do not have any evidence
That beatriz is guilty
of any wrongdoing,
She remains a person of interest
Because of her previous
relationship with frank.
With no other leads,
Detectives turn
to frank's family
With the troubling news
that no one has seen the couple
In a few days,
And they are hopeful
that the family can point them
-In the right direction.
-We contacted frank's sister.
She didn't know much
about the disappearance
Of frank and krisztina
(narrator)
without a body or evidence,
The investigation stalls.
Detectives circle back
to the two men last seen
With frank and krisztina.
Although judi cannot id the men,
She told police that
they were weightlifter types.
Police continue
to investigate the case.
That's when
the homicide detective
Recalls a wild story.
(garafalo)
our homicide captain at the time
Was an individual named
al harper,
And was acquainted
with ed du bois,
A private investigator.
(du bois)
received a call
from a maj. Al harper
With miami-dade police
who said,
"you know that situation
you told me back
A couple months ago,
Your client was kidnapped
by weightlifters?"
I said, "yeah."
He said, "I think
they're at it again."
I said, "well,
what do you mean?"
He says, "there's a missing
hungarian couple."
I said, "oh, god."
(narrator)
ed's client, marc schiller,
Was tortured by a violent gang
who stole $2 million from him.
(garafalo)
mr. Schiller had been
the victim of an abduction
In November of 1994
And was held captive
in a warehouse
By a group of individuals,
big muscle heads,
In the miami lakes area.
(narrator)
the night frank and krisztina
went missing,
They were headed to miami lakes.
Could these be the same men who
kidnapped frank and krisztina?
If these two cases are related,
Is there a dangerous gang
targeting millionaires in miami?
♪
In may 1995,
Multimillionaire frank griga and
his girlfriend krisztina furton
Mysteriously vanish
after leaving their home
With two men described
as bodybuilders.
It's a head-scratcher
for police
Until the homicide captain
recalls a story he heard
A few months back
About a group of muscle heads
who fit the description.
(davidson)
the police make a connection
Between what happened
to schiller
And the disappearance
of frank and krisztina.
(narrator)
three months earlier,
Multimillionaire marc schiller
told detectives
That he was kidnapped
and tortured by weightlifters
Who extorted $2 million
from him.
Although police
initially dismissed
Marc schiller's crazy story,
With no other leads or suspects
in frank and krisztina's case,
-They are now willing to listen.
-I was more interested
With frank and krisztina's
whereabouts,
Their survivability,
than schiller.
But I interviewed marc schiller,
And he was well-spoken,
well-educated,
He was a cpa.
He told me the story
of how he was abducted.
(davidson)
they grabbed him,
Tased him many times,
Threw him in the back
of the van,
Put duct tape around him,
shackled him,
And kept on tasing him.
(alvarado)
and the next thing you know,
Marc schiller woke up
tied up to a chair
-In a hialeah warehouse.
-Marc schiller was kept prisoner
By this violent gang
for over a month.
(alvarado)
they proceeded to torture him
With all kinds
of weird shenanigans,
Including burning him
with cigarettes.
(davidson)
blindfolded, shackled,
They didn't feed him.
(ferrer)
he was tortured
and treated worse
Than any prisoner of war.
♪
(narrator)
marc schiller tells detectives
That while he was held captive,
The men wore hoods
and referred to each other
As the sun gym gang.
After getting their kicks
by torturing him,
The gang drains
marc schiller's bank accounts.
(ferrer)
they brought him
documents to sign.
He couldn't see what they were
because he's blindfolded.
(alvarado)
they would force him
to sign paperwork
Turning over his assets
while they were torturing him.
(ferrer)
they transferred
ownership of a condo he had.
They transferred the ownership
of his cars.
They moved into his house.
They were living his life.
(alvarado)
the whole goal was just to,
like, wipe this guy clean
Of everything he owned
so that they could have it
And then live
a lavish lifestyle.
(narrator)
while he is held captive,
The gang tells schiller
that they are spending his money
On drug-fueled nights
at the solid gold strip club.
(ferrer)
they used his money.
They'd been living
off his money,
They'd been going
to solid gold strip club,
Dating all the strippers,
Dropping $2,000, $3,000 a night
on them.
Their girlfriends were
strippers at the club,
Their friends were
strippers at the club.
(narrator)
if this gang was mingling
with the solid gold crowd,
Did they cross paths
with frank and krisztina?
(ferrer)
they took marcelo schiller
for every penny he had,
And that's when they realized,
"we can't let him go."
(du bois)
the next step was to kill him
And make it look like
a car accident.
(ferrer)
they drive marcelo schiller
West of
miami international airport.
They get him very drunk.
They put him
into the driver's seat.
They crash his car
into a light pole,
And they torch the car.
He gets himself out of the car.
They thought that marc schiller
was gone, dead,
But marc schiller did not die.
♪
(narrator)
after narrowly escaping
the grips of this barbaric gang,
Marc schiller is too afraid
to call police,
And he reaches out to
private investigator ed du bois.
(du bois)
so the first big lead
I had in the investigation
Was the notary, john mese.
(narrator)
the documents
schiller was forced to sign
Were notarized
by a man named john mese.
He is a cpa
And the owner of a popular
weightlifters' paradise in miami
Called the sun gym.
They needed john mese
for his notary,
And they needed him
to help them launder the money.
He was sophisticated
in moving money around,
He knew what to do.
Without him, they couldn't
have done as much as they did
In terms of the transactions.
(narrator)
john mese tells ed du bois
that he had
A lucrative business deal
with marc schiller,
And he invites ed to his office.
(du bois)
and I go to john mese's
miami lakes office,
And they put me
into a waiting room.
We notice that
the trashcan in there
Was overflowing with paper,
And we started
just to go through it
To see if there was
anything relevant in it,
And it was all relevant.
I took it all,
I stuffed it down my pants,
I stuffed it in my jacket,
And it was a glory hole
of evidence.
It had copies of bank accounts
from the sun gym,
Where they had deposited
the checks from schiller.
They had copies
of the checks they used
To pay each one
of the bad guys.
It gave us the entire network.
There were 11 men involved
in this criminal enterprise.
They were called
the sun gym gang.
These morons had taken documents
That were evidence
of their crime
And threw 'em away
in the garbage can
In the conference room
where they put the investigator.
Marcelo schiller goes
To the miami-dade
police department headquarters
With ed du bois,
the private investigator.
(alvarado)
unfortunately,
Law enforcement authorities
do not take the case seriously.
(ferrer)
it doesn't make sense.
He was kidnapped, tortured.
They tried to kill him,
They ran him over with a car,
And when he gets out,
he just leaves?
He doesn't call the police?
When he's in the hospital
and he gets a phone,
He calls this
private investigator,
Not the cops?
So the police,
I think understandably,
Don't believe his story.
They think that
he is a drug dealer.
Miami is still
awash with cocaine,
And they think that
he's trying to eliminate
A rival drug dealer
with this outlandish story.
It was terrible,
It was just terribly
outrageous, unprofessional.
(narrator)
ed du bois warns police
That the sun gym gang
is very dangerous
And they will target
more victims.
(davidson)
du bois is telling the police,
"these guys are gonna
do it again.
They're getting away
with it once,
They're gonna do it again."
♪
(narrator)
the spine-tingling tale
from marc schiller
Turns the investigation
on a different course.
Detectives are beginning
to see parallels
Between marc schiller
and frank griga.
Both men are immigrants
who obtained the american dream.
They were self-made
millionaires,
But then marc schiller
throws police a curveball
When he reveals
what he does for a living.
(garafalo)
schiller was involved
in medicare fraud.
(narrator)
marc schiller tells detectives
That the sun gym gang
threatened him.
If he went to the police about
the money they stole from him,
They would turn him in
for his illegal business.
Did the sun gym gang
kidnap frank
Because they believed
he was also involved
In illegal activity?
(garafalo)
people associate 900 numbers as,
Oh, they're not
paying their taxes,
Or it's pornography.
Well, lemme tell you,
Frank was a hardworking guy,
An ingenious type of guy,
Who paid his taxes,
who worked hard.
(narrator)
if these two cases are related,
Is the sun gym gang draining
frank and krisztina's
Bank accounts while they are
being held captive?
Detectives jump into action.
The couple has only been missing
for a few days.
Can they find them
before it's too late?
(garafalo)
because they did find
schiller alive,
I had hoped that we would find
frank and krisztina
In a warehouse or wherever.
♪
(narrator)
after hearing a wild story
about a multimillionaire
Who was tortured and extorted
by the sun gym gang,
Detectives race to the warehouse
Where marc schiller
was held captive.
But it's empty.
(garafalo)
I hoped that we would find
frank and krisztina alive,
But time went on
And who knows
where they were being kept.
(davidson)
the business plan
for the sun gym gang
Was to kidnap wealthy miamians,
hold them prisoner,
Force them to sign over
all their assets,
And then when they had
everything signed over,
They would kill the victims.
(alvarado)
you know, whatever they stole,
They would just turn it into
excursions at the strip club,
Buying a lot of cocaine,
And just living
that miami lifestyle
And partying with people
all night long.
(narrator)
although detectives
are following a hunch,
They have no solid evidence
that the sun gym gang
Actually kidnapped
frank and krisztina.
There has been no activity
on frank's bank accounts,
And besides the lamborghini,
Nothing else has been touched,
including his house.
Ed du bois gives police a list
of the entire network
Of people involved
in marc schiller's kidnapping.
(garafalo)
ed du bois ended up
giving us information
That we were able
to piece together.
(narrator)
detectives zero in
on a man named danny lugo.
(du bois)
danny lugo was the ringleader
of the sun gym gang.
He was the mastermind,
And he was the one that plotted
the entire criminal activity.
Danny lugo is
a convicted felon,
Recently out of federal prison.
(narrator)
32-year-old danny lugo
spent two yearsrison
For bilking elderly people
out of millions of dollars
In a fraudulent
insurance scheme.
He pulled off a medicare scam,
And he defrauded old people
out of their money.
(narrator)
danny is a natural con artist.
-He knows how to seduce people.
-Danny was smart,
He was personable,
he was charismatic,
He was 6'2",
he was built,
And he was flashy,
And he was an excellent liar.
(narrator)
in 1993, danny is
released from prison.
Lured by the glitz and glamour
of miami,
He heads south
to start a new life.
An avid bodybuilder,
Danny applies for a job
at the sun gym.
(alvarado)
the sun gym was
a weightlifters' gym
In miami lakes.
It's the kind of gym where
people that want to lift weights
And be bodybuilders,
That wanna have
the biggest muscles ever.
(narrator)
danny lugo is exactly
what john mese,
The owner of the sun gym,
is looking for:
A smooth operator
with a gift for the gab.
(du bois)
danny was hired by john mese
To be the manager
of the sun gym facility.
(narrator)
it wasn't long
before danny leveraged
His position of power
to begin organizing
His little group of criminals.
They called themselves
the sun gym gang.
(du bois)
danny lugo took the opportunity
to solicit people
In the sun gym to help him
in a criminal enterprise
Of kidnapping and extortion.
(narrator)
danny recruits
28-year-old adrian doorbal.
(davidson)
doorbal is from trinidad.
He's younger than danny lugo.
Doorbal is pretty much
a disciple of lugo.
In fact, they call themselves
batman and robin.
(narrator)
34-year-old george delgado
Hires danny lugo
to be his trainer,
And it's not long before
he's under danny's spell.
Delgado tells danny
about his boss,
Multimillionaire marc schiller.
(alvarado)
so lugo and delgado
were the ones
That came up with the plot
to kidnap marc schiller.
(narrator)
armed with this new information,
Detectives begin searching
for danny lugo,
And they start at solid gold.
(weinstein)
they spoke to
lugo's girlfriend, sabina,
Who had worked at
the solid gold strip clubs.
(narrator)
when police interview sabina,
She admits that she does know
frank and krisztina,
But she did not
introduce them to danny.
(weinstein)
danny lugo was known
as a very scheming guy.
He never told anybody the truth,
And that included
people like sabina.
He told her
he was this double agent
And that he was
working for the government,
-And she believed it.
-Sabina tells police
That danny is
on a secret mission
And she doesn't know
when he will be back.
(garafalo)
by the time
we had started presenting
Information to them
about the disappearance
Of frank and krisztina,
People started to talk.
(narrator)
while at solid gold,
Detectives question
frank's ex-lover, beatriz,
And this time,
she cracks under pressure.
Beatriz admits to police
that she is the one
Who introduced frank to
her boyfriend, adrian doorbal,
-Danny lugo's sidekick.
-One day,
Doorbal is flipping through
her photo album
And sees this young guy standing
next to this yellow lamborghini,
And immediately,
dollar signs pop up in his eye,
And he goes, "who's that?"
And she says, "oh, that's
my ex-boyfriend, frank.
He made a lot of money
in 976 numbers."
Danny and noel
develop this plan,
And they tell noel's girlfriend,
"I'd like to set up
a meeting with him,
Because we have ideas
that he might like
And we can expand
his business," et cetera,
And she introduces
frank griga to noel doorbal
And danny lugo.
(narrator)
with the statement from beatriz,
Detectives now have
a solid connection
Between the sun gym gang
and the missing couple.
The investigation ignites,
And police begin putting
together pieces of the puzzle.
(garafalo)
there was identification
by judi bartusz.
"yes, those were the people
that I saw there at the house."
She described a vehicle,
it was george delgado's car.
And all of a sudden,
everything explodes.
♪
(davidson)
there's no face,
There's no fingerprints.
(weinstein)
it was their intent
That nobody would ever
find these bodies,
And if they did, they'd never
be able to prove the crime.
♪
(narrator)
after detectives identify
the two men last seen
With frank and krisztina,
They launch a manhunt
for ringleader danny lugo
And the sun gym gang.
They race against the clock
to find the couple.
(dramatic music)
(garafalo)
the investigation was
A cooperative effort
Between the metro-dade
police department, the fbi,
The us marshals'
violent crimes task forces,
The state attorney's office.
This was one
of the biggest cases
During that time period.
♪
(ferrer)
they find out
where doorbal lives;
They found out where
danny lugo is staying.
They start seeking
search warrants,
And I happen to be
the emergency duty judge
Who's signing
all the search warrants.
(davidson)
it was June 3rd.
It's before dawn.
A whole task force meets
at a park in miami lakes.
They're armed
with search warrants
And they're gonna fan out
across miami-dade county.
They're looking for
the sun gym gang.
Well, they find delgado
and they find doorbal,
But they don't find danny lugo.
(narrator)
when police raid
adrian doorbal's apartment,
They find evidence
of marc schiller's kidnapping.
(garafalo)
there were guns
and assassin kits recovered
At doorbal's place.
We found evidence
that belonged to schiller.
(narrator)
investigators are combing
Adrian doorbal's apartment
for evidence they can link
To frank and krisztina.
(ferrer)
they were looking
for evidence of blood,
Luminol testing
in an apartment.
♪
(garafalo)
we found blood evidence
In doorbal's apartment when
we executed search warrants.
(narrator)
without a body,
Detectives cannot confirm
if the blood belongs
To frank or krisztina.
But they do confirm
that the couple
Was in the apartment.
(davidson)
they find frank griga's
business card.
♪
They find krisztina's
red outfit that she wore
The night that she went to eat,
And judi was able to give them
a description
Of what she was wearing
the last time judi saw them.
(narrator)
after two days
of interrogating adrian doorbal,
He finally breaks down
and admits to police
That he was involved
in the marc schiller kidnapping.
Adrian tells detectives
that this was not an easy job,
And he gives police
a play-by-play.
(ferrer)
these meatheads
were so ineffective
In their attempts
to kidnap marcelo schiller
That it was almost comical.
They kept messing up.
(alvarado)
there was a lot of, you know,
harebrained schemes.
(davidson)
they went to a place
called the spy shop
And they bought all kinds
of gear that would help them--
Night vision goggles,
And they staked out
schiller's house.
(ferrer)
they dressed as ninjas
And hid in his yard
to kidnap him at 5 a.M.
When he came out for the paper.
They ended up running
through people's backyards
With these headsets on,
yelling, "abort! Abort!"
Like they were seal team six.
So it was like one stupid
attempt after another.
(narrator)
after hours of interrogating
adrian doorbal
About frank and krisztina,
He finally cracks and gives them
what they have been waiting for.
(garafalo)
adrian doorbal
had been interviewed
By two other detectives.
He eventually told them
that he participated
In the abduction
and the homicide
Of krisztina and frank.
Poor frank and krisztina.
(narrator)
adrian doorbal tells police
That two months after
they kidnapped marc schiller,
The sun gym gang targets
businessman frank griga.
(weinstein)
their plan was to get
frank to sign over money
That frank had made
in the 900 phone sex business,
And an additional
other amount of properties
And bank accounts,
Much the same as they had done
with schiller.
(narrator)
on may 24th, 1995,
Danny lugo and adrian doorbal
arrange to meet
Frank and krisztina for dinner
to discuss a business deal.
(alvarado)
daniel and adrian decided to
Take out frank to dinner,
But it was all a story,
it was a ruse, it wasn't--
They weren't really gonna
take him out to dinner.
It's about 10:00 at night,
restaurant's closed.
♪
So doorbal says, "why don't you
come up to my townhouse?
It's only three blocks away,"
and they agree.
Frank and krisztina,
unsuspecting, agree to do this.
♪
(alvarado)
and then once they got
to doorbal's apartment,
That's when all hell broke loose
and they went after frank.
(davidson)
as soon as frank enters,
Doorbal comes from behind
and he gets him in a chokehold.
Frank starts fighting back,
And they're tumbling
around the room.
♪
Krisztina hears the yelling
that was going on
And she starts running
to help frank.
As she's running,
danny lugo tackles her,
Pulls her down to the floor,
Starts beating her.
These guys kept a kidnap kit.
In the kidnap kit,
among other things,
Were tasers, duct tape,
and horse tranquilizer.
So he injects krisztina
with the horse tranquilizer
And knocks her out.
♪
She never gets upstairs.
Doorbal kills frank.
In addition to choking him,
He hit him over the head
with something.
♪
Frank griga is the guy
with all the money,
And he's dead.
So they throw his body
into a bathtub
And just let his blood
drain down the pipes.
And they try to extract
information from krisztina.
But she's so drugged
from the horse tranquilizer
That she's not making sense,
And she's trying
to give them numbers.
♪
Doorbal walks over
to krisztina and says,
"the bitch is cold."
She had died.
They gave her
enough horse tranquilizer
To kill four
1,000-pound horses.
And now, they have frank dead,
krisztina dead.
They can't get in the house.
They have no way
to get any money.
They got two bodies
to dispose of.
Danny lugo says
to george delgado,
"I got somebody
who's gonna fix this."
♪
In walks john raimondo.
This is the cleaner.
And he says to them,
"you guys are
a bunch of amateurs."
♪
(davidson)
john raimondo was
A florida department
of corrections jail guard,
And he was working out
at sun gym.
That's how he knew them.
And he told 'em what to do,
they did it.
♪
(weinstein)
they came up with this plan
That they were going
to cut up the bodies.
♪
So how were they gonna do it?
They were gonna use a chainsaw.
♪
♪
(narrator)
adrian doorbal's
jaw-dropping tale
Of how the sun gym gang murdered
multimillionaire frank griga
And his girlfriend
krisztina furton
Shocks even the most hardened
miami detectives,
Who until now
thought they had seen it all.
(garafalo)
poor frank and krisztina.
I've seen death countless times,
But these individuals were
evil human beings.
(ferrer)
these meatheads buy
a gas-operated chainsaw
To cut krisztina furton's
head off,
But it gets tangled
in her hair and it won't work,
It won't do the job.
So, geniuses that they are,
they go back to home depot
And return the chainsaw
That they just used
To try to cut off
krisztina furton's head.
(weinstein)
they ended up
having to use brute force.
They used hatchets
and just literally
Chopped up the bodies.
(davidson)
the bodies are put
into 50-gallon drums,
And they're driven out
to the everglades,
And they're dumped in a canal
there in the everglades.
♪
(garafalo)
the only asset
they did get from frank
Was his yellow lamborghini.
No one wanted to get caught
driving that car.
Raimondo drove
that lamborghini
To a desolate area
where a state trooper discovered
That this was
a stolen vehicle
And that it was
tied into our case.
♪
(narrator)
adrian doorbal
tells investigators
That danny is the only one
who knows where
Frank and krisztina's bodies
are located.
(weinstein)
they had to track
danny lugo down.
He had fled south florida.
(narrator)
on June 8th, 1995,
Authorities hunt down danny lugo
in the bahamas.
♪
(garafalo)
daniel lugo admitted that,
yes, he was there
When they were murdered.
(narrator)
three weeks after
frank and krisztina vanished,
Daniel lugo is arrested
for their murders.
(ferrer)
well, danny cuts a deal
with them.
"you waive the death penalty,
I'll take you
to where the bodies are."
♪
(blades whirring)
(davidson)
he took them
to the location where
The 50-gallon drums
were dumped.
(narrator)
just three miles
from where frank's lamborghini
Was found.
(weinstein)
those detectives who
went out there described it
As just a surreal situation,
Having to take those drums
out of the everglades,
And then finding what they found
inside those drums.
(davidson)
they opened up the drums,
Only have two torsos.
♪
There's no face,
there's no fingerprints.
(narrator)
danny lugo is
up to his old tricks.
Without fingerprints,
Law enforcement cannot identify
frank or krisztina.
It was their intent,
Doorbal, lugo,
and the rest of them,
That nobody would ever
find these bodies,
And if they did,
they'd never be able
To tie them back to them
and prove the crime.
♪
(narrator)
two days later,
Law enforcement receives
an anonymous tip.
(ferrer)
somebody called and tipped off
the prosecution
To where the hands, feet,
and heads could be located.
It was on alligator alley
in a drainage ditch,
And metro-dade police went
out there with helicopters.
And flew over
the drainage ditches
And found the buckets
with the hands, feet, and heads.
♪
(davidson)
they found a breast implant
That had a serial number on it.
They traced the serial number
to the doctor,
Who told them
it was krisztina furton.
They identified frank
from one of the mandibles
That were in the paint can,
And forensic dentists
matched that molar to frank.
♪
(garafalo)
this was heinous
and atrocious and cruel,
What they did
to frank and krisztina.
♪
(weinstein)
frank's sister zsuzsanna
Really cared for her brother,
And she was very appreciative
of what we were able to do
To help bring closure to her
and to her family for this.
(jury foreperson)
daniel lugo is guilty,
Noel doorbal is guilty.
(ferrer)
I sentenced danny lugo
and noel doorbal to death
For the crimes
that they committed
Against frank griga
and krisztina furton.
(davidson)
all in all,
11 people were charged.
(weinstein)
john mese was not
charged with a homicide
Because he didn't get involved
with what was happening
With frank and krisztina,
But he owned sun gym,
And that was really the center,
The hub
of this whole conspiracy.
(ferrer)
people have said, well,
it was 'roid rage, you know,
These people were
probably on steroids
And it led to that.
Okay, what about
all the other people
Who just went along with it?
What about the people
at the gym who were
Doing curls next to them
and they said,
"hey, you want to babysit
some guy that we've got
Kidnapped in a warehouse,"
and they did.
♪
Evil, pure evil.
But yet it fits into what
was going on in miami, again,
The glitz and the glamour.
These guys wanted some of that.
They were just
consumed with greed.
If you have any kind of brain,
You don't let yourself be seen
by neighbors and best friends
When you go to pick up
a couple
If you're gonna take them
and kidnap them.
(du bois)
I think crooks always think
they're smarter than the system,
And they'll beat the system.
(alvarado)
if they had been
a little more careful,
They probably would have
gotten away with the murders
And they probably would have
gone on to find more victims.
To target
and more money to steal.
(ferrer)
had the police listened
to marcelo schiller,
Frank and krisztina
would be alive.
♪
But it was just
Too crazy of a tale.
♪