-
- So
- Some
- Some s
- Some sto
- Some stori
- Some stories
- Some stories a
- Some stories are
Un
- Some stories are Unfo
- Some stories are Unforg
- Some stories are Unforget
- Some stories are Unforgetta
- Some stories are Unforgettabl
- Some stories are Unforgettable.
This is one of them.
- She just said your father's been shot.
- A massacre.
It was just a puddle of blood.
- This was a horrific way that he died.
- Did you have any suspects?
- It's always nearest and dearest.
- This family tree had a lot of branches,
both born and chosen family,
and investigators would examine them all.
- Ben had quite the criminal history.
- Okay.
- There was DNA there that brought our attention to Leo.
- A story broke that totally stunned me.
- When I learned the truth about Dr. Schwartz's past,
I was shocked.
You just don't expect a wild twist like that,
even on "Dateline".
- There was a very big secret that your dad had.
- Yes.
He never talked to me about it.
- As they say, follow the money.
- Everything kind of started lining up.
- It's like all the bells went off.
That is it.
- Talk about karma.
- This is "Dateline: Unforgettable".
I'm Blayne Alexander with a fresh look at
The Death of Dr. Schwartz.
- It took love and dreams and lots of money
to create this sprawling home
in Tarpon Springs, Florida.
A place to celebrate, to relax,
think about the future.
- I would imagine, with your dad, obviously,
having a house on the water.
Was water special to him?
He loved water? - Yes, yeah.
It was, uh...
This was sort of his dream of a retirement home.
- That is, until one night
when his father's wife came home from a dinner party
and everything changed.
It was May 28th, 2014.
- Her bedroom was a mess.
Drawers pulled out, watch boxes all over the floor.
- She wasn't kidding.
The home was nearly 8,000 square feet
with a tennis court, a pool,
and its own dock.
- Yep.
- As the dispatch gave more and more information,
it-it piqued my curiosity.
Sergeant Scott Brockey arrived a few minutes later.
One look at the big house told him it would take
more manpower to check all four stories.
So he called in the K9 units.
- I explained to them what we had,
And they said, yeah, no problem,
we'll-we'll go in.
- But in less than a minute...
- He had called to me both verbally and on the radio
to come inside, he had one down.
- What does that mean?
- Well, unfortunately, it meant that they had
a-a deceased person inside the house.
- Brockey found the body at the bottom
of a short flight of stairs
that led to the garage.
- And that's where the victim's body was discovered,
was on the floor there.
It was pretty graphic.
- Could you tell what had happened?
- Well, on its face, it didn't appear
that this was an accident.
And it was one of the few times
that I actually felt like this is--
This is a little spooky.
- It's hard to imagine that this moment,
this death in Tarpon Springs, Florida,
would launch a story that would span decades
and take me to Texas, New Mexico,
even all the way to Albania.
This is a case that made me think about a lot of things.
Who deserves a second chance? Who deserves sympathy?
and whether forgiveness can leave a person exposed.
And it all started the moment police realized
there was a body in that house.
- There was something that just hit me that day.
The size of the house.
Once we found the victim, I'm like,
this is really going off the rails here.
This is-- - So far from what you expected.
- Right.
- And just like that,
the case had morphed from burglary to homicide.
Or maybe it was both.
More police arrived, including Detective John Diebel,
who headed straight for the victim.
As you looked at him,
could you tell what had happened?
- I could see that he had had a laceration
across his neck, a rather large one.
- In fact, the victim was cut multiple times.
- I'm noticing that there's lacerations
on top of his head,
small ones. - Hmm...
- I looked at the back of his neck,
and I could see where he clearly
had been shot with a small caliber round.
- You see a cut on his neck, cut on his head,
and gunshot? - Yeah.
- There was a lot done to this man.
- Yeah.
- Did this look like something that had just happened?
- No, you could tell by the condition of the blood
that it was starting to dry.
Some of it had already dried.
So he had been there for-for-for most of the day.
- The investigators found the victim's ID.
Rebecca's husband, Dr. Steven Schwartz,
wasn't working at some hospital.
He was the man lying dead at the bottom of those stairs.
Now, they had to break the news to Rebecca.
And she had initially thought, okay, this is a burglary,
and I just can't reach my husband.
- Mm-hmm.
- Now she's being told he's dead inside.
- Right, she put her face in her hands
and, uh, just started to sob.
- The next day at the police station,
Rebecca was still distraught.
- 90% of the time.
90% of the time, he leaves before me.
I'm always--
I mean, I'm usually the last one out
because he likes to get a jump on the hospital.
Then I'm out having dinner.
That makes me seem like a terrible wife.
I don't even know where my own husband is.
- And at the autopsy, the medical examiner
recovered portions of two .22 caliber slugs.
Armed with that information,
the detectives started to develop a theory
about the final moments of Steven Schwartz's life.
So this is not the actual staircase
where the crime happened or the same house,
but it gives us an idea of what happened that day.
- Yes, yes. - Okay.
So walk me through what-what you believe happened.
- I believe he was at the top of the stairs
when he was shot in the back of the neck,
which would have caused him to fall down the stairs.
He had broken his vertebrae,
so he was paralyzed from the waist down.
He couldn't move.
- That's when he was shot in the head,
but it was more of a surface wound.
He was still alive?
- Yes, he was still alive.
- Diebel believes the doctor was awake and helpless
as the killer finished him off
with that cut to the neck.
- That would have accounted for all the blood
that we could see.
- It was a lot to take in.
A cruel killing, a grieving widow.
- And as detectives would soon learn,
a case and a family with plenty of secrets.
- The crime scene looks staged
to make it look like a burglary gone bad.
- After he was murdered,
a story broke in the papers
that totally stunned me.
- Shocking doesn't even begin to describe it.
- I would have never, ever in my life
thought I'd run into somebody that could be
this devastating to the family.
-
- As
- As f
- As for
- As foren
- As forensi
- As forensic
- As forensic te
- As forensic team
- As forensic teams
co
- As forensic teams comb
- As forensic teams combed
- As forensic teams combed t
- As forensic teams combed thr
- As forensic teams combed throu
- As forensic teams combed through
the palatial home of Rebecca and Steven Schwartz,
Dr. Schwartz's son Carter was half a world away.
He was heading back home from a trip to Asia.
Well, sneaking back.
His father didn't know about the trip.
- He was always pushing me to study more and travel less,
so I didn't tell him I was going.
- Typical dad.
- Carter is Steven's son from a previous relationship.
He was 24 and had just applied to medical school,
ready to follow in his dad's footsteps.
He says his father was thrilled.
- My dad said he would not only pay for med school,
he'd pay for every living expense, everything.
It would have been the happiest check
he ever wrote in his life.
- Carter was nervous as he awaited the acceptance letter.
But his dad never had a doubt.
- And he's like, yeah, they're gonna get you a letter.
Just call me when it happens.
- He was in Taiwan when he got the good news.
- And I got the acceptance.
And I tried to call him. He didn't answer.
So I catch the flight at the connecting airport,
which was Tokyo. Try to call him again.
No answer.
- He finally arrived in the U.S.
and that's when his world fell apart.
- And I remember landing, turning my phone on,
and my mother calling me, bawling
that my father had been shot.
- I spent a lot of time talking with Carter,
getting to know him, and I was really struck
by the cruel timing of his father's death.
This was the man who had inspired Carter
to become a physician.
And just as he was taking his first meaningful step,
everything came crashing down.
Carter deeply admired his dad, not just as a father,
but as a doctor,
and he dreamed of working alongside him.
So it was heartbreaking to know that Carter
was robbed of that chance.
For people who never had a chance to meet your dad,
how would you describe him?
- I couldn't really have asked for a better father
or a better mentor,
seeing how kind and generous he was with his patients
and how patient he was with nurses
and just kind to everybody he came into contact with.
- Steven Schwartz was a nephrologist,
a kidney doctor with a thriving practice.
He was 74, and had three kids.
Carter, and two other children,
a son and a daughter, from a previous marriage.
- Tell me about your dad and his interests.
What did he love to do other than, of course,
practicing medicine?
- I mean, that was truly his love was-was medicine.
You know, he was very much into baseball.
He loved the Rays and always wanted
to go to those games.
- The Tampa Bay Rays. He had season tickets.
- You would have loved Dr. Schwartz.
Absolutely loved him.
- Helen Como ran his dialysis center for years.
- He had a good sense of humor,
a big heart, very caring.
For example, if, uh, there was a patient
or a family that was struggling financially,
he would help them out.
And he would always take his time with them,
not just from a physical standpoint,
but just to see how they're doing,
what's going on.
- But Dr. Schwartz also had a little bit of an edge.
- He just had a way of making jokes about things,
and not only to me, but with others.
And one of his favorite expressions was,
what do you have, sh-- for brains?
- Police learned Steven met Rebecca in the late '90s.
She was divorced with two sons.
They started dating, and it wouldn't be long
before Rebecca was working at the clinic
and then running it all together.
Fourteen years after they met, they got married.
Family friends told detectives
Rebecca catered to Steven's every need.
And it all seemed to work.
He had a helpmate at home and at the office.
Not every couple can work together.
It sounds like they both just kind of found
a lane where they excelled
and were able to do that in the practice.
- Yeah, for sure, but, you know, uh, Dr. Schwartz
wanted to concentrate on taking care of his patients.
Becky was financially motivated
and she was all about, you know,
kinda making-- making decisions.
- Eventually, this man, Kyle Smithee,
took over the clinic's day to day operations.
But Rebecca still helped out.
- What was your working relationship like with Rebecca?
- We got along well.
We spent a good amount of time together
outside of the clinic as well.
- She would often invite Kyle to join her
for drinks and dinner.
- Just one of the most fun people to be around
and so engaging and just kinda--
She had this real unique a-ability
when talking to you to really make you feel,
like, seen and heard
and-and just an energy about her
that you wanted to quite frankly, be around.
- She was 20 years younger than her husband,
but Carter says his father
had his own kind of youthful energy.
He remembers reading a story about his dad
after he was gone.
- The one that I think would have brought him joy
was the article that said
a 50-year-old man was found dead.
I kind of laugh now thinking my 74-year-old father
would have been loved-loved being described
as the 50-year-old man.
- As detectives learned more about Steven Schwartz,
they had a hard time finding
anyone who had it out for him.
- Dr. Schwartz couldn't find one person
to say a bad word about him.
- Mmm... - Just nothing but good things.
Good doctor, cared about his patients.
Half the time he wouldn't even charge people.
- A kindly doctor killed in the worst possible way.
Maybe his wife would help solve the mystery.
-
- Th
- The
- The da
- The day
- The day af
- The day afte
- The day after
- The day after th
- The day after the
- The day after the mu
- The day after the murd
- The day after the murder
- The day after the murder,
th
- The day after the murder, the
- The day after the murder, the cr
- The day after the murder, the crim
- The day after the murder, the crime
- The day after the murder, the crime sc
- The day after the murder, the crime scen
- The day after the murder, the crime scene
offered investigators a wealth of information.
Steven's exact time of death was difficult to pinpoint,
but his clothes suggested he was killed that morning.
- He was dressed in a suit.
Had a kind of a light yellow shirt on,
but no tie.
- Sounds like he looked like somebody
who was going to work.
- He-he was going to work.
- While investigators continued to search
every inch of that house,
detectives were trying to find out what Rebecca knew.
The questions I have, a couple of them
might maybe seem a little unnecessary or even invasive.
- She talked about the good times
with her late husband.
- How long have you guys been married?
- We actually got married in 2010,
but we've been together since 1996.
Took me a while.
- And mentioned a past failed marriage.
- I got burned.
We were married 10 years and when that didn't work out,
it was kind of like, wow, you know?
But then Schwartz is awesome.
He's 20 years older than me,
but, um, he kind of grounds me.
My best bud, you know.
That's the way he referred to me.
We were best friends. We did everything--
- She was, for the most part, calm
as she answered questions
about her whereabouts that day.
- What I'm trying to do now is
just establish everybody's routine for the day.
- Rebecca repeated what she said on her 9-1-1 call,
that when she left the house around 8:30,
Steven was still in bed, reading the paper.
She added, he was scheduled to start his hospital rounds
later that morning.
Her day started with errands.
- She said she also went to the cleaners
and the gas station before heading to work.
- And she was able to provide receipts
from every place where she went.
- I probably left around 6:00ish.
- After work, Rebecca hosted a birthday party
for their good friend and handyman,
a guy named Leo Stragaj.
- I stopped at Total Wine and got a birthday gift,
you know, for Leo.
- She said she didn't really worry
when her husband was a no-show at the party.
- Did you just assume he got busy, got tied up?
- If he's able to, he'll call me right then.
If he's with a patient or whatever the thing is,
you know, if he's busy. - Mm-hmm, yeah.
- On the phone, whatever it is,
he kind of forgets about me and doesn't call me back.
- Yeah. - And I-I mean,
it happens more times probably than not.
- She seemed to be looking forward to the future
and a long vacation they were planning.
- The doctor certainly could have retired.
Between his booming practice
and dozens of rental homes he owned,
Steven Schwartz was worth millions.
So it was no surprise
he had an elaborate security system.
Back at the house, that was one of the first things
investigators noticed.
- Of course, you can see the surveillance cameras
on-on all corners of the house.
- And you noticed that immediately?
- Oh, absolutely.
- You're thinking optimistically,
like, okay, we should have video.
This should help us-- - Right.
- ...kind of bring this to a close pretty quickly.
- Yes.
- So you all start to search the house,
looking for the footage. What do you find?
- Well, the DVR was-was missing.
- The DVR that connected to the security system,
so no video at all.
A setback, certainly, but also a clue,
because that video recording equipment
was hidden away in a small closet
above the garage.
What does that tell you?
- It's an inside job. - Mmm!
- Someone within the family, known to the family,
that's been to the house before,
knew where that monitor, knew where the DVR was.
- And knew their dogs.
Rebecca said they'd been closed inside the bedroom all day.
The same bedroom where the burglary happened.
- The supposed burglars went into the room
where the two very large dogs were
and had no issues with these dogs.
One of them was a Brazilian Mastiff,
over 100 pounds.
I mean, these are not...
- Big dog. - ...friendly dogs
to people who don't know them.
- And when Detective Diebel looked around the bedroom,
he thought something else was off.
- There was several drawers in the bedroom
that were pulled out,
but it didn't look like anything had been
gone through in these drawers.
And the drawers were pulled out evenly.
And then the boxes, there's some jewelry boxes,
watch b-boxes laying in the floor
of the master closet.
And it just looked like someone just dropped them.
The crime scene looks staged to make it look like a--
Like a burglary gone bad.
- The police told Rebecca their theory
that the killer wasn't a stranger,
but someone who knew the family
and the house quite well.
- I'm saying someone that, you know,
that that dog knows came in that house today.
They came in for a reason, to possibly take some stuff,
and then something else happened.
You understand what I'm saying?
That's-that's what we're trying
to find out here today.
- Investigators were looking for someone close to the family
and someone who had spent a lot of time at the house.
It sounds like his fingerprints are
literally all over the crime scene.
- Right.
-
- De
- Dete
- Detect
- Detectiv
- Detectives
- Detectives w
- Detectives wer
- Detectives were
ju
- Detectives were just
- Detectives were just a
- Detectives were just a f
- Detectives were just a few
- Detectives were just a few d
- Detectives were just a few day
- Detectives were just a few days
into the murder investigation of Dr. Steven Schwartz
when they caught their first big break.
A match on some of the fingerprints
they'd found at the crime scene.
They belonged to Rebecca's oldest son,
33-year-old Eric Nichols,
whose prints were on file
because he had previously been arrested
for driving with a suspended license.
Eric lived near Portage, Wisconsin,
owned a Verizon store there.
He was married with a baby on the way.
- His fingerprints come back to the areas
that were processed by the crime scene technicians.
- Including a door to the garage
close to Steven Schwartz's body.
The door appeared to have been forced open.
- His prints were there.
His prints were upstairs in the monitor
where the DVR was.
And also his prints were on some of the jewelry boxes
in his-- in the master bedroom.
- So the forensic evidence comes back--
- And points right at him as being
the number one suspect now.
So I get a team of detectives
and we go up to Wisconsin to interview Eric.
We walked into the store, we did this unannounced.
- That was almost two months before the murder.
And Eric said he hadn't been to Florida since.
Did you confront him and say,
sir, we have your fingerprints
all over this crime scene? - I did ask him, um,
would you find fingerprints in the monitor room?
And he goes, Yeah, you might,
because I-I've been up there before,
so my prints could be there.
Could they be on the door?
Well, I did take out the trash back in April.
My-my fingerprints could be there.
I said, what about on your mom's jewelry box?
- No, absolutely not. - Hmm...
- My prints should not be there.
So I'm thinking, well, yeah, well, they are.
- They are. - So we were gonna
maybe do a second interview,
but we started, uh, doing our background.
He had gone to the doctor's with his wife.
She was pregnant at the time.
And we were able to give him an alibi
through the doctor and through video
that showed his coming and goings
at the, uh, Verizon store
both the day before and the day of the homicide.
- So he was absolutely in Wisconsin.
- He was in Wisconsin.
- Does that kind of take the wind out
of your investigative sails?
- It does, it does.
But you just keep plugging away,
just following up on leads.
- It was a setback.
But what struck me about Detective John Diebel
was how quickly he reset.
He didn't dwell on frustration
or try to force a theory.
He simply moved on.
The best investigators have determination
and are able to withstand as many curveballs
as the evidence will throw at them.
And in this case, there would be many.
- Over the course of those kinda first few days
after the doctor's murder,
ballpark, how many people would you say
that you interviewed?
- We talked to, I don't know, had to be
at least 50 people.
Co-workers, you know,
other family members, neighbors.
- And they talked to Rebecca's other son,
28-year-old Ben Nichols,
who lived in Florida near his mom and stepdad.
- Who would wanna hurt this guy?
- Nobody, man, nobody.
- He didn't have any enemies?
- This guy, I mean, he wouldn't hurt anybody.
You know what I mean? He's a good doctor.
He's a good man, good husband.
- Ben worked on some of the Schwartz's properties
and had a landscaping business.
But Detective Diebel had learned
something else about him.
- He had actually broken into a previous residence
of Dr. Schwartz.
- About five years before the murder,
he stole his mother's jewelry and Steven's watches,
then pawned them.
- You orchestrated some kind of a burglary
at your mom's house?
- Yeah, I was-I was all ----ed up on pills, man.
- So he had actually broke into the house
to steal-steal items to support his drug habit.
Um, but not for the last couple years.
He seemed to be doing better.
- He kind of straightened himself out.
- Straightened himself out, yeah.
- Did you get any time for that,
or probation or did they do drug court or--?
- Oh yeah, man. I, uh, went to a drug program.
I was on probation.
- And it seemed Steven had always embraced him.
- I've been in a lot of trouble
and the guy has never raised his voice
at me one time.
I've never heard him raise his voice to my mom.
I've never heard him raise his voice, period.
- Ben said on the morning of the murder
he was laying flooring in another county.
So you were telling me that you left your house
at approximately, you said, between 7:30 and 8:30 AM?
- Yeah. - Okay.
And you were in Pasco county
at your wife's brother's house? - Wife's brother's house, yeah.
- In the afternoon, he worked on his landscaping business.
- He was pretty forthright in the information that he gave.
He also had a receipt of where he rented
some lawn equipment for the day.
- They spoke to people who worked with him
and confirmed his story.
And at the crime scene, his prints
were nowhere to be found.
Did you ever rule him out completely?
- No, no, there's always ways around.
Because we can never tell
when the doctor actually died.
- So he was still on your radar.
- Right.
- Police learned a lot about Ben and Eric
and how close they were to their mom, Rebecca.
- I knew Eric and Ben much better than I knew Carter,
uh, because they were in the clinic more often.
When we would go and, you know,
have happy hour or something like that,
Eric and Becky were very close.
Very close.
- But Ben's problems often put him on the outs.
- We'd go through these kind of phases
where he was sort of ostracized.
- Mmm! - And after a period of time,
you know, he'd be back around.
- But if Rebecca was conflicted about her youngest son,
the same could not be said about another man in her life.
A kind of surrogate son.
- You became close with the Schwartzes pretty quickly.
- Yeah, very, very close.
-
- Po
- Poli
- Police
- Police w
- Police wer
- Police were
co
- Police were conv
- Police were convin
- Police were convince
- Police were convinced
- Police were convinced th
- Police were convinced the
- Police were convinced the ki
- Police were convinced the kill
- Police were convinced the killer
was someone close to Steven and Rebecca.
They had looked at Rebecca's two sons,
and they soon learned about another man
who was close to her
and knew the family and the house well.
Leo Stragaj.
How did Leo come to be on your radar
in the sense of someone to talk to?
- Well, he had been in the house several times.
Um, he worked with them,
um, so he was well known to both
R-Rebecca and Dr. Schwartz.
- The handyman.
- He didn't like to be called that, but yeah.
- What did he like to be called?
- Well, he-- Because we referred to him as handyman,
and he would tell me, I'm not a handyman.
He does construction.
The house that-that,
uh, Dr. Schwartz and Rebecca lived in,
he had helped remodel. - Mm-hmm.
- And they had, like, 30 other properties
that he would maintain
and remodel and-and take care of.
- It had been a long journey
from Leo's home country of Albania
to Tarpon Springs, Florida.
- How did you come to live in Florida?
- Well, I left my country when I was a little kid.
I was, uh, 14 years old when I left.
I went to Greece.
Then I went all over Europe, a little bit in Canada.
Then in the beginning of 2000, I was in Detroit.
- He lived there with his cousin.
One cold winter day, he decided he was ready
to see a warmer part of America.
- I tell him, man, I just bought a convertible car.
Let's drive to Florida.
And soon as I reached that bridge in Tampa Bay,
I told my cousin, listen, I want to live in Florida.
I'm never, never going back to Michigan.
- Leo started working, odd jobs at first,
then remodeling houses,
and eventually Rebecca Schwartz hired him
to help maintain their many rental homes.
- Tell me your first impressions of Rebecca.
What did you first think of her when you met her?
- She's a great lady.
Uh, very wild.
- Wild? - Yeah, very wild.
Like, uh, okay, let's do this now.
We'll buy 30 houses in one week.
We'll-- - So very spontaneous.
- Yes, let's do this. Let's grow the business.
- Rebecca was also generous.
She bought Leo and his wife a house and a truck.
- She started calling me son or, like,
I would go to every occasion party
or, you know, they had.
- So you all-- You became close
with the Schwartzes pretty quickly?
- Yeah, very, very close.
- Leo's journey sounded
like a classic American success story.
Here's an immigrant who came here for a better life.
He worked hard,
literally built a business with his hands
and created a life for his family.
But it was interesting hearing him talk about
his strong relationship
with the doctor and Rebecca Schwartz.
All the gifts, all the closeness, the trust.
Does it come at a cost?
When someone gives you everything,
how hard is it to escape the feeling
that you owe them everything in return?
Whatever the label,
handyman, contractor, surrogate son.
- Yeah, just have a seat right there.
- About two weeks after the murder, Detective Diebel
asked Leo to come in for a chat.
- How long have you known the-the Schwartzes?
- Four years? All right.
- How'd you get to-to know them?
- Leo said he wanted to help police
any way he could.
- He was very friendly, very cooperative,
wouldn't hold anything back.
- Who do you think is involved?
Who do you think did it?
- Like the detectives, Leo thought it had to be
someone close to Dr. Schwartz.
- And whoever did this needs to be arrested
and put in jail for the rest of their life.
Wouldn't you say so?
- Yeah.
- No.
- Right.
- And Leo said he would never harm the doctor.
- And I heard that he really liked you a lot.
He goes, he liked you, respected you
because you were a hard worker.
- Mm-hmm.
- Yeah, he was a very giving and-and kind guy.
- They asked Leo the same question
they'd asked everyone.
Where was he on the day of the murder?
At home, Leo said, then at a work site.
- And what time did you get there that day?
- And so he said that he was working
on a house all day. - Right.
- And was nowhere near
the Schwartz home. - Right.
- And that night he was the birthday boy
at that party Rebecca hosted for him.
He turned 37.
- They got a little birthday cake,
uh, they brought some gifts.
- Just your basic birthday dinner.
- Yeah, just simple.
- And now just, you know?
- Police were able to verify his story.
Leo answered their questions and gave a DNA sample.
As you talked to him,
did he seem to wonder why he was there?
- No, no, he just-- he goes,
just know that we're doing our job,
talking to everybody in-involved.
- Investigators were hitting a wall.
Months went by with few answers.
Then, new information came out.
It would change everything they thought they knew
about the doctor.
- What he did, it-it-it was horrific.
- Was Dr. Schwartz's murder payback for something
that happened decades before?
- There was a very big secret that your dad had.
- Yes.
-
- Se
- Seve
- Seven
- Seven mo
- Seven mont
- Seven months
af
- Seven months afte
- Seven months after
- Seven months after th
- Seven months after the
- Seven months after the mu
- Seven months after the murd
- Seven months after the murder
- Seven months after the murder,
Helen Como was reading the newspaper
when she saw a jaw-dropping headline
about her boss, Dr. Schwartz.
- After he was murdered, a story broke in the papers
that totally stunned me.
- Shocking doesn't even begin to describe it.
- The article focused on a different murder,
50 years earlier in Hobbs, New Mexico.
Home to a remarkable sculpture
dedicated to people who served in the military.
People like Victor Cook, a local dentist
who served in the army in World War II.
James Cecil knew him well.
- In your 93 years, Mr. Cecil,
you've seen a lot of things.
- I've seen a whole lot.
- But what happened to Dr. Cook,
will you ever forget that?
- Oh, no, I'll never forget it.
It's-it's just been sort of part of my life.
- He went to Baylor.
- Susan Nutting is Dr. Cook's niece.
- This is his dental class? - Yes.
- Yes, he's right here. - Oh, my goodness.
Uncle Doc, right there. - Yeah.
- Susan says her uncle was a generous man
and known to carry a lot of cash.
- If someone needed some money,
he'd give it to him.
But he'd pull out this money.
- He would pull it out
and anyone who was standing around
could see it's a lot of money he's got there.
- Mm-hmm.
- Someone had their eyes on that money.
It was November 21st, 1961.
In the middle of the day, a 21 year old college student
walked into the doctor's office.
He was carrying a .25 caliber Beretta.
- And that's when Uncle Doc turned around
and he saw this gun on him.
And he told him, put that thing away and go home.
- Cook told him, he says, I'm not giving you my money.
He pushed him back and said, turn around.
He said, no, I'm not turning around.
- And my uncle evidently told him,
He said, no, I wanna be facing you
when you shoot me.
- And they got in a scuffle,
and the gun went off, and it hit him.
The blood was coming out of his head.
- Uncle Doc fell.
The shooter pushed him under his desk.
- And then he took his billfold
and left out the back door.
- Dr. Cook was dead, robbed of $400.
Who killed Dr. Cook? What was his name?
- Steven Schwartz.
- We found out it was a man named Steven Schwartz.
- Steven Schwartz was a murderer.
That was a twist I never saw coming.
Here's a man known for literally giving money away,
yet decades earlier,
he'd ended a person's life for a few dollars.
He confessed, but it was never clear
why he needed that money.
It made me think a lot about redemption.
Who deserves a second chance?
It's certainly not universal.
Dr. Schwartz turned his life around,
and I wondered if, given the opportunity,
would more people make a similar change?
- He's sentenced to life in prison,
but a decade later, 1971,
he's released on parole.
- What did you think? - Well, how could this be?
How could he already be out?
Who came up with this idea, you know?
- For reasons unknown, the governor of New Mexico
granted Steven Schwartz a full pardon.
He moved to Italy, earned his medical degree,
then came back to the U.S. to start his practice.
Helen Como had always wondered about that career path.
- I would read the degrees that were on his office wall,
and I was kind of curious as to
why he became a doctor so late in life.
- He even kept his own son in the dark.
- There was a very big secret that your dad had.
- Yes.
- And now you're faced with learning this.
- I am. I remember the phone call.
My mother told me about it.
And it's going to come out, and you're going to find out.
Y-y-you know, he did what he did.
He never talked to me about it.
- This is your dad,
loving, generous, loving you.
But on the other hand, he's a murderer.
How do you wrap your mind around
those two things as a son?
[sighs] - Uh, it's difficult.
It's something that I wish
him and I could have talked about,
but I don't think it was in his nature.
- When news of Dr. Schwartz's murder
made its way back to Susan Nutting,
she didn't know how to feel about the fact
that her uncle's killer met the same fate.
- Talk about karma.
I hope he had become a good person.
So I don't want to say, uh,
I'm glad he was murdered.
I don't want to say that.
I don't-I don't feel that.
- But still, you look at that.
- Yeah.
- And you feel that that's karma.
- Yeah, they say
what goes around comes around sometimes.
[chuckles]
- Now people began to wonder,
was Dr. Schwartz's murder an act of revenge
for a decades old crime?
- There had been something floated that,
oh, this is-this is connected to his New Mexico thing
from when he was a young man.
- As soon as I heard that,
it's like all the bells went off.
It was like that is it.
- It was-it was rather shocking.
- Mmm... - Because to know
that he committed a-a murder,
did not seem to be in his character.
- You know, with your investigative hat on,
you hear this, that he committed a murder years ago.
Are you thinking maybe this is
in some way connected?
Maybe it's someone coming back to seek retribution.
- Right.
I pretty much ruled that out right away.
What, had it been, like, 50 years ago?
So it had been a long time ago.
His character now was unapproached.
You know, it was impeccable.
- Almost like this was a completely different man
from back then. - Yeah.
Definitely somebody turned their life around.
- Once investigators were sure there was no connection
to that decades old crime,
the search for a killer continued.
They interviewed dozens of people
and were eventually able to clear
Rebecca's son Ben.
And fortunately, they had taken DNA
from everyone they could think of.
Fortunate because a lab tech spotted
something in a crime scene photo
that seemed at first kind of innocuous.
- Well, he noticed that the doctor's shirt
he was wearing, that was crumpled around...
- Mmm... - Around the chest area.
- As if someone had grabbed it.
He goes, let's do some touch DNA in there
and see what we come up with.
- They also swabbed his pants pocket
where Steven usually carried a wad of cash.
Almost a year after the murder,
those DNA results came back.
They got a match.
It wasn't perfect,
but it was awfully close to one person.
That person was Leo Stragaj.
- His touch DNA was on the shirt
and on that right pocket.
- Leo. - Sorry, it's-it's come to this, Leo.
- They arrested Leo, and he swore,
insisted he was innocent.
- I've been ----ing framed.
Somehow I've been framed. I don't know how.
You guys are supposed to figure it out.
- Mm-hmm, well, we believe we did figure it out.
- We found your DNA. - Okay.
- On part of the crime scene that you had to be there
and touch that area
and have been involved with this doctor's death.
Okay, Leo? - There's no freaking way
it's my DNA in his body.
There is no way in hell my DNA will be in his body.
- This went on for an hour and a half.
They took a break and when they came back,
Leo had a new story to tell.
And the star of that story was his dear friend Rebecca.
- She came to my house that day, early in the morning.
- Leo said it was the day of the murder.
- What time? Do you remember?
- Well, I don't know. It was 6:30, 7:00.
I don't know. It was very early.
She said, uh, I need you to do me a favor.
- She said, I need you to do me a favor?
- Yes, she said, uh, I had an argument with Steven,
and I left my bag over there.
I need to go to pick up my bag, please.
- Leo said he did as he was asked,
but when he got to the house,
he found Dr. Schwartz lying in a pool of blood.
- When I see his face, I saw blood
and grabbed and shaked him, okay?
I saw more blood and...
- Why did you grab onto him?
- Just to see if he's okay.
I mean, Jesus Christ.
He's Dr. Schwartz,
he was my doctor for years and years and years,
and he was the best man I know.
He was the best man I know.
- You didn't go, uh, touch anything else on his person,
go into any of his pockets or anything?
- No, no, hell, no,
I wouldn't go into his pockets.
- Then Leo said he saw a leather bag
on the kitchen counter, and what he found inside
brought everything into focus.
- I just pulled in and started screaming right away,
cussing out, what the hell did you do?
Why-why did you kill Dr. Schwartz?
-
- Le
- Leo
- Leo St
- Leo Stra
- Leo Straga
- Leo Stragaj
- Leo Stragaj to
- Leo Stragaj told
- Leo Stragaj told p
- Leo Stragaj told pol
- Leo Stragaj told polic
- Leo Stragaj told police
he found Dr. Schwartz's bloody body lying
at the bottom of the stairs.
He tried to shake him awake.
Soon after, Leo said,
he spotted Rebecca's bag in the kitchen.
- Open it up.
See some jewelry boxes in the end, and a knife.
- Knife? - Yeah, was a knife in there?
- At that time, did you think Rebecca
was involved in something?
- Of course. - Why did you think that?
- Because she sent me purposely.
- Mm-hmm. - She sent me right there.
- He said he grabbed the bag and sped back to Rebecca.
- I just pulled in and started screaming right away,
cussing out. Why did you do this?
Why you put me through this? What the hell did you do?
Why-why did you kill Dr. Schwartz?
- What is she saying? Is she just looking at you?
- At first, saying nothing, and then she started like,
"You know why I did it," you know,
and started screaming, and I'm--
- She said, "You know why I did it?"
- Yeah, "You know why I did it."
- Leo said he didn't call the police
because he was afraid of being deported.
Plus, Rebecca owed him tens of thousands of dollars
from an investment they'd made together.
- And she said, "If you say a word,
"you're never gonna see house, money, or nothing."
I'm thinking also, immigration told me,
any involvement with the police,
we're gonna deport you right away.
- This interview was a chance not only to hear Leo's story,
but also to get a glimpse into his mindset.
And as he explained why he didn't call 9-1-1 that day,
I realized fear of deportation and losing his livelihood
could certainly be powerful motivators.
But as a journalist, any time I sit down
with someone accused of being involved in a murder,
I come prepared with tough questions,
ready to press them, not take answers at face value.
- The biggest mistake all my life
is not calling the police that day.
- Did you go to any other parts of the house?
- No. I didn't, no. Not-not one step.
- Leo said his day got even worse,
ending at that birthday party that night,
hosted by Rebecca.
You were sitting there at that dinner,
and you knew that a person that you loved,
that had given you and your family an opportunity,
was lying dead at the bottom of stairs,
and you still pushed through that celebration.
How did you sit through that? - It was--
- How could you-- - Yeah, it was painful.
It was really painful. - How was she acting that night?
- She was tipsy. She was loose, like always.
- Did she seem stressed, upset? - Not at all.
And this-this is the last time I ever saw her again.
- During your interrogation, police asked you if you had
any knowledge of the murder, if you had been there.
And you swore on your mother's life
you weren't at the house.
You swore on your child's life that you knew nothing about it,
and that was not true. That was a lie.
- Well, I know that.
- Are you telling me the truth right now?
- I am. I am telling the truth.
Now, I have no reason to lie about it.
You didn't force me to give this interview.
Nobody forced me.
- I want to ask you directly, Leo.
Did you kill Dr. Steven Schwartz?
- Actually, no.
- Did you have anything to do with
trying to cover up his murder?
- No. The only thing, like I said,
grabbed that bag and didn't call the police.
That was the only thing I had to do with that murder.
- Police still didn't think Leo was telling them everything.
Maybe Rebecca had shot her husband,
but they believed he was involved,
that he had staged the burglary
because Rebecca had threatened to cut him off financially.
- Wasn't worried about the doctor
he supposedly loved and cared for.
He was worried about getting his money.
- And you think that was his motivation?
- That's his motivation
for the actual committing the murder.
I think he went there thinking
that the doctor was already dead.
But when he got there, the doctor did see him.
Now he's got to cover his tracks.
He can't let the doctor live.
- Diebel also thought Leo was the one who delivered
that fatal slash to the doctor's neck.
They charged him with first degree murder.
After they were done with Leo,
police let his wife come into the room.
- Okay, you need right now-- - I didn't kill him.
- Right now-- I know you didn't kill him.
I know you did not kill him. That I know.
[indistinct sobbing]
Did they made you clean up? Did she had something on you?
Tell me the truth, honey.
Honey. Honey, tell me.
Did she made you clean up or something?
You need to tell me the truth.
- She, of course, is Rebecca.
And as it turned out, since the very beginning,
Rebecca had been at the top
of nearly everyone's suspect list.
- I think that she's the one with means, motive,
and opportunity to have done this.
♪
♪♪
- For Carter Schwartz,
it's impossible to look at this stunning house
and feel anything but sadness.
- You know, obviously, knowing what happened there
makes it difficult to come back.
- On the Anclote River, in front of his dad's old home,
Carter talked about his father's murder
and the man accused of killing him, Leo Stragaj.
You said that you believe that police partially got it right.
- In that he was involved somewhat.
I'm not saying he was without blame
in any of this. - Mm-hmm.
- But certainly the lion's share of blame
and the actual act itself of taking my father's life,
I don't think rests on Leo's shoulders.
- Carter believes someone else either killed his dad,
orchestrated the murder, or both.
That person, he says, was his stepmother, Rebecca.
- I think that she's the one with means, motive,
and opportunity to have done this.
- In Carter's mind, it came down to one reason: money.
Rebecca knew she would inherit every dime
of her husband's millions.
- She got so greedy and so sure of herself
that she was taking just immense sums of money.
And I think my father had finally gotten wise to it.
I think that he was finally fed up
with being played for the fool.
- He says Rebecca was secretly spending a fortune
on her two sons, Ben and Eric,
paying for their lavish weddings and buying them homes
worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
- She was telling my father, "Oh, they got a mortgage.
"They got all this. They got this."
And I remember my father's comment was,
"They couldn't have a mortgage.
"They don't have two nickels to rub together."
- So about a year before his dad's death,
Carter and his wife did their own investigation.
- We had gone to the online property appraiser,
which is all public record, and we typed in the addresses,
and sure enough, they were in her children's name
with no mortgage and free and clear titles.
And I-- we showed my dad that.
- You've got literal receipts showing him this?
- Yes. And then that's when he says,
"I have business to take care of at home."
Never told me what he did about it.
Never told me anything.
- Carter pleaded with his dad to get a financial expert
and figure out what was going on.
He refused to hire a forensic accountant.
He said, "I'm not throwing good money after bad."
- So he said, why waste the time trying to chase it down?
- Right. And at this point, it's very clear
he knows something is going on.
I told him, I said, "Dad, you gotta leave."
He didn't give me an answer one way or another.
- So you told him, you gotta divorce this woman?
- Yeah.
- Detective Diebel discovered that,
along with buying her sons' homes
and paying for their weddings, Rebecca had given her sons
hundreds of thousands of dollars more
to start their own businesses.
- There was a lot of moving of money around of the doctor's.
Not to Carter, to the-- Rebecca's two sons.
- When you say moving money, what do you mean?
- Kind of under the radar. Without the doctor's knowledge.
She funded a Verizon cell phone shop
in Portage, Wisconsin, for her first son,
a brewery for Ben,
and some other businesses that had failed.
- It was a stark contrast to how Carter says
Rebecca treated him over the years.
Between the two of you, there was never
loving stepmother vibes. - No. Never.
- After his father's murder,
Carter says Rebecca cut him off financially.
Like when he asked for some help to pay for med school.
- I had gotten the acceptance letter
to med school the day he died.
And you have whatever it was, 10 days, two weeks, something,
to go down and give them a check to hold your spot.
$1,500.
I sent her a text, and I said, "Hey, I need a deposit.
"Can you help me?"
And the reply back was, "You need to get a job.
"I don't know what we're doing."
- So she refused to give you the money?
Refused to give me $1,500 to hold my spot at med school.
- This is terrible, but she'd always refer to Carter
as the bastard, and she'd come--
- The bastard? - The bastard.
- There was a time when Kyle Smithee
liked Rebecca Schwartz.
But as the years went by, his opinion changed
as he watched her verbally attack Steven's son
and then Steven himself in the worst possible way.
One of her kind of go to lines was always,
"I could just kill him. I could just kill him."
- What was she mad about?
It could be anything from, you know,
having handed out money to patients
to, you know, having written
a small check to Carter.
- That's why on the very night the doctor was murdered,
Kyle believed Rebecca was involved.
- I call and she answers, and she sounds tired.
I said, "Becky, what's-- what's going on?"
And she says, "Well, they can't confirm it's him.
"They won't let me in the house.
"But we know it's him."
- Kyle had an immediate sinking feeling.
- She finally did it.
- Helen Como also wasn't surprised.
She thought, at times, Rebecca could be evil.
- I didn't even so much as think,
gosh, did a burglar break in?
Nothing else came to mind other than Becky.
- It's something Detective Diebel heard
over and over again.
- Just confirmed my suspicions all the more.
She's involved in this murder. She murdered him.
- But suspicions are not evidence.
- Tried everything that I could.
Had more witnesses come forward, but nothing was enough.
It was a lot of hearsay,
nothing that I could bring it forward
to the state attorney for prosecution.
- The biggest issue was Leo.
Even though he had implicated Rebecca,
police didn't think he would be a strong witness.
- He's not credible.
He's not a credible witness because he lied so much.
- Carter and his family were convinced
Rebecca was getting away with murder.
So they took the only step they felt they could
and filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit against her.
Have you ever worked on a case quite like this?
- Uh, this one takes the cake.
- In 2015, the year after the murder,
Will Florin and Tommy Roebig agreed to represent the family.
Police had investigated this and said
there's not enough to bring criminal charges against her.
What made you think that you could win
in a court of law?
- We worked hard on the case.
We worked the details of the case.
I think we came to the conclusion she murdered him
and we could prove it.
- How does she, in your telling,
become someone who kills her husband?
- Greed, selfishness, narcissism.
That's how.
- They would spend years building a case against Rebecca.
Meanwhile, she had built a new life
with new friends and a new profession.
What kind of doctor did she tell you she was?
- Nephrologist.
-
- Wh
- Whil
- While
- While Le
- While Leo
- While Leo St
- While Leo Stra
- While Leo Straga
- While Leo Stragaj
sa
- While Leo Stragaj sat
- While Leo Stragaj sat in
- While Leo Stragaj sat in j
- While Leo Stragaj sat in jai
- While Leo Stragaj sat in jail,
Rebecca Schwartz had already left Florida
for a fresh start in Lodi, Wisconsin.
A small town flanked by farms and picturesque fields.
A great choice if you need to just get away.
Maybe that's what Rebecca was thinking when
she moved there a few months after the murder.
What was her personality like?
- She seemed very bubbly,
and she seemed, um, genuine and concerned.
You know, thoughtful.
- Sue Mashak first met Rebecca at her son's home.
She said, "Well, I had to get out of Florida."
She said, "After my husband was murdered,
"all the docs were asking me to cover their shifts
"at the hospital, and I just couldn't take it anymore."
- Rebecca told her and others she was a doctor,
had been for decades.
So she says this, and you know nothing about her,
nothing about her background?
- No, and I believed what I was being told.
You know, that's what she said.
- What kind of doctor did she tell you she was?
- Nephrologist.
- A kidney doctor, just like Steven.
She wasn't, of course,
but Sue believed her and was impressed.
It wasn't long before Rebecca became close
to her entire family,
including her son and daughter in law.
You're around your son, his family for a while.
Did you think that she was getting too close too fast
to your son and his family?
- Yes, I did after a while. Yes.
- All her fears came to a head one day
at her grandson's football game.
She spotted Rebecca and her son Aron alone.
- I turned around to say something,
and she was consoling him, holding his hand
and looking up at him, and just...
it was something that I knew was kind of over the top.
- You see them together at the game.
You're thinking, that's not right.
Your mama's radar was going off about Rebecca.
- Right. - Did that just make it
sound even louder? - Oh, yes, for sure.
- And this mama's intuition was spot on.
Ten months later, Aron told his mom
he was divorcing his wife.
And it wasn't long before Aron revealed
he was in love with Rebecca.
Rebecca is 15 years older than Aron.
As a mom, how did that age gap hit you?
- Oh, I didn't think it would be a-a good thing by any means.
- Then came 2018, two years later.
The couple invited Aron's parents
to a Cinco de Mayo party, supposedly.
- They came walking out, and she had a very fancy full dress on
and he had, like, a tux suit on.
I thought, wait a minute,
this is not a Cinco de Mayo, you know?
And they got married.
- A new tag!
- Here are the happy newlyweds.
- It's perfect.
- You like it? - I love it.
- And the surprises kept coming.
The family initially thought Rebecca had only been married
once before to Dr. Schwartz.
Aron later told his mom he found out Rebecca
had actually had three previous husbands.
- And she said, "Well, I was just so embarrassed.
"I didn't want to have to tell you that."
- Life was good for the couple.
With the help of Rebecca's money,
they lived in a beautiful home on Lake Wisconsin,
bought a small plane, and went on exotic vacations,
like a trip the entire family, including Sue, took to Alaska.
First class, of course.
- We're in the air and they're announcing
that they need a nurse or a doctor.
Could they please come back to coach?
- There was a medical emergency. - A medical emergency.
And I looked over at her,
and she just kept sitting there, you know?
After about the third time that I'm looking over at her,
she gets up and goes to the back,
and she's treating somebody back there.
- Treating someone? - Treating someone.
- The passenger was fine.
It wasn't a medical emergency after all.
Eventually, though, the truth caught up with Rebecca.
- I had a friend who was considering going into dialysis
because he was in kidney failure.
- So Sue asked Rebecca to give that friend medical advice.
- And after about five minutes, I discovered
I knew more about kidneys than she did.
- It became apparent very quickly that she did not
have a medical degree or a specialty in kidneys.
- Her son is the one that finally let that out of the bag.
He said, "Mom's no doctor," you know?
And I thought, "Oh, really?"
Even after learning the truth, Aron said stayed with her.
That is, until the letter was delivered.
How did you hear about the letter?
[laughs] - All my neighbors.
People were coming and, uh, telling us.
- I'm just curious, how did they even describe the letter?
- Frightening. The one says,
"I don't know if I should read it or burn it."
She said, "I don't know what to do with this thing."
About five years into their marriage,
the couple's relationship blew up.
Rebecca caught Aron cheating.
That's when she wrote a blistering two page letter,
seemingly to everyone.
- She went to the neighbors
and taped it onto their garage doors and such.
All the neighbors in their neighborhood.
- Included in the packet: her petition for divorce,
graphic sexual details,
and a picture of her husband's alleged lover.
Plus plenty of unkind words like these.
So this letter just took things to a whole different level.
First, it was unlike anything I've ever seen,
and it was very vulgar.
In fact, my producer, Rob Buchanan, and I struggled
to find a section that we could even put on TV.
But it was also a very telling glimpse
into Rebecca's personality, her willingness to expose
and humiliate her husband so publicly.
It raised questions about control
and how far Rebecca was willing to retaliate
to destroy another person's reputation.
The letter landed in mailboxes all over town.
- We counted here at least 60-some people
that she sent that letter to.
- What did you think when you read that?
- I thought, she's flipping crazy.
- Aron told us Rebecca closed him
out of their joint bank accounts,
transferred ownership of their multiple homes to her sons,
and then locked him out.
When we spoke, Aron was living with his mother.
- I want people to know that
there are people like her in this world.
I would have never, ever in my life
thought I'd run into somebody that could be
this devastating to the family.
It wasn't long after those divorce papers were filed
that the phone rang at Florin and Roebig.
You get a phone call completely out of the blue.
- Unexpected. Out of the blue.
- Who was it? - Aron Mashak.
- Rebecca's husband said he was ready to turn the tables
on his soon to be ex wife,
and he was willing to testify against her at trial.
But before that could happen,
Rebecca would find herself in the hot seat.
- Ms. Schwartz, will you please raise your right hand?
-
- Lo
- Long
- Long b
- Long bef
- Long befor
- Long before
Re
- Long before Rebe
- Long before Rebecc
- Long before Rebecca'
- Long before Rebecca's
- Long before Rebecca's cu
- Long before Rebecca's cush
- Long before Rebecca's cushy
- Long before Rebecca's cushy ne
- Long before Rebecca's cushy new
- Long before Rebecca's cushy new li
- Long before Rebecca's cushy new life
with her younger husband went up in flames in Wisconsin,
something was happening in Florida.
Attorneys Will Florin and Tommy Roebig
had been building a case against her.
A legal battle that would take years.
Their goal? Claw back every dollar
of the doctor's vast wealth that Rebecca now controlled.
What was his net worth after he died?
- North of $30 million.
- Madam Court Reporter,
if you could please swear in the deponent.
- Raise your right hand.
- Because this was a civil case,
Rebecca had to sit for a deposition.
- Tell us your name, please. - Rebecca Schwartz.
- So in 2016, for the first time,
she faced the Schwartz family attorneys.
- You were present, were you not, in the home
at the time of Dr. Schwartz's murder
and took part in the murder of Dr. Schwartz?
Did you not?
- I reassert my rights under Article 1, Section 9
of the Florida Constitution.
- Only she didn't answer any of their questions.
She just took the 5th. - Over and over and over again.
- Even so, it gave Florin the chance to ask Rebecca this.
- You have been convicted, um, of a felony,
have you not?
- I reassert my rights under Article 1, Section 9
of the Florida Constitution.
- Rebecca was a convicted felon.
- In the early '90s, she went to work
for Mothers Against Drunk Driving
up in North Florida.
And the reason is because she lost a two year old son
to-to a drunk driver.
- After becoming president of that local MADD chapter,
Rebecca embezzled more than $7,000 from the charity.
- She was arrested, pled guilty,
was put on probation for four counts of stealing
from Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
- What type of person steals money
from Mothers Against Drunk Driving?
- Exactly. Someone without conscience,
that doesn't care, that's narcissistic,
and wants whatever they want at all costs.
- As they prepared for trial, attorney Shaun Cummings
spent many hours trying to track down Rebecca's fortune,
money the firm believed she was hiding.
- We always suspected that she was moving the assets
to keep us off the trail.
- She created a number of limited liability companies,
or LLCs,
normally one way to protect assets from lawsuits.
By 2024, seven years after her last deposition,
the attorneys got a judge's order
compelling her to testify.
- It allowed us to force Rebecca Schwartz
to provide testimony about her finances.
- This time, she couldn't claim the 5th.
- Ms. Schwartz, will you please raise your right hand?
- Under oath, Rebecca painted a surprising financial picture.
- What do you estimate your current total
net worth to be?
- Well, let's see, uh...
About $10,000.
- $10,000?
She later added she also had some furniture
and a car worth an additional $15,000.
- When she told me her assets were $10,000,
I mean, I just knew it wasn't true.
I knew that she had millions in property
and boats and condos and businesses.
- Rebecca testified she transferred
almost everything she owned into trusts
that were now controlled by her two sons, Ben and Eric.
She said they gave her an allowance to live.
- They give me $500 a month.
- How do they give you that $500 a month?
- Benjamin hands me $500.
- Her sons were also brought in for depositions.
- This begins video number one
in the deposition of Benjamin Nichols.
- But when asked about the different LLCs
under his control, Ben often gave the same answer.
He didn't know much about them.
- You know, I-I trust you guys, lawyers and stuff like that,
so if you guys put something in front of me, I just sign it.
So I don't know exactly what it is that I'm signing
or why I'm signing. I just--
- But there was one LLC Ben did seem more familiar with.
It was titled GFYCS&AM.
- Who came up with that name for that LLC?
- Uh, my wife and I. - Okay.
And when the two of you came up with it,
did you discuss what GFYCS&AM stands for?
[chuckles]
- Yeah, you want me to say it on record?
- I do. - No, I'm not going to.
- Does it stand for-- does it stand for
Go (BLEEP) yourself Carter Schwartz and Aron Mashak?
- Yes, it does.
- Go F yourself, Carter Schwartz--
- And Aron Mashak, which is the soon to be ex-husband.
Wonders never cease. And at this point,
there's nothing that would be surprising of this family.
- Just the name of that LLC. Are there some pieces of this
that just seem so beyond belief to you?
- I think there's a level of invincibility
and-and hubris
that just exceeds any rational explanation.
- And Rebecca's other son, Eric, said he also didn't know much
about the assets under his control.
- Do you have any documentation or lists
or anything that you keep so that you know
what assets that you own or don't own?
- No.
- I think the purpose of taking assets out of your own name
and moving it to someone else is,
it would make it more difficult, in her mind, at least,
for us to try to get those assets back
and put them where they belong,
which would was with Dr. Schwartz's children.
- While Rebecca's sons supported their mother,
her daughter in law would be a very different story.
- Would it be a fair statement then,
that you've come to the conclusion
that your mother-in-law, Becky, is evil?
- Yes.
- So as all this is happening, I mean, you're digesting this
live in this deposition room.
What are you thinking? - There's my star witness.
-
- On
- Only
- Only o
- Only one
- Only one p
- Only one per
- Only one perso
- Only one person
- Only one person wa
- Only one person was
ev
- Only one person was ever
- Only one person was ever c
- Only one person was ever cri
- Only one person was ever crimi
- Only one person was ever crimina
- Only one person was ever criminall
- Only one person was ever criminally
- Only one person was ever criminally ch
- Only one person was ever criminally char
- Only one person was ever criminally charge
- Only one person was ever criminally charged
in Steven Schwartz's murder, Leo Stragaj.
Six years after his arrest, prosecutors offered him a deal.
He pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact.
- They seen all the evidence and they seen everything.
They knew I was not the guy who killed Dr. Schwartz.
- In 2022, he was released from prison
and deported back to his homeland of Albania.
Did you ever think that you would end up here in Albania
because of what happened in Florida?
- Yeah. I knew I would come back.
I knew I would come back one day.
- This case was unforgettable for so many reasons.
The victim, his backstory, the people I met,
and also the fact that it took me all the way to Albania.
It was a fascinating place
that I never imagined I'd visit for a story.
I believe that sitting face to face with Leo there
in his home country gave me more insight into him,
and what was striking to me,
even though he was thousands of miles away from Florida,
it was very clear that his anger over what had happened there
had not gone away.
How would you describe Rebecca Schwartz today?
- Evil. Evil.
I'll take her life in a heartbeat,
and I won't regret it.
- You say that. You'd admit that?
- She took everything I had.
- If you were face to face with her today--
- I'll take her life in a heartbeat.
I'll say it anywhere.
I'm not afraid.
She destroyed me.
- Whether or not Leo's threat is believable,
he's not allowed to return to the US until 2032.
Back in Florida, the wrongful death civil lawsuit
against Rebecca began in February 2025.
- For me and for our family, this isn't about money.
This is about justice. And unfortunately,
the civil trial was the avenue available to us
despite what we may want.
The trial started off with a win for the defense.
The judge ruled jurors wouldn't hear that Rebecca stole money
from Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Rohom Khonsari is her attorney.
- We did have to litigate that issue at length,
but we were successful in keeping it out.
- The plaintiffs knew they faced other challenges.
What do you need to prove to the jury
to win this civil case?
- Well, obviously, we need to prove that she--
she caused the death of Dr. Steven Schwartz.
- Prove she participated or killed him herself.
If they won, they could seek monetary damages,
potentially stripping Rebecca of everything she owned.
- If you are the murderer,
you cannot profit by that behavior.
- The plaintiff's theory? Rebecca killed her husband
because he was about to end their marriage
and cut her off from his money.
- Dr. Schwartz had made it known
that he was going to divorce her,
and had that happened, she would be destitute.
- One of the witnesses called to testify
was a neighbor of the Schwartz's.
- I was to the left of them.
- April Cox told jurors about an argument she witnessed
a few weeks before the murder.
This is the audio from her deposition.
- Rebecca had given her son Eric money
to open that Verizon store.
The plaintiffs argued it may have been the final straw
for her husband.
- Don't tell him about the Verizon store.
And so conversations must be happening,
obviously behind the scenes, where he is unhappy.
And this is escalating,
and it's a drumbeat, and it's coming,
and then it ends at the bottom of those stairs.
- And while the murder weapons,
a knife and gun, were never found,
Kyle Smithee's deposition was played in court.
And he testified about Rebecca bragging
about knowing how to shoot.
Did she own a gun?
- She told me repeatedly that she owned a gun.
- Did you ever see her gun? - I never saw her gun.
Uh, she specifically referenced that it was
a Saturday night special.
- A Saturday night special, or a small caliber gun,
like the one used to kill Dr. Schwartz.
- We know she had a .22 because she's shown it to people.
She carried it. She bragged about having it.
- They also showed jurors Leo's deposition,
taken while he was in jail.
He stuck to his story that Rebecca had set him up.
- Then came bombshell testimony from Rebecca's fourth husband,
Aron Mashak.
After Rebecca filed for divorce and sent that letter around,
he offered to testify for the plaintiffs.
- One of the statements that she made to me was--
- During his deposition, which jurors saw,
he admitted that he and Rebecca purposely moved assets
to protect them in case she lost this lawsuit.
- What was the purpose behind setting up those LLCs?
- Rebecca wanted to hide, uh, any assets
from the civil case.
- Has Rebecca Mashak, formerly known as Schwartz,
made any statement to you ever regarding
her potential involvement in the death of Dr. Schwartz
and having gotten away with her involvement in that?
- Yes.
- And what did she say to you in that regard?
- She said a couple of different things.
I've gotten away with this before.
I can get away with it again.
Um, that was, I believe, in reference to
the, uh, murder of her prior husband.
- He also said that might have been a reference
to moving assets to keep them from him.
But perhaps the most surprising testimony
came from Rebecca's daughter in law, Dana Nichols,
Ben's wife at the time.
- When Dana testified at the trial
in the courtroom that day, it was electric.
- Her testimony was similar
to what she said in this deposition.
She and Ben worked for Rebecca
and lived in a house she bought for them.
But Dana said her mother-in-law could be vindictive.
Like the time Dana invited the wrong person
to her own baby shower.
- She got mad at my baby shower
because I invited my other mother-in-law,
Ben's stepmom, and she doesn't like her.
And so she fired us
and threatened to take away our house
and our health insurance when I was eight months pregnant.
- The couple were later rehired,
but Dana said that and other experiences
convinced her Rebecca could be ruthless.
She had no doubt her mother-in-law
had something to do with the killing.
- When was it that you first suspected that she was
involved in the murder of Dr. Schwartz?
- The night that it happened.
- Were you able to talk to anybody that night
about the concerns?
- No, because I was scared.
- In fact, you told your friends, at least one of them,
that you're afraid of Becky Schwartz
because you fear for your daughter,
for your daughter's safety. - Yes.
- Yes? - Yes.
- What is it about Becky Schwartz
that-that makes a nice young lady like you
afraid for the safety of her daughter?
- Because she only cares about herself
and she doesn't care who-who she will hurt
or has hurt to protect herself.
- In her deposition, Dana read an email she sent to a friend
and gave similar testimony at trial.
- I want justice for Dr. Schwartz
and Becky to pay for all the wrong
and evil things she has done.
She doesn't deserve to be living it up and enjoying life.
- Would it be a fair statement then
that you've come to the conclusion
that your mother-in-law, Becky, is evil?
- Yes.
- It's pretty striking. - Yeah.
- From your own family. - From your own family.
- It was devastating testimony,
but the defense was about to reframe the entire case,
arguing the real killer had already been caught.
The only physical evidence that was there
showed that Leo Stragaj was involved.
-
- Fo
- For
- For mo
- For more
- For more t
- For more tha
- For more than
- For more than a
- For more than a de
- For more than a deca
- For more than a decade
- For more than a decade,
Rebecca had been dogged by allegations
she was responsible for her husband's death,
even though she was never criminally charged.
Now, as part of a civil suit,
her defense insisted she was innocent.
Rebecca's attorney, Rohom Khonsari.
Where were some of the holes in the plaintiff's case?
- The lack of physical evidence.
They had no physical evidence tying my client to the murder.
There was no murder weapon that was retrieved.
- What's more, he said,
someone else had already admitted to playing a role.
- The only physical evidence that was there
showed that Leo Strgaj was involved.
- Not only was Leo's DNA found on Dr. Schwartz's clothing,
he also admitted he didn't tell police the truth.
- No, I swear. I swear. I swear. I swear.
No, I wasn't involved.
- He initially lied to law enforcement
about being in the house altogether,
and then later when they confronted him with it,
he was ultimately charged with murder.
- The plaintiffs in this case have said Leo had no motive,
that he was working for Dr. Schwartz,
he was making a good living, and that essentially his life
stood to get worse with Dr. Schwartz not in the picture.
So why would he want to kill Dr. Schwartz?
- I don't necessarily know what his motive was,
but I do know that the only physical evidence
that was on the scene tied him to being there
and having his hands or any other DNA
in his pants pockets.
- As for Rebecca's alleged motive,
her attorney said there was no evidence
to show her husband was planning to leave her.
You think their marriage was going to keep going?
- I'm not saying it wasn't rocky,
but to just jump to the conclusion
that it was on the cusp of a divorce
and that's what led to this murder,
I think is a big jump.
- Khonsari also said there was a reasonable explanation
for Rebecca and her sons moving assets around
after the doctor's death.
It was to keep them away from her fourth husband,
Aron Mashak.
- After Aron got caught cheating on my mom
is when, uh, you know, we decided that we--
you know, my brother and I, you know, we all sat down,
decided that we should probably protect her.
- You moved all those assets out of your control
into someone else's control to prevent Mr. Mashak
from getting them.
- Prevent for him laying claim to them, yes, sir.
- The defense called only one witness,
a medical salesperson who visited the doctor's office.
She testified she saw a loving relationship
between Rebecca and her husband.
The one witness you did call,
why did you feel that testimony was important?
- I felt that the jury needed to hear
that there was somebody out there
that felt that she was a good person
and that she is a good person.
- If there were multiple witnesses
on the plaintiff's side
who said terrible things about Rebecca's character,
why should the jury believe one person
who says positive things about her
versus the many who lined up
to say negative things about her?
- Well, the focus should be on whether
she committed the murder or not.
I went to great lengths to say, you don't have to like her.
Just because she said all these things
and potentially did all these bad things
doesn't mean that she killed her husband.
- He also reminded jurors that she was on trial
for her husband's killing,
not for alleged financial misconduct.
Finally, it was in the jury's hands.
Unlike a criminal case, in a civil trial,
the bar is lower for jurors to find against the defendant.
Now the jury has the case. How are you feeling?
- Strong. Good. Yeah, we proved our case.
- After two and a half hours of deliberations,
they reached a verdict.
- She was found liable
for likely being involved in the murder,
and the family was awarded quite a large sum.
- The jury found Rebecca Schwartz liable
for intentionally killing or participating
in her husband's death.
- The court system guarantees you a chance at justice.
It doesn't guarantee you justice.
Doesn't happen all the time.
When it happens, it's, um, glorious.
- As for the amount of money jurors awarded
Carter and his family...
- In total, it was just shy of $200 million.
- $200 million.
- It's hitting her in the pocketbook.
And that has got to be devastating
for someone that is so greedy.
- You hear the verdict, you hear the dollar amount.
What did you think?
- They were sure of themselves. - We're gonna go get it.
- And they're well on their way.
The attorneys know they'll never collect the full $200 million.
But so far, Florin says,
they've frozen about $6 to $10 million
in Rebecca's assets, and they're looking for more,
including money from a yacht that Aron Mashak sold
in violation of a judge's order.
Rebecca moved back to Florida.
Following the advice of her lawyer,
she declined our request for an interview.
For more than a decade, the criminal investigation
into Steven Schwartz's murder remained open and unsolved.
But in May of 2025, two months after the civil verdict,
Detective Diebel retired
and the Tarpon Springs police officially closed its case.
The police chief says it could be reopened
if new evidence is discovered.
This story stays with me because it ends with no conviction.
No one was ever charged for Dr. Schwartz's actual murder.
No trial, no verdict.
Only the belief of a detective and a family that never wavered.
While the civil verdict against Rebecca
did offer some sense of reckoning,
for loved ones, it's only a start.
When justice feels incomplete, it leaves behind a heavy burden,
one investigators and the people who cared about Dr. Schwartz
will carry long after the case is closed.
You've looked at Rebecca any number of possible ways.
She's never been arrested, never been charged.
Could it be because she's innocent,
that she didn't do this?
- I don't-I don't think so. I know so. She's involved.
As for Carter, he's now Dr. Schwartz,
a nephrologist, just like his dad.
He says while their family is grateful
for the civil judgment,
money, any amount, only goes so far.
- Finally, the latest development
in getting this verdict at this trial
is a step towards justice. - Yeah.
- But she is still walking around.
She is still free.
And I would trade every dime to see true justice served.