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to learn more. I got out

1:01

of the shower as I was cleaning

1:03

off the mirror and I saw fingers

1:06

pushing through my window. He

1:08

looked very demonic and he

1:10

said like a really scruffy

1:12

voice. He said, hey, I

1:15

headed up that way and my dog

1:17

barked and I looked over and he

1:19

was probably 20 feet away from me

1:21

walking straight towards me. He

1:24

used her phone after he had

1:26

killed her to add me on Facebook.

1:29

I'm Jamie Beebe. And I'm Jake

1:31

Deptula. We're the hosts of Strictly Stalking, bringing

1:33

you heroic stories of those who have survived

1:36

at the hands of a stalker. To

1:38

hear these stories and more, listen to

1:40

Strictly Stalking wherever you get your podcasts.

1:53

Thanks for watching. Hello

2:18

everyone and welcome to episode 360 of

2:20

the True Crime All the Time Unsolved

2:22

Podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me

2:25

as always is my partner in true

2:27

crime, Mike Gibson. Jimmy, how are you?

2:29

Hey, I'm doing good. How about yourself?

2:31

I'm doing great, man. I'm having an

2:33

excellent week, feeling really good when I

2:35

get out of bed. Yeah. Which

2:38

is not always the case for me, so.

2:41

It should be something to strive for. It is. The

2:44

body is feeling good right now. That's good.

2:46

Now let's go ahead and give our Patreon

2:48

shout outs. We had Jason Tint jump out

2:50

at our highest level. Hey, thank you, Tint.

2:52

Kara, what's going on, Kara? Kristin

2:54

Chuckwuma. Ah, thank you so much, Kristin.

2:57

Ben Miller. Hey, Anne.

2:59

Michelle Buckley. What's going on, Buckley? Marcy Nelson

3:01

jumped out at our highest level. Like a

3:03

full Nelson? Yeah. Yeah.

3:05

I guess. Joe

3:07

Murphy. Hey, Joe. Michael Voight. What's going on,

3:09

Voight? Mandy Jo jumped out at our highest

3:12

level. Thank you, Mandy. Finn Katz jumped out at

3:14

our highest level. Man, loving all this. Thanks, Finn.

3:17

Tina Page. Not turnip page,

3:19

but Tina Page. Get it? No?

3:22

Yeah, I get it. Okay. Just

3:24

because I don't laugh doesn't mean I don't get it. Because it

3:26

just means it's not that fun. We

3:30

had Adria Judge. Hey, Adria. Ruth

3:32

S. Carver. Hey, thank you, Carva. And

3:34

last but not least, Morgan Phillips. Well,

3:36

Morgan, we appreciate that. And then if

3:39

we go back into the vault, this

3:42

week we selected Brian Shrum. Brian

3:45

in the house. Yeah, we appreciate all

3:47

the support, the new and continued. Gives

3:50

right now on true crime all

3:52

the time. We have an episode

3:54

out on Aaron Key who's been

3:56

called the East Harlem Rapist.

3:59

This is a... very

4:01

very bad individual yeah

4:04

murder number of

4:06

girls and women raped a number

4:08

of girls and women just a

4:11

nasty nasty god. Where

4:14

is that yeah absolutely look at his

4:16

name and always you know you say

4:18

the name, erin i

4:21

can't help go back to that

4:24

one video of those cook comedy

4:26

guys really do the a ron.

4:29

Oh a and his name is spelled

4:31

differently is a r o h n

4:34

right but that was that can peel

4:36

and that was one of the funniest

4:38

skits i still sometimes will just pull

4:40

it up on youtube and watch it

4:42

tracks me up because it is so

4:44

funny. Are you ready

4:46

to get into this episode of true crime all

4:49

the time on the phone we're talking

4:51

about the disappearance

4:53

of mary bataraca mary

4:56

bataraca has been missing since august

4:58

nineteen eighty four. Initially

5:00

investigators believe she was playing

5:03

her marriage to businessman, dominic

5:06

bataraca but it's time pass

5:08

they became suspicious that there

5:10

was more to dominic store.

5:13

Mary case was later re

5:15

classified as a suspected homicide

5:17

almost forty years later though

5:19

mary's body still has not

5:21

been found. And that is a

5:23

long time it is a long time and

5:25

for me you know i look

5:27

at it from a couple of different angles.

5:30

It's a long time because

5:32

it hurts the investigation

5:35

finding the body could lead to.

5:38

Some evidence or at least clues

5:40

about how she was murdered but

5:42

it's also a very long time

5:44

for her family to not

5:46

have answers and to not

5:49

have her if she is

5:51

dead as is suspected

5:53

to bury yeah.

5:56

Since closure mary edna

5:58

bataraca was born on. March 11th, 1946. She

6:02

was 38 years old when she went

6:04

missing. The Hartford Courant

6:06

described Mary as a hometown

6:08

girl who loved her daughters,

6:10

was passionate about painting, and

6:13

was well liked by her coworkers. As

6:17

we go through these unsolved, we talk

6:19

about the lot. People say

6:21

glowing things about victims or

6:24

people who have disappeared. Does it

6:26

ever make you wonder what people

6:28

are going to write or what people

6:30

are going to say about you one

6:33

day when you're no longer here? Good

6:35

riddance. I doubt anyone will ever

6:37

say that, but ... And

6:40

it was said that many people said

6:43

good riddance to him.

6:45

Yeah. I hope that's not

6:47

the case, but ... Now, I

6:50

do think there's a difference here,

6:52

because we're talking about someone who's

6:54

disappeared, presumed dead, presumed murdered, and

6:57

so there's that

6:59

element to it. But it does

7:01

make me wonder sometimes, am I

7:04

doing enough? At the end of

7:06

the day, to have people come

7:08

out and say really

7:10

nice things about me. Do I have

7:12

a desk yet? No, because you said you didn't

7:14

want one. That's what you say

7:16

I said that I said that you said. Barry

7:19

was married to Dominique Bataraco for

7:22

14 years. Dominique

7:24

was born in Danbury, Connecticut. He

7:26

had a difficult childhood. His

7:29

mother died of cancer when he was three

7:31

years old, and a year later, his 12-year-old

7:34

brother also died of

7:36

cancer. Wow. That's rough. To

7:38

lose a mother and your

7:41

brother within about a

7:43

year's span of time. Dominique

7:45

worked as a landscaper and laborer. He

7:47

got a job as a truck driver

7:50

for Danbury's Public Works Department in the

7:52

early 60s. He married

7:54

a woman named Charlotte, and they

7:56

had four children together. They divorced

7:58

in 1968. After

8:00

the divorce, Dominic shifted careers

8:03

and became VP of a

8:05

contracting company called Tristate Home

8:07

Improvement. The company did roofing,

8:09

siding, and painting. Dominic

8:12

had a reputation for being

8:14

a hard-nosed contractor, good at

8:16

getting his way, according to

8:19

the Danbury News Times. You did

8:21

a little contract work in your day, didn't

8:23

you? Contract work in contracting.

8:25

Yeah, I said that to

8:28

trip you up, but you

8:30

caught it. But then admitted to

8:32

it anyway. But you

8:34

were a contractor for

8:37

a while. Oh yeah. Don't

8:39

you, at a

8:41

certain level, have to be a little

8:44

hard-nosed? I don't know if that's the

8:46

right term. No, I think you

8:48

have to be. You have to be assertive,

8:50

you have to be on top of

8:52

things. Yeah, you've got to

8:54

be able to be a certain way with your

8:56

suppliers and vendors and other subcontractors

8:59

and even your clients. One

9:02

former employee whose name was kept

9:04

anonymous for fear of retribution told

9:06

the News Times, he would

9:08

be the nicest guy in the world if things

9:10

were going his way, but he could turn in

9:13

a second. He had five or

9:15

six crews he would subcontract to, the

9:17

advantage being that many small

9:20

contractors couldn't afford to pay

9:22

workers compensation insurance. But

9:25

you worked for him and him only. If

9:27

you took another job, you were done. You

9:29

were out of the clique. And he was cheap. When

9:32

the job was done, he'd always cut

9:34

a couple hundred dollars off your bill

9:36

and say you were overcharging

9:39

him. Well, I knew guys that definitely

9:41

would expect you to

9:43

only work for them. And

9:46

as they found out you were doing

9:48

subcontracting for another guy, they

9:51

would not give you work anymore.

9:53

So I had subs that would come to

9:55

me like, hey, can you help me out? Because

9:57

he cut me loose because I did that one job.

10:00

for you. So that's not out of

10:02

the ordinary. No, at least from your experience.

10:04

Now, I can't imagine

10:06

it's normal to agree

10:08

to pay somebody something.

10:12

And then when the job is done,

10:14

knock money off of it and

10:16

say you're overcharging. Yeah. You'd be

10:18

surprised in that contracting field. Really? Things can

10:20

work out sometime. Yeah. I don't know much

10:22

about it. You do. So, Dominic

10:25

also invested in several bars,

10:28

one of which was called

10:30

Fat Batarato. This is where

10:32

he met his future wife, Mary. So

10:35

if I was going to start a bar, I

10:37

have to think about the name of it, right?

10:39

I think name is important. Fat

10:41

Ferguson, I don't believe is the first thing

10:43

that I would go with. I don't know. I

10:46

could see that being a big hit, like

10:48

in a Irish, Scottish neighborhood. Fat

10:50

Ferguson? Yeah. Ah, where are

10:52

we going to go? Let's go down to Fat Ferguson's.

10:55

Maybe, maybe. Mary

10:58

and Dominic got married in 1970. Her daughters, Sherry

11:03

Passero and Beth Proffetta moved in

11:05

with Dominic and his four kids, and

11:08

they had a blended family. And I

11:10

think that is pretty normal.

11:13

You see that happen quite a bit, especially

11:15

when people are on their second

11:18

marriages, they had children from their

11:20

first marriages, get a little

11:22

bit of a Brady Bunch situation.

11:25

Mary and Dominic though did not

11:27

have a happy marriage. He was

11:30

physically abusive towards Mary and the

11:32

kids lived in what was described

11:35

as a very tense home environment. No

11:37

way to be a growing up. No,

11:40

it really isn't. And I just wonder,

11:42

you know, being hard nosed

11:44

in business, was this

11:46

guy able to turn that off when

11:48

he came home or was that just

11:50

the way he was? Cause

11:53

the one guy said he could be the nicest guy in

11:55

the world, but he could flip. I

11:58

think, you know, some people. Get

12:00

used to being the head hot

12:02

show the king in their business world and

12:04

when they go home they expect the same

12:06

thing. You know my way

12:08

or the highway yeah yeah i get

12:10

it not saying it's right but

12:13

i get it in june nineteen seventy three.

12:15

Mary was admitted to the dandbury

12:17

hospital and was treated for blurry

12:20

vision and bruises on both cheeks

12:22

she claim she felt. The hospital

12:25

staff included a note in her records

12:27

that said battering incident

12:30

you know i think back in the day. Where i'm

12:32

at time period i think a lot

12:34

of times people would turn their back

12:36

to that kind of type of situation.

12:39

You mean you mean like turn a blind

12:41

eye exactly yeah not doesn't

12:43

sound like they did so here

12:46

i mean they noted this battering

12:48

incident in her records now. I

12:51

don't know if they did anything about it

12:53

and i think maybe today it would

12:56

be handled differently possibly. Yeah

12:58

i was kinda thinking

13:01

some areas that if you

13:03

show up the hospital like that i think they have to call

13:05

somebody. Yeah they might have

13:07

an ethical duty today where they didn't

13:09

back then but unfortunately

13:12

we've heard. Throughout

13:14

the years where women

13:16

have felt as though they

13:19

needed to claim they ran into a

13:21

door they fell. Some

13:24

type of way to explain

13:26

the bruises and it's

13:28

horrible you feel so bad for

13:31

those women but as we've talked about

13:34

sometimes they felt trapped.

13:37

Or they felt as though the legal

13:40

system wasn't going to do anything so

13:44

to bring it up they were

13:46

just inviting more retribution but

13:48

nothing was going to change. Or

13:52

bad in their head because of the other

13:55

abuse that they deserve any

13:57

better what they had is what is

13:59

the best. that they deserve. So

14:01

you mean like the psychological views? Yeah, I think

14:03

that's a good point. Good point. In

14:05

2013, Mary's daughter,

14:07

Sheri Pasero told the news times

14:10

when she knew a beating was coming,

14:12

she would shuffle us off to other

14:15

people's houses to protect us. But

14:17

we would see the aftermath when we came

14:19

home, the house would be trashed

14:21

and she would be bruised. And I

14:23

think it's heartbreaking for, you know,

14:26

children to understand what's

14:28

going on, but I

14:30

also see a mother who's trying

14:32

to do everything she can to

14:35

protect her children. Yeah. She

14:38

doesn't want it to happen to them. And

14:40

I'm sure she doesn't want them to see it

14:42

happen to her. So she's putting

14:44

her kids in front of her, you

14:47

know, putting them first, getting them

14:49

safe, speaks a lot about her.

14:51

It does. It really does. One

14:53

of Mary's friends told the Hartford Courant, she

14:55

would come to work with a black eye

14:57

two or three times. She would come knocking

14:59

on my door at two o'clock in the

15:01

morning. And I would put them up talking

15:04

about the kids. Additionally, in 1987,

15:07

Mary's brother, Joseph Denho said to

15:10

a state trooper over the

15:12

years that Dom and

15:14

Mary went together. And when they

15:16

were married, they had numerous fights and

15:18

many a time Dom knocked out Mary's

15:21

false teeth, but they always stayed

15:23

together and worked things out. Something

15:25

tells me, and I don't

15:28

want to speak badly about Joseph, but

15:30

something tells me that if

15:32

you had a sister and you

15:34

knew that was going on, it

15:37

might not have gone down the same way. Yeah.

15:40

I wouldn't have been okay with it. I

15:42

know sometimes they say, mind your

15:44

own business. It's their marriage. Let them work

15:46

it out. She's not wanting to do anything

15:48

about it. Don't you go in there. But

15:51

you know, it's my sister. It's my sister. You know,

15:53

I'll have a sister. But if I did, yeah,

15:55

I'd have a father. I don't either. It's

15:58

kind of like the Godfather. They

16:00

said that in that movie.

16:02

Yeah, you know, it's their marriage. You

16:04

gotta let them work it out Don't

16:06

get involved but son. He couldn't

16:08

do it No, he he had to go over

16:11

there and it ultimately led to his death But

16:13

now you just ruined the godfather for some people. Yeah,

16:16

if you haven't seen it in the last

16:18

50 years, I'm okay Ruining

16:20

it at this point. That's just one part of it.

16:22

It's just one part of it funny

16:24

story I was I was on the Xbox the other

16:27

night and I was playing Basketball and and one of

16:29

the kids that was playing with this I think he

16:31

was like 23 years old and we were

16:33

talking about favorite movies and I said the godfather

16:35

and he said the godfather That's

16:37

over three hours long. I would never watch that but

16:41

you know, I probably felt the same way when I was Younger

16:44

probably did Sherry and Beth

16:46

said they grew up in fear of Dominic

16:49

and moved out as soon as they could

16:51

Sherry said in an interview with the news

16:54

Times He was always in charge and very

16:56

dominating if he said not to do something

16:59

We didn't do it. My mom was

17:01

always trying to protect us So I

17:03

think you said it gives this doesn't

17:05

sound like a very good

17:09

warm inviting Home

17:11

environment. So very controlling but

17:14

all on the part of Dominic it

17:16

sounds like Sherry was a good

17:18

mother. Yeah Dominic continued business

17:21

operations in the Danbury area in

17:23

the early 80s He

17:25

partnered with his acquaintance Ronald

17:27

Richter to form Richter and

17:29

Bataraco Siding company

17:32

in early 1984 Marion

17:34

Dominic moved from Danbury to the nearby

17:37

town of Sherman where they were Renovating

17:39

a home they lived there for

17:41

about six months before Mary disappeared

17:44

She cleaned houses part-time for a

17:46

realtor and spent the remainder of

17:48

her time painting or crafting Her

17:51

daughters were young adults and

17:53

no longer living with her by this point,

17:55

but they did visit her Regularly,

17:58

and this is something that my wife wife and I

18:00

are kind of going through now. You

18:02

know, the kids are off at

18:05

college. The youngest one will come home

18:07

for the summer, at least. My

18:09

oldest one won't, she has an apartment. So,

18:12

you know, we're navigating

18:15

this kind of new life. And

18:18

it has its good points and its bad

18:20

points. Obviously we miss them like crazy, but

18:23

we're also getting along very well without

18:25

the kids, if that makes sense. Well, it's good.

18:28

Yeah, maybe you'll find yourself, you

18:30

know, like my kids are gone, they never

18:32

come back. So I'm in that house

18:34

all by myself. So every now

18:36

and then I turn on a little music and do that

18:38

little dance from that movie that you just watched. Science

18:41

of the Lions? He dances around

18:43

naked in the end. Oh,

18:45

you talking about Saulburn? Yeah. Oh,

18:47

I'm never doing that dance, ever. That movie still

18:50

has me creeped out. Sherry

18:52

saw her mother at dinner a week

18:55

before she disappeared and noticed

18:57

what she called an odd

19:00

edginess according to the

19:02

Hartford Current. You

19:04

ever see someone, let's say a

19:06

family member or somebody you just know so

19:08

well, and you see them,

19:10

you visit with them and you just

19:12

know something's not right. Yeah. And

19:15

maybe you even ask them, but they won't tell

19:17

you. Maybe she just had enough

19:19

at that point. Like, shit's

19:21

gonna change. Almost like she

19:24

was planning a change

19:26

in her life. Okay. Yeah, I can

19:28

see that. Mary was last seen

19:30

at her home in Sherman, Connecticut on

19:32

August 20th, 1984. Sherry

19:36

Pissarro first learned her mother was

19:38

missing a few days after she

19:40

disappeared. Dominic's daughter called

19:42

her and said, Dominic

19:44

wanted to talk to her about

19:46

their upcoming weddings. Both

19:48

of the daughters were engaged at that time.

19:51

Sherry thought this was strange and

19:53

wondered why Mary hadn't called her.

19:56

The next day after work, Sherry

19:58

drove to her mother's home. home, and saw

20:00

Mary's 1982 Chevy Cavalier. The

20:04

driver's side windshield had been smashed.

20:07

Mary was nowhere to be found. Dominic

20:10

told her, your mother left me. She

20:12

took some money and took off. And

20:14

I could see why Sherry would think

20:16

it was strange that her mother didn't

20:19

call her and instead it

20:21

was Dominic's daughter. And

20:24

then, obviously she's worried

20:27

about her mother. She shows up,

20:29

she finds her car windshield smashed

20:31

up, and then it

20:34

almost sounds casual, the

20:36

quote from Dominic, right?

20:38

Your mother left me. She took some

20:40

money and ran off. Why

20:42

wouldn't she have called her daughter and told her what

20:44

was going on at that point? It

20:47

doesn't make any sense. No, that has

20:49

to be the first thought probably

20:51

that went to her head. Also,

20:54

if that really happened, why

20:56

does Dominic want to talk about

20:58

the upcoming weddings, but

21:00

not about the fact that Mary

21:03

has run off and left him?

21:05

Yeah, and how do I get her back? Or

21:07

how do we, what do we do

21:09

now? But no, he wants to

21:11

jump right into the wedding? Yeah, it

21:13

just seems so very nonchalant. He

21:16

asked Sherry to come back soon to clean

21:18

out Mary's things. When Sherry returned

21:20

to the house, she saw that all

21:23

of her mother's belongings were gone, except

21:25

for a few perfume bottles and

21:28

art supplies. Sherry told the

21:30

Hartford Courant, I went up to her room

21:32

to pack. There was nothing there. I

21:34

opened drawers. There was nothing. Not

21:37

one odd sock, not one old

21:39

shirt. Every picture of Mary

21:41

and her daughters had also been removed from

21:43

the home. It seemed like

21:46

Dom was trying to get rid of any

21:48

trace of Mary's presence in their home. It's

21:51

really strange. It is very

21:53

strange. I get it. People

21:56

split. People have problems

21:59

with their marriage. one person

22:01

decides to leave, but is

22:03

it really over? How do

22:05

you know that Mary just

22:07

doesn't need some time to cool off

22:09

and she's going to come back? You

22:12

pack up everything and get

22:14

rid of it that quickly? That

22:16

seems final. It does.

22:19

That seems like you know she's not

22:21

coming back, and to me,

22:24

that's very suspicious. I don't

22:26

know how it can be viewed any other way. Most

22:28

disturbingly, Dominic told Sherry, don't

22:31

tell anyone, don't tell your

22:33

sister. My lawyer will

22:35

handle everything. How can

22:37

she not tell her sister that

22:40

her mother left and nobody knows where she

22:42

is? Well, you know, he had that thing

22:44

about him where he put fear in the people, so.

22:47

And that's exactly what happened. Sherry

22:50

was so afraid of him that

22:52

she didn't tell her sister Beth. Beth

22:55

didn't learn that Mary was missing until

22:58

their stepsister, Dominic's daughter, reached out

23:00

to her. And I

23:03

think that magnifies just

23:05

exactly the kind of hold

23:07

that he had over the girls or

23:10

the fear that he instilled in them

23:13

to the point where they're

23:15

grown and Sherry's

23:17

still afraid to disobey him

23:20

and tell her sister. And this

23:22

can't look good later, right? I

23:25

mean, think about it. None of it. Yeah,

23:27

I mean, get rid of the

23:29

stuff as quick as you can. Don't tell anyone.

23:32

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to change. Valid for qualified residential

27:02

customers. Only service not available in

27:04

all areas. Restrictions apply. Sherry

27:08

and Bath eventually reported their mother

27:10

missing to the Connecticut State Police.

27:13

They knew Mary wouldn't run away

27:15

because Bath had recently had a

27:17

baby, Mary's first grandchild

27:20

and Sherry was engaged. Mary

27:22

loved spending time with the baby and was

27:24

looking forward to the wedding. And

27:27

I think most children, and

27:29

I say children, these are grown children,

27:31

but most would say,

27:33

well, mom just wouldn't run away, wouldn't,

27:37

you know, not call us. But

27:39

then you throw in these other

27:41

big events. First grandchild, upcoming

27:44

wedding. What mom is

27:46

walking out on all of that and

27:49

her daughters? Yeah, I mean,

27:51

maybe their mom wanted to leave him,

27:53

but still be in their lives, right? And

27:56

just move away from

27:58

him. Not like, disappear. peer from

28:00

all their lives. Yeah,

28:03

you could see her with the

28:06

troubled marriage to Dom, wanting

28:08

to get out of that situation,

28:10

but there would be no reason not

28:12

to communicate that with her children.

28:15

Dominic told the police that he last

28:18

saw Mary when he left for work

28:20

on August 20th, 1984,

28:23

when he came home, her car was still there,

28:25

but Mary was gone and she took

28:28

her clothes, jewelry, and money with her.

28:30

She left her car keys and wedding ring

28:32

on the kitchen counter. Okay. If

28:35

that were really true, that

28:37

would be a woman who is

28:40

leaving the relationship. Here's

28:42

the one thing I don't understand. If

28:45

you're leaving, why wouldn't you take your car?

28:47

Yeah. Is someone picking you up

28:50

and would you not need your

28:52

car wherever you're going? And

28:54

I still just don't buy the

28:56

fact that she wasn't going to tell

28:59

her kids. No, no, that's a huge

29:01

one that is almost impossible to get

29:03

past. Dominic claimed

29:05

that Mary took over a hundred

29:07

thousand dollars from their home and

29:10

said they were planning on getting a divorce

29:12

at the time of her disappearance. He

29:14

admitted that he smashed her windshield because

29:17

he was angry. Why if she was

29:19

in it? That I

29:21

don't believe he said. Does

29:23

he sound like the type of guy that you

29:25

could walk out of that house with a hundred

29:28

thousand dollars and he wouldn't come

29:30

after you? Yeah, he doesn't. Also who

29:32

has a hundred thousand dollars in cash

29:34

sitting around at home? I

29:36

know I carry mine and my wallet that I

29:38

never open up, you know? Well, you've

29:40

got that money, that kind of quasi

29:43

Fanny pack that goes like all the

29:45

way around the one you wear on

29:47

like, uh, on planes and

29:50

stuff. And it's just all stuffed with cash. Mostly

29:53

Monopoly money. That's a lot of money

29:55

though. A hundred thousand? Absolutely. Just

29:57

to. And we're talking 1984. Yeah,

30:00

it makes it even more so. One

30:03

early police report said it is

30:05

assumed Mr. Bataraco did not report

30:07

her missing due to his fear

30:09

of questions concerning large amounts of

30:12

cash he claimed was gone. And

30:15

obviously you're going to get questions

30:17

about your wife's disappearance. But if

30:19

you say she took a hundred thousand dollars,

30:22

well, you might get some questions about

30:24

this large amount of money. Yeah. How'd you

30:26

come about that type of money? Why didn't you

30:28

put it in the bank? Dominic

30:31

filed for divorce on August 29th, 1984.

30:35

According to court documents within

30:37

two weeks of Mary's disappearance,

30:39

Dominic's girlfriend, Joan moved into the

30:42

home. They were later married.

30:44

And what story where this

30:47

has come up has ever ended

30:49

well. Well, exactly. I

30:52

mean, even if you were

30:54

not guilty, this makes

30:56

you look so guilty. It

30:59

does. Nine months later, Dominic

31:01

went before a judge and said he

31:03

and Mary were discussing the terms of

31:06

their divorce. During the divorce

31:08

proceedings, Dominic first testified that

31:10

Mary stole the money from their home,

31:12

but he later said she agreed to

31:14

give up her rights to their home

31:17

in exchange for a hundred thousand dollars. He

31:20

claimed the separation was amicable.

31:23

See how he put a little spin on that. That

31:25

was my settlement fee to her. So I

31:27

get all the proceeds of this house. The

31:30

divorce was finalized in May, 1985. Mary's

31:34

daughter Sherry and Beth started working

31:36

with Lynn Tabersack, a

31:38

former state representative. Tabersack

31:41

told the Hartford current that she didn't

31:43

believe Mary ran away to start a

31:45

new life. She also felt

31:47

pressure not to investigate the case

31:49

saying there was a time, a

31:52

friend of the bad Iraq told me to mind

31:54

my own business for my own

31:56

sake. Okay. Being Told

31:59

to mind your own. businesses. One thing.

32:01

But. When you finish it with for

32:04

your own say. That's. A

32:06

little more ominous, it is threatening.

32:08

Or months. He. Needed back away from

32:11

the scene. or I mean. For. Your

32:13

own sake. In Nineteen Eighty

32:15

Six, a former member of

32:17

the Bridgeport Hell's Angels who

32:19

was in witness protection submit

32:21

is a tip that's Dominic,

32:24

son, Joseph Bad Iraqi and

32:26

an associate named Steve Kindle.

32:28

Glass. To marry. And. Another gang

32:31

member on Dominic sword. Married.

32:34

Was allegedly murdered because she

32:36

threatened to go to the

32:38

police with incriminating information about

32:40

Dumb. Receive Kindle was incarcerated

32:42

at the time, he refused to be

32:44

energy, but later took a lie detector

32:47

test and sale. The. Public referred

32:49

determine that he lot when he

32:51

said he never saw marry and

32:53

didn't know if a member of

32:55

the Hell's Angels killed. says.

32:57

Interesting. New for what

32:59

it's worth, He. Did sales of. The.

33:01

Polygraph. To. As more

33:04

suspicion. It. Does Kindle died in

33:06

a motorcycle accident in the nineteen

33:08

nineties. Joseph. Was allegedly

33:10

a member of the Hell's Angels, but he

33:12

has denied this over the years. He's.

33:15

Also denied having any

33:17

involvement in married disappearance

33:19

and suspected death. So.

33:21

Again, there's no way to tell,

33:23

right? The. Validity of this

33:25

tips but it definitely

33:28

paints dominate as a

33:30

little bit more than

33:32

a. Contract. It.

33:34

Pained Sam is a man. May.

33:36

Be involved in other things with

33:39

the authority or the. The.

33:41

Gravitas to order people.

33:44

To. Do heads to. You

33:46

do other things like that. You know

33:48

when you're certain type A contractor. Sometimes.

33:51

It's easier. Move. Money around.

33:54

Because. You are dealing with large amounts

33:56

of money. Yes, So. Are

33:58

you getting too. a

34:01

place where the missing $100,000 is possibly money

34:03

paid for a hit or something like that.

34:08

Yeah. I think that's

34:10

the theory we're going to have to explore.

34:12

I mean, don't forget, he also owned a bar

34:14

or two, so that's all cash business,

34:16

right? In the 80s, I would

34:19

think more so than today. In

34:25

1990, Mary's case was

34:27

reclassified as a homicide. That

34:29

year, Joseph Bataraco was convicted

34:31

of arson because he hired

34:34

two men to firebomb

34:36

a bar owned by one of his

34:38

father's rivals. He later moved to

34:40

upstate New York, according to the Hartford

34:42

Current. This kind of sounds like Peaky

34:45

Blinder-ish. Or Goodfellas. Goodfellas. One of

34:47

the two. Mary was

34:49

declared legally dead in 1991. In

34:53

1993, an envelope

34:55

containing interview reports was dropped

34:57

off in Beth Proffetta's mailbox

34:59

while she was pursuing a

35:02

Freedom of Information request. All

35:04

of the names were blocked out, but the

35:07

reports contained information about the

35:09

Hell's Angels tip. Dominic's

35:11

son, Dominic Jr., was murdered during a

35:13

drunken fight on Super Bowl Sunday, 1997.

35:17

The fight was connected to his brother

35:20

Joseph because it involved his ex-girlfriend

35:22

and the mother of his child.

35:24

On January 26, 1997,

35:27

Randall Saunders and his girlfriend, Susan

35:30

Brumer, went to Tortilla Flat, a

35:33

restaurant and bar in Danbury. They drank

35:35

and watched the Super Bowl. They were

35:37

getting ready to leave when

35:39

Brumer approached Dominic Jr. and started

35:41

talking to him. They got

35:43

into an argument and she threw

35:45

a drink in his face. According

35:47

to court documents, Dominic

35:49

Jr. told Saunders that he

35:51

better contain his bitch. Saunders

35:54

drew a gun, approached Dominic

35:56

Jr., and put the barrel of the

35:59

gun against his head or neck.

36:01

They got into a physical fight and

36:03

restaurant staff called 911. You

36:06

do need to be careful who

36:08

you say those types of words to.

36:10

That's true. You never know. Apparently

36:13

the fight ended when Saunders entered

36:15

the kitchen area. He holstered his

36:17

weapon. Dominic Jr. approached

36:20

the kitchen doorway and

36:22

shouted that he would kill Saunders. If

36:24

he ever pulled the gun on him

36:26

again, he started walking towards

36:28

Saunders. And that doesn't

36:30

seem to me to be a very

36:33

smart move. No. You already know

36:35

that this guy has a gun and he's not

36:37

afraid to pull it out. Dennis Keeler,

36:39

one of the restaurant owners, asked

36:41

Dominic to stop, but he didn't.

36:44

According to one witness, Saunders

36:46

calmly pulled out his gun and

36:49

shot at Dominic Jr. five times. Saunders

36:52

was later convicted of manslaughter.

36:54

Well, that was definitely a Super Bowl

36:56

party gone bad. Yeah. And I'm

36:59

sure everybody had had,

37:01

you know, some Coca Colas.

37:03

A lot of bad decisions were

37:06

made. Oh yeah. One very

37:08

deadly decision. And, you know, man

37:10

ended up dead. The Hartford

37:12

Current reported that his defense attorney

37:14

tried to keep Joseph Bataraco out

37:17

of court for fear that he

37:19

would intimidate witnesses. The judge

37:22

rejected the motion and would

37:24

not allow anyone to ask

37:26

Joseph questions about Mary Bataraco.

37:29

In December, 1999, the state

37:31

police announced they reopened

37:33

the investigation after new

37:35

information surfaced. The reward was

37:37

increased to $50,000. Now the police wouldn't

37:41

say what this information was, but

37:43

they did say it could be

37:46

the most significant development in

37:48

several years. At the time, Dominic

37:51

was 64 years old and

37:53

still living in the home he once shared with

37:55

Mary. He told the Hartford Current,

37:58

I don't know nothing at all. And regardless, to

38:00

Mary's disappearance. The

38:02

Danbury News Times reported that between 1998 and 2000,

38:04

there were three incidents where

38:09

Dominic or his son Joseph

38:11

allegedly threatened or assaulted other

38:14

contractors and former employees. In

38:17

December 1998, ex-employee Wendell

38:19

Miller, who filed a workers'

38:21

comp claim, told the police

38:23

that Joseph attacked him with

38:25

a sledgehammer and broke his arm. Joe

38:28

said he hit Miller with his hand,

38:31

which was supported by statements from

38:33

his father and a friend who

38:35

said Joe acted in self-defense after

38:38

Miller stuck a shiny object, possibly

38:40

a gun, out of the window

38:42

of his truck. A

38:44

prosecutor concluded that neither the

38:46

victim nor the accused were

38:49

credible. It's pretty rough, man, when

38:51

neither one can be credible. It'd

38:54

also be rough to have your arm broken by

38:56

a sledgehammer. Yeah, so don't you do those

38:58

things I told you not to do and I don't have to go

39:00

get my sledgehammer. Yeah, I'm just thinking about

39:03

how badly that would hurt. Oh, man. The

39:05

pain would be... Excruciating. Oh,

39:07

my gosh. In July 1999, two

39:11

former employees claimed that Dominic threatened to

39:13

kill them after he saw

39:15

them talking to a current employee in

39:18

a parking lot outside the company office.

39:21

Dominic shouted at them per the news Times,

39:23

when my son's trial is over, it's

39:25

going to be a pool of blood and it's

39:27

going to be yours. Okay, I

39:30

can't help but feel that we are

39:32

in a real mafia-like situation here. Really

39:34

sounds like it. Dominic

39:37

was not charged in this incident in

39:39

2000. One of

39:41

the former employees involved in the previous

39:43

incident filed a complaint, but then

39:45

said he made peace with Dominic

39:48

and didn't want to pursue it further. I

39:50

bet he did make some peace when Dominic

39:52

came knocking on the door. And

39:54

said, don't pursue this any further or something bad

39:57

is going to happen to you. Now, we don't

39:59

know that happened. but you know

40:01

everything is kind of pointing

40:03

to this guy not really

40:05

being a great dude. Right

40:08

the abuse all

40:10

of these incidents involving current

40:13

or former employees or

40:16

subcontractors. Dominic's business

40:18

partnership with Ronald Richter dissolved in

40:20

two thousand seven that year the

40:22

company was ordered to pay a

40:24

two hundred and thirty one thousand

40:27

dollar judgment to a Hartford insurance

40:29

company. The company alleged that they

40:31

had been under paying their premium

40:33

by not listing subcontractors as

40:36

employees on their workers compensation.

40:40

You can get away with a lot of criminal

40:42

activity but don't mess around on

40:44

your taxes or with the

40:46

insurance company or insurance you know they'll

40:49

get you they want that money. Just

40:51

like they got kapong they did

40:53

the irs. In September

40:55

two thousand seven the Connecticut state

40:58

police excavated the yard in newtown

41:01

as part of the investigation into

41:03

Mary's disappearance the whole once belonged

41:05

to sixty five year old earnest

41:08

docking housing. An excavation

41:10

contractor who often worked

41:12

for Dominic investigators

41:15

received the tip that

41:17

earnest may have buried Mary's car

41:19

which had gone missing. At

41:22

first earnest denied bearing anything but

41:24

eventually admitted to bearing three hundred

41:26

and four cars on his

41:28

property he said one of the cars was

41:30

a blue cavalier the same model

41:32

as Mary's car which prompted the search

41:35

a lot of cars. Three

41:37

hundred and four cars buried on your

41:39

property yeah but you know it is

41:42

something that i was thinking about earlier

41:44

which is. You don't make

41:46

being this contractor and having

41:49

all of these different people working

41:51

for him at his disposal

41:54

they're gonna have a lot of equipment. That

41:56

might make it a little bit

41:58

easier to get. get rid of

42:01

someone, then let's say the average

42:03

person. Yeah. Cause he's going to know a

42:05

guy that knows a guy who has the

42:08

equipment to bury something deep or

42:10

something like that. Investigators removed

42:13

a few vehicles from the property,

42:15

but none of them were

42:17

a Chevy Cavalier on April 25th,

42:20

2008, the Connecticut state police

42:22

arrested Ernest Dackenhausen and charged

42:24

him with interference

42:26

with the investigation. At a

42:29

court hearing in November, 2008, Mary's

42:31

daughter, Beth, prophetic said that at one

42:33

point Dackenhausen admitted to

42:35

burying Mary's car. His

42:38

lawyer told the news times that there

42:40

was evidence cars were buried on his

42:43

former property, but none of them were

42:45

married. On May 7th, 2009,

42:47

a jury acquitted Ernest Dackenhausen of

42:50

giving false misleading and incomplete information

42:53

about cars he buried on his

42:56

property. The defense presented

42:58

testimony from a psychologist who called

43:00

Ernest's memory unreliable.

43:03

Well, if you buried over 300 something cars, I

43:06

don't know how you're going to remember all the cars you

43:08

buried anyway. I mean, I can't remember

43:10

a name of a movie sometimes. I know who's in it.

43:13

I can't remember the name of the movie. Sometimes you don't

43:15

even know who's in it. But here's

43:17

the thing that kind of struck me

43:19

with this Ernest guy deal. What

43:22

did he really do? At first, he

43:24

said he didn't bury any cars. And

43:26

then he admitted he did. And he

43:28

said he may have buried a

43:31

blue Chevy, but they looked and it wasn't

43:33

there. I'm trying to figure

43:35

out what this guy really did wrong

43:37

other than initially saying he

43:39

didn't bury any car. Yeah. Maybe

43:41

this felt, maybe he slowed the investigation

43:43

down by saying, and I'm sure he

43:45

did. I'm sure they wasted resources and

43:47

things like that. The prosecutor

43:49

told the jury that when investigators

43:51

told Dackenhausen, they did not find

43:53

a Chevy Cavalier buried on the

43:55

property. He said, if you ain't

43:58

got it, I don't remember. The

44:00

police theorized that Dominic asked him to

44:03

bury Mary's car in 1988

44:06

at that time Ernest was burying

44:08

other cars in debris from a house

44:11

fire I'm still having a problem

44:13

with 304 cars buried on your

44:15

property. Isn't there an easier way to get

44:17

rid of cars? Crush them

44:19

sell them for scrap. It makes you

44:21

wonder why he was just bearing them,

44:23

you know But what do you think the

44:25

neighbors are thinking? Oh, there he goes

44:28

again, honey. He's bearing another one I

44:30

mean, I understand people have junkyards.

44:32

They have cars sitting around but

44:35

why are you burying them on your property?

44:37

Yes, that's throwing me a little bit love

44:39

to be the new buyer of the place

44:41

digging out for a pool Damn

44:43

it. We hit another car. There's 300 cars

44:45

down here to find another spot at

44:48

trial a state investigator Named

44:51

Dominic as a suspect in

44:53

Mary's disappearance for the first

44:55

time. That's a big deal It

44:57

is major crime squad

44:59

detective Joseph Bukowski testified per

45:01

the news Times My

45:03

main suspect at this time is

45:05

Dominic Bataraco Senior who

45:08

is the last person to see the victim

45:10

alive had a history

45:12

of extramarital affairs and

45:14

domestic violence True true

45:16

true. Yeah, and it's pretty hard

45:19

to think that from the very

45:21

beginning Dominic wasn't at

45:23

the top of their list. Now.

45:25

I don't know What they

45:27

had on him obviously not enough to

45:30

charge him But it does

45:32

sound like it took many many years for them to

45:34

come out and say that You

45:36

know, he was kind of the

45:39

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45:41

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45:44

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45:54

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46:01

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47:17

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every style, every home. On

49:02

February 8, 2012, the state

49:05

police reopened Mary's case and searched

49:07

Dominic's property in Sherman. The

49:09

source told the news Times that the

49:12

search was for Mary's body. In

49:14

April 2012, a grand jury

49:17

completed an 18-month investigation of

49:19

Mary's case, but there were no arrests and

49:21

the proceedings were sealed. Joseph

49:24

was subpoenaed by the grand jury but

49:26

didn't testify. Per the

49:28

Hartford Courant, his lawyer said he has no

49:30

knowledge of what happened to Mary and was

49:33

never a member of the Hell's Angels. Dominic

49:36

also did not testify before the grand

49:38

jury. On April 18, 2012,

49:42

76-year-old Dominic Bataraco was arrested

49:44

and charged with offering

49:46

an illegal gift and bribery. He

49:49

was accused of offering a judge $100,000 to

49:51

try to influence the grand jury investigation. The

49:56

case involved Dominic's former business partner, Ron Rictor

50:01

and Superior Court Judge Robert

50:03

Brunetti. Brunetti was friends

50:05

with Ronald Rictor, but considered

50:07

Dominic an acquaintance. They used to

50:09

play golf together, and Brunetti's

50:12

business partner represented Dominic

50:14

in legal matters regarding

50:16

Rictor and Bataraco siding

50:18

company. I love all the shadiness

50:20

going on. Well, and I think that's the

50:22

point here, right? Does it

50:24

prove that Dominic had something to do

50:27

with Mary's disappearance? No, it doesn't. Does

50:30

it prove that he was a shady character?

50:32

I think that's pretty safe to say. Well,

50:34

when you're going to pay a judge off $100,000, it's kind of shady. Shady

50:38

and quite illegal, I believe.

50:41

In late September 2010, Rictor called

50:43

Brunetti, wanted to know what the

50:46

judge knew about the grand jury

50:48

investigation. Brunetti didn't know

50:50

anything because he was not involved in

50:52

the proceedings. In October, the

50:55

two exchanged more calls. Brunetti told

50:57

the police that he spoke to

50:59

colleagues in the New Britain Judicial

51:01

District and learned who was conducting

51:04

the grand jury investigation. He

51:06

told Rictor about the existence

51:08

of the investigation. On November

51:10

17, 2010, Dominic

51:12

spoke to the judge using

51:14

Rictor's phone. According to the

51:17

News Times, Dominic said, Bobby, I need

51:19

your help. They've all been

51:21

subpoenaed for Friday. Judge Brunetti

51:23

said there was nothing he could do. Dominic

51:26

responded, I'm only going to say this

51:28

one time. It's worth 100 G.

51:30

Brunetti ended the call at that point.

51:33

The following day, he contacted inspectors

51:36

with the chief state attorney's office

51:38

to report the bribe. Brunetti

51:40

called Rictor on December 2, 2010. The conversation

51:42

was recorded

51:45

by the police. During the phone

51:48

call, Rictor gave the phone to Dominic. According

51:50

to the Hartford Current, the judge said,

51:53

there may be something I can do for you. I

51:55

wasn't sure I could, but there may be something

51:57

I can do to help you out. Dominic

52:00

only said, okay. The judge suggested

52:02

they meet in person without

52:05

Richter knowing. However, the next morning, Richter

52:07

informed Burnett, the Dominic couldn't make it

52:09

to the meeting. Investigators

52:11

learned that Dominic withdrew over $100,000

52:13

from retirement accounts

52:16

two days before he offered the

52:19

bride. Well, that doesn't look good. Not

52:21

good at all. Looks like there's some

52:24

intent there to follow through. Yeah.

52:26

I mean, you're going to pull that type of money out. Like

52:28

it's more than just words, right? More

52:30

than just talking. In a

52:32

2013 interview with the news times,

52:34

Richter said he didn't know

52:37

Dominic personally, adding, all we did was

52:39

work. He liked to hunt and fish.

52:41

I liked to golf and have a

52:43

few cocktails, which I thought was

52:45

a little strange. These guys own a

52:47

company together, but they don't know each

52:49

other personally. Yeah. I don't buy

52:52

that. It's almost hard to do that.

52:55

Richter claimed he had no knowledge of

52:57

Mary's disappearance. He said he was working

52:59

on a house next door to a

53:01

state police investigator and was not questioned

53:03

about the case for more than two

53:06

decades before trial. Dominic's

53:08

defense asked the judge to

53:10

exclude any evidence about Mary's

53:13

disappearance, but prosecutors argued the

53:15

information was crucial to prove

53:17

Dominic's motive. The trial started

53:19

on June 24th, 2013. Judge

53:23

Brunetti testified that he confirmed

53:25

the existence of the grand

53:27

jury investigation to Richter, but

53:29

refused to accept the bribe

53:31

after Bataraco offered the bribe. He

53:33

went to work and read

53:35

the state statute on bribery. He then

53:38

called a lawyer who told him to

53:40

sit on the information until the morning, which

53:42

is when he made the report. He

53:44

acknowledged that disclosing the existence of

53:46

the grand jury investigation could be

53:49

a violation of the judicial code

53:51

of conduct, but he insisted that

53:53

he did not seek out information

53:55

about the grand jury. He was

53:57

at lunch with the judge from

53:59

the same. district and saw a

54:01

judge from a different district in the restaurant.

54:04

When he asked the judge what he was doing there,

54:06

he said he was there for a grand jury. Ronald

54:09

Richter testified that he was

54:11

grand immunity from prosecution. He

54:13

said Dominic told him he was going to

54:15

give something to the judge, but he didn't

54:18

know what it was. The

54:20

defense argued that Dominic's transfer of $185,000

54:22

from his retirement accounts to his

54:27

checking account was for bond and

54:29

hiring a lawyer should he be

54:31

arrested. Okay, if

54:33

you want to believe that. Well, it's a pretty

54:35

good argument. It is. I mean,

54:37

you have to make some type of argument

54:40

as to why someone

54:42

would withdraw that amount of money.

54:45

I mean, he's making a case for it. Dominic's

54:47

wife, Joan, testified that she withdrew $185,000

54:49

from their retirement accounts because she

54:54

believed Dominic was going to be arrested and

54:56

she wanted to be able to post his

54:58

bond. When she learned

55:01

about the grand jury proceedings in

55:03

October 2010, she got their house

55:05

appraised and contacted a bail bondsman.

55:08

So she's kind of backing that up. Prosecutors

55:12

noted that Dominic had access to more than $900,000.

55:16

The jury was allowed to weigh

55:18

Mary's disappearance as a motive for

55:21

bribery. On June 28, 2013,

55:23

Dominic Batteraco was found guilty of bribery.

55:28

On September 13, he was sentenced to

55:30

seven years in prison. His

55:32

lawyer asked for probation due to

55:34

his advanced age, but the judge

55:36

ruled that it was important to

55:38

impose prison time to deter others

55:40

from offering bribes to judges. Don't

55:43

mess with the judges. Well,

55:45

that is a huge deal.

55:48

We already have issues with

55:50

our judicial system as

55:52

it is, but when you're talking

55:55

about someone with the kind of

55:57

money to offer a

55:59

judge... enough of

56:01

it to influence a grand

56:03

jury, the outcome of a

56:05

trial, the way a trial,

56:08

what's included, what's excluded. Yeah.

56:10

You can't have that. Beth

56:12

Profeta, Mary's daughter, said she hoped

56:15

Frisim would become leveraged to get

56:17

Bataraco to talk. It's

56:19

quoted by the Hartford Current, she said, if

56:21

he tells us where my mother is, maybe

56:23

we can work something out. That's

56:25

floating around in my head. If

56:28

he had something to do with it, he doesn't

56:30

seem like the type of guy that's

56:32

gonna talk about it, especially at this

56:34

point. Well, the thought I

56:37

have, where is

56:39

it in his interest? And

56:41

I don't see that it is. It

56:44

would be a different story maybe if he was,

56:46

you know, sentenced to

56:48

life with no parole for Mary's

56:51

disappearance. Well, maybe

56:53

then you offer that up to

56:56

her daughters. Hey, I'm gonna tell

56:58

you where she is. But he's in

57:00

there on a bribery charge. It's seven

57:02

years. Yeah. Why in the

57:04

world would he confess to anything

57:06

regarding Mary's disappearance if he was

57:09

involved? It benefits him in no way.

57:11

No. And I think he's just from that old school

57:13

too, right? That don't kiss and tell. Or

57:16

don't rat on yourself or rat on anyone

57:18

else. Yep. The Judicial

57:20

Investigations Board chose not to

57:23

discipline retired judge Brunetti in

57:25

January 2014. Dominic's

57:28

conviction was upheld in April 2015. He was

57:30

granted early release on April 8, 2016. He was 79 years

57:37

old. He was released to a halfway

57:39

house in July and expected

57:41

to go home in October. He

57:44

would remain on parole in 2020. The

57:47

state police were about the

57:49

status of the murder investigation after

57:51

Dominic was released, but they maintain

57:54

that the investigation is active. It's

57:56

a little hard to figure out if he

57:59

is still alive. But if he is he would

58:01

be in his late 80s. I'm

58:03

thinking he probably is still alive couldn't

58:05

find any Obituary

58:08

or anything like that find a grave

58:10

anything, but it's been almost 40

58:12

years since Mary Bataraco Disappeared

58:16

and this is something that we run into

58:19

in these older cases, you know potential witnesses

58:21

age Which never

58:24

helps the investigation. It only hurts it

58:27

There's currently a $50,000

58:29

reward for information leading to the

58:31

arrest and conviction of the

58:33

person responsible for Mary's Disappearance and

58:36

or homicide if you have

58:38

any information about the disappearance of

58:40

Mary Bataraco You can

58:42

call the Connecticut State Police Western

58:45

District Major Crime Squad at Troop

58:47

a and Southbury their number is

58:49

1-800-376-1554 So

58:52

as we wrap this one up Gibbs, I mean obviously

58:54

we spent a lot of time talking

58:57

about Dominic Bataraco,

58:59

but for good reason There's

59:03

no way that he's not going to be

59:05

a person of interest. Yeah,

59:08

there was domestic violence in The

59:11

relationship his girlfriend moves in

59:13

two weeks after Mary's disappearance her

59:15

car is left He smashed in the windshield

59:18

of that car Don't

59:21

forget he got rid of all her stuff really

59:24

fast. Yeah, and and just everything that he did Makes

59:27

him look bad. Yeah to have Another

59:33

woman move in within two weeks

59:35

that obviously means that relationship was

59:37

ongoing Oh for sure prior to

59:39

Mary's disappearance and to me the

59:45

Finality of getting rid

59:48

of all of Mary's things As

59:51

if there's no way she could

59:53

possibly return there's not going to be

59:55

any chance at

59:57

reconciliation That screams to

59:59

me me that you know there's

1:00:02

no way she's coming back. Yeah. But

1:00:04

I think the biggest thing for me is

1:00:07

motive. You know, who would have

1:00:09

a motive to want to kill

1:00:11

Mary bad or Racco? Well, if you don't

1:00:13

want to share your hidden money and

1:00:16

your known money with anybody, that

1:00:19

would be a motive. I think that's a

1:00:21

motive. You went out of the relationship. You

1:00:23

want to keep all your money. You

1:00:26

obviously want to be with this

1:00:28

other woman. They later got

1:00:30

married. You know, the communication

1:00:32

about Mary's disappearance to her daughters.

1:00:35

That was strange. Very strange to

1:00:37

me. All of it, all

1:00:39

of his actions just don't

1:00:42

seem right. Now, does that mean he

1:00:44

did it? No, it doesn't.

1:00:46

Some people just act strangely.

1:00:49

They do, you know, odd

1:00:51

things in, in moments where you

1:00:53

wouldn't expect them to do

1:00:55

them. But we know that the husband

1:00:57

is looked at first anyway. He's

1:01:00

going to be a person of interest. Even

1:01:03

if you didn't do all these strange

1:01:05

things, but you add all of this

1:01:07

on top of it and

1:01:09

you know, this kind of

1:01:11

quasi, what seemed to be

1:01:13

like, almost like a mafia type connection,

1:01:16

it just doesn't make him look

1:01:18

good at all. Nope, it does not. But

1:01:21

at the end of the day, you can't

1:01:23

say for sure that he had anything

1:01:26

to do, but there's been no mention of anyone

1:01:29

else, right? That would have

1:01:31

had a motive to want to hurt

1:01:33

her. Nope. So for the

1:01:35

family's sake, for, you know, her girl's

1:01:37

sake and grandchildren and

1:01:41

maybe even great grandchildren at this point, I

1:01:43

don't know. You would love

1:01:45

for them to have answers because as

1:01:47

we've heard time and time again, it's

1:01:50

the not knowing for many of

1:01:52

these families that is the hardest. It's

1:01:54

a torture. It's very hard to

1:01:56

lose a loved one, but then to

1:01:58

lose one and have. no idea what

1:02:01

happened to them and who did

1:02:03

it. I think torture is a good word.

1:02:06

I think it eats at people and

1:02:09

it's just something that haunts them day

1:02:11

in and day out. Well, maybe

1:02:13

if the killer is still alive and

1:02:16

on their death bed, they'll

1:02:18

give a confession. Well, if

1:02:21

it turns out to be Dominic

1:02:23

Batteraco, I don't see any other

1:02:25

reason why he would. Again,

1:02:28

there is nothing in it for him.

1:02:30

If he had a hand in this

1:02:33

to say anything about it and

1:02:36

to be honest with you, there's

1:02:38

really no reason to say anything on your death

1:02:40

bed. Besides just

1:02:42

doing the right thing. The problem is,

1:02:44

as I see it, these

1:02:47

type of people, if

1:02:49

he was capable of this, he's

1:02:51

not really interested in doing the right

1:02:53

thing. I don't think most of them

1:02:55

are. No, you're right.

1:02:58

But maybe he's on his death

1:03:00

bed and he's thinking about the

1:03:02

afterlife, whatever

1:03:05

he believes or doesn't believe. But maybe he'll

1:03:07

be thinking, you know what, I

1:03:09

could probably use all the help I can right now. Maybe

1:03:12

I'll do a little deathbed confession on a

1:03:14

few things here and see if that helps

1:03:16

me out to get me into a little

1:03:18

better spot in the afterlife. Yeah, that would

1:03:20

probably be one of the

1:03:22

only ways that it

1:03:25

would happen. The other thing might

1:03:27

be if he

1:03:29

passes, then maybe there is

1:03:31

somebody that still knows something about

1:03:33

it that is then willing

1:03:36

to come forward and doesn't

1:03:38

fear retribution. But

1:03:42

who knows? It's

1:03:44

a sad case. It's just we

1:03:47

don't have them all that often where

1:03:49

everything seems to be pointing

1:03:52

to one person. A

1:03:54

lot of times we're talking about a number of

1:03:56

people, possible motives.

1:03:59

We've talked about one. one person who

1:04:01

happened to be the husband and

1:04:03

he had opportunity, means,

1:04:05

you know, motive,

1:04:08

all of those things. Yeah.

1:04:10

Just have no idea if he really had

1:04:13

something to do with it. Well,

1:04:15

hopefully one day the girls will

1:04:17

get some closure. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

1:04:19

But that's it for our episode

1:04:21

on Mary Bataraco. We have some

1:04:23

voicemails, Gibbs. You want to check those out? Let's hear them.

1:04:25

Hey there, Mike. This is Tim Walker. I

1:04:28

just want to let you know, I really love all

1:04:31

of the podcasts that you are involved

1:04:33

in. I appreciate all the

1:04:35

work you've done. It's fantastic. It's amazing.

1:04:38

I just got done

1:04:41

listening to Criminology episode,

1:04:43

The Bodies in Lake Mead. You

1:04:46

and Morph were talking about

1:04:48

the river between Canada and

1:04:51

Detroit. I

1:04:53

was actually just there recently

1:04:55

on a fishing trip with

1:04:59

my brothers and my father and all a couple of

1:05:01

my uncles and stuff. And, you

1:05:03

know, we were sitting out there and we

1:05:06

actually were seriously thinking, like, you know, how

1:05:08

many bodies are in this river? And

1:05:10

that's like, it was a 45 minute discussion

1:05:12

we had just sitting there like, oh, you

1:05:14

know, there could be countless

1:05:17

bodies in this river. And Jimmy

1:05:19

Hoffa was actually one we mentioned.

1:05:22

So, yeah, I

1:05:25

just want to say thanks for all the work you've

1:05:27

done. Have a great time making these podcasts. Bye.

1:05:30

Oh, thank you for the voicemail and the

1:05:32

kudos. Appreciate that. You know, I think it

1:05:34

was last week, Gibbs, we were talking about

1:05:37

them dredging a river and

1:05:39

they were finding a bunch of cars. Right. And

1:05:42

we've had that come up in other

1:05:44

episodes as well. So, I

1:05:46

mean, if people are dumping that many

1:05:48

cars in rivers, especially, you

1:05:51

know, the big rivers, I

1:05:53

think we'd probably be astonished

1:05:56

if we knew how many bodies were

1:05:58

actually in there. Yeah. I

1:06:00

think people will be really shocked.

1:06:03

It's a little tougher to find a body than it

1:06:05

is a car. It is. And it's

1:06:08

going to make that whole weekend recreation

1:06:10

fun on the river. It

1:06:12

kind of takes away from that. You know, when you think about there

1:06:14

could be bodies underneath you. Well, especially the catfish

1:06:17

you're eating out of there too. Well, that's right.

1:06:19

They love the stuff on the bottom. They do.

1:06:22

Hi, guys. This is Tommy in North

1:06:24

Carolina. I thoroughly

1:06:26

enjoyed your unsolved

1:06:28

episode about Bobby Fuller. One

1:06:31

of the things I wanted to point out that you may

1:06:33

not know is back in the 60s, early 60s

1:06:35

to the mid 60s, artists

1:06:37

did not travel alone. They normally

1:06:40

traveled as a package, which

1:06:42

meant there would be like maybe up to

1:06:44

five, six bands on a tour at the

1:06:47

same time. They all share a bus and

1:06:49

they share about three percent. I

1:06:51

think maybe the first time I

1:06:54

had even heard of anybody from

1:06:56

the 60s touring alone

1:06:58

with the supporting act would be the

1:07:00

monkeys who had some

1:07:03

guy named Jimi Hendrix opening up

1:07:05

for them on one of their first tours.

1:07:08

They actually played here in Greensboro. There's a

1:07:10

picture of him at the hotel with some

1:07:13

of the monkeys and in Charlotte

1:07:15

as well. So anyway, just

1:07:17

wanted to make that a point. Touring

1:07:20

like we know it these days did not

1:07:22

exist back then. Touring

1:07:25

back then usually involved a package

1:07:27

tour. And sometimes they

1:07:29

were Dick Clark package

1:07:31

tours. So there's your Dick Clark again.

1:07:34

Anyway, enjoy the show. Keep your own time ticking.

1:07:36

Have a great week. Hey,

1:07:38

hey, where the monkeys. Did you watch out when

1:07:40

you were a kid? I did too, man. Yeah,

1:07:42

I was into it. I know you were into

1:07:45

it. You still have the one poster. I do.

1:07:48

It's still on the wall. What's his name? Baby.

1:07:50

Baby Jones. So thanks for the

1:07:53

call because we love that. And it

1:07:55

is something that I knew. I didn't

1:07:57

think about talking about it when

1:07:59

we were... doing the episode, but

1:08:01

my thought is they just weren't making the

1:08:04

money. You know, artists

1:08:06

today make so much money. They, they got their

1:08:08

own bus, they got their own plane or whatever,

1:08:10

but back then they weren't making the

1:08:12

money. So they had to kind of group together

1:08:14

and, and share that, but, uh,

1:08:17

share hotel room and all that stuff,

1:08:19

buses and, and all that good stuff.

1:08:21

But we appreciate those types

1:08:23

of, uh, voicemails giving us information. I love

1:08:25

it. You know, we need to do, we

1:08:28

need to do a podcast tour. Bunch

1:08:30

of podcast people. This is throws

1:08:33

all in a van and goes city to

1:08:35

city. You, I can tell you

1:08:37

don't even like right there. It's

1:08:39

too close for comfort. You lost me with a bunch of people

1:08:41

in the van. Yeah. Now

1:08:43

the podcast tour would be awesome. Yes. Can

1:08:46

you and I just drive ourselves and meet

1:08:48

up with other people? Do I

1:08:50

have to be in a van with 10 or 15 other

1:08:53

sweaty people? I was just trying to save

1:08:55

costs. Cause I would really rather not be.

1:08:57

I was just trying to save costs, man.

1:08:59

No matter how much I liked them. That's

1:09:01

not the issue. No. The issue is overcrowding.

1:09:04

Plus, you know, I can't, I have to drive.

1:09:07

That's true. You control freak. I am. I

1:09:09

do not like to ride with other people.

1:09:11

Wonder how long it would take before somebody

1:09:13

would actually be, become the, the

1:09:15

story of a podcast and something

1:09:17

like that. Maybe not long if we got on each

1:09:20

other's nerves. All right. That is

1:09:22

it for another episode of true crime all

1:09:24

the time, Unsolved. So for Mike and Gibby,

1:09:26

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