Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
Yvonne Baldelli disappeared from a tropical Panamanian island in 2011. The last person to see her alive was her ex-Marine boyfriend, Brian Brimager. Her family began to suspect foul play and eventually murder.
Brian brimager was a typical Marine.that kind of all -american kind of persona , He was assigned to a color guard in Washington DC
There´s pictures of him in the white house with president George W bush. from the outside looking in it seemed like brian brimager had everything going for him.
In 2011 after having served seven years in the marine corps, brian brimager leaves the marines and he decides to go to Panama and his plan is to decompress, take some time off.
Yvonne went down to Panama with brian start a new life , that´s where yvonne wanted to be.
she liked karaoke , she liked to dance. place with cheap beers and happy hours, she got the wather right in front her house.
this is the house brian and yvonne rented in Isla carenero in Boca Del Toro
Yvonne told her family members that everything was good , she painted a very happy picture.
through email she made it seem like everything was fine and well.
The reality of it was that her and brimager where fighting constantly
She fell off the radar screen , she just went away one day ,her email stopped ,communication stoppped, everybody lost contact with her.
There is no immigration records it indicates that she left panama
From the outside appears to be a tropical paradis but it´s a swampy hill. people called it Devil´s island because some terrible things toiok place on that island .
Brian brimager has done nothing, to help with the search fot yvonne. the police officer´s and detectives are in central america in some jungle,in some swamp looking for yvonne.
What no one knew is that brian brimager had a secret.he was living a dubble life.
Brian moved to california hooked up with Kristin Werkhoven and they got married.
kristin worked at the white house and that´s where she and brian met.
and his life going on like normal…what did you do to her Brian?
detectives knew that there had been foul play detective knew he was the last one to see her alive …..yvonne went down to panama with brian and brian returned and yvonne didn´t.
Brimager was exceptionally, arrogant. but what didn´t account for was this family´s fervor to find what happened to their daughter and their sister.
In the spring of 2012 ,brian brimager was living the high life in southern california. just months removed from a decorated marine corps career brimager was happily married and living in the surburbs.
These joyful newlywed photos of brian and kristin were a shock to yvonne baldelli´s family
they expected her to be in the picture.Brian had proposed to kristin just days after yvonne disappeared in Panama.
Prince charming , a man who had just left yvonne in panama two weeks earlier ….? how could this happen.?
Up ahead is the island of carinaro where yvonne and brian,who the locals called brim, came to live in september 2011.it´s a place where they could chase their dream.
michelle vallenzuella says brian wanted to become a singer ,performing in bars and clubs.
with her beloved dog georgia may in hand . yvonne brought to sewing machines in hopes of starting a clothing business. she was going to make bathing suits and sell them to tourists. and she thought that she found her paradise, her perfect place.
Recently divorced yvonne was smitten with bryan when they first started dating in 2009 in southern californa and she was physically attracted to him .and while yvonne seemed to be falling in love with brian , big sister michelle wasn´t so sure.
After yvonne was laid off from her management job with procter and gamble and brian ended his career in the marines .
the two decided to make a fresh start and reinvent themselves in panama ….
…. settling in this house. they quickly fell in with the local expats.
Joan and stephen own the cosmic crab a funky resort and waterfront bar where brian would sing for his supper.
Penny tom owner of another waterfront bar also let brian play for foosd and free booze
and jim merton says brian´s drinking may have got in the way of his singing…..
…sound like a hound dog on a porch”
But then around than ksgiving 2011, three month after they arrived in Panama, the happy emails and calls from yvonne started to dropp of.
for michelle, a sisterly instinct started to kick in.
michelle: they were coming less frequent, the emails from her and then they stopped completely.
Two weeks past then on december 14th michelle finally got a text but it wasn´t from yvonne.
michelle was chocked.brian was back in the U.S
michelle: i sat up , i called that number . “where´s my sister?
brian: did n´t you get my email.
michelle:” i haven´t received any emails from anybody ,i call you back.”
michelle discovered an email she had overlooked it was from brian.who had never written before.
michelle:” i´m sure you´ve heard by now that yvonne and i are no longer together i called him right back. so i asked him like, what happened.”
Brian :we got in a fight because she had found out that he had a childe with somebody else.
That somebody else? kristin werkhoven. the two had a baby girl in 2010.
since yvonne was unable to have a child because of a medical condtion, the discovery must earth -s hattering.
Brian then said yvonne,just up and left.
michelle had heard doubts about that story and ten days later when brian called and still wanted to pick up his truck.michelle said she had another plan.
michelle :” i said when you come to pick up the truck I´ll be here,and i think it´s a good ida that you go with me to the police departement. since you´re the last one to see her and we can fill out a missing person´s report.because now we´re already the mid -december and i haven´t heard anything from her .”
In december 0f 2011 michelle valenzuela was still worried.so she went back to her computer where she found another overlooked message , this one from yvonne.
could yvonne really have run off with another man after learning that brian had a love child?
In upstate new york Jim and lillian also the turne of events was just so out of character for their daughter .
lillian:”for her life to change so abruptly ans he´s like oh well i´m going with this guy and goses to costa rica …. that made absoutely positively no sense to me .
Also making no sense ,three weeks had passed cince yvonne had emailed from Panama.
but then out of the blue she sent a knew email.while strange the email was also reassuring for her family.who was happy to learn yvonne would soon return to california
On the same day that email a rrived so too did brian brimager,knocking on the front door of michelle´s LA´s home to pick up he´s truck. After brian got his pickup truck yvonne´s emails stopped.16 long days passed until on january 6 ,2012, wrote her sister, the subject -worried.
michelle :” just want to make sure you weren´t kidnapped or someone pretending to be you haha, There´s my paranoid suspicious mind” . michelle didn´t heard from her sister and that was the last email.
michelle was still hopeful that she would appear at that family reunion,but yvonne never showed up .
By now michelle was convinced her sister never ran offf to costa with another man, so her instinct was to learn where yvonne´s emails, where really coming from .
The cousin , a technology whiz said tracing yvonne´s would be easy , all he needed was the IP adresses,so he search the emails yvonne had supposedly sent from panama to costa rica.
as well ass that email brian had sent from near dana point california the cousin made a startling discovery
The ones from Panama came from panama and then the one that was supposed to be with her being in costa rica came from the united states ,one of them looked like they were coming from dana point.
That email originated from from where brian was now living,near Dana Point , california, it was the evidence michelle had been looking for.
So yvonne´s email i s comming from brian´s computer.
The family ´s worst fear had com true.it appeared brian had hacked to yvonne´s email account and was impersonating, her . but why …?
That´s when the family knew. he did something to her .
michelle took that new evidence down to the FBI.
where she met with special agent andrew masters.
The FBI immediately launched an investigation into yvonne´s dissapearance, with masters taking charge.
Yvonne´s family then contacted the state department
There i s no record of her ever leaving panama and no record of her ever entering costa rica.
Yvonne´s family couldn´t wait any longer ,they traveled to Panama to find the answers.
The FBI made a move as well , targeting brian as a person of intrest.
With the FBI investigation underway in states , yvonne´s family met up with legendary investigator don winner in panama city.
Winner is an ex- US intelligence officer with an uncanny ability to solve murders .
Jim and lillian tell Don the story of their daughters disappearance and brians claim that she run off with another man.
Don winner think the chances that she running around in costa rica somewhere with some other dude are damn newar zero.
winner is convinced brian brimager is involved.he´s strategy put pressure on the panamanian government to act .
Winners game plan also called for jim and michelle to give blood for DNA tests should any remains be found.
And when yvonne´s family travels hundreds of miles from panama city the tropical island where she disappeared.
Panamian police are persuaded to hold a press conference to plead for information
Panamanian police announced for the first time that yvonne is the victime of foul play and named brian brimager as the suspect .
This news conference reverberated around the world .
family riding the momentum of the press conference, the printed flyers, fanned out to neighborhoods and the village searching for their own clues.
But the family´s Quest is starting to get results , witnesses who knrew the couple out of the woodwork describing brian´s verbal and physical abuse.
The realization that yvonne may have been murdered is setting in.
where could yvonne´s body have been dumped?
just feet from the in front of that house,you´ve got thousands of square miles of water, just 30 yard from the shoreline , this impenetrable swamp….
….. try to find something in there…..
but that ´s exactly, what yvonne´s family ,investigators and volunteers set out to do.
entering ,what could be yvonne´s swampy graveyard.
It´s jungle , it´s tropical , every kind of bug, spiders and snakes and it´s not a place you go slogging around through.
struggling through the mug the spiders and the rancid water
The smallest discovery raises hope , a purse…
….medicine bottle….
…a mysterious sinkhole.
Then they find a U.S passport, but non of it is yvonne´s .
But back in the United states , the FBI confronted brian brimager.
he said that he was expecting FBI.
FBI special agent andrew masters questioned brimager for more than four hours while he babysat his young daughter.
Brian stuck to his story , yvonne left HIM for another MAN.
But confronted with michelle´s email evidence,brian began to stumble
Then something caught master´s eye.
masters hunch was spot on ,it was yvonne´s computer, but why was it in brian´s condo and would it help unravel the mystery of yvonnes disappearance.
Even though he was under the FBI´s microscope brian brimager remained a free man living with his family on the outskirts of san diego.
kristin worked for a defense contracter while brian unrmployed spent much of his time golfing
In the summer of 2012 48 -h0urs showed yvonne´s sister michellle video of brians new life.
While brian heads off to enjoy another carfree day on the greens, The FBI was turning his life upside down,interviewing everyone. he knew . including his wife kristin.
kristin didn´t even know that yvonne existed.
According to her brian is the greatest thing to ever happen to anybody.
But that ´s something she didn´t want to share when 48 -hours knocked on her door.
meanwhile as special agent masters took several investigative trips to panama,a different portrait of brian brimager emerged.
special agent masters:” talked to many people that would socialize with them at bars and we learned about all the domestic violence, that he brought upon her. uh , the choking , the dragging,uh…the berating.
After speaking with friends and neighbors of yvonne and brian, special agent masters became certain the couple had a violent fight on november 26, 2011 after yvonne learn that brian had fathered a child with kristin.
Argument probably escalated and some point brian decided he was done with her and he was going to kill her .
Crucial evidence was also discovered on yvonne´s laptop, the very computer master saw when he first questioned brian.
About two weeks before her murder , yvonne took this disturbing selfie that shows a massive black eye on her left eye and swelling in her left cheek
And there was more chilling evidence.
yahoo searches ,which he searches how to remove blood from a matress. and he did that about 10.30 in the morning ,the night after yvonne was murdered.
Masters discovered even more evidence in costa rica where brian is seen withdrawing cash from yvonne´s acount.
agent masters were able to obtaine those AMT photos .
special agent mastsers:” we have brian using yvonne´s debit card to extract money from her account”
and master says ,there is no doubt that brian used yvonne´s laptop to send those emails to her family.
And what about yvonne´s dog,Georgia may. which had not been seen since she disappeared.
Don winner has a theory.
Don winner:” he knew that she loved that dog and that if the dog was running around he knew anything she said about her taken off with some guy to costa rica,everybody would immediately know it was crap so he had tp get rid of the dog too.
In his investigation Don Winner unwittingly found a key piece of evidence on briance facebook page where he had sold this machete.
After yvonne disappear brimager made a comment about the knife.
yeah that used to be mine , i brought it down with me when i came down from the states and the chilling part is he made a comment that said :
special agent andrew masters needs get his hands on the machete to see if it was used in yvonne´s murder.
incredibly he was able to track down the person who bought it from brian in panama
This is the machete that´s brian bought in the united states and took down with him to panama.
Investigators had the machete, they had the email and they had caught brian in multiple lies.
soon someone would stumble upon the most important evidence of all.
Summer 2013.nearly two years have passed since yvonne baldelli´s disappearance
On june 26,2013 the final chapter of this mystery began to unfold.
FBI special agent andrew masters slapped the cuffs on brian brimager
Brian brimager was charged with 13 felonies relating to the cover-up of yvonne´s death but not murder.
mark conover, shane harrigan
Assistant U.S attorneys shane harrigan and mark conover were lead prosecutors.
Mark: at that point without having found the body we didn´t have quite enough to bring the murder charge.
But that wouls soon change. human remains have been found on a panamanian island.
a local wpeler clearing some brush on the island where brian and yvonne lived came upon this duffel bag and when he unbuckled the clasp he found yvonne´s skeletonized remains ,by the time she was found two years later ,it was only bones
A DNA test confirmed it was yvonne .
her remains were found just a few hundred yards from where the family had spent days searching.
while the family´s prayers had been answered and autopsy confirmed the hellish fact that yvonne had been dismembered
This is the actual device that was used to dismembered yvonne.
Shane harrigan:” the most likely cause of death was being stabbed in the back at least twice.
Despite overwhelming evidence and proof that brimager had repeatedly lied his wife kristin continued to stand by him.
for yvonne´s family another cruel tragedy struck in the spring of 2014,michelle hwo had dedicated her life to finding justice for her sister now faced another deadly enemy.she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer
This was michelle in june of 2014….
and this was her just three months later.
giving just weeks to live,michelle a crucial witness agreed to tell her story while she still could.
Brian brimager would sit directly across from her.
Michelle passed out aftere the exhausting testimony,it was a courageous act of love for her sister.
days later , michelle died.
It took years of diplomatic and legal wrangling ,but in early 2015
the government of panama finally agreed to let brian be tried for murder on american soil.
Mark:we came to the conclusion that the only way that brian brimager would face justice for his murders act is if he was charged and convicted here in the united states.
Brian pleaded not guilty, the case was heading for trial in 2016 when investigators another dramatic discovery.
Yvonne´s blood and DNA were found under the machete´s handle
3 screws were undone,the handle opens up and inside they found blood and conducted the testing on the blade and the interior portion of the handle and they found yvonne´s blood.
This now is a slam dunk.this is the tool used to dismember yvonne,it was that , that made brian finally realize he was not going to get out of it , he was not going to lie his way out .it´s over.
Mark : he cleaned the blade but he hadn´t cleaned underneath the handle and it was that additional evidence that i believed eventually led mr brimager to plead guilty.
within a week brimager pleaded guilty to second degree murder,while the other charges were dropped and later at his sentencing finally admitted after nearly five years of lies to killing yvonne baldelli .
In open court brimager apologize to yvonne´s family but his words rang hollow.
Brian was sentenced to 26 years in federal prison.
Brimager´s prison term ends in february 203 7 .