Pilot holds answers in woman's death

Aged and worn documents in a well-handled arrest-warrant jacket in Flathead County give the outline of one of the most intriguing local unsolved cases of the last century.

Wanted for negligent homicide is Jaroslaw "Jerry" Czeslaw Ambrozuk.

A Canadian, Ambrozuk was 19 when his brief and unexpected trajectory through Montana set off a nationwide manhunt and a quest for answers about what happened here on Aug. 22, 1982.

Ambrozuk piloted a Cessna 150 from Penticton, British Columbia, with his girlfriend, Dianne Babcock, 18, in the passenger seat. They somehow veered into Montana on their way to Vancouver, British Columbia. The plane and Babcock wound up at the bottom of Little Bitterroot Lake.

Ambrozuk has evaded law enforcement's questions ever since.

Officials were first skeptical of reports that a plane had crashed into the lake. No neighbors had seen or heard anything and there was no evidence to substantiate the crash report. But there was a plane, recovered from the water weeks later, as well as clues that indicated the crash was no accident.

Former Sheriff Al Rierson said at the time that "a lot of planning" had gone into the crash.

A phone call from Ambrozuk to a friend revealed that he survived the crash, swam free of the wreckage, camped on the shore of the lake and vanished - seemingly forever.

Enough oddities surrounded the event that an arrest warrant was issued for Ambrozuk on Sept. 21, 1982.

For example, a sealed, waterproof trash bag was found on the southwest shore of the lake. A rope had been attached to the top of the bag and its contents had been removed through a tear at the bottom.

Two witnesses said they saw a man who looked like Ambrozuk on the lakeshore the day after the crash. He was wet, but was carrying a dry duffel bag. Authorities speculated that Ambrozuk had removed the duffel bag from the trash bag when he got to shore.

Also found was some radio gear from a Cessna 150 that had been partially burned at a campfire deputies believed was set by Ambrozuk. Two teenagers also said that a man who looked like Ambrozuk had asked them for matches that same day.

A week later, Ambrozuk called a friend, saying he was in New York. He told about the plane crash and his inability to get Babcock free.

"I tried to get her out. I feel like a murderer. I'm so depressed," he told his friend.

Sheriff Jim Dupont, who was then a deputy working on the case, doesn't think Ambrozuk tried very hard to free Babcock.

"He didn't do a hell of a lot to help her get out of the airplane. She wasn't injured to the point she couldn't get out of the aircraft. Why wouldn't he help her out?" Dupont said.

Babcock's seat belt was twisted but still hooked, he recalls.

"I wish I could talk to Ambrozuk and find out what happened during those few minutes in the water" before the plane sank to about 240 feet, Dupont said.

Ambrozuk gathered up cash and other items inside the plane before he got out, which means he had some time before the plane went down, he said.

Did Ambrozuk mean to kill Babcock?

"I think he had an opportunity to let her go down," Dupont said.

There was speculation at the time that Babcock was pregnant when she died, but an autopsy belied that rumor.

He tries to put himself in Ambrozuk's place.

"If I did everything I could to save her, why would I still be hiding 20 years later?" Dupont said.

Ambrozuk's story was featured two or three times on the network television show, "America's Most Wanted."

That generated thousands of calls, but no solid lead to Ambrozuk.

Dupont believes Ambrozuk is in Texas. Of Polish descent, Ambrozuk could easily pass as a Hispanic resident, Dupont said.

The only clue to Ambrozuk came from Texas two years ago, when the National Crime Information Center kicked up Ambrozuk's name when a man was arrested there on a DUI charge. He didn't turn out to be Ambrozuk.

If he is alive today, Ambrozuk is 41 years old. He carries with him the answers to a lot of questions that a lot of people have asked through the years, including Dupont.

"I'd still like to talk to that S.O.B.," Dupont said. "She was a beautiful girl," he said of Babcock. "She didn't deserve to die like that."