Murder suspect arrested

Man who crashed airplane into Little Bitterroot Lake in 1982 turns up in Texas

A fugitive for 24 years, Jaroslaw "Jerry" Ambrozuk was arrested Wednesday in Texas on a Flathead County warrant for murder.

Ambrozuk had eluded police since Aug. 22, 1982, when he was 19 and crashed a Cessna 150 into Bitterroot Lake. His girlfriend, Dianne Babcock, 18, in the passenger seat, drowned.

It would have seemed just a tragic accident for two Canadian lovers who may have been eloping, but for Ambrozuk's strange behavior after the crash.

He didn't report the accident to anyone or ask for help. He apparently built a campfire on the shore of the lake and dried out. And then he vanished.

Authorities know that Ambrozuk made a call after the crash. He told a friend that the plane was at the bottom of the lake and that he swam free of the wreckage, but Babcock's seat belt was jammed and he was unable to free her.

Sheriff Jim Dupont was a deputy in 1982. He didn't believe Ambrozuk then and he still doesn't.

There are too many peculiarities.

Ambrozuk was flying with Babcock from Penticton, British Columbia, to Vancouver, B.C., when he somehow veered off course into Montana.

"We didn't really believe we would find the plane in Bitterroot Lake," Dupont said. Neighbors hadn't heard or seen anything as spectacular as a plane crash.

But then, deputies found evidence of a campfire on the lake shore. In the burned debris was something Dupont, a pilot, recognized as a gust lock from a Cessna, along with some wire from an aviation microphone.

"That's when we started looking for the plane" in the lake, Dupont recalled.

Officials searched the depths of the lake with fishfinders for three or four days. Then, someone in Vancouver offered his side-scan sonar. Dupont flew to Canada to pick up the gear and the volunteer. On the second day, they found the plane that Ambrozuk had rented. It was in water 220 feet deep. Babcock's body was still inside. Her seat belt wasn't jammed.

Missing from the plane was cash and other items. A sealed, waterproof trash bag with a rope attached was found on the lake shore. People who later said they saw someone who looked like Ambrozuk on the shore said he was wet, but carrying a dry duffel bag. Authorities wondered if Ambrozuk had sealed the duffel bag inside the trash bag and removed it when he got to shore.

Then-sheriff Al Rierson said at the time that "a lot of planning" had gone into the crash.

Dupont wondered what Ambrozuk did during those minutes when the plane was sinking.

"He didn't do a hell of a lot to help [Babcock] 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 get out?"

Dupont and other investigators have hoped to one day ask Ambrozuk that question.

The mystery of the crash and Ambrozuk's vanishing act intrigued producers of the television program America's Most Wanted. Twice, the network show featured the story. There were thousands of calls from viewers, but none led to Ambrozuk.

Last year, Dupont said he believed that Ambrozuk is in Texas.

Monday, he found out he was right.

That day he took a call from someone who said, "You're going to think I'm crazy." She told him that she believed that Ambrozuk was living in Plano, Texas. She searched the Internet for information on him and found a story that ran in The Daily Inter Lake last year. It confirmed her belief that a man who goes by the name Michael Lee Smith is Jerry Ambrozuk.

Dupont didn't think she was crazy.

He contacted police in Texas and they found him.

Flathead County Sheriff's Office detective Pat Walsh, who also started work on the case decades ago, said Ambrozuk picked up a different Social Security number in 1983.

He had been arrested for burglarizing a vehicle that year and for DUI the following year in Texas, Walsh learned. No one ever connected him to the arrest warrant that was languishing in Montana.

Ambrozuk has led a successful life, Walsh said.

He drives an expensive Dodge Viper and lives in an exclusive neighborhood.

In an Internet personals ad that Walsh said is Ambrozuk's, he wrote, "Now that work is no longer the priority, I do want to meet that someone 'special' to share things with, spend more time with and eventually grow old with.'"

Dupont and Walsh were concerned that bond on Flathead County's arrest warrant was set at only $20,000 or $25,000. They worried that if Ambrozuk is as wealthy as he seems, he might be able to post bail and walk away, again.

But the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency might be able to put a federal hold on Ambrozuk.

"He's been an illegal alien since 1982," Walsh said.

He said Ambrozuk was arrested without incident in Plano Wednesday afternoon. Officers there noticed a posting on Ambrozuk's door that he is also going to be cited for watering his lawn during a Texas drought, Walsh said.

When he was arrested, Ambrozuk admitted his identity and simply said, " I want a lawyer," Dupont said.

Montana will extradite Ambrozuk on the charge of negligent homicide.

Dupont and Walsh were excited Wednesday about the possibility of finally getting some answers to their questions about the plane crash.

Dupont, retiring at the end of the year, said he was reminiscing the other day and thought of the Ambrozuk mystery.

"The only damn case we never did get settled was that Ambrozuk case," he said.

"It's great," Walsh said of Ambrozuk's arrest. "I didn't know he was even alive."