Case 333: Dianne Babcock
On the evening of Sunday, August 22 1982, a Cessna C150 disappeared during a flight to Vancouver, Canada. On board were 19-year-old pilot Jerry Ambrozuk and his 18-year-old passenger, Dianne Babcock. As fears of a crash prompted an urgent search, a close friend of the couple received a mysterious phone call…
Team:
Anonymous Host - narration
Milly Raso - research, writing, creative direction
Mike Migas - production, music
Anthony Telfer - audio editing
Comments (22)
The most baffling thing about this bizarre case is that two people watched Apocalypse Now! and thought “pack a bag, let’s go!” In all seriousness though: motive, means, opportunity. I don’t really see a homicide here. Also, people saying well why didn’t she just unbuckle are forgetting that she had a broken collarbone and a fractured neck.
I am puzzled that 6 people have liked a comment which refers to Jerry as an "insufferable narcissist". How could anyone possibly believe this based on what we've heard here. It seems like a throwaway response.
He certainly seems like he isn’t the brightest penny in the fountain and is not exactly green beret levels of bravery and cunning, but I agree with you: narcissist he is not. Sociopath he is not. Both of those terms get thrown around way too often by people who don’t really know what they mean. A lot of times people who have been through severe trauma seem un empathetic afterwards because the reality of it hasn’t hit them, and in some cases, will never hit them. The way they cope is to pretend like it wasn’t that big of a deal, and the longer that goes on, the more vital that framework becomes, as well as more fragile. They know what will happen if they stop pretending it wasn’t a big deal: they will collapse in on themselves. So they don’t think about it. I used to volunteer at the veterans Association when I was younger, working with veterans trying to get their disability payouts. I met a lot of men twice or three times my age who had been through unimaginable tragedy and their lighthearted jokes had an air of desperation about them. Anyway I have a lot of thoughts about trauma
Great episode! No violence against children, no „whodunit“, no plot twist midway through. I’ve grown to like the „was this a crime at all?“ episodes.
Isn‘t this supposed to be a true crime podcast? Yet you guys are posting a lot of stories where there wasn‘t even a crime commited…
A plane crashed into a lake and a woman drowned in it and her boyfriend went on the run and took the identity of a dead kid and vanished for over twenty years and then was found living a life of luxury in Texas?? Is that not exciting enough for you??
I can’t accept that he left her to drown. For two people who were supposedly in love and put all this effort into this plan and he goes on with his life? Yeah, no.
fascinating, this is the first i’ve heard of this story. definitely reminds me of Mary Jo Kopechne & Ted Kennedy
Just seems like a stupid plan carried out by naive kids. Nit surprised he continued to make poor decisions after. He clearly was embarrassed by them.
Every single piece of evidence supports Jerry's story. There's absolutely no reason to believe he intentionally hurt Dianne. They were together in the process of running away and starting new lives. After Dianne was killed it makes sense he would want to continue with that after reporting to her family what happened and where they could find her body. He didn't have anything else to offer them by returning home. There's literally zero evidence to believe this case is anything other than what he says it is.
And yet Casefile still has to hit us with this little gem at the end of the episode, “details of the case are still up for debate”
What an insufferable narcissist Jerry is. Sociopath is right
I don't see any evidence for either of those claims.
This just in: teenagers are so, so dumb. EDIT: I was so sure there was an Unsolved Mysteries episode about this case that I could hear Robert Stack's fuzzy 90's broadcast voice talking about it as he slowly approached me out of the fog, but a cursory google search shows nothing. I'm not sure I can believe UM would miss a classic case like this, did it just get scrubbed from the internet? also: hey guys I survived surgery
I heard this story years ago on a podcast before Jerry had resurfaced, so maybe you're just thinking of a different source besides UM. glad your surgery went okay!
I wonder why he was drawn to live in the city of Plano. Did the name mean something to him? I have to say I lean strongly towards his innocence.
Plano is a massive, “upscale” suburb, so I doubt it was more than that.
I have heard this story on another podcast.
Never heard of this story. Crazy.
Not sure what I believe after this one!
Every piece of evidence supports his story, why wouldn't you believe him? Everything fits and makes sense.
I know this story and look forward to your insightful presentation of it ❤️