[Bernice Gray speaking]
Stephanie sees a horse, she loves it.
[Robert Pann speaking]
[Jean Ulmer speaking]
[Bernice speaking]
That was the horse that Robert got her for Christmas.
[Earl Gray speaking]
Yea, horsey! [exclaims]
[chuckles] Riding hard.
[Bernice speaking]
Stephanie definitely got spoiled because she was the first baby in the family.
Bernice was a great mother. She was always there.
You know, it totally changed her.
[Jean] She was happy.
She adored and loved Stephanie...
Come here, look!
[Jean] ...but I, at that point, did not reali
the severity of the situation.
[Earl] We knew something was wrong immediately.
You started feeling, like, a sinking feeling.
Where could she have went?
I felt we could deal with it, and obviously, um, we were wrong.
I will never get to acceptance 'til the day I die.
[narrator] It's Christmas Day, 1973, in Warren, Michigan.
Five-year-old, Bernice Gray and her six-year-old brother, Earl,
celebrate with their extended family.
[Earl] All our Christmas's
when we were young and growing up
were always at my grandmother's house with all my other cousins.
I remember it was always a little chaotic.
It was a big event.
We loved our grandparents. We were very close with them.
My grandmother was just, like, a big kid, like one of us.
She was an awesome woman.
When we were all together, I enjoyed it very much.
Those were good times.
We had fun, my mother cooked
Bernice was always excited about Christmas.
She loved opening gifts. She loved playing.
That's me with long hair.
This is Bernice, just opened a present,
a little doll.
[laughing] Yeah, she just loved her dolls.
[narrator] Bernice and Earl live a few miles down the ro
with their 26-year-old parents,
mom, Jean, and dad, Tom.
Tom and I, um, were childhood sweethearts.
By the time we were 21-years-old,
we were married with two children.
Tom was a skilled tradesman
I was a registered nurse.
Bernice was very close with her father
and loved her father very much.
She was a beautiful child, a loving child.
She was a little bit more reserved than Earl and quiet.
[Earl] I think maybe I was a little bit more over the top than she was,
but, you know, she had her moments.
[Jean] My brother, Jerry, had three boys,
and Earl and Bernice played with them constantly
They were very close.
They weren't just cousins, they were brothers.
My uncle David was...
Was, like, the mischief-y uncle.
He was in between the age of our parents and us.
So he was like a bigger brother.
Our first home in Warren was a really nice home,
and it was a very safe neighborhood.
Lot of kids to play with and go hang out with.
[Jean] Bernice was a tomboy She loved the outdoors.
She loved animals, and she loved dogs.
She would bring stray dogs home, a couple of them we kept.
We always had a dog that I can remember.
[narrator] Eight-year-old Bernice is still animal craz
when Christmas 1976 rolls around.
[Earl] Yep. This is at my grandmother's house.
Yeah, that's all of us.
That would be Garrett, Michael, Jerry, and Bernice
and me.
[chuckles]
[Jean] Very close cousins. There they are, fighting.
[chuckles]
[laughs] And there's Bernice hugging her dog
or her stuffed animal.
She used to take about an hour before she went to b
to align all them, make sure all the animals were comfortable.
[narrator] The Gray family gathers in warmer months too
Uncle Jerry hosts a get together in summer 197
[Earl] We had a giant family picnic every year.
It was huge.
[Jean] It was in my brother's back yard,
and, um, it was just a summer picnic.
Um, lots of people, and children were there,
and they played.
Tom played a lot of sports.
He interacted with the children.
Tom tried to be a good dad.
We had a very good relationship
probably through the first 10 years of our marriage.
And it began to deteriorate.
Marital troubles probably began in '77 and '78.
I wanted to be a nurse.
Tom wanted a homemaker.
That was a bone of contention between us.
[Earl] They argued a lot, and things were escalating.
We just tried to cope with it...
...pretty much.
[Jean] It took me four year to file for divorce.
It was a bad time for all of us really,
especially for the children.
[narrator] The couple separates in 1981,
and dad, Tom, moves out of the family home.
[Earl] Me and Bernice...
...we really didn't talk about it.
My sister was 16 and had a hard time dealing with it.
I think Tom and I probably didn't handle...
...the divorce with the children in the best way.
We were too tied up with our own issues.
And that's when I think Bernice became the most rebellious.
[Karen Stinson] I had met Bernice back around 1983.
She was...
...outgoing, she always enjoyed to try new things.
I remember she was partying quite a bit.
Our ages, we didn't want any rules.
[Earl] She wanted to do her own thing,
and, uh, she didn't realize, you know, the troubles that she was causing.
[Jean] She would run away and take off for days.
I believe she drank, um, a lot.
I tried to get help.
It didn't seem to help.
She was not happy.
She hated me, of course,
because of course, I was there, and I was a disciplinarian.
And it was a very difficult time.
[narrator] Bernice moves in with her grandparents in Warren in 1983.
[Earl] My grandfather, he didn't make any exception
So it worked. He kept her in line.
My grandparents really helped her out a lot.
Living there was a real solid thing for her I believe.
I think she was happy. She had a place. She was grounded, you know.
She was just learning who she was, what she wanted to do.
School was easy for her. She was smart.
I struggled myself in school...
...where she excelled.
She had tons of friends through high school
that were really close to her.
I could see those guys goofing off...
...being silly.
She was just willing to make the best of every situation,
you know, and have fun.
And life just generally just went on, you know,
things weren't really bad.
We just took it in stride and just lived life, you know.
[Jean] Bernice got along with my mother much better.
I think my mother understood her.
I loved her very much, and I guess I just didn't kn
how to deal very effectivel with a quite rebellious teen
I would visit my mother quite frequently,
uh, two or three times a week actually,
and, um, Bernice seemed pretty content and happy.
At least she was talking to me.
Her behavior changed. She was more stable.
I had moved into an apartment, and at that point,
Bernice moved into the apartment with me.
I was glad to have her back with me.
We became closer...
...talked more.
[Earl] It wasn't like a strict mother
coming down on a daughter anymore.
It was more like just two friends coexisting, living life,
learning, you know, through the mistakes made.
[narrator] Jean goes on a blind date in September 1986.
[Jean laughing] It went pretty well,
except Sandy talked all the time.
Tom was extremely quiet and reserved.
Sandy was just the opposite, and I guess maybe I needed that.
Probably within a month of dating Sandy,
I introduced him to the children.
Sandy and Bernice got along pretty good.
[narrator] The stable home life allows Bernice to thrive at school
Bernice was 18 when she graduated from high school.
She had several jobs.
She was always a pretty industrious hard worker.
She was hired in as a clerk in the Henry Ford Home Care.
[Karen] She was very excited
She was just starting a different part of her life,
and she was ready to settle down.
[Jean] She had several boyfriends,
um, you know, during her teen years.
She was getting into adulthood, and she met Robert.
[narrator] 29-year-old, Robert Pann, is 10 years Bernice's senior.
[Jean] I remember him coming in, standing in our doorway.
Bernice introduced him. I think I did crack some joke
about their age, I'm not sure.
Um, but he seemed very reserved, very polite.
I was happy. I thought she might have
found somebody decent and mature.
He was a solid guy, you know, he was older than us.
He has a house and everything,
and had his little construction business.
And I think I was very impressed, you know,
like, wow, you know, good for her, you know,
I thought she found somebody that's reliable and solid, you know.
[narrator] Bernice moves into Robert's large home.
in up-market St. Clair Shore in November 1987.
18 months later, she has big news for her family.
[Jean] She told me she was pregnant.
I was very excited.
She was happy and, uh...
...looking forward to being a mother.
I went to the hospital when Bernice delivered.
Robert and I had a little altercation, very slight.
He didn't want Stephanie to have an epidural.
He said, well, my mother's a nurse,
and she said she shouldn't have any medication.
And I said, you know, Robert, that's, uh...
That's Bernice's decision.
She had an epidural. Robert came back and was very angry at me.
It was unexpected for sure.
I mean it wasn't a real aggressive interaction.
It was just, you know, he was upset.
[narrator] On February 12th, 1990,
Bernice gives birth to a baby girl.
She and Robert name her Stephanie.
[Jean] I remember when she gave birth, and she was holding Stephani
And I came in and she said, "Do you want to hold her, mom?"
She was just thrilled. Stephanie was a beautiful baby,
and she was just thrilled to be a mother.
Stephanie was Bernice's lif at that point.
[crying]
[Bernice speaking]
Bernice was a natural mother.
She was very caring and very attentive.
[Bernice speaking]
[Karen] I remember Stephanie's head just being so full of hair.
It looked like she had a little wig on her head.
She was adorable, and Bernice was so excited and proud of her.
Good job, yeah.
[Stephanie Newcomb] I was told that I was a good baby.
Um, I was happy,
and the relationship between me and my mother was very good.
She was extremely loving.
[Bernice speaking]
[Earl] Robert raising and taking care of his famil
or whatever, you know, with my sister,
he wasn't gonna be the part-time father.
[Bernice speaking]
He loved Stephanie, and he, um...
You know, he did the typical dad things with your little girl.
[Bernice speaking]
Ba!
Ba-ba!
[narrator] Bernice is planni her next career move,
just a few weeks after she gives birth.
[Stephanie] My mother changed her life around after I was born
by enrolling in nursing school.
She was going to better herself in that career aspect.
She was following my grandmother's footsteps.
[Earl] She wanted to work, you know, so much.
She wanted to be around people,
and she wanted her life, you know,
she wanted the independence that she had.
Things were good back then.
Life was different, you know, we didn't think about the things we do now.
[Stephanie] This is Christmas 1990.
Yeah, I don't think I was one yet.
[Stephanie] My mother is helping me open up a present. [laughs]
She looks really engaged, really happy.
[Jean] Yay!
You can just see pure joy in her eyes,
how much she loved me.
[Bernice] Ah!
[narrator] Robert and Earl sit together on the couch with gifts of their own.
[Earl] Robert, he got along pretty good with everybody.
Yeah, I was pretty impressed by him, definitely.
Wine stuff. Look.
[Robert] And, uh, my sister seemed happy.
Everything seemed good.
[narrator] But away from the camera,
Bernice and Robert's relationship takes a bad tur
She was not as happy as she was at the beginning of the relationship.
There were things that started to get her down.
[Jean] We started to see some of the signs of his anger,
his controlling temper.
[phone ringing]
[Jean] I got a call from their neighbors.
Robert had pushed Bernice out of the house, naked.
All I know is they were arguing.
I, at that point...
...did not realize the severity of the situation.
Bernice went to the neighbor's house,
and he gave her a blanket to cover her up.
I went and picked her up.
Bernice was in tears...
...and then I took her home to my home.
Bernice said she wanted to get out
of the relationship with Robert.
She was beginning to see what type of a person Robert was...
...and she wanted to distance herself.
She just wanted her life back without Robert.
[narrator] Bernice and Stephanie move in with Jean
in September 1991.
I was pleased that she moved back home.
Sorry for the reason she moved back home, but, uh...
...I felt like at least she was making moves
to correct the situation or to get away from him.
[Karen] She wasn't happy about going home,
which nobody usually is,
but she was gonna make the best of it,
and that's where she was gonna get the most help at the time
to be able to get back out on her own feet.
Robert was having a difficult time with the separation,
but we had no idea the exten of his control issues.
[Karen] He would drive by her mother's house
and just seeing if she was there or not.
And she was like, "There he goes again."
And we heard him up and down the street a few times.
We knew he was, you know, watching her.
He was not happy that she moved out.
He had lost that control over her.
She didn't want anything to do with him,
but obviously she had to because they had the child together.
[Jean] Robert was trying to get Bernice back,
um, any way he could.
He presented Bernice with a proposal, an engagement ring.
[Earl] I just looked at it as his last-ditch attempt
to get the control back and get what he had back.
[Karen] He wanted to get married to her,
and she would never have to work again,
and he would take care of her and Stephanie.
She did not want that.
[narrator] Robert appears to accept the rejection.
And he chooses to spend Christmas Day with Bernice
for the sake of little Stephanie.
[Earl] I was surprised that Robert showed up dressed as Santa Claus...
...'cause that, to me, was a little out of his character.
[Earl] They put aside their differences
to put on the Christmas sho pretty much.
[Bernice] Did you see what they did to your presents?
[Jean] Knowing the situation it was not a pleasant day,
having Robert there.
[Tom speaking]
[Jean] I believe Robert tried his best to make it normal,
but Bernice was so uncomfortable.
We all were uncomfortable that day.
[Bernice speaking]
[narrator] The family heads down to the basement
to see Robert's surprise for Stephanie.
-[Bernice speaking] -[Stephanie gasps]
[all chuckling]
[Robert Pann]
[Jean]
[Bernice]
[Jean] He gave her a rocking horse.
Oh, she loved it!
I mean, what one-and-a-half-year-old child
doesn't like a rocking horse
[Robert]
[Earl]
-Dusters. -[all chuckling]
[Jean]
[Stephanie] The footage of me on the rocking horse,
it made me really happy.
It was a lot of fun.
I felt like my father was a lot happier that day,
and I felt like the two of them were a lot closer...
[all chuckling]
[Bernice]
...but, you could tell, that Christmas,
her main focus was me, and to make me happy.
I was listening to the news, about 11:15,
and Bernice and Robert were upstairs.
They were arguing over going out New Year's Eve.
Bernice refused Robert.
He was very persistent,
but she said no.
He was not happy.
Robert left the house, very angry,
slammed the door very hard.
It was
tense.
The day after Christmas,
I remember, I was lying on the couch,
and Bernice and Stephanie we
um, you know, at the door.
Bernice said to Stephanie,
"Say goodbye to Mee-Ma."
Stephanie called me "Mee-Ma.
They said goodbye,
and that's the last time I saw Bernice.
[telephone ringing]
[Jean] I was in my office,
[telephone ringing]
[Jean] and my girlfriend called me and said that
Bernice had not shown up to work.
Bernice made it a point to show up to work on time.
She would have dropped Stephanie off at daycare,
and then would have gone to work.
If there was something that was prohibiting her,
she would have called in and reported
that she would have been late.
That did not happen.
At that point,
I panicked.
[cell phone ringing]
I checked in to make sure
that Stephanie had been dropped off.
[cell phone ringing]
The daycare told me that
Bernice dropped Stephanie off.
[cell phone ringing]
We called the hospitals,
and there was no report of Bernice being hospitalize
That morning, we went over to Robert's hom
because I needed Bernice's registration
and the title to the car,
so I could give that to the police.
Robert seemed irritated with me.
He had to get to work.
He did not seem concerned.
[Earl] Where could she have went?
I didn't know what to think,
and as the day progressed,
we started feeling, like, a sinking feeling.
When she never picked up Stephanie at the daycare,
at the end of the day,
the true worry started setting in.
That was not like her.
We knew something was wrong immediately.
My husband and I went to the police station,
and made a police report.
Jean Gray was very, very frightened that
something bad had happened to her daughter
The first person being looked at as the suspect,
in any case, is going to be
the person that they're having conflict with
In this particular case,
there was exceptional volatility
between Bernice Gray
and her then-boyfriend, Robert Pann.
The relationship is sour,
and the family describes how volatile he is
[narrator] Investigators invite Robert to the station
to answer their questions.
Well, Robert acted appropriately.
You know, he seemed to care.
He wasn't crying excessively.
He said the right things,
but he did not have an alibi
He started cooperating,
and then quickly stopped.
His attorney stopped him from having any contact
with the police department,
which automatically told us something wasn't right.
The fact that somebody obtains a lawyer
to protect his rights, that's not an illegal act,
but here you have the woman that you love,
the woman you want to marry
the woman who gave birth to your child.
You would think that he would cooperate to the utmost.
On December 30, 1991,
four days after Bernice disappeared,
the police discover Bernice's car.
It's parked in Detroit,
approximately 20 miles away from the daycare center.
The vehicle has the windows rolled down,
the keys in the car.
Blood had been found in the car
on the passenger seat.
The amount of blood is such a quantity
that a person could not survive that type of injury
The blood indications seemed to all of us
that she was slumped or pushed
towards the passenger side of the vehicle.
The vehicle was wiped down.
There was two bullet casing fired from the gun.
One bullet was found inside the car.
[Steve Kaplan] The bullet is found in the door.
That told us that she was shot while in the vehicle,
probably in the head.
DNA testing, even though primitive at that time,
showed that that blood
was our victim, Bernice,
because it matched the mother and the father.
[Jean] It was definitely a confirmation in our minds
that she was dead.
She was murdered.
[Karen tearfully] I knew tha
she wasn't gonna be around.
I knew that
something bad had happened.
[sniffles]
[Earl] The anger comes, and all the feelings of
"Why didn't I see this?"
and "What could I have done," you know, "to prevent this?"
"Why didn't I help?"
[Kaplan] On the date Bernice disappeared,
a neighbor living
within seven, eight houses of the daycare center
is clearing his car of snow.
It's 6:25 in the morning,
the time that Bernice would take the baby
to daycare center,
and he hears "Bang!"
[gunshot]
Hearing the gunshot helps u with the time of the murder
It also shows us that
a gun was involved.
It also displays that
it happened in St. Clair Shores.
And, incidentally,
Robert Pann owned weapons.
[narrator] Investigators trace Robert's movements
on the morning that Bernice disappeared.
They discover that he visited a jewelry store.
[Kaplan] He returned the engagement ring
that he had purchased for Bernice.
So, what's noteworthy here is
he returns the ring at 9:00 in the morning
on December 26, 1991.
Two hours after Bernice disappears,
why is he returning a ring?
He should be devoting all of his energy
to locating Bernice,
and the manager of the jewelry store remembered
He said, "That guy came in, the one who returned the rin
and he was full of dirt,
and he left the premises dirty."
So the question becomes,
why was Robert Pann, at 9:00 in the morning, unkempt?
Why was he full of dirt and twigs?
[Frank Troester] The fact th the dirt that was on his boo
tells me that he was somewhere else
with mud on his boots.
Where could that be?
Disposing a body.
[Kaplan] Robert Pann and his family owned properties,
or had access to properties,
in other areas of Macomb County.
[Troester] He had acres and acres of land
at his disposal,
and he had a construction jo
And if he's got an end loade
digging a big, deep hole
wouldn't take 10, 15 minutes,
and covering it back up wouldn't take 10 or 15 more.
If he was digging all day long,
and a hundred people saw him nobody would think that
he's trying to dig a hole to put a body in.
He just looks like everybody else.
And in fact, Robert Pann came in
and made a police report that his backhoe was stolen
He filed that so we wouldn't find it.
Subsequently, it was found elsewhere on the grounds.
He tried to conceal it.
We immediately felt that
Robert Pann, using an end loader,
had dug a hole and buried her body
somewhere in the city of Warren.
[Kaplan] This then led the police to expend
huge resources in attempting to find her body.
[Troester] We had people running all over the place.
We're looking for anything.
It doesn't have to be body parts.
We can be looking for an earring,
a button,
a zipper,
a piece of cloth,
a belt buckle,
We sift through little pieces of dirt all day long.
This is the proverbial needle in a haystack.
We need to find where she is.
[Kaplan] The investigation is at a standstill.
This is a cold case. It's frozen.
It's not going to be solved,
unless Robert Pann talks too much,
but Robert Pann was tight-lipped.
[Earl] I didn't know if we were ever gonna get him.
You can't move on.
You know? Like, you're in limbo.
[Stephanie] I do remember my grandparents
being worried that he might be stalking us,
or trying to see me.
[Jean] All I can remember is thinking to myself,
"He's not gonna get Stephani
If I have to give up my lif
to hide this child,
I will."
So,
lived in terror,
anxiety,
stress,
for years.
[narrator] Fast-forward five years, to 1996.
Robert Pann has moved on with his life.
Robert Pann was married to a woman named Maureen Pann.
Maureen Pann was visiting her friend,
and Robert Pann had been stalking her,
and following her.
When she leaves the home that day,
Robert Pann is in the back seat,
and he tries to choke Maureen Pann,
and said, "I'm gonna kill you."
[narrator] Maureen passes out at the wheel.
Her car swerves toward an oncoming vehicle.
The crash saves her life.
Fortunately, a passerby contacted the police,
and Robert was arrested,
and he was sentenced to pris for approximately five years
for trying to kill Maureen Pann.
This shows his modus operandi,
that this is his style, this is his pattern.
What does he do when a woman leaves him?
He's gonna kill her.
And how does he kill her?
He ambushes her, and surprises her
while she's in her car.
Right away, it was like, okay, this is a rerun,
'cause this is exactly,
probably what he did with Bernice.
Robert Pann and Bernice had a very volatile relationship
She's turned him down for a marriage.
The friends talked about arguments,
aggressiveness on the part of Robert Pann,
and he made a comment that he would kill her
before he'd pay child support to her.
[Kaplan] His murder of her was punishment for Bernice
for rejecting Robert Pann.
Hell hath no greater fury than a scorned man.
"If I can't have her,
nobody else is going to have her."
We have circumstantial evidence.
We have witnesses with good memories
who are available and willing to testify.
Now is the time to bring the charges.
[narrator] Investigators charge Robert Pann
with murder on April 11, 200
His trial begins in January, 2001.
Prosecutors step through
how Robert killed Bernice, 10 years earlier.
[Kaplan] Our theory is, that day, Bernice
pulled up into the driveway of the daycare center
at 6:20 in the morning.
She dropped off her baby.
Robert Pann knew this,
and he was hiding,
and when Bernice entered daycare with Stephanie,
Robert then enters the car.
Bernice returns to her car, and starts driving away.
He then ambushed her.
He shot her, we believe,
and moved her over to the passenger seat,
and then he drove the vehicle into Detroit.
What did he do with her body?
Our theory is that he hid it
in one of the rental homes that he owned.
And then, he returns to St. Clair Shores.
He needs to return as soon as possible,
so he has an alibi, for at least that time.
Then, he returns in the afternoon,
and he then takes the body,
places it in his vehicle,
drives to a location unknown
and he then buries her.
[narrator] The jury finds Robert Pann
guilty of the murder of Bernice Gray.
The judge sentences him to life in prison,
without parole.
[Jean] My son Earl was sitting next to me,
and we both started to cry,
and hug each other,
and I felt that justice
had been served.
I felt relief.
[Earl] That's a day
we thought that we would never see.
It was a sweet victory, basically.
Like, it felt like it was finally over.
[Kaplan] He is a monster,
because he preys on other people,
he's only concerned with his wishes,
he committed monstrous acts.
[Stephanie] He's just a cold-blooded killer,
and unfortunately, he had to cross paths
with our family.
Looking back at home videos
and seeing, like, holidays, birthdays,
it does make me
realize how much I have missed.
You know, I didn't have a mother.
I didn't have a father.
[Karen tearfully] Bernice was part of our family,
for a long time.
If she was still here, we would still be friends.
[Earl] I think of her every day.
You know, I loved her.
I'll always remember her
as one of the greatest people I ever knew.
[Jean] I told my family,
"If you ever find her body,
put her into my grave."
They talk about the stages of grieving,
and the last stage is acceptance.
I will never get to acceptance,
till the day I die.