[Brittney] My dad adored my mom
and just thought she was the most beautiful creature ever alive.
[Brittney's father speaking]
They made a beautiful life, we had great memories.
[Joyce] Through those early years
they did everything as a family,
they had a lot of good times together.
[laughs]
[Joann speaking]
I never dreamt that this would have happened
to either one of us.
The day she called me, she sounded afraid.
His first words to me is, "Where is she?"
[Brittney] There's some things that aren't adding up, to me.
We just didn't know,
we had no clue what we were dealing with.
[theme music playing]
[narrator] Christmas eve, 1985, in Las Vegas.
33-year-old Tom Albanese
and his wife 29-year-old Joann
entertain guests at their home.
[narrator] Their friend, John Deming,
films the action.
He's here tonight with his wife Joyce.
[Joyce] One of my favorite memories
shortly before I moved to Texas,
we had a Christmas eve at Tom and Joann's home.
We always got together for holidays,
every holiday we could.
My husband had very recently gotten a new video camera
and he was so excited.
[Tom speaking]
[John speaking]
[Tom speaking]
[John speaking]
[Tom speaking]
[Joyce] This was just one of the first years
that we had video cameras
that we could actually have film of each other.
[kid speaking]
[narrator] The two couples' daughters
enjoyed the festivities.
[Joyce] My daughter was Andrea,
the blonde, she was four years old.
The dark haired girl is Amber,
Joann's oldest, she was six
[woman 1 speaking]
[woman 2 speaking]
[kid speaking]
[Joyce] Amber was very energetic and very strong-willed.
She was just like a big sister to Andrea
and they played so well together,
we were just family.
[woman 2 speaking]
[woman 1 speaking]
I met Joann when we were about ten years old
in elementary school.
Her family traveled extensively through Europe
with her father's career in the United States Army
and then he was relocated to the United States,
when Joann was a very young girl.
I first met Joann when her family
relocated to Las Vegas.
I took and instant liking to Joann
because she was not from the neighborhood
and I just found her life fascinating
because she had traveled.
People thought we were sisters
because we were both tall and thin
and had naturally curly hair
and we did everything together.
Somehow that connection, that buddy connection,
that the school gave us in 1966,
was a lasting one.
Tom and Joann met when they were very young,
I believe Joann was probably 14 or 15.
Tom was four years older.
[Theresa] Joann was a strikingly beautiful girl
she just had a smile that was contagious
and always wanted to make people happy.
I think all the guys in high school
had a crush on her.
Tom couldn't believe that she said "yes".
When they first got married
he was just starting in the food industry,
you know, getting his feet wet.
[Joyce] He really built his career
in servicing restaurants
and casinos and really was driven in that.
Joann grew to love Tom and grew to respect Tom
because she admired the ambition that he had
and the drive that he had to work hard,
be a successful businessman
be a good provider for a family
that she wanted to have.
[Theresa] Tom would put lon hours in, visiting clients,
making sure their needs were provided
and he drove a lot, so I remember that,
but he wanted to make a better life for himself
and his family.
[narrator] On Christmas eve 1985,
Joann shows the camera
that she's expecting a new arrival.
[laughter and indistinct chatter]
[Joyce speaking]
[Joyce] Joann was sitting, you couldn't tell she was
pregnant at the time, but then she finally stood u
and showed us that she had a little one there too.
She was a glowing pregnant mom,
she was very, very excited
to know that she was going to have another child,
not only for she and Tom,
but for Amber to have a sibling.
[narrator] Joann gives birt to Brittney in January, 1986
I think she was overjoyed that she was not going
to have to have a boy.
She said, "I don't know what to do with a boy,
I've always had girls around me."
From the time Brittney was born,
Amber was the big sister and Amber was gonna help
with everything with Brittne
and she was at that time very much so,
a help and a little dotter on her little baby sister.
[Brittney] My sister Amber, she was a nice older sister
but also, the fact that I was younger,
picked on me,
did everything that an older sibling
would do to a younger one,
but at the same time was super loving.
I was the perfect baby,
I had big cheeks,
big curly hair,
just like my mom's,
but I was the best baby,
I slept through the night, never cried, I was a saint.
Everyone called me the little angel,
so that's been my nickname for so many years,
because I was an angel.
[laughs]
In July, 1988, there was a family reunion in New Jersey
where my parents and myself and my sister
had come and met all of my dad's side of the family.
[Tom speaking]
[woman speaking]
[Brittney] We drove through the night to get
to New Jersey
and when we had arrived, our entire family was there
to meet and greet us.
I was two-and-a-half and my sister was nine-and-a-half.
There I am, coming down the slide.
My sister's on the swing.
My parents recorded our entire life,
they recorded special events,
our trips, anything you can think of.
[Tom speaking]
[girl speaking]
Even to this day I have a camera
and do the same with my family.
[Tom speaking]
[Brittney] My mom could hang out and be one of the boys
or she could hang out with the girls and talk shop
She was able to fit in, wherever she was.
[man 1 speaking]
[Brittney] Oh, these are the boys playing horseshoes
the Jersey boys versus the Vegas boys,
well, my dad, he's the only Las Vegan there.
There's my mommy, sitting there watching the boys.
[laughing and screaming]
[Joann speaking]
[Brittney] Oh my God, she's so goofy!
She's so excited too.
[Tom speaking]
[Brittney] My dad was the most proud husband,
proud father,
he was honored and blessed to have her
and then have two daughters that remind him of her.
Looking back and just seeing how perfect
our life was at one time,
we had no idea what was gonna happen.
[narrator] It's October, 198
32-year-old Joann Albanese
and her 36-year-old husband, Tom,
are flying to Honolulu.
[Joann speaking]
[Brittney] My parents traveled a lot
for my dad's work.
My mom really loved traveling with my father,
they would explore and see tons of different places.
She looks definitely like she had a few drinks
to start off her vacation.
[laughs]
Those red nails.
She was so glamorous.
[indistinct]
That's probably from my dad, he's so handsome.
[Joann speaking]
They loved being silly together.
[Joann speaking]
When Joann did travel abroad and in the United States,
she always wanted to be on the top of the world.
If she was on a cruise ship
she wanted to be on the top of the boat,
if she was in an airplane,
she wanted to be in first class.
[Brittney] Any events that my parents went to,
my mom was my dad's right hand woman.
[Joyce] Joann always made a great appearance,
made great presence wherever she was,
she always had a smile on her face
and could greet people and could talk very comfortably
in any situation that you put her in with other strangers,
I don't believe many people were strangers to her.
I believe that that enabled Tom to feel
more comfortable to have a wife with him
on his business excursions,
that he was a husband and a father
and had an attractive, fun wife to be with.
[Tom speaking]
[narrator] But behind the smiles,
Joann is struggling with Tom's focus on work.
[Joyce] Joann felt a lot of times like Tom's busines
took precedence over time with his girls
as they were young, time with her mother,
time with her family.
[Joann speaking]
Tom was still very focused on providing a good life for her,
which she appreciated in many ways,
but he also was driven to please clients
and please customers
and please the business connections he had.
[Brittney] We lived in The Lakes in Las Vegas,
every street had a cul-de-sac on it
and it was for the elite of the elite.
Everyone wanted to live in The Lakes.
We had a pool in our backyard,
we'd probably be out there every single day
if our parents let us.
My mom and dad always loved entertaining.
[Joann speaking]
[Brittney] They would have everybody come over,
all of our guests felt special,
everyone was welcomed,
any events we had that weren't at our home,
they would plan and coordinate.
They kept everybody together.
[Joann speaking]
[Tom speaking]
[narrator] Joann is a great host,
but she longs for success outside of the home.
[Brittney] My mom wanted more from her life
than just being a part-time working stay-at-home mom.
She wanted dreams and ambitions as well,
and being able to be on the sideline for my dad,
I could definitely see her wanting more from herself,
not because my dad wasn't providing
and giving her everything,
it's because being a strong-willed woman,
you want to be able to say, "I did this."
[Tom speaking]
[Joann speaking]
In March, 1991, we went to meet my grandpa Earl
and his wife Fran to go on one of our many RV trips
which always ended in a good fishing trip.
[Tom speaking]
[Brittney] My parents did have some few disputes
that we were accustomed to,
whether my dad working long hours,
my mom wanting to work more.
[Brittney] But any issues they had in their lives,
anything that was there was definitely hidden from me.
They made a beautiful life,
at the same time, they both had their own paths.
[Joyce] I think being marrie so young and being
in the infatuation of a successful businessman
and those things wasn't so intriguing anymore to Joann.
[Joann speaking]
[man speaking]
[kid speaking]
[Joann speaking]
[man speaking]
[Joyce] I called Joann and I said,
"Just wanted to let you kno for planning purposes
that we're coming for Christmas this year
and be there a week or so
and wanted to plan a ski trip,"
and she said, "Oh, I'm not sure about that."
She said, "Tom doesn't know yet,
but I'm serving him with divorce papers tomorrow."
I did not realize
quite how far apart Tom and Joann had grown
and I said, "Do you know what you're giving up?"
and she said, "Joyce, I do, I really do,"
she said, "I can't do this anymore,
I can't be Tom's wife,
I have to be myself."
[Brittney] By December, 1991
my parents' divorce was finalized.
All of a sudden, dad's living
in an apartment about five minutes down the street
from our house
and on the weekends we're going with dad
and during the week we're with mom.
[Joyce] Soon after Joann was divorced,
she started working at the MGM Grand Hotel as a front office person.
I think Joann was excited about starting her job
at the MGM because it's like one of the biggest resorts
here in Las Vegas, first of all,
and very prestigious
and she was just very excited about it.
[Brittney] My mom was reall taking her own decisions
and making all the options that she wanted for her lif
and was still being a mom at the same time.
She was going to the gym, she started working out a lo
[narrator] By the start of 1992, Joann is single
and ready to dip her toes into the dating pool.
Joann had a very attractive figure,
she kept herself very well, she wore nice clothes,
she did her hair nice always she took very good care
and pride of her personal appearance.
She was starting to date a little bit
and had a couple of minor relationships.
The girls were a little bit older,
Tom was very good about taking care of the gir
on his weekends to have them
[Brittney] March, 1995,
my mom had met a gentleman named John Edwards.
[narrator] John is 45 years old
and works as a personal trainer at a local gym.
[Joyce] John was a good match for Joann,
I think he had a very calm nature,
he being a bodybuilder and a charming man,
I think the relationship got off to a very good start.
She was more excited and seemed happier
than I had seen her in many, many years.
She was excited to start something new in her life.
Very early on Joann wanted me to meet him
and being long distance,
the best thing was a phone call
and he got on the phone and he was very charming
and told me that he had fel like he already knew me wel
because of the stories that he and Joann had shared
He made me feel like we could pick up
where we had left off with Tom and Joann.
I think one of the most important things
that Joann had in her life was to find someone
that fit in her family and right away, John,
took a liking to her girls and them to him.
They did many, many things together,
he was apparently a very good tennis player.
[Brittney] He was super athletic, super into fitness,
he actually would teach me how to play tennis
when I was really young.
[Joyce] I think he presented himself very well
to Amber and Brittney
to be the perfect man in their life.
[Joyce] There was a dinner party with Joann's friend
and her husband.
She and John went out to dinner with them one evening
and her friend and Joann had both
used John as a personal trainer,
and her friend had mentione
that she was feeling chubby or looking chubby
or something and apparently John
had a very adverse reaction to her comment.
He took it very personally
that he was her personal trainer
and that he was the best and she should be the best
because she had the best.
Joann saw an angry side and that was a side
that he had not presented to her
or to anyone she knew in that way beforehand
and that made Joann aware that he wasn't
quite the kind, gentle man
that she had been first attracted to.
[Theresa] I was dropping my niece off
from spending the day with her,
me and my mom, we were driving up to their home,
and Brittney looked at the window and she said,
"Oh, there's my mom's boyfriend, John,"
and I just said, "Oh," not thinking anything of it
and we continued our drive up to her home
and we pulled in the driveway
and my sister-in-law was standing in the garage,
it was a nice warm day in Las Vegas
so the kids were out playing
We hung around a little bit
About ten minutes later,
John pulls up on his ten-speed
and before he even parked it he was yelling at Joann
'cause she hadn't answered the phone,
wondering why she hadn't answered the phone
and just being very, very obnoxious towards her,
not even noticing there was two people
standing there listening to this,
not to mention her two daughters and the neighbors.
So, we left
and we were talking in the car on the way home
and we both said the same thing,
"I don't like him," at the same time.
[Joyce] Joann called me one day when he was not ther
and she said, "Joyce, I thin
I'm going to have him move in with me,"
she said, "It'll give us more time together,
it'll give him more time with the girls,"
it seemed to me like
things must have been going well again,
that maybe he had backed of a touch of his control,
of his anger side.
I told Joann
that
I was uncomfortable with that decision.
I said, "Joann, you've got to really think hard
and long about this before you move him in,
it's all going so fast,
you don't really know anything about him,"
and I said, "It...
doesn't sit very well with me,
that he's moved so quickly,
you've got young girls!"
I said, "And I know he seem like this kind gentle man
and they like him a lot," but I said,
"There are some things that aren't adding up to me."
[Brittney] Shortly after tha he decided to move
into our home in The Lakes with us.
After John moved into our home,
my mom was kind of different
from my mom being a bubbly personality
to not necessarily being able to be that way.
Friday, August 18th, 1995,
I was laying on the couch watching cartoons,
mom had gone upstairs to get dressed
and ready for work,
it was our dad's weekend to pick us up,
my sister Amber and I
were going to our dad's house for his weekend.
When she came down, she said "Bye, Brittney, love you,
come give me a hug," and I didn't
because I was laying on the couch,
and she left for work.
It was the last time I saw her.
[Brittney] My dad had dropped us off, my sister and I,
to our home in The Lakes, at about six o'clock,
we had gone in like we had every other Sunday,
except for this Sunday, our mom was not there.
My sister did not worry
and she said,
"Oh, she probably just ran to the store,"
but everything was a bit different
and felt a little bit odd.
We go into her room and her room was in shambles,
her bed wasn't made,
her Nivea lotion cap was off
her bathroom was a mess,
pillows missing
and she was a neat clean freak.
There was jewelry on my mom's dresser
that she wore every single day,
that she did not have on.
All this, was just like really out of characte
for my mom.
My sister, being the oldest was able to notice
her wallet's here, her purse is here.
We had run downstairs to see if her car is here,
her car wasn't here,
but her purse was, so then it became a point
where, "Well, where's mom?"
Then Amber got involved and we started calling everybody,
if anybody has heard from he she maybe went into work,
maybe she needed to do something at the travel agent,
something, she wouldn't just leave us.
[phone rings]
[Joyce] My telephone rang
and it was Tom Albanese
and he didn't say, "Hello."
His first words to me is, "Where is she,"
and I said, "What are you talking about,"
and he said, "Joann's missing,
and if anyone knows where she is, you do,"
and I said, "You're right,
but I don't."
I can tell you something's wrong,
she would never leave her girls
of her own free will.
But I knew that on a Saturday evening,
the 19th of August,
she had told her mother that she and John were going out to dinner
and she was going to let John know
that she was no longer interested
in a relationship with him.
[Glenn] On the night Joann disappeared,
the girls searched the home
and when they went into the garage,
the girls found that Joann's gold Honda was missing.
They also noticed that John Edward's
small pickup truck,
was still parked on the street.
Las Vegas police then ran a record's check
on John's pickup truck
and quickly found out it was registered to no one,
which was very unusual,
you usually can trace a vehicle
and in this case they couldn't.
At this point, Las Vegas Police knows
something is really wrong.
[Abbi] Joann Albanese is now dubbed
by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police
as an endangered person.
By Wednesday, August 23rd,
police were able to obtain a search warrant
for the residence of John Edwards.
They found that he had rented a room
from somebody within a house
it didn't really look lived in,
there wasn't a lot of items
or personal belongings of John,
but what was of interest
was two different wallets
that had been duct-taped shut.
One of them had identification belonging
to a person by the name of "John Patrick Addis,"
and the other one had identification
of an individual by the name of "John Stone."
Obviously, this drew more red flags
for the police, he had multiple IDs
with his photograph on it with different names.
When the police ran it through the national databank,
they learned that John Patrick Addis
is a convicted felon from Alaska.
[Glenn] When Las Vegas Polic looked into his background,
they learned than John Patrick Addis
and his first wife were in a very contentious divorce
over the custody of their four kids.
There was a very troubling crime
that emerged out of this divorce,
specifically, John Addis
had kidnapped his own kids
and disappeared with them for nine months.
What is shocking now to the police
is once they started delving into
who is John Patrick Addis,
he's not just an ex-felon,
he's actually a former police officer
he actually taught crime scene investigation,
which is of huge concern,
because there wasn't an obvious crime scene
with Joann Albanese,
so the fact that this is an individual
that taught crime scene investigation,
this is somebody that definitely knows
what they're doing.
To have a police officer
who ends up becoming a convicted felon,
who's able to morph himself
into so many different identities,
it's just like nothing I've ever seen.
[Glenn] Las Vegas Police at this point realized
that they had an accomplishe criminal on their hands.
He was a criminal who was simply capable of anything.
[Abbi] On August 23rd, 1995
three days after Joann was reported missing,
the Yavapai County Sheriff' Office in Arizona,
finds a Honda
located in a very remote area of the desert,
called "Little Hells Canyon."
Yavapai County Sheriff's Office,
look over the vehicle,
there is no signs of Joann or John,
there's no blood spattered
or any evidence of traumatic injury.
[Glenn] Joann's car was foun about three hours north of the Mexican border,
and the detectives had thoug
that there was a very strong possibility
that John Patrick Addis had fled to Mexico.
[Brittney] When our mom's vehicle was recovered
we had a sense of hope,
because there was no remains found, no body found,
no blood.
We knew mom was still alive
they found her car, now we just need to find mom
After the discovery of the vehicle,
there was a lot of hope in Las Vegas that Joann
would be found alive.
But, we couldn't find any evidence to work with
one way or the other.
As the weeks and months passed,
the leads dried up and there was very little
to work with and...
there was no sign of Joann.
[Brittney] Everything just kept going
while mom was still missing
We just kept struggling and getting through each da
and just looking forward to the next day
because maybe the next day mom will show up.
[Theresa] After Joann went missing,
all the holidays were hard, every day was hard.
And on one holiday, it was Thanksgiving,
I was putting Brittney to bed and rubbing her back
like her mom used to,
and she said, "Aunt Terry,
when's my mom coming home?
She's already missed Halloween,
she's missed Thanksgiving,
maybe Christmas and our birthdays,"
and I really couldn't answer her,
because I didn't have an answer.
So I just continued rubbing her back and we were chatting
and I said, "She'll be home soon, Brittney."
[Glenn] In March of 1997, a national television show,
did a segment on the Joanne Albanese case
asking the public for any leads
that they could generate on what happened to Joann
and where was John Patrick Addis.
This was a national television show that got
a lot of exposure, lot of viewership
and it developed a very promising lead.
After the show aired, a tipster said
that they saw a man,
looking just like John Patrick Addis,
at a gym in Guadalajara, Mexico.
He was using an alias,
it was "John Charles Stone Peterson."
Someone close to the case then calls the gym,
and it tips off John Patrick Addis,
and just like in every case before,
he disappears,
within a matter of hours he's gone,
and they have no trace of him.
It would be years, before people figured out
what really happened to Joann.
[Abbi] October 1998,
I was notified by Yavapai County Sherriff's Departmen
that a hunter had come acros
what appeared to be human remains
and it was in the area of Little Hells Canyon,
not far from where they had ultimately recovered
Joann's car, three years before.
[narrator] Dental records confirmed
that the bones are those of Joann Albanese.
[Joyce] I can't remember every emotion
that went through my body.
Did not know it really is true, it's really over,
she's really gone forever from me and her girls.
[Brittney] I just completel felt broken and at a loss
that I didn't get to say goodbye
when I had the chance to say goodbye,
I just didn't get off the couch.
Now my mom's gone
and this is my life, I'm not going back
to my old life,
I'm just here, this person in this home,
without any answers or any questions or anything
and furthermore, the guy is still missing.
[Abbi] December 1998,
John Addis was listed as one of the top ten
most wanted figures in America.
[Glenn] America's Most Wanted, during this timeframe,
was one of the biggest shows in America,
everyone watched it Saturday night.
[TV host] John Addis is a bodybuilder
who looks much younger than his 49 years.
[Glenn] John Patrick Addis
was on America's Most Wantd a lot,
so this became a very high-profile case.
[TV host] If you've seen John Addis,
please, be careful and call 1-800-CRIME-TV.
There were over 500 tips from all over
regarding possible sighting of John Addis,
but none of them were really good tips at all,
and so the case really went cold,
went cold for a couple of years.
Hundreds of miles away from Guadalajara,
Mexican authorities found the body of a woman
and two children in an apartment.
Local authorities entered the apartment
because neighbors of the woman and her kids,
had not seen the family for weeks.
They also noticed a strange smell
coming from the apartment.
An autopsy showed that all three of the victims
died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
The woman was subsequently identified
as "Laura Peterson Padilla.
The Police were able to confirm
that Laura Padilla's husband is John Charles Peterson.
He was the last person seen with these three people
and John Charles Peterson was a common alias
used by John Patrick Addis.
[Abbi] The police in that region,
now that they found this woman and two children
began a massive manhunt in that part of Mexico,
looking for John Peterson.
A couple of weeks later, a body of a man
is found in a hotel room in Guatemala City.
The FBI came and investigate
and it was the FBI that ran his fingerprints
and that's how the confirmation was made,
through the FBI, that this individual
in this hotel room
was in fact John Patrick Addis,
AKA John Charles Stone,
AKA John Edwards, all one and the same.
Cause of death was listed as a heart attack, but my recollection,
is that law enforcement and others,
believe that it was some type of suicide.
I know it was very hard for myself and detectives
to believe,
we couldn't believe he was dead,
let alone a suicide.
We were hoping that this person would be brought to justice,
but we never had the opportunity to prosecute him.
[narrator] Las Vegas law enforcement
pieced together how John Addis
could have murdered Joann Albanese.
[Abbi] The evidence reflected that
John was a controlling, manipulative man.
Saturday evening, August 19th,
Joann had called her mother
and told her that she was gonna break up with John.
It was pretty well known that Joann was the type
that wouldn't take certain things from a man
or anybody else,
and we believe that John became frustrated,
you know, the ultimate act of control is murder,
that he strangled Joann in the home
and took her body into the car
and went to Arizona to Little Hells Canyon.
He dumped the body there, 'cause he was very familiar
with the fact that animals
would devour the bones and the flesh very quickly,
and he was able to walk out of Little Hells Canyon,
he made his way to Mexico, ultimately,
and that's when things began there,
such as working at a fitness center in Mexico,
befriending Laura Padilla.
[narrator] It's possible that John Addis
is also responsible
for the death of his wife and children, in Mexico.
[Glenn] The working theory was that Laura Padilla
had had enough
and if John Patrick Addis doesn't want you to get away
you're not getting away.
Then he leaves it all behind,
and makes it look like an accident.
Could this case have been prosecuted in a court of law
Who knows?
But when you know what you know
about John Patrick Addis
and his track record
and his history of deception and destruction
you put it all together and you have just
this culmination of a monster.
There's not a birthday that passes where I don't think about her
and make a little prayer to her.
And I'm like, I talk to her like she's there.
I'll cry and I'll sit and I'll think,
"Mom, am I doing right?
Like, tell me I'm doing right, like am I even
a percentage of what a mom you were to me?"
[Joann speaking]
I miss her so much.
[Joyce] I know life goes on, we grieve.
Grieve for those we love,
we grieve for the ones left behind,
but we also rejoice in the life that she had here
and, although it was short at 39,
it was pretty much joy.
[laughing and screaming]
[Joyce] She enjoyed life, she had a good life.
She was able to be
the daughter that her mother adored,
she was able to be my best friend
and she was able to be a wonderful mother
to those girls.