ABC: 5 Harrowing details about the murder of Gary Lee Triano on 20/20 Explosive Secrets, explored

The new episode of ABC’s 20/20 season 47, titled Explosive Secrets, featured the murder of an Arizona businessman Gary Lee Triano.

The real-estate developer was killed in 1996 in his Lincoln Town car by a remote-controlled pipe bomb. As revealed in episode 14 of ABC 20/20, Triano was murdered in his car in the parking lot of a Tucson country club on November 1, 1996.

Here are 5 details about Gary Lee Triano’s murder as shown on ABC 20/20.

ABC 20/20: 5 Harrowing details about Gary Lee Triano's murder

1) Gary Triano’s murder was initially believed to be a mob attack

During the early investigations of the murder case, several theories popped up. One of them is a mob attack which his second ex-wife also claimed in her trial in 2014.

However, the police did not believe any of the early theories without any concrete evidence and scrapped all of them, including the mob hit theory.

2) Gary Triano received death threats from investors

As revealed in the episode, Triano’s financial condition was not as good as everyone thought to be. After his complicated divorce with his second wife, Pamela Phillips, he filed for bankruptcy in 1994.

He was in a lot of debt and received numerous death threats. One of them being Neil McNeice. Pamela Phillip’s attorneys claimed that it might have been McNeice who had killed Triano to which Dr. Lawrence Antonio, who provided medical assistance to McNeice before his death, agreed while talking to ABC 20/20.

However, after Phillip’s trial, McNeice’s family denied all claims of his involvement in the murder.

3) A hitman named Ronald Young was convicted in Gary Triano’s death

In 2005, Ronald Young was initially investigated for fraudulent activities which happened to reveal his involvement in Triano’s murder.

Police found a bulk of evidence in the form of letters, emails, and phone call recordings between him and Triano’s ex-wife, Pamela Philips linking both of them to Triano’s murder. He was convicted in 2010 and sentenced to two life sentences for murdering Gary Triano.

4) Ronald Young’s conviction revealed Pamela’s involvement in the murder of Gary Triano

While investigating Young’s forgery, the police found ample evidence connecting Phillips to her ex-husband’s murder. There was evidence of Phillips paying Young a huge amount of money (approximately $400,000). James Gambler, a retired Pima County detective was stunned and revealed in an interview with ABC 20/20:

“He had his own amortization table of the money Pam was paying him with the interest that was due.”

Phillips’ further statements helped the police gather more evidence about Young and her involvement. They found Triano and Phillips’ divorce papers and various other stuff linking them both to the murder.

James Crowley, a retired Aspen Polic Department detective further revealed to ABC 20/20:

“It was packed floor to ceiling with documents, and clothes, and junk, and a taser, a sawed-off shotgun, and just all kinds of stuff.”

Pamela Phillips was convicted in a 2014 trial and sentenced to life imprisonment.

5) Phillips allegedly murdered her ex-husband for a $2 million insurance policy

The investigation linking Phillips to the murder revealed she took out an insurance policy of $2 million following Gary Triano’s death which belonged to their two kids as they were the beneficiaries. Prosecutors alleged this insurance policy was the motive of Phillips murdering her ex-husband with the help of hitman Ronald Young.