A Crime Clueless Case Overview — Parts One and Two
On the evening of November 1st, 1996, more than 100 people were waiting at a home in the Sabino Canyon area of Tucson, Arizona. They had wine. Someone had hand-painted glasses as party favors. Two friends had spent the entire evening at a restaurant across town, acting as decoys — keeping the guest of honor busy, keeping him away from the house, making sure he didn’t arrive too early and ruin the surprise.
The man they were waiting for would have turned 53 that Wednesday. His name was Gary Lee Triano. And he never made it home.
Who Was Gary Triano?
Gary Lee Triano was born on November 6th, 1943, right here in Tucson. He grew up here, graduated from Rincon High School, earned an accounting degree from the University of Arizona, and served in the U.S. Air Force from 1962 to 1968. Then he came home to Tucson and got to work.
At his peak in the 1980s, Gary was one of those people who seemed to exist at a slightly higher altitude than everyone else. He was a real estate developer and dealmaker who had built and brokered properties worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He was a pilot, a poet, a sculptor, a songwriter, a gourmet chef, a golfer, a wine connoisseur. He had a helicopter. He had a jet. He had a chauffeur. He was close friends with Donald Trump and Marla Maples — they attended University of Arizona basketball games together, and Gary brought Trump to Tucson. He served on the boards of hospitals and charities and youth organizations. He was a Republican Party precinct captain, a Boy Scouts of America vice president, a U.S. Senate Inner Circle member, and a recipient of the Medal of Merit from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Task Force.
His friend Rich Moret, who had known him for twenty years, described him this way: “Gary was larger than life. He had, at one time, the best of everything — homes, automobiles, a helicopter, a jet, a chauffeur, the finest wines.”
But Gary’s financial life was complicated. The real estate boom that had made him wealthy in the 1980s didn’t last. His ventures started failing. The casino deals he had been working on — in China, in the Caribbean, in the United States — fell apart. Lawsuits accumulated. By 1994 he had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for his company Frontier Investments, citing $40 million in debts. He was involved in 81 Superior Court cases in Pima County alone — named as a defendant in 66 of them.
By November 1996, Gary Triano was living in a borrowed house and driving a borrowed car. The car — a 1989 Lincoln Town Car — was registered to his housemate, a construction executive named Richard Hickey. Gary had been driving it for two years.
His friends said he was coming back. That the worst was behind him. That he was happy. He had a tennis match scheduled for the next morning. He was heading to a surprise birthday party that night.
He never made it.
The Bombing
On November 1st, 1996, Gary arrived at the La Paloma Country Club — a resort and golf club at 3800 East Sunrise Drive in the Catalina Foothills — sometime between 1 and 1:30 in the afternoon. He played a round of golf. He had dinner at the club with about 30 friends and relatives who were celebrating him before the surprise party that evening.
At approximately 5:30 p.m., Gary left the club and walked to the parking lot. Between 75 and 100 cars were parked there — La Paloma’s Friday happy hour mixer runs from 5 to 7 p.m. and the place was busy. He got into the borrowed Lincoln Town Car. And he leaned toward the passenger seat.
A pipe bomb detonated.
The explosion tore the roof completely off the car. It scattered car parts and debris 100 to 200 yards in every direction. It sent the windshield flying into the La Paloma swimming pool. Glass and shrapnel landed in the westbound lanes of Sunrise Drive, a quarter mile away.
Gary Lee Triano was killed instantly.
Keisho Kudo, a 25-year-old Pima Community College student who had been sitting in his Mitsubishi minivan in the parking space directly to the left of Gary’s car, was one of the most important witnesses in the case. He had watched two men in golf clothes approach Gary’s car just before the explosion. They appeared to be in their 50s. They greeted each other warmly — Kudo described them as looking like “golf buddies who hadn’t seen each other in a long time.” One of them got into the car. And then the bomb went off.
Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik arrived at the scene and looked at what was left of that Lincoln Town Car. And he said: “We had an assassination in the parking lot.”
It was the first fatal vehicle explosion in the city of Tucson’s history.
The Investigation — A Superabundance of Suspects
Within days of the bombing, a 23-member multiagency task force had been formed — the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, the Arizona Department of Public Safety crime lab, and the Tucson Police Department, all working together out of the Sheriff’s Department administration building on East Benson Highway.
They built a database of more than 950 names. They taped interviews with about 250 people. They sent bomb fragments to the ATF lab in Walnut Creek, California for reconstruction. They subpoenaed receipts and computer records from local electronics retailers, pulling sales records going back to January 1996 — which told investigators the bomb had likely been assembled months before the bombing.
And then they started pulling threads. There were a lot of threads to pull.
Sheriff Dupnik put it plainly: “It’s like a game of Clue.” He described the investigation as difficult not because of a lack of suspects — but because of what he called “a superabundance” of them.
The mob angle was the first theory investigators and media went to. A pipe bomb in a country club parking lot looked like an organized crime message. Gary had been involved in Indian gaming operations, had tried to develop casino ventures in places where the lines between legitimate business and organized crime weren’t always clear, and owed money to approximately 20 Las Vegas casinos. But investigators couldn’t find a direct connection between Gary and anyone with the means, motive, and access to carry out a targeted bombing.
The China casino deal became a major focus. Gary had been involved in a costly, failed attempt to start a casino in China with a Florida businessman named Gary Fears. The deal had ended badly — Gary reportedly wanted to sue Fears for millions. Two federal investigators and a Pima County detective made a five-day trip to Illinois to investigate. Fears cooperated, said he took and passed a lie detector test at FBI headquarters in Miami, and denied any involvement. Investigators couldn’t tie the China deal to the bomb.
The lawsuits produced their own universe of potential suspects. Gary was named as a defendant in 66 of the 81 Superior Court cases investigators found in Pima County alone. Angry creditors. Failed business partners. Investors who had lost significant money. The IRS had a claim of about $2.1 million against his estate. The Mirage Casino Hotel in Las Vegas said he owed $55,000. First Interstate Bank had claims totaling about $830,000.
Investigators also examined — and quickly dismissed — the possibility of suicide. The bomb was in a wooden box on the passenger seat of the car. Gary leaned toward it. Someone detonated it remotely. This was not self-inflicted.
One other thread investigators noted early: Gary had a $2 million life insurance policy on his life. The primary beneficiary was his ex-wife. Sheriff Dupnik noted publicly that there had been a “long history of substantial animosity” between Gary and his ex-wife. Investigators noted that the premium payments on the policy had been made by someone other than Gary or his ex-wife in the months leading up to his death. They filed it away. They moved on to other threads.
The Case Goes Cold
By April 1997, Detective Capt. Lawrence Seligman said publicly: “We have dissected Mr. Triano’s life. I cannot say an arrest is imminent. I don’t know who killed Gary Triano.”
By June 1997, a Tucson Citizen headline read: “Lack of Leads to Halt Triano Bomb Probe.”
On August 2nd, 1997 — nine months after the bombing — the Arizona Daily Star ran a front page headline: “Triano Assassination Task Force Disbanded.”
The task force that had started with 23 members was dissolved. What remained was one detective and a cold case file. Lieutenant Oscar Miranda said: “The case is not being closed. This is not being put on the shelf to gather dust.”
But the leads had run dry. The tip line went quiet. The years started passing.
One detail from the one-year anniversary coverage stood out: investigators confirmed they still wanted to interview a man connected to Gary’s ex-wife — someone who had dropped out of sight not long after the bombing and had a fraud warrant out of Aspen, Colorado. They couldn’t find him.
The case file sat in a box. Gary Triano’s children grew up. His friends moved on. Tucson moved on.
Whoever killed Gary Triano was living their life. And Gary’s family was waiting.
SPOILER WARNING
Everything below reveals the full resolution of the case.
If you haven’t listened to Part One and Two yet — we recommend starting there before reading further.
The Break — November 2005
In November 2005, a tip to America’s Most Wanted led investigators to Yorba Linda, California. A 64-year-old man named Ronald Young was picked up on outstanding fraud charges out of Aspen, Colorado. He had been a wanted man since not long after the bombing — nine years on the run.
When investigators searched his belongings, they found a storage unit. And inside that storage unit was everything.
Microcassette recordings. Digital recordings. A computer. Zip discs. Floppy discs. 76,748 documents. 931 spreadsheets. 152,989 emails generated between 1996 and 2005. Financial documents. Personal correspondence. Business records.
And among all of it — Gary Triano’s divorce papers from 1993. A Ramada Inn receipt from Tucson, dated July 1996 — four months before the bombing. A map of Tucson. And a sawed-off shotgun.
The Ramada Inn receipt told investigators something critical: Young had spent 18 days in Tucson in July 1996, at a hotel down the street from Gary Triano’s home. He had been watching him. Learning his routines. Figuring out when he would be in that parking lot, and when he would be alone.
Pima County Sheriff’s homicide Sgt. Michael O’Connor — who had been on this case since the night of the bombing — said: “This is a significant break in the investigation because prior to the arrest of Ronald Young, this case was at a near standstill.”
Who Was Pamela Phillips?
Ronald Young’s connection to the case ran through one person: Pamela Phillips. Gary Triano’s second ex-wife.
Pamela was a former model and socialite who had married Gary in October 1986 in San Diego. For several years, their life together was extraordinary — country clubs, political fundraisers, Trump dinners, helicopter rides. They were Tucson’s power couple.
But as Gary’s financial world collapsed in the early 1990s, the marriage collapsed too. The divorce was finalized in November 1993 — and it was bitter. Pamela alleged Gary made harassing phone calls, ripped off her clothes, faxed her unwanted poetry “clearly designed to harass and annoy,” and used vulgar language. She sought three separate orders of protection. Gary’s attorneys called her accusations frivolous.
After the divorce, Pamela moved to Aspen, Colorado with their two children, Trevor and Lois. The custody battle ground on. Gary was ordered to pay $200 a month in child support — she had sought $2,500 per child per month.
And she took something else with her from the marriage: a $2 million life insurance policy on Gary’s life, with herself as the primary beneficiary. Gary had taken it out while they were still married. Because Pamela was named as the owner of the policy, Gary couldn’t cancel it after the divorce. It was hers. And by 1995 she was struggling to pay the $400 to $500 monthly premiums — until a friend stepped in and began making the payments on her behalf to keep the policy active.
In Aspen, after the divorce, Pamela met Ronald Young. They were romantically involved for a time. And then — at some point — they entered into an arrangement.
The $400,000 Arrangement
Prosecutors would later describe it simply: Pamela Phillips agreed to pay Ronald Young $400,000 — one fifth of the $2 million she stood to collect from Gary Triano’s life insurance policy — in exchange for his participation in Gary Triano’s death.
In the spring of 1996, Young flew Phillips to Denver. He put her up in a first-class hotel. They dined at an exclusive restaurant on April 15th, 1996. And at some point during that trip, they made a plan.
The payments began five months before Gary Triano was killed.
That detail — five months before — is the fact that broke the defense’s blackmail theory in half. You cannot be blackmailed about a murder that hasn’t happened yet.
Pamela was careful at first. She withdrew small amounts from multiple banks, compiled the cash, bought a single money order from a convenience store, and shipped it to Young by Federal Express. Other times she wrote multiple checks to herself and cashed them before buying the money order. Young, equally cautious in the early years, would ask Phillips to send him 14 separate items at a time so bank records would show deposits of only $1,400 rather than one large sum.
But over time, she got sloppy. At one point she withdrew $9,500 from her account — and $9,500 landed in Young’s account two days later. Forensic accountant Robert Semple, who spent three years analyzing Young’s and Phillips’ financial records, described the moment simply: “She made a mistake.”
The last payment was $1,000 in July 2004. By then she still owed Young $248,000 of the agreed $400,000. And Young — sitting on nine years of recordings, emails, and financial documents — was not happy about it.
The Recordings
Ronald Young had been recording his phone conversations with Pamela Phillips for years. And what was on those recordings was extraordinary.
In one call, Young pressed Phillips for money, telling her he needed surgery in Mexico. Phillips spiraled. She told him: “I’m a wreck. I’m meeting with this person and all of a sudden I just felt it come over me and I start hyperventilating and shaking and sweating.”
In another, after a newspaper article named Phillips as a possible suspect, she told Young: “Yeah, I am. I’m ready to commit myself. Yeah, either that or kill myself. I’m not sure which.” Young tried to reassure her.
In another, Young told Phillips exactly what would happen if she didn’t keep paying him. He said: “You’ll be very serious when you’re sitting in a women’s prison for murdering — when you’re sitting in a women’s prison for murder.”
Phillips did not deny it. She said: “Call me back at 4 o’clock.”
And then there was the email. Retrieved from Young’s Zip discs. Sent by Phillips to Young in the spring of 1996, months before Gary Triano was killed. Five words that prosecutors called the smoking gun of the entire case:
“I love you. Want to go ahead with the thing we talked about?”
The Chase — Indictments, Flight, and Vienna
In October 2008, a Pima County grand jury handed down indictments. Both Pamela Phillips and Ronald Young were charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
Young was arrested immediately in California.
Pamela Phillips was in Switzerland. Visiting a daughter. Her attorneys advised her she could not return until a warrant was formally issued. She stayed. Months passed. The warrant was issued. Phillips still didn’t come home.
She was finally arrested in Vienna, Austria, in December 2009 — thirteen years after Gary Triano was killed.
Her return to Tucson in July 2010 was not quiet. About a dozen Triano family members attended her initial hearing. Gary’s daughter Heather Triano Klindworth, who had been 26 years old when her father was killed and was now 39, could not hold back tears. She told the judge: “She is frankly in the place she belongs. We have waited far too long to have her behind bars. Please don’t let her free.”
Phillips appeared via closed-circuit television. She wouldn’t even appear on camera. The judge set bail at $5 million. Phillips’s attorney had requested $10,000.
And then — Phillips claimed she was mentally incompetent to stand trial.
In December 2011, she was declared mentally incompetent by Judge Richard Fields and ordered into a restoration program. The claims she made to psychiatrists were extraordinary: someone had been watching and listening to her for seven to eight years; tracking devices had been placed in her neck and passport; plugs inserted into her brain allowed people to both track her and control her body; she felt waves of energy or electricity flowing through her body; at other times she felt like she was exploding or imploding from within.
The prosecution’s forensic psychiatrist testified he believed Phillips was probably “malingering or faking the symptoms of mental illness.”
She went into the restoration program anyway. New attorneys were assigned. Trial dates were pushed back. And pushed back again. And pushed back again.
Pamela Phillips was arrested in Vienna in December 2009. Her trial did not begin until February 2014.
At a bond reduction hearing in March 2013, Gary’s daughter Heather appeared and said: “Our lives have been modified enough, and we are missing an amazing man due to her actions.”
The Trials
Ronald Young — February through April 2010
Young’s trial opened with two competing portraits. The prosecution: Young built and detonated a pipe bomb that killed Gary Triano in exchange for $400,000. The defense: Young was a blackmailer, not a killer — Phillips told him intimate details about Triano’s death and he used that knowledge to extort her for years.
Key testimony came from Heather Triano Klindworth, who said Phillips never once mentioned being blackmailed during the nine months they shared a house in Aspen after Gary’s death. From forensic accountant Robert Semple, who laid out the financial trail in meticulous detail — including the fact that payments began five months before the murder. From Joy Bancroft, Phillips’s maid of honor, who described Phillips considering canceling the insurance policy in 1995 before a friend stepped in to pay the premiums.
And then the recordings were played in open court.
The jury deliberated for twelve hours over two days. Guilty on both counts. Young hung his head when the verdicts were read. Heather Klindworth and Brian Triano cried and then walked across the courtroom and hugged the two detectives who had devoted years to the case.
Young was sentenced to two consecutive life terms. He will die in an Arizona state prison.
Pamela Phillips — February through April 2014
Phillips’s trial ran for nearly seven weeks. She did not testify. The prosecution’s opening argument was clean and precise: “Moments prior to that bombing, the only person who stood to get any benefit from Gary Triano’s death was Pamela Phillips.”
The defense presented an alternative suspect — Neil McNeice, a business associate of Triano’s who died of a drug overdose in 2002. They argued McNeice had been angered at being duped into providing an $80,000 loan — collateral on a ring that turned out to be cubic zirconia — and had arranged for someone with experience building radio-controlled devices to construct the bomb. The bomb components were indeed identified as controllers from radio-controlled vehicles.
The prosecution’s response: even if every word of the defense’s theory is true, Phillips and Young still conspired to kill Gary Triano. The conspiracy is the crime. The recordings prove the conspiracy.
The jury came back on April 8th, 2014. Guilty on both counts.
Phillips turned to the courtroom gallery: “I’m innocent! I’m innocent! This is a nightmare.”
The Sentencing — May 22nd, 2014
Nearly eighteen years after Gary Triano was killed, his children addressed the court.
Heather Triano Klindworth described the close relationship she had maintained with her former stepmother in the years after her father’s murder. Phillips had been a guest at Heather’s wedding. She was there when Heather’s first child was born. Even after the 2005 America’s Most Wanted episode that named Phillips as a suspect, Heather said she still defended her. She went to Phillips’s house to give her a pep talk.
“To think I actually stood up for this woman.”
Brian Triano said: “Pamela Phillips murdered my father for nothing but the supposed comfort money would give her. His life was taken as a result of lack of humanity, greed and malice.” He also described how the family had lived in fear in the years after Gary’s death — not knowing if whoever had planted that bomb had other targets in mind.
Judge Richard Fields sentenced Pamela Phillips to life in prison without the possibility of parole on the murder conviction, and 25 years to life on the conspiracy conviction.
Deputy Pima County Attorney Rick Unklesbay said: “There have been two separate juries, independently with different attorneys on both sides, that came to the same conclusion in this case.”
Where Things Stand Today — The DNA Twist
In 2023 — nearly thirty years after the bombing — Phillips’s defense team sent bomb fragments for new DNA testing using technology that didn’t exist at the time of either trial.
The result: DNA found on parts of the bomb does not match Ronald Young.
In August 2024, Phillips filed a post-conviction petition for relief. Her attorney argues that two innocent people are in prison — that the person who actually built the bomb has never been identified, and that genetic genealogy could potentially name them.
The Pima County Attorney’s Office filed their response in January 2025. They argue the DNA finding is not meaningful evidence — it would have been entirely possible for Young to build and detonate the bomb without leaving his DNA on it. Two juries heard overwhelming evidence and reached the same conclusion.
The question the DNA raises is genuinely uncomfortable. Was Ronald Young the person who physically built that bomb? Or was he the middleman — the person who arranged for someone else to construct it, who then detonated it himself in that parking lot? If so, that would still make both Young and Phillips guilty of everything they were convicted of. But it would also mean there is a third person — someone who built the bomb, whose DNA is on its fragments — who has never been identified. Who has been living their life for thirty years.
As of today, both Pamela Phillips and Ronald Young are serving life sentences in Arizona state prison. Phillips’s post-conviction petition is working its way through the court system. The outcome is unknown.
Gary
Gary Lee Triano was 52 years old when he was killed. He would have turned 53 five days later. More than 100 people were waiting at his home to surprise him.
His daughter wrote him a letter to be read at the party. It said: “You are not only my father, but also my friend. What we have together is so special and no one will ever pull it from my grasp. Everything I ever want to be is what you are.”
He never got to hear it.
He was a complicated man. A man whose financial life left a trail of lawsuits and broken deals and angry creditors. A man whose marriage ended in bitterness and court orders. A man who was living in a borrowed house and driving a borrowed car on the last day of his life.
He was also a poet. A pilot. A father of five. A man who made people feel seen just by walking up and shaking their hand. A man who had a tennis match scheduled for the next morning and a surprise birthday party waiting for him that evening.
Both of those men were real. And neither of them deserved what happened in that parking lot on November 1st, 1996.
The Borrowed Car is a two-part Crime Clueless episode. Part One and Part Two are both available now . Start with part 1 on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts.
If you found this story interesting, you may also want to learn about the case of Robert Marshall, Harold Henthorn, and Betsy Faria.
Robert Marshall
A New Jersey businessman drowning in debt who arranged his wife’s murder on a highway shoulder to collect on a life insurance policy — a case that unravels layer by layer as investigators peel back his elaborate cover story. Read more here, or listen on Youtube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.
Harold Henthorn (Toni Henthorn)
A husband’s second wife dies in a freak fall at a remote scenic overlook — eerily similar to how his first wife also died in his presence. A chilling look at how insurance payouts and “accidents” don’t always add up. Read more about this case here, or listen on Youtube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.
Betsy Faria
A Missouri woman is stabbed to death, and the investigation initially points to her husband — until the case takes a stunning turn toward wrongful conviction, hidden motives, and a fight for justice that took over a decade to resolve. Read more here, or listen on Youtube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts.
Have thoughts on this story or other cases you’d like to see highlighted? Share them with us in the comments or connect with us on social media. Together, we can ensure that stories like this one are never forgotten.
Don’t forget to follow us on social media, share your thoughts, and let us know what you’d like to hear about in future episodes. If you have any true crime stories of your own, send them our way crimeclueless@gmail.com to be featured on a future episode! And as always, remember: refuse to be clueless, careless, or caught off guard. Not today, murderers.
See you in the next episode of Crime Clueless!
Resources:
The Borrowed Car — Parts One & Two
Primary Sources — Newspapers.com Archives
1996
Rawlinson, J. F., & Tapia, S. T. (1996, November 2). Car blast kills developer Triano. Arizona Daily Star, p. 1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/167378344/
Prentice, M., Haussler, A., & Rawlinson, J. F. (1996, November 2). Blast. Arizona Daily Star, p. 3. https://www.newspapers.com/image/167378412/
Cole, N., Peckham, N., & Hartman, P. (1996, November 2). Car bomb a ‘professional hit.’ Tucson Citizen, p. 1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/580022220/
Hartman, P., & Coile, N. (1996, November 2). Friends learn of death at Triano birthday fete. Tucson Citizen, p. 2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/580022226/
Hartman, P. (1996, November 2). ‘Next thing I knew there’s a big boom.’ Tucson Citizen, p. 3. https://www.newspapers.com/image/580022241/
Bodfield, R. (1996, November 5). Triano threats scrutinized. Tucson Citizen, p. 2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/580024603/
Bodfield, R. (1996, November 5). Messages being sought in Triano car bombing. Tucson Citizen, p. 2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/580024603/
Graham, M. R. (1996, November 5). Investigators to rebuild Triano bomb. Tucson Citizen, p. 2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/580024603/
Bodfield, R. (1996, November 5). Triano finances muddy. Tucson Citizen, p. 2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/580024603/
Revere, C. T. (1996, November 11). Memorial service honors Gary Triano. Tucson Citizen, p. 21. https://www.newspapers.com/image/580032308/
Graham, M. R. (1996, November 8). Bomb may have been Triano’s, investigators say. Tucson Citizen, p. 15. https://www.newspapers.com/image/580029953/
Bodfield, R., & Innes, S. (1996, November 8). Lawsuits combed for clues. Tucson Citizen, p. 1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/580029761/
Bodfield, R., & Innes, S. (1996, November 8). Investigators comb lawsuits for leads in Triano car bombing. Tucson Citizen, p. 15. https://www.newspapers.com/image/580029953/
Wagner, D. (1996, November 10). Bombing death puzzles police. Arizona Republic, p. 35. https://www.newspapers.com/image/123657024/
Wagner, D. (1996, November 10). Bombing death puzzles investigators. Arizona Republic, p. 36. https://www.newspapers.com/image/123656731/
Wagner, D. (1996, November 10). Solving pipe-bombing is ‘like a game of Clue.’ Arizona Republic, p. 37. https://www.newspapers.com/image/123656755/
Graham, M. R. (1996, December 4). Bomb part sales targeted. Tucson Citizen, p. 1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/580498793/
Graham, M. R. (1996, December 4). Bomb parts receipts sought. Tucson Citizen, p. 6. https://www.newspapers.com/image/580498827/
Teibel, D. L. (1996, December 19). Triano’s ex-wife beneficiary of $2 million policy. Tucson Citizen, p. 14. https://www.newspapers.com/image/580026248/
Teibel, D. L. (1996, December 19). Six asked to undergo lie tests. Tucson Citizen, p. 14. https://www.newspapers.com/image/580026248/
1997
Volante, E. (1997, April 6). Triano inquiry said to focus on China deal. Arizona Daily Star, p. 1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/168018575/
Volante, E. (1997, April 6). Triano inquiry continued. Arizona Daily Star, p. 5. https://www.newspapers.com/image/168018622/
Teibel, D. L. (1997, June 19). Lack of leads to halt Triano bomb probe. Tucson Citizen, p. 1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/580056750/
Teibel, D. L. (1997, June 19). Triano car-bomb probe stalls over lack of leads. Tucson Citizen, p. 5. https://www.newspapers.com/image/580056764/
Volante, E. (1997, August 2). Triano assassination task force disbanded. Arizona Daily Star, p. 1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/170098752/
Volante, E. (1997, August 2). Triano assassination task force disbanded continued. Arizona Daily Star, p. 16. https://www.newspapers.com/image/170091155/
Teibel, D. L. (1997, October 31). Detectives lack leads, but not hope of catching killer. Tucson Citizen, p. 8. https://www.newspapers.com/image/580552345/
2006
Wagner, D. (2006, September 7). Ex-wife’s home searched in probe of Tucson man’s death. Arizona Republic, p. 22. https://www.newspapers.com/image/125706811/
Volante, E. (2006, September 7). ’96 bomb slaying getting a second look. Arizona Daily Star, p. 78. https://www.newspapers.com/image/225646270/
Volante, E. (2006, September 8). Detective: Secret recordings link Triano ex, suspected death plot. Arizona Daily Star, p. 1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/225646561/
Volante, E., & Huicochea, A. (2006, September 8). Secret recordings lead to suspects. Arizona Daily Star, p. 2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/225646565/
2008
Flick, A. J. (2008, October 7). Deposition ordered in Triano suit. Tucson Citizen, p. 2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/611984179/
2009
Smith, K. (2009, May 15). Throw out the case, say attorneys for man charged in Triano murder. Arizona Daily Star, p. A14. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213934179/
Smith, K. (2009, June 6). Defense team in Triano case loses court bid. Arizona Daily Star, p. A19. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213991512/
Smith, K. (2009, December 4). Gary Triano’s ex-wife arrested in his 1996 pipe-bomb slaying. Arizona Daily Star, p. A1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/214027084/
2010
Smith, K. (2010, February 24). Lawyer: Defendant a blackmailer, not a killer. Arizona Daily Star, p. A2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213735539/
Smith, K. (2010, February 24). Young trial coverage continued. Arizona Daily Star, p. A5. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213735615/
Smith, K. (2010, March 3). Con says Young told him he killed Triano. Arizona Daily Star, p. A6. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213750056/
Smith, K. (2010, March 4). Triano’s daughter: Stepmother never mentioned blackmailing. Arizona Daily Star, p. A2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213750966/
Smith, K. (2010, March 4). Triano’s daughter continued. Arizona Daily Star, p. A5. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213751074/
Smith, K. (2010, March 12). Young, in phone recording, threatens Triano’s ex-wife. Arizona Daily Star, p. A2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213763375/
Smith, K. (2010, March 13). Triano’s ex-wife, Young talked money. Arizona Daily Star, p. A7. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213765038/
Smith, K. (2010, March 17). Detective: Bomb suspect’s computer use telling. Arizona Daily Star, p. A6. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213769599/
Smith, K. (2010, March 18). Testimony in Triano-case trial: Payments to Young ‘got sloppy.’ Arizona Daily Star, p. A2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213770004/
Smith, K. (2010, March 18). Payments to Young ‘got sloppy’ continued. Arizona Daily Star, p. A3. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213770030/
Smith, K. (2010, March 19). Triano’s ex-wife contemplated suicide. Arizona Daily Star, p. A2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213772807/
Smith, K. (2010, March 27). Triano case closing arguments. Arizona Daily Star, p. A2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213786116/
Smith, K. (2010, April 1). Triano jury: It’s 1st-degree murder. Arizona Daily Star, p. A2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213796530/
Smith, K. (2010, April 1). Triano jury continued. Arizona Daily Star, p. A3. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213796602/
Arizona Republic Staff & Wire Services. (2010, May 6). Man gets 2 life sentences for fatal car bombing in 1996. Arizona Republic, p. 6. https://www.newspapers.com/image/125977961/
Smith, K. (2010, May 25). Sentence cut for man guilty in Triano case. Arizona Daily Star, p. A5. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213951548/
O’Dell, R. (2010, July 4). $5M bail set for ex-wife in Triano killing. Arizona Daily Star, p. B1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213649015/
O’Dell, R. (2010, July 4). $5M bail set for ex-wife in Triano killing continued. Arizona Daily Star, p. B2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213649049/
Smith, K. (2010, August 4). Pre-emptive anti-‘snitch’ move fails. Arizona Daily Star, p. A6. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213706763/
Pedersen, B. J. (2010, July 15). Triano’s ex-wife arraigned. Arizona Daily Star, p. A2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213664598/
2011
Smith, K. (2011, December 13). Suspect in ’96 Triano slaying ruled mentally incompetent. Arizona Daily Star, p. A2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/214066897/
2012
Smith, K. (2012, May 9). Judge delays Phillips trial as new lawyer joins team. Arizona Daily Star, p. A6. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213898245/
2013
Cruz, V. M. (2013, March 19). Triano ex-wife’s bond reduced to $4M. Arizona Daily Star, p. A5. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213764731/
2014
McNamara, P. (2014, February 20). Conflicting pictures painted of Triano murder suspect. Arizona Daily Star, p. A2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213709406/
McNamara, P. (2014, February 20). Conflicting pictures painted of Triano murder suspect continued. Arizona Daily Star, p. A6. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213709472/
McNamara, P. (2014, April 9). Phillips found guilty. Arizona Daily Star, p. A1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213769531/
McNamara, P. (2014, April 9). Phillips found guilty continued. Arizona Daily Star, p. A4. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213769607/
McNamara, P. (2014, May 23). Phillips gets life for fatal bombing. Arizona Daily Star, p. C1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213851811/
McNamara, P. (2014, May 23). Phillips gets life for fatal bombing continued. Arizona Daily Star, p. C4. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213851935/
Sources Beyond Newspaper Archives
Book
Droban, K. (2012). A socialite scorned: The murder of a Tucson high-roller. St. Martin’s True Crime.
Television Documentaries & News Magazine Episodes
American Broadcasting Company. (2025, January 24). Explosive secrets [Television broadcast]. 20/20. ABC News.
CBS News. (n.d.). The hit [Television broadcast]. 48 Hours. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/48-hours/
NBCUniversal. (n.d.). Mystery on Sunrise Drive [Television broadcast]. Dateline NBC. NBC News.
NBCUniversal. (n.d.). Mystery on Sunrise Drive [Television broadcast]. Dateline on ID. Investigation Discovery.
CNBC. (2015). A widow’s web [Television broadcast]. American Greed, Season 9. CNBC.
Court & Legal Records
Pima County Superior Court. (2008). State of Arizona v. Ronald Young [Case No. CR-57708]. Pima County Superior Court.
Pima County Superior Court. (2008). State of Arizona v. Pamela Phillips [Case No. CR-57709]. Pima County Superior Court.
Pitkin County District Court. (2006). Gamber affidavit in support of search warrant for Phillips residence [Sworn statement of Detective James Gamber]. Pitkin County District Court, Colorado.
