Secrets Of Palm Beach

A Socialite's Secret Love Life Leads To Murder

(CBS)  "There was something that happened that week, that I never knew until two, three months later, when something happened with him and my mother. And my mother never told me," Mario remembers.

That week, Mario's 70-year-old mother says Kretzmer made a pass at her when they were alone. "He sits her at the edge of the bed and proceeds to lift her blouse over her head, to which point she slaps the blouse down and said, 'What are you doing?'" Keith explains.

Kretzmer’s odd behavior continued when a few nights later he was staying with Gissele’s family in Miami. "The very horrible thing he said is like he wanted to have sex with me and my mother," Gissele remembers.

Her reaction? "I told him he was sick. The next day I put him on the train again and that was it. That was the last time I saw him," she recalls.

Prosecutor Angela Miller says Kretzmer's behavior then went from disturbing to dangerous. "He was in Port St. Lucie looking for a girlfriend that he had had a relationship with. And when he didn't locate her, he ended up committing a crime of violence on a convenience-store clerk who wouldn't give him a pair of sunglasses for free," she says.

And then came his last night in Florida, when Kretzmer decided to look up one more old friend. "And I think Linda Fishman was the final stop," Miller says.

It was just after 1 a.m. when Mario heard from Kretzmer, who called and wanted him to pick him up from the local train station.

That train station, Keith says, is where Linda's car was found.

Mario says Kretzmer also had a bag with some pictures in it.

At that point Keith says, "We knew Fred was our guy."

And it wasn't hard to track him down: four months after Linda's murder, detectives found Kretzmer in a Florida jail for the store clerk beating. Kretzmer was charged with the first degree murder of Linda Fishman. But with no forensic evidence linking him to the crime, could they get a conviction?

It took four years, but in June 2007, Michael Jamrock was finally vindicated in the murder of his aunt. "It's been very difficult for me for four years, everybody thinking that my son did it and everything. It was awful. I mean that was his godmother! I mean, she was like his mother," Bernice says.

Although the case against Kretzmer was mostly circumstantial, prosecutor Angela Miller was confident. "We didn't have a concern about winning this case at trial. We knew that our work was cut out for us," she recalls.

At the top of her witness list was former roommate Mario Segura, whose account of the morning after the murder was invaluable. "Mario walks into Fred's room and sees media coverage of the murder on the TV and sees Fred holding a jewelry box. Fred tries to cover up the jewelry. And at that point, Fred turns off the TV and the wheels start spinning in Mario's mind, 'Did this guy just kill this woman?'" Keith explains.

"It took me many, many weeks and many months until I kind of said, 'Is this real? Is this real?' And it was affecting me, my mother, everything. You know, it's just something that I couldn't take anymore," Mario recalls.

Mario says he remained silent for so long because he was scared. "Well, you know, I don't want someone to come and maybe burn my house, or come and do something to my mother or myself."

Too afraid to tell police, Mario instead confided in Gissele, who then bravely wrote that letter.

Mario and Gissele stood ready to testify against their former friend, until an unexpected development would change everything.

According to his public defender, Kretzmer wanted to take responsibility for his actions and agreed to a plea deal of second degree murder and first degree arson, and to give a full confession in open court.