Up In Flames

Summary

48 Hours: "Up In Flames" – A Detailed Summary

Episode Release Date: May 28, 2025
Host: Ryan Reynolds
Produced by: CBS News "48 Hours" Team

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Introduction

The "48 Hours" episode titled "Up In Flames" delves into the unsolved double homicide of Michael Tardeo and Christopher Monson, two young men found dead in a burning SUV in a quiet Hollywood neighborhood on Labor Day weekend in 2002. Hosted by Ryan Reynolds, the episode unravels the intricate web of relationships, financial deceit, and high-stakes jewelry that may hold the key to solving this baffling case.

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The Crime Scene

On September 2, 2002, firefighters and police responded to a burning SUV in a typically serene neighborhood near Hollywood. Upon extinguishing the fire, they discovered the lifeless bodies of Michael Tardeo, a 35-year-old nightclub doorman and aspiring model, and Christopher Monson, a 31-year-old family man managing his family's storage business.

Detective Bill Cox reflects on the initial investigation:

"[00:01:51] 'It appeared that they had been executed.'"

The absence of fingerprints beyond those of the victims and no usable evidence complicated the early stages of the investigation. The scene suggested a possible gang-related motive, but this theory was soon overshadowed by more complex developments.

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The Victims

Michael Tardeo was known as a clean-cut, ambitious individual, well-liked but seemingly searching for his path. Christopher Monson came from a tight-knit family and was respected for managing the family business efficiently.

Detective Bill Cox provides insight into their backgrounds:

"[00:04:19] 'Michael Tardeo, he's out in LA. He's kind of living the fast life.'
'[00:04:33] 'Chris Monson comes from a pretty tight-knit family. They had some storage facilities that they owned.'"

Both men had no prior legal troubles and were considered trustworthy, making their sudden and brutal deaths even more perplexing.

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The Jewelry Connection and Sandy Bentley

The pivotal turn in the investigation came with the revelation that Tardeo and Monson were involved in selling over a million dollars worth of jewelry provided by Sandy Bentley, a former Playboy cover girl and Michael Tardeo's girlfriend.

Sandy Bentley candidly admits her role:

"[00:10:48] 'Every day I feel like a fool. You know my greed. And then my greed resulted in the murders of two innocent people.'"

Bentley described the jewelry as a "curse," alluding to the dangerous path it set the victims on. She had previously been involved with Mark Yagala, a multimillionaire Wall Street financier, whose lavish gifts to her ultimately led to financial ruin and strained relationships.

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Mark Yagala and the Wall Street Scam

Mark Yagala was a self-described "Wall Street whiz kid" who amassed wealth through aggressive stock trading and a hedge fund. His relationship with Sandy Bentley was marked by extravagant spending, including a $150,000 necklace and earring set modeled after one from the movie "Pretty Woman."

Sandy Bentley divulges the extent of Yagala's generosity:

"[00:09:57] 'I stole her from Hugh Hefner, the ultimate heterosexual icon.'
'[00:10:02] 'Two Rolexes, diamond rings. There's about a million dollars right there.'
'[00:10:14] 'Very, very happy.'"

However, Yagala's financial empire was built on a massive Ponzi scheme. When his fraudulent activities were exposed, he found himself owing millions, leading to his downfall. Sandy Bentley's association with him left her with immense debt and a treasure trove of high-value jewelry, which she later used in her relationship with Tardeo.

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The Investigation Journey

Detectives, led by retired Bill Cox, traced the origins of the crime through a labyrinth of high society glamour and dark financial deceit. The initial theory of a gang-related killing was soon abandoned as evidence pointed towards a connection with the stolen jewelry and financial desperation.

Detective Bill Cox summarizes the investigation's complexity:

"[00:02:39] 'Little did we know all the twists and turns that were going to happen in this case over time. Our investigation took us from the pages of Playboy magazine to an international prostitution ring and ultimately to a multimillion-dollar scam on Wall Street.'"

Key evidence included Michael Tardeo's cell phone records, which showed his last communication with Sandy Bentley moments before his death, and surveillance footage capturing the exchange of jewelry intended to be sold.

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Michael Jacobs: The Middleman

The investigation introduced Michael Jacobs, a convicted felon and known middleman, who was allegedly the link between Tardeo, Monson, and the mysterious buyer referred to as "Mr. Big." Despite being a person of interest, Jacobs remained uncooperative, refusing to provide crucial information that could break the case open.

Detective Bill Cox emphasizes Jacobs' importance:

"[00:38:54] 'There's no doubt in our mind Michael Jacobs is the key to the case.'"

Efforts to secure an interview with Jacobs were unsuccessful, and his reluctance fueled suspicions about his involvement in the murders.

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Current Status and Public Appeal

With the case stalled and key suspects remaining elusive, the families of Tardeo and Monson turned to public assistance, hoping that fresh eyes and new leads could finally bring justice. Detective Bill Cox remains optimistic:

"[00:41:34] 'I've always felt that it was solvable.'"

Sandy Bentley, now living a more subdued life as a married mother, cooperated with authorities to avoid prosecution for the stolen jewelry. Her statements shed light on the final days leading up to the murders, revealing desperation and potential motives tied to financial ruin and betrayal.

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Conclusion

"Up In Flames" presents a gripping narrative of ambition, betrayal, and tragedy set against the backdrop of Hollywood's glamorous yet perilous landscape. The unresolved murders of Michael Tardeo and Christopher Monson continue to haunt investigators, with the hope that new information and public assistance will eventually uncover the truth behind this heinous crime.

As Detective Bill Cox poignantly states:

"[00:43:21] 'I would love more than anything to just have one little lead. It's amazing what we can do with one little lead.'"

The quest for justice remains ongoing, with "48 Hours" urging anyone with information to come forward and aid in solving this enduring mystery.

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Notable Quotes:

• Detective Bill Cox on the uniqueness of the case:

  "[00:03:41] 'In all my 20 years of working homicide, I have never run across a case like this one.'"

• Sandy Bentley on her downfall:

  "[00:42:16] 'Nobody found that jewelry. Or despair.'"

• Ryan Reynolds emphasizes the unresolved nature:

  "[00:43:21] 'Who’s a free man.'"

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the key elements, discussions, and insights from the "Up In Flames" episode of "48 Hours," providing a clear and engaging overview for those unfamiliar with the case.

Transcript

[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Detective Bill Cox]

It was Labor Day weekend 2002 in a nice neighborhood near Hollywood where an SUV was found burning on a side street.

[Narrator]

Firefighters and cops descend on this normally sleepy neighborhood and when the firefighters extinguished the blaze and they got a closer look, what they saw shocked them. Inside, two young men, their bodies riddled with bullets. When the detectives roll up to this, I mean the first thing that pops into their minds is this is some kind of a gang killing or it's related to drugs somehow.

[Detective Bill Cox]

It appeared that they had been executed.

[Narrator]

The victims were 35 year old Michael Tardeo, a doorman in a Hollywood nightclub and he's doing modeling on the I'm 31 year old Chris Monson. He was a loyal friend and for that loyalty he got repaid with a shower of bullets.

[Sandy Bentley]

As it turns out, these guys were out peddling over a million dollars worth of jewelry that I had given my girlfriend and that's effectively what got them killed. These jewels are definitely curse.

[Narrator]

Call it a curse. I call it really playing with fire. Neither of the victims had anything in their background that would suggest that they would fall prey to such a crime.

[Detective Bill Cox]

Little did we know all the twists and turns that were going to happen in this case over time. Our investigation took us from the pages of Playboy magazine to an international prostitution ring and ultimately to a multimillion dollar scam on Wall Street.

[Narrator]

It's got all the elements that you would want in a Hollywood script. It has jewels, greed, sex and ultimately.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Murder.

[Detective Bill Cox]

You could say it haunts me. It does. I think about it quite a bit more than I should.

[Ryan Reynolds]

What haunts retired Los Angeles homicide detective Bill Cox is the unsolved murders of those two handsome young men who had come to Hollywood to chase their dreams.

[Detective Bill Cox]

In all my 20 years of working homicide, I have never run across a case like this one.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It's a case that has frustrated police in Hollywood since 2002, which is why we're doing a different 48 hours. Look, I gotta tell you, there's no trial, there's not even an arrest. But Bill Cox and a number of detectives here are convinced this double homicide can be solved, perhaps with your help. We begin by telling you what we've learned about this crime and its two victims.

[Narrator]

Both young men came from successful families. There was a search warrant.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Andrew Blankstein with the Los Angeles Times is one of the country's top crime reporters.

[Narrator]

Michael Tardeo, he's out in la. He's kind of living the fast life.

[Detective Bill Cox]

Just a clean cut looking guy. He was well liked and maybe he just hadn't found his way yet. Chris Monson comes from a pretty tight knit family. They had some storage facilities that they owned.

[Narrator]

Chris Monson is running the family's business here. By all accounts, Tardeo and Monson were close friends and hadn't been in trouble with the law.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Which made the events on the morning of September 2, 2002, so shocking. The bodies of Michael Tardeo and Christopher Monson were found in this luxury suv. They had been shot at close range. The killer or killers tried to burn the vehicle. Were there fingerprints other than Tardeo and Monson's in that suv?

[Detective Bill Cox]

No, there was no identifiable fingerprints found in there. There was no really usable evidence. Vehicle was parked probably right about in this area right here.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Detective Cox took us back to the upscale North Hollywood neighborhood where the SUV was discovered.

[Detective Bill Cox]

None of the people that lived in that neighborhood had heard any shots at all.

[Narrator]

It's not the kind of place that normally that you're going to find two people murdered on the street. And so the theory is that the two men were shot somewhere else and then brought to that street where was later lit on fire.

[Ryan Reynolds]

As investigators dug into the victims backgrounds, they discovered that Michael Tardeo had a girlfriend that most men could only dream of. Someone millions of men had seen naked. Sandy Bentley, Playboy cover girl and former live in lover of the world's most famous bachelor, Hugh Hefner.

[Narrator]

The kind of the first wave of post divorce Hugh Hefner. Women who are living at the Mansion while he's single and sewing his oats.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Sandy and her identical twin sister Mandy had their 15 minutes of fame back in 2000 as the Bentley twins. They lived with Hef at the Playboy Mansion, sharing his famous circular bed and sharing some airtime as well. Appearing on some of television's most popular shows like Sex and the City, drinking with three blondes.

[Narrator]

I guess that's just a regular day for you.

[Ryan Reynolds]

A slow one.

[Voiceover/Announcer]

Yes.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The Daily show with Jon Stewart.

[Voiceover/Announcer]

Can I tell you something?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Uh huh.

[Sandy Bentley]

Oh, you topped yourself.

[Voiceover/Announcer]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

That's what life's all about. And Two and a Half Men where they played party girls. Oh, for God's sake. Twins.

[Narrator]

Alan, I got them for you, but.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You can share if you want. Hef had a thing for twins.

[Voiceover/Announcer]

I think Hef loved Sandy. I definitely think that he was genuine about his feelings.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Isabella St. James is another former live in Hef girlfriend who wrote about life at the Playboy Mansion in her book Bunny Tales. She has nothing good to say about Sandy Bentley.

[Sandy Bentley]

From what I was told by the mansion staff, the twins Sandy and Mandy had caused Hef a lot of heartache and grief.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Heartache, she says, like when Hef learned Sandy was cheating on him while still sharing his bed.

[Voiceover/Announcer]

You're not supposed to date other guys.

[Sandy Bentley]

You know, Hef is very possessive.

[Voiceover/Announcer]

When you're his girl, you're his girlfriend.

[Ryan Reynolds]

But in the late summer of 1999, while still living at the Playboy Mansion, long before Sandy began dating Michael Tardeo, she quietly became involved with this man, multimillionaire Mark Yagala, a self described Wall street whiz kid.

[Sandy Bentley]

I was looking for the ultimate trophy.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yagalla had big dreams and Sandy quickly became a part of them when he was introduced to her by another Playboy model.

[Sandy Bentley]

I stole her from Hugh Hefner, the ultimate heterosexual icon.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And was Hef happy with that?

[Sandy Bentley]

No, he was not. I am Persona non grata at the Playboy Mansion.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Head over heels, Yagalla began buying his Playboy bunny spectacular world class jewelry. Like an exact copy of the ruby and diamond necklace and earrings and that Richard Gere gave Julia Roberts in the movie Pretty Woman.

[Sandy Bentley]

It was her favorite movie.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And how much did that cost you?

[Sandy Bentley]

A quarter of a million.

[Voiceover/Announcer]

A quarter of a million dollars?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Adding insult to betrayal, we've had major fundraisers here. Heft didn't know during this interview that Sandy was wearing Yagala's diamonds, a $150,000 necklace and earring set. But this was just the tip of the diamond iceberg. When Sandy wanted Bling. Mark couldn't say no.

[Sandy Bentley]

Two Rolexes, diamond rings. There's about a million dollars right there.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You bought a watch worth half a million dollars?

[Sandy Bentley]

Yes.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Are you nuts?

[Sandy Bentley]

I just wanted to make her happy.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And material things made her happy.

[Sandy Bentley]

Very, very happy.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yagala even spent about $3 million buying and redecorating this house for Sandy in Las Vegas. You were in love?

[Sandy Bentley]

Yes, I was.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Or crazy?

[Sandy Bentley]

I think both.

[Narrator]

Mark Igala has showered Sandy Bentley with millions of dollars worth of gifts. Fur, car, jewelry. And it's that jewelry that becomes key to this case.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Why? Because after Yagala and Sandy broke up, she took that jewelry into her relationship with her new boyfriend, Michael Tardeo, one of the two men murdered in that suv.

[Sandy Bentley]

Every day I feel like a fool. You know my gre. And then her greed resulted in the murders of two innocent people.

[Voiceover/Announcer]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

Two dead young men, an unsolved double homicide linked to jewelry and a playboy model. And at the beginning of the investigative trail, a self indulgent Wall street millionaire.

[Sandy Bentley]

Playmates, porn stars. The list was endless. I just became a sex craze maniac.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Eleven years ago, Mark Yagala was living most every man's fantasy. Having sex with some of the most beautiful women in the world.

[Sandy Bentley]

It was exhilarating. It was a drug. It was my high.

[Ryan Reynolds]

No small feat, especially for this 33 year old man who stands slightly over 5ft tall and who considered himself a nerd. Growing up in rural Pennsylvania.

[Sandy Bentley]

I was ranked number one in my class. The kids resented me because of that.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Do you have any girlfriends in high school?

[Sandy Bentley]

No.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Ever go on a date in high school?

[Sandy Bentley]

No.

[Ryan Reynolds]

But he did take a keen interest in the stock market.

[Sandy Bentley]

I started spending A lot of time in the library. Ordered the Wall Street Journal ordering annual reports. Digging into stocks at age 13. Correct.

[Ryan Reynolds]

So what was the attraction?

[Sandy Bentley]

I had developed sort of this fairy tale from movies that if you get money, you become successful, you get the girl.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Like in the movie Wall Street. Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.

[Sandy Bentley]

I want it to be Gordon Gekko.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yagala says he made $100,000 trading stocks while in high school.

[Sandy Bentley]

My cousin backed me, and I started trading S and P futures, some tech.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Stocks, and he made millions more just a few years later with a hedge fund he'd set up.

[Sandy Bentley]

It was intoxicating. I was having a great time.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Mark was living his dream as I was making money.

[Sandy Bentley]

It started with prostitutes.

[Ryan Reynolds]

By his own reckoning, he paid for.

[Sandy Bentley]

Thousands of them, sometimes three, four different girls a day.

[Ryan Reynolds]

In fact, Mark Yugala says he became totally addicted to sex.

[Sandy Bentley]

I was just out of control in a strip club, in a bathroom, whatever I had to do to get sex.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It was a compulsion. Brian Bieber is Yagala's lawyer. Mark Yagala's conduct makes what Tiger woods did now look like a junior high school student going through puberty.

[Voiceover/Announcer]

Mark had a huge appetite for women. I mean, he would have a girl every day of the week if he could.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yagala's insatiable appetite led him to this striking woman, Michelle Braun, who's known as the sex queen of la.

[Voiceover/Announcer]

And I was arguably the most successful madam in the history of the world.

[Sandy Bentley]

She was the first person to really use the Internet to offer prostitutes.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Braun ran this website, nikkisgirls.com I only.

[Voiceover/Announcer]

Worked with famous women. Penthouse pets, Playboy Playmates, porn stars, actresses, models.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And she claims she offered these most desirable women to some of the world's wealthiest men, most notably Tiger Woods.

[Voiceover/Announcer]

I never discussed sex with the girls or the clients. What I was being paid for was an introduction.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Try telling that to Mark Yagala, who was one of Braun's earliest clients. And what would a girl like that cost you?

[Sandy Bentley]

Typically anywhere from 5,000 a night to 50,000 a night.

[Ryan Reynolds]

So the geek in high school who couldn't get a date was now buying some of the most exotic women on planet Earth?

[Sandy Bentley]

Any woman I wanted? Yes.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Were you also lavishing them with gifts?

[Sandy Bentley]

Yes.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yagala says he couldn't help himself. He bought many of his escorts, expensive cars, furs, jewelry, even houses costing him millions. But it was only when another woman introduced Mark to Sandy Bentley, who he began dating, that his spending was really went into orbit.

[Sandy Bentley]

All the other girls were gold diggers. But I'd say Sandy was an educated gold digger.

[Ryan Reynolds]

They were together for 13 months. Was Mark in love with Sandy?

[Voiceover/Announcer]

Madly in love.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Was Sandy in love with him?

[Voiceover/Announcer]

Madly in love with his money? Yes.

[Sandy Bentley]

The most expensive girl I've ever met in my life.

[Ryan Reynolds]

How much did you spend on her?

[Sandy Bentley]

About six to seven million dollars.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Six to seven million bucks?

[Sandy Bentley]

Yes.

[Ryan Reynolds]

So how did Mark Yagala manage to pay for all of this?

[Sandy Bentley]

I was taking client money, and there was no boundaries.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You were scamming your clients?

[Sandy Bentley]

Yes.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Instead of investing their money in stocks, he used it to pay for his incredibly expensive sex.

[Sandy Bentley]

Capades was running one big Ponzi scheme.

[Ryan Reynolds]

He just was the definition of greed. Mike Degnan is a special agent with the FBI. He just took whatever he could get and used it for his own personal use, without any remorse for the people he was stealing it from. But Mark Yaghella's world began to crumble. He owed a brokerage firm over $7 million, and they were asking for their money.

[Sandy Bentley]

I dug such a deep hole, 40, $50 million that I could not get myself out of.

[Ryan Reynolds]

When Sandy got wind of it all, Yagala says she dumped him.

[Sandy Bentley]

Pretty much did not want to have anything to do with me. She was moving on.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Moving on, he says, but keeping most of his extravagant gifts, including a fortune in jewel. Police believe it was that jewelry that got Michael Tardeo and Chris Monson murdered.

[Detective Bill Cox]

Michael Tardeo didn't have street smarts.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Bill Cox and other investigators believe Sandy hatched a plan with Michael Tardeo to sell some of Yagala's gifts under the table to raise some fast cash.

[Sandy Bentley]

Oh, I'm a sucker. Sandy was a total manipulator.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Mark Yagala is bitter and angry, but is he capable of murder? Did you have anything to do with the murder of Michael Tardeo and Chris Monson? Just like in the good book, all roads in this case seem to lead to the Garden of Eden nightclub. Almost all the players in our mystery met and partied here. Mark Yagala, Hef and the Bentley twins.

[Narrator]

It catered to celebrities and big money people in Los Angeles.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It's where Michael Tardeo, working the door, became involved with Sandy Bentley. Michael Tardeo and Sandy Bentley's relationship. What was that? Was this an affair? Were they lovers?

[Detective Bill Cox]

It looked like that Sandy was the smitten one here, much more so than Michael.

[Voiceover/Announcer]

Happy New Year.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Sandy may have played the gold digger in her past affairs, but this relationship seemed different.

[Detective Bill Cox]

She did care a lot about Michael Tardeo. Sandy definitely did.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And Michael and Sandy became a hot item in the hottest club in Hollywood.

[Narrator]

You're really rubbing elbows with the creme de la creme. And you're in the fast lane.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Right across the street. That big black blob right now used to be one of the hottest places in the city.

[Detective Bill Cox]

Yeah, it used to be the Garden of Eden.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And along with all the glamour and celebrity, a seedier element was also drawn to the Garden. Detectives started focusing on that as they investigated deeper into Michael Tardeo's life. You believe this is the club where Michael Tardeo met the people ultimately responsible for his murder?

[Detective Bill Cox]

Yes. We just don't know who that person is.

[Ryan Reynolds]

On the detective's short list of suspects, Sandy Bentley's former lover, Mark Yagala. But there was one problem. Yagala had an ironclad alibi. He was in prison after pleading guilty to charges related to his massive Ponzi scheme. Mark took in money, he handed out false statements, and then he spent the money on leggy blondes. Attorney Eugene Licker was responsible for finding out where Yagala squandered his victims millions so they could get some money back. A major target. The gifts Yagala lavished on Sandy. The judge ordered Sandy Bentley to hand over to us all the assets that Mark Yagala gave her, which included the house, the jewelry, the cars. Faced with losing everything, police say a desperate Sandy Bentley went to her new boyfriend, Michael Tardeo, for help.

[Detective Bill Cox]

So Sandy literally had nothing. Now they were kicking her out of her house. So at this point, Michael says to her, why don't you just take a little bit of the jewelry? Could sell it.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And that's just what happened. Watch this grainy surveillance video. A private eye shot at Sandy's Las Vegas mansion the week those two allegedly took the jewels.

[Detective Bill Cox]

Sandy lets him in and says, here's the stuff. And then Michael looks at it and says, no, no, no, that's not enough. Need to take more.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It's estimated that Michael and Sandy made off with nearly $1 million in jewels and furs. Now, Sandy Bentley claims this was Tardeo's idea, correct?

[Detective Bill Cox]

Yes.

[Ryan Reynolds]

But Tardio, of course, is, do we really know the ultimate truth?

[Detective Bill Cox]

No, we don't know the ultimate truth. But Michael wasn't a criminal. Michael was trying to do something for Sandy to help jumpstart her new life after Mark Igala.

[Ryan Reynolds]

This video shows Eugene Licker inventorying the jewels that were left behind after Sandy was evicted.

[Voiceover/Announcer]

You were going to buy this? How much would it cost quarter of a million.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The Pretty Woman necklace wasn't there. It was definitely worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The canary diamond ring wasn't there, which I know was at least invoiced at a half a million dollars.

[Sandy Bentley]

Empty.

[Ryan Reynolds]

All cleaned out.

[Sandy Bentley]

Yeah. See, there's only three bracelets there. I bought her a. A lot of bracelets. That was empty.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Fearful that she would be prosecuted for the missing jewels, Sandy told Eugene Licker they were lost or stolen by someone else. Sandy Bentley not only lied to us about what had happened to the so called missing jewelry, but she took it. She stole it. Stole it. And then tried to fence it through her boyfriend, Michael Tardeo, back at the Garden of Eden. Their price for the treasure, $1 million cash. Who had that kind of money? This is where a strange story gets even more bizarre. Meet wealthy jewelry collector Linda Kim. Linda, you are wearing very beautiful jewelry. This is a 14 karat diamond.

[Sandy Bentley]

Yes.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You know quality jewelry?

[Sandy Bentley]

I know quality jewelry, yes.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Linda Kim also knows scandal. You're very famous in South Korea. Is that right?

[Sandy Bentley]

I got one big trouble with this Korean government.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You know, big trouble is putting it lightly. An international weapons broker. In 2000, Kim was the central figure in a sex and bribery scandal that nearly toppled the South Korean government. Two years after that scandal, Michael Tardeo came to her at the hotel she owned in LA with what seemed like the deal of a lifetime.

[Sandy Bentley]

I was so surprised. Very special, special jewelry.

[Ryan Reynolds]

High quality jewelry.

[Sandy Bentley]

Very high quality jewelry.

[Ryan Reynolds]

But the deal seemed fishy and she sent him on his way.

[Sandy Bentley]

Something wrong. Something wrong.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You know, by this time, too many people knew about the jewelry, including a lot of the wrong people. Leaving a lot of questions about who murdered Michael Tardeo and Christopher Monson.

[Narrator]

Here she comes.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Here she comes. Here we go, guys. Sandy Bentley. I'm Peter van Sant with 48 hours.

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[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

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It's starting to look that way.

[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

Obviously, murder's not fun.

[Voiceover/Announcer]

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[Narrator]

I miss my brother.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I miss Chris. And they were good guys. With few leads, no arrests, and the investigation going nowhere, the families of Michael Tardeo and Christopher Monson made a public plea for help. And the guy who did, it's out there. So please try and help us find them.

[Detective Bill Cox]

I spent four years on this case. I put thousands of hours into it. I know that there's witnesses out there.

[Ryan Reynolds]

From the very beginning. Detective Bill Cox, now retired, had little to go on from the burned Mercedes at the crime scene.

[Detective Bill Cox]

When the investigators looked through the vehicle, there was no DNA, there were no.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Fingerprints, and the million in jewels gone. But they did find Michael Tardeo's cell phone. And records show Tardeo's girlfriend Sandy Bentley had talked with him just moments before he was murdered. And after questioning regulars at the Garden of Eden nightclub, investigators learned about those high end jewels.

[Detective Bill Cox]

They found out that Michael and Chris were selling this jewelry.

[Ryan Reynolds]

But Sandy Bentley, the woman who buried it all on the pages of Playboy, suddenly had something to hide.

[Detective Bill Cox]

When the investigators brought her in a day or so after the murder, she denied the fact that they were out selling jewelry. Sandy wasn't real cooperative. Sandy was out to protect herself.

[Ryan Reynolds]

We're heading north of Los Angeles right now trying to find Sandy Bentley. We'd requested an interview with her. She turned us down. But we feel as though there are some questions that have to be asked and need to be answered. Sandy Bentley. I'm Peter van Sant with 48 hours. We're doing a story about Michael Tardeo. And I wanted to ask you, what responsibility do you think you bear for Michael Tardeo's? Death and Christopher Monson's death. Can you answer that question? Did you love Michael Tardeo? Why won't you talk to us? Why didn't you help the police investigate this case? Sandy finally did open up to the cops when months after the murders, they turned up the heat.

[Detective Bill Cox]

I just told her that you may end up going to jail. And I don't know if you want to go to the 77th jail. It doesn't look like you'd fit in that.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Sandy eventually agreed to cooperate in the murder investigation. In exchange, she would not be prosecuted for making off with the jewelry.

[Detective Bill Cox]

So she decided she was going to just tell us the truth. I have to believe that she told me the truth.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Sandy now admitted they were trying to sell those jewels and that Michael had finally found a buyer at the Garden of Eden.

[Detective Bill Cox]

Michael Tardillo had been talking to a guy at a nightclub. And this person knew someone that was interested in this jewelry. So Michael Tardeo asked him if he could set up a meet.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It was with a mysterious man known as Mr. Big.

[Detective Bill Cox]

He's got a lot of money. He drives fancy cars. Michael found out that this deal was set up for the Labor Day weekend.

[Ryan Reynolds]

September 1, 2002. It would be Michael Tardeo's last day alive.

[Detective Bill Cox]

Michael just started preparing to set this deal up.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Rented the car, looking to play the part for his meeting with Mr. Big. Tardeo rents a black Mercedes. He also tried to find one of these cash counters in anticipation of his million dollar deal.

[Detective Bill Cox]

Like the guy you're going to sell this stuff to is going to sit in the car while you feed money through the cash machine to count it. But I think Michael just was a victim of too much television or too much readings.

[Ryan Reynolds]

But was Michael getting nervous about the deal? Linda Kim says that he visited her a second time, this time just hours before the murder, hoping she would reconsider buying the jewels. Did Michael Tardio seem desperate to you at that time?

[Sandy Bentley]

Desperately. Exactly. I feel very uncomfortable.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Linda said no.

[Sandy Bentley]

Some jewelries bring me the bad luck, bad energy.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Linda wasn't the only one who sensed bad energy.

[Voiceover/Announcer]

Mark.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Action. Michael asked a Hollywood stuntman like these guys to serve as muscle for the deal. The stuntman declined.

[Detective Bill Cox]

Once this guy said no, then Michael had to rely on his best friend at the time, Chris Monson.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And Chris Monson did what best friends do.

[Narrator]

Christopher Monson is really the tragedy in this case in the sense that he wanted to be there to make sure nothing happened to his friend.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Finally, at around 9:30, Michael and Christopher set out on their fatal rendezvous.

[Detective Bill Cox]

All the jewelry had been cleaned, all ready to go.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Their first stop was this restaurant on Sunset Boulevard where cops believe they met Mr. Big. Do you have a sense of who this Mr. Big is based on your own investigation?

[Detective Bill Cox]

No, you don't. Not a clue.

[Ryan Reynolds]

After meeting the prospective buyer Mr. Big, they head up into the Hollywood Hills.

[Detective Bill Cox]

Not knowing who you're meeting, following them to a location where you don't know where you're going.

[Ryan Reynolds]

At 11:30, Sandy made that last call to Michael and he says they were.

[Detective Bill Cox]

Driving through the Mount Olympus area and that was the end of the conversation. And that was the last conversation she had with them.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Less than two hours later.

[Detective Bill Cox]

It was a surprise attack. These guys were caught completely off guard.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Police believe Michael and Chris were shot somewhere in these hills.

[Detective Bill Cox]

Then the car is driven down to the North Hollywood area where it set a fire.

[Narrator]

Let there be no mistake, this is a really brutal crime and somebody knows what happened.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And it was Sandy Bentley who would provide police with the most significant clue. A phone number Michael gave her right before he left for the meeting.

[Detective Bill Cox]

Michael told Sandy, if anything happens, call this number.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And that phone number links to the man who may hold the key to solving these murders.

[Voiceover/Announcer]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

Back in 2002, the strongest lead cops had was that telephone number Michael Tardeo had left with his girlfriend Sandy Bentley. It linked to A person who would play a central role in the investigation.

[Detective Bill Cox]

This person of interest has been interviewed a number of times. He's been surveilled a number of times. There's been a lot of pressure put on this person of interest.

[Ryan Reynolds]

48 Hours has learned he's talking about Michael Jacobs, a convicted felon seen here in a 1999 mugshot after resisting arrest. People from the Garden of Eden nightclub told us he and Michael Tardeo discussed selling the jewels. Police believe Jacobs brought Tardeo and Mr. Big together for the million dollar deal.

[Detective Bill Cox]

Michael Jacobs has to know who the guy is that he set Michael Tardeo up with because he's the middleman.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Police say evidence shows that in the hours before the killings, there were multiple calls between the cell phones of Tardeo and Michael Jacobs during the day and into the night. In fact, Jacob's cell phone showed activity in the area where Tardeo and Monson went to meet. According to cops, Mr. Big, before heading up here into the Hollywood Hills, Jacobs cell phone also showed activity, and this is important in the area where the bodies were found.

[Detective Bill Cox]

There's no doubt in our mind Michael Jacobs is the key to the case.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Hey, Mike, it's Chris O' Connell from 48 Hours. After a two month search, investigative producer Chris O' Connell finally got Michael Jacobs on the phone from our office in New York. You knew Michael Tardeo, you knew Christopher Munson. You know you're one of the last people seen talking to them. By law, we're prohibited from recording Jacobs voice.

[Narrator]

Thanks, Mike. All right, bye.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Is it your sense that Michael Jacobs knows much more about this case than he told you in this conversation? He knows that this is about Jules, but he won't say that o' Connell flies to Los Angeles.

[Sandy Bentley]

He said he wanted to meet tonight.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Let's see if he is for real. He doesn't have an address for Jacobs, just a phone number. I don't think you want to meet. I think you want to talk and sort of find out what I know. But when they finally connect, Jacobs gets cold feet. You've confirmed a lot of things that I've heard, and I'm going to use that. Including the fact that Sandy Bentley did call him that night looking for Tardeo. Jacobs refused an on camera interview. He also refused to answer any questions about the jewelry deal, except to say that he had nothing to do with the murders and that he, quote, sleeps well at night.

[Detective Bill Cox]

He is the one who can actually blow this case open, but he just doesn't want to Be cooperative.

[Ryan Reynolds]

At the time of the murders, Jacobs was questioned extensively by police, but they never had evidence to charge him. For now, this investigation has hit a wall. Is this case solvable?

[Detective Bill Cox]

Yes. I've always felt that it was solvable.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The woman at the center of it all who once wore those millions in jewels, playboy cover girl Sandy Bentley, is a little less glamorous today. She is married and a mother. Her former sugar daddy, who bought all those jewels. Mark Yagala is broke and still owes millions to the people he scammed.

[Sandy Bentley]

You know, I go from living every man's fantasy to having nothing.

[Ryan Reynolds]

No women.

[Sandy Bentley]

No women. In my case, people lost money. Two people now have lost their lives.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And the other mystery is where did all those jewels go?

[Sandy Bentley]

Nobody find that jewelry.

[Ryan Reynolds]

No.

[Sandy Bentley]

Or despair.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It's all disappeared.

[Detective Bill Cox]

They may cut up the jewels, get rid of them. It's long gone. I mean, you can't even trace it.

[Sandy Bentley]

Very lucky. I didn't buy that jewelry. I didn't get involved. That deal, you know, if I buy that one, then what's going to happen? They're going to kill me.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And so for now, we end this story the way it began. On the streets of Hollywood. A crime unsolved and two promising young men dead. But authorities believe that with your help, they can solve this mystery and find the killer or killers of Michael Tardeo and Christopher Monson. As we sit here talking today, there's a killer out there.

[Detective Bill Cox]

Yep.

[Ryan Reynolds]

A killer in your town.

[Detective Bill Cox]

Yep.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Who's a free man.

[Detective Bill Cox]

I would love more than anything to just have one little lead. It's amazing what we can do with one little lead.

[Voiceover/Announcer]

Summer is heating up. The chi's back on Paramount. It's the season of the women.

[Ryan Reynolds]

This is our chance.

[Voiceover/Announcer]

It's time to get to work. But the men aren't giving up without a fight. The shy new season now streaming on the paramount with showtime. Plan 911. Six emergency. Yes. Somebody killed two girls.

[Ryan Reynolds]

My grandbabies and her friends.

[Voiceover/Announcer]

They're dead. They're dead.

[Ryan Reynolds]

A Paramount plus original.

[Detective Bill Cox]

She wants to find more young women for him to kill.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The untold stories of the real cases.

[Detective Bill Cox]

Each one he gets away with. He's emboldened the FBI can't shake.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It's very satisfying to be able to.

[Voiceover/Announcer]

Look at a bad guy and go, we never forgot you.

[Ryan Reynolds]

An all new season of FBI True streaming now on Paramount plus.