Gary Triano's ex-wife arrested in his 1996 pipe-bomb slaying

Everyone wanted to share the news - the woman accused of arranging a hit on Ferrara's son, Gary Triano, 13 years ago, had been arrested in Austria on a warrant charging her with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.

Ferrara, 84 and a resident of California, expressed relief that her former daughter-in-law, Pamela Phillips, is finally in custody.

It took authorities 12 years to obtain an arrest warrant for Phillips in Gary Triano's death and another year to put her behind bars.

"I want her to be punished for what she did to me and to Gary's children and to everyone who's ever loved him," Ferrara said.

Triano was killed Nov. 1, 1996, when someone remotely detonated a pipe bomb placed inside a canvas bag on the passenger seat of the Lincoln Town Car he was driving.

Last year, Pima County sheriff's detectives and prosecutors gathered enough evidence to obtain an indictment against Ronald Young, a former boyfriend of Phillips, charging him with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.

They said Phillips hired Young to kill Triano for a $2 million life insurance policy.

At the time of Young's arrest last year, Pima County sheriff's officials said detectives had been watching Phillips' Aspen, Colo., house in anticipation of arresting her, but didn't realize she wasn't home. They later learned she'd flown to London and caught a flight to Milan, Italy, on Sept. 26, 2008. Although she had bought a return ticket, she never used it.

Defense attorney Walter Nash said at the time that Phillips was in Switzerland visiting a daughter and the insinuation that she was fleeing from authorities was wrong.

Nash said he and a Denver-based defense attorney had been working with law enforcement and the County Attorney's Office for more than a year and had offered to bring Phillips back to the States whenever necessary to defend her.

Negotiations broke down after the warrant for Phillips' arrest was issued, however, and authorities have been searching for her all over Europe ever since.

Nash said he has not heard from Phillips since her arrest.

Details on how Phillips came to be arrested remained somewhat sketchy Thursday afternoon, said Rick Kastigar, a Sheriff's Department bureau chief.

What local detectives do know is that authorities in the small country of Liechtenstein notified other European countries that Phillips was suspected in a money-laundering case and they wanted to question her, Kastigar said.

No one knows why, but authorities in Vienna, Austria, knew who and where Phillips was and they went to her location and took her into custody, Kastigar said.

After they detained Phillips, authorities discovered she was also wanted in Triano's murder. They contacted Interpol and Interpol confirmed the existing warrant with Pima County officials about 2:30 a.m. Thursday, Kastigar said.

It's unclear if the Liechtenstein authorities had obtained a warrant for Phillips' arrest, how long Phillips was in Austria or what her living conditions were, Kastigar said.

David Berkman, chief criminal deputy county attorney, also said it is unknown how long the extradition process will take or what impact the money-laundering charges, if filed, would have on the process.

For example, Henry Fisch-bacher, who was arrested in Canada within days of his wife's October 2006 slaying, fought his extradition. He was just booked into the Pima County jail Nov. 20 and is awaiting trial here on a first-degree murder charge.

Kastigar said Phillips' arrest brings authorities "closer to the ultimate goal, which is obtaining convictions for the two individuals clearly responsible for the death of Gary Triano in 1996."

Young's trial is scheduled for Feb. 22.

Phillips and Young were identified as potential suspects within months of Triano's death, but local and federal authorities were unable to find Young until Triano's case was featured in a November 2005 episode of "America's Most Wanted."

Two days after the show, a tip led to Young's arrest in Florida and subsequent searches of his property.

Among the items seized were tape-recorded conversations between Phillips and Young, purportedly discussing the slaying and Young's fee.

Detectives collected 150 boxes of evidence, which includes hundreds of taped and transcribed interviews, 80 storage boxes from Triano's office, 300 items collected from the blast scene, Triano's vehicle, items seized from Young and Phillips' homes and 10 computers.

The ATF made a bomb similar to the one used to kill Triano for the "America's Most Wanted" show and linked Young to the purchase of the gunpowder used in the pipe bomb.

The FBI determined that Phillips made periodic payments of between $1,500 and $2,000 to Young between January 1997 and May 2004.

The delay between the 2005 searches and Young's 2008 indictment was attributed to the amount of evidence that needed to be sifted through, plus the fact it had to be shared with the suspects' criminal and civil attorneys.

Just last week, Pima County Superior Court Judge Michael Miller awarded $10 million in damages to three of Triano's children in their wrongful death lawsuit against Phillips.

Tucson attorney, Elliot Glicksman, who represents Brian Triano and Heather Klindworth, said his clients couldn't be more pleased with Phillips' arrest.

On StarNet: Get all the background on Gary Triano's murder and information about other high-profile cases at azstarnet.com/ special/trianoslaying