The Boca Raton Mall Kidnappings

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1:23My name is Sarah Turney, and this is Voices for Justice.

1:32Today, I'm discussing the Boca Raton Mall kidnappings. In 2007, the community of Boca Raton, Florida, was gripped by terror when a series of brutal attacks and kidnappings struck the Town Center Mall. Over the span of just nine months, three separate incidents targeted mothers shopping in the middle of the day. While some investigators have said that there is a hunter of women on the loose, someone they call a cold-blooded calculating sociopath, nearly 20 years later, there's still debate about whether the crimes are related. This is the Boca Raton Mall kidnappings. On Friday, March 23, 2007, the terrifying last moments of 52-year-old Randy Gorenberg's life were documented in a 911 call.

2:23The call was placed at 1.54 p.m. near Governor Lawton Chiles Memorial Park in Delray Beach, Florida. The caller said they heard two gunshots, then saw a woman being pushed out of the front passenger door of a moving black Mercedes SUV. The SUV then backed up and fled the scene. It was clear that the woman on the ground had been shot in the head and was deceased. It was the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office who responded to the call. The first thing they noticed was that Randy was found without her shoes, her black and white pumas, and she didn't have any ID on her. But whoever did this left her Cartier watch and her diamond necklace untouched.

3:05At this point, the motive for her murder is unclear, and Randy has not yet been identified. But just minutes after deputies got to the park and secured the scene, the black Mercedes SUV was found abandoned a few miles away behind a Home Depot store. It turns out that the SUV was registered to Randy Gorenberg, which is how they ultimately identified her. Randy's mother, I.D. Elias, told WPTV News that she remembers watching the news that night and seeing the deputies recovered a woman's body in the park. Not long after, she got the call that it was her daughter. She said it was the worst day of her life.

3:42After speaking with Randy's friends and family and reviewing video surveillance, eventually detectives were able to piece together her movements for that day. Ironically, that morning, Randy was at home, comforting a mother who'd recently lost her daughter. That afternoon, she decided to go to Town Center at Boca Raton, a high-end shopping mall. There, she bought a John Legend CD and a blouse from Old Navy. Video surveillance captured her leaving the mall at about 1.15 p.m. In the footage, she pauses for a moment, checks her voicemail on her cell phone, and then walks out of frame towards her black Mercedes SUV in the parking garage.

4:20Unfortunately, there were no cameras where she was parked, but investigators believe Randy was kidnapped in the parking garage. And it seems that investigators couldn't track Randy's cell phone, because no one knows what happened to her from the time she left the mall to when she was shot at the park. But investigators do have a theory. They believe Randy may have been targeted due to her high-end appearance and belongings. She was wearing nice clothing, carrying an expensive purse, and walking to a luxury vehicle. They think it's possible that Randy was taken and driven to an ATM where a kidnapper asked her to withdraw cash, but Randy didn't have a debit card or ATM card.

4:59They believe this may have upset her kidnapper, and when they got to the park about five miles away from the mall, she may have been in the process of removing her shoes, maybe that diamond necklace and Cartier watch, when Randy attempted to escape the vehicle and was shot twice in the head. Then the kidnapper abandoned the SUV behind the Home Depot, escaping with Randy's shoes, cell phone, purse, and wallet. Those items have never been recovered. And while video footage did capture the perpetrator driving Randy's SUV in the parking lot, they weren't able to get a good look at who was driving.

5:34Now, investigators say that they were able to recover quite a bit of DNA from the vehicle, and at least one of the bullet casings used to shoot Randy, but they weren't able to make a match. It seemed like a robbery gone wrong. But then, just a few months later, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office got the call that there was another kidnapping at the same mall. Verbo's last-minute deals make chasing fresh mountain powder incredibly easy. With thousands of homes close to the slopes, you can get Epic Pow, Freshies, First Tracks, and more. Find last-minute deals with the last-minute filter on the app.

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6:54Jane samples some perfume and makes a few purchases, including a baseball hat. In reporting by Dennis Murphy for NBC News, Jane said it was pretty common for parents to take their kids to the mall just to get out of the house and beat the Florida heat. After they hang out for a bit and do a little shopping, Jane and her son leave the mall at about 1 p.m. She begins pushing his stroller towards their black Lincoln Navigator SUV in the Nordstrom parking lot, having no idea that someone was watching and waiting. Jane truly experiences every mother's worst nightmare. The first thing she does is buckle her son into his car seat in the back rear passenger side of the vehicle.

7:33And as she's loading up their packages and his stroller into the trunk, she hears her son saying, Mama, Mama, but not in the normal he-just-wants-mom type of way. Jane said she could immediately tell that her son was scared. When she goes to check on him, she sees a man sitting right next to her son, and she just freezes in shock. The man told her to get in the car, but she's still frozen in fear. He tells her again to get in the car, and she says that that's when she sees that the man is pointing a gun at her two-year-old's head. Again, just absolutely the stuff of nightmares. In just the few seconds it took her to load up her trunk, the man had snuck into the backseat with her son She immediately begs this man to not hurt them She says she'll do anything he wants The man then tells her to drive away from the mall and find a drive-thru ATM to get him cash Jane does this and withdraws$200 He then has her withdraw another$200 and then another$200 After getting the$600, he asked Jane to withdraw$800, but the request was denied, stating that Jane had reached the limit for withdrawals for the day.

8:49It's at this point that Jane says she's thinking this man is now going to kill her and her son, but he doesn't. He tells her to just keep following his instructions and he'll take them back to the mall. From here, the man begins giving Jane instructions on where to drive, and she pulls into midday traffic. There are people all around her, but the windows of her SUV were heavily tinted, so no one sees her panicking, they don't see this man in the backseat with her son, who was luckily sound asleep at this point. Jane told Dennis Murphy that she thought about crashing her SUV, but was afraid that the man might get mad and hurt her son.

9:26So she just follows instructions. And eventually, after a bit of driving, the man tells Jane to pull into the back parking lot of a Hilton hotel and get out of the vehicle. This is when she begins begging for her life. But Jane says the man told her he wasn't going to kill her and that he didn't need any more problems than he already had or any more trouble than he was already in. The reason he made her pull over was so that they could swap positions in the vehicle. He makes Jane get into the backseat with her son, and then things got even scarier. In that same reporting for NBC News, Jane said, quote, I see him pull out a pair of handcuffs, and he handcuffs my wrist behind my back and he pulls out a bag of zip ties and he zip ties my ankles together and then zip ties my neck to the headrest and he takes out a pair of darkened sunglasses with duct tape I'm guessing and puts them on my eyes so now I'm blindfolded I started losing it and I started choking choking myself because the zip tie was so tight you know, I was choking myself and I couldn't breathe and gagging and crying I was just hysterical End quote.

10:37And to her surprise, the man loosens the zip tie around her neck and asks if that was better. She says yes. He then pulls into traffic, but again he stops, pulls out a plastic bag, reaches in, and pulls out a knife. At this point, Jane says that again she begins begging for her life, and the man calmly reassures her that he isn't going to kill her. He tells her to stay still and cuts the zip tie off of her neck. and then continues to drive. But the man seems to have accidentally pulled onto a toll road, the Florida Turnpike. Obviously, he doesn't want any record of this kidnapping to exist, so he makes a U-turn.

11:17And this is when the baby's bottle falls to the ground and he begins crying. It seems that while Jane's eyes are covered with these glasses, she's still able to see some of what's going on. She says she saw the bottle roll under the driver's seat, and to her surprise, the man grabs the bottle and hands it back to the baby, who then stops crying. Now all of this goes on for about two hours before the man takes Jane and her son back to the mall. When they park, the man tells Jane that he's going to put the zip tie back around her neck, but that he's also going to let her call someone to tell them that her vehicle broke down and she and her son need a ride, basically so someone could find her.

11:58And he does. He grabs Jane's cell phone and she asks him to call her son's father. The call connects, Jane tells him that her vehicle was broken down and asks him to come pick them up. Before the man leaves, he gives Jane one last instruction. He tells her that when the police come, she needs to tell them that the man who kidnapped them was short, fat, and black. Then he takes the sunglasses off of Jane and replaces them with a pair of blacked out swimming goggles. After that, he tells her that he's taken her ID and if he sees his face on the news, he will come after her. Then he slams the door and leaves.

12:37So Jane is back at the mall in her SUV with her son, hands bound behind her back, zip-tied to the seat, waiting for her son's father to find them in the parking lot. But obviously she's terrified and begins trying to escape her restraints. So she slips her hands down from behind her back, under her butt, and rolls her feet and legs through her arms. With her hands now in front of her, she removes the goggles and the headrest from the seat. She's still handcuffed in the front, but she's free. So she jumps into the driver's seat, speeds to the valet parking stand, and asks them to call the police, telling them that she'd just been kidnapped.

13:15Now Jane says that at first, the man thought it was a joke, and then she showed him the restraints. When officers finally arrive, she tells them everything that happened. She shows them the scrapes on her neck and her arms, and they don't believe her. Specifically, they question her story about escaping from the vehicle after the man left. She says they told her that to do that, she'd have to be Houdini. But she pushes back, attributing her flexibility to doing a lot of yoga. But still, the police don't believe her. And remember, at one point, the man took Jane's SUV onto a toll road, So the police look into her SunPass account.

13:58Essentially, if she'd pulled onto this toll road, the SunPass device on her windshield would have been activated, and a debit should have been seen on the account. So police go to confirm this part of Jane's story, and they say that there was no debit during the time frame Jane says she was kidnapped. At the same time, Boca Raton police captain Matthew Duggan said that they weren't completely discounting her story. He says they were just trying to verify it and gather evidence to be used against the kidnapper. So they process her vehicle for DNA evidence and fingerprints, and then they ask Jane to take a polygraph test.

14:35I can't even imagine the outrage she must have felt at this point. But she says absolutely she has nothing to hide. Now, this ordeal did make the news, but at this point, due to the skepticism around Jane's story, it's basically reported as an alleged abduction, and it doesn't get a lot of airtime. But as investigators keep digging into Jane's story and begin to trace the route the kidnapper took, it became crystal clear that Jane was not lying. They found video surveillance of her vehicle going through the toll plaza. It seems that her SunPass device had malfunctioned. Just like in the case of Randy Gorenberg, they had some video to confirm the story, but since the mall didn't have cameras in the parking areas, they have no video of the kidnapper.

15:24But Jane was able to give a description of the man who took her. She said he had dark golden skin, was possibly Hispanic, about 5 '11 with a regular build, maybe in his late 20s or early 30s, he had hardly any facial hair, and what she described as a baby face. His hair was long and curly and placed into a ponytail at the base of his neck, and he was wearing a fully brimmed floppy hat and wraparound sunglasses. A sketch was made and distributed, but Jane says her case just sat for months. Then in November, she got a call from a detective with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. He told her that they were working on a case that began at the same mall, Randy Gorenberg's case.

16:06He wanted to ask her a few questions, and Jane was more than happy to help. But just as investigators began to work Randy and Jane's cases as possibly being connected, they were notified of a third incident at the mall.

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17:03I got them delivered free from 1-800-CONTACTS. Oh my gosh, they're so fast. And breathe. Oh, sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh, sorry. Namaste. Visit 1-800-CONTACTS.com today to save on your first order. 1-800-CONTACTS! At about 1 p.m. on Wednesday, December 12, 2007, 47-year-old Nancy Bukikio and her 7-year-old daughter Joey decided to go to the mall to shop for some Christmas cards and possibly a gift for a classmate. Reporting does differ a bit. it was also very close to Joey's eighth birthday. Nancy had picked her up early from school for a doctor's appointment, and as is most every child's dream, instead of returning her to class, her mom took her to the mall.

17:50When Nancy was 40 years old, she was told that she wasn't able to have children. Little did her doctors know that she'd have a baby close to Christmas Day. Nancy's sister Joanne told NBC News that they all considered Joey to be a miracle, and their Christmas angel. Joanne said Joey loved being the center of attention. She loved dancing and was a budding golfer. By all accounts, Joey was the center of Nancy's life as a single mother. They were captured on surveillance at the mall as they passed by the Sony store on their way to the food court, and at 3 p.m., mother and daughter were seen leaving the mall through the same camera at the same door Randy Gorenberg was earlier that year.

18:32Despite the two prior incidents in just the last few months, there were still no cameras in the parking areas of the mall. So what exactly happens next is unclear. But here's what we do know. Just minutes after Nancy and Joey leave the mall, a call is made to 911 from Nancy's cell phone. It only lasts a few seconds, and the operator can't hear anyone speaking before the call abruptly ends. A few minutes after that, Nancy's black Chrysler Aspen SUV is seen at a drive-thru ATM, the same drive-thru ATM Jane Doe used when she and her son were taken. From here,$500 is withdrawn from Nancy's account.

19:15No one knows exactly what happened after this, but shortly before midnight, a security guard at the mall finds their SUV parked and idling. When he looks in the back seat, he sees Nancy and Joey bound. Both had been shot in the head. Again, just absolutely horrific. And when investigators get to the mall, they see an eerily similar scene to that of Jane Doe. Whoever did this seems to have had the same type of kidnapping kit, if you will. This time, the person also used duct tape, but they also found handcuffs, zip ties, and blacked-out swim goggles. Unlike with Jane Doe, their hands were cuffed in front of them, but Nancy's head was tied to the headrest.

20:01And one of the most heart-wrenching aspects of this case that I think I've ever, ever heard is that investigators say that Nancy's handcuffs were broken, and her sister believes that shows that she died fighting to protect Joey. And unfortunately, like the two other incidents, while DNA and Prince were recovered, nothing has been matched to a perpetrator. Now, police have given limited details on how they made this discovery, but they weren't able to track the purchase of that duct tape and the plastic zip ties to a home improvement chain in Miami-Dade County. But they aren't saying which one, so it's unclear if it was another Home Depot or a different chain.

20:42And within just days of the murders, Nancy's cell phone and credit cards were found in a vacant lot in Miami, about 60 miles south of the mall. but investigator Matthew Duggan says that he doesn't know if this was meant to send them on a wild goose chase, or if whoever did this possibly tossed those items out on their way home. It's also worth noting that this area has been described as a predominantly black neighborhood, leading investigators to believe that if the crimes are connected, whoever did this was trying to place the blame on a black male. Remember, we know that Jane Doe also said that her kidnapper instructed her to tell the police that he was short, black, and fat, when she believed him to be Hispanic.

21:23Now, the police go back to Jane and ask her to work with another forensic artist to create a second sketch of what this man may have looked like. And this time, they put everything they have into getting it out there. They put it on billboards, posters, and put it up in the mall. And it's around this time that investigators begin to make a possible connection to a fourth incident, one from August, just a few days after Jane Doe and her son were taken. This time, it was at Menzer Park in Boca Raton, another upscale shopping area. Here, a man with a gun approached a woman in the parking garage and demanded she drive him to an ATM machine.

22:02But the woman refused. According to Captain Matthew Duggan's statements to NBC News, she says no, throws her purse into the passenger seat of the car, gives him$200, and tells him to go away. And the man does. According to Duggan, the woman refused to file a report until she saw the news about Nancy and Joy Pekikio and thought the incidents may be related. And you guys, when she gives investigators a description of this man, it matches the description of Jane Doe's kidnapper perfectly. But the cases just sit. And investigators are torn as to whether or not the four incidents are connected to the same perpetrator.

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24:12So for the purposes of discussing what may have happened here, just know that I'm specifically talking about Randy Gorenberg, the woman found in the park, Jane Doe and her son who survived, and Nancy and Joy Pachikio, who unfortunately did not. Investigators on this task force say that Randy Gorenberg's murder was not forensically linked to the other cases. Unfortunately, they don't go into a lot of detail. Captain Matt Duggan just said, quote, by the time forensics came in, we felt comfortable in saying that the cases are not linked. Plus, both investigations appear to be heading in different directions, end quote.

24:50This and the fact that Randy was not bound in her vehicle like the other victims led them to pursue different theories. And this is where things get complicated, specifically in Randy's case. Some investigators believe that Randy may not have been the target of the attack. They learn that Randy's husband, Dr. Stuart Gorenberg, was allegedly paying for the services of sex workers prior to his wife's murder. He was apparently using their Mercedes SUV to travel through some of the quote, seedier streets, end quote, of nearby Broward County. The idea is that he was followed back to their very nice 7 ,000 square foot home with the plan to rob him in the future.

25:32Instead, they found Randy at the mall. The other theory is that her husband and or their 25-year-old son, Daniel, may be involved in some way. Investigators have scrutinized Stewart's response to Randy's murder, saying it was not typical. Now, of course, like I always say, I think it can be foolish to judge the reaction of someone getting horrific news like your wife was just murdered. But I'm here to tell you what's been reported on this case. Investigators also say that when they got to Randy's home to notify her family of what happened, before they even broke the news, they saw 25-year-old Daniel who was living at home at the time in the driveway, kind of pacing, walking back and forth, talking on his cell phone, and smoking a cigarette, which they say struck him as acting strangely.

26:20It also appears that Daniel lied about his alibi that day. We don't have a ton of detail here. We just know that the alibi didn't check out. He was also asked to hand over the clothing he'd been wearing on the day his mother was murdered, and they later found out that he'd given them a different set of clothing. Within a few days of the murder, Stewart hired a lawyer, and both he and his son stopped talking to police directly. They also didn't participate in a press conference about Randy's murder that her mother and daughter spoke at. Investigators say that they looked extensively into the family's financial records, spoke to as many people as they could, and there doesn't really seem to be any apparent motive for Daniel to kill Randy.

27:03Now, eventually, Daniel does sit down with the police, he answers all their questions, and he's officially ruled out as a suspect. As far as Stewart, we just don't know. The only proposed theory involving him was that whoever took Randy meant to take Stewart. And he did eventually close his chiropractor office due to the media coverage surrounding Randy's case. Essentially, the rumors of him engaging with sex workers ruined his reputation, despite his lawyers stating that the claims were baseless. I will say that some people online have wondered if Randy caught Stewart cheating, and if there was some type of cheating clause in a potential prenuptial agreement.