Where is Pamela Phillips now? Details explored ahead of 20/20 on ABC

Season 47, epsiode 14 of 20/20 on ABC will focus on the 1996 Arizona car bomb murder of Pamela Phillips's husband, Gary Lee Triano, a commercial real estate developer.

In 1996, Triano died because of a pipe bomb that detonated in his car. For this homicide, a man named Ronald Young was initially arrested and sentenced to two life terms in prison in April 2010, when he was found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, as per reports by Oxygen True Crime.

The victim’s ex-wife Pamela Phillips on the other hand was also found guilty in 2014 of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. She was sentenced to life in prison without parole and is incarcerated at the Perryville State Prison, as per the Arizona Department of Corrections.

The episode focusing on decade-old homicide will air on ABC on January 24, at 9:00 pm ET. The logline for the same reads as:

“A famed real estate developer is murdered in his car by a remote controlled pipe bomb.”

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Pamela Phillips hired a hit man to slay Gary Triano

Gary Triano, a real estate developer, and a Tucson native, married Pamela Phillips in 1986, as per reports by Oxygen True Crime. Pamela was Gary’s second wife. The couple had 2 children together and lived with Gary’s two kids from his first marriage.

However, things did not stay the same way for a long time. In 1993, the couple finalized their divorce and filed numerous restraining orders against one another.

In 1994, Gary Triano filed for bankruptcy. In the coming years, the relationship got more jeopardized after Pamela Phillips moved to Colorado, separating both the children from Triano. On November 1, 1996, Triano was on his way home after playing golf at the La Paloma Country Club.

He got into a car to head home. Inside the car, Triano found a blue canvas bag. As soon as the real estate developer looked inside the bag, a nearby remote control detonated a pipe bomb that was inside the blue bag. The blast killed Triano instantly as it "blew open his skull" as reported by OTC.

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Motives behind Gary Triano's planned murder

After Triano’s murder, it was speculated the murderer could be motivated by financial gain. It was soon discovered that the couple had purchased a $2 million life insurance policy in 1992 for Triano for which Pamela Phillips was the trustee and the children were the beneficiary. Even after the couple separated, Pamela Phillips kept making the payments for the policy, which the detectives found alarming.

Meanwhile, the police suspected a man named Ronald Young, who they believed was hired by Pam Phillips to assassinate Gary Traino. A ton of evidence surfaced that alleged Young and Phillips to be lovers. It was also later discovered that Pamela Phillips had paid over $400,000 to Young, to slay Triano, as per Oxygen True Crime.

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Arrests and sentencing of Pamela Phillips and Ronald Young

Ronald Young was arrested in 2005 and found guilty in April 2010 of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. He was sentenced to two life terms in prison without parole.

Phillips who eventually fled to Europe in 2008, was arrested on December 3, 2009, in Vienna, Austria. She was later extradited to the United States. In 2014, she too was found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. She did not plead guilty to the crime in court.

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To learn more about this case, watch Season 47, epsiode 14 of 20/20 on ABC, airing on January 24, at 9:00 pm ET.