Killer Cases: The Husband Who Thought He’d Get Away with Murdering His Wife

she was last seen in her home over in the town of Pittsfield that is the last day that Victoria kovitz uh was seen alive where could she be Volunteers started showing up here at 9:00 this morning we've got K9 units out the horses out uh boots on the ground there were so many different scenarios that might have happened did she take off did she just leave um did she commit suicide we we contacted interpole uh we contacted TSA she just she wasn't coming up anywhere the individuals who are last seen with a a victim would be number one on the list down the steps honey there had been uh uh a history of mental health and uh suicide attempts and that's when she made the statement next time nobody's gonna find her yes she was very angry if you guys think I did something arrest me and haul me in because I didn't I do believe that she's in uh those sludge ponds something would go into it and it would actually disintegrate now we didn't have a body and how do you prove something without a body the answers won't bring my mom back but they would allow us to grieve and heal okay your wife is in a bar and said she's unresponsive this is what he's going to tell you know how to get out of that situation and I grabbed the gun trying to find the first place to put a body no sir the only thing they could do was kill him you want to say anything we the jury and find the defendant where is Victoria and um why can't we find her what happened to her it began as a missing person's case and a search for 63-year-old Victoria proov she was characterized as a homebody she really stayed at home she hadn't been working a mother a grandmother a very caring person certainly an individual who had issues she was reported by her husband to have wandered off in the middle of a moonlit night from her home home in Brown County Wisconsin it's a very rural area a lot of farms around there um the area the procap poit has lived in it was an old Farmstead I don't believe it was an active Farm not exactly a place where you'd just go out and take walks along a busy road Volunteers started showing up here at 9:00 this morning we've got K9 units out the horses out uh boots on the ground uh boats with sonar and cameras so we've got it all covered she has a history of depression but her family has no idea why she just vanished her three children Marsha Stacy and Wes were there around the clock we're hoping we get some sort of answer today prepared for maybe not a good answer but it would be an answer Marca was heartbroken your mom goes missing you never get to say goodbye Brown County homicide detective Roman arinstein took charge of the case joined later by Jay jurgus a special agent with the Wisconsin Department of Justice they had exhausted their immediate uh efforts uh to be able to locate this individual within the immediate area we we contacted interpole uh we contacted TSA uh the United States Marshall service she just she wasn't coming up anywhere she had lack of Transportation access to money I began to start having some concerns that this is indeed an adult female that was endangered five little we started to do forensic interviews Victoria's husband of 24 years Jim was the last person known to have seen Victoria alive and he was repeatedly questioned over the years about what happened that night your to your best recollection where in the house of the last time you physically suffer right here in the kitchen when I walked into the bedroom and that was a :3 about 8:30 9:00 he went to bed the night before uh and when he woke up he found her to be missing he indicated that he searched for his wife do exactly what you did I walked over here I said honey okay she didn't answer okay then go then I went here went down in the basement go ahead thought she was down here turn the light up down the St steps honey okay I walked over here I think it was I don't remember was here first looked I walked over here open this door wasn't open I looked in here she was in here okay did something nothing here okay then what happened this is such a crucial time this is a time in the middle of the night when you're up um before you need to be up to go to work uh you're the only one home you're indicating you're looking for your wife this is such a critical piece of timeline for you I want to understand that I want to understand everything that I can and then Jim do you remember if she's not answering to your yells do you remember why it is that you felt the importance to look in every because she tried to kill herself down here in the basement once that's why okay that's it's that simple yeah so you were looking I found her in that room okay so you were you were looking to see if she was in distress yes I was okay okay that's why we're asking that's why that's what I was looking for I thought if she tried something maybe I could find her and TR her so there had been uh uh a history of mental health and uh suicide attempts uh as the investigation progressed into the months and years moving forward uh we did uh start looking into that interestingly enough those incidents were or dated they were many many years old but after one of the suicide attempts detectives did learn of an ominous statement from Victoria to one of her daughters the statement that she'd made is the next time I uh uh next time I try to next time I do this nobody will ever find me over the course of years of interviews Jim prokopovich mentioned that repeatedly to the detectives my gut feeling says she found some place to do it and we're not going to fight it that's my gut feeling uh he was definitely pushing that as a narrative he was pushing that with law enforcement he was pushing that with Searchers and strangers um and uh really anybody that would listen the only reason I'm assuming she went and did it is she attempted three times with me he said if she was going to do it again she was going to do it but nobody would F her it's hard it's hard to hide your own body he exhibited a level of confidence that she wouldn't be found he quired about taking her off for his insurance so we knew um from the GetGo that something wasn't right with respect to uh Jim's version of what had happened and as the search for Victoria went cold after several years and detectives continued to press procap poitz he grew increasingly frustrated with the detective's push for details no okay it three and a half years ago you're asking me where I sat at a kitchen table my God man and you're asking me what kind of do you pay attention to your what your wife wears every time she gets dressed if you do you're a good man but you know the simple answer to that g is I don't however yeah I know you don't but say God prevent something would happen to your wife would you be able to tell everybody what she had on or what she wore if you guys think I did something arrest me and H me in because I didn't [Music] at the rising of the Sun and its going down we remember you as the years went by since Victoria prokopovich disappeared the day on which she went missing was always remembered for she is a part of us as we remember her amen her daughter Mara never let up on the search she just wanted to know what happened to her mom and she was doing everything she could I mean she created a missing person's Organization for families also going through the same thing she was going through she got the month of April declared missing person's Awareness Month um a Special Day proclaimed for her mom Marsha also started a foundation for missing people and she's helped people across the country with respect to that but in the search for her own mother there was no progress uh a number of miles further west and for detectives Roman arinstein and Jay jurus the case became what is known as a nobody homicide unlike a scenario where you have a uh a body in a crime scene and it's clear that uh uh the death had occurred at the hands of another in this particular case not having the body we don't have that information Victoria's husband Jim remained Under Suspicion but her adult son Wes who had lived with his mom and Jim was also closely looked at I've learned in my career that everybody's a suspect until they're not and significantly the individuals who are last seen with a a victim would be number one on the list Wes had gone out that night and returned home around 4: in the morning after his mother had vanished so we looked very and hard at West until we were able to conclusively find through forensics on his telephone statements from other I witnesses that alibied H the possibility out that he was involved in any way in her disappearance frustrated by the lack of progress Victoria's children brought in a private detective and former police officer Larry Warwick hoping he could finally get some answers they suspected possibly Jim their stepfather had something to do with it um but they didn't know and that's basically why they wanted me to assist them to help to find out and right away Warick got Jim prokopovich to sit down with him at the kitchen table I want you to pretend that I don't know anything about this okay you know what I mean all right okay so what do you think happened I don't know I do know she told Stacy next time I Do It Go he's going to fight he had mentioned to the family um e either to the family or the police that he had an argument with Vicki on the way home from the psychiatrist office that day the day that she went missing and I asked him do you remember having an argument with her in the truck on the way home no no no no nope no just like that three times we we refer to that as the rule of three when someone denies something vehemently three times it's almost Almost 100% indication of deception so to me that argument was probably a catalyst for what occurred later on which probably the argument probably escalated which resulted in Victoria's death so you know the police are looking at you I know they are yeah I know they are yeah um did you do anything to Vicki No I didn't it I did not do nothing to that woman son of a I loved her okay now who says that woman about their wife it really shows some um some distance and some some anger toward her um and then he began to sob he began to cry I don't mean to upset you I don't mean to upset you but I got to ask the question I know I know it just I know they think I did something to her the only thing I could have done different was was lock her up in a rubber room mhm to keep her from hurting herself that's but for the detectives the most significant questions were about a new girlfriend Kathy Friday who he began to see within weeks of Victoria's disappearance we have to understand how did this relationship uh begin when did it begin it all started at an Indian casino according to procap poitz he told the detectives he had run into Kathy Friday just by chance after not being in contact for years um walked into the casino I was walking around looking for a machine to play and I thought I recognized her mhm and I walked up and I said you look familiar and then At first she didn't recognize me and then she did when I been a long time like 20 years or what almost 30 years 30 years yeah of course there was nothing that was pre-planned nothing that was set up he just happened to be there and he noticed this woman that he hadn't seen in 30 years and recognized her and approached her but in his interview with the private detective Pro kovit told a much different story okay okay um you you have a relationship with her now yes I do so after you married Vicki you never had a intimate relationship with her no no I call her once every two years three years once every two every 3 years a small but tell indifference so um once again he's he's mixing up his lies he's forgetting who he told what to it would be a turning point in the case and now detectives arinstein and jurgus began to dig into Pro Capo's relationship with Kathy Friday and why he was lying about it with the results of the private detectives interview in hand and other new leads the detectives were slowly but surely turning up the heat on James procap profitz just one thing that I noticed is that you you seem to be upset by our presence is it no I'm not upset it's it's just were you nervous about us coming no I wasn't nervous I wasn't nervous I got nothing to hide Jim felt that it would be enough to say he went to bed my wife was there I woke up my wife was no longer there and that there wouldn't be any more scrutiny to that when we are here to try to help bring answers to you about the woman that you say you love I didn't and I do I I believe that we want to give you those answers so they had him go through her closets to see if any clothing was missing clothes y there's cloes now you tell me how I'm supposed to remember I I I don't know I don't they had him show where he searched on the property walk around in here a little bit didn't see her hollering all the time that's when I jumped in the truck and then they went with him in his truck as he retraced the route he said he took searching for Victoria I'm Hing I find her at the Shell sh you I drove by here I didn't go in making a point that he drove through this Shell gas station window see if anybody was there you didn't see anybody there was no cars here no nothing here gotcha okay went around well why is this important why am I going into so much detail on that well back in 2013 I had actually collected video at that particular gas station and at the end of the day um Jim's truck never makes it past that gas station like like he said it did and when we discovered that that was not at all what happened that wasn't accurate that was a big lie 3 and A2 years after Victoria prapo disappeared police a search warrant on the home infuriating jff me too thanks Jeff all my see the news I don't want to talk to anybody anymore I almost wish I was dead right now I'm getting so tired of this that I really I'm 71 I hope the hell I have aamn heart attack and die you feel like hurting yourself him huh no I don't feel like hurting myself S I wish I'd go to bed one night and never wake up that's what I wish right now I'm tired of worrying I wish you guys would find her somewhere somehow I wish you'd find her but the detectives were not deterred by their suspect's Outburst doubling down on the efforts to prove the story about the casino meeting between proa poitz and his new girlfriend Kathy was also a liive and then we went out and drove CR across the state and we interviewed dozens of individuals we we began to poke holes into that that story and we just didn't feel that that likely happens it turns out that uh the meeting was pre-planned it wasn't at the casino but a nearby truck stop it happened within weeks of Victoria's disappearance so prosecutors convene what is called in Wisconsin an evidentiary hearing held in secret much like a grand jury and we wanted to put them on record uh to try to get at the truth of what that in that chance encounter really was both uh Jim and Kathy and uh many many other people took the stand over a number of uh weeks uh during these evidentiary hearings and uh it became clear that both uh Jim and Kathy were not telling and the truth and both were taken into custody Jim yeah can I come in yeah it was some 6 years after his wife had disappeared and now that he and his lover Kathy faced charges of perjury detectives hoped prokopovich might finally crack essentially been lying to the Roman and I for a long time today you lied on the stand of the judge the court okay is that after you yeah well I lied about how we met and yeah did you know that lying to us was wrong and illegal yeah in a way I mean didn't feel good no but so what about the lie that he searched for his wife that night driving past the Shell gas station that didn't happen Jim you know what I'm saying what didn't happen you weren't at that station i s where I well I went by the station and didn't see anybody or anything well you can see a certain amount of road with the cameras though I you swear to God I was by there by that station it didn't happen Joe that that that didn't happen cuz video doesn't lie Jim that's all I'm saying okay his demeanor and concern was solely solely uh focused on Kathy uh he um said he would do in say anything he needed to just to uh absolve her of any responsibility you need to tell us what the heck happened so that we can clear her and get her honest to God J she had nothing to do with it Vicki's dead yes she's not here I she's not here I don't know if she's dead she's I don't she doesn't go poof I know she you were the last one to see her you were the last one with her you were the last one want to hear her I don't know I don't if I knew I'd tell you right now I'd tell you right now because I don't want Kathy in trouble you you're you you don't want to be caught you didn't want to be caught today on the stand and you lied and you lied all right you don't want to be I'll Adit I killed her I killed her there I killed her Kathy had nothing to do with I me my impression was was uh that he wanted to he wanted to see how that would sound out loud uh that was my impression he wanted he wanted to see maybe what my reaction would be after all these years if he was to verbalize the fact that he killed his wife um and that's what he did but he recanted thereafter I don't know where she is I I I tell me how you killed her I don't know how I killed her tell me how you I didn't so I can't tell did you I I can't tell you I don't know but it was more than enough to charge him with perjury obstruction of justice and murder and we're going to about to get into the opening statements again this jury is nine women six men let's go live it had been almost 18 months since James proov had been arrested and all that time in custody awaiting trial had affected his appearance it was very very different person that we were seeing when he appeared in court uh he would walk in pretty slowly sometimes kind of shuffling into Court uh he looked older frail and there had been another tragedy in prap poet's life the suicide of his girlfriend Kathy Friday who had been convicted of perjury in the case and was awaiting sentencing and there was going to be a recommendation for some incarceration time and that was not something that um she later had left a a note indicating that was not something she was willing to live with there was no evidence Kathy Friday had knowledge of what happened to Victoria prap but her relationship with Jim was still going to be an important part of the prosecution's case she was his motive for getting rid of Victoria that he uh loved her and had a a very intense relationship with her prosecutor Caleb Saunders handled the opening 2,854 days that is the last day that Victoria prapo itz uh was seen alive recount for the jury 8 years of fruitless searches by law enforcement friends and family to find Victoria you'll hear that the defendant did not assist in those searches you'll hear he in some occasions sat in his recliner and was drinking beer Searchers are reporting overhearing comments like this you will never find her uh she's not there you're wasting your time searching that area and saund told the jury that the prosecution plan to play long sections of the taped law enforcement interviews that Pro aoit full of half-truths and lies about how he searched for his wife I go by here how and when he began his relationship with Kathy Friday um walked into the casino I was walking around look and how he quickly recanted his own confession I'll ad I her I Ked her there the truth in this case is in the lies the truth if you carefully consider the evidence in this case sa believes you'll find the truth in this case is that the defendant killed Vicki that he's guilty of all four charged offenses thank you but the prosecution team knew it faced two very difficult hurdles in its case against Pro kovitz you know we didn't have a body and I that's still a challenge for some people to to get around how do you prove something without a body um and I think that's was always something that was in the back of the jury's head and prosecutors also had to deal with Victoria's history of mental illness we had a victim who had a prior history of attempting to take her life so um what also made it unique that I've never heard of another case is that she would have made a statement the next time I do this uh you're not going to find me and that became a central theme for defense lawyer John D'Angelo ladies and gentlemen of the jury next time no one will find me that was a statement that Victoria Popovich stated to her family the second time she tried to commit suicide I say it again next time no one will find me and D'Angelo tried to use his clients's age and appearance to his Advantage the state wants you to believe that my client at 68 years old perfectly executed his wife's murder to the point that nobody can find her [Music] you're not going to hear how it happened you're not going to know when it happened you're not going to have proof of a body a 68-year-old man got rid of his wife a grown woman so perfectly that the house wasn't Disturbed I leave you with this next time no one will find me but Victoria's own words for the prosecution there were no more important Witnesses than Victoria's three children Mara Wes and Stacy who started by recalling her stepfather's seeming indifference to her mother's disappearance sometimes he'll step outside and see what's going on other times he'll be in the house he was watching the Nascar race was he drinking anything he had a beer was it ever brought to your attention that there was um really kind of disgusted by some of the people that saw this yes but she was also an important witness for the defense she was the daughter who heard Victoria's dramatic statement after a suicide attempt in 2002 some 19 years earlier she was upset that she was found after her suicide attempt yes and that's when she made the statement next time nobody's going to find yes she was very angry when did you tell anybody about that statement I told Jim about that statement when I was walking home from work after Mom had gone missing and we were talking on the phone and I had said mom had said you would never find me next time at this time the state would call wesle edges to the stand Wes was asked about the night when he last saw his mother alive I remember uh confrontation about uh Jim not wanting to go to the dollar store or I believe it was a tablecloth let me stop you there so you're saying a a confrontation uh who is that between my mom in the gym on the day that your mom went missing was there an item that she left behind that was significant there her purse the purse she always kept with her to keep her phone and cigarettes [Music] nearby West you miss your mom said I have no further questions the Heartbreak still raw even 8 years after she disappeared it it's so vivid it's so palpable what he's gone through in this case and the family has just been um so consistent so persistent in trying to find their mom the last of Victoria's children to testify was Marsha now um Marsha you referred uh to your mother Victoria um have you seen um your mother since April 25th 26th of 2013 no um have has there ever been any credible information that hasn't been explored regarding um the fact that your mother is still living everything's been explored she testified she began to suspect her stepfather from almost the first day and he's like I don't know what we're going to do with all of her look at all this stuff this place is too big for two people and then he said I know she didn't want an obituary and he said we're going to we're going to have to call up U-Haul a U-Haul or something like that to to take all this stuff to Goodwill and how did you feel about a comment like that from him well I we didn't know where my mom was so that was confusing and the only thing I knew is in the pit of my stomach is I thought something's not right and then even as the search was still going on for her mother she learned about the relationship with Kathy Friday wasn't like he just met her but that he'd known her for years and that we would really like her that she had two kids our age and that had he known that she got divorced he had never married my mom but all of the things that he is telling you at this time they come as a surprise yeah it felt like a dagger in my heart and uh this experience with respect to it has this been devastating for you and your life it has been terrible um I stopped living for a long time and every day did something to get the word out about my mom missing for years when somebody like that is missing in your life um is one of the issues the fact that you're still just always looking always looking okay when I drive down the road I'm looking in the ditch even if it's some place that I know that I can't possibly be you're always looking for Vicki always looking Mara through the years until this happened uh with your mom um how would you describe your relationship with Jim as a stepfather to you I called him dad he walked me down the aisle my dad was still alive but I asked him to walk me down the aisle I listed him as my dad in my wedding announcement I looked up to him I have no further questions but for all of the emotionally packed testimony the state still had not presented any hard evidence that James proov was a murderer or that there even had been a murder if I was a juror sitting on that case and I was forced to make a decision right then I would find this defendant not guilty thank you you maybe he did you can start the video detective Roman arinstein took the stand to introduce the hours and hours of contentious interviews with James prooven War if you guys think I did something arrest me and H me in because I didn't uh I I note that he reacts with um outbursts and uh denials that are angry quite often as the tapes played proit made a point of not looking at the courtroom screen down steps Hy okay and then the pivotal ridealong scene in the truck driving through a nearby Shell gas station where he said he had looked for Victoria you go by and look through the window and see if anybody was there you see anybody there's no cars here no nothing the concern was that he wasn't being truthful about that account I had collected surveillance video from that particular gas station as part of this investigation uh Mr Prov kovic's vehicle was not at that gas station in on the morning of uh uh April 26 2013 as he had indicated here and then finally to his relationship with Kathy Friday and the fact that he and she had lied about when and how it started I had implored her to be truthful with me I had indicated to her the seriousness of this investigation that it was a death investigation and that I believe that um she may be a motive for uh Mr prokopovich having uh killed his wife and I needed her to be truthful with me but it turns out that she continued to be dishonest with law enforcement other than when you have contacted Mr proov has Jim proit come forward to law enforcement at any time to offer assistance with respect to his wife Victoria and her disappearance never I have nothing further the issue surrounding the gas station was the most concrete and significant evidence of pro capova line and his lawyer John D'Angelo knew he had to Tred to undercut the testimony of detective arinstein he could have been mistaken that he drove through that Shell station maybe he thought he did but maybe he really didn't true no that's not true he was either in that parking lot which was disproven by by evidence or he lied to me about being in that parking lot in the morning where he needed he was there searching for his wife could it be possible that he was at a different gas station he thought it was that [Music] one so the clear answer is is is no it's not probable I would say that it's not reasonable or probable that he was thinking of another gas station as opposed to that specific gas station it's not reasonable but it's not impossible object asked and answered three times your honor I I think his answer was a little bit over rule thank you it's not reasonable but it's not impossible so I think we're in in we're playing semantics I'm sorry it's a yes or no question is it not impossible it's not reasonable it's not probable therefore I believe it's impossible the defense called No Witnesses and it was straight to the closing argument how do you know who's telling the truth and how do you know who's giving you a line of bull it's something you see every day and it's not difficult to see where the truth is cuz this case ladies and gentlemen as we said from the beginning that the truth is in the lies it's the lies that Jim spun it's the lies that he told to everyone it's probably at some point the lies he started trying to convince himself had occurred the best evidence in this case has now become the defendant himself PR Janel you may present a defense closing arguments next time nobody will find me those are the words of Victoria popovitz those are the words that ring true in this case next time you won't find me she was wearing black pants a white shirt she put on her shoes and she went for a walk that's the simplest answer she went for a walk the state says well no evidence is evidence no no evidence is no evidence Jim doesn't have to prove his innocent he starts being innocent at the end of the day you're going to look at your notes you remember the testimony and you're going to see that the state took two weeks to prove nothing at the end of the day you're going to find my client not [Music] guilty the jury was out over 20 hours I hadn't ever had one this long breaking news tonight we have a verdict in the trial of James proov all right would you hand the verdicts to the bayth at this time as to the offense of first-degree intentional homicide as charged in count one of the second amended information we the jury find the defendant James movit the verg has been marked guilty and then guilty of the three additional charges of perjury and obstruction of justice it was just the result of eight years of hard investigative work that kind of in totality added up to to the truth so um there was there was Joy but for the family there was still no answer to the question of what happened to their mother where was Victoria the Billboards had been up before and after the trial so the only thing so the only thing I want is her body that's fa and detectives had even offered proov a deal before the trial if he would tell them where she was but he was defined Roman if I could sh her body I'd give it to you I don't know where it is oh that's colorful you want to your wi's body oh colorful the working theory was that he put her body in some nearby sludge ponds where the company he worked for dumped toxic materials Jim what would happen to a body if you put it in those sludge ponds where you worked I don't know You' probably never find it I I do believe that she's in uh those Sledge ponds something would go into it and it would actually disintegrate law enforcement made attempts to find out if they could dredge these ponds in any way and be able to find Victoria and we told that wasn't possible so at Jim prokopovich is sentencing hearing Victoria's two daughters begged their stepfather to reveal his secret she doesn't deserve what happened to her will we ever know I'm asking for the truth I'm asking for justice for my mom Vicki she didn't deserve to have this kind of ending I want to give her peace it's hard for my heart to accept that Jim has withheld that information from us we deserve the truth and it's time for Jim to tell us the truth I hope and pray he'll take responsibility for his actions and tell us where our mom is without those answers our mom remains missing and we we will continue searching I would even ask that if he were to tell us where she is that he if he gave us the answers we need that you be lenient in your sentence the answers won't bring my mom back but they would allow us to grieve and to heal and I would hope that with time we could find find forgiveness and peace in this tragedy without these answers we don't have closure but proit remained silent uh he's the only person that we believe would know and I don't I don't know if he'll ever say James prokopovich received the maximum sentence possible life in prison with no possibility of parole taking his secret with him of what happened to [Music] Victoria [Music] aah

Channel: Law&Crime Network

Views: 198,352

Keywords: law and crime, law and crime network

Id: aLz6oH9bfEc

Length: 42min 39sec (2559 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 02 2023