Streaming now on Netflix, the fifth episode of Homicide: Los Angeles is titled “The Disappearing Wife.” Money and greed can destroy almost any relationship, a theme we’ve seen time and time again. However, this story takes it to an unprecedented extent. The episode begins with Bruce Koklich reporting his wife Jana missing. He appears devastated, upset, and willing to do anything to find her. Bruce is seen offering to pay a large ransom, cooperating fully with the police, and providing information to the media to maximize coverage. What happened to Jana? Was she found? Is she dead? And if so, who is responsible and why? We’ll explore these questions in this episode explainer.
Why is Jana’s father assumed to be involved in her disappearance?
On August 20th, 2001, Jana went missing. She and her husband Bruce both worked at the same real estate company. They were super ambitious and spent most of their time working. They didn’t have kids; their work was their priority. Jana was always supposed to come to the office to work with Bruce, but that day, she didn’t show up in the morning. Naturally, Bruce was really upset and troubled. He went home to see if she was there, but he couldn’t find her. He called the police and tried to be as cooperative as possible, giving them all sorts of information about her whereabouts. Jana was an incredibly loving person, and it didn’t seem like they had any trouble in their marriage, at least from the outside. So, there was no chance she might have run off. The police wondered if she had an extramarital affair or a medical condition, but the answers were all no. Then Bruce mentioned they had been getting threatening calls regularly, with messages threatening Jana’s life. This led investigator Karen Shonka and other officers to consider the possibility that Jana’s father’s enemies might be after her. Jana’s father was a former statesman who, during his political career, had been involved in some serious crimes and even went to jail. When he got out, he might have made some enemies who wanted to threaten Jana’s life to get back at him. But that theory turned out to have nothing to do with the truth. The police had to start investigating again because her father was uninvolved with the disappearance.
Was Chris Botosan responsible?
Chris Botosan was Bruce and Jana’s partner in their real estate agency, but Jana never really liked him. When she found out that Bruce might partner up with Chris to open a software company, she wasn’t happy about it. There was a thought that maybe Chris wanted to get rid of Jana because he realized she would threaten his work and his ability to gain control over the company. Maybe that’s why he killed her. But that didn’t happen, and this lead also went nowhere.
Who was responsible?
The police still had no clue where Jana was. There was no contact from her, and no body was found. Meanwhile, they discovered something really strange. A friend of Jana’s mentioned that she had called the Koklich’s phone the previous weekend, but no one answered. It was odd because it wasn’t a workday; it was the weekend. Bruce had previously said that they were home the entire weekend. So, if the phone rang, why didn’t he pick up? He said that he and Jana didn’t usually pick up calls on weekends because that was their time to relax. But given their money-making profession in real estate, it seemed strange not to take calls. Then there was their housekeeper, who came to change the sheets and found that the sheets had already been changed, and new ones were on the bed. This was unusual because she had been working at their house for a long time and was always the one to change the sheets. Also, a pillow and a towel were missing. Where did they go? The strangest thing happened when several women called the police station. When Bruce appeared on the media as a grieving husband saying he missed his wife and was offering a hundred thousand dollars in ransom money to get her back, apparently it was all an act. Behind the scenes, he was acting like a womanizer. He was asking women out, telling them he wanted to have relations with them, and even pushing them if they didn’t want to. These women reported his behavior to the police, revealing the truth about Bruce. It turned out that his grieving husband’s act was all pretense. He was the one who killed Jana in their bed, hid the bedsheet, pillow, and other evidence, and then pretended to be the loving, law-abiding husband. But why would he do it? It was found that Bruce desperately wanted to become a real estate mogul. He was extremely money-driven and pushed his wife to make money too. When Jana wanted to adopt a child, he refused so that the baby would not take away her attention from work. That’s how much control he had over their relationship. Jana’s friend confirmed this. Jana had grown tired of Bruce’s behavior and wanted a divorce. Bruce knew that a divorce would mean splitting their assets, which he couldn’t afford. He also knew that Jana had a million-dollar life insurance policy. Maybe he killed her to get that money, along with their big house and other assets. He wanted it all. So, he killed her and then faked the search to pretend to be the desperate husband when he knew exactly what he had done.
The Pathfinder that Bruce used to dump the evidence was found in a garage at Long Island Beach. After searching the vehicle, they discovered a blood clot and a feather inside. They thought the feather might have come from the pillow he took from the bed after killing Jana. The blood was confirmed to be Jana’s. An arrest warrant was issued, and the case went to court. Finally, the jury found Bruce guilty of killing his wife, Jana. He was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. Bruce couldn’t outsmart the police or the court. His manipulations didn’t work here. Finally, justice was served!
