When Gail Katz first met Robert Bierenbaum in the early ’80s, he seemed like the total package.
A handsome surgical resident who spoke multiple languages, he wooed her with his passion for gourmet cooking, skiing, and taking romantic flights in small planes. But beneath his polished exterior lurked something sinister that would ultimately lead to a devastating end.
Red Flags That Nobody Could Ignore
“At first, their romance seemed magical,” said Katz’s sister Alayne, an attorney in New York state.

Alayne Katz
But the warning signs started piling up faster than winter snow in the Hamptons. There was the disturbing double date where Bierenbaum forcefully shoved food into both sisters’ mouths.
Then came the horrifying incident where he attempted to drown Gail’s cat in their Upper East Side apartment toilet. Despite her sister’s pleas to “get rid of Bob,” Gail believed her love could change him.
On July 7, 1985, Gail Katz disappeared. Bierenbaum’s story?
They had a fight, and she stormed off.

Alayne Katz
While Gail’s body was never found, Bierenbaum moved on with his life, relocating to Las Vegas and later North Dakota.
He remarried, had a child, and even became a local hero for saving a boy from a tiger attack.
But justice was slowly catching up to him.
Investigators would later discover he had taken a flight that very day from a New Jersey airport – and attempted to cover his tracks by doctoring the flight log.
It wasn’t until chief investigator Det. Andy Rosenzweig, who was nearing retirement and reviewing cold cases, made this breakthrough.
Rosenzweig’s discovery of the altered flight log, combined with interviews with Bierenbaum’s former girlfriends (including one who revealed a suspicious phone call about a potential body discovery), finally gave prosecutors enough circumstantial evidence to move forward.
Though they had no body and no forensics, they managed to secure a conviction in 2000 by even demonstrating to the jury how it was possible for a pilot to push a body out of a small plane.

ABC News
The Confession That Changed Everything
During a December 2020 parole hearing, after serving 20 years of his life sentence, Bierenbaum finally cracked.
“I wanted her to stop yelling at me and I attacked her,” he admitted, according to the transcript.
He went on to describe how he strangled her and then disposed of her body over the ocean during a flight – confirming what prosecutors had argued at his 2000 trial.
A Legacy Of Warning Others

Alayne Katz
Today, Gail’s memory lives on through Gail’s House, formerly the Pace Women’s Justice Center, which provides resources to domestic violence victims.
“My sister’s body has never been found… Gail’s House gave my sister a resting place,” said Alayne Katz. “I feel my sister’s spirit is here… warning others… inspiring others.”
When shown the transcript of Bierenbaum’s confession, Alayne Katz wasn’t surprised:
“This is exactly the same man that I knew 35 years ago. He hasn’t changed… he is incapable of a shred of remorse.”
Editor’s Note:
Source material based on ABC News reporting and court transcripts from the 2000 murder trial and 2020 parole board hearing.