By the early morning hours of Dec. 3, Ted Maher was in the hospital being treated for stab wounds, while the men who'd attacked him inside billionaire Edmond Safra's penthouse were apparently at-large in Monte Carlo.

In New York, Ted’s wife Heidi got a call from her sister-in-law, who was watching the news.

Heidi Maher: She called me up and her first words to me were “What's the name of Ted’s boss?”

(TV news broadcast)

WNBC news: "Safra founded Republic National Bank of New York..."

The story and pictures being broadcast around the world were startling. Safra's glorious penthouse was in flames.

(TV news broadcast)

CNBC- "two men armed with knives broke into Safra's apartment..."

News reports said Edmond Safra and one of his nurses had survived the armed attack, but died later from smoke inhalation in a fire set by the intruders.

Safra's wife Lily managed to escape by climbing out a window.

Ted was in the hospital recovering when he learned that his billionaire boss and co-worker Vivian Torrente had died.

Ted Maher: I cried. I couldn't believe it. I could not believe that these people had died.

It was such a bizarre and brazen crime. Vivian Torrente’s daughter Genevieve says the news seemed utterly surreal.

Genevieve Torrente: I was confused. Shocked. Like I didn't know what to believe. It just didn’t make sense.

Israeli reporter Boaz Bismuth arrived in Monaco to cover the story of the attack and the nurse who had tried to stop it.

Sara James, Dateline NBC: It appeared that this nurse was a hero?

Boaz Bismuth: He was. He was resting after saving his boss, because -- trying to save his boss.

But save his boss from whom? Almost immediately, wild speculation was underway, theories circulating about who might have wanted the banker dead.

After all, Edmond Safra himself had long suspected that there were enemies out to get him.

Safra had been a generous friend of Israel. The Jerusalem town hall on "Safra Square' was built with his money.

Was it the PLO?

What about the controversial sale of the bank? Had some secret business deal gone bad?

And the family rift between Safra and his brothers that was reportedly caused by wife Lily, who now stood to inherit $3 billion.

Was there a vengeful motive there?

But the theory with the most currency was one involving the Russian mob.

Boaz Bismuth: We have a story of a millionaire being dead. And the big suspect, the Russian mafia.

Officials at Safra's bank had been publically cooperating with the U.S. government to expose Russian money laundering.

Was this a revenge killing?

It seemed that Safra's reported paranoia had been justified all along.

And there was another part of the mystery.

Nearly three hours had elapsed between when Ted, wounded and bleeding, made it down to the bank lobby and police were called to when Safra and the nurse were found dead in the locked bathroom.

What exactly had the Monaco authorities been doing all that time? And where, on that night of all nights, was Safra's crack security team?

Turns out that in a series of hesitations and miscommunications, authorities had been on the scene for more than an hour before attempting to reach the penthouse or put out the fire.

All the while, Safra and nurse Vivian had been making cell phone calls -- for the locked bathroom where it was growing increasingly smoky.

And yet, another 90 minutes ticked by before fireman reached them.

By that time it was too late.

Boaz Bismuth: It's a huge amount of time. You can go from Paris to London in such a time.

But where were all those highly trained bodyguards?

Ironically, the Safras had felt safe enough in Monaco to let the entire security staff sleep at the Safra estate 10 miles away.

When Safra's chief of security did arrive, he tried to charge upstairs and save his boss, but the police put him in handcuffs, thinking he was part of the plot.

Boaz Bismuth: They arrested him, they prevented him from going inside.

A picture of an inept, bungling Monaco police department was beginning to take shape.

The story now had the potential to be a huge source of embarrassment for the principality which banked on its reputation as a safe haven for the rich and royal.

With each new detail, the story of the banker and his masked assassins became increasingly bizarre.

But according to authorities here, there was a reason why the early news reports read like a Hollywood screenplay: the tale of the armed intruders was complete and utter fiction.

Within days of the attack, authorities announced a brand new theory of the crime, and it had nothing to do with the Safra family feud, the PLO or Russian mob.

According to authorities, there had been no intruders -- Ted Maher had done the whole thing himself. Ted's knife wounds -- superficial, and self- inflicted. The fire -- set by Ted. The motive? Ted was afraid of losing his dream job and wanted to curry favor by staging false heroics.

Boaz Bismuth: He wanted to impress his boss, he was in very bad terms with the main nurse. Two reasons.

The international thriller starring the billionaire banker had fizzled into a sad tale about a desperate, possibly unstable, employee.

Bryan Burroughs: There's a human story now. But suddenly it's about the nurse

Ted's arrest was a devastating turn of events for his wife Heidi.

She first spoke to Dateline just weeks after the deadly fire.

Sara James, Dateline NBC: Did you think it was just going to all be a big mistake?

Heidi Maher: Yes. I know he's innocent, he could never do this.

But police said there was no mistake; Ted Maher had confessed.

It was all spelled out in a document he'd signed.

Sara James, Dateline NBC: So he's lying when he tells us there are intruders. He's telling the truth when he says he did it.

Boaz Bismuth: Exactly.

Sara James, Dateline NBC: And it's all solved.

Boaz Bismuth: Yes.

Case closed. Or was it?

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