00:00:04
[suspenseful music] NARRATOR: In Narrowsburg,
Upstate New York, a house is burned to the ground.
00:00:10
Neighbors were
waking up in the dark, seeing this glow
in the distance. Some people thought
it was a sunrise.
00:00:18
NARRATOR: Paul and Catherine
Novak, who live here, have recently separated. Now, one of them lies
dead in the basement
00:00:25
of the marital home. She had been found lying
on the basement floor, on her back, with her
arms outstretched.
00:00:31
She had been crushed by
falling debris when the house collapsed in the fire. NARRATOR: Catherine Novak,
mother of two small children,
00:00:38
is dead. And her friends
suspect foul play. I immediately thought, oh
my God, she was murdered.
00:00:47
NARRATOR: Caught up in events,
Scott Sherwood, a friend of Paul Novak. INTERVIEWER (ON TAPE): So
you knew the house on fire?
00:00:52
SCOTT SHERWOOD (ON TAPE): Yes. INTERVIEWER (ON TAPE): Did
he say how he strangled her?
00:00:56
Paul Novak paid him to drive
him upstate to kill his wife. NARRATOR: It's a
story of lust, greed,
00:01:04
marriage which ends in
murder, and a husband who denies being a killer. They told me that a
body was found there,
00:01:10
but they weren't sure if
it was Catherine's or not. NARRATOR: He had motive. But could investigators
prove that Paul
00:01:15
Novak had killed his wife? [theme plays] In a Florida police
interview room, a woman called Michelle
Lafrance tells a story
00:01:39
of love, intrigue, and murder. He was going to do this. He was going to do this
and save the children.
00:01:45
INTERVIEWER (ON TAPE): How
does the conversation go? Like, what is he--
what is he telling
00:01:48
you that he wants to do, or
how does that come about? That he was going
to kill Catherine.
00:01:53
INTERVIEWER (ON TAPE):
And he says that to you? NARRATOR: Days
later, a paramedic
00:01:58
called Scott Sherwood confirms
the Michelle Lafrance story. Did he say if
Catherine mentioned
00:02:04
anything during the struggle? Why are you doing this? And what was his response?
00:02:10
Doing this for the kids. NARRATOR: Sherwood had been
a witness to both the life and the crime of Paul Novak.
00:02:16
Involved, too. But now, he wanted closure, even
if it meant going to prison. He was manipulated.
00:02:23
I honestly don't think that
but for Paul Novak existing, Scott would have ever committed
a crime in his entire life.
00:02:32
NARRATOR: Detectives
needed to know the truth about the marriage of
Catherine Lane and Paul Novak.
00:02:37
They discovered
that the couple had found love in the high-octane
world of New York paramedics.
00:02:44
[siren sounds] Paul Novak met Catherine
in the summer of 1996 at an Ambulance Corps barbecue.
00:02:55
NARRATOR: Catherine
was the youngest of four children
from a family that struggled to make ends meet.
00:03:00
In adulthood, she
craved stability. LINDA RODRIGUEZ: Catherine was
raised in Glendale, New York.
00:03:05
She was the fourth and
the youngest child. And her family didn't have
a lot of money growing up,
00:03:09
but Catherine was determined,
and she was hard working. She put herself through
college doing odd jobs,
00:03:15
and when she graduated, she
decided to find a career where she could help people.
00:03:20
NARRATOR: In her early
20's, while volunteering at a hospital, she'd
met and married
00:03:24
her first husband, an
Emergency Medical Technician. She became a first
responder, but the adrenaline
00:03:30
fueled lifestyle wasn't for
her, and after four years of marriage, they parted ways.
00:03:36
Catherine vowed to date only
businessman from now on. But all of that changed
when she met Paul Novak.
00:03:44
In those days right after
9/11, and at the very early years of the Iraq
War, anyone with
00:03:51
a paramedic uniform on from
New York, you kind of assumed might have been a hero.
00:03:58
NARRATOR: Paul was
tall, dark, strong. A well-known figure in the
Jamaica Hospital Ambulance
00:04:02
Service, where he worked. He reveled in his identity
as a saver of lives. He prided himself on
his ability to bring
00:04:09
victims of heart attacks
and road accidents back from the dead. Some of Paul's colleagues
suspected he got
00:04:16
a kick out of playing the hero. Catherine, though, she just
cared about the patients.
00:04:22
Catherine and
Paul were different. Very different. NARRATOR: Catherine
was quiet, reliable.
00:04:26
A homebody, who was always
balancing the books. Paul, on the other hand,
was a thrill seeker
00:04:31
who lived beyond his means. He tended to spend his
money on electronics, and was perpetually fixing up
motorcycles that he would then
00:04:39
race around in the
woods in Upstate New York at 160 miles an hour. NARRATOR: Friends and
co-workers struggled to see how
00:04:45
the two could be compatible. I think Paul Novak only
cared about Paul Novak. On the surface, it didn't seem
like their relationship would
00:04:53
really work, but she loved him. And on Valentine's Day,
1997, the two were married.
00:05:02
NARRATOR: If only Catherine
had been looking for them, there were red flags aplenty.
00:05:07
Paul's fellow
paramedics would later describe a man who was
fatally flawed, always
00:05:12
looking for the next thrill. He was hooked on porn and
would download x-rated images
00:05:18
while parked in his ambulance. And the behavior of Paul
Novak within that community
00:05:23
of paramedics, the
adrenaline rush, the drug use, the porn
addiction, you know, all of it
00:05:29
very dark. That-- that was eye-popping. Yes. What does he say
happened inside the house?
00:05:38
He had said that the
chloroform didn't work. I had to strangle her. NARRATOR: Scott
Sherwood, talking
00:05:45
to police after
Catherine Novak's murder, a homicide which involved
paramedic Paul Novak creating
00:05:52
a chloroform mixture,
before convincing his colleague to help him
end the life of Catherine.
00:05:58
Catherine, a born
optimist, thought marriage would change her husband. But while the wedding was
still only a recent memory,
00:06:04
she had discovered he
was a man of secrets, that his wild spending
habits were outweighing
00:06:09
the modest EMT salary. LINDA RODRIGUEZ:
Novak had a history of being bad with money.
00:06:14
In 1998, he had
filed for bankruptcy. In 2003, Catherine,
who had always been very good with her money,
very cautious and very careful,
00:06:23
also filed for bankruptcy. As it turned out, Novak had
spent most of their money
00:06:28
on electronics and motorcycles
that he was rebuilding. NARRATOR: Novak
seems to have been
00:06:33
spending his money on living
the party life in New York. They started a family. First, a little girl, Natalie.
00:06:40
And four years later,
a boy called Nicholas. Hopeful that family life might
steady her impulsive husband,
00:06:46
Catherine suggested
that they move upstate, far from the noise of Queens. LINDA RODRIGUEZ: Within a
few years of getting married,
00:06:53
the couple had bought
a house in Narrowsburg, New York, a tiny
farming community
00:06:57
that was outside of the city. NINA BURLEIGH: Narrowsburg
is a town about an hour
00:07:03
and a half Northwest
of New York City. It's on the Delaware River,
and it's a very small town.
00:07:11
It has gone through
some changes. It used to be a dairy
farm area up here, and then the dairy
farms kind of subsided.
00:07:23
And when we bought
our house in 2000, it was a pretty depressed area. The main street was
filled with thrift stores
00:07:31
and boarded up shops. Since 9/11, this area, because
it's so close to New York City,
00:07:38
has attracted a
lot of New Yorkers who wanted to buy second homes. So there are a lot of
second homeowners up here,
00:07:46
and that brought Narrowsburg up. Catherine had bought a house
in the rural area outside
00:07:55
of Narrowsburg, and
it was a simple house, a little red and white house. She had always wanted
to be a stay at home mom.
00:08:02
Her mother later said that
she was the kind of person who wanted her children to look
back on their house and say,
00:08:08
that's the house
that I grew up in. She was a very unusual
type, because of her civic--
00:08:15
her sense of civic
duty, her willingness to plunge in, donate her time
to her church, to her community,
00:08:25
to the school. NARRATOR: Nina Burleigh
befriended Catherine when she moved to the town.
00:08:31
I met Catherine when both of
our children were five-year-old kindergartners at the
Narrowsburg School, and she was
00:08:41
just a mother, just like me. And we got to know each
other at the school. Every day, we were dealing
with the same things
00:08:48
as mothers of our first
child going to school. And she was a lovely person. She was a great mother,
and she liked to put
00:08:57
in time helping other people. NARRATOR: Despite her
desire for safety, Narrowsburg is not
without its dangers.
00:09:06
NINA BURLEIGH: It's a place
where things can happen, because it's a rural community,
and you're far from neighbors.
00:09:15
You're far from the authorities. And on a dark night,
a lot of things can happen if you have
somebody with malign intent.
00:09:24
[suspenseful music] NARRATOR: Catherine may have
thought that she could take her husband away from the
temptations of the city,
00:09:31
but Paul wasn't willing to
live in the sticks just yet. He told Catherine that he could
earn more money in New York.
00:09:37
He would commute, but
stay over if he had to, or he couldn't face the
four-hour round trip.
00:09:43
LINDA RODRIGUEZ: Paul
still worked in Queens, so he would sleep several
nights a week in an apartment
00:09:48
in Queens, while Catherine
stayed up in Narrowsburg with their new daughter. NINA BURLEIGH: Her husband
wasn't here very often.
00:09:57
He would show up on
occasion to the morning drop off, wearing his uniform. NARRATOR: When he
was in Narrowsburg,
00:10:04
Paul Novak made little
effort to embrace rural life or his wife's
new friends and neighbors.
00:10:10
LINDA RODRIGUEZ: Her friends
described him as anti-social and a little bit creepy, but
Catherine was willing to make
00:10:16
excuses for him. Her husband was
kind of a quiet guy. I didn't really talk
to him very much.
00:10:22
A burly man who often showed
up, again, in a uniform. And I didn't really get
to know him because he
00:10:27
wasn't around very often. NARRATOR: Catherine,
on the other hand, threw herself into
the small town life,
00:10:33
blossoming as she made new
friends and took on new roles. NINA BURLEIGH: She sometimes
babysat for my kids.
00:10:41
I would bring my son over
to play with her daughter, and our toddlers
would play together.
00:10:46
And she was also somebody
who volunteered a lot. I was working at home a lot,
and while I was working,
00:10:52
she was donating her
time to the school, and making cupcakes, and
chaperoning children.
00:10:59
LINDA RODRIGUEZ:
She was a deacon in the local Lutheran Church. She led her daughter's
Girl Scout troop.
00:11:05
She was almost a
semi-professional volunteer. NARRATOR: While Catherine
thrived upstate,
00:11:11
Paul spent most of his
time 120 miles away, living the life of a bachelor. NINA BURLEIGH: The real Paul
Novak was cold, not social,
00:11:22
had a porn addiction, was
reckless in the extreme, was an adrenaline
addict, as many EMTs
00:11:31
will admit that they are. NARRATOR: It wouldn't be long
before his behavior in the city
00:11:36
spilled over into
his quiet home life. NINA BURLEIGH: The whole story
hinges on this underworld
00:11:43
of this community of paramedics,
who were witnesses to Paul Novak's bizarre behavior.
00:11:49
[suspenseful music] NARRATOR: In 2007,
paramedic Paul Novak was riding ambulances
in Queens, New York,
00:12:03
operating on adrenaline, stress,
and the thrill of saving lives. In one night, a New
York City paramedic might
00:12:10
deal with 50 heart attacks. I mean, it's an incredible
job that they have to do.
00:12:15
And clearly, it has an effect
on their mental health. NARRATOR: It was a lifestyle
few outsiders could understand.
00:12:23
Paul and his fellow EMTs
formed a tight knit community. When a paramedic turned to
bizarre and dangerous habits
00:12:30
to cope with the
stress, their co-workers would turn a blind eye,
keep their secrets.
00:12:35
Like when, out of the blue,
Paul Novak began discussing how to commit the perfect murder.
00:12:41
NINA BURLEIGH: He
had been talking about researching the perfect
crime, how to hide a body.
00:12:46
He had told his friends that
he thought fire was the best way to hide a body,
and had left a trail
00:12:54
of crumbs about his guilt
before the murder happened. He was looking
into how he could
00:13:02
do this and get away with it. NINA BURLEIGH: All of
these EMT in his station were aware of different
facets of this--
00:13:12
this malignant intent, and
incredibly, not one of them picked up the phone
and called the police.
00:13:21
NARRATOR: One colleague
hearing all of this was Scott Sherwood,
a fellow EMT. Since Paul and Scott worked
together as paramedics in Long
00:13:30
Island, and they were in
the ambulances together, they went and they had
a lot of down time.
00:13:36
They spoke a lot. NARRATOR: Scott Sherwood
would become embroiled in Novak's bitter
timeline in ways
00:13:44
that he could not
at first imagine. Some argue Novak
latched on to Scott because he was a soft touch.
00:13:50
He was a kind person. He is a kind person. NARRATOR: Paul began to
complain bitterly to Scott
00:13:55
about his marriage,
blaming Catherine for being too busy to pay him
the attention he deserved.
00:14:00
Paul might have felt like
he was playing second fiddle, to some degree, to
Catherine's duties.
00:14:05
NARRATOR: He began musing about
ways to get rid of his wife. He told another colleague that
if you wanted to kill someone,
00:14:11
fire was the best
method, because it burned all of the evidence. He was cold and calculating,
and had been talking
00:14:17
to his fellow paramedics
about how much he didn't like his wife,
how happy he would
00:14:24
be if he could get rid of her. NARRATOR: He was overheard
saying to his wife, "You may be the mom, the
mother of my children,
00:14:31
but I can still kill you." Paul's medic friends dismissed
his comments as a joke,
00:14:36
he was simply venting his
resentment about married life. Those colleagues
have since wondered
00:14:41
if he was gauging their
willingness to help him end Catherine's life. Indeed, one of them took
the bait, Scott Sherwood.
00:14:51
Scott had recently been
through a tough divorce. He was depressed
and all but broke.
00:14:56
His lawyer, Ben
Greenwald, believes Novak targeted his vulnerable client. BEN GREENWALD: I think
when someone asks me
00:15:02
the question, what
could cause such a nice person to do bad things? I think in this case, it's
less looking at Scott Sherwood,
00:15:15
and more looking at Paul
Novak's ability to manipulate. NARRATOR: By 2007,
Catherine Novak knew
00:15:23
her marriage was on the rocks. But she was determined
to make it work, and when Paul made noises
about doing the same,
00:15:29
she was delighted, relieved. The marriage was in trouble,
or at least it seemed to be,
00:15:35
to Catherine's friends. But on Valentine's
Day, 2007, 10 years after they first got
married, the couple
00:15:41
decided to renew their vows. NARRATOR: Paul
told Catherine how much their marriage
meant to him,
00:15:46
and that he wanted
a fresh start. She was excited, and her friends
tried to feel happy for her,
00:15:52
but they were skeptical
about Paul's intentions, and they were right to be. Not long after that, however,
Paul took out a life insurance
00:16:01
policy on Catherine,
and it seemed a bit weird to her
friends, but she defended it as a good
decision for their children
00:16:08
and their family. Just looking out for the best
interests of their family. NARRATOR: Catherine's
illusions were soon shattered.
00:16:15
Just a few weeks later,
Paul told Catherine that he didn't love her. Return trips to
Narrowsburg became rare.
00:16:23
And when he did stay over,
he slept in the spare room. Even the times
that I would maybe
00:16:28
drop off a kid at her house, or
interact with her at her house, I don't recall ever seeing
him in that little cottage.
00:16:36
NARRATOR: Early one
morning in February, 2008, Catherine received
all the proof she needed
00:16:41
that her marriage was over. Her house phone rang. [phone rings] When she picked up, she heard
a stranger's voice, a woman,
00:16:49
clearly drunk. She asked for Paul Novak,
and it was at that moment that Catherine realized
that her husband was
00:16:54
definitely having an affair. NARRATOR: It was
a young paramedic called Michelle Lafrance.
00:17:01
The plan came out in, uh-- in probably November, December. NARRATOR: Who was
this woman who dared
00:17:09
to call the home where Catherine
and her children lived? Paul's girlfriend was an
unstable character anyway.
00:17:17
She was a fellow EMT. She was much younger than he. Michelle Lafrance, a
25-year-old university student,
00:17:23
had been assigned to
the hospital ambulances group that Paul drove with. She'd had a history
of suicide attempts,
00:17:32
and her mental state was,
at times, a bit shaky. She was not somebody who had
any business being in charge
00:17:44
of life or death decisions
that are made by paramedics, and yet she was
riding as a paramedic.
00:17:52
She was-- she was
certified in New York. NARRATOR: Paul Novak and
Michelle Lafrance bonded
00:17:58
over their intense experiences,
battling to save lives on the streets of New York.
00:18:03
The first time she successfully
intubated a patient who was struggling to breathe,
she texted Paul, jubilant,
00:18:09
and he took her for
a drink to celebrate. I mean, the whole story
really hinges on this--
00:18:16
this underworld, or this
community of paramedics who, you know, were witnesses to
Paul Novak's bizarre behavior.
00:18:25
NARRATOR: Michele Lafrance
was young, pretty, feisty. She looked up to Paul as a hero,
they fell hard for one another.
00:18:32
And when Catherine
Novak found out, she kicked her cheating
husband out for good.
00:18:37
NINA BURLEIGH: I was standing
in the yard, and I said hello, and she said hello.
00:18:41
And she said, oh, I've
been looking for you. And right away she
said, I've been looking
00:18:44
for you because my
husband's having an affair and I need to get a job. I said, oh, I'm sorry.
00:18:53
And she sort of
giggled, and acted like it didn't matter that much
that he was having an affair.
00:18:58
Didn't go into any of the
details, and just said, I need to get a job. NARRATOR: Released
from a relationship
00:19:04
he'd come to see as
a burden, Paul Novak also looked like he'd moved on. Soon after Catherine
found out about the affair,
00:19:11
Novak moved into an apartment
in Glen Clove, Long Island, with Lafrance. Novak agreed to pay $1,700
a month in child support,
00:19:20
and agreed to take the
children every other weekend. NARRATOR: Catherine
tried to make
00:19:24
the most of her new reality. She took on two part-time
jobs at the school and a local church
camp, telling friends
00:19:31
she was saving for her children
to one day go to college. She took Lafrance out for lunch,
checking out her husband's
00:19:37
new girlfriend before
letting the children visit her in Long Island. But the split was
far from amicable.
00:19:45
LINDA RODRIGUEZ: Catherine
filed for divorce and they began talking
about a settlement.
00:19:49
At the same time, Novak was
starting to badmouth Catherine, calling her an unfit mother,
calling her a fat, ugly troll.
00:19:57
He had me convinced that
Catherine was the bad guy, he was the good parent,
and his kids were abused,
00:20:04
and his kids were miserable. INTERVIEWER (ON TAPE):
Do this for the kids? And we need to save the kids.
00:20:07
NARRATOR: Paul and
Catherine argue bitterly on the phone about
money and the care
00:20:12
of their two young children. That first, Catherine
didn't confide in anyone about her fears.
00:20:17
She was determined to
stay positive, and provide a stable home for the children.
00:20:21
But she was beginning to
feel less and less safe in her isolated cottage. Catherine was
increasingly anxious,
00:20:28
and even though it doesn't
seem like there were any direct threats
against her safety,
00:20:33
she did pay a neighbor to
change the locks on the house. NARRATOR: She was
right to be scared.
00:20:38
The gentle giant
she'd married, the man who dedicated his life to saving
others, was nowhere to be seen.
00:20:44
And Catherine was all alone in
a secluded, backcountry home. [suspenseful music]
00:20:50
One night, the community
was shocked to discover, it was the scene
of a massive fire.
00:20:56
NINA BURLEIGH: We were
up here for Christmas, and we were actually having a
holiday dinner at a friend's
00:21:02
house outside of Narrowsburg,
and the local paper was on the table, and
I looked at it,
00:21:08
and there was a color
picture on it of a fire, or a charred house. And underneath, it said--
00:21:16
and I'm paraphrasing--
local woman dies in fire. NARRATOR: Had Paul Novak and
decided it was time to cash
00:21:23
in on the life insurance? INTERVIEWER (ON TAPE): What is
he telling you that you wants
00:21:27
to do, or does that come about? That he was going
to kill Catherine. [suspenseful music]
00:21:40
NARRATOR: On the morning
of 13th December, 2008, early risers saw
smoke and flames
00:21:45
pouring from Catherine
Novak's isolated cottage on County Road 25. - NARRATOR: Firefighters
in Sullivan County
00:21:51
were alerted to a fire. Some people thought
it was the sunrise, but somebody nearby
recognized it was a fire
00:21:58
and called the police. Firefighters were on the
scene by 6:46 that morning, and what they discovered was
a fully engaged, raging fire.
00:22:08
It was a cold morning,
it was December. The police arrived, and
the house was almost
00:22:14
burned to the ground already. NARRATOR: The air was so
cold that firefighters had ice in their boots.
00:22:21
And yet the blaze was
so ferocious that it took them hours to extinguish. When they were
finally able to comb
00:22:28
through the charred
remains of the house, they made two gruesome
discoveries in the basement.
00:22:34
Firefighters began the task
of sifting through the ashes to see who might have
even been in there.
00:22:40
And they found Catherine's
body on the floor, and the dog in a
kennel, also dead.
00:22:47
She had been
crushed at some point, by falling debris when the
house collapsed in the fire.
00:22:54
NARRATOR: When news of
Catherine's death emerged, it sent shock waves
through the close
00:22:58
knit Narrowsburg community. She was a volunteer. She was a born
volunteer, a giver.
00:23:03
And there aren't a lot
of people like that, and communities depend on them. They're often unsung.
00:23:09
And she was one of those people. And so, she left a hole,
in that sense, that's a loss for the community.
00:23:15
She could have been
somebody I could have seen running for office. NARRATOR: It was devastating.
00:23:20
But for the emergency
services, finding just one human body and a
dog's, was actually a relief.
00:23:27
It could have been worse. LINDA RODRIGUEZ: When
firefighters searched through the debris,
they weren't sure
00:23:31
who they were going to find. They knew that two children
lived at the address, but what they didn't know is
that they had been spending
00:23:37
the night at their father's
house, 100 miles away in Long Island that night. NARRATOR: In the local
community, suspicion.
00:23:45
Catherine's friends
knew that she was going through an
acrimonious divorce from a husband they
didn't like, didn't trust.
00:23:52
A husband who
demanded full custody of the couple's children. I went along Main Street,
talked to some people
00:23:59
that I knew. I think at one of the shops,
and I asked what they had heard, and the person I was
talking to said, oh, yeah.
00:24:10
Everybody here is very
suspicious about that. When detectives examined the
blackened ruins of Catherine's
00:24:18
home, they, too,
felt there was too much that simply didn't add up. LINDA RODRIGUEZ:
She had been found
00:24:24
lying on the basement
floor, on her back, with her arms outstretched. Underneath her, however, the
back of her body wasn't burned.
00:24:32
NARRATOR: Fire
investigation experts could not understand
why Catherine was found lying on her back.
00:24:37
When someone has been
killed in a fire, it's far more common
to find them curled
00:24:41
in a fetal position,
trying to protect themselves from the flames. There was another
significant clue,
00:24:48
something detectives
struggled to explain. A post-mortem found
that Catherine had
00:24:53
not died of smoke inhalation. NINA BURLEIGH: The medical
examiner concluded that the dog
00:25:00
died of smoke inhalation. The dog had smoke in its
lungs, but Catherine did not.
00:25:06
An autopsy later
found that the levels of carbon monoxide
in Catherine's lungs were not sufficient to kill her.
00:25:12
Instead, they believed
that she had died when the debris crushed her chest. And there were people in the
state police, and especially
00:25:21
the fire department
here, who suspected that that was not accurate. But there was nothing
they could do about it.
00:25:29
NARRATOR: If Catherine hadn't
died from smoke inhalation, and had not been crushed to
death, how did she come to die?
00:25:35
The autopsy uncovered
one final clue, one which pointed to murder. Catherine had three
dislocated ribs
00:25:44
and an unusual pooling
of blood around the sites of the fractures. It looked like she had been
badly injured some minutes
00:25:50
or even hours before she died. It suggests that she may have
suffered a violent assault.
00:25:58
To friends and family
and investigators, there could only be
one person to frame.
00:26:03
NINA BURLEIGH: I remember
picking up the phone and calling the state
police and saying,
00:26:07
you're aware, of course, that
she was engaged in a divorce? And he said, yes. LINDA RODRIGUEZ: Police
and firefighters had
00:26:18
their suspicions at that point. They questioned Paul Novak about
his whereabouts that night.
00:26:25
His girlfriend,
Michelle Lafrance, said that he had
been home all night. NARRATOR: Paul Novak
denied any involvement
00:26:31
in his wife's death. He protested his innocence, and
said that Catherine's death had
00:26:35
been a terrible shock to him. I actually found out that they
found a body in the basement
00:26:42
from my mother, who found
out from one of the volunteer firefighters that was there.
00:26:48
So when I initially went to the
state police has directed, to-- to give, you know, to give
my statement as they wanted,
00:26:55
and they told me that-- at that point, they told me
that a body was found there,
00:26:59
but they weren't sure
if it was Catherine's. NINA BURLEIGH: They
interviewed him.
00:27:03
He had an airtight alibi, and
they, um, they let him go. And 10 days after
the fire, Paul
00:27:11
passed a lie detector test. They had really no choice but
to rule it as an accident.
00:27:16
NARRATOR: Paul Novak
claimed to be shocked, but he showed no
interest in paying tribute to his deceased wife.
00:27:22
Paul didn't attend
Catherine's funeral. Instead, he took the
children, dropped them off at the service, and
then picked them up afterwards.
00:27:30
Later, when they went
to the grave site, he again dropped them off,
walked them up to the coffin,
00:27:35
and left them with
Catherine's relatives. NARRATOR: She may have meant
little to him alive, but dead,
00:27:41
Catherine was of great
value to Paul Novak. LINDA RODRIGUEZ: Not long
after Catherine's death,
00:27:45
Novak left his job as
an EMT in New York City. Paul Novak then cashed in
an $800,000 insurance policy,
00:27:53
and moved himself and his
girlfriend and his two kids to a house that he bought
for himself in Florida with
00:28:01
an in-ground saltwater
pool, and was aiming to live happily ever after. NARRATOR: Catherine's death
was ruled an accident.
00:28:09
Paul was free to move
on with his life. He had an attractive younger
girlfriend, sole custody
00:28:14
of his children, and
plenty of cash in the bank to enjoy a carefree
lifestyle, far
00:28:20
from the dangers of New York. Paul seemed home and
dry, except he could never curb his wandering eye.
00:28:28
LINDA RODRIGUEZ: Paul and
Michelle's relationship was troubled, and by early
2012, Michelle believed
00:28:33
that Paul was having an affair. NINA BURLEIGH: Very soon after
they were living together,
00:28:39
they started to fight. NARRATOR: Paul had begun
meeting women online, and before long, he was
engaged in a full-blown affair.
00:28:47
Hooked, perhaps on the
thrill of infidelity, he seemed powerless to prevent
history from repeating itself.
00:28:52
By the summer of 2012, Novak
and Michelle had split up. And eventually she
moved out of the house
00:28:59
that she shared with
him and the kids, moved into her own
apartment in Florida, and would later tell police
that she had dreams, nightmares
00:29:08
that he was coming to
kill her in the way that he had killed Catherine. NARRATOR: Michelle had
a new partner, too.
00:29:14
A police officer. But she had trouble
leaving her past behind. She couldn't shake the niggling
feeling that she needed to come
00:29:22
clean, for her own sake. He had described to her
how he had killed Catherine, and she couldn't get
that out of her head.
00:29:30
Michelle had started
dating a police officer, and she started to feel a
little bit guilty about some
00:29:37
of the things that she
had told the police in 2008, after the death
of Novak's wife, Catherine.
00:29:43
NINA BURLEIGH:
That police deputy urged her to contact
the New York State Police, which she then did.
00:29:48
NARRATOR: Heeding
his advice, she made a phone call
that would bring Novak's world crashing down.
00:29:53
[suspenseful music] That summer, Michelle
contacted the New York State Police, and in
exchange for immunity,
00:30:00
she told them that she had
lied in her statement in 2008 about the death of Catherine.
00:30:07
NARRATOR: Was Michelle acting
out of guilt or revenge? Either way, if Paul
could have stayed
00:30:11
faithful to his girlfriend,
she might have kept his secret. Instead, she told detectives
everything she knew.
00:30:17
INTERVIEWER (ON
TAPE): What is he telling you that he wants to
do, or how does that come about?
00:30:21
That he was going
to kill Catherine. NARRATOR: Paul
Novak's house of cards was on the brink of collapse.
00:30:28
As Lafrance talked, the
true story of Catherine's tragic death began to emerge. Would it be enough to
prove the full horror
00:30:35
of what Novak had done? Paul was very calm. INTERVIEWER (ON TAPE):
Very calm, but did he--
00:30:41
Calm, very controlled,
very [inaudible] INTERVIEWER (ON TAPE):
Did you kill your wife?
00:30:44
No, I did not. [suspenseful music] NARRATOR: In a police
interview room, Michele Lafrance was
giving detectives
00:30:55
every detail of the plan hatched
by Paul Novak to kill his wife. MICHELLE LAFRANCE (ON
TAPE): It was going
00:30:59
to be done on a weekend
that we have the kids, and he was going to
burn the house down,
00:31:03
and, you know, he's up there
in the middle of nowhere, and nobody would know. Nobody would see it.
00:31:10
Investigators flew to Florida
and interviewed Lafrance for more than six hours. She told them that she had lied
about Paul Novak's whereabouts
00:31:17
that night, and that instead
of him being at home with her in Glen Cove, he and his
sometime partner, Scott
00:31:23
Sherwood, had actually
driven to Narrowsburg, New York, set fire to the
house where Catherine
00:31:29
lived, and killed her. The reason why I think Paul
Novak needed Scott Sherwood, is
00:31:35
that Paul didn't
want his car to be traced to his ex
wife's house when he was going to try to murder her.
00:31:44
NARRATOR: Michelle's
testimony was everything that cops needed to arrest
Paul Novak and his ambulance
00:31:49
partner Scott Sherwood. Paul protested his innocence. INTERVIEWER (ON TAPE):
Did you kill your wife?
00:31:54
No, I did not. NARRATOR: According
to his lawyer, paramedic Scott
Sherwood was relieved
00:31:59
to finally be able to admit
his role in the murderous plot. He helped corroborate what
Michelle Lafrance testified to,
00:32:08
and I truly believe everyone
saw what type of person he really was. It's-- you talk to
them for a minute,
00:32:18
you saw how earnest he was, that
he truly wanted to do the right thing, and probably, if it
was up to him, he would have
00:32:27
cooperated from minute one. Scott Sherwood pled guilty
to conspiracy to commit murder,
00:32:32
and in exchange for
a shorter sentence, he agreed to testify
against Novak. He told police and the jury
what happened that night.
00:32:40
NARRATOR: Between
Lafrance and Sherwood, detectives formed a
crystal clear picture
00:32:44
of the sordid scheme
that would brutally end Catherine Novak's life. INTERVIEWER (ON
TAPE): But can you
00:32:48
see anger building up in Paul? Or is Paul talking about-- Paul was very calm. INTERVIEWER (ON
TAPE): Very calm.
00:32:55
But did he-- Very calm, very
controlled, very [inaudible] NARRATOR: Paul Novak
was sick of making
00:33:00
monthly payments to his wife. He was tired of sharing
custody of the children. Catherine was nothing
but a thorn in his side.
00:33:07
So, in winter 2008,
he began plotting. The plan came out in, uh, in
probably November, December.
00:33:18
December, probably. It was a very short time
that I knew about it. INTERVIEWER (ON TAPE): OK.
00:33:24
And he was going to do this. He was going to do this
and save the children. INTERVIEWER (ON TAPE): Well,
how did it come out, how
00:33:32
did it happen, did he tell you? Um, he-- I don't remember exactly the
conversation told, but he had
00:33:42
me convinced that
Catherine was the bad guy, he was the good parent,
and his kids were abused,
00:33:48
and his kids were miserable. INTERVIEWER (ON TAPE):
Do this for the kids? And we need to save the kids.
00:33:52
INTERVIEWER (ON TAPE): Where are
you having that conversation? At our apartment in Glen Cove.
00:33:55
INTERVIEWER (ON TAPE): Are
the kids down with you then? Were the kids there? I don't remember.
00:34:00
No, the kids never
knew about this. No, but I mean, were they
staying with you, like,
00:34:05
are they sleeping
in the other room? Not that I remember. INTERVIEWER (ON TAPE):
Was it kind of, is he--
00:34:13
be a savior, but how
does the conversation go? Like, what is he
what is he telling
00:34:16
you that he wants to do, or
how does that come about? That he was going
to kill Catherine.
00:34:21
INTERVIEWER (ON TAPE):
And he says that to you? NARRATOR: As a
trained medic, Paul
00:34:27
had worked out what he
thought was the cleanest way to kill Catherine, and
leave as little evidence
00:34:31
behind as possible. MICHELLE LAFRANCE (ON TAPE):
He was going to chloroform her,
00:34:35
leave her, and then burn
the house down around her, and she was going
to die in the fire.
00:34:39
That was his plan. And, um, we were going to do
it on a weekend that, you know, we had the kids so the
kids would be safe.
00:34:48
NARRATOR: For his
plan to truly work, Novak needed an accomplice. He didn't want his car seen
anywhere near Narrowsburg
00:34:54
that night. The guy who drove
Paul Novak up here to-- to commit the murder that
night was a fellow EMT.
00:35:03
Having someone else's car
would be in his best interest. NARRATOR: Why was
Sherwood, known
00:35:08
as a soft-hearted
man who cried easily, willing to get
involved in a murder? Paul learned a lot of intimate
facts about Scott's life,
00:35:17
mostly about a messy divorce
that he'd been going through, and the pain he was
suffering because of that.
00:35:24
Scott Sherwood,
Novak's sometime partner, was a large man, and he was
also emotionally unstable.
00:35:30
He had recently gone
through a divorce, and had a history
of bipolar disorder. He felt an affinity
with Paul Novak.
00:35:37
Scott being the
kind person that he is, wanted to try to help
Paul with not being in pain.
00:35:44
The problem is that
the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Why did he do
this to Catherine?
00:35:52
Well, he said it
to me, because I don't want to end up like you. And you having gone
through a very rough divorce,
00:35:59
and on a very difficult
predicament with your ex, and obviously you're
not happy about that.
00:36:05
You can manipulate even good
people to do the wrong thing, and you just need someone
with some very twisted morals
00:36:11
to do that. NARRATOR: With his vulnerable
friend Sherwood on board, Novak had everything he needed
to put his plan into action.
00:36:18
On the night of December 12,
Sherwood went to Novak's Glen Cove apartment to pick him up.
00:36:23
When he arrived, Novak
was mixing up something that he said was chloroform. NARRATOR: The children,
Natalie and Nicholas,
00:36:30
were fast asleep in
the next room, drugged. He gave Benadryl
to the children, so they wouldn't wake up when
Paul was coming and going
00:36:39
during the murder night. It seemed like Paul Novak
had every detail buttoned up.
00:36:42
He'd even left his cell
phone in Nassau County, so that it wouldn't be tracked. NARRATOR: Scott Sherwood's
attorney is adamant
00:36:50
that his client did nothing more
than play chauffeur that night. Scott Sherwood's course
of conduct for this
00:36:55
was to drive Paul Novak up. He didn't go in the house. He didn't do other things
to advance the murder,
00:37:04
beyond driving him. On the way up to
Narrowsburg, they stopped to buy duct tape and gloves.
00:37:13
NARRATOR: Scott parked
behind a barn a mile or so from Catherine's home. He sat in the car and waited,
as Novak set off on foot
00:37:20
towards the house where
Catherine, unsuspecting, lay asleep in her bed. Sherwood told police
that when he left the car,
00:37:26
Novak was dressed
in surgical scrubs. He had booties over his shoes. He was wearing a hat and gloves.
00:37:32
He had also duct taped
his sleeves and cuffs, to make sure that
no evidence would be
00:37:36
left at the scene of the crime. He lets himself in
to the basement door, and he lured Catherine
down to the basement
00:37:42
by setting off the fire alarm. [dire alarm rings] What does he say
happened inside the house?
00:37:50
[sighs] He says this to you,
right in, the car? He-- he had said that
the chloroform didn't work,
00:38:02
I had to strangle her. Paul Novak tried to
chloroform her, it didn't work. NARRATOR: Falling to the
floor, the couple was soon
00:38:11
locked in a violent struggle. He killed her. He strangled her to death. NARRATOR: In her final
moments, Catherine Novak knew
00:38:17
exactly what was happening. As she begged for
her life, her husband grabbed the collar
of her sweatshirt
00:38:23
and tightened it around her neck
until she stopped breathing. [suspenseful music]
00:38:29
INTERVIEWER (ON TAPE): Did
he say if Catherine mentioned anything during the struggle?
00:38:36
Why are you doing this? And what was his response? Doing this for the kids. NARRATOR: After setting
the house ablaze
00:38:45
and waiting a while to make
sure the fire took hold, Paul Novak returned
to the car, peeling
00:38:49
off his protective gear. For someone who
had just squeezed the life out of his children's
mother, he was eerily calm.
00:38:57
What was his demeanor when
he came back from the house? Uh, seemed cold, distant.
00:39:03
What about you? Were you like,
holy [bleep],, why? I was-- I was beside myself. NARRATOR: Taking
a different route,
00:39:15
the pair returned to
the city, executing the last detail in Paul's
meticulous plan on the way.
00:39:21
INTERVIEWER (ON TAPE):
When you leave, who drives? Um, I had Paul
drive, because--
00:39:29
well, I started-- I started heading
out of the area. I guess made it to the
closest county road,
00:39:38
and it was a little too
windy and it was dark, so I told Paul, you better-- you better drive, I can't.
00:39:48
Along the way they
stopped at an abandoned gas station, where
Novak could get rid
00:39:51
of the scrubs and the gloves. NARRATOR: In Paul's mind,
this was the perfect murder.
00:39:56
Walking into their
Long Island apartment, Novak told his
girlfriend, it's done. A week later, he told Lafrance
all of the grisly details.
00:40:05
That was a huge mistake. Unable to shake the mental
images of Catherine's agonizing end, she
would eventually
00:40:12
repeat his account, word
for word, to New York cops. After his arrest, and
throughout his trial,
00:40:17
Paul Novak insisted
on his innocence. PAUL NOVAK (ON
TAPE): He continues to read me my Miranda rights,
and I said, do I need a lawyer?
00:40:24
He goes, well, you know,
if you ask for a lawyer, it won't really look that good.
00:40:28
We like you, we know you didn't
have anything to do with this. But the DA wants us to ask
you some questions, just
00:40:32
to keep you in the
clear, and make everyone feel a lot better. So I'm like, all right.
00:40:38
I mean, I don't have
anything to hide. You can ask me
anything you want. And, so then that's
when he told me
00:40:44
that something had
happened to Catherine. I think Paul Novak only
cared about Paul Novak,
00:40:50
and he got a large sum of
money from the insurance, which was pretty much all
gone by the end of this case.
00:40:59
Where his kids pretty much
got nothing, as far as I understand. NARRATOR: Standing trial for
a range of charges including
00:41:06
first degree murder,
Novak claimed that Lafrance and Sherwood
had killed Catherine
00:41:10
without his knowledge. BEN GREENWALD: He
manipulated someone into helping him commit a
heinous crime, and without even
00:41:19
caring one whit, as
far as I'm concerned, about what happened to Scott. He really just wanted
the case to go his way.
00:41:28
So, that's the only
thing I really can say. He wasn't-- Paul Novak
wasn't an open guy.
00:41:34
NARRATOR: But his
friend and girlfriend had nothing to gain from
killing Novak's wife,
00:41:38
and their combined
testimony was compelling. BEN GREENWALD: He
helped corroborate what
00:41:42
Michelle Lafrance testified to. NARRATOR: A jury convicted
Paul Novak of the murder
00:41:48
of his wife, Catherine. In return for the testimony
that brought Novak down, Scott Sherwood was
jailed for 18 months.
00:41:56
And Michelle Lafrance walked
away from court scot-free. It was the ultimate revenge
against the man who had seduced
00:42:02
her and then scorned her. If their relationship
hadn't broken down, it's possible that she would
have kept a secret forever.
00:42:08
NARRATOR: Paul Novak
thought he could commit the perfect murder,
depriving his children
00:42:13
of a mother at the same time. He was sentenced
to life in prison without the
possibility of parole.
00:42:19
[suspenseful music]