Crazy Love | Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] Conducting a homicide is like putting together a thousandpiece jigsaw puzzle.
What happens if one piece doesn't fit? Then the rest of the puzzle won't make sense. You got to take it apart. And
that's what they did. The victim was Benji Novak. He had been beaten bad on the torso, his
head. It was almost overkill. This case was twisted, even from Miami. Benji was from a rich Miami family. They
owned a Fountain Blue Hotel. It was big back in the 60s. He was king of all the world. And my
daddy owns this place. And you'll do as I tell you to do. He had a lot of enemies. He was a
cutthroat. To put it bluntly, he was a brat. He wanted people to fear him. Menji was a successful businessman. And
if people needed to be held accountable, he had no problem doing it. And that's the arrogance that a lot of people saw
in him. He had a lot of fetishes. He had the second largest Batman collection in the
world. He became very wealthy in his own right. He managed conventions. He would set him
up from the beginning to the end. It was an all cash business. He was scared to death he was going to be
robbed. He always claimed to be a little sexually kinky. Prostitutes and strip clubs. And that's
in fact where he met his wife Narcy. He definitely was in love with Nars. Benji was who he was. His wife was who
she was. If they did things that was between them. We really pound the payment on this
case. It was apparent that they wanted him to suffer. Who would go to such lengths to inflict
such serious injury? Somebody with a really cold heart. I can tell you that. There was a lot of cast of characters.
We found hitmen. We found girlfriends. We found money trails. And when it was all over, the oldest
motive in the world, money and sex. [Music] I'm Troy Roberts. Tonight on 48 hours
crazy love. [Music] [Applause] [Music] My god, I I can't believe this. It was horrific.
The picture. Detective Sergeant Terry Wilson of the Rybrook, New York Police Department.
He's on the ground. He's He's basically hog tied. And Detective Allison Carpenter of
Westchester County had never witnessed a crime scene this gruesome. It was a brutal scene. His eyes had both
been cut out. The victim, 53-year-old Benji Novak, was a multi-millionaire Florida businessman.
His mutilated body was discovered in the early morning hours of July 12th, 2009 in a hotel room in Rybrook, a suburb
just 40 minutes north of New York City. An uplift like this, right, was placed on his legs, his arms, and
around his mouth. When they put it, they did it really tight. Ultimately, police believed there was more than one
killer. Was there any sign of struggle? He was in the bed. They came up on him. They hit him multiple times, maybe a
dozen times or so. Police learned from Benji's wife, Narcy Novak, that she and her husband were
from South Florida. They were at the Ry New York Hotel all weekend running a large Amway convention. As police in New
York began their investigation, they soon learned their victim, Benji Novak, came from a fascinating background. His
parents once owned the famous Fountain Blue Hotel, once the hottest spot on Miami Beach in the swinging 60s.
[Music] It was absolutely magnificent, the glamour, the people that were there from all over the world. It was just
incredible. Michael Aller, a director of tourism for Miami Beach, knows everybody.
I lived at the Fountain Blue Hotel. It was just the place to be and to be seen. The Fountain Blue was the creation of
Benji's parents, Bernice and Ben Novak. They were Miami Beach royalty, and everybody from JFK to Frank Sinatra and
the Rat Pack stayed at their hotel. It was like Vegas really. He used to rub shoulders with everybody there.
Maxine Field was Bie's aunt. She spent a lot of time at the hotel with her sister
Bernice. It was amazing. They had the stairway to nowhere, which was like some kind of
thing for the brides that would walk down. It would look like it was just coming out of this clouds.
Everybody wanted to see what Mrs. Novak was wearing. She always had to go down and look absolutely
better than anyone else. Ben wanted that. She was part of the final blue. But Ben and Bernice's son, Benji, was
not as charming as his famous parents. He was a loner. He was a little prince. Ben was very secretive in many ways. He
was not at ease with people. He would go trick-or-treating with a chauffeur and no kids went with him.
I knew the Novax. I knew Benji. Benji was not a nice man. He was a tough I want it now type of guy. He was not
pleasant to deal with. I was the only one that could really confront him and say that because I've known him from
when he was this big. Wouldn't you make Joe Matthews? A former Miami Beach homicide detective also knew Benji.
Everybody as a young boy were intimidated by him because he would fire housemmaids or valet people or whatever
he wanted to. He had complete control of the hotel. Sound like a tyrant. He was. And he and he wasn't he wasn't
really a easy guy to like. He uh was attracted to all the the cops. He spent all of his time at the police station.
So he aspired to be a police officer. For all intents and purposes, he thought he was a police officer. While the
prince of the Fountain Blue played cop, his father's entire empire started collapsing. He lost the hotel to
bankruptcy in 1977. Benji was so distraught he refused to ever drive past the landmark again. His
father's failures though fueled his ambitions and at 22 he started his own empire.
He was ambitious man. Extremely ambitious. Charlie Serder is a former police officer and one of Benji's best friends.
He watched Benji become a millionaire several times over with his convention staging business.
He became a wealthy man at a very young age. Yes, he did. I'm not surprised at that.
And I and I'm sure a big chunk of it was cash that he kept. Why cash? I know he always had a lot of cash. He
kept a lot of cash in the house and he spent it on himself quite freely. In 1991, Benji began sharing his good
fortune with Nars Valiz, a young single mother from Ecuador, a former exotic dancer with a young child, Mayabad. The
two married, and eventually Nars helped Ben run the business, as did May. In fact, both women were with Benji at
the convention the weekend he was murdered. It was attended by more than a thousand people, and that made the
investigation tricky. You had a hotel full of possible suspects. Right. Right. And we didn't know which
way to go. Is this a robbery? Is it domestic gone wrong? Is it isolated? Is he a target?
Police soon establish a timeline from phone records. Benji was alive at 6:54 a.m.
We know Ben was alive because he receives a phone call from a worker in the hotel saying there was a problem. He
was overcrowding for breakfast. Narcy left the room to sort out the seating problem in the dining room. You
can see her on video down there at around 7:17 a.m. 30 minutes later, she told police she returned to the room and
discovered Ben's body. Describe her demeanor for me. I think the first thing she said to me,
"Did um Ben have a heart attack?" Meanwhile, she had seen him. There was blood everywhere in this room. I mean,
it was it was a bloody mess. And I kept saying to her, "Narcy, you saw Ben tied up. You know, what do you mean? Did he
have a heart attack? [Music] It was Sunday. Their convention was over. So if anybody involved in the
convention was was our killers, they would definitely be leaving. In the hours after the murder of Benji
Novak, detectives Allison Carpenter and Terry Wilson were talking to as many people as
they could. Show me when you see Narc. Investigators videotaped this hotel guest who encountered Narcy in the
hallway minutes after she said she had just discovered Benji's body. When you were there, she said, "My
husband, help me." He told police that Narcy was acting suspicious. And she looked like just
surprised, right? And that he noticed the door to the room didn't show any signs of a break-in.
And how come you notice no damage? Right. Right. Right. In fact, neither of the doors to the
Novak suite showed any signs of force entry. So then police looked at the car key history leading up to the murder.
What did the card key record show? They showed that uh there were no card keys used to enter that room between say 5
after 12 at night and 7:40 in the morning. At 7:45 a card swipe is logged. That card swipe was from Nars's key
and that's when she supposedly discovers the body. It was obvious that he been sleeping when he was attacked. So he
didn't believe he had walked to the door and opened the door up to somebody. So, how did the killers gain access to
Benji's room? The only one else that had access to that room was Narcy. It could have been that I left the door
open. In her interview the day after the murder, Narcy tells police she's not sure if she closed the door when she
left Benji to go downstairs to the dining room. I don't have anything to do with opening
the door intentionally for anybody. Tell me about the interview that you conducted
with Nars. It lasted hours. She wouldn't go to the bathroom. She didn't want a glass of water. She didn't want a
coffee. You know, she just she held her own all night. I have no clue what happened. I have
nothing to do with my husband. Narcy was emphatic. I love my husband. She had always loved Benji.
The couple had met almost two decades earlier. on an unlikely first date. [Music]
When he met her, she was a new dancer in a um kind of a sleazy um strip joint in
Halia. To me, she looked like a a girl that worked the streets and uh and worked her
way up to be a new dancer. Worked her way up to be a new dancer. That's Joe's opinion.
Narc's life had been a far cry from Benji's privileged past at the Fountain Blue.
[Music] And were they in love? He definitely was in love with Nars. Yes. Charlie Ser was close to both Benji and
Nars for almost two decades. The couple even attended Ser's wedding. And do you believe Narcy was in love
with him? I I would believe in the beginning, yes. Because of Benji, Narcy was afforded an
extravagant lifestyle. They lived in a multi-million dollar estate. She drove expensive cars. She
had furs, beautiful jewelry. She enjoyed the best of the best. And as Benji's convention business grew
and gross millions, he splurged on one of his childhood fantasies. [Music] I think he was probably one of the
biggest collectors of Batman memorabilia. his prized possession, a replica of the
1960s Batmobile. Uh, I guess, you know, he could afford it. Stacks and stacks and stacks of first
edition toys. Anything related to the superheroes. And friends say collecting memorabilia
wasn't Benji's only indulgence. Benji had an appetite for other women. Benji didn't care. He was a party boy
that thought for the moment. Was he always cheating? He was always cheating. Did Narcy know?
Narcy always suspected Ben of cheating. She was a very jealous woman. And early on before Ben and Narcy were
married, Charlie Ser got a taste of Narcy's jealousy. Benji had received a phone call and she
was extremely upset and she was threatening to burn his house down. And he was pleading with her
that he's not cheating. But cheating was just the beginning. Benji's sexual taste
could have been ripped right from the pages of the most recent erotic bestsellers.
I know he was into bondage. Narcy tells us he likes to be tied up. Benji was who he was. Let's say this,
nobody really knows what goes on behind closed doors. But it's what happened behind this
closed door that concerns homicide detective Ellison Carpenter. Ben is bound in a way that he enjoys
sexually. Carpenter asked Narcy about the couple's bondage games and the strange
coincidence of finding Benji bound and tied. I said, "Don't you think it's caught? He
dies in a position that he finds sexually aroused." When I laugh, he was not tied up.
When you would confront her with allegations, she would just not really respond to it at all. It was odd.
Then from police in Florida, detectives got a tip about a bizarre incident involving bondage.
We learned that she had tied him up and stole, he says, between $300 and $400,000.
In 2002, Benji was the victim of a home invasion that according to him was orchestrated by Nars.
He called me up and he said he had just been robbed. He says, "I've been tied up in a chair
for 25 hours and I think my wife was involved." Why would Nars stage this home invasion
and rob him? She was fed up with him, fed up with cheating, fed up with everything and
wanted to prove a point. For reasons unknown, Benji never pressed charges. And amazingly, the couple
reconciled. After all is said and done, he went back with her because he loved her.
But the similarities of the 2002 incident and Benji's murder 7 years later convince investigators to turn up
the heat on Narcy. You want me to ask you straight out? Did you have any involvement in your
husband's death? No. There is an electrical chair and I'm a suspect. Give it to me right now. Pull me out of my
misery. I want to die. She tried to act like a grieving widow. didn't come off like that at all to any
of the investigators, I don't think. But if Narcy was involved in Benji's death, what could be her motive?
I think she she knew she was going to be replaced. Detective Carpenter learned that Benji
had taken up with another woman. He was sort of looking for a bad girl, but I was too bad of a girl for him.
Rebecca Bliss, formerly known as Mona Love, was all over the internet. Uh she admits being prostitute of pornographic
movies. What began as a sexual trrist says Rebecca grew into a serious ongoing relationship of two years.
He used to make me laugh every day, you know, and talking to him about personal things.
Benji moved her from Miami where she was dancing in a strip club to a condominium
in Fort Lauderdale. He cared about me a lot. You know, he would tell me he loved me every day, all
day. With Rebecca in the wings, was Benji about to leave Narcy. She called me screaming at me, yelling
at me. Not if Narcy Novak had anything to do with it. She said if she couldn't have
them, no one will. [Music] In the days after Benji Novak's murder, detectives began casting a wider net
and the investigation would start to expand. We knew that we had to go to Florida.
In Fort Lauderdale, detectives began to piece together Benji's life, uncovering his complicated connections to several
women and their relationships with each other. We found a family in turmile. There was no love lost between Benji's
wife, Narcy, and his mother, Bernice. And what was Nars's relationship like with Bernice?
From day one, extremely strained. It was like that up until the day Bernice tragically passed away after a
fall. just 3 months earlier. His mom did not like uh his wife. I mean, they really hated each other.
The direct opposite of a very close bond between Bernice and Benji and he would talk to his mother daily.
So, he obviously was a loving son and he stayed very close with his mother up until her death.
Then there was May Abad, Narcy's daughter from a previous marriage. May was shipped off to different people
throughout her life. She lived with aunts. She lived with friends. May was just 10 years old when Benji and
Narcy got together. May and and her mother had a pretty stormy mother-daughter relationship.
Miami Herald reporter Julie Brown has written extensively about the Novvec murder case and was a consultant for CBS
News. Having a 10-year-old daughter at the time that she met Ben really wasn't very
convenient for Nars. Over the years, May grew close to Benji, considering him the father that she
never had. And just after Benji's murder, she became convinced her mother may have
played a role in his death. She said, "It's the worst thing in the world to have to believe that your
mother might have killed your father." And she said that she believed that that that her mother did do it.
And the motive was money was money. Narcy was the sole beneficiary of Benji's estate, then
valued between5 and $10 million. I think Narcy's very smart. She knows how to manipulate people. She will do
whatever it takes to get what she needs. Just 3 days after the murder, Narcy and
May, now back in Florida at the Novak's waterfront home, had an ugly confrontation recorded on surveillance
camera. May had gone there to collect some of her things she had in a guest cottage on the property and and Narcy
took a crowbar and started chasing her around with a crowbar. I got a uh hysterical phone call
sometime around 6:00. Concerned for May's safety, Charlie Ser raced to Benji's home.
When I pulled up, uh May and Nars were yelling at each other. May was screaming at her, "You murdered Ben." And at that
point, a crowbar came into it and they just went at each other and I split them up.
But not before Nars whacked May with the crowbar. You have to go where your evidence leads
you. It just kept leading back to Narcy. Despite all their suspicions, police didn't have enough hard evidence to
charge Nars. Then out of the blue, 10 days after the murder, investigators received a bombshell anonymous letter
that would change everything. Translated from Spanish, it read in part, "This crime without a doubt was
committed by the wife of Mr. Novak and her brother, Narcy's brother, Crisal, was a bus
driver in Pennsylvania." So, we drove down to uh Philadelphia um where Crisal lived.
Detectives interviewed him in his apartment. Chrisal denied knowing anything about Benji's murder.
As we entered, it's a small kitchen area. There was a table there, and he invited us to sit down at the table.
And detectives couldn't help but notice what was on that table. It was littered with papers, and part of
the papers were Western Union receipts. It was just, we couldn't believe it. Crisal had been wiring money to various
people. When he left the room for a moment, detectives made note of some of the payes.
There was one name that proved very helpful. Yes. Alejandro Garcia. Alejandra Garcia of Miami had been wired
$500 by Crystalall just one month after Benji's murder. Detectives wondered if that was payment for the hit on Benji.
Alejandro only had one eye. So, a search of the datab in Florida led us to Alejandro Garcia. It turns out Garcia
had a record and with his mug shot in hand. Detectives poured over the Rybrook Hotel surveillance tapes from that
fateful weekend. There's Benji captured by the security cameras. I had detectives go over and over and
over the video at the Hilton and they hit pay dirt. You could see it was Alejandro. The
shots on Friday were very clear photos. Two days before the murder, surveillance
cameras show Garcia and another man. Detectives think they are casing the hotel in preparation for Benji's murder.
This is Joel Gonzalez. The other man caught on camera was Joel Gonzalez, also from South Florida.
Police believed Narcy's brother, Chrisal, hired the two men to come to New York and killed Benji. Investigators
would spend months gathering evidence. We did everything from credit card statements, banking statements.
Phones became huge in the in in this investigation because once we had everybody's phone
numbers, we were able to track the movement of the phones. The paper trail led them here to this
motel in Queens, New York, where, according to records, the two men stayed the weekend of the murder. We're going
to be talking about a crime that happened. 4 months after the murder in November of
2009, detectives brought in Alejandra Garcia for questioning. Has he ever been to New York?
As we were talking to him, he played stupid. He was never in New York. He never left the state of Florida.
Did you ever stay at that hotel? No. No. We have him on film at the hotel. be having my phone going with Joel to
the other hotel. In reality, I don't know. And he was unraveling at that point. He says he says, "I rather have an
attorney. Too many questions." Alejandro, I'm Allison. But with Detective Carpenter, Garcia
would later trip up and implicate himself. He starts telling me that he was scared for his family and that the
people that did this are very dangerous. We knew we had the right guy. He just confirmed it for us.
Now, investigators went after Joel Gonzalez. Joel was on the run, but he eventually
turned himself into Miami PD and Gonzalez was ready to talk. Joel gave everything up
and he implicated Narcy. Implicated Narcy. Crystal the bull Alejandro. It wasn't long before Garcia too decided
to cooperate. The story they told investigators was shocking. It was Nars who let them into
Benji's bedroom early that terrible July morning while he was sleeping. They came up on him and they positioned
themselves on each side of the bed. They had these uh weights and they just started hitting the victim.
They hit him multiple times, dozen times or so. He ends up on the floor. Ben was duct taped on his legs. His
mouth was covered. According to the hitman, Narcy was not only just watching the brutal assault,
but she was directing it. Uh Narcy sends Alejandro back in to the bedroom, and she wants him to take his
eyes out. So he uses something very similar to this. Why? You'd have to really ask Norsey why.
Finally, in July 2010, a year after Benji's death, Narcy along with her brother Chrisal are
arrested in connection with Benji's murder. But Narcy would soon find herself facing
not one but two murder charges. A year after Benji's murder, Narcy and Chrisal were back in New York in jail
and awaiting trial. Down in Florida, as reporter Julie Brown investigated the case, something in his
family history was worth a second look. So shortly after Benji Novak's murder, you began digging into the circumstances
surrounding Bernice's death. Well, the first thing you do as a reporter when you have a case like this
is you look at the clips and what has been written. And one of the first things that popped up was an obituary
for his mother. And it said that she had died from a fall in her Fort Lauderdale
home. Benji found his mother's body face down in a pool of blood in the hallway between the garage and the kitchen.
Ben, call me. What did he say? I just found my mom dead. Did he say that he believed it was
suspicious? Not he was overcome with grief at that point. What was Nars's demeanor? I have to tell
you, in all the years that I had seen her, she couldn't be any more consoling and uh uh just rubbing his hair and his
neck and and just actually being very tender to him. They right away said that they felt it
was a tragic accident that she had died of natural causes. Lynn and John Alfred, who lived next
door to Bernice in Fort Lauderdale, remember well the day their close friend died. We went outside and stood in the
driveway and Ben was there with Narcy and the police, two police were walking around and doing some investigation and
all we could see was into the garage and we could see her car with the door open.
Her glasses were smashed on the ground. There was blood dripping from the car all the way up to the door
and there were blood drops all over the house. And I was just curious. It just seemed
odd coincidence that she died 3 months before her son. So, I thought it couldn't hurt to get a copy of the
autopsy report if there was one done. And you got the report. I got the I eventually got the report.
The extent of her injuries just seemed enormous for a woman who had just taken a fall. She had uh you know, fractures
all over her body. Her skull was fractured. She had a broken finger. Her teeth were broken. Um it just seemed too
much for a fall. Benji soon had questions about what he had seen at his mother's house.
I just said, "Wait until the investigation concludes before you make any judgment."
So, he was already questioning whether or not this was an accidental death. Yes, at that time he was. And I don't
think it ever left him. Bernice's sister, Maxine, also doubted that it was an accident.
When you were told that your sister had died, were you suspicious from the get-go? Oh, she did all that
herself. She fell down and got up and fell down like a jack in the box, right? What was it about the circumstances
surrounding her death and the crime scene photos that that really sent up red flags for you?
Everything. Everything. Just about everything. More red flags appeared when Brown
learned from the Offer dolls about a suspicious incident at Bernice's house when their son saw two men standing next
to Bernice's garage appearing to be casing her home. And we thought that was a little unusual, but we didn't overly
react. John, a retired NFL player, and his son went to investigate. As we opened up the door, the door, the
dog started chasing after the guys happily. And I said, "Hey, what are you guys doing?" And they looked at us and
for a second kind of were stunned. And then they started jogging and then starting to sprint when the dog started
chasing them. Two months later, Bernice was dead. When Narcy and Benji arrived at the house,
Lynn recalled she was acting strangely. I remember Narcy was so odd. I mean, she
just kept kind of jumping around the scene and ringing her hands and saying, "I just don't understand it." And I just
can't imagine. And I just spoke with Bernice last night and we were going to go um vitamin shopping in the morning.
And I kept thinking to myself, "You guys don't get along. You don't like each other. Why? She wouldn't go vitamin
shopping with you." None of that made any sense to me. And all the blood that investigators
seemingly overlooked in Bernice's house made no sense to Julie Brown. So she called in ex police officer Joe Matthews
for his expert opinion. What did you see that the police did not When you look at the the crime scene,
there's um blood spatter on the walls. There's blood in almost every room of the house. The investigator felt that,
you know, it was one of those things where she would stand up and fall down. stand up and fall down and walk all over
the house. But then how do you explain the blood spatter? So these are crime scene photos from
Bernice's home. Now what happened here? If you look at the crime scene, you'll see that there was a a lot of blood on
the seat, but I saw some blood spatter. So if there's spatter, that means she was struck more than once in the head
while sitting here. Convinced she uncovered a murder, Julie took her findings to the Fort Lauderdale
Police Department. And I would go to them with question after question to the point where they
were getting extremely upset with me and it's a closed case. It's an accident. Are you suggesting that this was a cover
up? Initially, I don't think it was a cover up. I think initially that they were
really uh thought that it was an accident. I think that they made a lot of mistakes. I think that it was really
a lot of mistakes. But all of that was about to change as investigators were making a deal with
hitman Alejandra Garcia to testify against Nars and Crisal. He revealed they also hired him to attack Bernice,
beating the 86-year-old woman with a wrench. And then he was approached by Crystal
Valise to uh kill Bernice. And he waited when it got dark on the side of her house by her garbage pales. And when she
came out to move her car into the garage is when he struck her. Why is Crystalall coming?
Garcia told investigators he was hired by Crystal Bal for both attacks. And once again, Nars was the mastermind.
10 months after they were arrested for Benji's murder, Crystal and Nars were also charged in Bernice's death.
But why would Nars want Benji's mother dead? [Music] 3 years after the murders of both Ben
Novak Jr. and his mother, Nars Novak and Chris Valiz went on trial in federal court in Westchester.
She looked very gaunt. She went out of her way to not make herself look attractive. She was given the option of
wearing regular clothing and she chose to wear her orange prison jumpsuit every day.
Alejandra Garcia and Joel Gonzalez made deals with the prosecution to testify for the chance of receiving a lighter
sentence. They all basically ended up cooperating and the prosecution had an overwhelming
amount of evidence against the defendants. Chrisell used his credit card um to purchase the dumbbells that we used to
beat Ben Novak. He also used his credit card to uh purchase the knife that we used to cut out Ben's eyes.
The jury was also shown video taken at a Western Union, which prosecutors say shows Crisal sending money to hitman
Garcia, one of the many clues he left behind. He used his own car for some of the
transports. He um used his own cell phone. So, that left a trail that we were able to uncover.
The case against Nars was also strong. Prosecutors told the jury about Nars's secret cell phone. They called it a drop
phone. Now, that particular phone was used at 6:40 6:39 in the morning at the Ry Town
Hilton. Narcy used it to call the hitman as they waited at a gas station down the street.
We had located what phone Narcy used to call the killers and tell them come on in. And that was big.
And remember that video of Narcy down at the breakfast room? Prosecutors say Narcy tried to establish an alibi by
intentionally standing before the hotel security cameras around the time of the murder.
Uh she knew where the cameras were and where they weren't. I mean, you could tell by that that particular morning how
she plants herself directly right in front of a camera and that's where she stays. She makes some phone calls
because she wants to be seen on that camera. The defense tried to hammer back. They
questioned the hitman's credibility and reminded the jury they were testifying after making a deal with prosecutors.
And they dropped a bombshell, the possibility of another killer. I asked Crystalall about that in a phone call
from jail. Did you orchestrate the murder of Benji Novak? No. Did you arrange for the murder of
Bernice Novak? No, sir. Why would they pin these murders on you, sir? They be well paid by my niece May
Abad. Incredibly, Crisal points the finger at Narc's daughter, May Abad. So, you're saying May is the one who
paid for the murders of Benji Novak and Bernice. I don't know about Mrs. Bernice. I
cannot say nothing about the lady because what I so far I know she fell down. But I know she told me about my
brother-in-law. Yes. She came to me and she told me Ben deserved to die because Ben was a bad evil person.
He told some wild story that that didn't make any sense at all trying to point the finger at her
daughter. It was truly unbelievable. Crystal Bal's story quickly fell apart when Alejandro Garcia testified that in
reality Mayabad was next on his list. When we interviewed Alejandro and we took him into custody, he had a picture
of May in his wallet. We believe that obviously the hit was out on May. Only Narcy knows why she'd want her only
daughter killed. But the apparent plot worried Detective Carpenter. She became so concerned about May's safety. She
loaned her $5,000 of her own money so she could go into hiding. And you got into trouble.
Well, I didn't get into trouble. The the prosecutor's office removed me from the
case. Were you angry? I wasn't angry. I I I was disappointed because you worked so hard and obviously
I wanted to be there for the take down, the arrest. But Carpenter was there for the verdict
after a two-month trial when Nars Novak and Chris were convicted of orchestrating Ben and Bernice's murders.
And then I have earned guilty, guilty, guilty. So it was exciting for us. As elaborate and convoluted as the
murder plots were, Narc's motive was quite simple. She knew he had a mistress. She was
afraid he was going to leave her and divorce her. Ben and Narc's prenup only guaranteed
her $65,000 in the event of a divorce. His intentions were to be with me, and he did not want me to be with anyone
else. And he asked me to just wait until he was finished with divorce. And that's
why Matthew says Narcy had no choice but to arrange a double murder. She had to kill the old lady for him to
get all the money and then kill him to get all the money. And that's how simple it was.
I mean, could this could this have been the perfect murder? Any murder could be the perfect murder,
but they're not. There's always something. She was sloppy. I think she thought she was smarter than the
investigators. Narcy may not have outsmarted the investigators, but she did surprise
them. We we were surprised to learn that she stayed in the room and participated.
That was the biggest surprise to see that she could be that vicious watching somebody that you live with and lived in
the same house with for 20 years and to watch them die like that. And even more surprising was the author
of that letter to police which pointed the finger at both Crisal and Nars. It was written by one of their own sisters.
You have to question what type of family fabric existed for them to be able to get to this point.
Just about everything from this case turned out to be surprising from the relentless ambition of Benji Novak. I
think that Benji was just a demanding individual and in the roles that I had seen him while he was in business. It
was always demanding because he wanted the best for his customers to the deadly greed of his wife Nars.
This is somebody that is a monster. She was such a a sociopath and such a great liar
to the devotion of Benji's mistress. I miss Ben every day. I love him very much.
But in the end, all that's left is the money. $10 million by some estimates, dwindling fast between lawyers and
squabbbling family members. For the Novak family, once the royalty of Miami Beach, the lights are out and
the party is over. [Music] [Music] Hey. [Music]

A brat, a Batman collector, filthy rich and dead. Who killed Miami hotel heir Benji Novack? Troy Roberts reports. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

True crime. Real justice. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

The episode details Benji Novak's murder, Narcy's involvement, and the investigation revealing a web of greed and betrayal.

Key points

The Gruesome Murder of Benji Novak. Benji Novak, a millionaire businessman, was found brutally murdered in a hotel room.
A Twisted Family Dynamic. Benji's wife Narcy and his mother had a strained relationship, leading to suspicions after his death.
The Shocking Anonymous Letter. A bombshell letter reveals that Narcy and her brother may have been involved in Benji's murder.
The Brutal Murder. Benji was attacked in his sleep, directed by Narcy herself.
The Arrest. Narcy and her brother Chrisal were arrested a year after Benji's death.
A Shocking Revelation. Investigators discovered Narcy's involvement in her mother's suspicious death.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Conducting a homicide is like putting together a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle.

0:15WatchJul 15, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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