Meet, Marry, Murder - Season 1, Episode 11 - Novak - Full Episode | Forensic Files

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

Paramedic Paul Novak had had enough of his wife Catherine, so he started to plot the perfect murder.

Though wedded couples vow to stay together until death do they part, this new true crime series looks at what happens when a groom or bride causes their beloved's death.

Brief Summary

Catherine Novak was murdered by her husband Paul, who plotted with a friend, leading to his life sentence after their scheme unraveled.

Key points

Catherine Novak's Tragic Death. Catherine Novak is found dead in the basement of her home after a fire.
Paul Novak's Dark Intentions. Paul Novak discusses committing the perfect murder with colleagues, revealing his sinister thoughts.
Affair Uncovered. Catherine discovers her husband's affair with a younger paramedic, leading to their separation.
Catherine's Tragic Death. Catherine Novak's death in a house fire sends shockwaves through her community.
Suspicion Arises. Catherine's friends suspect foul play due to her acrimonious divorce.
The Murder Plot Unfolds. Michelle Lafrance reveals the chilling details of Paul Novak's plan to kill Catherine.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Doing this for the kids.

Paul's justification for his actions during the investigation.

2:10WatchJun 8, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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