Up In Flames: An Accident or Murder? (Meet Marry Murder with Michelle Trachtenberg) | Forensic Files

[music playing] MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Narrowsburg, upstate New York.
A house burns to the ground. Neighbors were waking up in the dark seeing this glow in the distance.
Some people thought it was the sunrise. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): The house's owners, Paul and Catherine Novak,
recently separated, and now, one of them lies dead in the smoldering basement. 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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Catherine, a mother of two young children, is dead,
and her friends don't think it's an accident. I immediately thought, oh, my god, she was murdered.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Connected somehow is Paul Novak's friend, Scott Sherwood.
So you knew the house was on fire. Did he say how he strangled her? Paul Novak paid him to drive him upstate to kill his wife.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): It's an all too familiar story, lust, greed, and a husband
accused of murder. They told me that a body was found there, but they weren't sure if it was Catherine's or not.
The motive was undeniable. But could investigators prove that Paul Novak had actually killed his wife?
I'm Michelle Trachtenberg, and we'll find out right now, on "Meet, Marry, Murder."
[music playing] In a Florida police station 1,000 miles south of Narrowsburg, New York, a woman
named Michelle LaFrance tells a story of love, intrigue, and murder. He was gonna do this.
He was gonna do this and save the children. 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 gonna kill Catherine. And he says that to you?
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Days later, a paramedic named Scott Sherwood confirms
Michelle's twisted story. They say if Catherine mentioned anything during the struggle?
Why are you doing this? And what was his response? Doing this for the kids. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER):
Sherwood claims to have been Paul Novak's accomplice in the murder of his wife and wants to come clean, even
if it means 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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER):
To unravel this mystery, detectives need to get to the bottom of Paul and Catherine's seemingly happy marriage, which
began when they met each other as young paramedics in New York. [siren wailing, music playing]
Paul Novak met Catherine in the summer of 1996 at an Ambulance Corps barbecue. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): As a child,
Catherine came from a family that constantly struggled to make ends meet, a fact that
haunted her into adulthood. 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.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): While in her early 20s, Catherine met her first husband, an emergency
medical technician, while volunteering at a local hospital. She became a first responder, but the fast-paced lifestyle
wasn't for her, so they split after four years. After that, Catherine vowed never to date
another paramedic ever again. But then, 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.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Paul was a popular figure in the Jamaica Hospital Ambulance
Service where he worked. Tall and strong, he liked being known as the guy who saved
lives, and he had a reputation for somehow being able to bring victims back from the brink of death.
A lot of Paul's buddies secretly believed he was only in the job for the glory, unlike Catherine, who actually cared about her patients.
Catherine and Paul were different, very different. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER):
Catherine was the quiet one, reliable, always on top of everything. Paul, on the other hand, not so much.
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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER):
Friends and co-workers didn't get what the two saw in each other. 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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER):
Years later, Paul and Catherine's friends would say the red flags were all there.
Paul burned through money faster than he could make it. He was hooked on porn and watched X-rated movies
while parked in his ambulance. But Catherine was oblivious to all of it, or maybe just chose to ignore it.
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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): That was Scott Sherwood talking to detectives after Catherine
Novak's murder, a homicide that involved Paul mixing a batch of chloroform before convincing
Scott to help kill his wife. But before any of that, Catherine was just a naive newlywed who thought marriage would curb
Paul's reckless spending, only to discover he was still secretly living beyond their means, way beyond.
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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): At the same time
Paul was apparently flushing all their money down the drain, he and Catherine were also starting a family.
First, their daughter, Natalie, and then, four years later, their son, Nicholas.
Catherine seemed to believe fatherhood would finally get Paul to settle down, especially after she got him
to agree to move the family upstate, away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
LINDA RODRIGUEZ: Within a few years of getting married, the couple 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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Nina Burleigh ended up being one of Catherine's first friends
in Narrowsburg. 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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER):
Catherine wanted to believe Narrowsburg was safe, but appearances can be deceiving.
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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Catherine may have thought once Paul had settled
into Narrowsburg, everything would be OK, but Paul clearly wasn't on the same page.
Paul convinced Catherine he would get paid more and solve their money problems by commuting back
and forth to New York City. 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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER):
When he wasn't off in the city, Paul made almost no effort to become part of his family's new life in Narrowsburg.
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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER):
Catherine, on the other hand, took to her new life like a fish to water. 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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): At the same time
Catherine was becoming a professional mom, Paul spent most of his time living the life of a bachelor
120 miles away. 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. Pretty soon, Paul's big city addictions
would begin spilling onto his family's small town life. And as we'll see, it wouldn't end well.
[music playing] It's 2007, and Paul Novak is living it up, riding ambulances and saving lives as a paramedic
in Queens, New York. 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, has an effect on their mental health.
Most paramedics privately admit that their job is a huge rush, even with all of the stress and trauma they
experienced on a daily basis. But all of that adrenaline comes at a high price. And in the case of Paul Novak, that was a price
he was more than willing to pay, and the cost was the life of his wife, Catherine.
He had been talking about researching the perfect crime, how to hide a body, had--
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 to do this and get away with it.
NINA BURLEIGH: All of these EMTs 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.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): One of those people who failed to pick up the phone was Paul's
fellow EMT, Scott Sherwood. Since Paul and Scott worked together as paramedics in Long
Island, and they're in the ambulances together, they went and they had a lot of downtime.
They spoke a lot. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Apparently, Paul's bromance with Scott wasn't surprising.
By all accounts, everyone thought Scott was a really nice guy. He was a kind person.
He is a kind person. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Paul opened up to Scott about his marriage,
complaining that Catherine was always too busy to give them the attention he deserved.
Paul might have felt like he was playing second fiddle to some degree to Catherine's duties.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Soon, Paul starts discussing all of the ways one might get rid
of their wife. You know, if that's something someone wanted to do. Apparently, fire was best, because, according to Paul,
it burned away all 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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Paul's buddies had overheard him saying to Catherine that she
might be the mother of his children, but he could still kill her if he wanted to.
Everyone wrote it off as Paul just venting and treated it like a joke. Later, they all wondered whether Paul was testing
to see if one of them would actually volunteer to help him do it. It turns out, one of them did take the bait.
It was Scott Sherwood. Scott had recently been going through a divorce. He was broke, depressed, and by all accounts,
extremely vulnerable. I think when someone asked me the question, what caused 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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER):
By 2007, Catherine Novak knew her marriage was on the rocks, but she wanted to make it work.
When Paul said he also wanted to fix things, she felt like they might be turning the corner.
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.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Paul starts laying it on thick with Catherine,
telling her how much she means to him, that he wants a fresh start, yada, yada. She's excited, but her friends can't help
but feel like something isn't quite kosher. And it turns out, they're right. LINDA RODRIGUEZ: 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.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): A few weeks later, for some reason, Paul decides to fess
up and admit to Catherine that he's not really in love with her. She's shattered.
Paul stops coming home every weekend, sleeping in the spare room the few times that he does.
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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): One early morning,
in February, 2008, Catherine finally realizes that her marriage is really over when she answers
the phone and hears the voice of a drunk woman on the other end. She asked for Paul Novak, and it was at that moment
that Catherine realized that her husband was definitely having an affair. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER):
The drunk voice belonged to a young woman named Michelle La France. The plan came out in probably November, December.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Which begs the question, who is Michelle LaFrance?
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 ambulance's 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.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Paul and Michelle's relationship blossomed the way
these things usually do. You know, battling to save lives on the streets of New York.
I mean, the first time Michelle successfully intubated a patient, she texted Paul, who took her out for a drink
after 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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER):
Michelle was everything Paul ever wanted in a woman, young, pretty, and totally infatuated
with him. They fell head over heels for each other. And when Catherine found out, she kicked Paul 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, well, 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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER):
Paul similarly felt like a weight had been lifted and was ready to move on with his life.
Soon after Catherine found out about the affair, Novak moved into an apartment in Glen Cove, Long Island
with LaFrance. Novak agreed to pay $1,700 a month in child support and agreed to take the children every other weekend.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): For her part, Catherine saw her split with Paul as a once in a lifetime
opportunity and made the most of it, taking up two part-time jobs. She even took her husband's new girlfriend out
to lunch to make peace before letting the kids visit her and Paul on Long Island.
Doesn't it sound like a happy ending? 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's was the bad guy.
He was the good parent. His kids were abused, his kids were miserable. Did this for the kids?
We need to save the kids. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Paul would call Catherine to argue
about money or about the kids. He was relentless. But Catherine was determined to stay positive about the future,
even though she was starting to feel less and less safe in the home she once shared with Paul.
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.
Catherine's instincts are not wrong. The heroic man she'd married, who had dedicated his entire life to saving others,
was turning out to be a monster. Not only that, but he knows where she lives and just what he would do if he ever caught her there alone.
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 a fire.
It seems like Paul had finally decided to cash in on his ex-wife's life insurance policy.
What is he telling you that he wants to do? Or how does that come about? That he was gonna kill Catherine.
[music playing] Early on the morning of December 13, 2008, neighbors awakened to the sight of smoke pouring
from the cottage that Catherine Novak once shared with her husband, Paul. 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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Even though it was cold enough for the firefighters
to have ice in their boots, the fire engulfing the small cottage took them hours to put out.
When the smoke finally cleared, they made a gruesome discovery 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.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): News of Catherine's death quickly spread through the small community of Narrowsburg.
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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): As shocking as Catherine's death was, everyone
quickly realized it could have been much, much worse. LINDA RODRIGUEZ: When firefighters
searched 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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Those who knew about Catherine's nasty split
with Paul immediately felt something wasn't right about the fire, especially considering
how Paul had recently demanded full custody of the kids. 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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): At the same time,
detectives investigating the cause of the fire had a sense things weren't adding up.
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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Forensic experts
couldn't understand why Catherine had been found lying on her back. Most fire victims are discovered curled in the fetal position
to protect themselves. So that was one clue something wasn't right. And then, there was one other small problem.
Catherine's autopsy showed no evidence of smoke inhalation. 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 believe 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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): OK,
so if Catherine didn't die from smoke inhalation, and hadn't been crushed to death, then how did she die?
One clue that Catherine's death was no accident also came up during her autopsy, three badly dislocated ribs
with a large amount of bleeding around the site of the fractures, suggesting that she had been violently
assaulted before she died. To those who knew Catherine, there could only be one person responsible.
I remember picking up the phone and calling the state police and saying, you're aware,
of course, that she was, you know, 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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER):
Paul, of course, claimed to be innocent, saying that he'd been shocked to hear of Catherine's untimely demise.
I actually found out that they found a body in the-- 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, as directed, to--
to give-- you know, to give my statement as they wanted, 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. They interviewed him, he had an airtight alibi, and they--
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.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Paul was in the clear, but for some reason, he still didn't seem all that broken up that the mother
of his children was dead. 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 graveside,
he again dropped them off, walked them up to the coffin, and left them with Catherine's relatives.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Alive, Catherine Novak had little value to Paul, but dead, that was apparently another story.
LINDA RODRIGUEZ: Not long after Catherine's death, Novak left his job as an EMT in New York City.
Paul Novak then cashed in at $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 ingrown saltwater pool
and was aiming to live happily ever after. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): The official ruling is that Catherine's death was
an accident, which means Paul's free to start living the high life. He's got a hot girlfriend, custody of his kids,
and a boatload of cash, pretty much everything he's always wanted, except it still isn't enough.
He wants even more. Paul and Michelle's relationship was troubled, and by early 2012, Michelle believed
that Paul was having an affair. Very soon after they were living together, they started to fight.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Michelle discovers Paul has been shacking up with a woman
he met online. Apparently, she needed someone to remind her of the old saying, once a cheater, always a cheater.
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.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Michelle manages to find herself a new boyfriend, who also
happens to be a police officer. But she's still having trouble leaving her past behind
and can't shake the feeling that it's time to come clean about what she knows. 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. That police deputy urged her to contact the New York State
Police, which she then did. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): At this point, Michelle finally decides to do the right thing.
Better late than never, I guess. That summer Michele 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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): So was Michelle's decision to fess up guilt or revenge?
Either way, the funny thing is that if Paul had just been a good boyfriend, Michelle probably would
never have opened her mouth. Instead, she started singing like a canary. What is he telling you that he wants to do?
Or how does that come about? That he was gonna kill Catherine. At this point, Paul's house of cards is about to collapse.
As Michelle comes clean about everything, the details surrounding Catherine's death
started to become clear, and it isn't looking good for Paul Novak. Paul was very calm.
Very calm? But did he-- Very calm, very controlled. DETECTIVE: Did you kill your wife?
No, I did not. [music playing] In a Florida police interrogation room, Michelle LaFrance calmly walks police detectives
through Paul Novak's plan to kill his wife, Catherine, and she isn't holding anything back.
He was gonna be down on the weekend that we had the kids, and he was gonna 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.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Michelle's testimony was all the cops needed to arrest Paul Novak and his accomplice, Scott Sherwood.
But even then, Paul insisted he was innocent. DETECTIVE: Did you kill your wife?
No, I did not. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): According to his lawyer, Scott Sherwood was actually relieved
to finally be able to confess. 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 him 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.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Michelle and Scott's testimony broke the case of Catherine's
death wide open, and the detectives on the case couldn't believe what they were hearing.
But can you see anger building up at all? Or is Paul talking about-- Paul is very calm.
Very calm? Very calm, very controlled. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Apparently, Paul was sick of making
monthly payments to his wife. He didn't want to split custody of the kids. Basically, Catherine was a major thorn in his side.
So in the winter of 2008, he started making plans to remove her. 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. Did this for the kids?
And we need to save the kids. Where are you having that conversation? In our apartment in Glen Cove.
Was it-- trying to 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? He was gonna kill Catherine.
And he says that to you? MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Paul's EMT training was a huge factor in figuring out
the cleanest way to kill Catherine while leaving behind as little evidence as possible.
He was going to chloroform her, leave her, and then burn the house down around her, and she
was gonna die in the fire. That was his plan. And we were gonna do it on a weekend that, you know,
we had the kids so the kids would be safe. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): To pull it all off, Paul needed an accomplice.
He didn't want his car seen anywhere nearing 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.
But why was such a sweet guy like Scott Sherwood willing to get involved in cold-blooded 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 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 wanna end up like you. And you being 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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Now that he had Scott in the bag,
Paul 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.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Paul's kids, Natalie and Nicholas, had been drugged and were fast asleep.
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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER):
Scott Sherwood's attorney insists that his client was only playing 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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Sherwood parked behind a barn a mile
or so from Catherine's house. While Scott waited in the car, Paul headed off on foot to carry out the rest of the plan.
Sherwood told police that when he left the car Novak was dressed in surgical scrubs.
He had booties over his shoes and 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 through the basement door
and he lured Catherine down to the basement by setting off the fire alarm. What does he say happened inside the house?
He says to you, wait in the car. He-- he had said that the chloroform didn't work.
I had to strangle her. Paul Novak tried to chloroform her. Didn't work. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER):
Catherine struggled with Paul. It didn't end well. And he killed her. He strangled her to death.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Catherine's final moments were horrifying. As she begged for her life, Paul kept
on tightening the collar of her sweatshirt until she eventually stopped breathing.
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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER):
After setting fire to the house, Paul walked back to the car, peeling off his protective gear along the way.
For someone who had just strangled the mother of his children, he seemed unusually calm.
What was his demeanor when he came back from the house? Seemed cold, distant. What about you?
Were you like, holy [bleep],, why? I was-- I was beside myself. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER):
On their way back to the city, the last detail of Paul's plan fell into place. When you leave, who drives?
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.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): No surprise, Paul thought he'd committed the perfect murder.
Back in their Long Island apartment, he told his girlfriend, Michelle LaFrance, it's done.
About a week later, he filled in the rest of the gory details, which obviously ended up being a big mistake,
because she'd eventually repeat everything, word for word, to the cops. Even after his arrest and trial, he continued
to insist he was innocent. And 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 that's when he told me that something
had happened to Catherine. BENJAMIN GREENWALD: 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. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER):
On trial for multiple charges, including first degree murder, Novak claimed that LaFrance and Sherwood
were the actual masterminds behind Catherine's death. BENJAMIN GREENWALD: He manipulated someone
into helping him commit a heinous crime, and without even caring one wit 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 I really can say.
He wasn't-- Paul Novak wasn't an open guy. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): Unfortunately for Paul, it was readily
apparent neither Scott or Michelle had anything to gain by killing Paul's wife. He helped corroborate what Michelle LaFrance testified to.
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (VOICEOVER): The jury convicted Paul Novak of murdering his wife.
In exchange for their testimony, Scott Sherwood received an 18-month sentence, while Michele LaFrance
walked away scott free. It was the ultimate revenge against the man who had seduced
and then cheated on her. If their relationship hadn't broken down, it's possible that she would have kept his secret forever.
Paul Novak thought that he could commit the perfect murder, but he was wrong in the end.
All he did was deprive his children of their loving mother. And their father? Well, he's currently sentenced to spend the rest of his life
in prison, which is right where he belongs. I'm Michelle Trachtenberg, and I'll see you next time
on "Meet, Marry, Murder." [music playing]

Hi FilmRise True Crimers! On this next episode of Meet Marry Murder: Paul and Catherine Novak were two EMTs that fell in love. As time went on in their marriage, they decided to separate but Paul decided he wanted Catherine out of the picture...forever.

When the ones who are meant to save lives end up doing the opposite, it's always a twisted tale filled with lots of heartbreak. Are you as shocked by this case as I was? Let me know in the comments below and if you’re ready for more episodes (I know I am!!) be sure to also like and subscribe.

Enjoy ❤

Michelle Trachtenberg

Brief Summary

Catherine Novak was murdered by her husband Paul, with help from Scott Sherwood, in a plot involving financial greed and manipulation.

Key points

Catherine Novak's Tragic Death. Catherine Novak is found dead in the basement of her burning home, raising suspicions of foul play.
Paul Novak's Dark Intentions. Evidence emerges that Paul Novak may have orchestrated his wife's murder with the help of an accomplice.
The Affair That Changed Everything. Catherine discovers her husband's affair, leading to a dramatic shift in their relationship.
Catherine's Growing Anxiety. As tensions rise, Catherine becomes increasingly anxious about her safety after the divorce.
The Shocking Conclusion. The narrative culminates in the revelation of Paul’s sinister plan to benefit from Catherine's life insurance.
Catherine's Gruesome Discovery. Firefighters find Catherine's body in the basement after a raging fire engulfs her home.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He was gonna kill Catherine.

2:01WatchNov 24, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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