sherwood, paul s partner from work, to the stand. they told the jury he had been interrogated by police and showed them the tape. let s go from the beginning. paul. you meet paul where? i met paul at his house in glen cove. reporter: jurors heard him tell police his version of what happened the night of the murder. so he gets in your red blazer. who s driving, you or him? i was driving. we were driving up toward where his residence was. where catherine still lived. reporter: sherwood said paul told him to park about a mile away from catherine s house and wait in the car. how long is he gone from the car? over an hour. and what does he say when he gets in the car? he said it s done. he had said that the chloroform didn t work. i had to strangle her, and something about hitting the gas line to ignite. so you knew the house was on fire? yes. reporter: as scott sherwood s story played in the courtroom, the prosecutors pointed out how
eventually, the case grew cold. until this witness came forward with a tale of love and lust gone wrong. he took the sweatshirt and wrapped it around her neck. but could she be believed? i was sleeping around. i think i slept with half the town. was she out for justice or revenge? is it a perfect world? no. will she get hers? yes. when she dies. what was the lie, and what was the truth? how could you miss it? he wasn t there! hello. and welcome to dateline. paul and kathryn novak wanted to escape the hustle and bustle of the big city. they found peace and quiet when they moved into what kathryn dubbed the big red house. but soon a roaring fire would ravage the couple s home.
defendant used tape to tape up his scrubs, he had a hat and gloves on when he went and came back from the house. reporter: and there was more physical evidence to back up sherwood s account. he told police he and paul crossed the george washington bridge on their way back to paul s place the morning of the murder. was it a toll you guys went through? i would assume so. we went through i guess it was the lower level, but there was no booth there was no attendant. reporter: no attendant saw them pass, but detectives wondered could digital eyes help place the car at the toll booth? state police immediately did a search for the ez pass records, or toll records of that vehicle, and we had a hit at 6:39 of that vehicle coming across the george washington bridge lower level. that s huge. it s huge. it was a highly corroborative piece of evidence to corroborate scott sherwood. reporter: what s more, there was a photo snapped of the license plate. it was evidence that almost
paul went to catherine s house to move his things out and paul unlocked the basement doors. so that he can go up the next time we had the kids, which would be a week later, and that way he can sneak into the house and she wouldn t know. reporter: according to michelle, paul wasn t with her on the night of the murder. that alibi was a lie. instead, she said he was with a fellow paramedic named scott sherwood, who drove paul to narrowsburg. as far as i know, scott was left in the car, and paul walked down to the house. reporter: michelle said paul told her he went inside, set off the basement smoke alarm, hid behind the stairs, and when catherine came down to investigate he tried to knock her out with chloroform. this was supposed to be quick and painless and, you know, she was supposed to be passed out before she knew what happened. but i guess he put it over her mouth and it didn t work. she was screaming and begging him for her life.
perfect fit. i wanted to be that person that would show up that would help my parents, help my sister if she was in a car accident or something like that. reporter: but he also saw the dark side of city life. a little too close to home. i would do shootings and stabbings two blocks away from my apartment, and i always thought to myself that i could just never raise a child in this area. reporter: so in 2002 paul and his wife, catherine, went house hunting in narrowsburg, new york, a small hamlet tucked between the catskill and pocono mountains. they didn t need to look for long. it was the big red house as she called it. and she would talk about the big red house all the time. reporter: catherine s brother michael and sister-in-law joanne said she worked hard to make the big red house a home. growing up, we lived in apartments. you know, this was a space of her own. yeah, she was thrilled to have five acres or ten acres of property, and she loved it there. reporter: t