the glow of that getaway faded, and life became routine again. soon paul s eyes wandered to a much younger woman, someone from work. they had an affair, and paul moved out, leaving catherine and the kids alone in the house. she was beside herself. she was absolutely hysterical. reporter: catherine s good friend and neighbor, sue muller, remembered when the marriage ended. she couldn t even get her breath, she was sobbing so hard. reporter: but catherine s family, who considered her the eternal optimist, watched her move on with her life, pouring all her love and attention into her children. she was very focused on them. very engaged in their lives. did everything with them. sounds like that s what was important in her life anyway. absolutely. reporter: she was working at her children s school and had even been on a few dates. catherine was creating a life without paul. then in december 2008, sometime in the early morning hours, somewhere in her house, a fire
from me. and then i remember him. he s the guy that grilled me, the one that got in my face. how are you feeling? oh, my gosh. these people are back in my life, four years later. at that point i still didn t know what they wanted from me. i knew this guy was yelling at me and then i just looked at him and i said, i would like to speak to a lawyer. reporter: paul had already been interviewed by police several times. he thought this was all behind him. you knew it had to be about catherine. well, yeah, obviously it had to do something with that. reporter: later that day the police went back to paul s house. and i went outside in the driveway with them, and they said, we re sorry to have to break this to you, but paul novak s under arrest. and i said, for what? and they said, it s for involvement in his wife s murder four years ago. reporter: what cat and paul didn t know was that a witness had come forward telling police an evil tale. and in that story paul was th
started. the house is totally on fire. it s on fire. reporter: when firefighters arrived, the big red house was a wall of flames. they had no idea if anyone was still inside. does anyone live there? yes, yes, there are kids. do you know if they re out of the house? i don t know. reporter: neighbors knew paul wasn t there. he was living in an apartment three hours away with his new girlfriend. that morning he got a call from catherine s pastor. picked it up and it was pastor phyllis and she goes, where are the kids? where are the kids? and i m like they re with me. what s going on? she goes, the house is on fire. reporter: firefighters worked for hours dousing the flames. when catherine s friend sue muller arrived, the fire was still raging. she stood vigil for hours, waiting to hear news of her friend. all of the sudden the firemen were all concentrated in one area, looking down into the basement, and then the local funeral home was there with the body bag. and
and when the flames subsided, one of them would be dead leaving investigators wondering if the blaze was a tragic accident or something more sinister. here s andrea canning with secrets & lies. reporter: on a frigid december morning in 2008, in a tiny picturesque town along the banks of the delaware, a tragedy unfolded. 911. what is your emergency? the whole house is on fire. reporter: a deadly blaze burned a small country house to the ground, and left behind in the ashes were secrets. love gone wrong, illicit affairs, friends turning against each other. it would take years to unravel the mystery of that fire, haunting this town. and those who loved the couple who once lived in that house, paul and catherine novak. the novaks had both grown up as city kids. paul was a new york city paramedic, a job that seemed the