weeks before the murder. he was researching things on the internet. he was going to chloroform her and leave her, and then burn the house down around her, and she was gonna die in the fire. michelle says one week before the fire, she and paul went to katherine 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 illegal later. and that way he could sneak into the house and she wouldn t know. 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, who drove paul to narrows berg. as far as i know, scott was left in the car, and paul walked down to the house. michelle said paul told her he went inside, set off the basement smoke alarm, hid behind the stairs, and when katherine came down to investigate, he tried to knock her out with chloroform. this was supposed to be quick and painless and, yo
the whole house is on fire. 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 in new york city paramedic, a job that seemed a perfect fit. i wanted to be that person that would show up that would help my parents. that would help my sister if she was in a car accident, or something like that. 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. i always thought to myself, i
the details of how he killed his wife. he told me that they were fighting and that they were rolling around on the basement floor for about 45 minutes. and that s why he was so late. and she was screaming and begging for her life. and the jury didn t have to just take her word for it, prosecutors called scott 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. you meet paul where? i met paul at his house in glen cove. 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? i was driving. we were driving up towards where his residence was, where s catherine lived. sherwood said paul told him to part about a mile away from catherine s house and wait in the car.
house when the fire broke out. a three hour drive away in their apartment on long island. still, investigators didn t just take the couples word for it. they made a request. they want you to take a polygraph test. did you feel like you re on a tv show? if illegal on. order when you get the results? we came back 15 minutes later, y all done, you passed. he was driving home from the interrogation and he was hysterical. paul s sister had never heard him so emotional. he was crying. saying, they asked if i killed her. he just found it so unbelievable. that he was being asked these questions. if it wasn t, investigators needed to look for other suspects. the state police did a complete canvas of the area. anyone who had any connection to katherine novak, the state police reviewed, found, interviewed. after many months, and no
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 catherine novak wanted to escape the hustle and bustle of the big city. they found peace and quiet when they moved into what catherine dubbed the big red house. but soon a roaring fire would ravage the couples home, 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 is andrea canning with secrets and lies . on a frigid december morning in 2008, in a tiny, picturesque town along the banks of the delaware, a tragedy unfolded. 9-1-1. what is your emergency?