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. about how long was he gone from the car? over an hour. and what did you see when he got to your car? he said, it s done. he had said that the chloroform didn t work. i had to strangle her. something about hitting the gas line to ignite so you knew the house was on fire? yes. as scott sherwood s story played in the courtroom, the prosecutors pointed out how remarkably similar similar it
until this witness came forward. with a tale of love and lust gone wrong. he finally just took the sweat shirt 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? and she does. 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
a lot of people will be angry and think, this woman knew about a murder that was going to happen and didn t do anything. is it a perfect world, no. will she get hers? yes. when she dies. as for cat, she will continue to stand by paul. the couple married in 2018. the future for the children will be decided by the people who love them most, paul and catherine s families. we will work to get for those kids what catherine wanted for them. up in narrowsburg where catherine s beloved red house once stood, the trees glow orange and golden, her mother still mourns the daughter she lost, but remembers the life she lived. what do you miss most about her? her smile and her hugs me, she was a lot of fun,
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 could never raise a child in this area. so, in 2002, paul and his wife catherine went house hunting in narrowsburg, new york. a small hamlet tucked between the catskill and poconos 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. catherine s brother michael and sister-in-law joanne says 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. the perfect place for the perfectly mat
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? 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