the propane tanks, nothing conclusive. but then, things changed. the da brought in a specialist, a forensic pathologist to do a second autopsy a few days later. and the result this time told a different story. we knew she did not die in that fire, she died before the fire. the second pathologist discovered there was no carbon monoxide in catherine s blood or suit in her lungs. which meant that katherine had stopped breathing before the fire started. law she changed the manner of death from accidental to pending investigation. the question is, what else can we gain or learn before we can start to classify this as a homicide? who do you look to as a suspect? the state police had done some initial interviews, obviously the spouse is the first person you look to. the spouse had a clear alibi. paul and his new girlfriend michelle said they were far from katherine s beloved red
leads, investigators hit a dead end. the case turned cold. none of that mattered much to catherine s mom. i still miss my daughter. the same. i miss her. no matter what happened to her, i miss her. seven months after katherine s death, paul and his girlfriend pack up the kids and their apartment on long island and moved 1000 miles south to florida. i figured with my experience, it will probably be pretty easy for me to get a job somewhere. a fresh start? a fresh start, i had to be good for the kids. great school. nice neighborhood. but paul said not long after their move, things with michelle started to sour. when they first met, she was a paramedic in training. he was her teacher, her friend. she had confided in him about her history with mental illness, long bouts of depression and alcohol abuse. but now, he says her problems were beginning to take a toll
stunning betrayal of her former boyfriend. and if it was true, paul had committed a vicious and calculated crime. michelle said paul told her he did it because katherine was a monster. he had me convinced that katherine was the bad guy and he was the good parent and these kids were abused and these kids were miserable. and he did it for the kids. and we need to say the kids. paul s sister didn t believe a word of it, from the moment she heard a witness had come forward, she was convinced her brother was being set up. i said, this is michelle. you got rid of her, and now what happened? this was payback? i believe that s what it is. polls girlfriend, can t, who got engaged to him in jail, also believed michele s story was suspicious. he s innocent. absolutely positively. why are you so sure? he s just not that kind of a person. he s a caretaker. you know? it s like, his job as a
house were still smoldering, as investigators dug through the debris, looking for clues. they wanted to know what caused the fire and exactly how katherine novak died there. her mother s question was more simple. the big thing for me, why did she not get out? but was i kept going over in my mind, why did you not get out? even her estranged husband paul said he was puzzled. i don t even know what to think about it, i was surrounded by death and violence my entire life, now it was home. the pathologists ruled catherine death an accident, but investigators were not so sure. they turn to attorney steve lungen. so despite this top it was an accident. yes we had a fire, and we had a death, the question of how the two of those items were going to come together would not quite the actually years later. the police, as they often do,
we don t like her. why? she walked into our house, she want to catherine s pictures, she turned around because she thought that catherine s looking at her. paul said that it took a little longer than his family to realize that he and michelle were not the best match. they have been together for three years when he found out that she was cheating on him with a married man. he didn t want to stand for that so we had to ask her to leave. and he did it very nicely, and she did not want to go. in what paul described as a bitter breakup, he forced michelle to move out and told her it was over. we by that time, it had been more than two years since katherine s death. investigators back in new york had moved on to other cases. the years were ticking by with no new leads, but the da was a patient man. we never put the file away. it was always a matter of when something is going to come