you ve put all this money into your loft, you ve got all this investment here. why are you leaving? he said it s just time to go. reporter: he planned to be their great friend, socialable, gregarious, larger than life. then said neighbors once chris was arrest head seemed nervous. and now he was gone. and so they wondered, was david novak running from something? the loft friends began re-examining all the stories david told them over the years, particularly about his criminal past. we started comparing notes and stories and wow, david told me a different version of that. reporter: they d been lying, to put it rather bluntly. not the truth. reporter: the brief stint for mail fraud, turned out there was more to that store pep novak confessed to a con that played out like a cinematic thriller. he ran an insurance scam.
building s most degre gra grega personalities. we were best friends here in utah. a huge personality fit his apparently oversized professional accomplishments. investor, restaurateur, owner of an extremely unusual consulting firm. the sole specialty was preparing wealthy clients for, of all things, prison. he was hired to help put their affairs in order before they went to prison, help educate the family what was going to happen, try to get the best sentencing possible for him. that business as david confessed to his loft friends grew out of personal experience, he himself was a felon, served a year in federal prison for mail fraud. but he was the type of guy that could take bad luck and turn it into a fortune.
took root and grew around the story of the murder of ken dolezsar. it was planted just weeks after chris was arrested. loft residents dave and lisa mccammon were having dinner with their best friends the novaks. he announced we re moving. and we were astounded. i remember saying to him, what? you ve put all this money into your loft, you ve got all this investment here. why are you leaving? he said it s just time to go. reporter: he claimed to be their great friend, sociable, gregarious, larger than life. then said neighbors once chris was arrested, he seemed nervous and now he was gone. and so they wondered, was david novak running from something? the loft friends began re-examining all the stories david told them over the years, particularly about his criminal past. we started comparing notes and stories and wow, david told me a different version of that. reporter: they d been lying, to put it rather bluntly.
her accusation, the sandy police must have planted the shell casing in order to link chris missing gun to the crime scene. you think it would be hard for people to accept the idea that this detective would do something as unethical as plant evidence. it was not there. i know that. reporter: the sandy police department categorically denied the accusation. but as those loft friends heard more of chris wright s side of the story from bianca, they became convinced he was innocent. there were so many parts of the puzzle that were not adding up. reporter: unless, they reasoned, unless someone they knew very well wanted chris to take the fall. the dark suspicion wafted through the corridors of that old chocolate factory. perhaps police, they said, arrested the wrong neighbor. he had the perfect patsy in christopher.
certainly not full truths. reporter: the brief prison term for mail fraud, it turned out there was more to that story, a lot more. novak confessed to a con that played out like a cinematic thriller. he used a private flying club to run an insurance scam. then as it caught up with him, he attempted to escape by faking his own death. ditched his airplane in puget sound. he faked his death in order to avoid insurance audit. that was not a crime of passion. that was a crime of calculation. reporter: or so the loft friends believed. and if that was true, what might he have done here in salt lake? their suspicion only grew when the friends found out novak left town without mentioning it was he who fingered chris in that surveillance photo. did he ever tell you that i identified christopher? no, no. reporter: that prepaid cell phone was the very clue that led