by John Glatt
“But that was the Jewish mother,” Narcy explained. “I did not take it personal. My mother-in-law will give her life for me … I used to tell my husband.”
As the interview progressed, Narcy became increasing agitated, frequently putting her head down on the table whenever a prying question upset her.
When Detective Art Mohammed, who had now replaced Detective Carpentier, accused her of having a selective memory, Narcy lashed out.
“I don’t need you or anybody else to yell at me or to put pressure on me,” she told him. “I cannot take it. Just give me an electric chair and put me out of my misery. I cannot take this anymore.”
At the end of the interview, Narcy suggested her husband might have committed suicide.
“I wish he did kill himself,” Investigator Murphy replied gravely. “I really do. At least there’d be a reason behind it. Unfortunately he was severely beaten to death. There’s a lot of rage there. I promise you we’ll get to the bottom of this one. We always do.”
* * *
At 2:00 A.M. on Tuesday, Detectives Roger Piccirilli and Dwayne Tabacchi arrived at the Rye Town Hilton to search Narcy Novack’s wheeled suitcase, which was in May Abad’s room. When the investigators opened it, they found a series of hand-scribbled notes relating to Rebecca Bliss. These included cell phone numbers and addresses of Bliss’s mother and her old boyfriends, showing just how deeply Narcy had investigated her rival.
Among the Post-it notes was the address of the Marina Bay apartment Ben Novack had set Bliss up in, and the names and contact numbers of the manager and other Marina Bay staff.
Narcy had also investigated Bliss’s former career as a porn star. There were e-mail addresses and cell phone numbers for Bliss’s alter egos, Mona Love and Meela Love. Even more disturbing, Narcy had listed Bliss’s mother’s home address in Grand Rapids, Michigan, along with that of the ex-boyfriend who had shot Bliss.
The detectives carefully logged the two dozen notes into evidence, and seized two more computers and a bag of papers for analysis. Later, back at police headquarters, hardened detectives would be shocked at some of the esoteric pornographic images they discovered on Ben Novack’s laptop.
* * *
While Narcy Novack’s luggage was being searched, Murphy and Carpentier were driving Narcy, accompanied by May, to a New York State Police facility for a polygraph examination. After signing a voluntary consent form, Narcy was questioned about her husband and his violent death. She failed the test several times, with her answers showing indications of deception.
As Narcy was being confronted with the negative results, May burst into the polygraph room screaming. She then tried to attack her mother, and had to be physically restrained by detectives.
May later claimed that her mother had failed the polygraph exam five times. She had been cooperative at the start, but became incensed when the examiner kept asking whether she’d killed Ben. At one point, she declared that the police should not attack her while she was grieving her dead husband.
“She kept saying, ‘This is ridiculous, I’m supposed to be mourning my husband,’” said May, “and she kept getting angry.”
Finally, Investigator Murphy drove Narcy back to the Rye Town Hilton, dropping her off at 9:00 A.M. on Tuesday.
A few hours later, while Narcy was flying back to Fort Lauderdale, the Rye Brook Police asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to place her under surveillance.
FORTY-ONE
“MY MAMA KILLED MY DADDY!”
On Tuesday morning, The Miami Herald ran a front-page story about Ben Novack Jr.’s murder, labeling it “a targeted hit.” With the banner headline “Resort Creator’s Son Slain in N.Y.,” the story caused an immediate sensation.
“Ben Novack Jr. grew up in the penthouse of Miami Beach’s most fashionable hotel,” the article read, “watching his parents hobnob with U.S. presidents and Hollywood royalty. This week, 55 years after his father opened the legendary Fontainebleau Hotel, Novack was found bludgeoned to death in a much more modest venue—the Hilton Rye Town in Rye Brook.”
The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel also ran a front-page story, headlined “Lauderdale Businessman Slain in New York Hotel.”
“News of his death stunned South Florida’s business community,” read the story, “where Novack was known as the son of the couple who founded the Fontainebleau in 1954.”
The story reported Rye Brook Police chief Gregory Austin’s press conference the previous day, adding that the name of Novack’s wife had still not been released to reporters.
Now retired, Fort Lauderdale detective Steve Palazzo, who had investigated the bizarre 2002 Novack home invasion, was eating breakfast when he read the story.
“I picked up the phone immediately and called [the police in] New York,” said Palazzo, “and said, ‘Was Narcy Novack in New York at the time of the murder?’ Because to me it was evident she was involved in the murder.”
He told the Rye Brook detectives to immediately get a copy of his 2002 police report and read it.
“I said, ‘Look, here’s what you need to know,’” Palazzo recalled. “‘If Narcy Novack was [there] she is probably responsible for his death. And you need to send somebody straight to the house and secure it, because it’s got millions of dollars worth of property and that’s what it’s all about.’”
He also offered his help, explaining how Ben Jr. had shown him all the hidden safes and hiding places in his house. “I told them that I’d been in the house, and Ben shared some secrets with me back then,” Palazzo said, “but I never heard from them.”
Jim Scarberry, who had not spoken to Ben Novack Jr. since the home invasion, was at his son’s wedding in Las Vegas when he received a call from a Miami Herald reporter friend of his.
“She called my cell phone,” said the now-retired Hollywood police chief, “and said, ‘Did you hear about Benji?’ And I said, ‘No, what happened?’ She said he was murdered in New York, and I immediately said, ‘Well, where’s Narcy? I know she has something to do with it.’”
Later that day, a Rye Brook detective called private investigator Pat Franklin in Fort Lauderdale for background information on Ben and Narcy Novack.
“The first thing they told me,” said Franklin, was “‘Well, Ben Novack’s been murdered. What do you think?’ I said, ‘You’d better check the wife.’”
The former cop also immediately suspected that somehow Bernice’s and her son’s deaths were connected. “It was highly coincidental that first Bernice goes and then Ben,” he said. “That’s remarkable—within three months of each other.”
* * *
That afternoon, Special Agent Terrence J. Mullen of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) began preparing a search warrant for the Novack house, looking for evidence. And Sergeant Terence Wilson of the Rye Brook Police Department’s Detective Bureau, who was now leading the murder investigation, contacted Charlie Seraydar for assistance.
“The search warrant was predicated on my testimony,” Seraydar explained. “They needed the information on the house for the warrants, and I gave them that. I happened to know where all the safes were because we picked out the locations when [Ben] bought the house.”
* * *
As soon as she landed in Fort Lauderdale, Narcy Novack hired twenty-four-hour security guards for 2501 Del Mar Place, from the Louken Security Company.
On Wednesday morning she headed to Wachovia Bank at 350 East Las Olas Boulevard, a five-minute drive from her home. When she asked for the $100,000 in cash she had deposited two days earlier in New York, the teller manager, Katherine Di Fiore, said the bank didn’t have that much cash. She suggested Narcy take half in cash and the rest in cashier’s checks.
Narcy reluctantly agreed, and at 2:22 P.M. was given $50,000 from hers and Ben’s joint account, in twenty-five straps of $2,000 bundles made up of $20 bills. The manager also gave Narcy a bank check for $50,000, but on her way out Narcy changed her mind. She now wanted two $25,000 chec
ks instead.
After leaving, Narcy went to another Wachovia Bank branch nearby, where she rented a large safe-deposit box, although she already had two smaller ones there.
* * *
At around 5:30 P.M. on Wednesday, Fort Lauderdale Police were called to 2501 Del Mar Place to investigate a domestic disturbance. Narcy Novack and her niece Karla Veliz, who had just flown in from New York, had tried to evict May Abad from the guesthouse, and things had gotten violent. During the altercation, May and her cousin, who had never met before, got into a slapping match in Ben Novack’s office.
“I saw May in Ben’s office,” Veliz later testified, “and she was just leafing through the folders and files. She was combing through everything. She kept repeating, ‘My father has something for me.’ She was going through the folders looking for something.”
Karla then ordered May out of the office, and as she was leaving, her mother appeared brandishing a crowbar. Then Narcy came after May, swinging the heavy weapon at her daughter’s head. As May raised an arm to protect herself, she was hit. The violent confrontation between mother and daughter was captured by a video surveillance camera.
After receiving a distress call from May, Charlie Seraydar arrived in the middle of the fight, and separated Narcy and May.
“They’re kicking the shit out of each other in the driveway,” Seraydar said. “I separated them and then I called the Fort Lauderdale Police.”
When the police arrived, May Abad ran out of the Novack compound screaming, “My mamma killed my daddy! My mamma killed my daddy!” Then she started knocking on nearby doors, accusing Narcy of murdering her stepfather.
Prince Mongo received a call from a friend, who told him about what was happening. “She said May is going crazy,” said Mongo. “She’s banging on my door and screaming that her mamma killed her daddy. I said, ‘My God, who is her daddy?’ Because she did not like Ben at all, and all of a sudden she called him ‘daddy.’”
Meanwhile, Seraydar went inside to calm Narcy down.
“I went in and talked to her,” he said. “She wouldn’t let the cops in, and I was just shaking my head, thinking, ‘You guys just got done doing an affidavit for a search warrant, and she’s in the house before you serve it. Get her out of here!’ They couldn’t do it. Very inept.”
Seraydar helped May Abad pack up her stuff and then drove her to a friend’s house. That night, she filed a complaint against her mother with Fort Lauderdale Police for aggravated battery. Detectives later investigated May’s claims, but no further action was taken.
* * *
The next morning, Narcy Novack flew back to New York to take care of business. She gave one of the $25,000 certified checks to her brother Carlos’s common-law wife, Melanie Klein, and the other to New York attorney Howard Tanner, for unspecified legal services. Later she would be accused in federal court of money laundering.
“Narcy Novack is running back and forth between New York and Fort Lauderdale,” said assistant U.S. attorney Andrew Dember, “moving money like crazy. She empties Ben’s accounts and takes $14,700 from their joint account and gives it to Melanie Klein to write more checks. She’s really busy moving money after her husband’s death.”
Her brother Cristobal Veliz had also been busy moving money around. The day after Ben Novack’s murder, he withdrew $6,500 from his Bank of America account, and the following day he took another $500.
Later he would testify that he had given the money to his brother, Carlos, for Narcy, who needed it.
That day, Cristobal had received a call from Alejandro Garcia, who asked him what to do with Novack’s distinctive “BEN” bracelet, which Narcy had handed to Garcia after the attack.
“He said, ‘Throw it away, it’s my gift to you,’” Garcia later testified. “So I decided to keep it.”
* * *
On Thursday morning, July 16, Rye Brook Police lead detective Terence Wilson arrived in Fort Lauderdale to investigate Ben and Narcy Novack, speaking to as many people who knew them as he could. It would be the first of almost a dozen trips to Florida he would make over the next two years.
Later that morning, Broward County Circuit Court judge Matthew I. Destry signed an affidavit for a search warrant to enter 2501 Del Mar Place looking for any evidence leading to Ben Novack Jr.’s murderer. The seven-page warrant, prepared by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, revealed that in June 2002, Ben Novack Jr. had been the victim of a home invasion, which he had accused Narcy of organizing.
“The Fort Lauderdale police report indicates that Ben H. Novack Jr.,” the warrant read, “claimed his wife Narcy orchestrated the robbery with unknown males and disabled the alarm system. [We have] determined that this 2002 home invasion has not resulted in any arrest or criminal prosecution.”
The warrant also revealed that Narcy had been given a polygraph test that “showed indications of deception when questioned to her knowledge of this homicide.”
Special Agent Mullen wrote that he wanted to seize records and documentation of the Novacks’ “business activity, travel and financial transactions” and video surveillance inside and outside the premises. He was also looking for silver-gray duct tape and any other relevant evidence to the murder.
“Your affiant has learned that pursuant to this investigation,” wrote agent Mullen, “a long time family friend Charlie Seraydar was interviewed and stated that he has known Ben H. Novack for approximately 35 years and has been inside the premises at 2501 Del Mar Place … and has observed approximately four to five safes in the residence which are believed to contain US currency, personal effects and business records of the decedent Ben H. Novack, Jr.”
* * *
Later that day, The Miami Herald dug up Ben Novack Jr.’s 2002 divorce petition, in which he accused Narcy of trying to kill him for his fortune.
Reporter Julie Brown interviewed Novack’s divorce lawyer, Don Spadaro, and three other sources.
Spadaro provided The Miami Herald with Ben’s 2002 divorce petition, which contained Narcy’s damaging quote that the only reason he was still alive was because she had intervened to stop him from being killed.
“If I can’t have you, no one will,” Narcy was quoted as saying. “The men that helped me … will come back and finish the job.”
Jim Scarberry told Brown of Ben’s claim that Narcy had “fessed up” to the robbery. His and Ben’s long friendship had ended, Scarberry said, after Ben refused to press charges and called off the divorce action.
“I chewed him out,” Scarberry was quoted as saying. “I said, ‘You are absolutely nuts, Benji.’”
The Fort Lauderdale Police Department refused to release the damning 2002 police report to the Herald, saying it was now part of an ongoing murder investigation.
When questioned if the prior incident made Narcy Novack a suspect in her husband’s killing, Rye Brook Police chief Greg Austin said absolutely not, as he did not want to impede his detectives’ current investigation.
“Everything she has told us has checked out,” he told the Herald. “Just because of the home invasion doesn’t mean she’s a suspect. [It] may open up something that will change that, and we agree it is an important part of the case.”
* * *
That afternoon, Agent Mullen served the warrant on Narcy Novack, and he and his officers searched the Del Mar Place compound from top to bottom. They seized video equipment from the master bedroom, plus eight 8 mm videocassettes and a Beta videotape. They then went into Ben’s cluttered upstairs office and removed a Dell computer, miscellaneous paperwork, a phone book, and a day planner. In the garage, they discovered five rolls of duct tape.
Agent Mullen and his men then searched the building next door, which housed the offices of Convention Concepts Unlimited. From there they removed five computers, one laptop computer, and an external hard drive.
Everything seized from the property was then flown to the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office for forensic examination.
* * *
The next morning, Narcy Novack hired prominent New York criminal attorney Howard E. Tanner to represent her. His first action was to request a second independent autopsy on Ben Novack Jr.’s body, still on ice at the Westchester County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Now feeling threatened, Narcy had her eldest brother, Carlos Veliz, move into 2501 Del Mar Place as her bodyguard. He would remain there for the next year.
“He was basically protecting her,” said Charlie Seraydar, “and she very rarely left the house.”
Seraydar was one of the few people Narcy allowed into the house, and they remained on friendly terms. On several occasions, he asked her what had happened in the Hilton Rye Town hotel suite. And Narcy always stuck to the same story she had told detectives.
“And I said, ‘Narcy, now you can understand why people think you’re involved,’” said Seraydar. “‘It sounds stupid. It sounds not plausible.’”
* * *
On Thursday, July 16, The Miami Herald asked the Broward County Medical Examiner for a copy of Bernice Novack’s autopsy report. But the office refused, saying that the autopsy report—which is usually a public record—had now been “put on hold.”
The following day, a spokeswoman for Broward County medical examiner Joshua Perper claimed that the Fort Lauderdale Police Department had asked that the autopsy report not be released. “They are going to be reviewing whether to reopen the investigation or not,” the spokeswoman explained.
However, when a Herald reporter called the police department for confirmation, she was told there were no plans to take another look at Bernice Novack’s death.
“This is a closed case,” said Fort Lauderdale Police Department spokesman Frank Sousa, “and at this time there are no plans to review it.”
Late Friday afternoon, thirteen hundred miles away in Westchester County, Chief Greg Austin appealed for any information on a pair of Valentino sunglasses that had been found, asking anyone who saw someone wearing them on Sunday morning to come forward.
