The Prince of Paradise

by John Glatt

  A few hours later, Broward County Circuit Court judge Dale Ross ordered Narcy Novack not to remove any further items from her late husband’s estate. “[You] are hereby enjoined from transferring, selling, assigning or otherwise disposing of such assets,” the order stated. He also ordered Curator Hoffman to begin assessing the Ben Novack Jr. estate and to hire independent appraisers to go into 2501 Del Mar Place and the various warehouses and draw up a complete list of assets.

  “The sheer volume of it is overwhelming,” Hoffman said. “It’s more than just the Batman stuff; it’s furniture, cars, collectibles … we have a lot of appraisers working on it.”

  * * *

  On September 10, May Abad publicly accused her mother of murdering Ben Novack Jr. In a probate court petition, Abad’s attorney William Crawford argued that Narcy Novack should not be appointed the personal representative for her late husband’s estate, because she had murdered him.

  “Narcy Novack unlawfully and intentionally killed or participated in the procuring of the death of the Decedent, Ben H. Novack, Jr.,” Abad’s petition read. “Accordingly, Petitioner Narcy Novack is not entitled to any of the benefits of the last will and testament of Decedent under the Florida Probate Code.”

  When contacted by ABC News for comment, May Abad, who now stood to inherit millions with her two sons if Narcy were disqualified, said she was no longer giving interviews. “I spoke to one and that was it,” she explained.

  In the ABC story, Westchester County communications director Donna Greene said both mother and daughter had laid claim to Ben Novack Jr.’s body before internment.

  “[Novack was kept] on ice, literally and figuratively,” she said.

  * * *

  Around mid-September, Cristobal Veliz decided to lie low awhile until things had quieted down. As he disappeared from view, his brother, Carlos, started becoming more visible.

  Carlos Veliz contacted Alejandro Garcia to arrange another meeting, saying he wanted to get to know him better. They met at the Donde Martica Colombian restaurant on Sandleford Boulevard, Boca Raton. Over a meal, Carlos Veliz said he was looking for Cristobal, whom he had not heard from for some time. Garcia said he had not spoken to Cristobal either, and he wasn’t answering phone calls or returning messages.

  Carlos then asked Garcia what his favorite color was, and Garcia replied it was blue.

  “I’m going to call you ‘Azul,’” Carlos replied, referring to the word blue in Spanish. He wrote down Garcia’s cell phone number on the back of the restaurant’s business card.

  Then he asked Garcia to do another job, and showed him a photograph of May Abad, whom Garcia didn’t recognize.

  “He gave me the picture,” said Garcia, “and said, ‘I want you to beat up the woman and leave her a cripple.’”

  According to Garcia, Carlos explained it was because she was interfering in his sister Narcy’s inheritance, and had kidnapped Cristobal.

  Garcia agreed to do the job, taking an initial payment of $3,000 with a promise of getting the rest of the money owed him for the Ben Novack job.

  * * *

  Over this period, Meredith Fiel remained in close touch with Narcy Novack, still trying to get incriminating evidence against her. But with her mother, Maxine’s, alliance with May Abad, Meredith walked a tightrope. During their weekly conversations, Narcy often attacked May Abad, claiming she was not her real daughter.

  “Narcy hated May,” said Fiel. “She wanted to do DNA testing, because she thought that May wasn’t her daughter, and there had been a mix-up at the hospital.”

  One time, an excited Narcy called Meredith saying that she had now found Orthodox Judaism. “Narcy was seeing a rabbi,” said Meredith. “She talked about making potato latkes and how everyone in the family had loved her [Jewish food]. The whole thing was just sick. I mean she did voodoo stuff, too.”

  Later it would be discovered that Narcy had now embarked on a passionate affair with a Fort Lauderdale rabbi.

  Charlie Seraydar, who had also heard that Narcy was romantically involved with a rabbi, was still a frequent visitor to the house, where Carlos Veliz had been living for months. On one occasion, Seraydar brought along his young son to see the Batmobile, which was still parked in the garage.

  “I went over to the house and I spent time with [Narcy],” said Seraydar. “I saw Carlos [there] a lot,” said Seraydar. “[Narcy] said that he came from New York and had been away from his family for several months, and he needed to get back.”

  * * *

  On Friday, September 25, Broward County probate judge Dale Ross held a twenty-five-minute emergency hearing, after Douglas Hoffman filed a motion to depose Narcy Novack under oath. The curator had now discovered that after emptying the four warehouses, Narcy had moved the Batman collection into her house, where it was piled up to the ceiling in boxes. He now wanted to question her on the stand about her husband’s collection and all his other assets.

  “This is a very complicated estate,” Narcy’s attorney Henry Trachman told the judge. “Mr. Novack, putting it diplomatically, was very eccentric. He saved everything. This home is just a maze of physical things, documents, items, memorabilia, collectibles.”

  Trachman said that after the murder, homicide detectives had searched the house from top to bottom.

  “Narcy Novack’s residence has been tossed by the police,” he said. “It was absolutely reprehensible what the police did to that place. They left that place a mess.”

  He said he understood the court’s concern that his client might be selling off assets, but there was no evidence to support this.

  “Dissipating assets is one of those things after the fact,” the judge countered. “You don’t know it’s being done until after it’s been done, and after it’s been done, it doesn’t matter anymore.”

  Trachman told the judge that the Novacks’ had had “a lengthy marriage,” with Ben doing the payroll while Narcy ran the business. “There’s a tone of the way this is being handled,” he told Judge Ross, “obviously because of the undercurrent of the fact that she’s a person of interest. All the things in her home were her’s and her husband’s. To say, ‘Well, this was Ben Novack’s, but Mrs. Novack, you had no entitlement to it.’ It’s disingenuous. This was a household. Money that came in from the business is what ran this household.”

  The judge said that until Narcy Novack was officially charged with a criminal offense, the court would presume everything belonged to her. “There’s a potential here,” he explained, “that somebody’s going to go to prison for many, many years. Now, if she’s charged, and even I know in the criminal division you’re innocent until proven guilty.”

  Representing the Ben Novack estate, Curator Gary Rudolf accused Narcy Novack of “ducking answering questions” about it.

  “We know she’s taken assets,” he told the judge. “We know she’s hidden assets. There’s not even a question about that. The question is where are they and why are we being denied access to them? That’s why we need to take her deposition.”

  Rudolf then complained that Narcy and her brother Carlos Veliz were obstructing the curator’s court-ordered task to protect and appraise the estate.

  “Mrs. Novack impedes,” he said. “She has her brother Carlos Veliz there impeding us. She doesn’t let us take documents. She says, ‘I want to keep these.’ This is not a free exchange of information and access. I’m sorry.”

  Visibly frustrated, Judge Ross asked the attorney what more he could possibly do to protect the estate. “We already entered an order that nobody has access to the home or warehouse,” he said. “Is there anything else I can do to kind of use the criminal analogy—can I put an ankle bracelet on somebody?”

  * * *

  On September 25, Narcy Novack officially laid claim to her late husband’s $1 million life insurance policy. On the claimant’s form, she asked for the money to be paid in one lump sum, writing that nothing would be due for his funeral.

  * * *

  A
t 9:45 A.M. on Monday, October 5, property appraisers Diane Marvin and Robert Hittel arrived at 2501 Del Mar Place for three days of work. They had been hired by the estate curator to prepare a room-by-room inventory of both the house and the adjoining office building.

  The two appraisers were met at the door by Narcy and her brother Carlos, who were hostile from the outset.

  “I was instructed by Narcy to address them as Mrs. Novack and Mr. Veliz,” Marvin later reported, “because she did not want to be on a first-name basis.”

  Diane Marvin explained the appraisal process to Narcy and her brother. “[I] proceeded to share our game plan with her,” said Marvin. “Narcy became uncooperative and insisted we begin with the Coca-Cola collectibles and comic books.”

  The appraisers explained that they had arranged for a comic book expert to visit on Wednesday, to prepare an inventory. They also said they must be very “methodical,” due to the large number of unorganized items and boxes piled up throughout the residence.

  “At this point it became apparent that Narcy was not going to cooperate,” said Marvin, “as she wanted to be in control of the appraisal process. She became very argumentative and made unnecessary, inappropriate comments and challenged me to appraise her ‘panties.’”

  Diane Marvin then called the curator’s office, saying they were having problems with Narcy. They were then told to move next door to the Convention Concepts Unlimited offices “to defuse the situation.”

  Soon after they began working there, the cleaning lady arrived. Then Narcy and Carlos started berating them in front of her. “Carlos stated that I was ‘doing the lawyer’s dirty work,’ and that I was really conducting an ‘investigation,’” said Marvin. “I assured him that I was only doing my job as an appraiser and was treating this assignment as I would any other assignment. Meanwhile, Narcy continued to be vocal about her opinions, made derogatory remarks, and used foul language. Carlos made a number of derogatory remarks about [Ben Novack Jr.]”

  When the appraisers attempted to examine her gym equipment, Narcy refused even to allow them to touch it, saying she was “germophobic.”

  For the rest of the morning, as Narcy and her brother looked on, the two appraisers inventoried everything in the Novack Enterprises offices, with the exception of the Batman collection.

  At around 12:30 P.M. they told Narcy they needed to return to the main house and start working there, but she refused to allow this. “Narcy insisted we leave them for an hour,” said Marvin, “so that she could ‘have a break’ from us, and would not permit us to continue working.”

  When they returned an hour later, Narcy’s behavior became even stranger and paranoid. “Narcy was agitated,” Marvin explained, “and shouted she didn’t know me and demanded to make a copy of my driver’s license. She complained that she had been robbed and did not trust us. She spoke in a raised voice and shouted that I was ‘trying to screw’ her.

  “She challenged me in a sarcastic manner to appraise the food in her pantry. She spoke in a taunting way and tried to engage me in an argument. She and Carlos stated they would not cooperate with us or do anything to help facilitate the appraisal.”

  Then Narcy told Marvin that she was so angry she was going to “explode.” She also threatened to have her “fired.”

  “At that point I told her we would leave,” said Marvin, “and come back when it would be more convenient for her.”

  The appraiser then called the curator’s office to ask for help. Soon afterward, Narcy’s criminal lawyer Robert Trachman arrived.

  The two appraisers remained outside the house while Trachman went in to reason with Narcy. Narcy insisted that she did want Diane Marvin inside the house again that day, although she agreed that Robert Hittel could resume work tomorrow with someone else.

  Two days later, Diane Marvin wrote up a report, saying that Narcy and Carlos’s “difficult” behavior would delay the appraisal by at least three weeks, when the Batman collection could be appraised by an expert.

  “In summary,” Marvin wrote, “I found Narcy Novack to be uncooperative, controlling, hostile, combative and verbally abusive. Carlos was also controlling, protective of Narcy and made threatening remarks.”

  Marvin also requested that an outside observer be present when she and Hittel returned to complete cataloguing the Batman collection.

  “The appraisers need protection from being accused of stealing,” she wrote, “and someone should be there to act as a buffer.”

  * * *

  The following week, curator Douglas Hoffman filed a motion in Broward County Probate Court complaining that Narcy Novack and her brother Carlos were making his job impossible. Using Diane Marvin’s report as Exhibit A, he asked Judge Dale Ross to order Narcy to cooperate.

  “Narcy Novack has been an obstructionist with the appraiser carrying out her duties,” the motion stated. “Furthermore, Narcy’s brother, Carlos Veliz, has been intimidating, threatening and uncooperative.”

  Hoffman said a New York expert in Batman memorabilia was flying to Fort Lauderdale at the end of October to carry out the appraisal, but he feared Narcy would try to stop it.

  “The Curator believes,” Hoffman wrote, “that there will be a likelihood of irrevocable injury to the Estate if he cannot fully and timely carry out his duties. [And] that items may continue to be secreted or otherwise lost to the Estate, and that Narcy Novack will continue to be uncooperative in allowing the Curator to efficiently carry out his duties to locate, appraise and safeguard the assets of the Estate.”

  The motion also asked Judge Ross to order Narcy to allow Diane Marvin and her staff to continue their appraisal, appointing a “neutral third party” to ensure the appraisers’ safety. It asked the judge to ban Carlos Veliz from the house while the appraisal was taking place.

  In the wake of the motion, Narcy Novack’s attorney Howard Tanner was interviewed by The Miami Herald. Once again, he stated that his client was totally innocent and had been wrongfully accused of killing Ben Novack Jr. by her daughter. Tanner pointed out that May Abad and her two young sons had a motive for lying, as they would inherit everything if Narcy Novack were convicted of murder.

  He also maintained that as her husband’s sole beneficiary, Narcy now owned his entire Batman collection. “She was married to him for nineteen years,” Tanner said. “It was purchased during their marriage.”

  He explained that Narcy had no money, as she was unable to access their marital assets. A month earlier she had requested a family allowance from the probate court, which had still not been ruled on.

  “She’s a victim,” Tanner explained. “Not only of losing her husband to a crime—now she’s a victim of a system that is punishing her for no reason at all.”

  * * *

  Rye Brook homicide detectives were now busy interviewing everybody who had ever come into contact with Ben and Narcy Novack. Lead detective Terence Wilson had already met many of Ben and Narcy Novack’s friends and business contacts, looking for any leads.

  The New York detectives also believed that Bernice Novack’s death had been no accident, and started sending their colleagues in the Fort Lauderdale Police Department leads on things to follow up. But these were met with an icy reception.

  In mid-October, the Fort Lauderdale Police announced it was satisfied that Bernice Novack had died from a series of falls, and that absolutely no foul play was involved.

  “So far every lead [Rye Brook Police] have given us has been looked at,” said spokesman Sergeant Frank Sousa, “but they all led to dead ends.”

  A few weeks later, the FBI quietly moved in, taking over the investigation into Bernice Novack’s death.

  FORTY-SIX

  NARCY SPEAKS

  On Tuesday, October 20, Judge Dale Ross ordered Narcy Novack to allow the appraisers three days of access to 2501 Del Mar Place, to complete their job. She must also make everything available to the appraisers, and reveal where any missing items were. Carlos Veliz was ordered to vacate the premi
ses during the appraisal.

  Hours after the ruling, Narcy Novack appeared in Broward County Circuit Court for her long-awaited deposition. After Narcy was sworn in, May Abad’s attorney William Crawford stood up to begin his often confrontational questioning.

  “Have you ever been known by any other names other than Narcy Novack?” he asked.

  “There’s a list of them,” Narcy replied in her thick accent. “Narcy Saveles, Narcy Saveles Novack.”

  “And how about Narcisa Sero Felez Backham?”

  “Yes,” she agreed.

  After Narcy told the court that she had a college-level education in Ecuador, Crawford asked about her employment history after coming to America.

  “I’m going to object to that,” interrupted her criminal attorney Howard Tanner.

  Crawford then amended his question, asking about her work history after her marriage to Ben Novack Jr.

  “In meeting, planning industry,” Narcy replied. “Event producing.”

  Her daughter’s attorney then asked how many children she had.

  “That’s an interesting question,” replied Narcy. “One.”

  “One. Okay. The name of the child?” Crawford asked.

  “Do I want to say that name?” she asked her other lawyer, Trachman, who told her to answer.

  “May Abad,” she replied.

  “And by whom did you have your child May Abad?” Crawford asked.

  “My first marriage, Angel Abad,” she replied.

  Then Crawford asked straight out if she had murdered her husband on July 12, 2009?

  “No,” Narcy replied resolutely.

  “Did you conspire with another person to kill him on July 12, 2009?

  “Certainly not,” Narcy said.

  “Did you plan to murder him on July 12, 2009?

  “No.”

  “Did you direct someone to kill your husband on July 12, 2009?”

  “No.”