The Binge Crimes: Deadly Fortune - Cut, Color, Kill | 2. The Stranger at the Wake

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

In the days after Fabio’s death, grief turns to suspicion. As mourners gather at his house for the wake, an unfamiliar face stands out. Want the full story? Binge every episode of Cut, Color, Kill ad-free now by subscribing to The Binge+. You’ll unlock over 60 true crime series instantly, get early access to drops on the first of every month, and hear exclusive bonus episodes. Search for the channel on Apple Podcasts or head to GetTheBinge.com. For behind-the-scenes details, join our free newsletter at Patreon.com/TheBinge. Cut, Color, Kill is a production of Sony Music Entertainment and Novel. Follow @sonypodcasts and discover more at sonymusic.com/podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices at podcastchoices.com/adchoices. The Binge — feed your true crime obsession. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The Binge. Feed your true crime obsession. The Binge. In a ballroom in Las Vegas, the stage. is lit with purple neon lights. There's a glittering backdrop and a long catwalk that extends out into the audience. Thousands of spectators fill row upon row of seats, all dressed to the nines. It's clearly a high-end runway crowd. This is the grand final of the North American Wella Trend Vision Awards. It's like the Super Bowl of hairdressing. The best stylist from across North America come to compete for gold. A line of models struck down the catwalk. This is high

fashion. Their hair is teased, tossled and sculpted into wild shapes. One model looks like a dragon, another like some kind of glamorous alien empress from another galaxy. Then, center stage, a spotlight. A big bear of a man with a well-trimmed beard and an enormous smile bursts onto the stage. Welcome to the North Americans. Did I hear some noise? The crowd erupts as he whips them into a frenzy. My name is Fabio Cimintilly, or NGA, the daddy. I want to thank you for all your love, for all your support,

and number one for all your passing. Fabio Cimintilly, the Big Daddy of Hairdressing. The superstar hairstylist from Canada turned executive at one of the largest hair corporations in the world. He's living up to his name. And the crowd loves him. Watching him, it's clear he's approachable, warm, charismatic. The kind of person where you'd see their glow up and say,

it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. At Wella, we're all hairdressers at heart. Love you guys. So cool. So, yeah. What a buoyant person. Always smiling. Seems very warm to the people around him.

Yeah, that was just like, that was Fabio. Melanie Garabé and I watched this video together. I catch glimpses of her as it plays. Her eyes well up. But she's also smiling. We're watching a major milestone for her. Melanie put on this event. Back when she was the national show director for Wella,

back when Fabio was still alive. My job at the time was producing, you know, big, huge hair fashion shows, if you will. These are a million-dollar presentations for, you know, 4,000 people, 5,000 people. Melanie's life is very different now. She runs a wine business in Simi Valley about an hour and a half north of L.A., depending on the traffic. Melanie's a small business owner, but she stays cool with magenta streaks in her hair. We're sitting in her tasting room, and I'm here to talk with her about her boss, Fabio. She remembers the last time she saw him.

It was one of those small moments, you know the kind you replay in your mind later. A snapshot that doesn't tell the whole story of a person, but takes on new meaning after everything that happened. It was January of 2017. She had arrived at work, parked her car. She was walking in when she ran into Fabio. I had gotten a new car, got my, you know, new Corvette, and Fabio had, you know, just gotten his Porsche. A shiny black Porsche 9-11 convertible.

A dream car. He got the good parking space, like right at the front. And I remember the last thing he said to me in the parking lot, wow, you know, nice car. And he's like, don't think you're going to. get away without letting me have a ride in there. And I was like, yeah, you know, like, you're not going to fit in here, Fab. But, yeah, that was the last time and the last thing that I remember Fabio said.

Six days later, Fabio was dead. You can't rationalize it. You can't figure it out. It's happening, but you're still so close to it that you're like, I still was like in denial. I was in disbelief. in disbelief because this was her friend. Still, the people at work don't always know what's actually happening in our lives. What darkness could have crept in unannounced.

Melanie couldn't imagine who could have had it out for Fabio. But it turns out his killer had a very particular reason for wanting him out of the picture. And the clue that would send cops in the right direction would have something to do with Fabio's beloved Porsche. From Sony Music Entertainment and novel, this is cut, color, kill. I'm Jonathan Hirsch. Episode 2, The Stranger at the Wake.

Fabio is dead. The leadership at Wella calls an emergency meeting. Carol Porta is there. Her jet black hair is styled in a spiky pixie cut. She's the senior director of education at Wella, and Fabio Semantilli's right-hand woman. The night before, she got a call from Sal, their CEO, telling her that Fabio had been murdered. I just, I had no words.

I could not believe it. What are you talking about? It was just like someone had just punched me. Like, that must be a mistake. He's going to be okay, you know? Carol hung up the phone. She went into the living room and turned on the TV. CBS, LA had the story.

Tonight is police searched for his killer, a celebrity friend. friends are fondly remembering icon Fabio Semantilly. The media is all over this story, repeating every gruesome detail. A murder in L.A. is not unusual, but this one is. Fabio's glamorous lifestyle and sleepy suburban setting in Woodland Hills have an allure that news editors could not resist. He was found dead on the back porch of his Woodland Hills estate Monday evening. Sure enough, her ears had not deceived her.

It was true. Horrible and unimaginable, but true. There was, you know, helicopter over his house and then showing and talk about this celebrity hairdresser who had been murdered on his patio. I'm going like, wait, what? Alicia Truesdale is Fabio's executive assistant. I had just spoken to him that Monday.

She got the call from Sal last night, too. He told her to assemble the team first thing. We all meet in Fabio's conference room when the head of HR and Sal come in and talk to us. There's tears crying. People are dumbfounded. Can't even put it together or what's going on. Just numb and shock, crying.

Like, this isn't happening, but it is happening. Melanie was there too. We were grieving. We were trying to process. There was just so much, like, so much. I took my immediate team in my office, Fabio, was a fan of tequila. So we opened a bottle of tequila and we all had a shot for Fabio. That's how we kind of somehow made it, you know, through the day.

No work is getting done today. Just quiet conversations, punctuated by long stretches of grief. And it didn't take long for colleagues to wonder who had taken his life. Like stabbing is just so personal and so brutal. And, you know, You're thinking like, how can this even be happening? Someone's heard that the police are looking into the knock-knock burglary crews operating in L.A. We're thinking it's that Fabio had been sitting out at his pool, taking calls, smoking a cigar. We're thinking he probably didn't hear if somebody knocked at the door they came in. Right from the beginning, the people who knew and loved Fabio have questions.

Rumors and speculation began to swirl. We kind of all started to think, this is just not right. Who did Fabio piss off? Fabio didn't just light up the stage. He lit up the office, too. He made work bearable, dare I say, fun for his colleagues. When he came in the morning, you knew he was there. That passion, that love of the art of what you're doing and the showmanship of it.

He just brought all of himself when he came. Carol and Fabio were kindred spirits. They worked together on mentoring a new generation of hairstylists, And they gave them a platform at big hair shows and competitions. They even had nicknames for each other. I called him Papa Bear. A lot of people called him Papa Bear, but he also had a nickname in the industry that was Big Daddy.

I never really liked Big Daddy. I thought he was a little eh. I preferred Papa Bear. And then I was Mama Bear. It was a big man and big heart, big voice, big laugh. And, of course, a big success story, too. Fabio would frequently hope. parties at his home in Woodland Hills and invite his co-workers to come over.

There was this cater that he loved, this nannas, she did tacos like nobody's business. And she'd set up around the pool and he'd have a fire pit going and blankets all over for the girls to stay warm and music playing and everything. And we just would have a really good time having dinner. That's the way the Semantilly's work was welcoming, like that. Fabio's wife, Monica, often joined in at these gatherings too. The two of them would dance together and joke around. Even after 20 years of marriage, they seem smitten.

Makes Fabio's death all the more tragic, looking back. He worshipped the ground she walked on. I was like, I wish my marriage was like that, you know, sometimes, because they looked like the perfect family. Carol got to know Monica pretty well. Bonded very quickly, hung out a lot with college, other on a regular basis. So yeah, we became friends. Monica felt really lonely moving to L.A. because, you know, obviously Fabio was working a lot. The girls were in school. She missed home a lot.

She talked about missing home a lot and eventually moving back to Canada. So that's why I think she really appreciated when there were people around coming to the house because it gave her, obviously, you know, the sense of family that she was missing from moving away from Toronto, the rest of her family was. In the days after Fabio's death, some of his coworkers quickly turned their attention to supporting his family, his wife, Monica, and his daughters.

They were, as expected, in impossible emotional pain and turmoil. I'm immediately on the phone. I'm getting lists from Monica, who should come, and I'm making arrangements for his family, his immediate family to come in. and some close friends. In a few days, friends and family will arrive in L.A.

Ordinarily, there's a kind of expectation of finality about these events. The chance to say goodbye, pay your respects. But there is nothing resolved about this case. Everyone is searching for answers. And aside from the knock-nog theory, there's very little to hold on to. At the offices of the Valley Bureau Homicide Department, Detective Ryan Verna is making calls, sifting through different theories about what had happened to Fabio.

Since the news about the murder went public, he's been inundated with tips. Like, oh, it was a guy named Blue something from South Central that claimed responsibility for this, and, you know, just all sorts of stuff. None of it was panning out. It was all leading to dead ends. But there's one thing detectives have on their side.

It was very, very evident there was going to be a lot of video based on the neighborhood. It's an amazing array of cameras. I mean, I personally never seen a homeowners association with cameras that are this good. An officer was trawling through the footage from the day of the murder, and they found something. Two, what we believe in men, dressed in oversized clothing, kind of pants, sweats, with sweatshirts that were over their head.

The hoodies were cinch tight, so they were looking through a tiny hole. and they had the sleeves of their hoodies pulled down over their hands. You could tell them the video that they were running with a purpose. The hooded men run up to the Semantilly house at 4.18 p.m. Then at 453, Fabio's black Porsche appears,

going in the opposite direction. Through the window of the car, there's a glimpse of a green hoodie. In that time, just over a half hour, Fabio was stabbed. We knew right away those were our guys. A thoughtfully built wardrobe really comes down to the pieces that mix well and that are going to last and make your life easier. And that's what I love about quince.

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slash crimes for free shipping and 3.65-day returns. Quince.com slash crimes. The Black Dahlia murder of 1947 is arguably California's most notorious unsolved case. Its only rival might be the Zodiac murders a generation later. Now, an amateur sleuth is attracting attention with the claim that the same killer is responsible for both cases. I'm Christopher Gafford, host of Crimes of the Times. Check out our new season on YouTube and listen to it on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's two days on from the murder when Fabio's colleagues, Melanie and Carol, arrive on the doorstep of the cementilli house in Woodland Hills.

They're here with a couple of other work friends to drop off some groceries for Monica. We brought white wine for Monica. She liked that pino grigio at the time. Cigarettes. She was smoking like a chimney at the time, obviously. So we made it. sure that she didn't have to go anywhere. We took care of them the best we could. Monica invites them into the house. They take a seat on the back patio. He had his favorite chair in the patio, where he would always sit. Everybody knew that was his chair in the patio outside. A chair that now was empty, except for some carefully chosen items placed in the seat by Monica. There was a little shrine for Fabio. There was his hat that

said big daddy on it. There was a cigar, a bottle of tequila, a glass. And then Monica was wearing, he had like one favorite kind of off-white sweater. I remember always when he was wearing it. He felt great in it. She was wearing his sweater. She was wearing his watch. And she just kept rocking in the chair in denial of what had happened. Right. So we didn't quite know what to say. It was a little chilly that night. Someone offered to light the fire pit. And she kept saying, no, no, Fabio is going to be here soon. He always starts it when he gets home from work.

Just Fabio's going to do it. Fabio's going to do it. And we were like, hardbroken, you know. Like, yeah. That will always stay in my mind. Carol and Melanie try to comfort Monica. It was a surreal moment. All gathered there together just feet from the spot where Fabio had been brutally murdered.

Try to be as normal as you can, but I'm a surreal moment. at the same time, there's obviously a, you know, drama unfolding and knowing that he had been murder where we were sitting was another thing that was extremely uncomfortable. My thought was like, why are you in this house? Because if my husband was brutally murdered, I wouldn't feel safe. I kept asking, well, why are you staying here? Just go away, go in a hotel, you know, come to my house, whatever. like do something different.

Don't stay in this house where this happened. But she kept saying, no, that was his dream house. He would want us to stay. This is what he would want. Carol and Melanie leave the house in Woodland Hills. They both said they felt uneasy, worried for Monica and her girls. Were they safe there? At the Semantilly house, the DVR system,

which had been taken offline during the murder, is still out of action. And the murderers are still on the loose. That same day, Detective Ryan And Verna gets a call. A homeowner had noticed that a black Porsche had been parked in his neighborhood for several nights. Fabio's prized Porsche 9-11, the car that was a symbol of his success. It had been abandoned about 10 minutes away from the Semantilly house, but the windows left rolled down.

As it was being impounded, we were able to open the doors up, gloves on, of course, and kind of use our flashlights to look around inside the car. car, we could see that there was what appeared to be blood stains inside the vehicle. I believe it was on the driver's side door panel near the seat. We knew that that was going to be of the ultimate importance. The detectives send the blood swabs to the DNA lab. They already had suspected that one of the attackers might have been injured at the scene of the crime. If this blood belongs to one of them and not Fabio, it could be the key to crack.

this case. It's January 29th, six days since Fabio's death. The viewing is about to begin. You know how in movies cops always go to these memorials to see who shows up, to try to get a read on the room and which people choose to attend? Cops didn't come that day. But the people who loved Fabio noticed something that just didn't fit. At a mortuary in the valley, Luigi Semantilly is sitting in the waiting room. Music is playing faintly in the background. Luigi's waiting to see his father's body. Walking into that viewing room, I remember my knees buckling

and my dad's best friend having to kind of help me back up. And I had been to many funerals before and didn't expect it to hit me as hard as it did, but I remember it did hit me really hard seeing him in the casket. The viewing room is simple and modern. There are rows of wooden pews and a round stained glass window.

Fabio is lying in a casket at one end. Smartly dressed mourners, all in black, file into the room. Countless names and faces coming up to me, shaking my hand, giving me their condolences. Alicia Truesdale has organized everything according to the family's wishes. There is going to be a separate funeral in Canada a few days later. But for everyone who knew Fabio in California, this is their chance to say goodbye. Everyone, it's just such a, like zombies almost. People brought their husbands and wives and things.

you know, because we all knew Fabio. A lot of folks from the L.A. beauty industry are here to pay their respects. Monica is sitting in the front with the two girls. And Fabio's Canadian family's there too. And she has a thing over her like a blanket or something like that. And crying, but the sobbing was so loud. When Carol approaches, Monica tries to usher her, towards the body.

I couldn't go to the casket. I cannot do that. And she kept saying, go say goodbye, go say goodbye. I'm like, I can't. I just can't. That's not how I want to remember him. Sorry. As Melanie looks at Fabio lying there,

the enormity of what has happened dawns on her. Just that life was gone. And it was not only like his physical being, but just that Ray, that huge light that he, He just shined on everyone that he interacted with. It was just gone. And it was really sad. After the viewing at the mortuary,

everybody heads to the wake over at the Semantilly House in Woodland Hills. Alicia has made all the arrangements and brought in Fabio's favorite caterers from the taco place he loved. People are coming up. People are kind of eating. People are mingling around. I've done this whole week of bringing food up to the family. family, arranging shuttles for them to go places and that type of thing, arranging things for them, just taking care of them. Alicia has set the Canadian relatives up in a hotel.

Luigi didn't want to stay at the house in Woodland Hills. Being here for the wake was bad enough. I didn't want to be there. Just very weird, especially being out in the backyard precisely where he was killed. Because that was where he spent most of his time when he was at home. His absence was very loud, too, that he was the only one who wasn't there and the whole family was there, but not him.

Normally a party in the backyard would be full of music and laughter. Fabio might burst into songs spontaneously or take Monica by the hand and whirl her around. Tonight, the atmosphere is muted. People talking to each other in little groups and exchanging memories that they've had personally with Fabio and getting together. I think it felt good to be together in a moment like that.

Do not feel like you're alone in that grief. Some of Fabio's relatives are sitting here on the sofa. Monica's there too. She was in a separate chair or something on the side, and there was a man there. One of Fabio's work friends points the guy out to Alicia. His short brown hair. He looks in shape.

I mean, he's wearing a leather jacket. She said something to me about who is this guy, and it kind of went over my head, Like, I'm going like, you know, a friend, a neighbor, I don't know. They aren't the only ones who notice him. He catches Carol's eye, too. He kind of stuck out. You know, nobody knew who he was.

And then a lot of people that were there, there were people from Walla, right? So everybody had a certain look. When you're part of the industry, you have a certain look to you, you know, the way you dressed. You know, put together, you know, fashion forward. And he just didn't fit. And we were very protective of Monica. Like, who's this guy? Who does he want from her?

You know? And someone said that's her coach from the racquetball club. He's a friend from the gym. And I was like, okay, well, you know, Monica has a life outside of here too. But just, just he stood out like, so sore thumb. The air is thick with questions that night. There were definitely hushed conversations, you know, who could. do this and, you know, why is she still in this house?

And you're trying to just wrap your head around the brutality of this. And this whole knock-knock burglar thing made no sense to anybody. All these burglars, like, they don't kill. You know, if they get surprised, they beat you up and they run away. It felt very personal the way he was stabbed. Melanie finds herself wondering how well she really knew Fabio's life. Wow, did Fabio? Like, somebody, you know, really, somebody really must hate him or something?

Or, like, did he cross a, and, you know, Fabio's Italian. I'm not throwing anything out there, but it's like, you know, this was like a mafia hit. I mean, you know, you don't want to think it, but it's just like, that is somebody who is pissed off. Of course, there was rampant speculation about everything. Luigi is trying his best to keep out of it. But lots of his family members have questions, too. Are you like the more sensible, let's not rush to judgment person? Or are you usually the one who would be like, you know, the first one to weigh in?

No, the last to weigh in, if I weigh in at all. When I studied philosophy in school and my area of competence with skepticism, I was just doing my best not to jump to conclusions to listen to what the detectives and other people were telling us about what. had happened. But the whispers from the wake travel quickly. That night, Detective Ryan Verna's phone pings. Deborah Obad, a family friend, has sent Verna a photo.

Basically what it shows is Monica in this mail. He was there. He was kind of weird and taking up a lot of her time. And we noticed that in one of the pictures it appeared that there was maybe a bandage on one of his fingers. So interesting. Okay. You kind of put in your back pocket, there's not a ton there. It's interesting.

The officers take it on board. But they're inundated with speculative leads that go nowhere. Detective Verna has his mind on the Porsche and the blood found at the scene in Fabio's car. The investigators have to remain objective, clear-headed. But understandably, Fabio's friends and family are emotional. They want answers and fast. Nobody knew what was going on. We were all getting a little frustrated.

Like, why is it taking so long? You know, I mean, our friend is gone. Get your act together. You know what I mean? Did you start to get frustrated at all with lack of answers? I wouldn't say I was frustrated, but I was definitely feeling hopeless. Feeling hopeless that this was just another nameless, faceless criminal among the horde of criminals in the world. And the not knowing, not being able to.

wrap your mind around this crazy event was really adding to the pain, adding to the suffering, adding to the grieving. We get our DNA hit back on the 14th of February. Detective Ryan Verna has been waiting for the blood samples to come back for three weeks. Finally, something concrete. We are told that Rob Baker matches the DNA profile of the blood that's been recovered. Robert Baker. He's 54 years old, short brown hair, an athletic build, which makes sense, because he's a coach at a racquetball club. The racquetball club, where the Seminthillies go, a man they've taken lessons from. And now his DNA could place him at the scene of the crime.

I believe not only from the house, but also the Porsche. And we've met him before. The blood-staining Fabio's stolen Porsche belongs to the strange guy in the leather jacket at the week. So that's our guy, Rob Baker. But why would a racquetball coach want to kill Fabio? Next time on Cut Color Kill. The cops find out.

We need to get surveillance up on this guy. We need to find out who he is, where he is, what he's doing, what he drives, everything. Don't want to wait for that next episode. You don't have to. Unlock all episodes of Cut, Color, Kill. Add free right now by subscribing to the binge podcast channel. Search for The Binge on Apple Podcast and hit subscribe at the top of the page. Not on Apple.

Head to GetTheBinge.com to get access wherever you listen. As a subscriber, you'll get binge access to new stories. on the first of every month. Check out the binge channel page on Apple Podcasts or getthebinge.com to learn more. This is Cut, Color, Kill, an original production of Sony Music Entertainment and Novel, hosted by me, Jonathan Hirsch.

Caroline Thorneum is our senior producer. Catherine Godfrey is our editor. Muhammad Ahmed is our assistant producer. Mark Pittam is our engineer. Additional engineering by Daniel Kempson. For a novel, our executive producer is Max O'Brien. From Sony Music Entertainment, our executive producers are Catherine St. Louis, and me, Jonathan Hirsch. Production management from Cherie Houston, Joe Savage, and Charlotte Wolf.

Fact-checking by Fendell Fulton, research by Myron Kaplan. Story development by Nell Gray Andrews. Novel's director of development is Selena Mehta. Special thanks to Carolyn Sher Levin at Miller-Korznik-Rayman. And a big thanks to the whole Sony Music Entertainment team.