True Crime with Kimbyr - Part 1 Continued: Broadway Dream Ends in Murder: A Fingerprint Left in Blood

Episode Date: June 7, 2026

Part 1 Continued: As detectives begin piecing together Catherine's final hours, troubling details emerge from the apartment she shared with her former boyfriend and roommate, David. With no signs of forced entry, a violent struggle confined to a single room, and a timeline that grows more puzzling by the minute, investigators are forced to ask difficult questions. In Part 1 of this deep dive from True Crime with Kimbyr, we uncover the foundation of a case that would shock New York City and leave those closest to Catherine searching for answers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Detective Entiment documented everything, the blood on the walls, the blood on the floor. The blood spattered across surfaces of that room that you could barely see. On the bookcase near the doorway, there was a bloody handprint. Palm and fingers pressed into the wood at roughly chest height. The kind of print left by someone reaching out to steady themselves as they fell. So was that Catherine's last physical contact with her room? In Catherine's left hand, which had been curled loosely during the autopsy preparations, investigators noted she was clutching something, short, light-colored hairs.

Not hers because Catherine's hair was long and dark. These were somebody else's hairs. And additional hairs were found on her thighs and on her stomach, animal hairs, consistent with the dogs in the apartment. Those were found on her left side and on the guitar lying near her body. Everything was documented and photographed. Everything. Then Detective Entiment turned his attention to the bed.

The paramedics had propped it against the wall to create space when they first arrived, which meant it was no longer in the position it had been in when Catherine had been found. So Entiment carefully moved it back down to the floor, and what he found on that bedroom wall, approximately four feet from the ground, was a blood transfer pattern. a smear. Someone or something had brushed up against that wall before the mattress had been shoved in front of it, concealing the mark. The smear was roughly the shape of a left hand and fingertips pressing against that surface. So Enteman photographed it carefully from multiple angles,

and then he did something that would prove to be one of the most consequential decisions of this entire investigation. He had that section of the drywall cut out. The whole panel carefully removed and sent to the crime lab for processing. Along with it went this section of living room floor bearing the boot print. He also fingerprinted the apartment. This was painstaking work on surfaces that weren't always cooperative and in the end, only one latent print was recovered. It was on the the guitar lying next to Catherine. That print was logged and it was sent off for processing. Now from the kitchen sink, Entiment collected a serrated stainless steel knife with a blade just over four inches long. Now, that would also be sent to lab for comparisons against

Catherine's wounds. The apartment had given them a great deal. But the most important thing it told them, the thing that Detective Gets had understood from the moment he walked through that door was the absence of something. There was no problem. There was no problem. blood in that hallway, not a single drop beyond the threshold of apartment 2D. So as I told you, whoever walked in that bedroom, they walked out of it without tracing a single footprint into that building's hallway. At the 19th precinct, Detective Thomas Ryan took over interviewing David. And I have to say, Ryan went in hard from the start because that was his job. And because everything about this situation put David squarely in frame. He was the last person to see Catherine

alive. He was the one who found her body. He lived there. He had a key. He had a history with a victim. A romantic history that had ended messily and financially not long before this. And his explanation for his whereabouts during the window when Catherine was killed amounted to, I went to get my car, and then I found her. David couldn't believe what was happening. He kept saying it. He said, you have the wrong person. I would never hurt her. I loved her. But detectives had heard that so many times before. So they kept pushing. They wanted him to walk them through everything. How did you meet? What was your relationship like? And then the whole day on November 27th. So David started at the beginning. He told them everything I already mentioned about how him and Catherine met, how in love they were. how eventually things got hard,

but they were still living together, and they were still intimate, and they still loved one another. David talked for hours. He waived his right to an attorney. He didn't invoke his right to remain silent, and he answered every single question they put in front of him with a kind of cooperation that could mean one of two things.

Either he has absolutely nothing to hide, or he's a very good at appearing at that. And now for his version of what happened the day he found Catherine dead on the floor of her bedroom. He told them that he had finished his dormant shift at the building on East 87th Street at 7 a.m. that morning. After his shift, he went inside in his car for about 45 minutes listening to a CD that a friend made him. He was writing rap lyrics as he listened. And around 7.45 a.m., he walks back to the apartment. Now, he's trying to be quiet, he says, because he knew that Catherine would still be asleep. but the dogs heard him come in like they always did,

and their excitement woke her up. She told him she was hungry for an apple specifically, but there were no apples in the apartment, so according to David, he offered to go get one while he took the dogs for their walk. He went to the supermarket around the block, bought her an apple, brought it back, even washed it for her,

and then he changed out of his work clothes and made himself something to eat. Catherine wanted to go back to sleep for a little while, so she asked him to please set her her alarm for 9.20 a.m. so she could get up and meet Christina for breakfast. David said he fell asleep on the futon. He said he woke up around 4.20 p.m. Catherine wasn't home and he didn't know where she had gone because she hadn't mentioned any plans beyond the morning. He watched some ESPN, he got up, he got ready to take the dogs out for another walk and to get something else to eat.

He was still at home when Catherine called to say she was on her way back. So David said that he had a out towards 2nd Avenue to meet her. And on the way, they stopped for food. David said he picked up a frozen meal, a bag of chips for Catherine from the supermarket, and he grabbed a taco for himself. Back at the apartment, David heated up Catherine's dinner while she got ready for work. He ate his taco. They watched TV. He said he played around on his beat machine. And according to him, Catherine was just walking around getting ready like she always did. And at some point, one thing led to another and they became intimate before she continued getting ready. Catherine said she wished she didn't have to go to work so she could spend more time with him, but it was almost time to leave.

David told her he's going to go get the car and meet her outside. He doesn't lock the door because Catherine is still inside the apartment. On the way to his car, which was parked on 87th Street, David said he stopped at the building he works at. He had left a Beastie Boy CD there and he wanted to grab it. While he was there, he runs into a co-worker, Abdul, and the building superintendent, Joseph. And the three of them get into a conversation about the holidays, because both David and Abdul wanted time off. But they couldn't both be off at the same time. So Joseph encouraged them to work through the holidays. He said the tips were worth it, and they agreed to figure it out later. David estimated the whole conversation lasted about five minutes tops. Then he went and

the car, put the Beastie Boy CD in, and drove back to pick up Catherine. He calls her cell. She doesn't answer. He calls again. Nothing. He parked the car. He went to the intercom. He buzzed the apartment.

Silence. He went back to his car to get his keys so he could go upstairs and check on her. And that's when his neighbor Brad stopped him outside. Brad had been out walking his dogs when he spotted some of the car. something strange. The black Labrador that David was dog sitting was running loose down First Avenue on his own. Brad had caught him. He brought him back to the building and David was completely confused. How had the dog gotten out of the building if Catherine was home? So the two men walk upstairs together. And on the second floor, David finds the lab again, loose out in the hallway outside of apartment 2D.

The door was closed, but it was unlocked, exactly as David had left it. Rod goes to his apartment. David puts the dog back inside. The living room's quiet. Nothing is disturbed. Little Josie is on the futon. Nothing out of place. David says he moves toward the back of the apartment calling Catherine's name,

and that's when he saw the bed, shoved against the bedroom doorway at a strange angle. It was blocking the entrance. And then he looked into the room. He didn't even finish the sentence while he's explaining this because he tried to describe it to detectives and all he could say was, it was a bad scene.

Blood everywhere. It was bad. I think that was pretty thorough, right? Well, maybe. But detectives started pulling at the threads. Because here's the problem. David said he was gone about 20 minutes. But when law enforcement spoke to Abdul and Joseph, the co-workers from the building that David worked at,

they told a different story. According to them, David had arrived at the building around 6.20 p.m. He stayed to talk to them for about 10 minutes. That meant he would have had to leave his apartment closer to 610 or earlier, not 640, as David initially said. And that meant he had been away from the apartment for closer to 35 minutes, not 20. Five minutes is enough to kill someone. 35 minutes is more than enough time to kill someone, clean yourself up, dispose of evidence,

and come back looking like you just went to get your car. And then there were the neighbors that I mentioned. Catherine's next-door neighbors in apartment 2H, Jesse and Amy, they told police they were watching TV that evening when they heard what sounded like a child screaming, somewhere between 5.45 and about 6 p.m. They muted the TV. They heard what sounded like furniture being moved around,

followed by dogs barking. Catherine and David were always quiet neighbors. So the noise was jarring enough to register, but the screaming stopped quickly. And Jesse and Amy just go back to their show. They didn't call anyone, they don't knock on the door, they don't check. But the problem with their account, and investigators noted this,

was Catherine was on the phone with Megan until 603 p.m. They could get those phone records and confirm it, which meant either Jesse and Amy had the timing wrong or something else was going on at the same time in that building that didn't involve Catherine. And then there was Andrew Gold. He lived directly above Catherine in apartment 3D, and he gave investigators a more precise account.

Andrew had been on the phone with his feet. Donna. At 625, while they're on that call, they both hear a scream from somewhere below in the building. Now, it was loud enough that his fiance on the phone heard it. And Andrew could tell it was coming from Catherine's apartment. He heard scuffling. He heard screaming. He heard more movement as though someone was being chased around in a circle. Josie was barking and then a loud stud, like something heavy. something heavy, being knocked over just downstairs.

Andrew ended the call at 6.40 p.m. and went out to the hallway to see what was going on. He looks out the window, too, onto 86th Street, and there's nothing there. So he leans over the banister. He calls out. Is anyone there? And there was just silence. He goes back inside. He gets his things, and he leaves the building to meet a friend. Now, I know what you're probably thinking, because later on, there are a lot of people who wonder why nobody did anything. But I can't dwell on that too long. Everyone has their own reasons. Some people don't want to bother the police if it's nothing.

Some people are embarrassed to get involved in maybe a domestic dispute. There could be many reasons. But in this case, neither one of these neighbors thought anything drastic was going on. It started and stopped within just minutes, according to them. Now, his phone records also confirmed his call with his fiancé, began at 6.18 p.m. If Andrew heard a scuffle at 6.25 p.m., if that was the sound of Catherine truly fighting for her life,

then David's original claim that he didn't leave until 6.40 puts him inside the apartment when it started. Both neighbors had heard screams. That's consistent. And the proximity seemed to be more accurate from Andrew's apartment. He was sure it was Catherine's.

He even knew what Josie's bark sounded like. Detectives also noted something else about David's demeanor throughout the hours of questioning. He wasn't crying. But he did cooperate with everything. He provided his fingerprints, his DNA, nail scrapings, clothing. He consented to a strip search. He agreed to have his car searched, and he sat through all of it without shedding a tear. And when a detective asked him directly why he wasn't crying over someone that he claimed to love,

David simply looked at them and said he didn't know. That was his answer. I don't know. He couldn't explain it. He just didn't know. Some could call it shock. Some could call it grief. But could David be capable of this?

Gets thought about it. David was young. He was naive. He was a Midwestern kid who had followed the girl that he loved to the big city. He scraped by for years while she outpaced him in every direction. so had resentment built into something darker? Was his devastating love for Catherine the very thing that had destroyed her? And if he had done it, if he had snapped in that apartment before going to get his car,

how was he able to dispose of his bloody clothing, his shoes, so quickly? As I told you, they took his fingerprints, he gave them the clothing he was wearing. They looked at his entire body and he didn't have any injuries. He consented to a full search of the apartment that he shared with Catherine in a search of his car. And there were no answers yet. Only questions. And David was released without arrest. There just wasn't anything to hold him on.

But before he walked out that door, Detective Gets asked him one more time. Was there anyone? Anyone at all who might have a problem with Catherine? Anyone that she mentioned being uncomfortable around. anyone who had given her a hard time, given her any trouble. David thought about it and something came back to him. He said, actually, there was someone, a guy. Catherine had mentioned having some issues with some guy, someone that was making her uncomfortable.

And he thought the guy's name was Paul, maybe Paul Vincent, but he wasn't sure. Gets leans forward. He's like, tell me more. And David remembered something else. He said back at the apartment in the living room, he knows there is a CD in there that this guy, Paul, had given to Catherine at some point. And if he was remembering correctly,

that CD had a picture on it, had a phone number, and that was the guy. So look there. Investigators go back to the apartment. And there it was exactly where David said it would be. A homemade CD, a photo, a name, and a number. The name on the CD wasn't Paul Vincent. It was Paul Cortez.

So who was he? Now before they can look into that, they have to do something 500 miles away. In a house in Columbus that had been quiet all evening, three officers from the Columbus Division of Police walked up to the front door of the Woods family home and knocked. John and Donna didn't even need to be told

that something bad had happened. They could see it in the officer's faces the moment they opened the door. That particular stillness that comes over people who have to deliver news that cannot be taken back. And the officers told them, contact the NYPD. They waited there while that call was made. And then John and Donna learned that their daughter was dead. John Woods, a man who had spent his career commanding hundreds of musicians, who had directed a band through presidential and not.

inaugural parades and bowl games, and some of the most celebrated halftime performances in college football history came undone completely. In his distress, he actually reaches out, he yanks a framed photo of Catherine off of the wall, and he threw it to the floor. Through everything that was tearing through him in that moment, one question came out of his mouth.

Why was she dating that shit-head guy? Referring to David. Donna was inconsolable. She had just spoken to Catherine the day before. She ended that call because she didn't have any more news to share. She thought nothing of it. And now she would give anything to have those minutes back, to have stayed on the phone just a little longer,

to have said more, but there was nothing more to say right now. Because Catherine was gone. And the news rippled through Columbus in the hours that followed. Catherine's loved ones, her friends from high school, her fellow dancers, the community that watched her grow up and cheer her on and sent her off to New York with so much hope. They were all grieving. It was the kind of loss that lands differently

when the person was taken so young and they were so talented and Catherine hadn't made it to Broadway. But she had made it into the hearts of everyone who knew her and loved her. And now someone had taken everything from her. The following morning was November 28th. Forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Greenberg performed Catherine's autopsy. And what he documented confirmed with a crime scene had already suggested.

Whoever killed Catherine Woods had done so with a level of deliberate violence that went beyond what was necessary to end a life. This was not a moment of impulse that got out of hand. It was sustained and directed. against a 21-year-old woman who had tried desperately to fight back. Three wounds had been inflicted on Catherine's neck, most likely delivered from behind. Two of them were horizontal in size wounds, one four and a half inches long, and the other five and a half inches long.

The third was a stab wound, an inch and three quarters in length. All three penetrated two inches deep. They severed two of Catherine's jugular veins and partially severed her carotid artery. The wounds had also severed her vocal cords, which meant that after her throat was cut, Catherine could not scream. She could not call out. So whatever she experienced in those final moments, she experienced in silence. But she fought back. There was no question about that. She had sustained 20 additional stab wounds across her right forearm, her right palm, her left arm, and her left wrist.

The kind of injuries that happen when someone puts their hands up against a blade that's coming at them. And when they grab for it, when they refuse to stop fighting, even when fighting has caused them everything, they get injured that way. One stab wound was to her left hand

and it went through and perforated a tendon. Beyond her defensive wounds, Catherine had sustained a jagged stab to the left side of her cheek that penetrated all the way through her mouth. two wounds near her left ear, wounds to her torso and left shoulder, and a blunt force injury above her left eye. She also had cuts on her forehead. Dr. Greenberg reconstructed the likely scenario that happened from the physical evidence. He believed Catherine had been attacked

from the front first. Her defensive wounds told that story. Her attacker had pushed her back into the bedroom, shoving the bed against the wall in the process, cornering her in that small space with nowhere to go, and then stabbed her repeatedly from the front, incapacitating her. And then he moved behind her, and this is when the knife was used across her throat while she was still standing, and the blood soaked the front of her shirt before she fell, reaching out as she went down, leaving that handprint on the bookcase. Her killer had then placed a foot on her back, leaving a boot print on her tank top. And then they cut across. across her throat a second time.

Her death came from blood loss. Any one of the three neck wounds would have been fatal on its own. Together, they were overkill. Violence that's well past the point of death. Catherine's toxicology results came back clean. She had no drugs, no alcohol, nothing in her system, nothing that would have impaired her ability to fight back

or changed what she experienced. And then there was no DNA found underneath her fingernails. meaning that despite her ferocious resistance, she had not managed to scratch her attacker. Whoever killed her probably did not have any visible marks on them, unless they cut themselves with their own weapon, which, by the way, had not been found at this point. Dr. Greenberg estimated the entire attack

had probably lasted no more than five minutes. Five minutes. Catherine Woods spent the last five minutes of her life fighting with everything she had. And she didn't win. Because the person who came for her had come prepared and made sure of it. That same morning, investigators had to check

another task off their list. The name, Paul Cortez. The name meant nothing to investigators. Paul Cortez? It didn't even appear anywhere in the initial canvas of the building. Nobody had mentioned him. He hadn't shown up on any of the footage they pulled from nearby garage.

It showed David and Catherine, walking the black lab earlier that evening. He wasn't a neighbor. He wasn't a co-worker. He wasn't anyone the first responders had encountered in the hallway. He was just a name on a homemade CD sitting in a now murdered woman's living room. But David had said something that detectives couldn't let go of. He said Catherine had issues with this guy.

There was some kind of history there that hadn't been fully explained yet. And the fact that David had initially called him Paul Vincent, getting the last name wrong, confusing it with this guy's middle name, actually made the whole thing feel more credible rather than less. Because if David was manufacturing a suspect to deflect suspicion,

he probably would get the name right. So there were now two detectives the morning after Catherine had been killed standing in front of this Paul person's apartment at 154 East 106 Street, a seven-minute drive from Catharines. When they arrived, Paul's mother, Yvette, was there with him, consoling him.

She had apparently been the one to tell him the news that Catherine had been killed. And Paul was hysterical. He was crying. He was visibly distressed. He was asking immediately whether police had caught the person responsible. He seemed like a man who had just learned that someone he cared about deeply was gone. So what was his connection to Catherine? He's brought to the 19th precinct for a formal interview.

And this is where things get interesting. Because over the next five hours, as detectives asked Paul about his relationship with Catherine and his whereabouts on the day she was murdered, a picture begins to emerge that was way more complicated than anything David had given them. And if you have been drifting off, if you've been busy, we all do it,

maybe around the house, half listening. I want to tell you that this is when you should, should start to pay close attention to the details that I'm about to give you. Now is that time. First, he, like David, declined to have an attorney present. And then he drops a bombshell. Paul says he and Catherine had been in a relationship for about a year. Wait. The investigator's like, what? Yeah. First, Paul talks about who he was and then how he met Catherine. Paul was completely different from David. He's older by a couple years. He's 25.

He was raised in the Bronx. He was educated as well at age 11. He was admitted to one of New York's most elite private schools, the Buckley School. And then to Poly Prep Country Day School on an academic and artistic scholarship. He had a fine arts degree from Boston University, class of 2003, where he had performed at the Huntington Theater,

and he studied abroad in London for his junior year. at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. Very impressive. He's now back in New York. He's signed to a casting agency called Hardin and Curtis Associates. He's chasing his own Broadway dream, the same way Catherine was chasing hers. He was a triple threat.

He could sing, he could dance, he could act. He was even the front man of a band called Monolith, and he played venues all around the city. And I'll tell you this. The people who knew Paul really well said, He was thoughtful, he was spiritual, he was soft-spoken and calm, he wrote poetry, he practiced yoga. And by normal standards, he was also attractive. Women liked him.

He had fans, if you will. He had the long hair, the band guy vibe. You can imagine him on a stage, his hair kind of hanging in his face, that mysterious and interesting type, that plays kind of hard to get. The kind of guy that knows he's a catch, or at least he thinks he is. And there's no doubt about it. Paul had a lot going for him. To support himself while he waited for his big break, though, Paul worked as a personal trainer.

First, at the New York Sports Club on 86th Street in Lexington Avenue, and later at the upscale Equinox Health Club, just around the corner on East 85th Street. And he was good at his job. He knew how to read people, how to motivate them, how to make them feel good about themselves. And that is when he ran into Catherine. As I had mentioned to you, she spent a lot of time working out, making sure she was in the best shape possible to dance.

Her regular gym had been the first gym that Paul mentioned. He worked at New York Sports Club. It was a one-minute walk from where Catherine and David were living at the apartment her dad got them on 85th Street. It was the summer of 2004 when things between her and David were still going well. And Paul said, Catherine was in one of the workout rooms. and she was dancing. And he noticed her. He walks over.

He hands her his CD. He's got his name and his number on it. And according to Paul, she called him the very next day. And then, that was the beginning of their love story. He said they were spending more and more time together at the gym, several times a week, on the phone every day,

bonding over their shared passion for performance and their shared frustration at the brutal pace of trying to make it. in New York. Paul said you took Catherine to see a modern dance performance at the Joyce Theater. And afterward, they walked to Washington Square Park and had their first kiss. Even his friends could tell you that their chemistry between them was something special. But you might be asking, what about David? Paul told investigators that Catherine had mentioned that she had a boyfriend that she was in the process of breaking up with. And his name was David. But he was merely her roommate. Paul said

that Catherine told him that she felt really guilty about ending things because David had uprooted his entire life to come to New York for her. But Catherine told Paul that that relationship was over. She just needed time to manage the situation carefully. But by early 2005, Paul said he switched gyms, he was now working at a receptionist at Equinox Health Club, and this was on East 85th Street in Lexington Avenue. and soon Catherine started working out there instead.

And that's when he said they officially started dating. Now, this would be around the same time that she moved to her new apartment with David, the one she was still living in when she was killed. But Paul said he had visited around 50 times and stayed the night on several occasions. He said that in the months between August and November 2005, the two of them were intimate at her apartment approximately 10 times, And when asked whether Paul thought David knew about this, he said he didn't think so, because Catherine kept it that way. She didn't want to hurt David any more than she already had.

And she wouldn't want to flaunt a new boyfriend in front of her ex when things were so fresh, especially given their living arrangements. And then Paul said something that piqued the detective's interest. If it hadn't already been peaked, he said that he was deeply concerned about Catherine's safety and there were a number of reasons for this one he said in his words she was a stripper that's what he said it was something that he was against and it scared him because he felt like she was putting herself in danger he said he tried to talk her out of it on multiple occasions but every time he raised his concerns Catherine shut the conversation down she told him it was her decision her money and none of his business but paul said he couldn't

let it go. He cared about her way too much. So one night in April of that year, 2005, his worst fears were confirmed. He said that Catherine called him from the club. She was distressed. She was barely coherent. She was asking him to please come get her. When he got there, he said that she appeared to be under the influence of something and that someone had laced her drink. It wasn't something she chose to take. He believed she had been violated as well. For what Paul could gather, he thought that Catherine had lost sight of a drink. while talking to a man and then blacked out. He brought her to a hotel

because she told him she didn't want to go to the hospital. She didn't want to get a test conducted and go through all of that. Even though it was such a bad situation, he thought it was going to prove to her that she needed to stop dancing. But he said she blatantly told him she wasn't going to quit,

that she was so close to her savings goal, she just needed a little more time. And Paul said he understood why Catherine didn't want to go to the hospital. She certainly didn't want to involve the police. She'd been through it all before, just after she had moved to New York, and I told you that story. It would have been retramatizing. Paul told the investigators that this worried him so much that he didn't know what to do.

He was desperate to keep her safe, and even if Catherine didn't seem bothered by what happened he was. So much so, he resorted to going through her phone to find her father's phone number. Paul called John Woods. He introduced himself as Catherine's boyfriend and told him everything, the dancing, the incident at the club, the fears he had about where things were headed and how much he loved Catherine and knew that her parents should know, that he would do whatever it took to protect her,

even if it costs him her trust. Catherine's father told Paul he was very grateful for his intervention and was happy he called him. When detectives asked if Catherine was aware, Paul had spoken to her father, he said yes, and she did get upset. which was to be expected, and she went silent for a little while, but Paul said she came back. She always came back.

And finally, David moved out of the apartment in the fall. And once he was gone, Catherine called Paul to let him know how much she loved him. Yes, things were complicated at times, especially with David not wanting to get out of the picture, but he knew how amazing Catherine was, so he couldn't blame him. Paul was also unhappy that David wasn't pulling his weight financially to help Catherine. According to Paul, Catherine told him that she worked while David spent his time going out, making music, smoking pot, and watching TV. Catherine told him that on one occasion during an argument, David had destroyed their dishes,

and that David had called him back in July yelling at him, telling him, stay away from Catherine, that he was still intimate with her and Paul needed to back off. when Paul confronted Catherine, she said that was a lie, that David was just trying to come between her and Paul. He was crying throughout this interview, unlike David, and he recalled certain details of the relationship with Catherine that made him very emotional. It was the appropriate reaction.

And when asked about the relationship between them in the past few months, Paul said that Catherine would pull away and then return. She would be cold and then she would be warm again. Paul claimed he kept a low profile following David's call until he and Catherine reconnected several weeks later. Paul told them that whenever Catherine was upset with him, she would act like, and I'm quoting him, a princess, and he would have to woo her back.

In the six weeks before her murder, Paul noticed that Catherine seemed to be pulling away and she was short with him. Paul stated that when Catherine said she didn't want to talk about it, Paul checked her phone, because he wanted to find out, Well, what the problem was. When Catherine found out what Paul was doing, she was angry.

The trust was gone. But Paul told the detectives, they were still sleeping together after she told him she needed her space, which was around October. So a month before her murder. Paul explained they would still have casual sex at his apartment, and then when asked when the last time he was inside her apartment was,

he said a couple weeks ago, but he hadn't been inside her actual bedroom in months. And when asked when he saw her in person last, Paul said it was actually the day before her murder at the Equinox Gym, that she had been on the elliptical machine, and even though they had no longer been officially dating, Catherine suggested they meet up soon. So detectives wanted to know if there was anyone that Paul could think of

that would have a reason to hurt Catherine. He thought about it. And he said in the weeks before her murder, she told him there was a guy named, that it introduced himself to her at Flash Dancers. This was a club that she was working at now. Paul felt like Joe could have been stalking Catherine, but there was something else.

Paul told detectives, Catherine had been involved in performing in adult movies and substances, which could have put her in the middle of a shady crowd of people. And I know that was a lot. It's a lot to take in, and we still haven't even heard his play-by-play account of November 27th yet.

It's almost like Catherine was living some kind of double life with the way Paul's laying it all out there. He's articulate, he's thoughtful and cooperative, and he seems to genuinely care about Catherine. Remember, I'm giving you a condensed version. This interview went on for five hours, so you can just imagine the detail that he went into. But now to his account of the day Catherine was last seen alive.

Paul told investigators. He had been trying to reach her since early that morning. At 6 a.m. he called her. He wanted to talk about getting together that day because, as he explained, the day before at the gym, they talked vaguely about meeting up. He wanted to nail down the plans. She didn't pick up at that hour, which wasn't unusual.

So he left it alone and headed to work. He worked that morning at a yoga studio. He arrived around 9 a.m. At some point during the morning, he sent Catherine a text. still nothing back. By 2.30 that afternoon, when he still hadn't heard from her, Paul called a friend. She was also a personal training client named Stephanie Bucco,

and they made plans to spend some time that afternoon together. He had a training session with Stephanie on Sundays, and they sometimes hung out afterwards as friends. The two of them had a low-key afternoon together that day. First, they went to PC Richard. It's an electronics store in New York, where Stephanie was looking for a humidifier. And then to the Food Emporium to pick up some groceries.

The last stop was Barnes & Noble, where they browsed for a while before Stephanie supposedly bought Paul a book. He said it was a collection of erotic short stories, and Paul laughed about it. He said it was very Stephanie. To me, they seemed more than friends, but he continued saying he left her apartment around 4.20 p.m. and caught the bus home. At that point, Paul said he was still trying to reach Catherine in between all of this, multiple calls throughout the afternoon that went unanswered. But he wasn't worried because he said Catherine was always busy. He knew that Sundays were her work nights where she was dancing,

but he wanted to talk to her just to catch up and see if their plans could be finalized, especially since he felt like things between them had been kind of off recently. He was just checking in. Then finally he said, at around 5.30 p.m., Catherine answered. The call was brief. He said she seemed to rush and distracted like she had somewhere to be or something on her mind. Before they could really get into anything,

the call got cut off. Paul said it was odd. So he calls back immediately. And this time, Catherine answered but told him, sorry, I'm getting ready for work. I don't have time to talk at the moment, but we can connect later. He said she seemed short with him, a little cold.

Paul explained that he tried calling back a few more times after that because it was really nice to hear her voice. And he was worried about her. And he really wanted to get back to whatever normal was between them, but the calls went straight to voicemail. So we left it alone. He called a few of his personal training clients to confirm their sessions for the following morning. He got himself ready, and he made plans for the evening. At 8 p.m., him and his friend Spencer Levowitz went to a bar

called the Backpage on 82nd Street and 3rd Avenue. They watched the Giants football game. Now, Paul was not a big football fan, but Spencer was. And that evening was more about hanging out with friends than the game. And after about 45 minutes, the two of them left back page, and they headed to apartment of another friend Rob. That's where they watched the second half of the game, and the Giants ended up losing. And Paul said he left Rob's apartment between 1115 p.m.

and 11.30 p.m. and walked home. Now, on the way, he did stop, and he went to a smoke shop to buy some rolling papers. He got home, he went to bed. The next morning, he met a personal training client, Brian Sampson, and that was a personal training client, and that was around 7 a.m. A little later that morning, though, his mom walks in,

and that is when he found out that Catherine had been killed. Paul described that moment, and he said this. This was a direct quote, he said. She told me that Catherine was killed the night before, just like I had just buckled. I remember just kind of sitting on the stoop

right almost outside of the club, and I just couldn't believe it. I was just incomplete shock. Then Paul and his mom went back to Paul's apartment together. And shortly afterward, the police showed up, which you know all about. And they brought Paul in for questioning. That was Paul's account of his entire day. And by the way, his mom was interviewed.

And she did confirm that she heard about Catherine's murder on the radio. And when she saw Catherine's picture in the newspaper, she recognized her instantly as a young woman her son had been seeing. The news reports kept referencing a boyfriend being held for questioning, and Yvette was panicking. She thought that meant Paul. But it was actually David, who was at the station at that time. She goes down to Paul's work to try to find him.

He's there. He's going about his normal day, Monday morning shift. And she said he had no idea that any of this was happening. And that's when she had to break the news. There was just one other question they had for Paul. What shoes were you wearing last night? Because remember, the bloody shoe prints.

Paul said he'd been wearing the same shoes he was wearing right now, a pair of Johnson and Murphy Lovers. Like David, Paul provided a DNA sample, a shoe print, he had his hands photographed, and just like David, Paul didn't have any signs of any injuries, aside from a blood blister on the edge of one of his fingers, which he said was from lifting weights. Paul provided a written statement detailing everything he just told them,

his movements, his calls, his evening, and his relationship with Catherine. After this, the detectives take Paul back to his apartment. Paul gave his permission for the officers to search his things, to go through his room, his entire apartment. But they did tell Paul he had to stay in New York for the time being. Even though at this stage, David looked like the more likely suspect to police. Finding out Paul had been in the mix romantically could have been a sufficient motive for David. who was still deeply in love with Catherine.

Paul was everything David wasn't. He was educated, articulate, cultured. He'd apparently called Paul to tell him to stay away from Catherine. He had access to the apartment, and David's timeline was shaky. They also had more questions for him. David was once again cooperative when asked about what he knew about Paul and whether or not the two of them had ever had any confrontations. Because remember the phone call that David failed to mention?

he admitted he did call Paul. But according to him, it was after Paul made an unexpected and unwanted visit to their apartment without warning. This was back in June. He wouldn't leave when Catherine told him to. It was a Sunday afternoon, Catherine and David were both home at their apartment on 86th Street when the intercom went off. Catherine answered it. And whoever was on the other end of that intercom, she knew immediately who it was. And her response was just as immediate.

She told him to go away. The buzzer kept going again and again. Whoever was downstairs wasn't leaving. Catherine was trying to hold it together. She tried to keep David away from the door. She tried to manage the situation quietly and calmly without letting it spill into the other parts of her life. But David wasn't the kind of person who could stand there

and watch someone make Catherine uncomfortable in her own home without doing something about it. He told her, I'm going downstairs. Catherine tried to stop him. Catherine, who was not easily rattled, did not want David anywhere near whoever was pressing that button. But he went down anyway. David took the stairs down and walked out to 86th Street,

but whoever had been buzzing was gone. He couldn't see anyone on that block. He went back upstairs and standing inside the apartment talking to Catherine is a man. A man that David had never seen before. He looked like he was in his mid-20s, and Catherine looks angry. Not the way you look when a casual acquaintance stops by unexpectedly. The way you look, when someone you've been trying very hard to contain,

has just walked through the door anyway. Catherine, she turns to David, and she says, wait. Please wait in the hallway. Because she needed to take care of something. David listened to her. He did as she said. He stood in the hall outside the apartment and waited. A few minutes later, the man comes out.

And instead of walking right past David and heading for the stairs, he stops. He says he needs to talk to David. So David agreed. And the two of them went back outside and they're walking together towards Second Avenue. And this is this uncomfortable silence between these two people, two people who already know on some level that what they're about to say is going to hurt. The man introduced himself. as Paul.

And he told David that he had been dating Catherine for almost a year. He said the relationship didn't seem to be going anywhere anymore, and that's why he stopped by. David just stood there to take it all in. He's like, a year? And while David was in the apartment every single day walking the dogs, driving Catherine to work, sharing her home and her life and her bed, Paul is saying he's also dating her the entire year.

So David asked if Paul and Catherine had slept together and Paul said yes. And then David told Paul the same is true for him. The two men are looking at each other on that sidewalk and processing all of this. They're just standing there. And they're both saying the same thing. Neither of them fully understanding what had actually been going on inside that apartment. It was confusing. David explained he wasn't the kind of person who got loud or physical,

but he was hurt. He just went quiet. He took it in. He tried to make sense of it. And Paul seemed genuinely surprised to learn that David and Catherine were still living together, still sharing a home and a bed

because Catherine had apparently told Paul that David was just a roommate now, someone she felt sorry for, a moocher who couldn't support himself and didn't contribute to the bills. And that part hurt. because David knew what he contributed. He knew that he and Catherine meant a lot to one another,

regardless of how she may have described it to someone else. But after Paul said his piece, they parted ways on Second Avenue, and David went back upstairs. And when he walked in the apartment, he looked at Catherine, and he told her everything Paul had told him, that they'd been dating for nearly a year, that they had been sleeping together, all of it.

And Catherine didn't even miss it. beat. She told David, do not listen to a word. That man says, he is crazy. That yes, she knows him. They met at the gym, and in the beginning, yes, they occasionally grabbed food together. They were friendly. But that was it. She said she and Paul were never together. And they had never been together. And David needed to understand that Paul was not well. He was unstable. He had a way of fixating on things that weren't real and convincing himself that they were true. David looked at the woman he loved, and he chose to believe her. But here is what I need you to sit with as we close out on part one. Yes, this is part one of two parts.

There are now two very different versions of all three, Catherine, Paul, and David. Catherine is dead. She can't reconcile the inconsistencies, but the evidence will. The truth will come out. Now don't look this case up. Come back for part two. It should be out in just a few days, not a whole week. I made sure to record these fast and get them out, but leave a little breathing room so you can watch a full episode because there is a lot. And I do want to thank you so much for being here for Catherine's story. I will see you in part two. Bye.