Unseen - The Miami Millionaire Murders | The Case of Ben Novack Jr | UNSEEN

Episode Date: March 24, 2025

“Only a monster can do this kind of evil thing”  On the morning of July 12, 2009, in the Rye Brook Hilton Hotel, May Abad receives a frantic call from hotel security, urging her to rush to her parents’ suite. As she races down the hallway, her mother, Narcy Novack’s, screams cut through the silence—her father, Ben Novack Jr., millionaire and heir to Miami’s famous Fontainebleau hotel, has been brutally murdered. Now, May is on a desperate hunt for the truth. But what she doesn’t realize is that the killer is much closer than she ever imagined. - Credits Directed & edited by Matthew Rice Writing & research by Bianca Yzabelle Tan Revisions by Kat Gardilcic Produced by Alexandra Salois & Salim Sader Voiceover by William Akana - Sources Dateline NBC, “Family Affair”  CNBC, Deadly Rich, “Bound for Murder”  48 Hours, “Crazy Love” Dying to Belong, “Narcy Novack” The Criminal Mind Unveiled, “My Dirty Little Secret” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pay attention to the woman you see here. She has no idea that someone, waiting outside, is trying to kill her. This is May, and she is breaking into a crime scene, searching for proof that someone was hired to murder her entire family, but not yet knowing that she's the next victim. Two days before this footage is recorded, May was living a happy life with her young children. She is close with her mother, Narcy, and her stepfather, Ben.

He was the only father figure May ever had, and was even going to adopt May on Father's Day, cementing their bond. But just days before, things take a disturbing turn when Ben is kidnapped and found fog-tide in a hotel room. I couldn't believe what I saw. It was a brutal scene. The truth is, someone is going to murder the entire Novak family, one by one. If it wasn't for May uncovering a horrifying secret,

the woman's scene in this footage is none other than May's own mother. We have not touched the tip of the iceberg. Is my husband dead? Is my husband alive? You found it jack? I always used she had a little evil inside of her, but I never thought she would go that far. It's 1982. Narcy Valise and her daughter, 4-year-old May, have just landed in Miami, Florida, after leaving everything behind in Ecuador.

With May's father leaving before she was born, they quickly realized it was them against the world, and moving to the U.S. felt like a fresh start. But upon arriving in America, opportunities are scarce, and Narcy's forced to take any job she can find. She starts working as a seamstress, but when it isn't enough for the two to survive, the 23-year-old single mom resorts to working as an exotic dancer in the lucrative Miami clubbing scene. Although the job puts food on the table, it adds a big strain to the mother-daughter relationship, the long hours and late nights with strange people, leave May feeling distant from her mom. Narcy's romantic interests start becoming a regular part of their home life.

The young mom brings back a new man every few months, but none of them would actually stay long enough to be a part of May's life. However, things completely change when Ben walks through the door, Ben Novak, is different. He's kind, intentional. But most importantly, he makes an effort to be present in both of their lives. Ben also loves comic books, specifically Batman, an interest he shares with 9-year-old May. For the first time, a stable father figure has entered her life, and to solidify their bond, Ben makes the ultimate commitment. The two get married and become one family,

giving May the kind of life she has never experienced before. He saw me as his daughter, and I did see him as my father. He is the only father I ever knew. Ben provides more than just a loving and supportive home. He gives the family financial stability. Narsi can finally stop working at the adult club. Ben has a long history of family wealth. His father was the owner of one of the most reputable luxury hotels in Miami in the 1950.

The Fontaine Blue hosted some of the most iconic celebrities like Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and John F. Kennedy, they regularly hosted gals for the Hollywood elite, and were featured in hit movies, including Scarface and Goldfinger. With Ben's reputation in the industry, he successfully launches his own business, hosting extravagant conferences at luxury hotels across the country, with his wife Narcy by his side, the business skyrockets. He was more of the business and she was more of the handshaking and remembering kids' names and dogs and, you know, what wine they liked. And that was her role.

And within a few years, I mean, they were making a lot of money. The Novak family is truly living the American dream, a waterfront home in Fort Lauderdale, a 60-foot-long yacht, lavish vacations, and more. Narsi indulges in designer clothes. While Ben continues to pursue his childhood obsession with Batman, he spends thousands on memorabilia, and even buys himself a real-life Batmobile, the same one from the 60s TV series. As business booms, May and Ben form a deeper father-daughter bond. Now an adult, May proudly has children of her own, two loving boys, who also adore Grandpa Ben and his action figures. Finally, May feels secure, her family is complete, and growing in ways she never expected.

Ben, who never had children of his own, asks May to consider something to bind their family forever, becoming his daughter legally through an adoption process. Without a second thought, May decides there is no better time. This was everything she ever wanted. It would be something nice for him to be like, okay, you do have a daughter. You know, because I do feel like I have his daughter. But in the spring of 2009, things take a disturbing turn for the worse. When, one day, Ben's elderly mother, Bernice, doesn't answer the phone.

Alarmed, her concerned neighbor calls a Novak family, and they immediately drive to Bernice's home. As Ben walks in, he finds a horrifying scene. His mother is motionless, face down, on the floor near the kitchen. Blood had pulled around her on the floor. We could see the car, we could see the door open, we could see her glasses broken on the ground, we could see the blood in the car on the pavement.

At Bernice's age of 86, death by falling is common, and detectives quickly rule her passing a tragic accident. It appears she lost her balance getting out of the car, hit her head, around wasn't able to call for help. By the time she was found, it was already too late, and she had succumbed to her injuries. There was nothing to indicate that there was any foul play. Nothing was taking, nothing was broken, no windows, no forced entry, no nothing. I was hurt, I was sad. I knew I had to be strong for Ben because he was not doing well with it at all.

Reneas's death is a devastating moment for Ben. But something about the way she died didn't make sense to Ben. He can't shake the feeling that something is off. He struggles to accept that his mother's death was truly an accident, as police claimed. He believes there's more to the story than meets the eye and decides to hire a private investigator. His voice was very stressed. Ben wanted me to get involved in investigating his mom, Bernice's death. Ben and the private investigator agreed to meet up once he returns from his business trip, just outside of New York City, where he's planned a high-profile.

convention with Narcy and May's help. For now, the family does their best to move forward and be there for one another. It's now July 9, 2009. The Novaks board their flight to New York, but little did they know what waited for them 1,200 miles up the East Coast was far more grim than they could have ever imagined. At 6.30 a.m. on July 12th, 2009, Ben is going to bed after being up all night, finalizing all the important details of the last day of his special convention. Meanwhile, Narcy and her daughter May make their way to the hotel dining room for breakfast. Narsi eats quickly, barely pausing before leaving May to finish her meal, alone. Moments later, May's phone rings.

One of the security guys calls me, and he's like, oh, can you come up to room 452? It's your parents sweet. We need you up here now. May rushes upstairs, her mind racing, wondering why they need her there so suddenly. but nothing could have prepared her for what she's about to witness. As I get in the parlor, there's cops everywhere, and somebody that was standing there was like, you know, said that it's a complete blood bath in there. And I'm like bloodbath, I'm like, what are you people talking about? May's mother, Narsi, screams at the top of her lungs as she cries uncontrollably.

May doesn't understand what's going on until she spots two feet on the bedroom floor, bloody and emotionless. A police officer breaks the news to May. Her father is dead. While May's reality falls apart, forensic technicians and detectives start to search the crime scene and get access to the hotel security cameras. At the same time, detectives take Narcy into an interrogation room to hear her side of the story, since she was the person who tragically discovered his body. While Narcy Novak is being interrogated, May sits outside the room, waiting for her mom, processing everything that just happened. She tries to recall every detail she can, leading up to Ben's murder, to figure out who in the world could have done this.

As the interrogation progresses, Narsi reveals to detectives that someone had actually been after Ben's prized Batman collection. Among the items is a rare comic worth $43,000 that he planned to sell that weekend. He said that there was a deal that he was in the process of making, and a comic book collector and him had maybe had some disagreements, and that he could, would have gotten into her room somehow and hurt her husband. But as detectives go through Ben's hotel room, they notice something strange. They find expensive jewelry, designer sunglasses, a large amount of cash, and several of the prized pieces from Ben's Batman collection all left untouched. There was a Rolex watch there that wasn't taken.

There was a Cartierre watch that wasn't taken. To think that it was just a regular robbery is sort of absurd. little evidence to support the theory, detectives confidently rule out a robbery gone wrong, and police turned their attention back to Ben's wife. Narsi, they shift the questions to her marriage. She describes a loving relationship with her husband and that he was the love of her life, and she doesn't know what she's going to do without him. With little to go on, detectives continue interviewing Narsi, hoping to create a rough timeline of events and potentially clear her as a suspect.

They now ask her to recount the events of the morning as precisely as she can in order to verify where she was and what she was doing at the time of the murder. According to her, she left their room at almost 7 a.m. to oversee breakfast for the convention guests. When she returned to the room, 30 minutes later, she found Ben dead. We did go through the video with based on what she told us, and we located her in the places that she said she was. and the locks can be interrogated so you can see who enters and exits the room.

When she had said, when she went back to the room, she was right at the approximate time because she used her key to get back into the room. So we were able to conclude that what she was telling us was the truth. With Narcy's alibi confirmed, and no one else on the suspect list that detectives have hit a dead end,

no one seems to have any idea who would want to hurt Ben and may fears that her father's murder will remain unsolved. I was angry, I was confused, I was scared. I need answers, I need results. Something has to be done right now. That's a final resort, lead investigators task officers

with reviewing every hotel security camera in the days leading up to the murder. This proves to be a huge undertaking, calming through days worth of footage on one of the hotel's busiest weeks with Ben's high-profile convention. Detectives estimate over 2,000 potential suspects, including guests, staff, and visitors,

with no real clue of who exactly they're looking for. I had detectives sit and watch every camera in the hotel and go over and over and over. Then finally, they find something promising. At the exact time of the murder, detectives spot two suspicious figures in the footage. They actually located two individuals exiting the hotel very quickly, right around the time frame that we have for the homicide. The same two figures also appeared days before the murder.

They seem to have been studying the hotel and the floor plan, repeatedly lurking around the lobby. The two men are even spotted just a few feet behind Ben at one point and seem to be stalking his every move. And we notice these two same guys. It's actually creepy because our suspects and Ben are in the same lobby at one point. Detectives also recover something interesting from the murder scene, a fragment from a broken pair of sunglasses. And at first glance, it appears to be a match to the sunglasses worn by the mysterious man in the lobby. Looking at the video, we could see that one of the potential suspects appeared to have the glasses in question on. And then exiting the hotel on the day of the homicide, you could see he did not have the glasses on.

We had these two guys, but we didn't know who they were. And we're looking at surveillance tape. So it's not as clear as you would like it to be, and we don't have any names attached to these two people. That picture is kept and put to the side. Police now have two potential suspects, but still, no names and no other information to link them to the crime. As more time passes, identifying their only two leads begins to feel impossible, and the chances of finding Ben's killer seems to vanish. It's now September 2nd, 2009, the Novax finally lay Ben to rest.

At the Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Queens County, New York, he is buried. buried next to his father and his mother, Bernice. May tearfully says goodbye to the man she had grown to love and call her father and a loving grandfather to her kids. A grieving May is left without answers and without justice. No one knows exactly what happened to Ben and why? At this moment, you're still a killer on the loose. While the family mourns their loss,

detectives are hard at work going through every detail of Ben's life, searching for anything that might revive the investigation. They now learn about Bernice's death, Ben's mother, just a few months before his own death, is it just a coincidence, or is there something more sinister going on? The New York detectives make a call to the Florida Police Department

to get more information. Well, looking at the photos, it just didn't make any sense as to how she died. We noticed that there was blood spatter in her vehicle that would only come from an impact wound. It was quite clear to us

that there was something more to that case. When detectives get a copy of the autopsy report, they're even more convinced something isn't right, but no one realized until now is that Bernice's injuries were far more extensive than they first observed and include obvious defensive wounds. She had fractures all over her body.

Her skull was fractured. She had a broken finger. Her teeth were broken. It just seemed too much for a fall. We didn't have one homicide. We now have two. You have to step. You have to step back and question, like, what's happening to this family?

Is somebody out to ruin the whole family? What are we missing? Who could want to hurt this family this much? With Bernice's death now flagged as suspicious, the case becomes clearer to investigators. Someone is silently getting rid of the Novak family, one by one. With a killer on the loose, zero suspects, and two people already dead, detectives are now terrified that May, Narsi, and Ben's grandchildren are next. followed, there are threats on my life. I know we're in danger. I know we are.

Without a second to waste, May decides to take immediate action for her family and goes into hiding with her kids. She moves to a new apartment and completely alters their routine, hoping to throw the killer off their trail. Now, more than ever, May wants justice for her father. She wants answers. Then, out of nowhere, an unexpected clue changes everything, over a thousand miles away from the New York where Ben was found brutally murdered, detectives in Miami receive an anonymous letter written in Spanish. The shocking claims inside leave them stunned. It had references to several facts that we never released the public.

So we took the letter seriously. In the letter, the anonymous author points a finger to a man named Christobal Valise, claiming he is the one who had ordered Ben's death. Miami police waste no time in running his name through the system. They find an address in Philadelphia, and without hesitation, pay him a visit. Detectives arrive at Christobal's home unannounced to try and catch him off guard. He asks officers to wait in the dining room as he leaves the room to get dressed. With Christobal out of sight, officers quietly search the area and spot a pile of documents laying front and center on the kitchen table.

There's Western Union receipts for money being sent to certain individuals. They can clearly see money orders addressed to a man named Alaharab. Alejandro Garcia back in Florida, and the detectives quickly write his name down before Crystal Ball returns. Police wonder, could these payments be the missing link in finding Ben's killer? Back in Miami, Florida, investigators are searching for a man named Alejandro Garcia, but the problem is, the name alone isn't enough to solve the case, and there are thousands of people with the same name in Florida.

But a big breakthrough comes when one key piece of information is discovered about this individual. Canvassing Doors in Miami, they learned that the Alejandro Garcia, attached to the money orders, only has one eye. Florida investigators were able to put into their system his name Alejandro and check it for a person missing an eye. Finally, they're able to narrow down their search and detectives find a match in their system for an Alejandro Garcia with one eye. Investigators look back at the hotel footage, and there he is, one of the men seen lurking around Ben Novak, days leading up to his murder. In this video, Garcia is wearing a dark shirt standing next to his mystery partner in the hotel at the time of the murder. You could see it was Alejandro. The shots on Friday were very clear photos.

Detectives learned that Alejandro always wore sunglasses to protect his bad eye. As they look back at the security footage from the first day of the convention, they see the suspect also wear sunglasses while entering the scene before the time of the murder, but not after. This finally explains the broken sunglasses found at the crime scene. Now, the police officially have their main suspect named the hunt for their killer is on. We start basically knocking on doors in Miami. One of these kids comes up to us.

We think he's at the gas station. We finally found Alejandro Garcia, and he's brought in for questioning. Has he ever been to New York? Can we can prove he was in New York? What do you mean to mean? He keeps shaking his head saying no, but it's telling this the reality. I don't know, I'm confused. The walls are closing in.

The police have him on camera, and they even have physical evidence that puts him in the crime scene at the time of Ben's murder. He panics, and then he says something no one could have predicted. He starts telling me that he was scared for his family, that the people that did this are very dangerous. He tells them he was hired to kill someone, a young woman. He pulls a photo from him. his wallet, a familiar face stares back at them. He was given a photo of May. He was given her routine.

He was given a description of the car where she worked and was supposed to carry out that crime. Now, May has confirmation from investigators that she's in real danger. A hit has been placed on her, and the person who ordered it is still walking free. If she doesn't move fast, she and her kids might not make it out alive. Meanwhile, one person has seemed calm, cool, and collected throughout the entire ordeal. May's mother, Narcy. Considering her husband of 30 years has just been brutally murdered, Narcy has remained unusually composed and even secretive. Thinking back to the day of the interrogation, May remembers a strange detail that she had previously overlooked.

May now has a terrible gut feeling that the person behind all of this might be way closer than she initially thought. What if the mother she loves has been responsible for turning her life into a living nightmare? Suspicions are growing and growing by the minute. and that I'm thinking that I am this horrible human being for even thinking that my mother could do something like this. May confronts her mother directly. Narcy, unsurprisingly, denies everything.

All she told me was, just remember that you're my daughter and I am your mother. I know she has something to do with it, but they weren't doing anything. May isn't sure that anyone will believe that it's her mother who's been the mastermind behind everything. After all, cops already cleared Narcy's alibi at the time of the murder, but she can't give up, not for Ben. She starts her own investigation, searching for anything that could prove her theory.

She decides to go back to the very beginning and makes a trip to visit the family's Fort Lauderdale house. When I get there and I'm going through the office part, getting stuff, I look up and my mother is coming at me with a crowbar. Straight from my head. In an instant, Narsi swings the crowbar at full force, right at her own daughter. May's instincts are quick.

lifting her arm to protect herself. She was a different person. She was not my mother. May takes off running from the house, and neighbors come out after hearing the screams. Narsi, realizing there are too many witnesses, stops chasing after her. She was calling me a traitor.

I knew what she had done was wrong. Even though she was my mother, I knew she was wrong. I always knew she had a little evil inside of her, but I never thought she would go that far. As May has rushed to safety, Investigators finally have a new prime suspect. They uncover more shocking details, details that finally reveal Narcy's true motive. In the event of his death, Ben specified his mother, Bernice, as the beneficiary for his $10 million estate, not Narcy. Ben had also recently written

May and her two boys into his will. Narcy would be left empty-handed. Their pre-nip only entitled her to a small sum of $65,000. For Narcy to get Ben's money, she would have to get rid of All of them, Bernice, Ben, May, and even her own grandchildren. Narcy has a motive, but there is one problem. There's no physical evidence that ties her to both murders, and without that, she can't be arrested. You'll be out of my misery, I want to die. Narsi has almost pulled off the perfect crime, but investigators had one more trick up their sleeves to get undeniable proof of her murderous plans. Prosecutors agreed to make Alejandro Garcia the one-eyed hitman discovered in the footage an offer a far lighter sense.

sentence in exchange for his full testimony, and that's when Alejandro finally tells them the whole story. Alejandro said they got dropped off about quarter to seven in the morning. The pair walked right up to Ben Sweet, where they were greeted by none other than Narcy herself, who let them into the hotel room while Ben was fast asleep, completely unaware of his wife's betrayal. Armed with metal dumbbells and duct tape, the two hit men wasted no time and attacked Ben, tying his hands behind his back with duct tape, using the weights to assault him. Ben stood no chance against the two men and was quickly overpowered. That's when Narcy made a disturbing request.

At one point, Narcy says, did you cut out his eyes? I told you to cut out his eyes. Ben is still alive at this point. That's when Alejandro grabbed them by the head, lifted his head, and cut his eyes out. Once the job was done, the three calmly walked out of the hotel room. Narcy's plan had gone perfectly for Sochi. Finally, the investigators know exactly what happened on the day of Ben's murder. Then, Alejandro makes another disturbing confession.

Ben's death wasn't the only murder Narsi had planned. The hitman tells them he carried out another hit, one he successfully got away with. The victim? Ben's 86-year-old mother, Bernice Novak. He describes Bernice's homicide and tells us he got paid $600 to commit it. As she pulled in the garage, he crouched down and he followed the car into the garage. and he takes the wrench and busts her in the face. With Alejandro's statement, authorities waste no time.

Narcy is arrested and charged for Ben and his mother, Bernice. Ben Novak Jr. wife, Narcy Novak, charged with conspiracy to commit domestic violence and stalking. Prosecutors say the murders were committed so Narcy could inherit her husband's family's millions. Now, Narcy awaits trial, but she relentlessly insists that she is innocent, despite the mounting evidence against her. She denies everything, saying anything she can to avoid going to prison, even accusing her own daughter, and claiming that her husband is not even dead in an outrageous conspiracy. We have my husband dead. Is my husband alive?

And they don't have that answer. What I mean? Exactly. May's courage and determination led to the unraveling of a dark truth, an ultimate betrayal. With her help, detectives and prosecutors were able to piece together the whole case, and her mother's string of lies and manipulation would finally come to. an end. Now, she faces the rest of her days behind bars, a stark reminder of the damage she caused. For May, the road ahead remains uncertain, but one thing is clear, justice has been served.

A federal jury has convicted Narcinovac of causing the deaths of Ben Novak Jr. and his mother Bernice. She didn't see what she had in front of her. She had her daughter. She had two grandkids that totally loved her. And now she has nothing. No matter what, I loved my mother. She was my mother. She had grandkids that adored her that would have done anything for her. And they did. And she just threw it all away.

Threw her all away for money. I know the next time that I see her will be to bury her body from prison. I've accepted that. You know, part of me throughout the years now, I kind of feel sorry for her because she could have had such a different life. She misses out on her grandkids.

She misses out on her other kids. other brothers and sisters, nieces, nephews. You know, my oldest is now 25. You know, soon he'll have kids. And she's going to miss out on all of that. So I feel sorry for her because she didn't see what she had. As time goes on, May continues her journey of healing, staying strong for her kids. Her father's memory lives on as May welcomes a new member to her family,

a third baby boy who she names after Ben. Now, May builds a better future for her children, one where they will always know a mother's unconditional love.