Speaker 1: Probably about a month ago. I was looking for one
Speaker 1: particular piece of information, so I started digging through. There
Speaker 1: were actually the physical notepads from the investigators from way
Speaker 1: back when in the eighties.
Speaker 2: Cold case Detective Danny Smith has been investigating the nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty six murder of Billy Halburn and has left no
Speaker 2: stone unturned.
Speaker 1: And I started looking through and there was one handwritten
Speaker 1: note and it was small. It was two sentences, and
Speaker 1: it said Officer Ellis advised that there was a suspicious
Speaker 1: car and this is the description of the car. He
Speaker 1: got the information from the tipster and Keith Ellis the
Speaker 1: ls is my dad's.
Speaker 2: Name, Danny's father. He was a cop too, right here
Speaker 2: in Miramar, Florid. What are the odds father and son
Speaker 2: working the same case nearly forty years apart.
Speaker 1: And he was in one of the notes of one
Speaker 1: of the investigators. It blew my mind. And then as
Speaker 1: the days went on, I just kept thinking about it,
Speaker 1: and I was amazed that here I am working a
Speaker 1: case thirty seven years later, that I'm going to see
Speaker 1: my dad's name in some of the notes that he
Speaker 1: theoretically had some information on the case.
Speaker 2: I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff, and
Speaker 2: this is cold blooded.
Speaker 3: The Apollogym murders.
Speaker 2: Detective Danny Smith moved to South Florida when he was
Speaker 2: a kid. But back then, it wasn't murder that was
Speaker 2: on his mind. It was baseball.
Speaker 1: So that was essentially my life. I would wake up
Speaker 1: and I would think about baseball and making it to
Speaker 1: the big leagues, and go to go to school, my work,
Speaker 1: and then I'd be at the ballfield until nine ten
Speaker 1: o'clock at night, and then I just do it over
Speaker 1: again the next day.
Speaker 2: By college, it was clear that Danny not only had
Speaker 2: the talent to make it to the pros, he had
Speaker 2: to drive that unrelenting desire to defy what can seem
Speaker 2: like insurmountable odds.
Speaker 1: It is a grind. You just have to keep going
Speaker 1: and going and going, and whenever you feel like you've
Speaker 1: lost or it's not gonna happen for you, you just
Speaker 1: gotta find something else.
Speaker 2: But Danny's dad was a cop, first right here at
Speaker 2: Miramar and then at the Miami Dade Police Department, so
Speaker 2: the poll to a career in law enforcement was always there,
Speaker 2: tugging at his sleeve.
Speaker 1: Nice first second third year of college, I started to
Speaker 1: really give it some serious thought, and I figured, you
Speaker 1: know what, let me give it a shot, and if
Speaker 1: the big leagues don't work out for me, then I
Speaker 1: got to have a fallback.
Speaker 2: So during his senior year in college, while staring down
Speaker 2: pitchers and batting over four hundred, Danny put in a
Speaker 2: few applications for a job in law enforcement.
Speaker 1: And then I got picked up after my senior year
Speaker 1: of college to go play pro ball in upstate New York.
Speaker 1: So while I was up there, I ended up getting
Speaker 1: a call from Nearmore Police saying that they were going
Speaker 1: to hire me, and they wanted me to come down.
Speaker 1: The academy starts in two weeks, and at the time,
Speaker 1: we were in our playoffs up there, so we finished
Speaker 1: up our playoffs, I had to get released from my
Speaker 1: contract to come straight down to South Florida, get fitted
Speaker 1: for my academy uniforms, and I went straight to the
Speaker 1: police adademy.
Speaker 2: In law enforcement, Danny saw the same kind of brotherhood
Speaker 2: he did in baseball, the team work and the necessity
Speaker 2: of knowing that you have someone else's back and they
Speaker 2: have yours.
Speaker 1: Growing up, I always saw my dad around his police
Speaker 1: officer friends, and it seemed like a family. It would
Speaker 1: bring out a side of him that we didn't really
Speaker 1: see in the house. I didn't quite understand it, especially
Speaker 1: being so young. I didn't understand how he would tell
Speaker 1: me that he's willing to get his life for somebody else.
Speaker 1: It's life or death. And they beat that into you
Speaker 1: in the academy, that this is the real deal and
Speaker 1: you can go to work and not come home. And
Speaker 1: I was happy to see everyone really take that seriously.
Speaker 2: When Danny decided to reopen the nearly forty year old
Speaker 2: unsolved murder of Billy Halpern, he knew it would be
Speaker 2: a long shot, but he loved the grind and he
Speaker 2: wasn't afraid to swing for the fences.
Speaker 1: I was, and still am, very competitive, and I hate
Speaker 1: to lose. I will do anything that I can to
Speaker 1: not lose.
Speaker 2: The fact that his own father had worked the same
Speaker 2: case was not just a bit of cosmic kismet. It
Speaker 2: was a personal connection to a crime that had cast
Speaker 2: a dark cloud over this community for decades.
Speaker 1: It struck me that I wish that he was around,
Speaker 1: that I could talk to him about it and get
Speaker 1: his idea of how impactful the case was to the
Speaker 1: community and everything that was done for the investigation, that
Speaker 1: he would be able to actually give me some inside information.
Speaker 2: Danny's father died in two thousand and five after three
Speaker 2: decades in law enforcement. Watching Danny scribble notes in his notepad,
Speaker 2: I thought about how some cases can create a bond
Speaker 2: between cops that spans.
Speaker 3: Not just years, but generations.
Speaker 2: How sweet it would be to knock this one out
Speaker 2: of the park and to win one for his old man.
Speaker 3: There's the wife and there's him.
Speaker 4: He's there with the wife.
Speaker 5: Just hey, hello, Hey, Danny Smith, how are you.
Speaker 2: There were a lot of names in Billy's case file.
Speaker 2: Some were people that Miramar or Brad Sheriff's thought might
Speaker 2: have knowledge of Billy's murder.
Speaker 3: Some were just friends of Billy's.
Speaker 2: Or guys that hung around the beach or at the
Speaker 2: Apollo Gym. As part of this investigation, Danny and I
Speaker 2: both knew but have to track down as as many
Speaker 2: of these names as possible, But getting them to talk
Speaker 2: that was another story.
Speaker 1: So the reason that I'm reaching out to actually a
Speaker 1: bunch of people. I'll probably give you a bunch of
Speaker 1: names that are going to kind of come back to you.
Speaker 2: Danny was talking with someone that had grown up in
Speaker 2: Hollywood Beach and knew both Billy and Laurie Halpern. His
Speaker 2: hesitancy to talk made it clear to us that the
Speaker 2: fear of reprisal from whoever killed Billy was still palpable,
Speaker 2: even forty years after his murder.
Speaker 1: Okay, we actually got a chance to speak to Laurie
Speaker 1: and a couple other people, but as you can imagine.
Speaker 5: It's been a long time.
Speaker 1: We need to talk to as many people as possible.
Speaker 1: There's really no expiration on an investigation for homicide if
Speaker 1: it's not solved.
Speaker 2: But he may also have had other reasons why he
Speaker 2: was still hesitant to talk to police. According to the
Speaker 2: case file, this guy sold his share of dope back
Speaker 2: in the day and did some time in prison as
Speaker 2: a result. But he also used to run with the
Speaker 2: Apollo Jim crowd, so we had reasons to believe he
Speaker 2: may have heard some things, maybe even seen some things.
Speaker 2: Just to give you an idea of how small this
Speaker 2: world was, even now.
Speaker 3: Forty years later.
Speaker 2: The guy who opened the door was someone I have
Speaker 2: known since I was a teenager. How his name ended
Speaker 2: up in a homicide investigation. I had no idea. It's
Speaker 2: something I had discussed with Danny before our visit.
Speaker 4: But let's be clear, the person on this list, according
Speaker 4: to what you were telling me, is not just someone
Speaker 4: who potentially is a witness, but somebody who potentially is
Speaker 4: a suspecting bill it happens murder.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this person is mentioned in more reports overall in
Speaker 1: the entire case file than any other person, with the
Speaker 1: exception of our victim. He appears to have a lot
Speaker 1: of relationship and inner workings and hanging out with almost
Speaker 1: everyone else in this case file.
Speaker 2: After inviting Danny inside, the old friend of Billy's volunteered
Speaker 2: what he remembered about his friend and some of the
Speaker 2: players swirling around the scene back in the day, Starting
Speaker 2: with Gil Fernandez, Well.
Speaker 1: Plain and simple, he said Gil was a nut. He
Speaker 1: essentially just kept calling him the tuffis strongest guy in
Speaker 1: the world, and no one would mess with Gil. And
Speaker 1: that was pretty much his impression of Gil is that
Speaker 1: nobody wanted to mess with.
Speaker 2: He went on to recount the details of how he
Speaker 2: had heard Billy was killed.
Speaker 1: He was the first of many rumored statements that I
Speaker 1: got where he said that he heard that Billy was
Speaker 1: taped to a chair and had his throat cut, and
Speaker 1: he was given a Columbian necktie that he had his
Speaker 1: tongue pulled through his neck.
Speaker 2: According to him, Billy's killers were sending a statement across
Speaker 2: the boss and you're going to pay.
Speaker 1: Yeah. He was adamant that Billy was killed because whoever
Speaker 1: killed him was trying to send a message to everyone
Speaker 1: else in law. So the idea, I think was to
Speaker 1: kill Billy but then make a spectacle of it to
Speaker 1: ensure that the additional people that are in this group
Speaker 1: wouldn't open their mouths because they would see the damage
Speaker 1: that was done to Billy.
Speaker 2: For the record, Billy was not tied to a chair,
Speaker 2: and while his throat was cut, his tongue was not removed.
Speaker 2: These embellishments were strong evidence that this witness may be
Speaker 2: working from more rumor than inside knowledge. But our goal
Speaker 2: in interviewing witnesses thirty seven years after a crime was
Speaker 2: not just to collect facts or illicit a spontaneous confession.
Speaker 2: Mostly we were fishing for names with three unknown DNA
Speaker 2: profiles pulled from Billy's crime scene and more potential suspects
Speaker 2: to try to match the better. The first name to
Speaker 2: come up Jimmy Heina.
Speaker 1: We're early on. Jimmy Hina was on the radar. We
Speaker 1: know that Jimmy and Billy knew each other. And he
Speaker 1: said he knew Jimmy, he knew him really well. He
Speaker 1: said he was called him a redneck from out west.
Speaker 1: He said he was a nice guy. They hung out,
Speaker 1: the families hung out, they had lots to get togethers.
Speaker 1: But he said that Jimmy Heino was not someone who
Speaker 1: was afraid of anything.
Speaker 2: I Note was a known member of Gil's crew who
Speaker 2: was found shot to death six months after Billy's murder.
Speaker 1: I asked him specifically if you thought that Jimmy Hina
Speaker 1: was involved, and the answer I got was one.
Speaker 2: So far, what he was telling us tracked with what
Speaker 2: we already knew. That Billy knew Gill and High Note
Speaker 2: well enough to invite them both inside, no forced entry required,
Speaker 2: and that Billy was too big to be taken down
Speaker 2: by just one person.
Speaker 1: He had mentioned over and over that Billy was just
Speaker 1: essentially bigger than life. He said, he was bigger than
Speaker 1: anyone around. No one could have pushed him around by themselves,
Speaker 1: and it would have taken multiple people to hold him down.
Speaker 2: It's important to remember here that this witness's name was
Speaker 2: listed in Billy's case file more than any other.
Speaker 3: He seemed to be the type of guy.
Speaker 2: Everyone knew, a central cog in the six Degrees of
Speaker 2: Separation within the South Florida drug scene, but despite his
Speaker 2: connections and his criminal history, he was never named as
Speaker 2: a potential suspect Billy's murder.
Speaker 1: I think he's aware that he was in the report,
Speaker 1: and he was mentioned a lot, and I know that
Speaker 1: he was spoken two years ago, but he couldn't tell
Speaker 1: me why. He doesn't understand what his involvement is. He
Speaker 1: liked to say that he's not a fighter. He's not
Speaker 1: someone that would want to fight with any of these guys.
Speaker 2: However, according to the case file, there was a tip
Speaker 2: from an anonymous caller in the aftermath of Billy's murder
Speaker 2: that seemed to suggest otherwise.
Speaker 1: Now, one of the reasons that he was really high
Speaker 1: on my suspect lists or people that I wanted to
Speaker 1: talk to, is because there was mentioned that he had
Speaker 1: a cut on his hand just days after Billy's murder,
Speaker 1: and I really wanted to talk to him about that
Speaker 1: cut because as we all know any violence done with
Speaker 1: a sharp edged instrument, oftentimes the perpetrator or perpetrators are
Speaker 1: going to have some kind of a cut.
Speaker 2: Unsurprisingly, he denied any memory of an inn injury to
Speaker 2: his hand during the time of Billy's murder. And I
Speaker 2: don't think Danny or I thought he was someone who
Speaker 2: either had the motive or the temperament to be Billy's killer.
Speaker 2: But sometimes a little bit of pressure can trigger a
Speaker 2: person's sense of self preservation. Darring loose new facts, rumors,
Speaker 2: and most importantly names.
Speaker 1: His first mention was Mike Carbone. He knew him, they
Speaker 1: were friends, they hung out of the beach, but he
Speaker 1: said he was a crazy guy. He was one of
Speaker 1: those guys that nobody really, I don't think, wanted to
Speaker 1: mess with, just because you just didn't know what he
Speaker 1: would do.
Speaker 2: Michael Carbone was an associate of Gills from the Apollo Jim.
Speaker 2: He was also who turned state's witness against Gil Fernandez
Speaker 2: and berg Christi in the Danger Road triple murders. From
Speaker 2: what we had gathered, Carbone had exchanged his testimony for
Speaker 2: immunity at a spot in the witness relocation program. What
Speaker 2: we had not heard was that he had any role
Speaker 2: in Billy's murder.
Speaker 1: He feels that not only could he be involved, he
Speaker 1: actually felt that he was involved. He didn't have any
Speaker 1: information to back that up, but he feels pretty strongly
Speaker 1: that Mike Carbone was in that count home with Billy.
Speaker 2: It's a pretty big accusation, one that we only include
Speaker 2: here with the caveat that this is all speculation, not
Speaker 2: the conclusion of law enforcement. So was this witness just
Speaker 2: repeating more rumors, maybe even deflecting suspicion away from himself,
Speaker 2: or was there any truth behind it. Mike Carbone had
Speaker 2: admitted to state and federal prosecutors that he was present
Speaker 2: at Gill's execution of three men in nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 2: Wasn't it possible that he could have been also part
Speaker 2: of a crew that ambushed Billy Halpern two years later?
Speaker 2: Was it possible that it was his DNA on the
Speaker 2: electrical tape found tied around Billy's wrists. If so, we
Speaker 2: might be out of luck, because if Michael Carbone was
Speaker 2: still in witness.
Speaker 3: Protection, he was a ghost.
Speaker 2: But what if Detective Danny Smith could find him. It
Speaker 2: wasn't out of the realm of possibility. After all, some
Speaker 2: ghosts just can't resist a trip home to their old haunts.
Speaker 6: All right, it's right there, yep, just walking ahead, Yep,
Speaker 6: where the four by four is?
Speaker 5: That's hey? How you doing man? Hey, Poppy? Yeah, I'm
Speaker 5: not worried about it.
Speaker 2: Here's the thing about witnesses, they don't always agree, which
Speaker 2: is why when you think you're onto one theory, it's
Speaker 2: best not to hold on too tight.
Speaker 1: My name is Danny Smith. I'm a detective memory police spartman.
Speaker 1: This is Scott Weinberger. It's gonna sound weird. No one's
Speaker 1: in trouble. We're actually reopening an old case and your
Speaker 1: name came up.
Speaker 2: The man with the dog again, we're protecting his identity
Speaker 2: here is not only familiar with Billy Halpern's murder, but
Speaker 2: he ran in the same Apollo crowd and he was
Speaker 2: just as skittish about talking to Danny. Danny decided to
Speaker 2: float the name Michael Carbone and get his take on
Speaker 2: the theory that he might have been involved in Billy's murder.
Speaker 1: He was adamant that Carbone is not a killer. He
Speaker 1: said that he knew Carbone. He grew up with the
Speaker 1: guy and he's known him for many, many years, and
Speaker 1: he just flat out said he's not a killer. He
Speaker 1: wouldn't kill he hurt someone like that. Now I had
Speaker 1: to look at that, and with the understanding that he
Speaker 1: was involved in that nineteen eighty three triple murder, So
Speaker 1: I can't say that he wouldn't hurt anyone because he
Speaker 1: was there. He was complicit in that.
Speaker 2: Asked what he thought about Carbone's role in Gill's crew,
Speaker 2: he described someone entirely different than the enforcer portrayed by
Speaker 2: our previous witness.
Speaker 1: So he had said that Carbone was he was a
Speaker 1: big guy, and being in big guy, I got the impression,
Speaker 1: at least from his body language, that Carbone's size may
Speaker 1: have turned people from wanting to give a toe to
Speaker 1: toe with him. But he really said Carbone was just,
Speaker 1: to use a different word, he was just a win.
Speaker 2: In other words, he thought Carbone was nothing more than
Speaker 2: show muscled, although his participation in the Danger Road murders
Speaker 2: belies that description. As for why so many members of
Speaker 2: the Apollo wound up dead, his take was similar to
Speaker 2: what many people had told us. Drugs, shakedowns and eliminating
Speaker 2: potential informants. In his words, when you mess around with
Speaker 2: the wrong people, shit happens. It was the kind of
Speaker 2: South Florida fatalism that Danny and I had grown accustomed.
Speaker 2: Without physical evidence, the information shared by these witnesses was
Speaker 2: still just conjecture, and the case no more solved than
Speaker 2: it was thirty seven years ago. But Danny Smith had
Speaker 2: something those investigators didn't have, DNA, and with three viable
Speaker 2: but unknown male DNA profiles retrieved from the tape around
Speaker 2: Billy's wrists, Danny knew it was high time to start
Speaker 2: using that DNA to separate rumor from fact.
Speaker 7: DNA. You know, we're at the point in time where
Speaker 7: it's almost expected jurors when we go into court, they
Speaker 7: expect DNA evidence to be on a case.
Speaker 2: Christina Sovito is the daughter of scientist parents, so she
Speaker 2: always thought she would be destined for a lab quote.
Speaker 7: But I'll say it shows like bones and CSI and
Speaker 7: things like that. You know, they call it kind of
Speaker 7: like the CSI effect. I always thought this was something
Speaker 7: I kind of wanted to do.
Speaker 2: Christina started her career in the Army before joining DNA
Speaker 2: Labs International, a private laboratory in Deerfield Beach and.
Speaker 7: The primary focus of the Armed Forces, identification is to
Speaker 7: identify fallen soldiers, So my section primarily dealed with remains
Speaker 7: from World War I, World War Two, the Korean and
Speaker 7: the Vietnam wars.
Speaker 2: Her mission was not just to identify unknown soldiers, but
Speaker 2: to bring them home, and she brings that same dedication
Speaker 2: to criminal forensics and over the last few months she
Speaker 2: has become a full fledged member of the investigative team.
Speaker 7: The cold cases are very difficult because the DNA degrades
Speaker 7: over time. We know it does because of exposure to
Speaker 7: heat and time if it was exposed to emmy chemicals.
Speaker 7: And by degrade, what I mean is break it down
Speaker 7: into little pieces that keeps us from being able to
Speaker 7: get a DNA profile.
Speaker 2: But at state of the art labs like hers, sometimes
Speaker 2: partial samples can be combined to make a whole, which
Speaker 2: was what Detective Danny Smith decided to do with the
Speaker 2: samples recovered from Billy Halpern's crime scene.
Speaker 7: So we decided to combine the sample from that electrical
Speaker 7: tape on the right wrist with the rubber glove sample
Speaker 7: because of that amount of DNA on both samples, and
Speaker 7: we combined that together and the resulting DNA profile was
Speaker 7: a mixture of at least three individuals.
Speaker 2: Identifying the owner of that DNA would require a one
Speaker 2: to one match with a person who left it behind.
Speaker 1: So was halper and one of the contributors to those
Speaker 1: three male profiles.
Speaker 7: No, He ended up being excluded from this DNA.
Speaker 2: Profile, leaving our leading contenders to be High Note, Harry Collier,
Speaker 2: Michael Crobone, and gil Fernandez. Carbone hadn't been seen in
Speaker 2: nearly thirty five years, likely living under an assumed name
Speaker 2: in the witness relocation program, and our chances of getting
Speaker 2: a voluntary DNA sample from gil Fernandez slim to none,
Speaker 2: but we were optimistic that DNA profiles or standards of
Speaker 2: both Collier and High Note could be developed from blood
Speaker 2: samples that were taken by the coroner at the time
Speaker 2: of their autopsies on what cops call spot cards. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: that wasn't the case. As often happens with evidence this old,
Speaker 2: the spot cards were likely improperly stored and the samples
Speaker 2: were too degraded to detect DNA. Same goes for any
Speaker 2: DNA that might have been under Billy Halpern's fingernails, which
Speaker 2: were also swabbed and tested.
Speaker 7: There may have been more DNA, you know, thirty years ago,
Speaker 7: but that DNA may have degraded to the point where
Speaker 7: we can't detect it now.
Speaker 2: Then there was the evidence that Danny Smith had always
Speaker 2: believed would be the case closer the coup de gras.
Speaker 2: In the original crime scene report, it had been recorded
Speaker 2: that several strands of hair had been found still clenched
Speaker 2: in one of Billy's fists. It was reasonable to assume
Speaker 2: that if there had been a struggle as Billy was
Speaker 2: being bound, tortured, and ultimately killed, he may have grabbed
Speaker 2: hold of one of his attacker's hair and come away
Speaker 2: with what could be crucial DNA evidence. But in nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty six, long before testing hair for DNA was possible,
Speaker 2: that hair had been collected and sealed in an envelope
Speaker 2: and stored in an evidence locker at the Briar Sheriff's office.
Speaker 5: Hello, Hi, good, how are you?
Speaker 1: I am here from Nearmore police down, Andy Broward.
Speaker 3: I'm here off hand, careful not to corrupt the chain
Speaker 3: of evidence.
Speaker 2: Danny had requested that sealed envelope and hand delivered it
Speaker 2: to Christina to have it tested.
Speaker 7: So if you rip out a piece of your hair.
Speaker 7: You're going to see this white bulb on the end
Speaker 7: of it. That's where the majority of the DNA in
Speaker 7: hair is. So you know, many laboratories, if they don't
Speaker 7: see that bulb in a piece of hair, they won't
Speaker 7: test it at all.
Speaker 2: But according to the evidence report, the bulbs were still
Speaker 2: intact in this case.
Speaker 7: It was extremely disappointing because we opened the evidence item
Speaker 7: and we were hoping to look at these hairs and
Speaker 7: assess them and to see if there were bulbs there,
Speaker 7: and there was no sample. There was no hair sample
Speaker 7: present in the packaging. Like we've had multiple people confirm
Speaker 7: it's not in the envelope.
Speaker 2: The hair inside the sealed evidence envelope was gone. This
Speaker 2: evidence that had the potential to idea killer.
Speaker 3: Where did it go?
Speaker 7: In Working with hair samples, we found that they're very
Speaker 7: susceptible to static. So when we actually collect hairs at
Speaker 7: our laboratory, we'll use almost like a post it type
Speaker 7: thing to make sure the hair sticks on that so
Speaker 7: that they don't get lost. Because if you put a
Speaker 7: hair into an envelope, if static comes along, it might
Speaker 7: shoot out of the envelope or it might you know,
Speaker 7: go over on your benchtop instead, so that's something too
Speaker 7: where they might have collected it at the time. But
Speaker 7: if it didn't go fully in that envelope, or if
Speaker 7: it lashed onto something else, it may have been empty,
Speaker 7: you know, this whole time.
Speaker 4: The way it's described in the crime scene is a
Speaker 4: clump of hair. Yes, so it seems like he grabbed
Speaker 4: a bunch of it, So it's not like it's a
Speaker 4: three or four small strands of hair. It seemed like
Speaker 4: it was a fistful hair.
Speaker 7: It might have been something where someone opened it at
Speaker 7: one point to look at it and repackaged it in
Speaker 7: you know, a different evidence packaging and it sealed somewhere
Speaker 7: and no one knows where that is. Especially cold case evidence,
Speaker 7: it gets moved to a different part of the evidence
Speaker 7: fault to make way for new evidence coming in. It
Speaker 7: could be that situation where maybe that it is out there,
Speaker 7: maybe that clump of hair isn't a different packaging somewhere else.
Speaker 2: Or could it be the case that someone didn't want
Speaker 2: it ever to be found.
Speaker 7: It is disappointing, you know, obviously we want to get
Speaker 7: a DNA profile, especially something like a cold case where
Speaker 7: you're on the final straw, you're on the final piece
Speaker 7: of evidence.
Speaker 3: What was going on?
Speaker 2: Was the missing hair just a result of bad luck
Speaker 2: carelessness or was it evidence of a potential cover up?
Speaker 2: Could someone in law enforcement have deliberately destroyed or disappeared
Speaker 2: this crucial evidence to protect the identity of Billy Halpern's killer.
Speaker 2: Whether it was coincidence or corruption, it was time to
Speaker 2: raise the stakes in Danny Smith's investigation. It was time
Speaker 2: to shake the tree and see who else among the crooks,
Speaker 2: cops and wise guys operating out of the Apollo gym
Speaker 2: might fall out.
Speaker 8: Good morning, We'll get started to Shorty just to gibe
Speaker 8: a little bit of a rundown chief dollars months to
Speaker 8: opening up. He'll be followed by technic Dan Smith, the
Speaker 8: fifteen's sister Lori Taubert, JASUS president as well. We'll allow
Speaker 8: the questions at the end for the detective, and then
Speaker 8: I'll follow a spash sound thank you.
Speaker 2: On a Sunday morning in January of twenty twenty four,
Speaker 2: Detective Danny Smith, with the support of the Miramar Police
Speaker 2: Chief del Rich Moss, held a press conference to publicly
Speaker 2: announce the reopening of the Billy helper and murder investigation.
Speaker 2: And to make a public appeal for witnesses who may
Speaker 2: have information that could help solve this case.
Speaker 1: Obviously, there are a few minor details in the investigation
Speaker 1: that we want to keep to ourselves, but for the
Speaker 1: most part, I wanted to get as much information out
Speaker 1: there as possible and do anything that we can to
Speaker 1: solve it. And if that's through the press, through a podcast,
Speaker 1: through print, whatever it is, if it's going to help
Speaker 1: us solve this case, then then why not why not
Speaker 1: give a shot?
Speaker 5: Good morning?
Speaker 1: I want on behalf of the Miramar Police Department and
Speaker 1: the helper and family. We want to thank all of
Speaker 1: you for coming out and giving us this opportunity to
Speaker 1: get this case back out. As the chief said. October
Speaker 1: twenty first, nineteen eighty six, Billy Helpern was killed in
Speaker 1: his mire More Town home. Billy was a Hollandale fireman.
Speaker 1: He was loved by his family. He loved his family,
Speaker 1: he was an avid bodybuilder, loved the beach, and the
Speaker 1: course of the last sixteen months of this investigation, I
Speaker 1: have not been able to find anyone that can speak
Speaker 1: badly about Billy. Billy's murder has been tied to numerous
Speaker 1: other murders throughout the Daydenbarer area back in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1: Central to those murders was a former Miami Day police officer,
Speaker 1: Gil Fernandez, and his partner Burt Christie, who both worked
Speaker 1: and owned or ran Apollo Gym out of Hollywood.
Speaker 2: Publicly naming Gil Fernandez and Burt Christie as suspects in
Speaker 2: the investigation was a strategic risk. A they were widely known,
Speaker 2: their faces being plastered across newspapers during their high profile
Speaker 2: trial b they were either dead, as in the case
Speaker 2: with Burt Christie, or they were incarcerated in Gill's case,
Speaker 2: for life.
Speaker 3: In other words, it idn'pose a.
Speaker 2: Threat to anyone who might feel inclined to cooperate with police,
Speaker 2: or so Danny hoped.
Speaker 1: Over the last sixteen months, we have been able to
Speaker 1: interview multiple people, countless individuals that have come forward that
Speaker 1: we're unwilling to come forward back in the eighties and
Speaker 1: early nineties out of fear of either Gil or Burt Christi,
Speaker 1: or whoever it was.
Speaker 5: They were now able to come forward.
Speaker 1: More importantly, we were able to locate and test dozens
Speaker 1: of pieces of evidence and obtain multiple DNA profiles from suspects.
Speaker 1: From that evidence and through DNA labs, we were able
Speaker 1: to find DNA profiles of unknown suspects. The reason that
Speaker 1: we are bringing this out now is we need suspects
Speaker 1: to compare them to. We need names. We need somebody
Speaker 1: to come forward and give us information that will allow
Speaker 1: us to identify these unknown suspect DNA profiles.
Speaker 2: Our interviews with the myriad of people listed in the
Speaker 2: case file. While Colorful had not really introduced new suspects
Speaker 2: into this investigation, what we needed was tips, rumors, and
Speaker 2: new leads to run down. What we needed were names.
Speaker 1: Now we have a working theory on this case. We
Speaker 1: know that Billy was safety conscious. We know that he
Speaker 1: would not have opened the door to anyone he either
Speaker 1: didn't know or didn't like.
Speaker 5: There was no forced.
Speaker 1: Entry at this house. So our working theory is we
Speaker 1: had multiple people in broad daylight, went to Billy's townhome,
Speaker 1: knocked on the door. Billy allowed them into the house
Speaker 1: because he probably knew one or more of the people
Speaker 1: that were in this group. They pushed their way in.
Speaker 1: Once inside, Billy was bound, beaten, and ultimately killed.
Speaker 5: This was done in broad daylight.
Speaker 1: So we're asking the public to come forward and even
Speaker 1: give us a name of someone who they believe was
Speaker 1: there that we can potentially get their DNA and compare
Speaker 1: that to what we have.
Speaker 3: Sitting with other reporters.
Speaker 2: I thought the one question still not being asked was
Speaker 2: why now opposed to ten years ago or twenty I
Speaker 2: just couldn't resist. So it's nineteen eighty eighty seven when
Speaker 2: it occurs, and now we're in twenty twenty four, Why now?
Speaker 2: Why is it a good idea to do this today
Speaker 2: opposed to any on time?
Speaker 1: Time and technology? I think time and technology is what
Speaker 1: made this the right time. DNA technology is at an
Speaker 1: all time high. We have complete faith in the lab,
Speaker 1: the technology that they use, and I believe that enough
Speaker 1: time has passed where we can have people that are
Speaker 1: no longer afraid to come forward.
Speaker 2: Laurie Halpern was also there, standing by Danny's side. Her
Speaker 2: cooperation and support was an integral part of the investigation
Speaker 2: and Danny's appeal to the public.
Speaker 5: There's a possibility that someone out there knows something, knows
Speaker 5: who may be responsible for this.
Speaker 1: If there was a message that it had for them.
Speaker 9: What would be come forward, Call Danny, call them, call
Speaker 9: me mirramr and thank you for coming and being brave.
Speaker 9: Don't be afraid, come and tell them what you know.
Speaker 9: I'd be grateful, My family would be grateful.
Speaker 1: Are you moving away from Bernando.
Speaker 7: And his partner?
Speaker 1: No, Nope, Fernandez is still a He's still a suspect
Speaker 1: in the case. He has been a suspect from the beginning.
Speaker 1: He continues to be a suspect, and he at this
Speaker 1: point is a suspect. My working theory is that people
Speaker 1: were killed systematically to keep him quiet, So anyone that
Speaker 1: was killed after Billy Halpern is potentially a suspect.
Speaker 2: Also, Danny also had one more message to anyone that
Speaker 2: might be involved in the murder or even a possible
Speaker 2: cover up. Anyone wondering if, after thirty years, gil Fernandez
Speaker 2: was finally willing to talk.
Speaker 3: And ted talking to gil Fernandez.
Speaker 1: I have Liz. He was.
Speaker 5: He was very cooperative.
Speaker 1: He spoke to myself and another investigator for a great
Speaker 1: deal of time.
Speaker 2: The following morning, the Miami Herald ran a front page
Speaker 2: story on the reopening of.
Speaker 3: The help and cold case.
Speaker 2: The press conference was widely covered and instantly the tip
Speaker 2: lines lit up. The question, now would this appeal bring
Speaker 2: this nearly forty year investigation any closer to being solved,
Speaker 2: or take it in a completely new direction. The joke
Speaker 2: wars and it turned out, I mean, it's really not
Speaker 2: a joke. Half the people there were police, the other
Speaker 2: half were drug dealers, and there was like a neutral
Speaker 2: zone where they would be friends with one another, spot
Speaker 2: each other, and then when they left the gym, they
Speaker 2: were out shooting each.
Speaker 3: Other cold blooded.
Speaker 2: The Apollo Jim Murders is a production of iHeart Podcasts
Speaker 2: and Authentic Wave Media. Scott Weinberger, Kevin Bennett, and Walker
Speaker 2: Lemon are executive producers. Sabrina Siree is our line producer,
Speaker 2: scoring sound design and mixing by Mark Lamar jay Z.
Speaker 2: For iHeart Podcasts, Christina Everett is executive producer, and David
Speaker 2: Wasserman is brand marketing manager. And with special thanks to
Speaker 2: the Miramar Police Department, Chief Delrich Moss, p Io Tanya Ardaz,
Speaker 2: and Detective Susie Smith,