WEBVTT - Episode 1 - Murder Beach 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:05.640 My name is Danny Smith. 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:09.800 I'm a detective with Miramar Police Department. I am conducting 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:13.920 an investigation going back almost forty years in the murder 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:15.160 of Billy Hopper. 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:19.520 Back in the nineteen eighties, I was starting a career 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:22.880 in law enforcement in Browie County, Florida, a native New 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:28.400 Yorker transplanted to the home of vacation meccas like Fort Lauderdale, Pompino, 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:34.320 and Hollywood Beach. What the South Florida I remember was 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:38.879 a place of stark contrasts. The beaches, palm trees, the 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:42.800 frozen drinks. They all seem to mask a darker side 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:47.559 of the Sunshine State, one of crime, greed, and a 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:53.120 creeping sense of desperation. There was just something about Florida 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:57.320 that could make good people get themselves into bad situations. 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:03.080 After years in law enforcement, I ended up swapping my 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:06.679 badging gun for a journalist's pen and pad and headed 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:11.160 back to New York to report on crimes, not solve them. 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:15.480 But in twenty twenty two, a unique opportunity brought me 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:18.800 back to the streets of South Florida to join cold 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:23.600 case detective Danny Smith as he began an incredible journey 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:28.080 to solve a forty year old murder, actually as many 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:33.240 as five of them together. We were looking for new evidence, 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:36.520 new suspects, and the truth behind the murder of a 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:40.520 twenty eight year old firefighter named Billy Halpern, all of 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:47.600 it documented in real time. I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:52.720 and former deputy sheriff, and this is cold blooded the 0:01:52.800 --> 0:02:01.640 Apollo Jim murders. Shortly after six point thirty on October 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:06.080 twenty first, nineteen eighty six, police in Miramar, Florida responded 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:09.040 to the sixty nine hundred block of fortieth Street, a 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:12.560 residential neighborhood of condos and town homes in the center 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:15.680 of Miramar and about a twenty minute drive to the beach. 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:19.720 That flood of emergency vehicles prompted by a nine to 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:22.880 one one call by twenty four year old Jones Socio 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:27.720 moments after walking in to a horrifying scene finding her boyfriend, 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:31.880 twenty eight year old Billy Halpern, half dressed, lying face 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:35.440 up in the bedroom in a pool of his own blood. 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:39.160 So is this his community right here? 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:39.680 This is it? 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:44.360 This is woodscape and it's essentially a big circle that 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:53.600 kind of Meander's back off the main circle. They're like 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:56.919 town homes, but they're really right on top of one another. 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:05.240 In November of twenty twenty two, nearly forty years after 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:08.679 the murder, I returned to the same location with Miramar 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:11.600 Police homicide Detective Danny Smith. 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:16.960 You look at the limited crime scene photos that I 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:22.160 was actually able to get from the file. They always 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:27.240 look you know, photos from the outside always make the 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:30.600 place look so much bigger, and then I'm always surprised 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:32.919 at how small some of these homes are when I 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:33.600 actually get there. 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:38.560 Aside from a few potted plants and a threadbare welcome 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:41.040 mat in front of the front door, it looked just 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:43.880 like it did from the photographs in the decades old 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:47.960 police file Danny had dug out of storage. Was this 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:49.480 her house or did he live here? 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:52.320 This was his house and she had been living here, 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:57.080 I remember correctly, three years with him, And I remember 0:03:57.120 --> 0:04:00.920 reading that she was screaming when she found his body 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:04.080 and the neighbors came over, and in my mind I 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:07.119 was thinking they must have just been like outside already 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:09.480 and they heard it. But now seeing how close these 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:11.840 homes are together, that makes sense. 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:14.600 I lived in a complex like this in pember Pines. 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:21.320 It was very similar to this, and yeah, you hear 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:25.359 the neighbors, you hear it, you can hear through the walls. 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:29.800 I had seen the crime scene photos, so I could 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:33.240 imagine what the uniformed officers must have observed when they 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:37.120 stepped through the door. The blood pooling from around the 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:40.719 victim's head, a blood stained towel pressed to his neck, 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:44.800 and the black electrical tape still wrapped around each of 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:49.240 his wrists. Another thing they would have quickly noticed. The 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:52.640 man on the floor was big, six foot two with 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:56.680 the bodybuilders for zeke is enormous muscles on full display 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:01.479 even hours after his death. Another thought when I saw 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:04.400 the crime scene photos was that was a lot of blood. 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:08.279 My next thought, there is no way one person could 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:12.200 have overpowered this guy. He was huge. Now do you 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:14.440 think it's a little unusual when you hear about the 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:17.160 fact that he was covered by a blanket? I know 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:21.320 in cases that I've covered sometimes when the victim and 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:26.240 a homicide, especially their face is covered, there's a psychological 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.720 reason around that. Sometimes the killer it makes us as 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:32.560 the investigator think maybe there was some connection between the killer, 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:35.359 the suspect, and the victim and they don't want to 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:37.000 see the results of what their. 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:40.720 Actions, right, Yeah, that's common. I would say that if 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:45.360 his neck being covered by the actual suspect or suspects, 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:50.200 that tells me a lot in terms of psychology. But 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:54.159 I believe he was covered by his girlfriend. 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:56.120 Because of the tremendous amount of blood that comes. 0:05:56.120 --> 0:06:00.480 Because of the blood and the injury itself was one 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:03.440 of the more gruesome throat injuries that I've ever seen. 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:06.960 To first responders of the scene, the cause of Billy's 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:10.960 death appeared to be obvious the severe wound on Billy's 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:15.000 throat that was deep and jaggered and ran nearly from 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:19.400 ear to ear. It seemed that Billy died from a 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:23.000 sudden and dramatic loss of blood caused by an unknown 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:23.960 sharp object. 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:29.160 There were multiple cuts, so it seemed like they were 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:30.800 maybe trying to cut his head off. They were trying 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:31.960 to decapitate him. 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:35.560 Detectives from the Briar County Sheriff's Office Crime scene Unit 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:40.360 were quickly dispatched to the address and began processing the scene, 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:44.200 and notes from the original incident report detailed what investigators 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:48.360 did and did not find at the crime scene. Most Importantly, 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:52.400 they recovered no murder weapon, no fingerprints, no signs of 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:57.159 forced entry, and, according to neighbors, no witnesses, all of 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:01.320 which posed serious challenges to figure out the motive behind 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:05.000 the attack. Was it a robbery, a dispute with a neighbor, 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:07.200 or something more sinister. 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:13.120 There was mentioned in the lead detective Belrose's report about 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:18.040 home invasion crews that were hitting people. There's also mention 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:19.280 that he had a safe in the house. 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:24.160 According to his girlfriend Joan, Billy made his living buying 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:27.240 and selling art and rare coins, which he kept in 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:31.920 a safe inside the town home. But that's safe was 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:35.480 now empty. So initially, robbery was suspected to be the 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:38.560 motive for the break in, a robbery that must have 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:42.640 quickly gone south and ended in murder. It was a 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:45.480 theory that seemed to be supported by a tip that 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:48.760 came into the Sheriff's office back in nineteen eighty six 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:51.320 from a local confidential informant. 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:55.240 And that was the tip that I actually read was 0:07:56.680 --> 0:08:01.520 someone he called in and said that whoever they mentioned 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:03.760 was bragging that they had the safe. They tried to 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:07.720 torch it open and they ended up ruining all the contents. 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:10.920 But there was also evidence that this broad daylight break 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:14.200 in may not be the work of total strangers. 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:21.800 The front door was unlocked. When Halpern's living girlfriend showed 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:25.520 up and actually discovered his body, she made note that 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:29.280 that front door was unlocked, and she said that never happens. 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:32.520 He was steadfast and always making sure that front door 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:36.000 was locked and secured. So the fact that the front 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:41.240 door was unlocked, no signs of a struggle. All of 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:44.040 those facts right there tell me more than one person. 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:49.640 Probably they knew him, guy let him in, and they 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:53.120 brought gloves, and they brought tape. 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:56.720 So maybe Billy Halpern knew the men robbing him, and 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:59.640 maybe his killer's motive was to get their hands on 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:03.280 the car in tents of that safe. But the matter 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:06.360 in which Billy was killed, even to investigators back in 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:11.320 nineteen eighty six, seemed to deliberate, too professional for a 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:15.760 boxed home invasion. For one thing, there was very little 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:19.640 evidence of a big struggle, and just looking at Billy, 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:24.080 you just know he wouldn't have gone down without a fight. 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:30.320 Even more interesting that I found when I read through 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:33.440 the autopsy report was that actually the cause of death 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:38.440 was not the massive cut. It was strangulation or some 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:41.640 kind of suffocation or something something along those lines. And 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:46.160 they had actually were noted in their report that they 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:50.800 likened the marks on his neck to be something like 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:54.320 a thick nylon strap or a dog collar or something 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:59.079 in that regard. So the massive injury that is really 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:02.480 shocking to anyone that first sees it, especially his girlfriend 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:04.400 finding him, was all post mortem. 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:11.000 Billy's face had showed evidence of a brutal beating, yet 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:15.360 his hands and arms showed no defensive wounds. Taken together, 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:19.160 it didn't look like a typical botched home invasion. It 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:23.439 looked a lot more like torture. In fact, it looked 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:24.280 like an execution. 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:29.839 They're trying to decapitate him, post wartim, postmartum. 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:32.840 Everything was postmatch, which is a whole different psychology, a. 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:34.440 Whole different thing. I don't know if that was a 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:38.839 trophy for someone, or somebody watched Scarface too many times 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:39.840 and said, bring me his head. 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:40.560 I don't know. 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:48.160 These days. Billy's sister, Laurie, lives in Fort Lauderdale, but 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:51.120 in October of nineteen eighty six, she lived with her 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:54.600 parents in Pembroke Pines, just a couple of blocks away 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:58.200 from her big brother. She can still remember the moment 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:01.200 she got the news of Billy's murder. 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:04.800 It's been such a long time again, I can still 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:09.800 hear that phone ring, you know, like my mom's screaming Billy, 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:11.240 Billy's dead, and I'm like. 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:15.199 What do you mean. She jumped up and ran out 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:16.360 the door. Come out, we gotta go. 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:21.880 I'm pulling up to that driveway and all the rescue 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:25.679 and everybody there. It was real for that one moment, 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:29.240 you say, no, can't be true, and then my whole 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:30.120 world crumbled. 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:35.600 When Danny and I visited Laurie in twenty twenty two, 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:39.160 she showed us pictures of Billy. In a lot of them, 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:42.319 Billy is shirtless or in swim trunks at the beach. 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:46.480 Sometimes he's holding a surfboard or barbells. There's one of 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:50.840 him in his firefighter's uniform and another of him hoisting 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:56.080 a bodybuilder's trophy. In nearly every picture, he's got the 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:59.360 smile of a guy in on the joke, well aware 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:03.439 that he was uncommonly blessed with the body and good 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:08.640 looks of a Greek god. Laurie is petite with long 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:11.760 blonde hair, but I could still see the resemblance between 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:15.800 brother and sister, the kindness in their eyes, and maybe 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:17.360 just a bit of mischief. 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:22.319 He was good looking, he was funny. Everyone liked him. 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:26.760 She's a shame, you know that they took him from mcphurmath. 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:31.600 Dave Aasano, who also grew up in Hollywood Beach, was 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.120 one of Billy's old bodybuilding buddies. 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:40.760 He was one of the nicest people ever. I mean, 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:42.480 he'd give you the shirt off his back. And he 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:46.400 was handsome, and he had charisma. He was good looking, 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:50.200 he was built. He was just a nice, humble guy. 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:55.080 According to Dave, Billy was idolized by the younger guys 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:56.000 at the gym. 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:58.000 I want to know, how do you get big arms 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:00.200 like that? And he tell us what to eat and 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:03.280 how to work out. And he had beautiful green eyes 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:07.920 with dark hair. Just imagine tan green eyes, dark hair 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:10.080 and bill, you know, like a Greek guy. 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:16.280 Billy's popularity just added to the shock of his brutal murder. 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:20.600 I mean, who kills a god? But Laurie still has 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:24.600 an idea of who she thinks killed a brother. In fact, 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:25.880 a lot of people do. 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:29.040 I don't think it was one person. Involved. 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:34.160 Billy was too strong for one person to take him down. 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:39.520 But thirty eight years after he was killed, no one 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:42.400 has ever been charged with his murder, and to this day, 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:46.320 no one really knows the whole truth behind why he 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:46.920 was killed. 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:52.640 I think at the beginning with my parents' life, like 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:56.000 they can have the closure, but there's really no closure 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:58.760 no matter who did it. Now, I mean, Billy's been 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:01.880 dead for so long. How are they gonna be punished? 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:04.720 If they're out on the street, what are they gonna 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:06.920 I mean, they're they're old already orre this's gonna happen 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:12.439 to them. But I would like he's you know, I'd 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:15.040 like somebody to pay for what they did. Do they 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:29.880 really hurt him and he didn't They didn't be survey. 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:33.400 My number one rule went opening up a cold case, 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:35.840 you need to get your own opinion. 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:40.280 Detective Danny Smith was only twelve years old when Billy 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:43.160 was killed. As for me, I was in the early 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:47.480 process of transitioning into law enforcement in the Sunshine State. 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:52.040 But in twenty twenty two, after twenty seven years with 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:54.920 the City of Miramar Police, Danny was assigned to the 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:58.600 newly formed cold Case Squad Billy's case was the first 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:02.680 one he pulled off the shelf. It's filled with nearly 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:07.520 forty years of tips, leads, witness statements, and dead ends, 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:11.000 which is why Danny is convinced that if he's going 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:13.720 to solve this case, it would have to go back 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:15.200 to the very beginning. 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:18.320 You need to look at it through your own eyes 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:22.800 and not be swayed by previous investigators. I refuse to 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:26.160 read the notes from the previous cold case detective that 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:32.560 had this. I'm reading the stock basic original incident reports 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:35.720 from the detectives and the officers, and I think from 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:38.720 there I can move on to Okay, now, where would 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:40.000 I go from here if I had it. 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:43.520 As you see here today on day one of your investigation? 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:51.000 What are some of your concerns about the complexity. 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:53.760 Of this One of the top level concerns that I 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:58.280 have are being unable to actually track down some of 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:02.600 these people they've moved, if they've passed on, or if 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:04.240 they just don't want to get involved and they don't 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:05.040 want to speak to us. 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:11.360 On top of the challengers that force the case to 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:14.880 go cold in the first place, there's also the obstacles 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:20.280 that accumulate in any cold case, lost or degraded evidence, 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:25.880 faded memories, missing witnesses, and perhaps the most daunting legacy 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:29.880 of pre digital policing paperwork. 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:34.479 A cold case, especially going back to eighty six. I 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:37.200 want to first off, see if there's anything to work with, 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:41.520 so going back and pulling the files and making sure 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:44.120 that there are still reports to look at. And when 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:47.640 I pulled this case in particular, it was immaculate. The 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:51.880 detectives did a phenomenal job in documenting and cataloging and 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:56.160 keeping everything, so that was a plus right there. 0:16:57.320 --> 0:16:59.960 Also on Danny's side is science. 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:05.119 My focus from the beginning was absolutely trying to locate 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:08.520 as much physical evidence that we had and see what 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:11.880 was done with it and see what could be done 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:16.800 with it. Now, just like any other cold case you have, 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:20.040 you have a homicide, and you have evidence that was 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:24.639 collected and then there over the years, sometimes evidence is lost, 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:28.600 sometimes it's destroyed, sometimes it's tested and consumed and you 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:30.000 no longer have access to it. 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:31.800 So in this case, I. 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:36.240 Wanted to find all the evidence that was collected, get 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:39.520 it into my custody, and then figure out how I 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:41.000 can go about having that tested. 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:47.280 With the advancements in DNA technology, Every unsolved case with 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:51.600 even a sentilla of biological forensic evidence can stake a 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:55.639 claim for a second look. But Danny also knows that 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:59.160 solving a cold case is rarely as easy as getting 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:04.119 a match on notice. Timelines, witness statements, motives, and alibis 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:09.040 all have to be checked and rechecked, and Billy Halpern's 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.800 case in particular seems to have a lot of loose ends. 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:16.760 Loose ends that suggest that maybe there was a reason 0:18:16.840 --> 0:18:19.879 that his murder went unsolved for so long. 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:24.560 Someone persuaded Billy to open that door, whether it was 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:29.639 friendly hello, or somebody that knows Billy would not have 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:32.280 opened that door for someone that he doesn't like or 0:18:32.320 --> 0:18:32.920 doesn't know. 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:38.240 Which begs the question, as it always does, why was 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:42.440 Billy Halpern mixed up with anyone capable of this kind 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:47.560 of violence. To answer that question, it was a time 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:50.840 for a trip back to South Florida to the mid eighties, 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:57.280 a seductive world of sun, sex, money, and wait for it, weightlifting. 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:02.760 Our mission to solve Billy Halpern's murder, to convince a 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:06.960 prosecutor to bring charges against his killer or killers, and 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:09.840 maybe to bring a bit of peace and closure to 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:12.400 his family and friends that have lived with the pain 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:14.400 of his murder for decades. 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:18.720 I would love for everyone to know the truth why 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:23.720 Billy died. People have said horrible things, you know, like 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:25.800 why would they hurt him that way? 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:27.960 He had it all. 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:32.080 He had it all, He was twenty eight, his whole 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:32.800 life to live. 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:37.359 But Danny and I didn't expect was that reopening this 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:39.840 cold case would shine a light on a string of 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:45.399 unsolved murders involving some of South Florida's most dangerous criminals. 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:48.959 I was really young, but I knew what was going on. 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:52.840 Oh my god, the money was sick. And then the 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:58.320 Columbians got involved, and it got dark and dirty and evil. 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:03.680 People were getting murdered left and right. 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:07.800 Was Billy just a random victim of a cold blooded 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:11.159 crime spree? Or was his murder part of a larger 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:16.240 conspiracy involving the hustlers, dealers, crooked cops, and wise guys 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:19.760 that were running wild in South Florida during its most 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:21.040 dangerous decade. 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:24.359 I really think there had to be a rat, a 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:25.960 dirty rat in a police department. 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:35.080 Lurid. Let me tell you a little bit about me 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:38.480 and how this all came about. I had never heard 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:40.679 of the case, but the case was brought over to me. 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:43.000 I took a look at it, and I just read 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:46.439 it and heard all these names, and I heard some 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:48.800 of the other homicides that happened sometime. 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:49.040 In the area. 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:53.119 Went by Billie's old house, took a look around just 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:55.440 to kind of get a feel for it, and then 0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:59.320 started my process of going through this as a cold case. 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:02.639 In a long time, but I felt, we felt that 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:04.919 it would be important to at least meet with you 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:07.960 as the investigation started going out. 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:08.439 And I'm grateful. 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:10.000 I hope you can find out there truth. 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:16.440 Laurie and her brother Billy, grew up in Hollywood, Florida, 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:21.000 a beach town that lies about halfway between Fort Lauderdale 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:24.520 to the north and Miami twenty miles to the south. 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:28.880 By the time Billy was born, the Halpurans had already 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:32.199 been in South Florida for two generations. These were not 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:37.520 snowbirds or two year tourists at Halpurns were Florida born 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:42.840 and bred. Laurie was just two years younger than Billy, 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:46.800 and together they enjoyed a sun soaked, carefree youth and 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:50.080 cruising the quiet streets of what was then a small 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:54.280 town with an off season population of just a few thousand. 0:21:56.560 --> 0:22:00.440 We all hung out at Garfield Beach in Allywood. Brother 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:01.840 kind of hung out with everybody. 0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:02.199 You know. 0:22:02.280 --> 0:22:05.240 He surfed all the time, and it was extream. 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:06.840 You know, make. 0:22:06.800 --> 0:22:13.320 Money, be surfer, lived my life. Good guy and he 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:19.240 really loved me. He's a really good brother. He's a 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:24.040 very protective, very annoying, a typical big brother. 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:27.160 But he loved me and he only wanted the best 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:27.480 for me. 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:33.439 And he was popular, the king of the beach, with 0:22:33.600 --> 0:22:38.000 long dark hair, a Tom Sellick mustache, and a chiseled 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:44.760 physique sculpted by hours in the gym. But Billy's friends 0:22:44.800 --> 0:22:48.280 painted a picture of a gentle giant with a thousand 0:22:48.320 --> 0:22:53.400 watts smile, someone with charm and charisma who seemed destined 0:22:53.400 --> 0:22:54.720 for big things. 0:22:56.240 --> 0:22:59.200 I mean, like they y'all knew that he could do anything. 0:22:59.680 --> 0:23:02.320 He was good looking, he was funny. Everyone liked him. 0:23:02.960 --> 0:23:04.800 Quick kills me. It could have been anything. 0:23:06.920 --> 0:23:09.520 In nineteen eighty, Billy took a job with the Hollandale 0:23:09.520 --> 0:23:13.359 Fire Department as a paramedic. His friends were cops and 0:23:13.440 --> 0:23:17.719 fellow firefighters, hard charging guys that shared Billy's interest in 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:25.120 the finer things like blondes, beer and pumping iron. As 0:23:25.200 --> 0:23:27.840 Danny and I learned, when Billy wasn't on the job 0:23:28.240 --> 0:23:32.520 or on the beach, he was in the gym along 0:23:32.560 --> 0:23:35.479 with the deep Tans and Neon. South Florida was a 0:23:35.480 --> 0:23:38.800 bodybuilding mecca back then, and Billy and his friends were 0:23:38.960 --> 0:23:40.920 committed musclehoods. 0:23:42.720 --> 0:23:48.080 He was a workout fiend, so he belonged to three 0:23:48.160 --> 0:23:50.919 or maybe even four gyms, and he would rotate throughout 0:23:50.960 --> 0:23:53.000 those gyms, and I think he had a circle of 0:23:53.000 --> 0:23:54.360 friends through each gym. 0:23:56.760 --> 0:23:59.200 Nights were spent in a string of bars that line 0:23:59.240 --> 0:24:04.640 the boardwalk along Hollywood Beach. There was lots of alcohol, marijuana, 0:24:05.280 --> 0:24:08.720 and this being the early nineteen eighties, plenty of harder 0:24:08.800 --> 0:24:14.320 drugs were available too. But the aphrodisiac of choice youth 0:24:14.880 --> 0:24:19.199 is boundless optimism and the conviction that nothing could ever 0:24:19.320 --> 0:24:19.639 hurt you. 0:24:21.720 --> 0:24:28.280 But believe me, we partied. I'm definitely no angel. He 0:24:28.359 --> 0:24:31.760 didn't think of it. You know, every night yet Nickel Knight, 0:24:31.880 --> 0:24:34.919 dime Knight, ladies night drink till you think night like 0:24:34.960 --> 0:24:37.880 gave a drinking promotion down here. Everyone drank and then 0:24:37.920 --> 0:24:40.159 you do a little bump to wake up and boom, 0:24:40.240 --> 0:24:42.800 you're done. Then it got dirty. 0:24:45.080 --> 0:24:48.240 But despite the partying Billy's faund, me and friends never 0:24:48.280 --> 0:24:52.280 suspected that Billy was into anything criminal or hanging around 0:24:52.280 --> 0:24:54.840 with the kind of people that could put his life 0:24:54.960 --> 0:24:55.560 in danger. 0:24:57.119 --> 0:24:59.720 I always thought Billy was selling art. He showed me 0:24:59.840 --> 0:25:02.159 art at his house that he bought stuff, and I 0:25:02.240 --> 0:25:03.320 honestly believe that's. 0:25:03.200 --> 0:25:03.679 What he was. 0:25:05.200 --> 0:25:08.440 But the truth might have been a little darker than 0:25:08.640 --> 0:25:14.239 anyone ever knew. Time can be both a friend and 0:25:14.400 --> 0:25:17.760 foe to a cold case. Detective memories of a decade's 0:25:17.800 --> 0:25:22.639