May 20, 2024 • 37 mins
In a dramatic twist in this murder investigation, Danny stumbles upon a surprising connection to the case as Scott investigates why a crucial piece of evidence mysteriously vanishes. Was this merely an oversight, or does it hint at deeper corruption? Also, the forensic lab working hand in hand with Danny provides real-time updates on the unfolding evidence, intensifying the quest for truth in this growing mystery.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Probably about a month ago. I was looking for one
particular piece of information, so I started digging through. There
were actually the physical notepads from the investigators from way
back when in the eighties.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Cold case Detective Danny Smith has been investigating the nineteen
eighty six murder of Billy Halburn and has left no
stone unturned.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
And I started looking through and there was one handwritten
note and it was small. It was two sentences, and
it said Officer Ellis advised that there was a suspicious
car and this is the description of the car. He
got the information from the tipster and Keith Ellis the
ls is my dad's.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Name, Danny's father. He was a cop too, right here
in Miramar, Florid. What are the odds father and son
working the same case nearly forty years apart.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
And he was in one of the notes of one
of the investigators. It blew my mind. And then as
the days went on, I just kept thinking about it,
and I was amazed that here I am working a
case thirty seven years later, that I'm going to see
my dad's name in some of the notes that he
theoretically had some information on the case.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff, and
this is cold blooded.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
The Apollogym murders.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Detective Danny Smith moved to South Florida when he was
a kid. But back then, it wasn't murder that was
on his mind. It was baseball.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
So that was essentially my life. I would wake up
and I would think about baseball and making it to
the big leagues, and go to go to school, my work,
and then I'd be at the ballfield until nine ten
o'clock at night, and then I just do it over
again the next day.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
By college, it was clear that Danny not only had
the talent to make it to the pros, he had
to drive that unrelenting desire to defy what can seem
like insurmountable odds.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
It is a grind. You just have to keep going
and going and going, and whenever you feel like you've
lost or it's not gonna happen for you, you just
gotta find something else.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
But Danny's dad was a cop, first right here at
Miramar and then at the Miami Dade Police Department, so
the poll to a career in law enforcement was always there,
tugging at his sleeve.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Nice first second third year of college, I started to
really give it some serious thought, and I figured, you
know what, let me give it a shot, and if
the big leagues don't work out for me, then I
got to have a fallback.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
So during his senior year in college, while staring down
pitchers and batting over four hundred, Danny put in a
few applications for a job in law enforcement.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
And then I got picked up after my senior year
of college to go play pro ball in upstate New York.
So while I was up there, I ended up getting
a call from Nearmore Police saying that they were going
to hire me, and they wanted me to come down.
The academy starts in two weeks, and at the time,
we were in our playoffs up there, so we finished
(03:35):
up our playoffs, I had to get released from my
contract to come straight down to South Florida, get fitted
for my academy uniforms, and I went straight to the
police adademy.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
In law enforcement, Danny saw the same kind of brotherhood
he did in baseball, the team work and the necessity
of knowing that you have someone else's back and they
have yours.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Growing up, I always saw my dad around his police
officer friends, and it seemed like a family. It would
bring out a side of him that we didn't really
see in the house. I didn't quite understand it, especially
being so young. I didn't understand how he would tell
me that he's willing to get his life for somebody else.
(04:21):
It's life or death. And they beat that into you
in the academy, that this is the real deal and
you can go to work and not come home. And
I was happy to see everyone really take that seriously.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
When Danny decided to reopen the nearly forty year old
unsolved murder of Billy Halpern, he knew it would be
a long shot, but he loved the grind and he
wasn't afraid to swing for the fences.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I was, and still am, very competitive, and I hate
to lose. I will do anything that I can to
not lose.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
The fact that his own father had worked the same
case was not just a bit of cosmic kismet. It
was a personal connection to a crime that had cast
a dark cloud over this community for decades.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
It struck me that I wish that he was around,
that I could talk to him about it and get
his idea of how impactful the case was to the
community and everything that was done for the investigation, that
he would be able to actually give me some inside information.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Danny's father died in two thousand and five after three
decades in law enforcement. Watching Danny scribble notes in his notepad,
I thought about how some cases can create a bond
between cops that spans.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Not just years, but generations.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
How sweet it would be to knock this one out
of the park and to win one for his old man.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
There's the wife and there's him.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
He's there with the wife.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Just hey, hello, Hey, Danny Smith, how are you.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
There were a lot of names in Billy's case file.
Some were people that Miramar or Brad Sheriff's thought might
have knowledge of Billy's murder.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Some were just friends of Billy's.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Or guys that hung around the beach or at the
Apollo Gym. As part of this investigation, Danny and I
both knew but have to track down as as many
of these names as possible, But getting them to talk
that was another story.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
So the reason that I'm reaching out to actually a
bunch of people. I'll probably give you a bunch of
names that are going to kind of come back to you.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Danny was talking with someone that had grown up in
Hollywood Beach and knew both Billy and Laurie Halpern. His
hesitancy to talk made it clear to us that the
fear of reprisal from whoever killed Billy was still palpable,
even forty years after his murder.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Okay, we actually got a chance to speak to Laurie
and a couple other people, but as you can imagine.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
It's been a long time.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
We need to talk to as many people as possible.
There's really no expiration on an investigation for homicide if
it's not solved.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
But he may also have had other reasons why he
was still hesitant to talk to police. According to the
case file, this guy sold his share of dope back
in the day and did some time in prison as
a result. But he also used to run with the
Apollo Jim crowd, so we had reasons to believe he
may have heard some things, maybe even seen some things.
(08:19):
Just to give you an idea of how small this
world was, even now.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Forty years later.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
The guy who opened the door was someone I have
known since I was a teenager. How his name ended
up in a homicide investigation. I had no idea. It's
something I had discussed with Danny before our visit.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
But let's be clear, the person on this list, according
to what you were telling me, is not just someone
who potentially is a witness, but somebody who potentially is
a suspecting bill it happens murder.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, this person is mentioned in more reports overall in
the entire case file than any other person, with the
exception of our victim. He appears to have a lot
of relationship and inner workings and hanging out with almost
everyone else in this case file.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
After inviting Danny inside, the old friend of Billy's volunteered
what he remembered about his friend and some of the
players swirling around the scene back in the day, Starting
with Gil Fernandez, Well.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Plain and simple, he said Gil was a nut. He
essentially just kept calling him the tuffis strongest guy in
the world, and no one would mess with Gil. And
that was pretty much his impression of Gil is that
nobody wanted to mess with.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
He went on to recount the details of how he
had heard Billy was killed.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
He was the first of many rumored statements that I
got where he said that he heard that Billy was
taped to a chair and had his throat cut, and
he was given a Columbian necktie that he had his
tongue pulled through his neck.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
According to him, Billy's killers were sending a statement across
the boss and you're going to pay.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Yeah. He was adamant that Billy was killed because whoever
killed him was trying to send a message to everyone
else in law. So the idea, I think was to
kill Billy but then make a spectacle of it to
ensure that the additional people that are in this group
wouldn't open their mouths because they would see the damage
(10:40):
that was done to Billy.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
For the record, Billy was not tied to a chair,
and while his throat was cut, his tongue was not removed.
These embellishments were strong evidence that this witness may be
working from more rumor than inside knowledge. But our goal
in interviewing witnesses thirty seven years after a crime was
(11:03):
not just to collect facts or illicit a spontaneous confession.
Mostly we were fishing for names with three unknown DNA
profiles pulled from Billy's crime scene and more potential suspects
to try to match the better. The first name to
come up Jimmy Heina.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
We're early on. Jimmy Hina was on the radar. We
know that Jimmy and Billy knew each other. And he
said he knew Jimmy, he knew him really well. He
said he was called him a redneck from out west.
He said he was a nice guy. They hung out,
the families hung out, they had lots to get togethers.
But he said that Jimmy Heino was not someone who
(11:46):
was afraid of anything.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
I Note was a known member of Gil's crew who
was found shot to death six months after Billy's murder.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
I asked him specifically if you thought that Jimmy Hina
was involved, and the answer I got was one.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
So far, what he was telling us tracked with what
we already knew. That Billy knew Gill and High Note
well enough to invite them both inside, no forced entry required,
and that Billy was too big to be taken down
by just one person.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
He had mentioned over and over that Billy was just
essentially bigger than life. He said, he was bigger than
anyone around. No one could have pushed him around by themselves,
and it would have taken multiple people to hold him down.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
It's important to remember here that this witness's name was
listed in Billy's case file more than any other.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
He seemed to be the type of guy.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Everyone knew, a central cog in the six Degrees of
Separation within the South Florida drug scene, but despite his
connections and his criminal history, he was never named as
a potential suspect Billy's murder.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
I think he's aware that he was in the report,
and he was mentioned a lot, and I know that
he was spoken two years ago, but he couldn't tell
me why. He doesn't understand what his involvement is. He
liked to say that he's not a fighter. He's not
someone that would want to fight with any of these guys.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
However, according to the case file, there was a tip
from an anonymous caller in the aftermath of Billy's murder
that seemed to suggest otherwise.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Now, one of the reasons that he was really high
on my suspect lists or people that I wanted to
talk to, is because there was mentioned that he had
a cut on his hand just days after Billy's murder,
and I really wanted to talk to him about that
cut because as we all know any violence done with
a sharp edged instrument, oftentimes the perpetrator or perpetrators are
(13:54):
going to have some kind of a cut.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Unsurprisingly, he denied any memory of an inn injury to
his hand during the time of Billy's murder. And I
don't think Danny or I thought he was someone who
either had the motive or the temperament to be Billy's killer.
But sometimes a little bit of pressure can trigger a
person's sense of self preservation. Darring loose new facts, rumors,
(14:20):
and most importantly names.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
His first mention was Mike Carbone. He knew him, they
were friends, they hung out of the beach, but he
said he was a crazy guy. He was one of
those guys that nobody really, I don't think, wanted to
mess with, just because you just didn't know what he
would do.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Michael Carbone was an associate of Gills from the Apollo Jim.
He was also who turned state's witness against Gil Fernandez
and berg Christi in the Danger Road triple murders. From
what we had gathered, Carbone had exchanged his testimony for
immunity at a spot in the witness relocation program. What
(15:00):
we had not heard was that he had any role
in Billy's murder.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
He feels that not only could he be involved, he
actually felt that he was involved. He didn't have any
information to back that up, but he feels pretty strongly
that Mike Carbone was in that count home with Billy.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
It's a pretty big accusation, one that we only include
here with the caveat that this is all speculation, not
the conclusion of law enforcement. So was this witness just
repeating more rumors, maybe even deflecting suspicion away from himself,
or was there any truth behind it. Mike Carbone had
(15:44):
admitted to state and federal prosecutors that he was present
at Gill's execution of three men in nineteen eighty three.
Wasn't it possible that he could have been also part
of a crew that ambushed Billy Halpern two years later?
Was it possible that it was his DNA on the
electrical tape found tied around Billy's wrists. If so, we
(16:08):
might be out of luck, because if Michael Carbone was
still in witness.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Protection, he was a ghost.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
But what if Detective Danny Smith could find him. It
wasn't out of the realm of possibility. After all, some
ghosts just can't resist a trip home to their old haunts.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
All right, it's right there, yep, just walking ahead, Yep,
where the four by four is?
Speaker 5 (16:57):
That's hey? How you doing man? Hey, Poppy? Yeah, I'm
not worried about it.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Here's the thing about witnesses, they don't always agree, which
is why when you think you're onto one theory, it's
best not to hold on too tight.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
My name is Danny Smith. I'm a detective memory police spartman.
This is Scott Weinberger. It's gonna sound weird. No one's
in trouble. We're actually reopening an old case and your
name came up.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
The man with the dog again, we're protecting his identity
here is not only familiar with Billy Halpern's murder, but
he ran in the same Apollo crowd and he was
just as skittish about talking to Danny. Danny decided to
float the name Michael Carbone and get his take on
the theory that he might have been involved in Billy's murder.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
He was adamant that Carbone is not a killer. He
said that he knew Carbone. He grew up with the
guy and he's known him for many, many years, and
he just flat out said he's not a killer. He
wouldn't kill he hurt someone like that. Now I had
to look at that, and with the understanding that he
(18:15):
was involved in that nineteen eighty three triple murder, So
I can't say that he wouldn't hurt anyone because he
was there. He was complicit in that.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Asked what he thought about Carbone's role in Gill's crew,
he described someone entirely different than the enforcer portrayed by
our previous witness.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
So he had said that Carbone was he was a
big guy, and being in big guy, I got the impression,
at least from his body language, that Carbone's size may
have turned people from wanting to give a toe to
toe with him. But he really said Carbone was just,
to use a different word, he was just a win.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
In other words, he thought Carbone was nothing more than
show muscled, although his participation in the Danger Road murders
belies that description. As for why so many members of
the Apollo wound up dead, his take was similar to
what many people had told us. Drugs, shakedowns and eliminating
(19:20):
potential informants. In his words, when you mess around with
the wrong people, shit happens. It was the kind of
South Florida fatalism that Danny and I had grown accustomed.
Without physical evidence, the information shared by these witnesses was
still just conjecture, and the case no more solved than
(19:41):
it was thirty seven years ago. But Danny Smith had
something those investigators didn't have, DNA, and with three viable
but unknown male DNA profiles retrieved from the tape around
Billy's wrists, Danny knew it was high time to start
using that DNA to separate rumor from fact.
Speaker 7 (20:05):
DNA. You know, we're at the point in time where
it's almost expected jurors when we go into court, they
expect DNA evidence to be on a case.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Christina Sovito is the daughter of scientist parents, so she
always thought she would be destined for a lab quote.
Speaker 7 (20:23):
But I'll say it shows like bones and CSI and
things like that. You know, they call it kind of
like the CSI effect. I always thought this was something
I kind of wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Christina started her career in the Army before joining DNA
Labs International, a private laboratory in Deerfield Beach and.
Speaker 7 (20:43):
The primary focus of the Armed Forces, identification is to
identify fallen soldiers, So my section primarily dealed with remains
from World War I, World War Two, the Korean and
the Vietnam wars.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Her mission was not just to identify unknown soldiers, but
to bring them home, and she brings that same dedication
to criminal forensics and over the last few months she
has become a full fledged member of the investigative team.
Speaker 7 (21:16):
The cold cases are very difficult because the DNA degrades
over time. We know it does because of exposure to
heat and time if it was exposed to emmy chemicals.
And by degrade, what I mean is break it down
into little pieces that keeps us from being able to
get a DNA profile.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
But at state of the art labs like hers, sometimes
partial samples can be combined to make a whole, which
was what Detective Danny Smith decided to do with the
samples recovered from Billy Halpern's crime scene.
Speaker 7 (21:52):
So we decided to combine the sample from that electrical
tape on the right wrist with the rubber glove sample
because of that amount of DNA on both samples, and
we combined that together and the resulting DNA profile was
a mixture of at least three individuals.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Identifying the owner of that DNA would require a one
to one match with a person who left it behind.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
So was halper and one of the contributors to those
three male profiles.
Speaker 7 (22:25):
No, He ended up being excluded from this DNA.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Profile, leaving our leading contenders to be High Note, Harry Collier,
Michael Crobone, and gil Fernandez. Carbone hadn't been seen in
nearly thirty five years, likely living under an assumed name
in the witness relocation program, and our chances of getting
(22:50):
a voluntary DNA sample from gil Fernandez slim to none,
but we were optimistic that DNA profiles or standards of
both Collier and High Note could be developed from blood
samples that were taken by the coroner at the time
of their autopsies on what cops call spot cards. Unfortunately,
(23:12):
that wasn't the case. As often happens with evidence this old,
the spot cards were likely improperly stored and the samples
were too degraded to detect DNA. Same goes for any
DNA that might have been under Billy Halpern's fingernails, which
were also swabbed and tested.
Speaker 7 (23:33):
There may have been more DNA, you know, thirty years ago,
but that DNA may have degraded to the point where
we can't detect it now.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Then there was the evidence that Danny Smith had always
believed would be the case closer the coup de gras.
In the original crime scene report, it had been recorded
that several strands of hair had been found still clenched
in one of Billy's fists. It was reasonable to assume
(24:04):
that if there had been a struggle as Billy was
being bound, tortured, and ultimately killed, he may have grabbed
hold of one of his attacker's hair and come away
with what could be crucial DNA evidence. But in nineteen
eighty six, long before testing hair for DNA was possible,
(24:25):
that hair had been collected and sealed in an envelope
and stored in an evidence locker at the Briar Sheriff's office.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
Hello, Hi, good, how are you?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
I am here from Nearmore police down, Andy Broward.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
I'm here off hand, careful not to corrupt the chain
of evidence.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Danny had requested that sealed envelope and hand delivered it
to Christina to have it tested.
Speaker 7 (24:53):
So if you rip out a piece of your hair.
You're going to see this white bulb on the end
of it. That's where the majority of the DNA in
hair is. So you know, many laboratories, if they don't
see that bulb in a piece of hair, they won't
test it at all.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
But according to the evidence report, the bulbs were still
intact in this case.
Speaker 7 (25:14):
It was extremely disappointing because we opened the evidence item
and we were hoping to look at these hairs and
assess them and to see if there were bulbs there,
and there was no sample. There was no hair sample
present in the packaging. Like we've had multiple people confirm
it's not in the envelope.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
The hair inside the sealed evidence envelope was gone. This
evidence that had the potential to idea killer.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Where did it go?
Speaker 7 (25:46):
In Working with hair samples, we found that they're very
susceptible to static. So when we actually collect hairs at
our laboratory, we'll use almost like a post it type
thing to make sure the hair sticks on that so
that they don't get lost. Because if you put a
hair into an envelope, if static comes along, it might
(26:07):
shoot out of the envelope or it might you know,
go over on your benchtop instead, so that's something too
where they might have collected it at the time. But
if it didn't go fully in that envelope, or if
it lashed onto something else, it may have been empty,
you know, this whole time.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
The way it's described in the crime scene is a
clump of hair. Yes, so it seems like he grabbed
a bunch of it, So it's not like it's a
three or four small strands of hair. It seemed like
it was a fistful hair.
Speaker 7 (26:38):
It might have been something where someone opened it at
one point to look at it and repackaged it in
you know, a different evidence packaging and it sealed somewhere
and no one knows where that is. Especially cold case evidence,
it gets moved to a different part of the evidence
fault to make way for new evidence coming in. It
could be that situation where maybe that it is out there,
(27:01):
maybe that clump of hair isn't a different packaging somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Or could it be the case that someone didn't want
it ever to be found.
Speaker 7 (27:11):
It is disappointing, you know, obviously we want to get
a DNA profile, especially something like a cold case where
you're on the final straw, you're on the final piece
of evidence.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
What was going on?
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Was the missing hair just a result of bad luck
carelessness or was it evidence of a potential cover up?
Could someone in law enforcement have deliberately destroyed or disappeared
this crucial evidence to protect the identity of Billy Halpern's killer.
Whether it was coincidence or corruption, it was time to
(27:47):
raise the stakes in Danny Smith's investigation. It was time
to shake the tree and see who else among the crooks,
cops and wise guys operating out of the Apollo gym
might fall out.
Speaker 8 (28:09):
Good morning, We'll get started to Shorty just to gibe
a little bit of a rundown chief dollars months to
opening up. He'll be followed by technic Dan Smith, the
fifteen's sister Lori Taubert, JASUS president as well. We'll allow
the questions at the end for the detective, and then
(28:30):
I'll follow a spash sound thank you.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
On a Sunday morning in January of twenty twenty four,
Detective Danny Smith, with the support of the Miramar Police
Chief del Rich Moss, held a press conference to publicly
announce the reopening of the Billy helper and murder investigation.
And to make a public appeal for witnesses who may
have information that could help solve this case.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Obviously, there are a few minor details in the investigation
that we want to keep to ourselves, but for the
most part, I wanted to get as much information out
there as possible and do anything that we can to
solve it. And if that's through the press, through a podcast,
through print, whatever it is, if it's going to help
(29:23):
us solve this case, then then why not why not
give a shot?
Speaker 5 (29:28):
Good morning?
Speaker 1 (29:29):
I want on behalf of the Miramar Police Department and
the helper and family. We want to thank all of
you for coming out and giving us this opportunity to
get this case back out. As the chief said. October
twenty first, nineteen eighty six, Billy Helpern was killed in
his mire More Town home. Billy was a Hollandale fireman.
(29:52):
He was loved by his family. He loved his family,
he was an avid bodybuilder, loved the beach, and the
course of the last sixteen months of this investigation, I
have not been able to find anyone that can speak
badly about Billy. Billy's murder has been tied to numerous
(30:14):
other murders throughout the Daydenbarer area back in the nineteen eighties.
Central to those murders was a former Miami Day police officer,
Gil Fernandez, and his partner Burt Christie, who both worked
and owned or ran Apollo Gym out of Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Publicly naming Gil Fernandez and Burt Christie as suspects in
the investigation was a strategic risk. A they were widely known,
their faces being plastered across newspapers during their high profile
trial b they were either dead, as in the case
with Burt Christie, or they were incarcerated in Gill's case,
(30:56):
for life.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
In other words, it idn'pose a.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Threat to anyone who might feel inclined to cooperate with police,
or so Danny hoped.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Over the last sixteen months, we have been able to
interview multiple people, countless individuals that have come forward that
we're unwilling to come forward back in the eighties and
early nineties out of fear of either Gil or Burt Christi,
or whoever it was.
Speaker 5 (31:26):
They were now able to come forward.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
More importantly, we were able to locate and test dozens
of pieces of evidence and obtain multiple DNA profiles from suspects.
From that evidence and through DNA labs, we were able
to find DNA profiles of unknown suspects. The reason that
(31:50):
we are bringing this out now is we need suspects
to compare them to. We need names. We need somebody
to come forward and give us information that will allow
us to identify these unknown suspect DNA profiles.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Our interviews with the myriad of people listed in the
case file. While Colorful had not really introduced new suspects
into this investigation, what we needed was tips, rumors, and
new leads to run down. What we needed were names.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Now we have a working theory on this case. We
know that Billy was safety conscious. We know that he
would not have opened the door to anyone he either
didn't know or didn't like.
Speaker 5 (32:39):
There was no forced.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Entry at this house. So our working theory is we
had multiple people in broad daylight, went to Billy's townhome,
knocked on the door. Billy allowed them into the house
because he probably knew one or more of the people
that were in this group. They pushed their way in.
Once inside, Billy was bound, beaten, and ultimately killed.
Speaker 5 (33:06):
This was done in broad daylight.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
So we're asking the public to come forward and even
give us a name of someone who they believe was
there that we can potentially get their DNA and compare
that to what we have.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Sitting with other reporters.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
I thought the one question still not being asked was
why now opposed to ten years ago or twenty I
just couldn't resist. So it's nineteen eighty eighty seven when
it occurs, and now we're in twenty twenty four, Why now?
Why is it a good idea to do this today
opposed to any on time?
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Time and technology? I think time and technology is what
made this the right time. DNA technology is at an
all time high. We have complete faith in the lab,
the technology that they use, and I believe that enough
time has passed where we can have people that are
no longer afraid to come forward.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Laurie Halpern was also there, standing by Danny's side. Her
cooperation and support was an integral part of the investigation
and Danny's appeal to the public.
Speaker 5 (34:17):
There's a possibility that someone out there knows something, knows
who may be responsible for this.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
If there was a message that it had for them.
Speaker 9 (34:23):
What would be come forward, Call Danny, call them, call
me mirramr and thank you for coming and being brave.
Don't be afraid, come and tell them what you know.
I'd be grateful, My family would be grateful.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Are you moving away from Bernando.
Speaker 7 (34:42):
And his partner?
Speaker 1 (34:44):
No, Nope, Fernandez is still a He's still a suspect
in the case. He has been a suspect from the beginning.
He continues to be a suspect, and he at this
point is a suspect. My working theory is that people
were killed systematically to keep him quiet, So anyone that
(35:06):
was killed after Billy Halpern is potentially a suspect.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Also, Danny also had one more message to anyone that
might be involved in the murder or even a possible
cover up. Anyone wondering if, after thirty years, gil Fernandez
was finally willing to talk.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
And ted talking to gil Fernandez.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
I have Liz. He was.
Speaker 5 (35:32):
He was very cooperative.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
He spoke to myself and another investigator for a great
deal of time.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
The following morning, the Miami Herald ran a front page
story on the reopening of.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
The help and cold case.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
The press conference was widely covered and instantly the tip
lines lit up. The question, now would this appeal bring
this nearly forty year investigation any closer to being solved,
or take it in a completely new direction. The joke
(36:13):
wars and it turned out, I mean, it's really not
a joke. Half the people there were police, the other
half were drug dealers, and there was like a neutral
zone where they would be friends with one another, spot
each other, and then when they left the gym, they
were out shooting each.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Other cold blooded.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
The Apollo Jim Murders is a production of iHeart Podcasts
and Authentic Wave Media. Scott Weinberger, Kevin Bennett, and Walker
Lemon are executive producers. Sabrina Siree is our line producer,
scoring sound design and mixing by Mark Lamar jay Z.
(37:01):
For iHeart Podcasts, Christina Everett is executive producer, and David
Wasserman is brand marketing manager. And with special thanks to
the Miramar Police Department, Chief Delrich Moss, p Io Tanya Ardaz,
and Detective Susie Smith,
Probably about a month ago. I was looking for one
particular piece of information, so I started digging through. There
were actually the physical notepads from the investigators from way
back when in the eighties.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Cold case Detective Danny Smith has been investigating the nineteen
eighty six murder of Billy Halburn and has left no
stone unturned.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
And I started looking through and there was one handwritten
note and it was small. It was two sentences, and
it said Officer Ellis advised that there was a suspicious
car and this is the description of the car. He
got the information from the tipster and Keith Ellis the
ls is my dad's.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Name, Danny's father. He was a cop too, right here
in Miramar, Florid. What are the odds father and son
working the same case nearly forty years apart.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
And he was in one of the notes of one
of the investigators. It blew my mind. And then as
the days went on, I just kept thinking about it,
and I was amazed that here I am working a
case thirty seven years later, that I'm going to see
my dad's name in some of the notes that he
theoretically had some information on the case.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff, and
this is cold blooded.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
The Apollogym murders.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Detective Danny Smith moved to South Florida when he was
a kid. But back then, it wasn't murder that was
on his mind. It was baseball.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
So that was essentially my life. I would wake up
and I would think about baseball and making it to
the big leagues, and go to go to school, my work,
and then I'd be at the ballfield until nine ten
o'clock at night, and then I just do it over
again the next day.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
By college, it was clear that Danny not only had
the talent to make it to the pros, he had
to drive that unrelenting desire to defy what can seem
like insurmountable odds.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
It is a grind. You just have to keep going
and going and going, and whenever you feel like you've
lost or it's not gonna happen for you, you just
gotta find something else.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
But Danny's dad was a cop, first right here at
Miramar and then at the Miami Dade Police Department, so
the poll to a career in law enforcement was always there,
tugging at his sleeve.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Nice first second third year of college, I started to
really give it some serious thought, and I figured, you
know what, let me give it a shot, and if
the big leagues don't work out for me, then I
got to have a fallback.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
So during his senior year in college, while staring down
pitchers and batting over four hundred, Danny put in a
few applications for a job in law enforcement.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
And then I got picked up after my senior year
of college to go play pro ball in upstate New York.
So while I was up there, I ended up getting
a call from Nearmore Police saying that they were going
to hire me, and they wanted me to come down.
The academy starts in two weeks, and at the time,
we were in our playoffs up there, so we finished
(03:35):
up our playoffs, I had to get released from my
contract to come straight down to South Florida, get fitted
for my academy uniforms, and I went straight to the
police adademy.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
In law enforcement, Danny saw the same kind of brotherhood
he did in baseball, the team work and the necessity
of knowing that you have someone else's back and they
have yours.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Growing up, I always saw my dad around his police
officer friends, and it seemed like a family. It would
bring out a side of him that we didn't really
see in the house. I didn't quite understand it, especially
being so young. I didn't understand how he would tell
me that he's willing to get his life for somebody else.
(04:21):
It's life or death. And they beat that into you
in the academy, that this is the real deal and
you can go to work and not come home. And
I was happy to see everyone really take that seriously.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
When Danny decided to reopen the nearly forty year old
unsolved murder of Billy Halpern, he knew it would be
a long shot, but he loved the grind and he
wasn't afraid to swing for the fences.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I was, and still am, very competitive, and I hate
to lose. I will do anything that I can to
not lose.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
The fact that his own father had worked the same
case was not just a bit of cosmic kismet. It
was a personal connection to a crime that had cast
a dark cloud over this community for decades.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
It struck me that I wish that he was around,
that I could talk to him about it and get
his idea of how impactful the case was to the
community and everything that was done for the investigation, that
he would be able to actually give me some inside information.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Danny's father died in two thousand and five after three
decades in law enforcement. Watching Danny scribble notes in his notepad,
I thought about how some cases can create a bond
between cops that spans.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Not just years, but generations.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
How sweet it would be to knock this one out
of the park and to win one for his old man.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
There's the wife and there's him.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
He's there with the wife.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Just hey, hello, Hey, Danny Smith, how are you.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
There were a lot of names in Billy's case file.
Some were people that Miramar or Brad Sheriff's thought might
have knowledge of Billy's murder.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Some were just friends of Billy's.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Or guys that hung around the beach or at the
Apollo Gym. As part of this investigation, Danny and I
both knew but have to track down as as many
of these names as possible, But getting them to talk
that was another story.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
So the reason that I'm reaching out to actually a
bunch of people. I'll probably give you a bunch of
names that are going to kind of come back to you.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Danny was talking with someone that had grown up in
Hollywood Beach and knew both Billy and Laurie Halpern. His
hesitancy to talk made it clear to us that the
fear of reprisal from whoever killed Billy was still palpable,
even forty years after his murder.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Okay, we actually got a chance to speak to Laurie
and a couple other people, but as you can imagine.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
It's been a long time.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
We need to talk to as many people as possible.
There's really no expiration on an investigation for homicide if
it's not solved.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
But he may also have had other reasons why he
was still hesitant to talk to police. According to the
case file, this guy sold his share of dope back
in the day and did some time in prison as
a result. But he also used to run with the
Apollo Jim crowd, so we had reasons to believe he
may have heard some things, maybe even seen some things.
(08:19):
Just to give you an idea of how small this
world was, even now.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Forty years later.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
The guy who opened the door was someone I have
known since I was a teenager. How his name ended
up in a homicide investigation. I had no idea. It's
something I had discussed with Danny before our visit.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
But let's be clear, the person on this list, according
to what you were telling me, is not just someone
who potentially is a witness, but somebody who potentially is
a suspecting bill it happens murder.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, this person is mentioned in more reports overall in
the entire case file than any other person, with the
exception of our victim. He appears to have a lot
of relationship and inner workings and hanging out with almost
everyone else in this case file.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
After inviting Danny inside, the old friend of Billy's volunteered
what he remembered about his friend and some of the
players swirling around the scene back in the day, Starting
with Gil Fernandez, Well.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Plain and simple, he said Gil was a nut. He
essentially just kept calling him the tuffis strongest guy in
the world, and no one would mess with Gil. And
that was pretty much his impression of Gil is that
nobody wanted to mess with.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
He went on to recount the details of how he
had heard Billy was killed.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
He was the first of many rumored statements that I
got where he said that he heard that Billy was
taped to a chair and had his throat cut, and
he was given a Columbian necktie that he had his
tongue pulled through his neck.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
According to him, Billy's killers were sending a statement across
the boss and you're going to pay.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Yeah. He was adamant that Billy was killed because whoever
killed him was trying to send a message to everyone
else in law. So the idea, I think was to
kill Billy but then make a spectacle of it to
ensure that the additional people that are in this group
wouldn't open their mouths because they would see the damage
(10:40):
that was done to Billy.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
For the record, Billy was not tied to a chair,
and while his throat was cut, his tongue was not removed.
These embellishments were strong evidence that this witness may be
working from more rumor than inside knowledge. But our goal
in interviewing witnesses thirty seven years after a crime was
(11:03):
not just to collect facts or illicit a spontaneous confession.
Mostly we were fishing for names with three unknown DNA
profiles pulled from Billy's crime scene and more potential suspects
to try to match the better. The first name to
come up Jimmy Heina.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
We're early on. Jimmy Hina was on the radar. We
know that Jimmy and Billy knew each other. And he
said he knew Jimmy, he knew him really well. He
said he was called him a redneck from out west.
He said he was a nice guy. They hung out,
the families hung out, they had lots to get togethers.
But he said that Jimmy Heino was not someone who
(11:46):
was afraid of anything.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
I Note was a known member of Gil's crew who
was found shot to death six months after Billy's murder.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
I asked him specifically if you thought that Jimmy Hina
was involved, and the answer I got was one.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
So far, what he was telling us tracked with what
we already knew. That Billy knew Gill and High Note
well enough to invite them both inside, no forced entry required,
and that Billy was too big to be taken down
by just one person.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
He had mentioned over and over that Billy was just
essentially bigger than life. He said, he was bigger than
anyone around. No one could have pushed him around by themselves,
and it would have taken multiple people to hold him down.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
It's important to remember here that this witness's name was
listed in Billy's case file more than any other.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
He seemed to be the type of guy.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Everyone knew, a central cog in the six Degrees of
Separation within the South Florida drug scene, but despite his
connections and his criminal history, he was never named as
a potential suspect Billy's murder.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
I think he's aware that he was in the report,
and he was mentioned a lot, and I know that
he was spoken two years ago, but he couldn't tell
me why. He doesn't understand what his involvement is. He
liked to say that he's not a fighter. He's not
someone that would want to fight with any of these guys.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
However, according to the case file, there was a tip
from an anonymous caller in the aftermath of Billy's murder
that seemed to suggest otherwise.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Now, one of the reasons that he was really high
on my suspect lists or people that I wanted to
talk to, is because there was mentioned that he had
a cut on his hand just days after Billy's murder,
and I really wanted to talk to him about that
cut because as we all know any violence done with
a sharp edged instrument, oftentimes the perpetrator or perpetrators are
(13:54):
going to have some kind of a cut.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Unsurprisingly, he denied any memory of an inn injury to
his hand during the time of Billy's murder. And I
don't think Danny or I thought he was someone who
either had the motive or the temperament to be Billy's killer.
But sometimes a little bit of pressure can trigger a
person's sense of self preservation. Darring loose new facts, rumors,
(14:20):
and most importantly names.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
His first mention was Mike Carbone. He knew him, they
were friends, they hung out of the beach, but he
said he was a crazy guy. He was one of
those guys that nobody really, I don't think, wanted to
mess with, just because you just didn't know what he
would do.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Michael Carbone was an associate of Gills from the Apollo Jim.
He was also who turned state's witness against Gil Fernandez
and berg Christi in the Danger Road triple murders. From
what we had gathered, Carbone had exchanged his testimony for
immunity at a spot in the witness relocation program. What
(15:00):
we had not heard was that he had any role
in Billy's murder.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
He feels that not only could he be involved, he
actually felt that he was involved. He didn't have any
information to back that up, but he feels pretty strongly
that Mike Carbone was in that count home with Billy.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
It's a pretty big accusation, one that we only include
here with the caveat that this is all speculation, not
the conclusion of law enforcement. So was this witness just
repeating more rumors, maybe even deflecting suspicion away from himself,
or was there any truth behind it. Mike Carbone had
(15:44):
admitted to state and federal prosecutors that he was present
at Gill's execution of three men in nineteen eighty three.
Wasn't it possible that he could have been also part
of a crew that ambushed Billy Halpern two years later?
Was it possible that it was his DNA on the
electrical tape found tied around Billy's wrists. If so, we
(16:08):
might be out of luck, because if Michael Carbone was
still in witness.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Protection, he was a ghost.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
But what if Detective Danny Smith could find him. It
wasn't out of the realm of possibility. After all, some
ghosts just can't resist a trip home to their old haunts.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
All right, it's right there, yep, just walking ahead, Yep,
where the four by four is?
Speaker 5 (16:57):
That's hey? How you doing man? Hey, Poppy? Yeah, I'm
not worried about it.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Here's the thing about witnesses, they don't always agree, which
is why when you think you're onto one theory, it's
best not to hold on too tight.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
My name is Danny Smith. I'm a detective memory police spartman.
This is Scott Weinberger. It's gonna sound weird. No one's
in trouble. We're actually reopening an old case and your
name came up.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
The man with the dog again, we're protecting his identity
here is not only familiar with Billy Halpern's murder, but
he ran in the same Apollo crowd and he was
just as skittish about talking to Danny. Danny decided to
float the name Michael Carbone and get his take on
the theory that he might have been involved in Billy's murder.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
He was adamant that Carbone is not a killer. He
said that he knew Carbone. He grew up with the
guy and he's known him for many, many years, and
he just flat out said he's not a killer. He
wouldn't kill he hurt someone like that. Now I had
to look at that, and with the understanding that he
(18:15):
was involved in that nineteen eighty three triple murder, So
I can't say that he wouldn't hurt anyone because he
was there. He was complicit in that.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Asked what he thought about Carbone's role in Gill's crew,
he described someone entirely different than the enforcer portrayed by
our previous witness.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
So he had said that Carbone was he was a
big guy, and being in big guy, I got the impression,
at least from his body language, that Carbone's size may
have turned people from wanting to give a toe to
toe with him. But he really said Carbone was just,
to use a different word, he was just a win.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
In other words, he thought Carbone was nothing more than
show muscled, although his participation in the Danger Road murders
belies that description. As for why so many members of
the Apollo wound up dead, his take was similar to
what many people had told us. Drugs, shakedowns and eliminating
(19:20):
potential informants. In his words, when you mess around with
the wrong people, shit happens. It was the kind of
South Florida fatalism that Danny and I had grown accustomed.
Without physical evidence, the information shared by these witnesses was
still just conjecture, and the case no more solved than
(19:41):
it was thirty seven years ago. But Danny Smith had
something those investigators didn't have, DNA, and with three viable
but unknown male DNA profiles retrieved from the tape around
Billy's wrists, Danny knew it was high time to start
using that DNA to separate rumor from fact.
Speaker 7 (20:05):
DNA. You know, we're at the point in time where
it's almost expected jurors when we go into court, they
expect DNA evidence to be on a case.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Christina Sovito is the daughter of scientist parents, so she
always thought she would be destined for a lab quote.
Speaker 7 (20:23):
But I'll say it shows like bones and CSI and
things like that. You know, they call it kind of
like the CSI effect. I always thought this was something
I kind of wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Christina started her career in the Army before joining DNA
Labs International, a private laboratory in Deerfield Beach and.
Speaker 7 (20:43):
The primary focus of the Armed Forces, identification is to
identify fallen soldiers, So my section primarily dealed with remains
from World War I, World War Two, the Korean and
the Vietnam wars.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Her mission was not just to identify unknown soldiers, but
to bring them home, and she brings that same dedication
to criminal forensics and over the last few months she
has become a full fledged member of the investigative team.
Speaker 7 (21:16):
The cold cases are very difficult because the DNA degrades
over time. We know it does because of exposure to
heat and time if it was exposed to emmy chemicals.
And by degrade, what I mean is break it down
into little pieces that keeps us from being able to
get a DNA profile.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
But at state of the art labs like hers, sometimes
partial samples can be combined to make a whole, which
was what Detective Danny Smith decided to do with the
samples recovered from Billy Halpern's crime scene.
Speaker 7 (21:52):
So we decided to combine the sample from that electrical
tape on the right wrist with the rubber glove sample
because of that amount of DNA on both samples, and
we combined that together and the resulting DNA profile was
a mixture of at least three individuals.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Identifying the owner of that DNA would require a one
to one match with a person who left it behind.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
So was halper and one of the contributors to those
three male profiles.
Speaker 7 (22:25):
No, He ended up being excluded from this DNA.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Profile, leaving our leading contenders to be High Note, Harry Collier,
Michael Crobone, and gil Fernandez. Carbone hadn't been seen in
nearly thirty five years, likely living under an assumed name
in the witness relocation program, and our chances of getting
(22:50):
a voluntary DNA sample from gil Fernandez slim to none,
but we were optimistic that DNA profiles or standards of
both Collier and High Note could be developed from blood
samples that were taken by the coroner at the time
of their autopsies on what cops call spot cards. Unfortunately,
(23:12):
that wasn't the case. As often happens with evidence this old,
the spot cards were likely improperly stored and the samples
were too degraded to detect DNA. Same goes for any
DNA that might have been under Billy Halpern's fingernails, which
were also swabbed and tested.
Speaker 7 (23:33):
There may have been more DNA, you know, thirty years ago,
but that DNA may have degraded to the point where
we can't detect it now.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Then there was the evidence that Danny Smith had always
believed would be the case closer the coup de gras.
In the original crime scene report, it had been recorded
that several strands of hair had been found still clenched
in one of Billy's fists. It was reasonable to assume
(24:04):
that if there had been a struggle as Billy was
being bound, tortured, and ultimately killed, he may have grabbed
hold of one of his attacker's hair and come away
with what could be crucial DNA evidence. But in nineteen
eighty six, long before testing hair for DNA was possible,
(24:25):
that hair had been collected and sealed in an envelope
and stored in an evidence locker at the Briar Sheriff's office.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
Hello, Hi, good, how are you?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
I am here from Nearmore police down, Andy Broward.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
I'm here off hand, careful not to corrupt the chain
of evidence.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Danny had requested that sealed envelope and hand delivered it
to Christina to have it tested.
Speaker 7 (24:53):
So if you rip out a piece of your hair.
You're going to see this white bulb on the end
of it. That's where the majority of the DNA in
hair is. So you know, many laboratories, if they don't
see that bulb in a piece of hair, they won't
test it at all.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
But according to the evidence report, the bulbs were still
intact in this case.
Speaker 7 (25:14):
It was extremely disappointing because we opened the evidence item
and we were hoping to look at these hairs and
assess them and to see if there were bulbs there,
and there was no sample. There was no hair sample
present in the packaging. Like we've had multiple people confirm
it's not in the envelope.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
The hair inside the sealed evidence envelope was gone. This
evidence that had the potential to idea killer.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Where did it go?
Speaker 7 (25:46):
In Working with hair samples, we found that they're very
susceptible to static. So when we actually collect hairs at
our laboratory, we'll use almost like a post it type
thing to make sure the hair sticks on that so
that they don't get lost. Because if you put a
hair into an envelope, if static comes along, it might
(26:07):
shoot out of the envelope or it might you know,
go over on your benchtop instead, so that's something too
where they might have collected it at the time. But
if it didn't go fully in that envelope, or if
it lashed onto something else, it may have been empty,
you know, this whole time.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
The way it's described in the crime scene is a
clump of hair. Yes, so it seems like he grabbed
a bunch of it, So it's not like it's a
three or four small strands of hair. It seemed like
it was a fistful hair.
Speaker 7 (26:38):
It might have been something where someone opened it at
one point to look at it and repackaged it in
you know, a different evidence packaging and it sealed somewhere
and no one knows where that is. Especially cold case evidence,
it gets moved to a different part of the evidence
fault to make way for new evidence coming in. It
could be that situation where maybe that it is out there,
(27:01):
maybe that clump of hair isn't a different packaging somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Or could it be the case that someone didn't want
it ever to be found.
Speaker 7 (27:11):
It is disappointing, you know, obviously we want to get
a DNA profile, especially something like a cold case where
you're on the final straw, you're on the final piece
of evidence.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
What was going on?
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Was the missing hair just a result of bad luck
carelessness or was it evidence of a potential cover up?
Could someone in law enforcement have deliberately destroyed or disappeared
this crucial evidence to protect the identity of Billy Halpern's killer.
Whether it was coincidence or corruption, it was time to
(27:47):
raise the stakes in Danny Smith's investigation. It was time
to shake the tree and see who else among the crooks,
cops and wise guys operating out of the Apollo gym
might fall out.
Speaker 8 (28:09):
Good morning, We'll get started to Shorty just to gibe
a little bit of a rundown chief dollars months to
opening up. He'll be followed by technic Dan Smith, the
fifteen's sister Lori Taubert, JASUS president as well. We'll allow
the questions at the end for the detective, and then
(28:30):
I'll follow a spash sound thank you.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
On a Sunday morning in January of twenty twenty four,
Detective Danny Smith, with the support of the Miramar Police
Chief del Rich Moss, held a press conference to publicly
announce the reopening of the Billy helper and murder investigation.
And to make a public appeal for witnesses who may
have information that could help solve this case.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Obviously, there are a few minor details in the investigation
that we want to keep to ourselves, but for the
most part, I wanted to get as much information out
there as possible and do anything that we can to
solve it. And if that's through the press, through a podcast,
through print, whatever it is, if it's going to help
(29:23):
us solve this case, then then why not why not
give a shot?
Speaker 5 (29:28):
Good morning?
Speaker 1 (29:29):
I want on behalf of the Miramar Police Department and
the helper and family. We want to thank all of
you for coming out and giving us this opportunity to
get this case back out. As the chief said. October
twenty first, nineteen eighty six, Billy Helpern was killed in
his mire More Town home. Billy was a Hollandale fireman.
(29:52):
He was loved by his family. He loved his family,
he was an avid bodybuilder, loved the beach, and the
course of the last sixteen months of this investigation, I
have not been able to find anyone that can speak
badly about Billy. Billy's murder has been tied to numerous
(30:14):
other murders throughout the Daydenbarer area back in the nineteen eighties.
Central to those murders was a former Miami Day police officer,
Gil Fernandez, and his partner Burt Christie, who both worked
and owned or ran Apollo Gym out of Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Publicly naming Gil Fernandez and Burt Christie as suspects in
the investigation was a strategic risk. A they were widely known,
their faces being plastered across newspapers during their high profile
trial b they were either dead, as in the case
with Burt Christie, or they were incarcerated in Gill's case,
(30:56):
for life.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
In other words, it idn'pose a.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Threat to anyone who might feel inclined to cooperate with police,
or so Danny hoped.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Over the last sixteen months, we have been able to
interview multiple people, countless individuals that have come forward that
we're unwilling to come forward back in the eighties and
early nineties out of fear of either Gil or Burt Christi,
or whoever it was.
Speaker 5 (31:26):
They were now able to come forward.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
More importantly, we were able to locate and test dozens
of pieces of evidence and obtain multiple DNA profiles from suspects.
From that evidence and through DNA labs, we were able
to find DNA profiles of unknown suspects. The reason that
(31:50):
we are bringing this out now is we need suspects
to compare them to. We need names. We need somebody
to come forward and give us information that will allow
us to identify these unknown suspect DNA profiles.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Our interviews with the myriad of people listed in the
case file. While Colorful had not really introduced new suspects
into this investigation, what we needed was tips, rumors, and
new leads to run down. What we needed were names.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Now we have a working theory on this case. We
know that Billy was safety conscious. We know that he
would not have opened the door to anyone he either
didn't know or didn't like.
Speaker 5 (32:39):
There was no forced.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Entry at this house. So our working theory is we
had multiple people in broad daylight, went to Billy's townhome,
knocked on the door. Billy allowed them into the house
because he probably knew one or more of the people
that were in this group. They pushed their way in.
Once inside, Billy was bound, beaten, and ultimately killed.
Speaker 5 (33:06):
This was done in broad daylight.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
So we're asking the public to come forward and even
give us a name of someone who they believe was
there that we can potentially get their DNA and compare
that to what we have.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Sitting with other reporters.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
I thought the one question still not being asked was
why now opposed to ten years ago or twenty I
just couldn't resist. So it's nineteen eighty eighty seven when
it occurs, and now we're in twenty twenty four, Why now?
Why is it a good idea to do this today
opposed to any on time?
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Time and technology? I think time and technology is what
made this the right time. DNA technology is at an
all time high. We have complete faith in the lab,
the technology that they use, and I believe that enough
time has passed where we can have people that are
no longer afraid to come forward.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Laurie Halpern was also there, standing by Danny's side. Her
cooperation and support was an integral part of the investigation
and Danny's appeal to the public.
Speaker 5 (34:17):
There's a possibility that someone out there knows something, knows
who may be responsible for this.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
If there was a message that it had for them.
Speaker 9 (34:23):
What would be come forward, Call Danny, call them, call
me mirramr and thank you for coming and being brave.
Don't be afraid, come and tell them what you know.
I'd be grateful, My family would be grateful.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Are you moving away from Bernando.
Speaker 7 (34:42):
And his partner?
Speaker 1 (34:44):
No, Nope, Fernandez is still a He's still a suspect
in the case. He has been a suspect from the beginning.
He continues to be a suspect, and he at this
point is a suspect. My working theory is that people
were killed systematically to keep him quiet, So anyone that
(35:06):
was killed after Billy Halpern is potentially a suspect.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Also, Danny also had one more message to anyone that
might be involved in the murder or even a possible
cover up. Anyone wondering if, after thirty years, gil Fernandez
was finally willing to talk.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
And ted talking to gil Fernandez.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
I have Liz. He was.
Speaker 5 (35:32):
He was very cooperative.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
He spoke to myself and another investigator for a great
deal of time.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
The following morning, the Miami Herald ran a front page
story on the reopening of.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
The help and cold case.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
The press conference was widely covered and instantly the tip
lines lit up. The question, now would this appeal bring
this nearly forty year investigation any closer to being solved,
or take it in a completely new direction. The joke
(36:13):
wars and it turned out, I mean, it's really not
a joke. Half the people there were police, the other
half were drug dealers, and there was like a neutral
zone where they would be friends with one another, spot
each other, and then when they left the gym, they
were out shooting each.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Other cold blooded.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
The Apollo Jim Murders is a production of iHeart Podcasts
and Authentic Wave Media. Scott Weinberger, Kevin Bennett, and Walker
Lemon are executive producers. Sabrina Siree is our line producer,
scoring sound design and mixing by Mark Lamar jay Z.
(37:01):
For iHeart Podcasts, Christina Everett is executive producer, and David
Wasserman is brand marketing manager. And with special thanks to
the Miramar Police Department, Chief Delrich Moss, p Io Tanya Ardaz,
and Detective Susie Smith,
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