01x04 - Midtown Slasher

[bunniefuu]

[ambient street noise]

[tense, mysterious music playing]

I was hired in January of '95
with the Pilmar family.

Howard and Ros Pilmar really needed
someone to help with their son, Philip.

After I'd been working for them
for over a year,

I went to work,
I walked back to Philip's room,

and he was in his school clothes,

on a made bed, staring at the ceiling.

And he said,
"Oh, my dad didn't come home last night."

I could tell he was upset.

A little bit later,
I was standing in the foyer,

and Ros just walked in
just with a look of shock on her face.

I could tell she had been crying.

She just stood there,
opened her hands, and said,

"Howard's dead."

And I remember just thinking,

"This... This can't be."

[suspenseful music playing]

[Mooney] In the 1990s, the m*rder rate
was off the charts in New York City.

But to have a businessman that's m*rder*d
in his own business in Midtown Manhattan,

that's a rare occasion.

[elevator dings]

Howard Pilmar
was stabbed 20, 30, 40 times.

Everybody had a theory.
None of us had an answer.

It was unsolved, but you never close
an unsolved homicide.

[Mooney] Every single case
takes a little piece out of your soul.

[Butcher] You cannot do this job
unless you really care.

[McNeely] You want to find out the truth.

That's what detectives do.

[man] I've always liked
the peek behind the curtain.

What really happened?

[Rivera] It's so important for a family
to know who m*rder*d their relative.

That's my job.

[Titus] In New York City, the NYPD...

This is it.

[suspenseful music trails off]

[train rumbling]

[tense music pulsing]


of the Midtown South Detective Squad,

which is the busiest detective squad
in the city of New York.

Over 2,000 cases a year.

Get a call early in the morning,
before I report to work,

that we have a... a m*rder
in an office building in Midtown.

[man] It was a Friday.
Walked to work. It was payday.

I was in a great mood.

Doing fabulously in sales

at King Office Supply Company,
Incorporated.

I think I arrived about 8:20.
I was always early.

And outside the entrance
to the building on 33rd Street

was standing an employee
who's never outside.

He was always in his office.

He was outside.

[sirens wailing faintly]

And I asked him,
"Ed, why are you standing here?"

And he turned to me and said,
"Howard is dead."

[sirens intensify]

The controller, King's controller,
came in at 5:30 in the morning

and found Howard's body.

He immediately went downstairs
and called 911.

I learned,
when I first got to the crime scene,

that King was a big office supply

with a storefront on the first floor,

and then an employee office
on the fourth floor.

[elevator dings]

[mysterious music playing]

His body was found
right outside the elevator

in the reception section
on the fourth floor.

We have a stab victim.

There was lots of blood.

[unsettling music playing]

Down the hallway,
there was a sink with blood in it

that led you to believe
that someone was washing their hands

or washing the m*rder weapon.

[Tucker] I remember...

the shock of it.

I remember screaming, "No."

And at that point
is when they brought the body out,

Howard's body.

[melancholy, somber music playing]

[man] When I found out that Howard's body
was discovered in the office,

I was knocked off my feet.

I felt like I guess any parent would feel

when they heard their child was dead,
especially from a m*rder.

I can't even try to express
my... my feelings today.

[woman] Howard and my father,
they worked together every day.

They were very, very close.

Howard just turned 40.

They... They looked alike.

You know,
they had the same fun personality.

Very outgoing, very personable.

Everybody liked them.

Howard must have been
four or five years old

when he came to the store the first time.

He always wanted to work for my company.

[Frank] My partner and I started in
the stationery business March 1st, 1958.

Office supplies.

You know, any kind of commercial printing.

Things of that nature.

I gave him the business, like, uh,

five or six months before he was m*rder*d.

Frank was devastated by, uh, the m*rder.

It's unnatural
for a parent to bury a child.

I can't imagine going through life
and not being a father,

and not seeing my sons succeed,
and develop, and do what they're doing.

I wouldn't trade that in for anything.
I mean, I think being a father's probably...

the most important title I've ever held.

[Frank] The sun rose and set...

In my eyes, Howard...

[rueful chuckle]

...was my whole life.

[melancholy music trailing off]

[curious percussive music playing]

We're trying to figure out
what's going on.

Who do we need to speak to?
Security cameras.

We did many canvasses.
You do initial canvass that day.

We canvass for weapons,
garbage pails, elevator shafts.

[Parrino] He still had his cash,
all his personal effects.

Kinda told us
this wasn't a random robbery.

[Tucker] Howard was m*rder*d
in the office. Police were there.

It was very unsettling to even be there.

The detectives asked me
to look for records of employees

that might have wished him ill,

might've hated him,
that he had a dispute with.

All I found was one person
who... who left in the last few months.

This guy worked in the copy center,
in the store.

It was a low-level job.

It was a lead.

They pursued it.

They spoke to other employees about him,
then also spoke to him,

and then saw it was a nonissue there.

[Tucker] To me, Howard was a great boss.

When he came into a room, you noticed it.

He was connected to all of us.
Howard made you feel like family.

[delicate, poignant music playing]

He... He was in the prime...

the absolute prime of his life.

A healthy, successful, outgoing...

A wonderful man.

To be m*rder*d? Oh, God.

[delicate music trailing off]

[foreboding music playing]

I went to the last hour
of Howard's autopsy.

He had over 40 stab wounds.

Not all were penetrating.

There was five
that may have been considered fatal enough

if they were just by themselves.

There was also a postmortem,

which is after his heart stops beating,

after he's legitimately dead,
he's continually getting stabbed.

This was a fierce,
emotional attack of Howard.

We go to the funeral service.

We had detectives inside that were overt.

We were showing support to the family
by being there.

But what you're also doing
is looking for some strange interaction

between anybody, right?

It could be as simple as a female,
not the wife, losing her mind,

or two people arguing.

On top of that,
we were outside the funeral

filming everybody coming in and out.

So in case there was something,
we can later go back to the film.

[Heather] There were over 1,000 people
at the funeral.

So it was... it was kind of daunting.

[somber, pensive music playing]

In the Jewish religion, after the funeral,

people come and visit
at the house of the person who dies,

and they pay their respects that way.

This is called "shiva."

Howard's wife, Ros, asked
if she could have the shiva at our house

because it would upset Philip
to have it at their apartment.

And, naturally, we said yes.

[mysterious, pensive music playing]

[woman] Philip loved his dad,
and his dad adored him.

Philip was eight.

Very, very smart for an eight-year-old.

He was a really talkative kid,
and happy, and just full of energy.

To see how Philip changed
after he lost his dad...

His vibrancy left.

His chattiness left.

His confidence was different.

So all of these things
that I saw in him as a spunky little boy,

that was all stripped.
That was all taken away from him.

He was lonely without his dad.

[tense, unnerving music playing]

After shiva, Ros comes into the office.

And she brought with her two gentlemen
from a large business products dealer.

She made an arrangement
to sell them the business.

[Frank] She couldn't run the business.

She didn't know anything
about the stationery business.

We all were conflicted.

"She's selling the business?
Oh no. What does that mean?"

We were close to $1,000,000 a month
in business at that time.

We had about 15 salesmen.

Without us, there was no business,
there were no customers.

And we told them,
"If you buy, we're all leaving."

Which is how
we bought the business from her.

[Parrino] Frank explained the dynamics
of the business and who was who.

'Cause that's part of what you have to do,
understand even how the business works

and who's responsible for what.

We interviewed everybody
who had worked for Howard.

There was 50 to 60 employees
that we interviewed.

I bet each one of them
was interviewed two to three times.

That's 180 interviews.

[Tucker] Detectives,
in their due diligence,

interviewed all of us twice.

So the first was a very cursory...

But the second time,
I think he might have asked me,

"Did you overhear any arguments?"

[cryptic, jittery music playing]

I overheard at 5:30,
the day before we found Howard's body,

Howard's side
of a brutal, vicious argument

between he and Ros.

He was yelling and screaming.

Howard screamed into the phone,

"You effin' C-U-N-T."

I'm sayin' to myself,

"That's a hard one to come back from
in a marriage."

[tense, dramatic music playing]

Ros was the first girl
that Howard ever had,

if you know what I mean.

They went to high school together,
and then they moved in together.

And before I knew it, they got married.

It was a nice, big Jewish wedding
at that time.

You know, we made a nice... nice party.

Howard was very happy.

I never had an inkling of any... any kind
of, um... problem with his marriage.

[Parrino] Under any circumstances,
you're looking for more witnesses.

Spoke to friends, family,
and things become apparent.

The marriage is not so good.

We were thinking
maybe there was an affair involved,

and that would cause motive.

[Mooney] Who knows
if Howard Pilmar had a girlfriend?

That he said,
"Listen, that's it. We're done."

"I'm married, and you're not...
you're not gettin' the money."

Or whatever it is.

And she didn't snap and stab him?
You don't know that.

That's why you draw that circle
around the victim

and find out what was goin' on
in his life at that time

in order to exclude any possibility that
that's what happened.

[Parrino] There were a number of females
we identified during the investigation

that had casual relationships with Howard.

I don't know that they were sexual,

but they were something
beyond a little bit more than "hello."

I heard those same rumors.

Never saw Howard with anyone else.

Howard never talked about
being with anyone else.

No person ever in my eight years there
said to me, "I saw Howard with..."

So it was a rumor.

[Parrino] We interviewed these women
and found that he was a flirtatious guy,

but we came up with nothing.

Some people get frustrated
following a lead

that doesn't come to fruition,
that gets shut down.

But that's actually a very good thing,

because you don't have to go back to that,
and it can't come back to haunt you later.

In the investigation of Howard's death,

we find out
Howard was a very driven individual.

Frank gives Howard a lot of credit,

taking the business to new levels.

[Tucker] Howard was a visionary.

He put a coffee bar
in an otherwise office supply store.

Before Starbucks, there was Philip's.
Before anything, there was Philip's.

There were people out the door,
waiting on line

to buy the lattes
and cappuccinos and espressos.

Having a coffee bar in there brought us
an entirely new segment of purchasers.

It was such a success that he opened up
another one in Carnegie Hall.

I said, "You'll never find people
in New York City

walking in the streets, drinking coffee."

I... I couldn't imagine it,

but it shows you what I knew
and what Howard knew.

Howard named the coffee bar
after his son, Philip.

It became "Philip's Coffee Bar."

It was a family business.

I worked with his wife, Roslyn,

on West 56th Street by Carnegie Hall.

And Ros's brother, Evan,
worked at Philip's Coffee on 33rd Street.

[Parrino] We learned Howard did not like
Roslyn's brother, Evan, very much.

Evan was working in Philip's Coffee

that was inside King Office Supply.

As a favor to Ros, Howard hired Evan,
who was unemployed.

So, Ros and Evan
managed both coffee shops.

[Heather] I started
at Philip's Coffee in '94.

He started shortly after I did.

I don't think Howard wanted Evan
to manage the coffee shop.

Because...

Uh, you know, it was Howard's, you know?

And I think Evan was taking...
like, taking charge.

Like, "This is mine."
You know? But it's not.

[Lewis] About the time
I started working for the Pilmars,

Philip said,
"Let's go to the coffee shop."

When we got there,
Ros was explaining to Evan

how Howard wanted the pastries
arranged in the case.

Evan lost it, and he flew open the case,

pulled a tray out, threw it, and said,

"I don't give an eff how Howard wants it."

That was really shocking.

Especially that he would act that way
in front of his nephew,

in front of customers.

And it left a big first impression.

[Parrino] After the shiva, we had Roslyn
and Evan come in to be interviewed.

We wanted to know Ros's timeline

and Evan's timeline
on the night of the m*rder.

They told us that day,
Howard and Evan went to the gym together

to discuss his moving up,
so to speak, in the company.

Evan wanted to make a jump
from the coffee shop

to sales in the paper company

because the salespeople
could make good money at the time.

[cryptic music playing]

Evan was, to me, very unapproachable.

If you talked to him, he would grunt.

He would grunt "hello" or "goodbye."

It didn't look like
he had a future in our business.

[Parrino] And then
after this meeting at the gym,

Howard and Evan met Roslyn in the office.

[Lederer] Because it was complicated
to work the security there,

Ros did not know how to lock up.

That's why Howard came back to lock up.

Evan and Ros left Howard behind to work.

They're the last two that see him alive.

[Lederer] If his wife and brother-in-law
left him at about eight o'clock,

and he was fine,

and then you find him
at 5:00 in the morning,

who came between 8:00 p.m.
and 5:00 a.m. and did this to him?

Remember, this was a time where
there weren't video cameras everywhere,

and we didn't have, like,
the surveillance in the offices.

[tense music playing]

[Parrino] We never recovered
the m*rder weapon.

But the police officer at the scene,
the uniformed police officer,

made mentions in his memo book
that Evan had cuts on his left hand,

and that he was left-handed.

[enigmatic music playing]

[Mooney] When a person is stabbed
multiple times like Howard Pilmar was,

blood is like oil,
and it gets on the handle of the knife,

and almost universally
the stabber will end up with injuries

because they can't hold on
to the handle of the knife

'cause it's too slippery.

Evan said it was picking up broken dishes
from a night or two before.

The cuts weren't really consistent
with the story,

but we needed more evidence.

What we hoped to find
was another drop of blood

that was not Howard's.

I remember talking to the ME
that was in charge of the lab,

and he would say to you,

"You could do the DNA test,
but you lose the sample after we do it."

"So you should hold off on this sample

because I think
technology will be advanced,

and we could do the sample better
in the future."

[enigmatic music trailing off]

[Parrino] About two months
into the investigation,

we found out that Philip's Coffee
owed $14,500 in state taxes.

$14,000 is really not enough

for most of us
to be motivated to do something.

But it was just something to be aware of,

that there was some financial issue.

And then we find out about
Ros's previous employer

from '91 to '95.

Uh, she ended up embezzling
like $160,000 in checks from him.

Ros was a dental hygienist,

and she was also taking care
of some of the books for him.

Finding out the marriage is not so good,

finding out
that she owes 14.5 to the state,



It's starting to make us
look at things differently.

And the second effect to this

is that when you talk to people
about this money,

the biggest comment she makes is,

"Don't tell Howard.
Don't tell Howard. He'll leave me."

"He'll take Philip away from me."

She inherited $1.2 million
in life insurance.

She inherited the King business,
Philip's Coffee Shop,

the apartment that they own
on East 72nd Street,

the summer home in Millerton, New York,

a share of a ski home in Vermont,
and Philip.

[Parrino] And this kinda changes our focus
a little bit more.

Then we learned Howard may have been
looking for a divorce.

And have more than one source

that tells us
he may be looking for a divorce was...

Made it very interesting.

[Frank] If there was a divorce,

Ros wouldn't have wanted
to give up Philip.

Howard wouldn't give up Philip either,
because Philip was everything to Howard.

As time went along, I was convinced
Philip is the reason for the m*rder.

It had to be Ros.

I... I can't think of anyone else
who had the motive to do that.

Ros told me that her and Evan
were still being questioned,

and that Frank was causing a big stink.

She said,
"Frank doesn't want to talk to me,

and is angry, and thinks I did this."

I just remember thinking

that it was strange that the grandfather
was... was upset with her.

[Heather] I believed that Evan
had been involved in Howard's death.

I didn't really have that idea
that she was involved at all.

I remember having a conversation with her,

and Ros was saying I had to choose
between her and Philip, and my parents.

And I'm 24 years old.
You're gonna pick your parents.

It was hard for me to understand,
"Why do I have to choose?"

And then, after that conversation,
we never saw her and Philip.

My dad lost his son,
and then he lost his grandson.

Not having that ability to see someone
that you know is still living is hard.

And it wasn't Philip's choice.

His mother made that choice for him.

Just months after Howard's m*rder,

Ros stopped the communication
between Philip and me, and us.

It's more than a tragic story.

The whole family's broken up.

I think the sting
of losing contact with the grandchild,

who looks and resembles Howard so much,

has gotta be tremendously hurtful.

I can't imagine the stress
that puts on his family.

[Frank] I... Howard, myself,
and Philip used to go for breakfast

once a week before school.

We used to go to every Ranger game
and the Yankee games.

And I think about that often.

No one knows how it feels
that I can't see my grandson.

Because this is my... my first son's son.

And my only son's son.

[rhythmic ticking]

[Parrino] I was convinced circumstantially
that Evan and Roslyn were involved,

but I knew we needed more.

So we're canvassing a year later.

And on the anniversary of the homicide,
we put up posters

at the scene of the m*rder
and at the coffee shop on 56th Street.

Very often, murderers come back
to relive that fantasy again

or somehow pay their respects,

or homage to their work a year later.

And the posters were gettin' torn down.

[taut, tense strings music playing]

We really saw this as an opportunity.

So we put the posters back up,

and then we set up
to observe the location.

And who's tearin' it down?

They got a surveillance van,
and they found out that it was...

[jittery, tense music playing]

...Ros's sister and her brother Evan
taking the posters down.

I don't think anyone would like to see
those posters up there,

and you're the one they're looking for,
and you're the m*rder*r.

[Parrino] The reasoning they gave was
it was interfering with business,

which just rocked us.

I used to call the police every day.

Sometimes twice a day or more.

One time, Roger Parrino said,
"Frank, listen to this."

"I'll let you know
when we hit the brick wall."

The district attorney
did not want to prosecute.

He didn't have enough evidence.
It was circumstantial.

[intense, brooding music playing]

[Lederer] Three years after
the m*rder of Howard Pilmar,

the investigation was going on,

and I don't think the police felt
like they were getting anywhere.

But even though
we're looking at Ros for m*rder,

she embezzled money,

so they arrested her for that.

Maybe they were hoping
to put pressure on her

so she would give up Evan
or admit to something, but she didn't.

Her attorneys timed it so well.
They had to postpone the sentencing once.

By the time she was sentenced,
she had paid everything back.

And so she got probation.

She made payment, and had the money,
'cause she had the insurance policy,

and all these other things
she got from the homicide.

Three years after Howard was m*rder*d,

things had advanced
with technology and DNA.

There was a blood drop in between the sink
and where the... the actual body was found.

That drop of blood
ends up turning out to be Evan's.

That was pretty interesting information
to get.

Unfortunately, it leaves an issue,

because that drop could have been
days before the m*rder, right?

He had access to that location.

This is why domestic violence cases
are so difficult to do.

Because, many times,

your m*rder*r had access to the victim
and the area long before the homicide.

[suspenseful music playing]

The evidence all directed itself towards
Roslyn Pilmar and her brother Evan.

There was nothing else that came up
that led us in any other direction.

Nothin'.

Your audience is gonna believe
that this is a simple case

based on what they're hearing,

but it's not simple
when it comes to the laws,

and rightfully so.

You have to be able to prove this stuff
beyond a reasonable doubt.

You don't want to make an arrest
unless you're ready to go to court,

go to trial, go to a grand jury.

It was clear to us we needed more.

[Frank] One day, Parrino came to me.

He said to me,
"Frank, I think we hit that brick wall."

[tense, mysterious music playing]

I put this obituary in the New York Times

every year on the anniversary
of Howard's m*rder.

Maybe someone out there would tell me
what they may know about the case.

Even after Parrino was not the lieutenant
in charge of the m*rder anymore,

I still called Midtown South
practically every day.

I wouldn't let go.

[Heather] My father felt
that one day it was gonna be solved.

This is what got him up
out of bed every day.

You know,
"The case is gonna be solved one day."

"We're gonna pray.
The case is gonna get solved."

Just dealing with it, that Howard is dead...

and the murderers walk around free.

It's a gnawing ache.

[Frank] All these years, you know,
we'd go out to dinner with friends,

and they just wanted to hear what's new.

They were looking for information
about the case.

I used to sit down and say,

"Is it possible
they could get away with this?"

[mysterious music trailing off]

[train rumbling]

[Parrino] In 2013,
I was serving with the Marine Corps

as a civilian advisor.

After 9/11, I think survival guilt
from September 11th

is what motivates me
to go to the Middle East

for seven years and five deployments.

During my last deployment,
I got a call telling me

that they were gonna reopen
the Howard Pilmar case.

There's very few cases
I continue to think about

because they're unsolved,

but this was the number one one.

[Mooney] I think every single detective
on the face of the earth has a case

that has eluded them
for some reason or another,

and it becomes the Moby d*ck
of their careers.

And so you always think about it.

Lots of times, people don't like
Cold Case to get involved.

They're afraid they're gonna
criticize your case.

I wasn't concerned about that.

In 2013, I was retired from
the police department about three years,

and was working at the New York County
District Attorney's office

as the Deputy Chief Investigator
for the Trial Division.

[Lederer] Rob Mooney is
one of the smartest detectives ever.

He was called in just to,
you know, give advice or direction.

[Parrino] When they called me
in Afghanistan,

I thought it was great
that the Pilmar case was alive,

and somebody was gonna
give it a fresh look.

I remember explaining
how the evidence all directed itself

towards Roslyn Pilmar
and her brother Evan.

[Mooney] In cold case work,

you can't focus on
what was focused on originally,

because that didn't end the right way.

So you gotta look at everything
right from the start.

If we were close-minded in some way
and missed something,

then let's find out the truth.

I think it's great
that new eyes look at it.

The case was in good hands.

[Frank] One day, Liz called me

and told me
that she was working on the case.

The first time that I met Liz Lederer,

we were in her office full of cartons,

and they all said "Pilmar" on it.

I know she was working very, very hard
at the case.

[tense music playing]

There was so much you had to do
before you got to even solving it.

You have to read every piece of paper.
You gotta look at every video.

You gotta talk to every single person
you can find.

We kept going through boxes.

There's one scrap of paper
that had the name Arnold Brewer on it.

We tracked him down.

He was a really close friend of Howard's.

[Mooney] Howard Pilmar was
supposed to meet his friend Arnold Brewer

and go watch the NCAA, and didn't show up.

[Lederer] He said, "Howard told me

he was going to the gym
with his brother-in-law,

but he'd come straight after."

Evan Wald and Ros Pilmar
had both told the police

that Evan and Howard
got back from the gym at about 8:00 p.m.

Howard was gonna stay
in the office and work.

Turns out that Arnold Brewer
had a date with Howard that very night,

that very moment.

So Howard wasn't gonna stay and work.

Arnold Brewer closed that window
for the m*rder

into just the smallest timeframe.

We learned during the investigation,
the night of the m*rder,

Ros called Howard in the office
and left him a voicemail.

[woman] Hi, How.
It's, um, like, a quarter to ten,

and Philip and I were wondering
if you were still at work working,

or if you went off to some sports bar,
like you said you wanted to,

to go watch the NCAAs.

Anyway, I got home,
I guess, by, like, uh, 8:10, 8:15.

Give me a call. Let me know
what time you're gonna be home.

She lays out in so much more detail
than you would ever leave for somebody

that you had just spoken to
and you expect to see in half an hour.

I remember hearing the voice message.
Once you start looking at everything...

Any one thing
is not good enough by itself.

You start attaching
all the circumstantial evidence together,

and it really lays out one path,

to Evan and Roslyn
k*lling Howard that night.

[Lederer]
After looking at all the evidence

and talking to so many
of Howard's friends,

we were sure that Ros Pilmar
and Evan Wald did it.

Ron Tucker hears Howard
cursing at his wife. He's furious at her.

That's at, like, 5:30.

I mean, calling her all sorts of names.

The same night, she leaves the message.

And she ends it with, "Love ya, Howie."

[unsettling music playing]

And there's something so calculated
about that voice message.

She knows what she's doing
is leaving a piece of evidence.

It will show that I missed him.
I thought he was alive.

I called him and said I love you.

Given the timing of it,
Howard was already dead on the floor.

[chilling music playing]

Ros created this whole story.

She created the whole scenario
so that Howard could be k*lled.

Without her, it never would have happened.

Ros had planned it
that she would get the life insurance,

the businesses, the summer house,
the interest in the ski house.

She would get sole custody of their son.

But after it became clear to us,

then it became clear
we needed to be able to prove it in court.

Evan had the cuts,
and Evan's blood is at the scene,

and we have 100 people
who know how much Evan hates Howard.

What we needed to find
was evidence that tied Ros to it

so that we could charge them both.

[Frank] Ms. Lederer said to me,

"I know we're gonna get Evan,
but I can't promise anything about Ros."

But I felt very confident with her.

[tense, frantic music playing]

[Lederer] We realized
the only person left was the babysitter.

And I said,
"We have to find that babysitter."

Allyson Lewis lived inside that family.

She knew how things usually ran,

and she could answer things for us
that we wouldn't have known.

We, as the detectives, spoke to
the babysitter early in the investigation

and didn't feel
that we got a great amount of cooperation.

I think, at the time,
she was a very young woman, and, uh...

perhaps was not thinking clearly
about the ramifications.

[Lewis] As a 21-year-old,
to be questioned by police, it was scary.

I was really just answering
their questions to the best I could.

The questions were primarily about Howard,

and I didn't have
a lot of interactions with Howard.

And then I got a job in Japan
and ended up leaving the country.

I didn't stay in contact with Ros.

Twenty years later, I get a phone call.

And I was like, "Whoa, gosh."

And she says, "I'd like to talk to you
about the m*rder of Howard Pilmar."

[Lederer] Allyson Lewis said she wanted
to meet us at the office of her lawyer.

I wondered what she thought
she might have done wrong

that she wanted, um...
she wanted to have a lawyer there.

But when she came in, she was lovely.

She just spilled her heart out.

And it was fascinating.

It just gave us a glimpse
into a world we wouldn't have known.

[Lewis] When I met them,
Liz asked me, "What was it usually like?"

"Tell me about a week in the life."

"Tell me about their house."

For the Pilmars, and for Philip,
everything was a regimented schedule.

So, tight.

For all the time that I worked for Ros,
she was very specific about time.

She described everything
about the apartment, and the lifestyle,

and... and how Ros ran that house.

And when we said,

"Was there anything unusual
about the week in which he was m*rder*d?"

She said, "It's not that
anything so unusual happened."

"It's how many things happened
for the first time."

[Lewis] In the weeks leading up
to Howard's m*rder, Ros told me,

"I'm gonna need you to work late
in a couple weeks."

And then the night of the m*rder,

Ros told me she would be meeting
with Evan and Howard

at King that night for a finance meeting.

I took Philip to hockey practice.

Philip had about a two-hour practice
four nights a week.

And over the loudspeaker is my name.
She had me paged.

That had never happened before.
That was the first time.

She said, "How's it going over there?"

I was like, "We're still first scrimmage.
They're talking about second scrimmage."

She was like, "That's fine. Sounds good."

She said even that call was weird
because she didn't have anything to say.

It wasn't 20 to 30 minutes later,

I hear my name over the loudspeaker again
to come to the front desk.

I call her again.

And Ros just says
nothing more really informative,

except for, "If I'm not there by the time
he gets done with the scrimmage,

you'll take the car back to the house."

"I don't know if I'm coming or not,
'cause we're not done here."

[Lederer] She said, "We're not done here,"

which, in the context
of what they were really doing,

is so chilling to me.

That was what was really unusual for her.

She always knew
what time she was gonna be home.

She always had the specifics
of what I was to do

and what she was going to do.

Most evenings,
it was a really vibrant household.

Phones ringing. She's on the phone.

Neighbors are coming over to visit.
All the lights are on.

The TVs were on.

Like, it was just
a very loud, exciting house.

And not that night.

[ominous stinger]

The light above the stove was on.

That was the only light on in the house.

I opened the door,
and she peeked around this threshold.

Had a bathrobe, wet hair.

Never seen her like that ever.

And she said, "Oh, how'd it go?"

"I'm sure you're really tired.
It's time for bed. Thank you, Allyson."

And, you know, all her body language
was like, "We're done."

"You're not coming in."

She said, "You can leave the bag there."

I didn't even get the bag practically
past the door, and she said, "Good night."

When I ended my day, she'd never do that.

She wanted to talk, every time,

about every detail that Philip
had experienced during the day.

She would want to know everything.

And so that, that was very different.

[Lederer] Siobhan Berry and I...
Siobhan was the investigator.

We were both just looking at Allyson
and thought,

"This is gonna make the difference."
I knew she was thinking the same thing.

They were making notes,

and they were looking
across the table at each other

like this was all
really important information.

[Lederer] Allyson filled in
so many blanks and gray areas.

We both came out and it was just like,

"Wow. That was amazing."

The new information from Allyson Lewis
that described atypical behavior by Ros,

both in the days leading up to
and afterwards...

These deviations from the norm
are huge indicators.

People tell on themselves when
they do something they never did before

and that needs to be explained.

[Lederer]
Allyson Lewis gave us information

that brought Ros into this much more

and showed how much
she actually had to do to set this up.

And we could find things
that corroborated what she told us.

This had taken us over the hurdle.

[Mooney] You build
your circumstantial case

with little stones.

And you just keep going out
and finding little stones

until you get a big enough pile of stones

that you have overwhelming evidence now.

Albeit circumstantial,
but powerful evidence.

With the new information
from what Howard Pilmar's friend Arnold

and the nanny told the detectives,

there was enough to make an arrest.

[Caddigan] The arrest took place in 2017.

Ros was arrested in her apartment,
six o'clock in the morning.

She was livin'
with her boyfriend at the time.

Evan Wald was arrested at the same time.

I felt elated!

I couldn't believe it,
that they were both arrested.

A long time coming, to say the very least.

But it came.

It came.

[mysterious, dramatic music playing]

This is something I've been waiting for
for over 20-something years.

We went to the trial every single day.

First day of the trial,
I was going into the men's room,

and Philip was coming out
of the men's room.

Last time I saw him was at breakfast,
just after Howard's m*rder.

When I saw him,
he looked just like Howard.

And I said, "Howard."

That's how much they looked alike.

He didn't say a word back to me.
Not a word.

It's a circumstantial case,
and every single piece of it mattered.

I knew this case backwards and forwards.

Whatever their defense was,
we were prepared for it.

Giving testimony against those two,
it was phenomenal.

It was an unbelievable feeling.
Great satisfaction.

I could see Frank in the audience.

I could see Frank shaking his head
when I testified.

It was wonderful.

But it doesn't mean sh*t
without a guilty verdict.

Doesn't mean anything.

There was an enormous amount of work
that went into this.

The trial lasted two months.

[indistinct dialogue]

[man] I cleaned it up, and I cut my hand.

[Frank] I wasn't aware

that Howard was so brutally m*rder*d.

I knew he was stabbed,
but I didn't know the extent

of the actual m*rder
until I heard it in court.

I think that Evan got Howard from behind
and just slashed his throat.

Because he never would have been able
to scream.

And, to me,
that would've been your first concern

when you ambush somebody like that.

So I think that was the first wound,
and then it was a free-for-all.

They slaughtered him.
They didn't just k*ll him.

They slaughtered him
like a... like a pig in a pigsty.

And Ros was at the scene of the crime.
They proved that she was.

[Lewis] I did really admire Ros.

And I had a picture of her
that I thought was who I knew.

And so when I realized,

wow, there was so much that I didn't see,

it was like the bottom fell out.

[Tucker] The jury deliberated
for at least four days.

Not so good. Couldn't understand it.

[suspenseful, dramatic music playing]

All rise!

Ros and Evan were announced guilty
right then and there.

Guilty of m*rder in the second degree.

That courtroom was echoing
in the word "guilty."

It was really powerful.

My mother kept yelling,
"Guilty, guilty, guilty!"

It was like euphoria, you know?

Like, this... this emotion
of beyond happiness

that we got justice for Howard
after all these years.

I know we would not have ever had a trial,
much less the conviction,

if not for Elizabeth Lederer.

[Lederer] I went back to see Frank,

who, you know,
had been so patient all these years.

And he just...

It was, "Guilty, guilty!
They're both guilty!"

He had his cell phone out,
and he started calling everybody he knew.

"Guilty! Guilty!"
And then call the next one.

It was, um...
He'd waited so long for this to happen.

[soft, melancholy music playing]

[Lederer] Frank stood up
to speak at the sentencing.

[Frank] I can't get sleep
because I keep thinking

about the terror and the fear
that went through Howard's mind

in those last seconds

that he was slaughtered
and butchered by those two.

That day in March, I lost three things.

Two of which I can never ever get back,
my son and my business.

But I also lost Philip.

And I know Philip
doesn't want to look at me.

I'm sorry about that,

but I just want him to know

we love you and we want you back.

Please.

As much as Frank wanted the people
responsible to be held accountable,

he really wanted
to have a relationship with Philip.

[Frank] I found out that Philip
went to the London School of Economics.

And I didn't know anything about this.

I couldn't get any of this wonderful news

about this kid who grew up.

My grandson.

My... My son's only son.

I want him back.

We love him, and that's it.

And it still holds.

[soft, plaintive music playing]

[Tucker] Philip pled before the judge

for leniency for his mother

who m*rder*d his father.

How... How...

You're asking for lenience?

[haltingly] I don't know.

[Frank] I haven't heard Philip speak

until at the sentencing.

And he was talking about his mother.

How great she was, bringing him up.

I think the only thing she did

was to fill his mind
with hatred for our family.

And I'm sure he blames me.

Her whole family must blame me.

Because they know
I was the hawk on this for trial.

I wouldn't let them go.

He wants to defend her
over his father's m*rder...

so be it.

[Parrino] It's gotta be
very tough to be him.

He's truly the second victim
of this whole thing.

Uh, after Howard.

You're convinced your mother's saving you,

and your grandfather's
trying to get your mother in trouble

when your mother didn't do anything.

And this all gets played out legally,
in a court of law.

And it's not the way
you were led to believe all those years.

That's, uh... That's gotta be very rough.

[judge] For this crime, for this m*rder,

I sentence each of you
to 25-years-to-life incarceration.

[Mooney] Ros and Evan
got 25 years to life.

At their age,
that's a life sentence for them.

[Heather] Evan and... and Ros
got what they deserve.

They got to live free for 23 years.

And now they should be locked up
for at least 23 years.

Judge gives the sentence.
Philip gets up abruptly.

Like, in a huff, and walks out of there.

I was invited to the sentencing.

I ended up being late,
and the door comes swinging open,

and the image in front of me
is Howard Pilmar,

which really knocked me for a loop.

Even though I never met Howard,

I had seen enough photographs
during the investigation

to know exactly what he looked like.

And that person was Philip.

[Mooney] Closing a cold case
is a big deal for the people that do it.

It's very satisfying.

But for the families,
a guilty verdict doesn't cure the pain.

[Frank] I just picture Howard,

the fear that went through Howard's mind

in those few seconds
that he was being stabbed and slaughtered.

That's the part that you can...
can never get over.

When I go to bed every night,
I talk to him.

And I said,
"How could this have happened to you?"

"Why didn't you tell me

that you were having trouble
with this woman?"

[grunts]

But I can't get any answers.

[plaintive music trailing off]

[train rumbling]

[Mooney] A couple of years
after Howard Pilmar's m*rder,

we had a case
with seven families involved.

The level of intensity was enormous.

[jittery, cryptic music playing]

This case was heartbreaking
in the extreme.

[man] All of the victims
were innocent, young girls.

The magnitude of his crimes
kinda punched everybody in the head.

[reporter] He has been on the lam
since Valentine's Day

with at least one m*rder and two r*pes,
and that may not be all.

[Plansky] "Serial K*llers."
That phrase gets thrown around a lot.

He was one of them.

[dramatic outro music pulsing]