Cut, Color, Kill | 1. Big Daddy

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consoment, if you will. The people like you and me, nice people, never find ourselves in the

crosshairs of a murderous plot. Truth is, even nice guys, cross paths with people who want them

“out of the picture. Nice guys, like Fabio Cementilly.”

West of West Hollywood on a quiet street in Woodland Hills, police arrive at the home of Fabio Cementilly on the 23rd of January 2017. Just hours earlier, Fabio was sitting in his favorite chair, poolside. Like he often did since he'd moved from Canada to pursue his career in Hollywood around seven years ago. But today was different than all of those other days. When his daughter came home, she found him in that chair, stabbed multiple times. A few hours later, Detective Ryan

Verna arrives. There's blood in the kitchen area on the floors, in the kitchen sink. As you walk into the kitchen, you could clearly see through the windows and through that door that there was a body in the backyard and large amounts of blood. Detective Verna and his partner Jean Perchall are there to ask some questions. Fabio's house is cordoned off with crime scene tape. So they meet Fabio's wife, Monica, at the next door neighbor's house. Monica, Monica. So, I'm taking

“the part of South Florida, and I'm very sorry. We have to meet like this, so I believe we need”

a top first. Detectives are there to talk to Monica and her two daughters, Jessica and Isabella. Monica is visibly upset. She can't seem to catch her breath. The way to this moment seems to be overwhelming her. Could this actually be happening? This is not the typical call to detectives in this town field.

$2 million house behind security gates on a quiet street, a driveway hugged by the feathery

branches of cedar trees, a safe place to raise a family, and enjoy your little corner of the Hollywood dream. Not a crime scene. Fabio it appeared, had made it, a beautiful wife and daughter's fancy home. He was a hairdresser to celebrities, an executive at a major beauty corporation, Wella. Detectives are trying to piece together in the early hours after his body was discovered. What happened here?

"We didn't often call with just people from working normally does. Who were? I know big issues, no one yelling, no one had any problems. It was Fabio's daughter, Della, who found her dad. The back patio beside the pool." "There appears to be some sort of sharp force injury, meaning you're stabbing. There's lots of blood. Attempted to call 911, no one pulled her to attempt to provide aid." Monica arrived home next.

She and Bella tried with the help of the emergency operator to revive Fabio, but it was too late. Part of apartment arrived, and pronounced him deceased. She said that Fabio was a great guy. There were no issues with anybody else. Everdella, Fabio.

And this is something detectives will hear over and over again in the coming days.

“Fabio had a lot of friends. Nobody seems to have a bad word to say about him.”

The man they describe to the detectives is gregarious, warm, and loving. The life and soul of the party, hard working with a perfect family. People were truly shocked that anyone would commit such a heinous and brutal crime against this man. And the question that would take almost a decade to answer was, "Why?" And the reason would shock everyone who knew him to their core.

From Sony Music Entertainment and novel, this is Cut Color Kill. Time Jonathan Hirsch. Episode 1, Big Daddy. Everybody welcome Fabio! It's some time around 2009. Fabio Cementilly is appearing as a "hair expert"

“on the Canadian CVC show called Steven and Chris. He's here to answer all the audiences”

hot hair questions. "I have really curly hair. I love it, but sometimes I like to change it, and straighten it out." Fabio's a tall guy, about six foot, six foot one, with a beer that comes down to a point. Watching him, you can tell he's at ease in front of the camera. In a striped shirt and an elegant scarf. "And now we're going to show you how to blow dry that hair. Nice and easy."

He definitely smooths the woman's hair into an elegant blowout. It's impressive. And even more so, considering that he's doing all of this while bantering with the host. "And in the fringe area, guys, this technique here, you can take this one to the bank." "Okay." "Just put the brush in. Come on, 20, we're getting." "Yes."

“"The president, how are you doing?" "Dress it right in."”

It was like watching a master at work. He would look at and touch hair. Similar to how I would imagine a sculptor looking at a unmolded piece of clay. Looking at the hair, feeling it, how did it lay, how did it flow. It was like magic seeing him interact with your hair. These big hands would wield these hair styling tools with such dexterity doing all these sorts of maneuvers with

these scissors. He was like a wizard behind the chair. Luigi Cementilly is Fabio's son. His parents divorced when he was little, so every other Saturday he'd come to work with his dad. Fabio runs his own salon in Toronto called "What else?"

Salam Fabio. It was very loud, lively place. Always very busy, always a hotbed of artistic

expression. Saturdays are always crazy. Everyone wants a weekend appointment to get spruce up, feel special. Stylists are trimming and curling, doming, hair dye and folding foils, and Fabio's at the center of the action. He was always the loudest voice in the room, the loudest laugh in the room. His towering physique and exuberant personality earned him the nickname "Big Daddy". He's a stylist to models, athletes, celebrities. Later on, some people will

wonder whether Fabio had it too good, whether all the success had made him a target. Right now, he's riding high. When he started to become more successful in his career, he bought a BMW M3. It had silver exterior, red leather interior, and that made me a, you know, a bit of a celebrity to school yard the next day, everyone sang, "Oh, what's that car? Your dad drives?" That kind of made me look up to him as like this superhero, right? He's like doing these shows,

and he's got this salon surrounded by all these cool artistic minded people, and then he's got this great sports car, really a rock star hair stylist. Fabio's success didn't come out of nowhere, like a lot of people who ended up following their dreams to Hollywood, there was a tragedy in his past that spurred him on. Fabio was the son of Italian immigrants. He grew up in a neighborhood of

Toronto known as Corso Italia, on a street called St. Claire Avenue. Our front doors were never locked.

No neighborhood of watch was needed, because every mum sitting on the porch would know who belonged, and who didn't plunge. Joe Mercario grew up there too, in the early 70s he lived across the street from the Seventilies. And would call out his name, but I didn't know his name, so his nickname to me

years-older, and Joe looked up to him like a big brother. Fabio would always come into my defense,

unconditionally always knowing that someone is there behind you covering you. It's a huge thing to have as a kid. Even as a kid, Fabio was a big personality. Articulate, and disarming,

“he can make a friend anywhere. Joe says Fabio got that from his father. If you want to know”

Fabio, you'd have to know his dad, everyone loved him in the area. Then when Fabio was still a young kid, his dad died suddenly. Fabio's mom didn't speak English well, and she and Fabio, and his two older sisters were left without a breadwinner. We never spoke about it. It was a non-combersation, and I knew that, that would see when some kids would prod him on that subject, and he would lose his cool. But I know this is a fact as a friend. He was the only male now in that home.

And as the only male in that home, we all knew that meant, because, quite obvious, it became the protector, if you will. Fabio was shouldering new responsibilities. He started working when he was still a teenager. He followed in the footsteps of his big sister, Morela, who had become a hairdresser. He was ambitious, hard worker, and his life accelerated. But the first car in the neighborhood, he married first. He left the neighborhood first. A lot

“of first, because he was a man now. And that, I think that was the biggest comfort of his life.”

And also the most powerful thing of his life. Fabio was driven. He had big dreams. He had learned a harsh lesson, though. One that would seem to be even more poignant after everything that came later. Life can be cut tragically short. And Fabio wasn't wasting any time. Fabio started competing at international hairdressing shows with his sister Morela.

They won trophies and made a name for themselves. And while Fabio was climbing the career ladder, his family was growing too. He got in divorce from Luigi's mom, married a hair model, and makeup artist called Monica. They had two daughters, Jessica, and Isabella. "Whatever I would arrive at my dad's house from being picked up for the weekend,

“they would always yell my name and come and give me a big hug as I entered the doorway.”

And I could also tell that my dad loved having me there and having everyone together the five of us as a family."

Fabio had always been close with Morela, and his other sister, Lori, and he wanted the same for Luigi.

"Whatever my dad and I were talking one-on-one, and I would in-passing refer to them as my half-sisters. He would always stop me and say, "No, those are your sisters." "We were on a trip to the family cottage, and I was upstairs in a bedroom, playing on a PlayStation portable. My dad came up and sat down and basically broke the news to me that they were going to be moving to California."

Fabio had been working with a hair product giant Wella, and they'd offered him a new job, creative director for North America. He was stepping away from the stylist chair and into a new world of executive titles, MBAs, and C-sweets. It also meant moving with Monica and the girls to Los Angeles. For Joe, saying goodbye to his best friend was bittersweet, but he also knew it was the step Fabio needed. "You were satisfying. It's dream. If I be a loved America, all of

America, the town of America, the size of America, the freedom of America, the big Cadillacs of America, so it was a perfect thing for him."

No matter how carefully Fabio weighed up that decision, he could never have known how

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365 day returns. Quince.com/crimes. It's a hot summer day in Malibu. Luigi is in town visiting his dad. The two are tearing down the Pacific Coast Highway and his Mustang convertible. The wind in bleach, spiky hair, a lead zeppelin CD blasting through the speakers. We stopped off at this bar. Apparently it's like some kind of well-known biker bar. There were a lot

of bikes there. Like more checklists. It was called Neptune's Nat and it was right on the ocean. My dad was like, "Let's stop off here and have a drink." I knew exactly what place you're talking about. It's like, it's got this sort of 60s era sign right out on the front and there's like, palm trees in the back. And it felt like this is California, like this place is so indicatively quintessentially California. Luigi is now in college. And his dad's new life in

California seemed like something out of a movie. Literally, Neptune's Nat is in Point Break, Iron Man 3, and Vin Diesel even had a drink there in the Fast and the Furious. Here in this California dream, the idea that danger could be just around the corner must have seemed impossible. Even Fabio's new house is like the set of Hollywood sitcom. He settled with Monica and the girls in Woodland Hills, a leafy, affluent suburb in the San Fernando Valley.

I was like, "Wow, this house doesn't look like the house. They had when they were in Canada. Beautiful sitting area outside in a great big pool, beautiful backyard." Whenever Luigi visits, they spend long hours together in his dad's favorite place, the back patio. That backyard was really the locus of the family operations. He loved spending time out there. The chair outside there that he would sit on was kind of like his throne.

He had a TV set up out there and it spent a lot of time out there sitting back there with him.

“That's how it was on Luigi's last visit in August 2016, laughing and joking around,”

eating family dinners with Monica and Luigi's sisters. It all seemed too good to be true, and maybe it was. Five months later, Luigi is back in Toronto. It's January 23rd, 2017, and this cold winter night couldn't be farther away from those carefree summers, spent cruising around LA. I had just gotten back from class, and I was sitting down at the computer,

playing a video game, I was playing a world of a warcraft, and I remember my phone going off, and it was my sister Jessica who called, and I was kind of busy playing the game and thinking,

I picked up and I remember her being hysterical on the other end, and at first thinking,

"Oh, she must be out with friends and calling me to reminisce about something or something came up that reminded her of me, so she gave me a call." Then she said, "Someone killed that." In 1987, a newborn baby is abandoned in a remote spot. Nobody goes down that lane. Why would you think anyone would have picked me up from there? For decades, Jess has searched for answers. Why didn't that person want me? But as she gets closer to the truth, things spiral out of her control.

“"I think I'll always be angry. It could be an ended differently." From tortoise and vestigates and the observer,”

this is foundling. "Lies always come out. Don't let his skeletons are always going to come out eventually."

Listen, wherever you get your podcasts. "Welcome to crime scene, the new weekly show from the binge, where we tell you the stories behind the world's most unforgettable crimes. I'm Jonathan Hirsch. You may know me as the host of my fugitive dad or dear Franklin Jones, watching you. I'm an executive producer of The Binge, the true crime podcast network where we bring you a new series on the first of every month. For crime scene, I'm joined by my producer and co-host Cooper Maul, the reporter and

voice behind Fatal Beauty and the crimes of Margo Freshwater. We know there are a lot of true crime podcasts out there. I think what makes crime scene different is that Cooper and I have boots on the ground. We're investigative storytellers. And so many of the stories that come across our desk, we haven't been able to share with you until now. So if you're one of the millions of people who have flocked to the binge for riveting storytelling, deeply investigated true crime series,

think of this as all the things that you love about those shows in a single episode. Join us every week in the crime scene office wherever you listen to or watch your shows. This is crime scene, available now. Detectives Ryan Werner and Jean Perchall are sitting with Fabio's wife Monica at a neighbor's house. Outside, Queen Victoria Road is teeming with emergency services. There was the far-department

there was crime scene tape, a lot of police were already present and there's just a lot of activity

“going on for what should be a quiet neighborhood. How long have you lived on the Queen Victoria?”

Okay. Detective Werner and his partner are here to interview Monica and her daughters, one by one about what happened that day. Fabio was working from home Monica tells them. She had been home most of the day and went to the gym at one point with Jessica her older daughter, had got back from the gym, had some lunch and then decided to go run out and do some errands. When I'm a road yell at you, row grades, cuss of you, put the off and you're like that.

I don't know if they okay. No problems with anyone either score or you're noticing when following you or anything like that. But you can remember, okay. Jessica is 18. At around 340, she went out to a babysitting job. Bella, who's 16, was at school most of the day. She was trying to get a job at a Deli and so she had an interview after school and then following that, she received a call from her mother telling her hey, your glasses are

“ready. You need to go to this optometrist and pick up your glasses and so she did that and then came home.”

She got into the house, walked in the kitchen and looked out the window. She noticed that her dad was in the patio, slumped over in the seat and there was a large amount of blood. Bella called 911. A few minutes later, Monica returned home. Her Bella screaming that Fabio had been injured and was on the back patio. They tried to resuscitate Fabio but they weren't

able to move him. By the time the first responders arrived, Fabio was dead. The rock of the

Seventy Lee family was gone forever. Ryan normally works on gang related murders so it's unusual to get called out to a homicide at an upper middle class neighborhood like this. But woodland hills could be a prime target for a different type of crime. We had what was called knock knock burglaries going on at the time and what these guys would do, they would find a house, they'd go up to the front door

location. If nobody answered, then they'd break into the house and rob it. If one of these crews

broke into the Seventy Lee house and ran into Fabio in the backyard, maybe things turned violent. The detectives managed to account for the cars belonging to Monica and her daughters, but Fabio's beloved Porsche has gone. It's a valuable car, sort of thing an opportunistic thief

“might be interested in. Then there is the master bedroom. Did you have anything valuable in your room?”

It looked like drawers were pulled out. There was some evidence of ransacking meeting. There was property that had been pulled out of drawers and cabinets. When the detectives take Monica on a walkthrough of the house, she says that some valuables are missing. We only have a change.

Canadian money and yours and one of the drawers or something in the drawer.

She reported that there was currency that had been taken in the form of US, Canadian and European currency, as well as some like costumy kind of jewelry. So yeah, this potentially could be one of these burglaries gone bad. We're going to do everything our power and we're going to process the whole house. It's probably going to be for hours and hours. That night the crime scene is locked down. As forensic investigators arrive and comb through each room of the cemetery house,

they carefully label and photograph any piece of potential evidence. We had noticed that there was security cameras at the home in the garage. There was an area near the entry into the kitchen. On top of a cabinet where the DVR probably was based on wires that were protruding from the wall, but there was nothing there.

“Whoever Fabio's attacker was, they dismantled this crucial piece of evidence before they made”

their getaway. This doesn't look like a frenzied attack in the heat of the moment. It looks carefully planned. There's also a sign of how they could have gotten in. Looking at your house on direct backs of your house, I guess we didn't know where it's at your house. There's several rooms that have a slightly less windows. So if you just looked into the room real quick, it would appear that it was secure. However, when you open the shutters up, you would discover that

that door was actually a jar and open. So that was out of the ordinary. Ryan is keeping an open mind, but he's not fully convinced by this burglary theory. The typical thing for those gang members to do, if they confronted somebody inside or outside of a house would be to run the other way. To go stab somebody on the back patio would be out of line with what they're doing. There's blood in the back patio, the kitchen, the garage. But there's also some blood transfer

in the master bedroom, too. That indicated us that these guys stuck around and then did the

“ransacking after the fact. I think the first indication would be to get the hell out of there,”

not to dig deeper to see if we can find some property. When the coroner arrives, they take a closer look at Fabio's body. We got to see what kind of injuries there was and he had significant injuries. There were targeted places on his body that were aimed for. All areas that if you're attacked properly will cause someone to bleed out pretty quickly. In other words, these injuries look deliberate. Each one intended to inflict the most damage

possible to be fatal. And there's something else. It looks like whoever did this made sure Fabio couldn't fight back. We didn't seem to find any kind of defensive wounds on Fabio's simultaneously. So it appeared to us that this wasn't a surprise where like our suspects were surprised. There was a guy there and we got to fight him off. It appeared that Fabio was attacked. But nobody that detected his interview that night has any idea who might have wanted to hurt him.

By the time Ryan heads home late that night, his head is full of questions. For one brief moment, when Luigi Cementilly opens his eyes the next morning, everything is normal. Then the previous night comes rushing back.

First, it was bewilderment, disbelief, feeling stunned, even feeling nothing, just

being reduced to bafflement that something like this could happen. When you wake up, you kind of reminded of reality and reminded of how your life has changed. And then you feel all these things all over again. It felt like it had happened all over again.

to his mom's house. A long, weird car ride of really just being in silence for most of it,

“not knowing what was going to happen, how to react, how to feel. It just felt like you were watching”

a movie that was being projected in front of your eyes. Now he gets dressed and heads to his aunt Morales' house. That was kind of where the family got together to begin the grieving process. Morales' fabulous big sister and role model, the sister he followed into hairdressing, she's the one the cementillies look to in a time of crisis. We were in the kitchen and everyone was kind of sitting around the table, maybe some people in the living room. And that was just a

explosion of emotion from everyone. More tears than hopefully I'll ever see for the rest of my life. Be Wilderment, shock, anxiety, talking, reminiscing, speculating, obsessing. There's a lot of talk of knock knock burglary where people would simply knock on your door and then make their way into your home. The burglary gone wrong doesn't seem to fit with the brutality of the crime. The alternative seems unthinkable. A lot of anxiety came from speculation about what could have happened,

trying to get answers or make answers, connect dots to their mind about how someone that was

“so important to all of us was in a moment taken away. In the weeks to come, there would be a lot”

more speculation. The horrific circumstances around Fabio's death left everyone with questions. Who could have done this when Fabio was so well-loved? But every while theory and far-fetched rumor was wrong because the truth was even more unbelievable and even more heartbreaking.

Next time on Cut Color Kill, the cops get their first lead. You could tell in the video that

they were running with a purpose. We knew right away those are our guys. Don't want to wait for that next episode. You don't have to.

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Check out the binge channel page on Apple Podcasts or getthebinge.com to learn more. This is Cut Color Kill, an original production of Sony Music Entertainment and novel, hosted by me, Jonathan Hirsch. Caroline Thornham is our senior producer, Katherine Doddfree is our editor, Muhammad Ahmed is our assistant producer, Mark Piddham is our engineer, additional engineering by Daniel Kempson.

For novel, our executive producer is Max O'Brien. For Sony Music Entertainment, our executive producers are Katherine St. Louis and me, Jonathan Hirsch. Production management from Shari Huston, Joe Savage and Charlotte Wolf, fact checking by Fendell Fulton, research by Miron Kaplan, story development by Nell Gray Andrews. novels director of development is Selena Meta. Special thanks to Caroline Churre 11 at Miller, Coorsonic Raymond.

And a big thanks to the whole Sony Music Entertainment team. (gentle music)