Episode 7 - The Ghost

My dad was a police officer.

He actually worked at Nearmark Police Department for seven years when I was a kid growing up, and then he ultimately left and he went to Metro Dad Police Department, which happens to be the same department that Gil Fernandez worked for.

By March of twenty twenty four, Detective Danny Smith had been the lead investigator on the Billy Halpern cold case for eighteen months, knowing that his father had been a Miramar police officer in nineteen eighty six at the time of the original investigation, I asked Danny if there was anything he would like to ask his father if he was still around.

I'm curious as to the general sense of maybe urgency on clearing it.

Was this something where it was all hands on deck.

Would they just say put all your stuff down with everyone to work this or was it just like another murder violent eighties and we'll do what we can and then we'll move on.

Over the course of his own investigation, Danny's been able to verify a lot of what was in the original case file. The detectives that were Billy's case in nineteen eighty six were thorough and buy the book, but with everything that we've learned about this case, it still bothers us that Billy Hoppin's murder was never cleared and that his killers were never ideed or held accountable.

I think that there was a small portion of that where the investigators knew who were involved, they knew the crew that was involved, and they felt good getting at the very least kill Fernandez and Bert Christie indicted and then found guilty.

That's a sentiment shared by Billy's friend Dave Fosano.

I think that it was true that they didn't pursue anything else because they're doing life, so that the cops and detectives just didn't pursue anything else. I believe that.

Do you think that's right?

No, because those families don't have clothing. Well, I'm almost ready to cry, I am.

I'm just picturning. He was such a nice guy. I loved him like a brother. He was very good to me. We had a lot of good times.

I wish he was alive today because we would still be by my side and he'd be so proud of me.

Jil Fernandez and Burt Christie's conviction on the Danger Road murders brought an end to a complicated investigation, but it also left some important unanswered questions, like who stormed into Billy Halpern's town home, strangled him and then cut his throat so deeply he was nearly decapitated, What did he actually know that made him a target for such a

Danny was determined to keep digging.

I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff, and this is cold blooded the Apollo Jim murders. Harry Collier was a reputed hit man from the Northeast, with an obsession with knives and a close relationship with Gil Fernandez and Bert Christie, and in nineteen eighty six, he was

It's been almost a year that we've been actively involved in this case.

Christina Savito at DNA Labs International is an expert in collecting and identifying DNA, and her dedication to this case has made her an invaluable member of the team.

The first piece of evidence that we looked at back in March of last year, were two pieces of electrical tape, so there was electrical tape from the left wrist and then electrical tape from the right wrist, which had also a rubber glove tip on it as well.

Danny thought the electrical tape and the glove tip would certainly identify the men that bound and killed Billy Halper, but as we've learned, it's never that easy.

The DNA sample recovered was just too small.

All but Danny's hopes were lifted when Christina combined the samples from the tape and the glove and the DNA mixture indicated the presence of three unknown individuals.

When you have a mixture with multiple people, we have a software that we use. It's called star Mix. It helps us to resolve some of these mixtures and at times it can pull out individual profiles for the contributors or the people in that mixture. Unfortunately, for this sample, it wasn't able to pull out a specific profile for the people or the individuals in that mixture. However, it's still suitable for comparison, so any standards that we get at any point in time can be compared to this DNA.

Profile in other words, this was not just a matter of dropping the DNA profile into codis and having it spit out the name of Billy's killer. We would need a one to one comparison between this DNA profile and a potential suspect. But here was the problem. Danny didn't have the DNA from any of the men at the top of his suspect list, the men he suspected of attacking Billy at his home, Harry Collier, Jimmy high Note,

Because this is a sample that is suitable for compares garrison. At this point we have that we just need additional standards to compare to in order to figure out who might be contributing to that DNA profile.

The solution was straightforward.

Danny needed to find a way to get a fresh DNA sample from suspects that were either unwilling, missing, or dead.

That actually happens more than you would think, so, especially with these cool cases. You know, people pass away and they're still suspects, right, and you can't go out and get a buckle swab because they're gone. And maybe you could go out and exoom their bones and try to get a reference sample that way, but that's obviously time consuming and it's costly. So one option we have is using the DNA profile from a relative, and.

So that's exactly what Danny did.

Collier's adult son consented to a cheek swab and agreed to submit his DNA for comparison.

Able to pull out a DNA profile and we're able to compare it, we can run something like a paternity statistic and say, okay, well this person can't be ruled out.

Christina developed a DNA profile of Harry Collier's son, and Danny and I held our breaths waiting for the results.

So we compared him to the electrical tape sample and he was excluded as a contributor to the mixed DNA profile.

With almost certainty, Harry Collier had been excluded as a contributor to the DNA found on the electrical tape used to tie up Billy halper It was a letdown, for sure, But maybe it just meant that Collier never touched the tape. Maybe he just held the knife, And now we might even have the proof that he was in the room.

And then there was also a white towel which was collected from Collier's wife at the time.

Who apparently told us that he brought it home from on one night and it was full of blood.

My hope and Danny's hope was this was the hail Mary, so to speak.

So in the seventh report, we collected a sample from the right from both sides of the towel.

After all, if the bloodstained towel that Collier's widow found contained any of Billy Halpern's DNA, it would prove a direct link between Collier and the helping crime scene. Why else would Collier be in possession of a towel containing a murder victim's blood unless he was there wiping the victim's blood from his hands, his face, or even the murder weapon itself. The towel in question had been stored

We used a collection device known as the end back, and I like to think of it as almost like something like a wet vacuum that you would use in your house, like if you use one to clean carpet, for example. It's like that, but for DNA. After we vacuum it up and we collect that liquid, we run it through a filter where it basically catches the DNA but allows all the other liquid to flow through, and then we cut out that filter and that's what's set forward in the laboratory.

As suspected, there was DNA present on the towel.

The DNA profile obtained from that sample with a mixture of at least two individuals with at least one male contributor, but unfortunately, due to the complexity of that sample, it's inconclusive.

The likely cause.

The towel had gone through the washing machine before it was given over to police. The brown stain remained, but the DNA that survived was just too degraded to be of much use.

We discussed it here internally, and we decided that we wanted to do another sample and try a little bit of a different strategy in the laboratory, try maybe some other cleanup methods to try to see if we could really get a cleaner sample that would get us a better profile. When we did that, we obtained a mixture of at least three individuals with at least one male contributor, But unfortunately it was still too complex and it was inconclusive for comparison purposes as a result.

I've got to be honest here.

At this point, Danny and I were both starting to lose hope that science was going to solve this case.

It just felt like one strikeout after another.

Over time, DNA is going to break down, and you know, you're kind of almost in a race with it. You want to use the new technolog as best as possible, but you don't want to use it if there's not a good chance you might get a result. So if we had this technology ten twenty years ago, then maybe the results would have looked different. So I think time has definitely been a factor here, and unfortunately a negative factor here.

But Danny Smith had been deep in the count before and was still hopeful that there was one more DNA sample he could still get, but it would mean getting back inside the Florida State Prison and taking something from the one guy least likely to give it up, gil Fernandez. Danny's theory from the beginning was that Billy Haupurn was overpowered by multiple assailants, and one of those men could have been gil Fernandez.

Could help prove it. Here's Danny.

Well Go, being in the system, being in prison and convicted of multiple felonies. He was swabbed, his DNA was taken, and his DNA profile was uploaded into CODIS.

The evidence that we have is good.

For a one to one comparison, so I can't use the DNA profile that's in CODIS to compare to the evidence that we have, so I need to actually get another physical sample for that comparison.

But as he explains, that was easier said than done.

Normally, in a situation like this, we would get a warrant and a judge would sign it, and we would be able to go ahead and collect his DNA and it.

Would be very simple.

However, in this case, I don't have probable cause to get that body warrant.

Bill was an ex cop, he was already doing life in prison. He had zero incentive to volunteer his own DNA to help an investigation that could potentially bring yet another murder charge against him, maybe as many as five. But as Christina explains, there was another way to get his DNA, one that would leave Fernandez none the wiser.

A secondary standard is something where we don't take it directly off of something, but it's something that if we get a single source DNA profile, you know there's a reasonable expectation that it would come from that individual. So you know, police officers, for example, if they can't get a warrant for someone's DNA, they might try to collect discarded items like a cigarette butt or a water bottle or a coffee cup.

He's been rafered for thirty plus years, and the idea would be to work with the Office of the Inspector General and see if there's a way that we can surrepiciously obtain an abandoned sample without him knowing.

But as you can imagine, there were significant obstacles to this approach too. The guy has been in this particular prison camp for thirty years and believe it or not. Even a convicted killer like Gil Fernandez makes friends inside the.

Fact that he's ben in prison, he has a relationship with the correction's officers. Presumably, I don't know if.

He's going to get tipped off.

I don't know that if I try to get an abandoned sample from him, that somebody's going to tip him off.

And remember, Danny had a strong suspicion that it was Gill's connections in law enforcement that enabled some of his worst crimes in the past, So what was reason to assume that being tipped off was again a possibility.

If he knows that we're coming for his DNA, there's a very good possibility that he's going to try to have another inmates DNA on this abandoned sample, and then when that's tested, it'll come back to someone who has no association with this case, or maybe not even South Florida, and that'll throw a big monkey wrench into the investigation.

As long as Fernandez was in lock up in Rayford, getting a trusted DNA sample would be next to impossible. But then, finally, a stroke of incredible good fortune.

I know you just texted me to tell me to jump on a call and to record it. You had some pretty big news, Scott. You're not going to believe this. I randomly, as I normally do, I pulled up Gill's Department of Corrections page, and he's been moved.

Moved within the prison, moved to a block.

He's no longer in rape.

He's he's in a facility called Tomoka, which I just looked it up.

It's in Daytona Beach.

After thirty years of the same prison camp. Gil Fernandez had been moved. But why and why now? And didn't have anything to do with this new investigation.

I think this is kind of stunning.

I mean, is there a possibility that he has struck some kind of deal with the Feds that maybe they moved him or did he did he get into a fight?

Is his life in danger?

I mean, what what are I mean? What are some of the post I mean, what are the possibilities?

I mean, he's definitely closer. It's Daytona Beach.

It's a few hours away as opposed to six hour drive, so he's definitely closer to the family. I don't know if he somehow cut a deal. I don't know if it had anything to do with my visit with him, the fact that he is now in a new place, he may not have those relationships with the guards, with the corrections officers that he had in Rayford, and I may be able to kind of slide this operation in a little easier.

You might have heard it in my voice, but my concern was that somehow Danny's visit had spooked Gil into cutting a deal with federal investigators and cutting Danny out of gaining a potential confession. You know, the rivalry you hear about local cops and the Feds.

It's real.

But Danny did some calling around and was able to conclude that, as far as he could tell, Gill moved to a new prison had been in the works for a while, which means it was entirely coincidental, not a result from some unwanted attention from a cold case detective.

It looks like he had been working this process well before I even met him. So the fact that he was moved from Rayford to Tomoka really has nothing to do with my visit. And he's not working a deal. He has no no plea agreement, nothing going on. He's not ratting on anyone that I know of.

Just it was a coincidence, and that means Fernandez will likely not be an alert for any surreptitious efforts to.

Gain his abandoned DNA.

More importantly, he likely hasn't had the time to establish the same relationships with inmates and possibly even correction officers that could potentially tip them off to these efforts. The move to a new prison was intended to be a reward for good behavior and a way for him to finish his sentence closer to his family. But even for an ex cop and model prisoner, being the new guy has its strawbacks.

The initial plan was simply to have a couple of different officers or investigators that work in the prison to do some surveillance follow him, hopefully not be seen that they're following him, watching him, checking his daily routine, basically like a pattern of life, and then once they get a pattern of life, figure out a way that they would be able to take some kind of something abandoned from him, a sample abandoned without his knowledge.

But as it turns out, Danny had more allies inside than Gilded, and the correction officers had to moke a prison owed their new prisoner no favors.

They just wanted to make sure it was done right.

Part of the issue that was reported back to me was that he's going to know that they went through his specific bunk. And when I was told that, I said, that's great. Actually, when you guys, when you leave and you leave the bunk and you walk past all the inmates that are sitting there trying to figure out what's going on, make sure that he sees the evidence bag walk past him.

Everyone's going to see the evidence bag.

No one's going to know exactly what it's about until Gil gets back to his bunk and he sees that his stuff was rising through.

It was a bit of gamesmanship that Danny hoped would pay dividends, both practical and emotional.

I wanted to elicit a response.

I was hoping that, first of all, maybe get him thinking, Maybe turn the cruise on him a little bit and get him nervous, have him realize that now we have his DNA and there's really nothing he can do about it.

Danny had played nice on his first visit to Guilfernande's in prison, careful not to spook him into a tight lipped retreat. So this was a dramatic and clear change in approach, one that would surely not go unnoticed by Gil. As Sherlock Holmes famously said, the game was afoot. In search of a new DNA sample to compare with evidence from the helper and crime scene, Danny had his sights

They actually had everyone in his pot or his area, were in their bunks and their I guess space, and they ultimately pulled the fire alarm and herded them into another room kind of around the corner away. And when they did that, they had other investigators that were more or less hidden around the corner or in another room. And as soon as that room was empty, his area, his bunk was empty, they went in there and they were able to remove three items.

Specifically, the officers removed a toothbrush, a coffee mug, and a used water bottle, items most likely to contain gills, saliva or touch DNA.

They gave me call and they said that everything was a success. They did everything appropriately. They had tann of custody and they packaged all those individually and then they fed ex them next day over to us.

Upon receipt of the items, hand delivered the new evidence to Christina at DNA Labs International. After the initial test, she was confident there was a good viable sample.

We received a toothbrush, a coffee cup, and a water bottle from Gilbert Fernandez, and in this case it only indicated one male contributor. So because of that, we operate under the assumption that the DNA profile is from Gilbert Fernandez.

As for the comparison sample, Danny had lost a lot of confidence in using that DNA mixture that was collected from the electrical tape, but so far it was all he had. Unfortunately, those low expectations proved all too realistic. Christina's test determined that there was a low probability of a match between gil fernandez fresh DNA sample and the DNA profile created from the tapes sample.

So the analysis provided limited support for the proposition that mister Fernandez is a contributor. Just to give you kind of perspective on what that means, limited support is the bottom of our scale. Anything from two to ninety nine is limited support, and this is two point eight.

But Danny had to look at the bright side. He now had a good sample or standard of Gills DNA that was strong enough for a one to one comparison to any DNA he may be able to find in the future.

With this much contact, with this much blood, I would say there's a reasonable expectation that you would be able to find his DNA there.

But it does raise an important question, what if gil Fernandez was not there when Billy was killed? What if this investigation has been on the wrong path from the beginning? Who else in Gill's crew may have helped to execute this deadly plan? Somebody who was not in jail or, in the case of high note Collier and berg Christie no longer alive.

I mean, obviously, the name that would stand out as someone that I would say probably could have been there is Mike Carbone.

Michael Bone was a heartless human being.

Michael Carbone, the five time convicted felon that had testified in court that he had participated in one of Burtingill's deadly shakedowns.

The nineteen eighty three scheme to.

Rob three drug dealers of over one million dollars in cocaine that ended with three people being shot and dumped in the Everglades off of Danger Road.

Fernandez and Christy were arrested after Michael Carbone told police he saw the victims shot to death that night in the Everglades. The defense says Carbone was the trigger man and lied to police to protect himself.

Wasn't it possible that this was not carbon Jones's only time acting as Gill's muscle. Wasn't it possible that before he testified against Christy and Fernandez that he had played a part in the murders of Billy Halpern, Mitch Hall, and Charlondo Drought, maybe even Jimmy high Note and Harry Collier. Could Michael Carbone be the missing link in solving all five murders?

After the press conference, I can easily say that I got more calls on this particular case than I did from any case and any other press conferences combined. I got calls from all over the country, people that somehow had a connection to.

Either Gill or Billy or some.

Of the other victims. Mitch Hall Jimmy high Note, Harry Collier. Many of the calls kept mentioning one particular name, which is a name that was already on my radar. Then that was Mike Carbone.

We can't show you Michael Carbone's face because he's on the federal witness protection program. Carbone's testimony against Gilbert Fernandez and Hubert Christie. We'll keep him from going to jail on unrelated charges.

Obviously, Carbone had been close enough to guil Fernandez to be asked to be part of a deadly robbery with a huge payoff. So common sense dictates that this would not have been Carbone's first time working with Fernandez and Christie's crew or the last.

But what else did we know about Michael Carbone.

Mike Colbone was a collector. It was a trupid collector down here. It was the muscle behind a lot of drug dealing. Wherever he went, there was a legal activity, there was trouble.

This is the anonymous tipster who called Danny after the press conference, and if you remember, we are disguising his voice to protect his identity.

Mike was just one of those guys who would never smile. He had this if you look like a shark. You could look in their eyes. There's like no life, no feeling, there's no emotions behind it. That's where Mark Carbone was. He was just a young, ruthless guy.

Like the rest of Gil's crew. Carbone was also a regular at the Apollo.

He was intimidating.

He had a chest like a barrel, just arms and a chest that were massive, and he would just look at you and you could just feel it. This guy is cold, calculated, no soul.

But according to this informant, Carbone's muscles were not just all show. He had the violent temperament to go with them.

Mike Carbon was just aggressive. He was hostile.

If someone would mess with him, he would have no problem just walking up to him and grabbing him, throwing and punching him.

He had no problem doing that.

I just don't remember too many people that were without ordness.

In other words, he and Gil Fernandez were cut from the same cloth.

But it was also always clear who was the boss. Here's Mark Lopez.

Gil was also the kind of guy that gave direction like I wouldn't at all be shocked if Carbone was a guy who was a trigger man. Might have been a Gil's direction, and.

While we don't know the specifics of their working relationship, investigation revealed the following timeline. In nineteen eighty three, Carbone and Fernandez together ambushed three men who were held at gunpoint, robbed, and then executed on Danger Road. In nineteen eighty six, Billy Halpern was ambushed, potentially robbed of the contents of

And everyone feels that they were killing all of the anyone that could turn on them, and we all and the rumor was that that's why Mike Carbone finally squealed because he felt that he was the last one left and they were going to murder him, so he decided to wrap them out before they could kill him.

A deal with prosecutors earned him immunity and a new life and the witness protection program, but did it also let him avoid blame for multiple other murders.

You have to realize that in that situation, guys flip, you know, pretty easy when they realize they're facing major time and they're going to give you anything they can to lighten their load. So if you know Carbone was the shooter by chance, like it's one guy's word against the others.

Basically, needless to say, it was time to track down Michael Carbone, an alleged gangster and informant and maybe even a killer.

It wouldn't be easy.

I can say that in my career I've never actually had to track somebody down that was in witness p.

And Danny couldn't expect any help from the federal agency that had promised to keep him hidden.

Danny was on his own.

No one had seen or heard from Carbone in thirty four years since the days immediately following Fernandez and Christie's sentencing, and since Carbone had no doubt changed his name, Danny wasn't even sure what he was looking for.

So it was frustrating to run names data, birth socials, family names through the various databases and still come up with different This could be him, this could be him. He could be in California, he could be deceased, he can be overseas. So I got so much different information it was really hard to pinpoint exactly where he was.

But Danny had more than a few contacts in law enforcement and some were willing to help out a fellow brother and blue I did.

I had a good friend of mine who's a retired homicide detective who now is working as a priate investigator, contacted him and gave him what I had and asked.

Him to do some research and see if he.

Can't help me out and narrow down exactly where Carbone is.

While interviewing Billy's friends and people associated with the Apollo, we had heard all kinds of rumors about Carbones whereabouts. Some said he was out west, while others suggested he fled the country and living the life of a John Doe, while others, like our anonymous tipster had heard that it was actually back in South Florida, running his mouth like nothing had ever happened.

An individual who contacted me today told me.

That he he said that Carbone was recently down within a few months ago at Hollywood Beach, exposing himself in a sense after being in the witness.

Protection program all this time. That has some level of arrogance.

So Danny hit the streets, asked around, even rattled some cages, but unfortunately he had little success running down those leads. Thankfully, Danny's PI buddy had much better luck.

My buddy called me and he was excited. He said, I got him. I'm pretty sure I got him.

Now.

I had old photographs of Michael Carbone from back in the eighties, and my buddy had new photographs, and putting these two pictures side by side, there was no doubt he had found them. We were able to get his new name and where he lives, who he lives with, So that right there solved the year long issue of where is Michael Carbone.

We find found him.

Gan.

He's been working this cold case for more than eighteen months. He'd run through countless scenarios and cast his net far and wide. But this felt like the big fish. Now it was time to reel him in Cold Blooded. The Apollo Jim Murders is a production of iHeart Podcasts and Authentic Wave Media. Scott Weinberger, Kevin Bennett, and Walker LeMond.

Are executive producers.

Sabrina Sire is our line producer, scoring sound design and mixing by Mark lamoorg Z. 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 del Rich Moss, p Io Tanya Ardaz

And Detective Susie Smith