The Unkindest Cut
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Hey guys, Fab here for another Fab Style Fridays. What was about to happen to Fabio, nobody could believe. His daughter Isabella opened the front door. She goes to the patio and lets out a scream. Sees her father slumped over in his favorite chair. There's blood everywhere. They killed Fabio. They killed Fabio.

Who would want to do these things to him? And why? How do you answer that question? Had this been a case of a home invasion robbery that turned deadly, authorities now investigating if knock-knock burglars may be to blame. Irony of ironies, one of the victims was Fabio Lanzoni. I find out then this guy named Fabio just got killed. My phone, 15 seconds later, started ringing off the hook. The cops have work to do.

They're trying to figure out if these knock-knock people are getting really, really ruthless to the point where now they're willing to kill. Maybe that knock-knock burglar ain't no knock-knock burglar. There's a twist here. They were on this torrid trail of love and murder. I just wanted him to open his eyes. Peace. Fab loves you.

Hair is something that really we can all identify with. Hair is so much fun. We either have it, we don't. It's too thin, it's too curly, it's too frizzy, it's the right color, it's the wrong color. Every hairdresser is creating art.

Hair is art. And he was the merry maestro of the art. No one enjoyed styling hair and inspiring other hair stylists quite like the man they called Big Daddy, Fabio Simoncilli. The first time I heard Big Daddy, I'm like, who are they talking about? Oh, of course, Fabio.

Fabio was a salon standout and 200 pounds of pure haircutting charisma on stage. He thrived in the spotlight and everywhere he went, people adored him. Fabio, he would show up in a Scottish kilt and he would just go on stage and do hair. And everybody was like, this guy's amazing.

And when the famous came to his hometown of Toronto, Canada, he'd be amazing for them too. Fabio style, people like J-Lo, Russell Crowe, Jackie Chan, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and the list goes on and on. People always would have to remind me, you know, "Do you know who your dad is? Your dad is so cool, right?" And I would say, "Yeah, I mean, he's just my dad." But now I realize, oh my gosh, yeah, he was a big deal in the hair industry.

A competitive hairstylist, Fabio is a self-made superstar from the old neighborhood, Little Italy in Toronto, where Fabio was a first-generation North American. The shining pride of his Italian emigre family, raised with a lot of love and a little lasagna. I've had this restaurant for 25 years, and Fabio would come and dine here. We ate together, not cooked together. We ate together. He sang Italian. He sounded Italian.

He drove an Italian car, he drove a Fiat. We both had an immense love for food and I can't underscore that enough. We lived to eat meatballs, cutlets, ravioli, lasagna. We identified through food.

For Fabio, in the banquet of life, family mattered most. He was especially close to his sister, Mirella. She was a well-known hair stylist in her own right. He was in high school where Keanu Reeves went when he started working with his sister at her salon. He finished high school and it was basically, you know, what are you going to do next? And he says, I want to go to hairdressing school. And he was so good at it. He was natural.

And while there, he meets a young lady, very shy, named Vonda. 1985. Yeah, September of 85. Fabio caught my eye because he had this head of hair that kind of reminded me of the lead singer of Duran Duran at the time. And then, of course, his character was just the cherry on top. He's like a cup of coffee. He would just come in like, good morning.

They were married probably within four or five years of dating. I kept this for Luigi. So this way at least he had a nice keepsake. So young. You know, he was waiting up there for me. He looked handsome. His hair looked good. Which I wasn't surprised. And then soon after they had Luigi. Nothing could stop him. He was just larger than life. My dad and my Zimarella, they had a lot of success together. We had two salons.

Fabio and Vonda were working with me. We wound so many perms. We had dents in our fingers from the perm rods. His hair was like huge. My hair was huge. Oh, it was something else. Nobody could style hair the way Fabio and Mirella were styling hair. So Fabio and Mirella became immersed in this glamorous world of competitive hairstyling shows where their flair under pressure

made them instant standouts. There are the very serious hair competitions where everything is measured and precise. Then there are the more fun competitions. Hair has to be big, it has to be savage. So within 17 minutes, you had to create from start to finish your look. We just loved every minute and killed it. They would announce five more minutes.

Cinque minuti rimani. And then hands off, don't touch. And I still have my finger on the hairspray. And then all of a sudden we started seeing him on these local Toronto talk shows like CBC and whatnot. Like, oh my God, there's Fabio. And then she taught you everything you know. Yet while Fabio was gaining worldwide recognition, back home, for his wife Fonda, there were not a lot of highlights. I think there was one here when he was washing the car with Luigi. This is where...

things started to change. While Fabio's career had been skyrocketing, he'd been spending a lot of time with one of his hair models, who was also working at his salon. Monica was a manicurist at the salon. Yeah, tough. I noticed after a while that, you know, my marriage started getting a little crowded because she was always either next to him or next to us or next to Luigi.

Fabio had fallen for Monica and the two were in love. They ended up getting married in 1997. Just when the ink on my divorce was dry, I, you know, said to him, "Good luck with this marriage. I hope that she gives you everything that you're looking for." A decade later, the hair product company Wella made him an amazing offer to move Fabio and his family to Southern California for a dream job.

But it meant leaving Little Italy and so many Semantillies behind. You could have said, "How can you do this to us?" I could have. I could have. And I didn't. He was just so excited about it. Can you believe it, Murr? They want me. He felt the need. He had to go.

By 2011, Fabio was on his way. He'd swapped the chill of Canada for the warm California sun. Here with his wife Monica and their two teenage daughters, Isabella and Jessica. The girls were wonderful, sweet, gentle girls, very smart. Seemed like he was living the American dream. The life that a lot of people would want, right? ♪ It rains in southern ♪

Well, that talk of opportunities that Albert Hammond sang about in the 1973 classic It Never Rains in Southern California, it rang true for a while. But when it pours, man, it pours. A deadly storm was heading Fabio's way to the exact place he would have least suspected it. The area that Fabio Monica bought a house in L.A. is in a very, very nice part of Woodland Hills.

Perfect kitchen, perfect patio, perfect porch. Everybody in the Semontilli family knew that the outside patio was Fabio's own office. This was Fabio's place. Isabella, who's been in school all day, comes home. She can feel things seem a little odd. She goes to the patio and lets out a scream.

Fabio Cementilli was living large and loving it. Married to his second wife Monica, he'd brought her and their two daughters far from the lives they'd known back in Toronto's Little Italy, all the way to Southern California, where his dreams of sunshine and success were coming true. Fabio loved everything about America. The freedom, the Mustang, Elvis Presley. America was a natural fit for him.

The area that Fabio Monica bought a house in LA is in a very, very nice part of Woodland Hills.

Perfect kitchen, perfect patio, perfect porch. We even redo the security system so they got the fanciest and the best. That security system lets Monica monitor comings and goings from the house remotely, even when neither one of them is home. And Fabio's on the road a lot. He's a glad-handing and hugging natural, as a hair industry VP, a role model, and mentor for stylists. Look's the part too. He's got a Porsche and a swanky new office.

It seemed like he was living the American dream, the life that a lot of people would want, right? I mean, yeah, it really was when you think about it. Fabio began posting himself and his globetrotting good times, along with his larger-than-life adventures in Los Angeles, on social media, giving his followers a bit of the same charm that had taken him from a salon to the top of the hair product pyramid.

He loved checking in with his audience that he developed on social media, his friends and family, right? So here we've got one of his famous airplane pictures. He was traveling all the time. He was a go-getter, man. He was everywhere at once. He was everywhere at once. That's the best way to put it, yeah. The end of the work week would find Fabio on his patio.

Hey guys, Fab here for another Fab Style episode. His Fab Friday posts were signature Fabio. Number 10, teamwork. Showcasing his good-natured outlook and his passion for his work, all from his home office, favorite spot on earth. Everybody in the Semantilli family knew that the outside patio was Fabio's own office. This was Fabio's place. No one would ever dare sit in that chair.

While Fabio was working, his two girls seemed to be flourishing in their new home. His admired wife, Monica, entertaining at their beautiful Woodland Hills house. Monica was my fancy friend. I mean, everything she touched was elegant. Her home was elegant. Her daughters are beautiful and sweet. Monica had some really nice dinner parties and people would be like, "How did you make this?"

And she'd have cooking classes in her kitchen. She had made friends. She was going to the gym. So she had already set her roots down. So it was always reassuring for Fabio that the family was also thriving in LA. Part of Monica's life was being involved in a racquetball club at the local gym called LA Fitness. And she developed lots of friends in this racquetball club. Two women in particular, they call themselves the Musketeers.

The Three Musketeers of Racquetball, I felt like we were in high school and we would tease the guys, especially the head of the racquetball league. He was like the cool teacher. He would keep us all on schedule and he was very serious. And Monica was fit and she was ready to play. Monica was like a beast. She was like climbing the ranks.

Monica would play to win on the racquetball court, and after competing hard in their LA Fitness League, it was time for the Musketeers to P-A-R-T-Y at her place.

We'd go over to Monica's and they had the fire pit and she'd bring out this crudite of like cheese and meats and it was so delicious and there was always the wine and we would talk, girl talk, like what's going on? I mean you've been married 20 years Monica, what do you gotta share? She was like no everything's really great. Everything is like he's the love of my life.

Ten days into 2017, Fabio celebrated Monica's birthday with a family dinner at a fancy restaurant, La Dolce Vita in Southern California, just as he had imagined. He's like, "Oh my God, I can't believe I'm here. Mirella, do you believe this?" But what was about to happen to Fabio less than two weeks later, nobody could believe.

January 23rd, 2017 was a Monday. Fabio said he planned to work from home all day. So it's about 5:00 p.m. when daughter Isabella, who'd been in class all day and then stopped on her way home to apply for a job after school, opened the front door. And she can feel things seem a little odd, and she walks through the kitchen and can see there's blood everywhere.

She goes to the patio and lets out a scream. Sees her father slumped over in his favorite chair. She's crying and crying. She calls 911. Upon arrival, police say they found the victim lying in his outdoor patio. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

We were learning some shocking details about the case as soon as we arrived on scene. Detectives right away said that this was an extremely gruesome and bloody scene. Monica had just gotten back from doing shopping, comes in a few minutes after to this horror show. And knowing that Isabella has already called 911 and cops are arriving, she decides to reach out to one of her best friends. Monica texts me, "Please come over. I need you." And I was like,

Of course. So I drive over, and this lady comes out of Monica's house. I was like, yeah, my friend Monica, who lives there, asked me to come over. And she goes, okay, come with me, but just don't step in the blood. And I was like, um, okay. That is 14.

It's beyond. It's just beyond. It's just horrible. Inside, police discover that Fabio has been stabbed to death. He's got several wounds to the neck, and he's been stabbed in the thigh, directly into his femoral artery, an area that seems targeted to cause maximum bleeding.

And I'm sitting with Monica and she could not put words together. She was like, "I'm not a wife anymore." Over and over. That was like her mantra, like she was processing this. Meanwhile, news of Fabio's death travels quickly back to his family in Toronto. My sister Jessica called me and she's absolutely hysterical and I'm thinking, "What happened?" And she goes, "Someone killed dad."

Jessica called me. Then Monica came on the phone because she started crying, Jessica. And she said, "Marella, they killed Fabio. They killed Fabio." The pain is in your stomach and it hurts. It hurts, yeah. Very painful. And everything else that happens. The disbelief, the whys, the when, the how. We were all distraught.

We all thought, "How can this happen to this person? He has no enemies. Everybody loves this guy." Who would want to do these things to him? And why? Did you think it was like a gang of some kind or some outsider, some stranger who might have done this? People would say that maybe he had done something to someone and they hurt him.

I even had people say that, you know, maybe his identity was mistaken. But all of those things angered me because I didn't want him seen in a negative light. No motive has been determined, but police say burglaries have increased significantly in the area. You know, it's presented...

by the initial investigators, "Oh, maybe it's a burglary gone wrong." Some suspects came into this house, ended up killing the owner and leaving. One of the things we've determined is that there was a sports car that was parked here that's missing.

Fabio's home has been hit at the same time that a crime ring the police dubbed the Knock Knock Burglars has been terrorizing wealthy neighborhoods in Los Angeles. The board is now investigating if Knock Knock Burglars may be to blame for the murder of a hairdresser, Fabio Samantelli. It was instantly the thought that, oh my gosh, had this been a case of a home invasion robbery that turned deadly. Oh my God, they may be killing people now.

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This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Do you have a point of sale system you can trust, or is it a real POS? You need Shopify for retail. From accepting payments to managing inventory, Shopify POS has everything you need to sell in person. Go to shopify.com slash system, all lowercase, to take your retail business to the next level today. That's shopify.com slash system.

Fabio Cementilli had been at the top of his game, but the man described as larger than life had just been found murdered in his backyard in his favorite chair. It felt like a nightmare. And then the next day, the calls started coming in. I just started trying to get an idea as to what happened, right? What's the story? How could this have gone down?

Police launch their investigation and they get a break. A neighbor's security camera provides an immediate clue to the identity of the perpetrator. It showed two suspects, two hooded suspects, their hoodies pulled all the way around their faces, tied tight so you couldn't see anything, running up to the home. When they leave, they leave in a car. And it ain't their car. It's Fabio's favorite Porsche.

Right off the bat, their thought was that this was a home invasion robbery termed deadly strictly because the home, part of the home had been ransacked. No motive has been determined, but police say burglaries have increased significantly in the area. Fabio's home has been hit at the same time that a crime ring the police dubbed the Knock Knock Burglars has been terrorizing wealthy neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

There were some people on the video who appeared to be dressed similar to how the Knock Knock burglars were dressing. In 2017, we were seeing probably double the burglaries of what we were seeing five years before. There was a dramatic rise. When it comes to the Knock Knock burglaries, there was kind of an MO at the time. They'd be looking for a bigger, nicer house. They'll knock on the door, usually middle of the day.

No one answers. They break in. A neighborhood like this would attract them, mainly because you have obviously some really expensive cars in the driveways. The homes look like they're really well taken care of. They're in and out of the home in three to five minutes. They're looking for money. They're looking for jewelry, anything that they can grab.

It was also the celebrity knock-knocks. Celebrities who were clearly on social media would become targeted. They would watch the house, see they weren't there, and then they would go break in. It was an A-list of victims who led lives that took them on the road. Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, the Dodgers' Yaseel Puig, the Lakers' Derrick Fisher.

Alanis Morissette. She lost more than a million in jewelry. And there was another famous victim with a familiar first name. - Irony of ironies, one of the victims of these infamous knock-knock burglaries was Fabio Lanzoni. Long hair, big muscles, on the cover of romance novels, and lots of commercials including "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter." - I can't believe it's not butter.

I have four Rottweilers. But that day was pouring rain and they were playing in the mud. Ten minutes before I went to the gym, I decide, "Oh my God, they're playing in the mud.

it's raining like crazy let's put them in a shed that's the day they hit me when the burglars would break into the homes these guys were pretty savvy they were going straight for the bedrooms because everybody who's wealthy keeps everything in their bedroom for some reason and they only went through you know the master bedroom bathroom and upstairs i saw all the um you know footprint with mud on my carpet

and then, you know, the safe, 220-pound safe, gone. They're young guys, they're strong guys, they can pick up a safe and take it, get it in the car, and they're gone. It was crazy because when they hit me, it was like they did my house and also the house in front of me at the same time, like, in a really, like, half an hour. I don't think that this can ever be stopped the way that it is right now. They're making too much money and they're not getting enough time in jail.

Plenty of people are getting here. It was almost a weekly event. There have been fights, there have been attacks, people have been hospitalized, but no one had actually been murdered.

But was it possible the Knock Knock gang had become more brazen? "Aboard is now investigating if Knock Knock burglars may be to blame for the January murder of hairdresser Fabio Samantelli." When news breaks that a man named Fabio has been killed, the other Fabio, the famous model, gets calls from anxious friends.

It's like my phone started ringing off the hook. And all my friends, you know, they're like, "Oh, Fabio, are you okay? Are you okay? Excuse me, I'm answering the phone. What do you think?" And I remember the same night I called some of my friends, and they are in law enforcement, and they are talking about, you know, the knock-knock.

The cops have work to do. They're trying to figure out if these knock-knock people are getting really, really ruthless to the point where now they're willing to kill. This was kind of seen as an escalation. Oh my God, they may be killing people now. To have somebody murdered in their home, it freaked all of us out because you've got stay-at-home moms, you've got elderly women. These kinds of things don't happen at Woodland Hills.

But while residents are now terrified that the Knock Knock burglars have turned deadly, police are not sold on that idea. The issue that I had with it was the homicide. I had not seen any homicides with any of my Knock Knock burglars. One of the ground rules that we did find in the Knock Knock series was that if they ran into anybody, it was all agreed that no violence.

From the video that I've seen where victims had confronted these guys, they run. Who are you? What do you want? They're just like cockroaches when light hits them. They're just scattered. Well, look, if they just wanted to burgle the joint, they could have seen Fabio outside on the patio smoking his cigar, sipping his wine and said, let's go in here and get all the stuff and get out of here. It would have been easy.

Initial detectives start realizing, hey, if they were ransacking the house, why is there blood inside the house? Doesn't that suggest that they ransacked the house after killing him? The detectives begin to think maybe that ransacked bedroom was a staged robbery. After all, what's missing? Just some cash and costume jewelry. Here's the other thing. Fabio's very expensive Rolex watch is still on his wrist.

What, it takes three seconds to pull the watch off his wrist and get out of there? They didn't. And these are the things that start to make any good detective wonder. Maybe that knock-knock burglar ain't no knock-knock burglar. I thought the knife is personal. And for the quantity of times he was injured with it, I thought this is really personal.

Fabio Cimentilli had lived a life with family at the very center. So one week after his murder, his grieving loved ones gathered together, some from Toronto, others from Southern California for his funeral in Los Angeles. There was a lot of visible wounds and my mom wanted to see my brother.

In Italian funeral, the caskets are open. So they suggested that maybe we put a scarf around him and I said, "That's my brother. He always loved the scarf." He looked so peaceful and rested and I just wanted him to open his eyes. Just say goodbye. If there's not a day that goes by that I don't think about it, it still weighs heavily on me. We've got this poem from the funeral and a little guardian angel pin.

If I start reading it, it's going to make me cry for sure. Beyond the tears of his family, news of Fabio's untimely death also occasioned an outpouring of mourning, such as this tribute video to Fabio. Early in the year, we tragically lost a member of our industry family, and it's left a hole that will really never be filled. We lost an icon. We lost a colleague.

So although we lost Fabio, his legacy is going to live on forever. While it seems the Globe is mourning the loss of Fabio Semantilli, the cops have work to do.

Weeks into the investigation, the knock-knock burglar theory is a no-go. Detectives thinking about the murder differently once they learn how Fabio was killed. The coroner made note that there were no defensive wounds on Fabio's hands. So police are now starting to think there is intent here. This is a target.

Then the police get a big break when they find Fabio's Porsche. It's been abandoned just five miles away from the Sementilli home, and it's got vital clues. Some really, really critical information comes from the swabbing of this Porsche because there's blood in a few places. There is blood on the inside panel of the driver's side door. Blood on the clutch and brake. Very, very significant.

While the DNA from that blood is getting processed, investigators make another discovery. Remember, Fabio's home had that state-of-the-art security system with multiple cameras. They're cameras that should have recorded events leading up to his death. But it turns out the DVR, where that surveillance footage would have been stored, it's missing, gone from its spot, even though it was not in plain sight in their garage.

How did they know to take it? So then they started to wonder who had access to it. How lucky am I to have the greatest love story of all time? As the investigation continues, Fabio's grief-stricken spouse, Monica, is overcome as she speaks at his memorials. My heart went out to her. I just felt like, oh my God, how devastating can this be, right? I couldn't imagine.

If you saw Fab's posts or you saw them in person, you would see them dancing in the kitchen and singing and he would always call her nicknames. I know that Fabio walks by my side and he has us drinking one hand and his cigar on the other and he's singing his favorite song, My Way. And it wasn't always easy for Monica when Fabio wanted it My Way as she would confide to her friends.

When Fabio was in town, she had to be available. She would complain about how Fabio would call from his chair in the backyard, "Monica, I need a beer. Monica, get me another cigar." And she would have to wait on him hand and foot.

And she did it and she took pride in it because she was a good wife and he loved her very much. And at the other side of it, it seemed like she was getting tired of it and didn't like it and it felt disrespectful.

Friends say Monica had mentioned other things that got on her nerves about Fabio. The pride she took in her racquetball matches, she felt, was underappreciated by her husband, they say, who was so often on the go elsewhere. She would get very, very offended and hurt if he didn't come and watch her play. She was really angry about it. She's like, "Where's Fabio?"

She would say, "I gave up everything for him, and he can't be bothered to care about what I care about." And she revealed to Elise that she felt a little homesick. Mr. Mom back in Canada felt a little neglected because Fabio was so busy and out of town a lot. But knowing Fabio's love of life and parties, Monica had yet another chance to honor her late husband.

After the Los Angeles memorial for Fabio on the 29th of January, Monica invited several of the people, friends and family, to come back to her home for a more quiet gathering. Yet in that intimate group, there was an unexpected figure present. We were all outside and this guy comes in. And that leaves family and friends of Fabio's asking the same question: Who is this man?

At the Sementilli home, it was supposed to be an intimate gathering, a memorial for the late Fabio's closest confidants and loved ones. When a mysterious guest showed up, it raised a lot of eyebrows. It seemed out of place because this was more of a memorial for Fabio. This was more Fabio's people. So mysterious that a friend of Monica's took a photo of him and turned it over to police.

He was Robert Baker, the toned racquetball coach at the gym nearby where Monica and her pals had become avid competitors. - Robert was a spectacular athlete. He was very fit and very muscular and he wielded it proficiently. - Robert would play till he dropped dead. It was so fun to watch him. He was like a marathon runner on the racquetball court.

That's how much he loved the game. He was a very alpha male. He was hot, but he was like dirty hot. And dirty hot is like, he's not elegant. Like, okay, he has a pass. It was found out or discovered that Robert had some porn that was on the internet. And that was shocking. He told me he did performed in films, but I never asked any more than that.

-I'm sure nobody will see us. -So I had to watch it. We were in the industry together in the '90s and the early 2000s. -Alana Evans was just a rising performer in the porn world when she first encountered Robert Baker. -I drive a pink Mustang. That is my prize from the porn industry is a convertible, supercharged pink Mustang. Thank you! ♪♪

I started porn, my very first scenes were in 1998. And I remember meeting Rob and his wife at the time on set. Robert Baker, it turns out, also acted as a manager specifically for his wife Dee, who also appeared in adult films. And our special guest today is... Dee. How long have you been in California? That's where you met your husband, Rob. You could say that.

What Rob was doing was introducing his models, his clients, to other directors and producers, helping them build up their fame. So as a girl coming into the business, you see what's happening, you immediately are going to flock to Rob because he's a mover and a shaker. He's got it all going on.

But by 2013, Robert Baker had moved on, leaving the porn industry and his wife Dee for the world of... racquetball? So, yes, it is a rather colorful existence, for lack of a better term, when it comes to Robert Baker's past. But police, who've seen it all, are looking at a guy who, yeah, he did porn. They're not quick to point to murder.

But investigators say when they take a closer look at a photo of him taken at Fabio's memorial, they spot something. Baker's finger is bandaged. According to the cops, it looks as if Robert Baker has a cut on his left index finger. Also, remember, there were those blood droplets in Fabio Cementilli's Porsche. Could there be a connection?

Mysteries abound. Those two masked men seen outside Fabio's home. Who are they? Fabio found stabbed to death inside at his car stolen. But why? What seems to start off as a sort of, it's a burglary gone wrong. It's horrible. It's terrible. There's a twist here. So all of a sudden people were saying, oh, so there's really more to this than what's going on. So they start to watch. They're looking for a connection.

And now there's a connection to multiple people in the Semantilli circle. A man with porn in his past and a far more sordid secret that's still unrevealed. So what's going on?

At this point, I'm blown away. I'm in shock. However this went down, it was executed brilliantly because we were deceived. A stunning deception, police say, that will shock the Simantillis to their core when arrests are made and all is revealed. I said, there's no way. There's got to be a mistake.

Hi all, Kate Gibson here of The Bookcase with Kate and Charlie Gibson. This week we talked to Whoopi Goldberg about lots of things. But one of the things we talked to her about is how as a science fiction and graphic novel fan, she never saw herself on those screens or on those pages growing up. I mean, I didn't realize that part of me until I watched Star Trek. And I saw it because I love sci-fi.

And for some reason, it never occurred to me that I was missing until I was present. You're not going to want to miss this episode of The Bookcase from ABC News. It was like a made-for-TV movie. Part of a master plan, according to the LAPD. Fabio Semantilli. Hey guys, Fab here for another Fab-style episode. Fabio is found stabbed to death on the deck of his Woodland Hills home. So a graphic murder, and no one knows why.

So I thought, the knife is personal, very personal. There's a twist here. I said, there's no way. There's got to be a mistake. Who's this man that's like here? I see a picture, and it's Rob's face. And I am thinking, this can't be right. Robert was a spectacular athlete. He was a very alpha male.

According to prosecutors, Monica claimed she didn't really know him. She didn't even know his last name. What did the sound of his voice feel like to you? Sound like I was listening to the devil speak. Scrawled in lipstick, prosecutors say, were the words Mrs. Baker. Oh, so there's really more to this than what's going on. Suddenly, it's Robert Baker who makes a move, just turns this case on its head.

Fabio Cimentilli was a larger-than-life father of three who'd made a major name for himself in the hair industry and who was beloved by all. He used to tell stories and he would engage people for hours. And he'd always make everything really funny. A buoyant big hair stylist back in Canada, Fabio teased and pleased his way to the top of the high-stakes hair competitions across the globe, starting alongside his sister Mirella in Toronto.

the pride of his Italian immigrant family. - So this is home. This is where we grew up. I grew up in this house over here. So this is Fab's home. Well, everyone here was an immigrant and everyone here brought their native culture. - My mom used to tell us that there was a lot of opportunity.

He was the only male in the family, and so there were expectations placed upon him. And he rose to the occasion. And indeed, by 2017, Fabio had risen to the very top. He'd moved to sunny Southern California and was living the good life with his second wife, Monica, and their two teenage daughters, Jessica and Isabella. How did he feel about his daughters? Loved, loved the girls. Protected them, wanted them to be children again.

But Fabio's triumphant rise is cut tragically short here on January 23rd, 2017, when Fabio was found stabbed to death on the deck of his home here in Woodland Hills. He's been identified by police as 49-year-old Fabio Simantelli.

He'd been stabbed multiple times in his neck, face, chest. Detectives, in fact, described it as an extremely gruesome and bloody scene. And right off the bat, their initial thought was that this was a home invasion robbery turned deadly. At the time of the murder, a neighbor's security camera reveals two masked figures outside Fabio's home.

At first, police believe Fabio may have fallen prey to a home invasion robbery gone awry. A notorious gang police called the Knock Knock Burglars had been terrorizing upscale homes in LA at the time. Detectives start to have second thoughts. And evidence of the attack suggests to police that Fabio was the intended target and was killed deliberately. Some of those close to Fabio agree. So I thought,

The knife is personal, very personal. And for the quantity of times he was injured with it, I thought this is really personal. As family and friends mourn Fabio's passing, police are on the lookout for possible suspects. They're tipped off about a mystery man who shows up unexpectedly at a memorial gathering at Fabio's house. Neighbors and friends of Fabio were like, "Who's this man that's like,

Turns out that mystery man is Robert Baker, Monica and her friend's eye-catching racquetball instructor at LA Fitness. Robert was a spectacular athlete. He was a very alpha male.

But there are some in the San Fernando Valley who remember Robert Baker back in the late 90s and early 2000s from his earlier life in the porn industry as a performer and manager. One of those people is this woman, Alana Evans. I have to tell you, Rob always had a smile. He's a good looking man. He presents this super charismatic personality and he always seems happy.

But years later, Alana discovered there was a dark side to Robert Baker's past. I lived in Woodland Hills for a long time and as a mom, I will check the sex offender registry for my neighborhoods. And I see a picture and it's Rob's face. I am thinking this can't be right because at this point, I hadn't seen Rob in years.

It turns out that in 1993, Robert Baker was convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor. When I originally got this case, looked into his background, at the time he was a recruiter for the army. In the late 80s, early 90s, police were notified after a student made serious allegations against Robert Baker to her school counselor. Events occurring after an incident that followed a basketball game. Apparently they

had a very good day and they started hugging afterwards. And then there was a kiss on the lips. After that, I think things progressed during the next couple weeks. At the time that this happened, she was 14 years old. He was in complete control of her, complete dominance of her. Baker was arrested and charged with six counts of a lewd act upon a minor. After pleading to these charges, he got a two-year state prison sentence.

and he has a lifetime requirement to register as a sex offender anywhere he lives. So what could it mean that this lawbreaker had inserted himself into the Semantilli inner circle? LAPD investigators are more than a little curious.

And so they start to watch him. They're looking for a connection. Investigators say when they took a closer look at that photo showing Baker at this memorial, they noticed one key thing: a Band-Aid on his finger. Remember, there were blood droplets found inside Fabio's abandoned Porsche. Baker's DNA is in the law enforcement database because of his prior conviction. So when investigators compare it to the blood found in the Porsche,

It's a match. That put Baker both at the scene of the murder and it put him in Fabio's Porsche. He seems to be, based on their evidence, one of those two men who came into that house that day, most likely the one who wielded the knife. The Robert that I thought I knew, I don't think would be capable of committing an act like that. The Robert that I came to learn is capable of anything. But could that really mean murder?

And so they start to watch him. They get search warrants and they'll go through all his communications. Fabio's family continues to mourn. They wait days, weeks, months. Then, on June 14th, 2017, the cops move in on Robert Baker in a car that they pull over on the streets of L.A. But it's who else gets out of that late model Mustang and gets taken into police custody that will shock the Semantilles to their core.

and tear their hearts out. - I remember hyperventilating and then I said, "There's no way, there's gotta be a mistake." - Monica Cimentilli had spent weeks after her husband Fabio's brutal murder posting on Instagram about her grief and sorrow at the loss of her husband.

One post had a photograph of Fabio's favorite chair on the patio out back. Another photo commemorated what would have been their 20th wedding anniversary. "My heavy heart misses you," she would write. "I know. Your children know. All know. I married the greatest man on earth." Every day I was seeing her Instagram and it was like this constant living love letter to Fabio.

So imagine the shock and horror when five months after Fabio was stabbed to death, the Semintelis are told by the LAPD that two suspects have been arrested. One is ex-convict Robert Baker, whose blood was found in Fabio's stolen car. The other is, well, no one can believe it at first. Detective Parshall called us.

And he said, "Okay, we've made an arrest for your brother's murder. We arrested Monica Cimentelli and Robert Baker." I blacked out. That's right. It's Fabio's widow, Monica, the grieving widow, now in custody and accused of her husband's murder. Investigators say Fabio Cimentelli's wife didn't actually commit the murder, but they say she planned it all with her boyfriend.

I don't know what to think in that moment. I'm like, are you sure this is right? The deceit is the hardest part. I was hurt. And then, of course, I learned about everything else that was going on that was held private from everyone up until that point. As the months-long LAPD investigation that led to the arrests of Monica and Robert Baker comes to light, the allegations in court documents are stunning.

Police began to look into how long this had been going on and following the couple to see what was involved. That's where they found evidence that they had been together. In fact, prosecutors say that they found thousands of calls and text messages between Baker and Monica leading up to the day of the murder.

So now, the Special Surveillance Unit of the LAPD places tracking devices in their vehicles and follows their every move. And there's all kinds of video of them like, "Oh my God, these passionate kisses and fondling." They're still being tracked in May of 2017, when just four months after Fabio's murder, Monica Cementilli and Robert Baker take two trips to Las Vegas. I knew she was going to Vegas.

She was going to go with a friend, and that I just basically said to her that, you know, it's good. It's good for you to get away. According to court documents, she's in Vegas with champagne, grabbing Robert's crotch. Investigators say that they were living it up. They were having a great time going to clubs, going to bars, snuggling together. So investigators taking a closer look at how Monica was spending her money.

She had also just bought a brand new Mustang, top of the line, all the bells and whistles. The scuttlebutt was like, "Who does that?" But Monica was like, "Fabio would want me to have this. "Fabio would want his girls to have it. "He loved us, and this is what he would want us to have."

Prosecutors allege that even as Monica appears to be freely spending money on trips and that tricked-out Mustang, her friends and family telling authorities she's also desperate for cash. She was on the phone with the insurance company and she's like, "How am I supposed to take care of the bills if you guys aren't gonna pay out?" And according to court documents, she badgered the LAPD to clear her so that she could draw on the insurance.

And they didn't. And it made her crazy. Detectives decide to pay Monica a visit, just to see what she's going to say about Robert Baker. According to prosecutors, Monica claimed she didn't really know him. She didn't even know his last name. They know this is a lie, and it immediately moves her from being, "Oh, she might be involved," to being "in Baltimore." And now she's in the frame as much as Baker is.

As the evidence mounts, police allege that Monica Cementilli and Robert Baker plotted to snare Fabio's $1.6 million life insurance policy. That's when the police make their move. On June 14th, 2017, Monica and Robert are tooling around Los Angeles. Suddenly they get pulled over.

This is all part of an LAPD ruse they've created. So they pulled Monica's Mustang over and they're like, "Well, we think this car's stolen." But they tell them, "While we check it out, we have to follow off the safety rules, so we're going to put you in the back of this police car." And then the police drop a bomb. "Oh, by the way, you've been arrested for the murder of Fabio Semantilli," which just is a punch to the gut for both of them. They're locked in the back of that police car.

Baker and Monica are in the backseat of the cop car. They're unaware that they're being recorded. There are some interesting words exchanged in the back of the patrol car. Let me read to you from the actual court documents. Monica says, "Somebody must have talked. Someone is doing this to us. They must have something." When Monica says, "They must have something," it says, "The game's up."

What police say they do have is a detailed picture of those 35 crucial minutes when Fabio was murdered at his home and a bone-chilling answer to a key question. Where was Monica?

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So I just wanted to bring you upstairs to show you some of the keepsakes and heirlooms I have from my dad. Some of the important things that I hold dear to me. Here is his Lifetime Achievement Award.

And this was presented to him, as it says posthumously, in 2017 for his remarkable contribution to the hair industry. But on June 11th, 2017, it wasn't Luigi who was accepting that Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of Fabio. Allow me to give her this. Accepting this? It was Monica. I chose the greatest love story of all time.

A story that people only read about. A story that movies are made of. Then just three days later, for the murder of Fabio Cementilli, police arrest Robert Baker and Fabio's widow, Monica. From the initial get-go, they thought it was this home invasion that had turned deadly. This poor man slain in his backyard. Everyone was terrified.

Turns out it was a murder, allegedly committed by his wife and her lover, allegedly fueled by two things: love and money. Fabio Cimentelli had a substantial life insurance policy that Monica Cimentelli would have been direct beneficiary of. When all of it came out, my brain just shattered with the dichotomy of the mother and the wife and the home and the life that they created.

when they laid out what they had, and you started to see the picture emerge. I mean, it was like a made-for-TV movie, how they allege this crime unfolded. There were two individuals that were running up to the house or seen jogging near Mr. Cimitelli's Queen Victoria residence prior to the murder. We believe those two individuals were complicit in the murder and that Ms. Cimitelli was the one that kind of orchestrated things.

On January 23rd of 2017, Fabio Semantilli had decided he was going to work from home all day. Monica leaves for the gym with her daughter Jessica. Isabella is already off to school. We learned from prosecutors that Fabio was out on the back patio by the pool in his favorite chair. The housekeeper is just about to leave. It's around 2 or 2.30. When she leaves the home, it's scary.

Jessica and Monica come home. And then a short time later, Jessica leaves for a babysitting job. And then around 3:26, Monica heads out for Target.

She arrives at 3:30, proceeds not to park in front of the Target, but goes toward the side of the building where on security tape you can see a figure getting into the passenger side. Then she drives further around the back and no one really sees that person get back out of the car. However, they do see her start driving back around, parks in the front, enters the Target at 3:38.

Prosecutors alluding this is how she's beginning to build her alibi. Police who retrieved the Target surveillance footage say that it shows Monica checking her phone while inside the store. And pulled phone records, police say, indicate that Monica placed a call to each of her daughters while inside Target. Jessica, she knew, was babysitting while Isabella was at a job interview after school.

So Monica, according to police, is fully aware that no one will be home. This is critical. After she stays for a period of time in the Target monitoring her phone, she's constantly monitoring to the point where when she's finally ready to leave the Target,

She practically runs into the door because she's not watching where she's going. Investigators say Monica left Target at 4:46 and headed to Ralph's grocery store. According to investigators, it was all going according to Monica and Robert Baker's plan. Now that plan, investigators say, allowed Monica perhaps to be here or inside the Target and watch on her phone.

the comings and goings outside her house some seven minutes away via a live feed from her security system's surveillance cameras prosecutors alleging that monica was here at the target in the parking lot or down the road a piece at the ralph's grocery store just as robert baker and his accomplice entered the house through an unlocked door off the master bedroom

Authorities say Baker then made his way to Fabio on the deck and stabbed him to death. Authorities alleging Monica waiting on this site in the car or perhaps inside the Target as Robert Baker exits the patio, heading back through the kitchen on his way to the master bedroom where he'll stage it to look like a robbery.

Robert Baker then makes his way back out through the kitchen into the garage. Prosecutors say he stole the DVR, which recorded all of the surveillance cameras within the home. And prosecutors allege it was hidden in a place no one would know unless you lived in the home or knew someone who did.

Prosecutors say that Robert Baker and his accomplice drive away from the scene in Fabio's Porsche at 4.53 p.m. That's just one minute after Monica leaves the Ralphs. Her house is four minutes away, but she takes 11 minutes to get there. Why? They claim she was kind of biding her time, waiting for her daughter to be the first one to arrive.

High schooler Isabella comes home at 4:55 p.m. and discovers her father dead. Monica arrives nine minutes after that. One of the most amazing things about this case was the fact that Isabella just missed all of this by one minute.

But the second thing, according to the LAPD, that all of this was measured, premeditated, all part of a master plan to off Fabio Semantilli. Semantilli and Baker's arraignment was continued today. In the meantime, the search continues for that third suspect. Semantilli's attorney says none of the allegations are true. My client adamantly denies any involvement whatsoever in the murder of her husband.

And we are hopeful that when all the facts come out, she will be totally exonerated. One of the toughest deputy district attorneys in all of Los Angeles is assigned to the case, and they're ready to start building a case that will stick. And the plan is to try them together. Both Monica and Baker were charged with capital murder with special circumstances for financial gain, and they were held without bail.

both of them pleading not guilty to the crime. But suddenly, it's Robert Baker who makes a move... Is that what you wish to do, sir? ...that just turns this case on its head. ♪♪

It had been more than a decade since Fabio Semantilli moved to Southern California, leaving his extended family behind in Toronto. Now in July of 2023, 11 members of the Semantilli clan made that same Toronto to LA trek, sharing stories of their beloved Fabio over a big Italian dinner.

Over bistecca and branzino, the family reminisced about Fabio's favorite food. Growing up, it wasn't what we wanted to eat. You and me, or anybody. It was what... It was what...

So I want to say a toast to Fabio and enjoy this wonderful dinner in California where he loved to be. So cheers to Fab. Cheers, cheers. We'll never forget you, Fab.

But the Semantilles didn't come from Canada to LA just for a good meal. There is also unendurable grief, fury. They are determined to have their say at last as the justice system deals with Fabio's murder and everybody deals with a shocking turn of events. Everything to me was a huge surprise. Robert Baker has done the unimaginable.

He has indicated to his attorneys and to the prosecution that he is ready to plead guilty across the board. And he's going to do this open plea with the promise of nothing. Whatever the sentence is, it is. Excuse me?

So on July 7th, 2023, Fabio's loved ones gather at the courthouse in downtown LA. They want to hear Fabio's murderer get what's coming, and they want to speak their piece to Robert Baker himself. When you saw them bring him into court in the orange jumpsuit, what struck you as you looked at him? He's ugly.

Ugly. I was on pins and needles for it all because we were told that he could change his mind at any time. On the record, he was a baker, defendant is present. Your client wishes to plead guilty to all charges and all allegations in special circumstances. Is this correct? That is correct, sir. Is that what you wish to do, sir? Yes, sir. What did the sound of his voice feel like to you? Sound like I was listening to the devil speak.

Then, in this indictment, conspiracy to commit murder. Though those two charges, how do you plead? No contest plea means the defendant accepts a conviction for the crime without admitting to being guilty, but in the eyes of the court, it's the same as a guilty plea. Further, you admit the following special circumstances are true. You intentionally committed the murder for purposes of financial gain. Yes. You intentionally committed the murder by means of lying in wait.

Yes. That you personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon to whet a knife in the Commissioner's offense? Yes. I had a sigh of relief when Judge Cohen was reading out the charges and that he understood, he being Robert Baker. He understood what he was doing. No statements by the people, Your Honor. However, I do have multiple family members who would like to give victim impact statements.

The Cementilli family stands up to speak and outpours not only anguish over Fabio's death, but long-suppressed rage at Robert Baker. Why would a delinquent monster do this to Fabio? Why rip away the life of a transcendent man who was destined to be a legacy, an icon, and a mentor with grand ambitions? Baker may have hurt him,

but Fabio will live forever in our hearts. I'm Fabio's niece by marriage. I plead with the court to have no mercy on this man and instead to bestow to him the same mercy that he gave to Fabio as he snuck up on him and stabbed him. From my grief, I summon the strength to speak and to demand accountability against those who choose savagery over humanity.

Yet whose torment could be greater than that of Jessica and Isabella, the young daughters that Fabio shared with Monica? And what might they say to the court about their mother, who's been jailed since the date of her arrest in 2017? And Robert Baker has yet more surprises in store, an impassioned handwritten account that could change the course of Monica's trial and her life.

Six and a half years after Fabio Cementilli was brutally stabbed to death on the deck of his home, his daughters come face to face with his confessed killer. My name is Jessica G-E-S-S-I-C-A. My name is Isabella I-S-A-B-E-L-L-A.

It's a heartbreaking moment in court. Fabio's young daughters, whose whole world was shattered by his murder, their father dead, their mother in jail for years awaiting trial. So now they're confronting Robert Baker in person at last. First, Isabella, who discovered her father Fabio's body. My sister and I never thought we would finally see the day that justice would be served.

Like her sister, Jessica, believing in her mother's innocence.

We know that today there will be many statements berating our mother, my sister and myself who are helpless and suffering as well. We want to clearly state that we will continue to stand by our mother as we have done for the last six years and we will fight for her innocence. Thank you. With the victim impact statements completed, it's sentencing time for Robert Baker. Finest sentenced to state prison for the term prescribed by law.

which in this case is life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. I realize that that would not mend the hearts of anyone. And I'm sorry. We are done. He, for whatever reason, decided he was going to fall on the sword and never see the light of day. Six and a half years to wait for this day. Six and a half years. Torturous six and a half years with Robert Baker pleading guilty to conspiracy just makes us feel like we're halfway there right now.

So, what was the reason Robert Baker admitted his guilt and agreed to spend his life in prison without a sniff of parole? A possible answer turns up in this emotional handwritten letter from Robert Baker to Monica, in which he claims full responsibility for Fabio's murder.

Baker writing, "You being arrested for merely being with me. Never thought it possible. Never in a lifetime could I describe the remorse, the sympathy, the utter chaos of this." The affair has been known, that's a given, but it doesn't mean she had anything to do with the murder of her husband and she denies it totally and has since the very beginning.

Ten months after Baker's sentencing, Monica Cementilli remains in jail. She was denied bail and her trial has been delayed by one legal proceeding after another.

I've covered countless pretrial hearings in this case. One of the most interesting happened when the prosecution asked the judge to allow certain photographs of Monica and Robert to be allowed into court. This is what these people did on a regular basis. Judge Cohen was concerned that if the jury saw many of these pictures, it would be a tarnished stamp on Monica's head. So he denied the prosecution's request for most of those pictures.

You saw Monica in the courtroom. She's been in jail now for just under seven years, waiting for her trial as she waits to see what her future holds. But while Monica sits behind bars, her former lover delivers a stunning Valentine's Day gift to her. Because to clear her name, Baker gives Monica's defense team a minute-by-minute account of how he says he killed Fabio Simoncilli.

In his account, Baker says he first thought about killing Fabio several months prior to January 2017, after Monica had told him that divorce was not an option. Her family does not do divorces.

With that accomplice as a lookout, Baker says he slipped into the house with a hunting knife, looking to kill Fabio so he and Monica could be together. Baker saying that he heard a TV and followed the sound to just outside the patio where he waited before rushing toward Fabio and stabbing him anywhere there was open skin. Baker repeating that Monica had nothing to do with the planning or execution of the murder.

He says he's gonna get up in front of the jury and tell the truth, and he's told us the truth is she had nothing to do with it. And if he testifies and testifies truthfully, then we're hopeful his testimony will be believed by the jury.

But with Monica's trial pending, a mystery still hangs over this case. Remember, two men were caught on camera running toward Fabio's home. Will Baker reveal the identity of his sidekick on the stand? And how might that accomplice have changed the course of the murder?

It's been seven years since a security camera caught two masked men running toward Fabio Cimentilli's home just before he was murdered. Now, on Valentine's Day 2014, Baker gives Monica Cimentilli's defense team a minute-by-minute account of how he says he killed Fabio and a clue to an enduring mystery.

The mystery is the identity of Baker's accomplice. Baker says he'd hired a man called Jaybird, telling him that the two of them would burglarize this house in a ritzy area of Woodland Hills and split the take. So with Jaybird serving as a lookout, Baker says he went into the house, not to rob the place, but to kill Fabio.

Baker does just that and is prepping the fake robbery scene when Jaybird enters the house, sees Fabio's dead body, and panics. Suddenly, in Baker's telling, this cold-hearted killing erupts into cold sweat pandemonium. Baker frantically trying to make it look like a robbery, stuffing the knife and some valuables into a pillowcase, dashing out the door with Fabio's Porsche keys, deciding on the spot to flee in it.

Baker says Jaybird volunteered to get rid of the Porsche, and that was the last time he saw him. What can you tell us about the third person? Can't talk about the third person? No, no. Oh, okay. He's not present, and that's the best we can say. So will Baker disclose the identity of his accomplice on the stand in Monica's upcoming trial, even as he asserts Monica had nothing to do with the killing?

It's now been well over seven years since Fabio's murder, and his heartbroken loved ones are still waiting for answers as they continue to mourn his loss. Like a lot of good people in this world that did a lot of good things that left us early, they left on that note, you'll never grow old.

His memory will always live on with us. Everyone grieves in their own way. And for Luigi, it's trying to take comfort in his dad's memory the best way he knows how. So my dad was a cigar smoker and some of the other coats and stuff, even to this day, smell like cigar. I'll go in the closet every now and then and open it up and smell it. Those smells are very dear to me, absolutely. This is his Rolex. He wore this all the time. He wore it when he died. I wear it for special occasions when I want to feel close to him.

It's probably one of my most cherished possessions. It's hard to dig deep for a silver lining here. No, it's... His legacy will live on. We were blessed to have him, even for a short time. Hi, Fab. Fabio, you're so beautiful. I miss you every day of my life. I remember every one of these pictures. Yeah? Yeah, every one.

Remember this one? His iconic smile. I love you. I miss you. We'll be back. After Fabio Cervantelli's death, a scholarship in his name was established to actually help students following in his footsteps in the industry. Meanwhile, the trial of his wife Monica is scheduled to start later this year. That's our program for tonight. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Deborah Roberts. And I'm David Muir from all of us here at 2020 and ABC News. Good night.

Hi all, Kate Gibson here of The Bookcase with Kate and Charlie Gibson. This week we talked to Whoopi Goldberg about lots of things. But one of the things we talked to her about is how as a science fiction and graphic novel fan, she never saw herself on those screens or on those pages growing up. I mean, I didn't realize that part of me until I watched Star Trek. And I saw it because I love sci-fi.

And for some reason, it never occurred to me that I was missing until I was present. You're not going to want to miss this episode of The Bookcase from ABC News.