and those who loved the couple who once lived in that house, paul and catherine novak. the novaks had both grown up as city kids. paul was a new york city paramedic, a job that seemed the perfect fit. >> i wanted to be that person that would show up that would help my parents, help my sister if she was in a car accident or something like that. >> reporter: but he also saw the dark side of city life. a little too close to home. >> i would do shootings and stabbings two blocks away from my apartment, and i always thought to myself that i could just never raise a child in this area. >> reporter: so in 2002 paul and his wife, catherine, went house hunting in narrowsburg, new york, a small hamlet tucked between the catskill and pocono mountains. they didn't need to look for long. >> it was the big red house as she called it. and she would talk about the big red house all the time. >> reporter: catherine's brother michael and sister-in-law joanne said she worked hard to make the big red house a home. >> growing up, we lived in apartments. you know, this was a space of her own.