A mother of two turns up dead after a house fire — but her autopsy reveals death by strangulation. Lt. Mike Daniewicz must take to the streets of New Jersey’s Little India to catch a killer whose desperation is matched only by his heartlessness.
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00:00A 9-1-1 call comes in reporting a residential house fire.
00:24Their flames are 30 feet in the air.
00:26It had a attached garage, we didn't see a vehicle, but we always prepare that there could be someone
00:34home.
00:35Chief Dan Misak sends his team inside to put off the fire.
00:40And they're immediately overcome by black smoke, making everything almost invisible.
00:50Through the thick black smoke, they see something in the living room that no firefighter wants
00:57to see.
00:58I could just see them bringing a body out, almost looks like a mannequin just being brought
01:03out.
01:04Her medics come forward and try to resuscitate her, but she is in fact deceased.
01:09Nothing stood out about the fire, it seemed like an everyday run to us, but what it turned
01:15out to be in the end was definitely a twist and a turn.
01:18A lot of murderers are emotional when they take a look.
01:24Not him.
01:25He didn't feel that out because he's cold as ice.
01:30Somewhere is the guy who killed this woman.
01:34Let's find him and burn him to the ground.
01:41I spent my career closing murder cases, but I'm not the only one who answered the call.
01:51It takes a rare breed to solve the unsolvable, to catch a ruthless killer, to find justice for
02:00the dead.
02:02That's what it takes to be an American detective.
02:14My name is Mike Danowitz, and I'm a retired lieutenant with the prosecutor's office in
02:17Middlesex County, New Jersey.
02:19Originally, I was an officer with the sheriff's department, and I really became fascinated with
02:25the investigative process.
02:27In the homicide unit, when your victim dies, their opportunity to tell their story dies
02:32with them.
02:34That's now your job, that's your responsibility.
02:37I've had a lot of cases with Detective Danowitz.
02:41He put the work in, he never shied away from, you know, getting his hands dirty and doing
02:46what needed to be done.
02:47He was dedicated.
02:50So in 2011, I was on call the week of Valentine's Day.
02:56And I get a call in the late afternoon, early evening, that there was a fire in Avenel and
03:04a resident of Hallman died.
03:07So they ask him to go to the fire scene and see if there's something there.
03:14Danowitz arrives at the scene of this fire, and he is told that the fire was confined to
03:18the living room area.
03:21They discovered a person in that area on the floor.
03:27The victim was identified as Ballwinder Carr.
03:30She was a resident of the house.
03:32She's 44 years old.
03:34She is Indian.
03:36She is married and is the mother of two children, one 17-year-old boy and one 20-something girl.
03:44And she is the only resident in the house at the time the fire occurred.
03:50My mom is from North India, Punjab.
03:51She went to school and did a little bit of farming.
03:55Life back then was really hard for them.
03:57They were very poor.
03:59Ballwinder Carr has emigrated to this country with her husband to seek the American dream.
04:06My parents came here in like 1990, had me, my brother, my dad was a chef at a restaurant.
04:15Then eventually he partnered up with his brother and his cousin and bought a Indian restaurant
04:20in the city.
04:21And he also partnered up with one of his friends and got two to three gas stations over time.
04:26They came here and built that business up.
04:30So very hard working people, very hard working people.
04:33We lived in Elmerist, Queens.
04:35Then when I turned 20, we moved to New Jersey.
04:40It was part of my mom's dream.
04:41She wanted to buy a brand new house.
04:44The biggest reason why I believe they came to America is for us.
04:47They knew that if they have kids, they have a better opportunity in America than they would
04:51have in India.
04:53And we did.
04:54So at that point, it was decided we were going to do a scene assessment and evaluation.
05:00We walked through the entire home.
05:02It was a hot fire, mostly located in the living room.
05:08The drywall contained it, but the contents of the home were severely damaged.
05:11Danowitz looks around this house.
05:15It's in perfect order.
05:17There's no evidence of a search or being ransacked in a burglary.
05:22There was no forced entry.
05:23The door was open.
05:25There was no other windows or doors broken into.
05:29Could this be an accident?
05:30Of course.
05:31Is it one?
05:33Well, that's what we're here to find out.
05:36There was nothing just standing out that would have caused this fire.
05:40We had the state fire marshal come in with a canine and there was no indication that there
05:48was any sort of accelerant used to start this fire.
05:51Danowitz has seen these scenes many times.
05:55And he feels that there's just something odd about this one.
05:59He can't put his finger on it.
06:01If it's an accident, that's one thing.
06:03If it's an arson, it's someone who knows what they're doing.
06:07Firefighters were describing to us how she was located in the center of the living room, in
06:15close proximity to the front door.
06:17Why was this woman not able to get out of her living room?
06:21Did she, you know, get disoriented in the smoke and not know where the front door was?
06:26None of it really quite made sense at that point.
06:30But when they analyze the floor, they find something that might explain what happened here.
06:37There's a distinct pattern on the floor that did not burn where the body had been found.
06:43It tells us the victim was there on the ground prior to the fire taking over the entire room.
06:50Why are you there before anybody ignites anything?
06:54Is this a murder?
06:56Danowitz is hopeful that the coroner is going to have an answer for him as to what this is.
07:05She was burned pretty bad.
07:07Her facial features were very, um, distorted.
07:1190% third-degree burns, they don't look human.
07:16They look like something else entirely.
07:19It is the nature of homicide investigation to see things that you can never unsee.
07:27And I truly wish I could unsee everything I've ever seen.
07:33When speaking with the medical examiner, we learned that Balwinder's hand had a surface scratch and it opened up or gaped, as we would say, because her body was exposed to high heat.
07:44She had no soot in her nose.
07:45She had no soot in her lungs.
07:46So she was absolutely deceased, uh, before the, you know, the fire was set.
07:51When examining the neck area, he discovers evidence of deep bruising in the neck muscles.
07:58But if you grip the neck with the intent of applying force, your thumb is in the front of the throat and four fingers are behind.
08:08Exactly where the bruises are in our victim, that's an indication of manual strangulation.
08:15I was like, are you kidding me?
08:19Whoever killed Balwinder set the contents of this home on fire in an effort to destroy her body and to put up the fake guys that this was an accident.
08:27She accidentally died in a house fire.
08:29Only a monster would do that.
08:31We're in a very quiet area, so to find something like this to happen in one of our fires was very shocking.
08:38The next question is, who would do such a thing?
08:40Who does this?
08:41At that point, you know, it's go time.
08:51The key in any homicide investigation is, tell me about the victim.
08:57So we began there, closest people to the victim.
09:03Balwinder's daughter, Capri, was away at college at the time, and she had to have a ride from a family member to bring her back to New Jersey.
09:13I remember sitting with Mike and my brother and my dad were there, and he told us that my mom was murdered, and I just stared at him.
09:20And I was shocked, and I'm like, what are you talking about?
09:23Definitely, like, the worst thing that I've ever experienced in my life.
09:32They were devastated, very devastated.
09:34Capri became pretty much the spokesperson of the liaison between the family and myself.
09:39For my dad, he was just numb.
09:44And my brother, he was just out of it.
09:46He just didn't want to be anywhere near the house or with us.
09:51So I couldn't break down, because if I did, who was going to lead?
09:54To face the emotional torture of the loss of her mother and still try to help the police find out who's responsible for this crime, that's a very brave thing for a 20-year-old girl to do.
10:07Mike Donovitz, he told me when I met him that he would treat this case as if he was doing this for his own mother.
10:15And it actually felt like he was on our team, trying to find who did this to my mom.
10:20Those words motivate me.
10:21You made a promise to that family, I'm going to do what I got to do here.
10:24The big question was, who does she know that would want to do something like this to her?
10:30Everyone has the ability to take a human life.
10:35That includes your loving mother, your loving daughter.
10:40All they require is the proper motivation.
10:45We spoke with Bell Winders' husband, and he was in Manhattan at the time of this fire.
10:49There was no reason to suspect him of anything.
10:51He's out.
10:54The daughter is away at college during the time frame of the murder.
10:58But there's someone else that lives in this house.
11:01He's 17 years old. His name is DP.
11:05So, I then spoke with Bell Winders' son.
11:11And I've got to press him a little bit.
11:13And I have to ask some questions and find out and get a feel for what was this relationship like.
11:17It's not easy, but it has to be done.
11:19It has to be done.
11:20As a homicide detective, you have to become heartless.
11:24Your mission is to find out who took a life.
11:28If I'm not pushing you, I'm not doing my job.
11:31So, my brother was actually the last person to see my mom before all of this happened.
11:36He said, my mom was home alone when I left at 3 o'clock.
11:40And she was fine. The house was fine. She was making dinner for my dad.
11:42Danowitz says, so, yesterday afternoon, a fire alarm came in at 4.49 p.m.
11:50Where were you at 4.49 p.m.?
11:53And his reply is, I don't know.
11:57Excuse me?
11:58His story isn't adding up.
12:00Danowitz is faced with a kid who's lying his keister off.
12:04So, it's time to push all the way.
12:07Tunneling down a little bit on the conversation.
12:10Come to find out, he was meeting a young lady from outside of their culture.
12:14And that might not have been something that was acceptable back at home.
12:16So, he was a little bit afraid of exposing himself to that.
12:20In our culture, we are not allowed to date or have boyfriends and girlfriends.
12:24Before I went to college, I could not even tell my mom that I had a guy friend.
12:28Not a boyfriend, just a friend. I couldn't tell her.
12:31So, he has a terrific reason to lie.
12:37It's said that he had left about 3 o'clock to go meet a girl from high school.
12:42We met with the young girl and, in fact, it checked out.
12:47So, it's not DP, then who is?
12:54I needed to determine, is there something missing from the home?
12:58Was there, you know, a theft involved?
13:01I mean, this was a beautiful home, beautifully furnished, nice cars in the driveway.
13:05The 20-year-old daughter, Gupreet, she volunteers to do the walkthrough with Stanowitz.
13:12When we walked into our house, everything was just black.
13:17Like, there was soot all over.
13:19Even, like, just talking about it, I remember the smell.
13:21It was just...
13:23I'd never want to smell that again.
13:26Danowitz asked her the question,
13:28does your mother always keep the door locked?
13:31Gupreet says, absolutely.
13:33She was very, like, skeptical about things.
13:36She wouldn't even open the door for a person she didn't know.
13:39That's a very important point that narrows the field of suspects dramatically if she willingly opened the door.
13:50She explained that, you know, there really wasn't a lot kept in the home.
13:53And I asked her about jewelry.
13:55Did your mom keep jewelry in the house?
13:56Did she wear jewelry?
13:58And she said, well, my mom wore bangle bracelets.
14:00They were 22-karat gold.
14:02They came from India.
14:04They weren't that big or thick.
14:06So just, like, two skinny bracelets that she would wear on a normal day.
14:12At the time of the autopsy, the only thing that was listed on her was one earring that was recovered from her body.
14:18Those bangle bracelets were missing.
14:21Danowitz immediately thinks about the autopsy, saying there was a scratch on the hand.
14:27What if it was a scratch because the person pulled off those bracelets?
14:33Capri explained to me there were a set of six.
14:36My next question to her was, okay, these two are missing.
14:39Where are the other four?
14:41And she says, we keep them in a strong box with some other jewelry.
14:44I can get them for you.
14:46And she placed down four bangle bracelets.
14:50To the human eye, they all looked identical.
14:52And these were hand-etched in a design and very, very attractive, very pretty.
14:56So the first thing I wanted to do is photograph them.
15:01Now we have a lead.
15:03We have a lead on jewelry.
15:06This high-carat, expensive gold jewelry, which somebody who needed money would be very interested in.
15:12So the next step is to hit the pawn shops.
15:14I had a flyer made up that showed them in two views, very distinct of the design.
15:24And we began to canvas area shops looking for a place of business that bought bangle bracelets just like this one.
15:32I visited personally probably about 70 pawn shops all throughout the area.
15:38New Jersey is a large place.
15:39New York is even bigger.
15:41You can be on a train to New York in 30 minutes.
15:45Who knows if you're ever going to find the pawn shop where that was sold.
15:50So you're looking to really find a needle in a haystack.
15:54Danowitz is going to have to find a different approach because this one is not going to work.
15:59Again, the question kept coming back. Who would come to the door that Bellwinder would feel comfortable enough to open the door for?
16:12We came to find out that there was a plumbing issue a few days earlier and that the builder had sent a repairman.
16:18So Danowitz finds that interesting because it's not uncommon for people who are workmen are also criminals.
16:28So we wanted to talk to that person because that was someone who probably if she opened the door for once, she may be willing to do so again.
16:36We identified the repairman. We spoke with him. He was very cooperative. He was very complimentary of, you know, how easy it was to go there and make the repair.
16:52So Danowitz says, where were you on Valentine's Day? Well, he left work early because he took his wife out and he had receipts to prove it.
17:06We checked his story, did a little investigative work and he had no involvement in anything.
17:12Unfortunately, once again, we're right back where we started.
17:15The advantage in the modern day is this country is under surveillance. Big Brother is just around the corner.
17:29Danowitz knows this.
17:31About 750 feet away from where this occurred, there were traffic cameras to catch red light violations.
17:38Was there someone moving extremely fast trying to get out of the area? We had put in a request to get that footage.
17:45Didn't see anything unusual about it. Put it on a shelf and moved on.
17:54So at this point, I'm eight days into this and I have nothing. Absolutely nothing.
17:59You feel the pressure because, you know, the farther away you get on the timeline from an incident, the harder it gets.
18:06Mike was giving me updates. He went every direction that he could go and I appreciated it.
18:15I've never brought anybody back from the dead.
18:18So the only thing I can give them is some sort of justice and closure.
18:22And I'm not doing a very good job of it.
18:23One thing after another fails to work. You've got to push through that.
18:30Danowitz knows that. There is no quit in him. That's why he's a good homicide detective.
18:36He doesn't know how to stop.
18:40Somewhere is the guy who killed this woman. Let's find him.
18:44The next day, I come into my office and I was at my desk and I got a call from a person by the name of Tommy App.
18:56My name is Tommy App. I'm a retired firefighter and arson investigator for the borough of Carteret, part of Woodbridge Township.
19:04I was located right next to Carteret, a stone's throw away.
19:08I called Mike Danowitz, of which I had no dealing with prior to this case.
19:13I explained to him that I was aware of the fire in Avonel. That happened on Valentine's Day.
19:20He says, I've got information on your murder. And Danowitz says, you do?
19:26I said, I don't know if this is a grain of sand on the beach or whether this is the straw that's going to break the camel's back.
19:31And he said, Mike, I had an incident that happened the other day at a delicatessen.
19:37And I run into this woman I know from town. I used to coach her children little league sports.
19:42And she says to me, hi, Coach Tommy. How are you? You know, just very nice.
19:47We had a small talk as usual. And she mentioned to me, did you hear about the fire in Avonel?
19:52I told her, yes, I did.
19:54And she says, well, Val Winder and her family are friends of my husband.
19:58And he says, Mike, at that point, the little hairs on my neck stood up.
20:03He says, and I'm going to tell you why. Her husband is Harpal Singh.
20:08Harpal Singh is a common denominator or a person of interest in eight suspicious fires in my town.
20:14With Mr. Singh, every one of those fires, he was a renter.
20:19He was either residing in that residence or family members were part of that residence.
20:23In the early going, all of them were small. One was in a box outside of an air conditioner.
20:30Another was a flower plant underneath the deck. The eighth fire was the big one.
20:36It pretty much destroyed the whole house and the two cars that were in the driveway.
20:40I did coach both of his sons with baseball. We had a good personal relationship.
20:46I was not looking at him as a suspect. I was looking at him more as a victim.
20:51And I said to him, I says, who do you owe money to? You know, who, who'd you piss off?
20:56Whatever it was, he clammed up.
20:59That's where I realized he was the suspect. He was no longer the victim.
21:04The average person might experience a fire event once in a lifetime.
21:10If you are involved in eight fire incidents, you're either Lemony Snicket suffering an unfortunate series of events.
21:19Or you are one dangerous individual.
21:24He says, Mike, this guy's a fire bug. He's got something to do with these fires.
21:31There was no file against the insurance company. So there's no benefit to him. What is his motivation?
21:38Mr. Singh was not charged with anything. I had him in the church, but I just could not put him in the first pew with the evidence that I had.
21:46So Harpell Singh potentially knows the victim and is linked, possibly, to eight arson fires.
21:55Two and two still adds up to four.
21:58Was Baldwin or Kaur fire number nine?
22:02So once I get off the phone with Tommy App, we run a check on Harpell Singh to identify who he is.
22:09Harpell earns a simple and humble living as a truck driver.
22:13He just seemed to be one of those down on his luck kind of guys who, you know, was scraping the bottom of the barrel.
22:23So I know I wanted to find out from the family if what Tommy's information checks out.
22:27I met with Kaprit and her brother. I said, Kaprit, do you know someone by the name of Harpell Singh? And she said to me, yes. He's a friend of our uncle.
22:41Harpell Singh had come over to our house a few weeks before my uncle was at our house and he just decided to come. And I think that was the first time that he got the opportunity to come into our house.
22:57And my dad, you know, he's proud of himself for getting a house. It's a big deal for somebody that's coming from a different country with like no money.
23:06So he was very like boastful. He would, he was showing them around the house.
23:13So he would have been familiar with what property they may have had.
23:17He knew enough about the family to know that the husband was involved in cash businesses so that there may be money there.
23:23Danowitz, Church of the Sun, do you know this guy? Harpell Singh? Oh yeah. In fact, I saw him recently just before the fire. You did? Where'd you see him?
23:42He said that on February 10th. He was coming home from school. And when he got to the driveway, Harpell Singh was standing in the driveway.
23:49He hadn't rung the doorbell, hadn't knocked. He was just standing there. And Harpell said, oh, um, my truck got heated up and I need water.
24:01And my brother kind of looked around and he didn't see the truck, but he didn't think a lot of it.
24:06What happened then? DP says he gave Harpell a jug of water and then he left.
24:12I says, but you never seen a truck overheating? No. And immediately something's not right.
24:18What are the odds that in the dead of winter this man's vehicle is overheating and have this problem front and center in front of their home?
24:31So now Mr. Harpell Singh, Mr. Fire Guy, he's in the driveway four days before this woman is murdered with a very bad story about needing water for a vehicle.
24:42Not only do I have this history of him and fires, but now I know that he's been to the home. He's been in the presence of Balwinder and she knows him and probably would open the door for him. So it fit.
24:55Danowitz's experience tells him if it walks like a duck and it cracks like a duck, it's a duck.
25:03Harpell Singh has got some explaining to do.
25:05So now Danowitz has his hands on a family acquaintance who has a tendency to be in a scene of fires to the tune of eight of them. Has he been involved in number nine?
25:24I touched base with my sergeant and we went to go pay Harpell a visit.
25:34We came to the door. I said, hi, Mr. Singh. I'm doing an investigation about a fire that occurred. I understand that you're acquainted with the family.
25:40It's in the interest of Danowitz to make Harpell believe. This is just a low ebb interview. I'm interviewing all the people that knew the family.
25:52I asked him just the basic stuff. How did you come to know the family? How long have you been acquainted with them?
25:57And then eventually, when was the last time you were there? And his response was like two or three days before.
26:03And I stopped there to get water for the truck. He seemed pretty matter-of-fact. Didn't seem nervous. He appeared to be cooperative, you know.
26:13Didn't look like he was trying to hide anything.
26:17So Danowitz asked Harpell what he was doing on Valentine's Day the 14th. He said he was at work.
26:23He said, okay, walk me through your day. I got up. I took my kids to school. I go to work. After work, I went to Keyport, New Jersey.
26:31Keyport is located about 22 miles from where this house fire was.
26:38Harpell Singh is an over-the-road truck driver. He says he bought a tractor trailer from a dealer in Keyport, New Jersey.
26:47And he owes him money on it. So he had gone out there to make a payment and then went straight home.
26:52And then he started to mention to me, listen, my children, my boys are getting out of school.
26:58I said, okay, Harpell, give me a minute. And I grabbed the Sarge. I said, listen, do me a favor. Go outside, take a bunch of pictures of that van before he gets in it and leaves.
27:06It's a white van and it had a painted sign on the side of the van, but he just covered it up with silver duct tape.
27:12We got the pictures and Harpell, listen, we may be in touch with you down the road. If I need you, I can call you. Yes. And he left.
27:23In the meantime, the Sergeant calls to Harpell's employer and gets the timesheets for the week of Valentine's Day.
27:30And lo and behold, those timesheets indicate that Harpell Singh is off. He didn't work on Valentine's Day. So I've been lied to for sure.
27:40I love liars deeply. People lie for a reason. Particularly when there's somebody dead nearby, they tend to lie a lot.
27:56I wanted to find out, okay, if he's not at work, was he in Keyport? I mean, where was he? So he had provided us the information of who he bought the truck from.
28:04Dennis drives to where this used truck dealership is. He says, you have a customer named Harpell Singh.
28:13When I said that immediately, yes, yes, I know that. I sold him a tractor trailer. He gave me a deposit of so much money.
28:22Harpell Singh owed $19,000 in full on this truck and was making payments. But according to the dealer, he had recently fallen behind.
28:35The salesman says, I gave him an ultimatum. I said, if I don't have some of the money or at least a substantial part of it, I'm going to take the truck back.
28:44You got to February 10th.
28:46He says Harpell called him on the 10th and said he could not arrange the money.
28:52So the dealer said he would give him until Monday the 14th, Valentine's Day, to make the payment.
29:00I said, did he call Monday? He says, yes. And he only had $1,000. And I was not happy.
29:05He had significantly less money than he had indicated he was going to bring. And he appeared to be drunk at the time.
29:13Danowitz is now looking at the dates, the 10th and the 14th of February. Well, that's very odd.
29:19The 10th was the day that Harpell Singh was in the driveway at the house when the son came home from school. And the 14th was the day of the murder.
29:28And the bell went off in my head. He needs money. And Val Linder and her family had something.
29:38It certainly fits the scenario. Now, there is a somewhat of a motive here. For the first time in almost two weeks, I'm finally getting somewhere. The stars are lining up now.
29:47So Danowitz goes back to his office to review those traffic-pattern cameras he got from the area of the crime scene.
29:59Now he knows what he's looking for, a white van with silver duct tape. How unique is that?
30:06I go through the video that shows the street about 750 feet away from where this fire took place.
30:13And I begin to watch the traffic flow through the traffic stop.
30:18447, 448, and I say to myself, well, this is the 911 call right now.
30:24And no sooner than I said that, his van pulls up and stops at the red light, plain as day.
30:31I'll never forget watching the evidence. You can actually see the brake lights flickering on and off.
30:36You can tell that he's so stressed and anxious for the light to turn green. He wanted so bad to get out of there.
30:41There is no doubt 100% who this is. I could almost see him in the van. And I'm like, are you kidding me?
30:49What are the odds another person having a white van with silver duct tape a block away from the victim's home at the moment the fire call comes in?
31:02It's about the same as a guy that has eight fires in eight different houses he lives in.
31:07There is no one else. There is Harpel Singh. Period. The end.
31:13When a case starts to roll, it is euphoric. You've been wondering all this time. Not anymore.
31:28It's time to reel in Mr. Harpel Singh and have a long and pointed conversation with him about his difficulties in this matter.
31:39We made arrangements to meet a second time at the Woodbridge Police Department.
31:42He wasn't resisting. He was like, OK. And he even called us, sir.
31:48So we sit down with him and say, Harpel, there's been some developments and, you know, I don't think you were truthful with us.
31:54We called where you work. They said you didn't work on Valentine's Day.
31:57Harpel's immediate answer is, well, he's got the dates wrong. I mean, I was working that day.
32:03I said, listen, let me finish. We have pictures of your van. I actually got out a computer laptop. I showed him the video.
32:13Detective Danos pointed out to him, well, look, that's clearly your van.
32:17He basically would just respond, well, why do I have to be there?
32:21I said, what does that even mean? He says, you're telling me I was there.
32:25He says, I am telling you there because I saw my own two eyes. You know what I know.
32:28And we went round and around for the longest time over this.
32:31He has an answer for everything that Danovich hits him with.
32:36None of it, of course, makes any sense because he's making it up as he goes along.
32:42Harpel Singh did have an arrogance about him.
32:44I think he thought that he was the smartest person in the room, and in that case, clearly he wasn't.
32:49He never cooperated with us. It was deception and a blank, blind stare.
32:54And it was like, all right, let's call it a day.
32:56And I said, Harpel, listen, we're probably going to talk again.
32:58He's like, okay, yes, whatever you need, sir. Same thing. And he left.
33:05At that point, I want to charge this guy, but we need something linking him to the scene.
33:09We got to put him there. We need something more.
33:12So now I have enough probable cause to get a warrant for his cell phone records.
33:17And I find out through that that he, in fact, was at the area of the fire at the time.
33:24And then he went in an area we call Little India.
33:28There's one section of Edison that has a very, very large Indian population.
33:35A lot of clothing stores, restaurants, jewelry stores.
33:39There's about 24 jewelry stores that specialize in buying and selling Indian 22-karat gold.
33:45Danowitz realizes that he was looking in the wrong place.
33:50He was looking in pawn shops.
33:52Now he's going to go to Little India and look in the right place.
33:56Churvy stores that buy gold.
33:59We went to every store, myself and a bunch of detectives with that flyer.
34:10And I get a call from a Woodbridge detective.
34:13He says, I think we got something up here at one of these jewelry stores.
34:17There's a girl here.
34:18And she says she bought a bangle bracelet just like this about a week ago.
34:22And she bought it from a guy.
34:24By the time I had gotten there, the owner had showed up,
34:28had found the transaction receipts.
34:31In New York and New Jersey, a photo ID is required to sell something in a jewelry store.
34:39So out comes the sales record, a copy of that ID.
34:43And it's none other than our hero Harpel Singh.
34:47Shows his photograph, his date of birth and his current address that hasn't burned down yet.
34:53It's him.
34:54And we had him.
34:57I see a little choked up.
35:00We had him.
35:01We had him.
35:02When he was arrested, Danowitz's attempt to interview, of course he lawyered up.
35:16That's good Harpel.
35:17You're probably going to need one of those.
35:19You might even need two of them.
35:21Mike called me and he told me that he had arrested Harpel.
35:26And I think we were just surprised.
35:28Not even shocked.
35:29Like really surprised because we weren't thinking it was him at all.
35:36Only Harpel Singh knows what prompted his attack on Balwinder Coor.
35:42But we have an idea.
35:45Harpel had bought a truck or cab for an 18-wheeler on credit and he had money due.
35:50And he didn't have the money to make the payment.
35:53The opinion of the arson investigators was only an opinion, not provable.
35:59He was experimenting on how to start fires and have it not look like an arson.
36:08The first seven fires, in their opinion, were experimental.
36:12Prior to the eighth fire, he supposedly took out a life insurance policy on his wife and his two sons.
36:18I think the end goal was to kill his two sons and his wife for money.
36:23That whole plan, if it was such a plan, didn't work.
36:28He was never charged with that crime, nor was he charged in relation to the eight fires.
36:33But the facts certainly make you wonder.
36:36So he comes up with another plan.
36:39He remembers Balwinder's family being so successful.
36:43He was under the impression that these people had money and maybe had, you know, the answer to his problems within their home.
36:51It's pretty obvious this was supposed to occur on February 10th.
36:55Our pal shows up in that driveway and unbeknownst to him, bad timing, Balwinder's son arrives from school.
37:04And now he has left on a short notice to come up with why he's there.
37:08And the best he can do is this story of the overheating truck.
37:13Nothing's wrong with the van. Something is deeply wrong with Mr. Singh.
37:19He had an extension until Monday, which was Valentine's Day for the money, which he could not arrange on the 10th.
37:25He was going to make sure this time that that didn't happen again.
37:29I think he went in under the guise of being friendly.
37:38And I think at some point he grabbed Balwinder and said, where do you keep your money?
37:48And I don't think she had anything to give him.
37:51I don't think they own gas stations. They have money at home.
37:55Like, but my dad didn't have it because he wasn't really involved in the gas stations.
37:58It was his partner. He was more into the restaurants.
38:01But this is something I think her pal didn't know.
38:03He tries to strangle the information out of her. And it doesn't happen.
38:13Now it's time to panic.
38:16He rips the gold bracelets off her wrist, scratching the back of her hand in the process.
38:22Then quickly thinks about how to cover his tracks.
38:26Fire is his thing. And that's how he was gonna erase his footsteps.
38:31He was gonna burn the house down.
38:33And everybody was supposed to think that Balwinder died in a tragic fire.
38:42And then he goes up to what we call Little India to try to sell the gold bracelets.
38:48He basically then left Little India with whatever he had and went to make a minimal payment
38:53as to what he owed on this tractor trailer to the salesman.
38:57I mean, how could this guy do this?
39:00You know, this was a guy that I knew personally.
39:02I considered him a friend. I realized he was a wolf in sheep's clothing.
39:10Harpal Singh is charged with first-degree murder.
39:13He was charged with aggravated arson.
39:15He was charged with theft.
39:17And he was charged with hindering his own apprehension.
39:20Harpal Singh stood before a jury trial.
39:24And after a very good presentation of our case,
39:28the jury found him guilty on all counts and convicted him.
39:32Harpal Singh was sentenced to life in prison in the state of New Jersey,
39:37where he remains to this day.
39:40Some of my families wanted the death penalty for him.
39:43I don't. I want him to be in jail for the rest of his life, so he lives that life.
39:47When all was said and done, Kapreet wrote me a letter on behalf of her family.
39:53And, you know, it's just very, very, you know, kind words.
39:57Mike was very, very diligent.
40:00He told me he was going to find who did this to my mom.
40:02And he did what he promised.
40:04I'm glad that we were able to get her some justice.
40:08I think the hardest part of this whole thing for me was when we cremated her.
40:17Because that's it. She was gone afterwards.
40:20My mom would be very proud of where I am right now.
40:24I'm earning good money. I have a house that's, like, nice.
40:29You know, my husband's great. My in-laws are wonderful.
40:32Like, she's never going to see that life for me.
40:34And I hate that.
40:36Most importantly, my daughter's never going to know who her grandmother was.
40:40Like, she's just going to see pictures and that's it.
40:42Ballwinder Kaur was a victim of her own success.
40:48There was no way for Ballwinder Kaur to know that this individual would do her harm.
40:56Bad things happened to nice people.
40:59The saddest thing about my work, all of my ears of it, was that fact.
41:05On the next American detective.
41:11There was so much blood in that bed that you couldn't make out whose blood was whose.
41:17It made the hair on my neck stand up.
41:22This is beyond the pale.
41:24He doesn't want to just kill him.
41:26He wants to erase him.