Celebrity hairdresser Fabio Sementilli is brutally murdered in his backyard. A security camera helps investigators identify unlikely suspects and an illicit affair. Josh Mankiewicz reports.Blayne Alexander and Josh Mankiewicz go behind the scenes of the making of this episode in ‘Talking Dateline’ Listen on Apple: https://apple.co/4cKdxFVListen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4kEW6NuH3bhvuozZtITALF
Chapter 1: Who was Fabio Sementilli and what was his life like before the murder?
Greed and betrayal, glamor and murder. Who killed the celebrity stylist? I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Here's Josh Mankiewicz with The Widow of Woodland Hills.
How lucky am I to have lived the greatest love story of all time? A story that people only read about. A story that movies are made of.
A story like a movie? That could not have been more true. The question is, what kind of movie? And in this story, he's the main character.
This is what Timo Dali does, and this is where they do it.
He was glowing, a star in his business.
I've done a lot of movie work, working on people like Jennifer Lopez, on Jennifer Love Hewitt, on Portia de Rossi, on Jackie Chan. And you know what? It's my time to shine now.
Celebrity hairdresser.
Pretty much, yeah.
Celebrity hairdresser. His name? Fabio Simondelli. His scissors, his skill, his creativity.
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Chapter 2: How was Fabio Sementilli murdered and what was the crime scene like?
There's no hope of reviving him.
He was dead when the daughter found him.
Just a few minutes later, Fabio's wife, Monica, returned home. Soon, LAPD officers were also in the backyard. The TV was on. The fire pit lit. Blood was everywhere. And it pointed the way for police.
The original officers and detectives that responded that day followed sort of a blood trail out through the house.
It led them from the backyard to the kitchen, down a hallway, and into a bedroom.
The house looks like somebody's gone through it.
There were areas. There was a concentrated area in the master bedroom where there was ransacking.
Drawers were pulled open, their contents on the floor. Investigators also learned that Sementilli's housekeeper had finished working at the home just a couple of hours earlier.
The maid came early in the morning, which was important for us as well, because she had cleaned the entire house before she left.
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Chapter 3: What initial theories did investigators have about the murder?
The backyard patio area next to the pool was his throne, so to speak. And he would rule his professional world from his iPad. It's been a great summer. They're sending emails and coordinating. Sat there like a prince in his palace.
Now Fabio was gone.
Monica? Monica? I'm very sorry. We have to meet like this.
Detectives spoke with Monica just hours after the murder. Monica gave detectives the family's rundown for the day. Her daughter, Isabella, had left the house for school in the morning, after which their housekeeper showed up to clean. Later, she and her other daughter, Jessica, went to the gym together.
What time did you guys go to the gym?
Well, we came home.
Okay, you came home, and what was the problem?
After lunch, Monica said Jessica left for a babysitting job. And Monica left too. Nothing out of the ordinary. Then she returned home. And found a frantic Isabella on the phone with 911. And Fabio covered in blood.
To get up and move it.
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Chapter 4: How did the security cameras help in identifying the suspects?
Fabio Cementilli's approach to life was simple.
He would always give us this little piece of sage advice, be smart, be strong, and charge the mountain.
Charging the mountain seemed to be exactly how Fabio had planned to kick off that year. He was turning 50, and in true Fabio style, he knew how he wanted to celebrate. he'd already bought himself that Porsche and was organizing a trip that included some of his favorite things. Not whiskers on kittens, but cigars, golf, fine food, and good liquor. He sent this email to his friends and family.
To my beautiful sisters, I love you more than life, but at this point, it's men only. Lori didn't mind being left out as long as Fabio was happy.
He always said, I don't know if I'll ever reach the age of 50. Dad died at such a young age.
Their dad died unexpectedly at 39. So he was happy to reach 50. It was to be a four-day trip to Pebble Beach in Northern California. Fabio wrote, By the way, I know it's a haul and the timing may not be right for all, but we shall never meet so young again. Fabio's childhood friend Joe was looking forward to spending time with him.
And it never happened.
One day after that email was sent, Fabio Semantilli was murdered. And so, instead of gathering to celebrate his birthday... Those who loved him came together to grieve his loss with Monica.
She was in pain. She was sad. We also understand what the hell happened. You're shattered.
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Chapter 5: Who was Robert Baker and how was he connected to the case?
And that did not happen.
drawers were open, but not like you would expect from individuals that were there to burglarize the place. It was almost like an afterthought, was what it looked like.
There's always a lot of talk about, well, gee, maybe this was a burglary that went wrong somehow. But, like, when you surprise burglars,
Yeah.
Like, the biggest danger is that you're between them and the door.
And you're going to see a fight. And there was no signs of a fight. This was definitely a coordinated planned attack where they caught Fabio off guard. He didn't have time to even react. They disabled him very quickly and probably, you know, took him out right away.
And Fabio's blood was found in the bedroom, meaning the killing happened first. And only after that did the bedroom get tossed. The blood told the story. This wasn't a burglary gone wrong. It was a murder gone right.
100%.
This was not about stealing anything.
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Chapter 6: What was revealed about Monica Crescentini's relationship with Robert Baker?
Chapter 7: What were the key pieces of evidence that challenged the burglary theory?
Like this is some guy like jumping in to take advantage. What? The body's barely cold.
Yeah, and he's there. Again, when the mother said, these people are going to prey on her now, it clicked because my mom was a widow. And it's true. We were always protective of my mom because it would always be these stray men and people who wanted to try and take advantage of my mom.
And now Monica's the heir to whatever money he has and the house and, you know, everything that goes with that. I thought, yeah, that's probably what's happening here. Perhaps Mirella was right. And while Fabio's family worried about Monica, detectives had something else on their minds. A phone call police received from a homeowner who lived just a few miles from the crime scene.
They just called about this car that had been sitting in front of their house for two days. A patrol unit goes out. Once a unit gets out there and checks it, they realize that it's the Porsche, Fabio's Porsche.
Across the street, detectives found another camera.
We pulled surveillance from the neighborhood and saw the car the night of the murder on January 23rd, pulling up around 9 o'clock at night, parked the car in a single male, walk away from it. Couldn't tell who it was.
What can you tell by looking at the car?
Meaning clues that could lead to a killer. There was some blood on the pedal.
And that comes back to Fabio. So presumably the driver stepped in Fabio's blood and then got in the car. Exactly. There was also blood found on the driver's side door panel, on the seat controls and the steering wheel. And that blood did not belong to Fabio. Well, if that's not Fabio, maybe that's your killer. Exactly.
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Chapter 8: How did the family and community react to Fabio’s death?
Right. And we know the suspect was driving the Porsche because how else would Fabio's blood get on the pedals?
Detectives were able to get a DNA profile from that blood sample. They uploaded it to see if it matched anyone in the system. How often when you submit a blood sample do you get a hit back from CODIS?
Not all that often. Sometimes you get lucky.
Would luck, or maybe science, be on their side? Days were going by, and still no one had been arrested for Fabio Semantelli's murder. His son Luigi was hoping it would not take long.
All I could do was just put my trust into the justice system and the great detectives that work in L.A., some of the best in the world.
LAPD detectives were certain they had their killers on camera, arriving on foot, and then leaving the scene in Fabio's Porsche, which was the most valuable item taken from the Cementilli home. Brutal, violent burglars. Except, as detectives took a closer look, only part of that was making sense. For starters, Fabio's Porsche was abandoned, and it was not stripped for parts.
Then, there was Fabio's watch. still on his wrist. If you're going to take a Porsche, you're going to take a Rolex, if you're a thief.
If you're a thief, right.
According to the time-stamped security camera video, the burglars would have had about 30 minutes to go through the Sementilli home. Burglars would ransack the entire house because you never know where the jewelry or other valuables are going to be.
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