PA PA - Matthew Novak, 24, Philadelphia, 28 Sept 2008

www.whokilledmattnovak.com

$40,000+ reward for information.

Matt Novak Jr. and two friends were returning home to NJ from the Puerto Rican Day Parade in Philadelphia on September 28, 2008.

The car they were riding in broke down and a blue Chevy Impala stopped to offer assistance.

Matt told his friends the occupants were taking him to get jumper cables and he would be right back.

Instead, Matt was pushed out of the car and shot about 10 blocks away. He later died in the hospital.

Surveillance video has been released, but unfortunately the front license plate that was captured is unreadable.

BUMP!

Come on you guys, I know you are all good at sleuthing...please take a look at Matt's case and see if you can come up with anything new.

He was shot in the leg if I recall and bled out .

RichKelly said:

He was shot in the leg if I recall and bled out .

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You are correct, he survived long enough to describe the car he was picked up in and where his friends that were waiting on him to return were located. He passed later at the hospital.

bpinkbinkie said:

You are correct, he survived long enough to describe the car he was picked up in and where his friends that were waiting on him to return were located. He passed later at the hospital.

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I live in Philly I think I remember this case

The opening link is pretty detailed, so these probably don't have much that isn't included on it, but here are a few more pages related to Mr Novak.

http://abc30.com/archive/9266320/

http://local.nixle.com/alert/3240955/

http://www.rewardstv.net/pennsylvania-states/41000-matt-novak-murder-reward/#more-3645

Kind of a long shot, but if I were investigating it ,

The suspects car had Jersey tags, though the original video is skewed, there should be other cameras in the area

However, I know there's cameras at all the area bridges

I wonder if LE checked the cameras at the bridges as well.

13th and Fairmount is off of N. Broad I believe its less that a mile from the Ben Franklin bridge, possible, they took it back to NJ as it would be the quickest route .

They should look at the video from the tool booths, for a vehicle matching that description. Not too long after the shooting

I don't feel they would hang around after shooting someone

I didn't catch how they were able to determine it was Jersey plates. Was that from the witnesses to the shooting or from his friends with the broke down car?

In one of the videos on the YouTube page it shows the car almost coming to a stop and you can damn near make out the tag#, kinda disappointing with all the technology at their disposal they can't clear that up.

I would take the list of cars that was gathered and narrow them down to about 20 of the likeliest, from there place the tag#'s on a car at the same time of day and year, chose a day the lighting was similar as possible to that day of the video. Take video with that camera if its still in operation of the different #'s and compare. You can't read the #'s but maybe they could find the tag with similar looking distorted pixelation and go from there.

I get the feeling this was someones moms car, plain jane with no personalization.
I wonder if any billboards were put up early on. It might help offering immunity for anyone in the car but the shooter while dangling the reward money.

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/20...n-murder-of-south-jersey-man-in-philadelphia/

As the six year anniversary of his unsolved murder approaches, the family of a South Jersey man is hoping his killers will be brought to justice...

Doughterty, Novak Sr.’s nephew, has been working with Philadelphia homicide detectives on his cousin’s case, but it’s at a sticking point because no amount of surveillance video enhancement has cleared up the license plate number on the Impala.

All he can do is help raise money to increase the reward, which is now $42,000, and he uses social media to keep Novak’s murder fresh in people’s minds.

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There is not too much to go on with this case. I noted the Eagles played that night at Chicago, and maybe these perpetrators were robbing this guy, and possibly going to watch the football game at a local tavern. That's a rough area up there.

I am trying to think why these guys from Jersey would be over that way. If they were just there to buy drugs, why even cross the bridge? There are plenty of options in Camden. Maybe the people in the car had family from the area.

I can't believe they never found out this killer. You would think they could find this perpetrator's car with the bridge cameras. Can they track the Easy Pass System, if they had it back then.

Why would they have to kill this guy? I have been in that area. One of my friends live in Fairmount briefly. I believe the police union was located near there on Spring Garden. From what I remember, Fairmount Street is/was kind of a yuppie area towards the lower numbered streets and mixed area as you get up towards Broad Street. They picked up Matthew towards the lower numbered streets, and killed him near Broad Street (there is no 14th street, Broad is in effect 14th Street).

So, he broke down, which means they probably did not know him, so why kill him? Maybe he did not have much cash on him? But you have to kill him? I would think there is a fair amount of traffic and people around there too. Up towards Broad Street is a very populated area. And the car has a Jersey registration. It could be a stolen car too.

I guess the question is why would a Jersey car be over by Fairmount on a Sunday afternoon? Maybe it was someone who lived near there previously, but moved to New Jersey? This is just so random. I can believe down in that neighborhood that someone would rob you at random for a small sum. It just seems so extreme and brazen that they would kill you and have such a cheap view of life. I doubt this involved anything more than just a random meeting.

If you search Matt Novak on youtube, you can see the actual footage of the car driving up, after it drives around the block. You would think that they could blow up that photo with today's technology, and get that license #.

I noticed the perpetrator car pulled well ahead of the broken down car, when it parked in front of it a good distance away. I wonder if they perpetrator knew of the camera.

There are so many shots of that license plate. It is so hard to read. I thought the last character on it looked like a 6, but it is so blurry.

If I had to guess, after freezing the video several times on several different spots and moving my laptop computer screen to a different angle., my guess would be 2796, but it awfully hard to read. I am going to keep looking at these photos of the license plate, and coming up with guesses, even if I only go for part of the plate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49TidmLt5VM

I froze this at 1:44 and made zoom 150%, which is as clear as any shot, which isn't very clear, but you know, if you guess, you only need to be right once, and you have several chances with several shots of the plate, if you can just get that one angle. It's weird when you can move your laptop and see it differently, and maybe try to get lucky.

An observation at 1:11 of the video. I am probably wrong, but it is probably just the poor video quality, but I thought it looked like the front tag was moving, almost like it was paper. I am just brainstorming, and listing anything. A broken clock is right twice a day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49TidmLt5VM

Crime Fighters: More than 11 years later, a father hopes for closure in son's murder

Crime Fighters: More than 11 years later, a father hopes for closure in son's murder

"
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- After more than 11 years, a large reward still sits with the hope that someone will come forward with information about a murder following the Puerto Rican Day Parade.

Matt Novak, Sr. says it's time to bring his son's killers to justice.


"I can't believe these guys are still running around the streets. I got to tell you, I mean, I get angrier and angrier every time this time of the year," he said.

On Sunday, September 28, 2008, 24-year-old Matthew Novak and two friends were headed home from Philadelphia's annual Puerto Rican Day parade when their car broke down at 6th and Green Streets in Northern Liberties."