Police are still investigating the murder last week of meeting industry veteran Ben Novack, Jr.
Novack was beaten to death in his hotel room in Rye Brook, N.Y., on Sunday, July 12. Novack, who operated Convention Concepts Unlimited of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was staying at the Hilton Rye Town where he had organized a convention for Amway Global International.
During a press conference on Monday, July 13, Rye Brook Police Chief Gregory Austin said Novack’s body was found by his wife, who had been staying with Novack during the convention, at around 8 a.m. after she returned from breakfast. According to Austin, the attack on Novack was not a random event, no valuables were missing, and no witnesses reported any sounds coming out of the room.
Austin also said Rye Brook police were in the process of “interviewing witnesses … people at the convention, people staying on the same floor of the hotel” as Novack but had yet to identify any suspects.
In a statement last Thursday, according to the Lower Hudson Journal News, Austin said that police had not ruled out anyone as a potential suspect, adding that anyone in the hotel around the time Novack was killed “is being considered a person of interest.”
Police issued no further bulletins on the case over the past weekend and don’t intend to “unless there is a significant development,” a Rye Brook Police Department spokesperson said Monday.
Novack had a long history with the hospitality industry. His father, Ben Novack, Sr., operated the famous Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach from its opening in 1954 until he lost it to bankruptcy in 1977. Ben Novack, Jr., launched his company, Convention Concepts Unlimited, in 1978. According to its Web site, the company organizes 60 major conventions a year, worth approximately $50 million in revenue, with Amway Global one of its major clients.
According to Hilton Hotels spokesperson Mark Ricci, the Amway Global convention, which had over 1,000 attendees, was brought to completion, despite Novack’s death. During his press conference last Monday, Austin praised Hilton Rye Town executives for their cooperation with police during the early stages of the investigation.