The parents of a woman strangled by her billionaire boyfriend have spoken out about finally seeing justice in their daughter’s murder three years later.
In June, 44-year-old Diego Novella was found guilty of strangling and smashing in the skill of 39-year-old Gabriela Kabrins Alban at a $1,300-per-night resort in Cape Town, South Africa, back in the summer of 2015.
The Guatemalan playboy told investigators he had downed a massive cocktail of drugs that made Alban appear as a ‘demon’, admitting that he launched a ferocious attack to ‘kill it’.
A month after a judge slapped Novella with a guilty verdict, his victim’s parents revealed the overwhelming number of emotions they’ve experienced since Alban’s death.
Billionaire Diego Novella, left, was convicted of the brutal 2015 strangling and desecration of girlfriend Gabriela Kabrins Alban, right, at a hotel in Cape Town, South Africa, in June
A month after Novella was found guilty, Alban’s parents Howdy Kabrins, left, and Doris Weitz, right, have spoken about the horrifying murder and finally seeing justice for their daughter
For Alban’s father Howdy Kabrins, the nightmare began when he received a phone call from the US State Department in the middle of the night on July 29.
The New York Post reports the 70-year-old fought back tears as he recounted learning not only had his Gaby been killed in a brutal manner, but her body had also been desecrated.
‘That same day Gaby’s stepmother, Linda, and I were on a plane to Cape Town,’ Kabrins told the Post. ‘My ex-wife, Doris Weitz, and her husband flew there, too.
‘That’s when our campaign began for justice for Gaby.’
Alban grew up in Century City outside of Los Angeles, the only child of Kabrin and Weitz.
‘We had a special bond,’ Kabrins said. ‘I used to expose her to my world — the ocean and the outdoors.
‘She was a tomboy, who loved horseback riding, fishing and water-skiing.’
Alban was the only child of Weitz and Kabrins (above). She grew up in Century City, California
Alban first met Novella while studying at Pepperdine University and the two dated for a few weeks before she ended things because of his substance abuse problems, according to her mother Weitz.
Novella then reportedly fled the US after being arrested for offenses including drug possession and driving while intoxicated.
After graduating college Alban went on to found her own marketing company before marrying pediatrician Dr Blake Alban in 2003, whom she divorced eight years later.
In 2013, Novella and Alban reconnected online.
Weitz testified during the murder trial that Alban told her Novella couldn’t travel to the US because of outstanding arrest warrants, so the young entrepreneur met up with him in Guatemala and Mexico while traveling for work instead.
The couple fell deeply in love, drawing concern from Alban’s friends and family.
Weitz recalled meeting Novella at a wedding in 2014 and thinking he was ‘strange’.
‘He had the number 13 tattooed on the left side of his neck, two or three inches high,’ she said.
‘He’d clearly done it to rebel against his extremely religious family, part of the Opus Dei [an organization within the Roman Catholic Church].’
Novella was also still struggling with addiction, and in January 2015 he flew to Cape Town to undergo ibogaine therapy, a treatment that is illegal in the US but is used in other countries to treat opioid addiction.
The therapy usually involves taking pills made from a psychoactive African shrub and can trigger intense hallucinations.
‘Proponents of ibogaine say it helps with depression and drug abuse, but it wasn’t a serious commitment for him,’ Kabrins said. ‘It was just part of his [playboy] lifestyle. He did it recreationally.’
Alban dated Novella (pictured together) while studying at Pepperdine University, but ended the relationship because of his substance abuse problems
Novella and Alban reconnected in 2013 and quickly struck up an international romance
At the same time Alban was dealing with her own serious health problems.
She had long-suffered crippling aches, pain and exhaustion that was originally misdiagnosed as Addison’s disease but was later identified as Lyme disease.
After visiting several doctors on the West Coast and in Germany but not finding an adequate treatment for her rapidly deteriorating condition, Alban decided to accompany Novella to South Africa for ibogaine therapy.
‘She was very ill and desperate for a cure,’ said Kabrins of Alban’s decision to try the controversial treatment in June 2015.
According to court records, Novella became angry with Alban when she wasn’t adhering to the pre-treatment guidelines such as cutting out sugar and processed foods.
That anger spiraled out of control on July 28 when Novella choked Alban to death, smashed her skull into the bathroom floor and fulled her mouth with the foods she wasn’t supposed to be eating before the therapy.
Witnesses indicated that Novella then went down to the hotel lobby and told a staffer ‘my lovely lady is dead’ before heading toward the ocean.
Soon after police arrived at the ‘sickening’ scene in the couple’s suite.
Novella attacked his fiancée at their $1,300-a-night hotel villa in Cape Town (pictured)
Staff at the Camps Bay Retreat boutique hotel in Cape Town ocean found Alban’s body
A forensic expert testified in court that the evidence suggested Novella may have ‘done this [behavior] before’.
Kabrins also said he has his suspicions that his daughter was being abused, but those allegations were never proven in court.
‘She wasn’t returning our phone calls as frequently in the last six months of her life,’ he said. ‘Looking back, it was a classic sign she was being abused.’
Weitz and Kabrins sat through 124 days of evidence and heard hundreds of traumatizing details about the two-hour-long murder and desecration.
In one of the hardest moments of the case, Novella – whose own mother and brother are deceased – said he empathized with Weitz and him because of their loss.
‘Doris and I were sitting on opposite sides of the courtroom, but we both looked at each other and walked out,’ Kabrins said. ‘He had no right to speak to us.
‘We had spent months holding back our rage and grief. At times, I had to be physically restrained by the bailiffs, because I wanted to attack the man who killed our little girl.’
Weitz revealed that in May 2018 she was checked into a Cape Town hospital after a nervous breakdown.
‘I miss Gaby so much, I am broken,’ she said.
Kabrins said he suspected Novella (pictured together above) may have abused his daughter before the gruesome murder
Finally on June 28 a judge handed down a guilty verdict, with a maximum of 25 years in jail.
‘I feel ecstatic and numb at the same time,’ Kabrins said.
‘He took away the light of our lives. We will never get over our loss.’
Weitz added: ‘I hope Diego will spend a long life in prison and then go straight to hell where he belongs.’
Kabrins is now launching a foundation in Alban’s memory aimed at ending domestic violence by teaching young boys to respect women.
‘I am looking for a silver lining, because this case transcends homicide,’ he said. ‘It’s about privileged men getting away with taking advantage of women and abusing them.’
He is also pursuing a wrongful death civil suit against Novella here in the US.