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Her killer tore apart her Staten Island home - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: On the evening of August 10th, 2005, a man in
0:03
Speaker 1: New York City answered the phone at the office where
0:05
Speaker 1: he worked. A woman's voice came across the line, and
0:08
Speaker 1: she asked to speak with one of the man's employees.
0:11
Speaker 1: And the man thought for a second, and then he
0:12
Speaker 1: ultimately replied that, actually, that employee had not shown up
0:16
Speaker 1: for their shift that afternoon, and they didn't know why,
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Speaker 1: but they weren't here. And when he said this, he
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Speaker 1: heard a distinct shift in this woman's tone. And she
0:24
Speaker 1: told him in a very trembling voice that she needed
0:27
Speaker 1: to hang up now, and call 911. But before we
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Speaker 1: get into today's story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark,
0:33
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0:36
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0:57
Speaker 1: get into it. today's story. In the early afternoon of Wednesday,
1:09
Speaker 1: August 10th, 2005, 18-year-old Eliza Parsi sat on her bed
1:10
Speaker 1: in her home in Staten Island, New York, flipping through
1:27
Speaker 1: a fashion magazine. The house was quiet because Eliza's mother, Seema,
1:31
Speaker 1: was at work. So Eliza had the whole house to herself,
1:34
Speaker 1: at least for a little while, until she herself went
1:37
Speaker 1: to work. Eliza had graduated high school just a few
1:40
Speaker 1: months ago, and now she was working as a clerk
1:42
Speaker 1: at a moving company to try to save up some
1:44
Speaker 1: money for college, and also to eventually move into Manhattan
1:49
Speaker 1: to pursue her dream of working in the fashion industry. However,
1:52
Speaker 1: Eliza did feel a bit guilty about moving away. because
1:55
Speaker 1: it would mean leaving her mom all alone in this
1:57
Speaker 1: big house. And there wasn't really any other family nearby,
2:01
Speaker 1: because both of her parents were from Israel. Sima had
2:03
Speaker 1: divorced Eliza's father about a year and a half ago,
2:06
Speaker 1: and her father had left New York and moved back
2:09
Speaker 1: to Israel. Eliza also had two half-brothers, who were Sima's
2:12
Speaker 1: sons from her first marriage, and one of them was
2:15
Speaker 1: back in Israel as well. And the other, Eliza's 27-year-old
2:18
Speaker 1: half-brother Raviv, lived just a short drive away in another
2:22
Speaker 1: part of the city. But Eliza and Seema rarely saw
2:25
Speaker 1: him because he was married with a new baby and
2:28
Speaker 1: lived with his in-laws, and so he basically had a
2:30
Speaker 1: whole new family. And also, Raviv had been put in
2:33
Speaker 1: charge of the Parsi family's kosher cookie business, which was
2:37
Speaker 1: really struggling. So he was really busy and always stressed
2:40
Speaker 1: about the company, and he really just didn't make it
2:43
Speaker 1: out to Staten Island very often. Eliza flipped through the
2:45
Speaker 1: last few pages of her magazine and then noticed that
2:48
Speaker 1: it was time to get ready for her 2 p.m.
2:50
Speaker 1: shift at work. But first, she wanted to check and
2:53
Speaker 1: see if she had any new messages on her internet
2:55
Speaker 1: dating profiles. So she put her magazine down, went over
2:58
Speaker 1: to her desk, and logged into her computer. So in 2005,
3:03
Speaker 1: internet dating was just starting to take off, and Eliza
3:06
Speaker 1: had made profiles on a few different dating and meetup websites,
3:10
Speaker 1: just to see what would happen. And before long, she
3:13
Speaker 1: had found herself messaging and meeting up with men from
3:15
Speaker 1: all around New York City. But she never told her
3:18
Speaker 1: mother about this, because she knew that her mother would
3:21
Speaker 1: not approve of Eliza dating men who were not from
3:24
Speaker 1: their same Orthodox Jewish faith. And Eliza knew this for
3:28
Speaker 1: a fact, because it's exactly what had happened with her
3:31
Speaker 1: previous boyfriend at the public high school that she went to.
3:34
Speaker 1: Eliza had friends from all different backgrounds, and she had
3:37
Speaker 1: started seriously dating a Muslim boy named Hassan, but her
3:41
Speaker 1: family had really disapproved of their relationship entirely because of
3:45
Speaker 1: his faith. And so eventually, Eliza just couldn't take the
3:48
Speaker 1: family pressure anymore, and she'd broken up with him. And
3:51
Speaker 1: so now, Eliza was much more secretive about her personal life.
3:55
Speaker 1: She would come up with these phony reasons why she
3:57
Speaker 1: was going to other neighborhoods, but really it was just
4:00
Speaker 1: so she could go on dates or hook up with
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Speaker 1: guys for fun without her mom knowing. And also, she
4:05
Speaker 1: had even begun secretly bringing some of them to her
4:08
Speaker 1: house in Staten Island. But she was always very careful
4:10
Speaker 1: to sneak them in through the back door when her
4:13
Speaker 1: mom was at work, so she wouldn't get caught. Now,
4:15
Speaker 1: Eliza logged into her account... And she saw there were
4:18
Speaker 1: a few messages from some guys. And so she responded
4:21
Speaker 1: to them. And then after that, she headed into the
4:23
Speaker 1: bathroom to take a shower before work. And a few
4:26
Speaker 1: minutes later, when Eliza finished her shower and turned off
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Speaker 1: the water, she heard a noise coming from outside the bathroom. Now,
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Speaker 1: she couldn't tell what it was. Earlier that afternoon, she'd
4:36
Speaker 1: heard a landscaping crew working at the house next door
4:38
Speaker 1: with some really loud leaf blowers. But this noise was different.
4:42
Speaker 1: It was like a weird banging sound. So, curious, Eliza
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Speaker 1: got out of the shower. wrapped a towel tightly around herself,
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Speaker 1: and opened the bathroom door to go see what was
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Speaker 1: going on. That night, around 7.30 p.m., Eliza's mother, Seema,
4:56
Speaker 1: arrived back at the house that she shared with Eliza.
4:59
Speaker 1: She turned her key in the front lock and tried
5:01
Speaker 1: to push the door open, but it would only open
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Speaker 1: a couple of inches because it felt like there was
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Speaker 1: something on the other side that was blocking it from
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Speaker 1: opening any further. Now, Seema had no idea what this
5:12
Speaker 1: could be, and so she just began shoving against the door,
5:15
Speaker 1: and eventually she pushed it open wide enough that she
5:18
Speaker 1: could slip inside. And when she did, the first thing
5:21
Speaker 1: she noticed was that the thing that had been blocking
5:23
Speaker 1: the door was this heavy mirror. But before Seema's mind
5:27
Speaker 1: could really process how this mirror wound up here, she
5:31
Speaker 1: turned on the lights and saw that her living room
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Speaker 1: was absolutely destroyed. Furniture was overturned, cabinets were flung open,
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Speaker 1: and papers were just strewn everywhere. Seema immediately felt her
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Speaker 1: heart start pounding. Because she realized that clearly somebody had
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Speaker 1: broken in and robbed the place. But then her second
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Speaker 1: thought was, where is Eliza? Where's my daughter? Because Seema
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Speaker 1: knew that Eliza had been home at least part of
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Speaker 1: the day. And what if this had happened when Eliza
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Speaker 1: was here all alone? And so Seema began calling out
6:00
Speaker 1: for her daughter. But there was no answer. And so
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Speaker 1: she followed the chaos upstairs and noticed that the door
6:07
Speaker 1: to Eliza's room was closed. So she went over to
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Speaker 1: the door and put her hand on the knob and
6:12
Speaker 1: tried to open it up. but it was locked. And
6:14
Speaker 1: Seema knew that this was just not normal. Eliza never
6:18
Speaker 1: locked this door. And so now, you know, Seema's thinking
6:21
Speaker 1: something has happened here. Something bad has happened here. And
6:24
Speaker 1: so sort of in a panic, Seema just began banging
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Speaker 1: on the door, screaming her daughter's name, hoping she would answer,
6:31
Speaker 1: but it was silent. And so after a couple of seconds,
6:34
Speaker 1: Seema pulled out her phone and called the moving company
6:37
Speaker 1: where her daughter worked. And her stomach dropped when Eliza's
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Speaker 1: boss told her that her daughter was had not shown
6:44
Speaker 1: up to work that day. And so, with trembling hands,
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Speaker 1: Seema got off that call and dialed 911. About an
6:51
Speaker 1: hour later, Detective Michael Kenney of the New York City
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Speaker 1: Police Department drove slowly down a neighborhood street in Staten Island. Ahead,
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Speaker 1: he could see his destination, a three-story house with yellow
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Speaker 1: crime scene tape across the front yard. But it was
7:06
Speaker 1: hard to get close because the street was now swarming
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Speaker 1: with neighbors and just random people who had come out
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Speaker 1: to see what was going on. So Kenny parked a
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Speaker 1: few houses down and then headed for the house on foot.
7:17
Speaker 1: And when he got there, he was met by two
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Speaker 1: patrol officers. And they told Kenny that they had responded
7:23
Speaker 1: to a call about a robbery and then had to
7:25
Speaker 1: break down a door of a locked bedroom where they
7:27
Speaker 1: ultimately found the dead body of 18-year-old Eliza Parsi, who
7:31
Speaker 1: lived in the house with her mother, Seema. The officers
7:34
Speaker 1: explained that when they had checked the rest of the scene,
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Speaker 1: they had noticed that the entire house was basically torn apart.
7:41
Speaker 1: But they hadn't found any signs of forced entry. The
7:44
Speaker 1: officers then directed Kenny's attention over to Seema, who was
7:47
Speaker 1: standing nearby with a small group of people, presumably family
7:51
Speaker 1: or neighbors. Kenny knew he would have to talk to her.
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Speaker 1: But first, he needed to get a better sense of
7:57
Speaker 1: just what was going on inside of this house. So
8:00
Speaker 1: Kenny made his way in the front door and surveyed
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Speaker 1: the living room, where some crime scene tags had already
8:05
Speaker 1: begun processing the scene. The room had definitely been torn apart.
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Speaker 1: But as Kenny looked closer, he could see that a
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Speaker 1: lot of valuable items were sitting untouched and out in
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Speaker 1: the open, like the TV and the stereo, which was
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Speaker 1: unusual for a burglary. Next, Kenny walked up the stairs
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Speaker 1: and into Eliza's room, where more techs were collecting evidence,
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Speaker 1: and the first thing he noticed was that this room
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Speaker 1: also looked ransacked. There were clothes and pillows thrown everywhere,
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Speaker 1: and the mattress had been pulled off the bed frame
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Speaker 1: and was leaning up against the wall, and on the
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Speaker 1: floor in the middle of the room, was Eliza's body.
8:41
Speaker 1: She was lying on the ground, and she was naked,
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Speaker 1: and there was a towel sort of bunched up underneath her.
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Speaker 1: Kenny asked one of the techs if this is exactly
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Speaker 1: how the body had been found, and the tech said no.
8:51
Speaker 1: When they first got to the scene, Eliza had actually
8:54
Speaker 1: been underneath the mattress and also had a pillow over
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Speaker 1: her face, but they had to move both of those
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Speaker 1: things out of the way in order to actually examine
9:02
Speaker 1: her body, which was why, you know, the mattress was
9:04
Speaker 1: now up against the wall. Kenny knelt down over Eliza's body,
9:08
Speaker 1: But he couldn't see any visible cause of death, like
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Speaker 1: a bullet or knife wounds or bruising, which could mean
9:15
Speaker 1: that maybe she was suffocated. I mean, maybe the pillow
9:17
Speaker 1: that was on her face that they had removed was
9:19
Speaker 1: what was used to kill her. Kenny turned and asked
9:22
Speaker 1: the tech if they had found any evidence of physical injury.
9:26
Speaker 1: And the tech pointed to just a few tiny drops
9:28
Speaker 1: of blood that were on the towel underneath Eliza. Now,
9:31
Speaker 1: they were very small and they could have been old,
9:33
Speaker 1: like maybe somebody had cut themselves shavings. But all these details,
9:38
Speaker 1: a naked young woman, the mattress, the pillow, the blood,
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Speaker 1: it made Kenny concerned that Eliza might have been a
9:45
Speaker 1: victim of sexual assault before she was killed. So Kenny
9:49
Speaker 1: told the tech to make sure that the blood from
9:51
Speaker 1: the towel, as well as any other bodily fluids they
9:54
Speaker 1: could find, were collected as evidence, because they might belong
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Speaker 1: to Eliza's killer. A few minutes later... Kenny emerged from
10:01
Speaker 1: the house and began walking over to speak with Seema.
10:04
Speaker 1: And Seema, she was crying onto the shoulder of a
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Speaker 1: young man. And the minute this young man saw Kenny,
10:10
Speaker 1: he stepped forward and started demanding to know why the
10:12
Speaker 1: police were keeping them away from Eliza's body. and also
10:16
Speaker 1: why the cops weren't out there arresting his sister's killer.
10:19
Speaker 1: So Kenny just took a deep breath, because this man
10:21
Speaker 1: was obviously Eliza's brother, and it was understandable why he
10:26
Speaker 1: was so upset. Kenny knew that a lot of times
10:29
Speaker 1: grief turned into anger in these situations. So Kenny calmly
10:33
Speaker 1: explained that in order to find Eliza's killer, he first
10:37
Speaker 1: needed information, starting with where he and Seema had been
10:41
Speaker 1: that day. And this got both Raviv and Seema to
10:44
Speaker 1: calm down right away, because they seemed to realize that
10:47
Speaker 1: Kenny might actually be suspicious of them. So the man
10:50
Speaker 1: lowered his voice, and he introduced himself as Raviv, and
10:53
Speaker 1: then he and Seema began answering Kenny's questions. Seema said
10:57
Speaker 1: she'd been at work all day, and that there were
10:59
Speaker 1: plenty of co-workers who could say as much, and Raviv
11:02
Speaker 1: explained that he too had been working all day, delivering
11:04
Speaker 1: baked goods all around Long Island. Kenny made notes so
11:07
Speaker 1: he could double-check all their information later. And then he
11:10
Speaker 1: asked if either of them knew anybody who might have
11:13
Speaker 1: had a reason to want to harm Eliza. And Kenny
11:16
Speaker 1: saw them share a very knowing glance. Then Raviv turned
11:19
Speaker 1: to Kenny and said he should look into Eliza's ex-boyfriend, Hassan,
11:23
Speaker 1: who none of them liked or trusted. And as Kenny
11:26
Speaker 1: started jotting these details down, Seema chimed in and added
11:30
Speaker 1: that her daughter had told her about something really bizarre
11:32
Speaker 1: that Hassan had done recently. Early one morning a few
11:36
Speaker 1: weeks ago, Eliza had woken up to find Hassan sitting
11:40
Speaker 1: at the end of her bed, just staring at her,
11:42
Speaker 1: like he'd been watching her sleep. And the whole thing
11:45
Speaker 1: had absolutely terrified Eliza, because she had no idea how
11:49
Speaker 1: he'd even gotten into the house. She certainly hadn't invited
11:52
Speaker 1: him over, and their house was always locked overnight. And
11:55
Speaker 1: then before Detective Kenny could even ask a follow-up question, Raviv,
11:59
Speaker 1: the brother, just suddenly started yelling, Get out! Get out!
12:02
Speaker 1: We don't want you here! at somebody across the yard.
12:06
Speaker 1: And so Kenny turned to see who Raviv was yelling at,
12:08
Speaker 1: and he saw this teenage boy standing there, looking completely
12:12
Speaker 1: shocked and scared. And at this point, Raviv went from
12:15
Speaker 1: yelling at Hassan to yelling at Kenny to arrest Hassan,
12:19
Speaker 1: because that was the man who killed Eliza. Late on
12:28
Speaker 1: the night of August 10th, 2005, So just a few
12:31
Speaker 1: hours after the body of 18-year-old Eliza Parsi was found
12:35
Speaker 1: dead in her home in Staten Island, NYPD detective Michael
12:38
Speaker 1: Kenney sat inside of an interrogation room at his precinct.
12:42
Speaker 1: Across from him was Eliza's ex-boyfriend, Hassan, who had been
12:46
Speaker 1: detained after he showed up at the crime scene. So far,
12:49
Speaker 1: Hassan had been very cooperative and had shared a very
12:52
Speaker 1: detailed timeline of his whereabouts that day. However, he did
12:56
Speaker 1: not have a solid alibi for that afternoon and the
12:59
Speaker 1: early evening. which was likely when Eliza was killed. Kenny
13:02
Speaker 1: had taken a DNA sample from Hassan and he also
13:05
Speaker 1: had gotten samples from Eliza's mother and brother at the
13:08
Speaker 1: scene to compare against the blood that had been found
13:10
Speaker 1: on that towel and any other DNA that was found
13:13
Speaker 1: on Eliza's body. But in 2005, DNA and blood evidence
13:17
Speaker 1: took weeks to process. So Kenny was really hoping to
13:21
Speaker 1: just get Hassan to confess right now. So once all
13:24
Speaker 1: his basic questions were out of the way, Kenny decided
13:27
Speaker 1: to test Hassan's truthfulness. and he asked Hasan if he
13:30
Speaker 1: had ever snuck into Eliza's house. But Hasan, he didn't
13:34
Speaker 1: deny it. He immediately came clean and admitted to everything.
13:38
Speaker 1: He said that, yes, he had previously snuck into her house,
13:41
Speaker 1: and he did sit on Eliza's bed, and he had
13:44
Speaker 1: waited there until she woke up. That was all true.
13:46
Speaker 1: But Hasan insisted that he had not been trying to
13:49
Speaker 1: scare Eliza. He just desperately wanted to talk to her
13:52
Speaker 1: so they could hopefully get back together again. And Hasan
13:55
Speaker 1: had said that when he did that, Eliza hadn't been scared.
13:59
Speaker 1: She was just kind of annoyed. And she had told
14:01
Speaker 1: him that they were broken up for real. And after that,
14:04
Speaker 1: he said he had left without incident. Kenny noticed that
14:07
Speaker 1: in Hassan's version of the story, the way that Eliza
14:10
Speaker 1: reacted to Hassan sitting on her bed, you know, just
14:13
Speaker 1: being kind of annoyed and exasperated about it, was very
14:16
Speaker 1: different than the way Eliza's mother, Seema, had described the
14:20
Speaker 1: same event. She had said that her daughter had basically
14:23
Speaker 1: been scared for her life. So he asked Hassan... why
14:26
Speaker 1: does Eliza's family dislike you so much? Why were they
14:29
Speaker 1: so quick to say you killed Eliza? And Hassan just
14:32
Speaker 1: kind of hung his head and said he didn't think
14:34
Speaker 1: it was about him personally. It was about religion. Hassan
14:38
Speaker 1: was Muslim, and the Parsis were Orthodox Jewish. As Kenny
14:42
Speaker 1: took this in, he wasn't sure which version of the
14:44
Speaker 1: story to believe. Were Hassan and Eliza star-crossed lovers kept
14:48
Speaker 1: apart by her family? Or was Hassan an obsessive ex-boyfriend
14:53
Speaker 1: who couldn't take no for an answer? But regardless, Kenny
14:56
Speaker 1: could not ignore the fact that Hassan had a strong
14:59
Speaker 1: motive and a history of sneaking into Eliza's house uninvited.
15:03
Speaker 1: But Kenny still didn't have a confession from Hassan, nor
15:06
Speaker 1: did he have really any hard evidence at all that
15:08
Speaker 1: would allow him to even hold Hassan. So ultimately, after
15:12
Speaker 1: the interview was over, he told Hassan he was free
15:14
Speaker 1: to go. The next day, Thursday, August 11th, Detective Kenny
15:18
Speaker 1: walked up to a Jewish Orthodox synagogue in Brooklyn, where
15:22
Speaker 1: Eliza's funeral was about to take place. The reason it
15:25
Speaker 1: was happening so quickly was because of the Jewish Orthodox
15:28
Speaker 1: custom that a body must be buried within 24 hours
15:31
Speaker 1: of death. And because of that timeline, it meant that
15:34
Speaker 1: Eliza's autopsy had already been completed. And Kenny had just
15:38
Speaker 1: received the report from the medical examiner, which confirmed that
15:41
Speaker 1: Eliza had died from asphyxiation, likely from being smothered by
15:45
Speaker 1: that pillow. The medical examiner had also found DNA evidence
15:49
Speaker 1: that could be tested against those samples Kenny had collected
15:52
Speaker 1: from the suspects. there were some skin cells under Eliza's
15:55
Speaker 1: fingernails as well as semen that showed Eliza had sex
15:59
Speaker 1: before she died, probably within 24 hours. And so this
16:03
Speaker 1: evidence made Kenny think that Eliza had been sexually assaulted
16:06
Speaker 1: and had fought back against the person assaulting her, which
16:09
Speaker 1: would explain the skin under her nails. But when Kenny
16:12
Speaker 1: called the medical examiner to voice this theory that he
16:15
Speaker 1: now thought was pretty likely, the medical examiner had actually
16:18
Speaker 1: disagreed because they didn't find any bruising or bleeding or
16:23
Speaker 1: anything else that indicated sexual violence. And so the autopsy
16:26
Speaker 1: actually concluded that the sex Eliza had before she was
16:30
Speaker 1: killed must have been consensual. But regardless, in Kenny's opinion,
16:34
Speaker 1: the facts of the case so far pointed towards a
16:36
Speaker 1: romantic partner being the killer, which obviously cleared Raviv and
16:40
Speaker 1: Seema and any other family members. And it also did
16:44
Speaker 1: not seem to be some random burglar or home intruder.
16:47
Speaker 1: because Seema had confirmed that nothing in the house was missing. Now,
16:50
Speaker 1: a few of the neighbors had mentioned that there had
16:52
Speaker 1: been some landscapers who had been working at the house
16:54
Speaker 1: next door at the time of her death, and Kenny
16:57
Speaker 1: had managed to track down the crew and question them.
17:00
Speaker 1: But they had all insisted that they had never left
17:02
Speaker 1: the neighbor's yard and that they hadn't seen or heard anything.
17:05
Speaker 1: But just to be sure, Kenny had taken their DNA
17:07
Speaker 1: samples just in case. Now, as Kenny made his way
17:10
Speaker 1: through the crowded sidewalk in front of the synagogue... he
17:13
Speaker 1: could see two distinct groups of people in attendance. There
17:16
Speaker 1: were members of the Orthodox community wearing their long skirts
17:19
Speaker 1: and prayer shawls, and also young people dressed in more
17:22
Speaker 1: modern clothes, who he assumed were Eliza's friends from school.
17:26
Speaker 1: Kenny walked up the front steps and entered the synagogue,
17:29
Speaker 1: and he noticed that the inside of the building was
17:31
Speaker 1: split in half by a wooden partition, almost like a wall,
17:35
Speaker 1: with men on one side and women on the other.
17:38
Speaker 1: So Kenny joined the men's side and stood in the
17:40
Speaker 1: back corner where he could just observe. Kenny noticed Eliza's brother, Raviv,
17:44
Speaker 1: standing near the front, near the casket, and he watched
17:47
Speaker 1: as other men walked up to pay him their respects.
17:49
Speaker 1: The atmosphere was solemn, understandably, and Kenny didn't pick up
17:53
Speaker 1: on any tension or animosity. It just sort of felt
17:56
Speaker 1: like a community coming together to kind of make sense
17:59
Speaker 1: of this tragedy. But then Kenny felt the energy in
18:01
Speaker 1: the room suddenly change, like a switch had flicked, and
18:04
Speaker 1: he could hear people start to whisper to each other
18:06
Speaker 1: very urgently, and everybody's heads turned to look back towards
18:09
Speaker 1: the entrance. Kenny turned his head and looked as well,
18:12
Speaker 1: and he saw this one person who was trying to
18:15
Speaker 1: push through the crowd and make their way up the
18:17
Speaker 1: aisle to the front, where Eliza's casket was. And Kenny
18:20
Speaker 1: realized this person was Hassan. For some reason, he'd shown
18:24
Speaker 1: up again, despite the fact that Eliza's family clearly didn't
18:28
Speaker 1: want him around. And Kenny actually watched as Raviv, who
18:32
Speaker 1: had seen Hassan, Raviv went straight to Hassan and literally
18:36
Speaker 1: stopped him and shoved him backwards and shouted at him
18:39
Speaker 1: to get out because they all knew he killed Eliza. Kenny,
18:42
Speaker 1: sensing a physical fight was going to happen here, began
18:45
Speaker 1: pushing his way through the crowd to try to stop
18:47
Speaker 1: them and separate them. But fortunately, before he reached them,
18:51
Speaker 1: other men separated Hassan and Raviv, and then Hassan was
18:55
Speaker 1: escorted out of the building. About two weeks later, on
18:59
Speaker 1: August 24, 2005, Detective Kenny was in the office of
19:02
Speaker 1: the NYPD Computer Crime Unit, where the department's IT specialists
19:06
Speaker 1: had begun digging into Eliza's online life. After her funeral,
19:10
Speaker 1: Kenny had spoken to Eliza's school friends, who had told
19:13
Speaker 1: him that Eliza had been trying to move on from
19:15
Speaker 1: her relationship with the son, and that she had actually
19:18
Speaker 1: opened accounts on a whole bunch of dating sites that
19:21
Speaker 1: she used to meet guys or sometimes just hook up.
19:23
Speaker 1: And when Kenny had pressed them for more information, the
19:26
Speaker 1: friends had told him that none of those online men
19:29
Speaker 1: were from her tight-knit Orthodox community. which was part of
19:32
Speaker 1: the appeal to Eliza. But it obviously was not something
19:35
Speaker 1: she wanted to share with her mother, so she'd kept
19:37
Speaker 1: it all a big secret from everybody except from her
19:40
Speaker 1: closest friends. Kenny had been able to actually get Eliza's
19:44
Speaker 1: computer with her mother's permission and had brought some IT
19:46
Speaker 1: specialists on board who were able to dig into Eliza's
19:49
Speaker 1: email and browser history. Now, Kenny watched as the IT
19:53
Speaker 1: specialists directed his attention to one of Eliza's dating site
19:57
Speaker 1: message threads. In this thread, Eliza and a man named
20:00
Speaker 1: Jonathan were making plans for when and where they were
20:04
Speaker 1: going to meet up to have sex. They'd gone back
20:06
Speaker 1: and forth on a Eliza just said that he should
20:11
Speaker 1: just come over to her house when her mother was
20:13
Speaker 1: at work, and that she would leave the back door
20:16
Speaker 1: unlocked so he could sneak in without the neighbors seeing.
20:19
Speaker 1: Kenny saw that this particular hookup was planned for Tuesday,
20:23
Speaker 1: August 9th, 2005, just one day before Eliza was killed. Now, naturally,
20:29
Speaker 1: this made Kenny and the rest of the investigators raise
20:32
Speaker 1: an eyebrow, because this plan of Eliza and Jonathan's, you know,
20:36
Speaker 1: of of having him enter secretly through the back door
20:39
Speaker 1: while Seema was at work, matched up exactly with what
20:42
Speaker 1: they had found at the crime scene. In late August
20:51
Speaker 1: of 2005, more than two weeks after the murder of
20:53
Speaker 1: Eliza Parsi, NYPD detective Michael Kenney was sitting at a
20:57
Speaker 1: kitchen table in an apartment in Brooklyn, New York, across
21:00
Speaker 1: from Jonathan Harris, the internet dating match who Eliza had
21:04
Speaker 1: secretly invited to her home the day before she was killed.
21:07
Speaker 1: When Kenney informed the young man that he was here
21:10
Speaker 1: investigating the murder of Eliza Parsi, he noticed that Jonathan
21:14
Speaker 1: didn't seem surprised. But Eliza's murder had been all over
21:18
Speaker 1: local news, And a lot of stories were really exploiting
21:21
Speaker 1: her romantic past and her sex life. So he had
21:24
Speaker 1: probably already heard about what had happened. Kenny asked Jonathan
21:27
Speaker 1: if he had known Eliza. And Jonathan said yes. Then
21:31
Speaker 1: he detailed basically everything that had been planned in that
21:34
Speaker 1: chat message. He said that he had gone to her house.
21:37
Speaker 1: He had snuck in through the back door that was unlocked.
21:40
Speaker 1: And they had had consensual sex. At least Jonathan swore
21:44
Speaker 1: it had been consensual. Jonathan insisted that after that, he
21:47
Speaker 1: had not seen Eliza again. and had never even gone
21:50
Speaker 1: back to Staten Island after that. He then gave Kenny
21:52
Speaker 1: a detailed timeline of where he had been on the
21:55
Speaker 1: day Eliza was killed. And overall, he was a lot
21:58
Speaker 1: more cooperative than Kenny had expected. He even provided a
22:02
Speaker 1: DNA sample without any objection. And so as Kenny left
22:05
Speaker 1: Jonathan's apartment, he was starting to feel a bit worried
22:08
Speaker 1: that this potential big break in the case might actually
22:11
Speaker 1: turn out to be a dead end. Weeks later, on
22:14
Speaker 1: September 13th, 2005, Detective Kenney sat at his desk, reviewing
22:18
Speaker 1: all the information he had gathered about Eliza Parsi's murder.
22:22
Speaker 1: He had checked Jonathan's phone records, also his transit card,
22:25
Speaker 1: and his toll pass. But there was nothing that put
22:28
Speaker 1: him on Staten Island the day of Eliza's murder. And
22:32
Speaker 1: the computer crimes investigators had not turned up any other
22:35
Speaker 1: promising suspects from Eliza's online dating profiles. Detective Kenney had
22:39
Speaker 1: also continued digging into Hassan, but he didn't have enough
22:42
Speaker 1: evidence to either arrest him or clear him. And this
22:46
Speaker 1: was frustrating because Eliza's murder had stayed in the news,
22:50
Speaker 1: and there was a lot of pressure to find the killer,
22:52
Speaker 1: especially from the Orthodox Jewish community, which was significant in
22:56
Speaker 1: New York. It was starting to look like the case
22:58
Speaker 1: had gone cold. Just then, Kenny's phone rang. And when
23:02
Speaker 1: he picked it up, it was the medical examiner who
23:05
Speaker 1: was calling with an update. The results of the DNA
23:08
Speaker 1: analysis were finally in, and the semen sample did not
23:12
Speaker 1: match those skin cells that had been found under Eliza's fingernails.
23:16
Speaker 1: So this meant there was DNA from two different people
23:19
Speaker 1: at the crime scene. And when the medical examiner said
23:23
Speaker 1: who each of these samples belonged to, suddenly Detective Kenny
23:27
Speaker 1: knew who killed Eliza. Based on the entire investigation, DNA evidence,
23:34
Speaker 1: and the killer's eventual confession, here is a reconstruction of
23:38
Speaker 1: what police believe happened to Eliza Parsi on the afternoon
23:41
Speaker 1: of August 10, 2005. Shortly before 2 p.m., the killer
23:50
Speaker 1: approached the back door of the Parsi home where they
23:53
Speaker 1: knew they wouldn't be seen by neighbors. And once they
23:55
Speaker 1: were there, they slowly opened up the door. Once they
23:58
Speaker 1: were inside, they walked all the way through the house
24:01
Speaker 1: right to the front door just to check to make
24:03
Speaker 1: sure it was locked, which it was. And so after that,
24:06
Speaker 1: they went and got a heavy mirror and they moved
24:08
Speaker 1: it and put it in front of the door to
24:10
Speaker 1: block it. The killer knew that both women who lived
24:13
Speaker 1: in this house, Seema and her daughter Eliza, worked during
24:16
Speaker 1: the day. and so the killer didn't expect them to
24:18
Speaker 1: come home. But just in case, they didn't want to
24:21
Speaker 1: take any chances, hence barricading the door. Once they were
24:24
Speaker 1: satisfied with the barricade, the killer got to work, opening
24:27
Speaker 1: drawers and cabinets, looking in every place they could, because
24:31
Speaker 1: they needed something very specific inside of this home that
24:34
Speaker 1: was very valuable. But they couldn't find it anywhere on
24:37
Speaker 1: the bottom floor, which made the killer think it must
24:40
Speaker 1: be in one of the bedrooms upstairs. So the killer
24:43
Speaker 1: climbed the stairs and went into the master bedroom. where
24:46
Speaker 1: they looked through the dresser and in the closet, but
24:48
Speaker 1: they still couldn't find what they were looking for. So
24:51
Speaker 1: the killer left the master bedroom and decided to search
24:54
Speaker 1: the other bedroom next. But when they opened the door
24:57
Speaker 1: to that bedroom, they were shocked to see a young
25:00
Speaker 1: woman coming out of the attached bathroom wrapped in a towel.
25:03
Speaker 1: And from this young woman's reaction on her face, the
25:07
Speaker 1: killer could tell that she knew what they, the killer,
25:10
Speaker 1: were up to. And this enraged the killer because they
25:14
Speaker 1: were sure this woman was going to tell someone what
25:17
Speaker 1: she saw and it would ruin the killer's plan. After
25:20
Speaker 1: a moment of just shocked silence between the two of them,
25:24
Speaker 1: the young woman opened her mouth like she was about
25:26
Speaker 1: to scream for help. And so the killer instinctively just
25:30
Speaker 1: tackled her to the ground and then grabbed a nearby
25:32
Speaker 1: pillow and pressed it down hard over her face. She
25:36
Speaker 1: scratched and she clawed, trying everything to break free. But
25:39
Speaker 1: the more she fought, the angrier and more emboldened the
25:42
Speaker 1: killer became and the harder they pressed down until eventually
25:47
Speaker 1: her body went limp. After that, the killer stood up
25:50
Speaker 1: and they looked down and they saw what they had
25:52
Speaker 1: done and it caused them to start to panic because
25:55
Speaker 1: they never meant to kill her, just to scare her
25:58
Speaker 1: and shut her up. But they had obviously gone too far.
26:01
Speaker 1: So not knowing what to do, the killer just grabbed
26:04
Speaker 1: the pillow and put it over her face and then
26:06
Speaker 1: also dragged the mattress and put it on top of
26:08
Speaker 1: her body. just so they wouldn't have to look at her. Then,
26:12
Speaker 1: instead of continuing their search for this thing that they
26:14
Speaker 1: wanted inside of this home, they just went downstairs and
26:18
Speaker 1: left out the back door. And they didn't return to
26:21
Speaker 1: the house for hours, not until they received a call
26:24
Speaker 1: from their mother, because the killer was Eliza's half-brother, Raviv.
26:33
Speaker 1: The DNA from the semen that was found at the
26:35
Speaker 1: crime scene belonged to Jonathan, the man that Eliza had
26:38
Speaker 1: consensually had sex with 24 hours before her death. The
26:42
Speaker 1: DNA that was found under Eliza's fingernails belonged to Raviv.
26:46
Speaker 1: It would turn out, Eliza's death did not have anything
26:49
Speaker 1: to do with who she was sleeping with. Raviv was
26:52
Speaker 1: angry at their mother because the family business that she
26:54
Speaker 1: had passed along to him didn't make as much money
26:57
Speaker 1: as he had thought it would. And so as a result,
27:00
Speaker 1: Raviv was stuck working all these long hours and also
27:03
Speaker 1: raising his family in his in-law's basement, which he found
27:06
Speaker 1: totally humiliating. And he knew that Seema had recently come
27:10
Speaker 1: into some money through the sale of a property in
27:12
Speaker 1: connection with her divorce. And Raviv felt like that money
27:16
Speaker 1: was rightfully his because he had a wife and a
27:19
Speaker 1: child to provide for. But Seema wouldn't give it to him.
27:22
Speaker 1: So instead of driving his typical delivery route on Long
27:26
Speaker 1: Island that day, Raviv went to his mother's house to
27:29
Speaker 1: literally look for the money so he could steal it.
27:32
Speaker 1: But Eliza's work schedule had recently changed, and so he
27:35
Speaker 1: didn't realize Eliza's shift actually started later in the day.
27:39
Speaker 1: And so what was supposed to be a simple robbery
27:42
Speaker 1: turned deadly. Raviv ultimately pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter and
27:46
Speaker 1: was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Hey, everyone. Just
27:53
Speaker 1: a reminder, I'm going on tour this year. Which means
27:57
Speaker 1: if you go, you can experience never-before-heard stories from me
28:01
Speaker 1: live and in person. We did this in 2024 and
28:04
Speaker 1: people loved it. So get your tickets today at tor.ballinstudios.com
28:09
Speaker 1: right now before they sell out. That's tor.ballinstudios.com. I can't
28:14
Speaker 1: wait to see you all at the shows. Thank you
28:17
Speaker 1: so much for watching. Let me know what you thought
28:19
Speaker 1: of today's episode in the comments. And remember, we have
28:22
Speaker 1: a whole playlist of true crime episodes ready for you
28:24
Speaker 1: to binge right now. So click here and give them
28:27
Speaker 1: a watch. All right, until next time, see ya.