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The Tragedy of Fatal Delusions · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, so let's set the scene. We're in Alexandria, Egypt.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: The year is twenty.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Fourteen, and it's late around eleven o'clock at night in
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: a quiet working class building exactly.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: You know, the kind of place where everything has a rhythm,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: a routine. You know when your neighbors come.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: And go, you know, when the lights go out, and
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: anything that breaks that rhythm you notice it immediately.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: And on this night, that quiet is just shattered by
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: a sound that makes no sense for that time of night.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: The building's water pump motor.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Right, this loud industrial roar coming from the top floor apartment.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: And that sound is the first clue. It's not just noise,
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: it's a calculated move. At eleven pm, that kind of
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: sound is completely abnormal. It suggests someone wants to drown
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: something else out.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: So the neighbors hear this pump, it's incredibly loud, and
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: then just moments later, things inside that apartment escalate fast.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: They hear running, frantic footsteps back and forth.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: And then a quarrel, a really violent, ugly argument between
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: the couple who live there, Mohammed and Mona.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: And you have to remember this was a quiet couple
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: they'd only been married nine months. The neighbors had never
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: heard a peep out of them.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: So to go from total silence to this, this eruption
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: of violence, it's this shock.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: It signals that something has been boiling under the surface
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: for a very, very long time.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, so this terrifying argument rages for about half an hour.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Imagine being a neighbor wide awake listening to this.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: It must have felt like an eternity.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: And then around eleven thirty the shouting.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Stops and it's replaced by a single, high pitched scream.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: That's the moment everything changes. Mona, the wife appears at
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: the window.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Partially clothed, drenched in blood, and she's begging them, screaming
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: at the neighbors below to save her, to save it
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: from Ahmed.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: They don't even think, They just they run. They rush
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: up the stairs to that apartment.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: But when they get to the door, they can't get in,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: which is.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Strange, right, I mean, it's described as a flimsy door.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: It should have been easy.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: To kick in, but it wouldn't budge. And for a
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: moment they're confused, and then they realize he's barricaded it.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: From the end. He pushed a huge, heavy wardrobe against it.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: This wasn't just keeping them out, this was him buying time,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: time to finish what he'd started without anyone getting in
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: his way.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: When they finally break through, forcing the door and this
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: cabinet aside, the scene.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Is pure chaos and pure malice. Mohammed is standing right
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: there in the hall.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: And he's not done. He's holding a gas.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Cylinder, a propane tank and he threatens to blow up
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: the entire building if they come any closer.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: It means it. Almost immediately he ignites a.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: Fire, yeah, and it just starts consuming the apartment, this
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: small eighty square meter space.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: So now you have emergency services arriving, police, fire ambulance.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: They manage to get the fire under control.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: But the whole place is just filled with this thick,
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: choking smoke, and.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Once that smoke starts to clear, they begin to see
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: the horror of what actually happened in there.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: They find Mohammed first, he's in the bedroom, unconscious from smoke.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Inhalation, and on the bed is Mona.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: She's dead lying in a pool blood. The knife is
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: on the floor nearby.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: But there's one detail that immediately stands out to the
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: investigators something that screams, this wasn't just a fight that
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: got out of hand.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: He was wearing a glove, a glove, and when they
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: checked the murder weapon there were no fingerprints on it
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: at all.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: That suggests planning, a desire to cover his tracks. It's chilling.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: It completely changes the story from the very beginning.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Before we dig into the forensics, though, we have to
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: understand the people, and more than that, we need to
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: understand the psychological pattern that was at play here.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Absolutely so Mona. She was only twenty one.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Years old and seven months pregnant.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, by all accounts, she was just this kind, devout woman,
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: a Quran tutor. Everyone in the building, even though she
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: had only been there nine months, they loved.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Her and her life and her child's life gone.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: And then there's Mohammed. He's thirty eight, he'd lived in
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: that same apartment for over ten years.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: He'd been married before, right right.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: That marriage ended in divorce just a year earlier. And
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: when the police start to talking to neighbors asking about him,
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: one word kept coming up, shukock. Very suspicious.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: And this wasn't just you know, normal.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Jealousy, Oh No, this was pathological. This pervasive poisoning doubt
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: was the single reason his first marriage collapsed.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: How extreme are we talking?
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: So extreme that he actually questioned the paternity of his
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: own two children from that marriage. His ex wife just
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: couldn't live like that anymore, under that constant, suffocating suspicion,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: so she left.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: So when Mona's family agrees to this second marriage, they
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: see a man with a small apartment, modest income.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Kind traditional people. They accepted his circumstances, but they made
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: one huge catastrophic mistake.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: They didn't ask why the first marriage ended exactly.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: They never inquired about the real reason. They probably assumed
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: it was just incompatibility. They completely missed the giant, flashing
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: red light that everyone else in the community.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Saw that this man wasn't just suspicious, he was pathologically paranoid.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: And that pathology is what builds this terrifying alternate reality
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: that leads directly to murder.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, so let's try to map that out. Let's get
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: inside the world he was building in his head. Because
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: it starts almost right after the wedding.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: It does within the first month or two, Mona starts
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: noticing these these strange rituals, like what every day he'd
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: come home from work and he'd immediately check the balcony,
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: the kitchen, the bathroom systematically.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Like he was looking for something or someone exactly. He
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: couldn't say what, but he was searching. It was a
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: clear sign of his paranoia, just taking rout.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: And then came the catalyst, the thing that made it
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: all spiral, And it was.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: So incredibly mundane. It was a single phone.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Call from Mona's cousin, who, by coincidence, is also named Mohammed.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Right, the cousin was just calling late to congratulate them
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: on the marriage, that's it.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: But for Mohammed the husband, this wasn't a congratulatory call.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: For him, it was instant, undeniable proof that she was
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: having an affair.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: And that's when his reality just it completely breaks from ours.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: It fractures. His world becomes filled with what he calls evidence,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: phantom evidence that only he can see her hear. So
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: what kind of things, well, he claimed, he started getting
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: these weird calls on Mona's phone. A man would curse
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: him and then hang up.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: But no one else heard these calls, never verified. Then
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: he starts seeing shadows moving on the balcony. He'd rush
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: out there find nothing but be so convinced that he
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: forbade Mona from even going out there anymore.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: He's literally creating proof out of thin air to support.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: His delusion precisely, and it's a classic persecutory delusion. He said,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: he'd hear knocking running on the stairs and then see
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: the shadow again. It's a world closing in on him
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: that isn't real.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: At some point, Mona couldn't take it anymore. She went
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: to her father's house.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she packed her bags, and the father tried to mediate.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: He even brought the cousin over to explain. They all
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: confirmed it was one phone call, just one.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: And Mohammed seemed to accept it.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: He apologized. He said it was just extreme jealousy, that
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: he loved her so much, and Mona, maybe hoping he
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: could change, went back home.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: But of course the delusion didn't go away.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: It just got stronger. The next piece of evidence came
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: from Mona herself, trying to be open with him.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: What did she say?
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: She just casually mentioned that years ago, as a teenager,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: she had written letters and poems to a first love
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: in some old school notebooks, and that boy's name was
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: Mohammed for him that was it, That was the final
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: nail on the coffin.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: He thinks it's about the cousin.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. He waits for her to fall asleep. He searches
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: the apartment, finds these old papers addressed to Mohammed, and
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: in his mind it confirms everything, the affair is real
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: and ongoing.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: And then he creates the ultimate piece of evidence, the
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: smoking gun.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: The recorded confession. He claims he hid an audio recorder
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: near the computer.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: And what did he claim was on it?
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: He claimed he captured a recording of Mona on the
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: phone with her cousin arranging to meet up, talking about
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: his work schedule, saying they'd arrange everything soon. He had,
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: in his own mind, a perfect, airtight case against his
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: seven month pregnant.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Wife, a case based on nothing.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: And that belief, that absolute certainty is what leads to
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: that final horrific night.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: According to his story to the police, he confronted her
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: with all this evidence, the books, the recording.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: And he claimed that she attacked him.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: A seven month pregnant woman attacked him.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: He said she hit him on the head in hand
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: with a knife, and that he was only acting in
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: self defense, that he had to wash the shame which.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Led him to stabber repeatedly.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: That was his narrative, the story of a wronged husband
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: defending his honor.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Okay, so that is the elaborate, horrific illusion he built.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Now let's shatter it. Let's talk about the cold, hard,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: forensic truth.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: Let's start with Mona's body. The forensic report is it's
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: difficult to hear the number of wounds. She was stabbed
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: between seventy and eighty.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Times seventy t eighty on a Yes.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: That number alone tells you everything. This isn't a striking
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: self defense. This isn't a momentary loss of control.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: This is a systematic execution.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: It is overwhelming force, total control from the attacker. And critically,
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: there were no defensive wounds on her at all.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Meaning she didn't fight back. She couldn't.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: She was likely resting completely exhausted when he began. And
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: here's the fact that just vaporizes his entire story.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: His injuries.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: He had zero injuries, none, no cut on his head,
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: no wound on his hand, nothing. So the self defense
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: claim is it's just physically imported, constantly, medically impossible gone.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Okay, So his story about the act itself is a lie.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: What about the motive, the months of evidence.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: He collected, That is the grand delusion. The investigation went
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: looking for.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: All of it, and what did they find?
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Nothing? Absolutely nothing. There were en no love letters, and
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: no relevant old school books, and no witnesses who saw
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: any shadows, and no phone records of strange.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: And the audio recording the supposed confession.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: They examined the device, there was no such recording. There
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: was nothing incriminating on it at all.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: All of it, the calls, the shadows, the letters, the recording.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: It was all a complete fabrication, a complex, systematic delusion
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: that existed only inside his mind. He wasn't reacting to
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: a threat. He was acting on a fantasy.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: And he acted with premeditation.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: Terrifying premeditation. You just have to look at the facts.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: He wore the gloves so he'd leave no prints.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: He turned on that loud water motive.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: She should drown out her screams, and he.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Used that heavy wardrobe to block.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: The door to make sure the neighbors, who he knew
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: would be coming, couldn't stop him from finishing his plan.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: So what does this all mean for us? This isn't
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: just a murder Mona and her unborn child were lost
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: because of complete catastrophic failure of mental health.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: This wasn't a crime of jealousy as we normally think
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: of it. This was a man suffering from an extreme,
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: unaddressed paranoid delusion who executed a person based on a
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: reality he invented.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: And the implication for you, for anyone listening, it comes
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: back at that crucial mistake. Mona's family made.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: A mistake anyone could make. The investigation confirmed it. The
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: entire community knew he was not normal. They knew about
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: his profound suspicion.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: But the family saw a quiet man, an average guy.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: They didn't look any deeper.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: They never asked the one question that would have saved
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: her life, why did the first marriage really end? They
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: treated the symptom, the divorce, but they never saw the
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: deadly disease underneath.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: It just raises such an important question, it does.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: How often do these deeply ingrained, destructive psychological patterns, this
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: kind of delusional suspicion go completely unaddressed. How many people
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: walk among us living in their own terrifying realities, And.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: What happens to the innocent people who get too close,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: who failed to look past that superficial assessment of character
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: and history.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: The murder of Mona in her unborn child is just
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: a brutal reminder the unseen worlds people build in their
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: own minds can be far more dangerous than any threat
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: you can actually see. The vetting process can't just be
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: about finance or status. Sometimes it has to be about survival.