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The Bureaucratic Thread: Unraveling a Six-Year Desert Murder · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Imagine stepping into the relentless, dry heat of hail Saudi
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Arabia back in twenty twenty. It's just past eleven am.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: The sun's ready blazing high overhead, really baking the city.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Inside a police station, you've got the usual sounds, phones, quiet, talking,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: papers shuffling, But today there's this tension you can feel.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's the faint smell of antiseptic, I don't know,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: but the air feels heavy. And then two figures walk in.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I'm ed he's seventeen and his younger sister. You can
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: just see it on their faces. Their eyes are wide,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: a mix of wellth fear and real desperation. They're there
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: for just one thing, something that sounds so ordinary, almost bureaucratic,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: but it's about to crack open this horrifying secret, six
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: years buried. They need their mother's death certificate Salaal Rashidi.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: It seems so simple on the surface, doesn't it. Just
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: a piece of paper.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Exactly, And their reason is completely understandable. They needed to
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: claim government aid for orphans, you know, money from the
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Ministry of Social Development.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Which for them is a lifeline right, not just money,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: but maybe education, a chance at a real future.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: A future away from their current situation, definitely. But here's
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: the immediate problem, the huge red flag. Their older half brother, Rediya.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: He's their legal guardian, okay, and he has flat out
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: refused to give them that certificate for years, despite them
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: pleading with them.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Wow, for years. That's that's significant, you bet.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: And the officer listening, he gets this feeling. This isn't
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: just some family argument over paperwork. There's something else going on,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: some unspoken pressure on these kids.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really unsettling. That initial report, like you said,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: just a missing document. But it's cases like this that
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: really show you how something administrative can be the first
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: thread you pull, the first sign of something much much
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: darker that's been hidden away. Often it's these quiet details,
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: the missing piece of bureaucracy that ends up screaming the loudest.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: So the police don't just dismiss it. They hear Ahmed
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: and his sister and they summon Roddy to the station.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Can you picture him walking in, probably acting like it's
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: all a big his time.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Well, that's pretty much how it went down. His performance was,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: let's just say, not convincing. His excuses were really weak,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Like what did he say he claimed he was just
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: too busy to look for the certificate among his papers,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: you know, like it was just some minor chore he
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: hadn't gotten around.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: To right trivializing it exactly.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: And then he also insisted he was supporting them just
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: find financially, that they didn't actually need any government aid.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: But the police saw through that, oh, definitely.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: An experienced officer picks up on the inconsistencies Ratty's claims
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: about money. They clashed immediately with what the police knew
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: or could quickly find out about the family's actual finances
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: average maybe even below average.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: So his story just didn't add up, not at all.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: His demeanor probably defensive or evasive, combined with the factual contradictions,
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: it was a clear sign something was wrong. So the
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: police gave him a week.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: A deadline produce a certificate, right.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: They urged him to sort it out with his siblings,
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: maybe hoping it could still be resolved within the family
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: at that point, but they were definitely watching.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Them, okay, But then things get even stranger just two
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: days later. Two days yeah, Ahmed and his sister are
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: back at station, but not a follow up. They're there
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: to withdraw the complaint entirely.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Which is immediately suspicious.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Right boldly their news story radide, the guy who was
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: too busy suddenly promised he handle everything, get the paperwork,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: secure the aid, even give it to the monthly.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: That's a massive reversal from can't be bothered to overly
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: helpful in forty eight hours.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: It screams coercion, doesn't it. What kind of pressure must
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: they have been under exactly?
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: And that's when the officer's suspicion really sharpened. This wasn't
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: just negligence anymore. This sudden flip. It strongly suggested intimidation,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: maybe even you know, domestic violence. They were too scared
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: to actually.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Report, so the officer couldn't just push them.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Now that could put them in more danger. So he
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: gets clever. He pretends it's just routine procedure for withdrawing
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: the complaint, and he starts asking very specific questions, not
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: about ready directly, but about their mother, Salah al Rashidi.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Smart what kinds of questions.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Key details, When did she die, what was the cause
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: of death, which hospital, and crucially where was she buried?
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Things you'd expect children to remember, at least vaguely, even
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: years later, especially the burial right.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: But their answers were well alarming. They couldn't name any hospital,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: they didn't know the exact.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Burial site, nothing specific, just a.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Fragmented memory coming home from school one day being called
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: their mother had died suddenly a heart attack.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's vague, but maybe plausible if they were young
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: and traumatized.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: But then came the detail that changed everything. They explicitly
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: stated that Rydy stopped them from attending their mother's washing
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: or burial rights.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: He prevented them why.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: His reason, they were too young It would be too
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: emotionally damaging for them.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Wow, that sounds convenient.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: It's more than convenient. It's incredibly damning from an investigative standpoint.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Preventing children, especially kids old enough to understand, from saying goodbye,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: claiming it's for their emotional well being.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that sounds like hiding something.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: It's a classic way to stop witnesses from seeing a body,
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: noticing injuries. Questioning the story, at this point, the officer
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: knew this wasn't just about abuse or a missing paper.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: A serious crime had been covered up, so.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: He starts his own investigation.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Quietly, exactly discreetly. He couldn't rely on the children's testimony alone,
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: not under duress. First step, check the official records. He
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: contacts every hospital in Hale, any record of Salah al
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Rashidi's death, any medical reports, anything, nothing, absolutely nothing, No
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: medical records for anyone matching her name around that time. Zero.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: It's impossible for a natural death in a.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Hospital, precisely so. Next step civil affairs. Is there an
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: official death certificate registered anywhere? Any record of a burial
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: permit issued in Hale? Let me guess nothing there either,
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: no death certificate ever issued, no official burial recorded. It
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: was like she vanished from all official existence.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: A ghost in the system completely.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: The lack of any official trace was deafening. The officer
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: now knew, without a shadow of a doubt, a major
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: crime had been hit.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: So the net is closing in on Ruddy, even if
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: he doesn't realize it yet. The officer summons him again.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Yes, but this time it's not a request, it's a
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: non negotiable demand. Brings Salah al Rashidi's death certificate now.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: And incredibly, Roddy shows up with one.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: He does, He walks in and produces This document looks
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: official enough at first glance. Sala's name, a day of death,
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: even a hospital name, and heart attack listed as the cause.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: So for a second, maybe he thinks he's bluffed his
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: way out.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: Perhaps, But this is where expertise comes in. The document
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: is examined closely.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: By someone who knows what to look for.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: Exactly, and it quickly becomes clear to forgery, a crude one. Actually.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: What gave it away.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: Things like the paper quality, Maybe the font wasn't quite right,
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: or the official stamps looked off, But the big things
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: the hospital listed it didn't exist. It was fictitious. It
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: made up hospital, completely fabricated, and the cause of death
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: just didn't align with the lack of any prior medical record.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: It was clearly faked.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: In Roddy's reaction when confronted.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Predictable, feigned shock, outrage. He denied everything, claimed he had
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: no idea it was fake, tried to play the innocent victim.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: The police weren't buying at this time, not a chance.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: The forged certificate was the nail in the coffin. Figuratively speaking,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: he was immediately detained. No longer just a person of interest,
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: he was the prime suspect.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Okay, Brady's detained the forgery is proof of a cover up.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Where does the investigation go next?
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: They needed the full story, so the police cast a
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: wider net looking into Roddy's background. They quickly discovered he
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: had other half brothers, older guys from his father's.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Side, ah potential accomplices.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Or at least potential witnesses. These half brothers were summoned
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: for questioning. You can imagine them arriving at the station,
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: clearly nervous, maybe sweating a bit.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the pressure must have been immense.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: And the police applied it directly. They laid it out,
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: plain and simple, helping to conceal a crime that carries
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: the same severe punishment as the crime itself. In Saudi law,
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: complicity is not a minor.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Offense, so facing serious charges.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: Themselves exactly under that direct threat, Roddy's older half brothers cracked.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: They broke down and confessed everything. They implicated Roddy fully.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: And their confession finally revealed the truth.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: Yes, a truth that stretched back six long years to
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: twenty sixteen.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: So to really understand what happened to Sala, we need
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: to go back. Tell us about the situation in twenty sixteen.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: Right back then, the household was Roddy, who was in
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: his twenties, his much younger half siblings, Ahmed and his sister,
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: and their stepmother, Salah Alurshitty.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: What do we know about Solomon?
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: She was in her late thirties, described as kind, devoted, married, young,
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: very attached to her deceased husband and the home they
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: had shared. Her life really revolved around.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Her children and Roddy. What was his situation then?
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: He was different, kind of aimless, resentful. He was entirely
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: dependent on his late father's inheritance. Reports suggest he had
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: deep seated psychological issues. Crucially, he resented Sala. He saw
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: her as an intruder, someone who had taken his own
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: mother's place, maybe even someone draining his inheritance.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: That sounds like a recipe for disaster, especially after the
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: father died.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: It was after the father's death Sala and her children
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: were essentially trapped in that house with Roddy. She was isolated,
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: likely had nowhere else to go, no support system, and.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: The abuse started or escalated.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: It sounds like it became relentless systematic. We're talking daily beating, starvation,
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: being bound and gagged for hours, sometimes horrific physical and
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: psychological abuse directed at both Sala and.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: The young children, living in constant.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Terror, unimaginable terror. Then one day in twenty sixteen, Roddy's
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: violence just exploded. It went beyond the usual beatings. He
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: brutally attacked Sala, repeatedly struck her head with an iron object.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: The assault was described as far more severe, a sudden lethal.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Escalation, and she didn't survive.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: No, the beating was relentless, brutal. Eventually Sola stopped breathing.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: She died there in her home, at the hands of
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: her step son.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: What did Roddy do that panic?
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: Panic, yes, but also calculated action. Realizing Sala was dead,
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: his first move was to call his older half brother
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: to help him cover it up exactly. He immediately enlisted
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: their help. Together, they took Sola's body, put it in
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: a vehicle, and drove out to a remote desert.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Area far from anyone or anything.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: Miles from anywhere, and there they buried her in an
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: unmarked grave, hidden.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: And back of the house.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Roddy returned and meticulously cleaned everything, got rid of any blood,
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: any trace of the violence, tried to erase the crime scene.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: And then the children came home from school.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Yes Ahmed was only eleven, then his sister just ten.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: Roddy met them and coldly told them their mother had
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: died suddenly a.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Heart, and he forbade them from attending any funeral or.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Burial that's right, using the excuse it would be too
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: traumatic for them, making sure they never saw the body,
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: never saw where she was buried, never had a chance
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: to question the story.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: So they were forced to live with the man who
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: murdered their mother, believing she died of natural causes, while
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: enduring continued abuse.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: Yes, for six years, they lived under his guardianship, suffering neglect, abuse,
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: constant fear, always careful, terrified of provoking him, knowing deep
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: down perhaps, or just fearing what he was capable of.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Until they got older.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Until they got older, started seeking independence, a way out,
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: and that need for government aid, requiring that simple death
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: certificate that was the catalyst, the bureaucratic hurdle they needed
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: to overcome, inadvertently started the chain reaction that exposed everything.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: So with the half brother's confession, the Ford certificate, the
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: lack of official records, Roddy had nowhere left to go.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: No Cornered by the evidence and his brother's testimony, he
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: finally confessed, admitted to the murder, and crucially revealed the
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: location of Sala's idden grave in.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: The desert, and the police founder.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: A team was dispatched immediately to the remote site he indicated,
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: and there they recovered Sala's remains after six years, hidden
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: beneath the sand.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: What did the forensic examination show?
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: It confirmed the brutal reality confessed by the brothers and Roddy.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: Sala died from severe repeated blows to the head with
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: a sharp heavy object. There are also multiple fractures, ribs,
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: other bones, consistent with a prolonged, incredibly violent assault. The
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: physical evidence told the story her children couldn't.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Justice for Sala was finally possible.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Yes, Reddy was tried and convicted of premeditated murder and
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: the sentence in twenty twenty three. According to Saudi law
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: for such a crime, Roddy was executed. It was seven
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: years after the murder. The final chapter in this horrifying
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: saga really underscores the impact, doesn't it. A six year
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: old murder hidden within a family, brought down not by
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: some high tech investigation initially, but by two kids needing
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: a form and one perceptive office who sensed something was
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: deeply wrong.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: It's truly disturbing how cruelty like that can fester behind
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: closed doors for so long, How children can be forced
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: to carry such a terrible secret living in fear. This
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: whole deep dive really shows how sometimes the most mundane
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: things like a missing death certificate can hold the key,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: the key to unlocking these incredibly dark, shocking secrets, A
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: silent piece of paper that eventually screened the truth.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: It really does make you think, doesn't it. We live
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: in this age of information overload, always looking for the
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: big reveal, the complex conspiracy. But how often are the
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: most profound truths, the most terrible secrets, hid them right
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: there in the plain sight, concealed within those ordinary, everyday details,
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: just waiting waiting for someone to ask the right question,
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: to trust their gut feeling, and to just keep digging.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: Think about it, one small bureaucratic document tore open this
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: whole horrific story. What other truths might be lying dormant
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: in the details around us, just waiting for the right
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: question to be asked.