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Call from Pakistan - The Tragic Death of Sara Sharif · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ten year old Sarah Sharif. It's a name. It's become
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  a heartbreaking case, you know, and we're diving into the
• 0:06
  early parts of it, all all the court stuff and
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  the news reports, he said, and honestly, just getting ready
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  for this. Some of it is really hard to hear about.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a tough one for sure. What makes this
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  one so difficult even now is just how complicated everything
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  is around her death totally.
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  Speaker 1: Just to everyone's on the same page. Sarah was found,
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  she was gone in her home and woking, and things
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  just didn't add up. Her dad's stepfather, her uncle. They're
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  all facing murder charges. And you listening, you've been with
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  us every step of the way, hearing about every new
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  thing that comes out. So let's go back to when
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  they first found her August tenth, last year at last.
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  Go into her home and there she is in.
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  Speaker 2: Bed like she's asleep, but she was already gone. And
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  what's so chilling is that the call, the emergency call
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  came from miles and miles away.
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  Speaker 1: Right Sarah's own father or fun Sharif, made that nine
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  to nine to nine call all the way from Pakistan.
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  And what he said, it's right there in the transcript,
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  it's bone chilling. I've killed my daughter. I legally punished
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  her and she died. Just those words, legally punished. I
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  don't know about you, but it sends chills down my spine.
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  Speaker 2: It's the kind of thing you latch onto right away.
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  In these cases, you know, the forensics people, the investigators,
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  they're looking for anything that shows intent anyway someone tries
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  to explain or even justify something that's well, you just
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  can't justify it, can you. And that phrase legally punished,
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  it's like he's trying to make sense of something that
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  doesn't make sense.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Like he's making up a story, trying to justify it,
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  even if he's admitting to something horrible. And then it
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  gets worse. Police found something else in that room, a
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  note handwritten right there near her body. It said, this
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  is word for word, it's me erfon Cherieve, who killed
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  my daughter by beating I swear to God that my
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  intention was not to kill her, but I lost it.
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  Speaker 2: And that note it's not just a confession, you know,
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  it's like a peek into this guy's head. Right then
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  he's saying he beat her, but then saying he didn't
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  mean to kill her. The two don't really go together,
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  do they, And it makes you wonder what was happening
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  to Sarah, what she went through.
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  Speaker 1: And then he writes this, I am running away because
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  I am scared, which just shows this wasn't some isolated,
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  terrible thing. By the time they found Sarah, her whole
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  family was gone out of the country. What does that
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  tell us them running off to Pakistan? I mean, from
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  an investigator's point.
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  Speaker 2: Of view, well, anytime someone takes off after a crime,
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  you have to wonder if they know they did something wrong.
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  I mean, everyone's innocent until proven guilty, right, running away
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  doesn't mean they're guilty, but it's something investigators are going
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  to look at closely, especially with all.
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  Speaker 1: The strange things surrounding her death. It wasn't just that
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  one time he mentioned. The prosecutor said it was a
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  whole campaign of abuse.
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  Speaker 2: Against Sarah, and that word campaign, that's important. It means
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  something planned, something that kept happening. It wasn't just a
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  one time thing. This was a pattern of behavior.
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  Speaker 1: And tragically, her little body backs that up. The post mortem,
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  it's horrifying the injuries they found, burns, bite marks, broken bones,
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  some recent, some older. When you see all of that,
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  what are the forensic people.
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  Speaker 2: Looking for patterns? We're looking for patterns, clues that tell
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  us what kind of abuse it was and for how long?
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  With Sarah, all those different injuries at different stages of healing,
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  it points to a long period of abuse. It wasn't
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  just one outburst, it was constant. The sheer number of them,
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  where they were on her body, the different types of injuries,
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  it all paints a very disturbing picture. Unfortunately, it's easy.
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  Speaker 1: To get caught up in the legal jargon, the forensics,
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  all that, but this is about a little girl, a
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  ten year old. She deserves so much better, and as
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  we go through this evidence, it's impossible to ignore what
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  she went through.
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  Speaker 2: And sadly, it happens more than people realize, behind closed doors,
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  hidden away. That's why it's so important to understand how
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  abuse works, the signs, how abusers control their victims.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and you mentioned isolation. We know Sarah was taken
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  out of school a few months before her dad emailed
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  said they were going to homeschool her. I mean, lots
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  of families homeschool and that's great, but here it feels different,
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  darker it does.
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  Speaker 2: Isolation it's a way for abusers to have total control,
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  to keep the victim away from everyone else, makes it
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  harder for anyone to notice, to tell someone like shutting
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  everyone out, you know.
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  Speaker 1: And it wasn't just physical isolation for Sarah. Was it
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  her siblings too. There were other kids in that house,
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  five of them in total. We can't say their names
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  for legal reasons, but what they've said gives us some
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  insight into what that family was like, what Sarah was
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  living in.
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  Speaker 2: Kids they see more than you think, even if the
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  abuse isn't happening to them. What they say, what they notice,
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  it's super valuable for investigators.
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  Speaker 1: And there's this one text it really gets to me,
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  send from one of Sarah's siblings to a friend, just
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  hours before the family flew to Pakistan, just says, my
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  sister has just passed away. Hearing that it just braced
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  my heart. It's so matter of fact.
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  Speaker 2: It's like the tragedy it's become normal. Their feelings are numb. Sadly,
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  we see that in homes where abuse is happening, and
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  the timing right while their parents are planning to get
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  out of the country, it just makes it even more complicated.
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  Speaker 1: It's like their sister dying. It's almost less important than
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  getting away. But even as they're running the evidence about Sarah,
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  it was coming out. We talked about the injuries, but
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  some of it is just awful. To hear scaldedt ankles,
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  maybe from being tied to something a radiator, maybe burn
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  marks on her bottom like from a hot iron.
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  Speaker 2: It's disturbing. It points to real cruelty, you know, using
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  everyday things as weapons, hurting her as punishment. That's a
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  really troubling part of all this, and.
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  Speaker 1: You have to ask, how could anyone, especially the people
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  supposed to care for her, do those things to a child.
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  Speaker 2: That's where understanding abusers become so important, not to excuse
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  what they do, but to try to see inside their heads.
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  Why how do they justify it? Often they downplay it,
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  blame the victim, say it's just discipline.
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  Speaker 1: Which brings us to what each person is saying. Now,
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  everyone pointing fingers, saying it wasn't them. It's just a
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  big mess of accusations.
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  Speaker 2: That's common when you have multiple suspects, especially in a family.
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  They point fingers, minimize their own role, put it all
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  on someone else. It's self present. Trying to cope with
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  the guilt the consequences they might be facing.
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  Speaker 1: So let's break it down. Earth Ara Cherife, Sarah's father.
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  He admits to saying those things on the nine nine
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  to nine call and in the note, but now he's
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  saying it wasn't true, that he was just trying to
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  protect his wife by Nash Putool, Sarah's.
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  Speaker 2: Stepmom, which, well, that just raises more questions, doesn't it.
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  If it wasn't true, why say it at all? Why
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  run his defense? It doesn't really line up with the evidence,
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  with what they did, it's.
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  Speaker 1: Hard to believe for sure. And then Banash Batool, the stepmom,
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  she's saying she knew about the abuse, but that she
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  didn't do it. That Arfon Sharif he was the one
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  who disciplined with violence and she was too scared to
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  do anything.
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  Speaker 2: So she's saying she knew, but that she was a bystander,
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  a victim too. It's something we see trying to get sympathy,
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  saying they weren't really responsible.
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  Speaker 1: And then there's Fasal Malik, the uncle, says he didn't
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  know anything about any abuse, but with how injured Sarah
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  was for how long, that's hard to believe.
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  Speaker 2: It really is. It's almost impossible to think that someone
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  living there, close to the family wouldn't know. It's like
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  they're choosing not to see, choosing to ignore it.
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  Speaker 1: Hard to understand three different stories all saying they didn't
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  do it, but through it all one question what really
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  happened to Sarah's sharif. It's like we're looking at a puzzle,
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  but all the pieces are kind of warped, each of
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  them telling a different side of the story. But through
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  it all, the evidence, the actual physical stuff, that's what's telling,
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  isn't it. It shows what.
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  Speaker 2: She went through, and it's that evidence, the real tangible
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  things that often lead to the truth in these cases.
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  One thing that I found really interesting is the bitemark analysis.
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  Speaker 1: Oh right right, those bite marks on her arm, in
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  her leg. Awful, just awful to even think about. You
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  were saying before, how bite mark analysis it's not always reliable,
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  but here it seems like two of them are off
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  the hook.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. So they got dental impressions from both Urfon Cherif
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  and Feasal Malik, and the forensic odontologist that's the bitemark
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  expert basically said their teeth didn't match what was on Sarah. Now,
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  that doesn't mean they weren't hurting her in other ways,
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  but it makes you wonder who else was around, who
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  else could have done it. It's another piece of the puzzle, right,
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  It's like that piece doesn't fit and it just makes
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  things more confusing. And Banash Battol, the stepmom, she wouldn't
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  give a dental impression. What's that about.
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  Speaker 1: Well, remember, people accused, they have the right to stay quiet,
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  to not give evidence they could be used against them.
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  But in a case like this, where it's all about
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  the circumstances, those choices, even if they're allowed, it makes
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  you wonder, doesn't it. If you were innocent, wouldn't you
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  do everything to prove it?
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  Speaker 2: It does make you wonder. And then there's all these
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  little things in the reports, things that on their own
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  maybe they don't seem like much, but together it all
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  adds up. Like Sarah had food in her stomach but
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  it wasn't digested, so she ate pretty close to when
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  she died. Those little things they're so important. They help
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  us figure out the timeline, what was happening in those
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  final hours, who was with her, what was going on
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  in that house.
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  Speaker 1: It's like trying to see in the dark with just
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  a few little glimmers of light. Each new piece of evidence,
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  what the witnesses say, it all helps a little, but
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  it's still blurry. And here the prosecution they're relying on
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  circumstantial evidence. What does that mean for them in court?
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  Speaker 2: They've got to connect the dots the evidence, what people
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  have said, what the defendants did, and tell a story
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  that makes sense. They need to convince the jury that
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  the only way Sarah died is because of these people.
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  It's hard, but it can be done, and.
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  Speaker 1: They're going to have experts to help them, right, medical
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  examiners to talk about the injuries, people who understand abuse
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  to talk about the patterns, forensic people to explain all
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  the evidence. It's a whole team to try to get
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  justice for Sarah.
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  Speaker 2: That's right. When a victim's voice is silenced, it's up
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  to the prosecution to speak for them, to use the
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  evidence to fight for justice.
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  Speaker 1: You know, as we wrap this up, this tough case,
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  there's this one thing from that note, the one refund
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  Sharif left that sticks with me. He wrote, my daughter's Muslim?
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  Can you bury her like a Muslim? Maybe it's just
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  I don't know it's strange to hear that right after
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  he he admits to what he did.
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  Speaker 2: It is It just shows how heavy everything is. Even
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  as he's telling what he did, he's asking for her
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  to be buried with respect in her faith. It's just
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  it makes it all even more tragic.
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  Speaker 1: It reminds you that even in the worst of times,
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  there's still humanity, faith wanting to make things right. But
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  that doesn't change the pain the life that was cut
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  so short. We might never really know what went on
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  in that house, why Sarah Shreef died, but by going
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  through all of this trying to understand it, we remember her.
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  We remember that justice is something we have to keep
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  fighting for.
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  Speaker 2: Well said and maybe for everyone listening. What's important isn't
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  just this case, but what it teaches us about child abuse.
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  It happens in the shadows, hidden away. We have to
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  look out for each other, recognize the signs, be a
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  voice for those who don't have one, because.
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  Speaker 1: Every child deserves to feel safe. If you need help,
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  if you know someone who does, please reach out. There
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  are people who can help. You don't have to go
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  through this alone. This has been tough, but thank you
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  for being here with us as we try to make
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  sense of Sarah Shreef's case. Be back soon with a
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  new episode, new sources, a new story to dive into.