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Al-Dunjuwan's Secret: The Six Failed Marriages and Toxic Insecurity That Led to Mass Murder in Asyut · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's untack this. We are dropped into Ausuite, Egypt,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: twenty fourteen. Imagine the quiet of an apartment complex, late
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: at night inside a man Mohammed known as Aldunjuan, the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: ladies man. He goes for his gun and in those
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: pre dawn hours, he murders his pregnant wife and his
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: four young children while they're asleep.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: It's horrific, and the crime itself is shocking, obviously, but
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: what's maybe even more disturbing is the decade long spiral
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: that led up to it.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Exactly six marriages, this whole cycle.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Well, what's really fascinating here, if you look closely, is
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: how Mohammed seemed to spend his entire adult life chasing validation.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: This path to mass murder. It wasn't sudden. It was
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: this slow, toxic.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Build up, fueled by a secret.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: A deep internal secret. Yes, he wasn't really looking for
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: a partner, not in the way most people do. He
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: was well obsessed with proving he was viable, proving his status,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: countering that secret. This story, it's a chilling study and
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: how insecurity, when it's denied and fueled by reputation, it.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Can just destroy everything. And everyone. So our mission today
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: is to trace this path, starting back in two thousand
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: and one, when he was just a factory worker. In essued,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: we follow him through this relentless cycle of marriage and
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: divorce right up to that final devastating act.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: We need to understand the psychology. What were the turning
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: points that led al Dunjawon to see his own family
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: as well as disposable.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Props, props that no longer served his story. Okay, let's
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: start at the beginning. Hashtag tyke, tag denial in the
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: fatal pattern.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: All right, two thousand and one, Mohammed is twenty eight.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: He's described as physically strong, got a job at a
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: big factory. Seems like a good catch on paper.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: But he's refusing marriage, right despite his family pushing.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Him, persistently refusing. And the reason it's this very private issue,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: an undisclosed sexual health problem that needed careful, ongoing treatment. Okay, Now,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: doctors told him, you know, you can live a normal life,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: have a family if he stick to the treatment. But
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: he was terrified of the social stigma, the shame of disclosure.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: So that concealment, that's the foundation for everything that follows.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: At twenty nine, He decides he's feeling better, maybe the
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: issue's gone away.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: He can business himself.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: It's past, and he marries a nineteen year old girl,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: but he doesn't tell her about his history. He chooses deceit.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Right, he rationalizes it, thinks it's behind him, but deceit well,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: it guarantees failure almost immediately. Here his health problems came
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: back within a month.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: A month wow.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Yes, And when his wife found out about the secret
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: he'd hidden, the marriage was over just two months total.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Two months, and the source mentions she actually kept his secret.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: She did, but she begged him, pleaded with him, be
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: honest next time, tell the family.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: It was a clear warning, a warning he completely ignored.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: He just thought he was unlucky, seems so. He didn't
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: see it as his failing, but just bad luck. So
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: he moves right on. Four months later, marriage.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Number two, this time a different kind of woman, stronger personality,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: family ties.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Yes, reportedly and crucially, this time he does disclose his condition.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's a change.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: How did she react positively? Initially? You know, supportive, said
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: things like problems have solutions, and this marriage it actually lasts.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: This is the long one.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Nine years nine years. Yeah, they have three sons together.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: He starts successful treatment. During this time, it's very attached
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: to the boys. On the surface, it looks like stability.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: It looks like he finally got what he supposedly wanted.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Exactly, but underneath he was an illusion. Mohammed had remained
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: deeply insecure. He started suspecting his wife wasn't really committed
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: to him.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Why what made him think that?
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: He thought she cared more about her own family. Their
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: siblings were married too, you see, his sister married her brother,
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: so the families were very intertwined.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Ah, so he saw the connection as transactional, maybe not
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: about him.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: It seems that way. That need for external validation was
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: just relentless. The nine years of seeming stability, the kids,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: the treatment, none of it fixed that core paranoia.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: So even with proof nine years three healthy, un successful treatment,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: that wasn't enough to quiet the insecurity. The secret was
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: still more.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Powerful, it appears, so it was like a bottomless pit.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: He didn't just want normalcy. He wanted to be seen
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: as highly desirable, completely free from the shadow of his illness.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: The moment that external structure, the family connection showed cracks.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: His paranoia flooded in hashtags, tag weaponization, and the obsessive cycle,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: and the cracks appeared because of those family ties, right,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: a conflict between the siblings.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Precisely, his sister and his wife's brother had a falling out,
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: and his wife, well, she's sided with her brother, which led.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: To his deepest fear becoming reality, his secret being exposed.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: We've ebonized. Really, the brother in law knew Mohammad's private
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: medical history and he started spreading it publicly. Oh and
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: he didn't just spread it, he twisted it. He framed
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Mohammad's wife as some kind of hero for sticking with him,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: basically painting Mohammed as this damaged liability she was tolerating.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: That must have been devastating for him. Public humiliation on
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: that scale for all dungej one.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Yes, it completely negated those nine years of effort. In
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: his mind, It turned his stability into a public joke.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: So the marriage ends, tenth year divorce, and this is
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: where it gets even darker for the children.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: It's heartbreaking. His ex wife divorces him. He just leaves
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: abandons all three sons age three, five, and eight at
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: the time, leaves them entirely with him.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Just walks away from three young boys. That level of indifference.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: Wow, and that perceived indifference from her it ignited something
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: in him, an obsession.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: His whole motivation shifts now, doesn't it completely?
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: It's not about finding love anymore. It's about controlling the narrative,
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: managing his public image. He felt blamed, humiliated.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: So his solution is more marriage immediately.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Marriage number three is a pure act of revenge.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: He marries his ex wife's closest.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Friend, thinking it would make her jealous.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: Exactly, you wanted to provoke a reaction, any reaction your work,
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: not at all. His ex wife apparently showed zero concern,
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: total indifference, which just confirmed his worst fears about her
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: feelings or lack thereof. And the third wife, she couldn't
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: handle his recurring health issues, and worse, she was reportedly
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: cruel to his sons. The marriage lasted four months, another
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: quick divorce.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: So three failed marriages. What's his takeaway from all this?
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: His conclusion is fascinatingly skewed. He doesn't look inward. He
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: decides he has a selection problem. It's the women he's
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: choosing that's the issue, not.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: His own behavior or the deceit or the insecurity.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: No no, So he moves apartments, tries to reset. Yeah,
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: and he decides he needs help vetting the next wife.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: He gets a relative involved in the selection process.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: This is getting desperate, and it leads to some odd choices,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: doesn't it?
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: Very odd? Marriage number four he marries a woman who
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: also has a history of medical issues related to past abortions.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: They apparently bond over this shared experience of health complications. Yeah, okay,
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: a different approach.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: And they actually conceive a child together, a daughter after treatment.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: But even then still ends in divorce.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: After about a year and a half. Yes, divorce, and
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: he takes the fourth child, the baby daughter.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: So now he has four children from two different mothers
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: and he's single again.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Three months later, he's onto Patoshy Marriage five. This time
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: he tries for maturity. He picks a woman three years
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: older than him, hopes for stability. Sense don't work. Doesn't work.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: The source says she found him unkind, even violent, and
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: describes her as perhaps too youthful in spirit for him.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Another divorce, four months again, five marriages, four children living
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: with him, and somehow his confidence seems intact. He still
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: thinks he's a prize.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: It's baffling, isn't it. Families were apparently still willing to
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: consider him, and he still believed the problem wasn't him,
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: it was just finding the right woman. You failed to
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: see the destructive pattern he himself was creating. Hashtag tashtag
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: the financial trap and psychological dissent.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, this relentless cycle brings us to the final marriage
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: number six. This is twenty fourteen, and this time the
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: bride's family is wary.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: Right understandably so five divorces, rumors swirling. They were cautious,
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: so they demanded something significant as protection. The molcar exactly
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: a deferred dowry of one hundred and fifty thousand Egyptian pounds.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: It's a substantial amount, designed as a financial safety net
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: for the wife. If unitiates the divorce, he has to
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: pay it, non refundable.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: So they're trying to make divorce financially crippling for him, a.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: Deterrent, a huge one, and he agrees to it. He
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: walks right into this economic trap.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Why would he do that?
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Maybe desperation over confidence. Maybe he thought this time would
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: be different, and initially things look good from his perspective.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: His new wife gets pregnant very quickly.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Which for him is proof validation, part of his health,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: his manhood, exactly what he craved.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: But predictably, conflict starts brewing. She apparently didn't treat his
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: existing four children well.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: But this time he can't just walk away easily.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: He's trapped by that one hundred and fifty thousand pound moukar.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: He feels he has to tolerate the situation because he
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: literally can't afford another divorce initiated by him. The pressure
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: starts building.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Intensely, and then come the triggers.
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  Speaker 2: Three major triggers hit him almost simultaneously. First, around the
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: fourth month of pregnancy, they find out the baby is
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: a girl. He's furious, he desperately wanted another son.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, Trigger one. Disappointment.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Trigger two, his old health problem comes back. He neglected
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: his treatment, so another perceived failure, another blow to his
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: image of himself.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Health failure, disappointment, and the third The third is psychological.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: These two failures collide and seem to cause a complete
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: breakdown in his thinking. The source describes it almost like
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: a possession. Doubt enters his mind, Chatan the devil whispering doubt.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Doubt about what specifically.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: It starts perhaps with the unborn child, but at the
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: virals it poisons everything. He starts intensely questioning the paternity
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: of all his chill all.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Four of the older ones too, even the sons from
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: the nine year marriage.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: Yes, despite years of certainty, this toxic doubt just takes
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: over his mind. It rewrites his past.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: So you have the financial trap, the public shaming looming,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: the health issue back, the disappointment over the baby's gender,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: and now this corrosive doubt about all his kids. That's
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: a lethal combination.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: It sets the stage for the final confrontation. By the
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: ninth month of pregnancy, things are volatile. His wife threatens divorce,
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: threatens to leave the new baby girl with him, just
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: like his second wife left the boys.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Echoes of the past abandonment.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Deeply triggering for him. He calls her brother, maybe looking
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: for support, to complain. Instead, he gets contempt.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: The brother in law again, Yes.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: The same one who shamed him before. He threatens. Mohammed
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: says he'll use that one hundred and fifty thousand EGP
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: contract to throw him in jail, rubs his face in
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: the illness again, publicly shames him.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Over the phone, and Mohammed snaps.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: He threatens to kill his wife right there during the call,
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: but the brother in law he just dismisses it, thinks
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: it's just anger talking, a fatal miscalculation hashtag tag tag
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: tag the unrepentent act.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: So Mohammed hangs up the phone. He's trapped financially, cornered,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: publicly humiliated again. His health is failing, and now his
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: mind is consumed by this idea that none of the
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: children are his. He just stews in it.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: He dwells on the insult, the paternity doubts.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: They fester overnight, and then around two am the next morning,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: he makes his decision, formalizes it.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: His wife is heavily pregnant do any day. His four children,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: the three boys the little girl, are asleep in their beds.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: He goes and gets his gun.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: The sequence is just chillingly methodical.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: It reveals a cold rage. First, he shoots his wife
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: once in the head. That he goes into the children's room,
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: shoots each child once.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: In the head, three sons and his daughter.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Yes, but he wasn't finished. He then goes back, He
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: circles through the rooms and shoots every single victim. His
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: wife and all four children a second time to ensure
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: they were dead.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: My god, But even that wasn't the end of the
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: violence against his wife.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: No, his rage, his perceived grievance, needed more. He goes
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: to the kitchen, gets an axe or a machete, a
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: satur and he strikes his wife's body twice on the
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: head with it. He later said this was to get
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: his rights from her.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Just unbelievable brutality, and the source mentions incredibly, no one
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: heard the shots.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: You really quiet. No neighbors reported hearing anything. The aftermath
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: is almost as disturbing as the act itself.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: What did he do then? After murdering six people, his wife,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: four children, the unborn baby, he took a.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Shower, changed his clothes, went to the kitchen and calmly
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: ate dinner. Eight dinner, eight dinner. Then he got in
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: his car and drove to Cairo. His plan was apparently
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: to hunt down the brother in law, the one who'd
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: insulted him on the phone. Did he find him, No,
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: he couldn't locate him. After two days searching, he drove
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: back to Assuit, presumably to deal with the bodies.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: But the crime had been discovered by then.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Yes, he was apprehended as soon as he returned. The
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: police were waiting, and right up to the end, according
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: to the account, no remorse, absolutely not. His focus remained
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: entirely on the insult, the perceiving, betrayal, his lost status.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: The lives he took, they seemed secondary, just obstacles, removed
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: tools that had failed him in his quest for validation.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: Hashtag tag ted cratch outro When you pull back and
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: look at the whole decade, the pattern is undeniable, isn't it.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: Mohammad's crushing insecurity meant his entire sense of self worth
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: was tied to external things, marriage, children, reputation.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Things he could point to as proof he was good or.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: Desirable exactly, And the second those things were challenged or
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: became inconvenient or financially burdensome, they became expendable to him,
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: he discarded them and.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Thinking about the bigger picture, the source points out something
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: quite damning about the community's role, or lack thereof.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: Yes, it highlights how the tragedy is compounded by the
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: behavior around him. Think about it. Five divorces, known issues,
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: violence reported in the fifth marriage, open rumors about his health,
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Yet family still considered him marriage material.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: They allowed him access. Why were they just impressed by
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: his persistence, his outward appearance of wanting normalcy, financial stability.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: Perhaps it suggests a feel you're in vetting, maybe a
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: willingness to overlook red flags for the sake of appearance
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: or convenience, allowing this predator essentially into their homes.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: And there's that chilling detail about the second wife, the
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: mother of the three boys he murdered, her complete disappearance
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: after the.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: Divorce or abandonment of those children. It's possible not to speculate,
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: did that indifference, that absence, somehow plant or water the
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: seed of doubt in Mohammad's mind later on?
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Did it give his paranoia that final fatal piece of
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: evidence he needed to justify the unjustifiable that maybe the
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: children weren't truly his if their own mother could walk away.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: It's a deeply unsettling possibility.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: It really raises a tough question for you listening to this.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: When someone's identity is that fragile, that dependent on external validation,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: how easily can they be swayed by a destructive narrative
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: like paternity doubt, even when years of reality argue against it.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: And what's the real cost when we as a community
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: or as families prioritize appearance or convenience, or maybe even
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: tradition over digging deeper and demanding accountability for clearly toxic patterns.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: What happens when we don't protect people from predators hiding
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: in plain sight.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: That's definitely something to reflect on. A heavy but critical thought.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: To end this deep dive on the tragic story of
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Mohammad al Dunjuwan, thank you for joining us.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: We'll see you next time.