Latest / Crime Night / Mango Juice and Malice: The Mother Who Poisoned Three Children and Laughed

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Mango Juice and Malice: The Mother Who Poisoned Three Children and Laughed · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Imagine the scene. You're in Keena, governor at Egypt. It's summer.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: The heat is just relentless pressing down. Outside this small
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: village clinic, a man Rafat is waiting. He's got three
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: older kids with him, Adam, Amar, and the mirror, and
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: they've been there nearly an hour. It's hot, really hot.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And the only reason they're sticking it out is
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: the youngest, the baby, just over a year old, needed
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: seeing upstairs by the doctor, or.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: So he thought, right. And then his wife, Sahara comes
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: back down from inside, and she's got this bit of relief,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: cold mango juice.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: A welcome thing in that heat. You'd imagine a simple,
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: nice gesture. She hands out the bottles.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Rafad takes a drink, probably feels okay for a second,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: you know, thinking about the stable life he's built. It
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: seems good.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: But that feeling just vanishes almost instantly.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Within minutes. It starts with the oldest, Adam, He just collapses,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Oh God, before Rafa can even process it. The other
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: two kids go down, one after the other, just seizing
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: up right there on the ground. And then Rafat feels
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: it too, Yes, a sudden like crippling internal pain hits him.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: He's confused, panicked. He manages one call, a frantic one
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: to Sahar who's still upstairs somewhere, and.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Then everything just blurs into this desperate rush to the hospital.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: The scene there, yeah, it's just chaos. The three children, Adam, Amira, Amir,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: they arrive already to see dawn just like that, victims
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: of a massive dose of poison. And rafat himself. He
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: barely makes it, collapses right into critical care, fighting for
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: his life.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: It's horrific, and it throws up this huge central question,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: doesn't it. How does a family, seemingly respectable, stable started
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: back in twenty twelve, how does it descend into this
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: a calculated plot to kill not just the husband, but
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: three of his own young children.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: That's exactly what we need to unpack in this deep dive.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: We have to trace how this betrayal curdled into such
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: unbelievable malice. So let's go back twenty twelve the beginning.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: We meet Rapha. He's twenty four, described a simple, hardworking,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: got a decent job with the railway. He marries her,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: she's eighteen.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Both from respectable families in the village. Standard stuff really, and.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Those initial years. They seem pretty normal, you know, the
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: usual minor arguments maybe, but then settling into a kind
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: of criet stability.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, by all accounts, just a typical village couple. And
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: the family grew four children over the next few years.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Adam Amira, Emir and the youngest.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Baby right and refought. He really dedicated himself to providing,
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: worked long hours, sometimes overnight shifts away from home doing
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: his part.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: So looking from the outside, it's all stability, family growth,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: a father working hard. But underneath saw her story is
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: completely different.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Completely. There was this deep secret dissatisfaction brewing inside her.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: She felt the life of thought gave her this stable
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: but simple life.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Was just beneath her, beneath her one.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she genuinely believed she deserved much better, whatever that
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: meant to her, And she seems to have spent years
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: just kind of looking for something or someone to validate
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: that feeling that validation.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Literally walks down the street in twenty.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Nineteen, exactly a chance encounter, she bumps intom mood. He's
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: a distant relative, works as a private driver.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Not a stranger though, No, that's key.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: They had a history. They'd been romantically involved before and
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: seeing him again just instantly reignited things.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: And what's striking is how fast they both just ditch
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: their obligations. Sahar, her husband, four kids, Ma Mood, the
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: basic respect for a married woman in their community.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Don ignored, and Ma Mood he saw her unhappiness right away.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: He played right into it. How so, he told her
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: exactly what she apparently needed to hear, that she was misunderstood,
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: that she deserved better. He basically handed her the excuse
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: she'd been looking for.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: The external justification.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Precisely, and you see the immediate effect. She goes home,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: tries to resist, tells herself she can't betray Rafot, but
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: it lasts about fifteen minutes. Just fifteen minutes after seeing
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Ma Mood, she calls him back.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Fifteen minutes. That's that's barely a struggle.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: It really shows how ready she was, doesn't it how
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: much she already wanted out or wanted something else. The
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: desire was fully.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Formed, and things moved fast from.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: There, incredibly fast. Moh Mood pushes for another meeting, and
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Sahara doesn't just agree. She arranges it so the kids
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: are out of the way, invites him into the.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Marital home, into Rafat's house while these at work, into
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: their bedroom, that's where the affair was consummated.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Wow, okay, But then she apparently felt regret, told Mahmoud
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: it had to be the first and last time.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: She said that, yes, but was it real regret or
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: just you know, something she needed to tell herself to
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: feel like she hadn't just completely crossed the line without
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: a second.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: Thought, like a self justification.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Maybe given what happened next, it feels like that mood agreed,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: said okay, first and last time, but of course it wasn't.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Their meetings continued, immediately became frequent.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: So this sets up a pattern over the next six months. Deception,
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: a double life.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: A completely parallel life. Yeah, and back in the actual
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: marital home, the impact was becoming obvious. Sahar turned coal
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: really cold.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Towards Rafat, drawn apathetic.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Deeply apathetic even during intimacy, just disconnected.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: And Rafat noticed this change. He noticed the coldness. Yeah,
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: but he he explained it away. He put it down
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: to the stress of four young kids, the exhaustion, you know,
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: just thought it.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Was normal wear and tear of family.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Life, pretty much domestic fatigue. He completely missed that her
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: allegiance had shifted. She was already living somewhere else in
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: her head.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: It's scary how trust, or maybe just being busy providing
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: can blind you.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: It really is. But my mood wasn't content with just
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: the secret affair. He started getting.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Jealous, jealous of Rafat uh huh.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: And he pushed the heart to integrate him into the
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: family sort of how what was the plan? He convinced
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: her that he needed to be introduced to Rafat formally.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: The cover was perfect. He's a distant relative, he's a
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: private driver. Maybe he can be helpful. It gives them
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: a reason to be around each other openly.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: And Rafat bought it initially.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: Yes, Rafat, being trusting, welcomed him to saw his family
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: someone useful.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: But that couldn't have lasted. Surely the tension, No, it didn't.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: Rafat started to feel uneasy. He picked up on Mahmud's jealousy,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: the sort of veiled antagonism, and worse, Sahara started openly
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: putting Rafat down in front of Mahmud.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's bold and cruel. Why risk that if they
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: had the affair going anyway?
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Well, maybe because they had their escape hatch ready They'd
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: rented a secret apartment far from the village, a second
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: home just for them.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: So visiting Rafat's place putting him down. It was almost
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: like a power play for Sahar By then it.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: Could have been like proving she could deceive him right
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: under his nose, flaunting it.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Almost so when Rafatt finally couldn't ignore his suspicions anymore
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: and confronted her, what happened, she.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: Pulled off this incredible piece of emotional blackmail, just a
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: huge dramatic scene.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Here's accusations.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, leverage all the cultural weight of honor, reputation.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Claimed she rather die than have her honor question like
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: this a total performance, and Rafat he tragically fell for it.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Caught between his gut feeling and this massive accusation against
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: his own honor for doubting her, he backed down completely.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: So he believed her, He believed the performance.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: He just asked that Mamod stop visiting their house. He
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: had no idea about the secret apartment, the depth of
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: it all.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: He thought he'd contained the problem, just the slightly dodgy
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: friendship exactly.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: But right at that moment, when Raffatt felt relieved, the
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: plan shifted from deception to murder.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Mamod pushed for it, getting rid of Rafa.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: He pushed for murder. Yes. And what's really shocking is
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: how readily Sahar agreed no hesitation about killing her husband.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: But then she added something even worse.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: She did the truly unthinkable condition. Sahara immediately said, yes,
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: kill Rafat, but the three older children have to go too, Adam,
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Amira and a mirror.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Wait, just wait, she added the children to the plan.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Did Mamod react to that? That goes so far beyond
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: just wanting a new life?
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: It's pure cold calculation, and Mamood surprisingly he agreed. Sahar's
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: reason was chillingly simple.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: What reason could there possibly be?
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: Logistics? Money, burden. She didn't want the hassle of raising them.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: She didn't want to impose the expense and effort of
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: three existing kids onto my mood and their new life together.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: There were obstacles, financial burdens to be cleared away.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: That's exactly how she framed it. Disposable. It's a level
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: of detachment it's hard to comprehend.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Utterly chilling. And then right in the middle of this plotting,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Sahara gets pregnant again with the fourth.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: Child, which immediately made Rafat suspicious. Right, given how cold
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: things were between them, Right.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: He was suspicious, but he stayed quiet, waited until the
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: baby was born. Then he demanded a DNA test.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Sahara must have been terrified. This could expose everything, the affair,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: the illegitimacy.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: But then this incredible twist, almost unbelievable, the DNA test
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: came back.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: It proved the child was rawats just by chance.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Wow. Sahrror apparently saw that as a second chance, a sign.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: Maybe she might have seen it that way, But did
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: it change anything. No, she continued the affair. She stayed
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: locked into the murder plot.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: And that fourth child, baby girl, who had just inadvertently
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: saved Sahar from exposure.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: She became a tool, a crucial piece of the final
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: refined plan because they needed to be absolutely above suspicion.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: So they did. Mamood's idea of a simple break in
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: and murder.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Yes, too messy, too obvious. Sahara insisted on something cleaner,
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: more insidious.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Let's break down that clinic plot. It was meticulous.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: It started with getting the weapon. Mamo travels all the
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: way to Cairo, far from home. Why Cairo to buy
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: high grade poison, the kind used for dogs from a
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: specialty pet store, not a pharmacy, makes it much harder
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: to trace, keeps it away from their local area. Very deliberate,
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: smart in.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: A horrifying way. And the execution it hinged entirely on
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: the baby, the one whose DNA just proved she was
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: rough Ats.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's the truly awful part. Sahara used her youngest
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: child as the bait. She claimed the baby needed a
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: check up. That's why rough At had to take the
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: whole family, including the three older kids they plan to kill,
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: to that specific distant clinic.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: She kept that baby not out of love, but for
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: utility as a prop in her murder plot.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Exactly. It's hard to even process that level of coldness.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: So now we're back at the clinic the scene from
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: the start. Sahar leaves Rafat and the three older kids
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: downstairs waiting in that awful heat.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: She goes upstairs, meets my mood. He hands for the poison,
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: four separate bottles of mango juice, already dosed.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: She comes back down, hands him out here, cool down,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: you've been waiting so long. A gesture of care that's
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: actually delivering death.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Within fifteen minutes, it happens the collapse, Rafat making that
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: desperate call to the very person who just poisoned him
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: and his children.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: And when Sahara finally gets to the hospital, the kids
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: are gone. Rafet's critical.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Her reaction not grief, not panic for her husband. It
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: was quiet distress, annoyance almost that Rafat hadn't died too.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: That he survived, and that reaction, plus the doctor seeing
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: it was clearly severe poisoning, not just bad juice.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: It immediately raised red flags. Hospital staff knew something was
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: very wrong.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: They called the police, and this is where the perfect
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: plane crumbles because of something completely ordinary.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: CCTV surveillance footage from outside the clinic. The police review it,
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: and two things jump out immediately.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: What were they? First?
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: The camera clearly shows Sahara giving the juice to Rafat
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: and the three older kids, but she never drinks any herself.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: Kills the shared spoiled juice idea instantly.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's damning. What was the second thing?
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: This one, this is chilling. The camera caught sahar walking
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: down the stairs after she knew Raffet and the kids
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: had been rushed to the hospital, and she was laughing, laughing, laughing,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: like a moment of relief or maybe even triumph, zero concern,
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: just laughter.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Unbelievable.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: That image alone, it's devastating. Forensics then confirmed it massive
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: doses of animal poison and crucially, they found Rafett's bottle
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: had the lowest dose. That's what saved him.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: It was pure luck essentially.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: Seems like it. The police quickly put it all together,
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: the affair, the secret apartment Mamod rented.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: And they found footage of Mamood too.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: Yes, delivering the bottles at the clinic, leaving shortly after
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: Sahar looking, as the reports say, happy. The evidence was.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Just overwhelming, so they confessed.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: Sahar broke first under questioning, admitted everything. Mamood was tracked
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: down in Cairo, arrested and he confessed.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Too, Which brings us back to Rafat waking up in
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: the ICU, recovering from being.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Poisoned, only to be told the truth. Not just the
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: affair he suspected, but the secret apartment, the plot to
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: kill him, and the deliberate murder of their three children
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: by their mother.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: He suspected infidelity, maybe, but a conspiracy to annihilate his family.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Oh, could anyone imagine that. And then the final brutal
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: details came out in the confessions.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: There was more.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: Sahar admitted she'd tried to poison Raffat once before, a
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: smaller dose in his food at home. He'd been hospitalized
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: briefly but recovered.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Thought it was just illness, a failed attempt.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Wow, And she explicitly confirmed why she kept the youngest
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: child purely as bait needed her for the clinic plot.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: No affection, just absolute utility.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: Using her own baby daughter as a tool for murder.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: It's almost beyond words for these crimes.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Sahara and Mamod were convicted, sentenced to death.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So when you look at this whole case, this cold,
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: methodical plan built on lies and frankly greed, what does
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: it tell us?
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: It forces you to confront the sheer depths of human
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: self deception. Doesn't it how someone can rationalize anything, even
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: killing their own children, if they want something else badly enough, the.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: Ambition, the desire for a different life, completely overriding any
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: sense of empathy or morality. It's a terrifying look at
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: the capacity for malice when that empathy just fails completely.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: And the thought we want to leave you with is
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: about ra Fat. Think about his survival. He lived, but
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: he has to carry the knowledge that his wife murdered
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: three of their children and only kept the fourth as
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: an accessory to the crime. He lost everything, betrayed in
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: the most absolute way imaginable.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: What kind of inner strength does it take to even
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: try and rebuild a life, rebuild your understanding of the
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: world after something like that, That quiet, ongoing survival, carrying
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: that weight, that's the enduring tragedy here.