Latest / Crime Night / The "Tea" Trigger: How a "Perfect" Egyptian Marriage Was Shattered by an Inheritance Plot and 25 Days of Deceit

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The "Tea" Trigger: How a "Perfect" Egyptian Marriage Was Shattered by an Inheritance Plot and 25 Days of Deceit · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Imagine the scene for a moment. A quiet, pretty normal
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: apartment building right in a small village just outside Oswan
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: in Egypt. And for ten years this place was home
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  Speaker 1: to what looked like well, a perfect marriage. Hoda she's
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: thirty eight, works in administration, Haesem thirty nine, a service worker.
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  Speaker 2: And they really seem to have it all, didn't they
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  Speaker 2: That kind of shared life, the affection, even financial success,
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  Speaker 2: a lovely new apartment, all furnished.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly the Egyptian dream, you could say, even though
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  Speaker 1: they couldn't have children, they seem solid.
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  Speaker 2: But then one afternoon, that picture it doesn't just crack,
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  Speaker 2: it absolutely shatters, right. And the sound that breaks the quiet,
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  Speaker 2: it's this incredibly violent shouting match, but crucially it's staged.
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  Speaker 2: Hoda is screaming, yelling that Hazem insulted her family. It's
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  Speaker 2: all for show for the neighbors.
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  Speaker 1: She makes this huge scene, slams the door theatrical, really
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  Speaker 1: grabs luggage she'd already packed, and.
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  Speaker 2: The neighbors they rush out, trying to calmer down.
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  Speaker 1: They completely They watch her storm off, heading to her
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  Speaker 1: parents' place, a classic marriage meltdown, or so they think, and.
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  Speaker 2: Then silence that's the really chilling part. As soon as
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  Speaker 2: she's gone, this heavy, awful silence falls over the apartment,
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  Speaker 2: because inside inside, Hazem is already dead. Her whole performance
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  Speaker 2: it was just the final act in the meticulously planned plot.
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  Speaker 1: So today we're doing a deep dive into this calculus
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  Speaker 1: of betrayal. We want to understand how a marriage seemingly
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  Speaker 1: built on love twisted into such a cold blooded plan,
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  Speaker 1: all driven by money. Okay, let's unpack this chilling timeline.
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  Speaker 2: You know what really stands out sotually early on is
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  Speaker 2: Hazem's side of things. He genuinely loved her, Yeah, deeply, Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: And when they found out Hoda couldn't conceive, he accepted it.
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  Speaker 2: He wasn't looking elsewhere. He seemed content with their life together,
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  Speaker 2: just the two of them.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds like he really saw it as their life,
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  Speaker 1: their shared dream. But Hoda, she seemed to be looking
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  Speaker 1: at it very differently, more like assets.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, even with her reputation in the community generous helpful
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  Speaker 2: problem solver, her core focus seems to have been financial game.
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  Speaker 2: The apartment, the furnishings, was all about ownership for her.
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  Speaker 1: She kept pushing him, didn't she to put the apartment,
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  Speaker 1: other assets in her.
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  Speaker 3: Name relentlessly, and he kept refusing.
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  Speaker 2: He must have sensed something wasn't right, you know, that insistence.
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  Speaker 2: It felt predatory. He saw shared wealth, She clearly saw
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  Speaker 2: something to secure legally for herself.
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  Speaker 1: And here's the key thing, the detail that really sets
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  Speaker 1: the stage for everything awful that follows. You need to
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  Speaker 1: grasp this financial point. Because they didn't have children, Hoda
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  Speaker 1: knew that if they divorced, she'd get very little, not
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  Speaker 1: the apartment, not the wealth they'd build.
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  Speaker 3: Exactly, that's the legal crux of it.
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  Speaker 2: Without kids, heirs, and with the deed in his name,
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  Speaker 2: divorce meant maybe some basic support alimony, but not the
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  Speaker 2: main prize, not the apartment. She'd apparently covered for what
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  Speaker 2: eight years?
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  Speaker 1: Eight years, so divorce was financially useless to her, which
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  Speaker 1: creates this horrible dilemma in her mind. How do you
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  Speaker 1: get everything when the owner won't sign it over and
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  Speaker 1: divorce leaves you empty handed?
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  Speaker 2: And the answer she landed on, it's just ice cold widowhood.
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  Speaker 2: She needed him dead to inherit everything.
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  Speaker 1: That realization, that's when she starts looking for help. Isn't
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  Speaker 1: it an accomplice?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? If the legal route was blocked.
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  Speaker 2: She needed someone else involved to facilitate the inheritance.
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  Speaker 1: Let's say, so, where does she find someone willing to
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  Speaker 1: take that kind of risk?
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  Speaker 2: Her workplace, A coworker Wale, also thirty eight, married, also
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  Speaker 2: an admin colleague, and crucially, he was under serious financial
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  Speaker 2: pressure himself, raising kids, struggling financially.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so he's vulnerable. How does she play it?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, very carefully, surgically, you could say. Starts by lending
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  Speaker 2: him money, becomes his financial lifeline, builds that trust, that dependency.
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  Speaker 1: And it wasn't just money, was it.
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  Speaker 3: No?
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  Speaker 2: No, She moved quickly to the psychological side, started planting
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  Speaker 2: these seeds of doubt in his mind, you know, telling
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  Speaker 2: him his own family didn't appreciate him, that he wasn't
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  Speaker 2: valued at home, isolating him emotionally.
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  Speaker 1: Making herself seem like the only one who understood the
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  Speaker 1: only source of support.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly, classic grooming, classic manipulation, and Whale, feeling burdened and
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  Speaker 2: maybe unseen at home, starts seeing Hoda as his only
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  Speaker 2: sorts of quote tender.
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  Speaker 1: Support and it becomes physical.
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  Speaker 2: By August twenty twenty three, Yes, they started unfair, And
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  Speaker 2: where do they meet don't tell me in the very apartment,
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  Speaker 2: Hoda wants Hazim's apartment. She'd show Whale the nice furniture,
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  Speaker 2: paint this picture of a life they could have there,
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  Speaker 2: fueling his desire not just for her, but for that
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  Speaker 2: specific place, that lifestyle.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So the affair goes on for about four months.
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  Speaker 2: Then what they decide they want to be together properly.
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  Speaker 2: But Hoda she immediately goes back to that cold, hard
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  Speaker 2: financial cacavis. She tells Whale, Look, divorce gets me nothing.
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  Speaker 3: I've checked. Widowhood is the only way.
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  Speaker 1: I inherit chilling. So the plan forms.
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  Speaker 2: Then pretty quickly, Yes, eliminate Hazem, wait a year maybe
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  Speaker 2: to avoid suspicion, then get married inherit everything. But first
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  Speaker 2: they needed to lure Hazm into a trap without him
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  Speaker 2: suspecting a thing.
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  Speaker 1: How did they manage that? They need an excuse for
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  Speaker 1: Will to even be there?
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  Speaker 2: Plausible deniability. Hoda engineers this massive, very public argument with
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  Speaker 2: Whale at school, shouting accusations, make sure plenty of colleagues see.
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  Speaker 1: It, okay, establishing a public record of conflict.
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  Speaker 2: Then what she goes home to Hazem and lies, says
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  Speaker 2: Wyal was furious about the fight and threatened her with
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  Speaker 2: some kind of career ending administrative investigation.
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  Speaker 1: Plays the victim and hazem this is heartbreaking. He buys
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  Speaker 1: it completely completely.
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  Speaker 3: He doesn't get suspicious of her, He gets protective of her.
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  Speaker 2: He's worried about her career, feels like he has to
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  Speaker 2: step in, be honorable, fix it.
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  Speaker 1: So his decency, his instinct to protect her. That's the
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  Speaker 1: weapon she uses against him.
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  Speaker 2: It's the absolute core of the betrayal, isn't it. He
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  Speaker 2: does exactly what she needs him to do.
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  Speaker 3: He calls Whale.
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  Speaker 1: What does he say?
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  Speaker 2: He apologizes for Hoda's outburst, tries to smooth things over,
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  Speaker 2: and then, in this gesture of genuine peace making, he
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  Speaker 2: invites Whale over to their apartment to talk it out,
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  Speaker 2: reconcile over.
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  Speaker 1: Pea over Ta. That invitation seals his fate.
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  Speaker 3: It's the final piece she needed. Whale arrives.
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  Speaker 2: You can imagine the conversation, stilted, apologies, talk about the
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  Speaker 2: fake administrative threat.
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  Speaker 1: All while waiting for the signal.
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  Speaker 2: The entire deadly operation hung on one word, one signal
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  Speaker 2: to switch from talking to killing, and the signal was
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  Speaker 2: Tea who to says she's getting up to go make
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  Speaker 2: tea in the kitchen. That's Whale's cue, and he just
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  Speaker 2: attacks immediately starts strangling Hazem, but Hazem fights back. He resists.
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  Speaker 2: This wasn't going to be easy for one person.
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  Speaker 1: Which was always the plan, wasn't it. It needed both of them.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly, And this is where Hoda's role becomes just terrifyingly clear.
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  Speaker 2: She walks back out of the kitchen, but she's not
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  Speaker 2: carrying tea things. What does she have? A piece of cloth,
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  Speaker 2: some kind of heavy fabric. They both take it, loop
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  Speaker 2: it around Haysm's neck, one on each side, and pull
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  Speaker 2: violently until they're sure he's dead.
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  Speaker 1: The tea wasn't hospitality. It was the trigger word for murder. Precisely, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: Hazem is dead, Whale leaves. What is ho to do?
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  Speaker 1: Immediately after?
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  Speaker 3: The cover up starts?
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  Speaker 2: Instantly she pours some kind of strong chemical, probably chlorine
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  Speaker 2: or something similar, onto his body. Why two reasons, likely
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  Speaker 2: to try and mask the immediate smell of decomposition, and
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  Speaker 2: maybe hoping it would accelerate the decay obscure the cause
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  Speaker 2: of death, though ultimately that action itself becomes.
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  Speaker 1: Suspicious right because it shows intent to conceal.
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  Speaker 2: And then then comes the big performance. She bursts out
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  Speaker 2: of the apartment, screaming those insults about Hazem about her family,
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  Speaker 2: grabs a bag she'd already packed.
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  Speaker 1: The bag she packed before the supposed fight exactly.
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  Speaker 2: She slams the door, storms past the concerned neighbors, and
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  Speaker 2: heads to her parents' house. She successfully created her alibi,
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  Speaker 2: her reason for being gone, a huge public fight.
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  Speaker 1: And she stays away for how long?
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  Speaker 2: This is the really testing period? Twenty five days, a
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  Speaker 2: twenty five day gap where she maintains the facade, goes
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  Speaker 2: to work, interacts normally with people in the community, all
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  Speaker 2: while refusing to go back home unless Hazem apologizes for
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  Speaker 2: the fight she manufactured.
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  Speaker 1: What about the smell?
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  Speaker 2: Surely after a while, oh yeah, After about twenty days,
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  Speaker 2: the neighbors started complaining, seriously complaining.
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  Speaker 3: About a horrific odor coming.
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  Speaker 1: From the apartment, and what did ho to say?
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  Speaker 2: She had an answer ready, brushed it off, claimed Hazem
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  Speaker 2: must have been forgetful, left the fridge door open or
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: maybe unplugged, it spoiled some meat inside.
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  Speaker 1: And people bet that for a smell that bad.
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  Speaker 2: Apparently yes. The sources suggest the neighbors thought it was plausible,
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  Speaker 2: maybe knew him as a bit absent minded. It's astounding
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  Speaker 2: the composure she must have maintained ye day after day,
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  Speaker 2: knowing the truth.
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  Speaker 1: But eventually the lie couldn't hold No.
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  Speaker 2: After twenty five days, the smell was just overpowering, unbearable,
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  Speaker 2: and the silence from the apartment was complete, unnatural. The
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  Speaker 2: neighbors couldn't ignore it any more. They called the police.
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  Speaker 1: So the authorities arrived. They have to force the door open, and.
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  Speaker 2: They walk into a truly horrific scene. Hazem's body badly decomposed,
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  Speaker 2: just sitting there on the social service reaction, she rushes back,
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  Speaker 2: puts on another performance, a total breakdown. Suggests maybe it
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  Speaker 2: was a robbery gone.
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  Speaker 1: Wrong, but the investigators weren't buying.
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  Speaker 2: It, not really, her twenty five day absence, her apparent
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  Speaker 2: lack of any real concern during that time. It felt
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  Speaker 2: immediately wrong, highly.
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  Speaker 1: Suspicious, And then the forensic evidence starts talking.
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  Speaker 2: That's what breaks it open. The autopsy confirms strangulation, specifically
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  Speaker 2: with a clawf ligature, matching the story of the fabric
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  Speaker 2: and the chemical that was huge pouring corrosive chemicals on
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  Speaker 2: a body isn't something you do in a panic during
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  Speaker 2: a robbery. It screams concealment, premeditation. It pointed directly away
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  Speaker 2: from a random crime, towards someone close to him, trying
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  Speaker 2: to cover their tracks.
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  Speaker 1: So the focus shifts firmly onto Hode.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, the police start looking into her life, her workplace,
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  Speaker 2: and that's when colleagues, maybe hesitantly at first, confirmed the rumors,
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  Speaker 2: the inappropriate relationship with Wyle, the recent public fight. It
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: all starts to connect.
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  Speaker 1: And face with all that, the forensics, the chemical, the
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  Speaker 1: confirmed affair.
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  Speaker 2: They both break. Hoda and Wyle confess to the murder,
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  Speaker 2: while maybe trying to lessen his own blame, apparently insisted
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  Speaker 2: he was just following Hoda's detailed instructions. She was the mastermind.
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  Speaker 1: It all comes back to that initial calculation, doesn't it.
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  Speaker 1: Eight years wanting that deed, the research into inheritance law,
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  Speaker 1: realizing widowhood was the only profitable option, using his love
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  Speaker 1: for her as the final lure.
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  Speaker 2: It's just staggering, purely financial transaction. In her mind, it
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  Speaker 2: seems Zero's sum his life for her financial security and.
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  Speaker 1: The psychological weight she carried for those twenty five days.
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  Speaker 1: It's almost impossible to comprehend going to work, socializing, eating, laughing.
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  Speaker 2: While knowing your husband's body was decomposing just blocks away,
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  Speaker 2: all for the inheritance she assumed was now hers.
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  Speaker 1: It's fascinating in a grim way, how that single minded
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: focus on the material goal blinded her to the fact
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  Speaker 1: that the crime itself would have eventually betray her right.
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  Speaker 2: The plan was meticulous up to the murder, but the
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: cover up attempts, the chemical the long wait ironically became
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: the very evidence that sealed her fate.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: So when you think about this case, what's the takeaway
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  Speaker 1: for you? For the listener? It really makes a question,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: doesn't it. When financial security becomes the absolute top priority?
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: How far can someone twist reality before it snaps back?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: How long can that mask of normalcy hold up under
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: the pressure of such a horrific secret. That's the final
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: thought we want to leave you with. Consider the sheer
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: mental effort, the psychological cost of playing the part of
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: the helpful community member, the competent colleague while secretly waiting
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: for the consequence of your own violence to inevitably surface.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: How many planning goes into fooling the world, And how
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  Speaker 2: little does it take for the stark reality of a
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: decaying body to unravel it all