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Fortuitous Discovery: The Unraveling of Two Murders · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the deep dive. Today. We're taking you somewhere
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: pretty remote. Picture this Tunisia, May seventh, twenty twenty. A
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: desert road.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and not just any road. We're talking fast, empty
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: expanse exactly.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: The sun is just relentless beating down, heat shimmering off
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: the ground. Everything's hazy.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: The only sounds are like the wind, maybe some faint
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: traffic noise way off in the distance. It feels utterly isolated,
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: a place.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Where things could easily get lost or hidden.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: And that's where this story begins, with a grim discovery.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Not right on the road, actually.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: No, slightly off it almost concealed, and the moment it
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: was found, you just knew something was terribly wrong.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: He was a body, young man, early twenties maybe, and
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: no identification on him, nothing at all. The state he
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: was in, yeah, I told a story. Decomposed, bloated from
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: the sun, clearly been there for days. It is out there, wow,
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: skin discolored, and crucially, investigators found four distinct blows to.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: The head, groom blows, just awful. Was there anything else
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: anything that seemed out of place?
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, the tire tracks, that was odd. They weren't
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: from a truck, which you might expect out.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: There, no more for transport routes usually.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Exactly These were from a regular passenger car that felt deliberate,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: less random, more specific.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Okay, so that's our starting point for this deep dive.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: A body, strange tracks, and a lot of questions. Yeah,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: we're going to unravel how this discovery connects to while
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: another tragedy entirely.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: A story of chance really and the chilling double murder.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: The first big question for the police must have been
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: who was this young man and how did he end
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: up there?
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and the initial investigation it was tough going. They
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: started checking missing persons reports.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Looking for young men twenties gone for maybe a week
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: or more right based on the body.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Right, But they found nothing, zero matches. It was like
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: hitting a brick wall straight away.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: That must have been incredibly frustrating. And when there's no idea,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: no matches, your mind starts racing, doesn't it.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you start wondering is the family involved somehow? Are
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: they hiding something? Or is this person just completely unknown,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: no ties, nobody looking for him.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Both possibilities are pretty unsettling.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: But then sometimes it's just one small detail that breaks
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: things open and that's what happened here, A breakthrough, a
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: crucial piece of information finally surfaced a twenty year old barber,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Kaizyakya from Zarzis. That's a city nearby. He'd been missing
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: for over a week.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Kaiz Ya okay, so they had a name. What was
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: his story?
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: He sounds like a really good kid, hardworking barber, ambitious.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: People in this community seem to really like him, no
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: known enemies.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: No trouble, so the complete opposite of what you'd expect
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: given the circumstances of the discovery.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Exactly a stark contrast. His family confirmed it simple loving people.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: He was their only child.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: So the police go to the parents, they show them
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: the clothes found with the body.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: And they recognize them. It's their son. Kais just devastating,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: the shock, the grief unimaginable.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: But then the police must have asked the obvious question,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: he's been gone over a week, why didn't you report
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: him missing?
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: And this is where it gets complicated and really sad.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: The parents they were terrified, but they explained.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: What did they say?
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Kais had left on May first? He was trying to
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: get to Italy illegally.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Ah so an illicit journey a desperate dream, Yes.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: And they knew. They'd even helped him gather the money.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: He was supposed to call when he arrived in Italy,
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: but days went.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: By silence and they were too scared to go to
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: the police.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: They thought reporting him missing would put him in more
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: danger because of the illegal crossing. They felt trapped.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: That's just heartbreaking. But did they have any information that
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: could help anything at all?
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: His mother did, despite her fear, She gave them something vital.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: She said Kai's friend, a guy named Ahmed, had set
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: up the trip okay, and Ahmed's brother was a taxi driver.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Apparently this brother was the one arranging the actual boat journeys.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: A taxi driver facilitating illegal crossings.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: It seems so Kais had had a deposit. He left
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: home with the rest of the money to meet this
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: taxi driver supposedly to get on the boat.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Right, so they have a connection Ahmed's brother, the taxi driver.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: But did the mother know his name or what he
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: looked like?
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: And that was the problem. No, she had no name,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: no description, nothing specific, just Ahmed's brother, the taxi driver.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Another dead end, just an unknown person exactly.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: The case looked like it was going nowhere again, probably
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: heading for the cold case. Files filed against person unknown.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: The media picked it.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Up, of course, Yeah, Kaizyaya victim of illegal immigration.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: That must have been the narrative, That was the story
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: everyone knew.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: So time passes, the investigation cools down, it really feels
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: like Kais's murder might remain unsolved, just one of those
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: tragic stories.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: It certainly looked that way, yeah, But then something completely
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: unexpected happened, a second chance discovery, you could call it.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: How it starts with an elderly woman, she's just reading
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: the news, maybe online, sees the stories about kai Yahya okay,
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: and she notices that detail the un his own taxi
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: driver involved in the supposed immigration attempt. It just clicked
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: with something for her, a horrible feeling, an intuition, a
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: really strong one. It hit her so hard, this potential connection,
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: that she immediately went down to the police station.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Wow, just based on reading the news. What was her story?
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Her story was also one of loss. Her own son,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Zuhara el Masudi. He was a day laborer the late thirties.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: He'd been missing for almost two.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Months, two months and his case was also unsolved.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Yes, filed against an unknown person, no leads, no evidence, nothing.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: She had been searching, his wife had been searching with her,
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: but they found nothing.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, so her son is missing too, But how did
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: she connect that to Kay's and the unknown taxi driver.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: That's the leap, This is the crucial link. She told
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: the police that her son, Zuhara's closest friend was a
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: taxi driver named Slim.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Slim a taxi driver, and she.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Told them I never trusted that man, never liked them.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, now we're getting somewhere a named taxi driver connected
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: to another missing person. But why connect the two disappearances?
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Now, Well, that wasn't all she said. She dropped another bombshell,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: something really shocking.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Well it wasn't.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: She didn't just point at Slim. She accused her own
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: daughter in law, Zuhar's wife.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: His wife on what grounds?
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: She said? The wife seemed too calm, too composed for
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: someone whose husband had vantished for two months. She suspected
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: the wife was involved.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: WHOA, that's a heavy accusation. Mother in law accusing the
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: daughter in law. That's a whole new.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Layer, absolutely betrayal, family suspicion. The police must have been thinking, Okay,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: this sounds maybe a bit emotional, maybe illogical, right.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Grief can make people say things.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: But it was the first lead, however, strange that actually
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: involved the name taxi driver, the potential link to Kais's case.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Even if Tenuus was there, they had to follow it up.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: So they bring in Zuhara's wife for questioning, put the pressure.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: On, and under pressure, yeah, she broke completely. The information
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: just poured.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Out and the truth was.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Story of deep betrayal. She confessed to having an affair,
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: a long standing.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: One with who don't tell me was Slim.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Her missing husband, Zuhar's best friend.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: His best friend. Unbelievable, So the mother in law suspicion
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: wasn't just.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: Grief none at all. It was rooted in something real,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: and the affair wasn't the worst of it. There was
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: a plot. They decided to get rid of Zuohir so
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: they could beat together freely.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, So they planned to kill him, yes, and.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: The way they lured him was just cruel. Slim knew
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: Zuohir was struggling financially.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Right the day laborer, So.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Slim proposed this great opportunity, renting some land together, planting
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: olives guaranteed profit makes some real.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Money playing on his hopes and his trust.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Exactly, Zuhair trusted Slim completely, and his wife encouraged him too,
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: saying what a great.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Idea was, so he walked right into it.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: What happened then, the day of the murder, Zuhair, his wife,
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: and Slim all got into Slim's taxi. They were going
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: to supposedly instec the land.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Out in a deserted area.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: I'm guessing you guessed it. They get there, the wife
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: starts talking to Zuhair, distracting him while Slim. While Slim
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: came up behind him and hit him over the head
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: hard with a stone.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Did it kill him instantly?
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: No, he lost consciousness full to the ground, but he
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: was still alive. And what they did next is just
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: beyond comprehension. They started digging a hole right there with.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Him lying there unconscious.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: Yes, and they buried him, still alive but unconscious.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: That is monstrous, truly monstrous.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: After that, the wife went back home and for two
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: months she played the part of the grieving searching wife
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: went out looking with Zuhir's mother. Kept up the act perfectly.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: But the mother felt something was wrong.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Her calmness exactly the mother's suspicion was growing and started
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: making Slim and the wife nervous. They felt like maybe
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: the net was closing in.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: So they needed to get out.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: They decided to flee Tunisia using the same method they
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: thought Kais had used illegal immigration, but they had a
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: problem money. They didn't have enough cash for the journey.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: And this is where Kaiz comes back into the picture,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: isn't it.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: This is where the two stories tragically collide. One day,
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Slim is at home and he overhears his brother talking
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: to someone.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: His brother one Tais' his mother mentioned.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: Well possibly the report mentions his brother talking to a
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: young man who was desperate to immigrate illegally, willing to pay.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Anything, and that young man was Kaiz Yaha.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: He was Kais and Slim hearing this. He didn't see
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: a desperate young man. He saw an opportunity. He saw
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: the money they needed to.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Escape, so he set a trap for Kais.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: He used his connection, maybe his brother, maybe just a network,
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: to offer Kais what sounded like a golden ticket, a
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: guarantee spot on a boat, but he needed a hefty.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Deposit, and Kaiz, full of hope, probably jumped at it.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: He was overjoyed, got the deposit money together, likely with
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: his family's help, again promising them he'd send for them later.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: He thought his tree was finally happening.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: So the first meeting happens, Kai's pays the deposit.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: Yes, Slim tells him, Okay, get the rest of the
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: money ready packed, just one bag, be ready to leave
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: any minute.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Building the anticipation making it seem real totally.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Then a few days later, Slim calls Kai's tells me
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: it's time. Meet me tonight desert Spot's secret location. Bring
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: the rest of the cash, and.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Kai's goes, says goodbye to his family, and grabs his bag,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: filled with hope for this new life.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: He has the meeting point, completely unaware of the danger.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Who is there when he arrived, just Slim.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: Slim wasn't alone. He brought Zuhar's wife with him.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: She was there too.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Wow. They demanded the rest of the money immediately, but
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: Kai's refused.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Smart kid, He probably wanted to see the boat.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: First, exactly, he said, not until I'm on the boat.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: He wasn't just going to hand over all that cash
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: in the middle of nowhere, and that refusal it seal
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: his fate.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Because their original plan wasn't necessarily to kill.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Him, apparently not. The plan was just to rob him,
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: take the money they needed for their escape, and just
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: leave him stranded in the desert.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: But his refusal forced their hand, it.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Derailed their plan. They panicked, or maybe just saw no
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: other way. A struggle broke out and Slim Slim struck
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: Kais four times in the head, just like the initial
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: report said. He killed him right.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: There, the same way he attacked Zuhair.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Essentially brutal, horrifyingly similar. Then they just left Kais's body
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: there off the desert road. They figured it would take
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: time for him to be found, giving them plenty of
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: time to get away.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: But they didn't get away, did they No.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: In a swift turn of events, the police caught up
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: with them. They were apprehended just hours before they were
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: planning to leave Tunisia.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Wow, just hours, so.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: Close, so close, And eventually justice was served. In twenty
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: twenty three, both Slim and Zuhar's wife were sentenced to death.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: It's just incredible how it all unfolded. You start with
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: this one body found almost by chance in the desert.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, an unknown young man, and it leads.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Investigators down this path that ultimately solves two murders, Kaizyaya
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: killed for his escapement.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: And Zuhir Elmasudi missing for months, murdered by his wife
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: and his best friend, two cases that seem totally separate.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Until that elderly mother followed her gut feeling about a
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: taxi driver.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: It really shows how sometimes seemingly random events or just
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: one person's intuition, one act of courage in coming forward,
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: can untangle these incredibly complex, hidden situations.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: It's a chilling reminder of how desperation Kais's desperation for
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: a new life slim and the wife's desperation to escape
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: their crime, can lead people down such dark.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: Paths, and how those paths can cross in the most
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: tragic ways imaginable. What's fascinating here is how a mother's intuition,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: a random news report, and two separate desperate plots, all
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: woven together by this single dark thread of betrayal and murder,
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: ultimately brought the truth to light.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: It really makes you think about the hidden connections between
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: people's lives and the devastating consequences when those connections are
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: forged from deception and violence. A truly listed journey