Latest / Crime and Horror / Her killer tore apart her Staten Island home

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Her killer tore apart her Staten Island home · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: On the evening of August tenth, two thousand and five,
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Speaker 1: a man in New York City answered the phone at
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Speaker 1: the office where he worked. A woman's voice came across
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Speaker 1: the line, and she asked to speak with one of
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Speaker 1: the man's employees. And the man thought for a second,
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Speaker 1: and then he ultimately replied that actually, that employee had
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Speaker 1: not shown up for their shift that afternoon, and they
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Speaker 1: didn't know why, but they weren't here. And when he
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Speaker 1: said this, he heard a distinct shift in this woman's tone,
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Speaker 1: and she told him in a very trembling voice, that
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Speaker 1: she needed to hang up now and call nine one one.
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Speaker 1: But before we get into today's story, if you're a
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Speaker 1: Okay, let's get into today's story. In the early afternoon
1:19
Speaker 1: of Wednesday, August tenth, two thousand and five, eighteen year
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Speaker 1: old Eliza Parsy sat on her bed and her home
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Speaker 1: in Staten Island, New York, flipping through a fashion magazine.
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Speaker 1: The house was quiet because Eliza's mother, Seema, was at work,
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Speaker 1: so Eliza had the whole house to herself, at least
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Speaker 1: for a little while, until she herself went to work.
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Speaker 1: Eliza had graduated high school just a few months ago,
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Speaker 1: and now she was working as a clerk at a
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Speaker 1: moving company to try to save up some money for
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Speaker 1: college and also to eventually move into Manhattan to pursue.
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Speaker 2: Her dream of working in the fashion industry.
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Speaker 1: However, Eliza did feel a bit guilty about moving away
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Speaker 1: because it would mean leaving her mom all alone in
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Speaker 1: this big house, and there wasn't really any their family
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Speaker 1: nearby because both of her parents were from Israel.
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Speaker 2: Seema had divorced Eliza's father about.
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Speaker 1: A year and a half ago, and her father had
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Speaker 1: left New York and moved back to Israel. Eliza also
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Speaker 1: had two half brothers who were Seema's sons from her
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Speaker 1: first marriage, and one of them was back in Israel
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Speaker 1: as well, and the other Eliza's twenty seven year old
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Speaker 1: half brother, Revive, lived just a short drive away in
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Speaker 1: another part of the city, but Eliza and Sema rarely
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Speaker 1: saw him because he was married with a new baby
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Speaker 1: and lived with his in laws and so he basically
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Speaker 1: had a whole new family. And also, Revive had been
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Speaker 1: put in charge of the Parsi family's kosher cookie business,
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Speaker 1: which was really struggling, so he was really busy and
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Speaker 1: always stressed about the company, and he really just didn't
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Speaker 1: make it out to Staten Island very often.
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Speaker 2: Eliza flipped through the last few pages.
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Speaker 1: Of her magazine and then noticed that it was time
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Speaker 1: to get ready for her two pm shift at work,
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Speaker 1: but first she wanted to check and see if she
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Speaker 1: had any new messages on her Internet dating profiles, so
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Speaker 1: she put her magazine down, went over to her desk
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Speaker 1: logged into her computer. So in two thousand and five,
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Speaker 1: internet dating was just starting to take off, and Eliza
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Speaker 1: had made profiles on a few different dating and meet
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Speaker 1: up websites just to see what would happen, and before
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Speaker 1: long she had found herself messaging and meeting up with
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Speaker 1: men from all around New York City. But she never
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Speaker 1: told her mother about this because she knew that her
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Speaker 1: mother would not approve of Eliza dating men who were
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Speaker 1: not from their same Orthodox Jewish faith. And Eliza knew
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Speaker 1: this for a fact because it's exactly what had happened
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Speaker 1: with her previous boyfriend. At the public high school that
3:33
Speaker 1: she went to, Eliza had friends from all different backgrounds,
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Speaker 1: and she had started seriously dating a Muslim boy named Hassan,
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Speaker 1: but her family had really disapproved of their relationship entirely
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Speaker 1: because of his faith, and so eventually Eliza just couldn't
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Speaker 1: take the family pressure anymore and she'd broken up with him.
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Speaker 1: And so now Eliza was much more secretive about her
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Speaker 1: personal life. She would come up with these phony reasons
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Speaker 1: why she was going to other neighborhoods, but really it
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Speaker 1: was just so she could go on dates or hook
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Speaker 1: up with guys for fun without her mom knowing. And
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Speaker 1: also she had even begun secretly bringing some of them
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Speaker 1: to her house in Staten Island, but she was always
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Speaker 1: very careful to sneak them in through the back door
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Speaker 1: when her mom was at work so she wouldn't get caught.
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Speaker 1: Now Eliza logged into her account and she saw there
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Speaker 1: were a few messages from some guys, and so she
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Speaker 1: responded to them, and then after that she headed into
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Speaker 1: the bathroom to take a shower before work. And a
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Speaker 1: few minutes later, when Eliza finished her shower and turned
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Speaker 1: off the water, she heard a noise coming from outside
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Speaker 1: the bathroom. Now she couldn't tell what it was. Earlier
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Speaker 1: that afternoon, she heard a landscaping crew working at the
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Speaker 1: house next door with some really loud leaf blowers.
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Speaker 2: But this noise was different.
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Speaker 1: It was like a weird banging sound. So curious, Eliza
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Speaker 1: got out of the shower, wrapped a towel tightly around herself,
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Speaker 1: and opened the bathroom door to go see what was
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Speaker 1: going on. That night, around seven thirty pm, Eliza's mother, Seema,
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Speaker 1: arrived back at the house that she shared with Eliza.
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Speaker 1: She turned her key in the front lock and tried
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Speaker 1: to push the door open, but it would only open
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Speaker 1: a couple of inches because it felt like there was
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Speaker 1: something on the other side that was blocking it from
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Speaker 1: opening any further.
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Speaker 2: Now, Seema had.
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Speaker 1: No idea what this could be, and so she just
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Speaker 1: began shoving against the door, and eventually she pushed it
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Speaker 1: open wide enough that she could slip inside, and when
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Speaker 1: she did.
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Speaker 2: The first thing she.
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Speaker 1: Noticed was that the thing that had been blocking the
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Speaker 1: door was this heavy mirror. But before Seema's mind could
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Speaker 1: really process how this mirror wound up here, she turned
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Speaker 1: on the lights and saw that her living room was
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Speaker 1: absolutely destroyed. Furniture was overturned, cabinets were flung open, and
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Speaker 1: papers were just strewn everywhere. Seema immediately felt her heart
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Speaker 1: start pounding because she realized that clearly somebody had broken
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Speaker 1: in and robbed the place. But then her second thought
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Speaker 1: was where is Eliza? Where's my daughter? Because Seema knew
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Speaker 1: that Eliza had been home at least part of the day,
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Speaker 1: and what if this had happened when Eliza.
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Speaker 2: Was here all alone?
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Speaker 1: And so Sema began calling out for her daughter, but
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Speaker 1: there was no answer, And so she followed the chaos
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Speaker 1: upstairs and noticed that the door to Eliza's room was closed.
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Speaker 1: So she went over to the door and put her
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Speaker 1: hand on the knob and tried to open it up,
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Speaker 1: but it was locked, and Seema knew that this was
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Speaker 1: just not normal. Eliza never locked this door. And so
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Speaker 1: now you know, Seema's thinking, something has happened here, something
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Speaker 1: bad has happened here, And so sort of in a panic,
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Speaker 1: Sema just began banging on the door, screaming her daughter's name,
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Speaker 1: hoping she would answer, but it was silent, and so
6:32
Speaker 1: after a couple of seconds, Sema pulled out her phone
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Speaker 1: and called the moving company where her daughter worked, and
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Speaker 1: her stomach dropped when Eliza's boss told her that her
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Speaker 1: daughter had not shown up to work that day, and
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Speaker 1: so with trembling hands, Seema got off that call and
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Speaker 1: dialed nine to one one. About an hour later, Detective
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Speaker 1: Michael Kenny of the New York City Police Department drove
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Speaker 1: slowly down a neighborhood street in Staten Island. Ahead he
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Speaker 1: could see his destination.
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Speaker 2: A three story house with yellow crime scene.
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Speaker 1: Tape across the front yard, but it was hard to
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Speaker 1: get close because the street was now swarming with neighbors
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Speaker 1: and just random people who had come out to see
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Speaker 1: what was going on. So Kenny parked a few houses
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Speaker 1: down and then headed for the house on foot, and
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Speaker 1: when he got there, he was met by two patrol
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Speaker 1: officers and they told Kenny that they had responded to
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Speaker 1: a call about a robbery and then had to break
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Speaker 1: down a door of a locked bedroom, where they ultimately
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Speaker 1: found the dead body of eighteen year old Eliza Parsy,
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Speaker 1: who lived in the house with her mother, Sema. The
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Speaker 1: officers explained that when they had checked the rest of
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Speaker 1: the scene, they had noticed that the entire house was
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Speaker 1: basically torn apart, but they hadn't found any signs of
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Speaker 1: forced entry. The officers then directed Kenny's attention over to Seema,
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Speaker 1: who was standing nearby with a small group of people,
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Speaker 1: presumably family or neighbors. Kenny knew he would have to
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Speaker 1: talk to her, but first he needed to get a
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Speaker 1: better sense of just what was going on inside of
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Speaker 1: this house. Oh Kenny made his way in the front
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Speaker 1: door and surveyed the living room, where some crime scene
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Speaker 1: texts had already begun processing the scene. The room had
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Speaker 1: definitely been torn apart, but as Kenny looked closer, he
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Speaker 1: could see that a lot of valuable items were sitting
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Speaker 1: untouched and out in the open, like the TV and
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Speaker 1: the stereo, which was unusual for a burglary. Next, Kenny
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Speaker 1: walked up the stairs and into Eliza's room, where more
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Speaker 1: texts were collecting evidence, and the first thing he noticed
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Speaker 1: was that this room also looked transact. There were clothes
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Speaker 1: and pillows thrown everywhere, and the mattress had been pulled
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Speaker 1: off the bed frame and was leaning up against the wall,
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Speaker 1: and on the floor in the middle of the room
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Speaker 1: was Eliza's body. She was lying on the ground and
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Speaker 1: she was naked, and there was a towel sort of
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Speaker 1: bunched up underneath her. Kenny asked one of the texts
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Speaker 1: if this is exactly how the body had been found,
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Speaker 1: and the text said no. When they first got to
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Speaker 1: the scene, Eliza had actually been underneath the mattress and
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Speaker 1: also had a pillow over her face, but they had
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Speaker 1: to move both of those things out of the way
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Speaker 1: in order to actually examine her body, which was why
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Speaker 1: the mattress was now up against the wall. Kenny knelt
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Speaker 1: down over Eliza's body, but he couldn't see any visible
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Speaker 1: cause of death like a bullet or knife, wounds or bruising,
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Speaker 1: which could mean that maybe she was suffocated. I mean,
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Speaker 1: maybe the pillow that was on her face that they
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Speaker 1: had removed was what was used to killer. Kenny turned
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Speaker 1: and asked the tech if they had found any evidence
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Speaker 1: of physical injury, and the tech pointed to just a
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Speaker 1: few tiny drops of blood that were on the towel.
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Speaker 1: Underneath Eliza. Now, they were very small and they could
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Speaker 1: have been old, like maybe somebody had cut themselves shaving.
9:36
Speaker 1: But all these details a naked young woman, the mattress,
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Speaker 1: the pillow, the blood that made Kenny concerned that Eliza
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Speaker 1: might have been a victim of sexual assault before she
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Speaker 1: was killed. So Kenny told the tech to make sure
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Speaker 1: that the blood from the towel, as well as any
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Speaker 1: other bodily fluids they could find, were collected as evidence
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Speaker 1: because they might belong to Eliza's killer. A few minutes later,
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Speaker 1: Kenny emerged from the house and began walking over to
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Speaker 1: speak with Sema, and Sema she was crying onto the
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Speaker 1: shoulder of a young man, and the minute this young
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Speaker 1: man saw Kenny, he stepped forward and started demanding to
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Speaker 1: know why the police were keeping them away from Eliza's body,
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Speaker 1: and also why the cops weren't out there arresting his
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Speaker 1: sister's killer. So Kenny just took a deep breath because
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Speaker 1: this man was obviously Eliza's brother and it was understandable
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Speaker 1: why he was so upset. Kenny knew that a lot
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Speaker 1: of times grief turned into anger in these situations, so
10:32
Speaker 1: Kenny calmly explained that in order to find Eliza's killer,
10:36
Speaker 1: he first needed information, starting with where he and Sema
10:41
Speaker 1: had been that day, and this got both Revive and
10:43
Speaker 1: Sema to calm down right away, because they seemed to
10:46
Speaker 1: realize that Kenny might actually be suspicious of them. So
10:49
Speaker 1: the man lowered his voice and he introduced himself as Revive,
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Speaker 1: and then he and Sema began answering Kenny's questions. Sema
10:57
Speaker 1: said she'd been at work all day and that there
10:59
Speaker 1: were plenty of co workers who could say as much,
11:01
Speaker 1: and Revieve explained that he too, had been working all day,
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Speaker 1: delivering bake goods all around Long Island.
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Speaker 2: Kenny made notes so.
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Speaker 1: We could double check all their information later, and then
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Speaker 1: he asked if either of them knew anybody who might
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Speaker 1: have had a reason to want to harm Eliza, and
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Speaker 1: Kenny saw them share a very knowing glance. Then Revive
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Speaker 1: turned to Kenny and said he should look into Eliza's
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Speaker 1: ex boyfriend, Hassan, who none of them liked or trusted,
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Speaker 1: And as Kenny started jotting these details down, Sima chimed
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Speaker 1: in and added that her daughter had told her about
11:31
Speaker 1: something really bizarre that Hassan had done recently. Early one
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Speaker 1: morning a few weeks ago, Eliza had woken up to
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Speaker 1: find Hassan sitting at the end of her bed, just
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Speaker 1: staring at her like he'd been watching her sleep. And
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Speaker 1: the whole thing had absolutely terrified Eliza because she had
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Speaker 1: no idea how he'd even gotten into the house. She
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Speaker 1: certainly hadn't invited him over, and their house was always
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Speaker 1: locked overnight. And then before Detective Kenny could even ask
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Speaker 1: a follow up question, Revive the brother just suddenly started
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Speaker 1: yelling get out, get out, we don't want you here
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Speaker 1: at somebody across the yard. And so Kenny turned to
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Speaker 1: see who Revive was yelling at, and he saw this
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Speaker 1: teenage boy standing there, looking completely shocked and scared. And
12:13
Speaker 1: at this point Revive went from yelling at Hassan to
12:17
Speaker 1: yelling at Kenny to arrest Hassan, because that was the
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Speaker 1: man who killed Eliza. Late in the night of August tenth,
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Speaker 1: two thousand and five, so just a few hours after
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Speaker 1: the body of eighteen year old Eliza Parcy was found
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Speaker 1: dead in her home in Staten Island, NYPD, Detective Michael
12:38
Speaker 1: Kenny sat inside of an interrogation room at his precinct
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Speaker 1: Across from him was Eliza's ex boyfriend Hassan, who had
12:45
Speaker 1: been detained after he showed up at the crime scene.
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Speaker 2: So far, Hassan had been.
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Speaker 1: Very cooperative and had shared a very detailed timeline of
12:53
Speaker 1: his whereabouts that day. However, he did not have a
12:57
Speaker 1: solid alibi for that afternoon and the early ev which
13:00
Speaker 1: was likely when.
13:01
Speaker 2: Eliza was killed.
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Speaker 1: Kenny had taken a DNA sample from Hassan, and he
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Speaker 1: also had gotten samples from Eliza's mother and brother at
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Speaker 1: the scene to compare against the blood that had been
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Speaker 1: found on that towel and any other DNA that was
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Speaker 1: found on Eliza's body, But in two thousand and five,
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Speaker 1: DNA and blood evidence took weeks to process, so Kenny
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Speaker 1: was really hoping to just get Hassan to confess right now.
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Speaker 1: So once all his basic questions were out of the way,
13:26
Speaker 1: Kenny decided to test Hassan's truthfulness and he asked Assan
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Speaker 1: if he had ever snuck into Eliza's house. But Hassan
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Speaker 1: he didn't deny it. He immediately came clean and admitted
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Speaker 1: to everything. He said that yes, he had previously snuck
13:40
Speaker 1: into her house and he did sit on Eliza's bed
13:43
Speaker 1: and he had waited there until she woke up. That
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Speaker 1: was all true, but Hassan insisted that he had not
13:48
Speaker 1: been trying.
13:48
Speaker 2: To scare Eliza.
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Speaker 1: He just desperately wanted to talk to her so they
13:52
Speaker 1: could hopefully get back together again. And Hassan had said
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Speaker 1: that when he did that, Eliza hadn't been scared, she
13:59
Speaker 1: was just kind of annoyed, and she had told him
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Speaker 1: that they were broken up for real.
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Speaker 2: And after that he said he had left without incident.
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Speaker 1: Kenny noticed that in Hassan's version of the story, the
14:09
Speaker 1: way that Eliza reacted to Hassan sitting on her bed,
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Speaker 1: you know, just being kind of annoyed and exasperated about it,
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Speaker 1: was very different than the way Eliza's mother, Sema, had
14:19
Speaker 1: described the same event. She had said that her daughter
14:22
Speaker 1: had basically been scared for her life. So he asked Asan,
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Speaker 1: why does Eliza's family dislike you so much? Why were
14:29
Speaker 1: they so quick to say you killed Eliza? And Hassan
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Speaker 1: just kind of hung his head and said he didn't
14:34
Speaker 1: think it was about him personally, it was about religion.
14:37
Speaker 1: Hassan was Muslim and the Parsis were Orthodox Jewish, as
14:41
Speaker 1: Kenny took this in. He wasn't sure which version of
14:44
Speaker 1: the story to believe. Were Hassan and Eliza Starcross lovers
14:48
Speaker 1: kept apart by her family, or was Hassan an obsessive
14:52
Speaker 1: ex boyfriend who couldn't take no for an answer. But regardless,
14:56
Speaker 1: Kenny could not ignore the fact that Hassan had a
14:58
Speaker 1: strong motive and a history of sneaking into Eliza's house uninvited.
15:03
Speaker 1: But Kenny still didn't have a confession from Hassan, nor
15:06
Speaker 1: did he have really any hard evidence at all that
15:08
Speaker 1: would allow him to even hold Hassan. So Ultimately, after
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Speaker 1: the interview was over, he told Asan he was free
15:14
Speaker 1: to go. The next day, Thursday, August eleventh, Detective Kenny
15:18
Speaker 1: walked up to a Jewish Orthodox synagogue in Brooklyn, where
15:22
Speaker 1: Eliza's funeral was about to take place. The reason it
15:25
Speaker 1: was happening so quickly was because of the Jewish Orthodox
15:28
Speaker 1: custom that a body must be buried within twenty four
15:31
Speaker 1: hours of death, and because of that timeline, it meant
15:34
Speaker 1: that Eliza's autopsy had already been completed, and Kenny had
15:37
Speaker 1: just received the report from the medical examiner, which confirmed
15:41
Speaker 1: that Eliza had died from asphyxiation, likely from being smothered
15:45
Speaker 1: by that pillow. The medical examiner had also found DNA
15:49
Speaker 1: evidence that could be tested against those samples Kenny had
15:52
Speaker 1: collected from the suspects. There were some skin cells under
15:55
Speaker 1: Eliza's fingernails, as well as seamen that showed Eliza had
15:59
Speaker 1: sex before she died, probably within twenty four hours, and
16:02
Speaker 1: so this evidence made Kenny think that Eliza had been
16:05
Speaker 1: sexually assaulted and had fought back against the person assaulting her,
16:09
Speaker 1: which would explain the skin under her nails. But when
16:12
Speaker 1: Kenny called the medical examiner to voice this theory that
16:15
Speaker 1: he now thought was pretty likely, the medical examiner had
16:18
Speaker 1: actually disagreed because they didn't find any bruising or bleeding
16:22
Speaker 1: or anything else that indicated sexual violence, and so the
16:25
Speaker 1: autopsy actually concluded that the sex Eliza had before she
16:30
Speaker 1: was killed must have been consensual. But regardless, in Kenny's opinion,
16:34
Speaker 1: the facts of the case so far pointed towards a
16:36
Speaker 1: romantic partner being the killer, which obviously cleared Revive and
16:40
Speaker 1: Sema and any other family members, and it also did
16:44
Speaker 1: not seem to be some random burglar or home intruder
16:47
Speaker 1: because Sema had confirmed that nothing in the house was missing. Now,
16:50
Speaker 1: a few of the neighbors had mentioned that there had
16:52
Speaker 1: been some landscapers who had been working at the house
16:54
Speaker 1: next door at the time of her death, and Kenny
16:57
Speaker 1: had managed to track down the crew and question them,
17:00
Speaker 1: but they had all insisted that they had never left
17:02
Speaker 1: the neighbor's yard and that they hadn't seen or heard anything,
17:05
Speaker 1: but just to be sure, Kenny had taken their DNA
17:07
Speaker 1: samples just in case.
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Speaker 2: Now.
17:09
Speaker 1: As Kenny made his way through the crowded sidewalk in
17:11
Speaker 1: front of the synagogue, he could see two distinct groups
17:14
Speaker 1: of people in attendance. There were members of the Orthodox
17:17
Speaker 1: community wearing their long skirts and prayer shawls, and also
17:21
Speaker 1: young people dressed in more modern clothes, who he assumed
17:24
Speaker 1: were Eliza's friends from school. Kenny walked up the front
17:27
Speaker 1: steps and entered the synagogue, and he noticed that the
17:30
Speaker 1: inside of the building was split in half by a
17:32
Speaker 1: wooden partition, almost like a wall, with men on one
17:36
Speaker 1: side and women on the other. So Kenny joined the
17:39
Speaker 1: men's side and stood in the back corner where he
17:41
Speaker 1: could just observe. Kenny noticed Eliza's brother Revive, standing near
17:44
Speaker 1: the front near the casket, and he watched as other
17:47
Speaker 1: men walked up to.
17:48
Speaker 2: Pay him their respects.
17:49
Speaker 1: The atmosphere was solemn, understandably, and Kenny didn't pick up
17:53
Speaker 1: on any tension or animosity. It just sort of felt
17:56
Speaker 1: like a community coming together to kind of make sense
17:59
Speaker 1: of this tragedy. But then Kenny felt the energy in
18:01
Speaker 1: the room suddenly change, like a switch. It flicked, and
18:04
Speaker 1: he could hear people start to whisper to each other
18:06
Speaker 1: very urgently, and everybody's heads turned to look.
18:09
Speaker 2: Back towards the entrance. Kenny turned his head.
18:11
Speaker 1: And looked as well, and he saw this one person
18:14
Speaker 1: who was trying to push through the crowd and make
18:16
Speaker 1: their way up the aisle to the front where Eliza's
18:19
Speaker 1: casket was, and Kenny realized this person was Hassan. For
18:23
Speaker 1: some reason, he'd shown up again, despite the fact that
18:26
Speaker 1: Eliza's family clearly didn't want him around, and Kenny actually
18:30
Speaker 1: watched as Revive, who had seen Hassan. Revive went straight
18:34
Speaker 1: to Hassan and literally stopped him and shoved him backwards
18:38
Speaker 1: and shouted at him to get out because they all
18:40
Speaker 1: knew he killed Eliza. Kenny, sensing a physical fight, was
18:44
Speaker 1: going to happen here, began pushing his way through the
18:46
Speaker 1: crowd to try to stop them and separate them, but
18:49
Speaker 1: fortunately before he reached them, other men separated Hassan and Revive,
18:54
Speaker 1: and then Hassan.
18:55
Speaker 2: Was escorted out of the building.
18:57
Speaker 1: About two weeks later, on August twenty fourth to thousand
19:00
Speaker 1: and five, Detective Kenny was in the office of the
19:03
Speaker 1: NYPD Computer Crime Unit, where the department's IT specialists had
19:06
Speaker 1: begun digging into Eliza's online life. After her funeral, Kenny
19:10
Speaker 1: had spoken to Eliza's school friends, who had told him
19:13
Speaker 1: that Eliza had been trying to move on from her
19:15
Speaker 1: relationship with the son, and that she had actually opened
19:18
Speaker 1: accounts on a whole bunch of dating sites that she
19:21
Speaker 1: used to meet guys or sometimes just hook up, and
19:23
Speaker 1: when Kenny had pressed them for more information, the friends
19:26
Speaker 1: had told him that none of those online men were
19:29
Speaker 1: from her tight knit Orthodox community, which was part of
19:32
Speaker 1: the appeal to Eliza, but it obviously was not something
19:35
Speaker 1: she wanted to share with her mother, so she'd kept
19:37
Speaker 1: it all a big secret from everybody except from her
19:40
Speaker 1: closest friends. Kenny had been able to actually get Eliza's
19:44
Speaker 1: computer with her mother's permission, and had brought some IT
19:47
Speaker 1: specialists on board who were able to dig into Eliza's email.
19:50
Speaker 2: And browser history.
19:51
Speaker 1: Now, Kenny watched as the IT specialists directed his attention
19:55
Speaker 1: to one of Eliza's dating site message threats. In this thread,
19:59
Speaker 1: Eliza and a man named Jonathan were making plans for
20:03
Speaker 1: when and where they were going to meet up to
20:05
Speaker 1: have sex. They had gone back and forth on a
20:07
Speaker 1: few different options until finally Eliza just said that he
20:11
Speaker 1: should just come over to her house when her mother
20:13
Speaker 1: was at work, and that she would leave the back
20:15
Speaker 1: door unlocked so he could sneak in without the neighbor's scene.
20:19
Speaker 1: Kenny saw that this particular hookup was planned for Tuesday,
20:23
Speaker 1: August ninth, two thousand and five, just one day before
20:27
Speaker 1: Eliza was killed. Now, naturally, this made Kenny and the
20:30
Speaker 1: rest of the investigators raise an eyebrow because this plan
20:34
Speaker 1: of Eliza and Jonathan's, you know, of having him enter
20:37
Speaker 1: secretly through the back door while Seema was at work,
20:41
Speaker 1: matched up exactly with what they had found at the
20:43
Speaker 1: crime scene in late August of two thousand and five,
20:52
Speaker 1: more than two weeks after the murder of Eliza Parsy,
20:55
Speaker 1: NYPD detective Michael Kenny was sitting at a kitchen table
20:58
Speaker 1: in an apartment in Brooklyn, New York, across from Jonathan Harris,
21:02
Speaker 1: the internet dating match whom Eliza had secretly invited to
21:05
Speaker 1: her home the day before she was killed. When Kenny
21:08
Speaker 1: informed the young man that he was here investigating the
21:10
Speaker 1: murder of Eliza Parsy, he noticed that Jonathan didn't seem surprised,
21:16
Speaker 1: but Eliza's murder had been all over local news and
21:19
Speaker 1: a lot of stories were really exploiting her romantic past
21:22
Speaker 1: and her sex life, so he had probably.
21:24
Speaker 2: Already heard about what had happened.
21:26
Speaker 1: Kenny asked Jonathan if he had known Eliza, and Jonathan
21:29
Speaker 1: said yes. Then he detailed basically everything that had been
21:33
Speaker 1: planned in that chat message.
21:35
Speaker 2: He said that he.
21:36
Speaker 1: Had gone to her house, he had snuck in through
21:38
Speaker 1: the back door that was unlocked, and they had had
21:41
Speaker 1: consensual sex. At least Jonathan swore it had been consensual.
21:45
Speaker 1: Jonathan insisted that after that he had not seen Eliza
21:48
Speaker 1: again and had never even gone back to Staten Island
21:51
Speaker 1: after that. He then gave Kenny a detailed timeline of
21:54
Speaker 1: where he had been on the day Eliza was killed,
21:57
Speaker 1: and overall, he was a lot more cooperative than Kenny
22:00
Speaker 1: had expected. He even provided a DNA sample without any objection,
22:03
Speaker 1: and so as Kenny left Jonathan's apartment, he was starting
22:07
Speaker 1: to feel a bit worried that this potential big break
22:09
Speaker 1: in the case might actually turn out to be a
22:12
Speaker 1: dead end. Weeks later, on September thirteenth, two thousand and five,
22:16
Speaker 1: Detective Kenny sat at his desk reviewing all the information
22:19
Speaker 1: he had gathered about Eliza Parcy's murder. He had checked
22:22
Speaker 1: Jonathan's phone records, also his transit card and his toll pass,
22:27
Speaker 1: but there was nothing that put him on Staten Island
22:29
Speaker 1: the day of Eliza's murder, and the computer crimes investigators
22:33
Speaker 1: had not turned up any other promising suspects from Eliza's
22:37
Speaker 1: online dating profiles. Detective Kenny had also continued digging into Hassan,
22:41
Speaker 1: but he didn't have enough evidence to either arrest him
22:45
Speaker 1: or clear him, and this was frustrating. Because Eliza's murder
22:48
Speaker 1: had stayed in the news and there was a lot
22:50
Speaker 1: of pressure to find the killer, especially from the Orthodox
22:53
Speaker 1: Jewish community, which was significant in New York. It was
22:57
Speaker 1: starting to look like the case had gone cold. Just then,
23:01
Speaker 1: Kenny's phone rang, and when he picked it up, it
23:04
Speaker 1: was the medical examiner who was calling with an update.
23:06
Speaker 1: The results of the DNA analysis were finally in and
23:10
Speaker 1: the seamen sample did not match those skin cells that
23:14
Speaker 1: had been found under Eliza's fingernails. So this meant there
23:17
Speaker 1: was DNA from two different people at the crime scene.
23:20
Speaker 1: And when the medical examiner said who each of these
23:24
Speaker 1: samples belonged to, suddenly Detective Kenny knew who killed Eliza.
23:31
Speaker 1: Based on the entire investigation, DNA evidence, and the killer's
23:35
Speaker 1: eventual confession, here is a reconstruction of what police belief
23:39
Speaker 1: happened to Eliza Parsi. On the afternoon of August tenth,
23:42
Speaker 1: two thousand and five, shortly before two pm, the killer
23:50
Speaker 1: approached the back door of the Parsi home, where they
23:53
Speaker 1: knew they wouldn't be seen by neighbors, and once they
23:56
Speaker 1: were there, they slowly opened up the door. Once they
23:58
Speaker 1: were inside, they walked all the way through the house
24:01
Speaker 1: right to the front door, just to check to make
24:03
Speaker 1: sure it.
24:03
Speaker 2: Was locked, which it was.
24:05
Speaker 1: And so after that they went and got a heavy
24:07
Speaker 1: mirror and they moved it and put it in front
24:09
Speaker 1: of the door to block it. The killer knew that
24:12
Speaker 1: both women who lived in this house, Sema and her
24:14
Speaker 1: daughter Eliza, worked during the day, and so the killer
24:17
Speaker 1: didn't expect them to come home, but just in case,
24:20
Speaker 1: they didn't want to take any chances, hence barricading the door.
24:24
Speaker 1: Once they were satisfied with the barricade, the killer got
24:26
Speaker 1: to work opening drawers and cabinets, looking in every place
24:29
Speaker 1: they could because they needed something very specific inside of
24:33
Speaker 1: this home that was very valuable, but they couldn't find
24:36
Speaker 1: it anywhere on the bottom floor, which made the killer
24:39
Speaker 1: think it must be in one of the bedrooms upstairs,
24:42
Speaker 1: so the killer climbed the stairs and went into the
24:45
Speaker 1: master bedroom, where they looked through the dresser and in
24:48
Speaker 1: the closet, but they still couldn't find what they were
24:50
Speaker 1: looking for, so the killer left the master bedroom and
24:53
Speaker 1: decided to search the other bedroom next. But when they
24:56
Speaker 1: opened the door to that bedroom, they were shocked to
24:59
Speaker 1: see a young woman coming out of the attached bathroom
25:02
Speaker 1: wrapped in a towel. And from this young woman's reaction
25:05
Speaker 1: on her face, the killer could tell that she knew
25:08
Speaker 1: what they the killer were up.
25:10
Speaker 2: To, and this enraged the killer.
25:13
Speaker 1: Because they were sure this woman was going to tell
25:16
Speaker 1: someone what she saw and it would ruin the killer's plan.
25:20
Speaker 1: After a moment of just shocked silence between the two
25:22
Speaker 1: of them, the young woman opened her mouth like she
25:26
Speaker 1: was about to scream for help, and so the killer
25:29
Speaker 1: instinctively just tackled her to the ground and then grabbed
25:32
Speaker 1: a nearby pillow and pressed it down hard over her face.
25:36
Speaker 1: She scratched and she clawed, trying everything to break free,
25:39
Speaker 1: but the more she fought, the angrier and more emboldened
25:42
Speaker 1: the killer became, and the harder they pressed down, until
25:46
Speaker 1: eventually her body went limp. After that, the killer stood
25:49
Speaker 1: up and they looked down and they saw what they
25:52
Speaker 1: had done, and it caused them to start to panic,
25:55
Speaker 1: because they never meant to kill her, just to scare
25:58
Speaker 1: her and shut her up, but they'd all be gone
26:00
Speaker 1: too far, so, not knowing what to do, the killer
26:03
Speaker 1: just grabbed the pillow and put it over her face,
26:06
Speaker 1: and then also dragged the mattress and put it on
26:08
Speaker 1: top of her body, just so they wouldn't have to
26:10
Speaker 1: look at her. Then, instead of continuing their search for
26:14
Speaker 1: this thing that they wanted inside of this home, they
26:17
Speaker 1: just went downstairs and left out the back door, and
26:20
Speaker 1: they didn't return to the house for hours, not until
26:23
Speaker 1: they received a call from their mother. Because the killer
26:27
Speaker 1: was Eliza's half brother, Revieve. The DNA from the seamen
26:34
Speaker 1: that was found at the crime scene belonged to Jonathan,
26:37
Speaker 1: the man that Eliza had consensually had sex with twenty
26:40
Speaker 1: four hours before her death. The DNA that was found
26:43
Speaker 1: under Eliza's fingernails belonged to Revieve. It would turn out,
26:47
Speaker 1: Eliza's death did not have anything to do with who
26:50
Speaker 1: she was sleeping with. Revive was angry at their mother
26:53
Speaker 1: because the family business that she had passed along to
26:55
Speaker 1: him didn't make as much money as he had thought
26:58
Speaker 1: it would, and so as a result, Revive was stuck
27:01
Speaker 1: working all these long hours and also raising his family
27:04
Speaker 1: and his in law's basement, which he found totally humiliating.
27:07
Speaker 1: And he knew that Seema had recently come into some
27:10
Speaker 1: money through the sale of a property in connection with
27:13
Speaker 1: her divorce, and Revive felt like that money was rightfully
27:17
Speaker 1: his because he had a wife and a child to
27:19
Speaker 1: provide for, but.
27:21
Speaker 2: Sema wouldn't give it to him.
27:22
Speaker 1: So instead of driving his typical delivery route on Long Island.
27:26
Speaker 1: That day, Revive went to his mother's house to literally
27:29
Speaker 1: look for the money so he could steal it, but
27:32
Speaker 1: Eliza's work schedule had recently changed and so he didn't
27:35
Speaker 1: realize Eliza's shift actually started later in the day, and
27:39
Speaker 1: so what was supposed to be a simple robbery turned deadly.
27:43
Speaker 1: Revive ultimately pled guilty to first degree manslaughter and was
27:47
Speaker 1: sentenced to eighteen years in prison. Hey everyone, just a reminder,
27:54
Speaker 1: I'm going on tour this year, which means if you go,
27:58
Speaker 1: you can experience never before I heard stories from me
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Speaker 1: live and in person.
28:03
Speaker 2: We did this in twenty twenty four and people loved it.
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Speaker 1: So get your tickets today at tour dot bollinstudios dot
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Speaker 1: com right now before they sell out. That's tour dot
28:12
Speaker 1: Balinstudios dot com. I can't wait to see you all
28:14
Speaker 1: at the shows. Thank you so much for watching. Let
28:18
Speaker 1: me know what you thought of today's episode and the comments.
28:21
Speaker 1: And remember, we have a whole playlist of true crime
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Speaker 1: episodes ready for you to binge right now, so click
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Speaker 1: here and give them a watch.
28:28
Speaker 2: All right, until next time, see ya,