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The Clothesline Unveils the Secret · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the deep dive. Today, we're delving into a
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: case that really pulls back the curtain on village life,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: where sometimes the fear of scandal is even stronger than
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  Speaker 1: the fear of the crime itself.
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  Speaker 2: We're looking at Al Kawasam village in Sharkia, Egypt, around
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  Speaker 2: twenty eighteen. It's one of those places where everyone knows everyone,
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  Speaker 2: very tight knit, very traditional.
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  Speaker 1: And right at the center of it is the disappearance
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  Speaker 1: of Mohammed. He's twenty eight, a government worker, seems like
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  Speaker 1: a really decent guy, well.
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  Speaker 2: Liked, absolutely married to Amani for four years. They have
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  Speaker 2: a child. They live interestingly in an apartment right in
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  Speaker 2: his family's home on the second floor.
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  Speaker 1: That closeness, that proximity, it becomes key, doesn't it.
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  Speaker 2: It really does, because in a place like this, routine
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  Speaker 2: is everything. Muhammad had his routine home by three PM,
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  Speaker 2: family time. When that breaks, people notice, and the first
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  Speaker 2: story told about why it broke, Well, that's where the
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  Speaker 2: whole thing begins.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so let's set the scene. It's a Wednesday night.
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  Speaker 1: Amani's account is that around eight zero zero pm, Muhammad
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  Speaker 1: decides he needs to pop out quickly for groceries.
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  Speaker 2: Uh huh, just a quick errand.
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  Speaker 1: But the first little detail that snags your attention he
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  Speaker 1: leaves his mobile phone behind.
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  Speaker 2: Right, which in this day and age, if you're just
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  Speaker 2: running out quickly, maybe you'd do that. But it suggests
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  Speaker 2: he really wasn't planning on being gone long at all.
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  Speaker 1: But then eight pm becomes nine pm, then ten pm
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  Speaker 1: and nothing.
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  Speaker 2: By midnight, it's been four hours, four hours for a
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  Speaker 2: quick grocery run. That's when Mohammed's sister gets a call
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  Speaker 2: from Amani, who's apparently frantic.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so twelve zero am is when the alarm is
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  Speaker 1: officially raised.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, and Mohammed the brother gets involved, finds a money
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  Speaker 2: completely distraught, crying, saying the shocks would be closed by
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: now where could he be?
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  Speaker 1: So they start searching immediately.
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  Speaker 2: Instantly, they comb the village streets, asking around, but it's late,
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  Speaker 2: it's dark. They search until about two point four am
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  Speaker 2: and nothing. It's like he just vanished. No one saw
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  Speaker 2: him leave the house at eight pm, no shopkeeper saw him.
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  Speaker 2: It's a total blank.
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  Speaker 1: Just gone. And they can't even follow missing person report yet. Right,
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  Speaker 1: there's that waiting periods exactly.
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  Speaker 2: So there's this agonizing gap where the family is looking outward,
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  Speaker 2: searching the village the roads, while the real answers are
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  Speaker 2: tragically much much closer.
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  Speaker 1: That weight ends The next day, Thursday morning, around eleven
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  Speaker 1: zero am.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the news comes back. Some farmers found a body
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  Speaker 2: floating in the local irrigation canal, the Trana, and it's Mohammed.
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  Speaker 2: His brother identifies him pretty quickly from the clothes, but
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  Speaker 2: straight away, even just looking at the scene, it's clear
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  Speaker 2: this wasn't an accident.
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  Speaker 1: What stood out? What were those immediate red flags?
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  Speaker 2: Well, first, the clothes matched the story. He was fully dressed,
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  Speaker 2: like someone who'd gone out, but crucially he had no
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  Speaker 2: shoes on.
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  Speaker 1: Huh, you don't typically run out for groceries barefoot exactly.
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  Speaker 2: And second, the injuries were severe, a really nasty large
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  Speaker 2: wound on his head and clear marks around the neck
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  Speaker 2: ligature marks strangulation.
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  Speaker 1: So had trauma and strangulation.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, which leads everyone, including the police, initially to the
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  Speaker 2: most obvious conclusion.
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  Speaker 1: Robbery makes sense, Right, he gets mugged, maybe he fights back,
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  Speaker 1: They kill him, dump the body. They probably took cash papers.
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  Speaker 2: It's the simplest explanation, and Mohammed's brother suggests this very theory.
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  Speaker 2: What's more, Amani actually reinforces it. She tells investigators she
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  Speaker 2: thinks Mohammed might have left home with a lot of
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  Speaker 2: money that night.
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  Speaker 1: So she's actively pushing the robbery angle.
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  Speaker 2: She is, which in hindsight you have to wonder about
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  Speaker 2: is she just aggrieving wife trying to make sense of
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  Speaker 2: it or is she guiding the narrative?
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  Speaker 1: Interesting, So the robbery theory is on the table, supported
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  Speaker 1: by the widow. But then forensics comes in.
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  Speaker 2: And this is where the story completely flips. The lab
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  Speaker 2: results come back and they just obliterate the robbery theory.
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  Speaker 2: Three key things.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, what were they?
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  Speaker 2: First cause of death? Yes, strangulation was involved. It was
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  Speaker 2: the final thing, but it came after a massive blow
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  Speaker 2: to the head, and they knew what caused it. A
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  Speaker 2: heavy wooden stick or club. They found wood fibers in
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  Speaker 2: the wound tissue.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, okay, so attacked with the weapon first? What else?
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  Speaker 2: Second? And this is the real bombs, y'all. Toxicology Mohammad
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  Speaker 2: had a huge amount of sedative sleeping pills in his system.
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  Speaker 1: Sedative, so he wasn't fighting off a mugger. He was
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  Speaker 1: drug incapacitated.
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  Speaker 2: Precisely, he was likely unconscious or barely conscious when he
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  Speaker 2: was attacked, completely changes the dynamic, and the third finding
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  Speaker 2: the absolute clincher time of death. The medical examiner pinned
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  Speaker 2: it down. Muhammad died on Wednesday between six zero zero
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  Speaker 2: pm and eight zero zero pm.
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  Speaker 1: Wait six to eight pm.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, and remember amani story.
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  Speaker 1: She said he was live getting ready leaving the house
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  Speaker 1: at eight pm.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly the time of death, directly contradicts her entire alibi.
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  Speaker 2: He was already dead or dying during the time she
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  Speaker 2: claimed he was still getting ready to go out.
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  Speaker 1: So the murder couldn't have happened outside during the robbery.
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  Speaker 2: Impossible, It had to have happened inside the apartment. And
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  Speaker 2: that two hour window six to eight pm suddenly makes
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  Speaker 2: a mony the only person who could have provided a
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  Speaker 2: false timeline. The focus shifts dramatically.
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  Speaker 1: From the village streets back to that second floor apartment.
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  Speaker 2: The investigation tivots entirely. They stop looking for an unknown
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  Speaker 2: mugger and start looking very very closely at the home
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  Speaker 2: and Atamani.
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  Speaker 1: So investigators go into the apartment. What do they find.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the first impression is it's weirdly clean, almost unnaturally tidy,
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  Speaker 2: which you know can sometimes suggest the opposite, a frantic cleanup.
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  Speaker 1: Effort, trying too hard to look normal, kind of.
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  Speaker 2: And then they start noticing the small things, the details
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  Speaker 2: that slip through the cracks in even the most careful plan.
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  Speaker 1: Like what clue number one?
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  Speaker 2: The shoes Mohammed's outdoor shoes. They're found inside the apartment,
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  Speaker 2: right near the.
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  Speaker 1: Door where he would have taken them off coming in,
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  Speaker 1: not put them on going out.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly if the plan was to stage an outdoor crime,
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  Speaker 2: why leave the shoes inside? It confirms he never actually left.
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  Speaker 2: He was killed before he could put his shoes on
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  Speaker 2: to go out. That whole grocery store just collapses.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, that's big. What else?
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  Speaker 2: This next one is really something. It's what you might
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  Speaker 2: call the close line confession. On the balcony clothesline, invest
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: stigators see a huge amount of betting sheets, pillowcases, all
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  Speaker 2: freshly washed, still.
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  Speaker 1: Damp laundry while her husband is missing and then found dead.
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  Speaker 2: It's incredibly suspicious. Think about it. Your husband vanishes, his
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  Speaker 2: body is discovered in a canal. Is doing a massive
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  Speaker 2: load of betting your top priority?
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  Speaker 1: No way you'd be in shock dealing with family police.
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  Speaker 2: Right, it screams evidence disposal. It strongly suggests a significant cleanup,
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  Speaker 2: likely of bloodstains, happened very recently in the bedroom. That
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  Speaker 2: laundry wasn't routine, it was panic.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. The shoes prove he didn't leave the laundry, suggests
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: a cleanup inside. What else sealed it?
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  Speaker 2: The final piece they find a hidden mobile phone locked,
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  Speaker 2: not Mohammad's regular.
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  Speaker 1: Phone, another phone, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And when they find it, Amani gets really agitated. She
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  Speaker 2: tries to spin it, claims it must have been Mohammed's
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  Speaker 2: secret phone, maybe four affairs, trying to again cast suspicion
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  Speaker 2: on him.
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  Speaker 1: But the police check the phone, of course, and.
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  Speaker 2: It turns out there's only one number stored in it,
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  Speaker 2: just one contact, a local worker named Rita.
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  Speaker 1: Rita Okay. In the call log.
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  Speaker 2: That's where it all connects. There are calls logged. Rita
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  Speaker 2: called this hidden phone at six zero zero pm on Wednesday.
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  Speaker 1: Six zero zero pm, right at the start of the
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  Speaker 1: confirmed time of death window.
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  Speaker 2: Precisely it suggests maybe a signal confirmation the sedative worked.
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  Speaker 2: And then crucially, Amani received a call from this phone
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  Speaker 2: at twelve am midnight, the exact.
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  Speaker 1: Time she called Mohammed's family to report him missing.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, it looks like the job done. Call the conspiracy's
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  Speaker 2: communication line laid bare by the timestamps.
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  Speaker 1: Unbelievable. A hidden phone, a little laundry at, a pair
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  Speaker 1: of shoes.
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  Speaker 2: It was enough. They tracked down Rita, bring him in
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  Speaker 2: and seeing the evidence laid out, he folds pretty quickly confesses,
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  Speaker 2: but he points the finger straight on Mani says it
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  Speaker 2: was all her idea, her plan. In the Mani, faced
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  Speaker 2: with Rita's confession and the forensic evidence, she confesses too.
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  Speaker 2: The whole story comes out.
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  Speaker 1: What was it? What really happened?
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  Speaker 2: They'd been having an affair for two years. Ria live nearby.
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  Speaker 2: Apparently he used to get into the apartment via the
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  Speaker 2: balcony sometimes after Amani had drug Mohammed. They used that
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  Speaker 2: secret phone to coordinate, and.
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  Speaker 1: The motive wasn't robbery.
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  Speaker 2: Not at all. It was chillingly simple in a way.
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  Speaker 2: They wanted to be together, to get married, but Amani
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  Speaker 2: felt a divorce would be well unacceptable, too much scandal
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  Speaker 2: in that village environment.
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  Speaker 1: So they decided murder was preferable to social embarrassment.
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  Speaker 2: It seems so unbelievably they decided they had to get
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  Speaker 2: rid of Mohammed, as Rita apparently put it because divorce
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  Speaker 2: was just too messy, too unconvincing for the community. The
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  Speaker 2: fear of gossip drove them to kill.
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  Speaker 1: That's profoundly disturbing. So how did the actual murder play out?
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  Speaker 2: According to their confessions, it was meticulously planned. Step one,
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  Speaker 2: Amani gives Mohammed a large dose of sedatives in his
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  Speaker 2: juice when he gets home from work. Step two, she
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  Speaker 2: makes sure he keeps his outdoor clothes on. That's part
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  Speaker 2: of the staging to make it look like he was
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  Speaker 2: attacked outside right the illusion Step three around eight point
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  Speaker 2: zero pm, though the exact timing here might be fuzzy
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  Speaker 2: given he was already dragged by six or seven. Rita
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  Speaker 2: enters the house, apparently used the front door this time
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  Speaker 2: somehow unnoticed, and attacks Mohammed. Yes, while Mohammed is heavily sedated,
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  Speaker 2: Rita strikes him on the head with that wooden stick,
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  Speaker 2: then strangles him with a wire or cord to make
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  Speaker 2: absolutely sure. Then the cleanup exactly Step four is the
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  Speaker 2: intense cleaning of the bedroom. Amani immediately strips the bed,
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  Speaker 2: gets those sheets and pillow cases, washing the clothesline evidence.
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  Speaker 1: And disposing of the body.
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  Speaker 2: Step five, around eleven thirty pm, they put Mohammed's body
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  Speaker 2: in a sack loaded onto a cart a carew, a
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  Speaker 2: simple local cart, and Rita transports it to the canal
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  Speaker 2: and dumps it.
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  Speaker 1: And step six is the final call, the.
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  Speaker 2: Twelve four am call from Rita to Amani using the
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  Speaker 2: secret phone. It's done, and immediately after hanging up, Amani
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  Speaker 2: makes her call, playing the part of the panic wife,
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  Speaker 2: setting her false alibi in motion.
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  Speaker 1: It's an incredibly detailed plan, audacious covering the method of
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  Speaker 1: the timing, the disposal, the alibi.
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  Speaker 2: Immense effort went into the staging. But like you said,
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  Speaker 2: it's the tiny details they missed. The forensics just cut
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  Speaker 2: right through it. The setators proved premeditation and invalidated the robbery.
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  Speaker 2: The time of death shattered the alibi. The wood fibers
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  Speaker 2: pointed to a specific weapon type. The shoes proved he
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  Speaker 2: never left. The laundry proved a clean up.
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  Speaker 1: Lowgart's principle in action, every contact leaves a trace. They
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  Speaker 1: couldn't erase everything.
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  Speaker 2: They couldn't. They focused on the big picture, moving the body,
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  Speaker 2: creating the story, but overlooked the mundane science doesn't lie
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  Speaker 2: about chemistry or physics. The sedative levels, the wound analysis,
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  Speaker 2: the timeline. Those things are objective. Their plan failed because
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: reality observed scientifically, always outsprints deception and the outcome.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: For Amani and Rata.
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  Speaker 2: Given the premeditation, the brutality, and the conspiracy, both were
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  Speaker 2: sentenced to execution.
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  Speaker 1: A truly chilling story about how far people might go,
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  Speaker 1: not just at a passion, but out of fear of
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  Speaker 1: what others think, and how even the most elaborate lies
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: can be undone by the smallest, most overlooked details.
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  Speaker 2: It really makes you think, doesn't it. What small seemingly
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  Speaker 2: insignificant detail in your own routine your own life may
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  Speaker 2: be something as simple as where you leave your shoes
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: or what's on your phone could tell a whole story
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: you were intending to share, something for you to consider