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The Cairo Fire Murders: How a Lost Pigeon Trick Unmasked a "Predator of the Elderly" · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's set the scene. It's February twenty eighteen. Imagine
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: the Manshat Nasar district in Cairo. Smoke filling the air.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you'd hear sirens, see the flashing lights. A really
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: intense apartment fire underway in the artisan's housing area.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Just chaos, total chaos. And when the emergency crews finally
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: got it under control, well, the neighbors made a grim discovery.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: They found the resident, Professor Hassan, his body badly burned
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: right there on the floor.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Horrific. And the first thought, naturally, is accident, right, some
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: kind of electrical.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Fold exactly, But something felt off the way the fire
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: burned where they found him. He had immediately raised a
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: darker possibility. Was this planned?
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: And the victim himself, Professor Hassan Mahmoud, sixty seven years old,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: a retired teacher. Everyone seemed to love him, very kind,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: tutored local children.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: And importantly he used a wheelchair because of a leg injury,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: lived completely alone.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: So for the people there, this wasn't just some random fire.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: It hit close to home, a.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Real blow, absolutely, And that's what we're diving into today.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: How this apparent accident unraveled into an investigation uncovering a
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: calculated killer, a predator of the elderly. So let's really
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: get into the details here.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Okay. So the forensic team gets inside, and that accident
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: theory it just evaporated almost instantly, right.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: They look for the usual suspects, you know, cooking left
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: on appliance, malfunction, faulty wiring.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Nothing, no accidental cause explained it. But what they did find, well,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: it's screamed foul play several things.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Actually, yeah, the fire wasn't everywhere, was focused really concentrated
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: in the professor's room.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: And the state of the body. This is disturbing. It
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: had been wrapped and closed.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Like a wick, essentially turning the victim himself into fuel
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: to make sure the fire took hold right there around him.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: It's incredibly malicious.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Malicious exactly. But it didn't stop there, did it? There
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: was more?
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, they found a buttane gas tank in the bedroom.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, miles from the kitchen, moved there deliberately, clearly to.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Feed the flames, make it more intense. But even that
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: wasn't the.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Whole picture, because there was the electrical outlet.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Yes, they found evidence that someone had tampered with an
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: outlet in the bedroom rigged it basically to cause a
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: short circuit. That was the ignition.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Wow, so close gas tank and a deliberately cause short circuit.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: It's layered. This wasn't someone panicking after say, a robbery
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: gone wrong. This was planned, methodical. Someone wanted to obliterate everything,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: the body, the evidence, everything.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Okay, so forensics confirms arson murder, but the killer's gone
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: to such length to destroy the scene. Where did the
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: police even start?
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Well, that was the problem. They looked into Professor Hassan's life.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: No known enemies, didn't seem wealthy, it wasn't adding.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Up, So the investigation kind of stalls.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: No obvious leads, pretty much hitting dead ends, financial checks, background, nothing.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: The breakthrough, interestingly, didn't come from the police work. Initially,
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: it came from the kids he tutored exactly. The first
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: one was a boy named Sharif. He used to help
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: the professor out sometimes run little.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Errands, and he knew something important.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: He mentioned an item the professor always had with him,
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: a brown leather bag distinctive Okay, what wasn't it, his glasses,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: his phone usually whatever cash he had on him, just
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: part of his daily routine.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Right, So the police checked the apartment again.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: And it's gone. The bag is missing, along with any
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: phone or cash.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Suddenly it clicks, it's murder, yes, but the motive looks
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: like theft precisely.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: And then another child comes forward, a student named say Ed.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: What did Saya see?
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: He told his father around the time the fire must
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: have started. He saw a young man walking away from
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: the building quickly, and this man was trying to hide
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: something under his jacket.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Don't tell me.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: A brown bag looked just like the professor's.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, So now they have a witness seeing someone
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: leaving the scene with the stolen.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Item, and combining Sayed's description with some local surveillance footage, yeah,
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: they get an id. Mohammad's thirty two years old. It's Sala.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Did he have a record?
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Oh yes, known drug addict, six prior convictions, things like
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: armed robbery, illegal weapons, a dangerous history, and crucially, people
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: in the area knew him by a nickname, which was
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: the electrician. The electrician. Wait, wait, the electrical short circuit Bengo.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Suddenly it all connects, doesn't it. The specific way the
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: fire was started required some know how an electrician skill
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: set fits perfectly.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: So you've got the technical skill that witnesses seeing him
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: nearby with the stolen bag.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: It all points straight at Sola. The evidence is mounting fast.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: So the arrest is a quick very.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Police set up a sting. They had him in custody
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: less than twenty four hours after the fire.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: And did he confess.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Faced with the evidence, especially the kids testimony? Yeah, he
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: broke during interrogation, admitted he killed Professor Hassan just like that. Well,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: he confessed to that murder, but then he dropped something
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: even more chilling. What Professor Hassan was his first victims?
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Oh no, so we're looking at a serial killer effectively. Yes.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: To understand why, you have to look at his background.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Sala's childhood was rough. His father, Sola Club was also
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: an addict, spent time in prison.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: It's set a pattern, a destructive cycle, definitely, and Sala's
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: own drug addiction fueled his crimes. He started with petty theft,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: you know, just to get money for drugs, but it
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: escalated massively. He started specifically targeting elderly people living alone.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: He had this idea they all kept cash hidden at.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Home and they were easier targets, less likely to fight back.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Exactly, easier to overpower, easier to silence, especially those with
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: mobility issues like Professor Hassan.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Okay, the theft makes sense in a grim way for
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: drug money. But the burning, Why burn the bodies the houses?
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: He claimed it was just to hide the theft, That's what.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: He said, just destroying evidence of the robbery. But when
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: you dig into the psychological assessment from his confession, it
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: seems like more than that. So he described feeling this
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: is disturbing, the sense of relief, even happiness after the
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: killing and the burning happiness. Wow? Yeah, So was the
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: theft just the excuse? Was the real driver? This, this
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: darker compulsion, this need to kill and destroy? It really
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: makes you question the primary motive.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: So this wasn't his first. Let's go back when was
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: the first murder?
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: We have to rewind seven months before Professor Hassan July
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: twenty seventeen, and the victim, a seventy five year old
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: neighbor lived in the same building.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: As Salah, same building. How did he get in? Did
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: he use the same method?
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: Chillingly similar? It established his whole mo his signature. He
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: used a really simple trick knocked on her door, and said,
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: what claimed one of his pet pigeons had flown onto
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: her balcony? You just pop in and get.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: It a lost pigeon. That's mundane, but effective.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: I guess, deceptively simple. Once inside, he attacked her, suffocated.
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  Speaker 1: Her, and then the same post mortem ritual.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Exactly the same, moved the body to the bedroom, wrapped
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: it in close at the electrical short, opened a gas cylinder, textbook. Repeat.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Did he steal much that time?
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: About three thousand Egyptian pounds?
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: He said, So that first murder. What happened with the
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: investigation then?
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: And this is the truly tragic part. That fire it
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: was officially ruled an accident.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: They missed it. They missed the signs, the gas tank,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: the wiring.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: Apparently, so maybe the fire damage was too extensive, maybe
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: they just didn't look closely enough. But the consequence, it's
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Alla got away with it completely. And in his mind
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: that wasn't just luck, it was validation. It was like
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: getting an all clear signal. Yeah, it basically confirmed his
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: method worked and encouraged him to do it again.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: That failure to detect the first murder essentially greenlit the second.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: Horrifying it really is, it allowed him to continue.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: So after that first successful attempt, how did he zero
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: in on a Professor Hassan.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: He was methodical. He spent time in the neighborhood just observing,
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: talking to people, gathering intel, basically casually. Yeah, he apparently
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: got talking to the local ironer, a man named Zakaria.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: The guy who pressed clothes.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: That's the one Sala started asking questions about Professor Hassan
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: and what's he liked. Does he live alone?
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: And Zakaria told him.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, probably just making conversation, said the professor was kind, respected,
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: sometimes generous, helped people out with a bit of extra money.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Huh oh, that generosity basically painted a target on his
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: back for someone like Sla.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Precisely, it confirmed Hassan fit the profile, potentially had cash,
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: lived alone, seemed trusting.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Did Sala confirm this himself?
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: He did. He actually went with Zakaria to Professor Hassan's
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: apartment later under some made up reason a reconnaissance visit
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: to case the place and see the professor's habits first hand.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Apparently during that visit, Hassan gave Zakaria some extra money
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: just being kind for Sala. That sealed it. That was
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: the final confirmation.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: So just five days after that visit he struck.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Five days he went back, used the exact same excuse
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: of the lost pigeon.
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  Speaker 1: Story, unbelievable.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Once inside, same horrific signature, suffocation, moved the body to
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: the bedroom, wrapped it and closed, placed the gas tank rig,
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: the electrical short and the theft, this time much less,
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: only three hundred Egyptian pounds, a mobile phone, and of
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: course that brown leather bag, the item that would ultimately
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: undo him.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: It's just the coldness of it, the repetition, and.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: It gets even worse, his detachment, his depravity, it's profound.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: After setting the fire, he didn't just leave, What do
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: you mean, He actually went back downstairs, mingled with the
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: neighbors who were gathering as the fire took hold, pretended
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: to help.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: He watched. He stayed there and watched it burn.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: Yes, just to observe, to see the outcome of his work.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: It's deeply disturbing.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Behavior, absolutely chilling. And to think if it hadn't been
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: for those two boys. Sharif noticing the bag was always
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: there and sayed, seeing Sola with it.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: He would have almost certainly killed. Again, he admitted it himself.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: He had another victim lined up, already picked.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: Out another elder woman living alone in the same Manshiyat
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: Naser district. The pattern was set to continue. The children's
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: observations literally stopped him in his tracks.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Incredible, the smallest detail noticed by children.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: It highlights how crucial community observation can be. So the
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: final outcome for Mohammed.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Sala he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to execution in
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: A grim nd to a grim story, but it really
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: underscores that terrible link you sometimes see addiction, a difficult
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: or criminal background, escalating violence leading to the creation of
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: a serial predator. So what can we take away from this?
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: For me, it's about not always accepting the simplest explanation.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: That first fire being ruled an accident, had devastating consequences.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: It reminds us I think to question things, to.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: Look deeper, yeah, and that the most vital clues can
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: come from unexpected places, not always forensics labs or databases.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: Sometimes it's just someone paying attention, a child noticing a
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: missing bag exactly.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: It's a powerful reminder about the value of simple observation
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: and may be questioning what seems obvious that small detail
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: might just be the key