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The Toxic Price of Devotion: How a Father's Secret Inheritance Funded His Teen Daughter's Murder Plot · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, picture this scene. We're in Da Klalia, Egypt. A
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: man named Ashraf Sayid, an electronics tech, well liked guy.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: He's vanished.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Right. The whole community is out searching canal streets, panic.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: The family's distraught, naturally, But.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Inside Ashraaft's own home, while everyone's frantically looking for him,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: something else is going on, something deeply unsettling.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: His daughter Mena. She's fifteen, fifteen, yeah.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: And she's well, she's calm, she's putting on makeup, laughing,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: making videos for social media.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: And she actually tells her cousins, her aunts, that this day,
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: the day her father disappeared, is the happiest day of
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: her life.
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  Speaker 1: The happiest day. She even asks about buying a cake,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: a celebration.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Cake, while search parties are out looking for her father.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: That contrast, that complete disconnect, that's what we're diving into today.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: It's a true crime story, but it's really about extreme entitlement, betrayal.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Our mission here for you is to try and understand
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: this paradox. How does absolute devotion from a parent, just
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: singular focus lead to well to calculated murder by the
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: child for money.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: It's like unconditional love term toxic, isn't.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: It completely perverted? And what jumps out right away, I
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: mean before we even dig deep into motive is the
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: sheer calculation involved and the ages.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, fifteen and nineteen men in her fiance Mohammed exactly.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: This wasn't some crime of passion or desperation. It was
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: it was almost like a business decision. They looked at
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: the situation and murder seemed like the best path to
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: financial security.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: A combined age of what thirty four to thirty five
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  Speaker 1: maybe deciding murder is the best financial plan.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: It just reframes the whole thing, doesn't it. This wasn't
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: an accident. It was, like you said, almost an investment.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: So to get our hands around that level of entitlement,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: we need to go back. We need to understand Ashraft's life,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: the devotion that kind of set the stage for all this,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: starting around what two.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Thousand and eight, Yeah, Ashraf Sayid, by all accounts, a
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: really good man, hardworking, respected, generous community pillar, you could say.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: And then Mena was born in two thousand and nine.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: And everything shifted. She wasn't just his daughter, she became well,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: his entire universe. The accounts we have paint this picture
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: of a man totally wrapped up in being her.
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  Speaker 1: Father, which sounds lovely on the surface, but maybe maybe
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: too much. The records suggest this is where the early
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: signs of that catastrophic selfishness started.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: That's right. She developed this really intense sense of ownership
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: everything in the house. She felt it was hers, exclusively hers,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: very demanding, bordering on extreme.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: It sounds like.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely and the issue wasn't the love itself, it was
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: the lack of boundaries her parents, especially before her mother died,
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  Speaker 2: they pretty much indulged it.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: All doting but maybe mistaking that selfishness for I don't know,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: normal kid stuff, only child demands exactly.
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  Speaker 2: They weren't challenging the entitlement. And then came the real
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: turning point. Twenty twenty two, Men's mother passed.
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  Speaker 1: Away ah so Ashraf is left alone.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: With her, and this is where his fear really took over.
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  Speaker 2: He became both parents, and he was just terrified of
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: leaving Mena unprotected if something happened.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: To him, so he doubles down on the devotion completely.
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  Speaker 2: He cut his work hours way back, finish at four
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  Speaker 2: pm every single day just to be with her, even
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: though it meant real financial hardship.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: He saw her behavior not as entitlement but as grief.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: It seems, so he excused the ingrained selfishness, blaming it
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: all on the trauma of losing her mother, which allowed
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: it to just keep growing unchecked.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: So his devotion, his way of coping with his own fear,
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  Speaker 1: actually made things worse. And the financial strain that led
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: him to the next step, didn't it the one that
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  Speaker 1: sealed his.
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  Speaker 2: Fate, securing her future through his own death. He started
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: making plans in.
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  Speaker 1: Secret, these fatal financial arrangements, making sure Mena would be
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  Speaker 1: set for life.
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  Speaker 2: He was trying to be her protector, even from beyond
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  Speaker 2: the grave. You could say he set up two major
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: assets secretly, all in her name.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, what were they?
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  Speaker 2: First a really substantial bank account all his life savings. Second,
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  Speaker 2: the d to the apartment they lived in total security
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: for her.
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  Speaker 1: But there was a catch, a huge gid.
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  Speaker 2: A catch, and this is absolutely central to the whole
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  Speaker 2: mode of the one condition, the non negotiable part. Minna
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  Speaker 2: could only get control of that money and.
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  Speaker 1: That apartment only after Ashras's death.
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  Speaker 2: Precisely, he literally created a massive tangible reward that was
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: completely dependent on him dying. Oh, that's just devastating. He
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  Speaker 2: thought he was giving her.
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  Speaker 1: Security, but he also handed her the motive on a
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  Speaker 1: silver platter, and that motive just got stronger, didn't it
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  Speaker 1: When he tried to remarry in twenty twenty three. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: his family suggested it, you know, for support. He chose
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: a woman everyone agreed was kind, capable, seemed like she'd
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: be good for Mena too.
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  Speaker 2: But Menna didn't see a stepmother or support.
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  Speaker 1: She saw a rival, a threat to her exclusive claim
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  Speaker 1: on her father, his attention, his resources.
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  Speaker 2: And she reacted accordingly.
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  Speaker 1: Fiercely launched this whole campaign against the new wife, constant
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  Speaker 1: complaints of apparently fabricated stories, just relentless hostility. Even though
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the woman was apparently trying to be kind to her,
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  Speaker 1: she made it impossible totally, and Ashraf, the devoted dad,
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  Speaker 1: he buckled immediately divorce this poor woman after just one month.
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  Speaker 2: One month, just to appease Mena's well, her manufactured on happiness.
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  Speaker 2: It shows you the power she had over.
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  Speaker 1: Him, absolute power. And then the final fatal mistake in
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: trying to reassure Menna convinced her she was still number
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  Speaker 1: one after the divorce.
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  Speaker 3: He told her he told her everything revealed, the secret inheritance,
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  Speaker 3: the bank account, the apartment, deed, and the fact that
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  Speaker 3: it all became hers upon his death.
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  Speaker 1: And she's now fifteen, she knows as a fortune waiting. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: and only one thing standing in the way.
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  Speaker 2: The fuse was lit.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So now we bring in the fiance. Late twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty three, Mohammed, nineteen years old, drives a tuktook, son
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  Speaker 1: of Ashraff's friend.
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  Speaker 2: Right, Mohammed takes an interest in Mena. Ashraf, trying to
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  Speaker 2: be protective, initially says no to marriage. She's too young,
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  Speaker 2: still in school, sensible, but he eventually agrees to an
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  Speaker 2: engage strict conditions, though no wedding until she's eighteen, finishes
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: her studies. Mohammed can only visit once.
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  Speaker 1: A week, trying to keep some control, but boundaries for
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  Speaker 1: someone like Meta just obstacles.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Both she and Mohammad got impatient very quickly. At Their
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: first thought was, you know, typical teenage stuff.
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  Speaker 1: That's just Elope run away together.
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  Speaker 2: But then Menna paused, why Elope, why run away? Poor?
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Eloping might mean her father cuts her off. She loses
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: that inheritance, the apartment, the savings exactly she realized there
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: was a much more efficient way. She told Mohammed she
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: had a better plan, a.
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  Speaker 1: Better plan than eloping, and that plan was.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Murder, pure and simple. She laid it out. They kill
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  Speaker 2: her father, wait a year, presumably for legal stuff inheritance
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  Speaker 2: to clear. Then they get married, live comfortably on his
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  Speaker 2: savings and in his apartment.
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  Speaker 1: A fifteen year old proposes this. How does Mohammed react? Remember,
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  Speaker 1: Ashraff was helping this kid, son of his friend.
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  Speaker 2: The reaction is frankly shocking. Mohammed didn't just agree. He
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  Speaker 2: apparently thought the idea was.
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  Speaker 1: Ingenious and genius.
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  Speaker 2: Agreed immediately, no hesitation reported. It went from teenage romance
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: to a premeditated murder plot.
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  Speaker 1: Just like that. Horrifying. So the plan is in place.
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  Speaker 1: Early twenty twenty four the execution.
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  Speaker 2: Mohammad uses Ashraf's kindness against him. It was routine for
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Ashraf to help Muhammad out financially and.
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  Speaker 1: Practically, so Mohammad calls him yep.
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  Speaker 2: Says his tiktook is broken down at the garage, asks
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  Speaker 2: Ashraff to meet him there help fix it before Ashraf
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: heads to his own work, a perfectly normal request given
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  Speaker 2: their relationship.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: And Ashraf, trusting him son of his friend, daughter's fiance.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he goes, he goes. Mena meanwhile knows exactly what's
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: supposed to happen. She stays home.
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  Speaker 1: Ashraf arrives at the garage.
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  Speaker 2: And Muhammad attacks him instantly, hits him with an iron bar,
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  Speaker 2: knocks him out cold, then stabs him multiple times with
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  Speaker 2: a knife, makes absolutely sure he's dead.
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  Speaker 1: Brutal calculated in Mena's role.
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  Speaker 2: Immediately after, Mohammad calls her confirms it's done. Her reaction
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  Speaker 2: purely practical, no grief, no shock, none reported. She goes
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  Speaker 2: into the house. First thing she finds and takes cash
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: Ashrap had put aside, maybe for her dowry future expenses.
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  Speaker 2: Then she grabs something specific a malaya a bed sheet,
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  Speaker 2: a particular patterned bed sheet from their home. Okay, She
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: takes the cash and the bed sheet. Meets Mohammed at
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: the garage, verifies her father is dead. Helps Mohammed tie
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  Speaker 2: the body up hands.
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  Speaker 1: And feet with rope and then the bed sheet.
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  Speaker 2: Then they wrap the body tightly in that distinctive malaya
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  Speaker 2: she brought.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, I see where this is going?
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  Speaker 2: They leave the body there initially. Later Mohammad takes it,
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: dumps it in a nearby canal or drainage ditch. He
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: takes the cash she brought him and mena. She goes
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  Speaker 2: back home starts.
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  Speaker 1: Her performance, the performance which is maybe the most chilling
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  Speaker 1: part of this whole thing.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely terrifying. She goes straight to her female cousins, her
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: aunts absolutely normal, laughing, joking, laughing, joking, filming those makeup
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  Speaker 2: tutorials for social media. This is hours after her father's murder,
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  Speaker 2: which she planned, and.
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  Speaker 1: That comment, happiest day of my life. Yeah, asking for
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: a cake while her father's body is in a canal,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: wrapped in her own bed sheet.
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  Speaker 2: The level of dissociation, the calculated emotional shield, it's almost inhuman.
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  Speaker 2: Her alibi was simple, Dad called fixing a TV. Gonna
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: be late, No reason for anyone to doubt her.
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  Speaker 1: So the search starts properly when he doesn't come home.
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  Speaker 1: But the discovery is quick, very quick.
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  Speaker 2: The next morning, an anonymous tip leads the police right
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  Speaker 2: to the body in the canal.
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  Speaker 1: And the bed sheet.
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  Speaker 2: The bed sheet, that's the key. Even before formal identification,
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  Speaker 2: the family sees the body wrapped in that malaya, they
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: recognize the pattern, the fabric they know it's from Ashraft's house.
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  Speaker 1: That's the giveaway. It points straight back home to someone
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  Speaker 1: with access.
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  Speaker 2: Instantly, it tied the crime directly to the household and
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: the police they're already noticing men is weird composure, right,
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Her lack of outward grief was unsettling.
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  Speaker 1: So she's on their radar. Muhammad too, presumably given his
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: connection and maybe a questionable background exactly.
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  Speaker 2: But the final piece, the undeniable p came from technology,
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: the phones.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: The phones.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: Police seized Mohammed's phone and they found it all WhatsApp messages,
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: tons of them between him and Mena laying out the
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: whole plan, every single step planning the murder, confirming it
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: was done. And then the crucial bit, Mohammad telling Mena
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: to delete all the messages, but she didn't or he didn't.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: He apparently didn't delete his side. The entire conspiracy, their greed,
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: their betrayal, It was all right there, digitally documented.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Game over. The trial must have been intense, the community.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Reaction overwhelming shock, especially at Minna's betrayal. Mohammad tried to
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: pin more blame on her, but the evidence was too strong.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: He was convicted of premeditated murder sentence, execution, and the judge,
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: his words were powerful, focused on the betrayal of trust,
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: how Mohammad used the engagement, the closeness to Ashraff purely
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: as a means to commit the murder, called it a
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: betrayal against a man who'd only showed him kindness in Minna.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: She was fifteen sixteen by then, still.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Well a minor under Egyptian law for sentencing purposes, so
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: her legal fate was different than Mohammad's execution sentence.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: But the moral judgment unavoidable. This whole case, it just
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: circles back to that core paradox.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: Doesn't it It really does. Ashraf gave her everything love,
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: security is entire life, basically, but without teaching her empathy
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: or respect or the value of things beyond ownership.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: She didn't see a father. She saw an obstacle, an
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: obstacle between her and the money.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: The apartment, the very security he died trying to provide
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: became the trigger for his murder, pure financial gain.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: So the provocative thought for you listening, if that absolute love,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: that financial safety net were the very things that enabled
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: this horrific crime, what did that say? What's the real
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: price of fostering entitlement instead of teaching empathy.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you have to ask when you see this
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: level of cold calculation, this utter lack of remorse, the
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: judge calling Mohammed basically the devil on Earth. At what
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: point is age just a number. When someone regardless of
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: being fifteen or nineteen, chooses that path, plans it so meticulously,
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: the capacity for that darkness is clearly there, that pathological entitlement.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: Maybe that's the deepest tragedy of all