Latest / Crime Night / The Butcher of Al-Basatin: Six Bodies, Best Friend Betrayal, and the 15-Year Lie That Ended in Cairo Mass Murder

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The Butcher of Al-Basatin: Six Bodies, Best Friend Betrayal, and the 15-Year Lie That Ended in Cairo Mass Murder · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the deep dive. Today, we're opening a file
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: on a case that just horrified Cairo back in two
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: thousand and one. It's known only by this chilling name,
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  Speaker 1: the Butcher of Albasotan.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and this deep dive it isn't really just about
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: one crime scene. It's more about the catastrophic collision of
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: two very carefully constructed secret lives exactly.
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  Speaker 1: It's the story of Ashrov and Saba, their individual lies,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: their deceptions. They kind of merged into this fragile, almost
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  Speaker 1: fifteen year illusion, an.
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  Speaker 2: Illusion that when it finally shattered, well, it resulted in
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: just a horrific mass murder.
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  Speaker 3: It's hard COMPREHENDI.
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  Speaker 1: So our mission today is to really get behind the headlines,
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  Speaker 1: unpack the deceptions, the flawed histories chronologically that led up
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  Speaker 1: to that terrible night.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Right, and we have to start where the police did
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: with the aftermath. Yeah, and they crowded Albasotan district of Cairo.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So set the scene summer two thousand and one.
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  Speaker 2: It wasn't a witness call that started it. It was
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  Speaker 2: a smell, a foul, kind of sickly sweet.
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  Speaker 3: Odor that neighbors reported.
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  Speaker 1: Coming from As for his apartment.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly coming from his place. So police had the fourth entry.
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  Speaker 1: And the scene inside. It wasn't a break and you
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  Speaker 1: said the door.
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  Speaker 2: Was locked, blocked from the outside. No, this was something else,
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  Speaker 2: entirely pure calculated horror. Right there in the entryway, the
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  Speaker 2: first body, a man bound hand and foot, clearly tortured, strangled,
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  Speaker 2: and then slaughtered, multiple deep stab wounds. And that was
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: just the start the start. Moving into the first room,
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  Speaker 2: there was the woman of the house, Saba, dead on
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  Speaker 2: the bed, also bound, also bound, slaughtered, covered in blood,
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  Speaker 2: and right next to her a little girl, maybe four
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  Speaker 2: years old, also slaughtered. Oh no, the count just kept going.
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  Speaker 2: Next room, an older girl tied up, found next to
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  Speaker 2: a barrel filled.
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  Speaker 1: With water, drowning.
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  Speaker 2: Then looks like it yeah, suggests drowning. And then the
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: final room, two small boys tied up placed on a bed,
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  Speaker 2: also drowned, same message, drowned. So that's six bodies in total.
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  Speaker 1: Entire family seemingly wiped out by an intruder. That must
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: have been the first thought.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, it screamed family massacre by an outsider. But like
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: you said, two things complicated it immediately. First, no forced.
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  Speaker 1: Entry, meaning the killer was likely known invited in maybe.
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  Speaker 2: Probably, And second this was crucial neighbors. I d'd the
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  Speaker 2: woman and the four kids, Saba and her children, but
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  Speaker 2: the man in the hall it wasn't as he was
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  Speaker 2: not Ashraft, the owner of the apartment, and Ashraft himself
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  Speaker 2: he was gone.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So a locked apartment, a whole family dead, plus
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: a mystery man and the husband missing.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly completely flipped the script. Please had to go backwards,
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: start digging into the foundations of Ashraff and Saba's marriage,
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  Speaker 2: and what they.
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  Speaker 1: Found were these parallel lives built on.
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  Speaker 2: Lies, completely on fraud. Yeah, let's look at Ashraft first.
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  Speaker 2: Grew up right there, Alba Sadden broken home.
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  Speaker 1: What does that mean in his case.
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  Speaker 2: Well, his father was frequently married, had lots of kids
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  Speaker 2: with different women, and then just abandon them. Ashrof didn't
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: even know where his half siblings were.
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  Speaker 1: So unstable from the start, very.
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  Speaker 2: Lived rough on the streets for a while, multiple arrests,
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  Speaker 2: time and juvenile detention for theft other stuff, and as
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  Speaker 2: an adult his record was well, it's extensive, thirty two cases.
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  Speaker 2: Apparently it ended with a five year prison sentence for
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: car theft.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Wow, thirty two Yeah, but.
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  Speaker 2: After he got out, he seemed to try, attempted to
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  Speaker 2: complete overhaul, trained as a carpenter, wanted to get married,
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  Speaker 2: settled down.
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  Speaker 1: Trying to build stability publicly, at least publicly.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, determined to erase that criminal passed or bury it
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  Speaker 2: maybe okay.
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  Speaker 1: And then there was Saba. Her real name was Sobia
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Tobia right.
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  Speaker 2: Her background also deeply fractured family. By the time she
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  Speaker 2: was fifteen, she lacked oversight and she started leading this
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  Speaker 2: highly secretive life.
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  Speaker 1: How secretive in a crowded neighborhood.
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  Speaker 2: That was her talent. She could maintain this pristine, respectable image,
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  Speaker 2: you know, while underneath a completely different reality.
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  Speaker 1: And she had this power over men.
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  Speaker 2: A unique ability, Yeah, to control them, convince each one.
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  Speaker 2: He was the first, the only one, and demanded absolute secrecy.
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  Speaker 1: That takes calculation, oh, absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: And her manipulation went deeper than just keeping secrets. There's
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  Speaker 2: this story from her early twenties.
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  Speaker 1: Go on.
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  Speaker 2: She's living with her older sister, Saba started an affair
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  Speaker 2: with her sister's son in law, Jihans's.
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  Speaker 1: Husband, No, with her niece's husband.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: When this sister Jihan found out, she demanded her daughter
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  Speaker 2: get a divorce obviously, but Saba didn't back down.
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  Speaker 1: What did she do?
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  Speaker 2: She threatened Jihan aggressively threatened to completely ruin her reputation
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  Speaker 2: if she said anything, forced her own sister in law
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  Speaker 2: to flee the area just out of fear.
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  Speaker 1: That's cold, weaponized manipulation.
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  Speaker 2: It tells you a lot about our character, doesn't it,
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  Speaker 2: That kind of ruthlessness.
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  Speaker 1: So you have these two people, Ashraff hiding this violent,
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  Speaker 1: criminal past, Saba hiding this profound capacity for infidelity and
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  Speaker 1: well emotional destruction.
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  Speaker 2: Birds of a feather, maybe both with deep secrets and
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  Speaker 2: neither knew the full truth about the other. When Ashraft
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: proposed it was his mother's suggestion, apparently, And.
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  Speaker 1: They got married, settled down in Ashrok's mother's house.
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  Speaker 2: And here's the really bizarre part. They stayed there for
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  Speaker 2: fourteen and a half years. Fourteen and a half years, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and according to sources, no known problems or conflicts. They
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  Speaker 2: raised their four kids, Heba, Mustapha, Sayid and Omar.
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  Speaker 1: How do you maintain that an illusion for that long?
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  Speaker 2: It must take an incredible toll. Maybe it wasn't love
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  Speaker 2: holding them together, but like a shared secret, a truce,
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  Speaker 2: you don't expose me.
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  Speaker 3: I won't expose you.
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  Speaker 1: But that truth eventually broke around too.
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  Speaker 3: Said the crack. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Ashraft's mother began noticing odd things, strange behavior from Saba.
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  Speaker 2: Uh oh Sama must have sensed it that the safety
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  Speaker 2: net was fraying, so she panicked, basically convinced Ashraft they
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  Speaker 2: had to move out.
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  Speaker 1: No, they did, found a new place.
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  Speaker 2: Found a new apartment, still in Albama, but away from
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  Speaker 2: his mother's eyes.
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  Speaker 1: And that's when things really fell apart instantly.
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  Speaker 2: The moment they moved, the problem started, specifically, these anonymous
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  Speaker 2: phone calls to the new landline. What kind of calls
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  Speaker 2: A woman's voice accusing Ashraff of cheating, having multiple affairs.
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  Speaker 1: It was he.
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  Speaker 2: He denied it, vehemently, spent six months just agonizing over it,
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  Speaker 2: trying desperately to convince Saba he was innocent, committed to
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  Speaker 2: the family. Remember, he was trying to be different.
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  Speaker 1: From his father, so he was genuinely trying to prove
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  Speaker 1: his fidelity to.
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  Speaker 2: A wife who might have been setting him up. He
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: grew suspicious though that old street sands maybe kicked in.
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  Speaker 1: What did he do?
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  Speaker 2: Bought a caller ID device, started tracking the numbers found.
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  Speaker 2: They all came from public phone booths, local grocery stores,
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  Speaker 2: all within Albasattan.
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  Speaker 1: So definitely someone local orchestrating it right.
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  Speaker 2: And this is where you see Saba's likely strategy. She
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  Speaker 2: keeps pushing for divorce, using these phantom cheating calls as justification.
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  Speaker 1: While providing cover for her own affairs, setting him up
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  Speaker 1: as the bad guy.
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  Speaker 3: Exactly.
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  Speaker 2: He was building a narrative and it started to leak
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  Speaker 2: out into the neighborhood. How so Ashraff noticed people looking
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  Speaker 2: at him, funny neighbors giving him the side eye, friends
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  Speaker 2: seventy avaiting him.
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  Speaker 1: He felt the shift humiliating. Did anyone tell him what
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  Speaker 1: was going on?
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  Speaker 3: Eventually?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, A close friend so when he really trusted, finally
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  Speaker 2: sat him down, warned him, said Saba was behaving inappropriately,
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  Speaker 2: ruining his reputation.
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  Speaker 1: How did Ashraff react? Did he believe it?
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  Speaker 2: He confronted her, but she just reformed, coolly denied everything,
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  Speaker 2: said people were jealous because she'd rejected their advances.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, turning it around on everyone else.
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  Speaker 2: Incredible psychological defense. Wasn't it twisting gossip to make herself
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  Speaker 2: look virtuous?
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  Speaker 1: And they had this pattern when they fought.
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  Speaker 3: Were really devastating. Pattern.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, whenever they argued, Saba would pack her bags go
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  Speaker 2: to her parents' house in ashroff Wood. He had sent
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  Speaker 2: his life long friend Al Husseini to mediate it. Was
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  Speaker 2: a carpenter too, a trusted friend. He'd go talk to her, bring.
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  Speaker 1: Her back the peacemaker.
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  Speaker 2: Except he wasn't just the peacemaker.
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  Speaker 1: Don't tell me.
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  Speaker 3: Al Hussanni was Saba's.
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  Speaker 1: Main lover, his best friend, the mediator, the very same
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  Speaker 1: she was leveraging their fights, using al Hussanni's role as
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  Speaker 1: the go between to continue the affair.
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  Speaker 2: It was apparently an open secret in the neighborhood.
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  Speaker 1: That explains the stairs, the friends avoiding him.
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  Speaker 3: They all knew everyone but Ushruff.
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  Speaker 2: It seems he was being humiliated publicly, and the source
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  Speaker 2: was the man he trusted most. This was likely why
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  Speaker 2: Saba wanted to move from his mother's house to fear
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  Speaker 2: of discovery.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so the final trigger what pushed him over the edge.
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  Speaker 2: It happened about a week before the murders. Saba was
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: at her parents again. Ashraf got a call morning time.
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  Speaker 3: Click.
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  Speaker 1: They hung up, but he had the caller ID now yeah.
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  Speaker 2: The number and tracking it down became this desperate search
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  Speaker 2: for the truth. He traced it to a local grocery store,
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  Speaker 2: then to a man at the store who confessed he
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  Speaker 2: got the number from another guy who was advertising it
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  Speaker 2: at Saba's number for paid encounter.
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  Speaker 1: Excuse me, advertised, Oh my god.
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  Speaker 2: Tracing that chain back it led him directly to the
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  Speaker 2: person everyone knew Saba was.
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  Speaker 3: Cheating with, al Husseini.
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  Speaker 2: Al Hussini, his best friend, his mediator, the architect of
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  Speaker 2: his public humiliation. The scale of it, all, the fifteen years,
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  Speaker 2: the gas lighting, using his friend.
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  Speaker 3: It just broke him.
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  Speaker 1: So what did he do?
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  Speaker 2: Then? He called Saba, told her to come home, pretended
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  Speaker 2: he wanted to reconcile, put it all behind.
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  Speaker 3: Them, trap completely.
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  Speaker 2: He spent that whole day with his family, silent, just
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  Speaker 2: watching them, staring at his children, consumed by the betrayal,
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  Speaker 2: questioning everything, even their paternity.
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  Speaker 1: And then night came.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: Night came, the kids went to sleep, and the teens
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  Speaker 2: the four hour horror began. He confronted Saba again about
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: al Husseini.
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  Speaker 1: Did she confess this time?
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  Speaker 2: She refused at first, so he tied her up hands
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  Speaker 2: and feet.
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  Speaker 3: Then he tortured her.
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  Speaker 2: With a knife until she finally broke, confessed everything, begged
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  Speaker 2: them to let her go, promise you'd disappear, cut off
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: al Husseini forever.
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  Speaker 3: But it was too late, far too late.
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  Speaker 2: He's the telephone wire, strangled her. Then he took the
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  Speaker 2: knife and slaughtered her. Jeez, and this part, it's chilling.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: He moved her body onto the bed, left the room,
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  Speaker 2: smoked a cigarette, made.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Himself coffee, made coffee while he decided, while.
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  Speaker 2: He decided the fate of his children. That pause, it's horrifying.
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  Speaker 2: He decided they had to die too.
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  Speaker 1: Why why the children?
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  Speaker 2: The reasoning is murky. Either because he doubted they were his,
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: or maybe he thought they couldn't survive once he was
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: caught and executed Forsava's murder.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Maybe both, so he went after them.
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  Speaker 2: Next, he started with the youngest, the four year old girl.
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  Speaker 3: She woke up.
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  Speaker 2: Apparently, he stabbed her repeatedly, then placed her body next
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: to Sava's.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: But he changed his method after that.
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  Speaker 2: He said, the look on her face, the agony, it
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: made him change his approach For the other three. He
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: tied up the three boys, told him they were being
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: punished cruel beyond words. Then he drowned them one by
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: one in that large water barrel in the bathroom, then
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  Speaker 2: put their bodies back on their beds.
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  Speaker 1: And the older girl, she was apparently too.
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  Speaker 2: Big to move easily, so he brought the water barrel
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  Speaker 2: into her room, tied her up and drowned her right.
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  Speaker 1: There, a methodical slaughter.
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  Speaker 3: Chillingly so.
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  Speaker 2: And after finishing with his family, there was one last
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  Speaker 2: act vengeance, Oh Husseini, Oh Husseini. He went out to
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: a local butcher, bought a large knife.
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  Speaker 3: Then he called his friend.
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  Speaker 1: What did he say?
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: Said he needed him urgently, Mmm, like he had countless
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: times before.
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  Speaker 1: And now Husseini came oblivious.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Completely oblivious, walked right into the apartment Ashraff invited into
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  Speaker 2: the living room, said he make tea, but came back
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: with the knife, came back with the butcher knife, stabbed
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: el Husseini tied him up and then didn't kill him
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  Speaker 2: right away.
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  Speaker 1: What do you mean?
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  Speaker 2: He spent two hours lecturing him, talking about the betrayal,
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: the friendship, everything, well all TCN. He bled out in
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  Speaker 2: the hallway.
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  Speaker 1: Torturing him psychologically and physically.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: Before finally slaughtering him too. It wasn't impulsive rage by
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: that point. It was drawn out calculated execution, and after
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: all that, he changed his clothes, locked the apartment from
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: the outside and fled.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: How long was he gone?
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: For two days?
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Then he saw the newspapers Alba Satten massacre, screened the headlines,
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: he realized it was huge.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Public so he turned himself in, walked.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: Into a police station and surrendered.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: And the investigation did it confirm Saba's affairs?
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: It did, yeah, confirmed multiple illicit relationships, the depth of
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: her infidelity. But there was a crucial counterpoint about as
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: about Ashraff. The police investigation also confirmed he was heavily
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: addicted to drugs and that he hadn't truly left his
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: underlying criminal tendencies behind.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: So the marriage wasn't just built on her life.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: No, it was built on his suppressed violence and criminality too.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: Mutual deception right to the core.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: But whatever betrayal he suffered killing the children.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: It's utterly indefensible. There's no justification. In two thousand and one,
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: Ashraf was tried, convicted, and sentenced to execution for the
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: mass murder.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: It's just a horrifying case study, isn't it. Two deeply
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: damaged people maintaining this lie, This deceptive peace for so long.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: And the moment that deception was really challenged, the whole
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: thing didn't just collapse, It exploded, triggering not just rage,
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: but this chillingly methodical destruction.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Which leaves us and you listening with a really difficult,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: provocative question. I think they had almost fifteen years of peace.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: What finally broke it? Was it Saba's fear of Ashraf's
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: mother finding out? Or was it ashraft finally discovering the
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: identity of the lover his best friend.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: And maybe even more disturbing, when he killed the children.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: Was it truly about vengeance, doubting their paternity, or was he,
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: in that moment, just desperately trying to erase every last
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: piece of living evidence from their corrupted, failed, deceitful life together.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Something to think about.