Latest / Crime Night / Afaf and the Forty-Two Stabs

Transcript

Afaf and the Forty-Two Stabs · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, picture this. It's evening June first, twenty twenty three,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Maderea district in Cairo. You've got that sort of low
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: hum from the street lights over these packed apartment buildings.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Then around nine thirty pm, the phone just explodes. Sharouk,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the daughter, picks.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Up, and the voice she hears is just sheer panic.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: It's her mother, Afaf, barely coherent, repeating this one awful thing.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Her father, a Nani. He's dead.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: So Sharuk just drops everything. Race is home. That sound
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: of her mother's hysteria is probably echoing in her head.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: She gets there and the building itself feels wrong. You know,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: there's this.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Energy exactly the apartment door why open. Neighbors are already
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: out in the hall whispering. Police are just starting to arrive,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: taking in this scene. I mean, it just screams.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Violence, and what they see inside initially seems to point
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: to one thing. A Nani early seventies. He's dead on
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: the bed. The bedroom is completely trashed, close everywhere, wardrobe
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: emptied out.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, everything tossed her in.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: You walk in and your immediate thought is this has
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: to be a robbery that went terribly to terribly wrong.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: That was definitely the obvious narrative, right, the one the
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: police probably started with. But then you have to look
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: at Anani himself. The victim tell us about him well.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: By all accounts, he was this really stable, quiet kind
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: of guy, a simple employee but well liked, known for
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: being kind. He'd managed despite you know, modest needs to
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: provide well for his four kids, three daughters, one son, and.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: The police looked into his background, conflicts, enemies.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: They did thoroughly in those first critical hours. They searched
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: for anything, debts, arguments, grudges, found absolutely nothing. His life
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: was just well good, unremarkably.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: So, which brings us to the person right there at
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: the scene, the main witness, afaf his wife married thirty
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: five years.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: She's the one who says she came home at nine
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: thirty pm, found the door open, found him, gave her
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: a statement, obviously distraught, saying they'd been robbed.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: But something didn't fit that robbery narrative. What was the
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: first clue for investigators that this wasn't what it seemed.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: It was simple, actually the front door. As soon as
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: the forensics team looked closely, that whole robbery idea just evaporated.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: How so there were zero signs of forced entry, no
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: broken lock, no splintered wood frame, no smashed windows, nothing.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Okay, so whoever did this didn't break in exactly?
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it meant and Nanni must have let them in.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: So when he knew, and that changes everything. Suddenly the
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: focus shifts inward to the family, to the people closest to.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Him, which circles right back to f F in that
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: thirty five year marriage. Because if it wasn't a stranger,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: you have to start digging into the history, right decades
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: of whatever was going on behind closed doors, you really do.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: You have to rewind because the foundation of their relationship, well,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: it was all little from the start.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: How so what was a Kaive like even before the marriage.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Well, reports say that even back then, when she married
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: a nannie at twenty six, she had this intense need
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: for control. She was described as very demanding. Apparently she
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: felt she was much more beautiful and it sort of
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: deserved better than an People found her company frankly exhausting.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: That Ananni married her anyway, this kind respectable man, he
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: chose her despite her temperament. Why did he think she'd change? It?
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Seems like that was the initial hope. He maybe thought
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: it was just stress or you know, a phase that
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: would pass once they settled down head kids. His priority
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: became stability for their children.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: So he tolerated it for thirty five years.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: He did. But here's the tragic part. All that tolerance,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: all that patience, it didn't lead to peace. It just
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: convinced Aphoft that he was fundamentally weak willed. She felt
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: completely secure, like he would never ever.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Stand up to her, never challenge her control.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Precisely, Yeah, there's a local saying say a third of three.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: It basically means to assert yourself, to have your say.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Afoff was convinced a Nanni would never do that, not
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: after thirty five years of silence, so.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: He basically guaranteed her nominance by never pushing back until something.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Shifted, until the very last reason for him to stay
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: silent was about to leave. Their youngest daughter, Shiruk got engaged,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: and an Nani saw that as his moment, his chance
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: for freedom.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: What did he do?
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: He told Aphoff straight out, He said, as soon as
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Sharuk is married, we're getting divorced. Even had a plan, Yeah,
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: he intended to use the same official the Mazoon who
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: handles marriages and divorces in Egypt for both events, Sharuk's
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: wedding and their divorce.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Wow, okay, using the mazoon that makes it sound very real,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: very concrete, not just an angry threat exactly.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: It showed he was serious and for ifaff this wasn't
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: just losing a husband she arguably didn't even respect that much.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: It was a public slap in the face, a total
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: rejection of her authority after dominating for thirty five years.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: How did she react? Initially?
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: At first, she probably thought he was bluffing, couldn't possibly
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: be serious after all this time. But then it sank in.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: He meant it, and that's when, well, something switched inside her.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: She didn't argue, she didn't fight back openly.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: No, what does she do?
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: She changed tactics completely. And this this where it gets
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: really disturbing. The planning starts.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: What kind of place.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: For two weeks, she became a different person, utterly calm,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: even like conciliatory. She started being sweet to a nani,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: acting like maybe they could work things.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Out seriously after he had just announced the divorce.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Seriously. It was pure manipulation. She fooled a nannie. She
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: even fooled Sheruk. They both started to think, Wow, maybe
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: she's finally changed, Maybe this divorce threat actually worked.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: So this sudden sweetness wasn't genuine remorse. It was a strategy.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: It was absolutely a strategy, that calm facade, that fake reconciliation.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: It was designed to make a Nanni drop his guard completely,
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: to make him trust her.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Again, so she could get the perfect opportunity.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Precisely, which brings us to June. First, the day itself,
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Sherike heads off to college mentioned she'll be late, probably
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: not back until ten pm. The house is quiet, Afof
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: has her.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Window, okay, walk us through it. What happened next?
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: A Nani comes home around five pm. He'd have been out,
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: maybe running errands, praying. Fof has a meal ready for.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Him, a seemingly normal gesture, especially given her recent change
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: in behavior.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Exactly, except hidden in that food was a massive dose
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: of sedatives, sleeping bills crushed up, and Annie trusting this
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: suddenly attentive wife. He ate the meal.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Oh no, he wouldn't have suspected a thing.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Not a thing. He starts feeling drowsy, naturally goes to
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: lie down on the bed, probably just feeling exhausted, falls
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: asleep on his back, completely vulnerable.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: And that's when she that's what she got the knife.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: And this is where that initial robbery theory just completely
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: falls apart, isn't it. The forensics tell a story that's personal,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: very personal.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: Incredibly personal. The autopsy report was well shocking. And Annie
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: hadn't just been stabbed once or twice.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: How many times he.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: Suffered forty two stabbed ones forty two all over his chest,
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: his abdomen, his neck.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: His sides, forty two. That's not robbery.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: That's rage, pure rage. Yeah, overkill. It's far far more
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: than needed to kill someone. It screams personal vengeance, not
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: a random theft gone wrong.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: And the autopsy up the drugging part too.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, They found high levels of sedatives still in
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: his digestive system. It proved the attack was premeditated. It
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: proved he was incapacitated before the assault began. This wasn't
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: a fight, He was helpless.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: So she carries out this incredibly violent act. Then what
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: the cover up phase begins?
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Yes, and she was chillingly methodical about it. First she
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: calmly cleans the knife, Then she meticulously washes every pot
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: pan played anything used for the meal to get rid
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: of any trace of.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: The sedatives, destroying the evidence of the premeditation.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Only after that does she stage the scene, ransacks
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: the bedroom, throws clothes around, takes a bit of money,
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: some gold items to make it look convincing, and then
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: leaves leaves the apartment briefly, probably just to establish an
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: alibi being out. Then she comes back and makes that
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: frantic call to Sharuk at nine to thirty pm, playing
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: the part of the horrified wife making the discovery.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: But the police weren't buying the stage scene anymore. They
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: had the number of wounds, the sedatives, what was the
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: final nail on the coffin.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: For her story, it came down to the timeline her alibi.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: The police checked security cameras.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: In the area ah CCTV always the CCTV YEP.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: Her story was she left the house earlier and came
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: back around nine thirty pm to find him, But the
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: cameras showed something different. They proved she did not leave
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: the house when she claimed.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: She did, meaning she was inside the apartment.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: She was inside the apartment during that critical window, at
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: the time when Annani was sedated and killed. Her alibi
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: was completely destroyed.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: So let's recap the evidence. They had no forced entry,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: a victim incapacitated by sedatives, an unbelievable number of stab
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: wounds pointing to personal rage, and a wife whose alibi
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: is proven false by video evidence.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Pretty much an airtight case. There was nowhere left for
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: her to go When they confronted her with all of it,
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: the sedatives, the CCTV, the lack of a break.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: In, she confessed and her motive. Was it really about
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: the small amount of gold or money she took.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: No, not at all. That was just part of the staging.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Her real motive. It was pure ego, pure rage of
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: being challenged, the sheer audacity in her mind of a
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: nanny daring to ask for a divorce after thirty five years,
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: daring to question her absolute control that was unbearable to her.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Give him, the cold blooded planning, and the sheer brutality.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: How did the court view her actions?
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Unsurprisingly, the court's assessment was incredibly harsh. They used terms
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: like egotism, wicked soul, corrupt ideas to describe her motivations,
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: and crucially, they pointed out that any claim she tried
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: to make about being abused or suffering herself, were completely
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: contradicted by all the evidence.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Including testimony from her own children.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: Yes, their children's testimony didn't support her claims either. The
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: court concluded she murdered him simply because her pride was
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: wounded and her dominance was finally after thirty five years
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: being threatened.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: It's just such a tragic, twisted irony, isn't it. He
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: spends thirty five years trying to keep the peace, probably
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: for the kids, and during this dynamic he finally sees
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: a path to freedom when he's in his seven.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he waited until they were all settled, and she.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Kills him not because he mistreated her, according to the
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: court in evidence, but because he finally decided to leave
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: a situation she herself had apparently made difficult but felt
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: only she had the right to control.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: And that really is the core lesson from this whole
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: awful story, isn't it. It ties back to how that
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: marriage functioned for decades. A Nony's strategy of tolerance hoping
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: for stability didn't fix anything. It actually seemed to empower Apaf,
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: making her believe she could do anything without consequence.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: His silence basically fed her control, it.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: Seems so, and the terrible result came from ignoring those
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: really clear destructive personality traits for so long, maybe hoping
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: they'd just fade away. They didn't.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: It's a chilling story, the psychological manipulation, the two weeks
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: of fake kindness leading up to that explosion of violence,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: the poison, then the forty two wounds. It's hard to
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: fathom it really is.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: And beneath the horror of the crime itself, there's this
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: stark warning. And Nannie's fate is a cautionary tale about
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: staying in deeply toxic relationships purely for the sake of stability.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: It forces you to ask, doesn't it What price do
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: we pay internally? What risks do we run when we
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: just tolerate the intolerable and we let someone believe they
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: have that kind of absolute, unchallenged power over our lives.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: For anani that decades long, acceptance became the deadliest decision
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: of all