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The Serpent of Basyoun's Arsenic Murders · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I want to take you to a place where the
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: silence is really heavy. We're in the Egyptian Delta, a
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: small village in the Bezion center, right. It's the kind
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  Speaker 1: of place where everything is flat, green fields, dusty air.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Life is supposed to be simple, predictable. But there's this
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  Speaker 1: one house, a house that for a while became a tomb.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: It's an incredibly chilling case. You know, if you ask
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  Speaker 2: the neighbors, they wouldn't talk about a crime, they wouldn't
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: mention the police. They'd lower their voices and tell you
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  Speaker 2: the house was cursed. They really truly believed that the
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  Speaker 2: men who entered that house were marked for death.
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  Speaker 1: And that is what makes this stack of documents we're
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: looking at so fascinating. We're diving into police reports, confession transcripts, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: files that just completely dismantle a local legend.
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  Speaker 2: It's all about how a supernatural cover story, this idea
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  Speaker 2: of a gin, was used to hide something very human
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  Speaker 2: and very very cold. Conspiracy, a classic case of misdirection.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Everyone was looking for a demon, you know, from the underworld,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: while the real danger was sitting right there in the
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  Speaker 2: living room. This is the story of the Serpent of Beziune,
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  Speaker 2: a woman named Saba Badir.
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  Speaker 1: Let's set the scene with the characters, because it's a
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  Speaker 1: tight family unit. You have Saba the wife, her husband
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  Speaker 1: Gomaisia and they live with his elderly parents and his brothers. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it's a full house.
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  Speaker 2: And the trouble starts with Gom. He's the first domino.
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  Speaker 2: By all accounts in the case file. He was a healthy,
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  Speaker 2: strong young man, no history of.
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  Speaker 1: Illness, and then one night he just dies.
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  Speaker 2: Found in his bed, motionless.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, right there, that's a huge red flag. In a city,
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  Speaker 1: a healthy young man dies suddenly, you get an autopsy,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: the police are involved.
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  Speaker 2: But here, here the context is everything. It's a rural community.
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  Speaker 2: There's this desire to bury the deceased quickly, you know,
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  Speaker 2: for tradition. So they call the doctor from the local
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  Speaker 2: health units, a local doctor exactly, and you have to
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  Speaker 2: put yourself in his shoes. He walks into a house.
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  Speaker 2: Women are wailing, the widow is grieving. He examines the
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  Speaker 2: body and sees.
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  Speaker 1: Well, nothing snow, bruises.
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  Speaker 2: Nothing visible at all. It's what you call a clean death.
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  Speaker 2: So his brain just fills in the gaps. Maybe a
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  Speaker 2: heart attack, maybe a sudden stroke. He issues the burial
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  Speaker 2: permit for natural causes.
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  Speaker 1: And Gome is in the ground. The file is closed
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  Speaker 1: before it's even really.
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  Speaker 2: Opened, so Saba is a widow. But the story doesn't
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  Speaker 2: end there. The family gets together. They have to think
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  Speaker 2: about Goma's children, the property right, and they decide on
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: a very traditional solution, a lover it marriage. To keep
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  Speaker 2: the family line going. Saba should marry a Goma's younger brother.
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  Speaker 1: Soby it makes a certain kind of cultural sense. Sovie
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  Speaker 1: steps up. He's the good brother, taking on this huge responsibility.
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  Speaker 1: But the timeline here, this is where it gets really weird.
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  Speaker 1: We're talking three months later.
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  Speaker 2: Just twelve weeks into this new marriage, and the nightmare
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  Speaker 2: just repeats itself. Soby another healthy young man found dead
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  Speaker 2: in his bed, same house, same scenario, peaceful, no injuries,
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  Speaker 2: just gone.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, now the alarm bells have to be ringing. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: two brothers, same house, same way.
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  Speaker 2: You would think so. But the same doctor comes back
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  Speaker 2: and he's looking at the same evidence, which is to say,
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  Speaker 2: no evidence.
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  Speaker 1: Unbelievable.
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  Speaker 2: And because the first death was officially natural, it actually
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  Speaker 2: makes it easier to dismiss the second one. Oh, a
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  Speaker 2: tragic coincidence. Bad genetics. Another permit is issued.
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  Speaker 1: But the village, Yeah, the village isn't buying bad luck,
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  Speaker 1: not at all.
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  Speaker 2: And they're not buying heart attacks either. This is where
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  Speaker 2: the story shifts from biology to mythology. The GM exactly.
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  Speaker 2: The neighbors knew the family had been digging under the house.
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  Speaker 2: There's this widespread belief that ancient treasure is buried there.
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  Speaker 2: You know, illegal excavations happen.
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  Speaker 1: So the rumor becomes they disturbed, something woke something up.
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  Speaker 2: Precisely, The whisper network goes into overdrive. They say the
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  Speaker 2: family woke up a gin, a guardian spirit, and now
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  Speaker 2: it's killing the men of the house one by one.
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  Speaker 2: It's a powerful story because it explains the unexplainable, and it's.
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  Speaker 1: A perfect cover for Saba. I mean, who's going to
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  Speaker 1: suspect murder when everyone is terrified?
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  Speaker 2: It goes Oh, she played the part perfectly. At the funerals,
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  Speaker 2: witnesses said she was screaming, throwing dust on her head, fainting.
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  Speaker 2: It's a performance. By showing the most extreme grief, she
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  Speaker 2: makes herself look like the biggest victim.
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  Speaker 1: So the curse is set, but the killing doesn't stop.
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  Speaker 1: Six months after Soby, the mother in law dies.
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  Speaker 2: The matriarch, and of course when an elderly woman dies,
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  Speaker 2: it raises even fewer questions. The doctor asks the surviving son, Ramadan,
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  Speaker 2: if she was sick, and Ramadan says no, she was
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  Speaker 2: fine that morning, But the doctor just assumes, well, she's old.
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  Speaker 2: It's a fatal assumption.
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  Speaker 1: So now Goma, Soby and their mother are all gone,
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  Speaker 1: The house is emptying out. We're left with just Ramadan,
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  Speaker 1: the youngest brother, and his wife Nashua.
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  Speaker 2: Can you just imagine their state of mind. You're the
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  Speaker 2: last one's left. You're living in a house everyone says,
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  Speaker 2: is haunted by a killer spirit. You'd be terrified to
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  Speaker 2: even go to sleep.
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  Speaker 1: But the danger wasn't a spirit. It was Saba. And
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  Speaker 1: this is where we finally get to the real motive.
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  Speaker 2: Why it wasn't madness. It was much more calculated. It
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: was lust and greed. The investigation eventually revealed Saba was
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  Speaker 2: living a total double life, a lover a lover. She'd
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  Speaker 2: been seen for four years.
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  Speaker 1: Four years, so that means the affair started way back
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  Speaker 1: when her first husband, Goma was still alive.
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  Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, and she hid him in plain sight. She
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  Speaker 2: introduced this man to the entire family as her cousin,
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  Speaker 2: her cousin. It was brilliant in a sick way. A
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  Speaker 2: male cousin visiting a widow to check on her, totally
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  Speaker 2: socially acceptable. It gave him access to the house, and
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  Speaker 2: it gave them time to plot.
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  Speaker 1: So the plan was, yeah, kill everyone and inherit the property.
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  Speaker 2: Precisely, if all the heirs are dead, Saba, as the
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  Speaker 2: mother of the eldest son's children, controls the estate, the land,
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  Speaker 2: the money, everything. She just wipes the slate clean to
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  Speaker 2: start a new life with her lover.
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  Speaker 1: It's just so cold, but these things never stay secret forever.
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  Speaker 1: The facade starts to crack, and it's because of Nashua.
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  Speaker 2: Nashua Ramadan's wife. She was sharp, and one night she
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: sees something. She spots the cousins sneaking up to Saba's
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  Speaker 2: apartment late at night, and she knows that's not right.
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  Speaker 2: She puts two and two together. She realizes it's an affair,
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  Speaker 2: and the second Saba realizes that Nashua knows, everything changes.
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  Speaker 1: The game is up. They've been patient, spacing out the deaths,
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  Speaker 1: but now they're exposed.
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  Speaker 2: Desperation kicks in. Nashua has to be silenced, and she
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  Speaker 2: has to be silenced before she can talk to Ramadan.
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  Speaker 1: Which brings us to the day of the final murder.
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  Speaker 1: It's a regular day. Ramadan is out working in the
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  Speaker 1: fields nearby.
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  Speaker 2: Close enough to hear things but not to see.
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  Speaker 1: Right, and Nashua is home with her newborn baby and
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  Speaker 1: with Saba.
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  Speaker 2: It's quiet. And then suddenly Ramadan hears his son screaming.
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  Speaker 1: And not just crying. The reports say the baby was hysterical.
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  Speaker 2: It's that sound, that panic inducing sound that tells a
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  Speaker 2: parent something is terribly wrong. He drops everything and just runs.
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  Speaker 2: He gets to the house, follows the crying and finds
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  Speaker 2: Nashua on the floor.
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  Speaker 1: She's dead.
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  Speaker 2: She's dead. But this time it's not just like the others.
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  Speaker 2: This is different.
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  Speaker 1: Oh.
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  Speaker 2: So the doctor arrives, probably with his pen, ready to
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  Speaker 2: sign another permit, but he stops because this time the
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  Speaker 2: evidence is right there on the body. There are deep,
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  Speaker 2: angry red marks around her neck, ligature marks. You can't
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  Speaker 2: write natural causes for that. The illusion just it evaporates
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  Speaker 2: in an instant. Ghosts don't strangle women with head scarves.
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  Speaker 1: The doctor calls the police Finally, so forensics confirms it
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  Speaker 1: with strangulation.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, and with the police now involved, the whole house
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  Speaker 2: of cards collapses and the person who brings it all
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  Speaker 2: down is Saba's own daughter.
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  Speaker 1: That's just heartbreaking. A little girl watching all of this happen.
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  Speaker 2: She was the silent witness. Once she was separated from
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  Speaker 2: her mother, she finally broke down. She told him she
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  Speaker 2: was too scared to speak, She said her mother threatened her,
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  Speaker 2: said if you talk, I will kill you like I
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  Speaker 2: killed the others.
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  Speaker 1: Horrifying.
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  Speaker 2: But once she started talking, she told them everything. The
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  Speaker 2: cousin was the lover the plot, and she told them
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  Speaker 2: how the others really died. It wasn't a gin, It
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  Speaker 2: was arsenic.
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  Speaker 1: Arsenic. Wow, that feels like something out of an old
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  Speaker 1: detective novel. Why arsenic?
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  Speaker 2: It was the perfect weapon for the situation. Arsenic is odorless, colorless,
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  Speaker 2: and tasteless. You can stir it into a glass of tea,
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  Speaker 2: which they drink constantly there and the victim would never know.
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  Speaker 1: And the symptoms.
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  Speaker 2: The symptoms mimic a severe stumach illness, vomiting, diarrhea, cardiac arrest.
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  Speaker 2: To the local doctor, it just looked like a bad
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  Speaker 2: case of Gastoniritis, he'd never think to run a toxicology
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  Speaker 2: screen for heavy metals.
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  Speaker 1: So it was the perfect invisible weapon, which raises the question,
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  Speaker 1: why strangle Nashua? If the poison work three times, why
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  Speaker 1: change the methods?
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  Speaker 2: According to the daughter, they did try to poison Nashua first. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: Saba put it in her food. But for whatever reason,
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  Speaker 2: maybe the dose was wrong, maybe Nashua didn't eat enough,
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  Speaker 2: it wasn't working fast enough. Nashua was sick, but she
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  Speaker 2: wasn't dying.
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  Speaker 1: And Saba was running out of time.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly every minute Nashua was alive was a risk. So
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  Speaker 2: Saba panicked. She abandoned the subtle method and went for
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  Speaker 2: brute force. She strangled her with her own headscarf.
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  Speaker 1: That one act of desperation. That's what exposed the entire thing.
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  Speaker 2: It was the rage and it was the mistake that
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  Speaker 2: cost her everything. So the police now have this testimony.
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  Speaker 2: They order the bodies to be exhumed.
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  Speaker 1: They dig them up, Goma Soby and the mother.
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  Speaker 2: And this is the thing about arsenic It doesn't decay,
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  Speaker 2: It stays in the hair and nails. And the tests came.
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  Speaker 1: Back positive off the charts.
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  Speaker 2: Lethal concentrations in all three bodies, definitive proof.
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  Speaker 1: The conspiracy was even bigger than Saba and her lover,
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  Speaker 1: wasn't it.
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  Speaker 2: This was the final sickening twist. Saba's own mother was
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  Speaker 2: in on it.
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  Speaker 1: Her mother, the gradmother.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, she helped plan it. She advised Saba on what
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  Speaker 2: to do. It was a multi generational plot.
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  Speaker 1: I just can't wrap my head around that.
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  Speaker 2: And it gets worse. The daughter also revealed that they
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  Speaker 2: had killed before and at years earlier.
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  Speaker 1: The same way with arsenic, the.
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  Speaker 2: Same method, and it had gone completely undetected. They got
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  Speaker 2: away with it, and that probably made them think they
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: were invincible.
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  Speaker 1: So what happened court? The evidence is overwhelming.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: Well, the court differentiated the roles. The lover and Saba's
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  Speaker 2: mother were clearly accomplices, so they received prison sentences. But Saba,
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  Speaker 2: for Saba Bader the mastermind and the executioner, the court
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  Speaker 2: showed no mercy. She was sentenced to death by hanging.
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  Speaker 1: And Ramadan, the survivor, is left to pick up the
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  Speaker 1: pieces he is.
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  Speaker 2: He lost his brothers, his mother, his wife. All he
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: has left is his son in that same house.
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  Speaker 1: I can't even imagine the house is quiet again but
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  Speaker 1: the whole village knows the truth. Now, it wasn't a gin.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: It brings you back to that central idea, doesn't it.
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  Speaker 2: We invent these supernatural monsters because they're safe, kind of scary.
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  Speaker 2: But the reality that a wife, a mother, a grandmother
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  Speaker 2: could systematically poison her own family, that is a horror
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: that is so much harder to accept.
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  Speaker 1: It makes you wonder how many other natural deaths in
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  Speaker 1: quiet places like this are actually secrets buried in the ground.
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  Speaker 2: It's a disturbing thought if no one think thanks to look,
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: a poison like arsenic leaves no trace on the official record.
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  Speaker 1: A truly chilling note to end on a reminder that
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  Speaker 1: sometimes the truth isn't in a curse, but in the
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: person standing right next to you.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, thank you all.
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  Speaker 1: For listening to this unraveling of the serpent of Bezune.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Stay safe and we'll catch you in the next deep dive.