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15 Years of Apathy: The Untold True Crime Story of a Family's Moral Collapse and a Child's Invisible Life · Crime Night

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  Speaker 1: We're diving deep into a true crime narrative today, pulling
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  Speaker 1: apart the really extraordinary details of a case that stretches
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  Speaker 1: across fifteen years, and it serves as just a devastating
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  Speaker 1: study in human apathy.
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  Speaker 2: It really does. When you look at the material, you
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  Speaker 2: realize this isn't just a story about a crime, it's
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  Speaker 2: about a family's complete moral erosion.
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  Speaker 1: Our journey actually starts near the end in Alexandria, back
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  Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen. Picture this sudden commotion, flashing lights, security
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  Speaker 1: forces descending on a well, what looked like a quiet home.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and they weren't there for something simple. They were
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  Speaker 2: there to arrest a woman named Mena and her father
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  Speaker 2: for something well, far more complex and cold.
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  Speaker 1: So this deep dive, it really forces us to ask
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  Speaker 1: a central, pretty devastating question. When a whole family just
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  Speaker 1: turns a blind eye, what's the ultimate cost.
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  Speaker 2: To get to that answer, you have to understand that
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  Speaker 2: the twenty fourteen arrest that was just the final act.
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  Speaker 2: The roots of this strategy they were planted much much earlier. Right,
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  Speaker 2: we need to rewind the clock fifteen years, go back
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  Speaker 2: to nineteen ninety nine. That's where the foundation of neglect
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  Speaker 2: really began the thing that made everything else possible.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, nineteen ninety nine, so men, it's just seven years old.
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  Speaker 1: Then she has a younger brother, their father. He's a
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  Speaker 1: truck driver, off and away on long trips, international routes.
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  Speaker 1: But he did provide money.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, financially supportive, that's the key phrase. The mother was
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  Speaker 2: a homemaker. But that year, the whole family structure just collapses.
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  Speaker 1: The marriagens and the fallout for the children was I
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  Speaker 1: mean immediate and kind of shocking.
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  Speaker 2: In its speed, astonishingly fast. The parents' divorce and the
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  Speaker 2: way they decided to just abandon their roles as well,
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  Speaker 2: it's something else. The mother, we learn she quickly left
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  Speaker 2: both children with the father. She just like that, almost instantly.
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  Speaker 2: She essentially washed her hands of any maternal responsibility, and.
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  Speaker 1: She didn't hang around. The material shows really clearly that
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  Speaker 1: just four months after the divorce was done, men, as
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  Speaker 1: mother remarried, moved to a completely new area.
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  Speaker 2: And cut off her relationship with her kids just gone.
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  Speaker 2: But the father, who was now technically the sole caretaker,
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  Speaker 2: he didn't exactly step up, did he. No.
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  Speaker 1: He was described as always having been sort of passive.
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  Speaker 1: He kept up his trucking job, using me, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the providing money excuse for being away all.
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  Speaker 2: The time exactly. He shuffled Mena and her brother between
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  Speaker 2: his sister and their grandmother. He paid the bills, sure,
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  Speaker 2: but he was completely checked out of their emotional lives,
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  Speaker 2: their well being.
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  Speaker 1: Wait a minute, isn't it? I mean, it feels rare
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  Speaker 1: for both parents to show that level of immediate collective detachment.
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  Speaker 1: This sounds less like neglect and more like a deliberate
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  Speaker 1: choice by both adults.
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  Speaker 2: That's the critical point here. Their collective focus seems to
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  Speaker 2: have been just self preservation convenience. They mistook financial support
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  Speaker 2: for actual parenting.
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  Speaker 1: And this environment it didn't just neglect Mena, did it.
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  Speaker 2: No. It essentially trained her, trained her to seek validation,
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  Speaker 2: stability from outside sources. It prepared the ground for the
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  Speaker 2: risky choices she'd make later.
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  Speaker 1: On, which brings us to around two thousand and nine.
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  Speaker 1: That desperation for connection. It peaks. Men Is seventeen, now
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  Speaker 1: searching for the love she never got at home, and
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  Speaker 1: she finds Mustafa.
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  Speaker 2: Right, Mustafa, a man who our sources confirm already had
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  Speaker 2: a criminal record, and they decide, look, we'll just look together,
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  Speaker 2: no marriage needed.
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  Speaker 1: They just saw it as unnecessary formality apparently.
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  Speaker 2: And look at the father's reaction to this. He knew
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  Speaker 2: about it, knew they were living together unmarried, but his
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  Speaker 2: only stated concern that Mostafa should take care of Mena.
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  Speaker 1: Take care of her. Not the legality, not the.
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  Speaker 2: Risk, none of it mattered as long as she wasn't
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  Speaker 2: his problem anymore.
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  Speaker 1: Essentially, so for two years, Mena and Mostafa live like this,
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  Speaker 1: and they have a daughter. Now this part is particularly jarring.
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  Speaker 1: Despite the whole situation being illicit, the father was reportedly
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  Speaker 1: overjoyed about the baby. They even celebrated the traditional asbua,
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  Speaker 1: that's the birth week celebration.
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  Speaker 2: They celebrated a life they had intentionally failed to legitimize
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  Speaker 2: from the art. And this is where the legal vulnerability
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  Speaker 2: of the child becomes just so.
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  Speaker 1: Critical, because the child had no official papers, no legal identity, none.
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  Speaker 2: And this wasn't some tragic oversight, you know, it was
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  Speaker 2: a known fact. The entire family allowed this child to
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  Speaker 2: exist completely unprotected by the system right from birth, legally invisible.
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  Speaker 1: Which makes her incredibly vulnerable later on.
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  Speaker 2: Precisely, and then just like that, the first adult male
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  Speaker 2: figure in this new setup disappears. Three months after the
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  Speaker 2: baby's born. Mustafa gets arrested aggravated robbery and assault prison.
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  Speaker 1: So men is left holding an undocumented baby totally.
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  Speaker 2: Alone, completely alone. Her original family mother and father still
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  Speaker 2: completely detached, no meaningful support. She's isolated, responsible for a
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  Speaker 2: child with no legal status.
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  Speaker 1: And that isolation, it seems, drove her straight back into
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  Speaker 1: looking for relationships for stability, maybe provision.
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  Speaker 2: It seems so. Over the next year, while Mustafa's locked up,
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  Speaker 2: she has multiple sort of transient relationships, and again the father,
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  Speaker 2: his reaction is staggering.
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  Speaker 1: Let me guess no objection, absolutely none.
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  Speaker 2: His standard was unbelievably low. Any man Mena was with
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  Speaker 2: was fine as long as they helped cover her expenses.
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  Speaker 1: It confirms the family's moral compass wasn't just broken. It
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  Speaker 1: was transactional, purely transactional.
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  Speaker 2: That's a good word for it. Then, about a year later,
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  Speaker 2: the daughter's now three years old, still undocumented, Menna meets Mohammed,
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  Speaker 2: a shop owner also with a criminal past, and.
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  Speaker 1: For Mena this felt like the real deal, a replacement
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  Speaker 1: for Mustapha.
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  Speaker 2: That's how she saw it, true love stability. So she
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  Speaker 2: moves into Mohammad's apartment again, no marriage, and the father. Incredibly,
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  Speaker 2: he congratulated her on finding new love. He saw it
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  Speaker 2: as Mena finally settling down, solving her problem, his problem,
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  Speaker 2: maybe exactly. Mohammad agreed the little girl could live with them,
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  Speaker 2: but he set one condition, no more to learn.
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  Speaker 1: And the father, the supposed protector, He just happily signed
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  Speaker 1: off on this, seeing it only is fixing her finances.
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  Speaker 1: It's just it's hard to reconcile that level of wilful blindness.
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  Speaker 2: And that new stable life. It crumbled almost instantly. The
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  Speaker 2: honeymoon period was catastrophically short.
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  Speaker 1: Mohammad became irritated by the child very quickly.
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  Speaker 2: He found her presence, her noise disruptive, especially during intimate moments.
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  Speaker 2: The sources show the abuse started almost right away, right
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  Speaker 2: in front of Mena.
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  Speaker 1: And Mena's reaction. This is deeply troubling.
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  Speaker 2: Her only priority became keeping Mohammed happy, maintaining that relationship.
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  Speaker 2: She seemed completely detached, almost indifferent to the physical evidence
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  Speaker 2: of the escalating torture.
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  Speaker 1: We're talking severe injuries.
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  Speaker 2: Here, right, severe fractures, arms and legs, extensive bruising, wounds
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  Speaker 2: all over the little girl's face and body, and Mena
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  Speaker 2: just watched it happen.
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  Speaker 1: With her own upbringing, that void left by her parents.
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  Speaker 2: It completely warped her priorities. Her desperate need for validation
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  Speaker 2: from Mohamma just obliterated any maternal instinct. The child became
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  Speaker 2: an obstacle to her happiness. She prioritized the abuser, and.
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  Speaker 1: That obstruction led to well, the unthinkable.
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  Speaker 2: Mohammed confessed he reached a breaking point. The child's crying
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  Speaker 2: became intolerable to him. He decided to murder the.
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  Speaker 1: Little girl, and Mena her reaction.
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  Speaker 2: Pure shocking compliance. The source material just says she was
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  Speaker 2: fine with the decision, fine.
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  Speaker 1: With it, okay. So they plotted. They planned to stage
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  Speaker 1: an accent.
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  Speaker 2: Mohammad suggested throwing the girl off the balcony, make it
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  Speaker 2: look like a tragic fall. He actually started to do it,
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  Speaker 2: placed the three year old on the clothesline over the railing.
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  Speaker 2: Oh my god, but he stopped. He had to pause.
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  Speaker 2: He noticed neighbors were watching.
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  Speaker 1: From below, so the scrutiny saved her temporarily temporarily.
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  Speaker 2: That awareness that someone might see made him abort the attempt.
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  Speaker 2: Right then he brought her back inside closed the balcony door.
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  Speaker 2: The murder was averted, but only for a few hours.
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  Speaker 1: Just three hours later, Mina and Mohammad left the apartment together.
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  Speaker 1: Menna was carrying her.
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  Speaker 2: Daughter motionless by this point lifeless.
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  Speaker 1: But then something shifts slightly, a deviation from the plan.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, a really critical moment, it suggests, maybe a flicker,
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  Speaker 2: a desperate, last second flicker of conscience. And Mena, after
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  Speaker 2: they separated on the street, she changed her route, didn't
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  Speaker 2: tell Mohammed where'd she go. She rushed to a nearby hospital.
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  Speaker 2: A friend worked there as a nurse. She went there
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  Speaker 2: clutching her daughter's body, maybe maybe holding onto some tiny fragment.
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  Speaker 1: Of hope, but the nurse.
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  Speaker 2: The nurse confirmed instantly the child was dead. But more damningly,
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  Speaker 2: she immediately recognized the signs, the extens of bruising, the wounds.
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  Speaker 2: This wasn't an accident, this was murder.
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  Speaker 1: And the nurse was going to call the police.
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  Speaker 2: Prepared to alert them. Yes, doing the right thing, and
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  Speaker 2: Mena panicked, terrified, terrified of the homicide charge, obviously, but
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  Speaker 2: also terrified of the legal mess around the child being undocumented.
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  Speaker 2: She grabbed the body and fled the hospital all the run,
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  Speaker 2: carrying the evidence, the ultimate evidence. And who does she
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  Speaker 2: call in that moment of pure panic, Her passive father,
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  Speaker 2: of course, and his response. It's just one of the
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  Speaker 2: most chilling parts of this whole thing. After Minna told
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  Speaker 2: him the child had been murdered, beaten to death by Mohammed,
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  Speaker 2: his advice was purely self serving. What did he say,
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  Speaker 2: get rid of the body, immediately, dump it anywhere, and
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  Speaker 2: don't come back to Mohammed's house. His first thought was
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  Speaker 2: keeping the problem away from his doorstep.
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  Speaker 1: Unbelievable. So Minna followed his instructions. She did.
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  Speaker 2: She went to a major microbus station in Alexandria, if
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  Speaker 2: you know those places there, chaotic, crowded public transport hubs,
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  Speaker 2: constant movement.
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  Speaker 1: And she boarded a microbus with the body, yes.
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  Speaker 2: Roade for just a short time, then slipped away unnoticed,
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  Speaker 2: leaving the body of her three year old child behind
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  Speaker 2: on the seat for a stranger to find.
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  Speaker 1: And that's how the authorities finally got involved.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly locals found the child alerted the police. When the
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  Speaker 2: forensic teams arrived, they knew instantly this wasn't an accident,
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  Speaker 2: wasn't just neglect. The severe signs of prolonged torture. It
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  Speaker 2: screamed homicide.
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  Speaker 1: But the investigation hit a snag.
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  Speaker 2: Initially, Yeah, it moved slowly at first. That microbus station area,
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  Speaker 2: it just lacked good surveillance cameras. Police initially thought maybe kidnapping, torture,
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  Speaker 2: then disposal.
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  Speaker 1: But the break came from the hospital incident.
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  Speaker 2: Right An alert connected the body found in the microbus
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  Speaker 2: to the woman who'd fled the hospital earlier with a beaten,
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  Speaker 2: deceased child. The police located the nurse.
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  Speaker 1: And she provided details about Mena.
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  Speaker 2: Key details that led them quickly to Mena's father's house,
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  Speaker 2: which brings us back to those twenty fourteen arrests we
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  Speaker 2: started with.
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  Speaker 1: And when arrested Mena and Mohammed, they lied.
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  Speaker 2: Both of them immediately started claiming the girl fell accidentally
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  Speaker 2: from the balcony, said they only panicked because she didn't
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  Speaker 2: have official papers.
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  Speaker 1: But the forensics, the.
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  Speaker 2: Forensic medical examiner's report completely destroyed that story. It stated
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  Speaker 2: conclusively severe prolonged torture injuries totally inconsistent with a fall.
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  Speaker 2: This confirmed it would murder.
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  Speaker 1: And then came the witnesses.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, police solidified the case. They found neighbors who had
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  Speaker 2: seen Mohammed putting the child on the clothesline during that
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  Speaker 2: earlier failed attempt, And crucially, they found other witnesses who
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  Speaker 2: saw Mena and Mohammad carrying the motionless child late that night,
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  Speaker 2: directly contradicting Mohammad's alibi that he was supposedly at a
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  Speaker 2: shop when the fall happened.
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  Speaker 1: And the final nail on the coffin.
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  Speaker 2: For their defense, the father's interrogation. Under pressure, he finally broke.
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  Speaker 2: He confirmed Menna had called him, admitted Mohammad beat her
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  Speaker 2: until she died, and he confessed he told her to
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  Speaker 2: dump the body, confirmed his role in covering up a murder.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, So their hopes of lesser charges like negligence.
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  Speaker 2: Gone completely gone. The forensics, the witnesses, the father's own confession.
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  Speaker 2: It ensured all three Mena, Mohammed, and the father were
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  Speaker 2: referred for prosecution for murder.
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  Speaker 1: The complexity here is just Yeah, it's deeply unsettling, isn't it. It
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  Speaker 1: shows this calculated series of choices over fifteen long years,
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  Speaker 1: not just some tragic accident.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, from that initial collective abandonment by the parents in
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  Speaker 2: ninety nine right through to the horrific disposal of the
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  Speaker 2: child in twenty fourteen. The facts lay out an indictment
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  Speaker 2: of an entire immediate family unit, a.
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  Speaker 1: Family that consistently prioritized its own convenience, its own self
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  Speaker 1: preservation above the life of this small, undocumented girl.
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  Speaker 2: And the case really reveals how that systemic indifference, that
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  Speaker 2: conscious decision to leave her without a legal identity, made
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  Speaker 2: her uniquely vulnerable. Her life in the eyes of those
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  Speaker 2: who should have loved her became disposable, and that.
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  Speaker 1: Lack of official status played right into their final cold
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  Speaker 1: decision to just abandon her body.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, when you look at the whole progression, like the
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  Speaker 2: cold divorce, celebrating the asbuo for a child, they wouldn't
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  Speaker 2: even register, the brutal torture, Muhammad's plan, Mena's compliance, and
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  Speaker 2: then that final chilling advice from the father.
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  Speaker 1: The only question left really looking back at this entire
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  Speaker 1: journey is the one they kind of defined the investigation
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  Speaker 1: from the start. Is this truly possible