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Her killer tore apart her Staten Island home - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: On the evening of August tenth, two thousand and five,
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Speaker 1: a man in New York City answered the phone at
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Speaker 1: the office where he worked. A woman's voice came across
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Speaker 1: the line, and she asked to speak with one of
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Speaker 1: the man's employees. And the man thought for a second,
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Speaker 1: and then he ultimately replied that actually, that employee had
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Speaker 1: not shown up for their shift that afternoon, and they
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Speaker 1: didn't know why, but they weren't here. And when he
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Speaker 1: said this, he heard a distinct shift in this woman's tone,
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Speaker 1: and she told him in a very trembling voice, that
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Speaker 1: she needed to hang up now and call nine one one.
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Speaker 1: But before we get into today's story, if you're a
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Speaker 1: Okay, let's get into today's story. In the early afternoon
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Speaker 1: of Wednesday, August tenth, two thousand and five, eighteen year
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Speaker 1: old Eliza Parsy sat in her bed and her home
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Speaker 1: in Staten Island, New York, flipping through a fashion magazine.
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Speaker 1: The house was quiet because Eliza's mother, Seema, was at work,
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Speaker 1: so Eliza had the whole house to herself, at least
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Speaker 1: for a little while, until she herself went to work.
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Speaker 1: Eliza had graduated high school just a few months ago,
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Speaker 1: and now she was working as a clerk at a
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Speaker 1: moving company to try to save up some money for
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Speaker 1: college and also to eventually move into Manhattan to pursue
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Speaker 1: her dream of working in the fashion industry.
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Speaker 2: However, Eliza did feel.
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Speaker 1: A bit guilty about moving away because it would mean
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Speaker 1: leaving her mom all alone in this big house, and
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Speaker 1: there wasn't really any their family nearby because both her
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Speaker 1: parents were from Israel. Seema had divorced Eliza's father about
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Speaker 1: a year and a half ago, and her father had
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Speaker 1: left New York.
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Speaker 2: And moved back to Israel.
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Speaker 1: Eliza also had two half brothers who were Seema's sons
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Speaker 1: from her first marriage, and one of them was back
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Speaker 1: in Israel as well, and the other Eliza's twenty seven
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Speaker 1: year old half brother, Revive, lived just a short drive
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Speaker 1: away in another part of the city, but Eliza and
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Speaker 1: Sema rarely saw him because he was married with a
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Speaker 1: new baby and lived with his in laws and so
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Speaker 1: he basically had a whole new family.
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Speaker 2: And also, Revive had been put in charge of.
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Speaker 1: The Parsi family's kosher cookie business, which was really struggling,
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Speaker 1: so he was really busy and always stressed about the company,
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Speaker 1: and he really just didn't make it out to Staten
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Speaker 1: Island very often. Eliza flipped through the last few pages
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Speaker 1: of her magazine and then noticed that it was time
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Speaker 1: to get ready for her two pm shift at work,
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Speaker 1: but first she wanted to check and see if she
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Speaker 1: had any new messages on her Internet dating profiles, so
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Speaker 1: she put her magazine down, went over to her desk
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Speaker 1: logged into her computer. So in two thousand and five,
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Speaker 1: internet dating was just starting to take off, and Eliza
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Speaker 1: had made profiles on a few different dating and meet
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Speaker 1: up websites just to see what would happen, and before
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Speaker 1: long she had found herself messaging and meeting up with
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Speaker 1: men from all around New York City. But she never
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Speaker 1: told her mother about this because she knew that her
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Speaker 1: mother would not approve of Eliza dating men who were
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Speaker 1: not from their same Orthodox Jewish faith. And Eliza knew
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Speaker 1: this for a fact because it's exactly what had happened
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Speaker 1: with her previous boyfriend. At the public high school that
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Speaker 1: she went to, Eliza had friends from all different backgrounds,
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Speaker 1: and she had started seriously dating a Muslim boy named Hassan,
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Speaker 1: but her family had really disapproved of their relationship entirely
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Speaker 1: because of his faith, and so eventually Eliza just couldn't
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Speaker 1: take the family pressure anymore and she'd broken up with him.
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Speaker 1: And so now Eliza was much more secretive about her
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Speaker 1: personal life. She would come up with these phony reasons
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Speaker 1: why she was going to other neighborhoods, but really it
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Speaker 1: was just so she could go on dates or hook
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Speaker 1: up with guys for fun without her mom knowing. And
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Speaker 1: also she had even begun secretly bringing some of them
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Speaker 1: to her house in Staten Island, but she was always
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Speaker 1: very careful to sneak them in through the back door
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Speaker 1: when her mom was at work so she wouldn't get caught.
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Speaker 1: Now Eliza logged into her account and she saw there
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Speaker 1: were a few messages from some guys, so she responded
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Speaker 1: to them, and then after that she headed into the
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Speaker 1: bathroom to take a shower before work. And a few
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Speaker 1: minutes later, when Eliza finished her shower and turned off
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Speaker 1: the water, she heard a noise coming from outside the bathroom.
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Speaker 1: Now she couldn't tell what it was. Earlier that afternoon,
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Speaker 1: she heard a landscaping crew working at the house next
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Speaker 1: door with some really loud leaf blowers, but this noise
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Speaker 1: was different. It was like a weird banging sound. So curious,
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Speaker 1: Eliza got out of the shower, wrapped a towel tightly
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Speaker 1: around herself, and opened the bathroom door to go see
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Speaker 1: what was going on. That night, around seven thirty pm,
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Speaker 1: Eliza's mother, Sema, arrived back at the house that.
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Speaker 2: She shared with Eliza.
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Speaker 1: She turned her key in the front lock and tried
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Speaker 1: to push the door open, but it would only open
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Speaker 1: a couple of inches because it felt like there was
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Speaker 1: something on the other side that was blocking it from
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Speaker 1: opening any further. Now, Seema had no idea what this
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Speaker 1: could be, and so she just began shoving against the door,
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Speaker 1: and eventually she pushed it open wide enough that she
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Speaker 1: could slip inside, and when she did, The first thing
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Speaker 1: she noticed was that the thing that had been blocking
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Speaker 1: the door was this heavy mirror. But before SEMA's mind
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Speaker 1: could really process how this mirror wound up here, she
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Speaker 1: turned on the lights and saw that her living room
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Speaker 1: was absolutely destroyed. Furniture was overturned, cabinets were flung open,
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Speaker 1: and papers were just strewn everywhere. Seema immediately felt her
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Speaker 1: heart start pounding because she realized that clearly somebody had
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Speaker 1: broken in and robbed the place. But then her second
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Speaker 1: thought was where is Eliza?
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Speaker 2: Where's my daughter?
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Speaker 1: Because Seema knew that Eliza had been home at least
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Speaker 1: part of the day, and what if this had happened
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Speaker 1: when Eliza was here all alone? And so Seema began
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Speaker 1: hauling out for her daughter, but there was no answer,
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Speaker 1: and so she followed the chaos upstairs and noticed that
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Speaker 1: the door to Eliza's room was closed. So she went
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Speaker 1: over to the door and put her hand on the
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Speaker 1: knob and tried to open it up, but it was locked,
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Speaker 1: and Seema knew.
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Speaker 2: That this was just not normal. Eliza never locked this door.
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Speaker 1: And so now you know, Seema's thinking, something has happened here,
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Speaker 1: something bad has happened here, And so sort of in
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Speaker 1: a panic, Sema just began banging on the door, screaming
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Speaker 1: her daughter's name, hoping she would answer, but it was silent,
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Speaker 1: and so after a couple of seconds, Sema pulled out
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Speaker 1: her phone and called the moving company where her daughter worked,
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Speaker 1: and her stomach dropped when Eliza's boss told her that
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Speaker 1: her daughter had not shown up to work that day,
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Speaker 1: and so with trembling hands, Seema got off that call
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Speaker 1: and dialed nine to one one. About an hour later,
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Speaker 1: Detective Michael Kenny of the New York City Police Department
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Speaker 1: drove slowly down a neighborhood street in Staten Island. Ahead
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Speaker 1: he could see his destination, a three story house with
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Speaker 1: yellow crime scene tape across the front yard, but it
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Speaker 1: was hard to get close because the street was now
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Speaker 1: swarming with neighbors and just random people who had come
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Speaker 1: out to see what was going on. So Kenny parked
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Speaker 1: a few houses down and then headed for the house
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Speaker 1: on foot, and when he got there, he was met
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Speaker 1: by two patrol officers and they told Kenny that they
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Speaker 1: had responded to a call about a robbery and then
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Speaker 1: had to break down a door of a locked bedroom,
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Speaker 1: where they ultimately found the dead body of eighteen year
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Speaker 1: old Eliza Parsy, who lived in the house with her mother, Sema.
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Speaker 1: The officers explained that when they had checked the rest
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Speaker 1: of the scene, they had noticed that the entire house
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Speaker 1: was basically torn apart, but they hadn't found any signs
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Speaker 1: of forced entry. The officers then directed Kenny's attention over
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Speaker 1: to Sema, who was standing nearby with a small group
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Speaker 1: of people, presumably family or neighbors. Kenny knew he would
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Speaker 1: have to talk to her, but first he needed to
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Speaker 1: get a better sense of just what was going on
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Speaker 1: inside of this house. So Kenny made his way in
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Speaker 1: the front door and surveyed the living room, where some
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Speaker 1: crime scene texts had already begun processing the scene. The
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Speaker 1: room had definitely been torn apart, but as Kenny looked closer,
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Speaker 1: he could see that a lot of valuable items were
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Speaker 1: sitting untouched and out in the open, like the TV
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Speaker 1: and the stereo, which was unusual for a burglary. Next,
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Speaker 1: Kenny walked up the stairs and into Eliza's room, where
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Speaker 1: more techs were collecting evidence, and the first thing he
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Speaker 1: noticed was that this room.
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Speaker 2: Also looked transact.
8:29
Speaker 1: There were clothes and pillows thrown everywhere, and the mattress
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Speaker 1: had been pulled off the bed frame and was leaning
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Speaker 1: up against the wall, and on the floor in the middle.
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Speaker 2: Of the room was Eliza's body.
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Speaker 1: She was lying on the ground and she was naked,
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Speaker 1: and there was a towel sort of bunched up underneath her.
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Speaker 1: Kenny asked one of the texts if this is exactly
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Speaker 1: how the body had been found, and the text said no.
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Speaker 1: When they first got to the scene, Eliza had actually
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Speaker 1: been underneath the mattress and also had a pillow over
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Speaker 1: her face, but they had to move both of those
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Speaker 1: things out of the way in order to actually examine
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Speaker 1: her body, which was why the mattress was now up
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Speaker 1: against the wall. Kenny knelt down over Eliza's body, but
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Speaker 1: he couldn't see any visible cause of death like a
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Speaker 1: bullet or knife, wounds or bruising, which could mean that
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Speaker 1: maybe she was suffocated. I mean, maybe the pillow that
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Speaker 1: was on her face that they had removed was what
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Speaker 1: was used to kill her. Kenny turned and asked the
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Speaker 1: tech if they had found any evidence of physical injury,
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Speaker 1: and the tech pointed to just a few tiny drops
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Speaker 1: of blood that were on the towel underneath Eliza. Now,
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Speaker 1: they were very small and they could have been old,
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Speaker 1: like maybe somebody had cut themselves shaving.
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Speaker 2: But all these details a naked.
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Speaker 1: Young woman, the mattress, the pillow, the blood that made
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Speaker 1: Kenny concerned that Eliza might have been a victim of
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Speaker 1: sexual assault before she was killed. So Kenny told the
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Speaker 1: tech to make sure that the blood from the towel,
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Speaker 1: as well as any other bodily fluids they could find,
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Speaker 1: were collected as evidence because they might belong to Eliza's killer.
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Speaker 1: A few minutes la later, Kenny emerged from the house
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Speaker 1: and began walking over to speak with Sema. And Seema
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Speaker 1: she was crying onto the shoulder of a young man,
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Speaker 1: and the minute this young man saw Kenny, he stepped
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Speaker 1: forward and started demanding to know why the police were
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Speaker 1: keeping them away from Eliza's body, and also why the
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Speaker 1: cops weren't out there arresting his sister's killer. So Kenny
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Speaker 1: just took a deep breath because this man was obviously
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Speaker 1: Eliza's brother and it was understandable why he was so upset.
10:27
Speaker 1: Kenny knew that a lot of times grief turned into
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Speaker 1: anger in these situations, so Kenny calmly explained that in
10:34
Speaker 1: order to find Eliza's killer, he first needed information, starting
10:39
Speaker 1: with where he and Sema had been that day, and
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Speaker 1: this got both Revive and Sema to calm down right away,
10:45
Speaker 1: because they seemed to realize that Kenny might actually be
10:48
Speaker 1: suspicious of them. So the man lowered his voice and
10:51
Speaker 1: he introduced himself as Revive, and then he and Sema
10:55
Speaker 1: began answering Kenny's questions. Sema said she'd been at work
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Speaker 1: all day and that there were plenty of co workers
11:00
Speaker 1: who could say as much, and Revieve explained that he
11:02
Speaker 1: too had been working all day, delivering bake goods all
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Speaker 1: around Long Island. Kenny made notes so we could double
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Speaker 1: check all their information later, and then he asked if
11:11
Speaker 1: either of them knew anybody who might have had a
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Speaker 1: reason to want to harm Eliza, and Kenny saw them
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Speaker 1: share a very knowing glance. Then Revive turned to Kenny
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Speaker 1: and said he should look into Eliza's ex boyfriend, Hassan,
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Speaker 1: who none of them liked or trusted, And as Kenny
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Speaker 1: started jotting these details down, Sima chimed in and added
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Speaker 1: that her daughter had told her about something really bizarre
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Speaker 1: that the san had done recently. Early one morning a
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Speaker 1: few weeks ago, Eliza had woken up to find Hassan
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Speaker 1: sitting at the end of her bed, just staring at
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Speaker 1: her like he'd been watching her sleep. And the whole
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Speaker 1: thing had absolutely terrified Eliza because she had no idea
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Speaker 1: how he'd even gotten into the house. She certainly hadn't
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Speaker 1: invited him over, and their house was always locked overnight.
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Speaker 1: And then before Detective Kenny could even ask a follow
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Speaker 1: up question, Revive the brother just suddenly started yelling.
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Speaker 2: Get out, get out, We don't want.
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Speaker 1: You here at somebody across the yard. And so Kenny
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Speaker 1: turned to see who Revive was yelling at, and he
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Speaker 1: saw this teenage boy standing there, looking completely shocked and scared.
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Speaker 1: And at this point Revive went from yelling at Hassan
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Speaker 1: to yelling at Kenny to arrest Hassan, because that was
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Speaker 1: the man who killed Eliza. Late in the night of
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Speaker 1: August tenth, two thousand and five, So, just a few
12:31
Speaker 1: hours after the body of eighteen year old Eliza Parcy
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Speaker 1: was found dead in her home in Staten Island, NYPD
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Speaker 1: Detective Michael Kenny sat inside of an interrogation room at
12:41
Speaker 1: his precinct. Across from him was Eliza's ex boyfriend Hassan,
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Speaker 1: who had been detained after he showed up at the
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Speaker 1: crime scene.
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Speaker 2: So far, Hassan had.
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Speaker 1: Been very cooperative and had shared a very detailed timeline
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Speaker 1: of his whereabouts that day. However, he did not have
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Speaker 1: a solid alibi for that afternoon and the early eve,
13:00
Speaker 1: which was likely when.
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Speaker 2: Eliza was killed.
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Speaker 1: Kenny had taken a DNA sample from Hassan, and he
13:05
Speaker 1: also had gotten samples from Eliza's mother and brother at
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Speaker 1: the scene to compare against the blood that had been
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Speaker 1: found on that towel and any other DNA that was
13:13
Speaker 1: found on Eliza's body, But in two thousand and five,
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Speaker 1: DNA and blood evidence took weeks to process, so Kenny
13:20
Speaker 1: was really hoping to just get Hassan to confess right now.
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Speaker 1: So once all his basic questions were out of the way,
13:26
Speaker 1: Kenny decided to test Hassan's truthfulness and he asked Assan
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Speaker 1: if he had ever snuck into Eliza's house. But Hassan
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Speaker 1: he didn't deny it. He immediately came clean and admitted
13:37
Speaker 1: to everything. He said that yes, he had previously snuck
13:40
Speaker 1: into her house and he did sit on Eliza's bed,
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Speaker 1: and he had waited there until she woke up. That
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Speaker 1: was all true, but Hassan insisted that he had not
13:48
Speaker 1: been trying.
13:48
Speaker 2: To scare Eliza.
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Speaker 1: He just desperately wanted to talk to her so they
13:52
Speaker 1: could hopefully get back together again. And Hassan had said
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Speaker 1: that when he did that, Eliza hadn't been scared, she
13:59
Speaker 1: was just kind of annoyed, and she had told him
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Speaker 1: that they were broken up for real, and.
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Speaker 2: After that he said he had left without incident.
14:06
Speaker 1: Kenny noticed that in Hassan's version of the story, the
14:09
Speaker 1: way that Eliza reacted to Hassan sitting on her bed,
14:12
Speaker 1: you know, just being kind of annoyed and exasperated about it,
14:16
Speaker 1: was very different than the way Eliza's mother, Sema, had
14:19
Speaker 1: described the same event. She had said that her daughter
14:22
Speaker 1: had basically been scared for her life. So he asked, Hassan,
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Speaker 1: why does Eliza's family dislike you so much? Why were
14:28
Speaker 1: they so quick to say you killed Eliza? And Hassan
14:32
Speaker 1: just kind of hung his head and said he didn't
14:34
Speaker 1: think it was about him personally, it was about religion.
14:37
Speaker 1: Hassan was Muslim, and the Parsis were Orthodox Jewish. As
14:41
Speaker 1: Kenny took this in, he wasn't sure which version of
14:44
Speaker 1: the story to believe. Were Hassan and Eliza.
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Speaker 2: Starcross lovers kept apart by.
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Speaker 1: Her family, or was Hassan an obsessive ex boyfriend who
14:53
Speaker 1: couldn't take no for an answer. But regardless, Kenny could
14:56
Speaker 1: not ignore the fact that Hassan had a strong motive
15:00
Speaker 1: and a history of sneaking into Eliza's house uninvited. But
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Speaker 1: Kenny still didn't have a confession from Hassan, nor did
15:06
Speaker 1: he have really any hard evidence at all that would
15:09
Speaker 1: allow him to even hold Hassan. So Ultimately, after the
15:12
Speaker 1: interview was over, he told Asan he was free to go.
15:15
Speaker 1: The next day, Thursday, August eleventh, Detective Kenny walked up
15:19
Speaker 1: to a Jewish Orthodox synagogue in Brooklyn, where Eliza's funeral
15:23
Speaker 1: was about to take place. The reason it was happening
15:25
Speaker 1: so quickly was because of the Jewish Orthodox custom that
15:29
Speaker 1: a body must be buried within twenty four hours of death,
15:32
Speaker 1: and because of that timeline, it meant that Eliza's autopsy
15:35
Speaker 1: had already been completed, and Kenny had just received the
15:38
Speaker 1: report from the medical examiner, which confirmed that Eliza had
15:42
Speaker 1: died from asphyxiation, likely from being smothered by that pillow.
15:46
Speaker 1: The medical examiner had also found DNA evidence that could
15:50
Speaker 1: be tested against those samples Kenny had collected from the suspects.
15:54
Speaker 1: There were some skin cells under Eliza's fingernails, as well
15:57
Speaker 1: as seamen that showed Eliza had sex before she died,
16:00
Speaker 1: probably within twenty four hours, and so this evidence made
16:03
Speaker 1: Kenny think that Eliza had been sexually assaulted and had
16:07
Speaker 1: fought back against the person assaulting her, which would explain
16:10
Speaker 1: the skin under her nails. But when Kenny called the
16:12
Speaker 1: medical examiner to voice this theory that he now thought
16:15
Speaker 1: was pretty likely, the medical examiner had actually disagreed because
16:20
Speaker 1: they didn't find any bruising or bleeding or anything else
16:23
Speaker 1: that indicated sexual violence, and so the autopsy actually concluded
16:28
Speaker 1: that the sex Eliza had before she was killed must
16:31
Speaker 1: have been consensual. But regardless, in Kenny's opinion, the facts
16:34
Speaker 1: of the case so far pointed towards a romantic partner
16:38
Speaker 1: being the killer, which obviously cleared Revive and Sema and
16:41
Speaker 1: any other family members, and it also did not seem
16:44
Speaker 1: to be some random burglar or home intruder, because Sema
16:48
Speaker 1: had confirmed that nothing in the house was missing. Now,
16:50
Speaker 1: a few of the neighbors had mentioned that there had
16:52
Speaker 1: been some landscapers who had been working at the house
16:54
Speaker 1: next door at the time of her death, and Kenny
16:57
Speaker 1: had managed to track down the crew and question them,
17:00
Speaker 1: but they had all insisted that they had never left
17:02
Speaker 1: the neighbor's yard and that they hadn't seen or heard anything,
17:05
Speaker 1: but just to be sure, Kenny had taken their DNA
17:07
Speaker 1: samples just in case.
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Speaker 2: Now.
17:09
Speaker 1: As Kenny made his way through the crowded sidewalk in
17:11
Speaker 1: front of the synagogue, he could see two distinct groups
17:14
Speaker 1: of people in attendance. There were members of the Orthodox
17:17
Speaker 1: community wearing their long skirts and prayer shawls, and also
17:21
Speaker 1: young people dressed in more modern clothes, who he assumed
17:24
Speaker 1: were Eliza's friends from school. Kenny walked up the front
17:27
Speaker 1: steps and entered the synagogue, and he noticed that the
17:30
Speaker 1: inside of the building was split in half by a
17:32
Speaker 1: wooden partition, almost like a wall, with men on one
17:36
Speaker 1: side and women on the other. So Kenny joined the
17:39
Speaker 1: men's side and stood in the back corner where he
17:41
Speaker 1: could just observe. Kenny noticed Eliza's brother Revive standing near
17:44
Speaker 1: the front near the casket, and he watched as other
17:47
Speaker 1: men walked up to.
17:48
Speaker 2: Pay him their respects.
17:49
Speaker 1: The atmosphere was solemn, understandably, and Kenny didn't pick up
17:53
Speaker 1: on any tension or animosity. It just sort of felt
17:56
Speaker 1: like a community coming together to kind of make sense
17:59
Speaker 1: of this tragedy. But then Kenny felt the energy in
18:01
Speaker 1: the room suddenly change, like a switch inflicked, and he
18:04
Speaker 1: could hear people start to whisper to each other very urgently,
18:07
Speaker 1: and everybody's heads turned to look back towards the entrance.
18:10
Speaker 1: Kenny turned his head and looked as well, and he
18:12
Speaker 1: saw this one person who was trying to push through
18:15
Speaker 1: the crowd and make their way up the aisle to
18:17
Speaker 1: the front where Eliza's casket was, and Kenny realized this
18:21
Speaker 1: person was Hassan. For some reason, he'd shown up again,
18:25
Speaker 1: despite the fact that Eliza's family clearly didn't want him around,
18:30
Speaker 1: and Kenny actually watched as Revive, who had seen Hassan
18:33
Speaker 1: Revive went straight to Hassan and literally stopped him and
18:36
Speaker 1: shoved him backwards and shouted at him to get out
18:40
Speaker 1: because they all knew he killed Eliza. Kenny sensing a
18:43
Speaker 1: physical fight was going to happen here, began pushing his
18:46
Speaker 1: way through the crowd to try to stop them and
18:48
Speaker 1: separate them, but fortunately before he reached them, other men
18:52
Speaker 1: separated Hassan and Revive, and then Hassan.
18:55
Speaker 2: Was escorted out of the building.
18:57
Speaker 1: About two weeks later, on August twenty fourth, thousand and five,
19:01
Speaker 1: Detective Kenny was in the office of the NYPD Computer
19:04
Speaker 1: Crime Unit, where the department's IT specialists had begun digging
19:07
Speaker 1: into Eliza's online life. After her funeral, Kenny had spoken
19:11
Speaker 1: to Eliza's school friends, who had told him that Eliza
19:14
Speaker 1: had been trying to move on from her relationship with
19:16
Speaker 1: the son, and that she had actually opened accounts on
19:19
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of dating sites that she used to
19:21
Speaker 1: meet guys or sometimes just hook up, and when Kenny
19:24
Speaker 1: had pressed them for more information, the friends had told
19:26
Speaker 1: him that none of those online men were from her
19:29
Speaker 1: tight knit Orthodox community, which was part of the appeal
19:32
Speaker 1: to Eliza, but it obviously was not something she wanted
19:36
Speaker 1: to share with her mother, so she'd kept it all
19:38
Speaker 1: a big secret from everybody except from her closest friends.
19:41
Speaker 1: Kenny had been able to actually get Eliza's computer with
19:44
Speaker 1: her mother's permission, and had brought some IT specialists on
19:47
Speaker 1: board who were able to dig into Eliza's email.
19:50
Speaker 2: And browser history.
19:51
Speaker 1: Now, Kenny watched as the IT specialists directed his attention
19:55
Speaker 1: to one of Eliza's dating site message threats. In this thread,
19:59
Speaker 1: Eliza and a man named Jonathan were making plans for
20:03
Speaker 1: when and where they were going to meet up to
20:05
Speaker 1: have sex. They had gone back and forth on a
20:07
Speaker 1: few different options until finally Eliza just said that he
20:11
Speaker 1: should just come over to her house when her mother
20:13
Speaker 1: was at work, and that she would leave the back
20:15
Speaker 1: door unlocked so he could sneak in without the neighbor's scene.
20:19
Speaker 1: Kenny saw that this particular hookup was planned for Tuesday,
20:23
Speaker 1: August ninth, two thousand and five, just one day before
20:27
Speaker 1: Eliza was killed. Now, naturally, this made Kenny and the
20:30
Speaker 1: rest of the investigators raise an eyebrow because this plan
20:34
Speaker 1: of Eliza and Jonathan's, you know, of having him enter
20:37
Speaker 1: secretly through the back door while Seema was at work,
20:41
Speaker 1: matched up exactly with what they had found at the
20:43
Speaker 1: crime scene in late August of two thousand and five,
20:52
Speaker 1: more than two weeks after the murder of Eliza Parsy,
20:55
Speaker 1: NYPD detective Michael Kenny was sitting at a kitchen table
20:58
Speaker 1: in an apartment in Brooklyn, New York, across from Jonathan Harris,
21:02
Speaker 1: the internet dating match who Eliza had secretly invited to
21:05
Speaker 1: her home the day before she was killed. When Kenny
21:08
Speaker 1: informed the young man that he was here investigating the
21:10
Speaker 1: murder of Eliza Parcy, he noticed that Jonathan didn't seem surprised,
21:16
Speaker 1: but Eliza's murder had been all over local news and
21:19
Speaker 1: a lot of stories were really exploiting her romantic past
21:22
Speaker 1: and her sex life, so he had probably already heard
21:25
Speaker 1: about what had happened. Kenny asked Jonathan if he had
21:27
Speaker 1: known Eliza, and Jonathan said yes. Then he detailed basically
21:32
Speaker 1: everything that had been planned.
21:34
Speaker 2: In that chat message.
21:35
Speaker 1: He said that he had gone to her house, he
21:37
Speaker 1: had snuck in through the back door that was unlocked,
21:40
Speaker 1: and they had had consensual sex. At least Jonathan swore
21:44
Speaker 1: it had been consensual. Jonathan insisted that after that he
21:47
Speaker 1: had not seen Eliza again and had never even gone
21:50
Speaker 1: back to Staten Island after that. He then gave Kenny
21:52
Speaker 1: a detailed timeline of where he had been on the
21:55
Speaker 1: day Eliza was killed, and overall, he was a lot
21:58
Speaker 1: more cooperative than Kenny had expected. He even provided a
22:02
Speaker 1: DNA sample without any objection, and so as Kenny left
22:05
Speaker 1: Jonathan's apartment, he was starting to feel a bit worried
22:08
Speaker 1: that this potential big break in the case might actually
22:11
Speaker 1: turn out to be a dead end. Weeks later, on
22:14
Speaker 1: September thirteenth, two thousand and five, Detective Kenny sat at
22:17
Speaker 1: his desk reviewing all the information he had gathered about
22:20
Speaker 1: Eliza Parsi's murder. He had checked Jonathan's phone records, also
22:24
Speaker 1: his transit card and his toll pass, but there was
22:27
Speaker 1: nothing that put him on Staten Island the day of
22:30
Speaker 1: Eliza's murder, and the computer crimes investigators had not turned
22:34
Speaker 1: up any other promising suspects from Eliza's online dating profiles.
22:38
Speaker 1: Detective Kenny had also continued digging into Hassan, but he
22:42
Speaker 1: didn't have enough evidence to either arrest him or clear him,
22:45
Speaker 1: and this was frustrating because Eliza's murder had stayed in
22:49
Speaker 1: the news and there was a lot of pressure to
22:51
Speaker 1: find the killer, especially from the Orthodox Jewish community, which
22:54
Speaker 1: was significant in New York.
22:57
Speaker 2: It was starting to.
22:57
Speaker 1: Look like the case had gone cold. Just then, Kenny's
23:01
Speaker 1: phone rang, and when he picked it up, it was
23:04
Speaker 1: the medical examiner who was calling with an update. The
23:07
Speaker 1: results of the DNA analysis were finally in and the
23:10
Speaker 1: semen sample did not match those skin cells that had
23:14
Speaker 1: been found under Eliza's fingernails. So this meant there was
23:17
Speaker 1: DNA from two different people at the crime scene. And
23:21
Speaker 1: when the medical examiner said who each of these samples
23:24
Speaker 1: belonged to, suddenly Detective Kenny knew who killed Eliza. Based
23:31
Speaker 1: on the entire investigation, DNA evidence, and the killer's eventual confession,
23:36
Speaker 1: here is a reconstruction of what police belief happened to
23:39
Speaker 1: Eliza Parsy On the afternoon of August tenth, two thousand
23:43
Speaker 1: and five, shortly before two pm, the killer approached the
23:51
Speaker 1: back door of the Parsi home, where they knew they
23:54
Speaker 1: wouldn't be seen by neighbors, and once they were there,
23:56
Speaker 1: they slowly.
23:57
Speaker 2: Opened up the door.
23:58
Speaker 1: Once they were inside, they walked all the way through
24:00
Speaker 1: the house right to the front door, just to check
24:02
Speaker 1: to make sure it.
24:03
Speaker 2: Was locked, which it was.
24:05
Speaker 1: And so after that they went and got a heavy
24:07
Speaker 1: mirror and they moved it and put it in front
24:09
Speaker 1: of the door to block it. The killer knew that
24:12
Speaker 1: both women who lived in this house, Sema and her
24:14
Speaker 1: daughter Eliza, worked during the day, and so the killer
24:17
Speaker 1: didn't expect them to come home, but just in case,
24:20
Speaker 1: they didn't want to take any chances, hence barricading the door.
24:24
Speaker 1: Once they were satisfied with the barricade, the killer got
24:26
Speaker 1: to work opening drawers and cabinets, looking in every place
24:29
Speaker 1: they could because they needed something very specific inside of
24:33
Speaker 1: this home that was very valuable, but they couldn't find
24:36
Speaker 1: it anywhere on the bottom floor, which made the killer
24:39
Speaker 1: think it must be in one of the bedrooms upstairs,
24:42
Speaker 1: so the killer climbed the stairs and went into the
24:45
Speaker 1: master bedroom, where they looked through the dresser and in
24:48
Speaker 1: the closet, but they still couldn't find what they were
24:50
Speaker 1: looking for, so the killer left the master bedroom and
24:53
Speaker 1: decided to search the other bedroom next. But when they
24:56
Speaker 1: opened the door to that bedroom, they were shocked to
24:59
Speaker 1: see a young woman coming out of the attached bathroom
25:02
Speaker 1: wrapped in a towel. And from this young woman's reaction
25:05
Speaker 1: on her face, the killer could tell that she knew
25:08
Speaker 1: what they the killer were up to, and this enraged
25:12
Speaker 1: the killer because they were sure this woman was going
25:16
Speaker 1: to tell someone what she saw and it would ruin
25:19
Speaker 1: the killer's plan. After a moment of just shocked silence
25:22
Speaker 1: between the two of them, the young woman opened her
25:25
Speaker 1: mouth like she was about to scream for help, and
25:28
Speaker 1: so the killer instinctively just tackled her to the ground
25:31
Speaker 1: and then grabbed a nearby pillow and pressed it down hard.
25:35
Speaker 2: Over her face.
25:36
Speaker 1: She scratched and she clawed, trying everything to break free,
25:39
Speaker 1: but the more she fought, the angrier and more emboldened
25:42
Speaker 1: the killer became, and the harder they pressed down, until
25:46
Speaker 1: eventually her body went limp.
25:48
Speaker 2: After that, the killer stood.
25:49
Speaker 1: Up and they looked down and they saw what they
25:52
Speaker 1: had done, and it caused them to start to panic,
25:55
Speaker 1: because they never meant to kill her, just to scare
25:58
Speaker 1: her and shut her up, but they had obvious gone
26:00
Speaker 1: too far, so, not knowing what to do, the killer
26:03
Speaker 1: just grabbed the pillow and put it over her face,
26:06
Speaker 1: and then also dragged the mattress and put it on
26:08
Speaker 1: top of her body, just so they wouldn't have to
26:10
Speaker 1: look at her. Then, instead of continuing their search for
26:14
Speaker 1: this thing that they wanted inside of this home, They
26:16
Speaker 1: just went downstairs and left out the back door, and
26:20
Speaker 1: they didn't return to the house for hours, not until
26:23
Speaker 1: they received a call from their mother. Because the killer
26:27
Speaker 1: was Eliza's half brother, Revieve. The DNA from the seamen
26:34
Speaker 1: that was found at the crime scene belonged to Jonathan,
26:37
Speaker 1: the man that Eliza had consensually had sex with twenty
26:40
Speaker 1: four hours before her death. The DNA that was found
26:43
Speaker 1: under Eliza's fingernails belonged to Revieve. It would turn out
26:47
Speaker 1: Eliza's death did not have anything to do with who
26:50
Speaker 1: she was sleeping with. Revive was angry at their mother
26:53
Speaker 1: because the family business that she had passed along to
26:55
Speaker 1: him didn't make as much money as he had thought
26:58
Speaker 1: it would, and so as a result, Revive was stuck
27:01
Speaker 1: working all these long hours and also raising his family
27:04
Speaker 1: and his in law's basement, which he found totally humiliating.
27:07
Speaker 1: And he knew that Seema had recently come into some
27:10
Speaker 1: money through the sale of a property in connection with
27:13
Speaker 1: her divorce, and Revieve felt like that money was rightfully
27:17
Speaker 1: his because he had a wife and a child to
27:19
Speaker 1: provide for, but Sema wouldn't give it to him. So
27:23
Speaker 1: instead of driving his typical delivery route on Long Island.
27:26
Speaker 1: That day, Revive went to his mother's house to literally
27:29
Speaker 1: look for the money so he could steal it, but
27:32
Speaker 1: Eliza's work schedule had recently changed and so he didn't
27:35
Speaker 1: realize Eliza's shift actually started later in the day, and
27:39
Speaker 1: so what was supposed to be a simple robbery turned deadly.
27:43
Speaker 1: Revive ultimately pled guilty to first degree manslaughter and was
27:47
Speaker 1: sentenced to eighteen years in prison. Hey everyone, just a reminder,
27:54
Speaker 1: I'm going on tour this year, which means if you go,
27:58
Speaker 1: you can experience never before stories from me, live and
28:02
Speaker 1: in person.
28:03
Speaker 2: We did this in twenty twenty four and people loved it.
28:05
Speaker 1: So get your tickets today at tour dot bollinstudios dot
28:08
Speaker 1: com right now before they sell out. That's tour dot
28:12
Speaker 1: ballinstudios dot com. I can't wait to see you all
28:14
Speaker 1: at the shows. Thank you so much for watching. Let
28:18
Speaker 1: me know what you thought of today's episode and the comments.
28:21
Speaker 1: And remember, we have a whole playlist of true crime
28:23
Speaker 1: episodes ready for you to binge right now, so click
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Speaker 1: here and give them a watch.
28:28
Speaker 2: All right, until next time, see ya,