Latest / Crime Night / The Corpse That Spoke: How Dentures and Hair Dye Solved a Post-Revolution Egypt Murder

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The Corpse That Spoke: How Dentures and Hair Dye Solved a Post-Revolution Egypt Murder · Crime Night

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the deep dive. Today, we're opening a case
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  Speaker 1: file from a century ago, a story where pioneering forensics
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  Speaker 1: met the chaos of post revolutionary Egypt. So let's set
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  Speaker 1: the scene. It's Egypt, the early nineteen twenties. The air
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  Speaker 1: is thick, not just with heat, but with tension. After
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  Speaker 1: the nineteen nineteen revolution. Security is well, let's see, it's fractured.
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  Speaker 1: Crime is rampant, especially in the countryside. Grave robbing bodies
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  Speaker 1: dumped far from prying eyes. Imagine a farmer out in
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  Speaker 1: his fields, near a village, probably miles from anywhere important.
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  Speaker 1: He's digging near a water drainage ditch, the soil heavy
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  Speaker 1: and damp. His tool hits something, but it's not a rock.
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  Speaker 1: It's got this dull, sickening thud. He digs more. Its bone,
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  Speaker 1: human bone.
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  Speaker 2: Right, And when the police get called out to something
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  Speaker 2: like this, especially back then, they're up against it. First,
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  Speaker 2: the environment itself is working against them, that Egyptian heat,
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  Speaker 2: the humidity, it just accelerates decomposition at an incredible rate.
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  Speaker 2: And second, frankly, the expectation was low. Unidentified remains often
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  Speaker 2: just got filed away against an unknown pertrader.
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  Speaker 1: Case closed no justice, but this one felt different from
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  Speaker 1: the start.
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  Speaker 2: Immediately, as they carefully excavated the rest of the skeleton,
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  Speaker 2: they found something completely jarring lying there with the bones,
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  Speaker 2: an expensive heavy winter coat a boalto.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, Okay, that's not standard farmer attire.
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  Speaker 2: Is it? Not even close? Locals wore as simple cotton
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  Speaker 2: gale bay as. This coat screams money status.
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  Speaker 1: So instantly the victim profile shifts. This isn't likely a
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  Speaker 1: local villager exactly.
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  Speaker 2: It suggests someone from a higher social class, probably land owning, wealthy.
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  Speaker 2: It narrows things down, but also deepens the mystery. Who
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  Speaker 2: was he and why end up here?
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  Speaker 1: And this is where our forensic pioneer enters the picture.
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  Speaker 1: The remains, coat and all were sent to doctor Sidney Smith.
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  Speaker 1: His task was huge, wasn't it. Take this collection of
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  Speaker 1: fragments baked by the sun, soaked in the earth.
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  Speaker 2: Uh huh, and turn into a person, reconstruct a life,
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  Speaker 2: figure out the death, build a map of the crime
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  Speaker 2: from almost nothing. Smith was incredibly methodical. He starts with
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  Speaker 2: the skull, the absolute found first things first, confirm human
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  Speaker 2: then ethnicity. He took precise measurements skull length, with the
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  Speaker 2: shape of the jaw.
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  Speaker 1: Trying to determine if the victim was Egyptian or perhaps European.
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  Speaker 2: Correct, the measurements pointed clearly Egyptian male.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, what about age?
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  Speaker 2: He looked at the skull sutures, those lines where the
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  Speaker 2: bones fuse as you age, and the condition, the rigidity
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  Speaker 2: of the main bones they were covered. His conclusion this
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  Speaker 2: was an older man, definitely over sixty.
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  Speaker 1: An elderly, wealthy Egyptian man. That's already quite specific for
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  Speaker 1: nineteen twenty from just bones. But the next details are
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  Speaker 1: where Smith's work becomes well, almost unbelievable for the time.
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  Speaker 3: Let's talk teeth, or rather the lack of them.
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  Speaker 2: That was the real giveaway. The upper jaw completely toothless,
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  Speaker 2: smooth bone. The lower jaw had almost no teeth either,
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  Speaker 2: just three molars way in the back, and those showed heavywear,
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  Speaker 2: lots of abrasion.
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  Speaker 1: Wait a minute, so Smith looked at that and deduced
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  Speaker 1: dentures false teeth.
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  Speaker 2: Precisely, he reasoned the and someone missing all their upper
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  Speaker 2: teeth and most of their lower ones, especially someone with
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  Speaker 2: the means suggested by the coat, would almost certainly have
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  Speaker 2: worn dentures.
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  Speaker 1: Which back then were a luxury item right, not like today.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely another indicator of affluence. Someone who cared about their
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  Speaker 2: appearance had the money for that kind of dental work.
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  Speaker 2: It reinforced the wealthy victim profile.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, that's one stunning deduction. What was the other clue
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  Speaker 1: from the skull? Something about hair?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, tiny fragments of dark hair were still clinging to
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  Speaker 2: the scalp area. Smith didn't just look at them. He
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  Speaker 2: performed a chemical analysis.
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  Speaker 1: Chemical analysis on hair in nineteen twenty. That sounds cutting edge.
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  Speaker 2: It absolutely was. The analysis concerned it wasn't natural henner
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  Speaker 2: which many people used. It was a synthetic chemical black hair.
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  Speaker 1: Dye, another vanity product, Another sign this man wasn't a
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  Speaker 1: simple peasant exactly.
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  Speaker 2: It just kept building the picture. Elderly, wealthy Egyptian man
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  Speaker 2: war Genters chemically dyed his hair.
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  Speaker 1: Black Smith was painting a portrait. Did he get a
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  Speaker 1: sense of the man's physical stature be on just elderly?
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  Speaker 2: Oh? Yes. He painstakingly reassembled the major limbones they had,
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  Speaker 2: of the long boatbones, parts of the spine. From these,
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  Speaker 2: he calculated the victim's height approximately one hundred and eighty.
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  Speaker 1: Centimeters that's nearly six feet tall.
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  Speaker 2: Which was remarkably tall for an Egyptian man of that era,
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  Speaker 2: so not a frail old man, but physically quite imposing.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, this next part is what truly blows my mind.
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  Speaker 1: Smith somehow figured out what the victim was doing right
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  Speaker 1: before he was killed. How on earth did he manage that?
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  Speaker 2: This is where you see his genius for observation. He
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  Speaker 2: examined the shin bones, the tibia. He found subtle traces
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  Speaker 2: of swelling, specific wear patterns on the bone itself.
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  Speaker 1: And what did those patterns suggest?
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  Speaker 2: They indicated the victim was sitting cross legged, that traditional
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  Speaker 2: resting posture you see everywhere in rural Egypt, maybe relaxing
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  Speaker 2: or talking.
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  Speaker 1: So he was likely seated, perhaps unsuspecting at the very
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  Speaker 1: moment of the attack.
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  Speaker 2: That's the strong implication. It paints a picture of vulnerability,
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  Speaker 2: of being caught completely off guard.
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  Speaker 1: Incredible. What about time of death? How long had the
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  Speaker 1: body been in that ditch?
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  Speaker 2: Based on the decomposition rate, factoring in the very moist soil,
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  Speaker 2: which actually slows things down a bit compared to dry heat,
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  Speaker 2: Smith estimated the man had been dead and buried for.
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  Speaker 1: About six months, so six months prior A tall, wealthy
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  Speaker 1: elderly Egyptian man with dentures and dyed hair was sitting
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  Speaker 1: cross legged near this ditch when he was killed. The
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  Speaker 1: picture is becoming incredibly sharp now. The cause of death
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  Speaker 1: was it? Definitely murder?
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  Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely? The evidence was undeniable. Once Smith examined the
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  Speaker 2: bones closely, there were clear cut marks.
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  Speaker 1: Cut marks suggesting dismemberment.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, likely made with a heavy knife, maybe even a cleaver.
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  Speaker 2: Probably happened after death, judging by the nature.
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  Speaker 1: Of the cuts grim But what actually killed him.
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  Speaker 2: The definitive proof was a tiny horseshoe shaped bone called
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  Speaker 2: the hyoid, located deep in the neck under the tongue.
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  Speaker 2: Smith found it was fractured, and that means in forensics,
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  Speaker 2: a fractured hyoid is the classic signature of manual strangulation.
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  Speaker 2: Someone squeezed the life out of it with their bare hands.
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  Speaker 1: So the final report for the police was unbelievably detailed
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  Speaker 1: for the time.
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  Speaker 2: It was. Victim, tall Egyptian male over sixty war denshers,
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  Speaker 2: dyed his hair black. Cause of death, manual strangulation, post
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  Speaker 2: mortem dismemberment, time of death approximately six months ago. Circumstances
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  Speaker 2: likely seated cross legged, buried immediately in moist soil.
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  Speaker 1: Armed with that incredibly specific profile, the police weren't just
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  Speaker 1: fishing anymore, were they.
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  Speaker 2: No, they had a very clear target. They started looking
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  Speaker 2: through missing persons reports from about six months back. They
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  Speaker 2: needed someone who fit all those criteria. Wealthy, elderly male vanished.
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  Speaker 1: Around that time, and they found a match.
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  Speaker 2: They did a report filed by a prominent land owning family.
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  Speaker 2: One of their senior members, the one who managed all
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  Speaker 2: their finances and assets, had disappeared mysteriously six months prior,
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  Speaker 2: with no body and no leads. The case had just
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  Speaker 2: been shelved, classified as a like disappearance, suspect unknown until now.
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  Speaker 3: This profile matched perfectly, too perfectly to be a coincidence,
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  Speaker 3: So the police obtained a warrant to search the missing
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  Speaker 3: man's home discreetly before approaching the family. What did they
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  Speaker 3: find the final pieces inside the man's house, They discovered
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  Speaker 3: this specific set of dentures doctor Smith had predicted, and crucially,
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  Speaker 3: a bottle of the exact type of chemical hair dye
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  Speaker 3: mentioned in the report.
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  Speaker 1: Case clothes on identity. That's incredible confirmation.
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  Speaker 2: Beyond any doubt. They knew who the victim was. Now
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  Speaker 2: they needed to figure out who killed them?
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  Speaker 1: The focus naturally shifts to the immediate family, right the wife, daughter,
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  Speaker 1: son exactly.
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  Speaker 2: On the surface, they seemed respectable, concerned, but the police
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  Speaker 2: pick up on a weird vibe in the village. Neighbors
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  Speaker 2: were reluctant to talk.
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  Speaker 1: Fear or maybe they'd been told to keep quiet.
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  Speaker 2: That was the suspicion, coercion or genuine fear. When questioned,
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  Speaker 2: the family seemed to have a story, but there were inconsistencies.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, what did they say?
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  Speaker 2: Claimed her husband had just left one day, said they've
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  Speaker 2: been having marital problems, issues related to his health, maybe
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  Speaker 2: feeling neglected. She suggested he'd probably gone traveling, maybe even
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  Speaker 2: remarried somewhere else.
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  Speaker 1: And the daughter did her story match Mostly.
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  Speaker 2: She confirmed the he left suddenly part, but her reason
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  Speaker 2: was different. She said he left to get away from arguments.
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  Speaker 2: Arguments with our mother, yes, but also increasingly bitter fights
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  Speaker 2: with her brother about what money control of the family assets.
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  Speaker 2: The daughter painted a picture of serious financial conflict, especially
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  Speaker 2: between father and son.
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  Speaker 1: So the wife points to health and marriage. The daughter
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  Speaker 1: points to money and conflict. With the sun. That puts
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  Speaker 1: the sun under a spotlight, doesn't it, Especially since.
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  Speaker 2: He was apparently known in the area for being let's say,
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  Speaker 2: less than responsible, maybe a bit ratic, and the core
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  Speaker 2: issue identified by the daughter wanting money, specifically the inheritance,
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  Speaker 2: gives him a clear motive.
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  Speaker 1: Greed inheritance before the father died.
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  Speaker 2: Naturally, that seemed to be the driving force. And then
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  Speaker 2: the police uncovered the crucial piece of the puzzle regarding
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  Speaker 2: the cover story.
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  Speaker 1: What was that.
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  Speaker 2: They traced back the origin of the rumor that the
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  Speaker 2: father had traveled and remarried, the story the wife and
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  Speaker 2: daughter believed and had told others. It came entirely from
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  Speaker 2: the Sun. He had deliberately planted that story right after
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  Speaker 2: his father disappeared. He convinced his own mother and sister
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  Speaker 2: it was true.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, that's cold, manufacturing the entire narrative extremely calculated.
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  Speaker 2: So the police confront the Sun. They lay out doctor
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  Speaker 2: Smith's forensic findings, the strangulation, the dismemberment, the timeline, the dentures,
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  Speaker 2: the hair ed eye. They point out the conflicting family stories,
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  Speaker 2: and they revealed that they know he started the travel.
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  Speaker 1: Roomor the pressure must have been immense. Did he break?
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  Speaker 2: He did? Faced with the irrefutable science and the exposure
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  Speaker 2: of his deception, he confessed to everything.
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  Speaker 1: What was the full story?
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  Speaker 2: He admitted planning it. He'd even gone out to the
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  Speaker 2: fields days before and pre dug the grave in that
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  Speaker 2: secluded spot near the ditch. On the day itself, he
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  Speaker 2: picked a fight, a minor argument. Just as an excuse,
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  Speaker 2: he suggested they take a walk out into the fields
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  Speaker 2: to cool.
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  Speaker 1: Off, a walk casual enough that the father wouldn't bother
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  Speaker 1: putting his dentures.
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  Speaker 2: In exactly, he led his father out towards the predug grave.
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  Speaker 2: Once there, he attacked him, strangling him manually. Then, using
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  Speaker 2: a knife and cleaver he'd likely hidden nearby, he dismembered
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  Speaker 2: the body to make it easier to bury and conceal,
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  Speaker 2: then covered him up in the moist.
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  Speaker 1: Earth and the cover of back home.
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  Speaker 2: Swift and chilling. He went back to the house alone,
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  Speaker 2: packed a small bag of his father's clothes to sell
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  Speaker 2: the idea of travel, then told his mother they'd had
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  Speaker 2: a terrible argument and his father had stormed off, saying
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  Speaker 2: he needed space ol.
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  Speaker 1: Just to get his hands on the inheritance faster.
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  Speaker 2: Pure avarice. The record showed that in the six months
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  Speaker 2: between the murder and the body being discovered, the son
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  Speaker 2: had already managed to inherit and rapidly squander a significant
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  Speaker 2: portion of the family's.
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  Speaker 1: Wealth, so justice was served.
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  Speaker 2: It was thanks entirely to doctor Smith's pioneering forensic work.
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  Speaker 2: The son was tried, convicted, and ultimately sentenced to execution.
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  Speaker 1: It's an absolutely landmark case, a murder that was effectively
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  Speaker 1: solved six months after it happened, resurrected from a cold
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  Speaker 1: case pile labeled unknown perpetrator.
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  Speaker 2: All because of meticulous science applied to tiny details, the
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  Speaker 2: wear on teeth, the chemicals and hair dye, the marks
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  Speaker 2: on bone. Smith literally made the skeleton speak.
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  Speaker 1: It proved very early on the incredible power of forensics
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  Speaker 1: to cut through lies and decomposition.
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  Speaker 2: Didn't it It really did. It showed that even when
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  Speaker 2: faced with significant challenges like time and environment, science could
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  Speaker 2: provide answers. Traditional detective work might never find those small
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  Speaker 2: details dentures die, They became the keys to unlocking a
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  Speaker 2: murder conviction.
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  Speaker 1: It really makes you think, doesn't it. If a crime
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  Speaker 1: involving a wealthy, prominent man nearly slipped through the cracks
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty only saved by this new science, how
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  Speaker 1: many other stories. How many other victims from that era
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  Speaker 1: and before are still silent, buried in the soil, their
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  Speaker 1: cases wrongly closed or never opened. What secrets might still
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  Speaker 1: be waiting for science even now to finally give them
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  Speaker 1: a voice.