00:00:03
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING] MAN 1: It just
sounds like something bad is happening to her.
00:00:09
WOMAN 1: I heard her
scream, no, stop it. MAN 2: I heard some gunshot. Drop it. Whatever it is, drop it.
00:00:15
That is not true
that I killed my wife. WOMAN 2: We know what
happened because the video
00:00:20
tells us what happened. MAN 3: The camera doesn't lie. NARRATOR: This time on
"Killers Caught on Camera."
00:00:28
In California, a woman
turns detective-- I knew that he
had gone to a CVS. I knew he had gone to
eat at Jack in the Box.
00:00:38
NARRATOR: --when her
brother goes missing. Any sign of the
person is huge. There was a human
hair coming out of one
00:00:48
of the holes near the bottom. NARRATOR: And in the UK,
a stalkers obsession-- He'd been spotted
repeatedly walking
00:00:57
in front of her workplace. NARRATOR: --turns violent. This woman has got no idea
what's going to happen to her.
00:01:21
NARRATOR: Chula Vista,
a Southern neighborhood of San Diego, California, home
to Omar Medina and his sister,
00:01:28
Alicia. We have 70 degree weather
during winter, you know? It's beautiful. It's the city of sunshine.
00:01:38
Omar was funny. He was a great uncle. He was a great little brother. He wanted a full life for
all of us, for himself.
00:01:49
NARRATOR: When Omar received
a large sum of money in a settlement from a lawsuit,
he decided to use some of it
00:01:55
to help his family. My brother had given my
mom a check for $10,000, and he told her, you
could cash this check.
00:02:07
He really wanted the
best for our family. Omar and I would
come to this park just so we could
walk or just talk
00:02:18
about how the day was going. And it was more like
mother-child type of relationship
than brother sister.
00:02:28
She's been like
my second mother. She's been there
through thick and thin. She's awesome.
00:02:36
He never took an actual music
class, he just knew it by ear, and he was very talented.
00:02:46
He's a really good drummer. And then, he picked up piano. And then, he picked up guitar,
and he would write songs.
00:02:54
He would tell me, you know, one
day, I'm going to win a Grammy. And you know, I was just
like, yeah, yes, you are.
00:03:00
He would talk to me
about his plans of having a family, kids, a wife, just-- he wanted the whole thing, like
a house with the picket fence.
00:03:15
And it is good memories of
good conversations here. NARRATOR: In the summer of
2017, Omar moved into a shared
00:03:27
house on McIntosh Street. Cheri Sommerville was
a district attorney. So Omar used to hang
out with some buddies.
00:03:37
They lived next to
someone named Greg Cook. Greg took Omar under his wing,
sort of, like a father figure,
00:03:46
helped him set up a
bank account, where he deposited the $84,000
from the lawsuit,
00:03:53
gave him a job, sold him a car. NARRATOR: Greg's brother, Tim,
sublet a room in his house
00:04:00
to Omar. In the backyard of that
house is, sort of, a-- they refer to it as a
game room, but it was more
00:04:07
like a Granny flat, kind
of a very basic room with four walls and a door. No water or anything like that.
00:04:16
So Omar ended up
moving in to that. He liked the fact that he could
do his music in the backyard.
00:04:24
No one really bothered him. NARRATOR: Omar enjoyed
his independence but maintained close
contact with his family.
00:04:35
Omar and I would
talk consistently. Omar would talk to my mom every
day, like multiple times a day.
00:04:41
So we knew pretty much where
Omar was at all the time. If not, we would check
in with each other.
00:04:50
NARRATOR: On September
30, 2017, Omar went round to his mother's apartment. It was in the same
block as Alicia's.
00:04:58
This is the place where we
pretty much lived for 15 years. I remember walking
out of our apartment,
00:05:07
and he happened to
walk out of my mom's apartment at the same time. And my daughter ran out
and yelled his name,
00:05:15
and she gave him a hug. I could tell that he was
a little bit anxious. Omar told me that,
you know, he's
00:05:22
like, I'm getting kicked out. And I'm like, why? Did you not pay your rent? And he said, yeah, I
paid a month ahead.
00:05:29
I told him, you
know what, it's OK. And I saw his car. I turned his car, and his
car was full of his stuff.
00:05:36
And I said, where are
you-- where are you going? I remember asking him,
where are you going?
00:05:39
He said, I'm just going
to go drive around. I said, OK. And then, I just saw
him get in the car,
00:05:45
and I just stood there. And then, I just watched
them, like, take off. NARRATOR: Alicia
was worried, when
00:05:51
Omar sent her several
messages later that evening. So I saw that the
light would turn.
00:05:59
That means that he
received the message. So I'm like, OK, his phone's on. He received my message.
00:06:04
He'll answer me later. But then, I messaged him
again later on the night, and then it didn't go through.
00:06:10
The next morning, though, my
mom calls me, and she tells me, have you spoken with Omar?
00:06:18
And that's when I started
to get a little bit worried. NARRATOR: Omar's mother
tried to call him,
00:06:23
but all attempts went
straight to voicemail. Alicia decided she needed to
speak to Omar's roommate, Tim.
00:06:31
She wanted to know
if Omar had gone back home the previous night. At first, I actually
just got a voicemail.
00:06:41
I didn't get him. So then, a few hours
later, he called me, and he told me that
he had, that he
00:06:50
had seen him, that
he had stopped by, and that he was drunk. He just told me that my brother
was not in a good place.
00:07:00
At that point,
the family decides that they need to
contact the police department because something's,
obviously, not right here.
00:07:08
I told them that my
brother was missing and just some things
were not adding up,
00:07:13
and that we needed
help to locate him. NARRATOR: But Alicia didn't
get the help she was looking
00:07:18
for from the authorities. If somebody is
over the age of 18, and unless they have
a medical condition,
00:07:25
they will not go look for them. That's what I was told. You know, when you're an
adult, you can go missing.
00:07:33
People do go missing
of their own volition. NARRATOR: Alicia was
desperate for answers
00:07:40
and decided to take
matters into her own hands. I called the hospitals. I checked in the jails.
00:07:47
I started looking for him,
you know, wherever I can. Then, after that, I started
to look for his phone records.
00:07:56
I wanted to see
his outgoing calls. I want to see his incoming
calls, who was the last people
00:08:01
he had conversations with. In a situation like this,
time is of the essence. So I went to the
telephone company.
00:08:11
I went to a shop, and
they told me that they don't have those records. And I told the young
lady that I was
00:08:18
desperate because my
brother had been missing. She was kind enough to
give me his password,
00:08:24
and we were able to
see all outgoing calls. And I didn't find anything,
other than him calling my mom,
00:08:32
so we didn't really
have any information. When somebody is missing,
it's like the worst feeling
00:08:39
you could possibly feel. Are they in danger? Do they need help? Like, it's so-- the
desperation of somebody missing
00:08:48
is just horrible. NARRATOR: Alicia
had no solid leads but was determined
to find her brother.
00:08:54
She continued her investigation
with friends from church. And it just so happens
on that day, which
00:09:03
was October 7, one of the
people in there search party located Omar's car. I had a lot of emotions
going on because, you know,
00:09:16
like, we finally
found something. It had been a week. When you have somebody missing,
any sign of the person,
00:09:23
you know, any clue, anything
that leads to something is huge. NARRATOR: Robyn Garrett
was an officer at the Chula
00:09:36
Vista Police Department. A normal everyday call
and didn't think anything was going to come of it.
00:09:42
NARRATOR: But Omar's car was in
the wrong place and abandoned. When I met with the
sister, she explained to me
00:09:51
that his car was parked
several blocks away from where he actually lived. It was unlocked.
00:09:56
There was stacked with a bunch
of property inside of it, which is not normal. When you have
visible electronics,
00:10:03
things of value in the car. NARRATOR: The case was escalated
to Detective LeVar Brown.
00:10:09
Finding the vehicle around
the corner from his house, that was a big, big,
big flag for us.
00:10:15
If someone's just leaving
on a road trip or something, they're going to take
their car with them.
00:10:19
Or if they were moving
for some reason, they're going to
move with their car. They're not going to
park it around the corner
00:10:25
from their house with all their
belongings still unlocked. So those things, that
raised some red flags.
00:10:31
Like, this is something
more suspicious. This is more than
just a missing person
00:10:36
who just hasn't contacted
their family in a few days. I asked the officer if she
could, please, go to the house
00:10:45
and see if he was there, or if
they could find any indication of what could have happened.
00:10:53
The sister explained
that some of his property should still be at the house. And so, those are the
things that I'm looking for.
00:11:02
That was, like, the first
time I felt like a relief because somebody was going
to start looking for him.
00:11:09
Like, things are
starting to move. Me and my partner we
walked up to the house, and I knocked on the door.
00:11:20
A Timothy Kirk
answered, and I asked if he had seen Omar, that
his sister had been looking
00:11:26
for him, Tim explained to
me that he had not seen him in several days, that he
moved out just recently,
00:11:34
that all of his
property was gone. And I asked him if it would be
OK if I can come into the house
00:11:40
to, kind of, just check
and see if Omar's property or if anything
else was in there,
00:11:45
maybe help find where
Omar may have gone. He let us through
in the living room, and I just basically
followed him.
00:11:53
And I wondered where
Omar's room was. And he said, it was out back. And when he set out back, I
didn't realize it was a house,
00:12:00
actually, in the backyard. And the first
thing I noticed was that, when you walk
to the little house,
00:12:08
that there was a
broom and some debris. Looked like carpet had
recently been removed,
00:12:13
and there was a puddle of water. And I noticed that
there was a shattered window in the back as well.
00:12:20
And to me, it didn't
seem like anyone had recently lived there. Tim told me that it
was how Omar lived.
00:12:26
He was a very messy person. NARRATOR: Officer Garrett
continued to search for clues in the house.
00:12:32
Alicia took the opportunity
to look through receipts found in Omar's car. A paper trail of expenditure
helped her calculate
00:12:40
some of Omar's last movements. I knew that he
had gone to CVS. I knew he had gone to
eat at Jack in the Box.
00:12:49
It was the last place
he had gone to eat. It gave me some, sort of,
like, OK, I knew these
00:12:54
are the places that he was at. I took the receipts
to the police station, and I told the detective, that
was assigned at the moment,
00:13:02
these are the last places
that my brother was at. You could go and get the
surveillance footage.
00:13:10
NARRATOR: By October 12, Omar
had been missing 12 days. Alicia continued to
gather her own evidence.
00:13:17
Then, a significant and gruesome
discovery changed everything. There was a man
named Skip Horton.
00:13:25
He actually cleans
the bottom of boats. So he had gone out in a dinghy
on the bay here in San Diego.
00:13:33
He was on his way to clean
a boat on the other side, near Coronado
Island, and he came
00:13:40
across a 55-gallon
drum that was floating in the middle of the bay. He called the San Diego
Harbor Police Department
00:13:52
and called it in as
a boating hazard. Most people don't realize
that the edges of the bay
00:13:57
are deeper. It allowed for boats to travel. However, in the middle, where
the barrel was dropped off,
00:14:02
isn't very deep. Earlier in the day, we're
down two to four feet. So you can imagine,
four feet of water
00:14:08
with a barrel that's
three feet, it's not going to hide very well in there. So they didn't do
their research.
00:14:16
As they began lifting
in, they realized there were steel cables
drilled into the barrel
00:14:22
and tied to cinderblocks, a
makeshift anchor, if you will, to hold the barrel down.
00:14:27
Then, they got the barrel
back on to the boat. And there were some
holes drilled in it.
00:14:32
And they noticed that
when they looked inside, they sound like-- it's all
like a brown fur or blanket.
00:14:39
You can see a hand sticking out. There was what appeared to
be human hair coming out of one
00:14:48
of the holes near the bottom. So then, in fact, we
knew we had a human body, and it was a homicide
investigation
00:14:55
began at that point. NARRATOR: The chief of
police was now involved. It has to go through the whole
autopsy and identification,
00:15:05
but we start
checking immediately. Do we have any
missing person cases? Oh, well, we have a missing
person in Chula Vista.
00:15:12
So all these little
pieces come together. The deceased had been stabbed
and had sharp force injuries
00:15:21
to various parts of his body. There were 66 sharp
force injuries. NARRATOR: When police combined
the autopsy and missing
00:15:33
person reports,
they could confirm that the body was Omar Medina. Alicia was informed.
00:15:43
Hey, they just told you
that they found your loved one in a barrel, dead. It is incredibly
hard to think of what
00:15:53
my brother went through. He was stabbed in the heart. He was stabbed in the nose.
00:15:58
He was stabbed in the neck. Once it's discovered
that, yes, this was a positive identification.
00:16:07
This is Omar Medina's
body, then the police start working on getting search
warrants for various locations.
00:16:15
NARRATOR: The warrants included
CCTV footage from the Marina, a potentially vital
electronic witness
00:16:21
to how Omar's body
ended up in the water. We knew when the
barrel was recovered,
00:16:26
so we requested video from
all these different partners, so we can start
surveilling the video
00:16:31
to figure out when Omar and
the barrel went into the water. These two cameras
played a vital role
00:16:37
because the vehicle
with a boat attached was seen backing up
into this harbor, about where we are standing now.
00:16:47
NARRATOR: The footage
revealed two men launching a boat into the water. Now, we're starting to get
some factual evidence and
00:16:54
some things to follow up on. We learned that a
certain vehicle, which was a green Ford F-150,
was seen at the residence,
00:17:02
where Omar used to reside. We eventually able to
see that the barrel was in the boat at the time.
00:17:08
NARRATOR: The truck
was registered to Tim Cook's brother, Greg. When questioned,
Greg told police
00:17:15
that Tim borrowed it, as he
needed to get out of town. He told his brother Greg
Cook that he was actually
00:17:22
in Northern California
because he needed to get some of his items
from his girlfriend's
00:17:28
residence in Oroville. NARRATOR: The recording of the
truck contradicted Tim's alibi.
00:17:35
Detectives turn
their attention to retracing Omar's footsteps. The key is, you
want as many cameras
00:17:42
out there as you can because
they tell the real story. We really had to work
backwards and put all of this
00:17:51
together and figure out,
OK, what happened to Omar? When did the homicide
actually occur.?
00:17:59
And then, how was
it that he ended up in a drum out in the bay. NARRATOR: Alicia's detective
work with the receipts
00:18:08
helped police discover footage
of Omar's last movements. We know from video
surveillance, that
00:18:14
was collected, that he went to
a CVS or Rite Aid type of store, bought some items.
00:18:22
Then, from there, he went to a
Jack in the Box, got some food. And that Jack in the
Box happens to be
00:18:28
very close to Macintosh street. From there, the call detail
records for Omar's phone
00:18:34
number, showed that he was
actually back at that residence on the afternoon of the 30.
00:18:42
NARRATOR: But the
police still needed to identify the owner of the
boat filmed at the Marina.
00:18:48
The video quality
wasn't good enough, so we assigned an
actual detective to research the boats.
00:18:55
She actually did
an excellent job. And based off the sticker
pattern and the colors that
00:18:59
was on the side of
the boat, the company was able to say what year
they believe the boat was in.
00:19:06
NARRATOR: Through an incredible
process of elimination, they found the owner. The boat's registered to
somebody that Tim Cook knows.
00:19:13
We were able to go
up into a helicopter from one of our local
law enforcement agencies,
00:19:18
fly over the
residence, and spotted the boat on the property. NARRATOR: The helicopter
confirmed that the boat
00:19:28
belonged to Derek
Spurgeon, who was a friend of Omar's roommate, Tim Cook. Focus then turned
to the green truck.
00:19:37
We were able to
track the green truck leaving that residence,
with the boat in tow,
00:19:43
driving past this intersection
from the Elder Community and then pulling into a
nearby convenience store
00:19:49
with a gas station,
where they filled up gas. NARRATOR: A figure in a red
t-shirt and white shorts
00:19:57
led to a breakthrough. He has a very distinct
tattoo on the back of his calf. You were able to see that
in the video surveillance.
00:20:10
NARRATOR: It was Tim
Cook, Omar's roommate, the same man who
had showed officer Robyn Garrett around the
house, 33 days earlier.
00:20:21
We got our suspect with
the barrel, which we believe Omar Medina was in at the time.
00:20:26
So that video surveillance
was very critical. NARRATOR: Police
had now identified
00:20:32
the two men in the truck
as Tim Cook and his friend Derrick Spurgeon. It captured them taking
the boat out into the bay,
00:20:40
and you can actually see
a white cylindrical object in the hole of the boat. The video surveillance was able
to show that they only went out
00:20:48
on the water for,
approximately, an hour, which is a fairly short time to be out.
00:20:55
We believe they work together. Derrick Spurgeon helped him. They attach to the barrel
that was made of a rope wire
00:21:04
and cinderblocks, hoping that
that would sink the barrel. And then, they disposed of
the body out in the bay.
00:21:11
And then, leaving the
Marina, and then driving by another private
business that had video,
00:21:17
and then driving back by
the convenience store. According to the world's
biggest report on homicide,
00:21:28
80% of the victims of
homicide are men and boys and 90% of the perpetrators. So most killing,
most murder as well,
00:21:39
is a man killing another man. NARRATOR: Another key recording
revealed Omar's car being moved
00:21:49
the day after he went missing. Through video
surveillance, detectives are able to piece together
that Tim Cook then drives
00:22:00
Omar Medina's car away from
the residence, several blocks down the road and parks it on
Oak Lawn with all of Omar's
00:22:08
belongings still in it. And then, on the video
surveillance, you see Tim Cook, who we believe to
be Tim Cook-- you
00:22:14
couldn't see the
person's face, but it has similar posture and stature-- walked towards the
McIntosh house from there.
00:22:25
We started surveillance
there at the residence, where Omar live with Tim Cook. And we believe that the
crime scene was actually
00:22:33
in that corner of the room. And the drywall was
removed, the flooring was removed in order to
prevent any forensic evidence
00:22:41
being collected from the scene. NARRATOR: Also, after
Omar went missing, Tim Cook's suspicious
behavior continued, revealed
00:22:52
by point of sale footage. They were able to get video
surveillance from a Home Depot,
00:22:59
which showed him buying
a tarp, a scrub brush, Simple Green
concentrated cleaner.
00:23:07
We were also able to capture
him on video surveillance at another convenience store,
where he was purchasing gloves.
00:23:17
He was dressed, sort of, in
an outfit that you'd wear if you were working, manually.
00:23:23
It was significant because
during that time, when he was running around doing these
errands to clean up and cover
00:23:31
up his crime, we had text
messages showing that he told his brother, Greg Cook,
that he was actually
00:23:38
in Northern California. And so, he, sort of, kept up
this lie, this facade that he
00:23:44
was out of town while he was
here in San Diego County, cleaning up the crime scene
and disposing of the body.
00:23:54
We saw Mr. Cook in
the driveway, power washing stuff,
loading bags of trash, wet rags thrown
into his, vehicle
00:24:02
and then leaving the house. NARRATOR: The same
phone records hinted at a strained relationship
between Tim Cook and Omar.
00:24:11
It came to a head the night
before Omar was murdered. We knew that on
September 29, Tim Cook was
00:24:19
very upset with Omar Medina. He had a friend
over at the house, who he was introducing Omar to.
00:24:27
According to text messages
that Tim Cook sent, Omar was extremely
intoxicated when this person
00:24:33
came over to the
house, so much that he couldn't really stand up. Mr. Cook felt disrespected and
embarrassed by the way Omar had
00:24:43
acted in front of this person. Also, Mr. Cook talked
about Omar's cleanliness and called Omar a dirty pig
and saying that it was not
00:24:52
going good for Omar right now. NARRATOR: A search of his
phone and browsing history
00:24:59
provided more clues as
to Tim Cook's motive for murdering Omar. From text messages that
we were able to recover,
00:25:09
it was pretty apparent that
this whole situation with Omar, living in the
backhouse, was really
00:25:16
just a financial
situation because Tim Cook didn't have very much money. It was apparent
that Tim Cook knew
00:25:27
that Omar Medina had
received this $84,000 settlement from a legal case. Tim Cook had copies of Omar
Medina's bank information,
00:25:42
personal identifying
information, and basically had access to
his savings and bank account.
00:25:50
People knew that he had
this money, this new money, and that information was in
Mr. Cook's cloud account.
00:26:01
NARRATOR: Detectives
believed that, ultimately, Tim was after Omar's money. Tim Cook repeatedly stabbed
Omar Medina in that back room,
00:26:11
then enlisted his friend,
Derrick Spurgeon, because he had access to a boat. We presented the case to
the San Diego County District
00:26:21
Attorney's Office,
and they agreed there was enough
probable cause to arrest Mr. Cook and his accomplice
on the charges of murder.
00:26:36
I remember getting
a call from LeVar and asking me if I was home. And I said, yes.
00:26:43
And I remember him
telling me, OK, I'm going to be there in half an hour. And then, he asked
if my mom was there.
00:26:50
And I remember LeVar
telling me that they hadn't made an arrest that
morning, and that it was Tim.
00:27:04
And I just remember sobbing. I was just sobbing
uncontrollably. Like, yeah, it was
a special moment.
00:27:16
Tim Cook was convicted
of second degree murder, and he was sentenced to 56
years to life in state prison.
00:27:22
We discovered that he
had recently discharged from California Department
of Corrections parole,
00:27:28
so he did have a
criminal past and had served a significant amount of
time in the State Penitentiary.
00:27:35
He was a member of
a prison gang that's prominent here in the California
Department of Corrections.
00:27:41
Tim Cook had been sentenced
to prison prior to the homicide for an attempted murder, where
he shot a man in the face,
00:27:51
and he received 17
years in state prison. NARRATOR: Derrick Spurgeon was
given six months for unlawfully
00:27:57
disposing of a dead body. Sometimes, in
criminal psychology, the statement is
said that the best
00:28:06
predictor of future
behavior is past behavior. And so, if your past behavior
includes violence and attempted
00:28:12
murder, then that is a
pretty good predictor that you're certainly capable
of doing those things again
00:28:17
in the future. People can change, and
they break their cycle. But overall, repeated criminal
convictions for violence,
00:28:26
it's a pretty bad sign. In the case of Omar, it was a
little different because Alicia
00:28:36
was really involved, and she
really got the initial part of the investigation going.
00:28:41
Without her supporting and
her fight for her brother, information and some of the
facts may have taken longer,
00:28:51
but her dedication to her family
and her brother was vital. The video surveillance
was extremely
00:28:58
important to this prosecution. I mean, we wouldn't be
able to trace their steps.
00:29:04
We wouldn't have
known where they went. We wouldn't have known
what Tim Cook was doing,
00:29:09
following the homicide. And then, it was able to show
us exactly where they went
00:29:15
and how they were
able to dispose of the body out in the bay. When we have
the camera footage
00:29:22
or we have the body
worn camera footage, it's very difficult for
someone to argue the point
00:29:29
that that wasn't me. And when we were-- 30 years ago, we
just didn't have those tools available to us.
00:29:36
When we can show
the jury this video, we can show them the
barrel in this boat going out into the sea
with Omar in there.
00:29:46
They can see the
planned malice in this, what it took to get rid of Omar,
this person, like it was trash.
00:30:01
I remember the day
that Omar was born. I was super excited that
I had a new baby brother.
00:30:07
I was only able to see him
through the little cubes-- box that they have
him in, and I had
00:30:16
to see him through something. The last time I saw him,
it reminded me of his birth
00:30:23
because I got to see
him through a screen, you know, like, his body. So that was my
last goodbye, just
00:30:30
to see him through a screen. I missed my brother terribly. I didn't know what big of a
role he played in my life.
00:30:45
I always felt like I'm
the big sister, you know. Like, I'm your provider,
your protector.
00:30:54
In reality, I think
he was my escape, too. I think he was the thing
that gave me something
00:31:02
to work for, and fight for,
and try to be good for, and try to set an example for.
00:31:11
Just like he would tell me
that my kids were, you know, his everything, he
was my everything.
00:31:28
NARRATOR: In big cities, there
aren't many trips you can do without getting caught on CCTV.
00:31:33
There are some gaps
in the network, but cameras can usually help,
as in Omar Medina's case.
00:31:39
During the entirety
of the investigation, video surveillance played
a pivotal role on this,
00:31:44
starting from locating
the barrel being backed into the
water on the boat to retracing the
steps of the day.
00:31:53
NARRATOR: The footage
rarely shows the crime being committed, but
circumstantial video evidence
00:31:59
can still be enough
for a conviction, like in the case
of Marina Shaban. Birmingham in the
UK, January 2022.
00:32:10
Amber Haque is a journalist,
who knows the city well. Birmingham is the second
largest city here in the UK.
00:32:16
It's a pretty diverse place. It's a really big
South Asian population. NARRATOR: It was home to
41-year-old Marina Shaban
00:32:23
and her husband Mohammed Irfan. Marina and Mohammed were
both of South Asian descent.
00:32:31
They'd had an arranged marriage
when they were teenagers, and they'd had
four kids together.
00:32:36
Mohammed Irfan was a pretty
quiet hard working taxi driver. He struggled a bit to
assimilate into UK life.
00:32:44
He struggled with English, but
his family was his whole world. NARRATOR: Kirsty Bennett
is a criminologist
00:32:50
at Leeds Beckett University. What we see in those
Marina, particularly adopting quite westernized views,
she was quite independent,
00:33:00
and she was working,
earning her own income to support her children. NARRATOR: At times,
Marina's lifestyle
00:33:07
clashed with Mohammed's ideals. They had, sort of, a
bit of a traditional, kind of, Pakistani-South
Asian marriage.
00:33:16
By 2016, it's clear that Marina
wanted to get her own freedom and do stuff outside
of the marriage.
00:33:24
She wanted to join the gym. She hung out a bit more
with her family members. It was New Year's
Eve, 2020, when
00:33:34
Marina finally felt like she
had the courage to leave him. Marina had moved in with
her mom and the children,
00:33:43
and she's got a new partner. She was moving
forward with her life. NARRATOR: 28th of
January 2022, police
00:33:56
were called to an address on a
residential road in Birmingham. They found a body
slumped on the doorstep.
00:34:04
It was Marina. Members of the public
tried to help Marina. The emergency
services arrived, too,
00:34:11
and they battled to
try and save her life. NARRATOR: Resuscitation
attempts failed,
00:34:16
and she was pronounced dead. She had a throat slit, and
she was stabbed 20 times.
00:34:23
The only witness to the
attack was a young boy. He'd seen someone
in an Afro wig,
00:34:28
who followed Marina to the
doorstep and attacked her. So the police start
looking at the CCTV
00:34:35
to try and find
someone with this Afro to match the description. They couldn't find anyone.
00:34:41
But they found a
suspicious-looking vehicle that was leaving the scene
at the time of the murder.
00:34:46
This was a Toyota Corolla. NARRATOR: Retracing
Marina's footsteps, police discovered
she'd left work
00:34:54
just minutes before her murder. Emi Polito is an expert witness
and forensic video analyst.
00:35:02
We start with the
CCTV here, and we have three different
camera views, filming from outside the
victim's work location.
00:35:11
And right away, the police
would have been looking at this and noticing a vehicle.
00:35:18
The same vehicle
going up and down outside Marina's place of work. You know, potentially,
this could be a taxi,
00:35:26
but it's just too
much of a coincidence that a vehicle, just a few
hours before the murder,
00:35:31
is identified to be driving
up and down the road, so close to the murder. Police have got to be thinking,
we have to have a look at this.
00:35:40
Potentially, could be a
lead, very important lead. Investigators then
began trying to identify
00:35:46
the owner of the vehicle. Most of the time, with
CCTV of this nature, it's virtually impossible to
decipher all the characters
00:35:54
of the license plate. The police thought that,
maybe, it was a 55 plate. NARRATOR: Detectives
decided to trace the car.
00:36:01
Trying to find any
owners of that maker model in the Birmingham area, but they
didn't find any information.
00:36:09
NARRATOR: Police
reviewed more footage from just before
the attack and saw a man outside Marina's work.
00:36:16
He'd been spotted
repeatedly walking in front of her workplace. We have a couple of frames,
maybe two or three frames,
00:36:25
when we can discern
he's looking inside. You know, what is
he trying to do? Does he want her to know
that he's stalking her?
00:36:34
Does he want her to
know that he's there? He's watching her. Or is he in disguise?
00:36:39
Is he undercover? Is he just probing you
to see if the situation and the circumstances are right
for him to find the right time
00:36:48
and place to hurt her,
potentially murder her? Or is it simply just an
obsession that he had?
00:36:58
If you notice a
person repeatedly, who is new in your environment
and who appears to be following
00:37:03
you, or is harassing you, is
invading your daily routine, it might count as stalking.
00:37:09
It might not because it could
also be illusory because it might just be someone
else who's also now
00:37:13
walking their dog in the park. And you might be second
guessing yourself and thinking,
00:37:18
well, probably not so bad. Maybe it's coincidence. And you don't want to overreact.
00:37:24
People are most
likely to be stalked by a current or former
romantic partner, especially romantic partner
of more than two years.
00:37:34
He had waited nearby to see
when she would finish work. Marina then leaves her
place of employment
00:37:41
in her new partner's
car and travels back to her mom's house. We are looking at
Marina's last moments alive.
00:37:51
This woman has got no idea
what's going to happen to her. She's just going
by her normal life.
00:37:55
And what? Less than an hour later,
less than a half an hour later, she will be dead.
00:38:01
It's very chilling. It's very sad. It's also an important
piece of footage because it established
what was happening
00:38:09
and what is going
to happen to her. Marina's new
partner dropped her off outside of her mom's house.
00:38:17
Marina then starts
walking towards her mom's front door, when a male
with a knife attacks Marina.
00:38:27
Despite the best efforts
of Marina's neighbor, Marina, unfortunately,
dies at the scene.
00:38:36
NARRATOR: But a week
after the murder, they made a breakthrough
on the car seen driving outside Marina's work.
00:38:42
That Toyota Corolla was found
in this area called Rockville Road, and the police found that
that vehicle was registered
00:38:50
to Mohammed Irfan,
who'd purchased it just a few weeks earlier. NARRATOR: Police also
confirmed that Muhammad
00:38:58
was the man stalking
Marina, and the car provided important evidence. Blood was found
on the door handle.
00:39:06
They found a lump
hammer inside the car, and they also found a wig box. And that was really
important because it implied
00:39:13
to the police that Mohammed
had tried to disguise himself on the night of the murder
to distract the police
00:39:21
and prevent them linking
him to Marina's murder. NARRATOR: After reviewing
hours of CCTV footage,
00:39:28
one particular clip
showed Mohammed immediately after the murder. That same vehicle pops up
in here after the murder,
00:39:37
and we have a suspect
approaching a bin and disposing of something. NARRATOR: Police
had to work out what
00:39:45
had been thrown in the garbage. Luckily, they got there
in time and found a knife.
00:39:52
It was quite
clear that Mohammed was trying to cover his tracks. NARRATOR: Then, police
uncovered footage of him,
00:39:58
just minutes after
Marina stabbing. We're looking
at Mohammed Irfan half an hour after the
murder, and we clearly
00:40:08
see he's got no
remorse, whatsoever, about what has happened. You know, everything
suggests to me that this
00:40:14
was totally premeditated. Imagine, after having
committed a murder, you would be, perhaps, in
a state of panic or shock.
00:40:23
You would try to hide
yourself from view and, perhaps, take
some time by sinking
00:40:28
in what has just happened. He just goes on about
his life, and he goes and hook up with his
mates at the barber shop,
00:40:38
and very calm. He doesn't look agitated. He doesn't look stressed. Potentially, he appears as
if he's very pleased with how
00:40:46
the night turned up for him. NARRATOR: Police now
had what they needed. On the 7th of February
2022, Mohammed was arrested
00:40:56
for the murder of his wife. More details started to emerge
about the background to Marina
00:41:03
and Mohammed's relationship. NARRATOR: Mohammed's reaction to
Marina's death seemed callous.
00:41:11
When Mohammed found
out Marina was dead, he turned round to friends and
said, where am I going to find
00:41:19
an English-speaking woman now? Mohammed had
these expectations that Marina should look after
and cook for his family.
00:41:28
Reports then came
out that Mohammed had been physically abusive to her. On one occasion, he had
caused bruising to her arm,
00:41:35
her eye, and a thigh. He would, sometimes,
make comments about her appearance,
what she was wearing,
00:41:42
saying that some of her outfits
were a bit too revealing. Violence towards
intimate partners
00:41:51
usually starts with
coercive control, psychological violence,
like belittling or mocking
00:41:57
people who are going
out with their friends, maybe taking control
of their finances.
00:42:01
And then, it will escalate. But from that escalation,
you're much more likely to, also,
then be the victim
00:42:08
of intimate partner homicide. NARRATOR: Friends and
family described one particular incident in 2018.
00:42:17
Mohammed tried to
emotionally manipulate Marina into staying with him. The couple had got into
quite a heated argument.
00:42:26
Marina had said she
was going to leave. And then, Mohammed
said, that if she did,
00:42:30
he threatened that he
was going to cut himself. She started to walk towards the
door, and he did exactly that.
00:42:37
He cut himself. Mohammed is really putting
a lot of responsibility on Marina for his happiness,
his safety, and also his life.
00:42:49
And that puts Marina in a
really difficult position because this is a
father of her children,
00:42:55
threatening to harm
themselves if she leaves. When we look at certain
religious backgrounds as well,
00:43:02
the act of suicide is a sin. And if somebody should
kill themselves, they're never going to
have a peaceful afterlife.
00:43:11
So Marina is not just her
potentially losing her husband, it's going against
their religion
00:43:18
and their personal beliefs. NARRATOR: It was nearly
four years before Marina got
00:43:24
the courage to leave
Mohammed, but it wasn't the end of their issues. Not too long after,
Marina meets another man,
00:43:33
and Mohammed found
out about that. And then, he just began
to exhibit this extremely
00:43:40
jealous, angry behavior. He was calling her all the time. She blocked his number.
00:43:46
Marina confided in her
friends that Mohammed just wouldn't let it go. He was starting to stalk her.
00:43:54
He found it very
difficult to accept the relationship had
ended, and particularly
00:43:59
that Marina had moved on. NARRATOR: Mohammed was
found guilty in July 2022 and sentenced to a
minimum of 22 years.
00:44:13
The CCTV footage was the
whole crux of this case. It was enough evidence to
charge Mohammed with murder
00:44:20
and eventually convict him. CCTV was totally
integral to this case. Without that, the police might
not have got that conviction.
00:44:29
Within Asian
communities, divorce is not really an accepted practice. So once they agree to
marry, that is for life,
00:44:39
and that's a really
strong commitment that shouldn't be breached. There is still
this stigma that
00:44:47
exists within the community,
that if you divorce within a marriage, that
it's somehow a failure,
00:44:54
and divorce should be
avoided at any cost. And it's still seen as
quite shameful thing,
00:45:02
I would say, particularly for
men, if you have been divorced, and your wife has left you.
00:45:07
That's seen as dishonor. So when we're looking at
Mohammed after the event, smiling with his
friends, it might
00:45:17
be that he feels his
behaviors are going to be acceptable to that
community and what he's doing
00:45:26
is right and wrong. Because Marina, in his opinion,
isn't behaving in a way that he thinks is acceptable.
00:45:34
Domestic violence killings
within our society is predominantly
a male on female.
00:45:41
Women are the greatest
risk once they choose to leave their partner. Ultimately, in
this case, this was
00:45:51
Mohammed's obsessive
jealousy that led to this brutal
and senseless attack, and it's left these four
kids now without a mother
00:46:01
and with a father in jail.