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Murder She Solved S01E07
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CreativityTranscript
00:00On a dark winter morning, the morbid discovery of a body.
00:05The killing so gruesome it shocks even the hardened investigators called to the scene.
00:11Someone had tried to slit his throat, almost to the point of being beheaded.
00:17A 48-year-old father of five, knifed to death.
00:21His bloody remains ditched in a parking lot.
00:25Why a body might be dumped there, it was a desolate place.
00:30The victim is described by those who knew him as a gentleman who had fled his war-torn country for a peaceful life in Canada.
00:39He talked about how safe he felt with his family here.
00:43And with the monster who murdered him still on the loose, the community is shaken to its core.
00:51We were all afraid. Who was this person? What's happening?
00:55Can investigators bring the bloodthirsty killer to justice?
01:00It's just like chipping away at a mountain, like piece by piece by piece.
01:04The early hours of December 30th, 1999.
01:32As Canada's largest city readies itself for the new millennium, a man lies dead in the middle of a West Toronto parking lot.
01:43And unsuspecting factory employees report for work.
01:50And they drove around to the back of this address to park, and as they entered the parking lot, there was a body there.
01:59Emergency, please sign an ambulance.
02:01I just came to 37 Iron Street.
02:03There's a dead guy lying on the ground, bleeding.
02:05Okay, so he's lying in the back?
02:07In a pool of blood.
02:08In a pool of blood?
02:09Yes.
02:11His thumb is like, oh my God, it's gross.
02:13It's like torn off.
02:15Okay, did you see where he was bleeding from besides the thumb?
02:17Oh, his head is chopped off.
02:20Oh, f***.
02:21His head is chopped off?
02:22His cut, his head is sliced.
02:24His head is sliced.
02:25Okay.
02:27Holy f***.
02:29Okay, sir, we're on the way.
02:30We're going to be there very shortly.
02:31Lead investigator, Corey Baucus and partner, Craig Sanson, head immediately to the location.
02:42The initial information was very brief.
02:47All we knew is that we had a male that was deceased who had suffered a horrible death.
02:56You could see the blood pooling on the parking lot.
02:58I could see cut wounds to his body around the neck and the hands.
03:07The graphic evidence of a savage assault.
03:11The thumb was almost completely severed, which was later classified as a defensive wound by the pathologist.
03:20Investigators quickly call forensics officers to the scene, including Sergeant Tom Greer.
03:26He had multiple stab wounds, multiple cut marks on his body.
03:33But it is the deliberate and horrifying mutilation that takes them aback.
03:38I had never seen an attack that was that violent.
03:42He had horizontal slash wounds on his neck, both on the front and the back, almost to the point of being beheaded.
03:50And the grisly scene holds another important clue.
03:56There wasn't a lot of blood on the parking lot, consistent with a large struggle.
04:03So it didn't appear that this was the location of the murder.
04:07It appeared that this person had been murdered and then dropped there.
04:11A couple gentlemen had seen a cab leaving the area prior to 7 o'clock in the morning.
04:26We had no idea whether or not this person was a driver, was a passenger or anything about him at the time.
04:31Then, a crucial discovery.
04:36On the deceased was a cable bill, and that bill had a name and an address.
04:42So that was the first piece of information that we had to start working on this case.
04:47Bacchus and Sanson head back to the station to regroup.
04:51And we did some checks on that family name and the address on the police computer system to learn whatever we could.
04:58The cable bill is in the name of one Mohamedoula Saghani.
05:05Just after 4 p.m., eight hours since the discovery of his body, investigators make their way to the victim's West Toronto address.
05:15We described the clothing that the person was wearing.
05:18And at that time, the woman was able to tell us that that is the clothing that her husband was wearing when he left for work.
05:26It was at this point that she broke down immediately.
05:28We were told that he was a taxi cab driver in Toronto, and he owned his own cab.
05:43They learned that the 48-year-old was a hard-working family man who had moved to Canada from Afghanistan in 1990 to provide a better life for his five children.
05:55In his home country, Mohamedoula Saghani had been a medical doctor, but he'd had to leave the career he loved behind.
06:02Fellow cab driver, Mohamedoula Saghani, I always used to see him when he was sitting in a stand on his off times.
06:12He always had medical books with him.
06:15He was dreaming that he would go back into practice.
06:17But taxi dispatcher and friend Gene McDonald says Saghani was grateful just to have a job.
06:24Although it wasn't the same as he did in his homeland, you know, he was content with what he was here.
06:30According to Saghani's grieving wife, Nafisa, her husband had started his shift at 6.15 a.m.
06:37and was carrying with him an envelope of cash for deposit at the bank.
06:43Might the money provide a motive for this taxi driver's horrendous killing?
06:49Now the next thing for us was to try to locate that cab.
06:53And fast.
06:55It's likely going to be a secondary scene, if not the murder scene itself.
06:59To get any forensic value from it is very important.
07:04Investigators have launched a search for the cab.
07:06And are appealing to the public to help them find it.
07:10Police are looking for a back cab, Metro License 2221, and ask anyone with information to call them immediately.
07:18Within hours, every cab driver in the city has heard the news.
07:24Oh, it was shocking.
07:26It was horrible.
07:28He was an honest, hardworking man that wanted to support his family.
07:34And taxi dispatcher Gene McDonald can't understand why anyone would want to kill Saghani.
07:42If somebody got into a car with that gentleman, and that was their thought,
07:47they would find him so friendly that it would be actually hard to take his life.
07:53McDonald regularly traveled by cab, and Saghani was often the driver dispatched to pick him up.
08:04He was a different breed of taxi driver.
08:07Like, he was always happy.
08:10He was always well-groomed.
08:12His car was always immaculate.
08:14He was just a really good taxi driver, and he was a really good person.
08:17So who would stab Saghani more than 50 times, nearly behead him, and why?
08:26Twelve hours after his body was discovered, lead investigator Corey Bacchus gets word of an abandoned taxi.
08:33The cab was located in a strip mall close to where the victim lived.
08:38It was parked in a regular parking spot.
08:43It still had its roof light on, indicating that it was available for fares.
08:50Without touching the cab, we go up and we look inside, just to see what you can see.
08:58It is the scene of a bloodbath.
09:02There was a large amount of blood, both in the front seat and the back seat, and on the outside of the doors.
09:09One of the officers on the scene is Detective Kerry Watkins.
09:14It appeared as though the attack took place from behind and to the side.
09:19Samples were taken at the scene, and then the vehicle was taken to our secure facility.
09:26First thing we did with this taxi is I brought in a bloodstain pattern analyst.
09:31He found cast-off, which is blood flowing from a weapon during a strike inside the cab.
09:39Throughout the front seat area, they find extensive cuts in the vinyl.
09:45That confirmed my belief, you know, we had a violent attack, a knife blade swinging around with the deceased, fighting for his life.
09:53And bleeding to death.
09:57I found some bloody hand impressions on the ceiling of the taxi.
10:03Police must now confirm that the blood belongs to Mahamadullah Sagani.
10:07We'd wet the cotton portion of the swab with distilled water, and it would be transferred onto the cotton.
10:16We would air dry it to be submitted to the Center of Forensic Sciences for analysis.
10:19Then, using common packing tape, he begins the laborious search for any traces left behind by the killer.
10:29Whatever physical items are there, being hairs and fibers, adhere to the tape, and then it's secured and it's available for analysis later.
10:37But in this case, it's the proverbial search for the needle in the haystack.
10:43The biggest challenge we have, especially with public vehicles like taxis, is they're a smorgasbord of forensic evidence.
10:5048-year-old cab driver Mahamadullah Sagani is dead.
11:01The former medical doctor had fled his war-torn country of Afghanistan for a safe and peaceful life in Canada.
11:10A devout Muslim and devoted father of five, Sagani seemed to have no enemies.
11:16So why was his mutilated body dumped in a West Toronto parking lot, and his blood-soaked taxi abandoned in a nearby shopping plaza?
11:27We believe that the attack on the deceased happened inside the cab.
11:31While forensics officers continue to comb through Sagani's taxi, searching for a trace of the killer,
11:39lead investigator Corey Bacchus and her partner interview widow Nafisa Sagani and learn that her husband could be careless with his cash.
11:47She told us that the night before the murder, he had been sitting close to his home with his cab parked,
11:55and he was counting his earnings for the day.
11:59And that a gentleman came up to the window and looked into the cab and made some comment about the large amount of money.
12:07She was upset with him for, first of all, counting his money in that particular area, and for speaking to this man.
12:14She considered that was dangerous.
12:16Could that man have returned the following day to rob Mahamadullah Sagani?
12:23Or was a passenger responsible for his brutal death?
12:28Taxi company records show no indication that he'd been dispatched to any address that morning.
12:33Had Sagani picked up a fare on the street?
12:40It's very important when somebody's lagging on the street to make your decision whether you want to pick this person or not.
12:46These criminals, they know that taxi drivers always carry $100, $200 with them.
12:51You know, there's always cash.
12:53And it's an easy target.
12:54But is it too easy an explanation?
12:58There was an amount of cash still in the taxi.
13:01So if it was a robbery, it was a sloppy robbery because they didn't take all of the cash.
13:07Back at the strip mall, police are trying to determine when the cab appeared in the plaza parking lot and who was driving it.
13:15Luckily, we looked up onto the wall of the grocery store and there was a surveillance camera pointed right at that particular section of the parking lot.
13:23But did it capture an image of the person who abandoned Sagani's taxi in the lot?
13:29Police seize the camera tapes and take them back to the station.
13:35Lead investigator, Corey Bonkas.
13:37When we first looked at the tape, our main focus was finding when that cab came in.
13:43But it is a much-used tape and it seems unlikely they'll get anything from it.
13:51Then...
13:52When we did find the cab, we saw that it was driven in from the front of the mall and it turned directly into that one parking spot without stopping anywhere else.
14:01And we could see the dome light inside the cab go on and off, indicating that the door had opened and somebody had gotten out.
14:09And then we saw the vehicle that was parked immediately beside the cab.
14:13We saw the dome light go on and off in that vehicle.
14:16It appears that the driver, the person police believe killed Mohamedoula Sagani, had transferred from the cab to a parked van.
14:26And we could see the brake lights come on and that vehicle reverse and speed out of that parking lot.
14:32And it was that moment that we knew that we now had a direction in this case.
14:38Police are now convinced Sagani had been targeted and brutally dealt with.
14:43The autopsy report reveals that not only had he been stabbed in excess of 50 times, his spinal cord was severed and he was nearly decapitated.
14:55Who would have wanted to inflict such violence upon a seemingly harmless cab driver?
15:01And why?
15:03As investigators look more closely at the tape, they see another vehicle, a potential witness to the fleeing van.
15:10As the van was backing up to leave, another car was entering the lot from the opposite direction and had to brake to avoid colliding with this van.
15:21We were hoping that we would be able to identify one of the workers coming into one of the stores to see if they could recall being cut off by a van early in the morning.
15:30Because that person may be able to identify the van or the license plate.
15:38Investigators' next step is to see when the van arrived in the first place.
15:42Once we found that, we could see that somebody actually parked and we could see a shadow walking away from that parked vehicle, a van, to the north.
15:56And Mr. Sagani lived just less than a mile north of that location.
16:01So we have that occur around 4.50 in the morning.
16:06Then we know Mr. Sagani leaves his apartment around 6.15.
16:09Now we see the cab that he had been driving appear just prior to 7 o'clock.
16:14So we now know there's only a 45-minute window from when he left his house, when he was attacked, to when the cab was returned to the Kipling Heights Plaza.
16:22A carefully planned and executed murder committed by someone familiar with Sagani's daily routine.
16:32If investigators hope to catch this killer, they'll need to be equally as meticulous.
16:38It's just like chipping away at a mountain, like piece by piece by piece.
16:43We are looking for the person or persons in the third vehicle that was cut off by the fleeing vehicle.
16:49Then, January 1st, 2000, 48 hours after the murder of Mohamedoula Sagani, another taxi driver is murdered, this time in the nearby city of Brampton.
17:04Both involved a cab driver.
17:07Both involved stabbing with a knife.
17:10The killing sent a chill through the network of Toronto taxi drivers.
17:15We were all feeling unsafe, you know, especially after the other cab driver was murdered.
17:24We were all afraid.
17:26Who was this person?
17:27What's happening, you know?
17:31Two days later, Mohamedoula Sagani is buried in a solemn ceremony at his West Toronto mosque.
17:40And I can remember seeing the line of cabs as far as you could see.
17:47It was industry-wide that everybody came together.
17:50It was over a thousand probably.
17:52And I think the crime was so bad that it affected the whole community as a whole.
17:56Lead investigator Corey Bacchus and partner Craig Sanson traveled to Brampton, Ontario, to talk to local police about their community's murdered cabby.
18:14The two assailants in that case have now been caught, and investigators determined that they were both in jail on a previous offense when Sagani was killed.
18:23Therefore, they couldn't have been involved in Mr. Sagani's murder at all.
18:30But that doesn't stop angry taxi drivers from descending on Toronto headquarters, demanding that police take their fear and concern seriously.
18:40Lead investigator Corey Bacchus is asked to speak to the crowd.
18:44And by this time, I knew that we had that video of the van coming and going.
18:52So I was pretty confident that we would be able to solve this if we worked hard enough and had help from the community.
18:59We believe the suspect would have received injuries during this attack.
19:04And the community responds with a steady stream of tips, including a call from someone who'd come across a stolen van in the same vicinity as the murder.
19:15And when they looked in the van, they did find a knife with staining on it that appeared to be blood.
19:21Could this be the weapon used to kill Muhammadullah Sagani?
19:26Investigators eventually speak with the man who stole the van.
19:29He claimed that he was at a man's shelter during the time frame that our murder took place.
19:35That story was checked by confirming with authorities at that particular shelter and found to be true.
19:41After this knife was tested, I don't believe that there was any blood on it.
19:45It turned out to be paint, not blood.
19:47Then on January 7th, more than a week since Muhammadullah Sagani's murder, police get what they hope will be a break in the case.
19:58The witness to the fleeing van finally comes forward.
20:02She remembers having to break twice for this van as it backed out in front of her as she entered the lot.
20:07And she described it as a blue minivan with the double back doors.
20:11In order to be certain, investigators take the witness to a mall parking lot chock full of similar vehicles.
20:20And we drove up and down the lanes of the mall and asked her to look at all the vehicles and tell us if she recognized the type of vehicle.
20:31And she was consistent in her description of the van.
20:34Police reenact the blue double-doored minivan, leaving the same lot at the same time of the morning.
20:41But no make or model is a match for what's seen on the surveillance tape.
20:46It seems the witness's testimony has led investigators astray.
20:50So now we're back to square one.
20:52And we don't have anyone that can supply us information about that van.
20:57Meanwhile, forensic specialists glean whatever they can from Muhammadullah Sagani's cab.
21:03That's when they find a receipt in his name for a room at a local motel.
21:08We found out that Mrs. Sagani had been away for about a month before the murder.
21:16And during that time is the date of the hotel bill.
21:21So you immediately start to think that perhaps he's having an affair.
21:25And of course that becomes important to us because you've got what I would consider a rage murder.
21:30So a jealous husband, boyfriend, or whatever the case may be.
21:35Police pay a visit to the motel to interview the staff.
21:39No one recalls having seen Sagani or the woman who may have accompanied him.
21:44But it's enough to spark police to take a closer look at their victim's day-to-day life.
21:50We're looking to see who his friends are, what kind of businesses he may have been involved in, and also just his general habits.
22:01Well, Mr. Sagani was a quiet kind of fellow.
22:03He would stay amongst his family mostly.
22:06Another place that he would frequent, though, however, were these grocery stores where he would meet with people from the Afghani background.
22:13There was three different grocery or butcher shops that the family would use on a regular basis.
22:20So we attended those locations and spoke to the people there.
22:24One of the stores they visit is the Alhamra Meat Grocer in West Toronto.
22:29Butcher Zakrola Walazeida tells Bacchus that he is acquainted with Mohamedoula Sagani.
22:35That he didn't know him in a social setting.
22:38That he knew him as a customer that came to the butcher shop.
22:43The Alhamra Meat Grocer in West Toronto are still mourning the death of 48-year-old driver Mohamedoula Sagani when another taxi driver is murdered.
22:56Although investigators discover there's no connection between the two slayings, the killings have set the community on edge.
23:04We are the police!
23:05Police finally locate the woman who almost collided with the vehicle investigators believe was driven by Sagani's murderer.
23:14The witness remembers it as a blue minivan with double back doors.
23:18But a police recreation using just such a van shows it isn't a match for the vehicle on the actual surveillance video.
23:27In the meantime, forensic investigators searching through Mohamedoula Sagani's cab find evidence of his visit to a local motel.
23:36If he did attend with a female, it might be a married female with an angry husband.
23:42Though police locate no witnesses to Sagani's motel visit, they decide to take a closer look at his day-to-day life.
23:50Even speaking with local shopkeepers about his habits.
23:53When those visits turn up no leads, police ask Nafisa Sagani for access to the couple's bank statements.
24:01They're surprised by what they find.
24:04Lead investigator Corey Baucus.
24:07Mrs. Sagani had co-signed a loan for a gentleman, and the gentleman worked at the butcher shop.
24:1531-year-old Zakrola Walazeda, the same man who maintained that the Sagani's were just customers.
24:22The loan was never approved, but Baucus wonders why Nafisa would have co-signed for her butcher in the first place.
24:32It wouldn't be something where I would sign or co-sign a loan for somebody that worked at the grocery store that I frequented
24:41if I wasn't a friend of that person or didn't have a lot of contact with that person.
24:47Police decide to speak with both Nafisa and Zakrola Walazeda.
24:51The widow first denies having co-signed the loan, but later admits to doing it so that the butcher could return to the Middle East to see his family.
25:00She mentioned that it was Zakrola's mother that was sick in Pakistan, and that was the reason he had to travel there.
25:07But Zakrola, in his interview, tells a different story.
25:11Our information from Zakrola was he was going to see his father, who was sick.
25:16What's more, they both talked about going on a trip to Pakistan, and they gave accounts of being at the airport and seeing the other person so that we knew that they were on the same plane.
25:30And we also knew that they returned at the same time.
25:36Part of the purpose of the trip for Mississagani was to go to an engagement party.
25:43Police seek out other guests and find one who has a videotape of the celebrations.
25:49Police screen it and are intrigued by what they find.
25:52Nafisa is seen here in red.
25:55Her date for the do, none other than Zakrola Walazeda.
26:01It seems that not only is the wife of their victim having an affair with her butcher.
26:06It would appear that their relationship existed far before the murder of Mr. Sagani.
26:12Despite the video evidence, Nafisa insists there is nothing going on between her and Zakrola.
26:20But investigators continue to scrutinize the widow and the man police believe to be her lover.
26:28March 2000, three months into the investigation.
26:32And with Muhammadullah Sagani's killer still at large, Nafisa tells police her husband's violent death has made her too afraid to remain in the family home.
26:43She was scared, and one thing that she had asked us, if she could move from the location.
26:49But as police will soon discover, Nafisa Sagani's plans are not just to move, but to move on.
26:56She appeared to have bought new clothes, she had bought new furniture, she appeared to be starting fresh.
27:08Curious about Nafisa's sudden and striking transformation, police decide to put a surveillance team on the widow.
27:16I believe it was early April.
27:17We wanted to conduct some surveillance on Nafisa's activities to see what her day would entail.
27:23Where would she go, who would she see, things like that.
27:25Two cars are assigned to tail Nafisa.
27:29One of them is driven by Detective Kerry Watkins.
27:32She left her residence in her vehicle.
27:35They picked her up initially, radioed to me.
27:38I picked her up subsequently.
27:41And followed her to a plaza.
27:44So she parked her vehicle, she exited the vehicle, went into the mall.
27:50The officer assisting left on foot to follow into the mall.
27:55It seems Nafisa Sagani is simply doing a little shopping.
27:59Then...
28:00We saw her walk out of the north door of the mall, and she walked directly to Zakrola's van and got in the front passenger seat.
28:07Butcher Zakrola Walizadeh, the man for whom Nafisa Sagani had co-signed a loan, and her companion on a trip to Pakistan.
28:17And for the first time, police see that Walizadeh drives a van, despite having told police he owns a small car.
28:25We follow them for some distance into a town just north of Toronto.
28:31The officers are astounded by what they see.
28:34It would appear that Mr. Walizadeh and Mrs. Sagani were going to a hotel to be together.
28:41It is a defining moment in the investigation.
28:45If their relationship was an intimate relationship, that might be a very strong possibility that this is a motive for murder.
28:54For investigators on the Mohamedoula Sagani murder, it is an intriguing case of twists and turns.
29:08The Toronto cab driver was not the victim of a random killing, but a targeted homicide.
29:14And Sagani had secrets in his life, uncovered by lead investigator Corey Bacchus.
29:22We know that he did go to a hotel for one night.
29:27One of the possibilities would be that the gentleman's meeting a female.
29:32But the 48-year-old father of five was, by all accounts, a family man who liked nothing more than to be at home
29:40and to visit the small stores in his West Toronto neighborhood.
29:44Like the El Hamra meat grocer, where butcher Zakrola Walizadeh admits to being acquainted with the Sagani's.
29:53He knew them as customers to the store, his store, and he had never been to their home.
30:00But the Sagani's bank records indicate that Sagani's wife, Nafisa, had offered to co-sign a loan for Walizadeh.
30:07Then investigators discovered that not only had the butcher and Nafisa traveled to Pakistan on the same plane,
30:18they had also attended an engagement celebration together for one of her friends.
30:23Now you start adding them together, and you're starting to get a bit of a suspicion of these two.
30:31When police put a tail on Nafisa Sagani, they see her meet Zakrola Walizadeh,
30:36get into his minivan, and drive to a local motel.
30:40I'm thinking that we've just started a new adventure on this case.
30:47That's when the couple suddenly spot the surveillance team.
30:51They looked in my direction, the both of them.
30:54They became suspicious and left.
30:56At their first opportunity, police speak to the butcher yet again.
31:04Zakrola said that he had met Nafisa in the mall by chance.
31:08She was sitting having a coffee, which we knew was not correct.
31:12And that she was looked very nervous and that she'd been followed by somebody right from her home.
31:18So he was helping her by taking her away from the mall and taking her someplace where they could talk.
31:24That is what he told me his motivation was to drive to a motel outside of the city with Mrs. Sagani.
31:31Investigators now know that Zakrola owns a van.
31:35Although it doesn't match the description of the vehicle reported by the witness in the parking lot,
31:41police believe it may nonetheless be a match for the van captured on the surveillance tape.
31:47They mount a second recreation, this time using the same make and model owned by the butcher.
31:52The results.
31:54It was the closest we were going to get to a match.
31:58And the closest they'd come to identifying a suspect.
32:02We believe that we had the same kind of van being driven from the crime scene.
32:07And that exact kind of van is owned by Zakrola, who we now know has been in an affair with Nafisa.
32:12That was the first time that we had a potential motive for the murder of Mr. Sagani.
32:20Officers seized Zakrola's van in order to look for Mohamedullah Sagani's DNA.
32:27Some blood was found on the gas pedal, as well as some small blood drops on the floor of the car.
32:33Those were sampled and they turned out to be animal blood.
32:35Not out of the ordinary for a butcher.
32:39Police now look for evidence of Zakrola in Sagani's cab.
32:44But they'll need a blood sample from Zakrola in order to compare it.
32:49He advised that he was actually, I believe, allergic to blood.
32:52And that was of interest to us, considering that this was a gentleman that dealt with blood and meat on a daily basis.
33:02Zakrola eventually agrees to the blood sample.
33:05But forensics officers don't find any of his DNA in Sagani's cab.
33:10With only circumstantial evidence against the butcher, police can't muster a murder charge.
33:17Lead investigator Corey Baucus is running out of options.
33:20We have already done surveillance.
33:24We have done the search warrant.
33:26We have done the DNA testing.
33:28We don't have fingerprints.
33:30So you go to wiretaps.
33:33But wiretaps require approval from a judge.
33:37And getting that takes time.
33:39It's not until June 2000, six months after Sagani's murder, that investigators finally receive the court's blessing,
33:49allowing them to listen to and record the many conversations between Nafisa and the butcher.
33:55We hear that there is a very intimate relationship between the two people.
34:16Investigators decide it's time to get tough with Nafisa Sagani.
34:42This was the first time that we went and confronted her with all the evidence that we had.
34:51Nafisa's co-signing a bank loan for the butcher, the couple's trip to Pakistan, the motel visit, and their intimate phone conversations.
35:00The interview lasted close to four hours at her kitchen table.
35:06She admitted to the relationship being in existence long before the murder.
35:12But Nafisa flatly denies having had any involvement in her husband's death.
35:18She does, however, provide police with a crucial detail about her lover.
35:23After the murder, she had sex with him and noticed he had small cuts on his chest area.
35:30And investigators have a theory about how Walizeta got them.
35:34During the frenzied attack of the knife being swung and Mr. Sagani fighting back,
35:39it is conceivable that Xerola could have been cut by the knife himself.
35:43At this point of our investigation, we've made both Mr. Walizeta and Mrs. Sagani aware
35:48that we believe that there are suspects in this murder.
35:51Seven months after the savage stabbing of cab driver Mohamedoula Sagani,
36:00his wife Nafisa is feeling the heat.
36:04Police tail her to a West Toronto mall where she meets butcher Xerola Walizeta.
36:10Then the two attempt to check into a hotel in a neighboring town.
36:14That's when the lovers spot the surveillance team.
36:17But police have already taken note of Xerola's van.
36:21Investigators compare it to the van caught on surveillance tape
36:26at the parking lot where Sagani's cab was dumped.
36:29They get a match.
36:31We have a new direction.
36:33And we have a good lead.
36:36And now we're going to start working on that.
36:39Officers seize and search Zachrola's van,
36:42but find no DNA evidence from Sagani.
36:45Nor do they find Zachrola's DNA inside the victim's blood-soaked cab.
36:50As a last resort, police tap the phone conversations
36:54between the widow and her butcher.
36:56Then they confront Nafisa,
37:07who finally admits to her ongoing relationship with Zachrola Walizeta,
37:11but she denies having anything to do with her husband's murder.
37:16Then she tells them...
37:17That Mr. Walizeta did not have a cut on his chest before the murder,
37:23but that she did see the cut after the murder.
37:26But without solid proof of Walizeta's involvement in the gruesome killing,
37:31lead investigator Corey Bacchus must continue to look for the evidence she'll need to convict him.
37:37And at this point, Mrs. Sagani starts to distance herself from Mr. Walizeta,
37:46and she starts being involved with other people, other gentlemen.
37:52According to Nafisa, the butcher sees her returning from a date
37:56and confronts her on her doorstep.
37:59He was very, very angry that she had been seeing another man.
38:02He said to her words to the effect,
38:05I will kill you as I killed your husband.
38:08Nafisa's son-in-law is witness to the butcher's threat.
38:13Corey Bacchus knows that with his testimony,
38:15she can finally lay charges against Zachrola Walizeta.
38:19At that point in time, I put things into action
38:22to arrest Zachrola Walizeta for the murder of Mr. Sagani.
38:28After 10 months of painstaking investigation,
38:31police finally have their suspect in custody.
38:35He was given his opportunity to speak to his lawyer.
38:39He waived all of that,
38:41and we had a videotaped conversation with him.
38:45And though he's being charged with murder,
38:48all Zachrola Walizeta wants to talk about
38:51is Nafisa Sagani having dumped him for a new man.
38:54He admitted to the affair
39:04and admitted to the being upset
39:06and things like that,
39:08but did not give us any further information.
39:10As for the knife wounds Nafisa said
39:13appeared on her lover's chest after the murder,
39:16the butcher has an explanation.
39:18Because the meat is coming too heavy,
39:20150, 160 pounds.
39:23Sometimes I cut from here,
39:25and sometimes the knife is coming like this.
39:29And even though investigators make it clear
39:31they're not buying Walizeta's story.
39:34At no time during that interview
39:37did he confess to murdering Mr. Sagani.
39:40But the prosecution paints a picture
39:43of a jealous butcher
39:44who wanted Nafisa Sagani all to himself,
39:48that he had meticulously planned her husband's murder,
39:51then executed it in a blood-chilling rage.
39:54And on January 17, 2003,
39:59three years after the murder of Muhammadullah Sagani,
40:02a jury finds Zachrola Walizeta
40:04guilty of first-degree murder.
40:07He is sentenced to life in prison
40:09with no chance of parole for 25 years.
40:13If my assumption is correct,
40:15that he did this out of love for Nafisa,
40:18and now he's sitting in a jail cell,
40:20it boggles my mind that he wouldn't
40:21tell us the whole story.
40:23In 2007, Walizeta sought to overturn
40:27his murder conviction,
40:29but his appeal was denied.
40:31As for the widow, Nafisa...
40:33We have no evidence that would support
40:36charging Mrs. Sagani with any part of this crime.
40:41To date, there has been no further evidence obtained
40:43that would allow us to do so.
40:45In 2008, Corey Bacchus was promoted to inspector
40:49with the Toronto Police Department.
40:51For more information,
40:54go to myviva.ca
40:56forward slash murder she saw.
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