- 4 days ago
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.
01:57The emergency, please sign or ambulance.
02:01I just came to 37 Iron Street.
02:03There's this dead guy lying on the ground, bleeding or...
02:06Okay, 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, uh, torn off.
02:15Okay, could you see where he was bleeding from besides the thumb?
02:18Oh, 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.
02:31Okay.
02:35Lead investigator Corey Bacchus 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, um, suffered a horrible death.
02:56You could see the blood pooling on the parking lot.
03:01I could see, uh, cut wounds to his body around the neck and the hands.
03:07The graphic evidence of a savage assault.
03:10The 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.
03:27He 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.
03:42Uh, he had, uh, horizontal slash wounds on his neck, both on the front and, and the back, almost to the point of, uh, being beheaded.
03:50And the grisly scene holds another important clue.
03:57There wasn't a lot of blood on the, uh, parking lot, consistent with a large struggle.
04:02So 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.
04:12Who was this victim?
04:14Where was he killed?
04:15And by whom?
04:17Interviews with local workers provide police with a lead.
04:21A couple gentlemen had seen a cab leaving the area prior to 7 o'clock in the morning.
04:25We had no idea whether or not this person was a driver, was a passenger, or, or anything about him at the time.
04:33Then, a crucial discovery.
04:36On the deceased was a cable bill.
04:38And 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.
04:50And we did some checks on that family name and the address on the police computer system to learn whatever we could.
04:59The 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.
05:14We 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.
05:25It was at this point that she broke down immediately.
05:31Bacchus and Sanson gather as much information as possible from the victim's widow.
05:37We're told that he was a taxi cab driver in Toronto and he owned his own cab.
05:44They 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.
06:05Fellow cab driver Mohamed Khawadji.
06:07I 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.
06:18But taxi dispatcher and friend, Gene McDonald, says Saghani was grateful just to have a job.
06:25Although 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 is 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 and 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.
07:17Within hours, every cab driver in the city has heard the news.
07:24Oh, it was shocking.
07:26It was horrible.
07:29He was an honest, hardworking man that wanted to support his family.
07:35And taxi dispatcher Gene McDonald can't understand why anyone would want to kill Saghani.
07:41If somebody got into a car with that gentleman, and that was their thought, they would find him so friendly, that it would be actually hard to take his life.
07:56McDonald regularly traveled by cab, and Saghani was often the driver dispatched to pick him up.
08:03He 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.
08:18So who would stab Saghani more than 50 times?
08:23Nearly behead him?
08:24And why?
08:2512 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.
08:40It 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.
08:55It 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.
09:26The first 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.
09:44That confirmed my belief, you know, we had a violent attack.
09:48The knife blade swinging around with the deceased, fighting for his life.
09:54And bleeding to death.
09:56I 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.
10:5648-year-old cab driver Mahamadullah Sagani is dead.
11:00The 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.
11:17So why was his mutilated body dumped in a West Toronto parking lot?
11:22And his blood-soaked taxi abandoned in a nearby shopping plaza?
11:26We believe that the attack on the deceased happened inside the cab.
11:32While 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
11:43and learn that her husband could be careless with his cash.
11:48She told us that the night before the murder, he had been sitting close to his home with his cab parked,
11:54and 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.
12:08She was upset with him for, first of all, counting his money in that particular area,
12:12and for speaking to this man.
12:14She considered that was dangerous.
12:15Could that man have returned the following day to rob Muhammadullah 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?
12:41It'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?
12:57There 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,
13:18and 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?
13:30Police seize the camera tapes and take them back to the station.
13:35Lead investigator, Corey Bacchus.
13:38When 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,
13:57and 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.
14:17It appears that the driver, the person police believe killed Mohamedoula Sagani,
14:22had transferred from the cab to a parked van.
14:25And 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.
14:44The autopsy report reveals that not only had he been stabbed in excess of 50 times,
14:50his spinal cord was severed, and he was nearly decapitated.
14:55Who would have wanted to inflict such violence upon a seemingly harmless cab driver, and why?
15:03As investigators look more closely at the tape, they see another vehicle, a potential witness to the fleeing van.
15:11As the van was backing up to leave, another car was entering the lot from the opposite direction
15:16and had to brake to avoid colliding with this van.
15:18We were hoping that we would be able to identify one of the workers coming in to one of the stores
15:26to see if they could recall being cut off by a van early in the morning.
15:31Because 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,
15:49and 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 6.50.
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,
16:19when 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,
16:59another 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 killings send 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 is this person?
17:27What's happening, you know?
17:28Two 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,
18:09to talk to local police about their community's murdered cabby.
18:14The two assailants in that case have now been caught,
18:18and 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,
18:36demanding 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
18:57and 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,
19:08including a call from someone who'd come across a stolen van in the same vicinity as the murder.
19:14And 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.
19:50Then on January 7th, more than a week since Muhammadullah Sagani's murder,
19:55police get what they hope will be a break in the case.
19:57The 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.
20:13In 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
20:26and tell us if she recognized the type of vehicle.
20:29Police reenacted 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, and 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.
21:31So a jealous husband, boyfriend, or whatever the case may be.
21:34Police 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.
21:59Well, 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.
22:14There 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.
22:23One of the stores they visit is the Alhamra Meat Grocer in West Toronto.
22:29Butcher Zekrola Walazeda tells Bacchus that he is acquainted with Mohamedoula Sagani.
22:35That he didn't know him in a social setting, that he knew him as a customer that came to the butcher shop.
22:41Toronto area cabbies 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.
23:04Police 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.
23:19But a police recreation using just such a van shows it isn't a match for the vehicle on the actual surveillance video.
23:26In 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.
24:23The 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.
24:46Police 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.
25:06But Zakrola, in his interview, tells a different story.
25:12Our information from Zakrola was he was going to see his father, who was sick.
25:17What's more?
25:18They both talked about going on a trip to Pakistan, and they gave accounts of being at the airport and seeing the other person,
25:28so that we knew that they were on the same plane, and 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 due, 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.
26:13Despite the video evidence, Nafisa insists there is nothing going on between her and Zakrola.
26:19But investigators continue to scrutinize the widow and the man police believe to be her lover.
26:28March 2000, three months into the investigation, and with Muhammadullah Sagani's killer still at large,
26:36Nafisa tells police her husband's violent death has made her too afraid to remain in the family home.
26:42She 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.
27:15I believe it was early April.
27:17We wanted to conduct some surveillance on Nafisa's activities to see what her day would entail, where would she go, who would she see, things like that.
27:26Two cars are assigned to tail Nafisa.
27:29One of them is driven by Detective Carrie Watkins.
27:32She left her residence in her vehicle.
27:35They picked her up initially, radioed to me.
27:38I picked her up subsequently, and 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 Sekrola's van and got in the front passenger seat.
28:07Butcher Sekrola 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.
28:26We follow them for some distance into a town just north of Toronto.
28:31The officers are astounded by what they see.
28:33It would appear that Mr. Walizadeh and Mrs. Sagani were going to a hotel to be together.
28:42It is a defining moment in the investigation.
28:46If 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 Cori 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.
29:31But the 48-year-old father of five was, by all accounts, a family man who liked nothing more than to be at home and to visit the small stores in his West Toronto neighborhood.
29:45Like 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.
30:10Then investigators discovered that not only had the butcher and Nafisa traveled to Pakistan on the same plane,
30:17they had also attended an engagement celebration together for one of her friends.
30:24Now 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, get into his minivan, and drive to a local motel.
30:42I'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.
30:53The both of them, they became suspicious and left.
30:59At 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.
31:11So he was helping her by taking her away from the mall and taking her someplace where they could talk.
31:23That is what he told me his motivation was to drive to a motel outside of the city with Mrs. Sagani.
31:30Investigators now know that Zakrola owns a van.
31:34Although it doesn't match the vehicle reported by the witness in the parking lot, police believe it may nonetheless be a match for the van captured on the surveillance tape.
31:46They mount a second recreation, this time using the same make and model owned by the butcher.
31:52The results?
31:53It was the closest we were going to get to a match.
31:57And the closest they'd come to identifying a suspect.
32:01We 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.
32:13That was the first time that we had a potential motive for the murder of Mr. Sagani.
32:19Officers seized Zakrola's van in order to look for Mohamedoula 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.
32:36Not 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.
32:48He advised that he was actually, I believe, allergic to blood.
32:53That 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.
33:16Lead investigator Cori Bacchus is running out of options.
33:22We 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.
33:32But wiretaps require approval from a judge.
33:37And getting that takes time.
33:40It'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,
40:19it boggles my mind that he wouldn't tell us the whole story.
40:23In 2007, Walizeta sought to overturn his 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, go to myviva.ca
40:56forward slash murdershesaw.
40:58The
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