Killers: Caught on Camera (2023-…): Season 1, Episode 9 - Omar and Marena - full transcript
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It just sounds like something bad
is happening to her.
-I heard her scream, "No, stop it."
-I heard some gunshots.
Drop it, whatever it is, drop it.
It is not true that I killed my wife.
We know what happened because
the video tells us what happened.
The camera doesn't lie.
This time
on Killers Caught on Camera.
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.
...when her brother goes missing.
Any sign of the person is huge.
There was human hair
coming out of one of the holes
near the bottom.
And in the UK,
a stalker's obsession...
He'd been spotted repeatedly
walking in front of her workplace.
...turns violent.
This woman has got no idea
what's going to happen to her.
Chula Vista,
a southern neighborhood
of San Diego, California.
Home to Omar Medina and his sister,
Alicia.
We have 70-degree weather
during winter, you know.
It's beautiful,
it's the city of sunshine.
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.
When Omar received a large sum
of money in a settlement
from a lawsuit, he decided to
use some of it to help family.
My brother had given my mom
a check for $10,000
and he told her, you know,
"You can cash this check."
He really wanted the best
for our family.
Omar and I would come to this park
just so we could walk or just talk
about how the day was going.
It was more like a mother-child type
of relationship than brother-sister.
She's been like my second mother,
been there through thick and thin.
-And she's awesome.
-He never took an actual music class,
he just knew it, like, by ear
and he was very talented.
A really good drummer
and then he picked up piano
and then he picked up guitar
and he would write songs.
He would tell me, you know,
"One day I'm gonna win a Grammy,"
and, you know,
it's just like, "Yeah, yes, you are."
He would talk to me
about his plans of having a family.
Kids, a wife, just-- You know,
he wanted the whole thing,
like, and a house
with the picket fence.
And it is good memories
of good conversations here.
In the summer of 2017,
Omar moved into a shared
house on McIntosh Street.
Cherie Somerville
was a district attorney.
So Omar used to hang out with some,
you know, buddies.
They lived next to someone
named Greg Cook.
Greg took Omar under his wing,
sort of like a father figure,
helped him set up a bank account
where he deposited the $84,000
from the lawsuit,
gave him a job,
you know, sold him a car.
Greg's brother, Tim,
sublet a room in his house to Omar.
In the backyard of that house
is sort of a--
They refer to it as a game room
but it's more like a granny flat,
kind of a very basic room
with four walls and a door.
No water or anything like that.
So Omar ended up moving into that.
He liked the fact that he could
do his music in the backyard.
No one really bothered him.
Omar enjoyed his independence
but maintained close contact
with his family.
Omar and I would talk consistently.
Omar would talk
to my mom every day.
Like, multiple times a day.
So we knew pretty much
where Omar was at all the time.
If not,
we would check in with each other.
On September 30th, 2017,
Omar went round
to his mother's apartment.
It was in the same block
as Alicia's.
This is the place where
we pretty much lived for 15 years.
I remember walking out of
our apartment and he happened to
walk out of my mom's apartment
at the same time.
And my daughter ran out and yelled
his name and she gave him a hug.
I could tell
that he was a little bit anxious.
Omar told me that-- You know,
he's 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."
I told him,
"You know what, it's okay."
I saw his car. I turned to his car
and his car was full of his stuff.
And I said, "Where are you going?"
I remember asking. He said,
"I'm just going to go drive around."
I said, "Okay."
And then I just saw him
get in the car and I just stood there
and then I just watched him, like,
take off.
Alicia was worried
when Omar sent her
several messages later that evening.
So I saw that the light would turn.
That means he received a message.
I'm like, "His phone's on.
He received it. He'll answer later."
But I messaged him later that night
and then it didn't go through.
The next morning, though,
my mom calls me
and she tells me,
"Have you spoken with Omar?"
And that's when I started
to get a little bit worried.
Omar's mother tried to call him
but all attempts
went straight to voicemail.
Alicia decided she needed to speak
to Omar's roommate, Tim.
She wanted to know if Omar had
gone home the previous night.
At first I actually just got
a voicemail. I didn't get him.
So then a few hours later, he called
me and he told me that he had,
that he 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.
At that point the family decides
that they need to contact the police
because something's obviously
not right here.
I told them
that my brother was missing
and just some things
were not adding up
and that we needed help
to locate him.
Alicia didn't get the help she was
looking for from the authorities.
If somebody is over the age of 18
and unless they have
a medical condition,
they will not go look for them.
That's, you know, what I was told.
You know, when you're an adult,
you can go missing.
People do go missing
of their own volition.
Alicia was desperate for answers
and decided
to take matters
into her own hands.
I called the hospitals.
I checked in the jails.
I started looking for him, you know,
wherever I can.
Then after that I started to look
for his phone records.
I wanted to see his outgoing calls,
I wanted to see incoming calls.
Who was the last people
he had conversations with.
In a situation like this,
time is of the essence.
So I went to the telephone company.
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 desperate because
my brother had been missing.
She was kind enough to give me
his password.
And we were able to see
all outgoing calls.
And I didn't find anything
other than him calling my mom.
So we didn't really have
any information.
When somebody's missing,
it's like the worst feeling
you could possibly feel.
Are they in danger?
Do they need help?
Like, it's so-- The desperation
of somebody missing is just horrible.
Alicia had no solid leads but was
determined to find her brother,
she continued her investigation
with friends from church.
And it just so happens
that on that day,
which was October 7th,
one of the people
in their search party
located Omar's car.
I had a lot of emotions going on
because, you know, like,
we finally found something.
It had been a week.
When you have somebody missing,
any sign of the person,
you know, any clue,
anything that leads to something
is huge.
Robyn Garrette was an officer
at the Chula Vista
Police Department.
A normal everyday call. Didn't think
anything was going to come of it.
But Omar's car was
in the wrong place and abandoned.
When I met with the sister,
she explained to me
that his car was parked several
blocks from where he actually lived.
It was unlocked. It was stacked
with property inside of it,
which is not normal
when you have visible electronics,
things of value in the car.
The case was escalated
to Detective LeVar Brown.
Finding the vehicle
around the corner from his house,
that was a big, big, big flag for us.
If someone's on a road trip
or something,
they're going to take their car.
Or if they were moving,
they're going to move with their car.
They're not going to park it
around the corner,
with all their belongings
still unlocked.
So those things--
That really raised some red flags
like this is something
more suspicious,
it's more than just a missing person
who just hasn't contacted
their family in a few days.
I asked the officer
if she could please go to the house
and see if he was there.
If they could find any indication
of what could have happened.
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.
That was like the first time
I felt, like, a relief
because somebody was going
to look for him.
Like, things are starting to move.
Me and my partner
walked up to the house
and I knocked on the door.
Timothy Cook answered
and I'd asked if he had seen Omar,
that his sister
had been looking for him.
Tim had explained to me that
he had not seen him in several days,
that he had moved out just recently,
that all of his property was gone
and I asked him if it would be okay
if I can come into the house
to check and see if Omar's property
or if anything else was in there,
maybe help find
where Omar may have gone.
He led us through in the living room
and I just basically followed him
and I wondered where Omar's room
was and he said it was out back.
And when he said "out back,"
I didn't realize it was a house
actually in the backyard
and the first thing I noticed
was that when you walk
to the little house that there was
a broom and some debris.
Looked like carpet had been removed
and there was a puddle of water
and I noticed that there was
a shattered window in the back.
And to me it didn't seem like anyone
had recently lived there.
Tim told me that it was how Omar
lived, he was a very messy person.
Officer Garrette continued to search
for clues in the house.
Alicia took the opportunity
to look through receipts
found in Omar's car.
A paper trail of expenditure
helped her calculate some
of Omar's last movements.
I knew that he had gone to a CVS,
I knew he had gone to eat
at Jack in the Box,
it was the last place
he'd gone to eat.
It gave me some sort of,
like, okay,
I knew these are the places
he was at.
I took the receipts
to the police station
and I told the detective
that was assigned at the moment,
"These are the last places
that my brother was at.
You know, you could go
and get the surveillance footage."
By October 12th,
Omar had been missing 12 days.
Alicia continued
to gather her own evidence.
Then a significant and gruesome
discovery changed everything.
There was a man named Skip Horton.
He actually cleans
the bottom of boats.
So he had gone out in a dinghy
on the bay here in San Diego.
He was on his way to clean a boat
on the other side
near Coronado Island.
And he came across a 55-gallon drum
that was floating
in the middle of the bay.
He called the San Diego Harbor
Police Department
and called it in as a boating hazard.
Most people don't realize
that the edges of the bay are deeper,
to allow for boats to travel.
However, the middle, where
the barrel was dropped, isn't deep.
Earlier in the day we're down
to four feet,
so you can imagine four feet of water
with a barrel that's three feet,
it's not going to hide well in there.
So they didn't do their research.
As they began lifting it,
they realized there were steel cables
drilled into the barrel
and tied to cinderblocks,
a makeshift anchor if you will,
to hold the barrel down.
Then they got the barrel back
onto the boat
and there were some holes drilled
in it. When they looked inside,
they saw, like,
a brown fur or blanket.
You can see a hand sticking out.
There was what appeared to be
human hair
coming out of one of the holes
near the bottom.
So then, in fact, we knew
we had a human body and it was--
a homicide investigation
began at that point.
The chief of police
was now involved.
It has to go through the autopsy
and identification
but we start checking immediately.
Do we have missing person cases?
Oh, well, we have a missing person
in Chula Vista.
So all these little pieces
come together.
The deceased had been stabbed
and had sharp-force injuries
to various parts of his body.
There were 66 sharp-force injuries.
When police combined the autopsy
and missing person reports,
they could confirm
that the body was Omar Medina.
Alicia was informed.
Hey, they just told you they found
your loved one in a barrel, dead.
It is incredibly hard to think
of what my brother went through.
He was stabbed in the heart,
in the nose.
He was stabbed in the neck.
Once it's discovered that, yes,
this was a positive identification,
this is Omar Medina's body,
then the police start working on
getting search warrants
for various locations.
The warrants included
CCTV footage from the marina.
A potentially vital
electronic witness
to how Omar's body
ended up in the water.
We knew when the barrel was
recovered, so we requested video
from different partners
so we can surveil the video,
figure out when Omar
and the barrel went into the water.
These two cameras played a vital role
because a vehicle
with a boat attached
was seen backing up into this harbor,
about where we are standing now.
The footage revealed two men
launching a boat into the water.
Now we're starting to get factual
evidence and things to follow up on.
We learned that a certain vehicle,
which was a green Ford F-150,
was seen at the residence
where Omar used to reside.
We were eventually able to see
that the barrel was
in the boat at the time.
The truck was registered
to Tim Cook's brother, Greg.
When questioned, Greg told police
that Tim borrowed it
as he needed to get out of town.
He told his brother, Greg Cook,
that he was actually
in northern California because
he needed to get some of his items
from his girlfriend's residence
in Oroville.
The recording of the truck
contradicted Tim's alibi.
Detectives turned their attention
to re-tracing Omar's footsteps.
The key is you want as many
cameras out there as you can
because they tell the real story.
We really had to, you know,
work backwards
and put all of this together
and figure out, you know, okay,
what happened to Omar?
You know, when did the homicide
actually occur?
And then how was it that he ended up
in a drum out in the bay?
Alicia's detective work
with the receipts
helped police discover footage
of Omar's last movements.
We know from video surveillance
that was collected
that he went to, you know,
a CVS or Rite Aid type of store,
bought some items.
Then from there, he went
to a Jack in the Box, got some food,
and that Jack in the Box happens
to be very close to McIntosh Street.
From there, the call detail records
for Omar's phone number
showed that he was actually back
at that residence
on the afternoon of the 30th.
But the police still needed
to identify
the owner of the boat filmed
at the marina.
The video quality wasn't good enough,
so we assigned an actual detective
to research the boats and
she actually did an excellent job.
And based off the sticker pattern and
the colors on the side of the boat,
the company was able to say what
year they believe the boat was in.
Through an incredible process of
elimination, they found the owner.
The boat's registered to somebody
that Tim Cook knows.
We were able to go in a helicopter
from one of our local
law enforcement agencies,
fly over the residence
and spotted the boat on the property.
The helicopter confirmed
that the boat belonged
to Derrick Spurgeon,
who was a friend of Omar's
roommate, Tim Cook.
Focus then turned
to the green truck.
We were able to track the green truck
leaving that residence
with the boat in tow,
driving past this intersection
from the elder community,
then pulling into a nearby
convenience store with a gas station
where they filled up gas.
A figure in a red T-shirt
and white shorts
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.
It was Tim Cook,
Omar's roommate.
The same man who had showed
Officer Robyn Garrette
around the house 33 days earlier.
We got our suspect with the barrel,
which we believe Omar Medina
was in at the time.
So that video surveillance
was very critical.
Police had now identified
the two men in the truck
as Tim Cook
and his friend Derrick Spurgeon.
It captured them taking
the boat out into the bay.
And you can actually see
a white cylindrical object
in the hull of the boat.
Video surveillance was able to show
that they only went out on the water
for approximately an hour,
you know, which is
a fairly short time to be out.
We believe they worked together.
Derrick Spurgeon helped him.
They attached to the barrel
that was made of a rope wire
and cinderblocks,
hoping that that would sink
the barrel.
And then they disposed of the body
out in the bay.
Then leaving the marina
and then driving by another business,
a private business that had video
and then driving back
by the convenience store.
According to the world's
biggest report on homicide,
80 percent of the victims
of homicides are men and boys
and 90 percent of the perpetrators.
So most killing, most murder as well,
is a man killing another man.
Another key recording revealed
Omar's car being moved
the day after he went missing.
Through video surveillance,
detectives are able to piece together
that Tim Cook then drives
Omar Medina's car
away from the residence
several blocks down the road
and parks it on Oaklawn
with all of Omar's belongings
still in it.
Then on the video, you see Tim Cook,
who we believe to be Tim Cook--
you couldn't see the person's face
but it has similar posture
and stature-- walk towards
the McIntosh house from there.
We started surveillance there
where Omar lived with Tim Cook.
We believe that the crime scene was
actually in that corner of the room.
And the drywall was removed.
The flooring was removed
in order to prevent forensic evidence
being collected from the scene.
Also, after Omar went missing,
Tim Cook's suspicious behavior
continued.
Revealed by point-of-sale footage.
They were able to get video
surveillance from a Home Depot,
which showed him buying a tarp,
a scrub brush,
simple green, concentrated cleaner.
We were also able to capture him
on video surveillance
at another convenience store
where he was purchasing gloves.
He was dressed sort of
in an outfit that you'd wear
if you were working manually.
It was significant
because during that time
when he was running around
doing these errands to, you know,
clean up and cover up his crime,
we had text messages showing
that he told his brother, Greg Cook,
that he was actually
in northern California.
And so he's sort of kept up this,
you know, this lie, this façade
that he was out of town while he was
here in San Diego County
cleaning up the crime scene
and disposing of the body.
We saw Mr. Cook in the driveway,
power-washing stuff,
loading bags of trash,
wet rags thrown into his vehicle
and then leaving the house.
The same phone records hinted
at a strained relationship
between Tim Cook and Omar.
It came to a head the night
before Omar was murdered.
We knew that
on September 29th,
Tim Cook was very upset
with Omar Medina.
He had a friend over at the house
who he was introducing Omar to.
According to text messages
that Tim Cook sent,
Omar was extremely intoxicated
when this person
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 acted
in front of this person.
Also Mr. Cook talked about
Omar's cleanliness
and called Omar a dirty pig
and saying that it's not going good
for Omar right now.
A search of his phone and browsing
history provided more clues
as to Tim Cook's motive
for murdering Omar.
From text messages
that we were able to recover,
it was pretty apparent
that this whole situation
with Omar living in the back house
was really just a financial situation
because Tim Cook
didn't have very much money.
It was apparent that Tim Cook knew
that Omar Medina had received
this $84,000 settlement
from a legal case.
Tim Cook had copies
of Omar Medina's bank information,
personal identifying information
and basically had access
to his savings and bank account.
People knew that he had this money,
this new money
and that information was
in Mr. Cook's cloud account.
Detectives believed that ultimately
Tim was after Omar's money.
Tim Cook repeatedly stabbed
Omar Medina in that back room,
then enlisted his friend
Derrick Spurgeon
because he had access to a boat.
We presented the case
to the San Diego County DA's office
and they agreed
there was enough probable cause
to arrest Mr. Cook and his accomplice
on the charges of murder.
I remember getting a call from LeVar
and asking me if I was home.
And I said yes.
And I remember him telling me,
"Okay, I'm going to be there
in half an hour."
And then he asked
if my mom was there.
And I remember LeVar telling me that
they had made an arrest that morning
and that it was Tim.
And I just remember sobbing.
I was just sobbing,
like, uncontrollably.
Like, yeah, it was a special moment.
Tim Cook was convicted
of second-degree murder
and he was sentenced to 56 years
to life in state prison.
We discovered that he had
recently discharged from
California Department of Corrections
and Parole, so he did have
a criminal past and had served
a significant amount of time
in the state penitentiary.
He was a member of a prison gang
that's prominent in the California
Department of Corrections.
Tim Cook had been sentenced
to prison prior to the homicide
for an attempted murder
where he shot a man in the face
and he received 17 years
in state prison.
Derrick Spurgeon was given
six months
for unlawfully disposing of
a dead body.
Sometimes in criminal psychology
the statement is said
that the best predictor of future
behavior is past behavior.
So if your past behavior includes
violence and attempted murder,
then that is a pretty good predictor
that you're capable of
doing those things again.
People can change and they can
break their cycle, but, overall,
repeated criminal convictions
for violence, it's a pretty bad sign.
In the case of Omar,
it was a little different
because Alicia was really involved.
And she really got the initial part
of the investigation going.
Without her support and her fight
for her brother,
information and some of the facts
may have taken longer.
But her dedication to her family
and her brother was vital.
The video surveillance was extremely
important to this prosecution.
I mean, we wouldn't be able
to trace their steps.
We wouldn't have known where
they went. We wouldn't have known
what Tim Cook was doing
following the homicide.
And then, you know, it was able
to show us exactly where they went
and how they were able to
dispose of the body out in the bay.
When we have the camera footage
or the body-worn camera footage,
it's very difficult for someone to
argue the point that that wasn't me.
And when we were...
Thirty years ago, we just didn't have
those tools available to us.
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,
they can see
the planned malice in this,
what it took to get rid of Omar,
this person,
like it was trash.
I remember the day
that Omar was born.
I was super excited
that I had a new baby brother.
I was only able to see him through
the, you know, the little cubed box
that they have them in. And I had to
see him through something.
The last time I saw him,
it reminded me of his birth
because I got to see him through
a screen, you know, like, his body.
So that was my last goodbye,
just to see him through a screen.
I miss my brother terribly.
I didn't know
what big of a role
he played in my life.
I always felt like,
I'm the big sister,
you know, like, I'm your provider,
your protector.
In reality,
I think he was my escape, too.
I think he was the thing
that gave me something
to work for and fight for
and try to be good for
and try to set an example for.
Just like he would tell me
that my kids
were, you know, his everything,
he was my everything.
In big cities, there aren't
many trips you can do
without getting caught on CCTV.
There are some gaps in the network
but cameras can usually help.
As in Omar Medina's case.
During the entirety
of the investigation,
video surveillance played
a pivotal role in this,
starting from locating the barrel
being backed into the water
on the boat,
to retracing the steps of the day.
The footage rarely shows
the crime being committed
but circumstantial video evidence
can be enough for a conviction,
like in the case of Marena Shaban.
Birmingham in the UK.
January 2022.
Amber Haque is a journalist
who knows the city well.
Birmingham is the second largest city
in the UK.
It's a pretty diverse place. There's
a really big South Asian population.
It was home
to 41-year-old Marena Shaban
and her husband,
Mohammed Arfan.
Marena and Mohammed
were both of South Asian descent.
They'd had an arranged marriage
when teenagers,
and they'd had four kids together.
Mohammed Arfan was a pretty quiet,
hardworking taxi driver.
He struggled a bit
to sort of assimilate into UK life.
He struggled with English.
But his family was his whole world.
Kirsty Bennett is a criminologist
at Leeds Beckett University.
What we see in there is Marena
particularly adopting
quite Westernized views.
She was quite independent
and she was working
at earning her own income
to support her children.
At times Marena's lifestyle clashed
with Mohammed's ideals.
They had sort of a bit of
a traditional kind of Pakistani,
South Asian marriage.
By 2016, it's clear that Marena
wanted to get her own freedom
and, you know, do stuff outside
of the marriage.
She wanted to join the gym.
She hung out a bit more
with her family members.
It was New Year's Eve 2020
when Marena finally felt like
she had the courage to leave him.
Marena had moved in with her mum
and the children
and she's got a new partner.
She was moving forward with her life.
28th of January, 2022.
Police were called to an address
on a residential road in Birmingham.
They found a body slumped
on the doorstep, it was Marena.
Members of the public tried
to help Marena.
The emergency services arrived too
and they battled
to try and save her life.
Resuscitation attempts failed
and she was pronounced dead.
She had her throat slit
and she was stabbed 20 times.
The only witness to the attack
was a young boy,
he'd seen someone in an Afro wig
who followed Marena
to the doorstep and attacked her.
So the police start looking at CCTV
to try and find someone
with this Afro
to match the description.
They couldn't find anyone.
But they found a suspicious vehicle
that was leaving the scene
at the time of the murder.
This was a Toyota Corolla.
Re-tracing Marena's footsteps,
police discovered she'd left work
just minutes before her murder.
Emi Polito is an expert witness
and forensic video analyst.
We start with the CCTV here and
we have three different camera views
filming from outside the victim's
work location
and right away the police
would have been looking at this
and noticing a vehicle.
The same vehicle going up and down
outside Marena's place of work.
You know,
potentially this could be a taxi.
But it's just too much
of a coincidence that a vehicle,
just a few hours before the murder,
is identified
to be driving up and down the road
so close to the murder.
Police have got to be thinking,
"We have to look at this, could be
a lead, very important lead."
Investigators then began trying
to identify the owner of the vehicle.
Most of the time with CCTV
of this nature,
it's virtually impossible
to decipher all characters
of the license plate.
The police thought that maybe
it was a 55 plate.
Detectives decided to trace the car.
Trying to find any owners
of that make and model
in the Birmingham area
but they didn't find any information.
Police reviewed more footage
from just before the attack
and saw a man,
outside Marena's work.
He'd been spotted repeatedly walking
in front of her workplace.
We have a couple of frames,
maybe two or three,
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?
Does he want her to know
that he's there, watching her?
Or is he in disguise?
Is he undercover?
Is he just probing, you know, to see
if the situation
and circumstances are right for him
to find the right time
and place to hurt her,
potentially murder her,
or is it simply just an obsession
that he had?
If you notice a person repeatedly
who is new in your environment
and who appears to be
following you or harassing you,
is invading your daily routine,
it might count as stalking.
It might not,
it could also be illusory,
because it might be someone else
who's now walking their dog.
You might be
second-guessing yourself
and thinking, "Probably not so bad.
Maybe it's coincidence,"
and you don't want to overreact.
People are most likely to be stalked
by a current
or former partner, especially
a partner of more than two years.
He had waited nearby to see
when she would finish work.
Marena then leaves
her place of employment
in her new partner's car
and travels back to her mum's house.
We are looking at Marena's
last moments alive.
This woman has got no idea
what's going to happen to her.
She's just going about normal life.
And, what, less than an hour later,
less than a half an hour later,
she will be dead.
It's very chilling. It's very sad.
It's also an important piece
of footage because it established
what was happening
and what is going to happen to her.
Marena's new partner dropped her off
outside of her mum's house.
Marena then starts walking
towards her mum's front door
when a male with a knife
attacks Marena.
Despite the best efforts
of Marena's neighbor,
Marena unfortunately dies
at the scene.
But a week after the murder,
they made a breakthrough
on the car seen driving
outside Marena's work.
That Toyota Corolla was found
in this area called Rockville Road.
The police found that that vehicle
was registered to Mohammed Arfan,
who'd purchased it
just a few weeks earlier.
Police also confirmed
that Mohammed
was the man stalking Marena.
And the car provided
important evidence.
Blood was found on the door handle.
They found a lump hammer
inside the car.
And they also found a wig box.
That was really important
because it implied to the police
that Mohammed had tried to disguise
himself on the night of the murder
to distract the police
and prevent them
linking him to Marena's murder.
After reviewing hours
of CCTV footage,
one particular clip
showed Mohammed
immediately after the murder.
That same vehicle pops up in here
after the murder
and we have a suspect approaching
a bin and disposing of something.
Police had to work out
what had been thrown in the bin.
Luckily, they got there in time
and found a knife.
It was quite clear that Mohammed
was trying to cover his tracks.
Then police uncovered
footage of him
just minutes after
Marena's stabbing.
We're looking at Mohammed Arfan
half an hour after the murder
and we clearly see
he's got no remorse whatsoever
about what's happened.
You know, everything suggests to me
that this was totally premeditated.
Imagine after having committed
a murder,
you'd be perhaps
in a state of panic or shock.
You would try to hide yourself
from view
and perhaps take some time
of sinking in what has just happened.
He just goes on about his life
and, you know, he goes and hooks up
with his mates in the barber shop.
And very calm, doesn't look agitated,
doesn't look stressed.
Potentially he appears
as if he's very pleased
with how the night turned out
for him.
Police now had what they needed.
On the 7th of February, 2022,
Mohammed was arrested
for the murder of his wife.
More details started to emerge
about the background
to Marena
and Mohammed's relationship.
Mohammed's reaction to Marena's
death seemed callous.
When Mohammed found out Marena
was dead, he turned round to friends
and said, "Where am I going to find
an English-speaking woman now?"
Mohammed had these expectations
that Marena should look after
and cook for his family.
Reports came out that Mohammed
had been physically abusive to her.
On one occasion he caused bruising
to her arm, her eye and her thigh.
He would sometimes make
comments about her appearance,
what she was wearing.
Saying that, you know, some of
her outfits were a bit too revealing.
Violence towards partners,
intimate partners
usually starts with coercive control,
sort of psychological violence,
like belittling or mocking people
who are going out with friends,
maybe taking control of
their finances.
And then it will escalate.
But from that escalation,
you're much more likely to also then
be the victim
of intimate partner homicide.
Friends and family described
one particular incident in 2018.
Mohammed tried to
emotionally manipulate Marena
into staying with him.
The couple had got
into quite a heated argument.
Marena said she was going to leave,
then Mohammed said that if she did,
he threatened
that he was going to cut himself.
She started to walk towards the door
and he did exactly that.
He cut himself.
Mohammed is really putting a lot
of responsibility on Marena
for his happiness, his safety
and also his life.
And that puts Marena
in a really difficult position
because this is the father
of her children
threatening to harm themselves
if she leaves.
When we look at certain
religious backgrounds as well,
the act of suicide is a sin.
And if somebody
should kill themselves, they're never
going to have a peaceful afterlife.
So Marena-- It's not just her
potentially losing her husband,
it's going against their religion
and their personal beliefs.
It was nearly four years
before Marena got the
courage to leave Mohammed.
But it wasn't the end
of their issues.
Not too long after,
Marena meets another man
and Mohammed found out about that
and then he just began
to exhibit this extremely jealous,
angry behavior,
he was calling her all the time,
she blocked his number.
Marena confided in her friends
that Mohammed wouldn't let it go.
He was starting to stalk her.
He found it very difficult to accept
the relationship had ended.
And particularly that Marena
had moved on.
Mohammed was found guilty
in July 2022
and sentenced to a minimum
of 22 years.
The CCTV footage was
the whole crux of this case.
It was enough evidence
to charge Mohammed with murder
and eventually convict him.
CCTV was totally integral
to this case.
Without that, the police might
not have got that conviction.
Within Asian communities, divorce
is not really an accepted practice.
So once they agree to marry,
that is for life.
And that's a really strong commitment
that shouldn't be breached.
There is still this stigma
that exists within the community
that if you divorce within a marriage
that it's somehow a failure
and divorce should be avoided
at any cost.
And it's still seen as, you know,
quite a shameful thing, I would say.
Particularly for men,
if you have been divorced
and your wife has left you,
that's seen as dishonor.
So when we're looking at Mohammed
after the event,
smiling with his friends, it might be
that he feels his behaviors
are going to be acceptable
to that community.
And what he's doing
is righting a wrong
because Marena,
in his opinion,
isn't behaving in a way
that he thinks is acceptable.
Domestic violence killings
within our society
is predominantly a male on female.
Women are at the greatest risk once
they choose to leave their partner.
Ultimately, in this case, this was
Mohammed's obsessive jealousy
that led to this brutal
and senseless attack.
And it's left these four kids now
without a mother
and with a father in jail.
---
It just sounds like something bad
is happening to her.
-I heard her scream, "No, stop it."
-I heard some gunshots.
Drop it, whatever it is, drop it.
It is not true that I killed my wife.
We know what happened because
the video tells us what happened.
The camera doesn't lie.
This time
on Killers Caught on Camera.
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.
...when her brother goes missing.
Any sign of the person is huge.
There was human hair
coming out of one of the holes
near the bottom.
And in the UK,
a stalker's obsession...
He'd been spotted repeatedly
walking in front of her workplace.
...turns violent.
This woman has got no idea
what's going to happen to her.
Chula Vista,
a southern neighborhood
of San Diego, California.
Home to Omar Medina and his sister,
Alicia.
We have 70-degree weather
during winter, you know.
It's beautiful,
it's the city of sunshine.
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.
When Omar received a large sum
of money in a settlement
from a lawsuit, he decided to
use some of it to help family.
My brother had given my mom
a check for $10,000
and he told her, you know,
"You can cash this check."
He really wanted the best
for our family.
Omar and I would come to this park
just so we could walk or just talk
about how the day was going.
It was more like a mother-child type
of relationship than brother-sister.
She's been like my second mother,
been there through thick and thin.
-And she's awesome.
-He never took an actual music class,
he just knew it, like, by ear
and he was very talented.
A really good drummer
and then he picked up piano
and then he picked up guitar
and he would write songs.
He would tell me, you know,
"One day I'm gonna win a Grammy,"
and, you know,
it's just like, "Yeah, yes, you are."
He would talk to me
about his plans of having a family.
Kids, a wife, just-- You know,
he wanted the whole thing,
like, and a house
with the picket fence.
And it is good memories
of good conversations here.
In the summer of 2017,
Omar moved into a shared
house on McIntosh Street.
Cherie Somerville
was a district attorney.
So Omar used to hang out with some,
you know, buddies.
They lived next to someone
named Greg Cook.
Greg took Omar under his wing,
sort of like a father figure,
helped him set up a bank account
where he deposited the $84,000
from the lawsuit,
gave him a job,
you know, sold him a car.
Greg's brother, Tim,
sublet a room in his house to Omar.
In the backyard of that house
is sort of a--
They refer to it as a game room
but it's more like a granny flat,
kind of a very basic room
with four walls and a door.
No water or anything like that.
So Omar ended up moving into that.
He liked the fact that he could
do his music in the backyard.
No one really bothered him.
Omar enjoyed his independence
but maintained close contact
with his family.
Omar and I would talk consistently.
Omar would talk
to my mom every day.
Like, multiple times a day.
So we knew pretty much
where Omar was at all the time.
If not,
we would check in with each other.
On September 30th, 2017,
Omar went round
to his mother's apartment.
It was in the same block
as Alicia's.
This is the place where
we pretty much lived for 15 years.
I remember walking out of
our apartment and he happened to
walk out of my mom's apartment
at the same time.
And my daughter ran out and yelled
his name and she gave him a hug.
I could tell
that he was a little bit anxious.
Omar told me that-- You know,
he's 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."
I told him,
"You know what, it's okay."
I saw his car. I turned to his car
and his car was full of his stuff.
And I said, "Where are you going?"
I remember asking. He said,
"I'm just going to go drive around."
I said, "Okay."
And then I just saw him
get in the car and I just stood there
and then I just watched him, like,
take off.
Alicia was worried
when Omar sent her
several messages later that evening.
So I saw that the light would turn.
That means he received a message.
I'm like, "His phone's on.
He received it. He'll answer later."
But I messaged him later that night
and then it didn't go through.
The next morning, though,
my mom calls me
and she tells me,
"Have you spoken with Omar?"
And that's when I started
to get a little bit worried.
Omar's mother tried to call him
but all attempts
went straight to voicemail.
Alicia decided she needed to speak
to Omar's roommate, Tim.
She wanted to know if Omar had
gone home the previous night.
At first I actually just got
a voicemail. I didn't get him.
So then a few hours later, he called
me and he told me that he had,
that he 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.
At that point the family decides
that they need to contact the police
because something's obviously
not right here.
I told them
that my brother was missing
and just some things
were not adding up
and that we needed help
to locate him.
Alicia didn't get the help she was
looking for from the authorities.
If somebody is over the age of 18
and unless they have
a medical condition,
they will not go look for them.
That's, you know, what I was told.
You know, when you're an adult,
you can go missing.
People do go missing
of their own volition.
Alicia was desperate for answers
and decided
to take matters
into her own hands.
I called the hospitals.
I checked in the jails.
I started looking for him, you know,
wherever I can.
Then after that I started to look
for his phone records.
I wanted to see his outgoing calls,
I wanted to see incoming calls.
Who was the last people
he had conversations with.
In a situation like this,
time is of the essence.
So I went to the telephone company.
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 desperate because
my brother had been missing.
She was kind enough to give me
his password.
And we were able to see
all outgoing calls.
And I didn't find anything
other than him calling my mom.
So we didn't really have
any information.
When somebody's missing,
it's like the worst feeling
you could possibly feel.
Are they in danger?
Do they need help?
Like, it's so-- The desperation
of somebody missing is just horrible.
Alicia had no solid leads but was
determined to find her brother,
she continued her investigation
with friends from church.
And it just so happens
that on that day,
which was October 7th,
one of the people
in their search party
located Omar's car.
I had a lot of emotions going on
because, you know, like,
we finally found something.
It had been a week.
When you have somebody missing,
any sign of the person,
you know, any clue,
anything that leads to something
is huge.
Robyn Garrette was an officer
at the Chula Vista
Police Department.
A normal everyday call. Didn't think
anything was going to come of it.
But Omar's car was
in the wrong place and abandoned.
When I met with the sister,
she explained to me
that his car was parked several
blocks from where he actually lived.
It was unlocked. It was stacked
with property inside of it,
which is not normal
when you have visible electronics,
things of value in the car.
The case was escalated
to Detective LeVar Brown.
Finding the vehicle
around the corner from his house,
that was a big, big, big flag for us.
If someone's on a road trip
or something,
they're going to take their car.
Or if they were moving,
they're going to move with their car.
They're not going to park it
around the corner,
with all their belongings
still unlocked.
So those things--
That really raised some red flags
like this is something
more suspicious,
it's more than just a missing person
who just hasn't contacted
their family in a few days.
I asked the officer
if she could please go to the house
and see if he was there.
If they could find any indication
of what could have happened.
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.
That was like the first time
I felt, like, a relief
because somebody was going
to look for him.
Like, things are starting to move.
Me and my partner
walked up to the house
and I knocked on the door.
Timothy Cook answered
and I'd asked if he had seen Omar,
that his sister
had been looking for him.
Tim had explained to me that
he had not seen him in several days,
that he had moved out just recently,
that all of his property was gone
and I asked him if it would be okay
if I can come into the house
to check and see if Omar's property
or if anything else was in there,
maybe help find
where Omar may have gone.
He led us through in the living room
and I just basically followed him
and I wondered where Omar's room
was and he said it was out back.
And when he said "out back,"
I didn't realize it was a house
actually in the backyard
and the first thing I noticed
was that when you walk
to the little house that there was
a broom and some debris.
Looked like carpet had been removed
and there was a puddle of water
and I noticed that there was
a shattered window in the back.
And to me it didn't seem like anyone
had recently lived there.
Tim told me that it was how Omar
lived, he was a very messy person.
Officer Garrette continued to search
for clues in the house.
Alicia took the opportunity
to look through receipts
found in Omar's car.
A paper trail of expenditure
helped her calculate some
of Omar's last movements.
I knew that he had gone to a CVS,
I knew he had gone to eat
at Jack in the Box,
it was the last place
he'd gone to eat.
It gave me some sort of,
like, okay,
I knew these are the places
he was at.
I took the receipts
to the police station
and I told the detective
that was assigned at the moment,
"These are the last places
that my brother was at.
You know, you could go
and get the surveillance footage."
By October 12th,
Omar had been missing 12 days.
Alicia continued
to gather her own evidence.
Then a significant and gruesome
discovery changed everything.
There was a man named Skip Horton.
He actually cleans
the bottom of boats.
So he had gone out in a dinghy
on the bay here in San Diego.
He was on his way to clean a boat
on the other side
near Coronado Island.
And he came across a 55-gallon drum
that was floating
in the middle of the bay.
He called the San Diego Harbor
Police Department
and called it in as a boating hazard.
Most people don't realize
that the edges of the bay are deeper,
to allow for boats to travel.
However, the middle, where
the barrel was dropped, isn't deep.
Earlier in the day we're down
to four feet,
so you can imagine four feet of water
with a barrel that's three feet,
it's not going to hide well in there.
So they didn't do their research.
As they began lifting it,
they realized there were steel cables
drilled into the barrel
and tied to cinderblocks,
a makeshift anchor if you will,
to hold the barrel down.
Then they got the barrel back
onto the boat
and there were some holes drilled
in it. When they looked inside,
they saw, like,
a brown fur or blanket.
You can see a hand sticking out.
There was what appeared to be
human hair
coming out of one of the holes
near the bottom.
So then, in fact, we knew
we had a human body and it was--
a homicide investigation
began at that point.
The chief of police
was now involved.
It has to go through the autopsy
and identification
but we start checking immediately.
Do we have missing person cases?
Oh, well, we have a missing person
in Chula Vista.
So all these little pieces
come together.
The deceased had been stabbed
and had sharp-force injuries
to various parts of his body.
There were 66 sharp-force injuries.
When police combined the autopsy
and missing person reports,
they could confirm
that the body was Omar Medina.
Alicia was informed.
Hey, they just told you they found
your loved one in a barrel, dead.
It is incredibly hard to think
of what my brother went through.
He was stabbed in the heart,
in the nose.
He was stabbed in the neck.
Once it's discovered that, yes,
this was a positive identification,
this is Omar Medina's body,
then the police start working on
getting search warrants
for various locations.
The warrants included
CCTV footage from the marina.
A potentially vital
electronic witness
to how Omar's body
ended up in the water.
We knew when the barrel was
recovered, so we requested video
from different partners
so we can surveil the video,
figure out when Omar
and the barrel went into the water.
These two cameras played a vital role
because a vehicle
with a boat attached
was seen backing up into this harbor,
about where we are standing now.
The footage revealed two men
launching a boat into the water.
Now we're starting to get factual
evidence and things to follow up on.
We learned that a certain vehicle,
which was a green Ford F-150,
was seen at the residence
where Omar used to reside.
We were eventually able to see
that the barrel was
in the boat at the time.
The truck was registered
to Tim Cook's brother, Greg.
When questioned, Greg told police
that Tim borrowed it
as he needed to get out of town.
He told his brother, Greg Cook,
that he was actually
in northern California because
he needed to get some of his items
from his girlfriend's residence
in Oroville.
The recording of the truck
contradicted Tim's alibi.
Detectives turned their attention
to re-tracing Omar's footsteps.
The key is you want as many
cameras out there as you can
because they tell the real story.
We really had to, you know,
work backwards
and put all of this together
and figure out, you know, okay,
what happened to Omar?
You know, when did the homicide
actually occur?
And then how was it that he ended up
in a drum out in the bay?
Alicia's detective work
with the receipts
helped police discover footage
of Omar's last movements.
We know from video surveillance
that was collected
that he went to, you know,
a CVS or Rite Aid type of store,
bought some items.
Then from there, he went
to a Jack in the Box, got some food,
and that Jack in the Box happens
to be very close to McIntosh Street.
From there, the call detail records
for Omar's phone number
showed that he was actually back
at that residence
on the afternoon of the 30th.
But the police still needed
to identify
the owner of the boat filmed
at the marina.
The video quality wasn't good enough,
so we assigned an actual detective
to research the boats and
she actually did an excellent job.
And based off the sticker pattern and
the colors on the side of the boat,
the company was able to say what
year they believe the boat was in.
Through an incredible process of
elimination, they found the owner.
The boat's registered to somebody
that Tim Cook knows.
We were able to go in a helicopter
from one of our local
law enforcement agencies,
fly over the residence
and spotted the boat on the property.
The helicopter confirmed
that the boat belonged
to Derrick Spurgeon,
who was a friend of Omar's
roommate, Tim Cook.
Focus then turned
to the green truck.
We were able to track the green truck
leaving that residence
with the boat in tow,
driving past this intersection
from the elder community,
then pulling into a nearby
convenience store with a gas station
where they filled up gas.
A figure in a red T-shirt
and white shorts
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.
It was Tim Cook,
Omar's roommate.
The same man who had showed
Officer Robyn Garrette
around the house 33 days earlier.
We got our suspect with the barrel,
which we believe Omar Medina
was in at the time.
So that video surveillance
was very critical.
Police had now identified
the two men in the truck
as Tim Cook
and his friend Derrick Spurgeon.
It captured them taking
the boat out into the bay.
And you can actually see
a white cylindrical object
in the hull of the boat.
Video surveillance was able to show
that they only went out on the water
for approximately an hour,
you know, which is
a fairly short time to be out.
We believe they worked together.
Derrick Spurgeon helped him.
They attached to the barrel
that was made of a rope wire
and cinderblocks,
hoping that that would sink
the barrel.
And then they disposed of the body
out in the bay.
Then leaving the marina
and then driving by another business,
a private business that had video
and then driving back
by the convenience store.
According to the world's
biggest report on homicide,
80 percent of the victims
of homicides are men and boys
and 90 percent of the perpetrators.
So most killing, most murder as well,
is a man killing another man.
Another key recording revealed
Omar's car being moved
the day after he went missing.
Through video surveillance,
detectives are able to piece together
that Tim Cook then drives
Omar Medina's car
away from the residence
several blocks down the road
and parks it on Oaklawn
with all of Omar's belongings
still in it.
Then on the video, you see Tim Cook,
who we believe to be Tim Cook--
you couldn't see the person's face
but it has similar posture
and stature-- walk towards
the McIntosh house from there.
We started surveillance there
where Omar lived with Tim Cook.
We believe that the crime scene was
actually in that corner of the room.
And the drywall was removed.
The flooring was removed
in order to prevent forensic evidence
being collected from the scene.
Also, after Omar went missing,
Tim Cook's suspicious behavior
continued.
Revealed by point-of-sale footage.
They were able to get video
surveillance from a Home Depot,
which showed him buying a tarp,
a scrub brush,
simple green, concentrated cleaner.
We were also able to capture him
on video surveillance
at another convenience store
where he was purchasing gloves.
He was dressed sort of
in an outfit that you'd wear
if you were working manually.
It was significant
because during that time
when he was running around
doing these errands to, you know,
clean up and cover up his crime,
we had text messages showing
that he told his brother, Greg Cook,
that he was actually
in northern California.
And so he's sort of kept up this,
you know, this lie, this façade
that he was out of town while he was
here in San Diego County
cleaning up the crime scene
and disposing of the body.
We saw Mr. Cook in the driveway,
power-washing stuff,
loading bags of trash,
wet rags thrown into his vehicle
and then leaving the house.
The same phone records hinted
at a strained relationship
between Tim Cook and Omar.
It came to a head the night
before Omar was murdered.
We knew that
on September 29th,
Tim Cook was very upset
with Omar Medina.
He had a friend over at the house
who he was introducing Omar to.
According to text messages
that Tim Cook sent,
Omar was extremely intoxicated
when this person
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 acted
in front of this person.
Also Mr. Cook talked about
Omar's cleanliness
and called Omar a dirty pig
and saying that it's not going good
for Omar right now.
A search of his phone and browsing
history provided more clues
as to Tim Cook's motive
for murdering Omar.
From text messages
that we were able to recover,
it was pretty apparent
that this whole situation
with Omar living in the back house
was really just a financial situation
because Tim Cook
didn't have very much money.
It was apparent that Tim Cook knew
that Omar Medina had received
this $84,000 settlement
from a legal case.
Tim Cook had copies
of Omar Medina's bank information,
personal identifying information
and basically had access
to his savings and bank account.
People knew that he had this money,
this new money
and that information was
in Mr. Cook's cloud account.
Detectives believed that ultimately
Tim was after Omar's money.
Tim Cook repeatedly stabbed
Omar Medina in that back room,
then enlisted his friend
Derrick Spurgeon
because he had access to a boat.
We presented the case
to the San Diego County DA's office
and they agreed
there was enough probable cause
to arrest Mr. Cook and his accomplice
on the charges of murder.
I remember getting a call from LeVar
and asking me if I was home.
And I said yes.
And I remember him telling me,
"Okay, I'm going to be there
in half an hour."
And then he asked
if my mom was there.
And I remember LeVar telling me that
they had made an arrest that morning
and that it was Tim.
And I just remember sobbing.
I was just sobbing,
like, uncontrollably.
Like, yeah, it was a special moment.
Tim Cook was convicted
of second-degree murder
and he was sentenced to 56 years
to life in state prison.
We discovered that he had
recently discharged from
California Department of Corrections
and Parole, so he did have
a criminal past and had served
a significant amount of time
in the state penitentiary.
He was a member of a prison gang
that's prominent in the California
Department of Corrections.
Tim Cook had been sentenced
to prison prior to the homicide
for an attempted murder
where he shot a man in the face
and he received 17 years
in state prison.
Derrick Spurgeon was given
six months
for unlawfully disposing of
a dead body.
Sometimes in criminal psychology
the statement is said
that the best predictor of future
behavior is past behavior.
So if your past behavior includes
violence and attempted murder,
then that is a pretty good predictor
that you're capable of
doing those things again.
People can change and they can
break their cycle, but, overall,
repeated criminal convictions
for violence, it's a pretty bad sign.
In the case of Omar,
it was a little different
because Alicia was really involved.
And she really got the initial part
of the investigation going.
Without her support and her fight
for her brother,
information and some of the facts
may have taken longer.
But her dedication to her family
and her brother was vital.
The video surveillance was extremely
important to this prosecution.
I mean, we wouldn't be able
to trace their steps.
We wouldn't have known where
they went. We wouldn't have known
what Tim Cook was doing
following the homicide.
And then, you know, it was able
to show us exactly where they went
and how they were able to
dispose of the body out in the bay.
When we have the camera footage
or the body-worn camera footage,
it's very difficult for someone to
argue the point that that wasn't me.
And when we were...
Thirty years ago, we just didn't have
those tools available to us.
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,
they can see
the planned malice in this,
what it took to get rid of Omar,
this person,
like it was trash.
I remember the day
that Omar was born.
I was super excited
that I had a new baby brother.
I was only able to see him through
the, you know, the little cubed box
that they have them in. And I had to
see him through something.
The last time I saw him,
it reminded me of his birth
because I got to see him through
a screen, you know, like, his body.
So that was my last goodbye,
just to see him through a screen.
I miss my brother terribly.
I didn't know
what big of a role
he played in my life.
I always felt like,
I'm the big sister,
you know, like, I'm your provider,
your protector.
In reality,
I think he was my escape, too.
I think he was the thing
that gave me something
to work for and fight for
and try to be good for
and try to set an example for.
Just like he would tell me
that my kids
were, you know, his everything,
he was my everything.
In big cities, there aren't
many trips you can do
without getting caught on CCTV.
There are some gaps in the network
but cameras can usually help.
As in Omar Medina's case.
During the entirety
of the investigation,
video surveillance played
a pivotal role in this,
starting from locating the barrel
being backed into the water
on the boat,
to retracing the steps of the day.
The footage rarely shows
the crime being committed
but circumstantial video evidence
can be enough for a conviction,
like in the case of Marena Shaban.
Birmingham in the UK.
January 2022.
Amber Haque is a journalist
who knows the city well.
Birmingham is the second largest city
in the UK.
It's a pretty diverse place. There's
a really big South Asian population.
It was home
to 41-year-old Marena Shaban
and her husband,
Mohammed Arfan.
Marena and Mohammed
were both of South Asian descent.
They'd had an arranged marriage
when teenagers,
and they'd had four kids together.
Mohammed Arfan was a pretty quiet,
hardworking taxi driver.
He struggled a bit
to sort of assimilate into UK life.
He struggled with English.
But his family was his whole world.
Kirsty Bennett is a criminologist
at Leeds Beckett University.
What we see in there is Marena
particularly adopting
quite Westernized views.
She was quite independent
and she was working
at earning her own income
to support her children.
At times Marena's lifestyle clashed
with Mohammed's ideals.
They had sort of a bit of
a traditional kind of Pakistani,
South Asian marriage.
By 2016, it's clear that Marena
wanted to get her own freedom
and, you know, do stuff outside
of the marriage.
She wanted to join the gym.
She hung out a bit more
with her family members.
It was New Year's Eve 2020
when Marena finally felt like
she had the courage to leave him.
Marena had moved in with her mum
and the children
and she's got a new partner.
She was moving forward with her life.
28th of January, 2022.
Police were called to an address
on a residential road in Birmingham.
They found a body slumped
on the doorstep, it was Marena.
Members of the public tried
to help Marena.
The emergency services arrived too
and they battled
to try and save her life.
Resuscitation attempts failed
and she was pronounced dead.
She had her throat slit
and she was stabbed 20 times.
The only witness to the attack
was a young boy,
he'd seen someone in an Afro wig
who followed Marena
to the doorstep and attacked her.
So the police start looking at CCTV
to try and find someone
with this Afro
to match the description.
They couldn't find anyone.
But they found a suspicious vehicle
that was leaving the scene
at the time of the murder.
This was a Toyota Corolla.
Re-tracing Marena's footsteps,
police discovered she'd left work
just minutes before her murder.
Emi Polito is an expert witness
and forensic video analyst.
We start with the CCTV here and
we have three different camera views
filming from outside the victim's
work location
and right away the police
would have been looking at this
and noticing a vehicle.
The same vehicle going up and down
outside Marena's place of work.
You know,
potentially this could be a taxi.
But it's just too much
of a coincidence that a vehicle,
just a few hours before the murder,
is identified
to be driving up and down the road
so close to the murder.
Police have got to be thinking,
"We have to look at this, could be
a lead, very important lead."
Investigators then began trying
to identify the owner of the vehicle.
Most of the time with CCTV
of this nature,
it's virtually impossible
to decipher all characters
of the license plate.
The police thought that maybe
it was a 55 plate.
Detectives decided to trace the car.
Trying to find any owners
of that make and model
in the Birmingham area
but they didn't find any information.
Police reviewed more footage
from just before the attack
and saw a man,
outside Marena's work.
He'd been spotted repeatedly walking
in front of her workplace.
We have a couple of frames,
maybe two or three,
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?
Does he want her to know
that he's there, watching her?
Or is he in disguise?
Is he undercover?
Is he just probing, you know, to see
if the situation
and circumstances are right for him
to find the right time
and place to hurt her,
potentially murder her,
or is it simply just an obsession
that he had?
If you notice a person repeatedly
who is new in your environment
and who appears to be
following you or harassing you,
is invading your daily routine,
it might count as stalking.
It might not,
it could also be illusory,
because it might be someone else
who's now walking their dog.
You might be
second-guessing yourself
and thinking, "Probably not so bad.
Maybe it's coincidence,"
and you don't want to overreact.
People are most likely to be stalked
by a current
or former partner, especially
a partner of more than two years.
He had waited nearby to see
when she would finish work.
Marena then leaves
her place of employment
in her new partner's car
and travels back to her mum's house.
We are looking at Marena's
last moments alive.
This woman has got no idea
what's going to happen to her.
She's just going about normal life.
And, what, less than an hour later,
less than a half an hour later,
she will be dead.
It's very chilling. It's very sad.
It's also an important piece
of footage because it established
what was happening
and what is going to happen to her.
Marena's new partner dropped her off
outside of her mum's house.
Marena then starts walking
towards her mum's front door
when a male with a knife
attacks Marena.
Despite the best efforts
of Marena's neighbor,
Marena unfortunately dies
at the scene.
But a week after the murder,
they made a breakthrough
on the car seen driving
outside Marena's work.
That Toyota Corolla was found
in this area called Rockville Road.
The police found that that vehicle
was registered to Mohammed Arfan,
who'd purchased it
just a few weeks earlier.
Police also confirmed
that Mohammed
was the man stalking Marena.
And the car provided
important evidence.
Blood was found on the door handle.
They found a lump hammer
inside the car.
And they also found a wig box.
That was really important
because it implied to the police
that Mohammed had tried to disguise
himself on the night of the murder
to distract the police
and prevent them
linking him to Marena's murder.
After reviewing hours
of CCTV footage,
one particular clip
showed Mohammed
immediately after the murder.
That same vehicle pops up in here
after the murder
and we have a suspect approaching
a bin and disposing of something.
Police had to work out
what had been thrown in the bin.
Luckily, they got there in time
and found a knife.
It was quite clear that Mohammed
was trying to cover his tracks.
Then police uncovered
footage of him
just minutes after
Marena's stabbing.
We're looking at Mohammed Arfan
half an hour after the murder
and we clearly see
he's got no remorse whatsoever
about what's happened.
You know, everything suggests to me
that this was totally premeditated.
Imagine after having committed
a murder,
you'd be perhaps
in a state of panic or shock.
You would try to hide yourself
from view
and perhaps take some time
of sinking in what has just happened.
He just goes on about his life
and, you know, he goes and hooks up
with his mates in the barber shop.
And very calm, doesn't look agitated,
doesn't look stressed.
Potentially he appears
as if he's very pleased
with how the night turned out
for him.
Police now had what they needed.
On the 7th of February, 2022,
Mohammed was arrested
for the murder of his wife.
More details started to emerge
about the background
to Marena
and Mohammed's relationship.
Mohammed's reaction to Marena's
death seemed callous.
When Mohammed found out Marena
was dead, he turned round to friends
and said, "Where am I going to find
an English-speaking woman now?"
Mohammed had these expectations
that Marena should look after
and cook for his family.
Reports came out that Mohammed
had been physically abusive to her.
On one occasion he caused bruising
to her arm, her eye and her thigh.
He would sometimes make
comments about her appearance,
what she was wearing.
Saying that, you know, some of
her outfits were a bit too revealing.
Violence towards partners,
intimate partners
usually starts with coercive control,
sort of psychological violence,
like belittling or mocking people
who are going out with friends,
maybe taking control of
their finances.
And then it will escalate.
But from that escalation,
you're much more likely to also then
be the victim
of intimate partner homicide.
Friends and family described
one particular incident in 2018.
Mohammed tried to
emotionally manipulate Marena
into staying with him.
The couple had got
into quite a heated argument.
Marena said she was going to leave,
then Mohammed said that if she did,
he threatened
that he was going to cut himself.
She started to walk towards the door
and he did exactly that.
He cut himself.
Mohammed is really putting a lot
of responsibility on Marena
for his happiness, his safety
and also his life.
And that puts Marena
in a really difficult position
because this is the father
of her children
threatening to harm themselves
if she leaves.
When we look at certain
religious backgrounds as well,
the act of suicide is a sin.
And if somebody
should kill themselves, they're never
going to have a peaceful afterlife.
So Marena-- It's not just her
potentially losing her husband,
it's going against their religion
and their personal beliefs.
It was nearly four years
before Marena got the
courage to leave Mohammed.
But it wasn't the end
of their issues.
Not too long after,
Marena meets another man
and Mohammed found out about that
and then he just began
to exhibit this extremely jealous,
angry behavior,
he was calling her all the time,
she blocked his number.
Marena confided in her friends
that Mohammed wouldn't let it go.
He was starting to stalk her.
He found it very difficult to accept
the relationship had ended.
And particularly that Marena
had moved on.
Mohammed was found guilty
in July 2022
and sentenced to a minimum
of 22 years.
The CCTV footage was
the whole crux of this case.
It was enough evidence
to charge Mohammed with murder
and eventually convict him.
CCTV was totally integral
to this case.
Without that, the police might
not have got that conviction.
Within Asian communities, divorce
is not really an accepted practice.
So once they agree to marry,
that is for life.
And that's a really strong commitment
that shouldn't be breached.
There is still this stigma
that exists within the community
that if you divorce within a marriage
that it's somehow a failure
and divorce should be avoided
at any cost.
And it's still seen as, you know,
quite a shameful thing, I would say.
Particularly for men,
if you have been divorced
and your wife has left you,
that's seen as dishonor.
So when we're looking at Mohammed
after the event,
smiling with his friends, it might be
that he feels his behaviors
are going to be acceptable
to that community.
And what he's doing
is righting a wrong
because Marena,
in his opinion,
isn't behaving in a way
that he thinks is acceptable.
Domestic violence killings
within our society
is predominantly a male on female.
Women are at the greatest risk once
they choose to leave their partner.
Ultimately, in this case, this was
Mohammed's obsessive jealousy
that led to this brutal
and senseless attack.
And it's left these four kids now
without a mother
and with a father in jail.