Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Beauty Blogger Murdered Look-alike She Found on Instagram to Fake Her Own Death: Prosecutors

Episode Date: January 19, 2024

A beauty blogger is on trial in Germany accused of searching Instagram for her look-alike in the hope of faking her own death. Prosecutors say Sharaban K. and her boyfriend lured Khadidja O. to a wooded area and stabbed her in the face more than 50 times. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy talks with forensic psychologist Dr. Joni Johnston about the bizarre case and what could prompt someone to go to such extremes in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show that delves into the biggest stories in crime.HOST:Angenette Levy: twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoAudio Editing - Brad MaybeGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. This is Shara Bonquet. She's on trial accused of murdering a woman who looked just like her so she could fake her own death. Prosecutors in Germany say that Shara Bonquet tracked down a beauty blogger online and then stabbed her so many times,

she was nearly unrecognizable. We talk about what could make someone do something so horrible. I'm Anjanette Levy. It's Friday, and this is Crime Fix. Sharaban K's trial started in Germany this week. Her boyfriend, Shakir K, is also on trial. You can see that they covered their faces when they were led into court. This case is absolutely nuts. It's crazy. And of course, it's incredibly sad. In Germany, the media is calling it the doppelganger murder. Prosecutors say Sharaban K and Shakir K lured a woman named Khadija O to a wooded area and stabbed her in the face more than 50 times. So Sharaban K could fake her own death. Cherubon Kay is accused of going on Instagram and trolling the internet trying to find women

who looked like her. German media has reported that Cherubon found Khadija O, a beauty blogger, and lured her to a wooded area by promising her a beauty kit and a beauty treatment. Reports from several outlets say that Cherubon, who is of Iraqi descent, wanted to fake her own death to get out of her marriage, which was in serious trouble. And if this story couldn't get any stranger, the BBC is reporting that Cherubon K and Shakir K

are suspected of trying to hire a hitman to kill Cherubon K's former partner. Get this, the alleged hitman took a deposit that didn't carry out the hit. There have been some other cases where people have basically tried to steal someone's identity by murdering them. Victoria Nazarova is serving 21 years for trying to kill a woman to steal her identity, and Lois Rice pleaded guilty to killing a woman so she could steal her identity. But the case of Cherubon Kay might take the cake. Dr. Joni Johnston is a forensic psychologist. She's here to talk with

us about the case. Joni, what do you make of this? To me, I hear about this and it's absolutely off the charts. Unbelievable. It really is on so many different levels. I mean, number one, you have somebody who is methodically planning out one or more murders. And yet the level of naivete in terms of thinking you're going to get away with this is mind boggling. Absolutely mind boggling. And just the, what went into this, it's, this was pretty methodical and pretty, I mean, cunning and sick and twisted. You go on Instagram and you're trolling for people who look like you because you want to kill them, hoping to pass them off as yourself. So how does one's mind get there? You know, I think when we look at people who have committed murder in

conjunction with identity theft, they usually do it for one of two reasons, either money, they are murdering somebody and assuming their identity to get some kind of financial gain, or in this case, I think they're basically solving a problem. And so they're focusing on this particular action as a means to an end. So I'm going to find some person, I'm going to talk to myself and tell myself about the goal. The goal is to get rid of a bad situation, escape a situation. And this person really is, unfortunately and very tragically, a pawn to this person in their scheme to solve their problem. Well, most certainly this victim was a pawn. I mean, it's absolutely horrific. And the fact that she was stabbed in the face, according to the prosecution, more than 50 times.

She was disfigured. It takes a lot to do that. I mean, it takes a lot to stab somebody once or twice. But in the face? And then to do this over and over again? This had to be a horrific death that this woman died. It really is. I mean, it's hard to even think about.

And not just the actual death, but as you pointed out, just all the preparation, putting together multiple Instagram accounts, coming up with different ruses. Oh, this one didn't work, so let me try a different one. There was nothing about this case that was impulsive at all. It was not impulsive. And the prosecution contends, according to the media over in Germany, that basically she did this because she might have wanted to get out of a marriage that was bad, you know, that there was some really bad stuff going on at home. I mean, hire a lawyer, leave your husband. I mean, I just don't get it. I mean, I don't get, there had to be more going on here than just, oh, my life is so bad at home

that I have to go on social media and I have to find somebody who looks like me, murder her, leave her in my car in the woods. So she's discovered, um, that is not just like, oh, I'm in a bad marriage. That, that is not something that one does to get out of a bad marriage. I mean, I I've heard of people killing their spouses, heaven forbid, don't ever do that to get out of a bad marriage, but going to these lengths is absolutely insane to me. So what else could be going on here with this woman and her boyfriend, Shakir K? I don't think it's just the situation. It's how a person is thinking about the situation. So when we look at motives for murder, they never make sense. So in this

particular murder, if the goal is to get rid of a problem, we all look at this and kind of go, well, we all have problems. We've all been in bad situations or bad relationships. But it's that plus how this person's thinking about him. So when we look at people who commit premeditated murder, basically to get rid of some kind of problem or escape a bad situation, in their mind, they think one of two things. Either I've tried other ways of getting out of this and I can't, or I don't have the skills within me to get out of the situation. And so when one of those two or both of those situations are there, then in certain circumstances like this one, the person begins thinking of other alternatives. And in this case, it was murder.

This is such an extreme alternative, as we've just discussed. It's mind boggling to me. It is. It is. Yeah, I mean, it's mind boggling to me that this was the solution that she came up with to target an innocent victim. You know, I should mention again, she's contending she didn't do this. OK, the two people charged in this case say they didn't do this, but she target an innocent

person to lure them to the woods under this, you know, such, you know, this promise of a beauty kid or a beauty treatment or what have you. it's absolute insanity to me. And I'm not legal insanity, but it is craziness. So there's got to be more going on. Like there's got to be an evilness to this person. It's not just desperation. To me, you're the expert, but to me, there's got to be more going on here than just desperation and what have you. I mean, your thoughts. And I think the interesting thing about this, Internet, is first of all, trying to understand this is not excusing it. There is no excuse for this.

So we can't create a story that's going to justify what this person did. But I think at the same time, it's important to recognize that it's, you know, evil is something I think that seems like is across the board. If somebody is evil, they're doing evil things routinely. This is certainly an evil thing that was done. And I think in this situation, it's important to understand that, you know, people twist in their minds, you know, things all the time. And so when we start justifying things, we start rationalizing things. And absolutely, this is an extreme situation. But I think it's one thing to say this person is an evil person and that this person chose to do an evil thing,

because it's kind of scary to think about the fact that some of the research suggests that most people at some point have contemplated murder. Now, they haven't necessarily planned it out. And then you have a significant subset of people who said, yeah, I actually went through the steps. I was so angry at this person, or I was so mad or so desperate or whatever. I actually, for a while, fantasized about it.

So I think when we're talking about, a lot of times we're talking about murder and evil acts like this, and we look at the nature or nurture debate, we need to also kind of go, it is nature sometimes, it is often nurture sometimes, we need to also kind of go, it is nature sometimes, it is often nurture sometimes, but it's also the situation. And it's a combination of the three.

The other part of that I think that's important to think about is just the relationship between the two defendants here. Because when you have two people who are together and they're talking about things, it really is kind of like, you know, the parts or the sum is greater than the parts, where you have two people who get together and start talking about things. It really is kind of like, you know, the parts or the sum is greater than the parts where you have two people who get together and start talking about the situation and things I think can even more easily get out of hand. We have another component to this. You

know, the BBC is reporting that Sharaban K and Shakir K are also suspected. They're not charged with this, but they're suspected of trying to hire a hitman to kill Sharaban K's former partner. So the alleged hitman takes a deposit for the hit, but doesn't go and carry it out. And they're also accused of possibly trying to kill witnesses to this case from behind bars. To me, it's just a lot of criminal thinking if all of this is indeed proven and true. Oh, it is. There's no doubt about that. I mean, this was a plan with a very, very specific goal in mind. And as different things kind of went wrong, such as, okay, I'm going to kill my brother-in-law or former brother-in-law, that didn't work. Let's go to plan B, which was the unfortunate victim here who was murdered.

And then when plan B works to some extent, but they get caught, which is again, mind boggling that somebody is eating pizza and driving around and can be easily recognized. Then they decide or one or both decide, OK, let's get rid of the witnesses versus kind of stepping back and kind of going, OK, I'm busted here. If this is, you know, again, if they're accused and, you know, if this is, if they're convicted of this and they actually committed this. So there's nothing about this as impulsive. There's nothing about this that's targeted at one specific victim. This is, I have a problem, which is to get out of the situation and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to do so. Well, it's a horrible case. We're going to continue to follow it. It is kind of amazing to me how she was able to find somebody who did look so similar to her. And she could have maybe, if it had been in a different time, you know, in a different era, pulled this off because her family apparently identified the body and said, yeah, that's her. Well, of course, you know, she was disfigured. But it is amazing to me that she was able to find somebody who looked so similar to her. Khadija Oh, the victim, looked so similar to Cherubon Kay. So this really took some forethought

and some planning. Dr. Joni Johnston, forensic psychologist, thank you so much for coming on. We appreciate it. You're welcome. My pleasure. And that's it for this edition of Crime Fix on Friday, January 19th, 2024. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with us. We will see you back here on Monday. Until then, have a great weekend. You can download Crime Fix on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your favorite podcasts and new episodes post each weeknight at 6 Eastern time on Law and Crime's YouTube channel.

Daniel Camacho does our video editing. Our head of social media is Bobby Zoki. Our senior director of social media is Vanessa Bynes. Savannah Williamson is one of our producers. Diane Kay and Alyssa Fisher book our guests. And Brad Mabey is our audio editor.