Murder With My Husband - 340. The Shocking Murder of Fahim Saleh

Starting point is 00:00:00 Don't you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know the same way you can skip an ad? I get it. I'm Siaiaa and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned. And today I'm still figuring it out. Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll.

Starting point is 00:00:22 So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Stream a new episode of North of North Tuesdays on CBC Gem. You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. Hey everybody, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with my husband. I'm Peyton Morland. And I'm Garrett Morland. And he's the husband.

Starting point is 00:00:40 And I'm the husband. Hello. I feel like I haven't recorded for a while. I don't know why. Wait, before you get into your 10 seconds, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has come in to seize at the bagel shop, but also there have been quite a few people who have gifted us things or made us things that have come in. and given them to us at the bagel shop.

Starting point is 00:01:02 And it's such a like surreal thing. And so I just, I wanted to make sure to like not all of you guys leave away from me to contact you. So if you have, thank you so much for just being so thoughtful and for caring. And it is a really unique. And like to have strangers to us. who take the time out of their day to, like, show us that they care. And so I just want, I just want to say thank you.

Starting point is 00:01:38 Yeah, we don't have a peel box, but if you do have something that you want to give us and you come into the bagel shop, if I'm not there, the employees know to take it and put it to the side. So it's actually been pretty fun because we've gotten quite a few things. So awesome. Also. Some really cool stuff, not going to lie. Yeah, from the very beginning, I've saved like all the projects or art things or even just letters that we've gotten.

Starting point is 00:02:08 And I have them all in a box and I like to just keep them. So it's just, it's just surreal. And it's cool. And I just love you guys. And I just want to say that we are really grateful. And thank you. Thank you. What do you got for your 10 seconds?

Starting point is 00:02:21 Honestly, I don't have too much for my 10 seconds because we have just been getting ready for this baby. Why don't you tell them the baby prep that you worked on that just all got here today? What got here today? All the research you did and what you got. Oh, just like the baby cameras and the nanitz and the... I asked Garrett because like he's a lot better at the technology side. So I've been, you know, ordering the diapers for me and the baby. Alex, the nanids, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Starting point is 00:02:54 And I had Garrett do all the research and try to figure out what to get as far as like systems. go, so. No, it's been good. We've just been prepping for baby. We're getting ready for baby. Baby's coming soon. We're going to have a baby. We just been working. Yeah. We just been kind of getting ready for her, huh? Yeah, last night, I was like, I'm a little scared. And Garrow's like, why? And I was like, because you, like, we have to take her home after. Yeah, it's true. Can't have her and be like, all right. I mean, I guess we could. Well, like, because in my head, it's like, okay, I just got to get through this first trimester. Okay. I just got to get through second. Okay, I just got to get through this pregnancy.

Starting point is 00:03:31 Okay, I just got to get through delivery. And now it's like, oh, shoot, I have to deliver this baby and then take her home. And then the hard part actually stuck. You know what I mean? That's a little scary. That ride home with like a baby in the car seat. I'm going to freaking put her in a carrier and just start making bagels. And take her around.

Starting point is 00:03:49 She has to get her license. Oh, her food handers license? Yeah. They're not going to care. Oh, she's smart. She'll have your brain. She can just wing it. It can be fun.

Starting point is 00:03:58 We're excited. that's my 10 seconds. We just been getting ready for, did I say her name? No. We do get that question a lot. We do have a name. We're just not going to announce it until she's here. Or maybe never. Okay. We're going to tell me what the name is, but we're just not going to announce it. Her name's baby. Until she's here. We just don't want too many unnecessary opinions until she's here. Even after she's here. It's true. Honestly, 99% of you are amazing and we love you so much, but then we somehow have, sometimes have this 1% of people who feel like they need to tell us what to do, which I get, that's fine. But I just know we're going to tell, we're going to

Starting point is 00:04:38 tell everyone what her name is. And then we're going to have like a couple thousand people that are like, oh my gosh, it is the dumbest name. I don't care. So anyways, we're just waiting to say her name. We have about four weeks left and everyone will know her name. We're really, really excited. We're excited to share it with you guys. Which they shouldn't say it's a dumb name because it's a family name. So anytime you look at a baby and you say... Fine, it's Garrett. Her name is Garrett.

Starting point is 00:05:05 We should just name her Garrett. Every time you look at a baby and you think, what a dumb name or you look at a parent. Why would they name that? Sometimes names really have meaning. Sometimes they're not just like the parents thought it was cute. Yeah. And even if it's the parents thought it was cute.

Starting point is 00:05:22 King Garrett. King Garrett. True. You're funny. Okay. That's all we got. We're going to hop into this week's case. Thank you for listening.

Starting point is 00:05:32 Thank you for supporting. Seriously, we love you all. Thank you for saying hi to us. Thank you for following, liking, subscribing, all of that. Let's do it. Our sources for this episode are CNN.com, business insider.com, Picks11.com, The Independent.com. BuzzFeed News, Forbes, ABC7.com, New Yorkpost.com, Manhattan, DA.org.

Starting point is 00:05:55 BBC.com, people.com, TBSNews.com, New York Homicide Season 3, Episode 20. And as always, our case sources are always listed in our episode notes if you ever want to check them out. When we think about extreme wealth and success in this country, America, we usually think about the people who climbed the ladder to the top. After all, some of the world's biggest companies are synonymous with their founders, Steve Jobs and Apple, Elon Musk and Tesla, Richard Branson, and Virgin. But getting to that level of success comes at a cost. It is hard to build an empire without stepping on a few necks along the way, without putting your own interest above that of others. But I think about what the world would look like if success didn't have to come with that level of

Starting point is 00:06:50 selfishness and greed? What if everyone used their ambition to lift people up instead? Well, that is how I actually came across the story of Fahim Sully. In 2020, Fahim was a young entrepreneur living in Manhattan. His goal was to use his technologies to help create more opportunities in developing countries. Fahim was described as one of those selfless entrepreneurs who really was looking out for others and those who worked for him. But unfortunately, that kindness and generosity he showed was also the thing that ended up sealing his fate. So let me start by introducing you to Fahim, because what he accomplished in his 33 years of life is truly something to be proud of. Fahim was actually born in Saudi Arabia, but both of his parents were from Bangladesh.

Starting point is 00:07:50 His father worked in computer sciences, and they moved around a lot when Fahim and his two sisters were young. But eventually, as a family, they all actually landed in Rochester, New York, in the United States. Now, around the time Fahim was in middle school, this was the late 90s, he was. became very interested in computer programming and just being in middle school he decides to build his first website on the worldwide web and it is called saleh family dot com it was a little aOL site that his dad would have people click on at parties aOL did you use no you were too young you never used a i am did you no you know a i am is yes loved a i am

Starting point is 00:08:43 So this was just an AOL site that his dad would have people click on at parties so he could get his view count up coming to a grand total of a dozen or so visitors. It was tiny, but it sparked something even bigger in the teenage Fahim. Fahim's favorite thing to do on a weekend night was actually sit in his pajamas at home just creating new websites. It's the 90s. He is loving it. When he was 15, he went on to build actually an early social media type platform called teen hangout.com. It was a blogging form where his friends and classmates could go on and just post their thoughts. And he actually learned how to monetize it all the way back then. He was making $3 a month.

Starting point is 00:09:34 But by high school, his website collection was growing. He created AIMDood.com and MS. send dolls.com, among others, that offered online avatars for people's chat profiles, which was a pretty big deal at a time when AOL Messenger and other chat tools were becoming a pretty big part of teen culture. Now, Fahim said his parents didn't really get it at first, and it did get him in trouble sometimes, claiming, quote, I would stay up super late and would be worried my dad would catch me. He thought it would hinder my schoolwork, which it didn't.

Starting point is 00:10:14 It's actually so true. I feel like all parents thought, like if you were talking on AIM all night, like, the World Wide Web. Yeah, they're like, what are you doing? Like, I don't know, it's just so funny. But get this. He gets his first paycheck from Google for $500 as a teenager. Whoa.

Starting point is 00:10:33 Shows it to his dad. And his dad says, okay, let's open an account. Around 2005, Fahim set off for college at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston, pursuing a degree in computer information systems. But Fahim himself said he was kind of a bit of a lone wolf in college too. Being a shy kid, he still preferred to spend his free time working on his websites rather than actually like going to parties with other students. though he eventually roped his roommate into one of his side hustles, a plug-in for Facebook that allowed local students to order food for delivery, which is so crazy that in 2005 he figures out how to use Facebook to basically make DoorDash.

Starting point is 00:11:26 Yeah, I mean, that's pretty insane. Yeah, so Baham actually went to a bunch of restaurants around Boston, collected their takeout menus, uploaded them one by one to a server. But after his server crashed one afternoon and all his data was lost, Fahim just decided to move on to the next adventure. But like I said, he still essentially made an early version of DoorDash. That's crazy. Now, unfortunately, after graduating in 2009,

Starting point is 00:11:53 the job market was tough to break into, even for Fahim. He had a hard time finding work, so he continued just developing one of the websites he had created back in high school. one he believed would be a lucrative way to make some quick cash in the meantime. It was a site called Prankdial.com. Okay. Which is still around, by the way. And it is full of pre-recorded prank calls that you can send from a disguised number,

Starting point is 00:12:22 which is freaking creative because I used to prank call a lot. Star 67 was my best friend. And it would have been nice if I was as smart as Fahim and just knew that I could go to Prank Dial to prank all these people, but it was a huge success. By 2012, Baham was actually making about $2 million annually. Oh, my gosh. On prankdial.com. So he was...

Starting point is 00:12:50 That's insane, actually. And this was kind of a jumping off point for his next big move. A ride share, again, we're in 2012. A ride share and food delivery app called Pato, which he launched in 2015. So riding on the heels of Uber, which came about in 2010 and DoorDash, which was started in 2013, it's now 2015. And Pato was an early pioneer that combined the two concepts.

Starting point is 00:13:22 But like Garrett just said, he was making it and operating it in Bangladesh and Nepal. Which is interesting. A lot of people might not know this, but there's actually a lot of tech companies that will take something that have been started in the U.S. or the U.K. And they'll see that it's being done there very early. And they'll just take it to another country. And they'll make tons of money off of it. Pretty crazy.

Starting point is 00:13:47 Yeah. So for Fahim, it was about bringing opportunities to these underdeveloped countries. It was considered a gig platform, which basically means it gives users some agency. Like kind of like Fiver or freelance or. They can make their own hours, work as little or as much as they desired. What's interesting about Fahim, though, was that he didn't believe he was a very good leader. He wasn't sure he had what it took to motivate people, which is why in an interview he said this, quote, as a CEO, the best thing to do is to have thinkers on the team, not employees, but partners who are co-sharing your vision and success.

Starting point is 00:14:32 But the truth was there was a lot of people Fahim inspired and motivated in his life who felt he actually was the epitome of what they actually wanted in a leader, someone who was selfless, thoughtful, who led with their heart, maybe not leading with what's best for making money. So his personality, this kindness he has, is actually kind of how he managed to get over $5 million in funding for his next project. It was a motorbike ride share app called Goketa, which he launched in Nigeria in 2018. Now, the location was a strange choice for Fahim, who really knew nothing about Nigeria or how their transportation system worked at the time.

Starting point is 00:15:19 But he found success anyways. For him, it was just about bringing whatever we were basically using here in America and getting it to underserved. communities, which was why he goes on to not only mentor other young entrepreneurs. He became an angel investor in other companies he believed in, too. Now, don't get me wrong, but Heme also treated himself with the money he made. In fact, by 2020, he was living in a brand new multi-million dollar condo in the lower east side. It was a really nice place on the corner of Houston and Suffolk where he had the entire

Starting point is 00:16:00 floor to himself and an elevator that opened right up into his condo. It was something Fahim deserved after the years of hard work and dedication. And despite the world being swept by COVID at the time, Fahim was already making plans for the future. He's an entrepreneur. He's ready to grow his businesses even more once the storm of the pandemic passed. But unfortunately, Fahim would never get that chance. So now that you have his background, it is Tuesday, July 14th, 20, and Fahim's cousin is getting a bit worried. She and Fahim are super close since she lives in the city as well, New York, and they speak every day, but she hadn't heard from him in over 24 hours. He's not answering his phone, which is really unlike him. So she decides to head over to his condo on the Lower East

Starting point is 00:16:56 side in person. A little after 3.30 p.m. she hits the intercom to see if Fahim is there to page her up. But there's no response. Now, luckily, she was one of the only people who had access to his place. He had given her a key fob that she could use in the elevator to access his apartment. So she eventually gets in. She swipes, she hits his floor, and she heads up. Surveillance footage shows her exiting the elevator directly into Fahim,

Starting point is 00:17:30 Hems condo. And then minutes later, you can see her on video footage, rushing back into the elevator with the phone to her ear. Now, we know at that point she was dialing 911 and she's hysterical because she had just found her 33-year-old cousin, Bahim Saleh, Salae, dead on the floor of his condo. She races back down to the lobby, waits there for police to arrive. and when officers get there, they can barely get a word out of Fahim's cousin. And rightfully so, because she didn't just stumble upon Fahim passed out on the floor.

Starting point is 00:18:13 This crime scene was enough to make the seasoned NYPD detectives look away because when they get up to his condo, Fahim's body is laying in the middle of his living room on a tarp. his head, his arms, and the lower half of his legs have all been removed. Oh my gosh. These type of murders are always just, I can't comprehend. There's an electric saw laying right next to his chopped up body. What is the actual freak? And bloody scissors on the couch.

Starting point is 00:18:51 A bunch of big demolition bags. So one of the detectives I mean I'm saying you're telling me We're not hearing an electric saw in New York City Yeah I mean that's gonna be kind of loud I mean I guess Unless they make quieter ones now

Starting point is 00:19:08 I guess that's so people just get used to it like Oh my neighbor's just doing something weird Yeah that's true like it's New York Everyone's doing something yeah I don't know I guess it could depend on what neighborhood But sometimes it's a little loud there So they have all these demolition bags

Starting point is 00:19:23 Sitting everywhere the detectives peek inside and see that these bags are actually full of some of Fahim's remains. And this was the scene his cousin walked into, which is actually devastating. What's confusing is there's actually not a lot of blood around the condo. With something like this, you would imagine there would be blood spatter everywhere. But whoever did this was clearly very calculated, was pretty careful with the cleanup. up. So the fact that they left the crime scene half finished, like it looks like they were cleaning

Starting point is 00:20:00 up, but then they just left everything out on display, it makes police wonder if maybe the killer had to make a run for it. Maybe they were interrupted literally by Fahim's cousin or by someone else. Because they also find a bunch of cleaning supplies in the kitchen that are still sitting out. there's a plastic bag with three holes poked through, almost like the killer might have been wearing it, like during cleanup. So while one team stays in the condo gathering evidence, a few officers actually go back down to the lobby

Starting point is 00:20:37 to speak with Fahim's cousin, who has now since been joined by Fahim's sister. And his cousin explains, I just, I hadn't heard from him. We normally talk every day. I decided to come over and check on him, and that's how I found his body. So they take the cousin and Fahim's sister down to the station for additional questioning. And meanwhile, other detectives start looking at the cameras from inside Fahim's building.

Starting point is 00:21:05 And here's what they find. Around 1.30 p.m. or so, Fahim comes back from a run and enters the lobby. He goes over to the elevators, he presses the button, and a man in a black suit appraisal. on this video. I'm talking a fancy suit, like one you could wear to a cocktail party. However, you can't see the man's face because he has a COVID-type mask on.

Starting point is 00:21:34 And over that, his face is covered by a face shield, which is kind of somewhat normal in 2020. He is also wearing gloves, these snake-skin cowboy boots, and he's carrying a black leather, duffel bag. Okay. And just to like help you understand how like jarring this image is, some sources have compared

Starting point is 00:21:59 him to looking like slender man in this footage. He's just so covered and dressed so oddly. It's eerie. And honestly, I don't think they're that far off. So you can understand why Behem looks a little uneasy when he and this suited figure enter the elevator alone together because he walks over to get on the same elevator as Fahim. Now, after Fahim swipes up to his floor,

Starting point is 00:22:28 the man in the footage appears to do the same thing. But when the elevator doors open on Fahim's floor and he steps out, video footage shows that the mast figure follows. And before he can even leave the view of the camera, You can clearly see this figure use a taser on Fahim. And it immediately knocks him to the ground. So this attack is caught on camera.

Starting point is 00:22:57 And then in the footage, you see Fahim trying to crawl away. The doors of the elevator closes. And the rest is left to the imagination. Because the camera isn't in Fahim's condo. It's from the point of the elevator. So once the doors close, that's all you have. And we obviously know what probably came next, considering that we've seen the crime scene. Now, obviously, police are like, wow, how often do you actually catch a perpetrator, like on camera, basically attacking?

Starting point is 00:23:28 But what's also disturbing is as they continue going through this footage, you can see that in the lobby of Fahim's complex, this masked figure had just been sitting there on a bench. in fact he was there for five hours before the attack that morning. So literally it seems like he went to the lobby, sat down, and was waiting patiently for Fahim to just come in, get back from a morning run, his chance to basically attack. But the problem is this guy, like I said, is concealed from head to toe. There's no way you can't even tell his skin color. You can't figure anything out.

Starting point is 00:24:11 And he seems calm and poised the intention. entire time he's captured on that surveillance camera, which is five hours long, by the way. He doesn't seem to be showing an ounce of nerves, which is why police suspect they feel like this guy has done this before. This might be a professional hit, a hired hit, something, because this just seems a little too out there, a little too movie-like, if you will. Okay. Yep.

Starting point is 00:24:35 And this theory doesn't even seem that far-fetched, especially when detectives learn more about Fahim's background. because as they dig deeper into his rideshare business in Nigeria, they learn Fahim was having some pretty big issues with Gokeda. That's the business. It turns out, Fahim had actually been budding heads with the Nigeria government for some time now, trying to keep this app in business over there. Recently, the state of Legos, where his company primarily ran out of,

Starting point is 00:25:12 had banned commercial motorbikes in the city, which obviously causes a lot of issues for Fahim's company. Police also claim there was some corruption within the business itself that Fahim was trying to resolve. So they start to wonder if maybe this was a professional hit related to the issues he was actually having with business in Nigeria. But if that was the case, police felt catching our suspect now might be hopeless

Starting point is 00:25:37 because they could be halfway across the Atlantic at this point. likely hopped on a plane immediately got out of New York. And detectives find more evidence this is maybe the case because it appears Fahim's every move was actually being watched leading up to his murder. Interesting. Which is crazy because he was so young. I mean, yeah, I mean, he was 31, which is crazy. Yeah. So while police were looking at more footage,

Starting point is 00:26:04 they noticed that the masked figure had actually visited another building two. He was seen going to another apartment complex directly adjacent from Fahim's building that he lived in. So detectives contact that superintendent and they tell them something interesting. The building has a few vacancies, but because of social distancing, the real estate agent has just been giving prospective renters the code to a lockbox, which gives them a key to go look in around them, like inside themselves. So when they speak to the real estate agent, they say, about 10 days before the murder, a man had contacted them about seeing an apartment.

Starting point is 00:26:45 So officers go take a look and they find that this specific unit faces out to the street. In fact, it looks directly at Fahim's building. You can even see inside some of his windows from this apartment. But that's not all. Detectives also noticed this nest cam that had been set up and points out towards Fahim's condo from this other condo across the street that's for rent. And once they learn that neither the super nor the real estate agent had installed this camera, they're like, oh, so this guy who came to show himself this condo alone put a camera to watch Fahim's

Starting point is 00:27:26 windows. Yeah. They're like, this is even more evidence of a targeted hit. Like, this feels professional. They suspect the masked man had been using this apartment as a store. sort of headquarters to watch Fahim, and they could even access the nest cam from their phone to monitor any activity when they weren't in the apartment watching. This would allow the killer to get familiar with Fahim's exact routine, what time he left

Starting point is 00:27:52 for work, when he ran his errands, even when he went for a jog. Now, they figure surveillance cameras have carried them this far. Let's try and access everything we can in the area until we find more, and they do, because they pull more footage from outside of Fahim's building, presumably from the day of the murder, and they find the figure in the black suit, passing pretty close to another camera. Only this time before he's stepped into the lobby, he is not wearing that face shield. Okay. I mean, I figured it would come off at some point. He is wearing a COVID mask and sunglasses, but enough of his skin is showing for them to tell.

Starting point is 00:28:30 They are definitely looking at a dark-skinned male. Okay. So they take a screenshot and they show it to Fahim's family. They're like, by chance do you recognize this guy at all? And when his cousin and sister see the photo from police, their jaw drops because they do know this guy. He is not some international assassin spy. They say no. his name is Tyrese Haspiel.

Starting point is 00:29:04 Okay. And he's Fahim's... No, freaking get out of here. Former assistant. Oh my gosh. So let's talk about Tyrese, because now police have a name. Spotify Ads Manager

Starting point is 00:29:19 makes it easy to create your first audio ad in minutes for free. Sign up today, launch a campaign, and start reaching your audience. He grew up in Long Island and like Fahim, he was also a bit of a whiz kid with an entrepreneurial mindset. He actually started working for Fahim back in 2018 when he was just 21 years old. He would do things like handle his calendar, his finances, run personal errands.

Starting point is 00:29:44 But Fahim felt that Tirees could actually really grow within his companies. He seemed to see a lot of himself in Tirees and he felt he could trust him. So over time, Fahim is giving Tirees more and more responsibilities, helping him pay vendors, things like that. But in May of 2019, Tyrese resigned and leaves the company. Though he and Fahim were still seemingly on speaking terms. Now, once Fahim's sister and cousin confirm it's Tyrese,

Starting point is 00:30:15 police realize, okay, we've obviously got to track him down. So they visit his apartment in Brooklyn, but Tyrese isn't there. Which is why they continue to collect evidence and see if any of it leads back to Tyrese while they try to find him. And as they play those elevator videos over and over, they spot something critical. They noticed that at one point, the masked figure actually vacuumed the elevator.

Starting point is 00:30:44 What the freak? Again, we know that there was like cleanup going on. And they're like, why, though? Like, why start cleaning? Like, why ring the elevator back up and vacuum it as well? But then it hits them. The suspect used a taser on Fahim first. Ah.

Starting point is 00:31:03 And that could lead to a pretty big clue because tasers eject hundreds of these little pieces of paper about the size of confetti when they are used. And each of them has a serial number on it so you can track it back to the buyer. I had no idea. It's kind of like because it's a weapon. Yeah, it's the same thing like when you're shooting a gun. Yes. Yes. And so the suspect had to have known this and was trying to vacuum up all these confetti pieces.

Starting point is 00:31:28 or what's known as AFI tabs. That's what they're called. So that's when they head back to Fahim's building. They shut the elevator down completely. They call out emergency service workers. They're like, can you please scan the entire elevator shaft to see if one of these little chips fell through the cracks? But it's not even completely necessary

Starting point is 00:31:49 because while detectives are back in Fahim's apartment that day, they spot something, a tiny pink piece of paper sitting along the floor molding. One little piece of confetti the suspect missed with the vacuum. With the serial number printed on it, they called the taser company and they learn who it's registered to. Both the taser and the cartridge were purchased by Tyrese Hasbill. Oh, so I mean, at this point, it's open and shut. It's not even, yeah, it's not even a question.

Starting point is 00:32:21 So with this evidence, they're like, well, if we still don't know where he is, we can at least subpoena his phone records now. Yeah, I mean, they have them on camera. Yeah, there's enough evidence. It's open and show, yeah. And they find that the day after he killed Fahim, he ordered an Uber down to Jersey City. And again, video surveillance near his drop-off point shows exactly what he was up to. He gets out of the Uber. Again, video surveillance in 2020 and later, it's going to get you every time,

Starting point is 00:32:52 especially in a place like New York City where cameras are inevitable. A million. So many cameras. So they literally track down where he took this Uber to. They check the cameras. You can see him get out of the Uber, walk towards the Hudson River, and drop a bag into the water. Oh, gosh. So detectives send a scuba team over there. They're like, maybe we can find the bag.

Starting point is 00:33:12 Now, they don't find it, but they do track his credit cards, the ones Fahim was supposedly still paying for. and they see that on Fahim's dime, Tyrese bought an electric saw and cleaning supplies. Oh my gosh. From a Home Depot on 23rd Street, just a few days before the murder. Which, yes, literally means Fahim's own money was used to buy the murder weapon.

Starting point is 00:33:45 Now, they also discovered security footage that proves Tyrese made those purchases himself. They are like, Yeah, we're not just going to show it was on the card. We're also going to show it was him. And they hear back from the real estate agent, too, the one who gave out that lockbox code to the apartment. And the agent confirms, yep, it was someone by the name of Tyrese that inquired about and went and looked at the apartment. So please have plenty of evidence against Tyrese has pill more than enough to get an arrest warrant.

Starting point is 00:34:16 But like me and his family, you're probably wondering, why? I mean, yeah, I'm wondering why, but he's obviously disgrunt, though. There's obviously some beef going on. Yeah. It didn't take long for police to figure it out because Tyrese had some text messages from Fahim that told an interesting story. Turns out, Tyrese had been stealing money from Fahim. A lot of it. And when Fahim caught him, again, this is his assistant.

Starting point is 00:34:46 He gives him a chance to repay it. And here's what happened. Fahim hired Tyrese in May 2018. By the fall of that year, Tyrese was coming up with some pretty creative ways to scheme his boss out of cash. How? Well, because Tyrese had access to a lot of Fahim's financial accounts

Starting point is 00:35:05 and was in charge of paying some of their vendors, he created some fake PayPal accounts. And then Tyrese would send himself the money pretending the accounts belonged to people that needed to be paid by Fahim. He got so good at it that by December he dialed it up a notch. He created a corporate entity and a bank account instead of just a PayPal account, and he was funneling cash right into his own wallet. Oh my God. Now, it does take about five more months for Fahim to catch on, figure out what's going on and make a move. In May 2019,

Starting point is 00:35:39 Fahim sent an email to Tyrese saying, quote, this is quite disconcerting, Tyrese. I put my full trust in you. Now, at that point, he allowed Tyrese to resign from the company. rather than firing him, which is why... And he got to keep all the money he stole. Which is why Fahim's family was like, oh, he just quit randomly one day. Now Fahim told Tirees he was just going to let him walk away so he could keep his dignity.

Starting point is 00:36:06 But instead of walking away and calling it a day, Tyrese somehow managed to continue stealing from him. Oh my gosh, what? By January of 2020, dude. Tyrese had embezzled about $400,000 from Fahim. Oh, my. Freak.

Starting point is 00:36:22 And even then, Behem catches him once again, shows him grace, doesn't press charges, says, listen, you've got to pay me back at this point.

Starting point is 00:36:31 Here's a payment plan. I don't need it all at once. This is how much money has been stolen. How much have you spent? And he had spent a lot of it, mostly on gifts for his new French girlfriend.

Starting point is 00:36:43 That's what he was stealing the money for. Okay. But instead of taking it on the chin and chalking it up to a dodged bullet, like, okay, he's not pressing charges. I messed up. Tyrese was like,

Starting point is 00:36:55 I can't pay this back. I'm just going to plot to murder my former boss. Yeah, I'm just going to cut him up and kill him. And that July attack was not the first time he had attempted it. Apparently, the first one was in March 2020 when he followed Fahim to Nigeria with a knife. Nothing happened. But then he did the same thing around New York City.

Starting point is 00:37:16 He also talked about burning down Fahim's condo. And it wasn't until May of 2020 that he really upped the ante. He began researching weapons, tasers, cleaning supplies. He bought the clothes that he would need to conceal his identity. He began tracking Fahim on social media. He set up the camera in the vacant apartment across the street. And then on July 13th, he made his move. And this just goes to show you, like, someone who's smart enough to, like,

Starting point is 00:37:42 figure out how to embezzle that much money from a pretty smart person. And then also have the, time and energy to like come up with this plan, rent a, like imagine if he just put that to use. He probably could have made $400,000. So here's what ended up happening. At around 8.30 a.m. that morning, Tyrese followed another tenant into the building and waited in the lobby for the right moment to strike. And then around 1.30 p.m. Fahim came back into the building and Tyrese followed him into the elevator completely disguised. Fahim didn't question it because it was COVID. He then tasered him into his condo and stabbed his former boss several times in the neck and torso.

Starting point is 00:38:26 And then around 3 p.m. after cleaning up some of the crime scene, Tyrese just left the building, took an Uber to Jersey City where he disposed at that bag of evidence. And then the following day, he actually goes back to Fahim's apartment and he begins dismembering the body and cleaning up the rest of the crime scene. So it becomes a two-day job. It's just crazy because it's like, dude, I don't know. It's just crazy to me that people think they can get away with this stuff. I don't know. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:38:57 It's just, it's horrible. But here's how we get to the, it's only half cleaned up. Because when he's there, he runs into a problem. He forgot the charger to his electric saw. So he left to go get one. And during the time he was gone, Behem's cousin came and discovered the body. When Tyrese got back to the building, he saw the police and he obviously booked it out of there.

Starting point is 00:39:21 So finally on July 17th, 2020, three days later, police tracked down Tyrese. Again, this is a pretty quick moving investigation. He had been staying at a Manhattan Airbnb, which he rented for his French girlfriend's birthday. It was costing him $1,000 a night, which he was paying for with Fahim's stolen money. So still spending the money after killing him. That day he was taken into custody in front of his girlfriend, who was also brought in for questioning. She's like, I have no idea about any of this.

Starting point is 00:39:54 In fact, he actually told her he was still working for Fahim. And he was getting up every single day and pretending to go into the office. She's released that night. Tyrese faces a handful of charges, including murder in the second degree that's later upgraded to first degree. Yeah, seriously. Second degree is crazy. Grand larceny in second degree, burglary in the second degree, tampering with physical evidence, concealment of a human corpse. Tyrese pleads not guilty, despite the massive amount of evidence against him.

Starting point is 00:40:24 Thanks to COVID restrictions, he doesn't go to trial until May of 2024. And during his month-long trial, his defense attorney actually allows him to take the stand, during which he states that the reason he killed Fahim was out of, quote, unconditional love for his girlfriend. That he was afraid she was going to leave him if she found out he had been stealing his money from his boss. So the only thing left to do was kill him. Finally, in June of 2024, the jury deliberates. They return with a verdict. Tyrese is guilty as charged on all accounts.

Starting point is 00:40:56 He's given 40 years to life. Okay. Holy crap. He must have been trying to do a... It didn't really clarify, but my thought was like a defense of, like, reason of insanity due to love type thing. Yeah. Anyways, Fahim's friends and family are now working hard to make sure that.

Starting point is 00:41:17 that his horrible death does not become the only thing about him because he's amazing. Oh, yeah. They want him. They want him to be remembered as the kind and generous person that he set out to be, the one who bought computers and devices for schools in Bangladesh when they didn't have the budget for them, who started businesses in underdeveloped countries to give people opportunity and agency over their own income. the brilliant entrepreneur whose career was just getting started.

Starting point is 00:41:48 He was so young who knows what he would have went on to do. And obviously, the man who believed in second chances, even when people around him didn't deserve them. And that is the murder of Fahim Salele. It's insane. Again, it just blows my mind. People will kill people. I know.

Starting point is 00:42:11 Like, not just kill somebody. He is dismembering somebody's body. body. And like came back a day later. How can you like how? How? Oh my gosh. I hate people. Like what in the world? Also like, Oh. Fahim was so nice. Yeah. No. Even a thousand chances. It's pointless. It was completely and utterly pointless.

Starting point is 00:42:35 Every person in Fahim's life talk like literally talks about him like it's crazy. He's the kindest. He's the most generous. Like no wonder he gets. gave him two chances after finding out. He'd stole hundreds of thousands. Dude was disgruntled for no reason. Exactly. It's not like you were... What in the world?

Starting point is 00:42:52 What was wrong with people? Ugh. Noyed. Annoyed. All right, you guys. Thank you for listening or watching today's episode. We will be back with another one. I love it.

Starting point is 00:43:05 I hate it. Goodbye. Don't you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know the same way you can skip an ad. I get it. I'm Siyaya and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned. And today, I'm still figuring it out.

Starting point is 00:43:31 Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll. So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Stream a new episode of North of North Tuesdays on CBC Gem.

Murder With My Husband - 340. The Shocking Murder of Fahim Saleh

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.