RedHanded - Episode 8 - The Honeymoon Murder

Episode Date: August 17, 2017

What happened on their honeymoon that left Anni Dewani dead (in one of Cape Town's most notorious townships) and her husband of just 2 weeks, Shrien Dewani under suspicion of her murder? Join us as we tread the twisted timeline of a bizarre honeymoon murder this week - and ask if it really was the husband...   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.See 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 listen to Red Handed early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Saruti.

I'm Hannah. And this is Red Handed. And today we're going to be talking about the murder of Annie Dovani. On the 14th of November 2010, Annie Dovani, a 28-year-old Swedish national, was found dead in an abandoned taxi in a notorious township in Cape Town. She had been shot in the neck and left to bleed to death. Annie was a newlywed in South Africa on her honeymoon following an insanely lavish wedding where she married British businessman

Shirin Diwani. And shortly after their wedding the two left for the luxury honeymoon to South Africa. But their arrival in Cape Town would set off a chain of events that just two weeks after their fairytale wedding would leave Annie Diwani dead and Shirin accused of her murder. But did he do it? This is a bit of a twisty turny one

so pay attention. You sound like a teacher. Remember this it'll be on the quiz. I know. Attention is needed. It is a bit of a twisty turny one so pay attention remember this it'll be on the quiz i know attention is needed it is a big fat puzzle and we'll just be putting it together piece by piece the main questions that circle this story and the ones that we will consider today are did shirin kill his wife was it a hit job what is a hit job saruti hit? Hit man job. Hit man job. An execution job man. Handy man. I don't know. Hit job.

Is that not what people say? I don't know. Was it something else entirely? And how much did police incompetence and corruption contribute to all of the confusion? Let's start at the beginning. Annie and her family were of Indian heritage, but Annie was born and raised in Sweden. She basically had everything going for her. I mean, we've posted pictures of her on the instagram you can see she's beautiful she also had an

engineering degree so she was super smart she had a family who loved her and they were mega loaded and in october 2010 she married shirin devani in this crazy expensive wedding they spent like 150 000 pounds on it which is like what 180 190 000 dollars i mean that's a lot that's a lot of money i mean not here in london you couldn't buy a house for that you couldn't buy anything you buy a car parking space for a wedding that's a lot of money and i mean i think the average is like 20 000 pounds in this country to spend on a wedding so they were well over that is is there a similar thing of like you know if you're buying an engagement ring you're supposed to spend on a wedding. So they were well over that. Is there a similar thing of like, you know, if you're buying an engagement ring,

you're supposed to spend two months wages on it? I mean, I don't know. I think they were just really, really rich. Both their families are rich. And so why the hell not? They spend all this money on it. They are of Indian heritage. So it was just this full on Indian Bollywood

extravaganza wedding in Mumbai. When you see pictures of it, It's ridiculous. How long would a normal Indian wedding be? They were Hindu and so I think Hindu weddings do go on a long time and I think it's like it's here. It's very much a status thing. How much money can you spend on it? How beautiful is her dress? They also do dress changes so she'll have a couple of dresses over the three days. Do they really ride in on elephants? People do. My dad came to his wedding. Did he? Yeah, my dad came to his wedding on an elephant. But they got married in India. I don't, I won't have any elephants at my wedding. Yeah. This was a lavish wedding to match their riches on both sides of the family. So the couple had only known each other for about 18

months. Is that a normal amount of time, Indian style? the thing is i think that they were of indian heritage but he was born and raised here and she was born and raised in sweden i think that we can just say that this is comparable maybe to any other person i guess is it the older you get the less time you need to be engaged but then she was only 28 he was 35 but maybe in indian culture that is i'm i'm on the shelf I'm 27, I'm on the shelf TikTok, seriously It is fast But not like crazy fast

No, if one of your friends now met a guy and in a year and a half they got married would that be crazy? No actually it wouldn't, would it? Exactly, like I'm almost her age If we were at my wedding in a year and a half that's not that crazy No it's not, you're right

I'll suspend my judgement But they did get married so everything seems on the surface pretty okay a year and a half that's not that crazy no it's not you're right i'll suspend my judgment but they they did get married so everything seems on the surface pretty okay at this point it's not like a whirlwind romance but it's no their pictures give off the impression of a blissful relationship what do pictures prove well exactly i would never if i just had a fight with someone i wouldn't take a picture no but i also think it's like isn't it always the couples that are constantly posting things on facebook and on instagram of pictures always the couples that are constantly posting things on Facebook and on Instagram of pictures of themselves together

that are the most troubled deep down? Because I think there is, along with an insecure relationship, comes the need to bolster it in the eyes of others. But according to Annie's family and friends, things had changed after the engagement. They claimed Shereen was controlling and that Annie had started to reveal doubts about the marriage and as the wedding grew closer she felt like she might be

making a bit of a mistake. And there is evidence of Annie's trepidation and the profile this builds of Shirin does a lot to explain why Annie's family to this day are convinced Shirin is guilty of Annie's murder. So what is this evidence? Annie had been texting her family members saying that she hated him and that she shouldn't have got engaged. And in other texts, Annie told her friends that they were fighting a lot and they have nothing in common because he's such a perfectionist. I think this is a lot more than cold feet. This many doubts, this soon, they're not even married yet.

And she's texting her family saying things like this. We shouldn't have got engaged. Why is she going through with it? She was even heard saying that she wanted a divorce just days before the honeymoon. Literally immediately after they got married, she's just like, this was a giant mistake. Yeah, that's a huge red flag, especially the reason she cites why the controlling behaviour, the perfectionism, especially to be with a perfectionist if you're not, is very difficult. I can can understand though if they were planning this incredibly lavish wedding i can understand why you would think well we spent all this money now we're

just gonna have to do it yeah and i think there is also something to be said to come back to their backgrounds and issue of this is what is expected you've already decided this but saying that shirin was engaged before he got engaged to ann. He was engaged to another woman who was the daughter of the gentleman who was the founder of SpiceJet, the airlines in Asia. And he broke that engagement off. But maybe this was Annie's that she didn't want to go through with this. But despite any concerns that Annie may have harboured over her wedding to Devani, she married him anyway. And they left for their honeymoon in November 2010. Again, here, you know this idea that she went through with the wedding,

she got married to him and then left for the honeymoon, despite all of her misgivings. The fact that she... And also, if she was feeling pressure to not get married, she wasn't keeping it a secret. She was telling her family and friends, I don't want to marry him. I don't... I'm not sure about this.

He's controlling. So it doesn't even seem like it was applied pressure from the family. But what were they saying in return, though? No, that's the thing we don't know. I think they were saying, it'll be fine once you're married. It'll work itself out, which is very much the thinking I can imagine of that generation, which is you learn to love someone after you're married, which is traditional, like absolutely traditional in this kind of situation I can imagine.

But she's an intelligent woman. If you look at her, she doesn't come across like some traditional orthodox woman that was going along with what she was told. She seemed liberated. She was intelligent. She had her own life. She had her own skills. Why did she need to go along with this? What did she have to gain? It's hard to understand the mindset because of how vocal she was being by texting her family and friends saying this, which is what I think is bizarre.

But on the 9th of November, so the start of their honeymoon, they fly to a luxury resort in Kruger National Park in North East and South Africa. And Annie once again texts home saying, he's a nice guy, but I don't feel happy at all. But then a day later, Annie texts again. And here, something seems to have changed because now she texts home saying, it's better it's going better than before it's hard to explain i'll call you when i'm back and then again she texts them just hate the word divorce i can understand the stigma surrounding divorce especially in quite a conservative situation but that there's a very definite shift in how she's thinking about him. And that's weird.

I mean, what's going on with her? She seems quite fickle. Is it too harsh to say that maybe everything was all right and she was just a bit of a dramatic person? Maybe. There's only accounts from her family who are broken by her murder talking about who she was and how she was. We don't know. Maybe she was a dramatic person.

You know, after this text, her parents, I'm assuming, and her family will feel a little bit more relieved that they're on their honeymoon, things are working itself out. But to me, and to us, it seems a bit crazy. But four days after the start of their honeymoon, they're done with the safari in Kruger National Park. Four days after the safari, with things apparently going well between them now,

the couple fly to Cape Town on the 12th of November for the rest of their trip. But within 30 hours of landing, Annie would be dead. Let's do the timeline. We love a timeline. The couple land in Cape Town and they find a taxi driver at the airport. Zolo Robert Tonga. I feel like finding a taxi driver at the airport is very much a risk, like a rich person's dealing with airports but in south africa i really would i would have already arranged a car um it's what i would have done maybe that's a rich person thing to do hannah this i actually think that this is bizarre i would have expected him why isn't their hotel picking them up they are staying in a nice hotel they don't have a shuttle bus they don't have a taxi don't have a driver to come pick you up.

He seems, I mean, a perfectionist. Wouldn't you order a taxi when you order a car to be waiting for you? Well, I'm surprised also

that their hotel just didn't have someone. Yeah. Is this a nice hotel? I googled it. How nice. Like, he's a millionaire

and her family are millionaires. They're not on their honeymoon. Tongo is 30 years old and had just one conviction on his record at this point, which was for driving a taxi without a permit. So he's not a big hitter at this point. No. Or maybe he just hasn't been caught. Maybe he's either very, very good or very petty.

Like, it's hard to know. Tongo would later go on to be the prosecution's star witness, testifying that Devani paid him to arrange Annie's execution. So that day Tongo picks up the couple and drives them to their hotel the Cape Grace less than a 30 minute drive away from the airport. When they arrive at the hotel Annie goes inside to check in. Devani hangs back to speak with Tongo apparently he tells Tongo just right now this second outside their hotel that he wants to take someone off the scene.

He literally just met this guy in a taxi. And they were in the car together for like 25 minutes. That is not enough time to feel someone out, to ask them to kill someone. Yeah, the drive from the airport was 25 minutes. In Tongo's statement to the police, he claimed that Devani said he wanted someone to be killed. I told him I didn't associate myself with such things,

but could call someone in the township who might be able to help. And that's a crazy risk for a perfectionist. Exactly. And I think this is what it comes back to, the claims around this is how he's doing it. It seems weird. This is how a perfectionist like Shirin Devani would go about this. A millionaire perfectionist kills his wife. Maybe it's the double bluff, but we don't know.

Shirin Devani is now apparently allegedly conspiring to commit murder with a random taxi guy he just met in a strange foreign city. Shirin now joins Annie in the hotel lobby while Tongo waits outside. After checking in, Shirin goes back outside to speak with Tongo for almost nine minutes. This is all corroborated by CCTV. But as far as what they discuss, Tongo and Devani, as with the rest of their interactions from here on out, have two wildly different stories.

Devani says that he was discussing hiring Tongo to be their driver whilst they were in Cape Town. Tongo says Devani was talking cash. He wanted to have a woman murdered and he wanted to know how much it would cost. If Annie was the target, why didn't Shirin just murdered and he wanted to know how much it would cost. Let's see, if Annie was the target, why didn't Shirin just identify her as the target? She was in the car. Dongo's met her.

Why be so shady being, I need someone taken off the scene, I need a woman taken off the scene. But again, all of this is corroborated by CCTV in terms of we can see what's happening, but we don't know what they're actually saying. Devani wants to murder his new wife in a cold-blooded premeditated way and he just turns up with no pre-planning, no idea and randomly just asks the taxi driver to engage in a conspiracy to murder his new wife. The same man who was described by Annie and his family and his friends and basically anyone who knew him as a perfectionist and a control freak. Maybe if you were going to commit murder you would go to a random country where you thought maybe their criminal justice system wouldn't be very good yes i definitely

would do that i'd never kill never kill someone anyway but if i were going to i wouldn't kill them here i wouldn't kill them in the uk no way but if i was his sort of level of anally retentive perfectionist it would all just happen as all i would have to do is walk out of the airport it would all be in place already i wouldn't be picking up taxi drivers and being like hey man you look like you could probably murder someone do you want to help me out but is it this idea of if you plan everything too well there's a paper trail they can trace it back if you just go do it off the cuff when you get there there's less chance of it being traced back to you because there is a sense of chaos around it and it's less likely to be led back to you. And you know, when you go travelling there,

we say, don't book anything in advance, sort it out when you're there, because you'll get a better rate. Well, this is the thing about the car at the airport, isn't it? Why is he hiring this random guy to drive them around? Doesn't their hotel have someone who can organise a taxi driver? Yeah, not only should their hotel... I find it very difficult to believe their hotel didn't have airport pickup.

I find it very difficult to believe they didn't have drivers that you could hire unless he wanted to give his money to a local person i would do that i would do that i understand that but he just doesn't seem like that kind of guy i know but again this idea that the south african police would would, South African authorities would later go on to say that they felt he had come there and committed the murder there in this erratic sense because he felt that their justice system was weak and that their police department wouldn't have caught him

and that he came there with a sense of hubris and arrogance. I can buy that. I can buy that. So let's continue the story. And we'll, as we go along, we'll let you know what CCTV corroborated and what's alleged. After Tongo leaves the couple, he drives to another hotel, the Coliseum, which is a 20 minute drive from the Cape Grace. On the way, he called the Coliseum to speak to the receptionist, a man named Omblombo.

He's the middleman in the whole plot. Tongo calls him to apparently arrange the hit so meanwhile back at the cape grace while all this is happening shirin leaves annie in their hotel room and goes out clearly seen on cctv yeah and the cctv back at the coliseum shows tongo arriving to meet on blombo so after tongo left shirin and annie at their hotel he calls on blombo drives to the coliseum and here he's seen by cctv they go outside and tongo tells on blombo that he has a man who is willing to pay 15 000 rand which is about 900 pounds or about a thousand dollars for a hit on a woman on blombo said he knew a guy in the township who could carry out the hit

now they were outside for just two and a half minutes it's not long enough it's not enough time to organize an execution of your wife or a hit job whatever but when they come back inside the cctv shows another employee because the cctv in the coliseum also has sound which is really important to this case so when they come back inside the cctv shows another employee jokingly asking them what's going on and on blombo jokingly replies you don't want to know funny joke on blombo i know good joke but again things can get taken out of context they could have been talking about some lady or anything you know that's true yeah special lady friend are these guys first-time murderers neither of them had previous convictions apart from driving

that taxi permit i mean that's paperwork that's not that's not criminal activity it's like not having a tv license and now suddenly they're criminal kingpins with connections to hit men just because they haven't been because they have no convictions because the justice system is a bit all over the place yeah they could be yeah yeah super kingpins who only need two and a half minutes and they're like that's all i need buddy i've got it yeah yeah and maybe they don't is because there's corruption in the police force and that's why they've never been convicted of anything if you were going into some organized crime ring and you're just a random person you're not from the country and you find you know the mafia or the triads or whatever and you just walk

up to them being like i need you to kill someone for me they don't know you they don't you could be a cop like why would they ever just be like okay straight we have to prove yourself to a certain extent and i don't think that happens no and i think that but i think i think that's an absolute valid point somewhere like here but I think there so in South Africa in Cape Town I think how much of it is that these guys are not criminally sophisticated they're not high up the criminal ladder but for 900 pounds you're getting a hit on somebody on your new wife maybe there you don't need to go that all that high up the criminal ladder no in order to find someone who is a hitman here people talk about it on the dark web like the dark web is

where you go to find a hitman but i just don't think even in that circumstance you'd be able to find someone so quickly oh yes i think the idea of how with what level of ease he does this is is very bizarre do you know what it makes me think of it makes me think of um like panama or whatever and there's all these people walking around like hey man go gang go gang okay like it makes me feel like oh okay yeah yeah man like what do you need maybe it's easier to find this kind of stuff because the black market is very much in your face i don't know it's bizarre in any case whatever they were to, because they're definitely up to something, they are seen calling a guy called Kwabe. Kwabe is a young unemployed man from a township in the area.

Once Mblombo had called Kwabe to set things up, alleging the hit ordered by Shirin. Tongo leaves and Mblombo is clearly seen on Hotel CCTV looking ridiculously happy, smiling and dancing and joking. Is that the behaviour of a man who's just organised a hit? He's been the middleman. Maybe. He's going to get pay off. Yeah.

And he's a stone cold psychopath. Doesn't seem smart enough for a psychopath to me, I don't think. Sociopath? Maybe. Now, let's go back to the Cape Grace. Roughly at the same time, 6 15 as tongo is leaving the coliseum devani returns to his hotel he'd been to a bureau de change and had i never know how to say that in my own accent yeah i know i think it's because it's french so it's like

oh he'd been to a bureau de change so yeah i know because i can't be like bureau de change. Yeah, I know, because I can't be like, bureau de change. Don't say that. Or say it exactly like that. I don't know, I never know where to pitch it. Bureau de change. Bureau de change. You're pushing up to pull that out. Thanks. And he had changed £800 into rand.

He also had with him a single red rose for Annie. That's nice. That's a nice thing to do on your honeymoon. If you're not about to murder her. Minutes after Shirin returns to his room, Annie calls her parents. And in an interview, the family now say that she sounded weird. They said that it wasn't Annie's voice and that something just felt not okay. This would also sadly be the last time that they would ever speak.

And things develop and escalate very quickly now. So at 6.40, Tongo calls Kwabe, the first gunman. He's calling to confirm that Kwabe can do the job. He then calls another guy, Mugeni, who becomes the second gunman. The four guys involved now are Tongo, who was the taxi driver, Omlombo, who's the receptionist at the Coliseum and is the middleman setting everything up, Kwabe, who's the first gunman, and Mugeni, who's the second gunman. So the prosecution's case is that in just two calls,

one to Kwabe, lasting 79 seconds, and one to Mugeni, lasting 41 seconds, Tonga had hired Annie's killers. Tonga, a man who previously had no convictions or links to criminal activity on this level. Doesn't feel right, does it? No, it doesn't. It seems a bit suspect to me. no convictions or links to criminal activity on this level. Doesn't feel right does it? No it doesn't. It seems a bit suspect to me. But meanwhile back at the Cape Grace, so the hotel where Annie and Shirin are staying, that night CCTV shows them having dinner near their hotel. The waitress who

served them at dinner remembers that they were not a typical honeymoon couple. She said in an interview that she was always serving honeymooners and that the Devanis didn't seem loved up enough. At one point she even comes over to the table and Shirin isn't there and Annie says he's gone to make a business call. Who the fuck does that on their honeymoon? That's humiliating. I'd be humiliated. I would be beside myself. I'd probably storm off. I wouldn't like sit there quietly. I would leave. And in the likectv pictures she looks pissed she's got her arms crossed she's like slumped back in her chair and she looks like she's fucking pissed off i don't blame her at all but what was really happening though was he on a business call when you look at the cctv it looks like shirin had actually left his phone in their hotel room

and was going back to retrieve it if you're in a strange country and you've just arrived you've just arrived literally how many days ago not long a couple of days a couple of days and in that time you've managed to orchestrate a hit a hit job on your wife why would you leave your phone in your hotel room these people who you've hired to kill your wife are communicating with you exclusively through your phone why would you not have it with you at all times? Someone could see it, something could pop up on the screen. That's not the behaviour of a man who's organised a hit. Or not the behaviour of a man who has got his shit together and has organised a hit. Especially since phone records show that he had a text from Tongo

waiting for him when he got back in his room. So anyone could have seen it. But Shirin comes back with his phone, calls Tongo and they speak for five minutes and 26 seconds yes there is no real clear evidence of Devani's involvement in the guilt of Annie's death in what we've said so far but the frequency and the timings of the calls is what is so suggestive of his guilt to me they're just so suspicious why does he keep having to have these calls with Tongo that call he makes to Tongo when he comes back and sees the text,

he makes it at the hotel while his wife is waiting for him at the restaurant still. With a face like a smack to ass probably. And five and a half minutes. What are you talking about? That is a long time for someone you don't know. And why is he texting you? Again, why are you calling him? The freak, like I said, the kind of frequency and the timings of these calls

makes it all very bizarre to me. So what were they talking about? Because the CCTV proves that they were speaking, the phone records prove that they were speaking, but we don't know what they were talking about apart from what either of them alleged. So Shirin says they were talking about the tours that they were arranging because remember he had asked Tongo to be his driver while they were in Cape Town. And if this was just about Tongo being their driver and itinerary planning why so many calls and at night? Well maybe while his wife is waiting at the restaurant. See yeah that's bullshit but maybe the only thing I can think of is if he's like oh I'm going to take you on these tours and each tour is going to cost you this amount of

money every time Shireen is saying yes he's like great I've got him I'll offer him another one and another one and another one and another one so that i can see kind of but still five maybe he was just trying to get him off the phone but he seems like the kind of bloke he's not afraid to just hang up the phone he's a businessman i don't feel like you get to that position taking calls that you don't want to be taking true after their evening out at about 11 30 the couple returned to their room tongo tells the police that Shirin now calls him to pick them up. But there is no record of Shirin calling Tongo at this point. But there does seem to have been some sort of prearranged plan.

Again, why? Tongo will see this throughout the case. He lies about things that are inconsequential. He lies about things that prove nothing. So they could have arranged this during the five and a half minutes they spoke about midway through dinner. Why lie that Shirin called him then to come pick him up in any case at 11 56 that night Tonga arrives to pick Shirin up they leave the Cape Grace and head to a jeweler's to exchange money here Shirin exchanges $1,500 into rand so now if you add this amount to the money from before

Shirin now has about 21,500 rand. And also, almost midnight, I would not carry a large amount of money outside a hotel with me. No. Anywhere in the world. Why? Why? But again, is this a sign of his arrogance and his hubris?

Nothing can happen to me, that kind of reckless behaviour. It is weird, but that is what he does. So now, yeah, 21,500 rand. Why did he need so much money? It is weird, but that is what he does. So now, yeah, 21,500 rand. Why did he need so much money? Supposedly, he needed 15,000 rand for the murder. But if he wasn't planning a hit, why take out so much cash?

But he has more than he needs. Yeah, because it's like, no, no, so it's like, he needs 15,000 for the murder. But if he isn't plotting a murder, why is he taking out so much money? Right. According to Shirin, he had been planning a secret surprise for Annie, a helicopter trip. Which, again, why are you arranging this at midnight? Why are you going to get money out for this? Maybe he just wants to do it the next day and he needs to go get that money out.

Yeah, maybe he, like, just had the thought and he was like, okay, we can just do it. They're staying in nice places. This is 2010. Why is your card not working? He's a millionaire. What does he care? Even if it's got a little bit of a charge on it stick it on the card who's getting cash out driving around to jewelers put it on your room why would you know because they are this is the other hotel that offers it oh okay they're staying at the cape grace but the coliseum is the one that offers

the helicopter ride okay that he alleges yes what the money was for because the coliseum is where on blombo works and he offered he offered the helicopter ride the only hotel that offers a helicopter ride is the coliseum where on blombo works and you can even hear staff on cctv talking about the rich people who wanted the helicopter trip he's not trying to appear poor do you know what i mean he's not he's flashing the cash i think you can say that he's flashing his cash about which is dumb behave with like appropriateness hide your valuable don't you don't go in there shouting about this and this and this and like you're taking tongo to go exchange cash he knows exactly how much cash you're exchanging now i'm not saying everyone there is some criminal that's going to rob you but behave with a little decorum

maybe you're only as safe as you make yourself that is my absolutely mantra for world travel you walk around with your fucking brand new iphone strapped to your chest and like a gopro on your head and everything you're asking for something to happen what's very interesting is a helicopter trip from the coliseum is about the same amount a hit would have cost. The police never really explore this. I wonder, I doubt there's like a set amount for a hit. No, no, no. But it was the amount they had alleged.

So the 15,000 Rand is how much the helicopter flight cost and how much they said the hit cost. So it explains why, if he wasn't arranging the hit, why he kept taking out so much cash. So after the jewellers, Tongo takes Shirin straight back to the Cape Grace. Tongo tells the police that Shirin, during this ten-minute journey, specifies how he wants Annie to be killed.

Yeah, so he's saying he wants it to be made to look like a hijacking, he wants it to be cut and shut, he doesn't want to be there when it's happening. This is apparently how he's specifying he wants it done. at the same time he's leaving so much to chance after dropping sharon back at his hotel tongo heads to the township to meet the gunman here the three men tongo kwabe and mcgainey plan the murder the plan was apparently for the gunman to hijack the car and kill annie but what is really interesting is that there was no evidence that Tongo ever confirmed any of this with Shirin. Exactly.

So Shirin is plotting this murder using men he doesn't know in a country he doesn't know. Insists that the murder happens soon because they're running out of time. They're on a honeymoon. They're not there for an extended period of time. But doesn't need any confirmation

that everything is set. Isn't that weird? If you were were going to kill someone is this how you would do it absolutely fucking not maybe he's like playing 4d chess what maybe it's a quadruple bluff yeah that is the sort of thing a perfectionist would do yeah and if he is some sort of psychopath maybe he's playing exactly exactly we don't know so while all this is happening, the couple go for dinner. And at the Coliseum Hotel on Blombo Calls Tongo, I listened to the recordings on the CCTV that had been translated, and they are 100% planning something. But they're never specific.

So it's so hard to know what they're actually referring to. They're doing something. They're planning something. They're talking about it so vaguely that apart from knowing they're planning something, you can't be sure what it is that they're doing. But whatever is going down, Omplombo is definitely in charge. After their meeting at 7.45, Shirin and Tongo speak on the phone. Regarding the call, Tongo insists that Shirin is calling him to insist that the murder happens soon and that he needs them to get on with it. But what's really interesting is that CCTV at the bar that the Devanis are at shows Shirin is taking the call in front of Annie. I mean, when

you watch the CCTV, they're sat at a tiny little, like, tiny little table, like a little poser table. They're just sat there together they're like very intimate they're like basically on top of each other he's got his hand like stroking her hair while he's on the phone to tongo because the phone records prove it tongo is saying that during this call sharon is demanding that the hit happen and telling them how he wants it done and that they need to get on with it. And she's right next to him. She's next to him. And in the CCTV, he looks completely at ease. She's sat right there. Is he ordering Annie's murder in front of her?

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and Finding Natasha exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Whatever they spoke about, Tonga arrives at the hotel to pick them up 30 minutes later, because apparently, Tonga and Shrin had organised

a night-time sightseeing tour of the city. Why would you ever do that? I think... On your honeymoon as well. Have you got something else to be doing? At night-time. I'd find something else. Night-time. All the time just made myself

look like a bit of a prude there at night time missionary only no eye contact we're here for the conception get on with it sorry also this tour

which is just bonkers it took them to a township and a super notorious township that's famous for gun crime that's not a honeymoon activity in anyone's book, I don't think. No, I don't think it's part of, like, the premium package.

Honeymoon package, you know? What do you think? This idea of, like, slum tourism. Like, they were going to the townships. Yeah, like, people who, like, go and look at a favela in Brazil. And the Mumbai slums. It's a very popular tourist attraction. It makes me feel really gross, is what it makes me feel. But then is it this idea of, like, people should come, very popular tourist attraction it makes me feel really gross it's what it makes me feel but then is it this idea of like people should come get out of their resorts and come take a look at how

normal people live or how not normal people but the majority of people in that country are living i do get that i'm not like someone who goes on an all-inclusive holiday and stays in the resort and eats only english food they exist but there is something that unnerves me a little bit about like shall we just go and look at some poverty shall we yes it's all very like colonial isn't it that's exactly it it makes me feel uncomfortable it is it's weird but that's exactly what they do i think it is important to say just because of what the waitress said previously shirin and annie they look super coupley right now the c The CCTV in the bar shows them all over each other. They're kissing and taking photos and they look like they haven't

before, which is in love. Is Shirin just that much of a psycho? Is he a stone cold? This idea though, again, if you are planning a hit that night, your wife is going to get murdered and you've planned it. Yes, I would go to a packed bar and i would ask people to take photos of us he's asking strangers to take photos of them he's got his arms all around her but so is she but she doesn't know what's going on and maybe he doesn't but that is the perfect setup for the tragic loss of my beloved wife you're right is that a thing i don't know yeah i could believe that especially if that's the only night and it that they've looked like that and been seen to be coupley and it's the

night she's murdered but their relationship is so tumultuous anyway look back at the texts that annie was sending in their wedding photos they look genuinely happy they don't look like the smile that doesn't reach the eyes they They are smiling and they look happy. They blew £150,000 on that wedding. Everything was so expensive. They went for it full force to get married. But she's still texting people being like, oh, I'm not sure if I should have got married. I'm not sure if we should have got engaged. I'm not sure about him. He's controlling whatever. Like, and then the next day she texts them and saying everything is getting better. Like their relationship anyway seems quite dramatic and tumultuous. So maybe that night they were with the other waitress. She picks up on the fact they don't seem couple-y.

But then now suddenly they are. I can buy both sides of that story. But let's get back to this weird tourist township tour that they're doing late at night. Tonga takes them to Gultu Township. Tonga drove Shirin and Annie into the heart of the township at night, straight into the hands of the gunman. This is where Kwabe and Mugeni were laying in wait.

They ambushed the taxi at gunpoint, and I can only imagine the panic. In the dark, being set upon, Shirin said they were screaming for money, so he gave them all the money he had, and he was yelling at Annie to give them everything because she wouldn't give them her wedding and engagement rings. Tonga now gets out the car and the gunman now tell the Diwanis they're not going to kill them as long as they give them everything they want. The gunman say they will let them go but only separately so they stop and demand that

Shirin gets out. Shirin says he was begging for the gunman to let him and Annie go together but Kwabe is screaming at him to get out get out of the taxi and move. Shirin says Kwabe had a gun to his head so he gets out and the taxi drives away with Annie. Shirin is now left alone, stranded in the township. Luckily for Shirin, a local government auditor, Simbonelli Matakazi, finds him and calls the police. Matakazi says Shirin was frantic when he found him.

So really we can't know 100% what's happened during the hijacking but Kwame and Tongo say that Shirin was 100% in on it and handed over the money and just got out of the taxi willingly leaving Annie to die. But the second gunman Mugeni is the only one to tell the same story as Shirin. The statement Mugeni gives before Shirin becomes a suspect absolutely mirrors Shirin's story. Mugeni gives before Shirin becomes a suspect absolutely mirrors Shirin's story. Mugeni confirms that Shirin was screaming don't kill her and don't kill us. So Shirin is picked up by the police and after a fruitless search for Annie they return Shirin to his hotel at 1am on Sunday morning. In the CCTV he looks distraught but the police are telling him

they are confident they will absolutely find Annie alive. Annie is already dead. She was killed not long after Shirin was thrown out. Once again, there are two stories. The gunmen both blame each other for shooting Annie. We think it was Kwabe. The forensics point in that direction, which we'll come on to later, and they do seem to incriminate him.

And this is the idea of like, okay, so say it was a hijacking. It wasn't organised by devani it was organized by tongo why did they take annie and kick sharon out she's hysterical she's screaming he's screaming what is there to be gained by separating them and driving away with annie i know that's something i don't understand either what if they're just going to steal them and kill them kill them both what i don't what i absolutely don't understand is why you would let the bloke get out of the car and keep the woman unless you're going to rape her.

That's the only thing I can think of. And she wasn't. There was no sexual assault. There was no rape. Nothing happened like that to Annie. It doesn't make sense. Because especially this woman who is screaming, because you would be.

You would be screaming. You would be hysterical. Absolutely. Why take her with you? Unless it is to disorientate them. If they're together, maybe they'll get their shit together sooner but already they're still you're leaving them in a strange township miles away from their hotel what are they going to do why not leave them together also if shirin had organized the hit if i had done that i wouldn't want to be left

in the middle of a township famous for gun violence absolutely i would want someone to come and pick me up and take me away definitely or. Or I wouldn't be there in the first place. Or you would be like, shoot her, throw her out and drive me back. Precisely, yeah. Why would you throw me out first? Unless it is, again, to be seen. And he has the sense of, like,

arrogance and, again, hubris that nothing will happen to him and he'll be fine. Even if that's not the case, maybe it's because of what Shirin was saying. He was screaming at Annie to give them her rings and she wasn't. So maybe they thought, we've taken everything we can from Shirin because he's

and this is assuming that he didn't organize this he's playing ball get him out and she will become more compliant when he's not there because she's not giving them her rings which again why wouldn't you take it take the fucking rings but that's what she's doing maybe that's why they separate her they want to get the jewelry off that she hasn's what she's doing. Maybe that's why they separate her. They want to get the jewellery off that she hasn't given up yet. Either way, after Annie was shot, they abandoned the taxi in Felice Township with Annie shot and dying in the backseat.

They stole her handbag, both of their mobile phones and jewellery, everything except Annie's rings, including Annie's engagement ring, which was £25,000. That's insane. I would be so terrified having something that expensive on me ever again I just find it very weird that they went to this place on honeymoon unless it was because they were planning on this luxury honeymoon why wouldn't you wear your 25 000 pound engagement ring but if I was traveling

anywhere I wouldn't wear it nope i was staying in a hotel in vietnam and i had like not even it wasn't even real gold just a chain and the guy who ran the hotel was like take that off yeah yeah a hundred percent if it was a murder made to look like a robbery why would you leave the rings that seems like a miscalculation so the ring was found in the car i mean if it was a murder made to look like a robbery, why leave the rings? The only thing I can think is that she wouldn't give them up for whatever reason, because when they do find them,

one of the rings is found under her body, so she's passed out on top of it when she's been shot, and then the other ring is found in, like, the footwell of the back of the car. But still, why would you leave them? And if it was an execution, wouldn't they have stayed to check that she was dead apparently they just ran off after she'd been shot and also if it was an execution does it seem like an execution or does it seem like an accidental shooting

if it's an execution i feel like you shoot them in the temple or the back of the head you know it was a single shot and the shot had first hit annie's left hand then entered her neck severing major blood vessels and slashing her spinal cord. The South African police concluded that this was an execution. But who shoots someone in the neck when it's an execution? Through their hand? No. I feel like if you're executing someone

you restrain them so she wouldn't have been able to have her hands in front of her face. No. And you shoot them in the back of the neck. You don't shoot someone in the face, basically. Through their hand. It feels very rushed. It doesn doesn't feel it sounds like an accidental discharge absolutely but when the case was reviewed here by an independent uk home office pathologist he found that the gunshot looked much more like a shot from very close range much more likely to be a result of a struggle yeah as opposed to what south african confirmed, that it was an execution. However, the South African police didn't run with this. They carried out no experiments.

The South African police failed to collect all of the evidence or properly analyse what they did have. They were happy to just take confessions and offer plea bargains. Basically, the South African police were after Shirin Devani for this. Those who took plea bargains or got off completely scot-free all gave one account pointing the finger at Shirin. But Mungeni, the second gunman, was the only one not to take a plea bargain, told a story that fits Shirin's account. Kwabi, the first gunman, says they found the envelope full of the 15,000 rand for the hit in the backseat as promised. Mungeni, who was the only one not to implicate Shirin, said they only split the money they had stolen from Shirin at gunpoint,

the 4,000 rand. And there is evidence that Mungaini spent around 2,000 rand the next day on trainers and clothes. If they had the full 15,000, where is it gone? Where is the rest of the money? They never found it. It never surf surfaced just had a thought did it go to on blombo could have done i hate plea bargains so much i think they are such a pestilence on the legal system you can't believe anything that comes out of a plea bargain testimony in my opinion it's like torture testimony like under duress like none of no confessions given under plea bargains or given under torture are legitimate or admissible they're it's bollocks absolute bollocks but back to the 14th of november the day they find annie it's 9 20 a.m and cctv shows shirin taking the call from the police that annie is dead and that her body's been

found the police a doctor and family friends are with him when he found out and the cctv shows he's hysterical but the cctv also catches sharon's shifting emotions over the next few hours 10 hours after he's smiling on the phone to a friend and the next day on the way to the mortuary he's once again visibly distressed i mean the whole thing of like oh well he was laughing on the phone with a mate 10 hours after amanda knocks totally people deal with grief in different ways i think a person is most likely to behave erratically after they've just had some awful and he also has just been through a traumatic experience himself he was there absolutely and i think this idea of like a brief reprieve of like the ccv literally shows him walking out of a room

out of his room on the phone to his friend he's caught on ccd about three seconds from his room to when he's out of sight and yes he's laughing 10 hours after he's found out his wife is dead but that that's a three second window into what's happening that you've just seen lots of people laugh when they're uncomfortable i laugh when i'm uncomfortable i don't know how to handle a situation yeah but then did he look uncomfortable and visibly distressed on the way to the mortuary the next day just purely because he's about to see the dead body of a wife he murdered. It doesn't prove that he's sad that she's dead. No, it absolutely doesn't prove,

in the same way him laughing on the phone doesn't prove jack shit either. No. Before leaving South Africa, Shirin meets Tongo one last time. And this is a weird meeting. And at this point, Shirin is only a witness and not a suspect. And obviously neither is Tongo, because he's free. Tongo says that he came to get the 5 000 rand as payment for his driving shirin and tongo go into like an internet room

in the hotel where there's no cctv shirin enters with a white plastic bag and leaves a few minutes later without the bag tongo also exits soon after with the bag under his shirt and goes straight to the toilet tongo says he's only got 1000 round he leaves the hotel with the bag in clear view he says he went looking for sharon to confront him about the short change side note you drove him and his wife into a fatal situation no you're not getting paid the full whack mate yeah there's no proof that he was short-changed either i wouldn't pay him a fucking anything yeah yeah actually no i probably would because i'd be like oh i'm sorry that you were Yeah. There's no proof that he was short-changed either. I wouldn't pay him a fucking anything. Yeah, yeah.

Actually, no, I probably would because I'd be like, oh, I'm sorry that you were there and blah, blah. Yeah, yeah. Because as far as Sharon thinks, at this point, this poor man was just caught up in it and also got thrown out of his taxi. Yeah, that's fair. I would pay him. But yeah, you're right. There's no evidence of it being short-changed. Just more evidence of Tongo lying the cctv shows that he didn't he just left the hotel he says shirin then calls tongo one hour and 40 minutes after giving him the bag the call lasts about 54 seconds and tongo never mentions this call why was shirin calling him anyway you've paid him you've given him the money and it's not tongo confronting him like he said

like he told the police he did for being shortchanged shirin is calling tongo almost two hours after he's given him the money what could they possibly have to talk about anymore what i could understand is if it was tongo calling shirin and being like i'm so sorry but that's not what happened it's shirin calling unless shirin called him and said do you know anything about what happened do you know those men is there there any connection? Is there anything you saw that might help the police in their investigation? But why wouldn't you have that conversation when you came to the hotel?

What was the money for? Is it just for the taxi or is it the hit money? And just why is Tonga lying about it? Again, it doesn't mean anything. It's inconsequential, I think. Either way, the investigation rolls on and Tonga was arrested a week after Annie's death. The very next day, Tonga takes a plea bargain in exchange for testimony against Shirin Devani.

So on the 7th of December 2010, the plea bargains were rubber stamped and Tonga was offered seven years instead of 25 for his part in the murder, which was, as he alleged, organising a middleman to organise a hit for Shirin Devani. And with that, Shirin was officially a suspect. Now, Shirin had already left South Africa and returned to the UK. And on the 8th of November, so the day after Tongo's arrest, Shirin is arrested in the UK at the request of the South African authorities on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. The South African Justice Department makes its intentions very clear. Once they had more documentation from its prosecutors, it will initiate full extradition proceedings

to get Devani back to Cape Town to stand trial for the murder of his wife. And if found guilty, he faces life. Shirin later appears in the City of Westminster Magistrate's Court to also make his intentions clear. He will not consent to extradition. I bloody wouldn't either. Fuck that.

No way. Whether I was guilty, whether I was innocent, there is no way I would consent to extradition to South Africa to stand trial. Annie's family, however, completely backed the South African authorities. They were, and remain, convinced that Shirin killed Annie. In January 2011, Davani's lawyer claims his client is suffering from an acute stress disorder. Therefore, extradition proceedings are adjourned. And just over a month later,

Shirin takes a cocktail of 46 pills, including diazepam. And by April, Shirin was detained in the medium security from Psy Clinic in Bristol under the Mental Health Act. So he's sectioned, essentially. He's got PTSD. He must do. He has to. And also... If he's innocent. Or he's faking. Yeah.

If he's guilty. 46 pills, that is a that is a suicide attempt that is that is which is really interesting because his because once the suicide attempt happens the south african authorities ask you need to revoke his bail he needs to be on remand you need to hold him in custody because he's trying to kill himself and to get out of this devani psychiatrist and lawyer say that wasn't a suicide attempt that wasn't a suicide it's just an accident it was an accident he absolutely not a suicide attempt he was released and he was let go bail was not revoked he was back out on bail he was out but then it was april that he was then

sectioned because his behavior became more he had a breakdown essentially i'm not surprised but no one 46 pills that's not an accident that is not accident. Nobody necks 46 pills. A fortnight later, a three-day extradition hearing begins, and after a long legal battle, Shirin Devani was finally extradited from the UK to South Africa on the 7th of April 2014. That's four years after the murder. Yeah, but only three years ago from now. Oh, my God.

There's stuff going on with this case until as late as this year. Upon arrival, he was arrested, charged, and ordered to stand trial for allegedly arranging the murder of his wife how long does it take to fly to sir caiton from here from heathrow good question long time yeah like nine hours ten hours i want to know what you do on a flight knowing you're going to be arrested at the other end i mean he has someone taking him right yeah i can't believe they let him go unaccompanied. No, for an extradition to stand trial for murder. Yeah, that's true.

I just had like an image in my head of him just being like with a martini watching Finding Nemo, but I'm sure that's what happened. I don't think that's what was going on. In the meantime, what's happening to everyone else? On the 8th of August, 2012, Kwabe was sentenced to 25 years. The following week, Mugeni pleads not guilty to murder

at the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town and on the 19th of November he is convicted of firing the shot that killed Annie. But why so little interest in Mblombo? The police take the extraordinary decision to release him and drop all charges so he just he walks out of this. Again it's Tonga is sentenced but takes a plea bargain to have it to have his time cut down.abe and mcgainey both face time but reduce sentences because of their plea bargains and once again the shot fired is pinned on mcgainey the only man that didn't take a plea bargain even though i think the uk home office pathologist who reviewed the autopsy and the case said that it was most likely that it was kwabe that had fired

the shot again this just stinks of corruption. They pin the worst crime on the man that wouldn't take the plea bargain and point the finger at Devani. I don't know why such little interest in on Blombo. Is he more powerful than he comes across or is it just because he wasn't in the taxi? I think that's it. Wade could be the puppet master of the whole thing.

Yeah. He just wasn't there. I mean, he was throughout the whole thing. He's the one that came across to be very, very in control and at the centre of all of this. Anyway, that's what happened to those guys. And back to the trial of Shirin Devani. So he was extradited, he lands, he's arrested immediately,

and then he is charged with five offences. Conspiracy to commit kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances, murder, kidnapping, and obstructing the administration of justice. And he pleaded not guilty to all five charges. Devani's trial begins on the 6th of October 2014. It's my birthday.

Oh, happy birthday. For the 6th of October. I'm the 29th of October. How are you? 5th of Octobers. He takes the stand and tells the court how his whole life came crashing down following Annie's death. And under cross-examination, the key witnesses who alleged Devani's involvement,

so Tongo, Kwabe and Oblombo, just continually contradicted their previous statements and each other on the most key elements of the murder-for-hire story. They just couldn't keep their story straight. It's like complete amateur hour during this. But what was the motive? So the prosecution are going full force

against Shirin Devani. But what was the motive that they were tout are going full force against Shirin Damani. But what was the motive that they were touting? They argue that Shirin was gay and wanted out of his marriage to Annie. And Shirin shocked the court when he revealed that he was indeed bisexual and had been using gay escorts. He had been on numerous gay fetish sites and this was proven and he was on Gaydar under the name asian sub guy where he described himself in the description section as submissive filthy minded and perverted i mean yeah if you want to do that cool and like you were saying before lots of businessmen oh yeah very

common very high-powered men it's almost like the role you play in life if you're very dominant in life versus whether you're very submissive in life people tend to want the opposite when they're in bed i mean needless to say her family were apocalyptic they were furious his her dad was the pictures of him at the trial he's raging and in tears the whole time it's heartbreaking to see and the surprise testimony comes from one of the escorts that he used leopold lesser a gay sex worker and dominatrix, also known as the German master, claiming that Shirin had employed him for his services. The 43-year-old, who specialised in roleplay, S&M and fetishes,

also told the court that Shirin was the only client he allowed to sleep over after their meetings. See, this thing it seems it transcends then just a transactional relationship yeah i think there was something going on there if i were an escort or a sex worker whatever like i'd go out as soon as your hours up get out but he was paying a lot of money i think it was quite somewhere like a grand and a half for an hour with this guy you imagine paying a thousand pounds an hour to go to sleep it was a thousand pounds an hour for the snm and the role play and the fetishes he was then getting

free sleepovers that's what he was saying that's what i'm saying it transcended just this transactional relationship between like a tom and a sex worker lesser said he was the only client of his that he let sleep over lesser also said that Devani has shared his most intimate fears with him, how he could not find a way to break off the engagement with Annie without being disowned by his family. But much of Lesser's testimony was ruled as inadmissible in court. And another piece of evidence also excluded was an email from Shirin's laptop to Lesser in which prosecutors claimed Shirin had made admissions about whether to get married or to come out. However, on the 24th of November 2014, after the close of the prosecution's case,

Devani's counsel argued for the case to be dismissed under Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Act, citing a lack of any credible evidence linking his client to the crime. And on the 8th of December, the application for dismissal under section 174 was granted by the Honorable Judge Tavasso, and Diwani was acquitted and exonerated of all involvement with the crime. In her judgment, Tavasso ruled there was no credible evidence linking Shirin Diwani to the crime and explained her ruling by saying that the case against him, because it was riddled with inconsistencies and

evidence provided by the three men, was flawed. The judge came down hard on the prosecution, telling them she was shocked by the poor quality of their case, given that they had had four years to prepare. And Shirin Dabani was acquitted in December 2014. So what really happened in this case? Why were the police so happy to just jump on confessions based on plea bargains. Could it have been a fear around the South African tourism industry? Yes, I think so. I think that the much preferable outcome for the South African justice system, for South Africa, you know, tourism, is that Diwani did this and just used their country as a setting for his diabolical murder plan.

Yeah, it's not very good PR, is it? Someone comes on their honeymoon and gets shot in a township. Yeah, because they get hijacked and the whole thing is plotted by their taxi driver. Do we think, obviously, for me, the most intriguing part of the trial is obviously when this German dominatrix turns up

out of nowhere. That gives Shirin a motive I could understand. I could understand why motive isn't a conviction I can kind of see the argument of, if Shirin's admitted that he's bisexual, maybe I could see the argument that

he wanted to get married get rid of the wife so if he was a widower, his family couldn't pressure him to marry again you want to play the role of the grieving widower that would never ask to look for another wife again. Absolutely, I can see that. And it could be absolutely clear motivation to kill Annie.

Equally, though, medical records from both Annie and Shirin show that just days before the honeymoon, the couple had actively been trying for a baby. So they'd managed to have sex after the wedding a little bit also just this idea though that this was slap bang in the middle of the time she was busy saying how much she didn't want to be with him and how she wasn't sure if she ever should have married him and she didn't even want to go on the honeymoon but they're actively trying for a baby this just throws so much more fuel on like what a weird relationship it was or is that

just me no i agree i think also this argument that a lot of people were making and i can understand especially with the background that the families had being asian and it just being less of a thing that is that people are open to traditional asian families their children being gay and so is this a motive he needs to hide the fact that he's bisexual sleeping with his german dominrix, and he needs to get rid of his wife. But not many people know, and I was shocked to find out this piece of information, that Shirin Devani's sister is a lesbian. And in court, in South Africa, every day, she was sat there next to her parents, who are also Shirin's parents, with her girlfriend by her side. If they're accepting of her, why would they disown him if he came out?

It doesn't seem like there would be a problem. I think some people would be of the opinion, I'm certainly not, that it's easier to accept a lesbian, a lesbian daughter than it is a gay son. Absolutely. And this is by no means our opinion on the matter. If you're a lesbian, you're a lesbian.

That's not to be undermined or saying it's a phase, you're just like trying out women. that's not to be undermined or saying it's a phase you're just like trying out women no it is this idea of that she's sleeping with a woman but if a man is sleeping with another man yeah and i think i think he felt that they wouldn't accept him or is it his own insecurities i think it's a stupid argument to be like that his parents would have not been accepting of him if they're accepting of his gay sister. I think, yes. But there's also some weird other things that have happened around this case. After this case happened in 2010 and then the conviction in 2014,

after that, until last month, we didn't really look back into this case again. It was all done and dusted. He was acquitted. He's been snapped on London tubes and pictures have been put up on the internet. Like, he's out and about now. He looks wrecked, though. But when I went back to research his case, we were looking up what's happened to people since.

And there's some really weird things. Almost like there's some sort of, like, weird curse around this case. So firstly, the gunman, Mugeni, the only one who didn't take the plea bargain, he developed a brain tumour and died in jail in October 2014. OK, that's one. Annie's father had his arm torn off last year in an accident. Leopold Leiser killed himself last year,

apparently due to the stress from the court case, and he was found by a friend hanged in his flat in Birmingham. That's a lot of things to go wrong. Actually, it's been three years. Well, by this point, two years since the trial. But then Leopold, there's lots of pictures on the internet that he's been papped on the streets oh interesting yeah there's a lot of pictures so thank you very much for listening I think we're not really I don't think either of us can really say whether Shirin did this or not

what do you think my final thought is that it was a robbery that went wrong I don't think it was orchestrated by Shirin I think he might be a bit of a went wrong I don't think it was orchestrated by Shirin I think he might be a bit of a weird person I don't think he orchestrated the killing of his wife yeah 99% of the time when someone dies it's the spouse but I think in this case I don't think it was Shirin and I started the research on this case I think we both started the research on this case thinking absolutely 100% it was Shirin Devani and anyone I told that we were doing this case on the next episode said oh but he did it and that's why we wanted to do this case because I don't think either of us think that it was him but we'd love to know what you think so please tweet at us post

on Instagram let us know what you think you can find us at red handed the pod we will see you next time what are we doing next time oh Lucy Blackman yeah yeah that is the next one we're doing I'll probably record it in about an hour. It's dark. It's very dark. What's the book called we read for it? It's called People Who Eat Darkness. Lucy's alleged killer was named in court by the prosecution as the beast with a human face.

Look forward to that. Join us next time. Bye. See you later. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery Show American Scandal. We bring to light some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history. Presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, NASA embarks on an ambitious program to reinvent space exploration with the launch of its first reusable vehicle, the Space Shuttle. And in 1985, they announced they're sending teacher Krista McAuliffe into space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, along with six other astronauts.

But less than two minutes after liftoff, the Challenger explodes. And in the tragedy's aftermath, investigators uncover a series of preventable failures by NASA and its contractors that led to the disaster. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery Plus. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial today. You don't believe in ghosts? I get it. Lots of people don't. I didn't either until I came face to face with them. Ever since that moment, hauntings, spirits, and the unexplained have consumed my entire life.

I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for the past 20 years. I've taken people along with me into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness, and inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more. Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada, as we journey through terrifying and bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.