01x03 - Marathon Man

[bunniefuu]

[ominous music playing faintly]

[Callie] There are
absolute evils in this world.

[menacing music playing]

Whether it be an abstract
or metaphorical evil,

but it is mostly people.

[menacing music playing faintly]

People that

don't care about anyone else

and they interact with us every day.

And most of the time,
you don't know who they are.

This is the hostel that Youssef and I,
and all the other roommates, lived in.

[interviewer] What do you think
when you look at it?

[discordant music playing]

[Callie] He had us all fooled.

But I'm hoping
that whatever I do to talk about it

is going to warn other people

so that they don't become
victims of him themselves.

Then they can avoid him
and possibly not get m*rder*d.

[menacing music playing]

[door closing]

[Callie exhales]
Where do you want me to start?

[interviewer] Like, where you were in
the world, why you decided to come here.

Okay! The good part! Okay.

[interviewer] Yeah, definitely.

[intriguing piano music playing]

[Callie] In 2011,
I graduated from college.

I knew I wanted to travel
and not just be a tourist.

[piano music continues]

[Callie] I wanted to go live in a country

and establish myself
with a job, an apartment,

and actually experience that country
as much as I could.

I chose Chile
because it's easy to get a visa here,

and there's a lot of opportunities
for work.

And there's a lot to do.
Like, to the north, you have the desert.

To the south, you have Patagonia
and wine country.

It's a beautiful country,
and I wanted to see it all.

Also, Santiago has very low m*rder rates.

People don't get kidnapped here.

Chile is really safe,
aside from what happened to me.

[intriguing guitar music playing]

[Callie] I came here by myself.

I didn't know anybody,
and I got a job teaching English.

I also found a place to live.

There was a girl that I met,

and she was living at this house.

It was more permanent lodging.

People stayed there for a longer term

than they would say at a hostel
when they're on vacation.

Everyone had jobs, or they were a student,

and she said there was an empty room,
and it's fun.

There's a lot of people
from all over the world there.

And it's cheap,
and it's in a nice neighborhood.

So I said, "Why not?"

[somber music playing]

When I moved in, there was a Danish guy,

a German girl, two girls from Mexico,

some Panamanian students.

There was a Spanish guy.

[expectant music playing]

[Callie] Youssef was the Danish man.

He was very friendly and generous.

He helped me bring my bags in.

Introduced me to all the other roommates.

Youssef was much older than all of us.

We were all in our early to mid-20s,

and he was, like, 32.

Then he was like,
"Oh, we have a new roommate."

"Let's throw a little party."

He went to the store, bought all the food.

And we had a little barbecue for me.

It's what I had kind of imagined
my life being in Chile.

It was fun.

Not long after I moved in, Molly moved in.

She's also from Texas,
and we hit it off great.

We're both kind of sarcastic,
and I think we have good senses of humor.

We knew we liked each other
pretty much the moment we met each other.

I was 25

and just wanting an adventure
and some experience.

It was fun having all of these
international roommates

because everyone had different stories
and a different reason for being there.

Youssef told us
that his reason for staying at the house

was he was from Palestine,
but lived in Denmark,

and that he came to Santiago

to run in this desert race

in Northern Chile, the Atacama race.

[menacing music playing]

Youssef told us that he had done
a lot of extreme running in Brazil,

and ran through the jungle, and...

stuff like that.

[interviewer]
Did you ever see him training?

No.

He was fit, though.
I mean, he was really fit.

[interviewer] Is he handsome?

I'd say he's handsome. Yeah.

I mean, he has really long eyelashes.
Nice face.

He did have a magnetism about him
and a charisma about him. Definitely.

[somber music playing]

Youssef would regale us
with these long, elaborate stories

of rescuing people from being kidnapped...

because he was
in the Danish Special Forces.

I just kind of rolled my eyes
when he would tell these stories

'cause they were all just so

glorious for him.

[Molly] A lot of stories
about heroic deeds,

and that he only protects people
and defends people.

He never attacks people.

- [discordant music playing]
- [Molly] He wanted to clarify that.

I just thought that was kind of weird.

[Callie] I kind of thought
he was a bullshitter,

and I kind of let him know

that I thought he was exaggerating.

He picked up on me
not really liking him that much.

[ominous music playing]

[Callie] And that really upset him

because he's used to people liking him.

After a while, things got a little...

weird between us.

But at the time,

I didn't think anything of it.

[discordant music playing]

[Callie] People outside of the situation
were like, "Never me."

"I would totally pick up
on all those red flags."

But you don't know. You just don't know.

You don't see them until it's too late.

[somber piano music playing]

[Maher] I met Youssef in August 2010.

I was coordinator
of the Palestinian Network in Denmark.

The idea of the Palestinian network
is to show the Palestinians as humans,

like anybody else,

because most people imagine
stone-throwing young people,

fire, and bombs.

And this is the image
we want to move from.

So it's important to support Palestinians

who do the arts, or education, or sports.

In fact, that's why
I got a phone call from Youssef.

[suspenseful music playing]

And he told me
that he was of Palestinian origin,

and he wanted to run this race in Brazil.

It's a really extreme marathon,

and he wanted to do it for Palestine.

He wanted me
and the other Palestinians to support him.

And I said, "How much money
we are talking about?"

And then he said,
"Around 40,000 Danish krones."

That's five or six thousand US dollars.

That's a lot of money.

I'm proud of being a Danish citizen,

but I remember my roots,

and when a young man
wants to run and win for Palestine,

that's very important.

[dark music playing]

[Maher] So I made a website for him,
and I wrote,

"There is a young talent
who's going to run this marathon,

and please contribute."

And in the end,
I collected around 4,000 Danish krones.

That was nothing because
he said he wanted ten times more.



[menacing music playing]

[Maher] Youssef was mad. "What?"

"I don't understand how you talking
about the national Palestinian feeling,

and nobody cares for me."

"You are the most stupid
Palestinian group."

And I said to him,
"Look, stop, don't yell."

"That's all I can do for you.
If you want, you can take this money."

"If you don't want,
I can't help you anymore."

Then he changed to the soft guy again.

"Oh, no, it's not you.
Don't get mad at me."

"I'm just a little sensitive now,
and I'm very happy for your help."

He didn't want to cut the relation.

And he asked me,

"Could you bring
a Palestinian flag to me?"

"Then I will take it with me to Brazil
when I run."

And that, you know, made my heart...

"Oh, he's gonna win for us."

Of course, he lied. Big time.

So, the first day
after they started the race,

I went to the website
to see how the progress is,

and I was shocked.

Youssef was number one.

You know, I jumped out of the chair,
and I called some of the friends.

I say, "He won the first day,
and he's gonna win this race."

I was so happy.

[suspenseful music playing]

[on video] It was an easy day.

Easy when we see the other days
we've been running.

So it was an easy day.
We could relax more for tomorrow.

[Maher] So, the next day,
I check the website to see how it's going.

I was shocked that he was disqualified.

And I was so sad.

And I said, "What the hell has happened?"

[discordant music playing]

"You were number one yesterday,
and now you are disqualified."

Then he said that's because he was hurt
with his leg in the second day.

The doctors on the team,
they had to examine him.

But he said to the doctor,
"Oh, I can run."

"I just have to rest a little bit."

But the doctors decided
that he must not run anymore.

Then he began talking about that's because
the doctor team were Americans,

and he thinks because he's Palestinian,

that's why they disqualified him.

Discrimination.

And I thought... it sounds right.

They want to stop him.

He was sad, but he had hope

that he can run in the next race in Chile.

And I thought, "Now it's a fight for us."

"Now it's not only about a race."

"Now it's about to win over the people
who want to stop him."

"I have to help him," you know.

[suspenseful music playing]

[in Spanish] First time I heard the name
of Youssef Khater was January 2011.

[intriguing music playing]

[Carlos] Maher, this leader
of the Palestinian community in Denmark,

he said that a Palestinian athlete
was going to come here

to run for this ultramarathon
of San Pedro de Atacama.

And it was very important for us
as a Palestinian community

that he arrives here in Chile.

I met him the first night
that he arrived here in Chile.

[expectant music playing]

We made a whole campaign to raise funds

to be able to pay for his registration
for the ultramarathon.

And for his personal expenses
that he would have here in Chile.

[in English] They have raised for Youssef
around 10,000 American dollars.

And then Youssef called me,

and he said he would love
if I came to Chile to support him.

Then he said,
"And then you can take pictures of me

when I am running and when I'm winning
and having the flags in my hand."

I said, "Yeah, I'm gonna do it."

I asked Carlos
how it was going with Youssef,

and he said,
"Oh, Youssef is a wonderful guy."

"And we love him,
and we want to do anything to help him."

[Carlos in Spanish]
He carried himself well.

He was very charismatic,
and people liked him very much.

That's why he was given the support
that he was given.

[tense music playing]

[Callie in English]
He is so good at lying.

I can't lie like that.

You probably can't.

He can.

[menacing music playing]

[Callie] We had good times here,

but now it's all tainted.

It looks exactly the same though,
which is surreal.

A lot's changed, but the building hasn't.

[ominous music playing]

[Callie] As time went by,
it got a lot colder in Santiago.

And that house had no hot water,

it had no heating,

the windows couldn't close all the way.

We were miserable.

[Molly] Youssef quickly noticed

that we were complaining
about how cold the house was

and wanting to move out of there.

And he took that opportunity,

and he said that he'd just purchased
some condos in Santiago,

and that he'd rent them out to us.

At first, we thought it was a little weird
that he bought apartments

since he wasn't even a citizen here.

But then he was like,
"Oh, well, I have this money."

"I like to invest in property,
so I bought these apartments."

And we were like, "Okay."

[ominous music playing]

[Callie] I didn't totally trust him,

but I was so ready
to have a different living situation.

And having to find an apartment
in Santiago without knowing Spanish

was gonna be really difficult.

And we could skip all that.

[Molly] So Callie and I gave him money

to cover one month's rent
and a security deposit.

[somber music playing]

[Callie] Over the course
of a couple weeks,

he kept giving us excuses as to why
we couldn't move into the apartment.

He would give us the date next week.
Like, "Okay, next week."

Then we would all pack up again,
and it wouldn't happen for some reason.

[Molly] A lot of other people in the house
loaned Youssef money.

He kept excusing himself
why he couldn't pay them back.

So, I think finally he sensed that we

were mad at him,

and he's like, "Okay."

"I'm gonna show Callie
where the real estate office is

so that you can go get the keys."

And then pick up Youssef's backpack
from his girlfriend's house.

I would take the backpack home.

All the money he owed the other roommates
was inside the backpack.

[interviewer]
Did he tell the other roommates

that he was sending the backpack
with their money in it home with you?

Yes.

[dark music playing]

[Callie]
So then I met with him in the evening

to go to the real estate office

so I knew where it was
to pick up the keys the next day.

We walked a really long time.

I didn't know if he didn't know
where the real estate office was

or if we were lost,

but this was the time
before everyone had iPhones.

And sometimes that's how we found places,

was just by walking around
until we found it.

So he finally showed me
where this real estate office was

so that I know where to get the keys.

Then we went to Youssef's
girlfriend's house to get the backpack

and all the money that he owed
to all the other roommates.

And he told me he wanted
to treat me to dinner

to celebrate the new apartment.

I'm like, "Okay, fine."

[suspenseful music playing]

[Callie] I was kind of growing
to have a better view of him

'cause he was being
really nice to me that night.

I was in a good place mentally
because I was excited about the apartment.

And he started ordering drinks.

I had never seen him touch alcohol

the entire time we lived together
for four months.

He had three glasses of vodka
with orange juice, as did I.

So I could tell
that he was getting really drunk.

[tense music playing]

I think he was getting liquid courage
for what was gonna come next.

[menacing music playing]

[Dominic] I first met Youssef

in October 2010
at the Jungle Marathon in Brazil.

I think I was in a bit of a rut
in my day-to-day,

and I really wanted an adventure.

- [tense music playing]
- [Dominic] Youssef was very friendly.

He ingratiated himself very easily
with everyone.

He was good fun. He was very helpful.

If people had forgotten things,

he would put his hand in his bag
and give you something you'd forgotten.

You very quickly sort of
found a sense of trust.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Dominic] During the Jungle Marathon,
me and Youssef got to know each other.

And after the race,
I just happened to mention to Youssef

that I'm interested in investing
in land and property

in Brazil.

And Youssef asked if I was interested

in looking at some
investment land with him

to co-invest as a joint venture.

"Why not? Let's check it out."

Neither of us are Brazilian, so we needed
someone who knew how the system works.

Obviously, a Brazilian lawyer.

And Youssef actually volunteered
that he knew a lawyer in Brazil,

and I said, "Okay."

We were supposed to meet the lawyer,

but Youssef said the lawyer's father
was very ill in hospital.

So, yeah, he wasn't available.

And then Youssef told me his plans
to go to Chile the following week.

And he said, "How about coming with me?"

There was another race.

Another ultramarathon
in the Atacama Desert in a month's time.

And I said, "Oh, okay.
Well, that's an adventure. Why not?"

I thought that would be exciting

to scope out a new race
in another country.

I was getting a taste for the adventure.

[foreboding music playing]

[Dominic] I brought with me a sum of money
in case there was an opportunity

to put down a deposit on something.

[interviewer] And how much money was it?

Well, I don't think I need to answer that.

But it was enough
for investing in property,

and I had to carry it with me
when we went to Chile.

[interviewer] Was Youssef
aware of this cash?

Yes, he was aware of it.

We spent a few days in Chile
scoping out the Atacama Crossing race.

And then I headed home to London.

The plan was
that I would come back to Chile,

run the race, and then we'd revisit
the issue of property investment

at the same time.

I thought, "Well, I don't wanna
carry a large amount of cash up again,

in case I'm robbed somewhere.
I'll just leave the money with Youssef."

And he gave me a promissory note
for the money, to pay it all back.

"Let's just sort out that business
when I get back."

It made sense.

[ominous music playing]

I came back to Chile a few days
before the Atacama Crossing race

and met up with Youssef.

We were excited about racing

and just enjoying ourselves like we were
on holiday before the race started.

And we talked about
the property and money,

but he said he had the money
in safekeeping,

and he didn't have it with him.

And suddenly, I felt unsettled.

[menacing music playing]

And then we started
the Atacama Crossing race.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Dominic] It's a stage race
where you cross

a very large distance
over six or seven days.

I was choking on dust.

I found it absolutely horrendous.

So it was a bit of a shock to the system,
I have to admit.

[Maher] When I was on the way to Chile,

I was thinking all the time

of Youssef coming at the end of the race
like number one,

and we are waving
with the Palestinian flag.

It made it easy for me,
the whole long travel to Chile.

When I landed in the airport,

it was the second day of the race.

There were members of this
Palestinian Federation waiting for me.

When me and the other Palestinians
reached the hotel,

Youssef was there standing waiting for us.

[tense music playing]

And then he told me
that he was disqualified again.

At this moment,

I wanted to strangle him.

"You brought me
all the way from Denmark to Chile

to tell me
that you are disqualified again?"

And he said he was disqualified

because he got an injury in his leg...

[chuckles] ...again, in Chile.

And then he said, "It's the same doctors
who were at the race in Brazil."

And they are doing this to stop him.

I started to think
that there's something wrong.

Why he's being disqualified two times?

[Dominic] Youssef claimed that they were
removing him from the race

for r*cist reasons,
and I just had a bad feeling.

I felt like I needed
to revisit the subject of the money

and what we were going to do next.

And I thought, "I can't enjoy this."
I needed to just stop.

So when I got to the next checkpoint,

I said to the organizers,
"Look, I'm dropping out."

Wanted to be done with Youssef
and go home.

And I realized

that it wasn't gonna be as straightforward
as all that to get the money back.

[Maher] Youssef said,
"We should not put our heads down."

"Now we are here together.
We have to get the best out of it."

And then he said,

"Now we're going out to dinner.
All of us."

And I was tired and hungry,
so I felt, "Okay, let's go out and eat."

So, we went out for dinner,
and that was the first time I met Dominic.

The next day we woke up,
and Youssef planned a lot of activities.

We went biking.

We went to the glaciers.

After the glaciers,
we went to sandboarding in the desert.

We swam in this salt lake,

and then he took us to this huge dry lake
where we could eat, and drink, and dance.

I was so tired,
I thought, "I'm gonna die now."

And that...

When you are so tired,
when you are engaged all the time,

you don't have time to think,
you don't have time to talk.

Nobody is talking with anybody
about Youssef.

[Dominic] I told Youssef,
"I want my money back,"

but it was pretty clear to me
by this stage

that he had no intention
to give me back my money.

"I'm gonna go home. I'll cut my losses."

[tense music playing]

I was feeling angry.

[Maher] I just wanted to figure out
who Youssef Khater is

and what he was doing.

And I wanted to get in contact
with Dominic

because Dominic must know
something about Youssef.

When I came back to Denmark,
I found Dominic on the internet.

I was surprised to hear from him

that they had also become
very suspicious of Youssef's activities.

In a way, I was very relieved
because it wasn't just me.

I told him everything.

[Maher] I thought, "You're stupid."

"How could you give him all that money?"

And then I realize I'm also stupid.

The Palestinians in Chile are stupid.

We... All of us believed in him.

Now it makes sense.

It's all about hustling money.

- [dark music playing]
- [Maher] And at this moment,

I realized that we needed to find out
who Youssef Khater really is.

So I used the internet,

and that's the point where he is stupid.

He used his name.

The first thing I found was an article

from a Danish local newspaper

that wrote about him.

It said, in 2009,

Youssef cheated over 50 people

out of money
in a scam for a trip to Dubai.

They needed to give the money to Youssef,

who would book their tickets.

And there were a lot of people who did it.

But then Youssef's apartment burned down
with the money in it.

And then he moved.

[intriguing music playing]

[Maher] I found out that this newspaper
was following him,

that they had maybe
ten or 12 articles about him.

They have been tracking all his hustling.

And I realized that when he contacted me,

the ground was burning under him.

He was trying to get out of Denmark

because of a trial
that was waiting for him in 2011.

I was shocked. You know, it was really...

Now, it was the biggest shock,
and actually I got a little bit scared

that he had the ability
to do all this stuff and get out from it.

[tense music playing]

[Maher] I am not
dealing with a runner anymore.

I am dealing with a hustler.

And I had to talk with Carlos Medina.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Carlos in Spanish]
I was obviously worried.

We were discovering
that he had done these scams in Denmark,

but we didn't have the whole picture.

That's when he begins to tell us
that there was a very strange situation.

On top of Youssef having his money,

he began receiving emails
from a supposed Brazilian lawyer.

[somber music playing]

I made a simple tracing analysis
of the email headers...

to find out approximately where
this email was sent from.

[in English] The results
came back and showed

that he was in the same location,
in Santiago, as Youssef.

[in Spanish] It was obvious
that Youssef had sent them.

[Maher in English]
So, I thought his family name, Khater,

if they live in Denmark,

it must show up,
so I Googled the family name.

And there comes a lot of links, you know,

and then there was a girl's name,
and I remember he mentioned his sister.

So I called her.

And I lied to her.
I told her that I was a journalist.

And I said, "Do you know Youssef Khater?"
And then there was silence.

And then she was, in a very sad voice,
said, "Yeah, he's my brother."

And then I couldn't lie anymore.
I said, "Look, I'm not a journalist."

"I met your brother,
and he hustled me, and hustled..."

And then she started to cry.

I just waited till she cried a lot,
and said, "Why are you crying?"

She said,
"Because he has destroyed our family."

"It's not the first time
he does such hustling,

and, you know, we have kicked him out."

[suspenseful music playing]

And then I said, "Your brother destroyed
my name and reputation in Chile

among the Palestinians."

And then she said, "Palestinians?
But he's not a Palestinian."

And I said, "What?"

She said, "No, we are not Palestinians.
We are Lebanese."

And then I realized

that he had lied that he was Palestinian

to get to my network.

I felt stupid again.

The whole Palestinian identity he misused.

And I felt... really, I felt bad about it.

[tense music playing]

[Carlos in Spanish] Youssef took advantage
of Maher's enthusiasm.

He was able to touch a sensitive fiber
of the Palestinian community.

[Maher in English]
He knew exactly, every one of us,

how we felt and what we needed.

He's a psychopath.

And a psychopath, he has the ability

to change his face,
and his language, and his mind.

[discordant music playing]

[somber music playing]

[Carlos in Spanish] I was interested
in this getting resolved

because, obviously, he was damaging
the Palestinian community in Chile.

It was also a moral issue for us.

We encouraged Dominic to return to Chile
to recover his money.

[intriguing music playing]

[Dominic in English] I didn't have
any expectations to get the money back.

Let's face it, the time had gone by,

and there wasn't likely
to be much left anyway.

But at the same time, I thought,

"Well, let's see how he reacts
to the whole situation, what he does."

I decided to do it.

If it stops Youssef from doing something
similar to someone else...

It felt necessary.

I flew back to Chile again.

I was nervous
that something bad might happen.

We were trying to find
some way of nailing Youssef.

It was insane.

[tense music playing]

[Dominic] We met up the next morning,

and Youssef told me that the money
was in safekeeping with the lawyer,

and the lawyer's office
is a ten-minute walk.

We set off, and we were just
walking around many streets.

We were so far out
on the edge of the city,

and we'd gone up a very long road.

And eventually, it was very obvious to me

that we weren't heading
anywhere in particular.

I said, "Youssef, where are we?
There is no office up here, is there?"

"Give me your phone,
and let me see the number you're calling,

and let me speak to the lawyer."

And at that point, he got really angry.

[menacing music playing]

[Dominic] I remember
turning around to walk home.

I felt a rush of air above my head.

Youssef had taken a swing at me.

I thought, "Oh, my God. He's trying
to club me over the head and k*ll me."

[menacing music playing]

I braced myself,
and I ran straight towards him,

and we both went headlong onto the ground.

My head whiplashed.

I remember seeing stars. I thought,
"Oh, my God, I hope I don't pass out."

It was so shocking,
and I was really scared

because Youssef just tried to k*ll me.

I just thought to myself,

"If he gets another chance
to hit me again, and I die...

I can't go before my parents."

I managed to pick myself up
before Youssef. I knew I had to.

He'd hit his head,
and he was really dazed.

And I started grappling with him
for the stick.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Dominic] A couple of people walked past,
like, "What the hell's going on?"

All of a sudden,
he caved, and he panicked.

It was really bizarre.

He then started begging me
not to say anything to anybody.

I was so rattled.
I didn't know what to do at the time.

So I bought myself a ticket
from Chile directly to London.

[Carlos in Spanish] Dominic sent us
an email once he was in London...

in which he detailed everything
that happened at his meeting with Youssef.

And at the same time,

he was alerting
the Chilean consulate in London

that this man was dangerous.

[Maher in English] We never thought
that Youssef would be violent

or try to k*ll someone.

Maybe that shows that Youssef
was more desperate than ever.

[Dominic] I went to the police in London

in case someone from Interpol
would like to cross-reference

in the event that there's
some similar kind of case.

Of course,
I had no idea that four weeks later,

Callie would be walking into
a similar kind of situation.

So at this point in the evening,

we had gone to the real estate office,

then we went to get the backpack
and all the money that he owed.

[discordant music playing]

[Callie] After dinner, he was like,
"Oh, there's this burned-down house

that I heard
has a golden toilet seat in it."

And being who I am,

I used to go around
looking at construction sites all the time

and sneaking into places
that you don't necessarily need to be.

I never expected there to be
an actual golden toilet seat.

I thought it was just kind of one of those

fun little rumors
that obviously is not true.

[tense music playing]

[Callie] And I don't think he was trying
to convince me of that for real.

I think it was more of just a fun thing
to go do a scavenger hunt for.

And that night was the first time
Youssef and I ever hung out one-on-one.

He's very charming.

He's very likable...

for most people.

[dark music playing]

[Callie] So when we got there,

it wasn't actually
a house like Youssef said,

it was a tire shop,
but it was burned down.

He said that's where
the golden toilet seat is.

And there's this piece of corrugated metal
covering the entrance,

so he kind of shimmied that over,
slipped in.

All the walls were smeared
in this grease and ash.

He was looking for the toilet seat.
I was just kind of meandering around.

And a little later,
he found the toilet seat.

It was just a regular toilet seat.

I was like, "Okay, mission accomplished."

When I turn to leave,
I hear from behind, just, "Hey, Callie!"

I get hit right here in the head.

I fell, and then
while I'm on the ground face up,

he jumps on top of me,
and he's strangling me,

yelling at me.

I can't do anything.
He's much stronger than I am.

It's just total helplessness.

Like, once you think you're gonna die,

it's just kind of this...

acceptance?

And it takes time to make someone
unconscious with strangling.

That was the worst part,
because it's slow.

In my mind, I was like,
"This is how I die."

Like, this is...

this is how I'm gonna go.

[inhales]

[heart beating]

[heart beating fading away]

[Callie] I don't know
how long I was unconscious, but,

kind of in this dreamlike state.

I can hear voices of my parents,
my brother, college friends.

They were all yelling at me to wake up
and that I needed to get up.

But I can't move my body.

I just knew it was
the scariest f*cking thing ever.

And all these...

My loved ones were telling me
that I needed to get up, and I couldn't.

[sniffles]

[exhales]

But they were all there in my dream.

[softly] I hate talking about this.

As I become more conscious,

and I found out why I couldn't move,

was because he had
wrapped me up in a tarp really tightly

and had thrown a whole bunch of ash
and dirt on top of me.

And by miracle,
the seam of the tarp was face up.

I was wrapped up so tightly
that I had to do my best, you know,

just kind of that shimmy shake to get out.

My eyes were on fire.

My lungs were on fire

because I had inhaled
so much motor oil and ash.

- [interviewer] How long were you in there?
- I don't know.

Could have been 30 minutes.
Could have been two hours.

Could have been three hours.

I was hit in the head. I was strangled.

I didn't have oxygen to my brain.

[somber music playing]

[Callie] I realized I was pushed
into a little closet,

like, wrapped up in a closet
with dirt thrown on top of me.

He wanted to make sure
nobody could find me.

Had I died,

nobody would have known where I was.

He took my ID,

so had someone found my body,

there would have been no way
to identify who I was.

I would have just been
a dead person they found.

[poignant music playing]

[interviewer] He buried you alive.

Yeah.

Not deep enough, I guess.

[Molly] It was midnight,
and I was in my room.

One of my roommates, I think Ed,
knocked on my door.

Youssef was right next to him,
and they said, "Have you seen Callie?"

"We're worried about Callie."

Youssef said he gave Callie
the money that he owed in the backpack

and that they went their separate ways.

He's like, "I guess she went out drinking.
I don't know."

[dark music playing]

[Callie] So I walk the two to three blocks
down the street to the home.

I was using all the walls
and the fences for balance.

When I got back, Youssef,
he's the first person I saw.

And he's like, "Oh, Callie. Oh, my God."

"Thank God you're here.
We were so worried."

[brooding music playing]

[Callie] I was... so in shock.

[Molly] She was covered
in this mysterious black soot.

She couldn't see.

She was just stumbling, disoriented.

[Callie] I don't remember
all the exact words I said to him,

but it was pretty much,

"How could you do this to me?
Why did you do this to me?"

"Get the f*ck away from me."
And I just, like, beelined it to Molly.

[Molly] Youssef was crying.

He was like,
"Oh, my gosh, why is she accusing me?"

[mock crying] "I didn't do anything."

We noticed that he was more upset
that she was accusing him

than upset that she was hurt.

At that moment,
my eyes were just blood red

from all the motor oil.

It's not just like a gross, dirty feeling.
It burns.

I wanted to clean my eyes.
I was like, "I need to take a shower."

[Molly] I got her to the shower,
and then I saw a gash on her head.

I didn't know if her skull was cracked.

I didn't know if it was brains
or what it was.

It really scared me.

So we stopped taking a shower
and made arrangements to get a taxi

and to go to the hospital.

[dark music playing]

[Callie] I had a laceration on my head
that I needed stitches for,

a concussion, corneal abrasions,

and I had lesions on my larynx.

Every hole in my head,

the inside lining
was covered in ash and oil.

I just wanted to get all of this sh*t
out of my mouth and out of my eyes,

but because I started vomiting up blood,

I couldn't have water.
It was just miserable.

It hurt like hell.

And Molly stayed with me.
Ed stayed with me.

[interviewer] Where was Youssef?

He was back at the house.

I was in the hospital room with her,

and she started speaking in sentences

and said, "Youssef attacked me."

"He strangled me,
and he tried to k*ll me."

And I believed her immediately.

We stayed the night in the hospital.

And the next morning,
I filed a police report.

They came over there later,
and looked at her, and they said,

"Oh, the injuries aren't that bad.
There's nothing we can do."

I don't even think
they did any paperwork on it.

[Molly] In retrospect,
it seems like he attacked her.

He tried to k*ll her

because he wanted to save face

with everyone else who he took money from
and say, "I gave this person the money."

"Now we don't know where she is.
I hope she's okay."

But in his mind,
hoping that we would never find her.

And then, after they all
went to bed at the house,

he had left a message on his wall saying
that he was leaving to fly to Denmark

because his mother died

that morning.

[Callie] At the time,

we only thought the story was about us.

We didn't know

that the story was gonna
exponentially expand across the globe

in a matter of weeks.

[somber music playing]

[Rocio Berrios Ibáñez] I got involved in
the case only a few days after the attack.

Callie's friends published something about
how the police didn't really pay attention

or investigate the case.

I recently became a lawyer
when this happened,

and I wanted to get more practice,
to take more cases,

and this was
a particularly interesting one

because if I was in a different country

and something awful like what happened
to Callie happened to me,

I wish someone would help me.

In the Chilean system,
you have the prosecutor,

but also it's possible for the victim
to have their own lawyer

who helps them to navigate
in the very complicated legal system.

[Callie] I'd met Rocio
at a party once before.

When she heard about what happened to me,
she offered to be my lawyer.

And thank God.

[Rocio] So I called
the prosecutor's office

to inform that
an attempted m*rder had occurred.

I made sure that they started a case.

Then we got probable cause
for a warrant to arrest him.

But, by that time, Youssef was gone.

[menacing music playing]

[Rocio] In order to make sure
that he paid for what he did to Callie,

we needed to find Youssef,

and we needed to find him
as soon as possible

because it was going to be
way more complicated if he left Chile.

All we knew is that he left the hostel
saying that his mother died,

which was probably a lie.

At least, that is what I thought.

But one of the important pieces
of information that I was able to gather,

talking to all the people from the hostel,

was that Youssef had lost his passport.

And probably he didn't have a dime
when he left the hostel,

so he was probably desperate
to get some money to get a new one.

That was going to take several days,

and that was important because
we still had time to find him in Chile.

We contacted the newspaper
that put Callie on the cover

with a picture of her
showing her red eyes,

telling that we
were looking for this person.

Very soon, his picture
was all over the media.

That was important because Youssef
doesn't look like a Chilean person at all.

It was going to be easy to recognize him
if he was still in Chile.

[Molly] We were scared.
We were terrified. We fled Chile.

Ed, Callie, and I decided
we would all go back home.

This k*ller was on the loose
and not caught.

[dark music playing]

Carlos Medina wrote to me
that Youssef is back in action again,

and he tried to k*ll an American girl.

[in Spanish] Well, when I read the story
of what happened with Youssef and Callie

in the newspaper, that motivated me.

[Maher in English] Carlos told me that
everybody was working hard to find him.

Because he had to be stopped.

[Carlos in Spanish] I wrote
in the commentaries of the newspaper

that this is a guy that's very dangerous,
and that you should be careful.

And that if they needed more information,
they could contact me.

[suspenseful music playing]

And there, Rocio also responded to me.

I began to converse with her,
that we should meet up

so that I could give her
more information about Youssef.

I told her the story
of what happened with Youssef

before he almost k*lled Callie.

[Rocio in English] The first thing
that I realized is the attack on Dominic

was not so different
from the attack to Callie.

[menacing music playing]

I mean, he was going maybe to k*ll him.

[Carlos in Spanish] That's where
the communication started with us.

We started to help one another
to see how we could know where he lived.

[in English] We came up with the idea
of offering money to Youssef.

We knew that he was probably desperate
to get some money to leave Chile.

We spent several days
just gathering information.

We tried to find someone who
Youssef trusted in to offer money to him,

and I met this woman
who was friends with Youssef.

And she was willing to help us
set a trap to catch Youssef.

He was desperate.

He didn't have a dime
when he left the hostel,

so he asked her for a lot of money.

What we wanted to do is to make sure that

Youssef was in a certain place and time

so we can call the police
and they can arrest him.

I was telling all of this to the police
so they know what we were doing.

But Youssef wasn't sloppy at all.

He took one last precaution
that almost blew the entire plan.

He contacted the woman and told her
that he didn't have his passport.

Since he didn't have a passport,
they wouldn't give him the money,

so she needed to send the money
to a different person.

It turned out to be a very young
Chinese guy living in Chile

who we never heard about.

The woman wired him the money,

and then I informed the police,

and Chia-Min Lin
went to pick up the money.

And the police saw
that Chia-Min Lin was inside a car,

outside the office,

and another male
was sitting inside the car with him.

Chia-Min Lin collected the money.

Then he left the office.

He walked to Youssef,
who was waiting for him.

That is when the police came
and arrested Youssef.

[in Spanish] It was in that moment
when they got him.

Almost like a movie.

[somber music playing]

[in English] It was two days
before my birthday,

and Rocio sent me an email,

and it just said,
"We got him," in all caps.

And I said, "f*ck yeah."
And then she said, "Happy birthday."

Still the best birthday present.

And in June 2012, he had his trial.

[menacing music playing]

[Callie] At first, when he came in,

I was just trying to keep my composure
and not freak out and run out of the room.

Yeah, it was hard seeing him.

[suspenseful music playing]

So it was a long debate
to convince a judge

that there's enough evidence
to make a case against him.

But in the end, the judge found him guilty
for the attempted m*rder of Callie.

And Youssef Khater was sentenced
to prison for 600 days.

I don't know what the sentence is
in the United States for attempted m*rder,

but less than two years seems

egregiously low.

[in Spanish] The punishment
is super low here in Chile.

Someone charged with attempted m*rder
won't be in jail longer than two years.

[Callie in English]
As he was being led out...

he winked at me.

[ominous music playing]

[Callie] It would have been impossible
for me to have had

any semblance of "justice,"



without Rocio.

[soft music playing]

[Callie] She is my hero
for the rest of my life.

I can't thank her enough

for how much effort and hard work
she put into getting this guy caught.

She didn't have to do any of that.

[Rocio] What was especially interesting
about this guy is that

there were people from all over the world

who didn't meet each other before,

just working for the same purpose,
to stop Youssef Khater.

But many victims of fraud and cons,

they feel stupid.

They feel like they failed,
and they shouldn't.

[Carlos in Spanish] We want to trust, yes,

because imagine if you live your life
not trusting anyone,

you can't live like that.

[somber music playing]

[Callie in English]
I definitely enter relationships

from a different perspective now.

[interviewer] Have you recovered?

Probably.

I'd say overall, yes,

but there's definitely residual effects
that I need to deal with.

I have been diagnosed with PTSD.

What would normally be
a stressor of level two out of ten,

it just goes to ten.

And I can't explain why.

[exhales heavily]

I get startled a lot more easily.
Hate it when people walk behind me.

I don't like looking at people
with thick eyebrows.

And there's probably a lot more
that I don't even know.

[reflective music plays]

It could be worse.
It could be a lot worse.

I could be dead.

Once something like this happens to you,

and you have any power at all to

tell other people about it
so that it doesn't happen to them,

that's your f*cking responsibility.

After Youssef was released from prison
in Chile, he was deported back to Denmark,

where he was arrested for various crimes
he had committed years before.

When he got out of jail in Denmark,
he left again.

[menacing music playing]

And he ended up in Costa Rica.

In Costa Rica, Youssef was doing
some sort of scam to do with cell phones.

He was arrested there for that.

But they let him go

because I guess
there wasn't enough evidence.

I found out he was in Costa Rica
committing crimes

because Carlos started a blog

that is all about Youssef.

It has every article about me,

about his Danish crimes,

and Costa Rica.

[Carlos in Spanish] When I saw the news
in Costa Rica, that motivated me.

This had to stop,
and something had to be done to stop him.

That's where I came up with the idea
to do the blog.

[Rocio in English] It was important
to warn people about this person...

because Youssef is still out there.

[tense music playing]

[interviewer] Will Youssef ever stop?

No, I don't think so.

[interviewer] And where is Youssef now?

We don't know.

[Molly] There hasn't been
a rock bottom for him.

He's still surviving. He's still scamming.

It's working. It's not not working.

[Rocio] This is not a person
that you can trust.

This is not a person
that you want inside your house.

You just don't want anything
to do with Youssef Khater.

It's not over yet.

It's still happening somewhere.
We don't know where.

[dark music playing]

[intriguing music playing]