She Converted to His Religion Just to Kill Him and Take All His Money: Ejaz Ahmad

hello everyone my name is haley elizabeth and if you don't know who i am this is my true crime podcast called behind you where once a week i sit down and talk about a true crime case you can listen to the audio version every tuesday on spotify apple or wherever you can find podcasts or you can watch the visual version on my youtube channel every wednesday and if not totally chill like you do not have to you know subscribe or anything if you don't want to we are just here to talk some true crime you know just listen to a story no pressure no pressure so today's case i got suggested from a lot of you guys a lot of the cases that i've covered has always dealt with abuse from men towards women but never women towards men and i feel like that is a very important conversation to have because it does happen may not be as often as men towards women but it does happen where women will you know manipulate or physically abuse or mentally abuse men and i feel like it's definitely a conversation that we should be open about having and not trying to derail the conversation about men abusing women but i'm just saying it should be an open discussion for abuse in general no matter what gender you are what gender you identify as and i feel like abuse from women towards men happens a lot more than we may think and i feel like if you create a safe space for men to open up about those abuse issues um without feeling like less than a man or feeling like they are you know in superior because usually like stereotypically man above women you know whatever whatever um so i feel like by having an open discussion about it it could actually help a lot of people sometimes men feel ashamed or embarrassed to open up about things like this and unfortunately that is exactly what happened to the man we are going to be talking about in today's video ejazz ahmed ejaz ahmed was born on february 8 1962 in fazlabad pakistan his parents were originally from india but moved to pakistan shortly after world war ii his mom and his dad were said to be very very hard workers and did all that they could to support their family a jazz's father actually owned several businesses but unfortunately when e jazz was a baby his father had passed away so his mom had to raise all three of her kids ej as being the youngest just to the best of her ability being a single mom so because of this e jazz was naturally a mama's boy and he really looked up to his mom in a lot of ways because he saw how hard working his mother was to try to keep everything afloat to do all that she could to get enough money to support her family and it really inspired ejaz and he kept on telling himself that he wants to be his mother when he grows up and then in 1980 when e jazz was 18 years old he was woken up in the middle of the night from his mother who seemed to be very frantic she randomly started to tell him that she had a savings account for him and to take all of the money in the savings account and to go to the united states and go to college she just kept on telling him that she wanted him to have all of the money and to just get a good education get a good job and take care of the family since this was in the middle of the night e jazz was very confused he didn't really know why his mother was telling him all of this and then that's when ejaz's mother said promise me you'll go to america and get a good education and then shortly after she said that she fell very short of breath and just kind of fell on top of him and he was very very confused so they called an ambulance she was taken to the hospital and then at the hospital that is when she was declared passed away due to a heart attack so since this was a very traumatic thing for ejaz you know as i said he was a really big mama's boy he looked up to his mother through every single aspect through working through parenting through emotions he just loved his mother so very much so now that his mother was gone he did all that he could to fulfill her wishes and go to america and get a good education and get a good job he ended up within a couple of years learning fluent english and not only did he know english he also knew arabic and french on top of his first language that he learned as a kid which was urdu so at the time he still was living in pakistan but he had an overseas degree at the university of mississippi so he went here for about two years and within those two years he was learning the english language he was saving up enough money to basically prepare himself for a full-time life in america and then shortly after this he ended up actually moving to america and he lived there full time but although he lived there full time he would still frequently send money back home to his family when he moved to the states he moved to specifically memphis tennessee and it was here where he had a roommate his roommate described ejaz to quite literally just light up every single room that he was in he had a sense of humor that everyone just found so funny he loved you know making people laugh he loved making people smile one of his favorite things to do was to cook so every time he would have his friends over that's kind of how he like expressed his love for his friends and family is through food so every time his friends would come over he absolutely loved cooking for his friends because as i said that's how he expressed his love for his friends and his roommate said that although he loved cooking his you know home food he did try to venture out a little bit and try american food but it just really wasn't the same to him but the one thing that he really really did like was peanut butter he loved peanut butter so much he put it on everything and that was like the one thing that he found like to be so mesmerizing when he came to the states was peanut butter he loved peanut butter he put it on everything and another thing that ejaz loved to do when trying to like transition into the lifestyle of the united states was one of his favorite things to do was to mow the lawn and i think that's so funny because like usually a lot of people hate mowing the lawn like that's just something it's just like a chore that you have to do but ejazz loved it he didn't have grass where he grew up um he lived in one of those like complexes but up on a hill sort of so he didn't really have much grass to upkeep or anything so the fact that he now had a place of his own where he could mow the lawn it was like one of his favorite chores to do and he found it extremely satisfying as well now on top of ejaz being a very social person and always having friends over and loving to you know talk to new people he was also very smart as well he received two master's degrees one from the university of memphis and another from the university of mississippi all majoring in engineering after graduation he kind of followed in the footsteps of his own father and owned several businesses and got into specifically investing and entrepreneurship he owned a lot of businesses he had two gas stations a fish market a store in the memphis mall called regal imports and at regal imports it was basically like a um cultural store so he would have like clothing and jewelry and bags imported from pakistan and into his store so people kind of got a feel of living back home if that's where you were from he also sold cars as well as having a couple of rental properties and even though this sounds like a lot he just kept up with it all and made it look so easy in the process he was just naturally a hard-working person and whenever he was given a lot of work he kind of took it on quite seamlessly and even though he had all of this money as i said ejaz is like he just treated his friends like his family so every time his friends needed some financial support he was always there for them and would give them anything they truly needed as i said he grew up in an area where he didn't really have much money so that just kind of taught him to be very you know low maintenance he didn't need a lot to be satisfied or happy so the fact that he had a lot of money he didn't really mind not having a lot of money so he would just kind of give away his money to his friends if they needed it because he didn't really need as much as he had he was also helping out his family back home as well his sister at one point suffered a really bad fall where she needed to be in constant medical attention so he would pay for all of her medical attention her rehab her medications and as for ejaz's romance part of his life he jazz was kind of a flirt but he never really like committed to anything because in his religion he followed a muslim religion and he believed that you know the next person that he's gonna date should be the person that he's going to marry so he loved to like flirt and stuff like that just for fun you know just keeping it very light but didn't really you know commit to anything unless he saw a future with that person so he felt like the girl that he dates next should be the girl that he plans on loving and marrying for the rest of his life and of course vice versa the woman should feel the same about him so in the spring of 1988 at 26 years old that is when he jazz met a woman by the name of laurie marsh laurie and e jazz met one day when laurie's mom bonnie was actually having like a little get-together at her house and one of bonnie's friends had invited ejaz over so that is how ejaz and laurie met at this little get-together that laurie's mom was having so lori had a son already from a previous relationship but her and that guy just never really worked out and since laurie had a son it was really hard for her to date or try to get anyone to you know do long term with her because you know when you have a kid and you're trying to date it's kind of a little bit harder because you're not only asking of this person to be a good partner but a good parent too so it was a little bit harder for lori to try to find a good guy but when she met ejaz she said that she was immediately swept off her feet by a jazz she loved his accent she could literally listen to him talk forever and same thing with ejazz he jazz just felt like laurie was the most angelic woman uh one of lori's favorite things to do was to sing and so later on that afternoon lori's mom bonnie bonnie was like oh lori why don't you sing that song that like you love to sing i don't know what song it was but ejaz said that as soon as he heard laurie sing that was like it for him like he fell in love with her he felt like she was so angelic and graceful and he ended up asking her out on a date that day so the two went to dinner and a movie and after the movie they just walked around downtown memphis just talking about everything and laurie said that during this date she just fell in love with ejazz even more she loved how he was so funny he made her laugh he was so smart and lori and ejaz were both very outgoing people so she felt like it was very important to have someone that sort of matched her energy she said that she also fell in love with his smile and his laugh he would always make this joke of him being the brother of al pacino from scarface because they look a lot alike and that just made her laugh even more and it was funny because if you've ever seen scarface al pacino in that movie is very like he drinks he smokes he kills people like he's this very like tough guy sort of person but as for ejazz he was the complete opposite he was a very big softy very wholesome he didn't drink he didn't smoke he didn't even really swear either like he was just super you know the opposite and of course ejaz felt the same exact way about laurie he fell in love with lori he thought that she was so interesting and so beautiful and throughout this you know beginning part of their relationship uh e jazz would frequently buy traditional pakistan items for lori such as dresses and jewelry and the fact that laurie had a son he just did not mine at all he was very excited actually because he had always wanted to be a father and have a family and support his family as i said he was just the type of person that loved to help people he loved to like financially help people emotionally help people so the fact that he now had a family that he could love and support like he was in his happy place so being a father figure to laurie's son was not hard for ejaz at all he felt quite naturally into the role and he would frequently bring laurie's son to the mosque which if you don't know what the mosque is from my understanding it's a place of muslim worship so basically you go there to pray it's a safe space and ejazz frequently went there and so he would frequently bring laurie's son there as well um and him and laurie's son would go there and he would tell laurie's son about all of these stories of him in pakistan when he was his age and laurie's son really did love e jazz as well and he tried to raise laurie's son as if he were his own because as i said growing up he really looked up towards his mother because his mother was a very big hard worker so ejaz tried to be the same parental figure for laurie sun as he had growing up now everything in this relationship was going very smoothly like there were really not many bumps in the roads of course you have your typical fights but they weren't ever anything like too drastic but they had this one particular thing that they didn't agree on and that was religious beliefs lori was a christian she loved going to church she believed in her christian values and her christian beliefs but as for ejaz he was muslim so he had strong muslim beliefs and so the fact that lori was a christian and ejaz was muslim and neither of them wanted to convert to the other's religion that was one of the biggest disagreements in their relationship but although they had this big difference in religious beliefs they didn't really let it affect their relationship too much they just kind of said you know you have your beliefs and i respect that i have my beliefs and i hope you respect that as well and they just kind of you know kept it as that for their relationship and then in the fall of 1988 that is when e jazz and lori just randomly decided one day to get married at this point in their relationship although they had only known each other for a couple of months at this point they were in love they had a family and they really wanted to move in with each other as well but as part of e jazz's religion he cannot live with a woman unless that woman is his wife so that's exactly what they decided to do they decided to get married so that they could have a happy family in a happy home so they drove over to bonnie's house and i do want to mention as well that some of the articles that i like read had laurie's mom as tina and some of them had laurie's mom as bonnie i just wanted to mention that right now i'm just referring her to bonnie for this video just wanted to point that out i should have said that in the beginning but i literally just remembered so ejes and laurie drove over to bonnie's house and basically told her you know put on a nice outfit we're about to go to the mosque and get married so bonnie was very thrown off but she was like oh my god yes okay i'm so excited she runs inside puts on some clothes so them three including laurie's son all went to the courthouse and they got married so after the courthouse marriage a couple weeks later they got traditionally married because as i said ejazz was very you know dedicated to his muslim beliefs in that he felt like the marriage wouldn't be perfect unless they got married in the mosque so a couple weeks later they eventually got married at the mosque and from bonnie's testimony of the entire thing she says it was the most beautiful wedding ever everyone there was so warm so loving it was just a night filled with dancing and singing and music now shortly after they got married of course they went through that magical honeymoon phase where the first couple of months of marriage it's like really unbelievable it's so new it's so fresh but after those first couple of months it really started to set into laurie that wow i am married now like i am gonna be with this man for the rest of my life like she just started to get cold feet after the fact of like is this what i really want to do lori just started to get super nervous because as i said she was in a previous relationship that relationship that she had her son in and she said that a situation happened where they were married but shortly after they got married he just randomly switched up and started to become very abusive towards her and her son and so she was just very scared that that same thing was going to happen with ejaz she just felt like things were going too perfectly so she started to get a little nervous but although he just kept on reassuring to laurie that he's not that kind of guy he's dedicated to his family he loves lori he loves their son like this was his life and he wanted to live it for as long as he can and so although he just kept telling that to her telling her how much he loved her it just wasn't really enough for laurie she was still very in her own head so she ended up filing for a divorce and surprisingly when laurie filed for a divorce ejazz was not mad at all he completely understood why laurie would like be scared that uh this was going to happen again like where it was going to be a situation of her last husband so instead ejaz just sat down with her and was like okay i know you're scared i know this is you know a big transition for you this is a lot to take in at once but maybe if we work together to help you heal from your past relationship you can start enjoying your current relationship even more so she dismissed the divorce and that's exactly what they did throughout their relationship they both worked together to help laurie heal from her previous relationship and just develop a healthier relationship with her and ejazz and ejaz just overall helped her develop a lot better of a relationship with herself and i think that this just shows how loving and caring e jazz is like the fact that he didn't get mad when she filed for divorce but he was very understanding and offered you know i love you very very much and i want you to love you like how i love you again ejaz just being the nicest person in the world to even further help lori him laurie and their son all moved back into bonnie's house because he felt like it would be better if they all moved into there so lori during her healing process would be constantly surrounded by the people that she loved including her mother and ejaz was very comfortable that he had to live with bonnie because as i said within his muslim religion he cannot live with a woman unless he's married to that woman but it is also very common in that culture to live with your mother-in-law or live with a grandparent if that grandparent is single or widowed so each as just absolutely loved bonnie him and bonnie got along really really well he loved taking care of his entire family ejaz and bonnie became very very close ijaz taught bonnie how to cook many traditional pakistani dishes and also introduced her to all of his favorite pakistani cereals which is basically like like tv drama shows so then in november of 1990 two years later that is when ejaz and lori got the amazing news that laurie was pregnant and then in august of 1991 that is when they had their son they decided to name their son jordan but e jazz also gave jordan a muslim name which was tarik i believe it's pronounced and ejazz absolutely loved jordan with all of his heart he was just so proud of whatever jordan did no matter how big or small his accomplishments were he just made sure that jordan felt very loved and proud of himself and as jordan grew older ejaz would frequently take jordan to the mosque with him like he did laurie's son just to you know pray and again tell him stories about his life when he was a little boy back in pakistan and although he did tell jordan to go to the mosque with him he also encouraged him to go to sunday service with his mother as well just because like as part of their religious belief disagreement he didn't want to force a religion on jordan he just kind of left it up to him you know whatever religion he felt more connected to would be the path that he's supposed to take so they weren't super insistent on it they just kind of let jordan you know go with the flow and whatever he feels is best for him and he just threw jordan and laurie's son he was definitely able to heal his inner child in a way he loved playing with his boys he loved playing sports like soccer with his boys he also loved halloween and dressing up that was like one of his favorite things to do he loved taking his boys trick-or-treating and also ejazz loved to the fourth of july ejaz loved all like the pretty fireworks in the sky and although things you know seem to be going really really well for the couple and the family unfortunately as time went on the religious disagreement in beliefs really started to become an issue it wasn't as easy as you know just keeping it off to the side i respect yours you respect mine it was starting to become a problem in their marriage because lori was just so dedicated to her christianity that she couldn't really see herself converting to a different religion and same thing with ejaz ijaz was so dedicated to his muslim religion that he could not see himself converting to anything different it became apparent that although they allowed jordan to kind of you know go with whatever religion he you know felt that he should go into ejaz was kind of pushing jordan to go into the direction of muslim religion which laurie didn't really like but ejaz just didn't want to go to the mosque alone he really wanted someone by him and he wanted someone within his faith to help him grow in his faith and laurie understood this and it's not like laurie didn't try to convert to the muslim religion she had no problem with wearing a hijab sometime she also went to the mosque a couple of times but every time she wore a hijab or went to the mosque she just felt very uncomfortable like she didn't feel like she was supposed to be doing this and she just couldn't see herself converting to a religion that made her feel like that she just could never see herself fully converting because her heart was fully in christianity so in 1995 after seven years of marriage when he jazz was 33 years old that is when the two got a divorce ejazz was moved out and laurie lived with her son and jordan in bonnie's home and there was no tension between e jazz and lori they were amazing at co-parenting because they still loved each other but they just felt like in the long run they needed someone in their life that had you know the same religious beliefs as them that was something that was very very important to both of them so as i said each has loved to help people so with all of this new time that he had to himself he would spend most of it doing community service or volunteer work helping out the homeless he was also taking friends into his home constantly um along with ejaz being literally just the best person on earth he was very you know giving towards his friends if his friends or even just like a friend of a friend like people he didn't even know if they needed a place to stay he would literally give them his bed like he would sleep on his own couch and allow this stranger to sleep in his bed just so this person had a place to sleep he would also give people who you know were homeless or just were in very unfortunate situations he would constantly cook for people give them more meals give them a bed he would do their laundry and give them clean clothes he was just such a giving person and he didn't care who you are or what you did what you identified as he just cared about helping people and allowing people to live the most comfortable life possible and making sure that people were always happy just honestly as i said the best person ever and so one day ejaz's friend goes up to ejazz and says hey i actually have this girl who is in a very tough spot right now i feel really really bad for her can she stay with you for a little bit and this girl's name was leah rogers leah joy rogers was born on december 19th of 1976 in ripley mississippi she grew up with her mom who was a teacher and her dad who was an ex-military but now he was a factory worker and she also had one brother named sam as a kid they moved from ripley mississippi to adamsville and they decided to live more in the woods area like it wasn't a farmland because there wasn't much of like farming but it was just more of like a house in the woods now growing up leah's parents were very strict and also very religious her parents believed in no alcohol no drugs women can't wear pants or makeup or cut their hair they didn't watch movies or tv shows they weren't really caught up with like the modern worlds they didn't watch much of the news either so leah just grew up in a very strict household where she couldn't really do anything really unless it was with her parents approval so with this strict household leah began to feel very claustrophobic growing up and this kind of developed her need to rebel and get out of her house and sort of just start to do bad things in order to just feel like she's in control of what she's doing and ever since the fifth grade she was starting to talk back to her teachers she was not doing her homework and even as a teenager that same behavior pursued she would constantly get into fights she was caught drinking and smoking weed and throughout all of this her parents were sending her back and forth to multiple mental hospitals to try and help her and whenever she would go to a mental hospital she would come home and she would be fine for like maybe a month or two but then immediately go back into her same old habits and it was also at these mental hospitals where she was diagnosed with both depression and anxiety at 14 years old leah actually stole her grandmother's car and crashed it into another car while trying to run away from home and that was the first time that she ever got arrested so her criminal record started very young she also did the same thing to her brother's truck she attempted to run away from home by driving away in her brother's truck but she actually ended up crashing into a trailer and then again got arrested for it so after a while her parents just didn't really know what to do because they realized that the mental hospitals weren't doing much for her so instead they decided to send her to a six-month ministry group home after she was released from this six month ministry group home her parents said that she actually got a lot better like she seemed like a brand new person she finally had a future for herself because before she didn't really care about growing up or what she was gonna do when she was older but now she had future plans for herself she knew what she wanted to do career-wise she knew that she wanted to have a family one day like she had a very you know promising future that she wanted for herself but similar to all of her other hospital visits this only lasted for a month or two before she just went right back into her old bad habits and it wasn't until she started to become a late teenager like 17 years old where her need to rebel turned very violent there was this one incident in school where she attempted to stab a guy but luckily the knife was taken from her before there was any damage done she just also became very unable to control her emotions like whatever she felt like doing she would just do it without thinking and it was also at 17 years old where she ended up getting pregnant and you would think that you know leah getting pregnant would just send her parents over the roof like they would be extremely mad at her but surprisingly her parents were not mad they felt like maybe this will be a wake-up call for leah maybe when she has this kid she's gonna realize like she needs to be a mother it'll teach her responsibility maybe she'll get a job to support this child like they saw a lot of promising things with having this child and they weren't really mad at all but the parents only requirement was that she marry the man that got her pregnant because as i said they were very religious and they felt like if leah was having a child with this man then she should marry this guy and this guy's name was larry ward and larry ward was not opposed to the idea of getting married he just kind of got married because leah's parents told him to like he didn't really see a large future with leah but he just kind of got married because he was like you know what maybe there's something here maybe this might be the best decision i ever make for myself like let's just get married let's raise this child and see what happens and larry would describe leah to be very difficult to deal with she was always having moments where she would lash out for no reason and then the next minute she was completely fine he found her very stubborn as well especially when it came to parenting their child and shortly after they had their son they actually had another daughter shortly after they had their daughter that is when larry started to see some very scary changes in leah he started to realize that leah was starting to heavily use drugs more specifically cocaine and meth her moods also became very scary and said that one day whilst he was showering leah randomly busted into the bathroom ripped open the shower curtain and she had a knife in her hand and was threatening to kill him because she was under the impression that he was cheating on her now that was larry's side of the story and leah's side of the story she said that larry was the very abusive one there was actually a domestic abuse charge filed against larry and larry speaks about the charge with the police later on and basically says that one day when he was going to work on the tugboats with his cousin and this is what he did for a living so every time he would work on the tugboats he was usually gone for a couple weeks at a time so this one day when he had to leave to go work on the tugboats with his cousin he was saying bye to his kids and he got in the car with his cousin and saw that his son was crying by the front door like the glass screen door and his son was just crying because he didn't want his dad to leave and so that's when leah opens up the front door because he assumes you know lee is opening up the front door so his son could give him one last hug before the dad goes but instead leah opens up the front door and violently kicks their son right out the door so that he falls on the concrete porch so the cousin immediately jumps out the car and starts screaming at leah telling her like why did you do that you hurt him and immediately when leah saw the cousin coming out of the car she ran out of the house and into the backyard larry also jumped out of the car to ensure that his son was okay and he also tried to look for leah but as leah was hiding from them she was actually on the phone with the police telling the police that her husband larry was trying to hurt her so after this situation larry really contemplated leaving leah just because there were so many things going on but he continued to just stick it out for his son and daughter because he absolutely loved his son and daughter so so much and he couldn't bear the thought of leaving them so he just instead decided to stay purely for his kids even though leah was very toxic he also just stood around because he had high hopes for leah he hoped that maybe leah would one day wake up and realize what she's doing and hopefully get her life back together and leah actually at one point really did start to get her life together there was at one point where she got a job as a nurse's assistant in a nursing home and she also did landscaping on the side and she mostly just worked so that she could help out paying the bills but since both larry and leah were now working all the time the couple never saw each other which made their relationship even worse since they were so overworked and stressed out at their jobs and they were already super you know agitated because they had to work all day whenever they would see each other they would just kind of release that anger out on each other which again just made their marriage a lot worse and then after two years of marriage leah filed for divorce saying her last straw was a fight that they had and this fight actually ended her up in the hospital now when asked about this by the police like way later larry explains that the real last straw and the real reason why leo was filing for divorce was not because they had a fight and she ended up in the hospital but because one night he had come home from the tugboats a little bit earlier and he wanted to surprise leah and the kids but when he came home he came home to a house full of strangers and a car that smelled like crack cocaine and everybody was partying there was loud music and drugs and alcohol and his kids were literally just upstairs in their room like locked in their room so immediately he told everyone to leave and through this it sparked a large argument between the two and after this argument leah ended up running away and she filed a restraining order and shortly after she filed the police report she ended up calling larry to let him know where she was and that she wanted to talk to him but he refused to meet up with her and talk to her he felt like this was a very dangerous situation for the kids and he just said you know call me when you get the help that you need call me when you get better and so when leah hung up she ended up calling the police saying that larry called her saying that he was going to like kill her and all of these threatening things but when the police looked into it they clearly saw from the phone records that leah was the one that called larry and larry ended up never breaking the restraining order so after the divorce larry and leah went to court and larry was given full custody of his son and his daughter and leah just went on to live her life afterwards following her life after her divorce and she also didn't have her kids anymore her kids were taken away from her she started to get more heavily into substance abuse such as meth and cocaine she also did sex work to get money and buy more drugs and then in november of 2000 at 24 years old she was actually sentenced to 27 months in prison for selling drugs in october of 2001 she was released from this charge out on parole and sent to a halfway home in memphis and a halfway house is basically like a group home it basically just helps people who were in jail get back up on their feet again after jail to just you know help them find a job a place to stay and shortly after she was released leah was doing well for a while she had a place of her own she worked at kmart and she also got a somewhat relationship with her kids as well once larry saw that leah like had a job in a place of her own he slowly started to bring the kids around her more often just to you know let her see her kids and he thought that you know leah was starting to really take care of her life again but in 2002 she eventually lost her job and unfortunately fell right back into her substance abuse issues and since she was spending all of her money on drugs she would never spend any money on her rent and was later evicted and became homeless while she was homeless she met a man that felt very very sorry for her and so that's when the man was like you know what i have a friend and he might be able to help you you know just have a place to stay for a couple of nights so that is when the friend one day went over to his friend's house and 26 year old leah ward met 40 year old e jazz ahmed [Music] hey guys don't worry it's still me thinking the sponsor of today's episode better help mental health in the past couple of years has been getting the attention it deserves and i feel like the topic in general is just so much more comfortable to talk about and along with these changes in conversation and normalization of mental health struggles therapy has also been a great route for a lot of people to take so if you're feeling depressed anxious or overwhelmed today's sponsor better help is for you better help offers licensed therapists who are trained to listen and help you talk to a therapist in private or in an online environment at your convenience there is a broad range of expertise in better help's 20 000 plus therapist networks that gives you the access to help that may not be available in your area you just fill out the questionnaire to help assess your specific needs and then you get matched with a therapist in under 48 hours then you schedule a secure video or phone sessions plus you can exchange unlimited messages and everything you share is completely confidential personally better help has helped me a lot with time management i'm a really big procrastinator and i just put too much on my plate at once i just get burned out really easily and i have no motivation towards the end of my day and my therapist has really helped me figure out a schedule that works for me and when to give myself breaks and also just how to manage the important stuff first and then the things that i can postpone get those things done last you can request a new therapist at no additional charge any time join the three million plus people who have taken charge of their mental health with an experienced better help therapist get ten percent off your first month at betterhelp.com haley elizabeth that is betterhelp h-e-l-p-com haley elizabeth the friend asks ejaz if it's okay if leah stays at his home for a little bit and ejazz kept on saying you know he wishes he could have her in his house but unfortunately again due to his muslim religion he cannot move in with a woman unless he's married to that woman so he said you know as bad as he wants to give her a warm meal and a nice place to stay he just unfortunately can't do it but although he couldn't allow her to stay there he actually had an idea and as i said he owned a few rental properties and there was one rental unit that he had and so he was like you know what leah you can stay in this rental unit for as long as you want just make sure to get back up on your feet again maybe in a couple of months i can go over there and just help you you know get back up on your feet again now leah of course wouldn't brought this opportunity to live in an apartment rent free for a couple of months she immediately took him up on that offer and she moved into this apartment but unfortunately this apartment was in a very bad neighborhood so later on that night ejaz just couldn't go to sleep knowing that leah was not only just you know a woman but she was single and she was living in a bad neighborhood he just would not forgive himself if something terrible happened to leah so instead like the 14th hundredth time of just ejazz being the most wonderful kindest nicest person on planet earth he called leah in the middle of the night and was like hey like it's terrible over there i don't want you staying over there it's very very bad over there how about you stay in my house and i will live out there so he literally just gave up his entire home to a stranger like he did not know who leah was just because he did not want her to live in a bad neighborhood and he felt so bad for her that he was willing to give a stranger his entire home because he did not want to see this stranger in pain he said pack up all your things you're gonna move into my house i'll just find someone's couch to crash on for a little bit until you get back up on your feet and that's exactly what happened leah packed up all of her things she moved into uh ejaz's house and ejaz just crashed on a friend's couch for a little bit and as part of leah like getting back up on her feet again e jazz actually offered to pay for her community college so that she could get a better paying job so then in october of 2002 it's been about two or three months since leah had moved into ejaz's house and it kind of got to a point where ejaz needed his house back so he was you know talking to leah and leah wasn't ready to move out yet and so he said the only way for us to live together is if we're married so that's exactly what they did e jazz was willing to get married to leah if that meant leah had a nice warm place to stay because again he just could not stand the thought of anyone being in pain if there was something that he could do to help them so he just got married to leah so she had a place to stay until she you know got better enough to go out and get a place of her own now when they got married he just kind of went in with the intention of like you know something may spark something may not spark you know he wasn't expecting them to fall in love or anything but it was kind of a thing of like oh if we do this would be a crazy story to tell but he really wasn't expecting too much of it he was like i just you know we're just getting married because i can't stand the thought of you like being on the streets so then on october 5th of 2002 that is when e jazz and leah got married at the mosque as a relationship pursued the couple did find themselves slowly starting to fall in love with each other leah just found e jazz just so kind and warming and she had never met a person that cared so much about her even though she was like at her rock bottom he still saw her as like such an incredible person and ejaz felt the same way about leah he felt like she had so much potential to do so much great in this world and he was going to do whatever he could to help her get to that point so over the course of their relationship they really started to fall in love with each other and something that ejaz found very important in leah as well is that leah although she grew up in a very religiously strict household she herself was not religiously strict so she was very easily persuaded to convert to the muslim religion so throughout their relationship she started to learn more about the muslim traditions she was starting to learn the language of urdu she was wearing a hijab more often and going to the mosque quite frequently with a jazz and ijaz was very excited about this because as i said ijaz just really wanted someone that had the same beliefs as him so he could then grow in his beliefs or even teach someone his beliefs so this was perfect for ejaz he felt like you know i finally have someone to go to the mosque with i can finally you know grow in my faith i have someone to talk about these things with also on top of all of that leah frequently met ejaz's son jordan and jordan and leah had a really good relationship with one another ejaz even went on to meet leah's son and daughter through larry and larry describes each as to be a really nice guy with a big heart and he felt like it was really nice of e jazz to be taking care of leah and larry said that his first interaction with e jazz e jazz shook his hand and said so apparently you're supposed to be pretty scary and then larry chuckles and responds oh you haven't seen scary yet referring to leah's scary side as you know leah started to show as her and larry's relationship started to pursue so this was in the beginning of their relationship between larry and ejaz so he just didn't really understand what he was getting at because from leah's side of the story leah had always said that larry was very scary and abusive so he just didn't really understand what larry meant by that so although leah was very sweet and kind in the beginning of the relationship as a relationship pursued her scary side did start to come out and one time ejaz said that he was at a restaurant with a female co-worker when leah randomly showed up and caused a scene and accused ejaz of cheating even though it was just his female co-worker ijaz said that he would never cheat because he's a married man he's very dedicated to his muslim religion and that would just go against all of his beliefs on multiple occasions as well he noticed that leah would take out thousands of dollars out of his bank account without even telling him there was one time where ejaz had a friend over and while ejaz and leah were arguing in the backyard over these again cheating allegations that were not true the friend actually saw leah hit e jazz repeatedly while ejazz just sort of covered his face to protect himself there was also multiple occasions where leah would tell ejaz that she was going to work or school but instead just went out to hang out with friends and do drugs and alcohol and there were also multiple occasions where leah would not come home at all one night which you know made e jazz you know think the worst think something was wrong think she was cheating and every time ejaz would ask leo where she had been she would just reply with none of your business and as i said leah had just gotten out of jail previous to meeting eja so she was currently still on parole and as part of her parole she had to take random drug tests so there was this one particular day where she was ordered to take a random drug test and she ended up failing that drug test and due to her failing that drug test she was ordered to go to court now as far as leah's past with drugs and alcohol ejaz didn't know any of that ejaz didn't know that leah had ever been to jail he didn't know that she used to use drugs he didn't know about her alcoholism he didn't know about any of that all he kind of saw and how leah made it out to be when she first met him he just sort of viewed leah as a single mom going through a rough divorce with her abusive ex-husband that ended up getting full custody of her children he did not know that she just got out of jail he didn't even know that she was on parole he didn't know that she did drugs or alcohol so when she ended up failing her drug test that is when he found out that she was using drugs in the first place and once he found out about leah's past how she had substance abuse issues she went to jail she was abusive towards her children once he found out the truth about leah he felt very betrayed and manipulated and taken advantage of because he just thought that he was helping out this innocent person when in reality he was helping out this person that was so evil to so many people in her life he also found out through leah's friends that for the first two months of their marriage leah was actually having an affair with her ex-boyfriend and got pregnant from this ex-boyfriend but eventually aborted the baby because she didn't want ejaz to find out and never told ejaz about the affair or the abortion so because of this failed drug test she was ordered to spend six months in jail starting on may 1st of 2003 and ijaz still really wanted to help her although like she had gotten into an affair she had gotten pregnant she never told ejaz about her entire life but ejaz just sort of felt in a very tough situation he didn't know if he wanted to help her cope with her drug and alcohol addictions or if he should get her professional help or he didn't even know if he wanted to be with a woman like this because he had never known anything about her and a lot of these stories that she had been telling him turned out to be the complete opposite or the fact that she had an affair for the first two months of their marriage and so with all of this combined ejazz was very very confused so he talked about the situation to a lot of his friends including bonnie laurie's mother because although lori and ejaz weren't together him and bonnie were still very close so he explained the whole situation to bonnie and said you know am i being too nice i don't know what to do like i don't want to get divorced again because then i would just be you know a 40 year old man divorced twice so bonnie just told ejaz like no that is terrible that is toxic like she should have never gotten an affair and she should have told you what actually happened in her life so that you could properly help her get better instead of just painting herself as the victim so bonnie was like no e jazz you are being way too nice this girl is clearly taking advantage of you she is you know doing drugs behind your back she is coming home late at night or sometimes not at all and when you concerned as a husband ask her where she's been she replies with none of your business she's taking thousands of dollars out of your account randomly she is having an affair behind your back she's doing drugs and alcohol and she's been to jail like she is definitely just taking advantage of you and your kindness and your money like it's okay if you get into a second divorce just please you need to leave her so ejazz decided to take the advice of bonnie and file for a divorce and so while she was going through the second divorce laurie said that it was very very hard free jazz like every time ejaz would come to pick up jordan to like spend the day with him she said that ejaz just started to slowly look more and more tired and drained he didn't look like his typical you know fun and loving ejaz he looked just very hurt and then by the end of march 2003 that is when ejaz finally came to the decision of divorcing leah he filed a proper divorce against leah and finally started to stick up for himself and so he just went to leah to her face and said hey i don't like how you're taking all of my money without asking i don't like how you know you say you're going to work or college but instead you do drugs with your friends i don't like how you're having an affair behind my back i don't like how you're not being faithful it's just it's personally it's hurting me a lot i've already tried to help you as much as i can and if you are not going to accept my help anymore or try to better yourself i can't be in this relationship anymore he even told leah that she had to pack up all of her things and move out of the house because again he didn't want her living in the house if he wasn't married to her and he even offered to pay for leah to live in a motel up until her court date when she was having to go to jail for six months so again this is like another reason why ejaz chose this time specifically he thought you know she's going to jail for six months so that means she will be away for six months and i can like figure out my things and i can hopefully move away from here so he kind of timed it out to be like that like you know she's leaving anyway that gives me six months to pack up all of my things and also move away now a couple days later after e jazz had stood up for himself he ended up calling bonnie and told bonnie what happened and he said that leah took the divorce news terribly she began hitting him and calling him all of these disgusting names and slurs and telling him all of these like really hurtful things and she ended up actually you know going to the motel but in the middle of the night she ended up breaking into his house just to beat him even more so bonnie says ejaz you have to file a restraining order you can't continue to let this woman do whatever she wants that is not her house anymore she needs to start doing things on her own she can't you know keep living under your roof taking your money and treating you like this you need to file a restraining order and just be done with this and so ejazz agrees and he's like okay tomorrow i'm gonna file a restraining order because i can't do this anymore she is an evil person and i don't think i can be with someone like this anymore so ejazz decides to accept bonnie's advice they said bye to each other over the phone and this unfortunately was the last time bonnie ever spoke to a jazz on may 1st of 2003 it was the day of leah starting her jail sentence and for the past three weeks prior to may 1st lori tina and jordan had not heard one word from ejazz and every time lori or tina would call the house it was always leah picking up the phone and leah would always make excuses as to where ejaz was she would always say like oh ejazz is out on a business trip right now he's at the mosque he's at the grocery store like every time they would call the house ejazz was always out somewhere so they started to grow very suspicious when at the three week mark he had not said anything to them and on top of this ejazz had no cell phones so there was really no other way for them to contact him besides his house phone and so one day bonnie called the house and asked leah if she could talk to ejaz but leah says that ejaz actually just left to go on a trip to pakistan and this was a really big red flag for bonnie when bonnie heard that she was like okay something is going on because there is no way that a jazz would just leave to go to pakistan if it wasn't like an emergency or something and it was just really weird for ejaz to pick up all of his things and go out to pakistan without even saying bye to jordan or laurie or even calling them to let them know like hey i can't you know take jordan on these days anymore because i'll be out and it was also really weird that ejazz wouldn't call them because um ejaz had been talking for a while at this point that he wanted to take jordan to pakistan he had taken jordan to pakistan when jordan was six and jordan absolutely loved the trip and he jazz had been constantly saying that he needs to take jordan back so again it was really really odd that e jazz would not invite jordan out on this trip and so it just grew very suspicious very weird and it got to a point where laurie and her mom bonnie would physically show up at ejazz's house and knock on the door and it was always leah answering the door and again same thing over the phone leah would always say you know ejazz is at the store ijaz is in pakistan ijaz is at the mosque and there was actually one time where bonnie and laurie stood at the mosque that ejaz frequently went to and he would usually go on like a specific day so when they sat there the entire day on that day that he jazz would usually go there they realized ijaz never showed up and again this was very odd because hijaz was dedicated to his muslim religion and he would always go to the mosque on this specific day but it was just even more of a bigger red flag that he did not show up that day so one day bonnie just has enough she's like i want to see a jazz i have a really bad feeling about this i know that there's something going on i am going to go to ejaz's house and i don't care if leah says that he's not home i will not leave until i see e-jazz so bonnie and jordan show up to each other's home they knock on the door and they're expecting for leah to open up the door but no one opens up the door so she continues knocking and ringing the doorbell and no one's coming to the door so she looks through the windows to see if leah is in the house and she realizes that there is nothing in the house all of the furniture is gone all of the appliances are gone all of the decor is gone and then while she's looking through the window that is when the across the street neighbor yells over hey if you're looking for leah she actually moved yesterday so bonnie walks over to this neighbor and she's like what are you talking about they moved and the neighbor continues to say that the day before he saw a moving truck at the house basically taking away all of the furniture and when the neighbor asked you know where are you moving to leah replied that she is moving away because her husband just recently moved to pakistan and she can't afford the house anymore so she's moving somewhere else and so whilst they're having this conversation there was a little neighborhood girl that was kind of like hearing it on the conversation and that's when she tells bonnie like yeah there's nothing in there except for a chicken in the back because one thing about ijaz is that he loved having pets he loved just taking care of things in general but he loved like pets and so he actually had a couple of chickens and one of those chickens he gave to jordan to take care of as like his own little chicken so when the little girl was like oh there's actually a chicken in the backyard that's when jordan tells his grandma bonnie and says oh my god that's my chicken like we can't leave my chicken here because there's no one to feed him or anything so bonnie is like okay jordan like we'll go in the backyard will get your chicken so they walk into the backyard and they find the chicken but since you know holding or trying to grab a chicken is a lot the chicken was just running all around the backyard unable to be caught and then there was a little shed in the corner of the backyard and so when the chicken ran by this shed that's when bonnie was met with like the most potent smell it was just a really bad smell and she you know it's like what the heck is that smell so she looks into the shed and she realizes that there is a ply of wood kind of locking off the shed so she takes off the piece of wood and she opens up the doors jordan is standing right next to her and that's when she is bent with a foam mattress underneath now bonnie was actually a former police officer so she kind of knew what to do in this situation so she told jordan to back up a little bit while she peeks under the mattress and so the foam mattress is laying on the floor there's a bunch of flies around it so she picks it up and that's when she realizes that there is a body underneath so once she sees that she immediately calls the police when the police show up they take out the body and at first the body was unidentifiable because the head and the genitals were removed from the body so they took the body for an autopsy and they found that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head and a gunshot wound to the chest they also found that along with no head or gentles there was a sever to the left leg as if someone was trying to cut it off but realized it was too hard and stopped they tried to investigate the house a little further but since there was no furniture or anything in the house they found very minimal but they did find in the bathroom some brown stains as well as in the bedroom a big chunk of carpet taken out of the floor the police later spoke with family and friends of ejazz and found that him and leah's relationship was very toxic very bad they also learned that ijaz was in the middle of a divorce with leah which to that leah did not have the best reaction to so since they are hearing a lot about this leah woman they attempt to try to find leah but leah was very easy to find because she was in jail at this point as i said she had a six-month sentence on may 1st and this day was may 1st so she was very easy to locate so the police go in they ask her a couple questions and right off the bat leah admits to what she did she said yes i did shoot e jazz but it was out of self-defense side note i'll talk more about it later but oh my god that is please how is cutting off a person's head and genitals self-defense anyway she explains that one morning e jazz walked into the kitchen and accused leah of stealing a bag of what contained very important documents when leah said that she didn't know where the bag was that is when ejaz started to threaten to kill her and so she ran to the spare bedroom where they had a gun in the spare bedroom she took the gun locked the spare bedroom door hid the gun underneath her pillow and took a nap in the spare bedroom with her gun and so later on during her nap she wakes up because she hears ejaz screaming and banging on the door to let him in so he busts down the door and he's continuing to scream at her about the bag and started to attack her at one point she is able to lock herself in the bathroom but he went around the house and tried to break into the house through the bathroom window just to get to her so she ran back into the bedroom and he busted into the bedroom once again and started to choke her so she had no choice but to pull the trigger out on him she shot him in the stomach and she thought that she misfired so she shot again in the chest and she says that his last words were you killed me and then he started to pray in arabic she said that she left him there on the bedroom floor for a couple of days and then later dragged his body to the bathroom to give him a proper cleansing because in his religion when someone passes away they must be wiped down and washed with a white washcloth so that's what she was doing to him giving him a proper cleansing before she buried him or so she thought she was gonna bury him so she wrapped him up in bed sheets and left him on the bathroom floor for multiple weeks so throughout all of that time where lori and bonnie were calling the house and showing up to the house they did not know that ejaz was actually upstairs dead in their bathroom after a couple weeks she went back into the bathroom because the smell of it got so bad and when she walked in she found worms all over his body she tried to pick him up and bring him outside but he was too heavy so that is when she came to the solution of just cutting off some of his limbs to make him lighter so that's when she later decapitated his head and cut off his genitals as a way to make him lighter so that she could carry him outside after this she wrapped his body in even more sheets and tied a rope around his body to sort of create a handle so he was easier to drag outside and into the shed after she placed his body into the shed she took his head and his genitals and threw them in random parts of town one in a dumpster and one in a lake and she says that she can't remember which dumpster or which lake she had put his head and gentles in so shortly after she placed his body into the shed she slowly started to pawn off all of her belongings so she clearly had no signs of remorse or trauma due to what she did because her first solution after that was to just start selling all of his items and pocketing all of the money and spending most of the money on drugs and alcohol she said that he was in the shed for two to three nights and during that time she was able to sell four of his cars all of his furniture all of his jewelry and after the police talked with her neighbors and leah's conversation with neighbors it sounded like leah was also selling some of his rental properties as well so after hearing this story they clearly could tell that leah did not act out of self-defense if leah was truly acting out of self-defense there would be no reason for a decapitation of a head and a genital when you cut off someone's genitals specifically there is a lot of emotional connection to that there is some sort of you know reason why you want to see that part of them gone they seemed to be very unlikely that if she was trying to lessen the weight of the body the first place that you would go is to an arm or a leg not towards a gentle that wouldn't really you know make the body any lighter same thing with a head usually the first places that you would go is to a large limb like a leg or an arm and then on november 1st of 2005 they continued to examine leah's story as well as go over all of the evidence that they found so at the trial they said that they went back to the house to investigate the area and see if what leah was saying was true and at one point in the story leah says that ejazz had busted down the door of one of the spare bedrooms but when they went to the spare bedroom the door was completely fine there was no scratches there was no busts in the door and they said that it was the same thing with the bathroom window when leah said that he was trying to break in through the bathroom window and they also found that when leah said that she was trying to do a cleansing of e jazz's body it wasn't actually a cleansing it was more just to cover up the odor of the body and get out all of the worms that were supposedly on his body they found that due to the actions of leah cutting off each as his head and gentles as well as selling all of his belongings showed that leah had no remorse for what she did and she cared more about trying to get as much money as she could and cover up the murder of ejaz rather than mourning over the loss of her husband or just immediately calling the police right after she shot him what the court really believed happened is they believed that ejaz found out about her past with drugs and alcohol and her affair and when he threatened to divorce her leah got very nervous because she knew that if she was divorced she would no longer have any money she would not have a home and she would go back to the life that she was living before and she didn't want that so her only solution was to kill each as and get all of his money as inheritance and it was also said that ejaz had actually threatened to leave leah multiple times but when he filed for a divorce and told leah to leave that's when it became very very real for her and so that's when she decided to kill him it only took the jury two hours to find leah guilty for the first degree murder and sentenced her to life in prison as far as the aftermath of it all um leah even to this day is still in prison and even to this day she believes that she didn't do much wrong she does take responsibility for killing ejaz but she felt like if she didn't kill ejaz then he would have killed her first so even to this day in prison she still believes that she is completely justified in what she did and all of the things that she was doing within their relationship was also completely justified as far as lori as i said leah had opened up many many accounts in her name like credit card wise which when you max out a credit card and don't pay back any of it it ruins your credit a lot and credit is how you get things like a car a home a loan and so lori said that it took her years and years to build back up her credit so that she could finally move out of her mom's house and get her and her two boys a proper home and even to this day ejaz's head and genitals were never found as far as ejaz's son jordan jordan to this day doesn't really talk much with the press he's talked a couple of times and he actually did an interview on this show called women behind bars it was season four episode four and in this interview he talks about um like his life as a kid he talks about ejaz he talks about leah and he also talks about the day of the trial after leah was given the verdict that she was guilty and going to prison for life that is when leah had turned around to jordan and he says that she had tears in her eyes and she just mouthed the words to him i'm sorry jordan today is currently 30 years old and he says that he has forgiven leah it's taken him a lot of time to get to where he's at but he believes that he can't hold this grudge forever by holding a grudge that only affects him and so he needs to come to peace with it in order to really cope and understand the death of his father and by forgiving leah every time he thinks of his father he only thinks of the good memories and not how he passed away or his grudge against leah so he says that he has fully forgiven leah for what she has done and he realizes that he can't keep this grudge and heartache forever because the most that could have been done has already been done leah is in prison for the rest of her life and all he can really do is just forgive be at peace and move on to live the life that his father would be proud of as i said that episode of women behind bars season 4 episode 4 they not only do an interview with jordan but they also do an interview with lori and bonnie so if you guys want to check out that episode i feel like i think it's towards the end of the episode because they mentioned three different stories in there i believe it's the last story so if you guys want to hear them speak about it or hear what they have to say i highly recommend that and that is the end of today's case if you guys found this case interesting make sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe on youtube or if you are streaming this on audio platforms make sure to rate it five stars on whatever you are listening to this on right now today's case was very very heavy and i am glad that i was able to do a case about men being abused by women because i feel like it's such a taboo subject to talk about and i feel like a lot of people are very nervous to talk about it because people think that if you're talking about it then you're derailing the conversation about women being abused by men which abuse happens no matter what gender you are no matter what you identify as no matter even what age you are abuse happens to absolutely everyone and if we don't create a safe space for everyone to you know express their feelings and their issues and their troubles they could end up in a situation that is similar to a jazz where it just gets worse and worse and worse e jazz was such a sweet and kind soul and he just saw the good in everyone and he was very nervous about opening up to people about his problems and he ended up not even really opening up to anyone until towards the end of his marriage with leah and even in my own like personal life like i have seen people like specifically men who have been manipulated and abused by their girlfriends and it's very very hard to watch because again it's a very taboo subject and you feel like you know how could a man be abused by a woman and it may feel like they are being less of a man because they are being abused by their girlfriend you know and i feel like again if you just open up the conversation and create a safe space for men to talk about it publicly it could be a really amazing discussion and it could even inspire other men to also speak up about their stories as well because women can be just as toxic i mean we definitely saw it with the johnny depp and amber heard case that was a really big case that shocked the world and it also really brought attention to the abuse of men against women so i feel like you know although it may happen more to women than it does men that does not mean that we shouldn't discredit men or not talk about their situations so i just wanted to put that out there at the end of today's episode i just wanted to talk about this case because i feel like it's very important to open up the floor to anyone struggling with this no matter if you are a man woman non-binary whatever you identify as this is a safe space for you to talk about those things and so that's kind of what i want to do here as well i want to open up the floor to a lot of that discussion you know and again you don't have to agree with me you are totally entitled to your own opinions you could think the complete opposite you could have different opinions on different things and that's fine that's the whole point of having a discussion is that we get to talk about our opinions on things and if you disagree you disagree and if you agree you agree and that's just how conversations work but yes that is the end of today's episode um let me know what you guys think about this case down below do you think leah should have gotten the death penalty do you feel like she should stay in jail do you feel like her upbringing affected the way that she treated people do you think she was just a natural born evil person so yeah just let me know your comments and what you feel about this case in the comment section below you don't have to agree with me even if you disagree with me your opinions are still valid your emotions are still valid and i'm here to listen to you whether you agree with me or not that is all for me and so i will see you guys next week for another true crime episode bye

Channel: Hailey Elizabeth

Views: 823,971

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Id: Mxx9mdq0rVs

Length: 82min 20sec (4940 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 24 2022