The Flint Serial Slasher: Elias Abuelazam

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In the summer of 2010, a man in a green SUV was driving through Flint, Michigan, asking

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strangers for help.

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Some pointed him in the right direction.

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Others leaned in closer to hear him better.

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What happened next turned an entire city streets into a hunting ground.

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This is the story of Elias Abuelezam, the Flint serial slasher.

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[Music]

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There's something that happens in struggling cities.

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People help each other.

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When someone's car breaks down, when someone needs directions, you stop.

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You ask if they're okay.

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Community survival runs on that kind of trust.

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Flint, Michigan, in 2010 was exactly that kind of place.

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The auto industry had gutted the city.

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Unemployment was crushing.

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A lot of people were walking because they couldn't afford cars.

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Late shifts, job hunting, trying to get from one place to another in a city where the

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street lights didn't always work.

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And into that environment came Elias Abuelezam.

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Between May and August of 2010, Abuelezam drove around Flint in a green Chevy trailblazer,

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pulling up next to men walking alone at night.

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He'd waved them over.

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Engine trouble.

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Can you help me with directions?

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The things that might make you approach a car window because you're a decent person.

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When those men got close enough, Abuelezam stabbed them and then drove away.

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18 attacks total across three states.

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14 happened in the Flint area.

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Five men died.

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The rest survived with scars that go deeper than skin.

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Elias Abuelezam wasn't some drifter living out of his car.

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He was born in Ramla, Israel in 1976 to a wealthy Arab Christian family.

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He had a US green cart.

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He'd been married.

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He held down jobs.

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When he came to Flint in late May 2010, he was living in a house on Maryland Avenue owned

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by his uncle and working at a convenience store.

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It was called Kingwater Market.

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His co-workers described him as friendly and polite.

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Customers knew him as Eli, the helpful guy behind the counter.

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There were warning signs buried in his past.

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In 1997, Abuelezam tried to kill himself by stabbing himself in the neck.

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In 2009, an Israeli psychologist diagnosed him as psychotic.

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That same year, while visiting family in Israel, he allegedly stabbed a friend in the face

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with a screwdriver.

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The victim refused to press charges.

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Then, there's Jamie Lane.

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Lane was a 44-year-old landscaper in Leesburg, Virginia.

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His daughter called him the mayor of Leesburg because he drove around in his bright red pick-up

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truck helping people and knew everybody's kids.

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In March 2009, Lane was found stabbed to death in his home.

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At the time of the murder, Elias Abuelezam lived directly across the sidewalk from Jamie

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Lane.

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It took until 2017 for the truth to finally come out.

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Under an immunity deal that protected him from Virginia's death penalty, Abuelezam confessed

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to killing Lane.

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By the time he showed up in Flint, Michigan in 2010, he had already murdered at least

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one person.

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The attacks in Flint started on May 24, 2010.

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David Motley, 31 years old, was found stabbed to death around 6am on Leeth Street.

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The pattern was always the same.

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Big guy in a green SUV asks for help.

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Stabs the person.

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Drives away.

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Emanuel Dent was killed on June 21.

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Bill Fisher survived an attack on June 26th.

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Richard Booker was stabbed on July 19th and lived.

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When came late July, when everything intensified, Darwin Marshall was stabbed on July 26th on Garland

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Street.

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A woman named Shamari Williams witnessed the aftermath.

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She saw the green SUV, saw Darwin collapsed on the ground.

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Darwin Marshall died.

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Frank Kelly-Brew was found dead near a restaurant dumpster on July 30.

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He was 60 years old.

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On August 1, a 17-year-old kid named Etwin Wilson was walking near Cloverlawn Drive when a

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green SUV pulled over.

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The driver asked for directions.

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Etwin walked closer to help.

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The driver lunged and stabbed him in the stomach.

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He survived.

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And listen to what he said later.

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"I think about it when it's dark outside.

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I think about it every time I see a Jimmy.

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I'm in a lot of pain still."

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That's what surviving a random, violent attack does to it's 17.

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It's traumatizing.

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Then came August 2, an Arnold minor.

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Arnold minor was 49 years old, a handyman walking on South Saginaw Streets in the early morning

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hours.

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A police officer found him after midnight, bleeding from two stab wounds in his chest

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and abdomen.

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In his dying moments, Arnold gave the officer critical information.

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His attacker was a white man.

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A boyla's M was Israeli Arab with light skin.

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That description helped investigators narrow their focus.

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Arnold minor died.

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His mother carried his ashes to every candlelight vigil, every court hearing.

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Arnold's murder became the case that put a boyla's M away for life.

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When police eventually searched his SUV and luggage, they found Arnold minor's blood.

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On the steering wheel, on the pants and shoes of boyla's M had packed for his escape.

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After Arnold minor's murder, boyla's M left Michigan, who went back to Leesburg, Virginia.

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Over four days, an early August, three more people were attacked.

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August 3, a teenager jogging at night.

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August 5, a 67-year-old man stabbed at 6am.

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August 6, a man attacked with a hammer instead of a knife.

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Then a boyla's M headed to Toledo, Ohio.

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On August 7, a church janitor named Tony Leno was taking a smoke break outside when a

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green and tan Chevy trailblazer pulled up.

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The driver asked for directions.

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As Tony turned to point out the route, the driver stabbed him twice in the abdomen and

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drove off.

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Tony survived.

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The attack location was less than a mile from Interstate 75.

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The direct highway between Flint, Toledo, and Virginia.

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A boyla's M was using the Interstate as his corridor.

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By early August, law enforcement couldn't ignore the pattern.

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On August 4, they announced publicly that all these stabbings were, in fact, connected.

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They released a composite sketch and a description of the vehicle.

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The break came from Kingwater Market, a woman named Judith, the daughter of one of his co-workers,

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saw the sketch and the vehicle description on the news.

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She recognized her dad's co-worker Eli and his green SUV.

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She called the tip hotline.

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That tip gave investigators exactly what they needed.

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They discovered a boyla's M had been in Virginia during the Leesburg attacks and was traveling

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through Ohio when Tony Leno got stabbed.

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According to police records, boyla's M's uncle became aware that police were looking for

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his nephew.

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Instead of calling authorities, he helped a boyla's M hide his vehicle.

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Then he drove them to a Detroit area airport and bought them a $3,000 ticket to Tel Aviv,

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Israel.

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Police argued this made his uncle Tony Soani an accessory after the fact.

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He was never charged.

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After a boyla's M's arrest, Soani cooperated with investigators.

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On August 10, 2010, Elias of Boyla's M was at Hartzville, Jackson, Atlanta International

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Airport on a layover, waiting to board his flight to Tel Aviv.

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If he'd made it to Israel, extradition would have been nearly impossible.

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His name was paged over the intercom.

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Witnesses saw him walking through the terminal, talking on his phone in English and Hebrew.

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Airport police intercepted him moments before he could board.

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At 6'5" 280 lbs, the man who had terrorized the entire city surrendered without a fight.

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Back in Flint, Michigan, the police command post erupted in cheers.

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When a boyla's M appeared before a judge in Atlanta, he was given a choice.

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Fight extradition or go back to Michigan immediately.

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He told the judge, quote, "It sounds more logical to go now rather than wait three months.

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Is that correct?"

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He waved his rights.

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On August 26, 2010, he was flown back to Michigan.

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Prosecutor David Layton decided to try the strongest case first.

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The murder of Arnold Minor.

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The evidence was overwhelming.

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Arnold's blood was on the steering wheel on a boyla's M's clothing.

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The defense didn't even try to deny a boyla's M killed him.

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They went with "not guilty by reason of insanity."

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Defense psychiatrist Dr. Norman Miller testified that a boyla's M was a paranoid schizophrenic

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tortured by bizarre delusions and evil spirits.

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He pointed to the 1997 suicide attempt.

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The psychosis diagnosis in Israel.

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The prosecution dismantled that narrative.

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They pointed out that a man in the grip of uncontrollable psychosis doesn't maintain a

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job.

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Doesn't navigate a vehicle across three states use a consistent method to lure victims

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and execute a complex international escape plan.

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The psychologist testified that while a boyla's M lacked empathy and had a personality disorder,

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he was legally sane.

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He understood right from wrong.

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After eight days of testimony in May 2012, the jury deliberated for one hour.

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Guilty of first degree premeditated murder.

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On June 25, 2012, Elias of Boyla's M was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility

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of parole.

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After the conviction, prosecutor Layton made a controversial decision.

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The remaining charges for the murders of Darwin Mitchell and Frank Killy-Brew and dolled

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the attempted murder charges would be suspended.

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His reasoning was practical.

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Michigan doesn't have the death penalty.

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A boyla's M was already serving the maximum sentence.

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Additional trials would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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For the families and survivors, that decision felt incomplete.

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In 2014, a boyla's M filed a federal lawsuit asking to be deported to Israel to face charges

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for the 2009 screwdriver attack.

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The courts dismissed it.

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Under U.S. law, you complete your sentence before deportation.

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For someone serving life without parole, that completion date never comes.

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Elias of Boyla's M is still incarcerated in Michigan.

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He'll die there.

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The Flint serial slasher case shows how predators exploit the basic decency of communities

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already struggling to survive.

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A boyla's M understood that the people in Flint helped each other because they had to.

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He weaponized that kindness.

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Five men are dead.

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Nine survivors carry scars that will never fully heal.

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At one Wilson still has trouble when it's dark outside.

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Elias of Boyla's M is never getting out.

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The families left behind the survivors still processing trauma, they're serving their own

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sentence.

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One that doesn't come with a possibility of closure.

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That's the real cost of what happened in Flint in the summer of 2010.

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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, Vingible True Crime Stories.

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I'm Joe, I'm the host, and let's get to an email.

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This one is subject episode length.

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Hi Joe.

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Have you ever thought about making the episodes longer or is 10 minutes the sweet spot for you?

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It comes from Erin in Air Resona.

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Erin, I'll tell you what, yes I've definitely thought about that.

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And in the past, if you look back through the catalog of 10 Minute Murder, I have slipped

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in a few episodes that are longer than 10 minutes.

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Some that are quite a bit longer than 10 minutes.

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But it's funny that you mentioned that because I have created yet another podcast where

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you listen to, it's one case, one story, it's unsolved, and the whole podcast is based on

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that one case.

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It's available everywhere that you can get this podcast, I believe.

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I could be wrong about that, but it's called Moonlight Murders, the Texarkana Phantom Killer.

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So it's one podcast about the same case multiple episodes, there's no time limit on each episode,

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and you can listen to it right now.

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Moonlight Murders, the Texarkana Phantom Killer.

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Hey, if you're a brand new listener to the podcast, welcome, make sure you hit subscribe

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wherever you're listening right now.

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Also like I just mentioned, follow the other podcast, Moonlight Murders, and then the other

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other podcast, 10 Minute Mystery.

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If you're into what I'm doing here and want to support me, follow all three of the podcasts.

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You can also go to 10minuteMurder.com, there you can email me, you can sign up for the weekly

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newsletter, you can check out the Murder Blog among other things there at 10minuteMurder.com.

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If you're an OG listener, I love you, keep sharing this podcast with your friends and your family

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that helps it grow so much, and I really do appreciate it.

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And that's going to do it, that's your episode for today, thank you for listening to 10 Minute

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Murder.

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See you next time.

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[Music]