Visitor

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In the early morning hours of April eighteenth, twenty nineteen,
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fifty seven year old Wilfrid Gusman has fighting for his life.
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He's been caught by surprise. One minute he's standing in
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the kitchen, and seconds later he's being struck in the
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head with a kitchen knife, hard enough to snap the blade.
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The struggle moves through the apartment, from the kitchen to
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the living room and back again. Furniture is toppled by
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limbs flailing in the pitch black. Wilfrid is determined to survive.
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He holds his arms up to shield his face and
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blinks the blood out of his eyes, trying unsuccessfully to
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dodge each blow. In his blurry peripheral vision, Wilfrid spots
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his kitchen door an exit. It's close enough that he
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might be able to reach it and make his escape.
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Wilfrid makes a run for it. Gripping the knob with
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a slippery hand, he twists and pulls the door open.
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Just before his leg makes it through the threshold, he
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feels himself being yanked back inside. His attacker slams the
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door shut and turns the dead polt. Wilfrid feels a
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force swing him around. He feels his head smashed into
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a glass, even door shattering it. By now the apartment
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is a disaster. Drawers are ripped open as the attacker
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grabs whatever he can use his a weapon, knives, forks, spoons,
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even a small television. It feels like hours have passed,
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but it's only been minutes. As quickly as it started,
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the fight inside Apartment sixteen comes to an end. It's
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silent now except for the squelch of the intruder's bloody
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shoes as he steps over Wilfrid's lifeless body. When investigators
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eventually begin piecing together what happened here, they realize they
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won't have to go very far to find this man's murderer.
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Wilfrid Guzman didn't die fighting off a stranger. He died
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finding someone he'd welcomed into his home. Welcome to Sword
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and Scale Nightmares. True Crime for Bedtime or Nightmare. Wilfrid
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Guzman is fifty seven years old. He lived alone in
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his apartment in Laconia, a town in New Hampshire known
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as the City on the Lakes. But despite his bachelor status,
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Wilfrid was a true family man. His children and grandchildren
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were the center of his life. In the spring of
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twenty nineteen, just before tragedy struck, Wilfrid's daughter Natasha was
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away at college, but she and her father still kept
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in regular contact over the phone. On the evening of
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April seventeenth, a little after ten o'clock, Wilfrid sent Natasha
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a simple message. It was just a single emoji, a moon.
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It was his way of saying good night. The time
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stamp on that message read ten nineteen pm. It would
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be the last time anyone heard from him. Nearly a
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full day later, early in the morning of April nineteenth,
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Wilfrid's son arrives in Laconia with his wife and children.
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The whole family's in town for Easter weekend, planning to
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spend the whole holiday together. Wilfrid has been getting his
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apartment ready for their arrival. The family gets to Laconia
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around one in the morning. Wilfrid's son walks up to
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the front door and knocks. There is no answer. He
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knocks again, waits for a moment, then calls his dad's phone.
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When that doesn't work, he texts and even tries a
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video call. Still nothing at this late hour. The silence
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doesn't immediately seem alarming. Maybe Dad has already gone to sleep.
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Maybe he stepped out earlier and hasn't returned yet. After
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trying several times, Wilfrid's son eventually gives up and heads
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to the hotel where the rest of his family is staying.
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Later that day, he drives back over to his dad's,
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assuming he must be awake by now. As he walks
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down the hallway towards Apartment sixteen, something catches his eye.
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Now that it's daylight, he can see a dark stain
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on the floor just outside the threshold to his dad's
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front door. At first, he thinks it's spilled paint or something,
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but as he bends down for a closer inspection, he shivers.
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It's blood. Immediately he calls police. When officers arrive, they
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knock a few times, but just like before, there's no answer.
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They'll have to break the door down. After a few
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good hits, daylight illuminates the disaster inside the unit. It
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looks like a rabid animal has been loose here all night.
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The officers step into the dim apartment, waving their flashlights around.
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Their small streams of light pierce the darkest corners, showing
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them that nearly every surface is covered in blood. A
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flashlight focuses on a foot, then a leg, an unconscious
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person on the floor. The officer moves the light towards
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the person's mangled face. Wilfrid's son lets out a ripping
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yell that's his dad, the man who raised him. The
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police officers continue to scan the scene, mouths hanging open.
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The apartment has clear signs of a long, violent struggle.
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The killer had used numerous weapons during the attack, many
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of them pulled directly from Wilfrid's own kitchen. Despite the
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absolute carnage inside the unit, there are no signs of
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FoST entry. The person responsible for this horror may have
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simply knocked on the door. So detectives begin the slow
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process of reconstructing Wilfrid Gusman's final hours. They interview family members,
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they examine the crime scene, and more importantly, they try
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to determine who Wilfrid spoke to in the days before
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his death. Then, just days after Wilfrid's murder, something happens
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that gives the investigators their first real lead. Someone is
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using Wilfrid's credit cards on April nineteenth, twenty nineteen, police
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in Laconia, New Hampshire, stepped into a nightmare scene inside
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apartment sixteen. Fifty seven year old Wilfrid Guzman, a beloved
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father and grandfather, had been brutally murdered after what investigators
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believed was a long desperate fight for survival. The place
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was in shambles, with blood covering nearly every surface, and
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yet there were no signs of forced entry. Whoever killed
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Wilfrid was invited inside, and whoever this person is, they're
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now trying to spend Wilfrid's money. Two days after the murder,
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someone tries to make PlayStation purchases using Wilfrid's credit card,
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and like most things done online, it leaves a trail
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to Tectives follow the account activity to an Internet address
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in Laconia, and that address leads them to a residence
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on Pleasant Street. The name connected to it is Hassan Soapery.
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Hassan isn't a drifter or a known criminal. In fact,
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he's a twenty one year old who knows the Guzman
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family pretty well, specifically Wilfrid's daughter Natasha. Apparently, Hassan visits
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Wilfrid roughly every other month. He's familiar enough that there
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would be no reason for Wilfrid to hesitate when answering
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the door. When Laconia Police take Hassan into custody, he
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folds under no pressure, saying what I did was it
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was me one hundred percent. Surprisingly, he waves his Miranda
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rights and takes detectives through the entire timeline in detail.
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So here's what happened. At around ten thirty pm on
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April seventeenth, Hassan drove to Wilfrid's apartment on Blueberry Lane.
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When Hassan got to the door, Wilfrid happily invited him inside.
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Wilfrid was sort of a father figure to Hassan, and
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the two of them sat together in the living room
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and watched television while they talked. They chatted for a while,
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catching up on work, how their families were doing, and
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how Natasha was liking college. There was no tension, not
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even on the surface at least, both men seemed to
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be in good spirits. It was just another late night
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hangout between a couple of family friends. When the TV
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show ended, they moved into the kitchen. Hassan remembers eating
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a snack together at the table while they continued their conversation.
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At some point they got into a discussion about history,
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which somehow led to religion. Wilfrid thought he was just
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discussing a casual topic with someone he trusted. Hassan experienced
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the conversation, let's say, very differently. To him. Religion and
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family were lines you just didn't cross. Imagine that someone
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named Hassan with strong feelings about religion. Who would have
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thunk it anyway. Hassan had been at the apartment for
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hours by this point, but the calm visit quickly came
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to an end. History and religion. These were the topics
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of Wilfrid's final conversation. Hassan grabbed a kitchen knife, a
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standard one with a black plastic handle, and stabbed Wilfrid
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through the center of his skull. The blade snapped off
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its handle. Tell me again, how wonderful multiculturalism is. Diversity
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is our strength, Ain't that right? Karen? Hassan rifled through
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the kitchen for another weapon, swinging at Wilfrid again and again.
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Every time one flew out of his hand or broke,
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he'd open up more kitchen drawers and grab whatever he
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could use, knives, forks, spoons, you name it. If there
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had been a spork in there, he would have tried
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that too. He ain't each blow at Wilfrid's head with intent.
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Hassan knew there was a katana, a type of Japanese sword,
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hanging on the wall in his stairwell. He left Wilfrid
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on the kitchen floor and took the sword off the wall,
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leaving a bloody handprint in its place. The apartment was dark,
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and when Hassan got back to the kitchen, he swung hard.
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He tells police he thought he got Wilfrid's head or
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maybe his shoulder. He's not sure. All he knows is
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that whatever the katana hit felt like solid bone. You've
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seen kill Bill right. The sword broke from the amount
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of force he was using. This is when Wilfrid tried
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to escape. Hassan stopped him, slammed the kitchen door shut,
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turned the dead bolt, and launched Wilfrid headfirst into the
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oven door. As Wilfrid bled, Hassan stood over him. Wilfrid
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was dying, muttering words to himself in Spanish, probably words
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like Mari gone jole, butta you know those kind of words.
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Hassan didn't call nine one one or help Wilfrid. He
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just stood over him watching. At this point, investigators are
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no longer trying to figure out what had been inside
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Apartment sixteen that night, already have their answer. And the
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deeper horror is this, Before the apartment became a blood
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soaked crime scene, the two of them had just been
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sitting together watching TV, eating a snack, talking politely. There
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had to be something else, something that caused this night
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to take such a wrong turn. Up to this point,
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the story of Wilfrid Guzman's final night had felt impossible
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to process. Somehow a familiar visit turned into one of
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the most violent killings Laconia had ever seen. But according
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to the prosecution, that shift didn't happen in the kitchen.
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It began days earlier. Hassan Sapri had been festering with
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anger the entire time he chatted, watched television, and ate
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a meal with his so called friend, and that's evident
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in the crime scene. In Hassan's interview with police, he
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admitted he'd been carrying his anger around for months, but
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that He'd only been planning to kill Wilfrid for three days.
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Investigators wanted to know why or if there was a
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reason behind this brutality. To begin with, the evidence showed
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how he committed this heinous crime, but no one understood
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why a twenty one year old with no criminal record
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would murder someone he once looked up to. Hassan told
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him it was simple. Over the course of his relationship
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with Wilfrid, Guzman and his family, Hassan took note of
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the negative comments Wilfrid would occasionally make, you know, microaggressions.
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Hassan said. It had been things like racial insults directed
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at him, comments about his religion, and instances where he
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witnessed Wilfrid being verbally abusive towards his daughter Natasha. Remember,
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Hassan really cared about Natasha. Perhaps that's where Wilfrid really
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crossed the line in Hassan's mind. Over time, these insults
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multiplied and hardened until they became something Hassan just couldn't
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let go of. This insight into Hassan's mind in the
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hours before the murder really paints everything in a different light.
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The conversation in front of the TV fee different and
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the discussion about history and religion feels ominous. To Wilfrid,
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this was a visit from someone he knew and liked.
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But to Hassan, this visit would be the end of
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their relationship for good. Then, just as investigators were beginning
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to understand what Hassan said had been building inside of him,
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the case took another turn, because as it moved through courts,
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Hassan's defense team began laying out a very different explanation,
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or some may say, excuse, for what happened that night.
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In June of twenty twenty one, they formally filed notice
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of an insanity defense. According to that filing, Hassan was
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not simply an angry young man nursing a grudge. He
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was someone who had been deeply shaped by violence long
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before he ever stepped inside Wilfrid's apartment. Poor baby. The
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defense argued that his childhood was marked by war and instability.
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Hassan was born in Iraq or Iraq or Iraq heard
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it pronounced so many different ways. I don't even know
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how it's properly said. But in two thousand and eight,
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his family made their way from Baghdad to Laconia, New
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Hampshire by way of Syria. Amazing how every time we
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go to war with the country we inherit all of
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their citizens. Anyway, according to an insanity filing, Hassan had
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lived through extreme violence as a boy. He and his
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family were living right in the middle of the war.
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Hassan's attorneys tried to solicit sympathy by pointing to traumatic
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events that included a suicide bombing at a school that
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killed and injured classmates, witnessing service members and his own
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family members dying violently in front of him, and were
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of all the abduction and torture of his father. His
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dad had worked as a driver and bodyguard for Western
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diplomats in Iraq, and because he had helped the US,
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he was kidnapped and brutally tortured by the anti American
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terrorist group. So of course he didn't blame them, because
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why would you. Hassan's family ended up paying eighty thousand
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dollars in ransom for his release. As soon as they
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let him go, the whole family fled to Syria and
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eventually escaped to the United States. Hassan's defense attorneys maintained
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that he was suffering from major mental illness, and that
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the violence in Wilfred's kitchen could only be understood through
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that larger history. By the time the case finally went
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to trial, psychologists diagnosed Haissan with post traumatic stress disorder,
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obsessive compulsive disorder, and depression. A lot of the same
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disorder is that all of us suffer from to some
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extent or another. The defense, of course, didn't want to
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see a young man who got angry, but rather someone
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whose mind had been shaped and badly damaged by trauma
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years before Wilfrid. Guzman was ever part of his life,
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shifting blame towards things other than the person who committed
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the crime, and on some level, knowing about Hassan's childhood
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does make you stop for a moment. It explains how
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a person can look ordinary on the outside while fear, humiliation, obsession,
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and buried rage have been accumulating for years without anyone
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seeing what's actually taking shape. The trial added another disturbing
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layer to this picture. In the days leading up to
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Wilfrid's murder, Hassan said he'd been having nightly dreams about
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killing people. As April of twenty nineteen dragged on, those
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thoughts became harder to suppress, until, by his own account,
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they became unbearable. I wonder how many other Iraqi immigrants
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we have living in the United States share those thoughts,
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or Iranian immigrants, sir Syrian immigrants, sor Saudi Arabian I
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mean that whole Middle East seems to be pretty pent
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up with resentment and hatred towards Americans, in case you
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haven't noticed. His defense team, of course, wanted the jury
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to hear all of these excuses and conclude that Hassan's
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decision making didn't come from a healthy mind, as if
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we should give a shit. They wanted jurors to see
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the killing as a catastrophic unraveling of someone who had
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already been deteriorating internally for a long time. But this
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explanation becomes much harder to believe when you learn what
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Hassan did after he watched Wilford slowly die on his
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own kitchen floor. After he was dead, Hassan stayed in
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Wilfrid's apartment for hours, snooping around. Then he started taking things.
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He grabbed Wilfrid's phone, took something he thought was a taser,
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and he rifled through wallets for credit cards, identification, and money.
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On the drive home, he rolled down his window and
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threw Wilfrid's cell phone into lake when a squam. Yeah,
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that's how I said it. By the next morning, while
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Wilfrid's family was trying to reach him for Easter weekend,
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Hassan was already attempting to use those stolen credit cards online.
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That digital trail is what led detectives back to Hassan's address.
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When investigators searched his room, they found Wilfrid's belongings there,
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along with bloodstained clothing, gloves, tissues, and the handle of
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a broken knife matching the butcher block set from Wilfrid's kitchen.
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They also found paperwork showing Hassan had sought treatment for
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serious hand injuries after the murder. He had apparently driven
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around to different hospitals in New London and Lebanon before
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noticing police in that area. At that point, he broke
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into a house and started hiding out there. All of
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this is what made the defense so difficult for a
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jury to accept, which is a shame because American juries
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are willing to accept all kinds of nonsense. His childhood
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was horrific. There's no question about that. The trauma was real,
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the psychological damage was real, and his attorneys wanted jurors
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to understand that the violence in Wilfrid's kitchen didn't just
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come out of nowhere. They wanted everyone to see it
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was the culmination of years of war, fear, grief, and
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mental illness. Of course, but the prosecut u should asked
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the jury to look at the whole picture, not just
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the trauma or the diagnosis, but the days of planning,
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the calculated way Hassan carried out the murder after hours
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of casual conversation, the coldness of it all, the inhumanity,
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the time he spent in the apartment afterwards, the theft,
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the dumped phone, the attempts to use Wilfrid's credit cards,
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the hospital visits, and the hiding out in a random house.
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None of that looked like confusion or a mind untethered
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from reality. It looked like someone who knew exactly what
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he was doing and exactly what he needed to do
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to protect himself. In the end, that was the question
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the jury had to answer, not whether Hassan had killed Wilfrid,
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but whether he should be held responsible for it. The
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jury returned its verdict in September of twenty twenty five.
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They found Hassan guilty on seven counts, including first degree murder.
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In the end, Wilfrid Guzman didn't die because he opened
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his door to a stranger. He welcomed in someone he
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knew and trusted, someone who sat in his living room,
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who ate at his table and talked with him like
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any other guest. And that's what makes this story so unsettling.
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It's the idea that a person can sit across from
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you in the warmth of your home, speak to you
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like a friend, accept your hospitality, and then, in the
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span of a moment, become unimaginably violent. There is no
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way to prepare for that, no instinct that reliably warns you,
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no alarm system that will protect you. Sometimes danger asn't
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outside the door trying to get in. Sometimes it's already inside,
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smiling back at you. If you enjoyed the show, please
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consider joining plus at Sword and Scale dot com slash plus.
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But if you can't, consider leaving us a positive review
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on your preferred listening platform. Sweet Dreams and good Night