The Chilling Cairo Confession: How a Chief Used a False Rumor to Crack the Sewer Dismemberment Case

In 2004, a gruesome case in Egypt began when a man was seen dumping a sack into an open sewer. Inside was only the lower half of a corpse, and with no witnesses or clear leads, it initially seemed unsolvable. Investigators determined the victim was an elderly woman who had been strangled and began searching for the missing upper half to confirm her identity. The real break came from an unexpected angle: Abd El Naser, a petty criminal recently released from prison, was under routine police monitoring but showed an unusual, almost obsessive interest in the case. Sensing something off, the police chief spread a false rumor that the investigation was about to be closed. Abd El Naser reacted with open relief, confirming the chief’s suspicions. Under questioning, he confessed to murdering his own mother after she refused to give him money for a forbidden marriage, dismembering her body to hide the crime.