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good evening I'm Antony Robart this is crime beat the stories behind some of

Canada's most high-profile homicides told by the reporters who walk the beat

every day we reveal the shocking evidence as it was uncovered by

investigators in their quest for justice. Tonight a child's remains are found but

nobody has been reported missing. You got a call? Yes. You know there are body parts?

Yes. The left hand and forearm it's an obvious shock

it's scary how people can just do something like that. The most difficult

one to deal with is that of a child lease officer came here this morning and

just asked us to make a list of students who had been absent. Here's Alan Carter

with a story of a city's lost child. Walking the rugged shoreline of Colonel

Samuel Smith park it's a picture postcard beautiful. How long has it been

since you've been back here Rolf? This will be the first time since January

2000 I haven't come here since. This is also my first trip back. The area that

police are interested in looks a lot like this section of the park giant

rocks with very deep crevices in between areas where it's possible more human

remains might be hidden. Rolf Prisor is still haunted by what happened here.

So this is the area here. So this is where right down in here is where the

initial bag memory serves me correct was just found right in here. My name is

Rolf Prisor 20 years ago I was a member of the Toronto Police Service

attached to the homicide squad at the time. And this is where Mary Smith

would have seen just what she thought yeah she would have been walking her dog

right up that path there towards that tower on December 7th 1999 Mary Smith

took her dog Cody for their usual walk along the western tip of this park and

she has observed this couple and they actually as a matter of fact said

something to her about her dog

and initially her thought was you know the bearing drugs or something because

they appeared to be dropping rocks on an area and she watched them for a little

while sort of took note of the descriptions

and they watched her as well when the couple leave Smith goes to see what

they've buried so Mary eventually approached the bag and it was warm

She recalled that there's a green garbage bag double wrapped so two bags

one inside the other and she opened the bag thinking that maybe you know was a

dead dog or a cat or some animal because of the warmth of the bag her initial

thought of it being drugs was sort of you know gone by the wayside at this

point so she opened it up and immediately she saw the hand and the forearm.

So she closed it it was horrific for her to see that no doubt

something that she would never have thought she would live to see and she

ran

Smith runs to get help

and Prisor gets a call that will change his career.

You got a call. Yes. You know there are body parts. Yes.

Do you know that when you first get the call that they are child's body parts

no we don't know that they are child body parts we just know that they are body

parts and as is with any homicide investigation you starting to go through

a lot of the processes in your mind as you're driving to the scene trying to

anticipate what you might expect to see

As we find the right hand the right forearm the right thigh and the

right upper arm and initially to us they appear to be those of a child between

the ages of 4 to 12 and there's obvious indications that the body parts were

obviously dismembered and it appears that they were not they were done with

some precision the cuts looked clean there was still blood in the bag so they

were very very fun

it's an obvious shock I mean even to a seasoned homicide investigator or any

first responders I mean we deal with tragedy on a day-to-day basis but the

most difficult one to deal with is that of a child

the question on everyone's mind who is this child

coming up more grisly discoveries provide critical clues it's the first

time former homicide detective Rolf prize or has been back to the spot where

two decades before a child's partial remains were discovered now back to Alan

Carter with a city's lost child it would have been the bag would have been right

in here yeah right in here the bag would have been found in the opening crevices

of the rocks so you can see how deep the crevices are after that first bag with

body parts was found Toronto police and detective Rolf Preiser would get to know

this area intimately literally turning over every stone so you could stash

something down there and easily and then just throw a couple of rocks on it and

then it's hidden from view

the next day a second bag is found and it's another gruesome discovery he left

and an forearm the left upper arm and the left thigh

then a third bag but still no way to identify the young victim

that's a horrific crime and even you know saved that there might be some

explanation for to dismember a child like that is just beyond what anybody

can imagine

and as you remembered we have the Marine unit out in the waters here searching

the shoreline and this is the roughly the area where Marion would have last

seen them walking away and they were walking out of the park

out of the park correct when she sees them that's right and there was no

indication from her at the time that there was any vehicle involved

because we kept having the cadaver dogs come in Andrey you know canvass in and

around here and look for search points and hiddens

you didn't have any surveillance video you didn't have no we didn't know we

tried the satellite imaging as well and that's why we ended up getting global to

come out and do the the aerial footage for us because we just didn't have it

we canvassed that whole area

he had our team go out to the various schools check Catholic schools public

schools for anyone that was absent from school that might fit the description

police officer came here this morning and just asked us to make a list of

students who had been absent counting from last Friday until today students

from junior kindergarten up to grade 5 but police come up empty and now with

the remains taken away to be tested by forensic experts a terrible fear begins

to gnaw away at Preiser police have parts of a child's body but they just

don't have enough to identify the victim

but detectives have one thing they have a witness

once the composites were released that generated a whole new slew of tips it's

huge right and she believed at the time that the language they were speaking

with Spanish and the description that she provided to constable tent at the

time was that of people of sort of Hispanic background so anyone or any

couple that looked vaguely like the compasses was sort of detained by

investigators Preiser it's a team together they reach out to police

agencies across Canada across the United States they tap into the missing

children's registry they interview over 900 people and again at that point we

don't know whether we're dealing with a male or female child

as news spreads people come together to try and console each other and to vow

that this unknown child will not be forgotten then new information the only

searching today at Colonel Samuel Smith Park was on the water as the Marine unit

combed the shoreline looking for green garbage bags like the ones found in the

park last week containing the remains of a four to six year old girl we were able

to release the fact that the body parts were that of a female how we could

exclude any male child

we never gave up the search until we had exhausted every every opportunity we had

- to make sure that we've covered all the bases that we somebody can cover

there were some very dark days I remember you know medium in the media

just out here and and sort of you know in very sort of dejected way saying you

know again we're not successful today we haven't found anything

the police hotline on the case has received more than one hundred four

weeks we air the composite on TV the image of a mysterious copy of all of us

thinking we're looking for a family of Hispanic origins but the investigation

is about to turn in a whole new direction this is the right floor arm

it's been dismembered through the elbow joint a press conference of police

headquarters Ontario's Deputy Chief Coroner has a horrifying image to share

the x-ray doesn't actually add any information in terms of your release but

it was an extraordinary visual yes what was your reaction when dr. Karron

suggested doing that I was in total agreement with him i I thought that it

was an excellent idea because it really generated that focus to the public into

the media that you know we have to collectively as a community solve this

investigation and it's just not the x-ray the four to six year old girl and

maybe a South Asian origin it's like these caregivers are the

parents of this child who have done this horrendous deed so you're looking at

countries like India Pakistan Bangladesh and we had prior to the press

conference we had discussions with members of the Muslim community to make

sure that there wasn't going to be any backlash for the community and to make

sure that we were using the appropriate terminology as well so this is the

actual prayer hall omar farooq is head of the IMO the International Muslims

organisation he's been the president here and an imam for the past 20 years I

saw oh my god it's an innocent child belonging to our community when we heard

that is the child from South Asian belonging it placed us in the position

where we as community leaders we had to be more responsible in a sense that we

had to do whatever it takes for something like this not to happen again

it was too sad was too touching and it did not only

affect us as leaders of the community but every household every parent every

mother every father every child as well you know and so the entire can be to his

heart we were tuning in regularly to see the

outcome of it the coroner had taken an unusual approach but it struck a chord

for me it was a first to do it like that but I think it was an excellent example

of coordinated efforts and it really does solve the case it does because Omar

Farook and his congregation were not the only ones paying attention to the news

coming up a teacher comes forward and police finally have a name

police revealed the victim is a little girl of South Asian descent they're

about to get the breakthrough they've been hoping for as soon as that press

conference occurred which was about 10 o'clock in the morning it was at 12:39

while at the office that I got a call from old iike prati Olli and Ric rafa's

partner were at 2nd Street public school on a totally unrelated matter when they

were approached by senior kindergarten teacher Heather Cartwright and Olli was

made aware of certain information specifically that a young child his name

was Farah Khan had been a student of the senior kindergarten class and that her

last day in school was the second of December that she was technically

supposed to attend school on the afternoon of the 3rd of December but she

was absolutely and that her mother had attended the school and indicated that

the mother's mother so Farrah's grandmother was gravely ill

in Pakistan and that the family was going to be flying back to Pakistan on

December the 8th to care for the grandmother and there

was no indication at that time of the family's return and because of the press

conference and because of the fact that we had identified the child's South

Asian child and the height and the weight that prompted had a Cartwright to

think about that and to disclose that to Olli

this is the first solid lead you have first solid lead now police have names

Mohammed Khan and canoes Fatima what investigators discover is that the

couple had come to Canada from Pakistan with a young child in April of 1999 the

name of the child Farah Khan but most importantly police find items that

belong to the little girl including a red plastic sippy cup a cup that Farah

that had Pharaoh's name on it that she had used in school in some artwork

including a finger-painting

so I got a pager message from the Forensic Identification so I called her

and she gave me probably the greatest news that ever had fact that we had

identified Farrakhan because the prints that were found on the artwork matched

the fingerprints of the remains that we had found and specifically the left

middle finger so now this was a huge huge break for us because now we

identified it finally although we didn't have all our remains at least we had

focus and I gotta tell you I think it back that was an emotional moment that

phone call because up into that point you have no name you don't know nothing

who's in murder you're trying to solve that's right it was like you know like a

huge pressure coming off your back right so I immediately call the other members

the team echidna do this right because this was significant beyond words

so you've said before now you have everything we have everything now we

have to find that and you but you don't know where they are

that's right we don't police are able to trace the family to a West End apartment

building but the couple is gone

never heard anything they were very very quiet which was really weird slipped my

wife through just before all this happened that we never hear anything did

you ever see a little girl come on the apartment next to you no ladies did you

ever hear any noises when the apartment next to you no they left 135 eighth

Street sometime around December the 24th and left no forwarding address and

indicated to the landlord that they had purchased the house police discovered

that Muhammad Khan and Cadiz Fatima Faro's father and stepmother had taken

off so quickly they didn't even pick up their rental deposit they could have

taken off gone back to Pakistan or gone to the United States so we had the

airport squad checking on that

so in the meantime I contacted bill and there was an unlisted number

using a child's game of hot and cold Preiser is able to get the information

he needs so we were able to you know simply by saying okay does the street

begin with any letter between a page to identify the street that they actually

lived on and then the game continued with well what number what house number

is it one two fifty fifty to a hundred and all she had to say was yesterday so

it worked and we conducted surveillance on cop for a number of days

two adults were arrested and charged with first-degree murder

relation to the body parts found of December the 7th 1999 i arrested calm

the same time a woman approached Cadiz Fatima she was arrested

the garbage bags were seized from this place of work as well which

coincidentally turned out to be you know your generic green garbage bag that we

found the body parts in and warrants were executed on both addresses and

property seized coming up how will far as father and stepmother explain their

daughter's death

welcome back to crime beat forest father and stepmother have been arrested for

their daughter's murder investigators now hope to get answers as to what

happened to this little girl now back to Alan Carter with Farrakhan a city's lost

child we took both Kahn and Fatima down to 22

division conducted our interviews during the course of the day and during the

course of the interview with Mohammed Khan he proffered what had happened to

fair and basically said that he had canoes have gone out to the grocery

store and then upon their arrival home they found fair on the floor as she had

cut her throat we conducted approximately about a four hour

interview and Kahn agreed to show us where he had planted the Pharaohs torso

but you had a problem we had a problem I was outside you were excited amongst

many other yeah multitude of media

Preiser decides on a ruse to detectives dress up as the suspects and get into a

car as it drives away we in the media follow in that video which we played

over and over of what we thought were suspects in the right of cars were

actually police officers they were and I apologized you know to the media

afterwards but that was the only way for us to do that Alan Preiser and the rest

of his team go with far his father back to Colonel Samuel Smith Park just around

the rides in the ground

we're in Colonel Samuel Smith Park at Lake Ontario in 21 division and it is

still Wednesday January 19th he's indicated that these particular rocks

over here to my left are where his wife was sitting as he deposited the parcel

remains of Farrakhan in a deep crevasse in this particular rock platform against

my rear and left is somewhat west of this rock is dropping as a large antenna

I would have to meet possibly 60 75 feet tall it's directly to the south and east

of that particular antenna and he is certain this is the one

because he sure did fun because it's been worth the rock big rock there

biking then far his father takes police to another location north of the

waterfront where during the course of the interview with him he had indicated

that he had buried ferry's head in the ravine it was further detailed enough to

say that he had actually placed her head in the knapsack gotten on a TTC bus and

taken it up there and buried it beneath a rock face down he pointed out the rock

on the ground and there was pharaoh's head yesterday near the Humber River

less than 20 kilometers from Samuel Smith park police found the little

girl's head an autopsy was performed this afternoon we have decided that

we've got everything humanly possible with respect to finding the remains of

firing a handgun and at this time we're going to blow the scene up far as full

remains would never be found but the search was now over at the International

Muslims organization in Rexdale a shudder goes through the congregation

even though she was a child what she still came you know with your parents

then whenever members of this committee look at her picture all the members

recall her seniors recalled senior here that I'm Oh joining us for a meal

breaking the fast we have seen her and so we got involved

one person still did not know about forest murder shahida Joe bean far as

birth mother living in Pakistan it took some time to actually locate her we as a

police organization facilitated that with immigration

there was actually you know the community stepped forward and provided

the airfare accommodations so there's a real outpouring by the community for

shahida get some water please get some water me with cameras rolling Shahidah

Joe beam far his mother arrives in Toronto with her brother what has

happened I am really saddened and devastated that should not have happened

we had one objective that we have this child has to bury him in Toronto even

though he's charged with her murder Farrah's father has custody rights and

he wants her buried in Pakistan he cannot return the body in full but my

request is whatever it is however pieces there are just give them back to me so

that I can bury her order honorably and here we are collectively putting our

heads and hearts together to see how best we can bring comfort and relief to

everyone at all especially to this child it reached a point where we had to

prepare a letter and send it directly the forest father

who was in jail at a time and that's when the the legal process to please

it's been 20 years Khalid 20 years can you believe it

I can't for more than 20 years Kalidas Minh has been a Markham city councilor

after Farah was murdered he and others fought to keep her remains here I think

we're gonna utilize all the moral persuasive powers that we have to talk

to him and we will pray that he's persuaded the persuasion and the prayer

pays off Mohammed Khan relents Farrakhan will be laid to rest in Toronto why was

it important to very far here well because we wanted to get make sure that

the mother gets justice here you see because he had gone to Pakistan nobody

would have cared she would have never got her justice Long's here and that's

where she should be what do you remember of meeting shahida when she came well

when she came she came right from the airport when she was abroad she came to

my house she met my family we had a hard time actually speaking to her because

she was in such despair like you know the world is very strong what I'm using

but she was jolted with this with this tragedy

so what happened in this room this is the room which we have really

had the the coffin for and we allow her mom to spend some quiet moments ago

finally on this Sutra that's Oscar then it's a cry and cry

suicide we believe that Farah is Shaheed that she is pure and that she has a

place in paradise with Allah as permission it was a fiery congressional

prayer and we had about 3,000 people here in attendance

detective Prosser a mirror I had the mirrors and police chief and he more the

permanent we've been involved with her noise since December and really we felt

as much that she was part of our family as she was to the greater community and

of course until she was identified she we were her only family he try not to

become personally involved or emotionally attached but sometimes that

happens and this is the first time that Mary Smith the woman who in December was

walking her dog and helped solve this case meets far as Mother we connected

very well yeah we connected very low

Farook is especially struck by the outpouring of support as they make their

way from the mosque to the cemetery I can recall seeing passers-by stood forum

and showing respect the Farah so many it was like the day the moment that moment

the Toronto Stood Still whenever there is a final service there a bit of

symmetry we always make an effort to go face it far enough especially or

you'd like to say a prayer I'd like to offer a prayer for a little fara I was

able ahem initiatory Jim bismillah to honor him the handle I had a banana

mineral mother him basically it is for the prayer for forgiveness of the dead

and that's normally how we say father so it is for their blessings may Allah

bless her may Allah bless you for remembering her

next investigators grapple with motive as the trial gets underway

far as father and stepmother are preparing to go on trial for her murder

but the question of motive troubles investigators and the defense team

suddenly presents a new version of events now the conclusion of Farrakhan a

city's lost child months after she discovered the body parts of a child

Mary Smith comes to court to see the couple accused of killing Farrakhan

uncomfortable was showing her face Smith speaks to the media for the first

time over the last couple of months been for you since December 7 horrifying

absolutely horrifying I can't I can't believe it you know I can't sleep I go

see a psychiatrist I mean like a lot of things have been happening my life has

totally changed with this you know more months passed before the preliminary

hearing starts then years of delays until the trial it's now 2004 five years

since far as murder we needed interpreters that were court certified

to translate these statements that we had taken from various individuals but a

lot of the information they gathered would be inadmissible

we had Muhammad Cobb attending a butcher shop

on numerous occasions watching how meat was cut we had information that the

motive for the crime might have been an insurance policy of Pakistan

while Khan was in jail he made friends with a cellmate which added a whole

other dynamic to the investigation mr. X as he became known

so we had many many intercepts between Cobb and mr. X that some of them were

allowed in evidence and again it was it was that insurance information that kept

coming up the fact that Khan viewed Farah as a bastard child that he didn't

believe she was his daughter that question of motive it bothered Preiser

the first story was that Farah didn't want to go to school she didn't want to

go out with them she wanted to watch cartoons so they had to go to the

grocery store on one occasion and they left her alone at home and then when

they arrived at home they found her on the floor with a knife beside her after

having cut her own throat that was the first story

but Khan's defense team now presents a new story

we're not taking any issue that he caused the death of his daughter our

point is he didn't mean to cause her death and he also will be accepting

responsibility for having dismembered her dropping a story that fara had

somehow killed herself she was mischievious he had to discipline her

and that you know it was an accident that he didn't mean to kill her and that

he couldn't explain because he was a newcomer to Canada how she would have

died so they decided that they would just bury her cut her up and bury her

because if they told the truth nobody would believe them so that was another

version of events Fatima's version was that she did

nothing that Khan came home he was angry with the child because she was stealing

cookies and that he virtually beat her and stomped on her chest and then she

died and that they had no other recourse but to cut her up in the bathroom and

then place her body parts and garbage bags and buried them and then they take

that to trial and the jury says no they don't believe that at all there's too

many versions too many stories the precision cutting of the body parts the

as I said they didn't know about the insurance but they just believed that

because he felt she was a bastard child that was his motivation for killing her

and that murder in the first degree that's murder in the first

this jury has heard a lot of evidence they've been a challenging two and a

half months for them and we're very gratified by their efforts and by the

result they've reached obviously mr. Khan is disappointed in the verdict

we've met with him he will be instructing counsel to appeal we have

nothing further to say thank you it's some way has given to justice for Farah

in ways that we could not have otherwise done

the difficulty you know is that we were never able to really ascertain what part

canniness she obviously didn't do enough to stop it but there was evidence of

bruising 30 odd bruises you know slippers were used hair brushes were

used a rolling pin was used to beat Farah Khan worked every day so you know

one could speculate that not all these bruises were as a result of Mohammed

Khan but in the manner in which the verdicts came down I think yes it was

appropriate that the found guilty at first and she of second Mohammed Khan

remains in custody konista Fatimah is out on parole we

contacted Corrections Canada but they would provide no further information

about their whereabouts will he ever get out he will never get out no he'll be

he'll be locked up the rest of his life as for Shahidah Jobim foras birth mother

after the funeral she went back to Pakistan officials in Canada worked to

get her immigration papers and she moved back to Canada not long after she now

resides in the Greater Toronto Area it placed us in the position where we as

community leaders we had to be more responsible in a sense that that we had

to do whatever it takes for something like this not to happen again

she only lived to five yes but what do you know about far as life what kind of

girl she was or what do you imagine she was like from the information that we

had been able to obtain from some of the parents of children that she attended

school with she was a very sweet child you know she she would often go and have

lunch at some of the other kids homes she was never a difficult student in

school at all she was quiet you know and sort of unassuming very pretty little

girl by all accounts Ferris was a wonderful

little child

I don't believe that we ever prior to Farrakhan

had a case that involved the dismembered body parts of a child and I think the

citizens of Toronto when this came out its it really impacted them there's a

sense of relief that we were able to identify fara and we were able to arrest

those responsible for her murder and in some small way honor her memory because

you know for homicide investigators when we're doing an investigation we speak

for those that can't speak anymore and it's very important for us to be able to

solve an investigation and especially one has as horrific as this one was

involving an innocent child who for no reason unimaginable

was brutally beaten killed and dismembered by her own father

I can't even imagine

when I talked to you earlier this summer you mean you knew one far as birthday

house yes yes she was born on February the 4th but you just know that off the

top I do I never forgotten it I celebrate her

milestone birthdays just like personally so I mean during the trial she would

have turned 10 her 19th birthday you know just out of thought 21st and 2050

it's a case we'll never forget so the impact is lasting until our last days

it'll always be there

this case would never have been solved without the tireless efforts of

investigators like Rolf Preiser and the support of the community leaders who

came forward every one determined helped find justice for an unknown little girl

her identity almost stolen along with her life I'm Anthony Robert thank you

for joining us tonight on crime beat to hear more about other

high profile Canadian cases check out the podcast crime beat with me Global

News crime reporter Nancy Hicks you can listen for free on Apple podcast Spotify

or uncurious cast dossier

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