Original subtitles

Can you take me back to jail and shit?

Trust is hard to get.

I don't have to follow that shit.

The declaration of independence.

You guys are fucking pathetic.

Ali is a rising star on TikTok

with almost a million followers.

Yo, like, literally

you're motherfucking beautiful for me.

I want you to say, "Y'all know the fucking vibes."

Y'all...

Ana's one of the most beautiful people on the planet.

The woman could be like Miss America.

Ali and Ana, they fell in love the second

they laid eyes upon each other.

It all seems so perfect.

On TikTok all it takes is one video.

You could wake up the next morning

and your whole life could be changed.

I remember coming across the video

that had probably 2.4 million views.

And I was like, "Oh my God, this is Ana."

It's hard to sometimes separate that online persona

to who you truly are in the real world.

Me, I want what's coming.

The world...

and everything in it.

And that's when things start to hit the fan.

I'm a fucking god!

I'm a fucking internet celebrity!

- Give me my phone back! - Close the door!

You're hurting my fucking finger!

Ali actually starts recording with his phone.

Some of the things that we would never expect him to record.

- I can fix it. - You think that

and then you wake up and you're mad again, so stop.

You're my woman, bitch!

I brought you to this goddamn country.

You should be kissing my feet!

The internet can be such an evil place.

You're need people like me

so you can point your fucking fingers.

I say, that's the bad guy.

All I could think about was this is not gonna end well.

A double homicide inside

an East Village high rise.

Ana? Ana?

It's not surprising that TikTok is successful.

It's really entertaining.

It's addictive and it's really quick.

So it's, like, really satisfying to just, like,

get these little bite-sized bits of content

that are just so easy to consume and easy to share.

It can track, like, what grabs your attention

in the first second and what keeps you watching.

Once you watch something a couple times,

it'll just feed you more and more of that.

The algorithm is just really good at keeping you

on the app, keeping you scrolling.

And by 2022, it was the most downloaded app in the world.

My name's Andrea Marks.

I'm a journalist and I often report

on the intersection of social media and crime.

What drew me to this story was that

I like writing about crimes

which portray this very interesting section of humanity

and human behavior and it makes you wonder

what would drive a person to do something like that.

So that was initially why I covered it for Rolling Stone.

TikTok's perfect for Ali, and Ali's perfect for TikTok.

No! Fuck not!

Ali likes to make

this kind of short form content.

He's doing these impressions.

The sun is shining on my face. I'm blessed.

John Wick.

It wasn't just a dog, it was my wife.

Nicholas Cage.

Well, there's a map on the back.

You... you can't see it, but I can see it.

And his most famous one, Tony Montana from Scarface.

I told you, man. I told you. No fucking kids!

You know, TikTok is the perfect platform for that

because it's grabby, it's quick and he can put out a lot of it.

Say hello to my little friend.

But not everything on social media

and not everything on TikTok is what it seems.

You're gonna be totally fine.

Well, you guys have caused a lot of buzz

within the friend group.

Honestly, it connected a lot of us.

We were kind of mourning on our own.

I just want Ana's side of the story to be heard.

I personally witnessed everything

that she was going through.

And...

she was just trying to keep it all together.

My name is Louie. I'm Ali Abulaban's cousin.

And me and Ali have been close since I was very young.

I feel that this whole situation has,

you know, turned my life upside down

as well as turned my family's life upside down.

It's gonna take a very long time

to recover from this for all of us.

Ali comes from a Middle Eastern family

that happens to be Muslim.

A more religious household so it was stricter environment.

Ali was a free spirit

and didn't really follow religion.

He did what he wanted to do.

I remember watching him do all these different dances

and singing and all different types of stuff.

It's what he was meant to do.

I really believe Ali was meant to be a star.

Ali joined the Air Force when he was in his late teens,

like 18, 19.

I think joining the military

was a sense of Ali wanting to, like,

improve himself, you know, physically, mentally.

I think he wanted to serve his country.

Ali was stationed in Okinawa, Japan.

A lot of people in the military actually

get stationed in Okinawa for two to three years.

Okinawa is a huge American military base.

It's hot, it's tropical,

it's beautiful, it's fun.

When you're on this island together,

you create these friendships that just never go away.

Ana and I grew up together in Okinawa.

She's from the Philippines

and her dad was stationed in Okinawa.

We were best friends

and we had a very tight-knit friend group.

And Ana was one of the more, like, caring,

loving, happy individual.

That's what drew me to her.

I don't think my life would personally be the same

if she was never my friend.

And so I'm very thankful for the friendship

that her and I had shared together.

Ali and Ana met in 2014.

She was attracted to his big personality.

And he was a singer in a band

and she found that very attractive as well.

I think she saw someone that was successful,

that had a good head on his shoulders.

He had a good ranking in the military.

And they had a lot of laughter and love.

At first, I did feel that

she was very happy and they were happy together.

But then Ali got in trouble with the military.

He had gotten drunk and gotten into a fight

with one of Ana's friends and allegedly assaulted them.

Ali does have a very strong personality.

He definitely is jealous.

Every time anyone would comment on Ana's looks

or how lucky of a guy he was to have somebody like Ana,

he would be very bothered.

I let her know my concerns.

I told her I feel like he's a little bit controlling

and she explained to me that, "He is but I love him.

You have nothing to worry about."

But I just remember feeling uneasy around him.

When Ali got in a fight,

what he had done was so extreme it got him discharged.

Once you've disrespected the island and the rules,

they will kick you off the island.

Ali moves back to Virginia

and his parents were not happy.

They really wanted their son

to be successful in the Air Force.

They wanted their son to be successful

in everything that he would do.

At the same time, Ana's family was leaving Okinawa

and they were moving back to the Philippines.

I'm Rachel and...

Ana is not only

just a best friend but family.

Where we came from, we only had each other.

When Ana moved back to the Philippines,

we lived about

20 minutes away from each other.

Ana was living at home with her family

and at that point she found out

that she was pregnant with Ali's child.

She was excited and nervous, but more excited than anything.

So, in this time,

Ali wanted to apply for a visa for Ana.

While doing that, Ana waited in the Philippines.

And eight months later,

their baby girl, Amira, was born.

It takes time before you get

marriage visa in the Philippines.

So, by the time Amira was nine months...

he finally was able to bring Ana to Virginia.

- Hi, baby. - Hi baby.

Oh, she's so cute.

Ali and Ana decided to go to Northern Virginia

because Ali's entire family is there.

Ana liked Virginia, she loved Ali's family.

They didn't have a wedding,

they just went to the courthouse.

Ali and Ana get their own home and they started their family.

Ana was a beautiful woman

and she was also creative just like Ali.

And I just saw like a match made in heaven.

- Hey, what's up guys? - Yo, what's good, Jinn?

In Virginia, Ali starts to produce content

on a lot of platforms like YouTube and Instagram

and he goes by the online handle JinnKid.

Hey, Jinn, why the fuck you been?

I've been working, man.

These bills aren't gonna pay themselves.

Ali created this persona of JinnKid.

JinnKid was an escape from Ali Abulaban

being an actual human.

He wanted to be this different entity that was super famous.

Oh, shit.

Goddammit. I just paid the light bill.

Hey, Jinn.

Maybe it's a power outage, you know?

What don't you check outside the windows.

The word Jinn, pretty much means a ghost

or like a soul or like an entity we cannot see.

And he felt that it was like a unique word

to attach to Kid and it stuck with him

and he pretty much wanted everybody to call him JinnKid,

including his own family.

Later on, Ali started making TikTok videos.

No! Fuck no!

Ali loved making TikTok videos

'cause that was pretty much like the new YouTube.

It was like his new platform to start a new fan base.

Ah!

Success on TikTok is a numbers game

and Ali becomes obsessed with it.

Listen to me, okay.

I gotta make that film one day, one way or another.

It's his path to fame.

And ultimately that path reveals

the dark underbelly of social media. Well,

I've got news for you, assholes.

You're all bad people.

- Hey, babe. - Mm-hmm.

I want you to try to do the six nine impression.

- Alright. - Okay.

So I'll do it first. All right?

- All right. - Yo, like, literally

you're motherfucking beautiful for me.

I want you to say, "Y'all know the fucking vibes."

Y'all...

When they first moved to Virginia,

she was happy, she was in love.

Wait, let's try the Scarface one.

Okay. I fucking love you, babe.

I want you to be the love of my life.

- Okay. How do I do the face? - I want you...

Like this. Like you smell something nasty.

Ali in the videos can be charming.

As Ana's filming him,

you can actually hear her giggle.

I'm trying to save the world.

What are you doing?

Ali describes it

as they're living the American dream.

So you're looking at these videos

prior to this case thinking what happened?

I'm Lucifer.

Lucifer is my online name because not everybody

is comfortable using the real names.

I just wanna keep my online social media platform

private from my personal life.

It's good to remain anonymous because you don't want people

trying to track you.

The very first day I met Ali, it was 2019.

He was doing Skyrim videos.

Skyrim is a medieval role-playing game.

Stuck here. Stuck.

Ali was playing characters

he used to interact with in the game.

I see there's potential in Ali. There's lots of talent in there.

So, I just decided to message him and tell him like,

"Hey, let me help you out. I can help you grow."

So I became his social media manager.

I would help him out with things like Discord,

Twitch, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube,

and all kinds of other platforms.

Ali wants to grow his brand so he gets help.

Content creators often have a person

or a team of people who help manage their content

and decide when and where to post it.

We would talk to each other on a daily basis

and we actually became really close friends.

Ana played a role in some of these videos

that Ali posted on TikTok.

Sometimes Ana's in the video,

sometimes she's filming the videos...

and fans like to see them.

They like to see Ana in the video as well.

Ana was in pretty much any Skyrim video

where there was a hand.

Like the hand that follows Ali in the videos,

Ana was the hand.

A lot of times I would call her,

she would tell me that she had to go

because she had to film a short skit for Ali

so they could post it online.

On TikTok, as a creator,

your only goal is to get what you wanna make

in front of as many people as possible.

The more people see what you do,

the more people follow you.

It's like the views compound on each other.

Everyone has a chance at virality.

All it takes is one video.

So that's what happens for Ali.

He's making TikTok's about the video game Skyrim

and one of them takes off.

I was on online one day and I saw this...

video that was reposted by some of my friends.

And I realized that it was Ali on the video.

People really love it.

He even got shout outs from Jenna Marbles

and some other folks who are high up

in the social media world.

Jenna Marbles is a longtime YouTuber

and an established talent on social media.

That's the part that kills me.

So for Ali to be getting attention from her is huge.

It makes me laugh so hard.

This guy has a whole YouTube channel.

- Is that the name of it? - JinnKid, yes.

Ali just kept posting more and more and more.

Each video gains more views,

more followers from that, more likes.

He made little skits outside of Skyrim

and he gained a lot of popularity from that too.

Yo, am I my bad too?

The worst.

You right. You right.

Ese...

Shut the fuck up. Okay?

To come in my house to tell us what we do,

what to think, what to feel.

Ali's favorite movie was definitely Scarface.

He was obsessed with Tony Montana.

He really loved impersonating that character.

He liked how dramatic Tony Montana is

and the way that he portrays himself.

So say goodnight to the bad guy.

So say goodnight to the bad guy.

All right, Joni, take one, marker.

I'm Dr. Joni Johnston,

a clinical and forensic psychologist

and private investigator.

It seems like Ali especially likes

these kind of violent characters.

I got the money, I gotta cash up it to you.

- You'll cash up... - I gotta cash up it.

What the fuck you think... Get the fuck off!

It's like they're so exaggerated

and he's throwing these kind of temper tantrums

over these very minor things.

Oh, it's my brother.

How's it going, bro? Nice to meet you.

If you put one finger on her,

I'm gonna come to your house.

I know your whole family. I know your neighbors.

I know your neighbor's neighbors.

And, you know, it's funny, it's humorous.

I'm sure people look at that and kinda go,

how ridiculous at the time.

Of course, now looking back it has a different meaning

because we know the outcome of this story.

Do you see that woman over there?

Oh, yeah.

Beautiful, isn't she?

It was kind of fast.

I remember coming across a video

that had probably 2.4 million views

and I was like, "Oh my God, this is Ana."

So Ali is on this crazy ascent

on social media and his life is changing.

And that was the time

where Ana slowly started

to disappear from people's lives.

My name is Rain and I'm an online friend to Ali.

The first time that I saw Ali

was back in 2019.

There was something about his eyes.

I could tell that he had some type of story to tell.

It was like a connection.

We have a group chat together and we talk nearly every day.

We would talk about his streams and his videos

and I helped him get verified on Instagram.

Getting verified on Instagram means simply,

you are who you say you are.

Tends to be a sign of notoriety

because it implies that someone would be impersonating you.

Oh, congratulations.

When Ali got verified on Instagram,

that was literally one of the best days for him ever.

For social media influencers,

there are these objective measures

of how popular you are.

You know, you get recognition, you get certain markers,

you get blue checks,

and that can be very, very seductive.

Who they think I are?

Once you're on this platform

and you're seeing your followers grow

and you're seeing there's more comments,

that's all triggering a positive, like, "ding."

Oh, another follower, another follower, another follower.

It sparks this obsession at times

where you don't wanna lose that

so you have to keep going or you'll lose followers.

He went from 700,000 followers

to around 2 million followers, which is pretty amazing.

That's a huge increase in people

looking at his content.

That can include companies

who might hire him for brand partnerships.

Hey Jinn, where'd you get this?

- I wanna get me one. - Yeah, but that's my new

Manscaped Lawn Mower 4.0, all right?

What are you talking? Lawn Mower.

Brands want more exposure on these social platforms.

When a creator is getting a lot of attention,

a company might see that as an opportunity

to get their product in front of more users

on that platform.

You actually can make money from social media.

Lots of influencers, they are millionaires.

That's why a lot of people are going towards

content creation in this generation.

But when you get that little taste of fame,

it alters your...

viewpoint of reality.

Me, I want what's coming to me.

What's coming to you, Tony?

The world, Chico.

And everything in it.

Through Ali, Ana got a lot of her followers as well.

She liked to post.

Oh, my God, I wish I looked like that.

That's a picture of yourself from like two days ago.

Yeah, back when I was pretty.

But it wasn't something she was doing

for followers or for the money.

That mattered more to Ali than Ana.

Ana growing up was very insecure about herself.

She was a nerdy girl,

skinny who played video games.

She definitely did change.

She went from, like, Philippines to America.

Started dressing differently.

She started going to the gym and working out.

She just loved looking nice

and her family looking the same.

She was an amazing mother.

She adored her daughter more than anything in the world.

She loved dressing her up in cute little outfits

that kinda matched hers and they would go around

and take pictures everywhere.

♪ Now don't come around like it ain't shit ♪

♪ I gave you my time but you played with it ♪

They would make little cute TikTok's together.

♪ Roll up with a baddie in a Rolls Royce ♪

♪ Headed to the top ♪

I was living in San Diego

and Ana was in Virginia.

It was COVID during the time

and we were bored out of our minds.

So we were either making TikTok's

or we are playing video games online.

Ana did say that she was feeling alone

in Virginia.

She was just raising Amira

and her life revolved around Ali and his family.

She told me she felt like she had nobody else there

that was there for her.

I don't think he really allowed her to have friends.

I remember spending time together over the phone.

He started to get kind of jealous.

They really did live in Ali's world.

They're in the United States. Her family is overseas.

He really is in control

of who she hangs around, what they do.

And what people didn't know was

she was actually screaming for help.

I would call Ana from time to time

and I kept saying, "You should really come visit me."

And eventually she said, "I spoke with Ali,

he's going to let me come visit you in San Diego."

Ana went to visit San Diego where a lot of her friends were

and she just loved it.

The lifestyle with the clubs and the high life.

And at the end of her trip she told me,

I'd really love to move here and be closer to you

and to her other friends from Okinawa.

So she goes back to Virginia

and she is trying to convince Ali to move to San Diego.

She said, "I've been in Virginia for you.

We've been doing your TikTok's here,

raising our daughter.

I wanna do San Diego for me."

For Ali, it was a win-win.

Moving to San Diego would help his career

working with influencers based in LA

and also would make his wife happy.

It was 100% exciting.

'Cause, you know, his dream of becoming an actor

is even closer than he was ever before.

♪ Something about today ♪

♪ That changed me ♪

Ultimately, they moved in downtown San Diego

at the Spire.

They're up on the 35th floor.

♪ Something about the way today... ♪

It overlooks downtown, the beach and the sunset.

San Diego has a good nightlife, the Gaslamp.

It's a fun place, especially if you're young.

It all seems so perfect.

♪ Something about today that changed me ♪

So the thing about social media is of course

you're trying to display the elements of your life

that you want people to see.

Here's my best dance movie.

Here's my wonderful vacation.

Here's a beautiful picture of me and my partner.

Because we're all putting

our best foot forward on social media.

Anything that you're looking at

as a consumer of social media

is simply not telling the whole truth.

Many social media influencers feel a need

to let their followers

into their personal life,

and I think that's a catch-22 in some respects.

It creates, I think, this image

that they now feel the need to uphold.

There's this TikTok of Ali and Ana dancing

and there's, like, a cutesy moment

where she pulls back the shower curtain

and he is in the shower.

And they're just having so much fun as a couple.

And the hashtag was

"when your relationship is drama free."

I don't know if they just posted that video

as a TikTok just for the views.

In the back of my mind I know they had their problems too,

but every relationship does.

They're perfect. That's what you see.

I think those are the moments that she really held onto.

So she would post that content

and show this side of them

that she wanted the world to see.

She wanted it to be good,

but not everything online is real.

Right after they moved to San Diego,

Ali goes to LA and does this comedy show.

Hello, everybody. It's my first time on stage.

You can see that he is really trying

to make things happen for his career.

He's chasing these dreams that he's always wanted to achieve.

You wanna play rough? Okay.

Say hello to my little friend.

Hey!

Ali felt that this was his moment to shine and get fame.

He wanted to be a movie star.

Look at that.

Ali is becoming very successful.

It got to the point that we all started

counting his views for him.

He just told us how happy he was

and we were happy for him.

JinnKid becomes almost

like a part of him in the sense that he really saw that

this brand that he had could reach great success.

Yo, y'all gotta see his 6ix9ine.

This motherfucker's 6ix9ine is spot the fuck on.

Yo, go ahead bro. I'm-a set you up.

Y'all dirty motherfuckers can't fucking touch me.

You feel me? All of y'all.

Yo.

Yo, what other impressions do you do, bro?

Oh, I do Scarface.

"I told you, man. No fucking kids!"

What you think I am, huh?

What you think I'm a worm like you?

I told you, man. I told you. No fucking kidding!

That's just spot the fuck on. Spot the fuck on, man.

It seemed like he was really fulfilled

by the chance for fame.

Well, you know, I'm following you.

Yo, what's your tag? I want everybody to follow you.

JinnKid.

And the way social media

sort of levels the playing field,

anyone can have a little bit of fame.

He embodies the identity of "I am TikTok famous."

That's who I am. And, like, that's my life now.

I'm a TikTok celebrity.

- Bro, give me the 6ix9ine. - 6ix9ine?

Yo, word to my mother,

I'll smack the teeth out of all y'all, you feel me?

Y'all the internet gangsters?

Being famous is a fantasy that a lot of people have.

You need that recognition. You need that fame.

And I think for certain people,

and I would include Ali in this,

it becomes almost like an addiction.

I follow this dude, man. It's crazy.

Ali is somebody who took this fame

and really let it go to his head.

Who put this thing together? Me.

Who do I trust? Me. That's who!

When they first moved to San Diego,

it was good for a couple months...

and then things were starting to go really downhill.

They would hang out with only who he wanted to hang out with.

If he didn't want Ana to come out with a girl's night,

she wasn't going.

He kinda just controlled

how she spent her time in San Diego.

I started to think that they actually have problems

or there's something going on.

You're now tuning live.

Ali does tend to rub some people the wrong way.

He loves to talk about himself a lot.

I don't even wanna be like fucking,

what do you call it, Leonardo DiCaprio.

I'm not trying to be the next Al Pacino.

I probably could.

Ali felt that he was better

than other people,

and I think social media has a lot to do with that.

Ali, as he becomes successful,

he began to almost talk about himself

like he was this larger than life person.

Like he was this person who was so important, so famous.

College is bullshit. I'm a college dropout, bitch.

And I make more money than fucking half the people I see.

Ali would walk into a room sometimes

and be like, "Don't you know who I am?

I'm JinnKid. I could do whatever I want."

So that persona didn't leave once he stopped filming.

Ali becomes increasingly invested in his brand

and it seems like almost the boundaries between his brand

and his image and who he is as a person

becomes very confusing and blurred for him.

I'm a fucking God! I'm a sexy motherfucker!

I'm a fucking internet celebrity!

If you're not able to separate that online persona

to who you truly are in the real world,

it could take a huge toll on you mentally

and affect real relationships in your real life.

Ali and Ana,

they're partying a lot, both of them,

and that's when things start to kind of hit the fan.

I had found out that he was abusing cocaine.

When I say this man was on a coke binge,

I'm saying abnormal amounts of cocaine.

Ali really became crazy with this whole thing.

He'd have a bag of it,

like a big bag of cocaine in his pocket,

and he would just pull it out in the middle of a restaurant,

in the middle of a movie theater,

pretty much anywhere we would go.

He would even do it on his live streams

right in front of his audience.

I can hear my friend in the background going,

"Babe," like, "what are you doing?"

At first, Ana was okay with it

because when they've moved to San Diego,

Ana's goal was

to make everything comfortable for him.

She was just allowing him to do what he wanted.

And he is like, "Oh, this?"

What, this? This nothing.

This... asthma medicine. How'd you like that?

That's not fake.

That's him snorting cocaine on live feed.

And you could see how many viewers

are watching that with laugh reactions.

As the marriage begins to deteriorate,

we really do begin seeing

that this control that he has tried to exhibit,

not just with Ana, but with himself,

is really starting to loosen and he's starting to unravel.

I have never heard of Ana using cocaine

or doing it with her friends.

But I had always heard him doing it

and I think he was jealous

that she had this life with friends.

I can't go out.

I'm sick.

Ali started to see that

Ana was becoming happy and blooming

and he was not about to have that

because for years he had his wife on the sidelines

and that's how he wanted her.

And this is kinda when the script flips.

Ann is the one in her element.

She has all her people there,

but Ali isn't liked as much as Ana

by these friends.

Behind the scenes you see Ali's not included

or he's not a part of the photo

that's getting all the likes and the attention.

Ali was kind of programmed to think a certain way.

I believe that when you come from a strict kind of culture,

there's certain expectations of you

that come from your family.

Ali has a very rigid idea

of how their relationship should be.

I don't think in any respect he thinks

is an equal relationship.

It's about him.

All I have in this world is my balls and my word.

And I don't break 'em for no one.

You got that?

One day, Ana and I went to the gym.

After that, we went back to Ana's apartment to grab Amira

because we're gonna go do something else.

Ali was very, very angry with Ana

and pulled Ana to the bedroom

and the next thing I know, he's throwing things at her.

Ana runs out of the room, we grab Amira

and we just storm off out of the apartment.

Ali was non-stop texting her like,

"Come back, bring my daughter back.

I'm gonna take all the money out of the account."

I asked her, you know,

"Does he treat you like this all the time?

Has this happened before?"

And she's like, "No, no, babe, don't worry about it.

Don't worry about it. I'm fine. It's okay.

We're just gonna talk later. He's just mad."

That was our first glimpse of how crazy Ali could get.

He didn't want her having a life outside of him.

He wanted her to hold the camera for him

so he can make his skits.

He wants Ana to basically

have Ali be the center of her world.

And when that's not the case, he loses it.

Ana, I'm really starting to get hurt, man.

I... You didn't even tell me

that you're canceling on me,

and now you can't answer my phone.

You said something came up.

And now my mind is just telling me

I'm not important enough for you to answer the phone.

Ali actually starts recording with his phone

some of the things that we would never expect him to record.

He had lost trust in her and he felt from that moment on

that his wife was cheating on him

and he became extremely paranoid about that.

Ali degrades her and degrades her.

Watching these videos,

I wonder why someone would record that.

He would berate her for not having sex with him.

Almost demand it from her.

He was territorial

seeing her as more of a property.

And I need to keep this at all costs

and it's solely mine.

I think it made Ali extremely jealous,

the attention that Ana would get because

everyone was always drawn to her.

Everyone always loved her.

It created these explosive fights between the two of them.

I brought her to America. I gave her the American dream.

Therefore, she is my property.

That is how he felt.

Growing up in a Filipino culture,

women are raised to be quiet

and do what we're told.

We all have one dream and one goal,

and it's to get out

and to come to America to have a better life.

Certain men will think that we are an item.

We should be grateful because they gave us that life.

When you get married, you don't get divorced.

Literally in our country, it's illegal to get divorced,

so she needed to stick this one out.

Ali felt that Ana was taking everything away from him,

so he threatened to get her deported.

If Ana was deported out of America,

she wouldn't be able to see her daughter.

Ana just wanted to keep the peace,

especially for her daughter.

She just loved her so much

and she would literally do anything for her,

like, endure everything that Ali was putting her through,

just for her daughter to be happy and to have a dad.

When you listen to these recordings,

it's hard to imagine that anybody would want keep a record

because they're so filled with venom.

Is he trying to build some sort of case against her?

He's trying to frame up a narrative

of himself as the victim,

or the kind of suffering protagonist in their marriage.

But it doesn't read like that at all.

Ana actually calls Ali's mom for help.

I think that illustrates the bind sometimes

that domestic violence victims feel.

They want the abuse to stop.

They want to be safe, and yet,

they also don't want to get this person in trouble.

They're thinking about them being in jail.

They're thinking about what this is going to mean

for their daughter, they're thinking about,

what is this going to do to Ali's career?

Ana is trying to protect her daughter,

because she did witness those arguments.

She did see her dad angry at times.

She would hear the screaming, the fighting, the violence.

At this point, what we're seeing

is this increase in conflict between them,

which pretty quickly escalates.

By July of 2021,

it's becoming very, very serious.

Ali will do just about anything

to maintain the control of that relationship.

Whether it's threatening Ana,

whether it's threatening suicide.

I'm just disgusted when I heard

that he had his gun out around his daughter.

It's shocking.

I think what she was hoping for was a change...

but I think Ana knew

that it wasn't safe for her at home.

When the police arrive at the apartment,

instead of answering the door right away for the police,

Ali goes in and he brushes his teeth,

because he's been drinking alcohol.

And after he gets finished brushing his teeth,

he comes back out and he answers the door.

For the San Diego Police Department,

85% of the police reports that are written

are for domestic violence.

Cops come inside and they separate the two of them

to find out what's going on.

One cop will go in with one half,

another cop will go in with the other half

and they'll determine, "Do we have a crime?"

Now Ali is recording this conversation,

which is highly unusual.

Most people don't record

their conversations with the cops.

They will conduct some kind of a risk assessment.

It may be arresting one of those people.

You know, it just depends upon the circumstances.

Ali is really good at telling a story

that's believable to the cops.

He's good at presenting himself

as not being the type of guy who would be violent.

There's no injuries or anything like that,

because had there been any visible injury on Ana

when the police officers were there,

it would've been game over for Ali.

And I think it is very difficult for one parent,

no matter how bad the situation is,

to think about removing that kind of dual parenting.

Even though, of course, we know it isn't healthy for that child.

But it can be very difficult to make the decision to leave.

Let's get this clear.

Ali was holding Ana hostage.

She could not get out of this marriage.

So what is somebody supposed to do?

On August 17th, Julia and I planned

a Disney trip for Ana's birthday.

Mila!

I wanted all of our kids to be together

and I needed to go there to check on her.

I followed my heart and...

I'm glad I did.

The whole time Ali was complaining.

Mostly, he didn't want to walk around.

He was tired.

And, of course, he was bringing his drugs

and I was not having it.

And neither was Ana.

We all were practically ignoring him.

And he eventually gave in at 11:00 a.m.

and went to the Jeep and slept.

And we all had an amazing time

and we stayed there 'til the fireworks.

It was kind of our dream to take our kids to Disney.

- Look, it's Mickey. - Mickey!

Cheers!

Happy birthday!

We went out for Ana's birthday.

Ali eventually got himself together

and we all chipped in for a table...

at a club in San Diego.

She was really upset because Ali was fighting with her

and making her feel worthless

and like it wasn't her birthday.

What I realized then was that

if he wasn't the center of attention,

he wasn't going to have it.

Before she took me to the airport,

we went to our favorite spot in San Diego, La Jolla.

We took the girls to see the seals,

let them run around and eat ice cream.

Look at the seals.

Wow, look at the seals, Mila.

Mom!

We had gotten into an argument,

because I've been telling her, you know,

"You need to leave him."

She made it seem

like there was nothing going on.

That they were just going through some phase.

But I knew that wasn't it.

And I remember telling her at the airport,

"Ana, you can't keep doing this."

And she's like, "I know. I'm going to fix it.

I'm going to fix it."

And I said, "Okay." And she said, "Okay, love you."

And I said, "I love you too."

And that was the last time I ever heard from her.

Can I take a break?

Things start to get really ugly at home

and Ali starts to air them out publicly.

Don't get married, guys. Don't get fucking married.

Ali would use his online platform

against Ana at times.

He would go on live and broadcast

really bad fights.

This fucking bitch.

He was saying, "This is what a bitch looks like.

This is what a whore looks like."

And I saw Ana sitting on the couch,

not showing her face.

For him to do that was very dangerous in my point of view,

and just overall wrong.

It showed how little he cared about her wellbeing.

I dedicated my life.

I threw my whole life away for her.

And now she's throwing away my life.

Before they have, seemingly, this perfect life

that they've shaped online.

And now it's a completely different story.

And he is blaming Ana for this.

I worked so hard to build my platform and...

turns out the one closest to you

is the one that tries to destroy it.

That was definitely hard for me to witness.

He was doing it to embarrass her.

I don't even know why I'm telling you, guys.

But I just care about you guys, man.

I care about you guys. I care about my brand here.

He wants his fans or his followers to get

a look into his life or that he cares about them.

But, you know, really, he was just embarrassing...

both of them.

It was very heartbreaking

and very hard to watch and very shocking.

The internet can be such an evil place.

She didn't know what to do and I didn't know

how I could help her.

And that's when everything really,

really, really started going downhill.

Ali knew that a guy named Ray in their friend circle

liked Ana, was interested in Ana.

Ana and Ali met Ray together.

I remember Ali coming back to me and saying,

"Yeah, Ray just told me I'm so lucky

that I have a beautiful woman like Ana.

That really bothers me. Why does he say that?

That just means he wants her."

Ali has had jealousy issues with Ray from the start,

because Ray came off like he admired Ana.

And so Ali started creating this drama

about how he doesn't trust Ray.

You want to fuck with me?

Okay. God, okay.

In actual real life,

he would say certain things like,

"Would it be fun if I just picked up this gun

and, like, shot a bunch of people?"

People were like, "Why would you say that?

That's actually not funny.

Are you your character right now?

Or who are you right now?"

He was so high-strung and so violent

to where nobody thought it was funny outside of TikTok.

- You need people like me. - You need people like me.

- So you can point... - your fucking fingers...

and say, "That's the bad guy."

"That's the bad guy."

Say good night to the bad guy.

One morning, Ana calls me a million times,

texts me a million times.

I'm reading all these texts, "Louie, you got to come get me."

You got to come get me. I need you.

"He's crazy."

She calls me and she says,

"Hey, can I come over?"

So she comes to my house

and she has a big suitcase with her.

It was Ali's cousin dropping them off.

We went to the park and I looked at her face

and I noticed the whole left side of her face was bruised.

That's finally when she's starting to tell us

that this has been an ongoing thing since Virginia.

Domestic violence does not happen overnight.

There's a reason

why abusers isolate their victims.

It's because they can control the narrative

of what's going on and what happens and all those things.

When you are now in a place

where your victim is exposed

to other people and has support,

you began losing sometimes the power

that you've had in that relationship

to influence that person.

Everything started coming out

and she's starting to realize,

you know, this is a very toxic, abusive relationship

and that she needs to get out.

Ana has this picture of her with kind of a bruised eye

and she's threatening Ali,

saying, you know, "Should I call the police?

Should I show your family?

Should I put it online?"

And that strikes a chord with Ali,

because his online persona is his baby.

It's so complicated for Ana in these situations

to think, "How do I get him to stop?"

How do I get him to leave me alone?

And yet I do feel protective of him

in terms of I don't want to get him in trouble.

"I don't want to ruin his career."

And we all look and kind of go, now,

"Yes, you should post this on Facebook.

Yes, you should call the police."

But at that point, I think,

there is that struggle.

When you're in that relationship,

it's hard to just leave, especially a marriage.

You can feel trapped.

"How am I going to do this on my own?"

You feel like no one understands.

And that's exactly what I think Ana was going through.

She was in...

a place where she was stuck...

and didn't know how to get out.

And then Ali started cheating on Ana.

One of the girls that he fooled around with

was a girl living at the Spire.

He met her in the elevator

and this girl somehow found Ana

and reached out to her.

She had to tell her that they slept together.

Ana was like, "I'm so thankful that you told me this.

You know, I'm not even mad.

I just want to know this information."

This girl told Ana

that he invited her into their home...

and he grabbed a big bag of cocaine

and laid it on their coffee table

and just started...

doing a bunch of blow and talking about Ana,

calling her all these horrible things.

And, of course, this girl is clearly freaking out,

'cause she's like, "Okay, this guy is crazy."

But she was smart

and knew that she needed to warn Ana.

Ana wanted to separate at that point.

That was her final straw.

At that point, she just wanted people to know the truth.

So then Ana posted a video on TikTok.

♪ When she's sleeping in the bed we made ♪

♪ Don't you dare forget about the way ♪

♪ You betrayed me ♪

♪ 'Cause I know that ♪

♪ You'll never feel sorry ♪

That was definitely hitting him where it hurt.

Like, he cared so much about his online presence,

his reputation, his followers.

She posts this, knowing full well

what this is going to do to Ali,

because he loves

his online persona and his following,

and he's kind of just spiraling downwards.

I didn't cheat on you. You fucking betrayed me.

And I fucked a girl in Miami too.

And I fucked a girl in LA.

I've been fucking bitches all day,

'cause you deprive me of sex,

you paint me a bad guy, you fucking disrespect me.

I'm fucking everybody.

I am fucking the best man you ever met

and you're the dumbest bitch

I ever fucking devoted my life to.

I think, at that point, she was so fed up.

He did all of this to her

and on top of that, cheated on her.

She didn't care about their image

as a happy couple anymore.

It shows that she's strong.

And I can see in my friend

that she's on a healing process.

She's over it.

As soon as Ana posted that video,

Ali was furious.

He was desperately blowing up her phone...

threatening her to take the TikTok down.

You block me, you delete my pictures,

you fucking post a video on TikTok,

saying seven years of abusive...

Shut the fuck up, you bitch.

So she did, but a lot of people saw it before that.

She packed her bags

and she moved into my friend's house.

She was trying to move on from her relationship with Ali.

So Ana says...

And he goes...

And she says...

He didn't even deserve that.

After everything that he did to her

and for her to still love him how she did,

he didn't deserve that at all.

As Ali starts realizing

that he has permanently lost Ana

and realizing that he is not going to get her back,

he begins to change.

I gave you this life, all right?

And the second you started telling me

that I don't do anything for you,

that you don't need me.

I'm going to show you how much you needed me.

I'm going to show you.

Life's going to show you.

Life's going to show you how much you needed me.

So, at this point,

Ana is living with my friend,

and Ali continues to live at their apartment.

She was trying to figure out

how she was going to start her life in San Diego

without Ali.

I did fear for Ana's life.

I brought up that, "Ali has a gun, you know.

Do you know how far he would take this?"

And she would always reassure me.

She said, "Babe, he would never do that."

But Ana...

didn't think the worst like we did.

There's sometimes this lack of realization

that maybe the person would never have hurt you before,

you haven't left them before.

And so we can't count on past behavior

being the same as it is now.

Ali, out of nowhere, reaches out to her and says,

"I'm going to go stay at a hotel,

and why don't you just move back into the apartment?"

And Ana was like, "Oh, this is so exciting."

This would solve all of my problems.

I can move back into the apartment.

I don't have to worry about looking

"for another place to live."

And I think that him offering her the apartment

was all just a plan to get her in a room,

so he can do what he did.

On October 21st,

the day starts out with Ana heading out

to take her daughter to school.

Ali has, unbeknownst to her,

made a copy of the electronic key

to get into her apartment.

Ali uses the secret key

and he enters the apartment...

and he vandalizes it.

And then he puts an app on his daughter's iPad,

so that he can listen in

on conversations in the apartment.

He is so fixated on what Ana's doing

and wanting to catch her cheating on him

or some damning piece of evidence.

Around 11 o'clock, Ana returned to the apartment.

She just calls me and she said,

"Babe, I came home and the apartment is a mess.

There's stuff all over the floor.

Everything's broken."

I was like, "Oh, my goodness, you need to get out of there."

And she said, "I'll call the front desk.

I'll ask them to change the locks.

I'm going to go today to get a restraining order against him.

Don't worry. I got this."

She's like, "I just need a favor."

Can you pick Amira up from school for me,

so that I can clean this apartment?

I don't want her to come home to this mess

"and ask me what happened."

Ana felt very scared

after he vandalized the apartment...

and asked Ray to come over and help clean up.

Ana and Rayburn were friends.

Ana said that they were just hanging out.

A few hours later, Rayburn arrives to the apartment

and they're talking.

Ali is back at his hotel room,

listening in, and he can hear

Ana's there with a male voice.

Ali gets in his car

and he drives over to the apartment

in downtown San Diego.

Ali parks the car, and then he enters on foot

into the parking garage around 2:50.

He then starts recording with his phone.

Ali enters the elevator and he encounters another person

and he engages in some small talk.

At 2:58, Ali arrives on the 35th floor.

Thirty-five.

Ali gets off the elevator, he walks down the hallway...

and using the electronic key card that he made...

you can hear him opening up the door.

He racks a round into the gun.

You can hear Rayburn call out.

Whoa!

And then we hear the gunshots.

And you can hear Ana's voice as well as she's calling out.

He racks a couple more rounds in after the first four shots...

and then shoots two more times.

At this point, Ali exits the apartment.

He goes back and forth a few times,

then he opens the door of the apartment again...

and screams out Ana's name.

Ana! Ana!

Yes.

I was going to pick her up before I headed into work.

And right in front of me,

I see Ali pull up

and grab Amira and put her in the car.

At this point, I'm not sure what to do.

I was supposed to pick her up.

So I'm trying to call Ana and she doesn't pick up.

And I'm texting her, I'm like,

"Hey, Ali's here trying to pick Amira up.

What do I do? What do I do?"

She didn't text me back.

And so I follow him

while I'm calling and calling her,

trying to get an answer of what I should do.

Car gets in between us and he goes far

and he turns right and then I lose him.

There was a neighbor witness who actually heard the shots.

She calls 911.

Ali's Jeep is spotted on the I-15 freeway

where he is arrested.

They search the car and they find a gun

and they find about 100 rounds

of nine millimeter ammunition.

The daughter is fine

and they take custody of the daughter

and she's later given to family members.

At that point, I just... I was lost.

I... I didn't know what to do. I was panicking.

I called my friend Claire.

I said, "Claire, Ana hasn't picked up.

That's really strange. Can you go to her apartment?"

And then she calls me 15 minutes later

and she's like, "I can't get to her apartment."

I was like, "What are you talking about?"

She says, "They have it blocked off.

There's a lot of cops here."

And my heart just sank.

And I was just... I just knew already.

I just knew.

But I was in disbelief. I was in shock.

New information this afternoon

about a double homicide inside an East Village high rise.

Two people have been confirmed dead

after a shooting that happened at Island in 15.

The friend called me and she was crying.

She said that, "I think he finally did it."

Cops made entry.

They find that Rayburn

is on the couch, deceased.

He has a gunshot wound to his face

and his head is back.

Ana is sitting next to him.

She has a gunshot wound to her head

and her body is slumped over, kind of in his lap.

It was already two in the morning.

And we're all sitting in the lobby

and we're just waiting.

Police come and he says, "I'm so sorry,

but that was Ana Marie and Rayburn

that was shot upstairs."

And...

I've just never felt anything like that.

My... my heart just dropped.

I've just never felt so much pain before.

I called... Ana's mom was the first person I called...

and I told her.

And she's like, "What are you talking about, Julia?

What are you talking about?"

And... and I couldn't tell her.

And we just both started crying on the phone.

It was so shocking. It was unreal.

I didn't believe it at first

until the news came out.

And then I saw the condo taped off

and the police outside and...

it was real.

Ali confesses to police

five hours after the murders,

Ali is charged with two counts of first degree murder,

a gun use allegation,

and a special circumstance allegation

of committing multiple murders,

which means that he could face the death penalty.

I attended the preliminary hearing.

I mean, it was explosive.

I did work at the district attorney's office,

and I've done criminal post-conviction law,

and I've never been to a hearing like that.

One of the detectives testified

that when he reviewed the Instagram account of Ana,

he started describing what he thought

was a relationship between Ana and Rayburn

that now had turned more romantic.

It's very unusual to have the defendant

say anything in a court proceeding.

And then he just completely started losing it

from that point.

What would you do if you found out

that your favorite TikTok star

was actually a cold-blooded killer?

Whoa. I know you've seen these videos.

The terrifying story of Ali Abulaban.

It was big news.

A beautiful couple is now torn apart

because of a double homicide.

This TikTok influencer was just arrested for murder.

Ali pled not guilty to first degree murder charges.

This is why you shouldn't believe everything

you see on social media.

People were hearing about this

almost across the world.

And then when I saw the outbursts in court...

I wanted this?

That's when I wrote him.

Who the are you?

"I'm a reporter covering the story,

and I'd love to hear your side."

Now to a story you'll see first on Fox 5.

A jailhouse interview with a rising TikTok star

accused of double murder.

So when you heard Rayburn's voice, you went to...

But what were you thinking?

The crying, the screaming, the slamming.

When I saw that, I just saw pure evil.

What happens when you get to the apartment?

And he says,

"Ray is on my couch, my house."

"My, my, my."

Your family says that

your social media fame changed you.

They say that you were doing cocaine,

didn't really care about the consequences.

Do you think that made you snap?

Do you think it changed you?

Mm-hmm.

When he's talking about losing his baby,

he's talking about losing his business, his followers.

You can see what makes him the most emotional

is that he feels he lost his chance at fame.

And you can tell that outweighs,

in his point of view, losing his family.

That, to me, is the most disgusting,

volatile part of...

everything that has to do with him.

He only wanted to bring up

he was this close to getting famous.

Which is a stretch from reality.

I don't think his content was very funny at all.

Did you kill her?

Could anyone else have Ana?

From jail, Ali actually posted a video on YouTube.

Someone posted it on his behalf.

Hey, what's up, guys?

It's Ali, AKA JinnKid.

I haven't called myself that for a while.

But, uh, I just wanted to check in,

say that I'm doing okay for the most part.

I'm trying my best to stay positive.

He seems to be more focused on the fame still.

He's like, "Oh, I'll be back soon, guys.

I'm going to get you guys the content you guys want.

I'm sorry, guys, I'm sorry that I'm stuck behind bars."

I just wanted to say I'm sorry

that I can't make the videos that you love.

I'm sorry that, you know,

my life has come down to this.

But not sorry to his wife, or the man that he killed.

I love that you still support me

and you still watch my videos and I love you guys.

Thank you for all the great times.

Social media can be really dangerous

in the hands of the wrong person.

I don't know to what extent

Ali's obsession

with his social media presence

led to what he did.

But he clearly had a very unhealthy relationship

with social media,

that muddied his understanding of reality,

that seemed to shape his impression

of what he believed was an acceptable way to behave.

And I think that's something worth paying attention to.

Ali's decisions have had dire consequences

for not only himself, but for my entire family.

It's going to affect us for the rest of our lives.

Ali's actions have taken away a mother

and a father from their daughter.

And now the daughter, you know,

is going to grow up

with somebody else other than her actual parents.

But at least she gets to be with her family.

Authorities finally allowed...

family and friends to come into the apartment

and grab whatever Ana had left.

The apartment was still exactly the same...

except the bodies not being there.

When we walked into the crime scene,

it was just...

it was very hard.

You see the breakfast from that morning

still on the coffee table.

They took a part of the couch out where it happened.

But you see the bullet holes.

You see the mess that Ali created that morning

that she was FaceTiming me about.

It was... it was very hard.

But, you know, we were there

to help Ana's family retrieve her things.

And so that's what we did.

All I could think about was,

I would've tried harder...

to get her out and keep her safe.

Because you need a tribe

to get out of a narcissistic relationship.

It's hard for me to accept her death,

because I want to say she's in a better place,

but a better place, it should be with her daughter.

This case is so much about Ana and Ali,

sometimes we forget there's another victim here

who lost his life.

That's Ray.

And maybe he was at the wrong place in the wrong time.

He was a good friend.

Ray chose to be there for Ana,

because he saw her light

that was surrounded by a lot of darkness.

The trial of a popular TikTok star

started today.

Both sides actually agree that Ali Abulaban

killed his estranged wife and her friend.

But as for why it happened,

there are two very different stories.

Everyone rise, please.

The Superior Court is now in session.

At the end of this trial, I will ask

that you find the defendant guilty

of two counts of first-degree murder.

One for Ana, one for Ray.

It's not up for debate if Ali killed Ana and Ray.

The question is, was this premeditated?

Willfully spied on Ana, caught her that day.

When we're talking about proving premeditation,

that's a pretty tall order.

Even if you have one jury member

who doesn't agree with that,

you can have a hung jury, and that's a mistrial.

There's a lot of evidence in this trial.

The audio from Ali's phone

They also have video of Ali

riding at the elevator, 35 floors.

Going up. Level 20.

Level 35.

A Nest Camera that's attached

to one of the neighbor's doors.

And you see Ali walk out of the room into the hallway,

and he calls his mother,

and he confesses to killing Ana.

Ana knew Ali well.

She knew his underlying vulnerabilities.

Public defender Jodi Green argues

that this it is voluntary manslaughter

because she says this was a crime of passion

and that Ali was provoked.

She knew his insecurities about his mental illness,

his drug addiction, and his own chaotic upbringing.

She used these,

and she weaponized them against him.

She's saying that Ana pushed Ali to the brink,

and that's why he broke.

That Ana was a cause of why he killed her.

That Ana disrespected him.

We also see a picture of Ana and Ray

kind of cuddled up together on what looks to be a bed.

She's saying Ana cheated on him,

causing him to lose his mind,

go to the brink, and shoot Ana and Ray.

And at this time, the defense would call

Mr. Ali Abulaban.

And then on May 21st, the defense calls Ali.

On the stand, Ali is basically saying,

"Hey, I'm not a liar, here."

He's admitting to killing Ana and Ray

and to being abusive,

and it's making him seem believable.

I was trying to believe her, I was trying to believe

that she wasn't cheating on me,

that she would let me fix this, because I was sick.

I was struggling from drugs and mental illness.

And when I saw that it was him...

I couldn't take it.

I couldn't take the fucking betrayal.

Thank you. Nothing further at this time.

Taren Brast begins her cross-examination.

And you know from the beginning, she's trying to break him down.

You were mad at Ana because she told you

over and over again that she did not want to be

married to you, correct?

You were mad at Ana.

October 17th, you were violent and angry with her, correct?

I became violent at the last second, yes.

She's bringing up searches on his phone,

such as a trash can,

exploitation of minors, sex workers,

and chopped bodies.

You're out of your mind.

You're not going to paint me as something I'm not.

After a four-week excruciating trial,

the jury retires to deliberate,

and everyone is just on pins and needles

to see what's going to happen.

Come to order. The court is now is session.

We, the jury, in the above-entitled cause,

find the defendant, Ali Nasser Abulaban, guilty

of the crime of murder in the first degree.

The jury finds Ali guilty

of two counts of first-degree murder.

We didn't have any doubt that we were going to get

anything other than guilty, but it's just the relief.

We've been waiting almost three years for this.

She didn't think he would do it

because every domestic violence victim

is not there for themselves.

And that's what we need to change in this world.

We need to look at this situation,

and this is the end result.

This is the end result.

I think for anyone who's in a situation

where they're experiencing abuse,

the number one thing, I think, is to reach out to somebody.

I think the enemy of making healthy decisions

is isolation and keeping things to yourself.

And so the first step, there are just

so many resources available.

There are hotlines, there are community resources.

Making sure that you end that isolation

in some way.

I sit here today, sharing Ana's story,

because I want people to not be silent,

to not care about what you look like on social media

or care what people are going to think of you

because you're in a bad situation.

Your truth is who you are,

and you need to embrace it and own it.

And we need to be the change that we want for the world.

I wish we could have seen

all our daughters grow up together

and have this mom life,

take them to the beach and...

I just... I miss her so much.

I really, really miss her so much.

And I really, really wish she was still here with us.

But we're here now.

Now we're gonna continue to make her proud.

Silence is what got Ana here.

Her story needs to be heard

to save other women,

and to prevent children growing up without their parents.