My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia HardstarkThis week, Georgia covers the murder of Fahim Saleh and Karen tells the story of the 2005 Wendy’s severed finger panic.
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Hello and welcome.
I'm my favorite murder.
That's Georgia Hartstart.
That's Karen Kilcara.
We say this every time.
You guys should know this by now say it along with.
Us, but put your name in and both parts.
I love that.
That's Becky Milligan.
And that is Clarissa Streeter knows.
It teaches you all. What's the Clarissa Show?
From Larissa Explains It All show?
I was too old?
Yeah you were, I was the right age for that.
Did she explain it all?
She explained it all to me. She had great fashion sense.
And she really what would she explain on a weekly basis? Like how its socially?
Yeah, like moms are tough but in the end they like have your back or like it's tough when bullies or whatever.
You know.
It was like that kind of thing. Okay, but it wasn't like corny. No, it's like Daria kind of where it's just like cool. I want to hear something weird and creepy.
Oh maybe a little sad about me? Aria, neither of us. Okay, great, just that happened to me.
Oh it's weird.
Okay, this counts as being about you, like okay.
Okay, So when we got back from the fire after evacuating, we were home a couple of days. Everything was weird out, you know, like the sky was weird and there was ash everywhere. It was just like a creepy time. The city was like empty. And so I'm walking cookie on our lawn, our front lawn, and I looked down a little further up. There's like a plastic bag on the ground on our lawn. And I approach it and it looks kind of like just a baggy, like a coke, like a big bag, you know, like someone had dropped like a brick of coke, half a brick, not a ton. And it's just you don't have an idea in today's In today's money.
Is not enough, right, Brioks too much?
It was like half a brick.
Brioks too much? Yeah, half is not okay. Yeah.
So I approach it and I really it's like a messy and I realized it's cremains, Like it's clearly cremains of something. There's a sticker on it, and there's teethmarks in it. And so what we figured out is that while these fires were raging, a coyote must have dug up some sweet person's sweet pet that passed away, carried it to our house and left it on our lawn. So that was fucking But this is like Duram when the fires are happening, so everything is horrible. Yes, so that was like felt like an ominous sign. Absolutely, but you could but I could kind of make out the like the stuff on the sticker that was clearly from the place where the animal had been cremated.
So you're positive it was an animal.
Yes, because the name was Freda. It just said Frida.
Are you positive it's not a person?
It says guardian animal after care all the sticker.
Sorry, I just needed the confirmation.
And it looks really old like, so you can't make that out, so it looks like it's been buried for a while, and so I could kind of make out that this is me doing my fucking best loo thing. Ever, by the way, sure I could kind of make out the name of the person. And so we called the place that with the animal they called the place on the sticker, and they're like, we're so old school, we just have like files. It's probably from a long time ago. So we triedly asked our neighbors, like do you know this person's name and they don't, and I just want to return it to them because like if I came out, like, let's say I had buried one of my beloved pets in my yard and it was a fucking dug up, so they might not live there anymore, But I think I should give them give it a new burial, right.
You could do that, that'd be really nice. Or you could take it in a mill of the night and throw it over someone else's fence.
Have a fucking problem.
I'm there's options, I'm saying.
I mean, I have a video of the coyotes playing in that area that night, so like that didn't already happen.
Thank god, you're positive someone just like that over pretty sure. That's really disturbing, isn't that? And quite sorry?
But it's also like sweet in a weird way.
Well, I'm glad your coyote story is sweet, because mine they almost killed blossom.
That's right.
Just recently, I feel like the coyotes are really under the gun.
I saw one today on the street.
I mean there everybody got driven down because of the fires. Like it is not good in terms of poor you know, actual wild animals. Yeah, but it's also not good in terms of little white terriers just trying to act like she they're in charge of their domain. My dug Blossom at five in the morning needed to go out because she could hear the coyotes, and then she got bit. And it was crazy because this is the same Blossom who survived to kill her beasting. She has been up against it.
This dog, she means, she's an indoor dog.
Kind of thing, I think, so, I think she's becoming convinced.
It could have been like if she were a little smaller, they would have carried her off entirely. Fucking thank god.
Also, she makes this insane sound, which is what happened when my cousin Stevie's dog Betty attacked her. She makes a sound that scared everybody for like an hour.
Scream.
It's a scream, and then she gets away, So she's kind of I respect her absolutely.
Just start screaming. That's what we've talked about a lot of times.
A lot.
You can apologize for screaming. You can't apologize for having done nothing when you should have been screaming.
That's right, you really you really landed on something there.
So I'm going to Rebury it. I'll let you know what happens. I'm gonna have like a little ceremony.
In your own yard.
Yeah, that's nice, just to like, since we can't find the person.
Yeah, give Frieda her final resting place.
Weel Frieda. Frida sounds like a like a Pomeranian name, doesn't it?
Yeah it does? Or shitsu. Yeah, Freda just running that house. One of those dogs that runs.
The house for sure all day for no reason.
Or she's like a real nice kind of like one of those like a chowd German shepherd mix the fluffy yes, where she's kind of like fluffy and god, this dog going, who is this dog?
Maybe she's a Persian cat. We don't fucking know.
That's what a free does. A bowl and stretcher, and we're like, oh, it's to.
Be like, get that out of my fucking house now. So it's just been sitting I walk by it every night. I've just been sitting on my lawn table.
Just like problem to be solved.
Yeah, I gotta do something about that.
Oh, I saw so hard to lose a pet.
I know.
Sorry that was no. I mean it's interesting at least it's interesting. It's not me saying, yes, I'm still watching Seinfeld season eight. It just gets better and better every episode.
Are you watching the show called Apple Cider Vinegar. It's on Netflix.
Perfect. I can switch right over from Seinfeld. It's like they'll be right next to each other.
Love it.
Oh my god, it's a true story.
It's a dramatization about a goal who just completely one of those light about having cancer on the internet and made a career out of like her saving her own life through nutrition. Yeah, and it was all.
A scam, but it is a true story.
It's a true story. Wow, I have to watch that.
Oh my god. Those ones are my favorite because I do feel like it's like Scamanda. Yeah, which if listener, if you haven't listened to that podcast, please stop this one immediately and run over there. Because these stories of people like that are so I could all day long. I want to hear them. They're just like, how did you You started off? You had a real threat to your life. It traumatized you in some way, right, but then also something else happened to you.
And then the way they describe it, and this show does that, it's like you kind of feel empathy. This girl's clearly, like, of course it does monstrous things, but you understand her initial motivations. Yeah, and that's just what you need. But then after that it's just a whole fun.
I can't I can't imagine what it feels like to have love just outpoured towards you when you say I have this thing, right, they show that it's like yeah, bananas, yeah, ooh, apple cider, vinegar yeah, check, I'm on that.
Should we get to something upbeat and funny, because yes, we got some letters, right emails. One would call.
Them a handwritten missus longhand long form missives about how I covered the tenor Reef airport disaster last week in episode four sixty seven, and we had all kinds of questions for pilots and airplane people, and.
So I guess we got some answers.
I'm so frightened.
Okay, I'll go first. Okay, this is called I promised pilots are friend there then you think, hello, all. I was listening to the latest episode when Georgia covered the tenor Reef airport disaster. It's a devastating case. We all study extensively as pilots, and like George said, the air traffic phraseology has now been standardized to avoid such an accident from ever happening. It's great, that's good to know. Yes, But Karen, it says, I promise we're far more patient than we've seen. Couch said, what did you say.
I don't know. It's something like I can't remember.
I said, I think I think pilots would have no patience for me. Yeah, and like, oh, that's right, that's right, right.
Yeah, Like they're just so organized and calm and buy the book.
And they have next steps. They don't want to talk to you about your my little stories, right, I promise for former patients than we've seen. We're not all engineers. And as much as we take our jobs very seriously and communication is kept to the essential during critical stages of flight, I've yet to meet a fellow pilot who wouldn't talk your ear off given the opportunity.
Oh, neat, It's nice, Okay.
Flying as an absolute privilege, and most of us are so humbled by the fact that we get to experience it, let alone do it for a living.
Wow.
Oh and then it says only six percent of pilots worldwide are women. I have had the honor of being taught by some incredibly badass female pilots, and I am proud to have joined the ranking. We always need more women in aviation and STEM in general. A little shout out to the young women listening. You can do anything, show those boys how it's done.
Yes, yes, thank you.
For everything you do. You kept me company during my many hours commuting to and from airports for training. Welcome, a welcome reprie when I need to switch off learning mode SSDGM and.
And thank you. Why does that? And was like, Okay, I'll get into this conversation with you dull young women. And while I'm here, let me teach you a thing about well, which is very meaningful because that's a person and who is a constant handler of shit?
Yeah.
May we all be up there with the greatest. All right, Well, I have one too. I don't know what it says.
Alejandre gave us both one to read to each other exactly, no instructions.
So here's mine. The subject line is, can confirm pilots have no patience for you, Karen? Then it says lighthearted two minute read love it Karen. On the last episode for sixty seven, you said I think a pilot would have no patience for my personality. Oh there it is. There's a quote perfect, and I can confirm you're probably right because I'm a Karen and my dad, who was a pilot for thirty years, didn't put up with my bullshitty.
It sounds like someone else's firefighter or father named Jim.
There's a lot of these dads out there, and I'm glad we're finally talking about it.
They're no bullshit dads.
My dad, Captain Craig, flew from major domestic airlines before and after nine to eleven and is a real hard as in the best way. You'll be happy to know, Georgia that pilots in general are very meticulous people and not willing to be rushed through procedure for anyone. Got it. For example, my dad does a walk around inspection of the car before he gets in all caps every single time.
Oh my god, My dad does the opt when he's leaving the car. He checks every door handle. Oh yeah, three or four times.
Just lock it down. Oh, Dad's okay, even when Lee just leaving the grocery store after running a quick errand and has very rigid rules about safety and then in quotes like talking this car is not moving until everyone has their CBO. As you can imagine little teenage Karen, Me and Captain Craig didn't always get along so well. But now that I'm an adult and he isn't teaching me standard operating procedures for making my bed and debriefing me about Friday night parties, we have a great relation. Oh my god, debriefing me about Friday night parties. He also makes me feel much calmer about flying. I frequently text him when I see scary plain stuff in the news, and he is the first to reassure me that flying is very safe and gives me the inside scoop on any positive changes happening in airline safety. Stay sexy and don't be us around pilots.
Jana, Jana, Can we get your dad's phone number so we can also text him when things happen?
Could we start a segment with Captain Craig called Airmail and he just like maybe every week, sends us an email that says, hey, I listened to the last episode, this is what I would have done different.
Totally and like, but here's also I shouldn't worry and like everything's going to be okay, Yes, I want reassurance too.
Not just about air flight or anything, just general Captain Craig stuff in the world.
Debrief me and inform me about and let's have some Friday night party and calm me down and we'll be there too.
And let's of course that has invited as always and was here first. That was amazing.
That was great. I love it. You guys always write in when you have thoughts and feelings. We might not read them, but.
We appreciate it. Thanks allahndro. That was so good.
All right.
Should we talked about the network? Yes, definitely. We have a podcast network. Did you know It's called Exactly Right Media? And here's what's going going on this week.
On Bananas, Kurt and Scottie are joined by comedians Sashier Zamata to talk about the world's most bizarre and hilarious news stories. She is so freaking funny.
She's so cool. Over on this podcast, will kill You, Erin and Aaron go on a deadly deep dive into the death cap mushroom. O God, they're good. Yeah, they're good.
Speaking of toxic, Bridger welcomes actor and comedian Vinnie Thomas on I said no gifts.
I had to say that was just purely an Allison joke that I could not stop laughing at. Vinnie Thomas is one of the best comedians around. Of course we love Bridger. Why to get Nobody's toxic?
Nobody but everybody, And despite Bridge's explicit instructions, Vinnie arrives with an unsolicited gift. See what happens next by listening to I said, no gifts.
That's right. When you're done with that, you can go over to rewind with Karen and Georgia. That's us Hi. This week, we traveled back to September eighth, twenty sixteen, recapping episode thirty three called What About Mimi, where we covered the Jane Mixer case alongside the co ed killer, and we also covered the unbelievable survival story of Jennifer Maury.
So in honor of the rewind episodes, we've stalked one of our most iconic T shirts. It's one of our earliest, our good friend Kat Solan's T shirt design. Here's the thing, Fuck everyone.
I meant to wear the sweatshirt because I stole one because it is my favorite design, but I couldn't find it. I just think it's in the wall.
No, it's available as a mug or Crew Next sweatshirt. It's a great way to tell all all the parents at pick up what you really think. And it's inspired by episode number twenty eight of Rewind and Karen's telling of the Terry Joe Duperos survival story. Incredible, So get that March my favorite murder dot com.
It's such a good little picture of a little blonde girl sitting on a raft by herself.
Unbelievable. It's a total fan fave, just the greatest.
All right, you go first this week. All right, I'll go.
First this week. Okay, this is just one of those awful stories that we hear all the time. It's one of those unfair stories about someone doing a bad thing and then instead of taking responsibility for it, doubling down and trying to evade that problem via murder, like Selena's story that we told on Rewind recently.
Yeah, you know, this is the eternal human problem. Everybody does it. It's not to the person. It is a human condition of the shame you feel when you do a bad thing or a wrong thing. So you're like, I can't feel this shame anymore. So what I'm going to do right, give somebody else this shame, right, and that'll work. The problem is it never done.
It doesn't. So today's story is about a murder that rock New York City right in the middle of the summer of twenty twenty, remember that, when everyone is still reeling from the early days of COVID. So I don't remember this because I think that there was just so much going on in the news. The main sources for the story are reporting in the New York Times and a really beautiful tribute to the victim written by his sister, Ruby Sleigh. The rest of the sources can be found in the show notes. So it's July fourteenth, twenty twenty, and we're in the Lower East Side of New York City, which, as you know these days, is cool. It's a desirable high end neighborhood. A thirty year old woman is riding the elevator up to her cousin's apartment. Her family had asked her to check on him since they hadn't been able to get in touch with him. Always Bet. The cousin that she's going to check on is named Fahim so Let, and he's thirty three years old. Fahim is an entrepreneur and has found really great success with several startups you know the fun The most recent is a motorcycle delivery app that's widely used in Nigeria. He was born in nineteen eighty six in Saudi Arabia, where his father was a professor at the time. The family is originally from Bangladesh. Then they moved to America when Fahim was four years old, and then it's the classic struggling financially for years while Fahim's father finished his PhD so he could make a life for his children, that classic immigrant story. Wanted better education, better opportunities for their children, and the links struggles they go to achieve that. So. Fahim is a born engineer and is always tinkering with things from an early age. He's one of those kids. My brother was totally like, you get a clock and you take it apart immediately to see how it works, and then you put it back together. Yeah.
I was not one of those to me either.
He learns to code and begins launching little tech startups in his teens.
Wow.
The first one is called Monkey Do and it's quote jokes, pranks, fake poop, fart spray and more for teenagers wait for sale. Yeah, but it's yeah, it's a prank store online.
Yeah, that's okay. Can I just say that the magic shop, It was a magic and pet shop in my hometown. Yeah, the pet stop and they magic and pets, magic and pets, and they sold all that stuff in there. So there was like birds and nothing. I think the guy had a monkey for a little while. Adrian what Adrian and my sister and I talk about the monkey a lot because it was Yeah. But then basically during their late seventies early eighties, they need to kind of expand just like they're not making all their money on selling like a lizard once a week, and so they start getting remember those rubber masks that like you get to get a Reagan mask and they're very lifelike, Like they just started all these rubber pranks and joke franks and the gum And myn extraor neighbor was a real trickster twelve year old, and so he was always like, would you like a piece of gum? You've never seen the brand a right, And so that is like I just love that because that is that age and that's like, what's necessary right now? A stink bond? Right?
What do I want to create and make for other people? This is exactly it, garlic gum right, and this is and it does. It's a really good indication of his personality because this is exactly what he's like. He's bright and funny, he's carefree, he's curious, smart, very smart obviously. And the website performs really well and he actually monetizes it with ads. And this is when he's thirteen. So this is like the late nineties when shit like this, we didn't no one knew to do stuff like this, and a thirteen year old is coding himself. Like I think his parents were freaked out when he got his first check and they're like, what is this from?
And then he like showed them and they're like, all right, my business, my business. Welcome at thirteen.
Yeah. So amazingly, Fahim makes enough money through these kinds of ventures to put himself through college. Wow, So that American dream his parents had paid off, it's already happening.
Yeah in the house.
Yeah Yeah. After college, he finds more success in the prank space with a playful website for generating prank calls, so clearly he's fuck.
He likes that fun, but also like find tapping into an initiative. It's like, what are me and all my friends truly passionate about tricking people?
Prank calls tricky? Like it is that thing of like find a need and fill it. Yep, totally, So he did that, so good. Fahim takes the money he earns from this venture. He wants to now steer aways, getting a little older, from the prank world into more serious ventures. So then he completely pivots and does a one't eighty. Now he's like, look, I want to give other people the opportunity that my parents gave me by moving to the U and getting an education. I want to give that to other people. He just completely pivots from this prank world and becoming this like altruistic person. He wants to give other people the opportunity that his parents gave him. And so he finds enormous success with a ride app based in Bangladesh and then with an app called go Kana, which is a Nigerian motorcycle delivery app and it gives people in Nigerian all these people so many opportunities that they didn't have his company. Later stated quote he believed young Nigerians are extremely bright and talented individuals who would flourish if just given the right opportunity. So the Sleigh family is just obviously bursting with pride over Fahim. And he's known to be particularly kind and generous. So he's thirty three years old and he's close to his family. He had recently gotten his new grown up apartment in the Lower East Side. He's also recently gotten a dog, which is a Pompsky named Layla, who he adores. Just looks like a little husky. It's so and these photos of him with the dogs, like smiling, He's just this like beautiful, bright smile, open face, kind eyes. He's just this like clearly beautiful person. Still despite being an adult, Fahim's father checks in with him every day to make sure he's remembering to eat, because like people like my brother who are obsessed with computers and tinkering, they'll just work through the night and we'll forget to eat. Like my mom used to have to take my brother's keyboard computer keyboard with her to work in the morning so my brother would go to school. This is like elementary school. So Fahim's apartment is in a small luxury condo building with only seven units. There's no doorman, and there's only one apartment on each floor, and it's the kind where the elevator opens to the apartment instead of like a hallway, and you need a key to select your particular floor in the elevator. So when Fahim's cousin gets off the elevator in his apartment and takes a few steps in, she makes just the absolute most horrific discovery.
You can imagine. This story is so awful, and I definitely remember reading about it during quarantine and having it be that kind of very surreal and very kind of isolated experience of like taking it all in and just awful.
And the headlines that they use were particularly horrible. And that's one of the things his sister says in this tribute she she wrote for him on online. You can read it online that these like she's flying across country to like identify her brother, and these like grizzly headlines or all she sees on her computer.
It was a New York Post, of course.
Yeah, yeah, Because the cousin finds Fahim's torso on his living room floor as she walks in. She flees the apartment, calls the police, and when they arrive, the police find Fahim's head and limbs in a garbage bag. They also find an electric sauce still plugged into the wall, and they find cleaning supplies, and it looks like the scene has already been significantly cleaned up, but it looks like someone's in the middle of cleaning up the scene. So Fahim's family is very close knit and they're absolutely obviously destroyed by this news. And this is the summer of twenty twenty, so because of COVID restrictions, Ruby has to identify Fahim's body from a picture, and she just didn't want her parents to have to do it, so she agrees, and she writes, quote, I began to caress his face on the computer screen with my index finger as tears poured down my cheeks. I just wanted to tell him, I'm so sorry, Fahim, I'm so sorry for him, my poor sweet brother, my heart. The medical examiner finds that Fahim's cause of death was from multiple stab wounds to the neck and torso. Again, Fahim's building has no doorman, but there are security cameras in all the common areas, so when the police look back at this footage, they see Fahim returning to the building on July twelfth after going out for a run, and then a man in a black suit wearing a black and ninety five mask in black gloves, who appears to be already inside the building when Fahim walks in, follows him into the elevator, and when the elevator doors open into Fahim's apartment, the man in the suit uses a taser to sub do him and then drags him into the apartment. At first, at least one police source tells the press he believes us to be a hired hit man. They believe that this person was still in the process of trying to get Fihimme's body out of the apartment the next day when his cousin came over to check on him, but the impression that this was the work of a professional quickly changes when police realize that shortly after the murder, the killer had used one of theame's credit cards to take an uber to a nearby home depot to buy extra cleaning supplies. Surveillance video from the elevator shows the man coming back to the apartment with this equipment on July fourteenth, the day I Faim's cousin would later come by. The footage shows him vacuuming inside the elevator. And I didn't know this, but he's vacuuming inside the elevator because there's a chip that's deployed when a taser goes off that identifies the taser. Oh, like a little chip.
Did you know that?
No? I did not on that wild Yeah, I mean that makes sense. It's like it's a weapon.
Someone needs to be able to go and find like where it was, where it happened. It's a weapon.
It's pretty brilliant. Then after the vacuuming, he disappears into Fahim's apartment to begin cleaning the scene and dismembering the body. And then while he's doing this, it turns out that the battery in the saw runs out, and that's why the murderer left to get a new to go to home Deepot to get a new battery. And I, by the grace of God, somehow, this is the point that Fahim's cousin comes into the apartment to check on him, because what would have happened if she had come in any sooner and if that battery hadn't died, you know, I mean it's like, it's a horrible situation, but you know, to look at one positive thing that that didn't happen.
Yeah, thank god.
Yeah, So then police learn something that quickly makes the whole investigation fall into place. They figure out that Fahim's former assistant, a twenty five year old named Tyrese Haspill, had resigned the previous year. He did so right before Fahim realized that Tyrese had stolen thirty five thousand dollars from him by setting up a bogus company and embezzling funds through payments to that fake company. Teresa had originally been hired to keep Fahim's personal finances in order, so he had access to all this information, and after learning about the fafth, Fahim confronted him and then actually declined to press charges and said he wanted to work out a repayment plan with Tyrese. That was the kind of person he was. He was very generous and he was willing to work with him. Yeah, so he wouldn't get in trouble. Well, he probably knew him as a friend. Yeah, I mean that's a very close relationship totally. Well, Fahim didn't realize or what he was possibly about to find out in July of twenty twenty, was that Tyrese had actually continued stealing from him in a separate scheme, even after he didn't work for him any longer. In fact, Tyrese repaid Fahim with Fahim's own stolen money from the second scheme, this one involved fake PAYPA charges. Tyrese had actually stolen an additional four hundred thousand from Fahim.
Wow.
So in twenty twenty, Tyrese had been becoming afraid that Fahim was about to discover that additional theft, which was obviously much larger and probably was going to get him in legal trouble, and had been plotting for months to kill him to prevent getting caught. They find that he had made two other attempts in the recent past to kill Fahim. Whoa, yeah, but he like he didn't go through with them, not that like he would have noticed. Once the police uncovered these two schemes, they realized Tyrese is the man from the surveillance videos, and he's arrested on July seventeenth to just a couple, they went after that quick. Just a couple days later, he's arrested at an Airbnb in Soho, which is about ten blocks from Fahima's apartment, And according to The New York DA, Tyrese had started working on the plot that he went through with about a month in advance. In June of twenty twenty. He bought contractor bags, a swifter mop, and the battery operated saw. He also contacted a real estate broker asking to tour a vacant apartment across the street from Fahim's and somehow he was able to make a copy of the key to that apartment and installed a Nest camera so he could track Fahim's movements from across the street in the apartment.
That seems really advanced, I know, in terms of this kind of planning. It's clearly not a crime of passion, not somebody like you snapped because someone was so awful to you.
It's just very methodical, but also not a professional killer. So it's also very more methodical than you'd think it would be.
Yeah.
So then on July thirteenth, Tyrese followed another resident into Fahim's building at eight thirty am and hid in the package room waiting for Fahim to leave and then return from his run. So, after the murder, he took an uber to Jersey City, getting rid of some of the evidence in trash cans there, and he returned the next day to finish cleaning up the apartment and to dispose of Fahim's body. And that's when he ran out of the battery for the saw. So he when he came back from getting the battery, he saw the police outside the apartment and fled and then he went And then he went through that night with lavish plans he had made for his girlfriend's birthday party that he was throwing. Wow, like just pivoted and went through a party. Yeah, she didn't know what was going on.
Sorry, doesn't it just just thinking about it now because that happened so often where it's like the crime scene's there and then the killer comes back for whatever reason. Yeah, doesn't feel like, well, the police are still there having discovered a crime scene that they should be posting people like a block and two blocks away to be tracking every single person and it comes and immediately goes away.
Or like or just to have a stakeout and not immediately like.
The nest camera up in the old but Airbnb.
Right, No, that's a really good point.
It just or should be in the future because it seems like this is a thing that happened definitely. Yeah, yeah, that's a really good point.
So Teresa's charged with first degree murder, grand larceny, and burglary, among other charges. He's found guilty on all charges in June twenty twenty four and in September of twenty twenty four. This past September, he sentenced to at least forty years in prison. Fahim's family are, of course, still absolutely devastated by the loss of their son and brother. Fahim's sister, in her tribute, writes that quote, sometimes it still doesn't feel real that Fahim is gone, and sometimes it feels too precisely like the cruel, heinous and unbearable reality that it is, letting me see nothing but darkness and feel nothing but piercing pain in every quadrant of my heart end quote. And that is a story of the senseless, greed fueled murder of Fahim salais a self made, brilliant, kind and forgiving young man whose family will never be the same God.
I know. Also, I only knew about that story up until point, because you're right. When it broke, it was like this awful thing, and then it was like and then here's another bigger, scarier awful thing.
And yeah, i's such a quick turnaround too. It's like they got him immediately, and then it was just waiting for the trial.
Yeah, good job, thank you. That was really good. Thank you. Well, I'm going to tell a horrible story as well. Okay, this is how we do it, but mine is definitely very very different than yours. And also you might remember it's from two thousand and five, and it was a bit of a cultural moment, at least in northern California where I was. You couldn't get away from this story for a little while. And recently our writer Alison Agosti reminded me of it, and she sent me this article that basically we'll talk about at the end that started this where I was like, oh, I have to cover this. I completely forgot about it. So it's March twenty second, two thousand and five, And I'm just going to set the scene for you, please. President George W. Bush is waging more in Afghanistan and Iraq. Martha Stewart has just completed her prison sentence for insider trading, and the Hilary Smanke boxing movie A Million Dollar Baby wins Best Picture at the Academy Award. Yeah, just put yourself back there.
What a year. I had the tiniest bangs you've ever seen. Oh, I mean just little tiny bangs.
Oh. I think I was out of Baby Bang's face only because I had stopped drinking. Meanwhile, over in San Jose, California, something very gruesome is unfolding. It's just before seven thirty PM and a woman is seated in the dining room at a Wendy's ready to enjoy some of their fresh hot chili for dinner. She picks up her spoon, dips it into the bowl, and then takes what will be the most consequential bite of food in her entire life. As she begins to chew her mouthful of chili, she describes feeling something quote crunchy in her mouth. It just feels off, so she spits the item out to inspect it. That's so called crunchy item in her chili appears to be a human finger.
Oh, yes, tip or nail tip, hold the entire tip.
Basically, the finger is what we will be calling it from now on in this story. Holy sh not just one of those. Oh I caught the top of my finger off with a knife and it's bleeding. But it's like finger, it's the top of a finger.
No, Oh my god.
These are the very first moments in what will soon become a national media sensation and a costly PR crisis for one of America's biggest fast food chains. This is the story of the Wendy's Severed Finger event of two thousand and five.
God, it's not ringing a bell yet? Really?
Okay? No, amazing? Okay. So the sources Marin used to research the story today are a Snopes article by writer David Michelson and several articles from the Associated Press and from the San Francisco Chronicle, most of which were published in two thousand and five, And the rest of our sources are listed in our show notes. If you want to go see and read. Okay, So Wendy's San Jose, two thousand and five, seven thirty PM. A woman just spits out a fingertip and is quite understandably freaking out. She starts telling the other diners to stop eating their food as she shows off the small finger. It's about an inch long. It does have a fingernail on one end.
I love her type. That's not just like, oh my god. She just starts fucking screaming about eating stopt eating good for her.
And then she rushes up to the restaurant's employees to tell them what's happened. And as she does, as the San Jose Mercury News later reports, at least three people in the dining room become physically ill. Sure, so you're sitting there eating and then someone's like, holy shit, there's a finger in my chili.
And like, that's totally the first time most of them had ever seen a severed finger before. Absolutely, you gotta hope.
You're yeah, for sure, Yeah, you're I didn't think about that at all. You're connecting all these things and then you're just like, and I have just taken a bite of whatever.
Totally, this is horrific, and I love it.
Okay, good, But some of the Wendy's employees seem to be in disbelief. One patron will later tell the Mercury News quote, they told us it was a vegetable. The people from Wendy's were poking at it with a spoon. Oh end quote. But I mean, what are they supposed to do? This is wild? This is like, how are you even saying that this is real? There's no way this is real.
I guess it could be harmony if you look really blurry, you don't have your glasses on.
Hominy doesn't have a fingernail on it. Very true, as far as I know, I shouldn't just say that kind of stuff.
I really should fact check.
I'm going to someday. Okay, So it's very understandable why these employees are questioning what's going on. They are the ones that made the chili. They made it at two pm in the restaurant, or they assembled it. I've made is probably generous, but I'm not exactly sure. But they make it there as usual every day. So no one on the staff was involved in any accidents, no one lost a fingertip. It doesn't make sense that something that shocking is found in the chili from their restaurant, but not everyone was in denial. Someone in that restaurant called the police, and the police will arrive alongside officials from the Santa Clara County Health Department, led by a health officer named doctor Marty Fensterscheib.
Doctor fencher Shibe. At seven thirty on a weeknight, he's at home, Ring Ring Ring, real boring, getting ready for.
Bad crosswood puzzle.
Yeah, like his life isn't that exciting? No? Then the fucking call of a lifetime comes in.
Shup and he puts on his half glasses. Yes, and he says, I've got a feeling that they need my service.
His wife puts his cape on, his children kiss him goodbye.
Doctor Marty Fenstersheib is about to roll, so at his command, the fingertip is quickly wrapped up in damp cause and sent off to the Medical Examiner's office, who is now tasked with determining whether or not it is indeed a human body part. Next, doctor fenster Scheib shuts down the restaurant until he and his officers can figure out what in the living hell is going on. Haired chili that's on site, which had been made at two o'clock that afternoon, as I said, is hauled off for inspection. As are all the ingredients that the restaurant has on hand to prepare any new batches of chili? Right, so they just take all the chili fixings.
Would you know are a plastic I was gonna say that, like they don't chop in fucking dice.
That shit's just going from a bag to a heating thing, right.
I can't say for sure. I really wish I could call my friend Erica Sobol who I went to high school with. She worked at Wendy's four years and she listens to this podcast. Erica, text me, please if you know anything about the preparation for the Wendy's chili. I should have thought of that.
You know that people that people listening right now are going to write in and tell us about their fast food My God, send us your fast food experiences. God, the grossest ones.
But especially Wendy's employees. We want to hear from you in any way. You would like to share with us my favorite murder at email. But I have to say this, well you'll see I won't give anything away right now. But so, it doesn't take long for doctor Fenstersheib and his team to figure out that finger was in fact not severed in the restaurant. None of the employees show any signs of trauma or bleeding, and they don't find any other health or safety issues in that kitchen. Instead, the situation seems contained to that one diner's cup of chili and presumably the larger batch that that cup came from.
Her. She's the luckiest woman in the world or the least unlucky.
Yes, exactly. So a few hours later, this Wendy's is given an okay to reopen, right, no, I mean give it a night, close for the night. And then later that night the local news reports on this story, but it's not given hardly any airtime at all, and they end up by saying the report is unconfirmed, so it's basically just word is that. But the next day the medical examiner confirms what everyone was dreading. The object in the chili is not a vegetable or a prop of any kind. It is a human fingertip. And when that information is sent to the health officer, doctor Fenstershot, he is the unenviable task of informing the public because when the finger was discovered, they made the chili at two. The finger was discovered at seven thirty. That means countless customers could have purchased and eaten from the same batch of chili.
No one's ever getting chili again.
I mean it was truly, that is what happened for a while in northern California. Yeah, because it was just the imprint of it on everyone's mind. That's so. It is the thing of like it doesn't It's like once the story hits it kind of doesn't matter whether or not it's true. Absolutely, kind of like gossip. Yeah, so Marine writes to me in parentheses note to Karen, I haven't been able to find a source that specifically states how many customers purchased the chili that day. It's always in vague terms, and I'm like, no more than.
Four, absolutely not more like there's who, nobody, no one.
I bet you. When the chili first came out in like the eighties, people were like, what a great substance. But you could put it on a potato, potato potato, you can have it with a salad. I think by two thousand and five people are just like chili.
I don't know, Yeah, I.
Could be wrong again, Wendy Heads let me know. So doctor Fenstersheib makes a public statement where he reassures anyone who ate the chili in that timeframe from this specific Wendy's that they are probably fine, since the fingertip was presumably cooked at high enough temperatures to kill bacteria and viruses.
And I just picture him being sea and popping it in his mouth to be like, it's totally fine.
Choo, choo, choo, it's Aaron Brockovich with Then you drink the water. Then you if it's so fine, you drink the water.
You have some chili from yesterday, Marty.
So he advises anyone who may have eaten that chili to check in with their doctor just in case. Imagine having to run that press conference. Oh, just the waves of horrified barfing.
Oh my god, Oh my god.
Just like stand by me at the old pie eating contest. Okay, now that the public health official is confirming the initial reports, of course, then local and national news picks up on the story. The San Francisco Chronicle actually sends a reporter to the Wendy's in San Jose to interview diners, and one woman who happens to be eating a bowl of chili when she's approached by the reporter, tells the reporter she'd heard rumors about the finger, but she assumed it was just an urban legend on news that night, a four day old urban legend. That's denial.
She liked her chili, loves her bucket. Maybe we just didn't know about Wendy's chili. This one's so good that you'll eat it even.
After when you're like, probably not a finger though, right.
And they took care of it already, Yeah, you know.
That's a new batch.
Why didn't they pull all the chili off their fucking the market.
I think they were like, there's no way this happened. Okay, so you know, okay. So another diner hadn't heard the news at all until she got to Wendy's and overheard employees whispering about it behind the counter.
Guys, love it, shut up, she tells the reporter.
Quote, I actually did check my food with my spoon again, was that food? Chili?
Spoke in her murder with his bish.
Chili's being eaten. There's even a customer who walks in, fully aware of this situation and jokingly asks the staff, quote, where's the finger at? Ooh? And then I just wrote in all caps, I love him. I know it's a guy, and I love him. But in the first wave of reporting the story, one key detail is always missing, the name of the woman who discovered the finger in her chili. She explicitly asks not to be identified or described even and reporters honor that request. But of course her identity can't stay secret for long as this story gets wider and wider, and reporters find out that this woman's name is Anna Ayala, and she's a thirty nine year old woman from Las Vegas who was in San Jose visiting relatives. While doctor Fenstership has been trying to give the public peace of mind about any physical effects of consuming the contaminated chili, the psychological fallout, of course, is uncontainable, and he knows this firsthand because he's the one that has to call Anna to give her the bad news. He's been checking in on her since the night before, which is when it happened, but now he has that confirmation from the medical examiner, so we asked to tell her that in fact, it was a human body part in her chili.
She didn't want anyone to know like her name, because it's the same thing when you win the lottery, like your family's just going to come after you for body parts the way they come after you for money, or.
They're just like constantly like, oh, yeahs a finger. So he later says, quote, I had to confirm it to her that she had indeed put a piece of human finger in her mouth. She kind of lost it. Yeah, end quote.
Totally understanding, absoluolutely.
So within a week of her gruesome experience, Anna has completely dropped the pretense of anonymity, and now she's making the media rounds. She gives an exclusive interview to Good Morning America where she says that she's considering filing a lawsuit, and she talks about the emotional distress of the whole Org deal. She tells them, quote the thought of, you know, just knowing that there was a human remain in my mouth, it's disgusting. It's tearing me apart inside end quote. So first, of course, there's this outpouring of sympathy for her, and of course a widespread disgust toward Wendy's and their chili. And then over the next couple of weeks, Anna's story dominates national headlines. It fuels endless late night jokes, which was the culture back then so.
That's not really like a thing anymore. Yeah, it was so tasteless.
It was so well, I mean, it was just expected at the time. It was just like, yes, this is going to happen, and it's immediately going to be this the joke fuel, and you know, everything's up for ridicule. It also though, tanks Wendy's sails, especially in Northern California. I was there. This is the truth. You didn't need it, no, no one. Everyone just was weirded out. But Wendy's is not sitting idly by just watching all this happen. They as a corporation, of course, are looking for answers. This is big business and they're not just going to sit there and be like, we're so sorry. They make all their San Jose staffers take a polygraph test to show that they played no part in placing the finger in the chili Wow, and then they hire their own private investigator to look into the matter for themselves.
Damn Wendy.
Yes. Most importantly, the company posts a fifty thousand dollar reward, which they'll later bump up to one hundred thousand dollars for any information about how a finger could have wound up in their chili.
Oh so they think it's fucking sabotage. Hell yes, and they're ready to pay. They're like, what's the whole story because this seems weird. We have a lot of checks and balances. Yeah, that's one. That's one angle.
Nobody, not one employee at our restaurant knows what the fuck's going right. It was not them. We stand behind them now that we've polygraphed them. And just fyi, in two thousand and five, one hundred thousand dollars would have been one hundred and sixty thousand in today's money.
You need that. This is so big Lebowski with the toe, Yeah.
It is so. Anyone with information is asked to call Wendy's anonymous tip line, which their private investigator is actively screening themselves.
That was like the best gig he's ever got ever.
To be on the Wendy's severed finger tip line. My god, sevid finger tip line. Okay. So, now, in tandem with Wendy's efforts, there's also an official police investigation into where this finger could have come from. And there are six detectives working on this case.
Can we get those on a murder case?
Could we have some sexual assault paid attention to.
Be great, if we could get those kits tested.
Okay, But again, and I think we all know this now in twenty twenty five, literally twenty years later, that when a corporation has an issue, that that is what's focused on. This is a money making venture. And this is not thousands of dollars, this is hundreds of this is millions of them. Probably, So the thing is, no one can figure it out. The employees at the Santos A Wendy's location have all been ruled out. A deeper dive into the restaurant's supply chain also turns up nothing. There are seven different suppliers involved in producing Wendy's chili. Not a single one has reported any recent workplace injuries. That said, there are some clues. Early on, the medical examiner notes that the fingertip is not decomposed, meaning that it was likely severed recently. He also points out that it looks quote torn off, possibly by manufacturing machinery, rather than cleanly cut, suggesting that it could have come from a workplace accident and then with its neatly groomed, still intact fingernail. The medical examiner also suspects this finger belongs to a woman. This information gets the police exactly nowhere. They fingerprinted a fingertip, and then they run so sorry.
Oh my god, I almost split that water outprint at the fingertip.
Who had to hold it and touch it? And were they yelling the entire time? No, Karen, the medical examiner is.
A professional professional.
They deal with this constantly. It's not that big of a deal to them. They run those fingertip fingerprints through national databases. No hits clean, okay, clean record fingertip. Wendy's meanwhile, is now on the defensive. They bring their own forensic expert to consult with the medical examiner, specifically on whether the fingertip had actually been cooked with the chili or added afterwards. Their analysis concludes that the finger had in fact been added later. Okay, doctor fenstersheib loops back into the tel reporters quote. The possibilities are still all out there on where and when the fingertip came into the chili. So they're going to like the health department, the everybody's going back to the press over over like updates and like here's what means to happen. Now, people need to this story needs to be controlled in some way. With each new bit of information that comes to light, Wendy's feels more reaffirmed that they have done nothing wrong and that they're being set up. The corporation's senior vice president of communications at the time, Denny Lynch, tells The New York Times, quote, someone puts something in a bowl of chili, but it was not us. We don't know what happened, but we know Wendy's is innocent. End quote. So Anna Ayala, meanwhile, is not backing down. Her attorney immediately shoots back, saying, quote, obviously something slipped through, to put it lightly, and this is a strict liability type of case. It is a product liability case, and a consumer doesn't expect to find body parts in their food. End quote. So while all of that's playing out in the media, behind the scenes, the Wendy's tip line is active, and in a matter of weeks they reportedly received nearly three hundred tips, and some are so bizarre they end up making the news Oh my God. For example, one comes from a fifty nine year old Nevada woman who'd recently lost a finger to a leopard at her exotic animal compound outside of Las Vegas, which is again where Anna lives. The woman says she last saw her finger on ice at the hospital, but has no idea where it ended up beyond that.
Someone's selling finger tips to No, it doesn't track, doesn't make a lot of sense I'm getting for this lead certainly adds more color to an already weird case, but the police quickly shut it down because the woman's lost finger and the fingertip found by Anna look entirely different. How do you fucking tell two fingerprints?
Come on, I want me to tell you. They put eight fingertips in a lineup. They're all wearing turtleneck.
Which one was in your mouth?
Do any of these look familiar? Long fingernail, little bitten fingernail.
Little quirky, smart, one's got dimples.
Hangnail, smile? Okay. Then a new tip is called into the Wendy's hot Line, Ring, Ring, Wendy's Fingertip hot Line. But it's not about the finger, It's about Anna herself.
Nah.
This caller claims that back in two thousand and two, Anna scammed her by selling her an eleven thousand dollars trailer that she Anna in fact did not own. Oh no, of course this has nothing to do with the Wendy's incident. But if it's true, it could maybe shed some light on the character of the person that is at the center of all of this. It's not a great look for Anna. So around the same time, it comes to light that Anna had been involved in an unusually large number of lawsuits.
Oh no, you can't. We can't do that now, No, people are onto you.
The thing about lawsuits is it goes into the permanent record and the public record.
Yeah, and like most people have zero to one.
Yes, you hope, you'd hope. Okay, So the AP reports quote investigators have found thirteen civil actions involving Aila or her children. At times, it says she has settled cases for cash payouts before the lawlawsuits have gone to court.
Yeah, that's the scam right there.
So now here we are. Also, some of these lawsuits are very shady. In nineteen ninety nine, for example, a car dealership sued Anna and her then boyfriend, accusing them of writing a bad check to buy a car. The same year, Anna sued that dealership claiming a wheel fell off of the vehicle that they had sold to her. Her case was eventually tossed out, and she reportedly never repaid the debt, so she got a car, tried to accuse them of like fell he almost killed us with this thing. They're like, you didn't pay for it. Yeah, it all gets settled out of court. Now people are wondering a fan a plan the whole incident with the hopes of reaching a big settlement with Wendy's.
Now the standing up, screaming thing makes a little more sense.
It kind of Then you're like replaying it in your mind. The movie starts again. You see the scene in a different light. Suddenly it's raining outside. Okay. The police investigation and media coverage begin to shift in that direction, and all eyes are now squarely on Anna Honey. On April sixth, only about two weeks after Anna discovers the fingertip quote unquote, police get a warrant to search her home. When reporters catch wind of this, they swarm Anna's property, hoping to get a statement, and she calls out to those reporters from her front door, saying, quote, lies, lies, lies, that's all I am hearing. They should look at Wendy's. What are they hiding? Why are we being victimized again and again.
Okay, drama queen.
I would like to I wish we could hold up performances side by side and see who's more convincing, because I feel like when people are cornered like this and then they're like, no, we're just going to double down and got gold. Yeah, it's some of the worst acting you've always ever seen.
Why do people think that they can get away with shit like this though, Like they just think they're smarter than everyone, right, yes, yeah, but you're not. It's like, actually kind of dumb.
You think you're smarter than everybody, but also you think you're a really good actor. You think you're a believable actor and a good.
Liar, which is just like no, no, no.
And yet just eight days later on April fourteenth, so she's like, why being victimized? Everything's a lie. Then, on the April fourteenth, her lawyer tells the Associated Press that Anna is no longer pursuing legal action against Wendy's, citing quote great emotional distress because of the investigation and all the media.
You know what, I'm gonna drop it, you know, I just I don't even care forget it. I don't even like want you're chili.
You're just being mean to me. So I guess I will give up this lawsuit where you put a severed finger in my chili.
I don't need a lifetime supply of chili. Like, just just just fine, just get.
It, storm out of the kitchen. You started this fight, lady. About a week later, on April twenty first, both Anna and her husband Jamie are arrested during a raid on their home. There's a colorful detail in the Chronicle story that covers this where they say that Anna is reportedly watching Meet the Fokkers on video when the police arrive.
Okay, just to really think that that's like someone's pr was working overtime or they're like what movie were they put that in.
Paint the whole picture. Maren included that, and she was like a useless yet colorful detail is how she phrased it. So Anna's hit with two charges felony grand theft connected to the allegations that she sold that trailer that wasn't ours.
That thing's coming back in the way.
Oh, they'll pull that right back in just to get as much stuff against her as they can. But the other one, and more importantly is the attempted grand theft for allegedly spreading the fingerhoax at the expense of Wendy's business. Her husband, Jamie is actually arrested the same night, but totally separate. He is not involved in that as far as they know. He's arrested for failing to pay child support to his former partner. So Anna is held on five hundred thousand dollars bail and the plans are in motion to extradite her from Nevada to California for the Wendy's fraud alone, She's facing up to six years in prison and two point five million dollars in restitution, which would be worth more than four million dollars today. Oh So, at this point, the case against Anna is mostly circumstantial. Keeters need more concrete evidence to secure this conviction, and the biggest missing piece is the owner of the fingertips.
Where are her children?
Oh? Oh I didn't even think, oh I.
Was sinking the fingertip belong to one of them.
Oh well, figuring out where it came from could be the key to proving Anna's involvement. On May fourth, another tip comes into the Wendy's hotline. The caller claims to know exactly where the finger came from. He names a man who recently lost part of his finger in a workplace accident in Nevada, who just so happens to work with Anna's husband. Oh shit, Maren's chosen to keep the fingers owner anonymous since he was never charged with a crime, So I support her in that choice. So San Jose police head to Nevada to question this man, and sure enough, he's missing a finger, which he explains he lost in an on the job accident not long ago. Then he drops a bombshell. He admits that he sold his severed finger to Anna's husband for one hundred dollars to settle a debt.
You didn't question why someone wants your fucking severed finger.
Look, he wants that dead off the books.
I'd just be like, sure, I would fucking sell my severed finger. What aren't you?
Absolutely yeah? I mean, no questions asked, I guess NQA. So but not only that, Jamie allegedly told them that he and Anna planned to plant it in food, and according to legal filings, Jamie even promised him a cut of the eventual settlement two hundred fifty thousand dollars as long as he kept quiet.
How many night lights have they had that night? Though, dude like he didn't. I'm on the sky side, Like.
I am too. It's the finger. Guy was kind of like, well, this horrible thing happened to me. I don't have the top of my finger. They said they can't put it back. Yeah. I owe this guy big time. He says. He if I just give him the finger, and then maybe a little more later on, I don't know. And then as it unfolds, he's like, oh Jesus Christ, I have to call these people. Thank God, there's a tip line one eight hundred Frosty. Oh my God, call now. Okay. So now authorities soon confirm with DNA that the finger belongs to this man. So now the case against Anna Ayala and her husband Jamie is solid. In September two thousand and five, about six months after the whole saga began, the couple pleads guilty to conspiracy to file a false claim and attempted grand theft. Jamie sentenced to twelve years while Anna gets nine, although later the nine is reduced to four on a legal technicality. As a part of their sentencing, the couple is ordered to pay Wendy's more than twenty million dollars in damages come on, which would be over thirty million dollars today, but the company agrees to let them off the hook for this money as long as they never attempt to profit off of their hoax.
Damn they should have put them in their commercials. That would have been fucking hilarious.
It's so wouldn't have as a person who was there, as a person who was there having to kind of like grapple with this weird Like, I know it's not Bob, but also is this? Is this how we are this vulnerable to just kind of anything.
Anyone wants to tell us anything?
Okay. Even though Wendy's is ultimately vindicated, Anna and Jamie's scam cost them dearly. The New York Times reports quote the claims and the mass of news media attention it brought caused individual franchises in northern California to lose twenty to fifty percent of their sales. According to the Affidavid Wendy's estimated it has been losing a million dollars a day since the incident was made public on March twenty second, So in a desperate attempt to win customers back, Wendy's launches a free Frosty weekend promotion, but the financial hit goes beyond corporate losses. Business at the San Jose Wendy's drops so drastically that several employees lose their jobs or have their hours cut. Over time, though Wendy's more or less moves on, so do Anna and Jamie, who eventually serve their sentences. We don't know much about their lives posts the Wendy's hoax, especially for Jamie, who returns completely to a private life never hear from him again. But in twenty thirteen, Anna's back in the headlines that June, her twenty six year old son accidentally shoots himself in the ankle with a gun, which he is not allowed to possess because he is a convicted felon. But instead of just telling the truth, he and Anna file a false police report claiming he was shot by an unknown gunman. An officer working the case later tells ABC News quote, they gave pretty specific information to the point we actually thought we had a suspect. We interviewed this person, we conducted various forensic testing as far as gunshot residue goes, so we treated it like the real deal.
End quote.
Eventually, under police questioning, Anna's son admits that they made the whole story up. They are both arrested and ultimately convicted on charges related to filing the false report. So then again. For years, things are quiet until July tie, when The New York Times publishes an article with the innocuous title quote, Harris narrows gap against Trump. Times Siena poll finds. It's a standard piece on the latest twenty four presidential polling until people find buried within it a quote from a fifty eight year old San Jose woman that catches their attention. She tells the Times quote, I'm a Democrat, but I've changed my mind after everything that's happened with Joe Biden's administration. I mean, the border situation is out of control. End quote. That woman is Anna Ayala. It doesn't take long for people to put two and two together. A senior editor at The Atlantic Screen grabs the Times article and tweets quote the latest NYT poll right up quotes the woman who was convicted of planting a severed finger in her Wendy's chili Jesus, And of course that goes viral, and The New York Times, now fully in damaged control mode, issues a retraction saying quote The Times removed comments from one voter in an earlier version of this article after learning that the person had been convicted in an extortion scheme in which she made fraudulent claims. Quote. So with that, some twenty years since the first grabbing headlines alongside that quote crunchy fingertip, this bizarre story of Anna Ayala comes to rest for now. Anyway, that tweet and then the accompanying article is what Allison sent me when she was like, hey, in just in case, just you know, keeping up with stuff. Did you know that this was going on? And that's when I sent it to Maren and I was like, oh my god, we have to tell the story. Yeah, And that is the story of the Wendy's severed finger hoax of two thousand and five.
I still have so many questions. I know, was it actually ever in her mouth? Did she have to go through? Was there a crunch?
I bet no, There's no way you would do that if you napkin, Yes, Fike s bidding already in Napkin, unless she went all the way with it.
Well you kind of got it. You know, when you tell a lie, it's best to get as close to the truth as possible.
How close are you willing to get?
No? Not that fucking close. Wait did anyone get the reward money? That's what I want to know too.
Oh, that's right, like so many questions. Yeah, I wonder, Well, but I think the person whose finger it was, if he called the tip line.
He should get the money.
No, should he? He was part of it was he was Think of the diners. Think of what the diners who heard her screaming and began projectile in that Wendy's dining room. Think of what they would want.
Okay, they should get the money. Let's get them the money. I mean, Jilli, we could yeah, lifetime, Jilli, Yeah, fix it.
That's how you reverse it. It's all so upsetting.
Oh man, that was one for the ages that reminds me of one that like, if you're going on a road trip with someone who doesn't listen to my favorit, play that one, play this one for them?
Yes, you know for sure, just like just do it. I mean I feel like there was like when we do that and just go through. It's like not just hometowns, but just like do you remember weird stuff from your childhood? It's like, that's how like thinking of those stories where I was like, I remember when this happened, and it was we would make jokes as we would drive by a Wendy's. We were constantly at like.
Let's talk about it.
Yeah, please, I don't think I ever stopped going to Wendy's. Sash It's fine, it's so good.
There's no fingers.
Well, that's the show. Ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you guys for listening on your road trip. We appreciate you.
Now that I'm thinking about it. This should I have done a warning at the beginning of this story?
What about chili? No, that's fine.
Do you hate chili? Don't?
It's called my favorite murder. So like, if you can't handle a finger chili story, then.
Get out of our kitchen where we're chopping off fingertips left, right, and center. We love you, stay sexy, I don't get murdered.
Good Bye, Elvis. Do you want a cookie?
This has been an exactly right production.
Our senior producer is Alejandra Keck.
Our managing producers Hannah Kyle Creighton.
Our editor is Aristotle Oscevedo.
This episode was mixed by Leona Scualace.
Our researchers are Mareon mcclashan, and Ali Elkin.
Email your hometowns to My Favorite Murder at gmail dot com.
Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at My Favorite Murder. Bye Bye,
