Investigators in Lebanon’s Information Branch of the Internal Security Forces have broken the case of the serial murders that has rocked Lebanon and claimed the lives of 11 men over a period of several months in the northern Metn district, east of Beirut.
Police raided the suspects’ home at midnight, led there by a stolen cell phone. By 2:30am agents arrested five brothers from the same family, two of them suspected of committing the 11 murders.
Policed named the two suspects as Michel and George T. Investigators said their first crime was seven months ago when they killed their neighbor, Malika Toufic, an old woman who lived in Nabaa. They shot her in the head with a 7mm pistol to rob her, security personnel said.Investigators said the brothers found killing easy. They hunted their victims in order to rob them, with taxi drivers and passengers being easy targets. All the crimes occurred in the Metn district between Sin el Fil and Nahr el-Mot (Death River).
Security agents said the two brothers would stop a cab and ask the driver to take them somewhere. George would sit next to the driver and Michel would sit in the back. On the way, George would ask the driver to stop in an alley so he could relieve himself. As the younger brother began to disembark, Michel in the back would shoot the driver in the head.
They would then take most of the victim’s money, leaving behind a small sum to mislead authorities into thinking the murders were not motivated by theft.
Detectives said a cell phone helped break open the case that had confounded investigators for months. The Information Branch was able to track the phone of a corporal in the Lebanese army murdered last Friday.
Detectives traced the phone to a man named Habib H and his son, and upon their arrest, the man reported buying the phone as a gift for his son from his neighbor George. Police ascertained George had stolen the phone.
When investigators searched George’s home they found a 7mm pistol inside a stove along with other hidden weapons. Detectives said the fingerprints on the trigger matched those on the bullet capsules and shells found at the crime scene.
When investigators searched George’s home they found a 7mm pistol inside a stove along with other hidden weapons. Detectives said the fingerprints on the trigger matched those on the bullet capsules and shells found at the crime scene.
Police interrogated George and his brothers Michel, Aziz, Mousa and Maurice, who initially claimed innocence, but after 12 hours of continuous questioning detectives said one of the brothers broke down.
Michel confessed that he and his brother George committed the 11 murders, that he was the one who shot the victims while George distracted them, police said.
Michel said poverty and despair drove him to commit the murders that terrorized the Metn area, as he and his brothers live in destitute conditions, police said.
These serial type murders are a first for Lebanon and an unnerving development for the Metn area, where the victims were found either strewn along the road or inside cars with a bullet behind the ear.
Detectives came to refer to the murderer as “the taxi driver killer” because most of the 11 victims worked as cab drivers.
There were no political or sectarian connections between the victims and they did not know each other. The only thing they have in common is that they are all male and some of them drove taxis.
The Killings
According to the security reports, one of the first of the serial murders occurred on September 9 this year. At 7:30am, a body of an unidentified man in his 50s or 60s was found bleeding from the head. The body was thrown by the highway between the Sunday flea market and Sagesse University.
The incident was put down to an unidentified offender as the detectives found no clues leading to the killer. Two days later, Hussein H (born 1975) was found shot in the head, inside his Mercedes cab parked under a bridge. Hussein was taken to a hospital but died shortly after arrival.
On October 28, the body of an unidentified man in his 50s was found with two bullet wounds, one in the head and one in his left leg. Next to the body were two bullet shells from a 7mm pistol. The police report recorded the reason for the murder as unknown. It later turned out the man was Albert N (52), from Akkar, North Lebanon. The victim worked as a security guard at the Voice of Lebanon radio station in Achrafieh. Mr N was robbed of over US$5,000 with which his brothers said he had intended to buy a new car to use for his commute.
That same morning, the body of Shakir A (born 1963) was found with a shot to the head. Next to the body was another 7mm bullet shell. Preliminary investigations indicated that the victim’s taxi was stolen. The security forces found the car, a black Renault-Clio completely burned out under the Bourj Hammoud bridge.
The survival of one victim who was shot provided one of the first breaks in the case. The man was found alive on the side of the road and was taken to a hospital, where he gave testimony describing the suspects.
The victim said the suspects stopped the taxi driver and asked him to take them somewhere for LL50,000. He agreed and as soon as they got in the car, they drew a gun at him forcing him to change direction. When they got to an alley, they ordered him to stop.
He tried to wrestle them but they fired, wounding him. The two then threw his body in the street. Thinking he was dead, they left, the victim said.
The man was not able to provide detailed descriptions of the assailants.
One of the final victims of the killing spree was a soldier in the Lebanese army, picked up by the pair in a taxi whose driver they had previously murdered, police said.
The last victims were killed a couple of days ago. The body of a man in his 50s was found on the side of the road with a shot to the head last Friday. Suzan K identified her brother Hagop, who worked as a taxi driver, and identified his belongings at the police precinct. A police patrol found his car and the Criminal Evidence Division was charged with the investigation.
The same day, the body of Lebanese army corporal Ziad D. (born 1981) was found thrown in a street in Sin el Fil with a bullet to the head. The Criminal Evidence Division found white powder in the victim’s pocket. The corporal had been driving a Renault Megane that was stolen by unidentified assailants.
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