TikTok Star Killer: Ali Abulaban | Murder in Mind | Forensic Files

[tense music] - You better get out of his way. There's a bad guy coming through.
Yo. Yo, this is crazy, right? What are the chances? - He had almost a million followers on TikTok.
- It almost seems as if he thinks he's untouchable. RACHEL MILLER: He was funny.
He was confident. Instantly, she fell in love with him. [gripping music] - Not only do you have a double murder in San Diego,
but also the killer is a TikTok star. - This is a highly controlling and abusive
man who cannot face rejection. - Someone who was trying to be funny, impersonating violent killers, and ultimately
became one of those killers. OFFICER: Oh, [bleep]! We got two down. We got two down.
[theme music] [intense music] [pensive guitar music] - Ali Abulaban was born May 18 in 1992
in Staten Island, New York. ALI: So I was born in New York. My parents moved me out when I was two years old to Virginia.
So I grew up in Virginia my whole life. - Ali's parents are Palestinian, and they came to America as immigrants.
ALI: I'm first-generation American. I want it to be American. I want it to be how my friends were.
- Ali grew up in a Middle Eastern family where they had very strict religious rules.
What he's talked about a lot is that his father was emotionally and physically abusive,
not only to him, but also to his mom. ALI: Very early on, we had this fear instilled
in us that if we did something wrong, our father would find out. Don't tell dad.
Things of that nature. So I wasn't sure why, but I was already scared of my father
before I fully understood. [tense music] - It's very difficult to grow up trapped between two cultures.
His father is a very strict Muslim. Not only that, but his father is abusive. If you are a child who is subject to physical abuse,
although it's not inevitable, you can grow up to have all manner of emotional difficulties.
You can have heightened levels of fear, of anxiety. You can struggle in relationships.
[tense music] ALI: I kept getting in trouble in school. Just the outbursts or being the class clown.
I didn't know when enough is enough. - Ali said he would get bullied in school because he had bigger
ears and he just looked different from some of the other people that were in his classes.
- My ears, it's not going to be a problem. We could use tape. You know what I'm saying?
Look, look. OK, now-- now I don't have ears, OK? But it's cool, you know, because I
got cute Mickey Mouse ears. You know, I get to go into Disneyland for free, so--
like, I know I got satellite dishes for ears, you know, but I get SiriusXM. I get 93.9, WKYS.
Yo, I get all this radio stations for free. RAIN: I think he was trying to make people laugh
with him rather than at him. I think this is kind of, like, a coping strategy for him,
a survival skill, if you will. [tense music] ZARA BARKER: Ali was like every other American kid
despite growing up in a Middle Eastern, strict religious household. He wanted the same toys that his friends had.
And he specifically wanted this Darth Vader mask that changed his voice, and he kept begging his mom for it.
His father seemed to be against the idea of buying him this toy. ALI: He didn't like the fact that it was
kind of childish in his mind. I think I was about 14, 15. And his response to me pestering my mother
to purchase this for me was to grab the vacuum cable and whip me repeatedly. And that was the worst pain I've ever felt physically.
I literally would beg him to stop. And he's asking me, why are you [bleep] crying?
Why are you crying? As he's whipping me. [tense music] - When you're subjected to violence of this type,
you can really go in two directions. You can either think to yourself, I don't want to ever become this man,
I'm going to do something very, very different, or you can start to identify with the person who
abuses you and think, well, OK, maybe this is what masculinity is about. It's about control of the children.
It's about control of the women in my life. ALI: After I graduated high school, a lot of my friends
were taking a break. I wanted to do that. I wasn't allowed to. I mean, I was dragged to the nearest community college
and forced to sign up. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I didn't know what to do with my life.
RAIN: Ali would say that he had ADHD and it was kind of keeping him from being able to concentrate and focus.
He found college pretty difficult. And he had to leave college because he couldn't really concentrate with his ADHD problems.
- College is [bleep]. I'm a college dropout [bleep]. [light music] ZARA BARKER: After Ali dropped out of college,
he enlisted in the military, in the Air Force, and he got stationed in Okinawa, Japan.
[light music] RACHEL MILLER: Okinawa is probably the most beautiful place to be in this world.
It's a small island, an hour away from the Philippines. It's pretty much run by military.
Kadena, which is in Okinawa, is the second biggest Air Force base in the world. [gripping music]
ALI: Initially, it was beautiful. It was amazing. I mean, the culture, the people, all that,
everything was beautiful. I was proud to be in the military. [hopeful music] RACHEL MILLER: Ana was definitely a light
as far as being a friend. She was a happy-go-lucky, nerdy gamer girl. She loved her video games, and she loved being around friends.
It was what made her happy. [bright music] Ana met Ali in Okinawa around the beginning of his career.
Ana was married to one of his coworkers, and their marriage was not working out.
It being a small community, friends introduced friends. Instantly, she fell in love with him.
Ali was funny. He was confident. He was everything she wanted to be. [light music]
ZARA BARKER: In the very beginning of Ana and Ali's relationship, there were already a lot of signs
that he was controlling and possessive of Ana. He didn't like when any of her guy friends
would compliment her, and he would even try and stop her from going out. RACHEL MILLER: He didn't like other people even looking
at her, and it was almost like he was in competition with her. TAREN BRAST: In August of 2015, there
were police reports regarding Ali Abulaban being drunk and hitting Ana and trying
to grab her and control her. And Ali ended up driving away from the scene while he was drunk.
And so there were charges that were brought against Ali Abulaban in the military,
and he was other than honorably discharged. [tense music] - When Ali assaults Ana, this is the first time
that we know of that he's engaged in intimate-partner violence. And in this moment, there's the potential for him
to learn that this is something that shouldn't be done, for him to be punished, for him to have legal consequences.
But that doesn't happen. And so instead, what it could be he's learning here is, maybe I can get away with this.
[tense music] ZARA BARKER: After Ali was discharged, he moved back to Virginia. Ana moved to the Philippines.
And shortly after that, Ana found out she was pregnant. RACHEL MILLER: When Ana found out she was pregnant,
she was definitely nervous and scared, because she didn't know what she was going to do.
She was living with her mom and her stepdad in their home in the Philippines. And Ali convinced her that they would get married
and they would build a life in America. [hopeful music] In 2016, Ana and Ali's daughter was born,
and Ali flew down to the Philippines for about three months to meet his daughter and
experience living with Ana. ZARA BARKER: When their daughter was nine months old,
Ana's visa got approved. So they moved to Northern Virginia, where Ali's family lived.
Ana and Ali got married. They bought a house, and they were starting their family life together.
[light music] ALI (VOICEOVER): Hello, sir. Can we speak to Ali? - Who? Oh, no, he died. I'm sorry.
ALI (VOICEOVER): Oh, that's unfortunate. - No, he dead. He went [snorts], you know?
ALI (VOICEOVER): We just spoke to him on the phone. - OK, don't live here. OK? ALI (VOICEOVER): OK, all right, thank you.
- Back in, like, 2016, 2017, Ali started making online videos-- - One month watching "Scarface," the greatest
movie I ever seen in my life. You're not going to find a better movie. - --making impersonations and impressions
of political figures, other musicians, and movie stars. - What can I get for you today?
(DEEP, RASPY VOICE) I'll take your mocha. (NORMAL VOICE) OK, and what size? (DEEP, RASPY VOICE) A large.
(NORMAL VOICE) You mean a venti? (DEEP, RASPY VOICE) No. I meant a large, [bleep].
- Ali always loved to make other people laugh, and being able to have that outlet on social media,
it just made it so accessible for him to get that in the attention that he wanted.
- You guys aren't real. - Are you kidding me, Owen? - No, I'm serious. - Nah, I'm real as [bleep].
- Both of you guys are characters that I play. - So you're telling me that you're me?
- Well, no. You're me. OK, I'm you. Who is he? - He's me. - He had about 40,000 followerr, but it quickly grew
over to like, about 100,000. And from there, it just rapidly started growing. [upbeat music]
He went by JinnKid online. - What's up, you guys. This is JinnKid here. - Guys, make sure you follow his Instagram, @JinnKid
- JinnKid, J-I-N-N-K-I-D. MAN: Yup. Everybody follow @JinnKid. - This guy has a whole YouTube channel where
he posts these all the time. Like, I was sitting there crying, laughing at his channel.
- Is that the name of it, JinnKid? - JinnKid, yeah. [happy music] RAIN: The Islamic religion, jinn
is an unseen and typically unknown being, and it's not really something that is good nor bad.
And I think with all these persona, he didn't want to be portrayed as either good or bad, but just
someone who is making people laugh. ANA: (LAUGHING) Stop. It's stupid. ANA: [laughs]
No. - [laughs] It's [bleep] funny. - One of his most, like, famous lines was "need something,"
which is from the video game "Skyrim," when a non-playable character, or an NPC,
is essentially glitching and saying "need something" over and over again because you just ran into it
or ran past the character. RAIN: People loved his skits. I mean, they just couldn't get enough of them.
And he would write back to the fans and, you know, heart-react all of their messages.
You know, he really loved the attention. When you start getting a lot of positive attention online,
it's like an adrenaline rush, and you're just constantly chasing it and trying to see what the next big thing that you can do is.
[tense music] Ana would appear in some of these videos. Her hand was commonly used as, like, the POV hand.
In the video game "Skyrim" skits as well as, you know, some of the Tony Montana skits, she was usually playing,
you know, a beautiful woman that Tony Montana is trying to impress. [sinister music]
Ali felt pretty validated by that blue check mark. He felt like things were really taking off at that point,
and he felt like there was no looking back and he was unstoppable. - No, no, no!
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm verified on Instagram. I got the blue check mark and everything, man.
[tense music] TAREN BRAST: Ana and Ali lived in Virginia for several years, but Ana had a lot of friends from Japan and from high school
that lived in San Diego. And so Ana and Ali visited San Diego in August of 2020.
Ana loved San Diego, loved the lifestyle, loved the beautiful scenery, all that San Diego has to offer.
And Ana would tell Ali that she wanted to move here. - Even though Ali didn't want to go to San Diego right away,
Ana convinced him. And Ali saw the opportunity that was in front of him. Ali was close to LA.
He could collaborate with more social media personalities, and he really saw the idea that his social media
presence could grow. Ana and Ali moved with their daughter to San Diego in February of 2021.
[bright music] - They moved into a apartment complex called Spire San Diego. It was a new, modern high-rise building,
and it had beautiful views of the Bay and of downtown San Diego. [curious music]
- They posted a video online with a caption that said, "When your relationship is drama free,"
and it shows this perfect couple living a gorgeous life, showing videos of them dancing around
their high-rise apartment to spending time together with their daughter. And everything really did seem perfect.
When Ali and Ana moved to San Diego, they got more involved in a party lifestyle
than they were used to in Virginia. - Hey! - They started going out, going to clubs together with friends,
and they started doing drugs a lot more than they had, specifically doing a lot of cocaine.
[tense music] - Ali was telling me that it was making him feel more euphoric and it was helping him to accomplish
more in some of his content. But on the other hand, he would have some breakdowns
from his cocaine usage. He realized it was becoming a problem. [light piano music]
Ali had almost a million followers on TikTok. When Ali got millions of views, he was just,
like, so excited and happy. He was like screaming in happiness. But whenever his videos weren't doing so well,
he just kind of wanted to withdraw a little bit. He was just pretty low about it.
- "Holy, [bleep] I've missed you, JinnKid. It feels like it's been ages." It has been ages.
I have not felt like a JinnKid in a long time. - But the numbers going up and down
is really playing a number on his mental health. - Oh, no. Do you wanna play nice?
OK, I play with you. RAIN: Ali's personality started changing from just, like, cheerful, happy and joking
to more of that self-sabotage humor. - I have a condition that nobody knows about,
but I'm ready to share it. It's called Tony Montana Tourette's. [tense music] RACHEL MILLER: Around May of 2021,
Ali found out that his mother was leaving their family for another man. Ali felt that his mother was abandoning her whole family,
and he is in disbelief that all the values that he knows just went out the window.
Ali felt resentment towards his mother for having an affair and abandoning his family, so he took it out
on Ana instead of his mother. [tense music] - It's rare that we direct the anger
that we store onto the person or persons that it's actually meant for. Ali's response to his mother leaving his father,
and in his mind abandoning the family, speaks to how he views women and, of course,
would have carried through into how he would have viewed Ana. He would have been looking at her and thinking, well,
do you meet my core values? You know, to what extent are you behaving in the way
that I expect for a woman to behave? - Ali often made audio recordings of arguments that he had with Ana, disagreements they had.
ANA: Give me my phone back. Enough! Ali, enough! [door slams] Ali! ALI: Stop. ANA: Give me the [bleep] phone.
ALI: Stop. ANA: Give me my [bleep] phone back. ALI: Close the door. ANA: You're hurting my [bleep] finger!
ALI: You're out of control. ANA: Give me my phone. You're the one out of control!
I'm trying to leave this house! ALI: Yeah. That's not cool. ANA: Give me my phone.
ALI: With a bunch of guys? ANA: Give me my phone. ALI: A bunch of guys, huh? ANA: Give me my phone.
There's no guys. Give me my phone. This is not [bleep] healthy, man. ALI: You're not healthy, [bleep].
- Everything that Ali was saying to Ana was actually a reflection of how he felt about his mother.
ALI: Look how lame you are. KERRY DAYNES: Ali is recording what you would think would be private moments,
and he's recording arguments and discussions that he has with Ana. And I think that he's doing this because there's a level
of-- of paranoia setting in. It's a very worrying escalation in his behavior. [tense music]
- There was an incident in July of 2021 when Ali got into an argument with Ana, and he ended up punching her multiple times in the face.
She had a bruised eye. She had swelling on the right side of her face. Meanwhile, Ali was sending Ana messages,
telling her he loved her. He just lost control, and he wouldn't do it again and that he would get help.
[phone dings] Ali was able to convince Ana to stay with him, stay in their marriage.
She had left the home for a couple of days but ultimately came back. [gripping music]
DISPATCHER: State your emergency. - You're not even an American citizen. I brought you to this goddamn country.
Name one man that would do that [bleep] for you, [bleep]. [bleep] women, man. Ungrateful [bleep].
- Oh, great. You're on the phone with police while I said that? Wow. - This my [bleep] [bleep].
I dedicate my life to her. One day she wakes up, she don't [bleep] love me no more.
I'm [bleep] out here. ANA: Stop lying to them, Ali. ALI: No, it's the truth. You're a [bleep] test.
Shut the [bleep] up. [tense music] - San Diego Police Department arrived at this fire
apartment complex. I think he just left the house. OFFICER: He just left? Is it just you? - It's just me.
My daughter's here. OFFICER: Did you say he took off? - Yeah, he just took off. OFFICER: What was the fight about?
- So it's been happening for, like, the last, I would say, two weeks. It was just a lot of verbal stuff.
OFFICER: Just a lot of verbal stuff? OK. How about tonight? ANA: It was physical tonight. OFFICER: It was physical?
How did he hit you? - Like, if he's facing me, then he'd just push me this way. I fell and hit my head here.
OFFICER: Let me just get a full-body picture, and then I'll move on to your injuries, OK?
[camera shutter clicks] TAREN BRAST: She had a scrape on her elbow. She had a bruise on her leg.
She had some pain to her head. And that was the first time that she herself made a report to the police about domestic violence.
[gripping music] KERRY DAYNES: Ali is so entitled at this point. He is so emboldened, and possibly disinhibited
due to the long-term effects of drug use, that he's livestreaming his abuse of Ana.
And it is very, very telling to his state of mind. He is berating her. It is because of me that you are actually in this country.
You owe me. Therefore, I own you, and you have to behave in the way that I expect.
Otherwise, there are going to be consequences. JULIA SHAW: He knows deep down that hitting a woman
is definitely always wrong, and yet he's doing it. And so he is choosing to override his own better
judgment, his own feelings, and not get help and to engage in this violence anyway.
[gripping music] RAIN: Ali is going in a downward spiral. I mean, his addiction was increasing to the cocaine,
and his marriage problems were getting worse. Everything was breaking down. [gripping music]
ANA: Who is she? I don't know. Who is she? She was obsessed? - Ana had found out that Ali cheated on her with a girl
he met in an elevator. ANA: Why do you play these games, Ali? You want a marriage where you're playing these games,
that you're [bleep] somebody else. ALI: What game? ANA: That you're [bleep] somebody else.
ALI: I have another option. - During September and October of 2021, Ali continued to seek out other women,
either through social media or through escort services. ANA: How do I break your heart, Ali,
when you're telling me you're [bleep] some other girl [bleep]. ALI: [bleep] stripper, too.
If you don't want to be with me, you don't have to [bleep] me. I have no use for you.
I have no use for you. [pensive music] RACHEL MILLER: Ana hosted a TikTok mentioning that for seven years,
she's been dealing with abuse and cheating. After Ana had found out everything, she was hurt.
She was done. It was like everything that she had been holding on to in her marriage went out the window.
And she left. [tense music] KERRY DAYNES: Ana has made the decision that she's ready to leave.
This is the time when the risk to her increases massively, because it's going to be such a threat to Ali's sense of masculinity,
sense of control over her. And if there's another person who comes into the picture,
then it's losing even more control. [tense music] RACHEL MILLER: Ray was a sweet, kind-hearted soul.
There was no angry bone in his body. From the moment he met Ana, he saw her light,
and Ana ended up building a relationship with him. - Ray was a very hardworking man.
He worked in construction with his brother. ZARA BARKER: Rayburn Barron was inside of Ana's friend group.
He was often out with them at restaurants, at clubs, going out. And Ali didn't like him from the beginning.
ANA: When we moved here, I didn't want you to be close to Ray. I saw that they were bad people and
that they had their [bleep] tongues melting before you. They wanted to [bleep] you so bad.
And what do you do? You follow them, and you party with them. That tells me your character.
You are [bleep] trash. - Ray said that Ali was lucky to have a woman like Ana as his wife.
Ali, being the jealous person that he is, immediately didn't like Ray after that.
RACHEL MILLER: Ray was a gentleman. The way he spoke to women was so delicate. He was respectful.
It seemed like Ana and Ray were falling in love with each other. [gripping music]
He had begged her, just please, can we have a family dinner? She agreed. Ana is trying to leave, and he gets in the car.
ALI: You've been sucking me dry for everything I got. ANA: There is nobody. ALI: There has to be.
ANA: Can you get out of my car before I [bleep]? I swear to God, you're going to do some crazy [bleep].
Get out of the car, please. ALI: Who are you calling? ANA: The [bleep] police. ALI: Why?
ANA: Because you need to get the [bleep] out of my car and my life. [screams] You can hear them arguing, and you can hear Ali hit Ana.
And she screams. And that was in front of their child. [tense music] Ana wanted to get a restraining order against Ali, as he
wouldn't leave her alone. ALI: I want to know what's going on. Talk to me. Respond to my text.
You said you're not going out tonight. You lie to me all the time. Are you with another man?
Just let me know so I can leave! Let me know! Are you with another man? There's no way that you lost love for me just overnight!
- Ali was essentially stalking her and constantly texting her and calling her. ALI: Hey, Ana.
I just want to say good morning. I've been sitting here for, like, an hour or two.
And I just went through all of the audio recordings that I have of us arguing. I'm an idiot.
I'm so sorry. I'm so [bleep] sorry. I get it, why you're sick of me. I get it, why you don't want to see me.
Yeah, I just need to be responsible for what I did. I just want to let you know I'm learning, and I see the--
I see the truth. And I do very much love you. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all this.
So-- [tense music] ZARA BARKER: Ana and their daughter were living at a friend's house.
But Ali decided that he was going to leave the apartment so Ana and their daughter
could have the apartment to themselves, and he was going to stay at a hotel in San Diego.
[tense music] TAREN BRAST: Ali was trying to get Ana back, making another effort to try to keep her
with him in their marriage. He sent her groceries and flowers and a pumpkin to the apartment.
RACHEL MILLER: Ana gets her daughter ready for school, takes her to school. And after she had lunch with some girlfriends,
she went back to the apartment, and the whole apartment was vandalized. [dramatic music]
[gripping music] - In the police department's mind, the suspect is probably still either in the area
or in the building or maybe even in the apartment. [gripping music] - At 3:13 PM, officers had to do an emergency breach
of the apartment because no one was answering, and they knew that someone was shot inside.
OFFICER: Stand by, stand by, stand by, stand by - Yep. Sorry. Go left. OFFICER: We gotta clear.
Oh, [bleep]. We got two down. We got two down. Merge the entry. I need a team. CAMERON JACKSON: The police officers make
entry at the Spire apartment. They find two bodies-- One male, one female-- on the couch.
OFFICER 1: Hey, bathroom's clear. Slow down, slow down. Slow down. Hold on. Hey.
OFFICER 2: --clear the bathroom. OFFICER 1: I already cleared. I already cleared it.
OFFICER 3: I'm here. OFFICER 2: Clear that room right there. OFFICER 3: All right. OFFICER 1: Bathroom's clear.
Bathroom's clear. OFFICER 2: Mark that room. OFFICER 1: I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it.
I got a closet. I got a closet. All right, room's clear. Room's clear. TAREN BRAST: They're trying to find out
who lives there, who the suspect could be, who the shooter could be. OFFICER 1: Hold on. We got a balcony.
We got a balcony. [suspenseful music] We're clear. We're clear. We're clear. OFFICER 2: [muffled speech]
OFFICER 1: Wait. OFFICER 2: Anyone got out? OFFICER 1: Hey, stand by. Hey, once this place is clear, we're going
to need to hold the evidence. We need to clear out and just hold it off. - Don't move anything. - Don't fire.
OFFICER 4: Have you guys checked to see how-- OFFICER 2: Guys, have we checked--
OFFICER 4: --any chance of breathing? - Any breathing? OFFICER 2: Have we checked pulse, guys?
- No. OFFICER 4: Check pulse. OFFICER 2: Check pulse. It sounds like there's a third shooter.
Someone came here and shot them. That's the guy that he's describing. [gripping music]
TAREN BRAST: The police learned that Ali also lived in that apartment and that he
had a Jeep that he drove that was registered to the apartment. And so now the police are out looking for this black Jeep.
[gripping music] ALI: Did they-- did they get my wife? Did they get my wife? OFFICER: We'll get that figured out now.
OFFICER 2: Are there any guns in the car? ALI: It's in a safe. It's locked in a safe.
OFFICER 2: All right, don't mess with that. Try not to move your hands, all right, bro.
ALI: Did the ambulance getting my wife? OFFICER 2: I don't know, man. I wasn't down there, OK?
CAMERON JACKSON: After being arrested, Abulaban was taken back to the San Diego headquarters building.
There, homicide detectives interviewed him. [gripping music] TAREN BRAST: Ana left around 8:40 AM to take
their daughter to school. And so Ali went up to the apartment. He arrives about 9:12 AM.
There's surveillance video showing him going up to the 35th floor. He ended up trashing the apartment.
He smashed the pumpkin on the floor. He threw the flowers on the floor. All this time, he was recording it on his phone.
ALI: Lock your husband? You cheating on me? CAMERON JACKSON: He downloads an app onto his daughter's iPad
so he can listen in to whatever's going on within the apartment. And then he leaves.
Ana enters the apartment to find it trashed. Ray shows up to the apartment to help Ana clean up.
They're inside talking, but unbeknownst to them, Ali is listening in on his daughter's iPad.
[gripping music] At 2:50 PM, Abulaban enters the parking garage of the apartment complex.
He starts recording on his phone and enters the elevator. [gripping music] At 2:58 PM, Abulaban arrives at the apartment,
on the 35th floor. [gripping music] - You hear the door open. And just over a second later, you hear Ali rack his gun.
[gun cocks] [gunshot] [gripping music] - It was just so raw and visceral. The striking part of it is they realize what's going to happen.
[gripping music] [gunshot] She kind of screams out, and then he just starts shooting.
- Abulaban leaves the apartment and pretty much just turns around right away, comes back inside.
[gripping music] ALI: Help! Help! - At 2:59 PM, Ali took two photos of his dead victims on his cell phone.
[camera shutter clicking] And he sends those photographs to both of his parents.
And at 3:02 PM, Ali calls his mother on his cell phone. TAREN BRAST: He gets on the elevator about 3:04 PM.
He encounters a neighbor on the elevator. He's calm. You could see the picture of the dead bodies
on his cell phone, and then, you know, he just rides it down. - As soon as he's in his Jeep, he calls 911.
[suspenseful music] - He doesn't give any information that he was the one who just shot and killed Ana.
And he ends up hanging up on the 911 dispatcher. [line disconnects] ZARA BARKER: Ali gets on the freeway.
He has their five-year-old daughter in the car, and he starts driving away. Within minutes, he's surrounded by police and helicopters.
He ended up pulling off the freeway and surrendering. OFFICER: Stop! Spin around in a circle.
[tense music] TAREN BRAST: Ray had three gunshot wounds. One entered through his cheek.
One entered his neck, and then one of the bullets entered the back of his head. Ana had one gunshot wound.
She was shot once in the top of her forehead, and the bullet exited through the back of her head,
cracking her skull. He was trained as a military police officer, and he knew how to shoot someone to kill.
And that's exactly what he did. RACHEL MILLER: And I receive a call from one of my close friends, and she's crying.
She said, he did it. I think he finally did it. JULIA SHAW: Ali, in his delusional mind,
he's been obsessing over this idea that she's sleeping with other men. And now she actually might be.
And because he hasn't stopped at all of the red flags up to this point and intervened and sought help,
he instead allows himself to lean into his emotions. He lets his rage get out of control,
and he decides that he's just going to solve this problem by killing her. He wants revenge and wants to finally resolve those feelings
and thoughts and fears that have been festering in his mind for so long. [dark music]
TAREN BRAST: Ali was pleading not guilty. When one of the detectives was talking
about seeing some Instagram messages between Ana and Ray where they discuss that they were going to meet up
at a hotel, Ali just blew up. DETECTIVE: Mr. Abul-- ALI: I [muted] did [bleep] her?
DETECTIVE: Mr. Abulaban, I need you to stop. DETECTIVE: Mr. Abulaban, I need you to stop.
KERRY DAYNES: Ali Abulaban absolutely explodes in court, and that's because he was having
to listen to text messages between Ana and her friend Ray. And he was jealous. Even with-- with Ana and Ray no longer alive,
it just shows you how threatening he found that. So this is evidence of what he would have perceived
as his woman with another man. This is her betraying him. And for it to be read out in court is humiliating for him.
And I think this is why we get this huge explosion of anger. [gripping music] - I was the only reporter that was inside of the courtroom
covering the Ali Abulaban trial every single day. The double-murder trial is expected
to start later this week. In court on Monday, we learned that Ali Abulaban is planning
to testify in his own defense. This was a very high-profile case in San Diego. Not only do you have a murder, a double murder, in San Diego,
but also the killer is a TikTok star. So this had a really far-reaching audience
that spread beyond San Diego. Ali had 2 and 1/2 years to rehearse exactly what he was
going to say on that stand. When he started talking, it is so quiet in that courtroom,
you could hear a pin drop. [suspenseful music] ALI: I didn't expect Ana would ever do that to me.
I couldn't take it. I couldn't take the [bleep] betrayal. I couldn't believe that she could do that to me.
And before I could stop myself, I just [bleep] snapped. My gun was in my hand, and next thing I'm shooting.
And-- and I can't stop. I'm just shooting. I'm shooting. And I-- I'm even startled.
It's like I'm watching it happen. I'm like-- I'm in the passenger seat of my own body.
[gripping music] JULIA SHAW: You can see that Ali, till the end, really paints himself as the victim and Ana as the betrayer.
She is the one who caused this whole situation and caused this anger inside him.
And this out-of-body reaction that he's talking about, which might be true, it still is her fault.
It's not his fault for not seeing the signs. It's her fault for evoking this feeling in him.
And that's the classic defense that we often get from men who have not controlled
their anger over a long period of time and then blame the victims when they act out and kill them.
TAREN BRAST: He was using the heat-of-passion defense. Part of heat of passion is that the defendant, Ali, has
to prove that he was provoked. You can't provoke somebody by being with another man who
she's allowed to be with because she's no longer with her husband. None of that was sufficient provocation to prove
a heat-of-passion defense. And certainly Ray did nothing to provoke Ali. [dramatic music]
- The prosecution showed some of his Google searches in the days and the moments leading up to this murder.
At one point, he had searched chopping up bodies. His actions wasn't of someone that had just
committed a crime of passion, but instead someone that had just committed premeditated murder.
The defense really tried to paint Ali as this kid who went through a really rough childhood
and had some untreated issues that went into his adulthood, whether that was ADHD, abuse, addictions.
They tried to claim that he had bipolar disorder, that his drug addiction had gotten so bad that it was overconsuming
everything he did. - There was no diagnosis that he had bipolar disorder or any other ailment before--
on the day of the murders. It was only after the fact, years later. There's no history of him seeing
anybody to get help for it. [pensive music] JUDGE: If we ask, who is Ali Abulaban?
he's somebody that is only thinking about himself, and the idea of killing two innocent people
doesn't disturb him. It's chilling. - [no audible dialogue] - Ali Abulaban was sentenced to 25 years
to life for each count of murder-- 25 years for Ana, 25 years for Ray. JUDGE: So the bottom line here is he will die in prison.
He will never be a free man. He will take his last breath there. [applause] - [no audible dialogue]
JUDGE: [indistinct] Please, please, please. - Ali was extremely abusive, controlling, jealous,
narcissistic, possessive, someone who was trying to be funny, impersonating violent killers,
and then ultimately became one of those killers. [brooding music] JULIA SHAW: What I find most striking about Ali
is that he got so tangled in his own fabricated reality that he started to shift the baseline of what he thought
was acceptable behavior to not just perpetrate, but share. And that is unusual, that perpetrators actually
video and-- and show live some of the abuse that they're hurling at their partner
to hundreds of thousands of people. You could see these critical moments where he's reported to the police
or he's kicked out of the military. Or Ana just says, this is enough. He chose each time to ignore it.
KERRY DAYNES: I always say there are no crimes of passion, only crimes of possession.
This is a highly controlling and abusive man who cannot face rejection. In Ali's mind, he is the victim.
He has been betrayed. He had that change in thinking where he thought, well, I can no longer control her, so I'm going to kill her.
This-- this should never have escalated into-- into homicide. It was very, very predictable.
And that's what I find just so tragic about it. [pensive music] - I hope that this case brings awareness
about domestic violence to the community. We encourage abuse to be reported. The more that people are aware of domestic violence and
the cycle of power and control, the more that we can help get victims away from that violence
and that these abusers get consequences and counseling so that it doesn't lead to murder.
[pensive music] ZARA BARKER: Ray and Ana didn't deserve this. They didn't deserve to be shot and
killed over someone's jealousy and anger that he couldn't control. - I think Ana and Ray should be remembered
for who they were, removing Ali from the situation. Ray needs to be remembered as that light, that ray
of sunshine, you know, that person that is willing to help anyone who needs it. Ana brought joy anywhere that she went.
She was funny, and she just gave you that space to be yourself, be weird, and really enjoy life
and be in the present. [tense music]

A TikTok star installs spyware, suspects cheating, then shoots his wife and her friend in rage.

Murder in Mind explores the psychological forces that drive people to murder.

Brief Summary

Ali Abulaban, a TikTok star, murders his wife Ana and her friend Ray amid a history of abuse and jealousy.

Key points

The Rise of a TikTok Star. Ali Abulaban, a TikTok star, becomes embroiled in a double murder case.
A Troubled Childhood. Ali's upbringing in a strict, abusive household shapes his future behavior.
The Dark Side of Fame. Ali's rise to fame on social media leads to troubling behaviors and addiction.
Ana's Decision to Leave. Ana decides to leave Ali after years of abuse and cheating. "She was done."
Ali's Jealousy. Ali's jealousy escalates as he suspects Ana of cheating. "Did you cheat on me?"
The Tragic Murder. Ali murders Ana and Ray in a fit of rage. "It was just so raw and visceral."

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I wasn’t sure why, but I was already scared of my father.

3:19WatchOct 10, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.