World's Most Evil Killers - Season 5, Episode 14 - Ali Qazimaj - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NARRATOR: In June 2016, police in Luxembourg swooped on a hostel for asylum seekers.
The officers were executing an international search warrant for a man who was wanted for the murder of a retired couple
in Suffolk, England. GEOFFREY WANSELL: To say that Peter Stuart was killed is an understatement.
He was stabbed nine times, seven times in the back, twice in the front. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Sylvia's body has never been found,
and this suggests to me that the killer doesn't want Sylvia's body to be found, because Sylvia's body will tell part
of the story about her murder. NARRATOR: Investigators were certain they had tracked down
their man, former carer Ali Qazimaj who'd been on the run for almost two weeks. But the 43-year-old suspect insisted he
was someone entirely different. KARIM KHALIL QC: He claimed throughout the case that his true identity and only identity
was that of Vital Dapi, and he had nothing to do with either of the other names or identities.
NARRATOR: Despite his protestations, Qazimaj was extradited to Britain to face trial.
It would be up to prosecutors to prove that he was a cold-blooded murderer. ANTHONY CARROLL: Qazimaj was an evil, calculating killer who
lived in a fantasy world and was prepared to murder people for his own gains. NARRATOR: Ali Qazimaj had been unveiled as one of the world's
most evil killers. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] In March 2017, 44-year-old Ali Qazimaj was found guilty of the double murder
of Peter and Sylvia Stuart. The retired couple disappeared from their home in Weybread Suffolk on the 3rd of June, 2016.
Peter's body was discovered hours later, while Sylvia's remains have never been found.
The murders shook the small community to the core. ZACH WARD: At the time, I was the senior reporter
at the Diss Express. Diss Express is a weekly newspaper covering local stories, about 400 square miles
across Norfolk and Suffolk. And most the stories we covered were very small fry, to be frank.
You know, it was planning permission, it was really small things. Sticking up for local people basically.
So something like this was quite shocking. NARRATOR: Fellow reporter Anthony Carroll also
covered the harrowing story. Obviously, as a journalist, you do get to cover murders and major events.
So I had covered a few. But to cover one in a village like this, a double murder,
with all the strange circumstances around it, was a major story for me and one of the most compelling
I've ever covered as a journalist in my 15 years of reporting. NARRATOR: Reading on with interest
was barrister Karim Khalil QC, who would eventually go toe to toe with Ali Qazimaj at Ipswich Crown Court.
KARIM KHALIL QC: He's cold. Because of his behavior in the witness box, he demonstrated an ability to withstand really very close
questioning over a significant period of time, with evidence presented to him, which
to any independent observer, would be regarded as overwhelming. And yet he simply stood in the face of that
and continued his denials in a calm manner. NARRATOR: This killer's story begins in southeastern Europe.
Ali Qazimaj was born Vital Dapi in Elbasan, Albania in 1973. His upbringing is an enigma.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: We don't know very much about his background. We know that he came from a relatively traditional family.
His dad worked as a plumber, and he had a sibling. But aside from that, it is a bit of a mystery.
NARRATOR: It's believed that Vital Dapi served in the Albanian Special Forces. But around the age of 27, he arrived on the shores
of Britain, claiming to be from Kosovo, in the then war-torn Balkan Peninsula. GEOFFREY WANSELL: He was essentially an asylum seeker.
And when he presented himself in this country formally, he changed from being Vital Dapi to Ali Qazimaj. He
became a different character. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: So here is somebody who is quite comfortable with trying on different identities.
He is an actor. He will fit into the parts that he's made up for himself. ANDY BAKER: He worked in a number of jobs, sometimes two
or three jobs at the same time. Part-time driver, general worker, and some other part-time work as well,
fairly mundane blue-collar kind of jobs. GEOFFREY WANSELL: He was partly Ali Qazimaj in Britain,
doing a variety of jobs, but he was regularly going back to Albania as Vital Dapi to resume parts of his life there.
He had, for example, a wife and a child in Albania. It was literally Walter Mitty, two lives.
Now, what he did in his periods in Albania remain something of a mystery. NARRATOR: By 2005, Qazimaj was working as a carer
in the town of Grays in Essex. He'd become a British citizen, thanks largely to the woman
he was looking after, Helen Paxman. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Helen was somebody who provided a reference for him on his citizenship application.
She was somebody who bought him clothes. She bought him a car. Yes, she really did believe that this man genuinely
had affection for her. So this tells me that he's very good at performing emotions,
even though he doesn't feel them. He knows exactly what people need to hear to get what he wants from them.
NARRATOR: During his time as her carer, Qazimaj got to know Helen Paxman and her husband Sidney
very well. Helen, I'm sad to say, dies. But the relationship doesn't break down,
because her husband Sidney has a problem, has a hip operation. He now needs a carer, and who better
than Ali, who has been looking after Helen for all those years? NARRATOR: But all was not as it seemed.
Qazimaj was arrested three times for various offenses during his time in the UK.
And he'd started talking to Sidney Paxman about his mysterious private life. KARIM KHALIL QC: He had told Mr. Paxman whilst taking him out
for walks, for example, and caring for him, that he was a trained killer, or in Serbia, he had
carried out a contract killing. That was a rather curious conversation to have for a man who had no such interest in these matters.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: So he claims that he killed a man for money, and he describes in detail what happened during this incident.
And I think this tells us a lot about him, in terms of how he wants to be seen by other people.
He's somebody who builds relationships on other people's fear of him. He's not interested in mutuality or respect or understanding.
Here is somebody who values violence, and that's something that's at the forefront.
NARRATOR: Qazimaj had also developed an expensive gambling habit, something for which he devised
an entirely new persona. GEOFFREY WANSELL: But now, yet again, the man who has been two people becomes three people.
As far as the gambling is concerned, he's called Marco Costa. He's not called Vital Dapi.
He's not called Ali Qazimaj. He's called Marco Costa, a man used to living a double life is
now leading a triple life. But unfortunately, he isn't earning enough money to support his increasingly elaborate and addicted gambling
habit. But nevertheless, on the surface, to all intents and purposes, he's admirable character.
I think at one point, he starts calling Sidney Paxman dad. NARRATOR: Qazimaj's seemingly caring nature
helped him con the Paxman family out of a significant amount of money, which he used to fuel his gambling addiction.
So he's appearing to be somebody who is quite selfless and empathetic. He's engaged in this caring occupation.
And this is the view that people will have of him. But when you look behind the scenes, what was actually going
on during the time he was working for the Paxman's, he actually took 10,000 pounds from them during this period.
So this is a man who uses charm, who uses manipulation, who sets up relationships with people that they feel are genuine,
but they're anything but. NARRATOR: By the summer of 2016, Qazimaj was still caring for Sidney Paxman in Grays Essex.
But in June, 75 miles away in the Suffolk village of Weybread, journalists were just
learning about the disappearance of a local couple. ZACH WARD: So it was on the Friday
where we received a missing persons appeal from Suffolk Police, and we would get missing persons appeal quite regularly.
But I think, obviously, where there was two people missing in this case, meant it was probably a little bit
out of the ordinary typically. ANTHONY CARROLL: I was in the office somewhere on a Friday,
just covering the patch, and you get a police statement sent out saying I'm looking for a missing couple
in the Village of Weybread. So you sometimes think, oh, I wonder what that's about.
Soon, it became obvious that this was a more serious case of a missing people case with the amount
of police presence. By the afternoon, we were getting the steer, you know, this might be quite a major story.
NARRATOR: Peter and Sylvia Stuart had retired to Weybread 10 years previously. By the 3rd of June, 2016, they hadn't been seen for five days.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: They were last seen at just about a quarter past 10 in the morning of the 29th of May, 2016,
in a farm shop in Norfolk. It was the last official sighting of them. KARIM KHALIL QC: They appeared entirely normal.
There was nothing untoward about their behavior to alert anybody that there potentially was anything wrong.
And then it was the following Tuesday that they failed to attend their line dancing class.
And that's when the alarm was first raised. NARRATOR: The Stuart's daughter, Christy, became immediately
concerned about her parents. She contacted a friend, a neighbor, who knew the Stuarts.
And indeed said, would you mind just going and checking on mom and dad. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: And when this friend arrived at the house,
it was almost as if they'd vanished into thin air. There was a computer with an eBay page open.
The cat litter tray hadn't been changed for a while. There was only a tiny amount of water in the cat's bowl.
It was as if they just got up and walked out. NARRATOR: The police were called to investigate.
The small village of Weybread had just one question on their lips-- what had happened to Peter and Sylvia Stuart?
Concerns for the couple were growing. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] ANDY BAKER: So when the police went to the house
on the 3rd of June, it was easy to get in. There was a key there. But there was no sign of disturbance, no blood present.
They're just missing, vanished. KARIM KHALIL QC: They found really nothing out of place at all.
There was no indication of forced entry or anything of that sort. It appeared forensically very clean.
What they did find there was what was a suggestion of a partially finished meal.
And then they examined the computer that was on one of the tables. And it appeared that Sylvia had been
shopping on eBay for, I think, some shoes for her husband. But this hadn't been completed.
So the last use of that laptop was at about 2:45 in the afternoon. And after that, there was no trace
of either of the existence of Peter or Sylvia. ANDY BAKER: They would have searched thoroughly the house,
not just for Peter and Sylvia's presence, but anything that may give them a clue where they are.
If they had mobile phones, did they leave them behind? Was there money there? Had their car gone?
Were the keys there? There's many opportunities that will take you through an avenue
of the investigation. And they would have looked at every single element of opportunity to try and find Peter and Sylvia.
That wasn't there. NARRATOR: Local journalist, Anthony Carroll, arrived in the village to find out more
about the developing story. ANTHONY CARROLL: I remember getting into Weybread. It was so remote.
It was off the beaten track, away from the main village. So you drive down this road for a while,
then you come across a few houses. And then just sort of heavy police presence. Then you realize, oh, something major is happening here.
It's all cordoned off. Always a bit of shock seeing what's happened in middle of this rural location
in the middle of nowhere? You know, just a strange mystery going on. Want to try and get to the bottom of it.
NARRATOR: Anthony began to interview the worried locals. ANTHONY CARROLL: So we went out there, got a feel of the place,
spoke to neighbors. We were writing the story up saying, police search for missing couple.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: Later that day, in the early evening of Friday the 3rd of June, Peter Stuart's
body is discovered in a flooded ditch in grounds behind their garden. There's no sign whatever of his wife, Sylvia.
ANTHONY CARROLL: So by the end of Friday, there was a murder investigation we were reporting on.
I think the initial reaction in the local area was shock. This sort of thing never happens in this rural part
of the world. And we're not used to having national TV stations and the national media descend
on a tiny little village. I had been at the newspaper by that point for the best
part of three years. And we hadn't covered anything like this before, because without sounding too cliche,
nothing like this ever did happen in Suffolk. NARRATOR: It's believed that 75-year-old Peter Stuart had
been murdered whilst preparing lunch on the 30th of May, four days before the discovery of his body.
Peter's body was found about 50 foot from the couple's house. He'd been repeatedly stabbed to death.
He'd been stabbed nine times. Eight of those stab wounds would have proved fatal, as shown
by the post-mortem examination. GEOFFREY WANSELL: And as the pathologist was to say later,
huge force was used. He wasn't simply killed. He was butchered. ZACH WARD: Nothing can actually really
prepare you for having to report on something like this. And you know, we're sort of several degrees away from it.
It's nothing compared to what the actual family are going through, but it was shocking.
NARRATOR: Peter's body had been found lying in the woodland just behind the couple's home.
The killer made little effort to hide the crime. He had been wrapped in a tarpaulin.
And he'd been deposited, left abandoned, dumped in a ditch. ZACH WARD: I believe the officer who
found Mr. Stuart had said that he could see a hand from under the tarpaulin. So it hadn't been done particularly well.
So this method of disposal is quite haphazard. This is a killer who just wants the body out of the way.
Obviously, it's going to be discovered very quickly. So this is incredibly revealing to me about the killer,
because this shows me that at this point in time, he's got more important things to worry about.
He's preoccupied with something else. NARRATOR: Peter's 69-year-old wife, Sylvia,
was nowhere to be found. Suffolk Police immediately upped the urgency in the hunt for her and her husband's killer.
ANDY BAKER: They knew they had a murder inquiry straightaway. It's not only person, but then they must conduct an open mind
as to what happened to Sylvia. Has she been murdered? Is she harmed? Is she being held against her will or she willingly
participating with someone who's committed the murder or not? ANTHONY CARROLL: The circumstances around this case
were, of course, very mysterious and strange and almost like a crime novel. There was a rural location, very remote, a couple living
on their own, seemed very quiet and kept themselves to themselves. That's the big mystery, of course, to the whole case.
What happened to her? Was she still alive? Obviously, you foster with the community with what's happened
and you want to make sure you write the story correctly. So get the facts right.
And obviously, you start thinking, I wonder what's happened to his wife. You know, where's Sylvia?
NARRATOR: The news of a murder and a missing person spread fear amongst the small village of Weybread,
where the Stuarts were known to be a popular couple. ANTHONY CARROLL: Obviously, in the local community,
there was a sense of concern, fear, and worry. People worried what had happened to the Stuarts.
People were worried, was the killer still in their community? Was it safe to go out?
I think most people were worried about when it was Sylvia hadn't been seen, what had happened to her.
So people were very concerned that she'd be found safe and well. Obviously, talking to people in the village,
it was just a mixture of concern and worry about what had happened in their tranquil community.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: Well, there can be no doubt that the inhabitants of Weybread in Suffolk
would have been horrified at the discovery of a local resident who goes line dancing with his wife literally every week
and is popular in the local community would have horrified the residents. ANDY BAKER: Other people would have been in fear, in fear what
brings murder to our doorstep. What brings murder to these people have lived a very safe, lawful life
and they are robbed of life in this way? NARRATOR: The first suspects on the investigators' radar
were the Stuart's other family members. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Very often, when there is a murder,
it will be somebody that's close to us. It will be somebody in our family. It will be one of our friends.
So the police have to rule all of those people out before they can rule out other people in.
NARRATOR: Less than 48 hours after the discovery of Peter's body, detectives over 100 miles away from Weybread
brought a man in for questioning. All we were told was a 61-year-old from Leicester had been arrested.
And at the time, we didn't do, to be honest, a huge amount of digging because it
was an incredibly fast-moving investigation, but also sensitivity is needed. And at the time, the last thing we wanted to do
was try to impede or get the wrong bit of information out there. But within a day or so, the local media around the area
had found out that it was actually the son-in-law of the Stuarts. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Steve Paxman explains that he's always
had a complicated relationship with Peter, his father-in-law, but it's always been amicable.
There's never been any disagreement. But Steve also points out that someone who knew him
was also his father's carer. The police talk to his father, Sidney, who gives them for the first time
the name of Ali Qazimaj as his carer and someone who's talked to him about the terrible things
he's done in the past. He's bragged about murdering people. NARRATOR: Steve Paxman was immediately
released from custody. The police were now on the hunt for a man who lived in Tilbury, Essex, 43-year-old carer Ali Qazimaj.
ZACH WARD: When we first heard the name Ali Qazimaj, we didn't really know too much about him.
We knew that he was from Kosovo. That was information we received from the police.
And apart from that, we didn't know too much, apart from he was the main suspect.
ANTHONY CARROLL: I think the police looking into his background soon had very strong concerns that he was linked to his disappearance.
And so his name and image began to get circulated. Obviously, we didn't know much about him at all.
We knew he had a link to Tilbury in Essex and that he had a connection to the Stuart family.
NARRATOR: Qazimaj had been working as a carer for Peter Stuart's son-in-law's father, Sidney Paxman, for the previous decade.
Sidney told detectives that during a conversation with his carer on the 3rd of June,
Qazimaj had told him that he'd done something bad. Ali Qazimaj was now the prime suspect in Peter's murder.
The Stuarts and the Paxman's were in-laws by marriage through the respective children.
And it was Sidney Paxman's suspicions of what Qazimaj had said to him that led him to say,
it's not my son. You need to look at this chap, which is what they did. Say there is a link between Qazimaj and the victim,
but I think Qazimaj thought that the police would never put this all together. He thought he was far too clever.
NARRATOR: Investigators were certain they had identified Peter's killer. Now, they just needed to track him down,
but Ali Qazimaj, the carer turned killer, was nowhere to be seen. KARIM KHALIL QC: They found his workplace,
and it became apparent that Ali Qazimaj had left his workplace abruptly. They spoke to many of his colleagues,
who detailed curious conversations with him, in which he had spoken of planning a robbery
and that sort of thing. They examined the computer to which he had access at work.
And it was discovered that that computer had been used to search for the home address of the Stuart family
on one of the many evaluation sites that are out there. And so it seemed as if he had an unusual and unexplained
interest in the home of Peter and Sylvia Stuart. He was definitely planning something.
He wanted to make sure that he had this down to a T. It's quite likely, I think as well,
that he stalked this couple, because he wanted to leave nothing to chance. NARRATOR: Detectives soon uncovered further evidence
to link Qazimaj to the Stuarts. KARIM KHALIL QC: And so the inquiries continued, of course.
His mobile phone was tracked and eventually through cell site analysis, it was discovered, along with his motor car,
a Citroen vehicle, that he had made some six trips, each of which was unexplained, from the area
or locality of his home or work address in London, up to Weybread. And there was no known reason why he would have an interest
in going there, other than as some sort of reconnaissance trips. And I think six previous trips and then
the final trip, of course, was logged by similar forensic analysis on the day of the killings itself.
NARRATOR: 69-year-old Sylvia Stuart remained missing. She had last been seen with her husband
on a local farm shop CCTV on the 29th of May. But suspicious activity surrounding Sylvia's bank
account after she'd vanished led investigators to fear the worst. And the day after, so it would have been the 30th of May,
in Thurrock, someone took money out. And it was from Sylvia Stuart's account. Creature of habit.
Didn't go to Thurrock in the middle of the night, didn't take any money in the middle of the night.
So that was suspicious. The same card was used to try and take out money again. They also later, 300 pounds was taken out,
and then another attempt at 500 pound but obviously limited up and had been stopped.
And this was obviously Qazimaj. Now, Sylvia's clearly given her PIN number to Qazimaj so that he withdraws the money, because when
the police discover that her bank card has been used in an ATM, they naturally look at the CCTV, which
is above every ATM machine. And no sign of Sylvia in any of those CCTV images. NARRATOR: Detectives got their biggest
break yet when Ali Qazimaj's car was found abandoned in Dover. But evidence within the vehicle also
confirmed their worst fears. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: When Qazimaj's car was discovered,
there were traces of blood on the outside of the driver's door. And this blood matched Peter's DNA profile.
In the boot, they found some human hairs. And they matched Sylvia's profile. They also found in the car a carrier bag
in the passenger foot well, which had Qazimaj's fingerprints on it. And Qazimaj's fingerprints were also
found on the driver's door. So it was a no doubt that this was Qazimaj's car, and it was a direct link to the victims.
KARIM KHALIL QC: And so it became apparent that somehow Sylvia likely had been placed into that boot of that car and taken somewhere.
We don't know where, but he d deposited her body. NARRATOR: Back in Weybread, the news
that Ali Qazimaj was the prime suspect in the now double-murder case brought a sense of consolation
to the village. ANTHONY CARROLL: When Qazimaj's name was released, I suppose some people were relieved,
as people had been worried that the killer might still be in the community. So people were probably relieved that police
suspected who the killer was and were hunting for him. NARRATOR: Ali Qazimaj had taken the lives
of Peter and Sylvia Stuart for nothing more than his own financial gain. The 43-year-old, who was a carer for the couple's relative,
Sidney Paxman, had learned about the Stuarts in conversation with him. Qazimaj believed that the Stuarts
were millionaires, because that's what Sidney Paxman had told him. And I think his eyes probably lit up at this point
in time, because Sidney also said that they didn't have a very good relationship
with their son-in-law. So not only have you got this potential reward of lots of money to go after, but you've got
another suspect who's going to distract the police from you. So I think Qazimaj thought he really was onto something here.
They represented for Ali Qazimaj a natural target. Now, did he set out originally to kill them
or did he simply set out to extort them, demand money from them? Qazimaj was quite good at persuading
people to give him money. Sidney Paxman, for example, had given him about 10,000 pounds during the period in which
he was looking after him. He was used to getting money out of elderly people, and he could be at one moment affable
but at the moment frightening. NARRATOR: Investigators discovered CCTV footage from the 4th of June, the day after the discovery of Peter
Stuart's body, showing Qazimaj boarding a ferry at the Port of Dover. ANTHONY CARROLL: Qazimaj had fled to Europe,
and some people believe that with his connections he might disappear forever. So a lot of people were thinking he'd never be found
and be brought back to justice. But the police believed they would find him and carried on with their search.
NARRATOR: Detectives released pictures of Ali Qazimaj across Europe in a desperate attempt
to find the double killer. The supposed former special forces soldier come hit man could have been anywhere on the continent.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Qazimaj was on the run for around two weeks. And this is really interesting for me,
because for somebody who claims to have been a professional hitman, these people are very used to going
to ground, disappearing. So I think that really does invalidate those claims that he made.
He would have been much better at going off the radar if that was really the case.
And he was spotted by a hostel worker in Luxembourg, who had seen a picture of him on the internet.
So police caught up with him incredibly quickly. He wasn't the underworld figure that he'd like to think he was.
NARRATOR: Qazimaj had been hiding out at a hostel for asylum seekers. On the 16th of June, 2016, just over two weeks
since the murders of Peter and Sylvia Stuart, he was arrested by local police in Luxembourg.
ANTHONY CARROLL: In an incredible coincidence and sort of stroke of luck for the police,
this person had put two and two together, else he might have escaped justice forever.
NARRATOR: Although detectives were confident they had captured their man, Qazimaj used a different alias when
speaking with the authorities. GEOFFREY WANSELL: When he's first interrogated, he's interrogated as Vital Dapi and insists he doesn't
know who Ali Qazimaj is. And indeed, not only does he not know who he is, he's never even been to England.
He's still an asylum seeker in Europe. It is, of course, a complete tissue of lies.
NARRATOR: British investigators had Qazimaj's fingerprints from when he first claimed asylum in the country.
So the 43-year-old's assertions that he was a different person, Vital Dapi, were easily disproved.
Those fingerprints are the same fingerprints as the person that turned up in the UK in 1999,
had his fingerprints taken. They matched. The forensic evidence in the Citroen driven, owned,
and abandoned by Qazimaj soon after he murdered the Stuarts, the fingerprint expert 16 times identified fingerprints that
tied that person as the same as the person who claimed that he was Qazimaj from Kosovo and the fingerprints taken
in Luxembourg were the person now detained. NARRATOR: Qazimaj and Dapi had another similarity, which
had been recorded when the carer was previously arrested years before in the UK.
KARIM KHALIL QC: When he was in Luxembourg, it was noted that he had a particular tattoo
on the upper part of one of his arms. It was of an eagle clutching a heart, I think.
And historically, on an old custody record, there was a note of this identical tattoo being
on the upper arm on the same side of a man bearing one of the other alias names.
And so the chances of such a coincidence happening were thought to be vanishingly small.
NARRATOR: On July the 4th, 2016, Ali Qazimaj was extradited back to the UK. Despite the overwhelming forensic evidence
that disproved his claim, he continued to refer to himself as an innocent Albanian
asylum seeker named Vital Dapi. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He claims he's never been to the UK,
yet when he's talking to police, he's using English slang words. He's talking colloquially.
And this is the kind of language that you don't get from watching English TV series on the internet.
You have to be in the UK, living life in the UK to know what some of these phrases mean.
So there were lots of alarm bells there for police. KARIM KHALIL QC: Upon arrival, he
reverted to pretending that he didn't speak good English. He denied that he had the identity which
is being ascribed to him, claiming that he had at all times been elsewhere. And so he ran the defense of mistaken identity.
NARRATOR: On the 22nd of July, Qazimaj was charged with two counts of murder. But the 43-year-old was sticking to his story.
It would be up to prosecutor Karim Khalil QC to prove that the carer turned killer had murdered
the Stuarts for their money. KARIM KHALIL QC: He was an extreme gambler. He had become more and more in debt as the time
of these killings approached. And he was unable to meet those debts. So it appeared reasonably clear to the prosecution
that the motive for these killings was actually straightforward financial greed.
He needed to find a way to cover his debts and/or set up a new life somewhere else.
And so he targeted these people as ones whom he believed had access to ready finances.
And he could simply go and secure it from them. They'd be too vulnerable to resist.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: I don't think that the murder of Peter and Sylvia was in any way a way of getting money to pay
off those gambling debts. I think that this was a way of going after a really big reward for himself.
And when you are gambling, there's quite a lot of uncertainty as to whether you're
going to be successful. But in this case, Qazimaj thought this was [INAUDIBLE]..
He really thought he'd set himself up for life, I think. NARRATOR: Despite the damning forensic evidence against him,
Qazimaj claimed total innocence, asserting that he was a completely different person.
ZACH WARD: Ali Qazimaj went by three aliases-- Ali Qazimaj, Marco Costa, and Vital Dapi.
And that was his defense, that they had the wrong person, that he'd never been to England, and they made a mistake
and that he would never hurt a fly, let alone murder two people. KARIM KHALIL QC: The principle challenge of the case
was to prove that these three identities all related to the same one person and that that one
person was the man in the dock named by the Crown as Ali Qazimaj. NARRATOR: Part of Qazimaj's defense
was to prove beyond doubt that he was Vital Dapi. But the evidence he produced seemed to make
him look even more guilty. KARIM KHALIL QC: In fact, some of these documents were actually provided by Al Qazimaj
during the trial in support of his defense. But they ultimately backfired, because by way of example,
a photograph of his identity in Albania under one name, we could demonstrate was the identical photograph which
he had used on his UK passport under an entirely different name. And so when one put all the pieces of that jigsaw together,
his fingerprints, each of these items was brought together under the different identities,
and demonstrated all to relate to the same person. NARRATOR: Qazimaj's fabrications were falling apart,
but he continued to deny the evidence against him when he took the stand at Ipswich Crown Court.
At the trial, Qazimaj really dug his heels in. And he came back at every single piece of evidence that was
presented by the prosecution. He questioned the validity of it. He really did not make it very easy.
Qazimaj insisted in the witness box that the fingerprints were planted, that he was a victim of mistaken identity,
that he had nothing to do with this killings, he was entirely innocent. It was flimsy beyond words.
And also, he starts to take on the victim role at this point as well. He says, I've been set up by the police.
They have deliberately fabricated this evidence. Poor me. So that's a slight change in tactic.
It's a way of trying to get people to feel sorry for him, but his story is so incredulous that that's
never going to happen. NARRATOR: Defiant to the end, Qazimaj was even given the chance to prove his innocence
by the prosecution. KARIM KHALIL QC: I recall eventually giving him the opportunity as he was in the witness box
to clear his name absolutely by way of inviting him to agree to provide fingerprints whilst giving evidence
under the supervision of his defense team, with scientists from both prosecution and defense present
and having controlled examination of those fingerprints, which could then be compared,
of course, with the disputed fingerprints that we'd heard so much about during the course of the trial.
And he quietly declined that invitation. And so the inference was obvious for the jury,
I'm sure from that. But he seemed neither embarrassed nor anxious about being presented with that opportunity.
He simply declined it and moved on. So quite a cold, careful, calculated man, who plainly had no concern for what he had done,
had achieved his end, and was obviously seeking to avoid the consequences. NARRATOR: On the 13th of March, 2017,
the jury took just three hours to find Ali Qazimaj guilty of both murders. The following day, the 44-year-old former carer
was sentenced to life. ANDY BAKER: As he was led from the dock on conviction and again found guilty of murder,
life mandatory, with a recommendation to serve 35 years, which will mean that he
will serve to his late 70s. GEOFFREY WANSELL: The judge calls the crimes terrible.
The judge also describes Qazimaj, which I think is very accurate, as a ruthless and accomplished
killer. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Other people are simply a means to an end for him. He doesn't see them as people with lives and rights
and connections to other people. They're simply a barrier that's in the way of him getting what he wants.
And that results in some incredibly evil behavior. NARRATOR: Qazimaj's plan of pretending to be someone else
had backfired spectacularly. ZACH WARD: I'd probably describe Qazimaj as a bit of a chancer
to go to court and say that it's not me, you've got the wrong person, and it's mistaken identity,
in this day and age where there's overwhelming evidence to suggest otherwise takes a piece of a brass neck
to try and get away with that. I think we're in the realms of, like, the dog ate my homework territory.
And I just think there is no way he wasn't going to go down for it when you look
at the evidence that was there. NARRATOR: In a statement released during the trial,
Qazimaj addressed the victim's family directly. He has never disclosed the whereabouts
of Sylvia Stuart's remains. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He says, I'm very sorry for your family,
but I can't tell you where your mother is, because I didn't kill her. And this is something that he was very,
very intent on keeping going. And I think, in a way, this gives him a sense of control,
because there are lots of things in his life that he has no control over now, but this
is one of those things. He has that knowledge. He has the information. There is no doubt that this is the man who murdered Sylvia.
And he's going to maintain that position, unfortunately I feel, for a very long time.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: Neither Peter nor Sylvia deserved to die. The amount of money that he managed to extract from them,
a few pounds, would have done nothing to settle any of his gambling debts. I think he killed them because he didn't know what else to do.
That was the only way his mind worked. And even shortly after his conviction and imprisonment,
it was hoped that Ali Qazimaj might provide information to help the police find Sylvia's body,
to give some small comfort to her family. There was an initial request that he was willing to speak
to the police, but that then came to nothing, and he has said no more. ZACH WARD: I think that will always be the thing that will
shock me, and sadly, I think it's probably a secret that he'll take to his grave.
NARRATOR: Qazimaj's silence means that he will never be eligible for an early release
from prison. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: There has been a recent piece of legislation passed in England and Wales,
when killers refuse to reveal the location of their victim's remains, they're not able to get parole.
So I think this might become more relevant to this case as the years go by, because Qazimaj, if he continues
to deny responsibility, if he continues to conceal the whereabouts of Sylvia's body,
he's never getting out of prison. ANDY BAKER: He appealed in 2019 against the conviction,
and that appeal wasn't upheld. So he's been through a full trial and an appeal. And he remains convicted of the double murder.
And there's no doubt that he murdered them for gain. He needed money. He wanted money, and that was the quickest
way he could get money. GEOFFREY WANSELL: I would say Qazimaj is a truly ruthless man, who knows no bounds
to what he's prepared to do. And I think that perhaps it was easy to overlook that ruthlessness behind this apparent facade of caring.
Qazimaj was an evil, calculating killer who lived in a fantasy world and was prepared to murder
people for his own gains. For the family's sake, I hope that one day Qazimaj would own
up on what he's actually done so they can have closure on this awful part of their lives.
NARRATOR: Qazimaj arrived on British soil as an enigma. If he served in the Albanian Special Forces
or was a trained assassin, only he knows for sure. What is in no doubt is there he abused his position as a carer
to fund a gambling addiction and killed two innocent victims for no other reason than to steal their money,
making Ali Qazimaj one of the world's most evil killers. [MUSIC PLAYING]

Ali Qazimaj is an Albanian conman who brutally murdered an elderly couple in 2016.

An in-depth look at the lives and crimes of some of the world's most evil killers, including Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez, Cary Stayner, Leonard Lake, Dorothea Puente and more.

Brief Summary

Ali Qazimaj murdered Peter and Sylvia Stuart for financial gain, leading to his arrest and conviction in 2017.

Key points

The Disappearance of the Stuarts. Peter and Sylvia Stuart went missing, raising alarms in their small village.
Murder of Peter Stuart. Peter Stuart was brutally murdered, leaving the community in shock.
Ali Qazimaj: The Prime Suspect. Ali Qazimaj, a carer, becomes the prime suspect in the double murder case.
Ali Qazimaj's Suspicion and Planning. Investigators suspect Ali Qazimaj had a link to the victims and was planning something sinister.
Discovery of Evidence. Detectives found blood and human hairs in Qazimaj's abandoned car, linking him to the murders.
Qazimaj's Arrest. Ali Qazimaj was arrested in Luxembourg after being on the run for two weeks.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This killer's story begins in southeastern Europe.

Narrator introducing Ali Qazimaj's background

4:00WatchAug 27, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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