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Wondery subscribers can listen to new episodes of Late Nights with Nexpo early and ad free right now. Join Wondery in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts When a young woman.
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Named Desiree vanishes without a trace, the trail leads to Kat Turris, a charismatic influencer with millions of followers. But behind the glamorous posts and inspirational quotes, a sinister truth unravels. Binge all episodes of Don't Cross Cat early and ad free on Wondery.
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You descend the staircase slowly, plunging yourself further into darkness with every step. The air grows cold, musty. As you reach for the flashlight on your hip, you hesitate. You can still turn around, go back upstairs into the house, let someone else be the first to step through the cell door waiting for you at the bottom of the steps. But just as quickly you put the thought from your mind, because you have to know. You click your flashlight on and continue down. A new scent is filling your nostrils now, and it becomes overpowering as you push the door open. You sweep the windowless room with your flashlight. It's cluttered with cardboard boxes and tools and the things you'd expect to find in a residential basement. That's when you sud suddenly let out a gasp because your flashlight beam has landed on something. Or rather, someone who shouldn't be there. October 19, 2000 Dr. Asma Ibrahim dashes through the streets of Karachi, Pakistan, as fast as her legs can carry her. She's been summoned to the local police station. An emergency requires her very specific set of professional skills in such strange requests. Because Ibrahim isn't a medical doctor she's an archaeologist and curator of the National Museum. Archaeological emergencies happen in Indiana Jones movies, not real life, and yet the police claim they need her expertise immediately. So Dr. Ibrahim doesn't ask questions. She just runs. Her lungs are burning by the time she reaches the police station. There, she's quickly ushered into a side room where officers are crowded around something. Their excited whispers stop as Dr. Ibrahim enters and the officers step inside. And then she sees it. At the center of the room stands a massive, ornate wooden box with flowers and trees carved along the sides. The lid of the wooden box is off, and one glance inside tells Ibrahim that she was right to rush over so quickly. A white stone coffin is inside. Ibrahim decides that it's probably made of alabaster, a valuable stone to carry a valuable passenger. The coffin's heavy stone lid is cracked, splitting the ancient script that adorns it in half. It's still legible, however, and Ibrahim feels a rush of exhilaration as she runs her fingers across the symbols. This, she knows, is no ordinary coffin. This is a sarcophagus, the final resting place of a mummy. The police weren't exaggerating on the phone. They actually found this stashed away in someone's basement. This ancient, priceless relic. A broad smile develops across her face. The police officers can't contain themselves either. They're practically jumping up and down with glee, saying over and over, we have a mummy. We have a mummy. A mummy in Pakistan. Everyone in the room agrees this is the event of the century. This is a historic moment and no one understands this better than Dr. Ibrahim. The existence of a mummy in this region is nearly unthinkable. She knows that the contents of this box could challenge historical understandings of the Persian empire. For Dr. Ibrahim, this is the chance of a lifetime. The police are excited to open the sarcophagus and they want Dr. Ibrahim to examine its contents. Ibrahim is itching to dive in as well. But she knows a moment this monumental should be recorded for both posterity and and science. The only video camera in this room is a small, clunky device, the kind you might use to record a child's recital. But it'll have to do. The record button is pressed and Dr. Ibrahim gets to work. Together they lift away the cracked stone lid to reveal what's underneath. And there, lying before them, is a tiny body, not even five feet in length. The mummy in the box had once been a wisp of a person, but now its presence fills the room like a thunderclap. The mummy is fully covered, wrapped in strips of brown muslin that are mottled with age. The cloth is hard to the touch, as if it's forming a protective shell around the fragile body inside. Ibrahim will later discover that the effect is caused by resin that seeped into the wraps years ago, solidifying them into a cocoon. But for now, she can't wonder about that. She can't concentrate on any single detail. There's just too much to take in. A gold plate in the shape of a cypress tree rests on the mummy's stomach. On its chest, shining against the brown cloth, is a gold breastplate etched with an unusual script. The text, written in an ancient form of cuneiform, reads, I, the daughter of Xerxes, the great king. I am Ruduomna. Ibrahim has no need to decipher the cuneiform to know that this mummy might be royalty. Because right above the gold mask covering its face, a beautiful gold crown rests on its head. Dr. Ibrahim steps away for A moment to collect herself. It's a lot to take in. There's no way to overstate how huge finding a Persian royal mummy is, because the thing is, before this mummy was found, no one knew of any Middle Eastern cultures, aside from the ancient Egyptians that had intentionally created mummies. Now, there are, of course, accidental mummies. Technically, a mummy is nothing more than a dead body that's been preserved. In Iran, there are the salt men who were trapped under the collapse of a salt mine, their bodies completely preserved by the minerals that they were buried under. And in Lebanon, there were the Maronite mummies who died in a cave in the 13th century. The dry air and high altitude kept them from decaying. But the ancient Egyptians are the only ones in this part of the world known to purposefully mummify their dead. And that is why this discovery is such a big deal. Concurrently, however, that's also why it should have set off alarm bells in Ibrahim's head. The mummy is immediately transferred to a sealed nitrogen chamber at the Pakistan National Museum to be kept under Ibrahim's watchful eye. She gathers a team of experts, and together they dive into the mystery, uncovering as much about the mummy as they can. After the most incredible whirlwind week of Dr. Ibrahim's career, a press conference is held to announce that Pakistani officials have discovered a 2,600-year-old Persian princess. But Dr. Ibrahim can't bask in the afterglow for long. Immediately, other countries begin to lay claim to Pakistan's discovery. After all, just because the mummy was found in a Pakistani's basement doesn't mean the mummy is from Pakistan and could have been smuggled in from anywhere on the black market. Iran alleges that the mummy wasn't a princess at all, but rather a prince, an Achaemenian dynasty Prince from the 6th century. Iranian officials say that the mummy was stolen from them and that they already had the suspected thieves in custody. But the Taliban government of Afghanistan counters that claim, saying that the mummy was taken from their country during their protracted war. Even within Pakistan, infighting ensues. The Awan tribe of the Balochistan province files a court petition alleging that the cuneiform etched into the mummy's breastplate belongs to the Awan royal family and that the mummy should be moved to one of their local museums. And on top of all of this chaos, no insurance company will agree to cover the mummy until more is known about it. They want ironclad proof that their investment is safe with a legitimate ancient mummy. And while that Makes perfect sense. The National Museum needs their new princess to be insured. Without that safety net, the museum could be on the line for millions of dollars if anything were to happen to the body. And so, with multiple fires lit under her feet, Ibrahim gets to work. She needs to find the truth about this Persian princess. But that'll be no easy task. The man who had the mummy in his basement is currently in custody and cooperating. But the story he's telling police only raises more questions.