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Scams, Money, & Murder
The Story That Killed Him: Following the Money | Murder: True Crime Stories
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- [00:02]
Vanessa Richardson
Hi listeners, it's Vanessa Richardson. Real quick, before today's episode, I want to tell you about another show from Crime House that I know you'll love. America's Most Infamous Crimes. Hosted by Katie Ring. Each week, Katie takes on one of the most notorious criminal cases in American history. Serial killers who terrorized cities, unsolved mysteries that keep detectives up at night, and investigations that change the way we think about justice. Listen to and follow America's Most infamous crimes Tuesday through Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. This is crime house. The American dream. The promise that no matter who you are or where you come from, you can be successful as long as you work hard enough. But over the years, the goal posts have moved further away. Success is a lot harder to reach. Nowadays, one of the most popular ways to get there is by becoming an entrepreneur. A master of your own destiny. If you if you can make it work. Around 90% of startups fail, but those that don't can see unparalleled levels of success and money, especially in the tech industry. It's a pretty big gamble and it requires a lot of time, energy and skill. But there are a lot of people out there who see a future in the world of technology. In fact, there's a name for these people. Tech Bros. Of course, not all tech entrepreneurs are men, but the vast majority are. And not everyone is happy about their success. In fact, some people out there are willing to do anything to take these tech bros down a notch. Even kill. From UFO cults and mass suicides to secret CIA experiments, presidential assassinations, and murderous doctors, these just theories. They're real stories that blur the line between fact and fiction. I'm Vanessa Richardson and this is Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes, a crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Every Wednesday and Friday, I'll explore the real people at the center of the world's most shocking events and nefarious organizations, these cases are wild. And I want to hear what you think at the end of each episode. Leave a comment wherever you listen. Be sure to rate, review and follow Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes to continue building this community together. And for ad free early access to both of our weekly episodes, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. Today, I'm looking into a series of killings that have rocked the tech world in recent years. Dubbed the Tech Bro Murders. It's no secret that Silicon Valley and other tech hubs are full of people trying to make it to the top. But very few get there. And According to the media, those who do succeed are in danger because there are a lot of people out there who'd kill for their wealth. But that story of an assault on the 1% isn't so cut and dry. In most of these cases, the motive is more complicated than just cash, which makes you wonder, what are the tech bro murders really about and who is actually at risk? All that and more coming up. I've been cleaning out my closet and simplifying my wardrobe. Just focusing on pieces that are easy to wear, easy to repeat, and make getting dressed feel effortless. That's really what keeps pulling me back to quints. There's a simplicity to everything they do that just works. The pieces feel clean and versatile, so it's easy to build outfits without standing in front of the closet wondering what goes with what. I've been especially into their core wardrobe staples because they make day to day dressing feel way more streamlined and the quality is something I noticed right away. The fabrics feel really comfortable from the start and they also have enough structure that everything still looks polished hours later. I picked up a few things, thinking they'd just be solid basics, but they've turned into the kind of pieces that quietly end up in constant rotation. Refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use. Head to Quince.com scams for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com scams for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com scams what they did to your family. You're lucky to make it out alive. Streaming on Peacock these men are going to come after me. Taking them out. It's my only chance. Put a bullet in her head. From the co creator of Ozark Looks like a family was running drugs. Execution style killing. It's rare for the keys. Any leads on who they might have been running for? The cartel killed my family. I'm gonna kill them. All of them. MIA Streaming now only on Peacock like any other industry, the tech world is filled with people from all walks of life. But most of the big names we know came from privileged backgrounds. That's not to say they aren't smart and capable, but it does mean a lot of them started their careers with a leg up. That's not the case for every entrepreneur though. Some, like Fahim Saleh, had to fight for every inch of their success. Fahim's parents were originally from Bangladesh, but they traveled all over the world Looking for job opportunities. When Fahim was born in 1986, they were living in Saudi Arabia. But they didn't stay long. The Saleh family moved to the United States when Fahim was just a kid, first to Louisiana before settling down in Rochester, New York. For years, Fahim's parents struggled to make ends meet. His sister said it was an incredibly difficult period of time. The only restaurants they could afford were places like Domino's. Fahim was desperate to help in any way he could. Even though he was just a child, he was incredibly smart. And by the time he was in elementary school, he understood complex, complex topics like supply and demand. When he was in third grade, Fahim would buy candy from a local dollar store and sell it to his classmates at a markup. His hustle paid off, and before long, Fahim took his sales abilities from the real world to the Internet. When he was just 13, he started a website called Monkey Do. It sold jokes and prank ideas to other kids. His parents thought it was a waste of time until he got his first ad revenue check from Google for $500. After seeing how well Monkey do worked, Fahim decided to stay in the world of practical jokes. When he was in high school, he created a call service called Prank Dial. Users could anonymously purchase prank calls, things like pregnancy scares, Rick Rolls, messages from the police, and have them sent to unwitting victims. In 2009, Fahim graduated from Bentley University in Massachusetts with a degree in computer science. By that point, Prank Dial was a huge success, even if it did get him a few real calls from the cops. Because of disgruntled customers, Fahim spent the next six years growing Prank Dial into a multi million dollar company. He used the revenue to invest in and create other entertainment and gaming apps. Fahim enjoyed the work and the money it brought in, but he still wasn't satisfied. He felt like something was missing. Like a lot of startup founders, Fahim was eager to change the world. But the future he wanted to build wasn't based in the United States. He saw enormous potential in bringing technology to developing countries. And before long, his vision came to life. In 2015, 29 year old Fahim used the money he'd made from Prank Dial to found Patao, a motorcycle rideshare company based in his parents native Bangladesh. The company was an instant hit, and by the time Fahim left Patel three years later, it was valued at over $100 million. Some people would have taken their cut of the profits and called it a day, but Fahim was always thinking that bigger. In 2018 he co founded Gokada, another successful ride share company based in Nigeria. That combined with Patau, skyrocketed his net worth to over $150 million. Fahim used a lot of that capital to invest in other companies based in poorer countries like pcap, a Colombian rideshare app. Fahim's efforts earned him a reputation as the Elon Musk of the developing world world. And Fahim's success made his family's life better too. He financially supported his parents who were able to retire early. Fahim was on top of the world and it seemed like there was nowhere better to settle down than New York City. In 2018, he moved there and the following year he bought a lavish $2.25 million condo that took up the entire city. 7th floor of a newly built high rise in Manhattan's Lower east side. It was the start of an exciting new adventure for Fahim, but unfortunately not everyone he came across had good intentions. Like Fahim, Tyreese Hospital had a rough start in life, but unlike Fahim, Tyrese didn't have a stable family to support him along the way. Tyrese's his mother was sent to an institution when he was just a kid. His grandmother took him in, but sadly she passed away when he was just 12. At that point, Tyreese went to live with an aunt. Later, Tyreese decided to cut ties with her and finished high school in foster care. Instead of becoming bitter and angry at the world, Tyrese saw the challenges he'd faced as motivation. He was determined to build a better life for himself and he was willing to do whatever it took to break the cycle. While attending Valley Stream Central High School on Long Island, Tyrese was an active member of the Future Business Leaders of America, or fbla. He dreamed of having a career in tech one day and even got first place in a web design contest the club hosted. And it wasn't long before Tyrese crossed paths with a real tech superstar. In 2015, when he was just 16 years old, Tyrese met 29 year old Fahim Saleh at an FBLA event. Fahim had just founded Patau, the rideshare company in Bangladesh, and it was already taking off. Fahim was impressed by Tyrese's drive. He reminded him of a younger version of himself. Fahim told Tyrese to stay in touch and he meant it. When Fahim moved to New York City in May 2018, he posted a job listing for an executive assistant. 19 year old Tyrese applied and got the job. Tyrese helped Fahim with day to day tasks like Managing his calendar and walking his dog. But Fahim also put Tyrese in charge of managing his business finances. And that's where the trouble began. By the summer of 2018, Gokada, the Nigerian rideshare company, was blowing up, which meant Fahim had to spend more time in Nigeria while Tyrese stayed in New York. For a while, everything was fine. Tyrese kept Fahim's schedule up to date, his dog fed and his business accounts in check. But somewhere along the way, Tyrese started to wonder what being Faheem would feel like. With his boss out of town, it was easy for Tyrese to pass Fahim's life off as his own. He would take friends out on the town, then entertain them at Fahim's apartment. He even pretended that Fahim's dog was his. And things only escalated from there. By that fall, Tyrese was funneling money from Fahim's accounts into his own. He made them look like normal business transactions so they wouldn't be detected. Then he used that money to pay off family debts and fund his own high flying lifestyle. But Tyrese was walking a thin line. And soon several of Fahim's other employees and associates sounded the alarm. At that point, they didn't know the full depth of Tyrese's deception. However, they could tell something was going on. And when Fahim looked into their claims, he agreed. He fired Tyrese in May of 2019. But that wasn't the end of the story. On January 10, 2020, Fahim emailed his former assistant asking about a $35,000 transaction that was made from his account. Four hours later, Tyrese responded. He said the charges were probably because of a clerical error. Fahim wasn't convinced. He demanded an explanation. A few days later, Tyreese came cleaning. He told Fahim he needed to pay off some debts and profusely apologized. Fahim could have gotten the police involved, but that's not the kind of person he was. Instead, he gave Tyrese an out. They would keep up a strict payment plan until the money was paid off. Tyrese eventually cleared his debt, but Fahim had no idea it was just the tip of the iceberg, because Tyrese hadn't just stolen $35,000 from him and he'd taken an additional $400,000. With that kind of money on the line, Tyrese knew his time was running out. So he decided to get rid of his problem before it was too late. On the morning of July 13, 2020, 33 year old Fahim left his luxury Manhattan condo to go for a run. While he was out, 21 year old Tyrese entered the building behind someone else. He was wearing an all black outfit and a dark face covering. Tyreese spent hours waiting in a stairwell with a knife and a Taser gun hidden in his jacket. When he saw Fahim enter the lobby, Tyrese snuck out of the stairwell and followed his former boss into the elevator. During the ride up to Fahim's floor, they even made small talk for a bit. Fahim didn't seem to recognize Tyreese behind the mask because Fahim's apartment took up the entire seventh floor. The doors opened directly into the condo, and as soon as Fahim stepped inside, so did Tyreese. Before Fahim knew what was happening, Tyrese fired the Taser gun, sending Fahim to the ground. Fahim fought back, but eventually Tyreese overpowered him. He stabbed Fahim five times in the neck and torso. Then he used a handheld vacuum to suck up the anti felon ID tags that had been ejected from the Taser. These are little pieces of confetti with the Taser's serial number, which allows law enforcement to track who fired it. Except Tyrese missed one. The next day, Tyrese went to Home Depot and bought disinfectant and a power saw using Fahim's credit card. And then he returned to Fahim's apartment to get rid of the evidence. He started by dismembering Fahim's body, but halfway through, the saw's battery died and Tyreese left to go get a new one. While he was away, Fahim's cousin arrived at his apartment looking for him. She used her copy of the key fob to get inside, and as soon as the doors opened, she saw his body with his arms and head cut off. Fahim's cousin called the police, and by the time Tyreese came back, a crowd was swarming the building. Tyrese walked in the opposite direction, hoping to escape suspicion. But it wouldn't take long for the authorities to figure out who had murdered Fahim Saleh. Tyrese didn't know he'd left that single anti felon ID tag on the floor. When police traced the serial number, they learned the Taser gun had been purchased by Tyrese Haspil. And the more they dug into Tyrese's finances, the more they realized he had a reason to get rid of his boss. Tyrese was arrested on July 17, 2020 four days after the murder. He pleaded not guilty. Tyrese claimed he was in a state of extreme emotions, emotional distress, when he killed Fahim and therefore not responsible for his actions. The jury didn't buy it. In June of 2024, 25 year old Tyrese was convicted of first degree murder and grand larceny. Tyrese's attorney argued for a reduced sentence only for Tyrese to ask the judge for life in prison. It seemed like Tyrese wanted to take responsibility responsibility for his actions and in the end he was given 40 years to life. Fahim Saleh's murder sent shockwaves through the tech community. High level entrepreneurs were already worried about being targeted for their wealth. The fact that Fahim's killer was someone he trusted only made the rest of the industry more anxious. And it wasn't long until everyone started wondering who was next.
- [18:15]
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- [18:47]
Katie Ring
think about some of the cases that defined true crime in America. Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, the Karen retrial. Some crime cases are so shocking, they don't just make headlines, they forever change a country. I'm Katie Ring, host of America's Most Infamous Crimes. Each week I take on one of the most notorious criminal cases, whether it's unfolding now or etched into American history, revealing not just what happened, but how it forever changed our society. Serial killers who terrorized cities, unsolved mysteries that kept detectives up at night, and investigations that changed the way we think about justice. Each case unfolds across multiple episodes released every Tuesday through Thursday, from the first sign that something was wrong to the moment the truth came out or didn't. These are the stories behind the headlines. Listen to and follow America's Most Infamous Crimes available now wherever you get your podcasts.
- [19:47]
Vanessa Richardson
Fahim Saleh's story ended in New York, but a lot of other tech bros get their start in Silicon Valley. This wealthy enclave in and around California's Bay Area is where companies like Apple, Google and Meta have their headquarters. Generally speaking, there are two kinds of people in Silicon Valley. Those with a vision and the engineers who turn that vision into reality. Bob Lee was one of the rare people who could do both. Bob was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1979. He grew up during the personal computing boom and became fascinated by the technology. But he didn't just want to use it, he wanted to push it forward. By the time he was in high school, Bob programmed his own 3D graphics engine before graphics cards were even released to the public. But Bob wasn't just a computer geek. He was also a talented athlete. His high school friends called him Crazy Bob because of his high energy platform plays during water polo. The nickname would stick with him for the rest of his life. And his water polo abilities would earn him a scholarship to Southeast Missouri State University. Like a lot of major tech figures, Bob eventually dropped out of college. But he was still committed to making his mark on the world. Bob first made a name for himself in 2001 when a computer worm known as Code Red was infiltrating Microsoft's servers and spreading malware. Bob coded a fix for the worm, nicknamed Code Red Vigilante and released it to the public for free. This helped Bob get a job as a technical architect for AT&T. And it wasn't long before he made his way to Silicon Valley. In 2004, Bob got a job as a software engineer at Google's Mountain View headquarters. This was around the time the company started to expand beyond search engines and Bob dove right in. He played a major role in the development of the mobile Android operating system. Within a few years, Bob had established himself as one of Google's best engineers. And by 2009 he was leading the entire Core Libraries team which was responsible for developing, maintaining and evolving Google's software. With that kind of resume, it wasn't long until other companies took notice of Bob's abilities. In 2010, when he was 31, Bob was recruited by the e commerce company Square and became their chief technology officer. There he co created Cash App, which now boasts over $280 billion a year in transactions. It was an incredible accomplishment, the kind that many tech bros can only dream of. For Bob, it was the crowning moment of his career. And afterwards, he was ready for a new challenge. In 2014, he left square and Cash App. Instead of continuing to work for a big corporation, Bob started investing in different startups. He also used his experience in financial technology to become a major player in the world of cryptocurrency. In just over a decade, Bob had gone from a low level software engineer to one of several Silicon Valley's biggest success stories. But Bob had another side to him, one that he didn't advertise. Despite his clean cut reputation, Crazy Bob liked to party. And the wealthier he got, the bigger his parties became. Things only got more hectic when he and his wife separated in 2019. That's when he allegedly got involved in one what people called the Lifestyle. Supposedly this was a high level underground party circuit in San Francisco involving designer drugs and casual sex. That's how Bob met Nima Momeni. Nima Momeni was born in Tehran, Iran in 1984. Growing up, Nima's father was incredibly abusive to him and his family. And by the time Nima was 14, his mother had hit her breaking point point. She took Nima and his younger sister Hazar and escaped to San Francisco. It was a big change, but Nima fit right in. He had a gift for technology and taught himself how to do it work. When he was 21. Those skills got him hired at different tech companies around the Bay Area. Five years later, Nima launched his own IT consulting firm called Expand It. Despite Nima's abilities, his company struggled to take off. It didn't help that the next year, in 2011, he was arrested for having a switchblade in his possession, a misdemeanor offense in California. Nima took a plea deal the following year and the charges were dropped. But his reputation was permanently damaged. Even then, Nima did his best to take care of his tight knit family. He helped pay for his mother's education to become a dental hygienist, and later bought her a BMW. But there was one person Nima was especially protective of. His younger sister, Hazar. In 2013, Hazar married Dr. Dino Eliasnia, one of the most successful plastic surgeons in the Bay Area. Dino's money and their open relationship completely changed Hazar's life. She and Dino moved into separate apartments in the ritzy Millennium Tower, and Hazar started partying full time, living the lifestyle. There were plenty of other people doing the same thing, including Nima and Bob Lee Hazar met Bob at the Battery, an exclusive private club, in 2015. It's not clear if Bob was also in an open marriage, but he and Hazar began a casual sexual relationship that lasted years. They regularly met in the city's most expensive hotels and high rises for late night hookups. And after Bob and his wife separated in 2019, his relationship with Hazar got more serious. It lasted until October 2022, when Bob moved to Miami, Florida to help his widowed father. But that wasn't the last time he saw Hazar. In the spring of 2023, Bob was back in the Bay Area to see one of his kids in a production of High School Musical. While he was there, he called Hazar on April 1 at around 4am he asked if he could come over to her apartment. They seemingly spent the morning together. And the next night, Bob returned to Hazar's place. But this time he wasn't alone. He brought his drug dealer, Jeremy Boyvin. Hazar said that she and Bob ingested acid, cocaine, nitrous oxide, ketamine, and alcohol. But apparently Jeremy took things a step further. After partying all night, Jeremy invited Hazar and a friend to his apartment to do some lsd. A few hours later, Bob and a friend showed up to party. When they left, Hazar didn't want to be alone with Jeremy, so she called a girlfriend to come over. But when she arrived, Jeremy gave both women shots of ghb, which is often used as a date rape drug. According to Hazar, she passed out, and that's when Jeremy sexually assaulted her. When Hazar came to hours later, she was distraught. She texted her brother to come pick her up. Once Nima learned what happened to her, he was furious. But he wasn't just angry with Jeremy. Bob Lee had been the one who introduced Hazar to Jeremy, and Nima would make Bob pay for bringing him into Hazar's life. So that evening, after Hazar and Nima returned to her apartment, Nima called Bob Lee and started yelling. Bob tried to calm him down, but it was no use. So Bob went right over to Hazar's place to talk things out in person. Nina Nima was still furious, and he blamed Bob for what happened. Hazar then watched helplessly as her brother pulled a knife out of a kitchen drawer and threatened Bob with. Seemed like Nima did feel better after that. He even offered to drive Bob home. Surveillance footage captured them leaving the apartment at around 2am on April 4, taking the elevator down to Nima's white BMW and driving away. A few minutes later, Nima stopped his car in the neighborhood of Rincon Hill underneath the Bay Bridge. He and Bob got out of the car and had a heated conversation. According to Nima, he had made a bad joke that set Bob off. Then Nima said, Bob pulled a knife on him, but he was able to wrangle it away and stabbed Bob in the heart and the hip. Nima jumped back into his BMW and sped away, but Bob was still alive. At 2:34am he made a frantic 911 call. He said, somebody stabbed me. Help me, please. Those were his final words before he collapsed. Bob Lee died on the morning of April 4, 2023, at 43 years old. Almost right away, major tech figures and media outlets pointed to his murder as an example of urban crime at its most extreme. They believed that Bob had been killed because of his wealth in a random attack. Some people even linked Bob's death with Fahim Saleh's years earlier. Those narratives were disproven when Nima Momeni was arrested on April 12, 2023. That's when the world learned that Bob Lee hadn't been killed by someone who hated his success. He was killed by a fellow tech bro with millions of dollars to his name. After a lengthy trial, Nima was convicted of second degree murder. He hasn't been sentenced as of this recording, but he'll probably face 16 years to life in prison. Even then, the people who used Bob Lee's death to promote their narrative weren't done. In their minds, a pattern had been established. Tech bros were under attack, and something had to be done to stop it.
- [30:15]
Surruti
If you like your true crime, like
- [30:17]
Hannah
you like your coffee, Red Handed is the podcast for you.
- [30:20]
Surruti
It's dark, intense, and might just keep you up all night.
- [30:23]
Hannah
I'm Hannah.
- [30:23]
Surruti
I'm Surruti, and every week on Red Handed we break down a different fascinating case.
- [30:29]
Hannah
From the most recent US Trials everyone is obsessing over, like Brendan Banfield, Karen Reid and Ellen Greenberg, to the most
- [30:35]
Surruti
unbelievable stories from around the world. There's nothing we love more than digging into every detail of the cases we cover, getting beyond a basic analysis and cutting to the heart of the story.
- [30:44]
Hannah
Red handed has over 400 episodes ready to binge right now.
- [30:48]
Surruti
Plus be sure to check out our weekly sister show shorthand, where we unpack everything from the Black death to Area 51.
- [30:55]
Hannah
If you're looking for smart, detailed true crime with personality, check out Red Handed wherever you get your podcasts.
- [31:03]
Vanessa Richardson
For decades, software engineers weren't exactly considered cool. Even as computers started to dominate culture, the people who built them stayed mostly in the shadows. That all changed in the age of social media, when the concept of a tech bro started to emerge. Companies like Facebook, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat were all founded and led by young white men, many of whom dropped out of college to focus on their startups. In the mid 2010s during the tech boom, companies like these were dubbed the Silicon Valley Boys Club because women weren't getting the same opportunities as their male counterparts. In the wake of the MeToo movement and other initiatives, that culture started to shift ever so slightly. Even then, the disparity between men and women in tech remained clear. A 2024 report found that women in Silicon Valley made 82 cents for every dollar that a man made. A lot of brave and intelligent women have set out to change that. Like Pava La Pere, Pava was born in Tucson, Arizona in 1997 and started playing college at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland in 2015. At first she thought she wanted to become a doctor, but over time she changed her tune. She fell in love with Baltimore and its small tech industry. While at Johns Hopkins, she studied computer science for three years before switching her major to sociology. The shift might have been surprising to some, but Pava saw a direct connection between understanding social structures and building Better software. In 2018, while still in undergrad, Pawa co founded Ecomap Technologies, supplying better artificial intelligence customer support tools to major companies. Pawa wanted to give customers faster, more precise answers when they needed help. Around the same time she started Ecomap, Pawa also co founded in Innovate Maryland, a nonprofit offering resources to Maryland's underprivileged student entrepreneurs. When Pava graduated from Johns Hopkins In 2019, she knew what she wanted to do with her life. She continued to grow EcoMap and Innovate Maryland, and before long she got the recognition she deserved. In 2023, when she was 26, her work landed her on the Forbes 30 under 30 list in the social impact category. She hoped to use the newfound attention to change how the tech world operated. Sadly, she never got the chance, because a few months later, Pava came across the person who would take everything from her. Jason Billingsley was born in Baltimore in 1990 or 1991. Not born much has been made public about him, but from 2009 to 2013, he was charged with three different assaults and spent most of that time in prison. In 2015, he pleaded guilty to another first degree sex offense that was supposed to get him 30 years behind bars, but a plea deal suspended 16 years of his sentence. In October 2022, after serving seven years, Jason, who was 31 or 32 by then, was released on good behavior. Less than a year later, on September 19, 2023, he committed his next crime, and it was more brutal than any of his others. That day, Jason broke into an apartment in the building where he did maintenance work. He held a woman and her boyfriend at gunpoint and tied them up before repeatedly sexually assaulting her. Jason then slit the woman's throat before spraying the couple with lighter fluid and setting them on fire. The couple managed to survive, but Jason escaped the building before authorities arrived, which meant he was free to find his next victim. Unfortunately, Pava La Pere just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Three days after brutally attacking that couple, on September 22, 2023, Jason spotted 27 year old Pava out in Baltimore. He tracked her for a while before eventually following her back home. He watched as she entered her building, then sat on a couch in the lobby. At that point, he made his move. Jason signaled to Pava from outside, pretending like he'd lost his keys. Pava, who assumed the best in everyone, didn't question him. She let Jason inside the building. After that, she entered the elevator and Jason followed. About an hour later, Jason was seen exiting the building and wiping his hands on his shorts. Pava's body was discovered on the roof of the building three days later. Her cause of death was strangulation and blunt force trauma. Jason had used a brick as a weapon. Police were already looking for him after his previous attack. But Pava's death triggered a statewide manhunt. Authorities spent days tracing his phone until eventually he disabled the tracking feature. At one point, police got within 300ft of him before he disappeared. But he couldn't run forever. On the morning of September 28, a SWAT team caught Jason at a train station in Bowie, Maryland, about 30 miles outside of Baltimore. In the aftermath of Pava's murder, both the Maryland Department of Corrections and the Baltimore Police Department received a lot of criticism. Residents wanted to know why they'd let Jason out of prison early when he called. Clearly wasn't rehabilitated. They also wanted to know why the Baltimore PD hadn't publicized Jason's previous attack. The authorities apparently didn't have an answer for either of those questions, but they were committed to never letting him go free again. In August 2024, Jason pleaded guilty to first degree murder in Pava's case. He also pleaded guilty to charges of sexual assault, assault, attempted murder, and arson. From the other case, he was given three life sentences, two to be served simultaneously. Jason won't be eligible for parole until 2083. He would be 93 years old by then. Paba's murder also led to some major changes to Maryland's justice system. After her death, Governor Westmore signed a new bill into law restricting sex offenders from getting reduced sentences due to good behavior. What happened to Pava had another unintended consequence. She had dedicated her life to disrupting the tech industry and getting more women involved. Instead, after her death, she was lumped in with other tech bro murders and assigned a label that she'd fought so hard to change. The media and those in the industry pointed to Pava's murder as yet another example of a leader in tech being targeted because of their success. But the truth is, we still don't know what Jason's motive was. There's no evidence that Pawa was assaulted or robbed. All signs point to a severely disturbed individual whose only aim was senseless violence. The tech Bro murders frenzy reached its peak in the aftermath of Pava La Per's death. But in the two years since that narrative has started to shift, it's easy to see why Fahim Saleh's murder made headlines. It's a salacious story, and it seemed like an obvious example of violent crime being committed against the 1%. But the truth was Fahim's murder was personal. Tyrese Haspil was one of Fahim's closest friends and most trusted employees. Similarly, Bob Lee and Nima Momeni ran in the same circles, and their tech bro lifestyles directly contributed to Bob's death. Pava Lapere was the only tech industry murder that was truly random. But knowing the kind of person she was, she wouldn't have wanted her death to contribute to the narrative that urban crime is running rampant. And the data shows it isn't. In the early months of 2025, New York City saw the lowest number of shootings and murders in recorded history. In Baltimore, murders and non fatal shootings have declined by 50% since 2023. And in 2024, San Francisco's homicide rate was the second lowest it's been since it lasts. Released 1966. In the end, the only similarities between Fahim Saleh, Bob Lee and Pava La Pere were their line of work. But the media tried to fit them all into the same box anyway. Doing so only hurt the families of the victims and lessened the impact of their deaths. It makes me wonder what the Tech Bro Murders storyline is really about. What do you all think? Do these deaths fit a certain pattern and could any of them have been prevented? Tell us in the comments. Whatever the truth is, one thing is clear. The people behind the apps and software we use every day have the power to change change the world. But sometimes even that level of influence isn't enough to escape violence. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Vanessa Richardson and this is Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes. Come back next time. We'll decode the episode together and hear another story about the real people at the center of the world's most notorious cults, conspiracies and criminal acts. Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios here at Crime House. We want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media, Rimehouse on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review, review and follow Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. And to enhance your Conspiracy Theories, Cults and crimes listening experience, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode early and ad free. We'll be back next Wednesday. Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes is hosted by me, Vanessa Richardson and is a Crime House original. Powered by Pave Studios, this episode was brought to life by the Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Natalie Pertofsky, Lori Marinelli, Sarah Camp, Jake Natureman, Leah Roche and Michael Langsner. Thank you for listening. Foreign
- [42:40]
Katie Ring
Host of America's Most Infamous Crimes each week I take on one of the most notorious criminal cases in American history. Listen to and follow America's Most infamous Crimes. Available now wherever you get your podcasts.
- [42:55]
Vanessa Richardson
Thanks for listening to today's episode. Not sure what to listen to next? Check out America's Most Infamous Crimes hosted by Kids Katie Ring from serial killers to unsolved mysteries and game changing investigations, each week Katie takes on a notorious criminal case in American history. Listen to and follow America's Most Infamous Crimes now wherever you listen to podcasts.