Sahara Fakhir

Weight loss medications are everywhere right now.

Everyone's talking about them, everyone's on them.

But let's be real.

Have you seen the price tag?

It's hard to believe they're actually accessible.

That's where HERS comes in.

HERS is transforming women's healthcare by providing access to affordable weight loss treatment plans.

They connect you with a medical provider who will work with you to determine the best treatment option for you.

So, if you've been struggling to find a solution to your weight loss journey, it's time to find the best option that works for you through HERS.

Start your free online visit today at forhers.com/slash snapped.

That's F-O-R-H-E-R-S.com/slash snapped for your personalized weight loss treatment options.

For HERS.com/slash snapped.

Weight loss by HERS is not available everywhere.

Compounded products are not approved or reviewed for safety, effectiveness, or quality by the FDA.

Prescription required.

See website for full details, important safety information, and restrictions.

Actual price depends on product and plan purchased.

purchased.

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

You chose to hit play on this podcast today.

Smart choice.

Progressive loves to help people make smart choices.

That's why they offer a tool called AutoQuote Explorer that allows you to compare your progressive car insurance quote with rates from other companies.

So you save time on the research and can enjoy savings when you choose the best rate for you.

Give it a try after this episode at progressive.com.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates.

Not available in all states or situations.

Prices vary based on how you buy.

He was a beloved family man.

He was a hard worker.

He provided for his family.

Everywhere we went, he knew somebody.

Jerry loved his family, loved the community.

He helped people in a way that just blew me away with love and compassion.

Until a brutal crime changes everything.

The amount of blood in this crime scene scene was excessive.

It was a very violent struggle.

It was clear to me that foul play was involved.

As investigators push for answers, they uncover an unbelievable story

of excess.

She felt shame for committing this deadly sin of gluttony.

It completely consumed her mind.

And at the heart of it all is one person's voracious obsession.

This was someone who clearly couldn't control their impulses.

They have some delusional thinking.

There was a list of cops that she wanted to see dead.

Why would you do that?

I can't understand that hate.

It has rocked us to our course

with everything that we believe in.

They had every intention of killing again.

This wasn't going to stop.

June 19th, 2013,

Douglasville, Georgia.

Around 2 p.m., the Douglas County Sheriff's Office receives a call from one of their own investigators, 37-year-old Michael Mikey Wheeler.

Can you send amulets to my mom and daddy's house?

Thank my daddy steal it and I blow it.

Mikey was one of our veteran employees at the sheriff's office.

A lot of folks at the sheriff's office and the community knew of his dad.

It was something that kind of took everybody aback from the get-go.

It hits close to home.

Moments later, deputies arrive at the home of 66-year-old Jerry Wheeler.

They find his son Michael calmly standing outside.

Mikey and his dad were close, and he would go and visit him on a regular basis.

I would stop by the house pretty much every day to eat lunch or just to visit.

I knew dad would come home around 12 to cook himself some lunch.

Michael says as he entered the home, he immediately knew something was wrong.

Walked in the house, seen it's a bunch of blood.

The couch was moved, and I started yelling his name, you know, saying, Dad, dad, where are you at?

And I went to, checked all the bedrooms, went to the back bathroom.

When he couldn't find his father, Jerry, anywhere in the house, Michael says he came back to the living room.

When I was coming back out, I stepped on the rug.

And when I stepped on it, I could feel that it was a body.

Michael tells first responders that his father's health was failing and he believes his dad may have died from natural causes.

He was wrapped up in a rug in the middle of the floor and Michael thought that he had done that perhaps to keep himself warm.

He thought because his father had a litany of health issues that he perhaps had had an episode, a vein had burst in his leg and he had started bleeding.

His veins would just pop on the back of his leg.

He went to the hospital for it.

He was seeking treatment for it.

I was thinking that his, you know, the blood loss, he was getting cold and weak.

I thought he might roll it up into the rug to warm up.

When deputies enter the living room, they are immediately taken aback by the scene.

There was blood on the walls and on the floor.

We had blood on the fireplace and on some other items that was scattered through the house.

From my experience, you know, a natural death doesn't leave that amount of blood.

Despite Michael's claims that his father may have died from natural causes, first responders are adamant this was foul play.

Basically,

my dad never had enemies, got along with everybody.

Jerry grew up around Ben Hill, Georgia.

We married in 1970, and Michelle was born in 1972, and then Michael four years later, almost to the day he was a good husband.

Jerry loved his family, loved the community.

He helped people in a way that just blew me away with love and compassion.

He was loving,

he was direct, and

he was genuine.

Jerry was the most laid-back guy I've ever met.

I mean,

nothing upset him.

He was easy to get along with.

Good sense of humor.

Jerry worked as a mechanic for a number of companies.

He was really successful and he even opened up his own business.

He could do anything with a car.

He's always worked.

He was a hard worker.

My dad worked long nights, but he always came in.

When he left in the mornings, he came in and gave us a kiss, you know, before he left.

He worked hours upon hours.

He'd get up 9, 10 o'clock, and he wouldn't get home until 9 or 10 o'clock.

So he loved it.

Even though Jerry spent a lot of time at the garage, his family always remained his first priority.

The main thing, you know, in his life was going to see the grandkids, doing things with the family.

He's very loving.

He's very caring.

He just took care of everybody around him.

I was his little princess, and he loved us more than anything.

In 2013, Jerry was diagnosed with venous reflux, a disorder where blood flow is disrupted and pools in the veins of the lower extremities.

The first time it happened, he was rebuilding a transmission at the shop and looked down, and he was standing in a puddle of blood, and his veins would just pop on the back of his leg.

Jerry's diagnosis had left him considering surgery, though he wasn't about to let it slow him down.

He would shut the doors on the shop anytime to go out to eat with my mother or to go play golf.

He was loving life.

But now, it seems Jerry's been robbed of his chance to enjoy his golden years.

You've got a bloody floor and bloody walls, and you got the victim there that was covered in blood.

It was clear to me that foul play was involved.

I saw a couch that was broken into two sections.

Some of the cushions had been tossed about.

What I thought was that there was a confrontation in the living room where Mr.

Wheeler tried to defend himself.

It looked like there was a pretty big fight in there.

Next to the couch, detectives find Jerry rolled up in the rug.

As they unroll the carpet, they are stunned by what they find.

He had a lot of stab wounds and cut marks on him.

It was clear to me this was a pretty brutal type of killing.

Why would someone want to violently kill this beloved mechanic and family man?

He was very well liked, just a good person, and for him to have been murdered like that was devastating to us at the sheriff's office.

Coming up, police must investigate one of their own.

Have you and your dad ever had problems to the point where he didn't speak or it came to close?

A large percentage of the time, these domestic violence killings obviously were within family.

And clues at the crime scene indicate a vicious struggle.

It did look like Gary was fighting for his life.

On June 19th, 2013, deputies in Douglas County, Georgia are investigating the brutal murder of 66-year-old Jerry Wheeler.

After his body was found by his son, Michael.

The victim's son was actually employed with the sheriff's office, so it was something that hits close to home.

Examining Jerry's body, detectives discovered details of his final moments.

Mr.

Wheeler had been wrapped up or rolled up in carpet, and it looked like that he had stab wounds.

This was a pretty violent scene.

That was probably one of the bloodiest crime scenes I've ever worked.

He had stab wounds on his chest, neck, and legs.

He had some cuts on his left hand, like it was some type of defensive wound from the attack.

He suffered, I believe, approximately 15 to 16 stab wounds total, potentially a head wound.

There was a base with blood, and at some point during the struggle, we believe he was struck with the base.

And so it did look like Jerry was fighting for his life.

Based off the excessive number of stab wounds, detectives theorize about the type of person they might be looking for.

I was looking for a big man because Mr.

Wheeler was a pretty good sized man.

He could handle himself.

Mr.

Wheeler had somebody that was of some size and of some strength to be able to put up a struggle and a fight to be able to subdue him and to be able to stab him that number of times.

They also conclude that the killer knew enough about the home to try and conceal their identity.

There was blood in a number of places down the hall, in the bathroom, which appeared that there had been some sort of cleaning up afterwards.

On a wall nearby the victim, there was a gloved palm impression.

And on top of the electric fireplace was another gloved impression.

I couldn't tell what type of glove it was, but the impression made it look like it was a fabric.

The fact that the killer had worn gloves means finding a fingerprint is unlikely.

But as investigators continue to examine the crime scene, they find something almost as useful.

Within the scene, there were footprints on the floor of the living room, and so it appeared that after the homicide, whoever did it had stepped in Jerry's blood and left prints.

We knew that this could be a big potential piece of evidence, especially if it was a barefoot, because a foot impression is just as identifiable as a fingerprint.

While CSIs collect the bloody footprints, detectives check the rest of the house for evidence.

Based on what they find, investigators surmise that Jerry had most likely been attacked the night before while he was in the middle of making dinner.

There was a pot of what looked like maybe turnip greens.

The stove I was still on, and the material in it had completely cooked and almost caught fire.

Police find no evidence of forced entry, and nothing seems to be missing from inside the home.

But outside the house, an officer discovers a strange clue.

Ultimately, one of the things that was found was the keys to a car found hanging in a tree branch above, right there in the vicinity of where Mr.

Wheeler's vehicle was.

And inside the vehicle, police find more unnerving evidence.

There was blood in the victim, Jerry's car, outside.

There was blood on the steering column consistent with somebody trying to start the vehicle.

Our estimation is whoever committed the murder had come out, tried to start the car, couldn't start it, so threw the keys in the tree and left some other way.

Is it possible Jerry had been killed during an attempt to steal his car?

While police can't be certain, it's a theory they consider.

Oftentimes you'll have people that need a vehicle for one reason or another, and if they have to kill somebody to get it, some people are willing to do that.

We begin to canvass the neighborhood or we begin to knock on doors and we're starting to ask people if they've seen anything, heard anything, see anything that's strange.

No one recalls seeing anyone trying to steal Jerry's car, but one neighbor says she saw a large woman walking down the street away from Jerry's home at 10.30 p.m.

on the night he had been killed.

The woman that was seen walking up the road was very noticeable due to her size.

She was north of 400 pounds, so she was not an average size woman.

The neighbor points them in the direction where this woman lives, and it turns out it's right next to Jerry's house.

Investigators made contact with her.

She indicated she didn't know anything about what had transpired.

She gave us her name as Tabriz Toole.

and that she gets out and to try and lose weight or to exercise, she would get out and walk the neighborhood.

Tabriz tells officers that she's embarrassed by her size and prefers to exercise at night when no one's watching.

Some of the neighbors were able to verify that they have seen her out walking in the neighborhood.

Confident that Tabriz had just been exercising on the night she was seen walking, detectives are able to quickly eliminate her as a person of interest.

Next, investigators turn their attention to those closest to Jerry, starting with his wife, Jean.

My grandmother was gone to Florida with her sisters for vacation.

This was the first time that she's ever been on vacation without my grandfather.

My sisters and I had gone to Florida, and my sister's cell phone rang, and

she answered it.

A few minutes later, she came back and she said, I've got to go.

And we said, well, what's wrong?

And she says, I've got to go.

And I've got to go now.

And

I knew then that something had happened.

I don't know what they said.

The next few days was just a blur.

I don't remember everything that happened.

With his wife ruled out as a possible suspect, detectives turned their attention to Jerry's son, Michael.

Mikey couldn't be eliminated, and that was difficult to deal with.

I mean, you've got to be impartial to these investigations.

When investigators sit down with Michael, he says that when he found his father covered in blood, foul play never crossed his mind.

When I was coming back out,

I stepped on the road right there and his

fist right in here.

His ankles coughed.

I said, oh, and I looked down and seen his head.

Okay.

And then that's what I said,

and I could tell, you know, he was dead.

And so you're not thinking anything suspicious at this time?

Not suspicious, no.

Michael admits he has no solid alibi and says he was home alone the night his father was killed.

Have you and your dad ever had problems to the point where he didn't speak or it came to blows or anything like that.

I'll just be straight.

We've got to

decide who to concentrate on and who not to concentrate on.

And you know yourself being a law enforcement for a very long time, what are one of the first

people that someone looks at when something like this happens?

And that's the people closest to them.

That's just normal first objective.

While having this conversation, detectives realized he was lacking emotion.

You can't dictate across the board how people are going to act and react to these kinds of situations, but some might say his reaction was such that maybe looks suspicious.

You know if your parents had any problems with anybody in the neighborhood and squabbles and issues?

Michael says there is one house in the neighborhood that falls under that category.

A halfway house for troubled teen boys that's located down the street from his parents' address.

Over the years, kids with violent tendencies committing crimes.

These were kids that were committed by the state to these locations.

Those are troubled kids.

They've been in and out of the judicial system.

Michael tells detectives that over the years, his father had multiple run-ins with different boys staying at the halfway house.

I know they took my sister's car years ago, stole their car for a a little joyride.

You're talking about some of the kids next door.

Yeah.

The news of a previous car theft catches detectives' attention, especially since it appears that whoever killed Jerry had also attempted to steal his car.

But that's not all.

There was one time when I was downstairs and one of them opened the door.

I don't know why he opened the back door and came in, but when he saw me, he laughed.

Could Jerry have been killed by one of the troubled teenagers next door?

Or is Michael only bringing them up to deflect attention away from himself?

He definitely wasn't ruled out as a suspect.

It was just, you know, let's figure it out.

Detectives release Michael for now.

and turn their attention to the halfway house for troubled boys.

They tried to ascertain whether anybody there could have potentially been the perpetrator.

Coming up, had a night of teenage mischief turned to murder.

Did one of them get upset?

Did things escalate?

We didn't know what kind of an offender we had out there.

And a secret obsession is unveiled.

This was someone who clearly couldn't control their impulses.

You know, over the years, I've had my fair share of financial stress: overdraft fees out of nowhere, forgetting a payment and getting hit with penalties, or just wishing I had a better way to stretch my money between paychecks.

That's why I love what Chime is doing.

As a fee-free banking app, QIIME understands that every dollar counts.

When you set up direct deposit through QIIME, you unlock fee-free features like free overdraft coverage, getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit, and so much more.

QIIME is banking done right.

You can open a checking account with no monthly fees and no maintenance fees.

And when you set up direct deposit, you can actually get paid up to two days early.

Imagine that.

Plus, with qualifying direct deposits, QIIME has your back with free overdraft, up to $200 on debit card purchases and cash withdrawals.

No more sweating, that surprise coffee charge.

In fact, QIIME has already spotted members over $30 billion to date.

And when it comes to access, you're covered with over 47,000 fee-free ATMs nationwide.

That's more than the top three national banks combined.

I use QIIME, and you should too.

Getting paid early has actually made budgeting easier for me.

It gives me a head start on rent, groceries, subscriptions, everything.

And I love getting those real-time alerts when I spend.

It keeps me way more aware of my daily habits.

And the thing I love most, Chime's customer support agents are available 24-7.

It's been super helpful to get the support I need when it works best for me, not trying to cram in extra calls during the workday.

Work on your financial goals through QIIME today.

Open an account in two minutes at chime.com slash snapped.

That's chime.com slash snapped.

Chime feels like progress.

Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank.

Banking services and debit card provided by the Bankwork Bank NA or Stripe Bank NA, members of FDIC.

Spot me eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply.

Timing depends on submission payment file.

Fees apply at Out of Network ATMs, bank ranking, and number of ATMs, according to U.S.

News and World Record 2023.

Chime, checking account required.

Hey, it's Stephanie Gomolko with oxygen.com.

When I'm running a marathon, I have enough to worry about.

My hydration, to my time, to how my knee is feeling.

The last thing I need to worry about is blisters.

Thanks to Bombas, that hasn't been an issue.

Don't let bad socks and blisters stop you in your tracks either.

Bombas make slides, socks, and seamless essentials to keep up with however you pace your days.

Bombas offers sweat-wicking blister fighting and impact cushioning socks.

You can also order bombas abroad.

That's right, along with the U.S., they now ship internationally to over 200 countries.

Head over to bombas.com and use code snapped for 20% off your first purchase.

That's bombbas.com, code snapped at checkout.

Less than 24 hours into the murder investigation of 66-year-old Jerry Wheeler, detectives have been unable to rule out Jerry's son, Douglas County Sheriff's Officer Michael Wheeler.

There wasn't necessarily any evidence of a spat between Jerry and Michael.

I mean, they had a good relationship, but detectives had to investigate Michael because they had no other motive.

But during the course of his interview with police, Michael is able to point detectives in the direction of a boys' home next door to the Wheeler residence that could harbor some potential suspects.

In years past, those kids have kind of trespassed, even breaking into the home at times.

We were investigating anybody who lived at that house, anybody who was working at that house.

It was a transient location where kids come and go.

And so we knew we had a work cut out for us on that.

So that was one of our main priorities was try and get our suspect list down of kids that potentially could have been there to do it.

The detectives went to go interview the manager of the house.

They find three boys and they decide to speak with them.

Two of the boys have alibis for the night of the murder.

However, the third boy, a 14-year-old named Reginald, isn't as cooperative.

This boy refused to speak with detectives.

He acted defiantly when they were speaking with him.

He wouldn't offer any information about his whereabouts, what he was doing on the night of June 18th.

Is the teenager's refusal to cooperate a sign of his potential guilt?

While his behavior is certainly suspicious, police don't have any evidence connecting him to the crime.

At the same time, forensic investigators at the police station have figured out how to examine the bloody foot impressions they found at the crime scene.

And it pays off.

We used a chemical called aqueous leucocrystal violet that has a reaction with the protein in the blood.

And we were able to, with the reaction from the blood with that chemical, we had an identifiable foot impression.

We were pretty excited because up to that point we didn't have any type of identifying evidence to go on.

With this new evidence, police conclude the killer must have come from a location near the Wheeler residence.

The fact that they were bare footprints, coupled with the fact that it appeared the perpetrator tried to take the victim's car, those two together indicated that this person was on foot.

That suggested to me that this was an offender who probably lived in the vicinity of where this crime occurred.

The print also confirms detectives' initial assessment that the killer had to be big enough to overpower Jerry.

The foot impression that we developed was all from the right foot.

The foot impression was about 10 and a half.

And so we thought this could be a large person.

Now, investigators just have to make a match.

You can make comparisons on footprints just like fingerprints.

They have ridges and swirls and various identifying characteristics that can be compared to a latent print that is discovered at a crime scene.

Unfortunately, there's no database for footprints like there is for fingerprints.

We had to do it the old-fashioned way, roll people's footprints and have our latent examiner tech manually go through and either identify it or eliminate it.

Investigators are still very suspicious of the boys' home, so they spend the next few days getting foot impressions of every single boy that lives in that home to see if they can find a match.

Even the 14-year-old who refused to answer questions agrees to a print.

Their prints were taken to be compared and none of those matched.

They were ruled out as well as contributing the prints there in the scene.

There was a lot of frustration for me in the sense we had developed that foot impression.

We knew that if we could find the person that deposited it, we knew that we had found the killer.

Investigators also obtain a print from Jerry's son, Michael Wheeler.

They call me up and say that I need to come in.

They have to get some foot impressions.

They compare this bloody footprint to the footprint of Michael Wheeler, and there is no match at all.

Once we were able to realize that that wasn't his footprint in there, that was a big sigh of relief for us.

While detectives are relieved to eliminate one of their fellow officers as a potential suspect, they've also hit a dead end when it comes to the investigation.

We were working around the clock, days on end.

In the back of my mind, I was concerned and I was worried that the longer this goes on, the more chance this has to be an unsolved case.

For a month, I thought about that case every day, just knowing that we had a potential piece of evidence that's going to be able to clear the case.

They were having regular meetings to try to compare notes and say, all right, where should we go next?

During one of their meetings in early July 2013, investigators review the interviews from the crime scene canvas and notice something that might have been overlooked.

At this meeting, everybody comparing notes realized that we had a report of a large individual, the lady at the end of the cul-de-sac, who was seen walking up the road.

The woman, who identified herself as Tabriz Toole had been interviewed by police at the time and eliminated as a suspect.

But had officers acted too quickly in clearing her as a person of interest, detectives decide to run her name through the county database and make a surprising discovery.

That's when they discover there is no one named Tabriz Toole living in Douglasville.

She had given a false name, she'd given a false date of birth, and they had to figure out why.

There's a million reasons why she would have given us a false name.

Maybe she just doesn't like law enforcement and didn't want to talk to us, or it could be something a lot more than that.

Police discover that there is a 32-year-old woman named Sahara Tabriz Fakir that lives at the same address.

Not a lot is known about Sahara Fakir.

As investigators dig deeper into her background, they find out that she's a devout Muslim.

She's from Ohio, and seven years ago, she moved to Georgia.

For the past six years, she's been living with her mother, and due to her weight gain, she couldn't work.

Sahara also has a criminal record from 2009.

Sahara had multiple charges on her record, ranging from simple traffic stops to account fraud.

She was on misdemeanor probation, and she threatened to kill her misdemeanor probation officer, threatened to cut her throat.

Felony, terroristic threats charge was brought against her.

So then she had a felony case.

She was convicted, received five years probation.

Police discover that Sahara had violated her probation and there was a warrant out for her arrest, which might explain why she gave them a fake name.

They realized that they had someone with the physical size that potentially matched the footprint as well as a violent past.

And she lived back adjacent to his house.

And so we're like, we got to run with this one.

Since Sahara still has an outstanding warrant, detectives decide to arrest her.

And at that point, law enforcement zeroed in on Miss Fakir as their prime suspect.

Coming up, detectives' attempt to apprehend Sahara goes horribly awry.

She wasn't just an overly obese woman.

She was a very strong woman.

She lifted an officer up off the ground.

After weeks of chasing down leads, detectives investigating the murder of Jerry Wheeler have identified a new suspect, his neighbor, 32-year-old Sahara Fakir.

On July 16th, officers descend on Sahara's home.

When she opens the door, law enforcement attempts to take her into custody, but they are met with resistance.

She was a very large woman.

They couldn't use traditional handcuffs.

They had to use the plastic cuffs.

She was able to break out of the plastic cuffs, which to law enforcement was an ominous thing, and they hadn't seen that done before.

She was absolutely resisting arrest.

She had no restraint over her emotions, and she reacted violently.

Her strength was excessive.

She lifted an officer up off the ground.

Finally, multiple deputies are are able to subdue Sahara.

She was transported to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, where she was held in solitary confinement.

Once she's calmed down, investigators bring her into an interrogation room to question her about her neighbor, Jerry Wheeler.

Have you ever been to his house?

No,

never

been there.

I don't know anybody there.

Sahara also denies having anything to do with Jerry Wheeler's brutal murder.

I can't see myself doing it.

I just can't, that's

the perfect thing.

I can't see myself doing it.

During her interview, Sahara seems more interested in talking about her daily exercise routine and weight loss plans than about the investigation.

She was pretty much a shut-in and left the house only periodically to go swimming at the Aquatic Center.

In 2012, I signed up at the Boundary Waters Aquatic Center for three and a half months.

I swam for an hour and a half to two hours

swimming.

And you know, swimming has a lot of resistance.

Sure.

It's actually great workout.

It didn't cause injury, yeah.

No processed wheat,

no soda.

Sea.

I ate fresh food.

I ate fresh food.

Yeah.

And I didn't lose anything.

Five days a week, five days a week I went through it.

I didn't lose nothing.

She seemed to be obsessed with her weight.

She just kept going back to it and she wouldn't talk about anything else.

Without a confession, detectives hope Sahara's footprint will prove one way or another the extent of her involvement.

We needed to get her rolled prints or known prints to be able to do the comparison.

They

asked her initially if she would give a sample and she was resistant to that idea.

She wasn't cooperative with us.

She didn't want to give us that

footprint.

Without her approval or a warrant, detectives are unable to force Sahara to submit her feet for printing.

She was intentionally trying to prevent law enforcement from taking her footprints, and obviously, the only reason she would be doing that is if she were the perpetrator and she hadn't been wearing shoes within the crime scene.

But detectives catch a break when they finally convince Sahara to allow a footprint expert to examine her feet without taking prints.

She visually inspected Sahara's feet in person and saw enough consistencies where her footprint matched the footprint at the crime scene.

While the expert examines Sahara's footprints, detectives secure a search warrant for the home she shares with her mother.

Inside Sahara's room, they find stacks of journals, a small desk, and a mattress on the floor.

It appeared that she spent a lot of her time on the computer, on the internet, but also writing about various thoughts.

Detectives collect Sahara's writings as evidence.

They also make note of the view from Sahara's bedroom window.

They see that Jerry's house is visible from her bedroom window.

It's probably 50, 60 yards apart.

She would have been able to see his house.

She would have been able to see see him in his driveway.

When investigators look beneath Sahara's mattress, they find another piece of possible evidence.

They found a knife, a large knife, 11 and a half inch knife, in a sheath underneath her bed.

It was a pretty good sized knife and not a common knife that you see people with.

We took it to the office and our crime scene guy was able to take it apart where they were able to ultimately find DNA that belonged to Mr.

Wheeler that was able to link that knife back to Mr.

Wheeler.

So the footprint and the knife,

at that point, you have two compelling pieces of evidence that really

can't be explained away.

It's a pretty sure thing who did this crime.

On July 17th, 2013, Police charged Sahara Fakir with the murder of Jerry Wheeler.

That was a huge, huge relief on me as well as everybody that was involved in the department.

I was relieved.

I was shocked.

I couldn't believe that it was a lady, you know.

But while police have the suspected killer in custody, they still don't know the motive for the crime.

There's no evidence we ever were able to discover that they had ever had an interaction personally.

This murder was especially heinous.

It was excessive.

It was full of rage.

Why would you do that?

I mean,

I can't understand that hate.

Coming up, in an attempt to discover her motive, police examine the hundreds of personal journals seized at Sahara's house.

As far as we knew, the son could have been the target.

And investigators get into the mind of a gluttonous killer.

She believed that she was being punished for binge eating candy.

On July 17th, 2013, deputies with the Douglas County Sheriff's Office charge 32-year-old Sahara Fakir with the murder of 66-year-old Jerry Wheeler, a man she claims she never met.

Armed with a bloody footprint and the murder weapon, investigators confront Sahara, hoping for a confession.

I know you've been in that house.

So what did you go in the house for?

I did.

This is crazy.

She's totally in denial about

her being involved in a homicide.

The more detectives press her, the more bizarre Sahara's explanations become.

What if maybe somebody said they saw you over there?

They probably were working for the Illuminati.

Some of the comments that she was making were kind of off the wall.

She wasn't talking like you would expect somebody to talk.

She had some delusional thinking.

In an attempt to discover Sahara's motive for the murder, detectives examine the hundreds of personal journals seized at Sahara's house.

Most of her journal entries center around her weight.

A lot of her writings were very hard on herself.

A lot of it was introspective, you know, I need to be exercising more, I need to be eating better.

The examination of Sahara's writings also reveals a recurring theme.

It appeared that she had a general hatred of law enforcement, but also Douglas County specifically.

There was writings that she had that were, I would classify as anti-law enforcement remarks that she had made and just comes from an animosity toward dealing with our agency.

And among Sahara's journals, detectives find a hand-scribbled note with a disturbing message.

She had a list of cops that she wanted to see data.

Detectives theorize that Jerry's son, Michael, might have been Sahara's intended victim.

Jerry's home is visible from her bedroom window, and Jerry's son would come home and have lunch with his dad in his marked cruiser.

As far as we knew, the son could have been the target, or she could have thought that the victim was, in fact, the law enforcement officer.

And that was something that we focused on as a potential motive.

She had a vendetta against the police department and thought that Michael lived there, and she was going in after Michael.

and Jerry was the one she found.

She had every single intention of killing again.

This wasn't going to stop.

But authorities are still puzzled by what might have triggered Sahara's hatred of law enforcement or her decision to kill a man she suspected to be a police officer.

I mean, it was not a self-defense.

It was not in reaction or response to anything that he did.

So it was unwarranted, unsolicited.

Whatever her motive was was was completely in her mind and a product of her mind.

But something in her mind changed that caused her to take it to the next level.

Based on her journal entries, police suspect that Sahara was consumed by shame.

Sahara was very religious and she felt shame for committing this deadly sin of gluttony.

It completely consumed her mind.

As Sahara's shame built, so did her hatred.

She would fixate on things, her obsession with her weight, her hate, and her rage.

She thought that law enforcement generally was evil.

She admitted that she had these violent thoughts and tendencies towards law enforcement.

Sahara's ramblings on paper and in interviews leave investigators wondering if she's even fit to stand trial.

What do you think is going to happen to you?

A law will get me out because he knows the type of people that's running their crowd.

Okay.

He knows what type of jail this is.

This is Satan's jail.

I seek refuge in Allah for Satan calf, and I am awaiting his wrath.

During her plea hearing, Sahara tells the court that God will forgive her for her sins, but he won't be so generous to everyone else.

Allah is my lawyer right now.

And if you do not release me, Allah will have his vengeance on you, like he did in 2009 when he sent that flood.

It's only going to get worse.

So it was the decision of the prosecution, the defense, and the judge to have her evaluated, and it was determined that she was competent.

She made attempts to conceal what she had done, meaning she knew that it was wrong.

She washed the knife, she hid it, she knew exactly what she was doing.

But Sahara still denies killing Jerry.

And from her jail cell, she writes letters to the judge saying she believes she's being punished for gluttony.

In her letters, she blames her arrest on binge eating candy after she promised Allah that she would diet and lose weight.

She believed that Allah was punishing her for her excess, not for murdering someone.

On September 22nd, 2014, Sahara Fakir goes to trial for murder.

With DNA and footprint evidence, the prosecution argues that on the evening of June 18th, Sahara Fakir, overwhelmed by her belief that God was angry with her for her gluttony, decided to kill a police officer.

With her knife in hand, Sahara stormed into the home of Jerry Wheeler and attacked the 66-year-old, who she mistakenly believed was a cop.

She stepped in his blood, and so that in and of itself probably would have carried the day.

And then you have the writings, you have the knife under her bed with the victim's blood.

I don't believe she had a personal defense.

It was clear to the jury that she did this.

On September 29th, 2014, Sahara is found guilty of Jerry's murder and is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

She was not remorseful.

Seemed like she was proud of what she had done.

Excess was a part of Sahara's character.

She lived this gluttonous lifestyle, and it culminated in the deadliest sin of all, murder.

While Sahara sits behind bars, Jerry's family and the Douglasville community are left to deal with the emotional aftermath of her horrific crime.

It has rocked us to our course

with everything that we believe in, physically, spiritually, emotionally.

You never think that something like this can happen to you, and it can, it can happen to anyone.

I know that our family is not the only ones hurting.

It hurt a lot of people in that community because of how they'd met Jerry and what Jerry meant to them.

He was a good man, he was just a good man.

For more information on Snapped, go to oxygen.com.

On Boxing Day 2018, 20-year-old Joy Morgan was last seen at her church, Israel United in Christ, or IUIC.

I just went on my Snapchat and I just see her face plastered everywhere.

This is the missing sister, the true story of a woman betrayed by those she trusted most.

IUIC is my family and like the best family that I've ever had.

But IUIC isn't like most churches.

This is a devilish cult.

You know when you get that feeling where you're just, I don't want to be here.

I want to get out.

It's like that feeling of, like, I want to go hang out.

I'm Charlie Brent Coast Cuff and after years of investigating Joy's case, I need to know what really happened to Joy.

Binge all episodes of The Missing Sister exclusively and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus.

Start your free trial of Wondery Plus on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or in the Wondery app.