[music playing]
On September 29, around just after 3 o'clock in the morning,
the Westminster Police Department received a 911 call
from a young man stating that two men had broken into his
home, attacked him and his mother, and that he was
concerned for her well-being.
NARRATOR: The caller is 17-year-old Ryan Girgis.
RICHARD GIRGIS: About 3:30 in the morning,
my brother Ryan called and told me that people
had broken into the house.
He had got tied up.
NARRATOR: Ryan's brother, 23-year-old Richard Girgis,
also lives in the home but had stayed at his girlfriend's
apartment that night.
Ryan was distraught.
He was frantically trying to relay
a message to the responding officers about what exactly
had occurred.
TIM VU: He had duct tape that was loosely around his neck,
that appeared to have been wrapped around his face,
that he had pulled down.
He also had duct tape around his wrist.
He had some minor abrasions on his face,
but overall, he wasn't too badly injured.
CAMERON KNAUERHAZE: As officers approached a room upstairs,
they peered in.
And that's where they first spotted a female body
laying on the floor.
NARRATOR: Ryan and Richard's mother,
55-year-old Ariet Girgis, is pronounced dead at the scene.
Ariet had multiple stab wounds and cut
wounds all over her upper back.
The nature of the killing was so violent, gruesome,
it seemed almost personal.
NARRATOR: The brothers are taken to the station,
separated the entire time, while detectives process the crime
scene and search for clues.
CAMERON KNAUERHAZE: We had no forced entry
that we were able to locate.
There was no robbery.
There's no demand for money.
It was also very unusual to us that Ryan Girgis was
not murdered, and that he was left
to be a witness in this case.
We really felt Ariet was the target.
CAMERON KNAUERHAZE: He said he was fighting for his life,
but the suspect was still able to overpower him.
NARRATOR: Ryan tells detectives the intruders then
tied him up with duct tape and a shoelace
and threw him in his closet.
Ryan described this intruder that was in his bedroom
as a male, Black, approximately 23 years of age,
wearing dark clothing, gloves, and real muscular build.
And then the second suspect, he had a mask on, so he
wasn't able to see his face.
CAMERON KNAUERHAZE: So Ryan told us
that he heard the suspects possibly leave the house,
and he takes that moment to muster up some courage,
and gets himself out of these bindings enough
to where he can get out of the house and try to call for help.
TIM VU: We were suspicious as to why he didn't take a moment
to check in on his mother before exiting the house,
but he chose to run out.
CAMERON KNAUERHAZE: He did tell investigators that he received
an AOL-type email message that had sort
of a threat embedded in it.
And this was a week before the murder.
CAMERON KNAUERHAZE: Maybe his mother heard or saw
something she wasn't supposed to,
but if somebody made such great effort to make sure
Ariet Girgis was dead, why was Ryan spared?
Their emotions seem very real.
We started to become confident that they
were not directly involved in the murder of their mother.
NARRATOR: With no evidence tying Ryan or Richard to the crime,
police clear and release the brothers.
RYAN GIRGIS: I just--
I just couldn't believe it.
Like, it wasn't registering in my head,
like, what was going on.
It felt like hours of just questions.
And I was getting treated like a suspect.
They were suspicious just because I
didn't check on my mom.
I told them I didn't know who was still inside the house.
I felt like it was my only escape from hell
was to just keep on running.
NARRATOR: Just minutes after the brothers are released,
their father arrives at the station.
CAMERON KNAUERHAZE: Magdi Girgis had learned about the murder
of his wife, Girgis, and came to the police department
to talk to detectives.
SONIA BALLESTE: He told the police
that he was at his apartment in the city of Long Beach,
where he had spent the night reading the Bible.
And then, he got up very early in the morning to go to work.
SONIA BALLESTE: Magdi told detectives
that they had been separated for approximately six months.
And even though this might not be exactly what he wanted,
he was respectful of her decision.
CAMERON KNAUERHAZE: Any homicide investigation
where a spouse is murdered, we start
to look at the other spouse as a suspect.
TIM VU: We wanted to dig a little bit deeper into why they
were separated to start with.
Was there a reason for him wanting to do harm?
(SOBBING) I can't believe it.
This was definitely a direction we had to follow.
Could Magdi be involved at some level?
Absolutely.
SONIA BALLESTE: Magdi had a landline in the Long Beach
apartment, and there were telephone
calls that were made through that landline
where he spoke with Ryan.
TIM VU: So we knew that it wasn't enough time
for him to leave the scene of the crime and be in Long Beach
at the time to pick up Ryan's phone call.
CAMERON KNAUERHAZE: But, you know,
it was quite plausible that maybe he hired
somebody to murder his wife.
NARRATOR: Magdi Girgis remains a person of interest,
but without further evidence against him, he's released.
The brothers move to Sacramento.
And less than a week after his mother's murder,
Richard's fears are validated.
Ryan received another AOL message that was rather
menacing and threatening.
The message says something to the effect of, how did
you like your gift, LOL, LOL.
Yeah, it was really alarming.
Why would someone send me that?
Maybe this whole thing was supposed to be to scare Ryan,
and somehow he went too far, and Ariet got killed.
RICHARD GIRGIS: Me and my little brother
were starting to be suspicious of my dad.
Certain things just weren't adding up.
Like, talking with my little brother,
he said that the night of the murder he called up my dad.
And my brother told him about all the stuff that happened.
And my dad still went to work, which is, like, crazy.
So Ryan reported he witnessed one of the suspects trying
to take shoelaces off of some shoes that were on the floor,
and he remembered that he took his glove off to do that.
The shoelaces were processed, but DNA technology is a lot
better now than it was in 2004.
NARRATOR: Detective Wilson sends the shoelaces to the lab.
One month later, they find DNA.
We entered it into CODIS, and we got a hit.
The DNA came back to an individual
by the name of Anthony Bridget, whose
rap sheet read more like a resume for dial a hit man.
NARRATOR: Anthony Bridget is a known gang
member who is serving five years in prison
on a drug related offense.
I didn't find any direct correlation
between Magdi and Bridget.
I mean, there was nothing to indicate
that they knew each other.
CAMERON KNAUERHAZE: It's starting to paint a picture
that Magdi hired Anthony Bridget through a middleman
to kill his wife.
Detective Wilson and our prosecutor,
they devised a genius plan.
SONIA BALLESTE: We have undercover agents
approach Magdi Girgis posing as friends of Mr. Bridget.
We use the ruse that they want some hush money.
They basically said, hey, we want the money.
Call me tomorrow, and we'll set it up.
And they dropped off a piece of paper with their number,
and Magdi takes the piece of paper--
On the 31st, the undercover officer receives
a phone call from Magdi Girgis.
SONIA BALLESTE: The confirmation of nine years
of an investigation and a theory becomes reality,
because what Magdi says is--
SONIA BALLESTE: --I already paid.
And then the icing on the cake--
during the conversation, Magdi's getting a little suspicious
and says, hey, who's the middleman?
I'm like, oh my god, we were right.
This is how this murder went down.
NARRATOR: Undercover agents instruct
Magdi to meet them with the money the following day.
We are absolutely on the edge of our seat,
because if there was a money exchange,
Magdi was going to be arrested.
And that's exactly what happened.
[siren]
We're all like, oh, my god, oh, my god.
CAMERON KNAUERHAZE: It was just a big sigh of relief.
At this point, I called Richard and basically told
him, hey, we arrested your dad.
RICHARD GIRGIS: My mind was blown.
I was like, yes, yes.
And I think I was, like, crying on the phone too, and stuff.
All of our suspicion was answered at that time.
But at the same time, I mean, it was also my father,
so it just wasn't a win-win situation at all.
NARRATOR: One year later, Magdi's trial for the murder
of Ariet Girgis begins.
SONIA BALLESTE: The defense strategy
was basically that Ryan is just a drug dealer
who had his mother killed.
I was like, man, what kind of dad does that, man?
Like, just absolutely, like--
who care less about their kids.
He's just like-- yeah, pretty sad.
NARRATOR: When it's the prosecution's turn,
they're armed with Magdi's own words
on the sting operation tapes.
After four weeks of trial and two days of deliberation,
the jury reaches a verdict.
SONIA BALLESTE: He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit
murder, and they found the special circumstance
of murder of financial gain.
RYAN GIRGIS: My dad had no remorse for anything--
no confess, no repent, no nothing.
NARRATOR: Two months later, Magdi Girgis
is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility
of parole.
Anthony Bridget was also sentenced to life in prison
without the possibility of parole.
NARRATOR: We got you, Magdi.
We got you, Mr. Bridget.
And now, we're going to find the other guys.
There's a middle man and another murderer
still out there, so we still have work to do.
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