**MrBallen** (0:00)
Today, we have three stories about people who are absolutely sure they have found the solution to all their problems.
But they're wrong, and other people have to face the consequences. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark & Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place, because that's all we do and we upload two, three, even four times every week. So if that's of interest to you, please offer the follow button a nice, fresh ice cream con. But don't tell them you've secretly hidden a thumbtack in the middle of it. Also, please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications, so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's first story called Worst Date Ever.
**SPEAKER_2** (0:59)
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**MrBallen** (1:23)
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Very late at night on May 19th, 2014, a young man named Yusuf frantically dug a shovel into the dirt behind his home in the city of Fez, Morocco. He was on the verge of absolute panic, so he kept trying to take deep breaths while he worked to calm himself down. But, to be honest, this was basically impossible, because lying next to the hole that he was currently trying to dig was a woman's dead body. So just a few hours ago, Yusuf had actually been on a date with this woman. Her name was Mina El-Houari, and she lived more than a thousand miles away in France. But she and Yusuf had met online, and they had been talking long distance for a few months. And that morning, Mina had flown down to Morocco, so they could finally meet in person. And Yusuf had been incredibly nervous about this meeting. But when Mina had arrived at his house a few hours earlier that night to go on this date, everything had actually gone exactly right. He had made her dinner, and their conversation had been super easy and very lively, and they were like laughing a lot of the time. It was like their chemistry online had perfectly translated to real life. It was great. That was until all of a sudden, in the middle of their meal and in the middle of laughing and having this wonderful time, Mina had gotten this weird spaced out look on her face, and then she abruptly collapsed on the floor.
Yusuf had immediately rushed over to her to see if she was okay, but he quickly realized she hadn't just collapsed. She was dead. And Yusuf, he had no idea why or how this was even possible. I mean, nothing had happened. They had just been talking and laughing and eating, and then she just dropped. And it was so shocking that Yusuf hadn't been able to think straight. I mean, even now, as he was digging this hole, his mind was a mess and it was hard to focus on anything. But he did have one sort of single clear thought that he just kept going back to what was driving his current behavior, which was everybody was going to think he killed her. I mean, the whole situation was undeniably weird and hard to believe. He knew the police would never buy that Mina had just randomly dropped dead immediately after flying to Morocco to meet him for the first time. Like it immediately cast suspicion on Yusuf. I mean, he knew that what everyone was going to assume, police included, was that he had lured Mina there and then killed her.
And there was no one else who saw what actually happened, who could, you know, back up what he actually saw. And so it was just kind of his word against what people saw. And so he knew he looked incredibly guilty. And so to Yusuf, he felt like even in the best case scenario, he was going to very likely spend a long time in jail before his name was ever cleared of this. And worst case, he'd be convicted of a murder he didn't commit, and then he would just stay in jail. And so Yusuf had decided the only thing he could do based on sort of his knowledge, at least as he saw it, of what had happened, the only way he could protect himself was to try to cover everything up. Yusuf dug as fast as he could, constantly looking over his shoulders, making sure his neighbors weren't watching or that nobody was outside. And then finally, after what felt like forever, when he felt like the hole was deep enough, he put the shovel down, and then he took Mina's lifeless body, he rolled her into the hole, and then he covered her right back up, and just hoped that this was going to be enough to keep him from getting in trouble. Now, Yusuf, after this was done, had sort of half expected to feel relieved that he had taken care of this problem. But over the next few days, he was so anxious about getting caught that he felt sick to his stomach most of the time. I mean, he couldn't function at work and he canceled plans with his friends, and he could barely sleep. And then one morning, his worst nightmare came true.
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