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The Case of Atif Rafay
📻 Episode #226
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Oct 06, 2021
About This Episode
Atif Rafay was a thriving, brilliant, and happy student who had just finished his freshman year at Cornell University. On a weekend trip in July of 1994, while visiting his family in Bellevue, Washington, Atif Rafay’s mother, father, and sister were all brutally murdered in their home. Investigators targeted Atif and his best friend, Sebastian…
The Case
Atif Rafay was a thriving, brilliant, and happy student who had just finished his freshman year at Cornell University. On a weekend trip in July of 1994, while visiting his family in Bellevue, Washington, Atif Rafay’s mother, father, and sister were all brutally murdered in their home. Investigators targeted Atif and his best friend, Sebastian Burns, because they were ‘acting strangely.’ Despite a corroborated alibi that both young men were not present during the killings, as well as extensive evidence of other parties’ involvement, Atif and Sebastian were convicted of murder.
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In Their Own Words — transcript excerpts
Short excerpts from the episode's official published transcript, with timestamps — listen from these moments, or read the full transcript via the podcast's own platforms.
00:05:11“Speaker 1: a two and a half hour drive away from one another. Speaker 1: By the way, he was the co founder and one Speaker 1: time president of the very moderate interfaith friendship building organization, Speaker 1: the Pakistan Canada Association, whose activities were frankly very upsetting Speaker 1: to some more radical Muslims.”
00:21:07“Speaker 1: of course it is more than twenty percent, but try Speaker 1: asking your server or bartender what they usually do when Speaker 1: they go out. They're usually very generous to one another. Speaker 1: And Sebastian used to be a server. Speaker 3: Sebastian like to leave that he had been a server.”
00:35:18“Speaker 2: actually attended his state appeal to a three judge panel Speaker 2: in Seattle. And this was early on. I mean, we Speaker 2: thought this would be a slam dunk. There's no forensic evidence, Speaker 2: No alternative suspects allowed to be brought into the courtroom. Speaker 2: There's no allowance of Richard Leo, who was an expert”
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