The Wrong Remedy (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

0:00Today, 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, and 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 cone. 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.

0:37Okay, let's get into today's first story called Worst Date Ever.

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1:34Don't let dry eyes win. Use Sustain Pro. It hydrates, restores, and protects dry eyes for up to 12 hours. Sustain Pro. Triple action dry eye relief. Very late at night on May 19, 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.

2:17Her name was Mina El Huari, 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.

2:56It 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.

3:35I 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 that 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.

4:19And 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.

4:58Yusuf 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, you know, 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.

5:37I 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. He heard a knock on his front door, and he opened it up to see two police officers standing on his doorstep. Yusuf's heart pounded in his chest, but he somehow managed to stay relatively calm, and he smiled, and he invited the officers inside. They all sat down in the living room, and Yusuf, who's like super anxious, he's so worried, he's doing his best to appear normal. And as he's doing that, the officers explained to him that they were here to investigate the disappearance of Mina El-Huari.

6:14And Yusuf, pretty much the instant they said her name, he said, Oh, I'm sorry to hear about that, but I don't know of anybody by that name. But as the words were leaving his mouth, he could hear the anxiety coming off his own voice. and he could tell the officers instantaneously did not believe him. In fact, one of the officers just right away leaned forward and said that according to Mina's family, the last time they spoke to her, she was leaving her tell to go meet you. Yusuf froze for a moment and then he opened his mouth to try and respond, but his mind just went completely blank. He couldn't believe how stupid he was to have not even considered the fact that Mina's family might know where she was going.

6:57He knew that trying to cover this up had just made him look way more suspicious, and now he couldn't think of any way to get out of this, except by telling the truth. And so Yusuf just began sobbing, and he blurted out the whole story. Mina had been at his house that night, and she'd just suddenly died, and he'd panicked, and he'd buried her in his backyard, but he insisted that he didn't kill her, and he begged them to just do an autopsy because it would prove that he was not responsible. She was dead. He'd just buried her. The officers were shocked by what they were hearing. I mean, this immediate confession that the person they're looking for is dead, I mean, this was shocking.

7:37One of the officers immediately jumped up with a cell phone and called for a forensics team. And the other officer, who had just heard this confession, just looked at Yusuf and shook his head. And Yusuf, who was feeling horrible at this point, he just put his face in his hands and he cried and he thought to himself, what a horrible mistake he had made, you know, covering this up. And he knew now for sure he was going to be in an incredible amount of trouble. But there was a small silver lining and that was, you know, despite definitely getting in trouble, they would see when they did the autopsy that he didn't do this.

8:11He had mishandled her death, no doubt, but he didn't kill her. So once that came out, it would show like what really happened here. That same day, Mina's body was exhumed from Yusuf's backyard where he said it would be, and her body was taken to the corner. And when the autopsy results came back, the police were actually kind of surprised because Yusuf was telling the truth. However, there was one thing Yusuf didn't know. Just like Yusuf had told the police, he was not responsible for Mina's random collapse on his floor during their date. Mina actually had undiagnosed diabetes, and she had collapsed due to critically high blood sugar.

8:51So that part was true. But Yusuf's steadfast belief that he did not kill her was not correct. It would turn out that in his state of panic after Mina collapsed, Yusuf, who was very impulsive, had not been careful in confirming that Mina was actually dead. Because it would turn out, she wasn't. Mina, because of her diabetes, was in a diabetic coma. So when Yusuf buried her, she was still alive. He'd been so desperate to avoid getting in trouble for murder that he'd committed a murder. When the autopsy results came back, they showed Mina had died from suffocation after being buried in the ground, a truly horrific way to die.

9:37As for Yusuf, he was charged with involuntary manslaughter.

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10:57Life rarely follows a perfect plan, and real growth often comes from learning and adapting along the way. Several years ago, I posted a sort of random short video on social media while I was on vacation with my family, not thinking much of it. I had no following. I had no content. But by the time I got back to my room and I checked my phone, that post had gone massively viral and suddenly I was adapting to a completely different life path than the one I'd planned on or was accustomed to. And so if your life feels like it's going, let's say, in a path you weren't expecting right now, well, therapy with BetterHelp, the world's largest online therapy platform, can be a space to pause and re-evaluate and adjust to these sort of unexpected changes.

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12:59Type in Mr. Ballin Podcasts Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories under Podcast when you sign up. It'll really help the show. Earning is a financial technology company, not a bank. Access limits are based on your earnings and risk factors. Standard cash outs take one to two business days with no mandatory fees. Expedited transfers available for a fee. Tips are voluntary and don't affect the service. Available in select states, terms and restrictions apply. Visit Visit EARNN.com for full details. Our next story is called The Big Catch.

13:36Early in the afternoon of November 28, 1993, a young fisherman named Daniel haggled with the vendor at a bustling outdoor fish market in Manacara, which is a port city in Madagascar. This market was so loud, it was chaotic, and it was packed with hundreds and hundreds of locals. There were vendors who stood at their stands selling piles of fish out of plastic buckets on the ground or laid out on banana leaves and wooden pallets. And it was already getting very hot, and the air was buzzing with flies while stray dogs wandered through the lines of customers. But Daniel was not buying from these vendors.

14:14He was selling. Because earlier that morning, he and his fishing crew had pulled in their nets and found a six-foot-long bull shark tangled up in their netting. And for Daniel, I mean, this was literally the catch of a lifetime. This shark had so much meat on it, he was sure it would sell for more than his crew normally made in a whole month. I mean, this was huge. And so Daniel and this vendor, they haggle for a bit longer, and then they finally settle on a price. and Daniel, like, can't believe the vendor's gonna pay that much money. I mean, this was an astounding amount of money. And then as the vendor pulled out a big wad of bills and began peeling off how much he was gonna pay Daniel, I mean, Daniel couldn't believe it.

14:57This was not just the most money he had ever made at one time in his life. I mean, this was easily the most. But more than that, this was, like, literally the most cash he had ever seen in person all at once. This was life-changing money. And as soon as those bills were handed over to Daniel, for a moment he just looked at the money like, how can this be real? But then he folded them up, he stuffed it in his pocket, and then he handed off all the shark meat, and then he turned and he walked out of the market. Later that night, Daniel sat at the dinner table with his family while his uncle raised a cup to toast Daniel's big catch.

15:34The family had actually already spent a little bit of the money that Daniel had earned from the shark on this celebratory meal. The table was full of food and alcohol. I mean, this was a feast. And Daniel, he was feeling really proud. He was actually the youngest fisherman in his family, so the fact that he had been the one who made this catch was a really big deal. And so once his uncle finished this elaborate toast about how great Daniel was, Daniel just smiled and then downed his own cup in a single gulp. And the alcohol really burned his throat, but he managed to get it down without wincing.

16:11And then he told everyone to dig in. About six hours later, Daniel woke up covered in sweat. His tongue was tingling like he had just eaten something really spicy. And there was also this strange metallic taste in his mouth. He tried to sit up and he realized that actually his legs were tingly too. The burning sensation in his mouth kept getting worse and worse until Daniel was desperate for something to drink. He tried to stand, but he fell right out of bed, knocking over his lamp. And the crash brought Daniel's aunt and uncle running into the room, and Daniel told them to please get him some water.

16:50So his aunt, in a panic, turned and ran out and came back a few seconds later with a cup of water. Daniel grabbed the cup and starts chugging as fast as he can, but the water burned horribly and he spat it out and screamed in pain. and then he turned to his aunt and he yelled at her, asking her why had she brought him scalding hot tea. But she just looked at him confused and said she hadn't. It was just regular room temperature water. A few hours later, and Daniel's symptoms were only getting worse. So his aunt, she went outside and she flagged down a man that was pulling a rickshaw and she asked him to please take Daniel to the hospital.

17:28And the guy said he would. And by the time they got to the hospital, Daniel, in addition to his other symptoms, now also had a pounding headache, and he was beginning to fade in and out of consciousness. And so because of that, Daniel's aunt and uncle, who had come with him, had to physically help lift him off the rickshaw and sort of carry him into the hospital. And then as soon as they were in the hospital, Daniel heard his aunt gasp. And so Daniel, he lifted his head up to see what she was reacting to. And for a second, in his delirium, he thought maybe he was back at the fish market. because there were people everywhere packed together in like a dense mob filling up every inch of the room.

18:10But then he realized this was not the fish market, this was the hospital, and these were all the other people trying to check in to the emergency room. But then Daniel's vision began to go and he was sort of in and out of consciousness again. And before he knew it, he was being laid out on a stretcher and carried over to this hallway, which was somehow even more crowded and more chaotic than the waiting room. And all around him, despite not really having a good sense of what was going on, he could still tell that there were nurses and doctors running back and forth treating patients right there in the hall.

18:44And the patients all seemed to have gone crazy. Daniel could see there was one man who was writhing around in obvious physical pain while a nurse just sort of dabbed his forehead with a wet washcloth. and this man was shouting that the towel was too hot, while the nurse kept saying that it was not, it was cold. Other patients were complaining that it was freezing in the hall, even though they were visibly sweating profusely. And a woman that Daniel couldn't quite see kept screaming about a hot stethoscope, which didn't even make any sense. It was totally surreal. It was like the entire city had descended on this hospital and everybody had gone mad.

19:23But then through all this madness, Daniel heard one of the medical staff shouting that they needed more respirators because they had just lost another patient. By the end of that day, this hospital was completely overrun with people all over the city who all had the same symptoms, including numb or tingling limbs, headaches, confusion, and feeling that anything cold was hot and anything hot was cold. Now, the doctors and the medical staff had no idea what was causing this outbreak. But very quickly, these patients began falling into comas and then dying by the dozens. Ultimately, the local medical staff, the local doctors, had to call in a team of outside investigators, experts, to come in and figure out what was going on here.

20:13And those investigators tracked the outbreak backwards to where it all started, and their search led them to the Monocara fish market and to Daniel. It would turn out Daniel had been right. That huge shark that he caught really was the catch of a lifetime. But it would turn out the same qualities that made the shark so valuable also made it deadly. The shark was valuable primarily because it was huge with enough meat to feed a whole community. But sharks basically keep growing until they die. So the reason that this bull shark was so big was because it was so, so old. And during the many, many years it had been alive, it had consumed an enormous amount of something called ciguatoxin.

21:02Ciguatoxin is a chemical compound produced by a very specific kind of algae. Fish eat this algae, and then sharks eat the fish, and the toxin builds up in the shark's bodies over time. Now, this is not really a problem for the fish or even the sharks. But for the humans who eat those sharks who have this toxin in them, it causes Siguitera poisoning, which has very bizarre neurological symptoms, like feeling that anything cold is actually excruciatingly hot and vice versa. Now, in most cases, this is not fatal. But Daniel's very, very old shark had spent literal decades accumulating Siguitoxin until its meat was off-the-charts toxic.

21:46And because the shark was so big, there was so much toxic meat. And that vendor who bought it from Daniel, he sold that meat to hundreds and hundreds of people at the fish market. And Daniel and his family, they didn't buy any of this meat. They just kept a portion for their dinner that night. That was part of their celebratory meal. All told, around 500 people got sick from the shark. 188 of them wound up in the hospital, and 98 of them died. Which means Daniel's shark actually killed more people than every single great white shark attack in recorded history combined. All by itself, this one bull shark made its species the deadliest shark in the world.

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