Our story begins on Wednesday, December 5, 1962, at exactly 6 AM. Four police officers had just
finished their shift at Al-Jabriya Prison, located in the Al-Jabriya area of Kuwait. After completing their night shift, they got into their car to head home to the Ashdiya area.
As they were driving along, they noticed a large metal box placed on the sidewalk on the way to Al-Adiliya. Today, Al-Adiliya is a well-known residential area in Kuwait, but back then it was just a desert with no inhabitants. Their curiosity drove them to stop, and the driver got out to inspect the box, followed by the other officers.
The box was large and covered with some desert plants, a primitive attempt to hide it, but it wasn’t enough to conceal its prominent size. At first, they thought it might be a stolen or lost item. They considered transporting it to the police station to report it, but they found it too heavy to lift. They had to break the lock to open the box.
When they opened the lid, the shock was overwhelming. They were horrified and immediately closed the box. They decided to go straight to the Al-Nakra police station, the nearest one, to report what they had found. Upon reporting, the prosecutor quickly moved, accompanied by the head of the Hawally District's investigations, to the site of the box.
When everyone arrived, the prosecutor asked for the presence of the forensic doctor to examine the contents of the box. In the presence of the prosecutor, the head of the investigations, and the forensic doctor, the box was opened again. The scene was terrifying: a man’s body, dark-skinned with a flat nose, curly hair, and appearing to be in his forties. The body had been gutted from the neck and was severed in half.
The prosecutor ordered an autopsy to determine the cause of death, the time of death, and to check if the victim had suffered any other injuries. Samples of the victim’s blood and clothes were also taken. While inspecting the area, the prosecutor noticed traces in the sand suggesting the box had been dragged, as well as footprints around it. A footprint expert was called, confirming that the tracks belonged to just one person.
Investigators also took the victim’s fingerprints and photographs of the footprints to compare them with the footprints of the police officers who found the box, to ensure there were no unidentified tracks.
As part of the investigation, the police dog trainer brought a trained dog named "Az." The dog sniffed the footprints around the box and began circling the area before returning and barking at the box, indicating that it had connected the scent around the box to its location.
After completing the forensic photography of the crime scene, the body, and the box, the prosecutor ordered the distribution of the body photographs in the surrounding areas of Al-Adiliya, in search of anyone who might recognize it. He also requested a follow-up on all missing persons reports, as the victim might have been one of them.
Thus began one of the most mysterious and thrilling cases of that time.