At the bakery where they both worked in 2009, 16-year-old Melissa Crook met Danai Muhammadi, and she fell head over heels in love. Danai fled to the United Kingdom from Iraq as a teenager, aged 18, seeking asylum.

Eight months after getting married, at the tender age of 18, Melissa gave birth to their baby, Noah. This had been a whirlwind affair, and Melissa's parents did not exactly want her to be married and have a child so young, but they had to accept it. It was obvious that she loved Danai and that all she wanted was to be with him.

Danai was not overjoyed about Melissa's unplanned pregnancy; he later said, "Certainly, I loved my child, my son, he meant everything to me, and I was very happy. I prayed to God that any harm or disease that came to him be passed onto me, not him." Against his religious convictions, he even got a tattoo of Noah on his arm.

The beginning of the end

However, the relationship proved challenging for the young couple. One evening, everything boiled over into a major incident that required the intervention of law enforcement. Melissa told the police that her 24-year-old husband had come to bed at 11:30 pm and that they had argued because Melissa had refused to have sex with her husband.

"He sat up in bed and spatted my face. I was disgusted, and my reaction was to spit back at him. After spitting at him, Danai punched me in the head. I swung back. I dunno if the punch connected or not. Danai then punched me a further four or five times."

Melissa decided she could no longer tolerate the abuse and phoned her mother, who drove her and her grandson back to Kent the next day.

Melissa told the cops. "Although I do still love Danai, my son comes first, and I can't accept this kind of behavior in front of him. Throughout most of our relationship, Danai has made all the decisions, and I've allowed him to. Since our son was born, though, I've stood up to him more and more."

Danai later stated that this was the only time he would ever use physical violence against Melissa and asked how he felt about it. His response was, "I feel bad. I feel ashamed." They spoke of getting back together, but Melissa was convinced there was no going back.

A new relationship

A few months later, Danai met Emma Smith at a bus stop, where they swapped numbers, and they became serious so quickly. Emma picked up on the tension between Melissa and Danai and became resentful. Emma was easily swayed, and regrettably, she felt unable to keep her views to herself and began to message Melissa inappropriately, saying, "He's wasted five years with you. Your parents didn't want you, you're nothing. You don't deserve to be happy." And she taunted her about her weight and for being boring in bed. And in one message, she said, "Enjoy your life with no husband, no house, no money. You gold digger."

Divorce proceedings had progressed to an almost final stage by September of that year. Melissa was cheery, energetic, and full of optimism for the future.

Meanwhile, Danai had upgraded his relationship status on Facebook to reflect his new relationship with Emma Smith. This, however, had not only generated friction with Melissa but also with his brother, who had warned him about seeing other women while still married.

Danai had a lodger at his place who had seen him taking medication; Danai had told the man the pills were helping with his "nerves and anxiety" following the breakup. The lodger occasionally overheard Danai arguing with Melissa on the phone since he continued to want control over his wife and son's lives. For instance, he would explain to Melissa that he does not want her to work past a particular hour because he wants Noah to be in bed.

Danai texted his ex-wife, "Hi Mel, I want to speak to Noah before he sleeps, please. I miss him." and then called her that night, September 9th. After four minutes of talking, Noah finally drifted off to sleep.

The night of the murder

The fire at Melissa's family's home started at 2:30 am the next morning. The fire broke out at the bottom of the stairs, blocking the escape route for Melissa, Noah, her brother, and her parents, who were sleeping on the second floor. As the fire spread through the house, it produced a deafening roar and searing heat. Melissa's brother, Boden, suffered foot and hand fractures after he leaped out of a first-floor bedroom window.

He then attempted to return inside to save his mother, Amanda, who ultimately managed to escape on a flat roof at the rear of the home and then down a ladder supplied by a neighbor. He was heard screaming, "Give me the baby!" as he assisted in smashing Melissa's bedroom window glass.

Meanwhile, Amanda's husband, Mark, attempted to flee the fire in the same manner as his wife, but he became stuck in the window frame just as a fireball blasted the windows out. His wife had to see the terrifying sight of her husband's lower half burning and unable to move. He was able to escape the fire at some point, but only after sustaining horrific injuries. Over eighty percent of his body had been burned. Even after being transferred to a specialized facility, Mark lost consciousness and passed away six days later.

Melissa Crook, 20, was found dead at the window of an upstairs bedroom with her baby Noah's body, wrapped in cot blankets, at her feet when firefighters arrived. Later, Mike Jackson, the fire marshal, stated, "She had clearly made an attempt to rescue the baby." She had snatched the infant from the cot as she attempted to flee the room.

The suspect found and arrested

To notify Danai of Melissa and Noah's deaths as next of kin, detectives went to Coventry, where he lived. Officers realized at this point that the fire had been ignited on purpose.

However, Danai has already been identified as a suspect because of the camera's use of roadside automatic number plate recognition. Before the fire, he was spotted traveling from Coventry to Chatham, and his return after the fire was discovered.

The police in his area searched his home. On the notes that the police found in his house, they discovered Melissa's phone numbers as well as those of her parents and grandmother. On the back of the page, he wrote, "Where can I get some help for my anger management? My wife has left me. Can you help me get some counseling to help me repair my marriage? I'm very tired and unhappy."

There was also a scrap of paper and an envelope with the address of his friend Farhad Mahmud's flat scribbled on them. The police went to the auto dealership where Danai worked and arrested him on suspicion of murder and arson.

Danai was shocked to hear about the murders and denied any participation. He said, "What has happened to them?" at first. Then he allegedly told officers, "You may as well throw me in a cell and lock me away for life," after becoming irate. As he wiped his eyes and muttered, "I will not cry anymore now,".

The arrest of accomplices

Emma Smith, his girlfriend of a mere month, and his bouncer friend Mahmud were both arrested within a few days. In an embarrassing attempt at providing an alibi, Emma originally claimed that she and Dania alone had been in Coventry on the night of the fire. Later, she modified her story to say that she and the two men had gone to Coventry, but she had been unaware of their plans to commit arson. After questioning all three suspects, police concluded that Danai's divorce was a reason for the murder, with encouragement and nudging from his new girlfriend. They assumed Danai had merely hired Mahmud to assist them.

Investigation

The police tried to make sense of what had occurred. They suspected that on the evening of September 9th, Danai's lodger arrived home at about 4:30 pm, and the two hacked down a tree in their front garden. Then Danai asked if he could use the sprayer on his allotment since his brother had some weeds he needed to get rid of.

So the lodger took him to where he kept it and instructed him on its proper use. More than 150 pumps were needed to empty the large apparatus completely. Soon after, Danai had a phone conversation with Melissa and Noah, during which he affectionately referred to Noah as "his lovely boy" and wished him a good night.

Danai retrieved the sprayer, covered it in a blanket, and left home shortly before 7:00 pm, putting the sprayer in his car's boot. He told his lodger he was going out for a couple of hours. He then picked up his girlfriend Emma and drove to Mahmud's flat, where they borrowed Mahmud's car to drive to Melissa's house, stopping on the way to fill up the sprayer with seven liters of fuel.

To prevent anyone from escaping down the stairs, the lawn spray was used to pour gasoline into the house's letterbox. After it was over, the couple returned to Mahmud's home for a little while before making the trip back to Coventry. According to Emma, Danai was in a good mood on the way home, singing along to Craig David's songs.

Describing the fire before it happened

A lot of people who knew Danai submitted evidence to support this idea. The dealership owner where Danai worked mentioned how Danai had described the fire to one of his workers the day before it happened. Danai had been hinting to his coworkers about wanting to kill his wife for months before the murders, and he had lied about his wife and child being injured in a fire the day before the arson. When questioned if he was involved, he told his coworkers, "Maybe," before adding that he was "going to finish the job."

Danai, however, disputed that. He pretended to appear "shocked and surprised" and innocent after his arrest. He claimed subsequently that he had simply gone to Chatham to meet a fictional blackmailer who, he said, had threatened to kill his wife and child unless he paid him £5000.

Trial and sentencing

The police did not buy his story, so they arrested him for murder. The three defendants' trial took place at Maidstone Crown Court in June 2012. Danai claimed it was fate that his wife and kid died in a fire at one point. He continued, "It seems to be the norm in this country that when a child dies, the police go and arrest the parents of that child. They lack all sense of decency and humanity."

The jurors, of course, did not buy into this narrative.

Danai and Mahmud were both found guilty of three charges of murder and two counts of attempted murder concerning Melissa's mother and brother, Bodan. Both were given life sentences; Danai must serve at least 38 years, and Mahmud at least 34 years in prison. Following a six-week trial, Emma Smith was found guilty on three charges of manslaughter but not guilty of murder or attempted murder. They slapped her with a 15-year sentence in prison.

Part of our family

After the trial, Amanda Crook expressed how awful she felt after learning that Danai was accused of causing the fire that took the lives of three generations of her family.

"We were not simply random people," she remarked. "We were family and the fact that he did it to his wife and his own child, and his father-in-law took away our whole lives just because of his greed. And that's all it was. It was greed. There was no reason to do what he did."

In 2014, the courts rejected Danai's request to have his 37-year sentence reduced. Three of the country's most senior justices at London's Appeal Court dismissed sentence challenges, stating "there is nothing" in arguments that their jail terms were excessively harsh.

Sources: KentLive, The Guardian, Daily Mail, BBC, Coventry Telegraph

Thank you for reading.

Please consider joining Medium through my referral link to read unlimited Medium articles.