The newest true-crime programme on Netflix Worst Roommate Ever cranks up the horror show of apartment life by adding murder, obsession, and—in one instance—a very arrogant marathon runner.
Youssef Khater, who just assumed the title of “newest fraudster in the zeitgeist,” has followed in the footsteps of Netflix’s Inventing Anna, who succeeded Simon Leviev aka The Tinder Swindler, who in turn succeeded The Puppet Master. Simon Leviev was a haughty marathon runner.
(He would better make the most of it too, as Bad Vegan will feature another con artist starting as soon as next week.)
It’s official, guys: when it comes to true-crime Netflix series, serial killers are out and hustlers are in.
Youssef Khater, worst roommate everWorst Roommate Ever adopts a unique perspective by concentrating on a different criminal per episode (plus one two-part finale) as opposed to one large case across the entire series. This has advantages in that you can quickly read each compelling narrative without devoting four or five hours to the process, but it also has some serious drawbacks.
One major problem is that, in order to stay inside the one-hour time limit, much of the actual tale is eliminated.
The third episode of the show, “Marathon Man,” chronicles the tale of Callie Quinn, a Texas native who moved to Chile in 2011 and ended up living with serial fraudster Youssef Khater.
On Worst Roommate Ever, the horrifying incidents of Khater’s cunning and manipulative behaviour are depicted, including his defrauding Palestinian charities that were attempting to improve representation for their nation, stealing money from his roommates, and finally placing them in a string of rudimentary apartments that it turned out he owned while charging them exorbitant rent.
After defrauding Callie of money and attempting to keep her security deposit, Khater tried to bury her alive.
He was actually Danish, but he had written to Palestinian charities to solicit support for his worldwide passion for ultra-marathons. In order to participate in prominent marathons, he needed to raise thousands of dollars, so he made an appeal to the charities’ desire to enhance the perception of Palestinians around the world.
Khater receives a sentence of only 602 days in prison for Callie’s attempted murder and his fraud schemes at the end of the episode, appearing to get away with his crimes. He served an additional three months in Denmark for offences he committed there after being freed in 2014 and being deported there.
Khater’s “career,” which encompasses international waterways, has barely just begun. He was wanted for arson, embezzlement, and fraud at the time of his arrest and had previously taken $50,000 from British runner Dominic Rayner.
He has reportedly adopted multiple phoney identities after leaving prison and has kept defrauding a number of women.
The Talented Mr. Khater, a Texas Monthly exposé published in 2015, expanded on Callie’s account and identified the con artist’s next move.
There was yet another murder attempt in it.
Following his release, Diario Extra said that he was once more wanted after being reported to the police by Marie Taylor, a female traveller from Canada. In the Costa Rican town of Quepos, he had captivated her before robbing her of $19,000 in life savings.
Taylor asserts in the Texas Monthly article that Khater made underhanded threats to her throughout their brief connection, including that he might “murder her in the woods and no one would find her” and that he once covered her face with a pillow.
Later, he took her bank card, used it to drain the account, and then ran away.
Libny Zeledón, a resident of Quepos, alleged he also stole money from her when she gave him money to start a dormant sportswear company.
He told the woman that he was there for La Transtica, a five-day, 200km event, at the time when he was back on the ultramarathon trail. He tempted her, then persuaded her to stay so she could photograph him sprinting.
A businessman named Todd Flanders was duped out of $3,500 by the individual who had taken on the identity Joseph Carter after using the marathon to try and deceive people who wanted to help him. Todd Flanders was told that all of his sporting equipment had been stolen and that he would be compensated.
Later, Flanders and Taylor would work together to try to bring him down, even starting a website that listed every report on Khater in an effort to raise awareness of him.
Although YoussefKhaterScammer’s WordPress account is still up today, it hasn’t been updated much in the past five years due to Flanders’ passing.
However, police later stated that he was just detained as part of a “stop and frisk” random check, which was complicated by their inability to identify him. In 2017, Costa Rica Star claimed that he had been arrested again for carrying out the same scam.
Due to the increased interest in the case after the introduction of Worst Roommate Ever, the website has only received one update.
He may have spent a few months in jail for fraud after migrating to Nicaragua in 2019 before being extradited back to Denmark.
It is thought that he resumed his life under a new name at this final known location. This hasn’t been formally confirmed, yet.
The worst roommate ever is currently streaming on Netflix.
