Netflix’s brand new docuseries Worst Roommate Ever arrives on the platform today, with the five-part docuseries looking at stories where seemingly-normal neighbours have turned out to be con-artists, criminals and in some cases killers.
The docuseries explores four true-crime tales, from serial killer Dorothea Puente to murderer KC Joy, but one episode in particular looks at the crimes of fraudster Youssef Khater – a marathon runner convicted of attempted murder and fraud in Chile back in 2011.
Read on for more information about Khater and the latest on his current whereabouts.
Who is Youssef Khater from Worst Roommate Ever?
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Youssef Khater is a Danish man who was convicted of attempted murder and fraud in Chile after attempting to kill his housemate Callie Quinn in July 2011, and defrauding several people out of thousands of dollars.
Khater, who is a Danish expat of Lebanese origin, posed as a Palestinian marathon-runner and told his housemates in a Chile-based 12-bedroom hostel that he had been sponsored by the Federacion Palestina de Chile to set a record by running the 2653-mile length of Chile. The 33-year-old had been sponsored by Carlos Medina and Carlos Krauss, members of the Federacion Palestina, to run the race and given $8,000 to do so, but told them that he had to drop out after the organisers had noticed a muscle tear in his leg. After Khater had the injury medically examined and doctors found there was no muscle tear, he stopped returning their calls.
Whilst living in the 12-bedroom house, he invited Texan resident Callie Quinn and a friend to rent two new condos he claimed to have bought, taking a $1,000 security deposit by them. However, after going out for dinner with Quinn, Khater lured her to a tire shop in Santiago and hit her over the head with a toilet seat, before burying her alive, according to an article in Texas Monthly. Another roommates of their’s – Sabine Schmidt – also claimed that Khater had borrowed money from her and two Mexican students.
Quinn survived and filed a police report, after which Khater left the house and disappeared. When criminal lawyer Rocio Berrios offered to represent Quinn pro bono, she learnt about Khater’s defrauding of Medina and Krauss and also discovered that Khater had borrowed over $50,000 from British runner Dominic Rayner, who had bought him $12000 of athletic gear and given him $38,000 to jointly buy a property. When Rayner met up with Khater in Santiago to receive the money he was owed, Rayner took him on a hike and attacking him with a walking stick. Failing to seriously hurt Rayner but leaving him with a cracked head, Youssef “begged him not to tell anyone what had happened” according to the Texas Monthly article. Rayner later reported him to the British Metropolitan Police Service and Interpol when arriving back in London.
Berrios also learned that Khater had been arrested back in 2009 in Denmark for various schemes of his but failed to appear for trial in January 2011 and was wanted for arson, embezzlement, forgery and fraud. He had served 10 years with the Danish Marines before being dishonourably discharged for fraud at the age of 28.
Khater was finally arrested in Chile on 9th August, when Chilean police arranged for a woman to send him a wire transfer and waiting for him to meet up with the sponsor he’d asked to pick it up. While he initially claimed he had not been responsible for Quinn’s attack, he later confessed to hitting her over the head but claimed he did not intend to kill her.
A judge declared him guilty of attempted murder, for which he was sentenced to 541 days in prison, and fraud, for which he got 61 days. He had served more than half of them awaiting trial and would be out in a year but then extradited to Denmark where he’d face five more charges.
After being released in Chile and extradited to Denmark, Khater was acquitted of three of the five charges against him in Denmark and freed after three months in prison. The Texas Monthly articles claims that in 2014, he was wanted by police in the Costa Rican town of Quepos after allegedly seducing a Canadian traveler, stealing $19,000 in life savings and tried smother her with a pillow when she learned his real identity. He started using the name Joseph Carter and allegedly convinced Texan resident Todd Flanders to place a $3,500 order for sportswear and offered to supply a batch of discounted mobile phones for him to sell, which never materialised. He was questioned by Costa Rico’s Organismo de Investigacion Judicial, however they determined that there was not enough evidence to charge him with.
Where is Youssef Khater now?
In December 2015, Texas Monthly reported that Khater was going by the name of Josef Maria on Facebook and had ran in the 20th Marathon Costa Rica on 6th December in San Jose.
Two years later on 10th January 2017, The Costa Rico Star reported that Khater had been arrested in Puerto Viejo on suspicion of committing massive fraud in the country. However, the Tico Times wrote that he was released shortly afterwards.
The media has not reported any further developments relating to Khater since 2017.
Worst Roommate Ever arrives on Netflix on Tuesday 1st March. Read our guide to the best series on Netflix. For something else, visit our TV Guide our check out dedicated Documentaries hub.
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