This podcast details true crime cases. It contains adult themes and may contain descriptions of violence.

This episode contains explicit language. It is not intended for children.

listener discretion is advised.

Thank you for joining me for today's episode of Once Upon a Crime.

This month I'll be detailing true crime cases that involved rising stars who made names for themselves in social media.

In this first episode, a young comedian boasts

almost a million followers on Tik-talk alone, but his out-of-control jealousy and possessiveness

will lead to his downfall.

Instead of internet fame, he will face a double murder charge.

This is the first chapter in the series Falling Stars,

the case of Tik-Tok star Ali Abulaban. With the recent proliferation of social media channels, we live in an era where everyone wants to go viral.

While that may sound like something you'd like to avoid at all costs, like a nasty flu bug. It's something those who aspire to be social media

stars count as their number one goal. To post content that appeals to such a

large majority of the public that it gets millions of views, hits, or likes.

In this way, a virtually unknown person can become an internet sensation overnight.

As for myself, I prefer the relative anonymity of being a podcaster.

The freedom to share my true crime stories through audio allows me to remain unrecognized by most listeners. But others who

post visual content, photos, videos, etc in which they often star often receive much more attention and recognition.

The story I'm about to tell you, which ended in tragedy in San Diego, California in 2021,

would probably be just another sad tale of a person taken too soon at the hands of an

obsessive lover, except for the fact of who the perpetrator and the victim were. In the world of social media, the involved parties were well

known to over a million people. Ali Abulaban and his wife Anna were

...