Ejaz Ahmad // 203 // Leah Ward // Part 3

In May of 2003, Ejaz Ahmad was shot, stabbed, and decapitated by his wife Leah Ward.  His body was discovered in a shed behind his house in Memphis, Tennessee.  Leah admitted to murdering Ejaz, but said it was in self-defense.  Her trial was in 2005, and the jury did not believe her story.  She was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

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RESOURCES: 

• Domestic Violence Against Men - Understand How It Happens - Domestic Violence: It's EVERYBODY'S Business 
• 'She Is Evil!': Madness And Murder In... by Yates, Judith A (amazon.com) 
• Histrionic Personality Disorder: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment (clevelandclinic.org) 
• Self-Determination Theory Of Motivation (simplypsychology.org) 

Transcript

RECAP: Leah married Larry Ward and things were rocky from the start.  They had two kids together, but Leah was doing drugs, and eventually, Larry couldn’t take it anymore.  They split up and Leah had the intention of getting clean, but she moved in with a drug dealer.  The two of them got in trouble and pleaded guilty so their sentences would be reduced.  When Leah was released from prison, she was on probation, and looking for a place to go.  She met Ejaz Ahmad and he really wanted to help her, but it was against his religion to live with a woman he wasn’t married to.   

Ejaz and Leah got married, but she never told him about her past, her history with drugs, the fact that she was on probation, or that she was still married to her husband Larry.  Ejaz was realizing that Leah lied to him, she was stealing from him, and it was all taking a toll on their marriage.  He talked to several people and told them he wanted a divorce, and he was planning on telling Leah.  When people were no longer able to get a hold of Ejaz, Leah was saying he went to Pakistan, and she started pawning his belongings. 

Ejaz had several rental properties. Dan Simone and his family had been renting a house for a while and Leah showed up and told them to get out, they needed to move right away. Before he was out of there, someone broke in, but the only thing that was stolen was baby clothes. It was later confirmed that Leah committed the burglary. 

Leah was driving Ejaz’s white Lincoln, and she rolled up at his friend, Frank’s place. He was also renting a home from Ejaz and was shocked at her appearance. When she married Ejaz, she started dressing conservatively and she wore a hijab (hih-job). She was wearing a halter-top, tight pants, makeup, she was very skinny, and she was smoking cigarettes. Frank didn’t even recognize the woman in front of him. Sometime after April 29th, Frank arrived home and discovered he had been robbed. Someone broke into his home and stole all of his furnishings. There was also a note from Leah. She said the new renters would be moving into the house in two days. He had to temporarily move into a room at the mosque while he looked for a new home. 

Deborah lived near Ejaz and in late April, she saw a large moving van parked at the home from about April 25th to the 29th. During this time, she saw Leah spraying something outside with the garden hose, but she couldn’t see what it was. Deborah’s husband witnessed Leah spraying off the driver’s side of the moving truck around 8 AM on the 29th. Leah called the federal probation offices and said she needed to surrender for violation of probation. She told them she didn’t have money or a car, and they told her to contact the US Marshall’s office. 

On April 28th, Leah went to Storage USA and signed a rental agreement for a storage unit. She paid a six-month lease in cash and wrote her alternative contact as Jane Doe. She noted that she was storing a 3 bedroom house full of items to include 3 beds, furniture, antiques, clothes, and other house items. She listed the value of the items at $4,999.00 and she had two people that helped her unload the items. On that same day, around 7:30 AM, a neighbor named Catherine was leaving for work and she saw a moving truck parked outside of Ejaz’s home and it was still there when she got home that day. 

The next day, the truck was still outside of the home, parked on the lawn, blocking the front of the house. When Catherine stopped at home for lunch, she saw a female showing a car to several people. She thought this was strange because it appeared like they were moving, but Catherine couldn’t remember the last time she had seen Ejaz. She later recalled a horrible smell coming from his back yard. It was so bad that her boyfriend checked their own yard because they thought something had died there.  

But, we’re talking about April 28th. Leah had a very busy day planned. After she went to the storage unit, she went to an auto repair shop that Ejaz frequented. She shouted to Walid (wall-eed) that Ejaz went to Pakistan and left her no money. He left her stranded. They agreed to help her out and gave her cash for the vehicle she brought in. Walid drove her home since she had just sold the vehicle she was driving and he agreed to purchase the three vehicles that were sitting on the land, but they didn’t even run, they all had to be towed. He planned to sell them back to Ejaz as soon as he got back from Pakistan. He didn’t want any of this stuff. 

Leah called Walid back to the home on April 30th and asked that he fix the Lincoln. Walid and Bobby got the car running and Leah said, while you’re here, can you help me move some boxes? They both agreed and when they stepped into the home, they both covered their noses because the odor was so overwhelming. Leah assured the men that it was just meat in the refrigerator that had gone bad, and she needed to throw it out.  She said the refrigerator stopped working. The men put the boxes in the Lincoln and quickly left the home. 

On April 30th,  Ejaz’s ex-wife, Bonnie and her brother drove to his home because they hadn’t heard from him, and they were getting worried. They noticed that the lawn hadn’t been mowed and the shrubs were overgrown. Ejaz was very particular about the way he kept his lawn, so they thought this was strange, but she assumed it was because he had been away for a few weeks, according to Leah’s story. She looked at her watch, it was 1:15 PM when she knocked on the door. All the blinds were closed, but she was able to look through the window on the door and all the furniture was gone. No one answered the door and Bonnie thought about heading to the backyard, but she couldn’t. As she headed there, her knees locked up. She got a chill down her spine and her feet wouldn’t let her move any further, so she ran back to her car and told her brother to drive her to the mosque. 

At the mosque, a few of Ejaz’s friends said they hadn’t seen him in 3 to 4 weeks. Bonnie tried to file a missing persons report, but law enforcement said she couldn’t file because Ejaz didn’t meet the necessary criteria for a missing person. He was an adult and could disappear if he wanted to. While Bonnie was out searching for Ejaz, Leah was surrendering herself to the US Marshall’s offices. Bonnie couldn’t find anyone that could help her, so she went to a trusted friend who read Tarot cards and the friend said, “I have a vision of him rolled up in a rug.” The women cried together and that when Bonnie’s mother Ernestine decided to go over to Ejaz’s home herself to see what in the hell was going on. On May 1st, 2003, she was getting ready to head over and at the last second, Jordan asked to go with and she agreed. So, that’s where we started our story in part 1. Ernestine and Jordan arrived at the home and discovered a body which was later confirmed to be Ejaz. 

On May 3rd, two days after his body was discovered, Bonnie, Ernestine, and Jordan went to the police department to give their statements. Jordan spoke about a ring his father had promised him, that’s the one Leah pawned, and he said that his father told him about a pellet gun and a rifle that was in the home. He also had several knives and swords. 

Detective Norris started looking into Leah’s history and he saw that she had violated her parole with a drug charge, but she turned herself in. She was currently locked up, so he placed a hold on her because she was about to be transferred to another facility. Leah was brought in for questioning and she launched into her story. She said that Ejaz brought her to a hotel so she could fill out an application for employment and when she got back outside, he was gone. She said she went to the house, and she took Ejaz’s black bag with his personal papers and she put it in the car.  

I briefly mentioned that this bag was very important to Ejaz, and everyone knew that.  She knew this would make him blow up and he would be forced to talk to her. She said that after she took his bag, she headed to the hospital for her night shift. When she got back, the two of them got in a huge fight over the bag, just like she had hoped. She said that Ejaz threatened her. The next time you take that bag, I’ll kill you. She went into the bedroom and locked the door. Leah said she had a gun and she grabbed it from the top shelf of her daughter’s closet.  

Yes, you heard that right, they had a gun stored in her daughter’s closet. She didn’t know what kind of gun it was, but it was small, black, and loaded. She said she went back to the bedroom that she shared with Ejaz and placed the gun under the bed in case she needed to protect herself. 

-Why not leave?  That’s such a good question.  She never mentioned that he was holding her there.  She was able to retrieve a gun and get back to their bedroom, but she didn’t leave. 

-She’s so scared that she tucked a gun that she knows nothing about under the bed, then she locked the door and went to sleep.  Because that’s what you do when you’re terrified. 

Around 6 or 7 AM, Ejaz was pounding on the door, asking if she was going to school and she said no. He shouted, go get my papers! He started throwing his body against the door and he busted through. Remember, this is Leah’s version of events. She said he started beating her, asking where the gun was and she said she didn’t know. She headed towards the bathroom, locked the door, and hid in the closet. Ejaz went outside and grabbed the hose and started spraying the bathroom through the window and he tried to get into the bathroom through the window. 

Leah left the bathroom and ran towards the bedroom to grab the gun, then Ejaz came through the bedroom door and put his hands around her throat. He was choking her, so she put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger. Click. Nothing happened. Ejaz continued hitting her and she pulled the trigger again. Ejaz stumbled backwards, confused, and he fell on the bed. There was a hole in his chest and Leah fell to the floor crying, then she ran to the living room and prayed that God would save him. 

When she went back to the bedroom, she discovered that her prayers weren’t answered. 

-Why didn’t she call for help?  

-She wanted to save him, so her solution was to leave him alone while she prayed? 

Ejaz had been shot twice.  Once in the heart and the other was in the stomach.  Leah only mentioned shooting him once and said it didn’t go off the first time when the gun was aimed at his head.  Leah left the house and went for a walk around the neighborhood and that’s when she may have thrown the gun away, but she couldn’t remember. When she went back to the house, she stayed next to Ejaz’s body for days. She tried to drag him to the tub, but he was too heavy. She managed to get a leg into the tub, and she covered him with a white sheet. She removed his trousers and underwear and washed them with a cloth. She claimed she was trying to give him a proper Muslim burial, which started with washing the body. 

A few days later, the home was filled with the smell of decaying flesh, but Leah said she left his body in the bathroom for a few weeks. When she finally opened the bathroom door, she saw worms coming out of his body. She tried to clean up the worms, she tossed the sheet that had been covering his body, and she closed the door. She knew she had to move his body, so she cleaned up the blood and worms, then tried to pull his body, but she couldn’t move him. Leah grabbed a sword from the living room and cut off his head and she also removed his penis and testicles. 

-Did he have ginormous testicles? How did this reduce his body weight? 

She wrapped the head in a sheet, dumped it in a trash bag, placed it in the car, and drove around for at least 30 minutes, before tossing Ejaz’s head in a dumpster, but she couldn’t remember where. She also did the same thing with his penis and testicles, but she couldn't remember which dumpster they went into either. 

Leah didn’t mention any of the other wounds on Ejaz’s body, but she said she found a wire cable and a red rope. She tied it around one leg and tied the red rope around one of his arms. She was finally able to pull his body out of the bathroom. Without his head and penis, she was able to drag him. She dragged his body out the front door around midnight, but she got scared, so she dragged him around the side of the house and through the gate to dump him in the shed and covered him with an egg crate mattress. She believed his body was in the shed for 2-3 days before she surrendered on April 30th. She cleaned the house, but she said there would still be proof in the house that there was a struggle. 

She confessed to selling Ejaz’s cars and pawning his gold ring. She stored items in a storage facility, but only pre-paid for the amount of months that she believed she would be in jail for violating probation. She attempted to call 911 at least once, but she got scared and hung up. She said, “I had never harmed anyone before.” She told the investigators that she killed Ejaz in self-defense and she feared for her life. She said she was a battered woman that suffered a lifetime of abuse by her father, her husband, and other men as well. She showed them bruises on her body and said they were allegedly from Ejaz beating her. 

-Not sure how you could prove that when he had already been dead for weeks 

-Maybe the bruise was from dragging her husband’s dead body around the house? 

Detective Webb viewed the bruise on Leah. It was very faint and old, located on her back near one side. Leah signed her 5-page statement and listed her emergency contact as her ex-husband Larry. Sergeant Sims and Detective Webb charged Leah with the murder of Ejaz Ahmad and Leah again told them, “I was afraid for my life.” 

Investigators got to work, trying to piece things together and interview people that knew Ejaz and Leah. I want to mention the horrific way Ejaz’s best friend Johnny found out about his death. Johnny had been trying to find his friend and he called the mosque. The phone rang a few times and a recorded message popped on. It was asking the caller to remember Ejaz Ahmad since his untimely death, then someone snatched up the phone and answered. Johnny frantically asked what the message was, what’s going on? The voice said, I can’t say anymore and hung up. That’s how Johnny learned that his best friend died and right away, he knew Leah had done it. 

This next part is according to the book, I am not Muslim, so please don’t be offended if I explain this incorrectly. I personally find different cultures fascinating and it is certainly possible that that is isn’t how ALL Muslims do things.  When a Muslim dies, there are expenses that need to be taken care of before their Last Will and Testament. The portion containing their final bequests is called a wasiyya (Woo-see-Yoo).  I couldn’t find a way to say this. The first to be paid is debts, funeral expenses, and the distribution of remaining estate, and this all happens before the wasiyya.  

Investigators did what they could to help the family in giving Ejaz as close to a traditional burial as possible. They made the autopsy a priority and expedited the paperwork so they could release his remains. Three days after the discovery of his body, the Medical Examiner’s office released his remains to the family. Ernestine and Bonnie signed the documents to release Ejaz’s body to the Muslim community for funeral preparations. Ejaz was not able to receive a complete Muslim burial with full Islamic customs. Traditionally, they close the eyes, bind the jaw, and cover the body with a clean sheet after death, but his head had been removed. 

Prior to the funeral, a Muslim of the same gender will perform a cleaning ritual of the body. To wrap the body, three white sheets and four ropes are used. One rope secures the wrapping over the head, and another is just below the feet, and the other two are used to secure the sheets. A prayer ritual occurs immediately after. The funeral needs to take place 24 hours after death and the mourning or grief lasts for 3 days. You can cry, but not loud cries because it’s believed that the spirit can hear. 

The spouse of the deceased is supposed to be restricted to their home unless they must go to work or if they have an important errand. During the time of restriction, women can’t wear any perfume or jewelry. The next phase of mourning lasts four months and ten days. There are prayers at the funeral with men, women, and children assigned designated roles. The funeral procession and burial have certain traditions to be followed. This includes the proper way to mourn and how the body must be placed in the grave. They can’t have an elaborate grave marker, and no cut flowers, gifts, or candles can be placed on the grave. This would signify that the person’s death was being celebrated, not their life. 

On May 6th, investigators received a call. The person on the other end of the line said, “I have information on that murder, that murder by Leah Ward.” Investigators asked who they were speaking to, and the voice said, “Never mind that.” The caller was anonymous but sounded male. The anonymous caller said they spoke to Leah a few days ago and she said her and Ejaz were moving closer to the mosque, and she didn’t want to move there. She was thinking about a divorce. The caller saw Leah when she moved all the stuff out of the house, and she had 4 to 5 black males helping her and there was a blue car in the yard. It was a convertible with nice rims and a temporary tag. The kind you get when you buy a car. Somebody in a van pushed the car out of there.  

The caller said he didn’t think about any of this at the time, but he heard about the murder, then he saw that little car again. He said it was at the Piggly Wiggly grocery store, then he hung up. The investigators went to the Piggly Wiggly and parked in the lot was a dark blue 1991 Mercury Capri convertible, nice rims, no tags. In the window, there was a parking sticker for Southwest Tennessee Community College. The driver’s side window was down and it looked like someone was living in the car, or was extremely messy. On the ground next to the car was a temporary tag issued from the Vance shop where Ejaz’s friend worked. This was the shop that purchased his vehicles from Leah. The tag had an expiration date of May 17th. Investigators took the tag, but copied down the VIN number and called it in. It wasn’t registered, so they called for a tow truck and had it towed to the impound lot for processing. 

Detective Norris headed over to the auto repair shop where Leah had sold Ejaz’s vehicles. Walid (Wall-eed) Salam handed him the receipts and all documents for each vehicle and showed him the ones that were still on the lot. Norris wanted to see the white Mirage Leah had been driving. He noticed a swipe of blue paint along the passenger side of the car. He opened the door, and something caught his eye. There appeared to be blood on the passenger side floor, on the plastic runner along the carpet near the back of the passenger seat. There were also a few hairs in the dried blood. He found more potential blood spots on the back of the passenger seat and on the interior door panel of the same side. 

He took photos of the vehicle, then he called the crime scene officers who showed up about 30 minutes later. The investigators swabbed the potential blood. The areas on the back of the passenger seat and on the interior door panel each tested negative. Two spots on the plastic runner tested positive. The hairs were carefully lifted and placed in evidence containers. They also found another spot to test, and this was on the rear fender alongside the trunk lid. This also came back positive. 

On May 8th, the Selmer, Tennessee Police station received a call. “I’m Leah Ward’s mother. I just heard she was arrested. She’s got some stuff at my house, and she left a car. I want no part of this. Come and get it away from my house.” Investigators were elated, they had just located Ejaz’s Lincoln and Leah’s mother said the keys were under the floor mat, and there was a sword in the trunk. She said Leah had gone up in the family attic for some reason while she was at her parent’s house, and she had filled several trash bags full of unknown items to throw away. Investigators had a meeting with the Attorney General’s office to have a discussion about the case and they decided to charge Leah with first-degree murder, and she would be facing the death penalty or a life sentence. 

Investigators headed to Leah’s parents' house to get the Lincoln. They searched the attic, but they didn’t find any evidence in there. On May 13th, The Memphis Police Homicide unit sent evidence to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations in Nashville. The evidence included blood scrapings from the victim’s hand, the victim’s hair, the skin removed from the floor of the shed, and an FTA card, which is used to collect, transport, and store DNA samples.  

Officers went to the storage unit where Leah had rented the moving truck and storage space. The unit was 10 by 15, and she pre-paid a six-month lease, which is the amount of time she believed her sentence would be for violating her parole. She NEVER thought she was going to be caught for Ejaz’s murder. She had paid slightly more than the amount due for 6 months and of course, listed her alternative contact as Jane Doe and provided the fake phone number 555-1212. 

Leah Joy Ward was scheduled to make an appearance for her arraignment. When she walked into the courtroom, to say that people were shocked would be an understatement. Her long blond hair was gone and now, she had a shaved head. She had put on a lot of weight and one observer noted that she was only 27, but looked 45 now. As the judge began proceedings, Leah dropped to the floor and curled up in a fetal position. She stayed that way for the entire arraignment hearing. 

Ejaz’s best friend was there and he was furious at Leah. I mentioned earlier that Johnny had a dream about Ejaz where the riverbed turned into blood. Several days after he learned that Ejaz had been murdered, Johnny had another dream. He told his friend that in his dream, he was asleep on a mat in Ejaz’s guest room. Something woke him up and he noticed that the house was eerily quiet. The furniture, rugs, and pictures were all gone. There were shards of glass and litter on the floors. He slowly walked into the living room and the TV was on, but the screen was snowy and flickering. He woke up shaking. 

Around 3:30 PM on May 17th, 2003, Ernestine, Bonnie, and Jordan all met up with the homicide investigator Sergeant James Fitzpatrick at Ejaz’s home. A locksmith had been called to open the front door since they didn’t have a key. Fitzpatrick had asked them to accompany him on the walkthrough of the home in case the crime scene investigators had missed anything that was relevant to the investigation. They were able to point out items that were missing from the home, including Ejaz’s sword collection. The house was filled with garbage and Ernestine sifted through some of it. She found a woman’s wallet and opened it up. Inside was Bonnie’s old driver’s license. Why would Leah have anything of Bonnie’s?  

There were photos of Jordan, but that made sense, he was Ejaz’s son. There was a pile of photos, cards, notes, and business papers, all dumped into trash bags. Leah had literally gathered up everything that was important to Ejaz and thrown it away. In the backyard, she found a pan lying in the yard. Ernestine had been a police officer, so she knew this pan had been used to cook crystal meth. As Ernestine walked through the house, she began trying to piece things together and she realized there was a lot about Leah’s story that wasn’t adding up. 

Leah said the gun was just lying on a shelf in her daughter’s room, in the closet. Ernestine looked in the closet and Jordan showed her where the gun had been, on the top shelf. Ernestine was a few inches taller than Leah and she reached her hand to the top and couldn’t reach the shelf. She had to get a chair to be able to reach the shelf. If the gun was hidden there, how could Leah just run in the room and grab the gun like she said? In her story, she made it sound like she quickly ran in the room, snatched the gun, and ran back to her room to hide.  BUT, if she had to have a chair waiting for her, that could mean premeditation. 

Ernestine went into the bathroom where she was still able to smell the stench of death. She found Leah’s makeup case on a bathroom shelf and there were several shell casings from spent bullets in the cloth bag. When she made her way to the kitchen, she opened the freezer and do want to guess what’s inside? A SET OF TEETH THAT BELONGED TO A HEAD IN A FROZEN BAG!!!! It took her a minute to realize it was a goat’s head.

RESOURCES: 

Domestic Violence Against Men - Understand How It Happens - Domestic Violence: It's EVERYBODY'S Business 

'She Is Evil!': Madness And Murder In... by Yates, Judith A (amazon.com) 

Histrionic Personality Disorder: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment (clevelandclinic.org) 

Self-Determination Theory Of Motivation (simplypsychology.org)