Sameena Imam, The Woman Murdered On Christmas Eve By Her Lover
West Midlands PoliceSameena Imam was murdered by her lover and his brother on Christmas Eve in 2014.
On Christmas Eve in 2014, 34-year-old Sameena Imam excitedly set out to meet her boyfriend, Roger Cooper. He’d promised to leave his long-term partner for her and take her to a Malmaison boutique hotel to celebrate the holidays. Instead, with the help of his brother David, Cooper killed her.
Imam and Cooper met while working at Costco in Coventry, England. Though Cooper had a long-term partner (and was involved with a third woman) he and Imam had struck up a relationship. As things got serious, however, she demanded that he leave his longterm partner for her.
To her face, Cooper agreed to do so. But behind her back, he began to plot Imam’s murder with David. They texted using Star Wars references to conceal their true intentions, and according to Vice, even embarked on a failed attempt to kill Imam on Dec. 12, 2014.
West Midlands PoliceThe evidence against the brothers included the charred remains of Sameena Imam’s business card.
On Dec. 24, 2005, the brothers’ plot finally succeeded. As Vice reports, Cooper picked up Imam after work and told her that they needed to make a quick stop at his brother’s before continuing on to the hotel. But at David’s house in Leicester, the brothers attacked. They smothered her with chloroform and poisoned her with toxic chemicals like arsenic and mercury.
When Imam failed to appear for her family’s Boxing Day dinner on the day after Christmas, they notified the police. Investigators soon tracked Sameena’s cell phone data to Leicester, and to David’s house, where they found a bottle of Bellini that Sameena had purchased in his fridge.
Hauntingly, investigators also found a sign on David’s allotment shed that read: “Don’t wind me up… I’m running out of places to hide the bodies.” Both brothers were found guilty of murder and were behind bars by the next Christmas, where they’re expected to serve out 30-year sentences.
