The Gruesome Story of Ali Abulaban

"I've never met anyone else like you, and I don't think I ever will." I'm not saying that because it's cliche, I'm saying that because no one's ever moving me the way that you do. You never really know what someone is dealing with behind closed doors, and this is especially true of those lives we follow on social media. In the eyes of their 1 million plus social media fans, Anna and Ali Abulaban were the perfect couple. Beautiful people leading a beautiful glamorous life. It was an image that would be shattered in the most gruesome of ways on October 21, 2021. This is the story of Anna and Ali Abulaban. It is a story of a toxic and obsessive love, hidden from the world behind a carefully curated public image, and the jealous rage that would end it in the most savage way imaginable. San Diego is frequently coined America's finest city. Located on the coast of Southern California, San Diego has an idyllic climate, 70 miles of white sand beaches, a vibrant nightlife, and an endless number of family attractions. One of the liveliest parts of town is the urban enclave known as the East Village, a trendy downtown neighborhood with over 700 businesses, a host of luxury high-rise apartment blocks and dozens of clubs, rooftop bars, and live music venues. It was at one of these luxury high-rise apartments in the East Village of San Diego that in 2021, 28-year-old Anna Marie Abulaban was living with her husband Ali and their five-year-old daughter Amara. From the outside looking in, the Abulaban family seemed to have it all, a fairytale romance, stunning good looks, a beautiful daughter, a wide circle of friends, and growing fame as social media influencers. 29-year-old Ali, better known by his TikTok-handled JinKid, had already garnered 1 million plus followers across various social media platforms for his comedy skits. "All right, so what do you call yourself tough guy, huh?" "I'm Tonyo, Montana, and you, what do you call yourself?" "Listen buddy, I'm the only one that has questions around here, pal, got it?" "You ever been a jail?" "I need?" "No." "No, wait, man, you're at a wrong guy, so. " Life, on paper, should have been perfect for the Abulabons, or at least as perfect as the choreographed images on their Instagram accounts. Life in San Diego was certainly very different to the life Anna Abulaban had led growing up. Born in 1993 in Okinawa, Japan, to Filipino parents, Anna had gone to high school at a US military base in Japan where her father had been employed. After graduating high school, Anna had earned a degree at the Technological University of the Philippines. Friends described Anna as charming, intelligent, and down-to-earth. She was also stunningly beautiful, but it was her inner beauty that made her stand out. Her best friend of 15 years, Kasey Conroy, said, "According to Kasey, she was a genuinely good person, a kind, loving friend who felt more like a family member. The future could surely hold only promising things for the bright and vivacious young Anna. It certainly looked that way when she fell in love with Ali Abulaban, a handsome young American soldier stationed at the same US military base where her father worked. 22-year-old Ali Nasser Abulaban had been born in 1992 in Staten Island, to Palestinian parents, before growing up in Virginia. Ali had been an aspiring entertainer from a young age, an extrovert who enjoyed being the center of attention. At 14, he had been the singer in a band before joining the military. It was love at first sight for both Ali and Anna, and the pair embarked on a passionate whirlwind affair. Ali, in particular, was smitten with Anna. But for Anna's friend, Kasey, there was something off. Ali was obsessed with Anna, she said. They had only been dating for a few weeks when Kasey called her friend, only for Ali to answer. He asked her why she was calling and what she wanted. It was clear to Kasey that he didn't want Anna's friends calling. He wanted Anna, just for himself. Within a year of meeting her, Ali had married Anna, taken her back to his home state of Virginia, and they were expecting their first child. Once settled in Virginia, the newlyweds welcomed their beautiful baby girl, Amara Abulaban. Life in Virginia was idyllic according to Ali, who later said they were living the American dream. Ali still yearned to be a star. He sang and wrote music before taking up a new hobby, creating comedy skits and celebrity impersonations for TikTok, and later YouTube and Instagram. Ali described himself on his YouTube account as "a guy who loves watching movies and creating parodies of my favorite characters." These characters included rapper Takashi 6-9 and a favorite, the fictional movie icon Tony Montana from the 1983 movie Scarface. Fans described his impersonations of Tony Montana as "uncanny" and "spot-on." His skits about Skyrim, a video game, were also hugely popular with fans and other social media influencers. Ali appeared to be on the brink of hitting the big time. In 2019, his first video went viral, and he quickly amassed a significant following. With 263,000 followers on Instagram, 950,000 fans on TikTok and 171,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel. Meanwhile, Anna would appear in many of the skits, and she began producing her own content for Instagram and quickly gained 11,000 followers. It's not clear whose idea it was to shift the family to San Diego. Ali claimed it was Anna's, who had friends from the military base there. For the ambitious Ali, though, who fostered dreams of becoming an actor, a move to California must have seemed like the obvious next step. Neither could have predicted just how rapidly and catastrophically things would disintegrate in the days and months to follow. The abulaban family moved into their high-rise apartment on Island Avenue in the East Village San Diego in February of 2021, surrounded by old friends and the opportunities presented by this vibrant city. The scene was set for both Anna and Ali to spread their wings socially and professionally, and Anna was ready to do just that. Her social media post from that time show her working out, enjoying spa days with girlfriends and nights out on the town. She looked jaw-droppingly beautiful and impossibly glamorous. Meanwhile, Ali's social media following continued to grow. Interspersed with his own comedy skits were romantic moments of shared laughter with Anna, along with effusive proclamations of love. This was the couple working overtime to create the illusion of the perfect romantic union. In abusive relationships, both parties often go to great lengths to hide the dysfunctional side of their relationship from the public eye, whether out of denial or shame. And then there's the extreme highs and lows that often mark toxic love, with the lows often deliberately kept out of sight. As while Ali Abulaban took pride in having such a beautiful wife, this pride took the form of possessiveness and an extreme need for control, and Ali was losing control of his beautiful possession. Soon after they arrived, the first serious signs of trouble were beginning to show. Anna's friends in San Diego didn't like Ali, and they clued in on his controlling behavior. Anna's friends were the spiritual hippie types. It unnerved them that he carried a gun everywhere he went. He was also highly aggressive, and as friend Casey said, he talked over people, interrupted people, dominated the conversation, and would boast about his success on social media. He was also all about the high life. His cousin, Louis Maronari, said that watching his wife's social life flourish was stirring up extreme jealousy and paranoia, and Ali felt that she was partying too much. He said Ali wanted to control Anna. He wanted to know what she was doing every time of the day. He became extremely jealous, jealous, and furious. His wife was going out with friends and he wasn't involved, and it drove him mad. While Ali was a funny guy and loved by his family, Ali had a dark side his cousin said. He had observed his relationship with Anna close up, and at times found Ali's treatment of her to be abusive. And as the month wore on, that dark side rose to the forefront. Even his skits seemed to escalate in their aggression and take on a foreboding edge. It's not clear when Ali first started using cocaine. It was quickly apparent to everyone, however, when he became a regular user of the drug. Once, while on Instagram live, a drunk Ali pulled out a bag of cocaine and started snorting it. People thought it was part of a skit. it. Until they realized, it wasn't. In an apology video the next day, Ali explained that it was his first time using it, and he warned people of the dangers of drugs. But it was a weak and implausible explanation. He then ranted about how much he loved his wife, but that he didn't like her friends, who he said would bring men into their homes to cheat on their husbands. His family didn't support him, he said, and were not in touch with him. Ali's mental state was clearly unravelling, and right before the eyes of his fans whose comments now were increasingly turning towards his weight loss and state of mind, and suggestions for him to relax and be strong. One fan wrote, "I knew there was something wrong with him, he was drinking so much and looked so thin. But with his marriage disintegrating Ali's drug use accelerated. His cousin explained that once, while they were out in a bar, he pulled out a huge bag of cocaine and put it on the table. His cousin said that they would be thrown out, to which Ali said that no one could touch him. He could do whatever he wanted. He was gin-kid. With his over a million followers, Ali was starting to feel like a star. Superior. Untouchable. Things he had always secretly known about himself. Only why couldn't he get his wife Anna to see the same? Ali's cousin found his obsession with his wife strange. Ali seemed to sense that he was losing her or control of her at least. When Anna's friends called, he'd often take the phone and challenge them on why they were calling her. When they were in bars, he would scroll through his phone looking at photos of Anna and talking about how much he loved her, how beautiful she was, how he would never let anyone else have her. It was clear that Ali was reaching a breaking point. Things were about to implode suddenly and violently. In early October, Anna called the police and reported that Ali had pushed her in front of their daughter, giving her minor injuries. She said that Ali had also shown their daughter a loaded gun and showed her how to hold it. In a video posted around the same time, an incensed Ali is seen hurling abuse at Anna who is off camera. Ali accuses her of using him to get into America. On October 18th, Anna Abulaban finally asked her husband to move out, then she filed for a divorce and a restraining order. Just like that, something in Anna had finally snapped, but escaping an abuser is rarely as easy as that, and the prospect of losing all control over Anna was not something Ali was able or willing to accept. Ali moved into the mission bay hotel, but without Anna knowing, he made a copy of their apartment's front door key. His drinking and erratic behavior had now reached new heights. In one Instagram live session streamed while driving and drinking from a bottle of red wine, he asked if any sexy females were watching him right now to send him a message. They'd caught him in a moment where he was having problems with his wife, he said. Meanwhile, he was calling Anna incessantly. When he couldn't get through, he'd call her friends or anyone else who would listen. He wanted to know where she was, what she was doing and why she wouldn't take his calls. Friends begged him to give her some time and space, but he was living in a state of denial, his cousin said. And his obsession with Anna only increased by the day. He seemed to be in shock about her request for a divorce and was losing his mind over it. He felt she was punishing him and that she couldn't actually be serious and was unable to consider the possibility that she might actually go through with it. His cousin urged him to move on. He assured him that he could find someone else, he could get anyone he wanted. Ali ever the egomaniac agreed with him, but he was equally empathetic over the fact that he didn't want anyone else. He only wanted his wife and he would go to any lengths to get her. No one knew just how dark the depths of Ali's soul really were and the darkness was about to unleash itself for the world to see. Three days later, on October 21st, Ali a buluban sneaked back into the apartment while his wife was out with the key he had duplicated and vandalized it. He then phoned her to tell her what he had done, but there was one thing he hadn't mentioned to Anna. Ali had serapticiously installed a spying app on their daughter's iPad that would allow him to listen to what was happening inside the house from his telephone. When Anna returned to the house later that day, she brought her friend, Rayburn Codenius Barron with her. Rayburn was 29 and a San Diego native. He was a family-oriented person, a warm and thoughtful person. Someone who friends said they could depend on. And when Anna called on him for help that day, possibly to help clean up the apartment or for protection knowing that Ali had a key and could appear at any moment, he dropped everything to help her. It would be the final catalyst for a deranged Ali. Ali a buluban was listening to the app on his phone when he heard the sound of his wife and a male voice talking and giggling and he went into a homicidal rage. He didn't know whose voice he had heard just that it was male. Just before 3pm, he drove from the mission bay hotel to the apartment complex and took the elevator to the 35th floor, the entire way he cursed and cried and prayed that his wife did not have sex with the man before he got there. Security camera footage showed him running out of the elevator to the apartment where he opened the door and opened fire. Inside the apartment, his wife and her friend Rayburn were sitting on the couch. He walked over to the pulled out his gun and shot Rayburn three times at close range, striking his neck, cheek and the back of his head. His wife screamed before he turned the gun on her, shooting her at close range in the forehead. Still armed Ali left the apartment block and picked up his daughter from school. And with his daughter in the car, he told her that he had hurt her mommy. Ali then called his mother and confessed and then phoned 911 to report the shooting. He said he'd come home to discover his wife and her friend had been shot and that he wasn't responsible for the crime. After tracking his location via his phone, police arrested him 45 minutes later on state route 15. I didn't believe it for a good hour. Anna's best friend, Casey Conroy, said, "I heard there was a shooting in the East Village, but I was like, 'You don't know. You don't know.' Me and Anna had been talking about birthday plans in four days. I texted Anna immediately. She had just texted me, 'What are we going to do for your birthday?' At the preliminary hearing around two dozen family members and friends of the two victims packed the San Diego County Superior Court. Several of them sobbed as details of the killings were shared. Ali pled not guilty to two counts of murder as well as special circumstance allegations of multiple killings. Prosecutors may pursue the death penalty if a boulevard is convicted. The judge also issued a protective order that requires a boulevard to stay away from his daughter. Ali was seen sobbing uncontrollably as prosecutors read out the details of his crime. Later, Ali gave a garbled media interview from jail. He said that he had gotten there that day. He had found his wife in Rayburn kissing. Rayburn's feet were on the table. It was this that made him lose it. The man in his apartment with his wife, his furniture, 'I felt like I was in the passenger seat of my own body,' he said. 'What do you expect a man to do? Yet he also stated they'd already been shot when he arrived, a claim that makes no sense given his previous statement.' His family said that his fame changed him. According to his cousin, he was actually a very insecure person, and social media created a fake reality for him to escape to, but it made him feel as if he was better than other people. It created a monster.' Anna's best friend disagrees. 'Ali is just a bad guy,' she says. 'He's selfish. There's nothing good about him.' Ali's favorite fictional character was the violent monster Tony Montana. Was it because he related to him to his hunger for power, abuse of others, and violent rages? It seems the more Ali indulged himself in playing the character. The more he came to emulate the violent, paranoid, megalomaniac he so admired, and Ali's life ostensibly ended much the same way as Tony Montana's, incarnage, violence, and tragedy.