The Tragic Ending to an Egyptian Vacation
Murder or Mental Illness? The Case of Magdalena Zuk
Magdalena Zuk, a 27-year-old Polish beautician, jumped to her death while on vacation in the Egyptian beach resort town of Marsa Alam on April 29, 2017. She was only three days into her week-long holiday.
The original holiday plans included her boyfriend, Markus, but he was unable to join her due to issues with his passport. Magdalena only informed her boyfriend 7 hours before the flight as it was meant to be a surprise. The trip was already paid for, and they could not get a refund or sell the tickets, so Magdalena went alone. It should have been a relaxing holiday, but from day one, a series of strange events would occur that would eventually end in her death.
Wednesday
Magdalena arrived in Egypt on April 26th. She was booked to stay at the 4-star Three Corners Equinox Beach Resort, which is located on the Red Sea.
Reports from residents at the hotel stated that Magdalena was acting strange from the start. She would sit and drink quietly, then suddenly chat and dance with everyone, then go quiet again. Other guests stated that she had asked where her boyfriend was as if he was there with her.
From day one, her family started receiving unusual text messages from Magdalena. She would text her family as if they were there with her on vacation with her, asking if they would come to her room now. She also stated that she was hearing voices in her room.
Her family even received calls about her behavior from her travel agent, Mahmoud Khairy, who also spoke Polish. As Magdalena started behaving strangely, Mahmoud became more involved in her care. His family started receiving many strange photos of their daughter from him, of Magdalena lying in bed in her robe, covering her face, or lying curled up in the hall.
Thursday
Due to her behaviour, her family became worried and attempts to arrange a flight home for her, however, the only flight leaving from Egypt was on the Saturday.
Her condition had worsened significantly more by Thursday evening. The staff tried everything to calm her down, but she acted hysterically.
Friday — first trip to the hospital
On Friday morning, guests at the hotel found her lying on the floor of the hall unconscious, so the hotel took her to the hospital. She walked into the hospital acting seemingly normal, was quickly dismissed by the doctors, and was quickly returned to the hotel. Reports are conflicting as to why she wasn’t treated, but the most plausible explanation is that the doctors didn’t treat mental issues, which they thought to be the case of Magdalena, and she appeared to be acting fine at the hospital, so they sent her back.
Saturday — first suicide attempt
This was the day Magdalena was going to fly back home. Some reports state that she attempted to commit suicide at around 6:00 am on the roof of the hotel, but hotel staff prevented her from jumping. This would be her first out of two suicides just shortly into her vacation.
Later that day, she arrived at the airport on Saturday, ready to return home. But she began acting even more strangely than before, and eventually, security prevented her from getting on the plane due to her instability, and she was sent back to the hotel. According to a source, she was in a bad mental state; some say she even showed aggression and was trying to take her clothes off. Unfortunately, she was also refused a room at the hotel due to all the problems she had caused there.
In distress, that night, she Facetimes her boyfriend, not from her own phone, but from her travel agent, Mahmoud’s phone. Mahmoud initiates the call with her boyfriend, holding the phone while Magdalena talks with her boyfriend. The entire call is confusing and strange. She hardly talks, doesn’t make much sense, is rocking back and forth the entire time, and keeps repeating the letter “M.” She says very worrying things in the video when she does eventually talk, such as,
“They use all sorts of tricks here, take me out of here. They do all kinds of things to me here.”
But she never tells him what’s going on.
Watch the full video call below:
This suggests something happened to her, and she was very scared and frightened to say anything to her boyfriend in front of Mahmoud while he held the phone for her. But she was at the airport earlier and wasn’t stable enough to get on the flight. If something had happened to her, surely she would have been relieved to be at the airport heading home?
Second trip to the hospital and the second suicide attempt
That night, Magdalena’s friend, Maciej, mentioned in the video call, was travelling from Poland to take her home. She was aware of this and knew she would be with him the very next day.
After the call, Mahmoud took Magdalena back to the same hospital. While she seemed normal on her first visit, the second visit couldn’t have been any different.
She refused to be examined, started lashing out at the hospital staff, and began running away from them as they tried to retrain her.
This video footage shows the entire ordeal.
Once they eventually caught up with her, she was taken into a private room where she was retrained by towels on the hospital bed (as shown in the video above).
A nurse tending to Magdalena untied the restraints a while later because she needed to use the bathroom. Once she was free, she attacked the nurse, ran to the window, and jumped out from the second story. She was rushed to the hospital once again and pronounced dead due to her injuries.
Theories
This has led many people to wonder, especially her concerned family, whether she was trying to commit suicide due to a mental illness such as bipolar disorder or to get away from someone, presumably Mahmoud. There are a lot of theories surrounding this case that she was heavily drugged, hence the erratic behavior, and being sold to sex trafficking.
An autopsy performed by two separate teams of Polish experts has confirmed that she is not the victim of violence or sexual assault. The only injuries were those that were consistent with the fall.
I personally think from the evidence provided by authorities that similar to the Elisa Lam case (read here), Magdalena had bipolar disorder and was going through a psychotic episode that began even before she headed on vacation when she told her boyfriend only 7 hours before the trip that they were going to Egypt, but escalated to extremes while in Egypt. The impulse vacation sounds like the beginning of a manic episode.
What do you think happened? Leave your theories in the comments.
*** Disclaimer: I cannot guarantee that the information is accurate. Due to the nature of these articles, which involve real-life disappearances, I understand that providing inaccurate details can detriment these investigations. Where possible, I have utilized verifiable sources. However, this is not always possible in certain circumstances, as with some lesser-known cases. However, I make every effort to utilize the most precise data available.
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