The new documentary TikTok Star Murders, released June 25 on Peacock, explores the dark story of an abusive relationship between an internet-famous couple. Ali and Ana Abulaban met in 2014 when they were both serving in the Air Force and stationed in Okinawa, Japan. Around 2019, Ali began gaining followers online under the name @jinnkid. On his social media accounts, Ali posted videos of himself doing comedy sketches and impressions of figures like Tony Montana from ScarTekashi 6ix9ine and video game characters Skyrim. Determined to become an internet star, Ali got a taste of that kind of fame, as videos of her regularly reached millions of views.
Ana sometimes assisted Ali and appeared in his videos, either behind the camera during recording or in front of it, appearing in videos with him. What seemed like a happy marriage was a lie – Ali was always jealous and demonstrated a narcissistic attitude. Sometimes he would live stream his arguments with his wife where he would verbally abuse her. For months in 2021, he posted troubling content about their relationship online and the documentary includes footage of him accusing her of cheating on him and berating her for not having sex with him. He also used cocaine regularly, even snorting it during a live broadcast. On October 21, 2021, Ali murdered Ana and her friend, Rayburn Barron, in a fit of rage.
TikTok Star Murders reveals the lives of Ali and Ana through the eyes of the people who knew them best. Here’s the story behind the Peacock documentary, which airs three days before Ali Abulaban’s sentencing for two first-degree murder convictions. He faces a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
TikTok Star Murders traces the relationship of Ali and Ana Abulaban
After the meeting in Japan, Ali was discharged from the Air Force after allegedly attacking one of Ana’s friends.
After Ali was discharged, he returned to live in Virginia and Ana returned to the Philippines. When he discovered that Ana was pregnant with their daughter, Amira, he obtained a visa for her to live with him in the United States, where they started a family while Ali started his online career, making content on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. The more popular he became, the more he began sharing snippets of his personal life with his audience, leading his followers to believe he had a perfect, problem-free relationship.
Ana, who had friends in San Diego, convinced Ali that it would be good for her career to be in California, and they moved west in 2021. At the same time, Ana began to gain her own strong online following – prominently in the documentary as a point of contention in their relationship. Ali became jealous and possessive and began physically and emotionally abusing Ana. Throughout the documentary, the audience sees footage of their fights that Ali regularly recorded and hears voice memos that he sent to her. He accused Ana of betrayal and would say that he was the reason she was able to come to the United States. To Ana’s friends and experts interviewed in the documentary, this indicated that he viewed her as her property.
After several incidents of domestic violence, Ana broke up with Ali, who told Ana that she could stay in the apartment they shared while he went out. Ana agreed, staying at their house with her daughter.
On the morning of October 25, 2021, when Ana was taking her daughter to school, Ali used a copy of an electronic key to enter the apartment and vandalized the apartment. Before leaving, Ali installed an app on her daughter’s iPad that allows her to listen to her conversations. When Ana returned home, she called a friend to tell her that the apartment was a mess. Knowing that Ali was the one who caused this, she said on the phone that she wanted to clean it up so her daughter wouldn’t get confused. She also said she would get a restraining order against him.
She asked her friend to pick her daughter up from school so she could clean up and then called her friend Rayburn Barron to come help. Ali was known to be jealous of Barron because of a comment Barron reportedly once made about Ali being lucky to have a wife as beautiful as Ana. When Ali heard a man’s voice in the apartment, he ran. In the documentary, the audience hears audio recordings from Ali’s phone of him breaking into the apartment and shooting his wife and her friend.
What happened to Ali Abulaban?
Ali was arrested and confessed five hours after the murders. He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one allegation of using a weapon and one special circumstance allegation of committing multiple murders. A preliminary hearing for the case in January 2022 was described by a lawyer in the documentary as “explosive.” Ali lost his temper after a detective described the relationship between Ana and Rayburn as becoming more romantic. When the judge tells him to calm down, he becomes furious and starts yelling at the judge. “Do you think I wanted that? For my five year old daughter? he shouts at the judge. “Who the hell are you? I’m really hurt! My life is destroyed!”
In an interview featured in the documentary, Ali shared his side of the story on a local news channel with a reporter named Kelsey Christensen. He said his social media fame “made him explode” and that it “messed with his brain.” The attention he received on social media made him “violent” and “aggressive,” he said.
Notably, in the interview, Ali spoke about the loss of his “baby,” referring to his career. A friend of Ana’s said in the documentary that the public could see that Ali was more devastated by losing his business than losing his family. After the interview, someone posted a video on his behalf on YouTube that shows a phone call where Ali tells his fans that he is “doing well for the most part” and apologizes for not being able to make more content. Ali was then criticized for apologizing to his fans rather than his victims’ families.
“Social media can be really dangerous in the hands of the wrong person” Rolling Stone said journalist Andrea Marks in the documentary. “He clearly had a very unhealthy relationship with social media that clouded his understanding of reality and seemed to shape his impression of what was an acceptable way to behave. I think it’s something worth paying attention to.”
His trial began on May 1 of this year and lasted until May 29, when he was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder. He is scheduled to be condemned on June 28 and he faces life in prison.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
