For years, Lobna Yakout feared her abusive husband might kill her. What she never imagined was how far his violence would go—or that he would one day be known as the “New Cairo Serial Killer.”

Yakout, 33, fled Egypt in 2022 after escaping her marriage to Karim Selim, a man she describes as manipulative, violent, and obsessive. In August 2024, Selim, 37, was convicted of torturing and murdering three sex workers in Cairo, his grisly acts carried out in a soundproof room inside his upscale home. He filmed the killings, abused the corpses, and allegedly hinted at more victims.

The revelations stunned the world—but for Yakout, they dredged up years of abuse that nearly ended her life. “He nearly killed me many times,” she recalls.

The couple married in 2014 and lived in Egypt with their son, Zayn, born in Michigan. By 2020, years of escalating abuse drove Yakout to leave Selim, moving with 5-year-old Zayn into a separate home. But her freedom was fragile. Selim began threatening her family, at one point waiting outside her home for four days with a knife. In 2021, after what was supposed to be a temporary handover, Zayn was not returned. Yakout has not seen him since.

Her last words to her little boy still haunt her: “If you’re taken from me, find me.”

By 2022, fearing for her life, Yakout fled Cairo in disguise and returned to the U.K. Then, in May 2024, she got the call no one could prepare for. Egyptian investigators informed her that Karim had been arrested—not for threats against her, but for murder. At first, she thought it was a ploy to lure her back to Egypt. “I didn’t believe it. I thought he set it up,” she says. Days later, Egyptian media confirmed the truth.

The man who terrorized her home was also a sadistic killer.

Selim’s conviction came with a swirl of lurid details: his custom-built soundproof torture chamber, his fixation on recording the killings, and his eerie comments to police suggesting more victims. Egyptian outlets gave him a string of nicknames—“New Cairo Serial Killer,” “al-Tagamoa Slaughterer,” “Women’s Slaughterer.” For Yakout, the labels mattered less than the confirmation that her worst fears about his capacity for violence were justified.

Yet Karim’s imprisonment has not ended her ordeal. Zayn, now 9, is still missing. Yakout believes he may be with Karim’s family in Egypt—or possibly in Michigan, where some relatives live. “No one is helping me find him,” she says. The American embassy in Cairo has not confirmed any involvement in her case.

Yakout has begun documenting her fight to reunite with Zayn on TikTok, while raising funds through GoFundMe to continue her search. In the meantime, she clings to memories of her son’s vibrant spirit: his love of balloons, his habit of handing them to strangers at a shopping center, his joy in making friends. “He loves the beach,” she says softly. “As soon as I get him back, that’s the first place we’ll go. Mom-Zayn time.”

Her story is not only about surviving abuse or learning the monstrous truth about her ex-husband—it’s about an unbroken maternal bond. Even as she processes the reality of having once shared a home with a serial killer, her heart remains fixed on the boy she hasn’t seen in more than three years.

For Yakout, the nightmare continues. Karim is behind bars, but the search for Zayn is far from over.