After getting to know a software engineer in Washington state through a social media chatroom app, a long-haul truck driver stalker from the Houston region got fascinated with her and stalked the couple for months before killing them all, authorities said.
According to Redmond Police Chief Darrell Lowe, Ramin Khodakaramrezaei, 38, shot and killed Zohreh Sadeghi, 33, and her husband Mohammad Milad Naseri, 35, in their suburban Seattle home. He claimed that police had been looking for Khodakaramrezaei for a week in an effort to serve him with a protective order but had been unsuccessful.
Stalker Kills Woman, Husband
The suspect started talking to Sadeghi after listening to her podcasts, the police department claimed in a written statement on Friday. The two met, according to Lowe, after he overheard her in an audio chatroom on the Clubhouse app, where he said she moderated a conversation for Farsi speakers looking for work in the IT sector.
Friday at 1:45 am, after leaving the house and racing to a neighbor’s home, Sadeghi’s mother dialed 911.
Responding police dragged Naseri outside after noticing his collapse at the home’s entryway and learning he had been shot, according to Lowe. He was given CPR, but he passed away at the site. Officers discovered Sadeghi and the suspect deceased inside the house.
Late in 2021, Khodakaramrezaei made friends with Sadeghi in the online chat room. According to Lowe, the two actually met last summer before their interactions turned into threatening phone calls and stalking text messages in the fall. At one time he unexpectedly arrived at their house carrying flowers.
Redmond Police reported the stalker for stalking and telephone harassment on March 2 as his actions became more erratic, and Sadeghi and Naseri were granted a protective order the following day.
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Harassment Continued
Sadeghi tried to stop speaking to Khodakaramrezaei, but the harassment persisted, so she notified the police twice in December and January as a result of his worsening behavior.
The suspect called Sadeghi more than 100 times in a single day at one point. A restraining order, he emphasized, is merely a piece of paper that permits police to take action against violators but does not shield the subject from danger when someone is set on causing them harm.
Prior to its closure in November, Promontory MortgagePath, which offered mortgage services, employed Sadeghi as a software engineer. According to her LinkedIn profile, she had also been enrolled in graduate programs at the University of Washington.
Californian Lora Ruffin, who worked remotely with Sadeghi on the same team at Promontory to build software to assist community banks in offering mortgages, claimed on Saturday, they were never face-to-face.
Sadeghi spent the last few months of her life hunting for work, but on Thursday she contacted Ruffin to ask her for a reference after finally landing one. Ruffin described her as helpful, organized, and collaborative.
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