Seattle podcaster Zohreh Sadeghi and her husband, Milad Naseri, were fatally shot in their Seattle home by a stalker who had been harassing the woman for months, police said.
A Washington podcaster and her husband were fatally shot in their suburban Redmond home by a fan who had been stalking the woman for weeks, police said.
Zohreh Sadeghi, 33, and Milad Naseri, 35, were pronounced dead at about 1:45 a.m. Friday, according to Redmond Police Chief Darrell Lowe. Sadeghi had filed for a no-contact order against Ramin Khodakaramrezaei, a 38-year-old long-haul trucker from Texas who had been harassing the woman since at least November, police said.
Khodakaramrezaei's body was found inside the home, the police chief said. He had apparently shot himself after killing the couple, Lowe said.
Sadeghi's mother, who was staying with the couple, managed to escape and called 911 from a neighbor's home, Lowe said.
"This is the worst-case scenario. This is every victim, every investigator, every police chief’s worst nightmare," Lowe told reporters Friday afternoon. The killings marked the first homicides in the Seattle suburb in at least two years, police said.
Khodakaramrezaei broke into the house through a bedroom window, Lowe said.
Khodakaramrezaei befriended Sadeghi after listening to her Farsi-language podcast about getting jobs in the tech industry, Lowe said.
The audio stream was hosted on the Clubhouse app, which allows people to talk and listen in chat rooms.
"The victim and suspect became friends, but when things escalated, she filed a no-contact order against him," Lowe said. The man had appeared at the couple's home, sent gifts and texted and called the couple incessantly, the chief said.
"One message suggested he would love her forever and would burn himself in front of her house,” Lowe said.
The man sometimes called Sadeghi more than 100 times a day, he said.
“There were instances where the individual did show up at the location previously, bearing gifts,” the chief said, referring to Khodakaramrezaei. “There were items, I’ll say items of affection, gifts, that were mailed to the victim.”
Lowe said police had been trying to find Khodakaramrezaei to arrest him, but were having trouble finding him because he was a long-haul truck driver. A judge had granted the woman's no-contact order this month, but investigators had not been able to locate him to serve it, police said.
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