00:00:00
[audio logo] Christine Mitchelle:
The internet is a place where you
never know who you're
00:00:14
talking to on the other side. Jacqueline B. Helfgott: Social
media has created a situation
00:00:18
where regular people have
become stars on a screen, but they're not
equipped to deal
00:00:24
with it like movie stars are. Alisha Holland: Zohreh
Sadeghi worked in technology.
00:00:28
And she wanted to help others,
so she created a podcast. She was able to connect
with people online,
00:00:33
and Ramin was one
of those people. - He became infatuated
with Zohreh. - The communication just kind
of spiraled out of control.
00:00:42
Sean Kipe: Now he's calling
her 100 times a day. Christine Mitchelle:
He wanted to be
00:00:46
in a romantic
relationship with her. - If 20 calls didn't work,
what about 500 calls?
00:00:52
Alisha Holland: She
got to the point where she wasn't
opening windows because she didn't want to see
if he was standing outside.
00:00:58
He even threatened
at one point that he was going to set her home on fire. Marshall Telbert: To live
in that constant fear
00:01:05
and constantly on edge,
I can't even imagine. And the ability that he had
to find information about her.
00:01:15
But it was clear,
and he made it clear, that he wasn't going to stop. [theme music]
00:01:24
♪ ♪ Marshall Telbert: Redman is
what feels like a small town, but has growing
bigger and bigger.
00:02:09
It's a suburb
of Seattle, Washington. It's a very large
tech population here. Sean Kipe: Washington State
is kind of where tech is,
00:02:18
and Microsoft
and Amazon and all of these huge tech companies. There are so many tech
jobs, high paying jobs.
00:02:27
It's a beautiful location, and
it attracts the top tech talent from all over the world.
00:02:34
I mean, it's a very
multicultural place, and I think the tech
industry being centered there
00:02:41
has a lot to do with that. The schools are good,
the neighborhoods are safe. Redman is kind of one
of those pockets just outside
00:02:50
of the main city that
people move to because it's safer than Seattle. narrator: Redman is
home to married couple,
00:03:00
33-year-old Zohreh
Sadeghi and 35-year-old Mohammad Milad Naseri. - In 2011, Zohreh
and Mohammad moved from Iran
00:03:10
to the United States. And they started tech
careers in Washington and were really living
a wonderful life.
00:03:17
She was a software engineer at
Promontory Mortgage Path LLC, and Mohammad worked as a
software engineer for Amazon
00:03:24
here in Seattle. And they were both hard
working, focused on technology, and just making a better world.
00:03:33
Marshall Telbert: They're both
so smart and articulate and so kind, the type
of people that would
00:03:39
never wish ill on anybody. Alisha Holland: Zohreh Sadeghi
was a Farsi speaker who
00:03:45
worked in technology, and she
wanted to take that very niche skill set and help others.
00:03:51
So she created a podcast. And that podcast was
for Farsi speakers. And it focused on resources
and support in the tech world.
00:04:00
Sean Kipe: It is so easy
to start a podcast. I think that's why
everybody does it.
00:04:05
You can make it in your closet
or in your bedroom, or in your car or wherever. And you upload it
to a hosting platform,
00:04:13
and it's instantly accessible
by people all over the world. There's a podcast
for everything,
00:04:20
for every interest
that you have or everything that's
going on in your life, whether you need to talk to
somebody in a therapy setting
00:04:27
or hear other people's
experiences in that kind of setting, whether you're
looking for inspiration or home
00:04:33
renovation stuff,
or in Zohreh's case, you're looking for a job
and getting some advice and
00:04:39
mentorship from someone
in your field or a field that you're interested in. And that's what she
did, and connecting
00:04:47
with a community of people
who you have knowledge and you're able to teach
people something.
00:04:54
Give them something that's
going to be useful to them or beneficial to them. And so that's what she was a
part of, and one of the things
00:05:02
that she really, I
think, was interested in and enjoyed doing. - Zohreh didn't just talk
about opportunities in tech.
00:05:10
She really wanted
to help people. So she was actually
on the app called Clubhouse,
00:05:15
which is really
unique because users can interact with audio files. So you're really almost
speaking to the person.
00:05:22
Sean Kipe: There are
different topics. You can meet people in fields
that you're interested in
00:05:29
or that you work
in, the tech space. It's just a way
to offer advice, to share advice
or mentorship or information,
00:05:41
and just sort of encapsulated
in this one app and this one central
place where people
00:05:46
can connect with each other. narrator: Clubhouse
is a podcasting and social networking app.
00:05:54
It launched in 2020
and rapidly gained popularity during the COVID pandemic. It attracts a diverse
community of enthusiasts
00:06:01
who join chat rooms to engage
others in conversations and meet new people. Marshall Telbert: Zohreh went
through a lot in her life
00:06:11
during that time. She moved here. She was going through
some chronic pain issues,
00:06:18
and we had the COVID
shutdowns, all kind of happened simultaneously. She seemed like a very
outgoing and kind person,
00:06:26
the type of person
that would be friends with anybody
and everybody, that kind of chameleon sort of person.
00:06:31
You could put her
in a room with anybody. Milad seemed like
just such a caring husband and somebody who was
doing his best to look out
00:06:41
for his wife and was
so interested in her getting out there again. I think moving here, dealing
with some chronic pain issues,
00:06:51
the COVID shutdowns
can really take a person who was once
outgoing and really make them very isolated.
00:06:57
So I think that he was
very excited to see her get on a Clubhouse,
engage with people,
00:07:03
interact with
people in a time and in a world where it was
really difficult for any of us
00:07:09
to interact. Alisha Holland:
And this app was great. She was able
to connect with people.
00:07:14
And Ramin was one
of those people. narrator: Ramin
Dakaramrezaei is a 38-year-old man from Texas.
00:07:23
Alisha Holland: She was
really excited because she really wanted to help people.
00:07:27
She had these skills, and she
wanted to put them to good use. So when Ramin
started bringing up
00:07:32
questions about getting
into tech and things that she could offer
as far as resources
00:07:38
or support or connections,
it was all really exciting. Christine Mitchelle:
She was very
00:07:44
mindful of her own privacy and
her own personal information. So she was careful not to just
give out her phone number
00:07:54
to anybody, any listener
or anybody who was connecting with her on social media.
00:07:59
narrator: Ramin becomes
a regular listener to Zohreh's podcast. Marshall Telbert: He
first reached out to her,
00:08:06
claiming that he was interested
in what she was interested in. They first began a friendship
online on Clubhouse
00:08:13
and then through
their Instagram account she had associated with
the Clubhouse account.
00:08:20
He had begun direct messaging
her, liking her posts, and as far as I
can tell, it seems
00:08:25
like it was a cordial
friendship online early on. This definitely felt
like exactly what
00:08:31
the Clubhouse application is
for, what Instagram is for, what social media
is for, connecting
00:08:37
with people all over the world,
in your area and beyond, for shared interests. Christine Mitchelle:
He had begun
00:08:45
contacting her through other
means other than the Clubhouse. And it sounds like
they had engaged
00:08:50
in, like, group chats and other
social media platforms that the suspect had joined
and had started contacting
00:08:57
Zohreh that way,
which then led to him messaging her more frequently. And he had given her this
idea that he was also
00:09:09
trying to make his way
in the tech industry and that he was appreciative
for any guidance and advice.
00:09:16
And, of course,
Zohreh was more than happy to help anybody
who was trying to do the same thing
that she had done
00:09:23
and that she was trying
to support others in doing. And I think that kind of opened
the door for him to really
00:09:28
begin bombarding her. narrator: Later
into 2021 and into 2022, things start taking
a more sinister turn.
00:09:39
Alisha Holland: At first,
it seemed like that's what the conversations were. Romine was asking
about those topics.
00:09:45
But it really didn't take long
for the conversation to change, and it was clear
he was more focused
00:09:50
on Zohreh as a person
and an individual, not the help she was offering
or the support she could give.
00:09:57
It started to turn obsessive,
and his connecting with her was changing and was not
focused on tech any longer.
00:10:05
And that's when
she first started to become really
concerned about him and what his real reason
for speaking to her was.
00:10:13
- Comments about her
Instagram and online activity were somewhat disturbing
because he was making comments
00:10:22
about other men who were
messaging her or commenting, or he was commenting about the
clothing that she was wearing
00:10:32
and how much skin
that she was showing. I think at some point she even
deleted her Instagram account
00:10:39
just so that he wasn't able
to track her or contact her through Instagram any further.
00:10:51
Sean Kipe: In the fall of 2022,
after Ramin and Zohreh had been talking
through the app and
00:10:57
communicating with each
other for some time, she had started pushing away. He was becoming a little
maybe possessive or obsessive.
00:11:09
Marshall Telbert:
There was a lot of grooming early on, I
mean, even the way that he
00:11:12
presented himself
as somebody who's interested in the tech world. He later on admitted to her
that he was a truck driver.
00:11:24
He has this, like, emotional
moment where he's like crying or, like, ashamed
of his job, which
00:11:30
I think is just
so manipulative, because not only is he outing himself
as I misrepresented myself
00:11:37
to start this friendship
from the beginning, but now I'm going to come
tell you this sob story
00:11:42
to make you feel bad for me. Christine Mitchelle:
I think after that, the communication just kind
of spiraled out of control.
00:11:53
He was contacting her
through the app Telegram. She was getting message
after message after message.
00:12:02
If you're not familiar
with that app, it's really easy to just
generate another account
00:12:07
and generate another
account and another account, which made it really difficult
for her to fully block him or
00:12:15
keep him from contacting her. [phone vibrating] Sean Kipe: He then
took it a step further
00:12:22
and started calling her,
getting her phone number. And that escalates again, and
now he's calling her 100 times
00:12:30
a day, literally. That'll scare anybody. narrator: Zohreh is left with
no option but to file a police
00:12:38
report, but this does not
deter Ramin from continuing his campaign of harassment.
00:12:47
Christine Mitchelle: He had
gone to lengths to locate Zohreh's close friends. And he had actually found
their phone numbers as well,
00:12:56
and began calling her friends
and talking to her friends about how he wanted to be in a
romantic relationship with her,
00:13:06
which also set another
whole level of fear because he's now finding
her friends' contact
00:13:15
information and phone numbers. Alisha Holland: Zohreh tried
her best to keep Ramin at Bay.
00:13:22
She changed her
phone number, she blocked him anytime he
called, but he always found a way around that.
00:13:28
He would change his number. He would get burner phones
and call her new number, which
00:13:33
he was able to find online. He would stay at hotels,
as part of his job, and he would call
from the hotel numbers
00:13:41
because they
weren't blocked yet. He was finding every
loophole possible to be able to track her down.
00:13:47
What's the new phone number? What's a phone number
connected to her mother? What about her friends?
00:13:52
And he was able to get
a hold of her continually. There really was
no stopping him.
00:13:58
He was full steam ahead. Nothing was going
to keep him from her. Marshall Telbert: I don't
know when his infatuation
00:14:06
began with Zohreh. I don't know if that was
from the very beginning or escalated for him
as well, but it was clear
00:14:16
and he made it clear that
he wasn't going to stop. [theme music] [audio logo] [audio logo]
00:14:38
narrator: Redman,
Washington, 2022. Podcaster Zohreh
Sadeghi has reported to police that one
of her listeners
00:14:46
is stalking and harassing her. The man, Ramin
Khodakaramrezaei, has been calling her from
different phone numbers
00:14:53
and sending her hundreds
of text messages, evading any attempt
to block him. Zohreh and her husband
Milad are deeply
00:15:02
concerned for her safety. Jacqueline B.
Helfgott: Stalking can be a very frightening
crime in that it involves
00:15:12
a pattern of fantasy
development, obsession, and identification with a person
in a way that's unwanted,
00:15:20
and then a sustained
behavior of trying to act out on those fantasies. Marshall Telbert:
Stalking in general
00:15:28
is a very disturbing crime,
because it speaks to not only some level of delusion
or an inability
00:15:38
to accept somebody else's
reality or barriers they're putting up, or things
that they're telling you,
00:15:43
your inability
to accept that, it also speaks to a level
of commitment, the nonstop
communication, finding
00:15:51
different avenues and angles,
attempting different ways to garner engagement. Like, OK, if this didn't
work, if 20 calls didn't work,
00:15:59
what about 500 calls? How invasive that can feel for
somebody, how troubling that
00:16:07
can feel for somebody
like Zohreh, to live in that constant
fear and constantly on edge,
00:16:16
I can't even imagine. And just the manipulation
and the ability that he had to find
information about her
00:16:26
and then let her know that
he found the information, it just really speaks
to a level of intent
00:16:33
and a level of a fear
because of the control that he had over
the situation as well.
00:16:41
Christine Mitchelle: In
December of 2022, she was home and Milad had actually just
left the home to go on a trip.
00:16:54
He showed up at her
residence, knocked on the door and left a bouquet of flowers
and a card outside of her home.
00:17:04
She, obviously,
didn't answer the door and captured the whole thing
on her surveillance footage.
00:17:13
Sean Kipe: Your home
is your castle. It's your space to feel safe. And now, with him coming
there, that's gone.
00:17:22
And she could no
longer have even a place to feel safe at home. Alisha Holland:
She was horrified.
00:17:29
This showed that,
obviously, Ramin was not listening and was
not respecting her boundaries
00:17:34
of leaving her alone. And not only that,
it seemed almost like he was showing his
hand a little saying,
00:17:40
I was able to find your house. I know where you
live, and I know when your husband leaves the house.
00:17:46
So, I can only assume
he intended that to be as threatening as it was. narrator: Zohreh fears
for her own safety,
00:17:54
as well as that of her
husband and her mother, who also lives with them. Alisha Holland: After Ramin
had been coming to the house,
00:18:01
the fear for everyone
involved was through the roof. Zohreh didn't feel
safe in her own home
00:18:08
because this man
was showing up all the time against her wishes. He even threatened
at one point that he
00:18:14
was going to set a tree
on fire that she loved, and therefore that tree
would catch her home on fire,
00:18:21
and then he would
catch himself on fire. These were extreme
threats and terrifying.
00:18:26
She got to the point where
she wasn't opening windows because she didn't
want to see if he
00:18:31
was standing outside, staring
at her home or looking for her. And to make things even
worse, at the same time,
00:18:38
she had recently gone
through back surgery, and so she was home recovering. And that was all
going well, but
00:18:44
she was pretty incapacitated. So her fear
escalated because she thought if someone were
to come into the home
00:18:51
and I had to defend myself,
she wasn't sure that she could. And it was also so stressful.
00:18:57
It was really
hindering her ability to actually physically heal. So all combined,
this was a really
00:19:04
terrible time in her life. narrator: In January
2023, Zohreh files a second police report.
00:19:18
Christine Mitchelle:
She had talked to an officer
about her concerns and also his increase in her--
00:19:24
contacting her. And so that patrol
officer took her concerns, wrote it down, and then
even a step further
00:19:32
in her investigation
and called the suspect and tried to articulate to him
that this contact was unwanted
00:19:42
and that Zohreh I did not
want anything further from him and to essentially
leave her alone.
00:19:46
It's my understanding that
that conversation didn't go very well, and he wasn't
very receptive to what
00:19:52
the officer was saying to him. But that officer did what
they could, like I said.
00:19:58
They, I believe,
even charged him with the crime of harassment,
and that's where it stood.
00:20:04
The day after the patrol
officer had talked to Zohreh and had taken the report,
reading through it,
00:20:10
I was noticing numerous
red flags, especially how he had traveled all the way
to Washington to leave
00:20:18
flowers at her front door. And the incessant contact
through various social media
00:20:26
platforms, l decided that I
was going to reach out to her and introduce myself and have
a conversation about digging
00:20:33
a little deeper, trying
to figure out what transpired and how this all started
and what her true concerns were
00:20:41
and what she thought he
was capable of doing. She had requested that
I come to her house
00:20:48
to conduct the interview. During this time
period, she was suffering from a significant
back injury and
00:20:55
some other ailments that
were kind of limiting her ability to be mobile. So I went over to her
house and met with her and
00:21:05
her husband Milad. It was very apparent that
they were a wonderful couple. And she was so warm
and so welcoming,
00:21:15
and so was her husband. I could genuinely tell
that they loved each other, and they wouldn't
have contacted
00:21:22
us if they weren't concerned. Marshall Telbert: We
took this very seriously. We truly believed everything
Zohreh was telling us.
00:21:31
She walked us through
an entire history of everything that had been going on, and she
showed us all the evidence
00:21:37
that she had collected,
the screenshots, the communication they had. She had closely
documented everything
00:21:42
that I would want
somebody to do that's in any
circumstance like this. So once we had all
of that and we interviewed
00:21:53
her and her husband Milad-- who also had documentation
and saved voicemails and everything else--
00:22:01
we were able to encourage
her to seek a protection order, which she did. We were also able to file
for an arrest warrant.
00:22:10
Darrell Lowe: A protection
order and a restraining order is an order from a judge that
tells a person basically what
00:22:19
they cannot do, so they
cannot be within a specified distance of the victim. Could be 50 yards,
1,000 yards, et cetera.
00:22:28
You cannot phone, harass,
contact, et cetera. So it attempts to emails,
texts, phone calls.
00:22:34
And, again, it also can
provide a physical distance between the victim
and the suspect.
00:22:45
Sean Kipe: On March
3, 2023, Zohreh finally gets an official
protective order against Ramin.
00:22:56
And he's not allowed
to come anywhere near her. But the problem is
he's a truck driver
00:23:03
and he's always on the road,
so they can't actually serve the papers to him, which
means the protective order is
00:23:11
really useless at that point. You have to serve
it to the person. And that challenge of even
finding where this guy is--
00:23:21
I mean, he's from Texas. She's in Washington. He could be in Kansas
one day, and
00:23:28
he could be in Oregon
the next, and he could be two days later in North Dakota. I mean, there's no--
00:23:36
he's on the highway, endless
stretches of highway in the US. - Another hurdle for me,
investigative wise,
00:23:43
is the type of crime
that I'm investigating. And based on everything
that I had learned thus far,
00:23:52
the suspect had only
committed the act of stalking. And in the state of Washington,
stalking is a misdemeanor
00:23:59
and not a felony. So that really
limits what I can do and how I can move forward
in my investigation.
00:24:08
I consulted with
our prosecutors here in the city of Redmond,
and what we came up with
00:24:17
is charging him with
stalking and getting a warrant for his arrest. Meaning that if he
were to cross
00:24:25
into the state of Washington,
anyone, any officer, any trooper, any deputy
within the state of Washington
00:24:32
would be able to effect his
arrest, which was my goal. I didn't care who
arrested him or
00:24:37
where he was found, just that
he was taken into custody and that she could feel
some type of comfort
00:24:42
knowing that he
had been arrested. The prosecutors got
a warrant for his arrest for stalking and, I
believe, cyber harassment.
00:24:53
And now it was, essentially,
my job to find him. That's, obviously,
not an easy task
00:25:01
when he is a long
haul truck driver and does not live,
quite frankly, anywhere near the state of Washington.
00:25:11
So, I began tracking him. I got an order to track
him through his phone. And that was working
up until March 7.
00:25:25
His phone had been turned
off at that point in time. Though he had turned
it off in Utah.
00:25:30
I wasn't receiving
any more information about his location, which
is indicative of either
00:25:36
him turning off
or the phone went dead. That, obviously, was
another red flag. It was my assumption that based
on where the activity started
00:25:47
and where it had continued,
that he was probably hauling a load somewhere. I had no details
on the business
00:25:54
he worked for,
what he hauled, or where he could be
headed because, again, it's not like he was
at the border in Oregon.
00:26:02
So, at that point
in time, we just made her aware
of my investigation thus far. And we talked, and I told
her time and time again,
00:26:14
if you hear from him
or he contacts you and gives you any information
or leaves you a voicemail,
00:26:20
please reach out
to me and let me know because any
information at all could be very important,
however small it is.
00:26:31
narrator: Three days
after Ramin's phone last pinged in Utah, everyone's
worst nightmare comes true.
00:26:38
Jamie Ford: So it
was the early morning hours of March 10, 2023. We received a call at about
1:45 in the morning.
00:26:50
Dispatch advised
there was an open 911 line of a female
crying, screaming, another male voice moaning.
00:26:59
And no matter what dispatch
asked, as far as questions, not getting any answers back.
00:27:05
[police siren] Everybody starts
heading that way so we figure out what's going on.
00:27:10
Our dispatchers were giving us
info that there is some history of stalking at this address.
00:27:19
Within a minute, another
call comes from a neighbor that someone from
the house of the 911 call
00:27:27
came from came
to their door knocking, that somebody tried to break
in, that somebody has a gun.
00:27:34
[knocking the door] [audio logo] [audio logo] narrator: Redman, Washington,
on March 10, 2023,
00:27:56
law enforcement
receive a 911 call and hear a woman screaming. - Please. Please.
00:28:04
narrator: The address
belongs to a woman named Zohreh Sadeghi, who
has an active case
00:28:08
against a persistent stalker. A minute later, another
911 call comes in, this time from a neighbor
reporting that someone
00:28:16
has broken into the Sadeghi
home with a gun. Redman police
rushed to the scene.
00:28:23
Jamie Ford: Staring
at this house, it was completely
dark and quiet. The door was closed.
00:28:30
I had officers
surrounding the house. They couldn't see
any points of entry, no broken glass, broken
windows, kicked-in doors.
00:28:38
Not a sound was
coming from the house. narrator: The police
learned that the woman
00:28:44
who ran to the neighbors
is Fatima, Zohreh's mother. - [CRYING] Jamie Ford: She was
in a state of panic.
00:28:53
She was predominantly
Farsi speaking, so we get our language line. And even the interpreter
on the language line
00:28:59
was having a really difficult
time trying to translate what Fatima was trying to tell us.
00:29:05
Eventually,
the translator says, Fatima told us that a male
broke in and fired four shots.
00:29:13
Meanwhile, we're
making announcements over our PA system
on our vehicle for anyone
00:29:18
to come outside. So with that info,
we just decided to-- form a contact team to move up
to the front of the residence.
00:29:26
As soon as we get
a contact team going, I see a male subject
through a long window that
00:29:33
ran alongside the front door. He was at the upper
landing of the staircase, just kind of swaying
back and forth.
00:29:41
So, call out to him on the PA
for him to exit the house, but he's unresponsive
and he's stumbling a lot.
00:29:48
As a team, we opened
the door and inside-- and he's on the ground
at this point--
00:29:56
and we call him
towards us because we don't know if he has a gun or
if anyone else inside the house
00:30:00
has a gun. He's moaning, kind of in pain,
but he's covered in vomit. And with the stumbling
and covered in vomit, honestly,
00:30:09
I thought he was
intoxicated at first. So he wasn't coming towards us,
so I went inside the residence,
00:30:16
grabbed both of his arms. I drag him out
as fast as we safely could because we still don't
know where this firearm is at
00:30:23
and if anyone else inside the
house still has this firearm. And this guy is just
in complete pain.
00:30:32
Not being able to say anything,
not being able to answer any questions. One of the officers
did a wound sweep
00:30:39
to see if he had
any injuries on him because he was,
obviously, in pain. And at about his sternum was
a very small bullet hole.
00:30:49
I put chest seals
on him to do CPR, but he started to decline
pretty rapidly. He died pretty
quickly as soon as we
00:30:57
got him in the ambulance rig. I found out later that this
was a Milad, Zohreh's husband.
00:31:09
As we push forward
inside the house, we go upstairs since that's
where we found Milad.
00:31:16
On the floor,
on the stairway landing was a spent 9
millimeter cartridge casing and an unspent
live 9 millimeter round.
00:31:28
And that was the first bit
of evidence inside the house that something
horrible had happened.
00:31:34
We work our way
down the hallway. It's very dark
inside, but as soon as I shined a light
in one of the bedrooms,
00:31:44
I could see a male's head
on the edge of a bed. And he, obviously,
looked deceased.
00:31:51
Pushed a little further
and see that he's holding on to a firearm,
but he wasn't moving.
00:31:57
So we entered the room. He was laying on the bed. He was laying on top
of a female subject.
00:32:04
They were both
facing up, and she was obviously deceased also. And later find out
that this was Zohreh
00:32:14
and that the male was Ramin. When we made
our way downstairs, we found the point of entry
being a broken bedroom window.
00:32:26
From the outside, you couldn't
really see this broken bedroom window because it
was ground level
00:32:32
and a trampoline was
pushed up next to it. We pretty much secured
the crime scene
00:32:37
and waited for detectives
to show up. Marshall Telbert:
It's a rare case where you have so much
background information
00:32:47
about the involved parties
when you arrive on scene, but, again, it's very important
that you don't take things
00:32:54
at face value
and that you don't know the scope of everything. So you follow
the standard procedure
00:33:00
you would for any case. So we close off the scene,
then we carefully and diligently
document the scene
00:33:08
and collect all
pertinent evidence. narrator: Investigators
expand the crime scene
00:33:14
from the house
to the surrounding area in search of further evidence. Christine Mitchelle:
Well, first
00:33:21
it was, how did he get here? There's no truck we could
locate in the immediate area.
00:33:26
And this is
a neighborhood, right, where the houses are pretty
close together, the streets
00:33:31
aren't that wide,
and, quite frankly, I'm not really sure where
he would have parked.
00:33:36
While we were on scene
conducting our investigation, I believe another
patrol officer
00:33:43
had located a suspicious
vehicle parked on the street just north of the residence.
00:33:49
It was a red pickup. And when he looked
into the truck-- and it was, what I would say,
indicative of somebody going on
00:33:57
like a road trip--
there were lots of cans of Red Bull, cigarettes. It was messy.
00:34:06
There was packaging
in there for a KA-BAR knife. Also in the vehicle
was receipts for ammo,
00:34:14
which he had just
recently purchased as well, just days before. And then we later learned
that it was a vehicle rented
00:34:23
from the Portland airport. I actually went
through and talked to somebody from the airport.
00:34:35
They were able to provide
me with a surveillance footage, which did
show that he was
00:34:40
the one who rented the truck. And it showed him driving
away in the truck. So there's no reason
to believe that the truck
00:34:49
belonged to anybody else. So we towed the vehicle back
to the police department and got a search warrant for
the vehicle and its contents.
00:34:59
Once we searched
that vehicle, we found items, identification
belonging to the suspect
00:35:07
that we were able
to determine that he had left his truck somewhere and rented
this vehicle, which, again, to
00:35:14
me is indicative of how he
was trying to go undetected and how he made every
attempt to make sure
00:35:26
that no one knew
where he was going or what he was going to do. He took those extra steps to
park on the street adjacent--
00:35:36
so just north of their house--
with the intention of concealing it and himself. When he arrived, it was dark.
00:35:43
He parked on that side
of the neighborhood so he could come from
the back of Zohreh's house
00:35:50
and entered the backyard where
the window that he broke into was on the north side
of the house and,
00:35:58
unfortunately,
the same room where Zohreh's mother was staying. I believe I was contacted
a few days later
00:36:17
after the investigation
because some agency had located his semi truck, and
it had been parked and towed.
00:36:28
After going through
some of his bags, we found diaries,
which were in Farsi, and then a bag full
of cell phones.
00:36:39
It became pretty
apparent that not only was he doing everything he
could to cover his movements.
00:36:45
Most people don't travel
around with six or seven different cell phones. [audio logo]
00:36:58
[audio logo] narrator: On March 10,
2023, Ramin Dakaramrezaei broke into the home of
podcasters Zohreh Sadeghi and
00:37:14
her husband Mohammad Milad
Naseri in Redmond, Washington, killing them before
fatally shooting himself.
00:37:24
Ramin, a fan who had become
dangerously obsessed, had stalked
and harassed Sadeghi
00:37:30
for months with incessant
calls and messages despite a court order
forbidding him to contact her.
00:37:37
Jacqueline B.
Helfgott: He just was relentless and did not stop. And she tried everything
she could possibly do.
00:37:43
She did everything right
to try to protect herself, and in the end, she
wasn't able to protect
00:37:53
herself or her husband. And it's a really
frightening example of what can happen in these cases.
00:38:00
Stalking is one of the most
terrifying crimes there is, especially in the world
we live in now,
00:38:08
with digital culture
where crime can be created in a digital
space, and so you don't know where a person is.
00:38:14
This can happen to any
person on social media. You don't know who's out
there and you don't know
00:38:22
anything about who they are. And it creates
a situation where there was very
little that could
00:38:28
be done about it, even
by law enforcement agencies trying to help. Christine Mitchelle:
After the murder,
00:38:40
I did learn that he has
a wife and a child in Texas. And the night
before the homicide,
00:38:50
he video called with his child
and didn't exactly come out and say what he had planned
or what he was going to do,
00:38:59
but I think after the fact
and after I talked with his ex-wife, it
was apparent to me
00:39:05
that he was essentially
saying his goodbyes. His ex-wife, she had
contacted our agency
00:39:17
inquiring about next steps
for some of his property. So, we didn't really talk
too much or in depth.
00:39:28
She just shared with me
that the last time that they had communicated was just
prior to the homicide
00:39:35
when they engaged
in that video call. He had expressed to his ex-wife
that him and Zohreh were going
00:39:44
to be together and that
she was his girlfriend and that they were
romantically involved.
00:39:52
- He's a father himself. He's divorced, a truck driver. And for whatever reason, he
became infatuated with Zohreh.
00:40:08
And he took it upon himself to
exert the most despicable power and control because he wasn't
in control of the situation.
00:40:23
narrator: Although
Redmond police worked to protect
Zohreh and her family, ultimately they were unable
to stop her attacker.
00:40:31
Darrell Lowe: The primary
detective in this case did a phenomenal job
in working with the victim
00:40:37
and working within
the constraints of our criminal justice
system, which, unfortunately,
00:40:42
do not favor victims. The detective
and the Department went above and beyond to ensure
that the victim followed
00:40:48
every step possible
and appropriate to ensure that we
had the tools and resources that we needed from
a criminal justice perspective.
00:40:57
There's only so much
that we can do. This case had the most
tragic of outcomes despite the best efforts
of a very committed and
00:41:07
dedicated detective who went
above and beyond the nature of this case. I believe it became very
personal to the detective.
00:41:15
She could see the fear in the
victim and the victim's family. It did have a huge
impact on our department,
00:41:24
on the people
involved in the case. Sean Kipe: In the past
nearly decade, I've covered a lot
of cases in podcasting,
00:41:34
but this one sort of hits
home a little bit more than others for me
because I'm a podcaster,
00:41:44
and my voice goes out
to a lot of people. And those people
largely are fans, but you just don't know who's
at the other end of the phone.
00:41:55
What's the average
person supposed to do in a situation like this? You go to the police, you
go to law enforcement,
00:42:02
you change your phone
number, you change your email
addresses, but you can't completely uproot your life.
00:42:08
I don't know what else
she could have done. I think she did
everything she could
00:42:12
or she felt that she
could at that time. narrator: Investigators
reflect on the tragedy
00:42:18
of the loss of Zohreh
and her husband, Milad. Christine Mitchelle:
It's really hard.
00:42:24
It is. It is very difficult. I
had many long conversations with them and got to know them.
00:42:33
And I think that this
is the worst type of tragedy, obviously, that-- the worst type
of outcome for any case.
00:42:43
And I hope that going
forward, that anyone who feels like they're
in a similar situation or they
00:42:52
can't get away from
somebody, that they speak up for themselves. We're here to listen
and to support you in any way
00:43:03
that we can. [phone vibrating] I can't express enough how
you never know who you're
00:43:10
talking to on the other side. The internet is
a place where you can be anybody you
want to be, you
00:43:18
can play any role
you want to play, you can say anything
you want, and you never know
what the truth is,
00:43:27
and you never know
who exactly you're talking to on the other side. Marshall Telbert:
Zohreh and Milad,
00:43:38
they were such warm and good
people and didn't deserve this. And they're like
anybody else out there
00:43:46
that would think that this
would never happen to them, that this couldn't happen
to them, that they're
00:43:51
like anybody else. They are smart. They are careful. They were diligent
in their documentation.
00:44:01
So it's just a major warning
sign to anybody out there who engages with
people online should
00:44:07
be as careful as possible. And if something doesn't
feel right, it's not right. Trust your instincts.
00:44:15
Seek the protection orders. Involve law enforcement early. [theme music] ♪ ♪