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Hashtag Homicide - Season 1 Episode 5 - The Murders of Zohreh & Mohammad
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Short filmTranscript
00:12The Internet is a place where you never know who you're talking to on the other side.
00:16Social media has created a situation where regular people have become stars on a screen,
00:22but they're not equipped to deal with it like movie stars are.
00:26Zori Sadegi worked in technology, and she wanted to help others, so she created a podcast.
00:31She was able to connect with people online, and Ramin was one of those people.
00:36He became infatuated with Zoray.
00:39The communication just kind of spiraled out of control.
00:42Now he's calling her 100 times a day.
00:45He wanted to be in a romantic relationship with her.
00:48If 20 calls didn't work, what about 500 calls?
00:52She got to the point where she wasn't opening windows because she didn't want to see if he was standing
00:57outside.
00:58He even threatened at one point that he was going to set her home on fire.
01:03To live in that constant fear and constantly on edge, I can't even imagine.
01:09And the ability that he had to find information about her.
01:14But it was clear, and he made it clear, that he wasn't going to stop.
01:41There's a man with a gun outside at my neighbor's house, Redmond Washington.
01:47Please come quickly, please come quickly.
01:49Her daughter and her son-in-law are in the house.
01:52I think the guy broke the window or something.
01:54I don't know what's going on.
01:55She's in their house with a gun.
02:04Redmond is what feels like a small town, but it's growing bigger and bigger.
02:09It's a suburb of Seattle, Washington.
02:11It's a very large tech population here.
02:15Washington State is kind of where tech is, and Microsoft and Amazon and all of these huge tech companies.
02:24There are so many tech jobs, high-paying jobs.
02:28It's a beautiful location, and it attracts the top tech talent from all over the world.
02:34I mean, it's a very multicultural place, and I think the tech industry being centered there has a lot to
02:42do with that.
02:43The schools are good.
02:45The neighborhoods are safe.
02:47Redmond is kind of one of those pockets just outside of the main city that people move to because it's
02:54safer than Seattle.
02:58Redmond is home to married couple 33-year-old Zorae Soudeghi and 35-year-old Mohamed Milad Nasiri.
03:06In 2011, Zorae and Mohamed moved from Iran to the United States, and they started tech careers in Washington and
03:15were really living a wonderful life.
03:17She was a software engineer at Promontory Mortgage Path, LLC.
03:21Ann Mohamed worked as a software engineer for Amazon here in Seattle, and they were both hardworking, focused on technology,
03:28and just making a better world.
03:33They're both so smart and articulate and so kind, the type of people that would never wish ill on anybody.
03:43Zorae Soudeghi was a Farsi speaker who worked in technology, and she wanted to take that very niche skill set
03:50and help others, so she created a podcast.
03:53And that podcast was for Farsi speakers, and it focused on resources and support in the tech world.
04:01It is so easy to start a podcast.
04:03I think that's why everybody does it.
04:05You can make it in your closet or in your bedroom or in your car or wherever, and you upload
04:11it to a hosting platform.
04:13And it's instantly accessible by people all over the world.
04:18There's a podcast for everything, for every interest that you have or everything that's going on in your life, whether
04:24you need to talk to somebody in a therapy setting or hear other people's experiences in that kind of setting,
04:30whether you're looking for inspiration or home renovation stuff or, in Zora's case, looking for a job and getting some
04:38advice and mentorship from someone in your field or a field that you're interested in.
04:44And that's what she did, and connecting with a community of people who you have knowledge and you're able to
04:52teach people something, give them something that's going to be useful to them or beneficial to them.
04:59And so that's what she was a part of and one of the things that she really, I think, was
05:03interested in and enjoyed doing.
05:07Zora didn't just talk about opportunities in tech.
05:10She really wanted to help people.
05:12So she was actually on the app called Clubhouse, which is really unique because users can interact with audio files.
05:19So you're really almost speaking to the person.
05:22There are different topics.
05:24There are different topics.
05:25You can meet people in fields that you're interested in or that you work in, the tech space.
05:31Just a way to offer advice, to share advice or mentorship or information, and just sort of encapsulate it in
05:42this one app and this one central place where people can connect with each other.
05:51Clubhouse is a podcasting and social networking app.
05:54It launched in 2020 and rapidly gained popularity during the COVID pandemic.
05:59It attracts a diverse community of enthusiasts who join chat rooms to engage others in conversations and meet new people.
06:10Zora went through a lot in her life during that time.
06:13She moved here.
06:14She was going through some chronic pain issues.
06:18And we had the COVID shutdowns all kind of happening simultaneously.
06:22She seemed like a very outgoing and kind person, the type of person that would be friends with anybody and
06:28everybody.
06:29That kind of chameleon sort of person.
06:32You could put her in a room with anybody.
06:34Malad seemed like just such a caring husband and somebody who was doing his best to look out for his
06:41wife and was so interested in her getting out there again.
06:47I think moving here, dealing with some chronic pain issues, the COVID shutdowns can really take a person who was
06:54once outgoing and really make them very isolated.
06:57So I think that he was very excited to see her get on Clubhouse, engage with people, interact with people
07:04in a time and in a world where it was really difficult for any of us to interact.
07:11And this app was great.
07:13She was able to connect with people and Ramin was one of those people.
07:19Ramin Kodakaram-Zarai is a 38-year-old man from Texas.
07:23She was really excited because she really wanted to help people.
07:27She had these skills and she wanted to put them to good use.
07:30So when Ramin started bringing up questions about getting into tech and things that she could offer as far as
07:38resources or support or connections, it was all really exciting.
07:42She was very mindful of like her own privacy and her own, you know, personal information.
07:49So she was careful not to just give out her phone number to anybody, any listener or anybody who was
07:56connecting with her on social media.
07:59Ramin becomes a regular listener to Zoray's podcast.
08:03He first reached out to her claiming that he was interested in what she was interested in.
08:09They first began a friendship online on Clubhouse and then through her Instagram account that she had associated with the
08:19Clubhouse account.
08:20He had began direct messaging her, liking her posts.
08:24And as far as I can tell, it seems like it was a cordial friendship online.
08:28Early on, this definitely felt like exactly what the Clubhouse application is for, what Instagram is for, what social media
08:35is for.
08:36You know, connecting with people all over the world in your area and beyond for shared interests.
08:43He had begun contacting her through other means other than the Clubhouse and it sounds like they had engaged in
08:51like group chats and other social media platforms that the suspect had joined and had started contacting Zoray that way,
08:59which then led to him messaging her more frequently.
09:02And he had given her, you know, this idea that he was also trying to make his way in the
09:10tech industry and that he was appreciative for any guidance and advice.
09:16And of course, Rory was more than happy to help anybody who was trying to help anybody who was trying
09:21to do the same thing, you know, that she had done and that she was trying to support others in
09:25doing.
09:25And I think that kind of opened the door for him to really begin bombarding her.
09:31Later into 2021 and into 2022, things are taking a more sinister turn.
09:39At first, it seemed like that's what the conversations were.
09:43Ramin was asking about those topics, but it really didn't take long for the conversation to change.
09:49And it was clear he was more focused on Zoray as a person and an individual, not the help she
09:54was offering or the support she could give.
09:57It started to turn obsessive and his connecting with her was changing and was not focused on tech any longer.
10:05And that's when she first started to become really concerned about him and what his real reason for speaking to
10:12her was.
10:13Comments about her Instagram and online activity were, you know, somewhat disturbing because he was making comments about other men
10:23who were messaging her or commenting.
10:27Or he was commenting about the clothing that she was wearing and how much skin that she was showing.
10:35I think at some point she even deleted her Instagram account just so that he wasn't able to track her
10:42or contact her through Instagram any further.
10:51In the fall of 2022, after Ramin and Zoray had been talking through the app and communicating with each other
10:59for some time, she had started pushing away.
11:04He was becoming a little maybe possessive or obsessive.
11:09There was a lot of grooming early on.
11:11I mean, even the way that he presented himself as somebody who's interested in the tech world.
11:15He later on admitted to her that he was a truck driver.
11:24He has this like emotional moment where he's like crying or like ashamed of his job, which I think is
11:31just so manipulative, right?
11:33Because not only is he outing himself as, you know, I misrepresented myself to start this friendship from the beginning.
11:39But now I'm going to come tell you this sob story, you know, make you feel bad for me.
11:47I think after that, it kind of the communication just kind of spiraled out of control.
11:53He was contacting her through the app Telegram.
11:58You know, she was getting message after message after message.
12:02If you're not familiar with that app, it's really easy to just generate another account and generate another account and
12:09another account, which made it really difficult for her to fully block him or keep him from contacting her.
12:19He then took it a step further and started calling her, getting her phone number.
12:24And that escalates again. And now he's calling her a hundred times a day. Literally, that'll scare anybody.
12:36Zoray is left with no option but to file a police report.
12:39But this does not deter Ramin from continuing his campaign of harassment.
12:47He had gone to Lang's two locates where he's close friends.
12:52And he had actually found their phone numbers as well and began calling her friends and talking to her friends
13:02about how he wanted to be in a romantic relationship with her,
13:06which also, you know, set another whole level of fear because he's now finding her friends' contact information and phone
13:16numbers.
13:19Zoray tried her best to keep Ramin at bay. She changed her phone numbers. She blocked him any time he
13:24called.
13:25But he always found a way around that. He would change his number. He would get burner phones and call
13:32her new number, which he was able to find online.
13:35He would stay at hotels as part of his job. And he would call from the hotel numbers because they
13:42weren't blocked yet.
13:43He was finding every loophole possible to be able to track her down. What's the new phone number? What's a
13:49phone number connected to her mother?
13:51What about her friends? And he was able to get a hold of her continually. There really was no stopping
13:58him.
13:58He was full steam ahead. Nothing was going to keep him from her.
14:04I don't know when his infatuation began with Zoray. I don't know if that was from the very beginning or
14:13to escalate it for him as well.
14:15But it was clear and he made it clear that he wasn't going to stop.
14:37Redmond, Washington, 2022.
14:41Podcaster Zoray Sodegi has reported to police that one of her listeners is stalking and harassing her.
14:47The man, Ramin Kodakaramzarahi, has been calling her from different phone numbers and sending her hundreds of text messages, evading
14:55any attempt to block him.
14:59Zoray and her husband Milad are deeply concerned for her safety.
15:06Stalking can be a very frightening crime in that it involves a pattern of fantasy development, obsession, and identification with
15:16a person in a way that's unwanted.
15:19And then a sustained behavior of trying to act out on those fantasies.
15:25Stalking in general is a very disturbing crime.
15:31Because it speaks to not only some level of delusion or an inability to accept somebody else's reality or barriers
15:40they're putting up or things that they're telling you, your inability to accept that.
15:44It also speaks to a level of commitment, right?
15:47The non-stop communication, finding different avenues and angles, attempting different ways to garner engagement, right?
15:55Like, okay, if this didn't work, you know, if 20 calls didn't work, what about 500 calls?
16:00How invasive that can feel for somebody.
16:05How troubling that can feel for somebody like Zoray to live in that constant fear.
16:12And constantly on edge.
16:14I can't even imagine.
16:16And just the manipulation and the ability that he had to find information about her and then let her know
16:26that he found the information.
16:28It just really speaks to a level of intent and a level of fear because of the control that he
16:38had over the situation as well.
16:41In December of 2022, she was home and Milad had actually just left the home to go on a trip.
16:52He showed up at her residence, knocked on the door and left a bouquet of flowers and a card outside
17:03of her home.
17:03She obviously didn't answer the door and captured the whole thing on her surveillance footage.
17:12Your home is your castle.
17:14It's your space to feel safe.
17:16And now, with him coming there, that's gone.
17:20And she could no longer have even a place to feel safe at home.
17:26She was horrified.
17:28This showed that, obviously, Ramin was not listening and was not respecting her boundaries of leaving her alone.
17:35And not only that, it seemed almost like he was showing his hand a little saying,
17:39I was able to find your house.
17:41I know where you live and I know when your husband leaves the house.
17:44So, I can only assume he intended that to be as threatening as it was.
17:51Zori fears for her own safety, as well as that of her husband and her mother, who also lives with
17:57them.
17:58After Ramin had been coming to the house, the fear for everyone involved was through the roof.
18:05Zori didn't feel safe in her own home because this man was showing up all the time against her wishes.
18:11He even threatened at one point that he was going to set a tree on fire that she loved.
18:17And therefore, that tree would catch her home on fire and then he would catch himself on fire.
18:22These were extreme threats and terrifying.
18:25She got to the point where she wasn't opening windows because she didn't want to see if he was standing
18:30outside staring at her home or looking for her.
18:34And to make things even worse, at the same time, she had recently gone through back surgery.
18:39And so, she was home recovering and that was all going well, but she was pretty incapacitated.
18:45So, her fear escalated because she thought, if someone were to come into the home and I had to defend
18:51myself, she wasn't sure that she could.
18:54And it was also so stressful, it was really hindering her ability to actually physically heal.
19:00So, all combined, this was a really terrible time in her life.
19:08In January 2023, Zoray files a second police report.
19:17She had talked to an officer about her concerns and also his increase in contacting her.
19:24And so, that patrol officer took her concerns, wrote it down, and then even a step further in her investigation
19:32and called the suspect and, you know, tried to articulate to him that this, you know, contact was unwanted.
19:40And that Zoray did not want anything further from him and to essentially leave her alone.
19:46It's my understanding that that conversation didn't go very well and he wasn't very receptive to what the officer was
19:52saying to him.
19:53But that officer, you know, did what they could, like I said.
19:57They, I believe, even charged him with the crime of harassment and that's where it stood.
20:03The day after the patrol officer had talked to Zoray and had taken the report, reading through it, I was
20:10noticing numerous red flags, especially how he had traveled all the way to Washington to leave flowers at her front
20:18door.
20:19And the incessant contact through various social media platforms, I, you know, decided that I was going to reach out
20:28to her and introduce myself and have a conversation about digging a little deeper, trying to figure out what transpired
20:34and how this all started and what her true concerns were and, you know, what she thought he was capable
20:42of doing.
20:45She had requested that I come to her house to conduct the interview.
20:49During this time period, she was suffering from a significant back injury and some other ailments that were kind of
20:56limiting her ability to be mobile.
21:00So I went over to her house and met with her and her husband, Milad.
21:06It was very apparent that they were a wonderful couple and she was so warm and so welcoming and so
21:16was her husband.
21:17I could genuinely tell that they love each other and they wouldn't have contacted us if they weren't concerned.
21:24We took this very seriously.
21:27We truly believed everything Zorae was telling us.
21:30She walked us through an entire history of everything that had been going on and she showed us all the
21:36evidence that she had collected, the screenshots, the communication they had.
21:39She had closely documented everything that I would want somebody to do that's in this, in any circumstance like this.
21:48So once we had all of that and we interviewed her and her husband, Milad, who also had documentation and
21:57saved voicemails and everything else,
21:59we were able to encourage her to seek a protection order, which she did.
22:05We were also able to file for an arrest warrant.
22:10A protection order and restraining order is an order from a judge that tells a person basically what they cannot
22:18do.
22:18So they cannot be within a specified distance of the victim.
22:24It could be, you know, 50 yards, 1,000 yards, etc.
22:27You cannot phone, harass, contact, etc.
22:29So it attempts to e-mails, text, phone calls.
22:34And again, it also can provide a physical distance between the victim and the suspect.
22:44On March 3rd, 2023, Zorae finally gets an official protective order against Rahman.
22:54And he's not allowed to come anywhere near her.
22:59But the problem is he's a truck driver and he's always on the road.
23:03So they can't actually serve the papers to him, which means the protective order is really useless at that point.
23:14You have to serve it to the person.
23:16And that challenge of even finding where this guy is, I mean, he's from Texas.
23:23She's in Washington.
23:25He could be in Kansas one day and he could be in Oregon the next.
23:29And he could be two days later in North Dakota.
23:33I mean, you know, there's no...
23:34He's on the highway, endless stretches of highway in the U.S.
23:38Another hurdle for me, investigative wise, is the type of crime that I'm investigating.
23:46And based on everything that I had learned thus far, the suspect had only committed the act of stalking.
23:54And in the state of Washington, stalking is a misdemeanor and not a felony.
24:00So that really limits what I can do and how I can move forward in my investigation.
24:06I consulted with our prosecutors here in the city of Redmond and what we came up with is charging him
24:17with stalking and getting a warrant for his arrest.
24:22Meaning that if he were to cross into the state of Washington, anyone, any officer, any trooper, any deputy within
24:30the state of Washington would be able to affect his arrest, which was my goal.
24:34I didn't care who arrested him or where he was found, just that he was taken into custody and that
24:40she could feel some type of comfort knowing that he had been arrested.
24:46The prosecutors got a warrant for his arrest for stalking and, I believe, cyber harassment.
24:52And now it was essentially my job to find him.
24:58That's obviously not an easy task when he is a long haul truck driver and does not live, quite frankly,
25:06anywhere near the state of Washington.
25:10So I began tracking him.
25:14I got an order to track him through his phone.
25:18And that was working up until March 7th.
25:24His phone had been turned off.
25:25At that point in time, though, he had turned it off in Utah.
25:28I wasn't receiving any more information about his location, which is indicative of either him turning it off or the
25:36phone went dead.
25:37That obviously was another red flag.
25:40It was my assumption that based on where the activity started and where it had continued that he was probably
25:48hauling a load somewhere.
25:49I had no details on the business he worked for, what he hauled or where he could be headed because,
25:58again, it's not like he was at the border in Oregon.
26:02So at that point in time, we just, you know, made her aware of my investigation thus far.
26:08And we talked and I told her time and time again, you know, if you hear from him or he
26:15contacts you and gives you any information or leaves you a voicemail, like, please reach out to me and let
26:21me know.
26:22Because any information at all could be very important, however small it is.
26:30Three days after Ramin's phone last pinged in Utah, everyone's worst nightmare comes true.
26:36So it was the early morning hours of March 10th, 2023.
26:42We received a call at about 1.45 in the morning.
26:49Dispatch advised there was an open 911 line of a female crying, screaming, another male voice moaning.
26:58And no matter what dispatch asked as far as questions, not getting any answers back.
27:06Everybody starts heading that way.
27:08So we kind of figure out what's going on.
27:09Our dispatchers were giving us info that there is some history of stalking at this address.
27:18Within a minute, another call comes from a neighbor that someone from the house of the 911 call came from,
27:27came to their door, knocking that somebody tried to break in, that somebody has a gun.
27:33Here we go, okay.
27:33Here we go,etta!
27:33We have an action attack, there and that somebody gets involved.
27:45We have an hour delay.
27:48Who lets us go, Alexandria.
27:49Here we go,елей,othsIGHT encounter there is the situation.
27:54Which is the motivation?
27:55Where are you as well?
27:58He is!
27:59The police!
28:01H Number 1.
28:02The police!
28:03Genie and police are facing...
28:03to a woman named Zoray Zadegi, who has an active case against a persistent stalker.
28:08A minute later, another 911 call comes in, this time from a neighbor reporting that someone
28:14has broken into the Zadegi home with a gun.
28:17Redmond police rush to the scene.
28:21Staring at this house, it was completely dark and quiet.
28:26The door was closed.
28:28I had officers surrounding the house.
28:30They couldn't see any points of entry, no broken glass, broken windows, kicked in doors.
28:36Not a sound was coming from the house.
28:40The police learn that the woman who ran to the neighbors is Fatima, Zoray's mother.
28:48She was in a state of panic.
28:51She was predominantly Farsi-speaking, so we get our language line.
28:54And even the interpreter on the language line was having a really difficult time trying
28:59to translate what Fatima was trying to tell us.
29:03Eventually, the translator says Fatima told us that a male broke in and fired four shots.
29:12Meanwhile, we're making announcements over our PA system on our vehicle for anyone to come
29:17outside.
29:17So with that info, we just decide to form a contact team to move up to the front of the
29:23residence.
29:24As soon as we get a contact team going, I see a male subject through a long window that
29:31ran alongside the front door.
29:33He was at the upper landing of the staircase, just kind of swaying back and forth.
29:39So call out to him on the PA for him to exit the house, but he's unresponsive and he's stumbling
29:45a lot.
29:46As a team, we open the door and inside, and he's on the ground at this point.
29:54And we call him towards us because we don't know if he has a gun or if anyone else inside
29:58the house has a gun.
30:00He's moaning, kind of in pain, but he's covered in and vomit.
30:05And with the stumbling and covered in vomit, honestly, I thought he was intoxicated at first.
30:10So he wasn't coming towards us.
30:12So I went inside the residence, grabbed both of his arms.
30:16I drag him out as fast as we safely could because we still don't know where this firearm's
30:21at.
30:21And if anyone else inside the house still has this firearm.
30:24And this guy is just in complete pain, not being able to say anything, not being able
30:32to answer any questions.
30:34One of the officers did a wound sweep to see if he had any injuries on him because he was
30:39obviously in pain.
30:41And at about his sternum was a very small bullet hole.
30:47We put chest seals on him to do CPR, but he started to decline pretty rapidly.
30:54He died pretty quickly as soon as we got him in the ambulance rake.
30:58I found out later that this was Milad, Azora's husband.
31:07As we pushed forward inside the house, we go upstairs since that's where we found Milad.
31:14On the floor on the stairway landing was a spent 9mm cartridge casing and an unspent life 9mm round.
31:26And that was kind of the first bit of evidence inside the house that something horrible had
31:31happened.
31:32And we work our way down the hallway.
31:35It was very dark inside, but as soon as I shined a light in one of the bedrooms, I could
31:42see
31:43a male's head on the edge of a bed.
31:46And he obviously looked deceased.
31:49Pushed a little further and see that he's holding on to a firearm.
31:53But he wasn't moving, so we entered the room.
31:57He was laying on the bed.
31:58He was laying on top of a female subject.
32:01They were both facing up.
32:04And she was obviously deceased also.
32:08And later, find out that this was Azora.
32:12And that the male was Rameen.
32:17When we made our way downstairs, we found the point of entry being a broken bedroom window.
32:24From the outside, you couldn't really see this broken bedroom window because it was ground
32:29level and a trampoline was pushed up next to it.
32:33We pretty much secured the crime scene and just waited for detectives to show up.
32:40It's a rare case where you have so much background information about the involved parties when
32:48you arrive on scene.
32:49But again, it's very important that you don't take things at face value and that you don't
32:54know the scope of everything.
32:55So you follow the standard procedure you would for any case.
33:00So we close off the scene.
33:01Then we carefully and diligently document the scene and collect all pertinent evidence.
33:11Investigators expand the crime scene from the house to the surrounding area in search
33:15of further evidence.
33:19Well, first, it was how did he get here, right?
33:21There's a truck we could locate in the immediate area.
33:24And this is a neighborhood, right, where the houses are pretty close together.
33:28The streets aren't that wide.
33:30And quite frankly, I'm not really sure where he would have parked.
33:34While we were on scene conducting our investigation, I believe another patrol officer had located
33:42a suspicious vehicle parked on the street just north of the residence.
33:47It was a red pickup.
33:48And when he looked into the truck, it was what I would say indicative of somebody going on
33:55like a road trip.
33:58There were lots of cans of Red Bull cigarettes.
34:02It was messy.
34:03There was packaging in there for a, like a K-bar knife.
34:08Also in the vehicle was receipts for ammo, which he had just recently purchased as well,
34:16just days before.
34:17And then we later learned that it was a vehicle rented from the Portland airport.
34:28I actually went through and talked to somebody from the airport.
34:33They were able to provide me with the surveillance footage, which did show that he was the one
34:39who rented the truck.
34:40And it, you know, showed him driving away in the truck.
34:44So there's no reason to believe that, you know, the truck belonged to anybody else.
34:49So we towed the vehicle back to the police department and got a search warrant for the
34:54vehicle and its contents.
34:57Once we searched that vehicle, we found items, identification belonging to the suspect.
35:04That way we were able to determine that he had left his truck somewhere and rented this
35:11vehicle, which again, to me is indicative of how he was trying to go undetected and how
35:21he made every attempt to make sure that no one knew where he was going or what he was going
35:27to do.
35:27He took those extra steps to park on the street adjacent.
35:33So just north of their house with the intention of concealing it in himself.
35:38When he arrived, it was dark.
35:41He parked on that side of the neighborhood so he could come from the back of Zoray's house
35:47and entered the backyard where the window that he broke into was on the north side of the house.
35:56And unfortunately, the same room where Zoray's mother was staying.
36:13I believe I was contacted a few days later after the investigation because some agency had located
36:20his semi-truck and it had been parked and towed.
36:24After going through some of his bags, we found diaries, which were in a far sea, and then a bag
36:34full of cell phones.
36:37It became pretty apparent that not only was he doing everything he could to cover his movements,
36:43most people don't travel around with six or seven different cell phones.
37:02On March 10th, 2023, Ramin Kodakaram-Zarehi broke into the home of podcaster Zoray Sodegi
37:10and her husband, Muhammad Milad Nasseri, in Redmond, Washington,
37:15killing them before fatally shooting himself.
37:21Ramin, a fan who had become dangerously obsessed, had stalked and harassed Zoray Sodegi for months
37:28with incessant calls and messages despite a court order forbidding him to contact her.
37:34He just was relentless and did not stop and she tried everything she could possibly do.
37:40She did everything right to try to protect herself
37:44and in the end, she wasn't able to protect herself or her husband.
37:52And it's a really frightening, frightening example of what can happen in these cases.
37:57Stalking is one of the most terrifying crimes there is,
38:01especially in the world we live in now with digital culture
38:06where crime can be created in a digital space.
38:08And so you don't know where a person is.
38:11This can happen to any person on social media.
38:15You don't know who's out there and you don't know, you know, anything about who they are.
38:21And it created a situation where there was very little that could be done about it,
38:27even by law enforcement agencies trying to help.
38:33After the murder, I did learn that he has a wife and a child in Texas.
38:42And the night before the homicide, he video called with his child
38:49and didn't exactly come out and say what he was, what he had planned or what he was going to
38:55do.
38:56But I think after the fact and after I talked with his ex-wife,
39:01you know, it was apparent to me that he was essentially saying his goodbyes.
39:09His ex-wife, she had contacted our agency inquiring about next steps for some of his property.
39:20So we didn't really talk too much or in depth.
39:25She just shared with me that the last time that they had communicated was just prior to the homicide
39:31when they engaged in that video call.
39:34He had expressed to his ex-wife that him and Zoray were going to be together
39:41and that she was his girlfriend and that they were romantically involved.
39:49He's a father himself.
39:52He's divorced a truck driver.
39:55And for whatever reason, he became infatuated with Zoray.
40:04And he took it upon himself to exert the most despicable power and control
40:13because he wasn't in control of the situation.
40:20Although Redmond police worked to protect Zoray and her family,
40:23ultimately, they were unable to stop her attacker.
40:28The primary detective in this case did a phenomenal job in working with the victim
40:34and working within the constraints of our criminal justice system,
40:37which unfortunately do not favor victims.
40:40The detective in the department, you know, went above and beyond
40:43to ensure that the victim followed every step possible and appropriate
40:48to ensure that we had the tools and resources that we needed
40:52from a criminal justice perspective.
40:54There's only so much that we can do.
40:57This case had the most tragic of outcomes,
41:00despite the best efforts of a very committed and dedicated detective
41:05who went above and beyond.
41:07The nature of this case, I believe it became very personal to the detective.
41:13She could see the fear in the victim and the victim's family.
41:17It did have a huge impact on our department, on the people involved in the case.
41:25In the past nearly decade, I've covered a lot of cases in podcasting,
41:31but this one sort of hits home a little bit more than others for me
41:36because I'm a podcaster and my voice goes out to a lot of people.
41:45And those people largely are fans, but you just don't know who's at the other end of the phone.
41:52What's the average person supposed to do in a situation like this?
41:56You go to the police, you go to law enforcement,
41:59you change your phone number, you change your email addresses,
42:03but you can't completely uproot your life.
42:05I don't know what else she could have done.
42:07I think she did everything she could or she felt that she could at that time.
42:14Investigators reflect on the tragedy of the loss of Zoré and her husband, Milad.
42:20It's really hard. It is very difficult.
42:23I had many long conversations with them and got to know them.
42:30And I think that this is the worst type of tragedy, obviously,
42:37the worst type of outcome for any case.
42:40And I hope that going forward that anyone who feels like they're in a similar situation
42:48or they can't get away from somebody, that they speak up for themselves.
42:56We're here to listen and to support you in any way that, you know, we can't.
43:03I can't express enough how you never know who you're talking to on the other side.
43:10The Internet is a place where you can be anybody you want to be.
43:15You can play any role you want to play.
43:17You can say anything you want.
43:20And, you know, you never know what the truth is
43:24and you never know who exactly you're talking to on the other side.
43:33Zoré and Milad, they were such warm and good people and didn't deserve this.
43:41And they're like anybody else out there that would think that this would never happen to them,
43:45that this couldn't happen to them, that they're like anybody else.
43:50They are smart.
43:52They are careful.
43:54They were diligent in their documentation.
43:57So it's just a major warning sign to anybody out there
44:01who engages with people online.
44:04You should be as careful as possible.
44:06And if something doesn't feel right, it's not right.
44:10Trust your instincts.
44:12Seek the protection orders.
44:13Involve law enforcement early.
44:54You should be as careful as possible.
44:55You
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