Podcast host killed by stalker had 'deep-seated fear' for her safety and requested protection order
A podcast host and her husband were killed by a stalker in the US after months of harassment and a barrage of messages. The victim had requested a protection order - but it was never served because the stalker lived in another state.
Wednesday 15 March 2023 12:11, UK
A podcast host who was killed by her stalker in the US had a "deep-seated fear" for her safety and had requested a protection order against him.聽
Zohreh Sadeghi and her husband were shot dead by a stalker who broke into their home near Seattle in the early hours of Friday morning.
Ms Sadeghi, 33, had asked for the protection order to last "99 years" because Ramin Khodakaramrezaei, had shown "no indication that he will stop his frightening and dangerous behaviour after one year", NBC quoted her request as saying.
"He has said many times that nothing short of his own death would make him leave me alone, so I would like the order to last as long as possible," the request said.
The order was filed a week before Khodakaramrezaei, a truck driver from Texas, fatally shot the couple before shooting himself.
Khodakaramrezaei first contacted Ms Sadeghi after listening to her podcast, local police said in a statement.
They became friends, "but when things escalated, she filed a no-contact order against him", police said.
The protection order, which NBC obtained a copy of, details the stalking, which began last November.
Ms Sadeghi said she blocked his phone number and social media accounts but he used different numbers and fake accounts to continue contacting her. In one day, he sent 82 messages through an app, she said.
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Ms Sadeghi said she had anxiety and insomnia because of the onslaught of messages and voicemails.
She wrote that the voicemails would "include him crying and begging for me to pick up, him threatening to burn himself and the tree in front of my house, also telling me to either delete my Instagram account or make it public so he could see the content I post".
"Mr. Khodakaramrezaei has bursts of anger and is completely delusional. These delusions make me fear for my life and the lives of my loved ones," the order said.
Khodakaramrezaei contacted her husband, friends and neighbours and would stay locally and wait for her on her street.
Redmond police said he was never served with the protection order because he lived out of state and "we weren't able to make contact with him", NBC reported.
In a statement, Redmond Police Chief Darrell Lowe said: "This is an incredibly sad situation and the worst possible outcome of a stalking case. We will continue investigating what led to this tragic loss."