Sat Nov 16 12:30:00 IST 2024: **Los Angeles Singer’s Disappearance Solved: Five Arrested in Iran for Murder**
TEHRAN, IRAN – The year-long mystery surrounding the disappearance of a Los Angeles-based singer in Iran has been solved with the arrest and confession of five individuals – a woman and four men – who admitted to kidnapping and murdering him.
The investigation began last year when three pregnant women filed a complaint, alleging that the singer, identified as Mehrdad, had hired them as surrogates for him and his common-law wife. Mehrdad had paid them a significant sum but disappeared before the children were born, leaving them without support.
Separately, a young man reported his uncle, Mehrdad, missing. Mehrdad, an American citizen, had been in Iran to manage his properties and had recently taken another wife. Police investigations revealed he had significant assets (approximately 4 trillion Iranian rials, or roughly $4 billion USD at current exchange rates) and that these assets had been transferred to a notary public in western Tehran.
The notary, along with the caretaker of Mehrdad’s Tehran residence and his daughter, were arrested. The investigation revealed a plot to kill Mehrdad and seize his assets. The caretaker’s daughter, who had been rejected by Mehrdad, orchestrated the scheme with her father. Two other men were hired to help kidnap and kill the singer.
According to the confession, Mehrdad was kidnapped, held captive for 10 days, and forced to sign over his property. He was subsequently strangled and his body burned in the Damavand desert.
The five suspects have been apprehended, and the investigation is ongoing. The children born to the surrogates have been placed in the care of their mother in northern Iran.
First Piper 