February 2, 2024
Police in Ontario have now charged the ex-boyfriend of Elnaz Hajtamiri with murdering her, even though they have no body two years after she was kidnaped.
A total of 10 people have been charged in the case, which has gripped Ontario since the Iranian immigrant was dragged barefoot though the snow from the home of a relative and driven away in a stolen car the might of January 12, 2022.
It is unusual, but not unheard of, to bring homicide charges without a body. Usually in such cases, there is some other evidence of death. This has sparked speculation that one or more of those charged in the case may be willing to testify in court that Hajtamiri was killed.
There is also much speculation that Hajtamiri may have been killed to prevent her from telling the police whatever she knew about the former boyfriend widely believed to be running a massive scheme stealing trucks for sale overseas.
But all that is mere speculation.
The ex-boyfriend, Ontario-born Mohammad Lilo, was originally charged with an attempt to kidnap her that failed three weeks before she was kidnaped, and also charged in the actual kidnaping. He has now been charged with homicide.
He has not, however, been charged in any truck theft scheme. And if Hajtamiri knew anything about a truck theft scheme, she said nothing to the police in the three weeks between the attempted and successful kidnaping.
And there has been no ransom demand in the two years since she was abducted.
The man believed at the center of everything, and the only person charged in both the December 20, 2021, assault and attempted kidnaping in Richmond Hill, north of Toronto, and the January 12, 2022, successful kidnapping from 50 miles north in Wasaga Beach is Lilo. He once dated Hajtamiri, but they broke up in October 2021, several weeks before the assault on her.
Those charged include a mix of Indian-Canadians and Black Canadians as well as Lilo.
The Indians are implicated in an effort to kidnap her from the garage of her apartment House in Richmond Hill, a suburb of Toronto noted for its concentration of Iranian expats. She was struck with a frying pan by the men trying to abduct her, but they fled when a passerby intervened. The Blacks have been implicated in the abduction from a relative’s home on the shore of Georgian Bay, a part of Lake Huron.
Her family said Hajtamiri reported mounting threats from her former boyfriend, and say police advised her to stay with loved ones at the home in Wasaga Beach.
Police say the kidnapers wore black jackets over fake police vests, dark pants, balaclavas with white trim pulled over their noses and mouths, and gold, red and blue badges hanging from chains around their necks.
Nine days after her disappearance, police charged her former boyfriend with criminally harassing Hajtamiri. He was later charged with involvement in both the assault and the kidnaping and now with murdering her.
Lilo and two other men, Riyasat Singh and Harshdeep Binner, were charged with attempted murder and attempted kidnaping linked to the Richmond Hill assault that left Hajtamiri with a head wound requiring roughly 40 stitches. Singh pleaded guilty to lesser charges, spent seven months in jail and has since been deported.
Police confirmed they seized a tracking device, which her family said was found on her car after the December assault.
Lilo has been in custody since his arrest in July 2022. Police have said the former boyfriend has been uncooperative with the investigation.
In a statement to CTV News, the Hajtamiri family wrote, “We will never give up, and we will never stop searching for you, Elnaz. We love you so deeply, you have the strength of a persistent and committed family behind you, and we will not relent until we have turned over every stone. You are not alone. There are good people involved in this journey to find you, and together we will bring you home.”
The case is being managed by Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Detective Inspector Graham, who told the Toronto Sun that, in more than three decades of policing in Canada and Britain, he has never seen a case like this. “We would normally hope we would have something by now and that we would have more answers. This is very unusual.”
Hajtamiri, 37 at the time of her abduction, is five feet three inches tall with a slim build. She emigrated from Iran to Canada in 2018 after the death of her husband in Iran.
Lilo and six others have been charged with the frying pan attack. Lilo and three others have been charged with the later abduction. Still two more people remain at large—Sukhpreet Singh and Deshawn Davis, 35, a former Toronto rapper known as Thorobred.
Speaking with the Canadian newscaster CP24, Chris Lewis, the former head of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), said he assumed the police filed the homicide charges because they have some “good evidence” that Hajtamiri is no longer alive.
“And I know all along the way that the detective inspector from the OPP said very nicely that they prayed she was still alive, but their biggest fear is that she isn’t. Well, being charged of first-degree murder says a lot, obviously, so they have evidence to prove that she’s deceased,” Lewis said, adding the fact that Hajtamiri hasn’t been heard from and that her phone and credit cards haven’t been used are other strong indicators that she is likely dead.
“[The police] must have witnesses that are giving them information, credibly, that she is deceased, perhaps exactly how that occurred, although time will tell during the course of the trial.”
Lewis went on to say that, with so many people already charged, there could be some of the accused who have already given evidence and are prepared to testify against Lilo.
Lastly, he said that it can be challenging to prove that the accused is guilty of first-degree murder when there may not be physical evidence, like a body, but it’s not impossible.
“We’ve had a number of first-degree murder convictions over the years where a body was never found,” he said, adding, in the case of Hajtamiri, there may be other clues like blood found or witnesses who saw and heard something, coupled with the fact that the victim hasn’t been seen or heard from since her January 12, 2022, disappearance.
“So, you know, it’s not impossible at all…. But it’s a difficult process for conviction because one of the elements of the offense is that someone is dead and, to prove someone’s dead, is not easy” without a corpse.
