A 35-year-old Tehran man has been arrested by police and charged with stabbing to death his father, mother and sister.
Sharq daily said the triple murder took place last Wednesday in the family’s apartment in Shahrak-e Gharb (West Town), one of the wealthiest and largest residential districts in northwestern Tehran.
The 35-year-old son was described in news accounts as mentally disturbed, with his illness becoming more pronounced several years ago after his brother was stabbed to death in a street argument.
Police were summoned by neighbors who heard the mother and daughter screaming and running to the elevators while streaming blood. Sharq said the 55-year-old mother managed to tell police, before she died, that her son had gone on a stabbing spree.
The police entered the apartment and found the 62-year-old father already dead from stab wounds.
Sharq said the police told it that about seven years ago another son had been stabbed to death during a street brawl. Within the last few months, the parents had forgiven the killer and renounced their right to execution because the murderer was a teenager at the time of the crime. Through donations, the required blood money (diyeh) had been paid and the convict had been released from prison.
The investigation also found that the accused had been suffering from mental disorder and was on medication.
During the interrogation, the accused son claimed the murderer of his brother had been executed; a comment that prompted police to assume he either suffered from dementia or that his family might have kept their decision to forgive the murderer from him.
There was also a romantic problem.
The accused son told police, “Around seven years ago, I was seeing a girl. I wanted to marry her. Everything went wrong when my brother was murdered. Our marriage was called off while I was still in love with the girl.”
He said, “A while ago, I decided to find the girl and pop the question again. I finally found her phone number. I called her [on the day his parents were killed] and she told me that she had gotten married and that I had to stop calling her.
“Her words hit me so hard and filled me with so much rage. I took a knife and broke the TV screen. Then, I stabbed my father who was sitting on the couch. My mother and sister panicked and ran for their lives. But I stabbed them, too. Then I went to my room and lit a cigarette before the police came and picked me up.”