March 16, 2018
The high school student found dead in a wooded area in Bethesda, Maryland, in December had fake driver’s licenses and a vodka bottle on him when he was found.
The body of Navid Nicholas Sepehri was found by his father just outside Washington, DC, after he failed to return home from a party. He was 17 and a high school senior.
Sepehri died from a combination of alcohol poisoning, drowning and hypothermia, officials said. His death was accidental, the medical examiner ruled.
Police say they found a bottle of vodka and two identical fake Pennsylvania driver’s licenses on Sepehri’s body.
Detectives have not determined how Sepehri obtained the alcohol, but they believe it was purchased at a store with the fake driver’s licenses that showed him to be of legal age.
Sepehri disappeared after he left a party alone despite friends’ concerns about his condition, partygoers told local Channel 4. He was apparently walking home and was found between his home and the party location.
The teen’s father, Frank Sepehri, located his body in a small pool of water.
Navid Sepehri was last seen about 11:30 p.m. December 9, Montgomery County police said. He went to a party that was broken up by police after someone told police they suspected the teens were drinking.
Some of the juveniles ran from the home as the officers approached. A teen who police later learned was Navid Sepehri spoke with police.
Sepehri’s friends offered to call him an Uber. But he said he was okay and disappeared on foot, the sources said.
His father went to the Bethesda police station about 3 a.m. Sunday to talk with an officer. He said the officer told him to wait.
“She told me that kids, this happened. Just wait until tomorrow morning—10, 11 o’clock. I’m sure he’ll show up,” the father said the officer told him. The father went on foot searching for his son and found his body near nightfall. The family home is less than three miles away.
Frank Sepehri told the television station police did not help his family. “Police didn’t do anything for us. Nothing. Zero,” he said. “Sitting in the shopping center, drinking coffee.”
Capt. Paul Starks said officers were looking for Navid Sepehri. “When the father cried out [about finding the body], there were other officers nearby in the woods who heard Navid’s father exclaim that he had found his son,” Starks said.
At least one teen told police the hosts of the party Navid Sepehri attended told the teens to call their parents and go home after learning uninvited guests brought alcohol to the party. One of the homeowners told police he believed the uninvited teens may have learned about the party on social media.
Police say there’s no indication the homeowners supplied the teens with alcohol and will not face any charges in the case.
