The badly-decomposed body of an Iranian-American woman has been found in a Louisiana swamp and her former-husband has been arrested and charged with paying three men to kill her in a grisly murder-for-hire case.
In 1976, Hamid Ghassemi, then 25, wed his 15-year-old cousin, Taherah Ghassemi, in an arranged marriage in Bam. The new husband soon left for the United States to pursue his education, leaving his new bride behind. In the United States he married again, without obtaining a divorce from his cousin. He remained married to his American wife long enough to obtain US citizenship. Then the couple divorced.
In 2005, Taherah moved to the United States and the next year filed for divorce. The long and messy process finally ended only this year with the now very wealthy 64-year-old businessman, an auto dealer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, ordered to pay Taherah, now 54, $1 million. The money had not yet been paid when Taherah disappeared April 11. Her burned car was found the next day.
After five weeks, her body was found May 16, buried in a remote wooded area.
Prosecutors now say Hamid Ghassemi hired Daniel Richter, a former employee of his Import One car dealership, to torch his wife’s car, kill her and dispose of her body. Richter, 33, then recruited two of his friends, Tyler Lee Ashpaugh, 20, and Skyler Williams, 17, to help him carry out the assignment, for which they were collectively paid $10,000 by Ghassemi, prosecutors say.
All four men face first-degree murder charges, which carries the death penalty in Louisiana.
According to the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office (EBRSO), Ashpaugh told
detectives he went with Williams and Richter to Mrs. Ghassemi’s house where he and the other men kidnapped her, placed her in the trunk of her vehicle and then later shot and buried her in a remote area.
Investigators said the key to solving the case was cellphone records. EBRSO detectives were immediately suspicious that Mr. Ghassemi was involved in the disappearance and obtained his cellphone records. That showed he got a call from Ashpaugh at 12:45 a.m. the night Mrs. Ghassemi went missing.
The detectives then obtained his cellphone records. The location details showed he had made calls that night from Mrs. Ghassemi’s residence, from the location where her torched car had been discovered, and from a remote wooded site where a search uncovered her remains.
Mrs. Ghassemi died from a gunshot wound to the head, according to a preliminary autopsy report. It is still unknown who delivered the fatal shot.
Ashpaugh told detectives that Mr. Ghassemi paid the men $10,000 for the crime, and that he also gave them a vehicle to use and a can of gasoline to burn Mrs. Ghassemi’s car. Officials said the $10,000 payout was split between Ashpaugh, Williams and Richter.
In addition to murder charges, Mr. Ghassemi faces charges of second-degree kidnaping and principal to arson. The three men he hired also face charges of second-degree kidnaping and arson. Mr. Ghassemi has not been charged with bigamy.