Nasir Ahmadi, 46, lived near Melbourne, Australia, with his wife and two sons, aged 11 and 15. They came to Australia as refugees in 1999.
Ahmadi reported his wife, Zahra Rahimzadegan, 46, missing on December 18 after finding their house empty upon his return from a shopping trip two days earlier.
He said he suspected that Muslim extremists had abducted his wife because she had converted to Christianity and had helped several other Muslims convert. She became a Christian in 2004.
Homicide Squad Detective Inspector John Potter said January 12 that the police did not find any evidence to support Ahmadi’s theory.
Police suspicions turned toward the husband when they learned he had installed a deck behind his house after his wife disappeared.
Police took over the house last week. They dismantled the deck and dug down below it. There they found a large concrete block. With jackhammers, they broke up the concrete. The missing wife was encased inside.
Potter said Rahimzadegan, who went by Mandy Ahmadi in Australia, had previously left home for short periods due to domestic “issues,” but each time had informed one of her two sons of her whereabouts. This time, she hadn’t.
Mandy’s bank account had remained untouched after she went missing.
After finding the corpse in the concrete, the detectives arrested Ahmadi and charged him with his wife’s murder.
Ahmadi, who adopted the name of Nathan in Australia, soon confessed to murdering his wife.
At his court hearing, Nathan was laconic. “I love my wife,” he said, “but she is dead.”
