REDMOND, Wash. — A suspected stalker killed a Redmond couple in their home early Friday morning before killing himself, police said.
Police responded to the home near in Redmond’s Education Hill neighborhood around 1:45 a.m.
The couple killed in their home have not been publicly identified. The suspect, identified by the Redmond Police Department as Ramin Khodakaramrezaei, 38, had been the subject of a misdemeanor stalking investigation after the female victim filed a no-contact order against him.
Officers found a man who lived in the house lying on the floor and pulled him outside, where they saw he had a gunshot wound. Officers attempted lifesaving measures until paramedics arrived, but he died at the scene.
The woman dead inside the house, and the suspect was located with a “self-inflicted gunshot wound” in the main bedroom, said Redmond Police Chief Chief Darrell Lowe.
The woman’s mother, who lives at the home, encountered the suspect when he broke in through her bedroom window. She was able to run to a neighbor’s house and called 911, Lowe said. She was not injured.
A truck driver from Houston, Khodakaramrezaei reportedly listened to the woman’s podcasts. Lowe said they had met on the app Clubhouse, which allows users to talk over audio chat rooms.
Lowe said the chatroom was specifically for Farsi speakers looking for jobs in the tech industry
The victim originally contacted Redmond police in December 2022 and again in January after the suspect’s actions “intensified,” Lowe said. A temporary order of protection was signed March 3, and a hearing was set to occur March 17.
The petition for an order of protection filed by the husband and wife in King County District Court details a months-long ordeal involving harassing phone calls and threats that escalated to the stalker saying he would show up at her home and set it on fire, and would only stop contacting her if he died.
“That is also in the voice messages he keeps sending me, that he won’t let me go and the only thing that will make all this stopped is if he killed himself or died,” she wrote in the petition order.
Lowe said the victim said told police the suspect had contacted her over 100 times in a single day and had mailed and shown up in person to deliver gifts.
Officers had tried to serve him with the no-contact order, but it was difficult to find him because of his job, Green said.
A restraining order, Lowe said, only allows police to take action if the order is violated, but cannot protect them if “someone is intent on causing them harm.”
Friday’s killings was the “worst possible outcome of a stalking case,” Lowe said at a Friday afternon media briefing. “This is every victim’s, every detective’s, every police chief’s worst nightmare.”
Yellow police tape and vehicles were blocking portions of the streets in the area with officers walking in and out of the home Friday afternoon.
A red truck with Oregon license plates was seen being towed from the scene Friday. Lowe said police believe the suspect may have arrived to the scene in it, and will continue to work with State Patrol and the Medical Examiner’s Office as the investigation continues.
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