Podcast host killed by stalker had ‘deep-seated fear’ for her safety, records reveal

A Washington state podcast host who was killed by her stalker last week said she had a "deep-seated fear" for her safety, writing in a request for a protection order that the man tormented and harassed her and her husband for months.

Zohreh Sadeghi requested that the order last "99 years" because the man, Ramin Khodakaramrezaei, 38, had shown "no indication that he will stop his frightening and dangerous behavior after one year."

"He has said many times that nothing short of his own death would make him leave me alone, so I would like the order to last as long as possible," the request said.

The order was filed March 3, exactly one week before, police said, Khodakaramrezaei, a Texas truck driver, broke into Sadeghi’s home in Redmond, about 15 miles northeast of Seattle, and fatally shot her and her husband, Mohammad Milad Naseri. Sadeghi’s mother escaped and called 911 from a neighbor's house.

Khodakaramrezaei died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Redmond police spokesperson Jill Green said.

The shooter apparently got to know Sadeghi through a podcast she was doing. Green said that the pair "struck up kind of a friendship" but that Sadeghi cut it off because Khodakaramrezaei "began to just send a lot of messages."

The protection order details the terrifying ordeal, which began late last year. Sadeghi, 33, wrote that she began asking Khodakaramrezaei to leave her alone on Nov. 6.

She said that she blocked his phone number and social media accounts but that he used different numbers and fake accounts to continue contacting her. In one day, he sent 82 messages through an app, she said.

Sadeghi said she had anxiety and insomnia because of Khodakaramrezaei’s barrage of messages and voicemails. She also believed his threats hindered her recovery from back surgery in December.

She wrote that the voicemails would "include him crying and begging for me to pick up, him threatening to burn himself and the tree in front of my house, also telling me to either delete my Instagram account or make it public so he could see the content I post."

"Mr. Khodakaramrezaei has bursts of anger and is completely delusional. These delusions make me fear for my life and the lives of my loved ones," the order said.

Khodakaramrezaei's unrelenting threats included his contacting her husband, friends and neighbors, according to the document. He would stay at inns in Sadeghi’s neighborhood and park on her street in hopes of seeing her, she alleged.

Sadeghi’s husband said he and his wife feared Khodakaramrezaei would harm them. Friends and neighbors could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.

At least once in December, Khodakaramrezaei went by her house to drop off flowers, prompting Sadeghi to call the police, the document alleged. He continued to send her gifts up until February, it said.

A bench warrant was issued for Khodakaramrezaei's arrest on March 2, the day King County District Court records show he was charged with one count of misdemeanor stalking and two counts of telephone harassment. On March 3, a judge granted a temporary protection order against him and set a hearing for a full order.

Khodakaramrezaei, who was not at the hearing, was ordered to surrender his weapons. Redmond police have said he was never served with the order because he lived out of state and "we weren’t able to make contact with him."

Redmond Police Chief Darrell Lowe called the killings the "absolute worst outcome for a stalking case."

"This is every victim’s, every detective’s, every police chief’s worst nightmare," he said at a news conference.