In Netflix’s I Am A Killer: A Father’s Shadow, viewers learn about the sensational 2012 double murder of Gelareh Bagherzadeh and Coty Beavers in Houston, Texas. The Irsan family, led by a conservative Muslim patriarch, orchestrated the “honour killings” after one of their daughters changed her religion and married outside of Islam. So what happened to his wife and what role did she play in the whole thing? let’s find out
Who is Shmou Ali Alrawabdeh?
When Ali Mahmood Awad Irsan, then 35, and Shmou Ali Alrawabdeh got married in 1994, she was probably 15 or 16. She was a Jordanian national who wed him in a planned marriage when he travelled to her home nation after allegedly divorcing his first wife, American citizen Robin Dahl. Shmou arrived in the country in 1995, and in 2001 he was granted naturalisation. She and Ali had a remote home in Montgomery County, Texas, where they produced eight kids. Together with his four children from his prior marriage, they all shared a home. Ali, a patriarchal Muslim, governed his family in accordance with his traditional Islamic views. He decided to enrol his daughters Nadia and Nesreen in a biology programme at Lone Star College in Montgomery after they persuaded him to do so. Nasim Ali Irsan, her brother, claimed that Ali made them wear the hijab, forbade them from interacting with non-Muslims, and allowed them to leave school right away to go home.
But in May 2011, when Ali learned that his daughter Nesreen was dating a fellow Christian student named Coty Beavers, turmoil broke out. She allegedly had a hidden circle of Christian pals that her traditional Muslim parents were not aware of, according to the episode. in a relationship with Coty since 2010. Nesreen left the family home against her choice when Ali imprisoned her there, became a Christian, and wed Coty in July 2012.
Gelareh Bagherzadeh, an Iranian liberal and human rights advocate, was also one of Nesreen’s closest friends. The latter stood by her and helped her resist her oppressive father. Ali reportedly convinced his son Nasim to shoot Gelareh, 30, three times in their automobile outside of his parents’ home on January 15, 2012, after learning of this. On November 12, 2012, minutes after Nesreen departed for work, he crept into his son’s house in Northwest Harris County and shot and murdered him. Today, where is Shmou Ali Alrawabdeh?
On May 23, 2014, Shmou, aged 37, her husband Ali, and her stepdaughter Nadia were all detained on federal allegations of conspiring to defraud the United States and stealing public funds. The federal complaint alleged that Ali and Shmou forged documents to receive disability benefits with Nadia’s help, hiding assets that would make them ineligible for benefits. On May 27, 2014, Ali informed the court that he was not legally married to Shmou in the United States and had married her overseas.
Furthermore, Shmou was charged with Gelareh’s murder, as she allegedly allowed the trigger man to use her window to kill the medical student. In May 2015, she and her husband were taken to Harris County Jail. In July 2015, she was sentenced to 24 months in prison for benefit fraud on perjury. Shmou testified against Ali in July 2018, accusing him of pulling the trigger on Coty as part of a plea deal to reduce his pending murder charge to kidnapping.
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