They Were the Nice, Older Couple Next Door. Then the First Body Turned Up.

[Zorro]

An Iranian couple has confessed to murdering and dismembering their son, years after killing a daughter and her husband. They are not sorry.

The older couple first came to the public eye on a winter night in Tehran, when their film director son invited them to the stage after a screening. They were frail, and seemingly shy, and the younger man helped his mother up the stairs, then draped his arm around his father’s shoulder.

That was five years ago.

Now their son is dead, and Akbar Khorramdin, 81, and his wife, Iran Mousavi, 74, are back on the public stage, accused of his murder and, in a twist that has shocked and riveted Iranians, the killings of a daughter and a son-in-law over the course of a decade. The victims were drugged, suffocated, stabbed and then dismembered, the authorities say.

The couple has confessed to the crimes, but if Mr. Khorramdin, a retired army colonel, and Ms. Mousavi, a homemaker, are remorseful, they have done a good job hiding it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/05/world/middleeast/iran-parents-murders.html

[Princess Turandot]

1. A report from the Guardian (no paywall) from May when the son's murder took place..

Someone found some of the man's remains in a dumpster, which included his hands. He had fingerprints on file, and once they identified him, the police went to speak with his parents.

The parents seemed pleased with themselves, given how quickly they told the police that they had previously dispatched their daughter and son-in-law, admitting to crimes that no one even knew had happened.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/21/babak-khorramdin-iranian-couple-arrested-for-of-film-maker-son-47

The parents claimed they killed the son-in-law because he was abusive, murdered their daughter because she became addicted to drugs, and targeted their son because he was single and having relationships with students, according to Hussein Rahimi, a Tehran police chief, quoted in newspapers.

During the court hearing, Akbar told Hamshahri reporters he had no regrets. “I don’t regret what I did with the cooperation of my wife. They were corrupted and I thank God.”

Akbar told how Babak’s mother had initially drugged him. “It was Friday night when his mother cooked chicken and poisoned it to make him unconscious, but did not eat that and went to his room and slept, so we put the food in the refrigerator. He woke up the next day and ate that,” Akbar said.

Once his son had passed out, at about 5pm, Akbar “tied up his feet to a chair and then put a black plastic bag on his head and then stabbed him several times”. They carried the body to the bathroom, cut it into pieces, put the body parts in three suitcases and distributed them around the city, he said.

[Dream Girl]

2. Soon to be a limited series on Netflix.

Just saying.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. In a world where there is so much that is shocking, this takes it much further.

To murder some of your family members because you think they're evil--incomprehensible.

May the victims rest in peace.