Murder of a Wealthy Iranian Singer Residing in the U.S. in Tehran

Media in Iran report the murder of Mehrdad New York, whose real name is Jafar Shariati, in Tehran; a person who was better known as a Los Angeles singer. According to these reports, the murderers of this singer, who owned properties and 'billion-dollar' shops near Siesangan in Tehran, confessed that they killed him to seize his wealth estimated at 'four thousand billion tomans' and burned his body. The masterminds of this wealthy man's murder have been identified as 'a young notary and the caretaker of Mehrdad's villa in Yusefabad, Tehran,' who, in collaboration with each other and 'hiring two killers, one of whom was Mehrdad's advertising manager,' executed their plan. Following the confessions of the accused, the hired killers were also arrested and confessed that after killing this singer, they mutilated his body and burned it in the deserts surrounding Damavand. The police found part of Mehrdad New York's body and handed it over to forensic medicine for DNA testing. One of the murder suspects told Hamshahri Online that he, along with another young man, 'went to Mehrdad's villa in the north. I entered as an agent and anesthetized him with a syringe. Then... we kidnapped Mehrdad and transferred him to Tehran. He was held hostage in the notary's office for about 10 days.' He added: 'During this time, we tortured him and forced him to transfer the documents of his house to the notary's name. We obtained a confession and his handwriting from him, and he surrendered out of fear for his life. But later we feared that if we released him, he would expose us. For this reason, we suffocated him and burned his mutilated body around Damavand to avoid identification.' Reports indicate that the perpetrators of the crime claimed that after burning Mehrdad New York's body, they removed five numbered platinum implants that had been placed in his body during an accident in the U.S. and threw them among the trash, which, according to the police, 'is evidence of the truth of the murderers' confessions.' One of the images published of Mehrdad New York. How did the story leak? At the end of 1402, three young women went to the Tehran guardianship court, complaining that Mehrdad had contracted with them for surrogacy, but now that the children were about to be born, there was no news from him. Following the complaints of these three women and the filing of a complaint by a man who introduced himself as Mehrdad New York's nephew regarding his uncle's disappearance, investigations into this case began. Rokna news agency also reported that the police sought clues from his wife, Sara, who told them: 'Mehrdad has many properties and shops in Iran. I was a tenant of one of his shops, and when he came to Iran, he proposed to me. He said he wanted to have many children. He wanted the wealth he had to be inherited by his children, and for that reason, he decided to have several children through surrogacy.' Further investigations revealed that a large amount of Mehrdad's assets and properties had recently been registered in the name of a notary in western Tehran, but the notary claims that 'he legally purchased Mehrdad's properties by paying dollars to him in Dubai.' Ultimately, it became clear that the young notary had 'suspicious' contacts with the caretaker of Mehrdad's villa in Yusefabad, Tehran, and 'they had transferred some money to each other's accounts.' After the arrest of these two and the presentation of police evidence, both confessed to planning Mehrdad's murder to seize his assets. Among his famous songs is 'Among All These Beauties, Who Should I Choose?' which gained many fans in the 1980s.