Giti Hariri | 1988

[Carboe]

Giti was murdered in the late 1980's.  And later her best friend became missing from Giti's gravesite.  Her friends body was later found murdered.

[kgeorox]

Can you give us any details of either case?

[Chris]

Wow that is unusual. this would seem to be related. Any more info would be great. This is a case that seems like there is a lot to it.

[hepnr]

As far as I know, this case has never been solved.  Neither has the murder case of Giti Hariri's good friend Wendy Aldrich. 

Giti Hariri worked as a sales agent for Gemcraft Homes.  Her body was discovered (I think in the summer of 1988) at a model home by friends with whom she was supposed to have met earlier in the evening.  She had been stabbed numerous times.

In 1991 or 1992, my husband and I were thinking of buying a former model home in the Copperfield area.  At the time we toured the home, we were not aware of the murder but a good friend happened to be a real estate agent and she is the one that tipped us off that it could quite possibly be the home where Ms. Hariri was murdered.  We were sort of creeped out about it, but weren't sure if it was the house we were looking at or the one next door so before going any further we contacted  the detective on the case, Ronnie Harris (who just retired about 2 years ago).  He did confirm it was actually the home next-door to the one we were looking at, and indicated that they had a very strong suspicion of who did it but had absolutely no evidence with which to charge the perpetrator...the SAME perpetrator they suspected in Wendy Aldrich's murder a few months later!   Wendy Aldrich disappeared from Giti Hariri's grave site where she had stopped, as apparently she frequently did, to place flowers.  Her severed foot was later recovered from Lake Somerville and a few months after that the lower half of her torso was also recovered and positively identified.  Both murders remain unsolved to this day.  (There are a few articles in the Chronicle's archives that give the details I've related here--although I heard about these at the time from our real estate friend.)

The unnamed suspect in the case was someone very close to Mrs. Hariri and my understanding was that that person left the country to return to his homeland.  I say that because (small world!) as it later turned out I actually worked at the time with someone whose husband knew the suspect and apparently everyone in that community guessed that both murders were "honor" killings.  Whether the suspect is here or elsewhere I have no idea, but I would think that after all this time sadly, neither case will  ever be solved. 

[Chris]

That is so very sad. It is terrible that 2 women lost there lives and possibly the killer got away. I sure hope they can somehow bring enough evidence to charge him and bring him back to face those charges.

[antiM]

this photo below is from the Weekly World News, Nov 1, 1988.

The weekly World News is not the most serious publication, yet it shows drawings
of the victims, which is best for folks like me who are better with faces than names.

Maybe someone saw one of these woman during this time and knows more info.

[antiM]

also more info on this thread:

http://www.houstonunsolved.com/index.php?topic=286.0

[texaskowgirl]

Remains ID'd as friend of slain woman
ALAN BERNSTEIN, EVAN MOORE Staff
FRI 10/28/1988 HOUSTON CHRONICLE, Section A, Page 1, 2 STAR Edition


---- Part of article snipped......  Aldrich, who lived in the Bear Creek area, was the longtime close friend of Giti Hariri, also 27, a Gemcraft real estate saleswoman whose stabbed body was found May 12 in a model home in the 16500 block of Battle Creek.
In the following two months, Aldrich spent hours at her friend's grave, relatives said. She visited the grave at Forest Lawn South Cemetery at 8701 Almeda-Genoa in southeast Houston on July 31, then disappeared.
No one has been charged in Hariri's slaying or in Aldrich's disappearance.
In August, Aldrich's car was found in Lake Livingston State Park in East Texas.
On Sept. 29, the lower portion of the jeans-clad body was found dozens of miles west of the park, in Lake Somerville. A foot was discovered earlier in another part of the lake. Detectives theorized the body came apart through deterioration.
The Harris and Burleson county sheriff's departments are continuing to investigate the case.
Aldrich and Hariri were college roommates from 1981 to 1986, when they moved to Houston to find jobs.
Aldrich's disappearance stymied investigators for weeks. Puzzled detectives even consulted a psychic, who told them only that he believed Aldrich "was in a small, closed space."
Hariri's husband, Behrooz Juneghani, has declined to comment on Aldrich's disappearance and refused to cooperate with authorities in the search for her.

[Chris]

Hariri's husband, Behrooz Juneghani, has declined to comment on   Aldrich's disappearance and refused to cooperate with authorities in the   search for her.

Wonder why?

[girlkitty79]

Wendy Aldrich and her friend Giti were best friends.  The husband of Giti, Behrooz Juneghani, is suspected as being the perpetrator, and PD investigators know what happened.  They don't have enough evidence to bring a charge. Juneghani and his friend rented a boat for the very lake around when Wendy disappeared and they signed their names on the paperwork.
However, I think that if bodies would be exhumed, as in the case of Giti...DNA evidence may be able to convict.  But from my understanding, she is buried in Iran. Definitely an "honor" killing. 

[Chris]

That is quite sad. It is one of those cases you wish you would get a good second look with modern technology.