A woman who had obtained a protection order against a man she said was stalking her online was shot to death in her Washington state home, along with her husband, police said. The order had not been served because police had not been able to locate the man, CNN reports. Police did not release the victims' names, but the court document identified the woman as Zohreh Sadeghi, who was a podcaster. "This is the absolute worst outcome for a stalking case," Redmond Police Darrell Lowe said. The suspect, a truck driver from Texas, was found dead in the house after he shot himself, police said.
Sadeghi's mother, who was in the house at the time, escaped to a neighbor's house and called police, per the Guardian. The gunman contacted Sadeghi after becoming a fan of her podcast, a police statement said. They became friends until he began showing up at her house with gifts; she reported being contacted by him more than 100 times in one day. At 1:45am Friday, per ABC News, the 38-year-old man broke into the house through a bedroom window, police said.
The couple took precautions on their own, Lowe said, adding that a protection order shouldn't create a false sense of security for anyone feeling threatened. "A restraining order is simply a piece of paper that allows officers to take enforcement actions should a suspect violate the court order," the chief said, "but a piece of paper does not protect a person when someone is intent on causing them harm." (More Redmond, Wash. stories.)
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