Dateline Originals - Motive for Murder - Ep. 1: A Scream. Then Silence.

Episode Date: December 18, 2023

She was a small woman with a big voice. And then she was gone.This episode was originally published on May 7, 2020. 

Picture a run-down house with an unkempt lawn, surrounded by trees at the end of a dirt road. In a room in this house, there's a young woman, and she has a plan. It's June 2011. The Texas air is hot and humid. It's the kind of air people complain about. But all this woman wants to do is breathe it in. She's been under watch, forced to stay inside this home for weeks at a time, made to endure harsh words, beatings, punishment for things like texting.

Today, all that might just end. Because today is her chance to break free. She says she's going to take a shower. She walks to the bathroom and locks the door behind her. Imagine her heart beating fast, her breathing picking up, and as she ponders the unknowable, she wonders, is it too risky? The young woman opens the bathroom window, squeezes through it, and her feet land on the ground. She starts to hurry.

Her first moments of real freedom. She's actually doing this. She gulps in the thick air. And she runs, and runs, and runs. She has escaped, for now. But these few moments would cause collateral damage. They would endanger more than just her safety. And they would start a chain reaction that would end in murder.

And not just one murder. I'm Josh Mankiewicz. I've been reporting on Dateline for more than 25 years, which means I'm no stranger to mystery, to secrets people are desperately trying to hide, and to the things those people are willing to do to get what they want. This story is about a lot of things. Among them, fraud, stalking, murder, and finally, a killer hiding in plain sight. On Dateline, we always want to find out who did it.

I think you do, too. In this story, the real stunner is the why. You're listening to Motive for Murder, a podcast from Dateline and NBC News. It's close to midnight on January 15th, 2012. We're near the Galleria, which is a big, expensive mall. It's also a nice neighborhood in Houston. This is KPRC Local 2 News at 10. Police say the victim was still in her car

when someone walked up to the passenger side window and shot her in the head. The shooting happened behind a row of townhomes on a quiet street. It wasn't long after that gun was fired that neighbors started dialing 911. I heard shots and I've just now had the courage to go out there. A caller who had heard shots was first to discover the body.

My neighbor's car, my neighbor's been shot. I think she's in the car. Okay. God, I wish I'd come out earlier. I was so scared. Houston, 911. Do you need police fire ambulance? Ambulance. Okay. God, I wish I'd come out earlier. I was so scared. Houston, 911. Do you need police, fire, ambulance? Ambulance? Okay. I think she got in an accident. There's a murder on the after yard. When police arrived, they saw a car haphazardly rammed against a garage door.

It was a silver Nissan Altima. Inside was a young woman, slumped over, shot dead. Among the first on the scene was Detective Richard Bolton. I was a senior police officer with Houston Police Department. Tell me about the immediate scene and the victim, what she looked like. What's going on there, basically? The passenger side glass had been, you know, shattered and it was broken. Some of it was on the ground, some of it was in the vehicle.

The victim was laying over to the right side of the vehicle, you know, sitting in the driver's seat, laying over, like, the console area, you know. Investigators quickly learned who the victim was. Her name was Galleray Bagherzadeh. She lived in one of those townhomes near where the shooting happened. Through a shattered car window, Bolton could see something lying next to her lifeless body. There's a cell phone laying in the floorboard. And that cell phone had recently made a call. This murder apparently did not have an eyewitness, except there was someone

who'd been listening. That person was Gallaret's friend, Rabin Bandar. Galleray had called him while she was driving. As the bullets struck Galleray, her car crashed into the garage door, her tires spinning hot. Rabin had been on the phone with her the entire time. And we spoke to him and he said he was on the phone with her when something happened or a car wreck. Rabin later told police he'd heard a scream and then silence on the other end. But he was desperate to maintain some connection to his friend, so he kept his call with Galleray live and immediately called 911 on another phone. Only thing was, Rabin didn't know quite what to report. Rabin didn't know it yet,

but he had just heard his friend's last words. It's the kind of thing you never forget. True crime stories have started to offer a familiar experience, a life taken too soon, a hunt for the killer, and then finally, we hope, a measure of justice. Beginning, middle, end.

A certain satisfaction comes with that completeness. Except the sad truth is that there's often no real ending for the people who find themselves on the other side of our cameras, the ones who can walk us through every step of these tragedies. Because they live them. For them, the story doesn't go away when they turn the TV off or when they take the earbuds out. For them, there is often no returning to real life. That story is their life. Gelleray was only 30 years old. Smart. Beautiful.

She was born in Iran, and she was studying molecular genetics at MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas in Houston. Galleray dreamt of one day becoming a CSI expert and helping police solve violent crimes. Instead, she became the center of one. Shot two times at close range. Corey Beavers had just started dating Galleray when she was murdered. Were you in love with her?

I think we were head over heels for one another. I mean, to me, it takes a little bit longer for true love to develop. But yeah, I mean, we were together 24-7 for two months. Why did you like her? I mean, she was cute, but what else? She just seemed really genuine and caring. They met while they were both students at MD Anderson. She was totally happy with who I was, and so I was just really comfortable being with her. It

was never like having to put on a face at all. And it wasn't only that she accepted it, she loved it. It had only been a couple of months, but Corey told us his relationship with Gelleray was solid. They could be themselves around each other. He said they were smitten. Gelleray made quite the impression on her friends too. Geller lived a short life, but she was full of life while she was here. So she was funny, crazy, full of energy, everything packaged in a tiny body altogether. But very loud. Super loud. Super loud, yes. Very animated.

She couldn't hide her feelings. About anything? About Iran? hide her feelings. About anything? About Iran? About the traffic? About anything. That's Kathy Soltani, a close friend of Gelleray's. They met in June 2009. A large crowd of Iranian Americans had gathered in Houston

to protest the oppressive regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran. We were all there and my mom noticed Geller because we were chanting and she was chanting so loudly. My mom tapped her on her shoulder and said, young girl, don't do that. It's not good for your throat and your voice. They won't hear you in Iran. And she said, no, I'm so frustrated, and that's why I'm doing it so loud. Gelleray was passionate about politics. In her 20s, she'd moved to Houston from Iran, but stayed current on what was happening back home. People might tell her to quiet down, but quiet and Gellerore did not coexist. I don't know how that voice fit in that tiny body.

She was unforgettable, one of those magnetic people who made ordinary affection memorable as well. Even hugging people, it wasn't a normal hug because she was so tiny. When she would hug people that were taller than her, which was mostly the case, you would realize she's kind of hanging on your neck, because she was so petite and so full of life. Full of life. That was something Gelleray's boyfriend, Corey, mentioned when he talked about her.

She was intensely passionate about everything. And I remember like she would have parties at her house and people would be happy and having a good time, but she was always trying to get like everybody to dance. And she's just like, what are you doing sitting here? Just talking and come over here and let's, let's dance. This is a party. That's what we're supposed to do. And so, yeah. Gelleray's parents knew that spark better than anyone. She was a very, very happy girl. Beautiful, wise, and alive. That's Ebrahim, Gelleray's father.

He and his wife, Monire, described their daughter as outspoken, caring. She was my angel. She was very, very happy girl. All the time she thought about helping the people. Losing a light as bright as Galleray's was not easy for anyone who knew her. Kathy Soltani had been like an older sister

to Galleray. She learned of the murder the morning after it happened. That was so surreal because it happened on a late Sunday night. I wasn't watching local news. And the next morning I went to work and one of our friends from our group, Seth,

he called me and said, have you heard the news about Geller? And I said, no, what's the news? I was so excited. I thought, I said, did she get engaged? And he said, no, obviously you haven't heard the news this morning or last night. I said, no, why the news? I couldn't speak after that. My voice just left my body. It was very sad. Kathy was in shock. I couldn't get my voice.

I couldn't hear my own voice, and I finally, I was yelling, but this really faint voice was coming out. And I just said, how? And then he told me that it happened. Any single murder impacts so many lives. The victim's parents, the boyfriend, friends. But it's not every day that a murder victim is talking with someone at the very moment they're shot. When that does happen, Dateline wants to talk with that person.

Rabin Bandar is the closest thing there is to a witness to Gallaret's murder. He's not an eyewitness, but he did listen to the last moments of Gallaret's life, the words she spoke, and how she said them. Anne Priceman is the producer I work with most closely on this story. She's in charge of, well, of pretty much everything. And one of the most important things she does is line up interviews. Anne has asked Rabin to sit down and tell us what he knows about his friend Galleray and about what happened the night she was killed. The night of, they put him in a car. Our station, KPRC, was there and has footage of him being put in a police car.

It's a component of the story. It's an essential component of the story. And then her phone buzzes. It's a text message from Rabin. He's ready for an interview. We good? Yep. All set? Yeah, 13, 18, 12, 13, 14, 15.

Okay. Tell me your name and spelling. Robin Bandar. It's R-O-B-E-N-B-A-N-D-A-R. Okay. Tell me about Galaret. Galaret. Very lovely, sweet. Start over again. Sorry. I can't really describe her.

It's hard to talk about her? Sometimes it is. They were protesting for the Green Movement of Iran. Like Kathy Sultani, Rabin first encountered Galaray during a political protest. She was one of the protesters, very active. We passed by, we decided to join. I remember the same day she was just calling my name out, Rabin, Rabin. And after that, we went to dinner, all of us together. And that's where we started, like, knowing each other. And then, late on January 15, 2012,

Rabin got a phone call from Galaret. We started having a normal conversation. I asked her to stop by. She was driving. Rabin had been getting his house ready for a visit from his mother. New paint, furniture. He says he wanted to get Galaret's seal of approval.

And she said that she has to go home because her mother asked her to do something. You could tell she's driving. She was driving. We're on the phone, we're talking, and she stopped talking. She was thinking. And I don't know if she said, wait a minute or not, but she stopped talking as if she's thinking or trying to figure out something. On the phone, Rabin says he could only imagine what happened.

Something, someone, gave Galaret pause. And when I asked, are you there? She said, hold on. Then another pause, rather long. Rabin guessed it was perhaps 15 seconds. And then she tried to tell me something. She said, honey, honey, twice. Honey. Galaret rarely said anything that wasn't emphatic.

But this word even more so. You know, when she was excited, she used to say, honey, listen. that wasn't emphatic, but this word even more so. You know, when she was excited, she used to say, honey, listen, honey this, honey that. Only this time, no more words would follow. Instead, Rabin said he heard something worse than silence. He heard his friend scream. It came from the bottom of Galaret's lungs.

And then, finally, silence. After that, Rabin said he left his house in a daze. So quickly, he forgot to put on shoes. He told us and the police he got into his car and drove the route Galleray might have taken. So he kind of drove backwards, you know, from where he lived at to try to locate her, thinking that she may have been in an automobile accident. This was no accident.

But soon it would be a colossal mystery. This investigation would keep Houston on edge for months. I've been at this a long time. And I got to say, this story even had me wondering, what on earth is happening here? A friend of mine who's a homicide detective says all murders can

be chalked up to either love, money, or pride. So think about that. Frequently it's love. Sometimes a killer looks at their spouse or partner and thinks, I don't love you anymore. Maybe now they love someone else, and they want their current partner out of the way. Or it could be money. That's the motive of legend for anybody who's watched a lot of Dateline. Killers think, if I get rid of you, I get that insurance payout, or I can cash

in on my inheritance a little sooner, and now I can keep all the money. If you're gone, I won't have to pay alimony. Then there's pride. I don't like the way you look at me. You disrespect me. You're divorcing me, or you're dumping me. Maybe it's part of a business deal. Maybe someone's being sued. Pride can be a pretty big motive. My friend's thinking is that once you classify the murder as love, money, or pride, well then figuring out who it is is a whole lot easier. And that was the problem here. What was the motive? This was a stubborn mystery because the killer was simultaneously so close and yet seemingly very far away. And even as the clues came together, the motive remained so inconceivable. I promise you will not want to miss finding out who was responsible in the end.

On the next episode of our Dateline podcast, Motive for Murder, Houston police look into Galleray's life. Could this murder be about love? Her boyfriend becomes a person of interest before police shift their attention to another admirer. Motive for Murder is brought to you by Dateline and NBC News. From Dateline, Anne Priceman is producer. Emily Wickwire is our additional producer. Allison Orr is senior producer. And Adam Gorfain is senior broadcast producer.

Liz Cole is Executive Producer. David Corvo is Senior Executive Producer. From Neon Hum Media, Audrey Ngo and Mary Knoth are Producers. Natalie Wren is Associate Producer. Catherine St. Louis is Editor. Jonathan Hirsch is Executive Producer. Original Music, Sound Design and Mix mixing by Andrew Eapen. Additional sound design by Artin Aritunians.

Additional production support from Nick White.