richard bolton: there was a female victim that was shot in a car, slumped over. cthis is houston 911 what are you reporting? >> i just heard what sounded like three gunshots. >> there was a female victim that was shot in a car. slumped over. >> i can't believe she's gone.

>> male had been found apparent gunshot wounds inside an apartment. >> stop screaming i can't understand you. >> my husband's been shot. >> most people don't know anybody that's been murders. >> but to know two and be stuck in the middle of that. >> it was like a hunting party stalking your family. >> i had a lot of fears for people's safety. >> this guy marshall his whole family as part of this criminal enterprise. >> right. >> there's a moment where ali stares at you and goes like this like he's ringing your neck? >> yes. he didn't like me. >> he's an evil man. worse than charles manson. sometimes it looks as if

houston, texas just goes on forever. sprawling all the way to the horizon. this was also the setting of a sprawling crime. one that began on a quiet sunday night with a young woman named gelareh. >> she went home and i told her when she got home to text me and let me show know she made it home okay. >> just past 11:00 a.m., she chatted on the phone with her friend. >> we're on the phone talking. >> then as gelareh pulled into the townhouse complex where she lived with her parents for a

moment she stopped talking. >> when i asked are you there and she said hold on, she honked and she said they're not moving. >> and then the phone dropped. >> and i heard a very loud scream. it was a scream like it was from bottom of her lungs like she shouted so loud. >> rabin dialed 91 on another line as he sped to gelareh's house. >> i was with my friend. >> i heard something. she's not responding back but the phone is still on. >> robeen arrived at the front door of gelareh and her parents and everything looked normal. >> her parents answered the door with a smile. i asked if gelareh is home say they said no. i said i was on the phone with her, i was actually still on the phone with her. >> the call was still live but there was nothing coming from it gelareh's end of the line.

robeen drove off to look for her and called 911 again. >> what if something really terrible happened to her. i can't find out where she is. >> just north of town gelareh's boyfriend cory waited for her to text him she was home safe. >> we had this thing. i would get so absorbed with studying that i wouldn't check my phone sometimes so she would be like you need to call me and don't disappear. and so this night i text her hey are you okay let me know you made it home and i'm thinking maybe she's doing that to me now that she's like i'm going to show him how it feels. >> giving you a taste of your own medicine? >> yeah. so then i went to bed. >> he wasn't that concerned but over at gelareh's complex, neighbors had been calling 911. >> um, i just heard who sounded like three gunshots right behind my unit. a car leaving suddenly and i'm afraid to go out there and see what's happened. >> did you see the car leave

suddenly? >> i can't see. my discharge is behind my town house. >> i heard three gunshots. >> did you see the vehicle it came from? >> no, i didn't. it just the screeching tire pulling out you could hear. >> and it all happened in the garages of the same complex where gelareh and her parents lived. soon a patrol unit for the houston police department pulled up to the rear driveway. ryan was a reporter for nbc affiliate kprc. >> that first responding officer knows something's wrong. >> a car crashed into a garage door, engine on, wheels spinning. >> he looks around, reaches in number one to shut that engine off so the tires stop. >> the front passenger window was shattered. inside a woman in the drive's seat. slumped to her right. >> and then he looks over, realizes there's nothing he can do to help her and realizes

he's got to call for investigators. >> the woman had been shot through the head. it was gelareh. within minutes the houston police department's homicide squad arrived at the rear of the townhouse complex. >> i went back to gelareh's house, police over there and yellow ribbons, you know. >> crime scene tape. >> exactly. >> gelareh's friend robeen says he hadn't heard the gunshots over the phone. he was still searching for an accident scene and wondered if that lay behind the tape. >> what did you think had happened? >> i don't know. i couldn't connect the dots. >> it would take a long time to connect those dots. because this was a mystery almost too surreal to believe. and solving it would take not just years, but also at least one more murder. coming up. >> so you look at that tape of gelareh in the gas station. >> right. >> anybody with her?

>> nope. >> she seem upset or worried? >> no, sir. >> her cell phone. her purse. all that stuff was still there. >> all there. no robbery. >> so what's going on here? >> we really don't know. >> but someone does know something. >> she said i've got a lot to tell you. tell you. ccine used to prevent lower respiratory disease from rsv in people 60 years and older. arexvy does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients. those with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. the most common side effects are injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and joint pain. i chose arexvy. rsv? make it arexvy. wanna know a secret? with new secret outlast, you can almost miss the bus... but smell like you didn't. secret fights 99% of odor-causing bacteria. smell fresh for up to 72 hours. secret works! it's a crime to smell that good. what can you do with sensitive skin?

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when cory beavers said good night to his girlfriend, gelareh, on that sunday evening in january, he had no idea he would never see her again. when cory said good night to his girlfriend gelareh he had no idea he would never see her again. the couple had only been dating a little while, but the young romance was moving quickly. >> were you in love with her? >> i think we were head over heels for one another. i mean we were together 24/7 for two months. >> they'd met in school at md anderson. gelareh who'd moved here from iran in 2007 was studying molecular genetics. after graduation she'd hoped to

become a csi. one afternoon cory was waiting for his sister-in-law nesreen who happened to walk out with a classmate, gelareh. >> i told nesreen yeah, she's pretty cute. she had a party and then we started dating a couple days after that. >> gelareh and cory fell fast and hard. >> why'd you like her? >> she seemed genuine and caring. you didn't have to change anything about yourself so i was just really comfortable being with her. >> as young couples often do they spent every spare minute together. driving to school, movies, dinners, or just hanging out at home. and during much of that time they had company. >> so you guys all four hang around together? >> pretty much, yep. >> the other couple in this fourmany. nesreen and her husband cody.

cory's identical twin. >> we were the ones driving to school all the time together. coming home together. they got a lot closer -- >> two close friends are now dating two twin brothers. >> right. right. >> i'm thinking you were probably not unhappy to see her with your son. >> i could tell he was happy. >> the twin's mom thought they'd both done well. cody with nesreen. cory with gelareh. >> as a mom that's what you want. and she seemed like a very good person. just like nesreen was a good person. >> shirley loved the energy -- how thrilled she was.

>> she'd gotten christmas presents for cory and for other people and was just so excited to give them out. >> gelareh you're being selfish. >> bouncing around and so happy and she wanted other people to be happy. >> that ball of energy was what friends loved. >> she was full of life. she was funny. crazy. full of energy. everything packaged in a tiny body all together. >> but very loud. >> super loud. yes. very animated. she couldn't hide her feelings. >> about anything. about iran. about the traffic. about -- >> anything. >> she loved church, playing piano, dancing and most of all her friends and family. gelareh the center of attention in the best sort of way. >> she was just screaming all

the time and running and jumping and even hugging people. it wasn't a normal hug. she's kind of hanging on your neck because she was so petite and so full of life. she was very sweet. >> and so that morning after gelareh was murdered, kathy could hardly believe it when she received a call. >> that was so surreal. one of our friends from our group he called me and said have you heard the news about gelareh. >> kathy thought she was about to hear good 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? and then he told me. i'm sorry. i couldn't speak after that. my voice just left my body.

it was very sad. anyways, i tried to talk but i couldn't get my voice. i couldn't hear my own voice and i finally just i was yelling but this really faint voice. >> sometimes it is. >> cory was among the last to find out. he was looking forward to seeing gelareh later that day. but he hadn't turned on the news before he drove over to her place. >> you don't know anything about a 30-year-old girl that lives in that apartment right there and i was like yeah,

that's where my girlfriend lives. >> what are you thinking at that point? >> i don't know. like just a million thoughts started racing through my head. she just told me you need to go talk to the family. and so i just jumped out of my car and i knocked on the door and her dad answered. i was like what happened to her? and he's like gelareh's dead. and it's like, it sounds weird but i was thinking maybe she was just in a car accident or something. not that she was just gone. >> what happens next? >> so i go into their house and her mom is just a wreck. >> gelareh bagherzadeh's parents. >> very tough time. >> you're remembering. what are you thinking about?

>> i couldn't believe. >> what did you think had happened? >> we didn't know. she has no enemy. >> grief and questions were fighting for space in everyone's heads. and not one single answer would come easily. come easily. detectives focus onagers friend robeen who it turns out was also her ex. >> they grab me and put me in the back of patrol car. i remember calling a friend and telling them if you don't hear from me by tomorrow noon look for me because i sense something's wrong. >> and that you're going to be blamed for it? >> possibly. >> when dateline continues. tel . because you have plenty of reasons to show off your skin. with dupixent, the number one prescribed biologic by dermatologists and allergists,

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so many in houston knew and loved gelareh. so many came to celebrate and to mourn her. so many in houston knew and loved gelareh. so many came to celebrate and

to mourn her. >> that chapel is i think it seats 700 people and it was fully packed. there were people standing. people were outside. >> big picture of her? >> there was a big picture of her. it was a sad day. her friends were there. her professors were there. and the few number of years she lived in houston she knew so many people. >> and all of them in a state of shock. >> everybody. >> our life is changed. really changed. >> for her family, even that outpouring of sympathy could not blunt their pain. >> do you know when i left, my laughing is changed. it's not like before. >> gelareh's murder also hit the beavers family hard and not

just cory. nesreen and cody. >> and he was just, you know, losing it over gelareh. and then i could hear nesreen in the background screaming and crying. so i have all of it falling to pieces at the same time. >> while the family dealt with the shock, investigators puzzled over who was responsible for gelareh's murder. houston pd detective richard bolton, now retired -- >> you can smell like, you know, burning tire. you can see evidence on the ground where the car was just sitting there and just spinning for a while. >> investigators began with the contents of her car which explained exactly what kind of crime this was not first of all

her cell phone, her purse. all that stuff of gelareh's was still there. >> all there. no robbery. >> obviously no sexual assault. >> no sexual assault. >> so what's going on here? >> at that point in time we really don't know. >> the forensic team went to work. gelareh was shot from outside the passenger window. that bullet passing straight through her head and fragmenting on the ground. another grazed her arm and lodged in the driver's side door. >> what kind of gun killed gelareh? >> according to our firearms analysis it was a .38 caliber. >> pretty common. >> yes, sir. >> outside the car detectives noticed one of the lights over the garage, making a dim driveway even dimmer. was that a killer at work? >> somebody might have reached up there and unscrewed the lightbulb. >> csi swabbed the light for dna. dusted it for prints and did a full work up on gelareh's car.

they found a latent print and sent that off too. on the ground near her car a cigarette butt. evidence, perhaps, that someone had been waiting for gelareh and passed the time smoking. reporter ryan. >> they didn't know where it came from or who it might have come from. at that point they gathered that dna evidence thinking there might be something on there to get that processed. >> investigators canvassed the townhouse complex door to door, neighbor to neighbor. turns out one neighbor had heard something and then peeked out his window. >> he heard the gunshots and then moments later he saw either a light blue or silver honda accord or toyota camry fleeing the scene. >> it was a start. now the detective wondered among the millions in the greater houston metro area how did the killer select gelareh. they needed to trace her steps in the mines before her murder.

>> in the car there was a receipt that night at a gas station. >> the station had security cameras. >> so you look at that tape of gelareh and the gas station. >> right. >> anybody with her? >> nope. >> she seem in any way upset or worried? >> no, sir. >> she's not looking over her shoulder. >> she purchases a pack of cigarettes and leaves. video tape doesn't show any other cars pull in behind her or following her, anything like that. >> which brought the cops back to robeen who arrived at the murder scene just minutes after the shooting. >> the cops came to me and i was trying to go to see what's going on and they said who are you? i said i'm looking for my friend and i was on the phone with her. they grabbed me and put me in the back of a patrol car. >> keep you from learning anything else. >> exactly. >> of course they asked robeen about the nature of his relationship with gelareh. >> we learned that in the past

that he and gelareh had dated each other. >> we had a lot of similarities, personality wise and all that. we had strong feelings but we clashed so much so we decided to stay friends. >> so you made the transition from boyfriend girlfriend to being pals. >> exactly. >> and that worked out. >> it worked out. she was dating somebody else. i was dating it somebody else too. >> and you were okay with that. >> and we were both okay. >> police ask you about all of this i'm sure. >> oh yeah. they did. >> about whether there was any lingering anger that things hadn't worked out between you and gelareh. >> that was the main concern, yes. >> so robeen's presence at the scene right after the murder remained at the very least provocative to detectives. >> we just don't know at this time. we don't really know. >> i remember calling a friend and telling them, you know, i don't know what happened but if you don't hear anything from me

like by tomorrow noon look for me. because i sense something's wrong. and i didn't know -- >> and that you're going to be blamed for it. >> possibly. >> now robeen wasn't the only person detectives had their eyes on. gelareh had a number of friends and popularity can sure complicate a murder investigation. a murder investigation. coming up, turns out she'd recently had an unfriendly encounter online. >> he had like threatened her he's like you'll be sorry the next time i see you. she just laughed about it. >> when dateline continues. tel s like carpal tunnel syndrome, shortness of breath, and irregular heartbeat could mean something more serious, called attr-cm a rare, underdiagnosed disease that worsens over time. sound like you? call your cardiologist and ask about attr-cm.

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less after the national association of realtors settled a lawsuit accusing the group of artificially inflating real estate commissions. real estate agents is no longer require a 6% sales commission. for now back to dateline. reassembling a murder victim's life is a process that moves slowly, even though those doing it want just the opposite. so houston police focused on the hours before gelareh's life ended. and that landed them on the doorstep of her new boyfriend cory beavers. >> we learned that she was at cory's house that evening. they watched movies and then left i think before midnight. >> detectives were eager to talk with cory and cory says he was eager as well. he'd even left his number with a reporter at the crime scene

hoping, he says, that cops would reach out to him. >> so i gave her my phone number like i know the detectives are going to want to talk to me because i'm the boyfriend. so if you can, just pass on my information to them when they get here. >> cory came in to talk the evening after gelareh's murder. straight from the book investigators asked him where he was when gelareh was shot. at home, cory said. except for a quick run out for a soda. >> after she left i went to a gas station and i told him about this. >> after a long conversation, cory was free to go for the time being. houston pd had other leads to run down. like a friend of robeen's whom gelareh had words with just a couple of days before she was murdered. >> they had gotten in it an argument on facebook like that friday. i think he had like threatened her. he's like you'll be sorry the next time i see you and she just kind of like laughed about it and was like he's just being

a silly boy. >> investigators ran a full check on the facebook friend. >> we get court orders and stuff for his cell phones and he's at a bar. >> so -- >> we were able to rule this person out. >> doesn't feel like it's him. >> then another possibility. gelareh's father had been embroiled in a lawsuit with his former employer. a lot of money was at stake, along with some peoples reputations. >> i know was for quite a bit of money, so i told him maybe they were out for some kind of revenge or something against her dad. >> gelareh lived with her parents and so police wondered if her murder could somehow be tied to that. gelareh's friend kathy acted as the family's surrogate. >> police told you they were investigating the possibility that the lawsuit with gelareh's father involved in, they looked at that. >> yeah, these are routes they did go. but they weren't giving us

every little detail unless it was something that they thought they should come and check with the family and get more information. >> and the list went on. investigators looked at another ex-boyfriend and came by his place for a talk and he had a solid alibi. detectives also checked out a report of a man who bragged about killing women in the area where gelareh was shot. he turned out to be disturbed but not homicidal. and they spent some time tracking down a carjacking crew that was working gelareh's neighborhood. >> well we had the gang task force over there. we're thinking maybe this was the same group trying to steal another car. >> didn't work out and they shot her. >> it didn't work out and they shot her. >> but their weapon of choice didn't match what killed gelareh. >> he said man we had a shotgun. we rob people with shotguns. >> then there was that thing about gelareh's father's lawsuit.

after a closer look, that fizzled out too. >> they went down one after another after another trail and never got anywhere. >> after working through each new person of interest, investigators turned back to one of their first. cory. >> they called me in. which i thought was weird because this was three or four months later. why didn't you polygraph me the first week if you're trying to track down who did this. >> and the answer might be you're so distraught then that really wouldn't make a difference. >> they were asking me these questions that were what color your shirt was and that was the baseline question. then they'd ask you did you shoot that girl? i'd get upset because they were calling her that girl. >> but cory wasn't just upset about how they were questioning him, he was upset they weren't going harder on him. >> you were upset because you weren't under enough suspicion. >> if you're not looking at me what are you going to do when you have the guy that actually

did it? do you think he's going to tell you he did it? >> you didn't feel under sufficient suspicion made you feel they weren't working hard. >> okay. maybe they got an honest, uninvolved vibe off of you. >> right. >> even if cory thought he should have faced more scrutiny he passed the polygraph and his cell records backed up his alibi. >> cory was nowhere around the area at the time of her death. >> this time the boyfriend didn't do it. where did that leave detectives? maybe a whole other theory would provide the answers. coming up, investigators learned gelareh had protested against the regime of her native country. >> there was one theory that the iranian government could have been involved. >> she was a very outspoken person. >> she took this seriously. >> she did. she did. >> when dateline continues. tel spraying flonase daily gives you long lasting non-drowsy relief.

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number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. with all of the possible theories of gelareh's murder, one simply came from the fact that she sought with all of the possible theories of gelareh's murder,

one simply came from the fact that she sought the spotlight for a cause. she dreamt of regime change. >> said young girl, don't do that. it's not good for your throat and your voice. and she said no, i'm so frustrated and that's why i'm doing it so loud. that's the day we met. >> loud seems to be sort of the default setting for gelareh. >> definitely. yes. i don't know how that voice fit in that tiny body. >> protesting the iranian regime was also how she met her friend robeen. >> she was very outspoken

person. in a way feminist. >> she took this seriously. >> she did. she did. and she was pretty involved. >> did you ever worry that she was too outspoken that that was going to get her in trouble? >> yes. >> you did. >> yeah. >> did you talk to her about that? >> oh yeah. >> what would she say? >> she said i'm not worried. i have to say the truth. >> now with gelareh's murder in the headlines, there was quite a lot of speculation. >> there was one theory out there that the iranian government could have been involved. that's because she was very involved in these pro human rights campaigns. so it was a thought, it was a belief but really it added to the intrigue of this case. >> were you concerned. >> we reached out to the fbi. we met with an fbi retired

agent who was probably an expert in middle east affairs to try to determine if this could be something politically done. >> while the feds looked into it, police revisited someone they'd met at the crime scene. >> main suspect because i was on the phone with her. back and forth to the police station downtown. >> what were police asking you? >> just about everything. >> for one thing, detectives noticed robeen had a photo. >> we went back and we met with him again over that. >> what did you see and what made you meet with him? >> if he's got guns let's see if he still has them. maybe he's got a .38 we can compare it. >> and that definitely got police attention. >> it got police attention. they had access to everything, i can imagine. all my life. all my facebook. >> could you feel the weight? >> i definitely did, yes.

>> that wasn't the last time they'd talk with robeen. >> they asked me to take a polygraph. >> you did? >> i did. willingly. >> you didn't hire an attorney. >> no. >> robeen told us he thought he was the main suspect. was he right? >> at one point in time he was. but everybody was. >> months went by with no answers in gelareh's murder. >> what are the police saying? >> not much. everybody was in this bubble of confusion and frustration and so many leads and so many calls. >> through crime stoppers gelareh's family offered $200,000 for information. how many tips came in on crime stoppers for that giant reward? >> i'm going to say 10 to 15. >> 10 to 15 real legitimate tips you would end up spending man hours checking out. >> yep. >> any of that go anywhere? >> nope.

took us to a couple of people who were i'd say mentally unstable maybe trying to collect $200,000 on the way. >> and forensics results from the crime scene weren't very telling. the light that was suspiciously dimmed, csis couldn't pull a print or any dna from it. the latent print off the hood of gelareh's car belonged to a mechanic who'd worked on it recently and he had a solid alibi. that cigarette butt they found led nowhere. >> we processed it. really didn't get us anything. could have been rain. didn't get no dna off of it. >> as for the theory that the iranian government was behind gelareh's murder, those close to her had always regarded it as preposterous. >> we were not important. they wouldn't waste their energy and time to come and do something like this. >> gelareh wasn't a big enough fish. >> no, none of us was.

>> eventually investigators became convinced as well. the speculation amounted to nothing. >> we looked, but there was nothing that suggested that the iranian government had anything to do with this. >> and gelareh's friend robeen seemed to be clearing himself. results from his polygraph showed nothing suspicious. as for his cell records? >> he said near his home and he's on the phone with gelareh. >> putting him exactly where he said he was all along. that said, detectives still weren't done with robeen. they thought he might have buried memories of that awful night. >> they hypnotized me. maybe my unconscious mind will tell them something. >> did that help? >> i don't think so. and that was it. >> in june, six months after gelareh's murder, her friends and family gathered to mark her birthday. it was memorialized in this

video. gelareh's boyfriend cory beavers was there too. and clearly struggling. >> there's no getting over something like that, is there? >> it's kind of always there. you learn to live with it but i don't -- it doesn't go away, no. >> summer crept into fall and so did the investigation. no breaks. no arrests. and then in the northern end of the city late afternoon as dusk approached came a call to 911. >> oh ma'am, my husband's been shot. >> coming up. another murder. >> she found him unresponsive on the floor of the apartment and she immediately began crying and shouting and a neighbor actually helped her to dial 911 to report it. >> i can't believe this happened. it feels like a nightmare. i can't believe it. >> could it have anything to do

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ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy for copd the future has a way of arriving unannounced. one minute, cory beavers life revolved around a woman named gelareh. the future has a e waway of arriving unannounced. one minute cory beavers' life revolved around a woman named gelareh. the next she was gone, murdered in cold blood. >> i didn't want to believe she was just gone. >> for months it seemed the ache and anguish would never end. then just as the heaviness lifted enough for cory to refocus on school, and a series of upcoming exams. >> they were like high stakes tests if you failed them you were out of the program. >> life delivered another serving of the worst news possible. it was november 12, 2012. and cory beavers woke up feeling dreadful. >> i was just like i was out of

it. like my -- it was like brain fog when people talk about that twin to twin connection. that that happened that day. >> the twin connection, coty and cory. that innate sense that one twin has when something is up with the other. cory didn't know what that something was at the time. his mom shirley mccormick was first to hear the devastating news. >> around midnight got knock on the door that no parent wants to get. >> police. >> right. >> what do they say? >> they ask me when i was coty's mother. i asked them, yes, i am and is he okay and they said no. >> she immediately headed for the home of coty's identical twin brother cory. >> about 1:30 in the morning and i just kind of woke up and

rolled over and saw my text message she said i'm at your front door open the door. >> what did your mother said? >> she said somebody killed coty. then i don't really remember a whole lot. >> just ten months after the murder of his girlfriend, cory was confronted with the death of his twin brother. someone who'd been as constant as his own shadow for 28 years. >> we were really good growing up. kind of like he was my best friend and he always had my back. we were always close. >> now two members of that happy foursome had died violently. >> most people never know anybody that's been murdered. >> exactly. it's one thing if two people are murdered at one point and then it's another that one person is murdered and then ten months later somebody else is murdered. >> it began as a hot november

day slowly gave way to a balmy houston night. a call came in to 911. >> 911. hello? [ screaming ] >> stop screaming i can't understand you. >> the woman on the line was desperate. her voice piercing. >> oh, ma'am. my husband's been shot. i just came home. >> he's been shot? who shot him? >> i don't know, ma'am. i don't know. >> where's the gun? >> i don't know. >> the operator needed some basic information. >> okay, what's your name? >> my name is nesreen irsan. nesreen. nesreen. >> spell it. >> n as in nancy. e as in edward. s as is sam. r as is roger. >> nesreen, coty beavers' wife.

>> lay him flat on his back. >> i can't. he's stiff. >> he's stiff? >> he's stiff. i hate my life. >> there was no point to cpr. coty was dead. >> why god? why did god do this to me? >> god wasn't the one that did it, sweetie. >> coty beavers had been shot to death in his own apartment. among the first on the scene of coty's murder. >> could you tell what weapon killed coty? >> i could not. it was later determined to be a small caliber. >> cartridge casings at the scene? >> there were none. >> one thing was instantly clear. coty beavers never had a chance. somebody had put seven bullet holes in him before coty could grab the assault rifle found leaning against the wall. >> he died with his hand very close to that weapon.

>> and it seemed the killer or killers of coty beavers wanted his death to deliver a message. >> his wedding ring was actually found on his middle finger. that's not where he wore it. >> he wore it on the same finger. >> that's correct. >> you know. could it be a signal? could it be a message? that's very possible. >> exactly what that message said was another question. was there a third person involved in some triangle with coty and nesreen? if so, was that a man or a woman? or was there someone else who had an issue with their marriage? the detective believed those questions would be key to solving this murder. to answer them, he'd have to reconstruct every moment of that gruesome day. it was about 4:30 in the afternoon when coty's wife nesreen had stepped into the apartment to find the tv on and

the coppery scent of blood in the air. >> she found him unresponsive on the floor of the apartment and she immediately began crying and shouting. a neighbor heard that activity and when he came over he actually helped her to dial 911 to report it. >> that's when she made that 911 call. >> i can't believe this happened. it feels like a nightmare. i can't believe it. i really want to die. i really want to die. >> she was obviously extremely upset. crying. what you would expect from someone that just lost someone they love. >> at 24, nesreen beavers had only been married a little more than a year. and now she was a widow. >> i'm sure you feel at this point tremendous sympathy for her. >> yes. >> but it would be a mistake to

sort of look only at that and let nesreen off the hook here. >> correct. one of the worst things an investigator can do is develop what we call tunnel vision. yes, it it was still wide open at that point. >> so the homicide detective took the wife's statement. according to nesreen the last time she had seen her husband was at about 5:30 that morning. >> she had left for work at that time. he would walk her to her car. >> it's still dark at that hour? >> yes, sir. it was still dark. >> the newlyweds had only been in their new apartment for a month or so. nesreen explained she had the only key to the front door. >> he would leave it unlocked because she had a key. she had the key. >> so somebody's maybe observing their routine and goes into the apartment knowing it's unlocked while they're walking to her car? >> very possible. >> the detective was all ears listening for anything that didn't ring true.

particularly of interest how nesreen would explain the contents of her handbag. >> by the time you came into contact with nesreen she did have a gun. she was carrying a gun. >> yes. >> as the sky darkened the detective put the new widow in his car. he had more questions and it turned out nesreen had answers for things he'd never imagined asking. >> she told me she said sergeant, i've got a lot to tell you if you'll listen to me. >> coming up. stories of a diabolical plot with other victims. >> she was being held at the house. >> and she's being essentially kidnapped. >> not allowed to leave. yes. >> when dateline continues. tel

josh mankiewicz: in the wake of a murder, those left behind struggle to make sense of the senseless. in the wake of the murder, those left behind struggle to make sense of the senseless.

when someone loses a twin, the agony can be even more profound, a mirror image, vanished. after coty beaver's murder came a haunting question , was it possible that his identical twin brother, cory, gelareh's boyfriend, was the real target market was this all a case of mistaken identity? >> in the beginning, i thought, what if they were after corey? what if gelareh and corey were after something , we talked about it. yes, and by mistake. >> not according to corey beaver's wife, who says, his murder was no mistake. >> she had put a lot out there. the story kept growing. >> the story nesreen told detectives began years earlier, in the fall of 2009. she enrolled in a local community college. there, she met corey beavers, who set her up with his twin

brother, coty. nesreen and coty were instantly a couple. soon, she ditched her job, started wearing makeup. as a relationship with cory grew more serious, she even converted to christianity. her father, ali irsan was an immigrant from jordan, and when he found out, he was not pleased. >> he had his beliefs and he forbids her from seeing coty. would not let her date anymore without his approval. >> nesreen said, her father was trying to control her and confine nesreen to the family home . >> she was being held at the house by her mother and some siblings. >> nesreen is how old at this point? >> at that point, she was 23 if i'm not mistaken. >> and she was being essentially kidnapped? >> not allowed to leave, yes. >> it was the summer of 2011

and she said she wanted to escape, when her father left her in the custody of her stepmother and sister so he could travel back to jordan, nesreen saw her chance. >> she said she climbed out of the window and went to a neighbors house and asked them to give her a ride. the neighbor did. that is when she went to the house in spring. >> where coty was? >> yes, sir. >> coty and cory's mother were members when nesreen showed up on her doorstep. >> so, nesreen comes to live with you , she does not have any close-- >> no, she only had the clothes on her back, literally. >> two weeks later, nesreen and cory were married by the justice of the peace. >> when you saw them together, just stars in their eyes. >> he was in love?>> yes. they both were, very much.

>> there were so, however, who did not wish the newlyweds happily ever after. according to nesreen , her father was way past anger at her decision to run off and mary coty beavers . he became, she says, dangerously unhinged, obsessed, to the point of talking nesreen, her new husband, and his family. >> many of her neighbors told her that a person matching her father's description approached them and offered them money for information on where she and coty were living . >> you allegedly confirmed this with the neighbors of spring? yes, we did. >> so she was telling the truth about this? >> yes. >> destocking continued after nesreen and coty were married and living in their own place. in fact, whenever a wooded that a few days before coty was murdered, a stranger came to her door asking where coty had lived here it's >> she talked to the person through the door and she only looked through the people at

the individual. >> so, you get the sketch of what samadhi looks like a people? >> correct. >> the man in the sketch did not look like nesreen's dad, but nesreen said, in my divisible one of her relatives. she told the tech of the gun she had been carrying in her pocketbook at the crime scene had been one of many she and her house had recently acquired to protect themselves from nesreen's family. >> you examined that? >> yes. >> same caliber as the weapon that killed her husband? >> no. >> does she insist on an attorney? >> never. >> and she asked the polygraph? >> yes. >> anything proved to be false in what she said? >> no. >> so you're growing more confident? >> it's leaning that way at this point. >> after the murder, nesreen

had no place to go. she can go back to the apartment she shared with coty, that was a crime scene . so, she called her mother-in-law. >> how was nesreen? >> just devastated. >> both shirley and nesreen had a bad feeling with coty's killer or killers still on the loose, they did not feel safe anywhere. >> we did not go back to my house to spend the night because-- >> not safe. >> we went to spend the night with some friends. nesreen slept with me that night and just cried all night and called out for coty . >> for nesreen, haunted by family secrets , there would be many more sleepless nights. coming up, investigators learn gelareh may have had her own run-in with nesreen's father. >> she said, hello, and in she said, is this that iranian ?

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it was in the sterile confines of an interview room that nesreen beavers unspooled the tangled facts of her life. hear it was in the sterile confines of an interview room that nesreen beavers unspool the facts of her life. what she'd seen, what she'd heard, what she'd thought, all of it was interesting. one nugget was a screw showstopper. >> she told me about her close

friend, gelareh, who had been killed earlier that year. she expressed that she had concerns that her father was involved in the murder of her friend, gelareh. >> that might have been surprising to sergeant, but it had already occurred to some people close to gelareh bagherzadeh. gelareh had known all about nesreen's family troubles . she even had a couple of run-ins with nesreen's dad, ali irsan, over the phone. >> at one point he had called gelareh and she told him off and said, just live-- let her live her life at this point, you are not in charge of her. >> you are present to that call? >> she told me about this call. >> cory beavers says that about a month later, ali irsan contacted gelareh again. >> she said, hello, and then he said, is that the iranian ?

and that is when she went off on him. >> the tiny woman with a big voice let ali irsan know exactly what she thought of him. >> and she started talking to him in farsi. at my understanding, she was telling him off. >> i said, i think it might have been ali. it was probably ali. >> you don't think it was jumping to conclusions, it was just a voice on the phone, and he was going to kill her? >> i don't know, i just felt like he had something to do with it. >> richard bolton, the detective working the gelareh case said ali irsan had been on his radar. >> for 10 months, who were your prime suspects? >> i'm not going to say suspects , i'm going to is a person of interest. the person of interest was cory, ali irsan right off the bat, and nesreen said , her dad

did it. >> it seems to me, he was not at the top of your list. >> well, we had no evidence to arrest him here she is making an allegation, but there is nothing to substantiate that. >> while it might seem far- fetched that a couple of telephone conversations between strangers could lead to a murder, bolton says, he took it seriously. he brought ali irsan and for an interview and asked him if he knew anything about gelareh. >> talking to him about gelareh. i don't know her, i don't know nothing . i don't know what you're talking about. was not open with us about anything. it is like prying a nail out of a two by four. >> they kept an eye on ali irsan, even looks at his phone records. >> they are not even on at that hour of night, we are not able to tell if he was there or not. >> if mr. irsan had something

to do with it-- >> the cell phone records don't indicate it, not at all. >> now, the hinds county sheriff's office needed to talk to ali irsan, and he said, the man that showed up at his interrogation room did not ask at all like the mobster nesreen had described. >> he came across as before, helpful father, his daughter ran away from home, he was merely trying to find her, bring her home. >> just help me get her back >> yes. i explained to him, i was just dear due to the murder of coty beavers . that is what i was investigating. he said, he did not know the guy, he was sorry it happened to him, he did not really think about it. >> while the other two investigator interviewed ali irsan, the police searched his home. they turned up some guns and ammo, but nothing that could be

definitively matched to the crime scene. however, two vehicles were parked in the yard with curious content. one held some knives, weeks, knit caps, and gloves. in the glovebox of one of the cars, investigators found this, an envelope with scribbles one both sides. >> it had several license plate numbers written down on it and there was an address, at least one address on that envelope. >> sure, altogether it seems suspicious, but that was not enough to make an arrest. it was enough for a conference call. >> we had, of course is, houston police department, montgomery county sheriff's office, office of inspector general, fbi, homeland security. >> that is a lot of artillery against just one guy here it's >> yes. >> by the time mourners had marked the first anniversary of gelareh bagherzadeh's death, sergeant had a assimilate task

force and ali irsan was squarely in his crosshairs. coming up, investigators make a discovery at irsan home . a gps unit with a story to tell, when "dateline" continues. continues. arexvy is a vaccine used to prevent lower respiratory disease from rsv in people 60 years and older. arexvy does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients. those with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. the most common side effects are injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and joint pain. i chose arexvy. rsv? make it arexvy.

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and breath to be had. because with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy keeps my airways open and prevents future flare-ups. and with one dose a day, trelegy improves lung function so i can breathe more freely all day and night. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. ♪ what a wonderful world ♪ ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy for copd because breathing should be beautiful.

here's morikawa in a tough spot. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy for copd off the comcast business van. look out! where did the ball go? oh, wait there it is. back in to play! and that's in! what an impossible shot! if ali irsan was a murderer, he was a good one. there have been no fingerprints, no dna, imif ali irsan was a murderer, he was a good one.

there had been no fingerprints, no dna, no shell casings left behind at either crime scene. there had been no witnesses, no murder weapons. cory and coty's older brother, adam, seth, the family was not shy about asking investigators questions . >> what are you going to do to solve this murder, and hold the people accountable? they listened, but we were given very limited response. we are working the case, very generic kind of answers. >> what were investigators doing? they had ali irsan under constant surveillance. and with the help of the fence, they were digging through every part of irsan's life . he arrived in the west from jordan in 1979 and married nesreen's mother, an american woman who was blind eared she told investigators about years of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of irsan. no charges were ever filed.

his second wife, a jordanian woman, was only in her teens when they married, but 2014, ali irsan was the father of 12 . how did he support that family? well, it was not through a 9:00 to 5:00 gate here it's >> some of the allegations nesreen had brought forward was her father was involved in multiple fraud spirits >> fbi agent carlos acosta was a member of the task force. he says, the search of the compound back up nesreen's claims , and revealed a paper trail. >> from local frauds to rural frauds, social security administration fraud, benefits fraud. >> the special task force says, some of the ripped off squats-- schemes work ingenious, as they were brazen. ali irsan filed fraudulent claims in the names of his children, and input multiple

mailboxes at the end of his driveway to receive the check spirits >> how much money did irsan get from the federal government that he was not entitled to? >> several hundreds of thousands of dollars over appear close on. >> in 2014, a year and a half after the coty beavers murder, and more than two years after the murder of gelareh bagherzadeh, the full weight of the task force landed on irsan's doorstep. the fbi executed the search while it's s.w.a.t. team served arrest warrants. by the end of the day, ali irsan, his wife, and another daughter were all in federal custody on fraud charges. >> in the end, was it easier to prove credit card fraud and social security fraud against all the that any murder charge? >> yes. we were moved boxes and boxes of documents out of the house. the attic was full. i think we

stayed out there for 2 or three days. >> police called you and said, ali irsan has been arrested . >> yes, they told us he had been picked up to fraud. >> but that they were going to try to turn that into a homicide prosecution? >> correct. >> by now, investigators thought they had a handle on irsan's possible motive for murder. in the case of coty, it was clear irsan disapproved of the marriage and murder was one way to it it as for gelareh, she had never even met ali irsan. it seems , her crime was speaking her mind over the phone to a man who assembled any defiance from women. >> she did not care who she offended marks >> no, she talked before she thought here it's >> investigators had in fact learned that one of six's cars had been near the gelareh crime scene . that got irsan indicted for gelareh's

murder, in addition to the fraud charges. they still did not have quite enough evidence to add on the murder of coty beavers . so, surveillance on the irsan home continued , that is what eventually produced a critical piece of evidence. >> one of our surveillance teams contacted me and they informed me that they had observed two of ali's sons accessing an area of the roof line of the house, the rear of the house, which they believe was a hidden compartment. >> investigators recovered two gps units that had been hidden in a space behind the gutters, though neither unit was operable , over a period of months, forensic tests and the fbi computer lab managed to coax one of them back to life. >> they were able to recover data which puts that unit, not only to the exact location, but within the same date and time

period of the coty murder. >> it is a roadmap for molly's house to coty's house on the date of the murder. >> actually ali's house, all the way to the apartment where coty was murdered . >> in april 2015, three years after gelareh bagherzadeh and coty beavers were killed, ali irsan was charged with capital murder in both cases. >> we just kind of wanted justice, and i don't know, it was just a long time to wait for it. >> the weight was not close to over, and neither was the trail of bodies. >> coming up, ali irsan goes on trial , and it is unlike anything prosecutors have experienced before. >> i have never tried a case where you really thought these people's lives were in danger. >> when "dateline" continues.

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hi, i am richard lui with a news update. the judge overseeing the donald trump election interference case ruled friday that fulton county da fani willis can remain on the case with the condition that she had prosecutor nathan wade, who she had a romantic religion ship with, stepped down, wade resigned a few hours later. voting has begun in the russian presidential election. vladimir putin is expected to win and begin another six years of power. his opponents are either dead, or exiled. there have been voter lead protests surrounding that election. for now, back to "dateline." mes appropriate here. d here on "dateline," we don't quote toy store that often, but somehow, it seems appropriate here. he said famously that each unhappy family is unhappy in

its own way. if you could have imagined the family as unhappy or as seemingly dysfunctional as the one headed by irsan, a father of 12 , now charged with murdering his daughter's husband , and her best friend. prosecutors said, he had help from his wife and his eldest son. >> we realized it was really a family operation. he, his wife, son involved in this, really trying to take everyone out of his daughter's orbit. >> in this alleged crime family , it's patriarch was the first to stand trial in june 2018. the victims' family and friends had waited six years. >> when you are in the courtroom, you see ali irsan for the first time in-person. probably pretty hard to conceal your hatred for someone like that? >> i don't even know if i hate

him. i didn't really pay that much attention to him, i paid attention to the jury, because they were the ones that would decide. >> peschel prosecutors anna emmons, marie fran, and john stevenson prosecuted the people versus ali irsan. there first hurdle, explaining what they saw as the motive, that irsan was enraged his daughter had married outside the family faith. he killed coty , the christian husband, and gelareh, the friend who talked back to him, and who may have encouraged nesreen's relationship here it's >> he wanted to kill all of those involved in bringing shame and dishonor, in his mind, to his family. >> special prosecutor said this was irsan's own twisted version of an already twisted notion known as honor killing. his belief, a woman could be murdered for bringing shame to

her family and religion. >> this is one man and one family's extremist views that were taken to the extreme, and led to the deaths of two innocent people, gelareh bagherzadeh and coty beavers . >> one of the things you talked about in opening arguments is how this is really representative of islam, and that you are not putting the muslim religion on trial, this was the way ali irsan interpreted religion. >> writes, just one man's crazy beliefs and how he used those to stalk and murder innocent people. >> the tricky relationship between fathers and daughters always comes with its own supply of baggage. that does not usually include murder. this time, nesreen said, it did. she took the stand to describe a lifetime of abuse and control. >> it was very emotional for nesreen to get on the stand. she, just being in the same room again with her father, who

she knows killed her friend and her husband. >> and he is looking right at her. >> looking, daring daggers at her. >> then, prosecutors said the link to both crimes, the data pulled from the gps unit, and remember the envelope pulled from irsan's glove box? turns out, the address traced back to the former home of gelareh's parents . and as for those license plate numbers. >> one of those late numbers came back to gelareh's vehicle , and one of the others came back from a vehicle that coty beavers had rented. >> and a key piece of evidence came from combing through the files of the texas highway patrol. >> we did a search of all irsan's vehicles, or their license plate number's and found that that vehicle had been stopped on the date of gelareh's murder . >> stopped for speeding. >> he was stopped for speeding

and the troopers had dash cam. >> here is irsan getting out of the vehicle . he tells the officer, he is not feeling well. he can be seen sinking to his knees. >> how long after she was shot was all he and his family stopped by gps? >> i want to say something like 35 minutes, something of that nature. >> that is about how long it would take to drive from gelareh's parents house, to the point where they were stopped? >> that is correct. >> it was this video where prosecutors found out ali irsan was not alone. his wife was with him, as was a young man seated in the backseat. prosecutors say, that was her son, nesreen . proving all of that would be a lesson in the not so happy family. a nephew told the jury he heard nasim irsan talk about the

shootings . and then there was irsan's wife, after years in jail , she flipped and agreed to testify about both murders in exchange for her release. >> she is kind of the linchpin to all of this, isn't she? she sort of gave you everything? >> for the guilt side, she was. >> first, gelareh. irsan's wife admitted she was there, waiting in the car while gelareh was killed. >> irsan supposedly got out of the vehicle to approach her car , he was going to try to coax her out of the vehicle. she would not roll the window down, get out of the vehicle. >> she testified it was their son, nasim , who at the direction of his father, pulled the trigger. >> she also testified she was there when coty was killed again waiting in the car. this time she said, all the did the shooting himself.

>> and she was able to provide us with enough information of things that had happened at both seems that we could cooperate with the things that had happened, or maybe something that ali had said to her, like she had never been into coty's apartment, but he described it to her and stated that they had a cat, is that she would not have known had he not told her. an throughout trial, ali irsan was a menacing presence in the courtroom. >> i had to restrain myself a couple of times, take a couple of deep breaths, but it was like a sadness that immediately turned to anger, because of the guy sitting right there. >> there is a moment in court where ali stares at you and goes like this . >> i did not see it, but other people saw it. >> like he is ringing your neck. >> yes. he did not like me. >> a man who was threatening, even in custody. it led to get us to ask, who

knew what ali irsan would do if he were to walk free? >> i had a lot of fears for people's safety, because i figured he would be very focused on the people that spoke out against him. so, all of these people were going to be his new hit list, if you will. >> i've never tried a case where you really thought these people's lives were in danger. coming up, ali irsan sits down with us and takes a stunning allegation against his own daughter. >> she was going to kill all of us! >> when "dateline" continues. infused with natural essential oils to fill your moment with immersive fragrance for up to 45 days. now that's a breath of fresh air wick.

no further questions for this witness. josh mankiewicz: for four weeks, the jury

listened as prosecutors carefully painted a criminal portrait of ali forller four weeks, the jur listened as prosecutors carefully painted a portrait of ali irsan, renick father, master and if you later, visible killer. >> he is an evil man. >> though he is worse than you acted? mech i am being serious when i say this, he is worse than charles manson. he is incredibly evil, calculating, and very deliberate with what he was doing, but he would try to intimidate people in the gallery. >> even while he is on trial for murder. >> even while he is on trial for murder. >> but up close, ali irsan's defense team say they saw a different man. >> he was a loving father, he loved his children. >> defense counsel alan tanner and his cocounsel argued, the case against irsan was just a character attack , and more

importantly, weak and circumstantial. >> i believe this at the end of the day, you have heard from every witness, and you have heard from irsan, you will not have any true idea of what happened at the beaver murder scene, i really believe that. >> our position was, there was nothing to link him to any crime scene the one with gelareh or the one with coty beavers . there is no fingerprints, no dna, there was nothing there, accept the testimony of his wives and his daughter's peers >> okay, but that is not nothing . that is his own family turning against him. >> writes, but they had motives too. his wife was given tremendous benefit by testifying against him, his daughter hated him here it's >> according to them, nesreen lied to the jury about matters both great and small. >> at one point, she was telling the jury how at no point, the children in the house were allowed to have a

birthday party and if they had a birthday party, ali would beat him severely. >> and i had a photograph with a bunch of family photographs and i started passing them here she was able to see we caught her in a lie. >> it was a loving household for the most part. it was different, but there was a lot of love. they all said, life was good here they were not afraid of him, not at all. too the way they relate it, the family, ali's love for them was different then of course what nesreen depicted and testified in trial. >> what about the gps? doesn't that show stalking? doesn't that show ali going from his house to the scene of the murder? >> well, it shows someone going on that particular day. it shows someone, but not necessarily him. we don't know who it was in the vehicle. >> to be clear, ali irsan never argued that coty beavers and gelareh bagherzadeh's murders were honor killings . is

defensively came claimed he was not there. the defense was, he was simply misunderstood, father worried about his daughter's well- being. an ali deeply loved all his children, especially nesreen , who was probably his favorite child here it's >> are like many defendants, ali irsan was not set is tied with being just a spectator at his own trial. >> he testifies, that was his own choice? >> yes musser. >> would you prefer that he did not? >> we leave that up to the client every time. >> ali actually did really well when he testified. >> ali irsan 's testimony was not recorded. he told jurors what he claimed all along that the allegations against him from abuse, to stalking, to murder were all downright false, all concocted by police and family members who were out to get him. that is what irsan told me when we spoke in a texas locked up. according to irsan, there were

only two reasons why he was being accused of murder, religious bigotry, and family betrayal. >> and the law enforcement and the government, and the united states, they bullied blackmailed , and intimidate every person that put me here. >> you think everybody who testified against you did so because they were intimidated? >> three of them, that where the main thing, intimidated peers >> so, your wife, your nephew, and your daughter who testified against, you think that happened because they were intimidated? >> yes. they were forced. if you will do it, we will get you. my daughter claimed to them that because she is christian, i'm going to come after her. >> nesreen wanted you to leave her alone, and if you had left her alone, you probably would not be in here. >> if the police did not use the kgb tactic, i would not be

in here peers >> and according to irsan, nesreen was the one that threatened. >> she said she would catch all of us and the police would find out about it. >> so, nesreen is the real villain here? it's >> yes, she is. i did not kill the girl, i had nothing to do with her and i did not kill the guy. i had nothing to do with it. i am not sorry he died, he can go straight to hell, but i did not do it. >> why can he go straight to hell? >> because he disrupted my family. >> you are just a guy trying to protect your family? >> yes, that's what i am. >> the fact that your daughter made a testimony, that is all a coincidence? >> i did not kill the guy, i never saw him face to face. >> according to the prosecution, ali irsan could not abide a woman's defiance,

but one after another, women in his life, nesreen, gelareh, even his wife, had done exactly that. he's rap about it was pretty clear. in fact, it threatened to melt the glass that separated us. >> however, the devil is not dead. >> he is talking about women, women in his own family. >> the woman is more powerful than a double. they said when the angel wings break, he cannot fly anymore, but when the women's wings break, she can still fly on april. she can make or break, if she intends, she can make it good, and if she intends, she can make it and bring it back to good health. >> this mirrored his testimony, meandering, angry, and losing with pride and denial. you heard his attorneys say, they were pleased, but to the prosecution, ali irsan 's

testimony only helped their case. they said, his menace was on full display. and now, after all those years, it wasn't up to police and prosecutors anymore. now, jurors would decide, was ali irsan a homicidal mastermind , or was he just a father looking out for his family? the jury definitely answered those questions, and it turns out, they were easier to answer than this question. >> i want to talk about your son-in-law, who was killed, not coty beavers , the other one. coming up, a chilling story from deep in the irsan family past . >> nesreen told me that her father had shot and killed a male because he did not want to be married to his oldest daughter. >> when "dateline" continues. i

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reporter (voiceover): it took the jury just 35 minutes to come to a verdict in ali irsan's trial, it took the jury just 35 minutes to come to a verdict in hell six's trial, guilty of two counts of capital murder. next, came the penalty phase. that is when jurors heard something as an acted as it was disturbing. the prosecution claimed ali irsan was something of a serial son-in-law killer. >> nesreen told me that her father had shot and killed a

male at their home, because he did not want him to be married to his oldest daughter. >> that's right, in 1999, ali irsan shot and killed a man who married nesreen's older sister . it happened at the irsan 's home, north of houston, in montgomery county, texas. >> did that end up getting prosecuted? >> that was not. we were advised that he had claimed it was self-defense and it was treated as such. >> it became ever appearance that it was self-defense. >> and, detective jeff wells of the montgomery county sheriff's office reinvestigating that 1999 killing for the task force. he says, it started when irsan's oldest daughter wanted to marry a man he disapproved of . in response, she says, irsan locked her in a room and beat

her daily. >> and asked her frequently during the meetings , do you still love him? >> but the couple was persistent and eventually married. just three weeks later , that new husband was dead in the irsan home and the scene looked like self-defense. the son-in-law had a gun in his hand and ali irsan's bed, he had shot him to protect himself and his family. >> prior to the murder itself, ali had filed reports with the sheriff's department that the victim was harassing the family, threatening the family. >> it looked like self defense. he was holding a gun, a gun which had been fired here it's >> true, it had been. >> nearly 2 decades later a different story emerged, one that suggested it was not self- defense at all, but premeditated murder. nesreen remembered that night long ago, now, she told investigators how everything felt staged, how there was no struggle and no exchange of gunfire.

>> she heard the big boom first, and then later, about nine or 10 minutes, heard the two pops of the small gun, understanding that he was dead before those second shots were fired. >> how old was nesreen then? >> nesreen was 11 years old. >> embers of the family told detective wells that irsan had made up the charges about his son-in-law harassing him. they also set the scene so it was staged to look like there had been a struggle and irsan placed the gun in his dead son- in-law's hands. when i spoke with him, ali irsan denied to staging the crime scene and that the original investigation got it right, the killing was an act of defense. >> did you set that man up to be killed? >> no, sir, i did not, no, i did not here it's >> he says, his wife and daughter who told investigators the story, or simply lying.

>> they made up a story. >> so, everybody is lying except for you? >> yes, sir, they threw me under the bus! back if that 1999 case had prosecuted differently, approached differently, a lot of people might still be alive. >> yep. >> he got very lucky. >> it was almost like a perfect storm for him. the crime scene officer they had going to the scene, i think it was wet, her first murder? >> first or second, and the homicide detective was brand- new. she had not investigated cases on her own. this was one of her first years >> had montgomery taken that investigation and work it the way they should have, gelareh and coty would still be alive . >> there was no end to the what if's. cory beavers for one was haunted by the thought that even after that death of his girlfriend, gelareh, houston police might have done more.

if they had taken the 1999 killing into account when looking at ali irsan, he thought, his twin brother, coty , might still be alive. >> it seems like as time went on, if he was the one responsible, then police would have figured it out after we had already given them his name . >> and there was no arrest made , so maybe you were wrong? right. i was like surely, they did their job and look to him, and if he was responsible, they would have found it by now, but that was not the case. >> after hearing about the first celena son-in-law, jurors decided ali irsan should pay for taking the lives of gelareh bagherzadeh and coty beavers with his own. he is appealing. >> described that moment. >> i don't know, just a huge relief.

none of it brings back coty or gelareh, but the very least you want is justice. and this person who stalked all of us, yes, we were very happy we don't have to deal with that anymore. it's >> it was amazing. it's so strange, though. you think, okay, now the verdict is in, but then nothing changes really. >> the irsan son, nasim, the man who allegedly shot gelareh bagherzadeh , later pleaded hilty to her murder and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. their daughter, nadia, pleaded guilty to engaging in organized crime, essentially conspiring with her father in the murders here she was sentenced to 10 years probation as for those federal fraud charges, ali irsan, his wife took deals. irsan pleaded guilty to

conspiracy to defraud the u.s. now, all that is left for those who loved coty and gelareh are the memories of who they were, and perhaps visions of who they might have become. >> life and like since he has been gone? >> there is a lot of times where i see something that i just like think of that i wish i could tell him about that, or just think like, how excited might be to hear this, and he is not there. >> cory beavers lost both his twin brother and the woman he loved. >> she was intensely passionate about everything. if you needed help, she was going to help you , whether you wanted her to or

not. >> i'm guessing that the reason gelareh wanted to help so many people is because the two of you taught her that the right thing to do? >> yeah. >> that's who she was. >> i was angry, and she told me , i am like you. >> and she was. >> a person who is so helpful summa so full of energy, so positive. imagine all the things she could have done for so many other people in her lifetime. hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." i just flipped out. i lost it. we could not understand how anybody dateline. >> something is not right. i just flipped