Persian language social media is abuzz with the revelation that the Iranian host of a popular crime podcast has allegedly murdered his wife and then committed suicide in Canada.
The parallels between the crime he narrated in the last episode of his podcast “The Last Witness” and the actual events have left fans and followers in disbelief.
Canadian State Police reported the discovery of a mutilated body of an Iranian woman in a suitcase in the city of St. John, Newfoundland on Friday. The woman's identity was not disclosed, but the primary suspect, believed to be her husband, was later identified by social media users as Mehdi Pourbaghi. He was not only known for his podcast but was also a PhD student in informatics in Canada.
"The last episode Mehdi Pourbaqi released on the podcast, a 2-minute preview for his multi-part series that remained unfinished. It's eerie how the crime he describes seems to narrate the very crime he committed himself," wrote an Iranian user on X.
Canadian news websites reported that before the woman's body was discovered, her husband's lifeless body was found at his home in downtown St. John on July 15. Preliminary assessments suggest that the 34-year-old man committed suicide. A day later, on the evening of July 16, a citizen found a suitcase containing the remains of a woman and contacted the police.
James Cadigan of the Newfoundland Police Department described the death of the woman as a homicide.
"The deceased is a 33-year-old woman who was found in the area of Water Street near Springdale Street in the suitcase," Cadigan told Global News.
Reports indicate that Pourbaghi had been living in Newfoundland for several years for educational purposes, while the victim had arrived in the province in mid-May this year.
Cadigan mentioned that there were no prior records or cases involving this couple with the regional police. The state police are also creating a timeline of events and reviewing area surveillance footage from July 10 to 16. They have requested anyone with information to contact them.
The police released an image of a man pulling a suitcase, hoping to obtain public information about the suspect's activities before his suicide.
"It was important that we provided a visual of the suitcase and the individual because we believe that he traveled throughout the downtown area of Saint John’s," Cadigan said.
The officer believes the suspect was traveling on foot for a period of time as he walked through some residential areas towards Water Street.
In 2021, Canada had 213,160 residents who were born in Iran, with 70,395 of them having immigrated since 2011.