Couple in deadly Grapevine shooting had recently split

By Aman Batheja

abatheja@star-telegram.com

GRAPEVINE -- Friends of the family fatally shot Christmas morning said Monday that one of the seven victims was a woman who had left her husband and moved to a Grapevine apartment with their two children.

One of the dead was a middle-aged man dressed as Santa Claus. Investigators believe that he killed the other six before shooting himself, Grapevine police Lt. Todd Dearing said.

Late Monday, Dearing declined to identify the victims or discuss further details.

But online property records led reporters to neighbors who identified three of them -- Fatemeh Rahmati, who left her husband, Aziz Yazdanpanah, this year and moved with a son and a daughter, Nona Yazdanpanah, to the apartment complex in the 2500 block of Hall-Johnson Road.

Aziz Yazdanpanah stayed in the family's home two miles away in Colleyville.

On Monday, police were trying to work out the timeline of the bloodiest crime in Grapevine history.

The victims were found beside open gifts near a Christmas tree in the apartment, according to police. Two handguns were found.

"We don't know if [the killer] was with them or he came over later," Dearing said.

The dead -- four women and three men -- were "related either by blood or marriage," Dearing said. Three lived in the apartment, he said.

He said police would not release any information about the victims until the medical examiner rules in the case.

A spokesman for the Tarrant County medical examiner's office told The Associated Press that the victims had been tentatively identified, but that the office couldn't confirm the names because the state driver's license fingerprint database wasn't available on the holiday.

Police received a 911 call from the Lincoln Vineyards Apartments late Christmas morning, but no one spoke on the other end. When a patrol officer arrived, he saw bodies slumped around the living room.

No one answered the door. When officers forced their way in, they found the bodies around newly opened presents and a Christmas tree.

House foreclosed on

Property records show that a bank had foreclosed on Aziz Yazdanpanah's Colleyville house in the 5400 block of Sycamore Court in 2010, but he was still living there, neighbors said.

Carrie Stewart and Fred Ditmars lived across the street for more than four years and described Aziz Yazdanpanah as friendly.

"He welcomed us when we moved in. He watched our house when we were out of town," Stewart said.

Stewart and Ditmars recalled Aziz Yazdanpanah expressing concern about a year ago that his daughter was being harassed because of her ethnicity. In their conversations, Yazdanpanah mentioned that he owned a gun, Stewart said.

"He was very protective of his family," Stewart said.

Another neighbor, Allison Baum, said she was close friends with Nona Yazdanpanah, who had hoped to be a lawyer someday. The two girls were classmates at Colleyville Heritage High School last year.

"We carpooled every day together. When her parents separated, I would pick her up from the apartment," Baum said.

In February, Nona participated in a state competition in Fort Worth of students involved in DECA, an international organization that promotes careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management in high schools and colleges, according to a school news release.

Baum recalled Nona Yazdanpanah complaining about her parents fighting before they separated.

"I knew they were separated. I knew things were rough, but I never thought anything drastic would happen," Baum said.

As soon as she heard news reports about the killings at the Grapevine apartment, Baum said, she texted Nona Yazdanpanah but did not receive a response.

"I just keep waiting for her to come here," Baum said. "They were all good people."

Baum said the separation was very difficult on the family's father.

Baum said the family was Muslim but celebrated Christmas as a cultural holiday. The parents were originally from Iran.

Staff writer Yamil Berard contributed to this report, which includes material from The Associated Press.

Aman Batheja, 817-390-7695

Twitter: @amanbatheja

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