Chicago police detain Iranian in deaths of 3 women

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Chicago police had a recent Iranian immigrant in custody early Sunday after three women were found bludgeoned to death with a hammer in two apartments in the US city. No charges had been filed early Sunday, and the names of the victims had not been released by authorities, but neighbors and friends identified two of the dead women as Karmin Khooshabeh, 44, and her stepsister, Karolin Khooshabeh, 40. They said the third victim was their 60-year-old mother. One neighbor, Karolin Khooshabeh's former husband, Robert Estrepaniance, said Karmin Khooshabeh was the arrested man's wife, and that the couple had been having marital difficulties recently. Estrepaniance said he and all of those involved were Assyrian Christians, a minority group in Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. He said he and his former wife had fled Iran in 1995, fearing persecution for their faith. His wife's parents came to the US about four years ago, and the family arranged for Karmin and her husband to immigrate about three months ago,