Key Witness Says Panah Told of Girl’s Death

The key prosecution witness against an alleged child rapist and killer testified at his trial Thursday that he told her the missing girl was dead about 12 hours before police found the victim’s battered body in his closet.

Rauni Campbell said Hooman Ashkan Panah first indicated something was amiss when he telephoned her on Nov. 21, 1993, the day 8-year-old Nicole Parker disappeared.

“He said that he needed my help, that he had done something really bad,” testified Campbell, Panah’s former girlfriend and co-worker at Mervyn’s department store in Canoga Park. “He said he couldn’t tell me, but what he had done was so big that I would find out about it.”

When Panah showed up the next morning at Campbell’s apartment in West Hills--his wrists slashed in the first of two apparent suicide attempts--Campbell asked him if the “really bad” thing he had done was related to Nicole’s disappearance, which by then had prompted a frantic, highly publicized search.

Panah replied yes, Campbell said.

“I asked him if the little girl was still alive, and he said no,” Campbell said. “I asked him, did he know she was not alive or did he just assume it. . . ?

“He said, ‘She is not alive.’ ”

Alarmed by the information and worried about Panah, who had swallowed a handful of over-the-counter sleeping pills in her presence, Campbell called 911.

Based on the information provided by Campbell, police searched Panah’s apartment in Woodland Hills and found Nicole’s body stuffed in a suitcase buried under clothes and other valises in Panah’s closet. Authorities had checked the apartment, located next to a unit occupied by Nicole’s father, at least twice previously without success.

Panah, 23, is charged with murder, kidnaping, rape, sodomy and committing lewd acts with a child. If he is found guilty, he could be sentenced to death. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and plans to use an insanity defense.

Prosecutors also allege that Panah was involved in a plot to kill Campbell after his arrest, but do not plan to charge him because he already faces a possible death penalty. They refused to reveal the nature of the threats or any evidence the district attorney’s office may have implicating Panah.

Defense attorney Robert Sheahan also refused to comment extensively on the allegation, but said in court Wednesday that Panah was framed by a jailhouse informant.

In his cross-examination of Campbell, Sheahan implied that she fabricated Panah’s admission because she was jealous of his sexual relationships with other women.