Irvine Victims Were Suspect’s Wife, Mother-in-Law

The two women stabbed to death Tuesday in Irvine were identified Wednesday as the wife and mother-in-law of the suspect.

The district attorney’s office filed murder charges against Bahram “Ben” Nezari, 49, in the deaths of Nooshin Mirabadi Khaneh, 29, and Parvane Ghararyankordestan, 58.

The sudden arrival of SWAT officers terrified residents of the affluent Irvine neighborhood who were forced to evacuate in the predawn hours Tuesday with the discovery of the two dead women inside the house. Police cornered Nezari in a 90-minute backyard standoff that ended when officers fired rubber bullets at him.

Irvine Police Lt. Rick Handfield said evidence was pointing toward marital strife as the motivation for the crime. “We do not believe this has any tentacles that should concern the community,” he said.

Handfield would not elaborate on the problems that boiled inside the home, saying the department was trying to protect the family’s 6- and 8-year-old daughters, who were found inside the home uninjured.

Neighbors said the family had lived in the home on Tioga Place for about two years. They said they often saw the parents playing in the yard with the children or walking them to school.

They said Nezari’s wife spent much of this summer in her native Iran and that the first time they spotted her mother was when she arrived at the home at the beginning of August.

Nezari had no apparent criminal record.

He was being treated at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana for wounds he suffered when he apparently slashed his arm, police said.