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Tareq,Sophia missing September 17,1999; Minnesota
Topic Started: Sep 10 2006, 10:05 PM (406 Views)
oldies4mari2004
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http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/t/tareq_sophia.html
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oldies4mari2004
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Sophia Tareq


Above: Sophia, circa 1999


Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance

Missing Since: September 17, 1999 from Rochester, Minnesota
Classification: Endangered Missing
Age: 26 years old
Distinguishing Characteristics: East Indian (Bangladeshi) female. Black hair, brown eyes.


Details of Disappearance

Sophia moved to the United States from her home in Bangladesh sometime during the mid-1990s. She was accompanied by her three-year-old son, Mohammed Tahseen Taef, and her husband, Mohammed Tareq. Mohammed returned to Bangladesh in March 1999, but Sophia and Taef remained in Rochester, Minnesota. They resided with her sister, Mary Zaman; Zaman's husband, Iqbal Ahmed; and their young son, Asif Iqbal. Photos of Zaman and Taef are posted below this case summary.
Zaman, Ahmed and Iqbal moved from Bangladesh to New York City, New York in 1996. They initially traveled utilizing 11-week visitors' visas. The couple moved to Rochester in 1998 and began working as servers at India Garden Restaurant. Sophia and Taef joined them in Minnesota shortly afterwards.

The restaurant's owner told authorities that he never witnessed any confrontations between Zaman and Ahmed. The owner said that Ahmed told him that he and his wife frequently argued privately. Their employer also stated that Zaman reported for work with facial scratches in 1999; she did not explain how she received the lacerations.

Authorities located credit cards receipts that indicated Ahmed was preparing to leave Minnesota with Iqbal during August 1999. Ahmed purchased a hand ax and numerous garbage bags at a hardware store on September 5, 1999. Zaman, Taef and Sophia disappeared from Rochester on September 17. Ahmed phoned the restaurant owner shortly afterwards and claimed that Zaman was involved with another man in New York City. He said that she returned to the city with their son several days before his call. The couple never retrieved their final paychecks. Iqbal stopped attending school on September 20. The family's apartment was abandoned by the end of the month; all of their personal belongings and Ahmed's vehicle were left behind.

Investigators learned that Ahmed had been charged with his wife's attempted murder in New York in 1998. The complaint stated that Ahmed locked Zaman in a bathroom and strangled her until she lost consciousness. The prosecutor was forced to drop the case when Zaman refused to cooperate with authorities.

Zaman and Taef's remains were discovered in a ditch near Rochester in November 1999, two months after they disappeared. They had both been decapitated and their bodies were placed in garbage bags. Neither of their heads has been recovered. Their bodies remained unidentified until mid-2000. Authorities elected to keep the victims' identities confidential while they continued building their case against Ahmed, who was the prime suspect in the homicides of his wife and nephew.

It is believed that Ahmed and Iqbal traveled to New York City shortly after Zaman and Taef were murdered and Sophia disappeared. They returned to Bangladesh shortly afterwards. Authorities charged Ahmed with two counts of second-degree murder in July 2000, but the warrant remained confidential as well. The United States does not have an extradiction treaty with Bangladesh and authorities were hoping to force Ahmed to return to Minnesota through other means. His fingerprints were taken when he applied for a job as a taxi driver in New York in 1998. Ahmed's right thumb print matched one of the prints taken from the bag containing Taef's remains.

Federal Bureau Of Investigation (FBI) agents questioned Ahmed in Bangladesh in December 2000. He claimed that he spoke to Zaman by telephone earlier during the year and said he believed she was still living in the United States. Iqbal was discovered residing in a nearby village and was not harmed.

The victims' identities and the homicide charges against Ahmed were announced publicly in October 2001. It is not believed that Ahmed will return to Minnesota to be tried. Investigators have never located Sophia and believe that she may have been murdered as well. Her case remains unsolved.



Left: Zaman; Right: Taef, circa 1999


Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Olmstead County Sheriff's Department
507-285-8300



Source Information
Minnesota Public Radio
The Associated Press
The New Nation



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oldies4mari2004
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http://z13.invisionfree.com/PorchlightUSA/...opic=9853&st=0&
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/te...sp?z=2&a=427211
Local News
A decade after murders, still no closure
11/28/2009 7:15:01 AM
Comments (0)
By Janice Gregorson

Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

Officials say the case is solved.

But 10 years after the grisly discovery of two decapitated bodies in trash bags in an Olmsted County ditch, there is no closure.

It was a case that drew national attention and involved numerous agencies. More than 600 interviews were conducted in the investigation that ultimately led to murder charges against a man who fled Rochester to Bangladesh.

Iqbal Ahmed, now 42, is charged in Olmsted District Court with killing his wife and nephew and leaving their headless bodies in trash bags in a ditch in Cascade Township. But it is entirely possible he will never stand trial in Rochester.

And a third person is still missing and presumed dead.

Olmsted County Sheriff Detective Brad Nelson shakes his head in thumbing through the file that was first opened Nov. 26, 1999, when a road maintenance crew working in Cascade Township called 911. Two plastic bags had been found in a road ditch.

There was a hand protruding from one.

If not for that hand, Nelson said, "there would never have been a case."

The trash bags, he explained, would have gone to the incinerator and the bodies of a young woman and child inside would never have been discovered.

Nelson said it was not until the spring of 2000 that they started focusing on Ahmed, his wife, Mary Zaman, 28, and their son, Asif.

An attendance counselor at Rochester Public Schools gave detectives a list of all students registered who had left for whatever reason during the school year. There were 15 names that fit the basic profile of the dead boy.

The only one unaccounted for was Asif, Nelson said.

In October 2001, authorities publicly identified the remains as belonging to Zaman and her nephew, Mohammed Tahseen Taef, 3 1/2.

They also identified the suspect: Ahmed.

Authorities believe Ahmed killed his wife and nephew and then fled Rochester with his 8-year-old son, Asif, for Bangladesh.

Today, authorities believe Ahmed is in prison in Bangledesh, possibly serving a life sentence in connection with other murders. Nelson has asked the FBI to find out for sure.

Because the U.S. does not have an extradition treaty with Bangladesh, local officials have little hope he would ever stand trial in Rochester.
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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Ell
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Heart of Gold
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Take the case of Iqbal Ahmed. The bare details are summarized by The Charley Project website, which documents missing person cold cases; in this instance, the missing person Ahmed's wife's sister Sophia, who has been missing from Rochester since 1999. It's a bad bit of business — her sister and her son were found in a ditch, decapitated; in one final, grotesque detail, their heads were never recovered. Ahmed had recently purchased a hand ax and fled the country before the remains were found. At the time the website was written, Ahmed was doing time in Bangladesh for two unrelated murders, and was unlikely to be extradited, as there is no extradition treaty with Bangladesh. According to the Associated Press, Ahmed is reported to have died in prison. This doesn't close the case, however, as Sophia is still missing. As the AP points out, "investigators have no idea what happened to her."

http://www.minnpost.com/dailyglean/2010/09...t_to_burn_quran
Ell

Only after the last tree has been
cut down;
Only after the last fish has been
caught;
Only after the last river has been
poisoned;
Only then will you realize
that money cannot be eaten.
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tatertot
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http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/w...murder-suspect/

Authorities: Suspect in double murder case is dead
September 9, 2010

Rochester, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota investigators have concluded a Bangladeshi man charged with killing his wife and a nephew in Olmsted County almost 11 years ago is dead.

Olmsted County Sheriff's Sgt. Scott Behrns told The Associated Press they've had no luck getting official confirmation from Bangladeshi authorities or the FBI of reports from different sources that Iqbal Ahmed died last November.

But he says they've decided the information is as accurate as they're going to get, so the active investigation is over.

The Post-Bulletin of Rochester first reported the decision Thursday.

Ahmed was charged with killing his wife, Mary Zaman, and her 3½-year-old nephew, Mohammed Tahseen Taef, in 1999, and leaving their headless bodies in a ditch near Rochester.

He fled to Bangladesh, where he was sentenced in 2005 to life in prison for two unrelated murders.

Behrns says the case isn't officially closed because Zaman's sister, Sophia Tareq, remains missing. Behrns says investigators have no idea what happened to her.
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