Estranged husband arrested for murder of Aryan Papoli, Newport Beach woman found dead in Crestline
Authorities on Saturday announced the arrest of the estranged husband of a Newport Beach woman whose body was found near an embankment in Crestline just over two months ago.
The victim, 58-year-old Aryan Papoli, was found about 75 feet down a steep embankment near Highway 138 and Crestline Road on Nov. 18.
After she was identified, San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department detectives launched an investigation into her death and identified Gordon Abas Goodarzi as a suspect, according to a news release issued Saturday.
The coroner determined the cause of death to be a homicide, and on Friday "through a continued and diligent investigation, Goodarzi was contacted at his residence and later arrested," the Sheriff's Department said in a statement.
Goodarzi was transported to the Central Detention Center in San Bernardino and was being held without bail, according to authorities.
When the body was discovered in Crestline, investigators were initially unable to identify the deceased victim and released a composite sketch of her face.
Two days after Thanksgiving, Papoli's son Navid Goodarzi received notice from the Sheriff's Department that the victim was his mother.
"When she was missing, we were sort of going from this frantic pass, all engines flaring, like how can we find her?" Goodarzi told ABC7 in a December interview. "When we got the news, it sort of feels like the wind gets knocked out of you. The first day it's a lot of shock."
Goodarzi set up a website dedicated to his mother's memory at www.aryanpapoli.net .
"She loved people; she loved animals; she loved art," Goodarzi said. "She never grew up with an opportunity to express herself with art; she grew up in Tehran, Iran, and lived through revolution and war. She came to the United States and built a career; built a life; built a family."
