Woman Posted Chilling Facebook Message Before Alleged Murder-Suicide
A harrowing Facebook post may provide answers for why a woman fatally shot three members of her family, including her father, before turning the gun on herself Tuesday in a murder-suicide that spanned three crime scenes.
Authorities have not released the identities or even a possible motive into the shooting in Lynn, Massachusetts, except to confirm police responded to a residence in Rockaway Street shortly before 2:55 p.m. after receiving reports of shots fired.
What authorities found at the residence were the bodies of a 66-year-old man and 34-year-old man. Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett confirmed a 31-year-old woman shot both men—her father and brother-in-law—before moving on and killing her brother-in-law’s 56-year-old father at a separate location. His body was found in a car outside his apartment. The woman then took her own life in her car at a parking lot at a local Stop & Shop. Her body was found at approximately 4:30 p.m. All three crime scenes are located within minutes of each other.
While authorities said Wednesday it was too early to identify the shooter, The Boston Globe and other news outlets have already named her as Khosay Sharifi.
Sharifi, moments before the killings at 12:06 p.m., posted a chilling Facebook message, writing that she had discovered a series of alleged abuses in her family and that those who knew about it did nothing.
The lengthy post, seen by The Daily Beast, reads: “Several months ago, I found out that my sister has been abused by her husband for 14 years (since they first met).” Sharifi alleged that her brother-in-law choked her sister, “slapped, kicked, swore at her” and most recently, she said, punched her in the face.
“My parents and his parents knew all these years but have not really done much but say ‘work it out, what will people say if you separate’ or even victim blaming.
“I’m trying to say all this as nice as I can so my post doesn’t get deleted. There’s no excuse for what he did. He kept doing it because no one did anything about it,” she wrote.
When asked directly about a motive or the Facebook post on Wednesday, Blodgett would not comment, saying authorities were still making family notifications and interviewing witnesses, which requires a foreign language translator. Blodgett would not confirm if the family was from Afghanistan.
“We don’t speculate about the motive, as we’re pursuing this investigation. We have three crime scenes that we’re dealing with right now. We’ll hopefully come to what we can use as evidence, but again, we don’t have a motive yet. What I can say, which we didn’t know until today, is that they are family members,” Blodgett said.
Asked about Sharifi’s Facebook post, he said: “I can’t speak for that, I’m not even aware of that. Again, this incident happened less than 12 hours ago.”
A GoFundMe page by Kelay Sharifi posted to her Facebook page identified the victims as the Sharifi family while comments underneath the post are flooded with tributes. One user said Khosay was “one of the nicest person I’ve ever met.”
The GoFundMe page describes losing the family members “in devastating and unforeseen circumstances” and says the family is a victim of mental health issues.
“Abuse of all types takes a significant toll on individuals affected, and leads to damage and loss in many ways,” the page said, which has raised more than $8,000 of its $60,000 goal at the time of publication.
“Our family was a victim of this scenario, and now two young children are fatherless. We are absolutely traumatized, heartbroken, and lost.”
Armani Arustamyan, who went to Lynn Classical High School with Khosay and her twin sister, told The Boston Globe that he became worried when he saw the Facebook post citing the allegations. The Daily Beast can confirm Khosay graduated in the class of 2011, along with another Sharifi, spelled Khelay.
“I know her father was very strict on her. We couldn’t hang out past school hours,” he said.
“When I read the post, I wasn’t completely shocked about it. It was sad to read. We thought maybe she’s trying to reach out for help. So I tried to reach out.”
He never heard back, he told the Globe.
Khosay’s Facebook post said she hoped her sister could begin to heal and that her two daughters, who allegedly witnessed the abuse, understand that violence is not OK.
“To my sister: I hope you start healing & actually teach your daughters that abuse is not ok as they have also witnessed him slap you,” she wrote.
“I asked how they felt about that & they said they were scared & didn’t know what to do. Let’s not pass this on to your kids as it has been passed on to you.
“My father has also been abusive before & verbally but mostly financially abusive to my mom from what I’ve personally witnessed. Maybe that’s why my mom did not protect her own daughter, because she’s a victim too. But that’s no excuse, how can you let your own daughter get abused.”
The investigation is ongoing.
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