Detectives find body, believed to be missing Afghan woman, under false bottom of freezer
Detectives found a body believed to be that of 24-year-old Arezu Kashify hidden beneath the false bottom of a chest freezer inside the apartment she shared with her husband.
Her husband, identified in court records and by friends as Wahid Kashify, left the country using a one-way airplane ticket on May 28 to an undisclosed location – three days after his wife was last seen by friends. Last Thursday, she was officially reported missing by a friend who hadn’t heard from her for several days.
Another family friend was unexpectedly handed the couple’s two young children Sunday – a 5-year-old and 1-year-old – by a frantic Wahid Kashify, according to court records. On Thursday, the friend alerted Child Protective Services.
The case became a homicide investigation Tuesday when investigators found the body, wrote Detective Marc Melville in a search warrant filed Thursday in Spokane County Superior Court. Attached to the body was a red bra, surrounded by blood on the floor of the freezer.
The Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office has yet to identify the dead woman.
The discovery was made during the second search of the unit at 33 E. Graves Road in north Spokane. Investigators last Thursday searched the apartment at the behest of a CPS worker, who called requesting a welfare check after a family friend looking after the children reportedly couldn’t get a hold of Wahid Kashify and the missing person’s report was filed by Arezu Kashify’s friend.
When detectives arrived, they “did not locate Arezu or find anything obviously out of the norm besides a pair of scissors on the floor in front of the refrigerator,” wrote Melville.
The couple, according to a Spokesman-Review profile in 2015, came to America from Afghanistan on a Special Immigration Visa program, designed specifically for refugees who helped U.S. military or governmental personnel and now can’t live safely in their native countries.
In 2006, Wahid Kashify was part of an American convoy traveling from Ghazni province to Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital. Since 2003, he’d worked as a translator and interpreter for Mission Essential Personnel, a defense contracting firm.
Arezu Kashify, according to friends who spoke to detectives, had become frightened of her husband. One friend reported seeing bruises on Arezu Kashify’s leg, though she was unsure if it was because of domestic violence.
Another friend, a neighbor who lived directly above the couple, said Arezu Kashify would “complain about problems with Wahid, saying she wanted to dress differently, something Wahid would not allow,” Melville wrote.
Other friends reported Wahid Kashify would say he would “go back to Afghanistan and get a new wife” in response to marital troubles.
Melville also wrote that a nurse who spoke to Arezu Kashify in late March or early April was told Wahid Kashify “would kill her immediately” if she called law enforcement for help.
In addition to searching the couple’s apartment Tuesday, detectives also searched a Toyota Sienna registered to Wahid Kashify that was found Saturday parked at Spokane International Airport. They also found a pair of taxi cabs owned by Kashify parked at the apartment complex. Washington State Department of Revenue records show Kashify owned local cab company Cougar Taxi.
In the center console of the Sienna, written on a note, was a message. It gave the couple’s address and a code to open Wahid Kashify’s cellphone, which was possibly located on a dining room table or in a bedroom, the search warrant states.
“There is a video or two videos that you can watch and judge,” the note states. “Thanks.”