Sanaz Did Not Die Alone

Just after midnight on December 9th, Detective Thomas Rosemurgy of the Houghton County Sheriff’s office was jolted awake by loud banging on his front door. His children were asleep, and his wife was away attending nurse practitioner clinical exams in South Carolina. As he peered out the window, he noticed a police vehicle. He immediately thought the worst. “I thought something had happened to my wife. I left my phone downstairs that night in the laundry basket so I never heard a call, ” he said. 

But his wife was completely healthy several states away.  It was someone else's wife, a woman he had never heard of, who was not. A police officer had come to alert the detective of a domestic violence incident, on the other side of Portage Lake from Houghton, in a town called Dollar Bay, where 27-year-old Sanaz Nezami lay unconscious as a result of her head being violently and repeatedly struck on the floor.

Detective Rosemurgy left his home in Houghton and drove across the dark night across the Portage Lake Lift Bridge to Dollar Bay. He arrived at a grey-sided mobile home covered in two feet of powdery, untouched snow. A deputy sheriff and a state police trooper who had already arrived at the scene told him that Nima Nasiri, 34, was already at the sheriff’s station awaiting interrogation, while the victim, Sanaz Nezami, had been rushed to nearby Portage Hospital with life-threatening injuries.

When the detective reached the hospital to collect evidence, Sanaz was still unconscious.

“I [saw] this girl laying on the gurney, on a backboard, covered in blankets, with an air vent going down her throat and bruised eyes.  She didn’t look good,” he said.

A Case of Domestic Violence Edges Toward Homicide

As the detective spoke to hospital staff about Sanaz's condition, the situation grew more volatile. “The doctor told me her injuries were so severe that she was going to Marquette General Hospital, and that’s never a good thing,” said Rosemurgy. Marquette General Hospital is the regional medical center of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the closest major facility equipped to deal with such serious injuries. 

The detective headed to the sheriff’s station to interrogate Nima, who sat in a jail cell thinking his wife’s injuries were not serious. “I was armed with the knowledge that Sanaz could die, so I had to shift gears from a domestic violence investigation to a potential homicide investigation,” said the detective.

Born and raised in Tehran, Sanaz Nezami was a star student who had came to Dollar Bay, Michigan to pursue a doctorate in environmental engineering at Michigan Tech University, one of the premier technological universities in the United States. Sanaz, who held a Master's degree in French translation and a Bachelor of Science in environmental health engineering, had recently married the Iranian-American Nima Nassiri in Turkey. They had returned to the United States together in November.

Sanaz planned to begin classes in January and was looking forward to graduate study in America. With her strong academic credentials, Sanaz had secured her own student visa to study at Michigan Tech and was not dependent on Nima for entry into the United States.

A Michigan Hospital

By the time Marquette General Hospital nurse Alycia Davidson came into contact with Sanaz Nezami two days after her admission, she was already officially declared brain dead. “I’m from Chicago and went to high school with Muslim students, but this was the first Iranian patient I cared for in Marquette,” said Davidson. 

For Nurse Davidson and her fellow staff members this period of Sanaz’s hospital stay was the source of great distress. In the state of Michigan, once a patient is considered brain dead, that person is officially dead according to state law. Davidson and other staff were in constant contact with Sanaz’s sister Sara and her father back in Iran via Yahoo messenger.

The staff at Marquette General were able to communicate with the family easily because Sara Nezami speaks English as well as her sister Sanaz did. “We were kind of in limbo as we were waiting to see if the organ donation was going to go through, but at the same time, we tried to comfort and care for Sanaz’s family as much as we could,” says Davidson.

“We would have done this for anyone. We get so involved that the patients become like family to us. In the end eight of her organs went to seven different people. Her heart, both of her lungs, intestines, pancreas and liver all went to separate people, while her two kidneys went to two different people. She also donated her tissue, which will be used in the future. She was a rare whole body donor.”

A Final Request

The next day was Sanaz’s final one at Marquette General Hospital, as doctors approved the organ donation and five teams from four hospitals around the country converged on Marquette to stand by for the organ donation surgery. As her shift came to a close, Nurse Davidson received one final request from Sanaz’s father Yusef. “He asked me to read a note that he prepared right before Sanaz’s surgery, and to kiss Sanaz’s forehead after reading his final words to his daughter,” she said.

"God, I give you my child so she may help many great people for we are all your children," read the note.

“My shift had ended, so I gave the note to the incoming nurse that would be present at the surgery so that she could carry out his request. When I finally got inside my car I sat and cried my eyes out,” Davidson said. “I felt like I lost my sister. I had just spent the past two 12-hour days listening to her family cry, pray, and tell me all about Sanaz and how wonderful she is.”

Jeremy Hansen, the director of Fassbender Swanson Funeral Homes, received a phone call from the chaplin of Marquette General Hospital, Leon Jarvis, after Sanaz’s surgery. The chaplin explained the difficult situation to Hansen, that Sanaz’s body would have to be transferred to a funeral home for a proper burial.

Sanaz’s family was thousands of miles away and her father had requested for her to be buried in a Muslim cemetery. Unfortunately the closest one was over nine hours away in Detroit and the costs for transferring her body would be high. Hansen and Jarvis both understood Sanaz’s father’s request and the unique nature of the family's predicament. Like so many who had come in contact with Sanaz after that fateful night, they felt moved to do more, stepping in where her family could not.

Both men had studied and worked in Detroit, Michigan, which has one of the largest Muslim populations in the country. “I had performed many traditional Islamic burials when I was studying [mortuary science] in Detroit, so I immediately had a contact of mine in Detroit send an Islamic shroud and other materials overnight,” Hansen said.

While Hansen waited for the bathing and shrouding materials, he made sure that Sanaz’s body was on her side, facing east towards Mecca, and he even left the light on in the mortuary where Sanaz’s body lay, according to Islamic tradition. “I felt a great sense of pride in doing this right,” says Hansen.

Once the bathing and shrouding materials arrived, Hansen enlisted the help of a local female Muslim doctor to perform bathing rituals. As a non-related male, it would contravene custom to perform the cleansing ritual. When the female Muslim doctor arrived at the funeral home, she was surprised to see it would be only her cleaning Sanaz’s body, so she called another female doctor who was not of Muslim faith to help her perform the ritual. To everyone’s surprise, the female doctor showed up wearing a traditional Islamic headdress.  When she was told that she didn’t have to wear a traditional Islamic covering for this purpose, she remarked that she wanted to and that she did so “out of respect for Sanaz.”

Meanwhile Chaplin Leon Jarvis proved to be instrumental in fulfilling Sanaz’s father’s final wish. He was busy at Park Cemetery, located just two blocks from where Sanaz donated her vital organs. The chaplin inquired if the cemetery had a section where people of Muslim faith were buried. The cemetery’s sexton explained that they did not. But once again, the people of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula took charge of the situation.

Together they decided to bury Sanaz in a section of the cemetery that was up until then completely untouched. This section was chosen to be officially designated as the Islamic section of the cemetery. Only other Muslims would be buried in Sanaz’s vicinity, fulfilling Sanaz’s father’s wishes.

“The city of Marquette and Park Cemetery donated the plot that Sanaz would be buried in,” said Jeremy Hansen, the funeral director at Fassbender and Swanson. “We donated the casket and the service, and I have been in touch with Sara Nezami via email and she has sent me what she wants on Sanaz’s gravestone. We are donating Sanaz’s gravestone as well.”

From Detective Thomas Rosemurgy, to the staff at Portage Hospital in the city of Hancock near Houghton, to the staff at Marquette General Hospital to Jeremy Hansen, everyone connected to this case and responsible for the fate of Sanaz Nezami beyond her living days has been humble and respectful, taking pride in their shared responsibility, a responsibility that the people of the Upper Peninsula also shared. “I don’t want to take away from this awful and tragic situation, but Sanaz’s death could not have better attended to than the manner in which Marquette, Michigan handled it.”

As Sanaz Nezami’s family’s requested, her gravestone will read:

Sanaz Nezami: July 15^th, 1986 – December 9^th 2013

ای کاش که جای آرمیدن بودی

یا این ره دور را رسیدن بودی

کاش از پس صد هزار سال از دل خاک

چون سبزه امید بر دمیدن بودی

Would that this be a place to rest

Or an end to this endless road

Would that there be hope to blossom out of earth

A hundred thousand years hence

-The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam

Always Believe in God, and Pray Sanaz, Your Family Will Always Love You.

The Legal Battle To Come

Sanaz Nezami was buried at Park Cemetery, Marquette, Michigan on Wednesday, December 18, 2013 at 2:00PM. Registered nurse Alycia Davidson, along with others, attended the funeral. Chaplin Leon Jarvis read from the Quran. Watch the video of Sanaz’s funeral service here.

The fate of her husband of a few months, Nima, will be decided by Houghton County Courthouse, where a judge or jury will seek to determine whether he is guilty of second degree murder.

Nasiri stated his plea in a Circuit Court arraignment on January 15 after he and his defense attorney chose to waive the preliminary hearing a few days before. The courtroom was somber, the benches filled with local residents and officials who were in some way connected to Sanaz Nezami, but yet strangers to each other. They acknowledged one another with simple nods or tentative hellos.

Some of those in attendance included an outreach director for a local domestic violence shelter, a nurse from Marquette General Hospital, and a few officials from Michigan Tech University, where Sanaz was due to attend. The only person in the courtroom that afternoon who supported Nima was his defense attorney.

Nima was led into the courtroom by his defense attorney, Detective Rosemurgy and an additional Sheriff’s Deputy. The contrast between Nima and Detective Rosemurgy was striking, and drew attention throughout the courtroom. Rosemurgy, a former United Nations Peace Keeper in Kosovo, is a large man, physically imposing with broad shoulders, standing about 6’5” in height. For many, this was the first time they saw Nima with their own eyes.  Next to the detective, he looked tiny.

There was whispered astonishment as everyone took in Nima’s diminutive size. The inmate clothing that had been provided by the county jail looked so incredibly large on him that it seemed as if he though he was wearing a giant orange puffy coat, when in fact it was the smallest size coat available. Nima is said to stand at a height of 4’10”. 

He looked disheveled, his long-frizzy hair parted down the middle of his head. His beard looked as if it hadn’t been trimmed in weeks.

When the judge asked for Nima’s plea, he said only softly, “I stand mute." This technically means "not guilty" in the eyes of the court. Pleading “mute” limits his civil liability if he is sued at a later date. After Nima’s plea, the judge announced that the pre-trial hearing will be held 30 days from January 15^th. Watch the full video of the court proceeding here.

As Detective Rosemurgy led Nima out of court and back to his jail cell, I asked Mary Niemela, outreach director for local domestic violence organization the Barbara Kettle Gundlach Shelter, what she thought as she watched Nima enter the courtroom. “I saw him at the preliminary hearing a few days earlier and I wasn’t surprised. In most cases I’ve seen, the male abuser is under six feet in height. Abusive relationships are about power and control, but more than about the physical violence. It's about emotional abuse, intimidation, isolation from family, friends and resources, threats of violence, and also economic abuse,” she said.

Niemela explained the prototypical abusive relationship: “Love and fear are two main reasons why women stay.” She says that women rarely talk about their partner’s abusive behavior when it begins. A battered woman “won't call the police because she may feel guilty”, particularly about any financial burden that may be attached to reporting incidents. Other reasons for staying in a relationship include a fear that other people will find out about the couple’s problems.

Since Sanaz had only recently emigrated from Iran she had a limited circle of friends, most of whom she communicated with via telephone or Skype since they resided outside the United States. In addition to the warning signs cited by Mary Niemela, Sanaz most likely did not have the confidence, network of friends, language skills or resources to get help.

Sanaz’s Resting Place

The next day, Detective Rosemurgy made the almost two-hour drive to Marquette from Houghton, Michigan. The snow had accumulated since the last time he was there. Upon arriving at Sanaz’s final resting place he said, “That must be it. Her plot is over by that tree. There aren’t any other graves around it.” As the detective walked towards Sanaz’s grave, the snow came up to his knees.

The case has taken an emotional toll on the detective, but you wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at him. He has spent 24 years in law enforcement, yet he has never seen a case like this. He admits his experience as a United Nations Peace Keeper in Kosovo keeps him grounded.

“I was brought up in a Christian household. Going to a conflict and instilling democracy and aiding Muslims that were being persecuted by Christians was a moving experience for me,” says Rosemurgy.

The Detective arrived at Sanaz’s grave. There was no headstone and the bouquet of flowers that had been placed on her casket at her funeral is barely visible under the fresh snow. He pushed the snow away with his bare hands to reveal the ground under which Sanaz Nezami is buried. A simple bouquet, a blue ribbon, and a white candle full of packed snow became visible, exposed to the cold air.

Satisfied that Sanaz’s grave is once again exposed to the chilling winter air of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, he reflected:

“Looking at her grave, I think about this tragic incident and all that’s happened over the past couple of weeks. I can only look ahead. I can’t help but think of all the good people who were involved in this incident and how they were all there for Sanaz and her family...But there is still more work to be done for Sanaz...to make sure justice is served.”