Deedeh Goodarzi

Deedeh Goodarzi was born in Kuwait and lived with her grandparents until the age of 14 when she traveled to New York to join her father.  At the age of 22, she became the victim of a senseless, brutal crime.  Rest in Peace-Kathleen Hill   

Firefighter James Rogers battled through nearly impenetrable smoke in the fourth-floor corridor of the Travel Inn on West 42nd St. He reached room 417, where the blaze had started a little before 9 a.m. on Dec. 2, 1979, and saw two bodies on the twin beds. He grabbed the closest one, hoping to save a life.

“I carried her out the door and put her down on the hall floor,” Rogers told the Daily News. “I was preparing to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, which is standard procedure, when I suddenly noticed there was no head.”

The other victim was in the same condition.

“I’m used to seeing charred bodies,” Rogers said, “but this was the worst experience I’ve ever had in 12 years of firefighting.”

Four days before the fire, a tall, sandy-haired man in his 30s had signed the hotel register as “Carl Wilson,” of Merlin, N.J. Both the name and the town were phonies. Hotel workers said the guest entered room 417, slapped the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the doorknob, and was not seen again.

Investigators said the heads and hands had been severed with surgical precision before the bodies were doused with a lighter fluid and set on fire.

By February, detectives had discovered the identity of one victim. She was Deedeh Goodarzi, 22, a high-priced hooker. Nothing was ever learned about the second girl, except that she was around 16, 110 pounds and, on the last day of her life, she wore a pair of Bonjour jeans, a burgundy mohair sweater and black patent leather boots. read more

BY MARA BOVSUN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, March 4, 2012