Advocates call for broader probe into CT woman’s death. She ‘didn’t just walk herself into a river and drown’

“Women do not turn up dead.”

That is the message advocates and activists are desperately trying to spread eight months after Roya Mohammadi was found dead in West Haven’s West River.

Before Mohammadi’s body was discovered on March 3, she was a beloved sister and daughter from Afghanistan, an adored interpreter within the New Haven immigrant community, and, at 29, she held innumerable hopes and dreams for her future.

Seven months before her death, West Haven police reported that a victim of alleged violence “feared for her life.” Based on the details contained in that incident report, that victim is believed to be Mohammadi.

Now, in light of their continued frustration with the police response, local activists said they are launching a statewide campaign Sunday to call on local leaders and the West Haven Police Department to investigate Mohammadi’s case as a homicide.

“We’re seeing both (with) the police, in the way they’re responding to this, as well as our elected officials that they’re sending a message that it is OK — that it is normal — to find dead bodies of women,” Vanesa Suarez, the founding director of Vivan Las Autónomas, a New Haven based arts and advocacy group that works to support families and victims of gender-based violence and femicide.

“Roya didn’t just die. Roya didn’t just walk herself into a river and drown,” Suarez said.

“Women do not just turn up dead,” she said.

Suárez said the Vivan Las Autónomas Justice for Roya campaign is leading a call to action Sunday at 2 p.m. with a march from 25 Boston Post Road in Orange to the location they say Mohammadi was last seen — an apartment complex in West Haven that Mohammadi lived in after moving to the U.S. in 2017.

After a vigil honoring the lives of Mohammadi and femicide victims, the action will continue with a signature and postcard campaign organized by Jeniffer Perez Caraballo.

“We’re doing what women have always done,” Perez Caraballo said. “We’ve recognized that one of our own has died because of the systems in place that favor men and ultimately create violence towards women. And so we’re not letting her die in vain. We’re not letting her die quietly and we’re being just as vocal as her — we’re picking up where she left off.”

While reporting this story, the Courant left voicemails with West Haven’s Public Information Officer, Police Chief Joseph Perno, an officer involved with the case, and Perno’s secretary. None of the calls to the West Haven Police Department were returned.

Disappearance and death

Mohammadi had been missing for roughly a week when the director of the nonprofit where Mohammadi worked as a translator realized she needed to call the police.

On March 2 a missing persons report was filed with the West Haven Police Department.

According to police documents Suarez shared with the Courant, West Haven police interviewed a relative of Mohammadi on March 2. At the time, police wrote that the relative had “no clue” where Mohammadi was located. According to the report, Mohammadi’s relative told police she had moved eight to nine months previously.

The next day, Suarez said, state transportation workers discovered Mohammadi’s body in the West River, a body of water four miles from her home.

In West Haven police documents that Suarez shared, officers documented at least two instances of alleged violence involving Mohammadi as the alleged victim.

Suarez said that Mohammadi was also enrolled with domestic violence services and had lived in a domestic violence shelter for two months before she said she had to leave.

Representatives from the shelter did not respond to requests for comment.

Suarez said Mohammadi’s immediate family, who live in Afghanistan, were aware “of the complicated and violent dynamics Roya was experiencing …”

According to Mohammadi’s sisters, the family tried to file a missing persons report from Afghanistan when they lost contact with their sister in late February, but were not able to do so.

“The police told us that we could not place this report because we were not in the country and did not live in West Haven, and that only residents could file a complaint or report someone missing,” Mohammidi’s youngest sister Shamim said, in a translated statement. “They hung up on us and never called back.”

Shamim Mohammadi said that to this day, Mohammadi’s immediate family has not received any direct communication from the police.

Instead, she said, details on the case have been filtered through family friends. Shamim Mohammadi said that from their understanding, the police say “that they are waiting for warrants from the court to search her home, while simultaneously letting on that they do not know where she lived.”

“They should have investigated the circumstances of her death immediately after it occurred,” Shamim Mohammadi said.

Suarez and other advocates allege police have been not been responsive to the family’s efforts to provide evidence that they say documents the alleged violence Mohammadi faced and proves where she lived.

In their eyes, the police response is inextricably linked to Mohammadi’s identity.

“Roya, you know, she’s not a white person and she’s not a U.S. citizen,” Suarez said. “If a white family overseas was trying to file a missing person’s report for their loved one who was also a white person, I don’t believe that the police would have responded in the same way.”

Suarez said she believes Mohammadi’s story is part of a pattern of mishandled violence and femicide cases in the U.S.

One example of this, Suarez said, is the rise in missing and killed Indigenous women seen across the nation, but she emphasized that structures that devalue women extend into all communities, including Connecticut.

“It is no surprise why we are experiencing this epidemic,” Suarez said. “It is not just Indigenous girls at this point. It is Black, brown and Indigenous women and girls that are being impacted by this, as well as white women.”

According to a July 2022 police report Suarez shared with the Courant, a female believed to be Mohammadi, but identified only as “Victim 1,” told West Haven police that she feared a person would destroy her immigration documents “which would ruin her life.”

According to the report, police interviewed “Victim 1” at Yale New Haven Hospital’s Saint Raphael’s campus, where she was being treated for a re-injured ankle. “Victim 1” said a man punched her in the face four times and pushed her backwards onto the ground before driving away with her phone.

Officers write that a local homeowner called police after “Victim 1” knocked on their door asking for a ride home as her ankle hurt too much to walk any further.

West Haven police also noted that “Victim 1” told an advocate that she “feared for her life.”

In the report, police said an advocate was offered to “Victim 1” based on her answers to a screen conducted by officers.

Advocates said that during a two-month period in late 2022 after this incident, Mohammadi moved into and out of a domestic violence shelter.

They said that before her death, Mohammadi had just acquired a legal permanent residency in the U.S. as well as a social security number — a huge step they said would help Mohammadi obtain long-term employment and independent housing.

Suarez and other advocates said that Mohammadi’s case speaks to the fact that as a survivor of violence, you can do all the right things, and still be failed by the system.

“Roya was screaming for her life, that she feared for her life. She actively took the step of not only making a police report, but also reaching out to domestic violence service agencies almost in an effort of preparing herself for her death,” Suarez said.

The missing person report

Camila Guiza-Chavez is the co-executive director of Havenly, a nonprofit serving immigrant and refugee women in New Haven where Mohammadi worked as translator.

Guiza-Chavez said she was the one that filed the missing person’s report after Mohammadi missed work.

Before her death, Guiza-Chavez said Mohammadi had just started a workshop for immigrant women with educational and professional backgrounds in their own country. One of the activities was drawing your life as a river.

“She said ‘I’ve gone through so much, but really, when I step back and look at what I’ve drawn and what my life has been, I feel very proud and I know that anything is possible,’” Guiza-Chavez said. “She really wanted the other participants of the program, her peers to know (that) ‘there’s always hope.’”

Guiza-Chavez described the situation as “horrifying” weeks later when Mohammadi’s body was discovered.

Guiza-Chavez said Mohammadi was about to start an internship with the Clifford Beers Clinic as a patient navigator and she was excited for the opportunities coming her way.

Mohammadi spoke four languages and held advanced degrees from universities in Afghanistan and India. Guiza-Chavez said she loved music and dreamed of starting a media marketing firm.

Coworkers described Mohammadi as “inspiring,” “brave,” and “brilliant.”

When Mohammadi died, they said, Havenly lost a sister and the world lost a light.

Khalida Mohammadi said her sister’s death has left the family “hopeless.”

“We may be alive but we are no longer living,” she said.

Mohammadi’s family and local activists said that they hope Sunday’s action will lead to a full investigation, not just for Mohammadi but for victims everywhere.

If you or a loved one is experiencing domestic violence, Connecticut offers a Statewide 24 Hour Toll Free Hotline 1-888-774-2900 English 1-844-831-9200 Spanish or online at CTSafeConnect.org.