12 Crimes of Christmas: Bad Santa
On Christmas Day, 2011, Aziz Yazdanpanah dressed as Santa Claus and gathered with his extended family in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Grapevine. While everyone was opening presents, Yazdanpanah fatally shot his estranged wife, their two teenage children and three other relatives before turning the gun on himself.
Grapevine police believe that Yazdanpanah called 911 before he shot himself. The recording of the 911 call revealed someone saying: “Help, help,” and then “I am shooting people.” Police said that those chilling words were incomprehensible when the dispatcher listened to them on Christmas Day, but eventually became audible when the investigators used a different software system.
It remains unclear why Yazdanpanah would leave such a warning, especially because he had attempted to stage the scene and frame his brother-in-law before killing himself.The sadistic Santa killed his (estranged) wife of 24 years, Fatemeh Rahmati, their 19-year-old daughter Nona and their 14-year-old son Ali. Yazdanpanah also murdered his wife’s sister, Zohreh Rahmaty, her husband, Mohamad Hossein Zarei and their daughter, Sahra.
Investigators believe that Yazdanpanah was severely down on his luck at the time of the Christmas massacre. This Santa, a former real estate professional rather than a joyous gift-giver, had lost his job and was struggling financially for quite some time. Moreover, he and his wife were heading toward a divorce. Why exactly did Yazdanpanah choose to murder six members of his family whilst dressed as Father Christmas? We may never know.
