NBC’s Dateline: The Ultimate Betrayal peeled back the layers of a chilling case that shattered a family and shocked Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It began on what should have been an ordinary evening in April 2015. But by the next morning, Tahereh Ghassemi—a hardworking mother and Walmart manager—had vanished. The pot of rice was still simmering on the stove, her car was gone, and the only other person in the house, her son Hamed, was left to wonder what had happened. What started as a search for a missing person quickly spiraled into a murder investigation pointing to the one man Tahereh had once trusted most: her ex-husband, Hamid Ghassemi.
HAMID GHASSEMI: FROM IRAN TO THE AMERICAN DREAM
Born in the early 1950s, Hamid Ghassemi came to the U.S. from Iran in the 1980s, determined to build a better future. He arrived in Baton Rouge with little more than ambition and eventually opened a small business—Rainbow Pizza. Once that venture succeeded, he turned his focus to the car trade and launched Import One, a car dealership that grew in scale and local recognition.
While Hamid was building his American dream, his wife Tahereh remained in Iran with their young son, Hamed. Years passed. Hamid had married an American woman in a secret arrangement to gain citizenship, a fact he kept from his family back home. When Hamed turned 18, he moved to the U.S., followed by Tahereh in 2005. She was full of hope, but what awaited her was not the warm reunion she envisioned.
A FAMILY DIVIDED: SECRETS, LIES, AND DIVORCE
When Tahereh arrived in Baton Rouge, she discovered a truth more devastating than distance—Hamid had moved on. Their marriage rapidly deteriorated. She learned not only of his American wife but of another marriage as well. Her dream of a new life became a battle, fought in courtrooms over years.
The divorce dragged on for nearly eight years. Hamid, determined to minimize financial loss, resisted every legal blow. But in January 2015, just three months before Tahereh vanished, a judge ruled in her favor. Hamid was ordered to pay over $1 million and surrender two residential properties. His rage simmered.
THE NIGHT TAHEREH GHASSEMI DISAPPEARED
On April 11, 2015, Hamed skipped dinner with his mother. They’d argued the day before, and she had been upset. When he returned home late that night, he found the rice cooking and the house empty. There were no signs of a struggle. His mother’s purse remained, but her bedspread was gone. Odd, but not alarming—at least not immediately.
By the next day, she was still missing. When Hamed called Walmart, an employee mistakenly said she had shown up to work. That bought some time. But after another night passed, he drove to the store himself and learned the truth: his mother had never arrived. She had vanished without a trace.
A TRAIL OF CLUES POINTS TO HAMID
East Baton Rouge investigators turned their attention to both Hamed and Hamid. Surveillance footage near Tahereh’s house showed a distinctive Chevy Tahoe the night she disappeared. Two employees from Import One identified the SUV—it came from their dealership.
A closer look at Hamid’s phone records revealed a curious 17-second call to a number he had never contacted before. It led investigators to 20-year-old Tyler Ashpaugh, a drifter recently expelled from college. Ashpaugh’s digital footprint placed him in a remote area of St. Helena Parish shortly after Tahereh’s disappearance.
When police searched that location, they followed tufts of polyester stuffing through the woods and discovered a shallow grave. Wrapped in a comforter—Hamed’s missing bedspread—was Tahereh’s body. She had been shot in the head.
THE MURDER-FOR-HIRE PLOT EXPOSED
Confronted with mounting evidence, Ashpaugh cracked. He confessed: he, Skyler Williams, and Daniel Richter—a mechanic at Hamid’s dealership—had abducted and killed Tahereh. They used a syringe filled with insulin to try to quietly kill her, then wrapped her body and transported her in her own car. When they heard her moaning in the trunk, Ashpaugh shot her. Their payment? $10,000 from Hamid.
Richter later testified that Hamid had orchestrated the hit, desperate to avoid paying the divorce settlement. The case grew darker still—Ashpaugh claimed Hamid also wanted his own son dead, hoping to recover any financial losses.
THE TRIAL OF HAMID GHASSEMI
All four men were arrested. For Hamed, the revelations were crushing. Not only had he lost his mother, but the father he had worked alongside was now accused of arranging her execution—and possibly plotting his death too.
“I just realized I was left alone,” Hamed told Dateline.
Hamid Ghassemi stood trial in August 2023. At 72 years old, he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The verdict closed a horrific chapter, but the wounds it left behind were irreversible.
WHERE IS HAMID GHASSEMI NOW?
Hamid Ghassemi is currently serving a life sentence in a Louisiana state prison. At his age, he will almost certainly die behind bars, confined not only by concrete walls but by the weight of a brutal act that destroyed his own family. There is no possibility of parole, and no indication of remorse.
His co-conspirators met different fates. Skyler Williams and Daniel Richter each pled guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to 30 years. Ashpaugh, who had initially been offered a plea deal for cooperation, died of a fentanyl overdose while awaiting trial.
AFTERMATH: A SON’S NEW BEGINNING
In the years since, Hamed has tried to rebuild. He married an Iranian woman he knew from his youth and now owns a car dealership of his own, distancing himself from his father’s shadow.
“My way of doing business and his way are completely different,” he said. His life now reflects the values of the mother who once made rice dinners and dreamed of a better life for them both.
Tahereh’s legacy lives on not in headlines or court documents, but in the resilience of her son.
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Tahereh Ghassemi Son: Where is Hamed Ghassemi Now
