Wednesday, May 31, 2006

a special request

Yesterday one of my students came to me after class with a request. I get lots of requests but this one was different. It's a murder mystery.

Way back in October of 1983 a Libyan man named Elamari Magdud was brutally murdered in Portland Oregon. The man was my student's uncle. His family has been able to get very little information about the crime other than the fact that two ladies found him in the north area of Portland, apparently he had been beaten and probably hit on the head with a heavy object. This information was given to the family by the Portland Police Records Manager who also said they believed that they had found persons who had information about the killing or who might have killed him, but at least one of the men was already being sent to jail for committing another crime. No names were given to the family and nothing was ever done to prosecute anyone for the crime.

The body was sent back to Libya for burial and according to my student the casket was sealed but the family opened it and found the man had severe trauma to his head. [On the original post I had written that the family found the victim had gunshot wounds, but my student has since stated that according to his mother the victim had severe head trauma and his mother wanted me to change the post to state this.]

My student asked me what could be done - the family wants some kind of closure, even though the crime was comitted over 20 years ago the mystery remains and it's hard for the family to feel at rest. I tried to look up the information on the internet and can find nothing. So I thought I would mention it here on my blog. Maybe someone reading this might have some more information or ideas about what can be done.

4 comments:

  1. Teri, I will try my very best to see what I can find out. Hopefully, there is a "COLD CASE" department, and if there is, I will certainly try to find out what I can. You are a good woman, and I think it's so special that your student asked for your help. Which is a testimony of the kind of woman you are. God bless. Sandi

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Khadija

    I'm not sure if this will help, but according to the Portland Police Department web site http://www.flypdx.com/Police_Services.aspx the Police Record Division can be reached by phone at 503.460.4221

    My guess is that they will not discuss a case except with a family member

    All my best as always

    H

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi sister Khadija
    How are you and how's the family, hope all's well. As I was reading your blog which's a special treat to me, I came across your article under "a special request" from one of your students about his uncle Elamari Magdud who was brutally murdered in Portland Oregon in October of 1983 . There's a program here in US called Americas Most Wanted and it accepts unsolved murder mysteries filings from families and relatives of murdered victims, your student can visit this site at
    http://www.amw.com/ and submit his case by clicking on "MY STORY", they'll dig deep into the case and question the detectives who were assigned to the case, the witnesses and anybody who was involved. They're really have helped resolving a lot of unsolved mysteries. My best whishes to you and to your family.
    Have a very pleasant day

    mahmud abudaber
    Hollywood USA
    Note: Ain Zarah
    looks really beautiful

    ReplyDelete

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