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A Murder In Karachi, a Vicious Beating In NY

Alan Kravitz in New York

About 11 months ago when Abdul Rahman Chaudhary yelled for police help in Karachi he was pointing to a bloody sight in his car: His 29-year-old wife Denise had been shot several times from close range. She had been shot in her thigh, her face and her back.

Chaudhary, who was visiting his native country, told the police that he had gone shopping with his niece while his American wife had stayed back to smoke a cigarette

This week, when police came to Chaudhary's plush house near New York City, they helped take him to the nearest hospital where he was put under intensive care.

He had been found nearly naked and beaten to unconsciousness -- and though the police say they have no suspect, they wonder if his beating has anything to do with his wife's murder.

Some of his acquaintances speculated that Chaudhary, whose construction business has been in trouble for over a year and who faced eviction from his house for not paying rent for several months, is a victim of the New York mafia. Others wondered if he was a victim of a botched robbery

One person who publicly said she would rather see Chaudhary dead has an alibi. Robin Stassi, Denise's sister, said with glee that she wished she were there when Chaudhary was beaten up, claiming she could have sat there with popcorn and a soda watching the assault.

Though Pakistani police had considered Chaudhary the prime suspect for his wife's murder, they had released him due to a lack of evidence.

He was allowed to return to the United States with his two children, ages five and six. But the Federal Bureau of Investigation kept a watch on him after learning he had taken $ one million insurance policy on his wife a few months before her death. He had named his children the beneficiaries in the insurance.

Despite the suspicion that he was behind Denise's death, some members of her family stayed in Chaudhary's house. Janine Garcia, Denise's sister, was one of them. Roseanne Nadbornne, Denise's mother who lived in the basement and looked after his two children, said she had heard scuffles upstairs and found her son-in-law bleeding profusely. He told her he knew nothing about the men who had attacked him. A few minutes later he collapsed.

While Stassi proclaimed that she hoped that Chaudhary died, friends of Denise say they are praying for his recovery.

If he dies, there may be no answer to why their friend was killed, they say.

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