The estranged husband of a wealthy California socialite, whose body was found at the bottom of a 75-foot embankment in the San Bernardino Mountains, has been arrested on suspicion of her murder.
Gordon Abas Goodarzi, 66, was taken into custody on Friday at his home in Rolling Hills following an 'extensive and persistent investigation' into the death of 58-year-old Aryan Papoli, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department announced.
Papoli's body was discovered on 18 November 2025 near Crestline, around 100 miles from her estate in Newport Beach. An autopsy ruled her death a homicide, with injuries consistent with a fall. Goodarzi is being held without bail at the Central Detention Center.
Papoli, who grew up in Iran and moved to the US at 18, met Goodarzi nearly 30 years ago in California. Together they founded U.S. Hybrid, a clean energy company. The couple had two sons, Navid and Milad, and owned a five-bedroom home in Rolling Hills. Six months before her death, Papoli had moved to Newport Beach to enjoy retirement, volunteering with the South Coast Botanical Garden and UCLA's Fowler Museum while pursuing ceramics, photography and dance.
Her son Navid told the Los Angeles Times in December that he had not spoken to his mother for weeks due to his master's coursework at Harvard. She was reported missing on 22 November, four days after her body was found. 'When she was missing, we were going from this frantic pass... When we got the news, it feels like the wind gets knocked out of you,' he said.
