A 23-year-old Potomac man is being held without bond after he was arrested Oct. 9 for murdering his mother.
Mark K. Makki is charged with robbery and the first-degree murder of his mother, Shohreh Zahra Seyed-Makki, 54, who was found dead in her home in the 9500 block of Newbridge Drive at around 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 6.
Police said that the mother and son had argued repeatedly over several years because she did not approve of his relationship with his girlfriend.
SEYED-MAKKI was a gentle woman who loved to entertain guests and to walk and jog in her neighborhood, friends said. She sometimes worked in the medical offices of her husband Khosrow “Mike” Makki, an ear, nose, and throat surgeon.
The Makki family is well known in the tight-knit Iranian community in Washington, but was otherwise fairly private, friends and neighbors said. A receptionist at the Islamic Education Center on Montrose Road said the family belongs there but was not active in the community.
According to police, Khosrow Makki became concerned Thursday after Seyed-Makki did not show up at a 1 p.m. appointment with him and he was not able to contact her late that afternoon. He asked a family friend to check on her and the friend found her unconscious in her home and notified police.
Police and fire and rescue units arrived at the home at approximately 6:30 p.m. and pronounced the victim dead on the scene. An autopsy report from the Maryland Medical Examiner’s Office indicated that Seyed-Makki died of “blunt force trauma and strangulation.”
Police confirmed that the murder occurred earlier Thursday, but said that it was difficult to establish an exact time.
Mark Makki lived with his parents in the Newbridge Drive home. Police would not say whether anyone else was present in the home Thursday or provide details about the results of the investigation.
A police statement said that Mark Makki also took money that his mother had hidden in the home with other valuable items.
POLICE CLOSED the side street from Newbridge where the home is located and even neighbors had limited access during the investigation Thursday night. The normally quiet Falconhurst neighborhood swarmed briefly with television crews, worried neighbors, and as many as 10 police cars, including special forensic investigators and canine units.
Several family friends arrived at the crime scene Thursday night and broke down upon learning the news.
All visible signs of the police investigation were gone by Friday night. Though no arrest came until Sunday, neighbors said Friday that they had learned the murder was “domestic” and not the result of an intruder.
Charging documents filed in District Court for Montgomery County stated that Mark Makki was arrested following multiple interviews that revealed "inconsistencies" in his story.
Mark Makki stated that his girlfriend could provide "an alibi as to his whereabouts" when the murder occurred, according to the documents.
Mark Makki told police he stayed at his girlfriend's house the night of Oct. 5 and was with her until the evening of Oct. 6, after the murder occurred.
But the girlfriend said that he returned to his house during the morning of Oct. 6 and that they did not visit a Montgomery County library that afternoon, as Mark Makki had stated, according to the documents.
The Makki family could not be reached for comment prior to the Almanac’s press time Oct. 11.
Lucille Baur, a Montgomery County Police spokeswoman, said that there are currently no other suspects in the murder, the investigation is ongoing.
"Our detectives worked very hard in this case ... to the point of developing probable cause to make the arrest of Mark Makki," she said. "[But] there could still be more to this."