SPOKANE — A man accused of killing his wife and hiding her body in a chest freezer in 2019 was extradited from the Netherlands Thursday back to Spokane, where he will stand trial for first-degree murder.
“There are no ends that we will not, and have not gone to, to bring Mr. Kashify back here to stand trial for this senseless act of murder,” Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels said in a statement on the arrest of Wahid Kashify.
Kashify was arrested in Europe in 2022 after three years on the run, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. He fled the country three days after the disappearance of his 24-year-old wife, Arezu Kashify, who was last seen alive on May 26, 2019, when she dropped her two young children off with a friend.
Wahid Kashify purchased a one-way plane ticket and arrived in Kabul, Afghanistan, on May 30, according to the Department of Homeland Security — the same day she was reported missing. During that time, law enforcement was able to find his car at the Spokane International Airport with his phone inside.
A note next to his phone gave the couple’s address and a code to open Wahid Kashify’s cellphone, court records say.
“There is a video or two videos that you can watch and judge,” the note states. “Thanks.”
When detectives unlocked his phone, they found a video of Wahid Kashify taking responsibility for his wife’s death, but the contents of the video haven’t been released to the public.
Arezu Kashify’s remains were later found in a false bottom of a chest freezer in the apartment they shared together at 33 E. Graves Road in north Spokane on June 4, The Spokesman-Review previously reported. Near the freezer was a pool of blood, and scissors were found on the floor by the refrigerator.
The Spokane County Medical Examiner determined she died by “homicidal violence” at the time, but has not released how.
The couple came to Spokane in 2015 from Afghanistan.
A friend who lived above the couple told investigators Arezu Kashify wanted to start dressing differently, but it was “something Wahid would not allow.” Detectives also wrote in court records she was afraid of her husband, and believed he’d kill her if she ever spoke to police about their marital problems.
They were both living in the U.S. on a special immigration visa for people who worked with the U.S. military — Wahid Kashify was a former translator and interpreter for the military during war, but left the area because he believed he was wanted by the Taliban, according to previous reporting .
Wahid Kashify earned an associate degree in criminal justice at Spokane Community College in 2017 and owned a business called Cougar Taxi, according to the Washington State Department of Revenue. He was scheduled to become a U.S. citizen the day after his wife’s body was discovered, Det. Marc Melville said at the time.
Sheriff’s office detectives had to navigate “complex waters” and spend countless hours on the long-term investigation to get to this point, Nowels said, after thanking Melville and other federal investigators for their work. The FBI, Defense Department, Justice Department, the Dutch National Police, Interpol and others all participated in the hunt and arrest of Kashify, according to the sheriff’s office.
He will likely make his first appearance in a Spokane court this month. Online records show Kashify was booked into the Spokane County Jail at 2:37 p.m. Thursday and his bond was set at $1 million.
