Shohreh Zahra Seyed-Makki

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Montgomery County Police Department (MD)

Offense Location:

Potomac, Maryland

Summary:

Shohreh Zahra Seyed-Makki, 54, was found dead in her home in the 9500 block of Newbridge Drive at around 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 6. Seyed-Makki was apparently strangled and beaten in her kitchen, and police labeled the death a homicide. On Oct. 9, police arrested Seyed-Makki's son Mark Makki, 23, and charged him with robbery and first-degree murder, but days before Makki's scheduled Nov. 4 preliminary hearing, the Office of the State's Attorney for Montgomery County dropped the charges, saying there was insufficient evidence for an indictment.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Offense:

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.

Additional Details:

The charging documents filed in District Court for Montgomery County stated that 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. Makki was initially held without bond, then later released on $250,000 bond because of results of DNA testing. In justifying his arrest, homicide detectives also cited an unexplained wound on Mark Makki's body, an empty envelope that had contained cash and a long-standing feud between Mark Makki and his mother over the suspect's girlfriend, Aramis Mizani. Days before Makki's scheduled Nov. 4 preliminary hearing, the Office of the State's Attorney for Montgomery County dropped the charges, saying there was insufficient evidence for an indictment. A year after Shohreh Seyed-Makki was beaten to death in her Potomac home, the murder remains unsolved but police do not consider it a cold case. 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. Seyed-Makki had once worked as a secretary in her husband's Greenbelt office, and he added that the couple was known to offer free medical treatment for Iranian immigrants if they could not pay.

Case Last Updated:

Oct 06, 2026