She Fled Iran, But Was Murdered Here by an 'Islamic Fanatic'

Benetta Betbadal, a Christian, fled persecution in Iran as young woman. For more than three decades she enjoyed a better life, along with religious freedom here in the United States.

All that came to an end Wednesday when she was murdered by an Islamic terrorist--not in Iran--but in California.

Americans are mourning the victims of the terrorist attack in San Bernardino. Wife and mother Benetta Betbadal, 46, is among those remembered.

"She was a great wife, a wife who would take care of her family, great cook, great mom," her husband Arlen Verdehyou, a police officer, said. "She made the house beautiful. She was an angel."

"This is the United States. It's international. Any type of religion we have in this United States and unfortunately it had to happen at her work, and by Islamic.. I don't know if it was terrorists or what, but obviously unhappy employee at this moment that caused all this sadness," he said.

A Christian born in Iran in 1969, Benetta escaped religious persecution following the Iranian Revolution. Benetta was only 18-years-old when she arrived in the United States, settling first in New York City. She later moved to California where she met and married Arlen Verdeyhou.

They have three children, ages 10, 12 and 15. Her daughter, Jolen, said she'll miss talking to her mom.

"It's like, she would be the one I would talk to mostly about everything. She knew all my secrets and everything," she said. "She's my best friend, basically."

As a graduate of California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, Benetta worked as a San Bernardino County health inspector.

Her husband said he exchanged text messages with his wife around 8 a.m. Wednesday, telling her he was going to do some Christmas shopping.

He said Benetta had just finished decorating the family's Christmas tree and was excited about a presentation she was set to give that day at the office Christmas party.

Three hours later, shots rang out at the Inland Regional Center. Muslim gunmen Sayed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik carried out their well-thought out plan of attack. Fourteen people were killed, including Iranian Christian, Benetta Betbadal, the woman who had once fled Isalmic extremism.

Her husband suggested even America may not be a safe place for Christians.

"It chases you. Wherever you go it can chase you. That is pretty much it. She ran... 35 years she's been here, or 31 years, and now gone, at the hands of...(an) Islamic fanatic," he said.

Jolen said her mother would want their family to move on.
 
"She would want people happy, she didn't want people grieving, or crying, or anything," she said. "So that's what I'm taking in and I'm turning that into my support that's making me strong."