A California technology executive with a background in EV development has been arrested and charged with murder following the discovery of his wife’s body along a Southern California highway late last year.
The New York Post reports that San Bernardino County authorities discovered a woman’s body 75 feet down an embankment near Highway 138 on the morning of November 18, 2025. The deceased woman was wearing a blue sweatshirt, blue pants, and white tennis shoes when she was found on the mountainside.
After retrieving the body and conducting an autopsy, medical examiners determined that the injuries were consistent with a fall. However, this month the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department announced that the death was being investigated as a homicide. Initially, local officials had limited information about the victim, describing her only as a white woman estimated to be between 25 and 35 years old, and requested public assistance in the investigation.
Following an extensive investigation, authorities identified the victim as 58-year-old Aryan Papoli, a resident of Newport Beach. On January 23, investigators arrested her estranged husband, 66-year-old Gordon Abas Goodarzi, at his home, according to a news release from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
The Post reports that court documents claim Goodarzi murdered his wife for financial gain:
The wealthy tech tycoon who allegedly shoved his wife from a SoCal mountain killed her to stop her from siphoning millions from their joint bank account, new court documents reveal.
Aryan Papoli had withdrawn $5 to $8 million from the bank she shared with Gordon Abas Goodarzi and had plans to split the couple’s lavish properties between their two sons, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by The California Post.
At the time, the couple of 28 years was in the middle of a bitter divorce initiated by Papoli, who made multiple attempts to ensure that her allegedly greedy husband didn’t block the boys from getting their inheritance.
Goodarzi is a prominent figure in California’s technology sector with connections to the competitive robotics community. He is publicly listed as the president and CEO of Magmotor, a company that describes itself as a supporter of the combat robot community and claims to sponsor several teams annually. The company has ties to BattleBots, the popular robot combat competition. According to his LinkedIn profile, Goodarzi has also worked as a research affiliate at UCLA’s B. John Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences since 2023.
Both originally from Iran, Papoli and Goodarzi had established their home in the affluent Rolling Hills community in Los Angeles County. In a blog post, Papoli described their attraction to the area’s peaceful atmosphere and natural surroundings. “There’s something magical about the winding roads lined with towering trees, creating a peaceful oasis, a welcome retreat from the hustle and bustle of city life,” she wrote.
Papoli characterized herself as a corporate executive who had previously held positions as a chief financial officer and vice president of operations. However, she had stepped back from the corporate world to focus on creative pursuits and nonprofit work. “My heart has always been in art in all its forms,” she wrote, explaining her involvement in ceramics, painting, and photography as means of emotional expression. She frequently photographed flowers and scenes from daily life in her neighborhood during walks around the community. “Whether it’s through our careers, creative passions, or commitment to giving back, we’ve found our home here in every sense of the word,” Papoli wrote. “Living here has been a dream.”
In her writings, Papoli described her husband as an innovator in renewable energy who had been developing electric and hybrid vehicles since the 1980s. According to her account, Goodarzi worked as the technical director at Hughes Electronics, where he contributed to the development and manufacturing of the EV1 in the 1990s. The EV1 represented one of the earliest iterations of the modern electric car.
Read more at New York Post here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
