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In January 2022, three men dressed in police uniforms arrived at a home in Wasaga Beach, Ontario, claiming they had a warrant for the arrest of a woman who was staying there. However, these men weren’t police officers & they absolutely weren’t there to make an arrest.
Within minutes, 37-year-old Elnaz Hajtamiri was forcibly dragged shoeless through the snow & pushed into a waiting SUV that drove off into the night. She has never been seen or heard from since.
What makes this case so much more disturbing is that only three weeks earlier, Elnaz had survived a brutal attack that left her with a serious head wound. Fearing for her safety, she’d gone into hiding & was temporarily living with her relatives, believing she had finally found a safe space.
Unfortunately, the people who were determined to hurt her, knew exactly where to find her.
Elnaz Hajtamiri was born & raised in Iran. She graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree in international Insurance & at 25-years-old, she married a veterinarian named Farnam Shapourifar.
The couple were blissfully in love until Farnam sadly passed away after a short illness in 2017. Rather than using their savings to start her life over, Elnaz decided to use the money to help build a school for young girls in an impoverished village in Iran in her late husband’s honor, naming the school after him.
After Elnaz immigrated to Canada the following year in 2018, she found work in the import-export industry before she eventually got into something more creative with cake design. She was exceptionally talented in creating & decorating her cakes, making them for birthdays, holidays & even for a random weekday, just because.
She was an incredibly driven, kind, compassionate, humble & independent woman who was known to remember birthdays & check in on people. Even though she was struggling herself, she always found a way to help others & make them feel important. She believed deeply about female education, independence, choices & freedom.
Sadly, these very qualities that made her such an admirable person also made her threatening to controlling men later in life.
Sometime after settling into her quiet, peaceful life in Richmond Hill, Ontario, about 45 minutes north of Toronto, Elnaz began dating a man named Mohamad Lilo. The father of two had immigrated to Canada from Kuwait as a toddler & was raised in Quebec, the province immediately to the east of Ontario.
Not long after she immigrated to Canada, the pair met on a flight between Qatar & Tehran when she went back home for a visit. He operated a shipping company called M Solutions & they eventually became business partners.
In the early days of their relationship, Lilo showed Elnaz love & attention, but like many abusive relationships, as time went on, he slowly grew more controlling. In relationships like this, the control often happens so gradually, that it can be initially mistaken for care & concern.
Although Elnaz ended the relationship in October 2021, 34-year-old Lilo continued showing up to her condo uninvited & she was growing increasingly concerned by his behavior. When he once again turned up at her condo on November 19, 2021, she filed a complaint with the York Regional Police.
Even more concerning, when she took her leased Lexus in for routine maintenance that same month, two tracking devices were discovered under her car. She was traumatized by the idea that he had been aware of all of her movements every single day while she’d been unknowingly going about her life.
After she contacted the police to report the incident, officers spoke with Lilo, telling him to stay away from her. No one knew at the time, but Lilo had remained undeterred, hiring a private investigator to monitor her movements. According to Gabriel Cojocaru, the owner of Investigations Plus, Mohamad Lilo hired him sometime between December 6 & 9th of 2021.
According to Gabriel, Lilo told him that he was a lawyer from Montreal named Nazar, which is Lilo’s middle name, claiming that Elnaz had stolen $100,000 from him & he needed to locate her in order to serve her with court papers. He later changed his story, telling him that his brother had been shot, suggesting that Elnaz may have been involved, saying that she was dangerous.
Gabriel later told authorities that he was asked to keep an eye on her & let him know if she was traveling to Montreal so he could contact the police. Since he sounded genuinely concerned during their phone conversations, he said he never suspected a thing.
In Ontario, it’s legal for a licensed private investigator to conduct surveillance on a person within a public location at any time of the day or night, including taking photos or videos of the person without their consent.
Lilo provided Gabriel with the address of Elnaz’s condo in Richmond Hill & later, where she was staying in Wasaga Beach, requesting that he monitor her movements & schedule.
On Monday, December 20, 2021, Elnaz & her friend walked through the underground parking garage of her condo building, heading toward her car so they could go shopping. After they each climbed in, preparing to leave, two men suddenly got out of a nearby car & approached her car.
When one of the men began pounding on her window, she initially thought they had a question for her or needed help with directions. She noticed that they looked at her strangely as they showed each other something. Feeling uneasy, she tried to lock her door, but admits that she may have actually unlocked it.
Suddenly, the taller of the two opened Elnaz’s door, dragging her out of the car as the other man stood guard.
As her friend sat in the passenger seat screaming, Elnaz was thrown to her knees, unable to move as the man pinned her down to the ground & repeatedly struck her in the head with a frying pan while the other man filmed the attack on a cell phone.
According to surveillance video, one of the men was wearing a blue surgical face mask, a camouflage winter puffer coat, gloves, black pants & black shoes while the other man wore a surgical mask & a dark hooded jacket.
After a concerned witness interrupted the attack, the men fled in a dark colored vehicle that was later determined to have been stolen from the area of Finch Avenue & Done Mills Road in Toronto. Elnaz was left with a wound that stretched from her scalp down the center of her forehead that required about 40 stitches.
Police believe that had the attack not been interrupted, Elnaz would have likely been abducted.
Following the attack, York Regional Police (YRP) officers seized yet another tracking device from Elnaz’s leased Lexus, this being the third device found on the car.
When she was interviewed hours after the attack, she told YRP officers that the man who dragged her from the car had been the taller & larger of the two, but both were of either Middle Eastern or Italian descent. Since everything happened so quickly, she struggled to remember all the details.
Nearly four months later on April 13, 2022, the YRP announced that they arrested a 23-year-old man named Riyasat Singh from Mississauga, Ontario in connection with her attack. He was charged with attempted murder, attempted kidnapping, possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000 & mischief under $5,000.
Meanwhile, a warrant was out for the arrest of the second man responsible, 23-year-old Harshdeep Binner, from Brampton, Ontario.
Both men had been arrested in Edmonton in late March of that year. After they were charged with stealing approximately 40 Ford F-150 pickup trucks, they were released on bail pending a future court date.
When Binner was arrested in connection with the assault five months later on September 19, 2022, he faced the same charges as Singh.
On November 28, 2022, Singh took a plea deal, pleading guilty to reduced charges of aggravated assault rather than attempted murder & attempted kidnapping. After he was sentenced to one year behind bars, he was deported back to India about two weeks later on December 14, 2022.
After Binner’s charges were reduced from attempted murder & kidnapping to aggravated assault & possession of a stolen vehicle, he pleaded not guilty & remained behind bars until his case went to a jury trial in April 2025.
During his trial, the Crown accused him of attacking Elnaz, pulling a chunk of hair from her head in the process, saying his DNA was found at the scene, including on a balaclava that was recovered.
Midway through the two week two-week trial, Binner’s defense attorney filed an application, arguing that the Crown’s failure to hand over the specific investigative report, severely jeopardized his right to a fair trial. The judge then declared a mistrial.
Two months later, in June 2025, rather than facing a second trial, Binner took a plea deal, pleading guilty to assault with a weapon. He was sentenced to time served & released from custody.
After her brutal December 2021 attack, Elnaz was understandably fearing for her safety. At the suggestion of the YRP, she left her Richmond Hill condo to go into hiding at a relative’s home on Trailwood Place in Wasaga Beach, Ontario.
Wasaga Beach is situated along the longest freshwater beach in the world at the southern end of Nottawasaga Bay, which is part of Lake Huron, about 80 miles/129 km north of Toronto.
Before she left for Wasaga, she handed over her car, her computer & cellphone so that police could analyze them for further forms of tracking, which is when the third tracker was found on her car. Public reports never detailed if specific spyware or digital implants were extracted from her phone or laptop.
The one & only time she left the beachfront home was on Monday, January 10, 2022 when she traveled back to York, Ontario, to pick these items up.
Two days later, on January 12, 2022, it was a bitterly cold day in Wasaga Beach with light snow falling throughout the day with temperatures hovering around 20℉/-6℃. With it being winter, the normally bustling town was very quiet as many of the tourists & locals alike were gone from the area, leaving cottage rentals to sit dark while the streets were far quieter.
Shortly after 8:30 pm, Elnaz was settled into her relative’s cottage-style home when a white Lexus RX SUV pulled up outside. Three Black men wearing police-issued gear climbed out of the car & approached the door wearing legitimate looking badges that hung around their necks. Witnesses later described the badges as gold, red & blue while their mouths & noses were partially covered with balaclavas with white trim.
One of the men wore a thick black belt with a handcuff pouch attached with a holstered black handgun with a magazine holder.
The homeowner who opened the door was immediately confused when they were told by the men that they had a warrant for Elnaz’s arrest. Before they had even a moment to process what was happening, they attempted to call 911 as the three men forced their way inside. Chaos immediately ensued as they tried to figure out if these were real officers or intruders.
When they grabbed Elnaz, she no doubt knew immediately that they were not police officers. According to her cousin, Elanaz was terrified & screaming as they dragged her away, shoeless, through the snow toward the waiting SUV that had been stolen. Before they forced her into the car, they removed her watch & took her cell phone, throwing both items into the snow.
Surveillance footage from the home showed the SUV idling out front as figures suddenly rushed through the darkness with Elnaz, forcing her into the car. Her cousin told authorities that the car waited for about a minute before it disappeared into the night with Elnaz.
To this day, there have been no verified sightings of this car after it pulled away. No ransom demand ever came & there was no further activity from Elnaz’s cell phone or bank accounts.
Investigators with the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) worked closely with the YRP throughout the investigation while two witnesses from inside the home worked with authorities to create forensic sketches of the three suspects responsible.
They also immediately checked with neighbors for potential witness or surveillance footage. While neighborhood cameras only tracked the car until it left the immediate Wasaga Beach area, investigators eventually tied the suspects’ broader geographic network to the Greater Toronto Area to as far north as Timmins, Ontario (over a seven hour drive from Toronto). Some people of interest connected to the case were also tracked via security footage to Quebec.
Although Elnaz had her car with her in Wasaga Beach, according to a statement from her family members, there was no evidence that a fourth tracking device was found on the car at the time of her abduction.
However, investigators learned that Mohamad Lilo was familiar with the Wasaga Beach home where she had been in hiding as he’d stayed there with her at least one night when they were dating. He’d also given private investigator Gabriel Cojocaru the address.
Her family pleaded with the public, asking that they search for any sign of Elnaz and/or her abductors, begging them to review their security footage before it disappeared, even just for a glimpse. They also pleaded with her abductors, saying if they were to spend any amount of time with Elnaz, they would see what a warm, kind, educated, charitable woman she was, begging that they drop her off, saying that no questions would be asked.
Elnaz, who is between 5’3”-5’4” with a slim build, was last seen wearing a dark knitted sweater, black leggings & light-colored socks.
When her family lawyer, Devin Bains, spoke out publicly, he voiced his opinion that the steps that were taken to protect Elnaz after her December attack had been a complete failure, indicating that she had done everything right, contacting authorities each time she should have. He also felt that the three weeks police were analyzing her electronics for tracking devices & software, had been a shockingly short amount of time for the work to be properly done.
Despite the fact that she had been brutally attacked three weeks prior to her abduction, which proved her life had been in imminent danger, there hadn’t been an organized plan to ensure her safety. Police had not been monitoring the home where she was in hiding that was directly linked to her family.
A shelter services manager who works with abused women & children felt that she should have been given resources to navigate her safety, connecting her with safe shelters.
On January 21, 2022, nine days after the abduction, Elnaz’s ex-boyfriend, 34-year-old Mohamad Lilo, was arrested & charged with criminal harassment, but he was released on bail four days later.
Moving forward six months to July 12, 2022, Lilo was arrested at his home in Brossard, Quebec & charged with criminal harassment, kidnapping, attempted kidnapping & attempted murder in connection with Elnaz’s abduction.
The following year, in November 2023, his charges were upgraded to first-degree murder as despite the fact that her remains had not been found, investigators believed that Elnaz was no longer alive.
Throughout their investigation, police became aware that Lilo had hired private investigator Gabriel Cojocaru, who Crown attorney Mike Flosman referred to as morally flexible, to locate & monitor Elnaz. This included surveilling her in the two days leading up to her abduction on January 10-11, 2022.
According to Gabriel, one of his private investigators was monitoring the Wasaga Beach home on January 12, the day of the abduction, but the man left his shift 2 ½ hours before the actual abduction at 6 pm, saying he needed to get food in order to take his insulin shot. He called it a pure coincidence that no one had been watching the home at the time of the abduction since one had specifically asked him to remove surveillance.
When he learned about Elnaz’s abduction, he indicated that he was blindsided & felt sick about the whole thing as he never intended to associate with criminals. He was cooperative with the police, telling them everything he knew.
The OPP & the YRP determined that Elnaz’s December 2021 attack & her abduction were likely connected. Exactly one year after her abduction, they offered up a $100,000 reward to anyone with information leading to her location.
The following month, authorities released photos of two men & one woman they believed were directly involved in the abduction. Although the photos were captured in Quebec, investigators believe they live in Toronto, Ontario.
Three years after his arrest, in June 2025, a jury found Mohamad Lilo guilty of aggravated assault in the December 2021 frying pan attack after he enlisted a gang of thieves & petty criminals to assault her in an act of revenge for her breaking up with him. Although he was sentenced to six years in prison, the sentence was deemed fully served by his time spent in pre-sentence custody.
He remained behind bars while awaiting his first-degree murder trial.
On May 4, 2026, more than five years after Elnaz was abducted, never to be seen again, Mohamad Lilo accepted a plea deal two weeks before Elnaz would have celebrated her 42nd birthday. In exchange for first-degree murder charges against him being dropped, the 38-year-old pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kidnap.
The court heard that Lilo hired several men to watch & attack his ex-girlfriend. While a total of eleven people have been tied to both the Richmond Hill assault in December 2021 as well as her actual Wasaga Beach abduction in January 2022, the physical abductors remain at large. Of the dozen men & women who ended up being charged in the case, the majority had their charges either stayed or withdrawn from the Crown.
Lilo maintained that he did not kill Elnaz, but he admitted to helping others who wanted her dead, saying that because they were former business partners, she knew too much about his ties to an organized crime group that were stealing cars & trucks, sending them overseas using his shipping containers. Since they feared she would expose the ring to police, they viewed her as a severe liability.
Lilo had been using his international shipping business to move high-end stolen vehicles overseas for massive profits. It’s likely these same containers were used to transport her or her body as well as evidence, out of the country, something that severely complicated the search for her.
According to investigators, they have found no evidence to suggest that Elnaz had been involved in any criminal activity or tied to organized crime in any way.
The court heard that in the early morning hours of the abduction, Lilo was picked up in Montreal & driven to Toronto where he switched cars. He was then driven to Wasaga Beach where he communicated with the three men who would later abduct her.
He immediately headed back to Montreal & four hours later, the men abducted Elnaz at 8:30 pm under the guise of having a warrant for her arrest. After members of Lilo’s family were threatened, he paid the kidnappers $50,000, which was sent to them by bicycle courier.
A man who authorities initially identified as being one of the three physical abductors who snatched Elnaz from Wasaga Beach, is 38-year-old Deshawn Davis, who is also known as Thorobread. He fled to the U.S. & is currently in jail on first-degree murder & attempted murder charges for a gang-related shooting that happened at a nightclub in Miami Beach. Miami rapper & talent scout for Chris Brown, Lowell “Lo” Grissom was killed while two women were injured on May 7, 2023.
Although police still believe that Davis was one of the three men who posed as police officers & abducted Elnaz, the kidnapping charges against him for his suspected involvement have been dropped for now since he won’t be returning to Ontario anytime soon due to his incarceration & impending trial.
After Lilo took the plea deal on May 4, 2026, pleading guilty to conspiracy to kidnap, he was sentenced to only four years in prison. Elnaz’s family was there to read emotional victim impact statements, calling him soulless, hoping that each time he closed his eyes, he would see her face, wishing him an eternity of suffering for taking a gentle, loving woman from this world. They speculated that he would never be rehabilitated as evil runs through his blood & bones.
What makes Elnaz Hajtamiri’s case especially heartbreaking is that, even though her body has never been found, there is little to no doubt that she was murdered. She wasn’t someone who vanished without a trace; she was violently attacked & lived in fear for her safety before she was ultimately dragged from a home by three men posing as police officers. After their SUV drove away into the night with Elnaz, she was never seen or heard from again.
Despite everything the investigation uncovered, not a single person has been held accountable for taking her life. Although there have been arrests, convictions & prison sentences for crimes committed against Elnaz, her murder remains unresolved. Her family still has no idea where she is, what happened to her in those final moments or whether they’ll ever have an opportunity to lay her to rest.
Most frustrating of all, there are many people out there who have these very answers, people who know exactly what happened after she was taken from that home & where she was taken. Yet more than 4 ½ years later, these answers are still being kept from the people who deserve them the most.
Mohamad Lilo, the man at the center of it all, who at one point faced a first-degree murder charge in connection with her disappearance, ended up getting nothing more than a slap on the wrist with a four-year prison sentence for conspiracy to kidnap.
In 2018, Elnaz Hajtamiri came to Canada in order to build a better life for herself, but only four years later, her life was stolen from her, leaving her loved ones to deal with unimaginable pain every single day.
References:
- Wikipedia: Wasaga Beach
- Global News: Police announce another arrested in assault of missing woman Elnaz Hajtamiri
- CBC: Brampton man charged with attempted murder in Elnaz Hajtamiri case
- CBC: Family lawyer of woman abducted in Wasaga Beach questions if police took her safety seriously
- CBC: Elnaz Hajtamiri’s ex-boyfriend hired a private investigator to watch her before Wasaga Beach abduction
- CBC: Ex-boyfriend of Elnaz Hajtamiri accepts plea deal, sentenced to 4 years in prison
- CTV News: Judge orders mistrial in Elnaz Hajtamiri frying pan attack trial
- CTV News: Jury shown 2021 Elnaz Hajtamiri police interview following failed abduction attempt
- CTV News: Mohamad Lilo beats murder charge, takes plea deal in Elnaz Hajtamiri kidnapping conspiracy
- CTV: Crown stays charges against man accused in 2021 parking garage attack on Elnaz Hajtamiri
- CTV: Attacker of Elnaz Hajtamiri to be deported
- Collingwood Today: Woman abducted from Wasaga was violently attacked weeks before: family
- Collingwood Today: Fourth man arrested in 2021 assault of Elnaz Hajtamiri
- YouTube: CP24: Police release new photos of suspects, possible persons of interest in Elnaz Hajtamiri abduction
- YouTube: CP24: Analyzing the abduction case of Elnaz Hajtimiri
- YouTube: CTV News: Four years later: The unanswered questions in Elnaz Hajtimiri’s disappearance
- City News Everywhere: OPP release suspect photos in case of woman abducted in Wasaga Beach
- Stories of the Unsolved: The abduction of Elnaz Hajtamiri
- York Region: 2nd arrest made in Richmond Hill assault of Elnaz Hajtamiri, who was later abducted at Wasaga Beach home
- Barrie Today: Jury convicts Mohamad Lilo in frying pan attack on Elnaz Hajtamiri
- Barrie Today: Lilo pleads guilty to kidnapping conspiracy, murder rap withdrawn in Hajtamiri case
- The Sun: Who’s who in the kidnapping & assault of Elnaz Hajtamiri
- Medium: She hid after a violent attack. Then men posing as police took her
- Toronto Sun: Charge withdrawn against Toronto rapper accused in Elnaz Hajtamiri abduction
- CP24: Kidnapping charge dropped against Toronto rapper accused in Wasaga Beach abduction
