In January 2015, Ghazal Mansury was found guilty of the murder of her 79-year-old mother, Mehria Mansury. Mehria disappeared from her quiet Serra Mesa home in September 2013, setting off a frantic search and leaving her family desperate for answers. While her daughter, Ghazal Mansury, insisted that dementia was to blame, relatives suspected foul play.
Days later, their worst fears were realized when Mehria’s body was discovered near the Barona Indian Reservation. What followed was a chilling investigation that revealed how Mehria’s own daughter murdered her.
### The Murder of Mehria Mansury and the Role Played by Ghazal Mansury
Mehria Mansury was the mother of 42-year-old Ghazal Mansury, who struggled with drug use and lived in the garage of her mother’s home on Amulet Street with her boyfriend, Lucio Moreno. The relationship between mother and daughter was strained, and family members even suspected abuse.
By late 2013, the relationship had grown more volatile, and relatives started noticing signs that something was wrong. On September 23, 2013, Mehria’s brother visited her home and was struck by the sight of her red, swollen eye. She dismissed it as allergies, but within hours, she disappeared, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
When the family could not reach Mehria by phone or at her door on September 24, they became alarmed. On September 25, her relatives reported her missing. Ghazal Mansury told them her mother had gone on a walk and never returned.
### The Search and Investigation
The search for Mehria stretched on for days but initially yielded no results. Suspicion soon fell on Ghazal and her boyfriend, Moreno. When interviewed, Moreno refused to testify in court, pleading the Fifth Amendment, according to NBC.
Investigations into Mehria’s home uncovered troubling signs. Bloodstains were found on her living room chair and walls, all testing positive for Mehria’s DNA, suggesting violence had occurred inside the house. Moreover, detectives learned that Ghazal had conducted online searches for topics such as homicide and how to clean bloodstains.
### The Discovery of Mehria’s Body
On October 2, 2013, following two tips, investigators searched the Barona Indian Reservation for Mehria. Retired sheriff’s deputy Thomas Bennett volunteered to assist in the search. That afternoon, he discovered Mehria’s decomposing body under a tree in a dry gully off Wildcat Canyon Road, a short distance from the Barona Resort & Casino. She was still dressed in a faded nightgown.
On the same morning, detectives trailed Ghazal to a pawn shop, where she had sold a box of her mother’s jewelry. Ghazal admitted to the staff that her mother had passed and said she might need the money for her legal defense.
### Arrest and Sentencing of Ghazal Mansury
On October 3, 2013, Ghazal Mansury was arrested. She pleaded not guilty to murder, maintaining that her mother’s death had been an accident. Ghazal claimed she had accidentally struck her mother with a door, causing a fatal injury, and, in a panic, hid the body.
Prosecutors, however, countered with testimony asserting that Ghazal had strangled her mother and intentionally disposed of the body at the Barona Casino. Deputy District Attorney Paul Greenwood argued that Ghazal’s motive was to prevent her mother from attending a doctor’s appointment the next day, where medical staff would likely have noticed evidence of abuse, according to NBC.
Ghazal’s trial began in early 2015, with the defense clinging to the accident narrative. However, jurors remained unconvinced, and in January 2015, after a day of deliberations, they returned a guilty verdict.
On March 6, 2015, Judge Jeffrey Fraser sentenced Ghazal to 25 years to life in prison. For Mehria’s relatives, the verdict brought some closure and a sense of justice.
### Snapped Coverage
The case of Mehria Mansury’s murder and Ghazal Mansury’s trial is explored in *Snapped* Season 18, Episode 7, which originally aired on September 18, 2016. This episode is set to re-air tonight, September 22, 2025, on Oxygen.
—
For those interested in true crime stories, the *Snapped* episode offers a detailed look into the tragic and disturbing case of Ghazal and Mehria Mansury.
https://www.sportskeeda.com/us/shows/ghazal-mansury-s-brutal-crime-a-complete-timeline-events-ahead-snapped
