An estranged husband has been arrested more than two months after a Newport Beach woman was found dead in a Southern California mountain community, authorities said.
The investigation began shortly before 11:45 a.m. on Nov. 18, 2025, when San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies responded to reports of a deceased person near State Road 138 and Crestline Road in the community of Crestline.
“When deputies arrived, they located the decedent about 75 feet down a steep embankment,” the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said at the time.
The woman was identified on Dec. 1 as Aryan Papoli, a 58-year-old resident of Newport Beach. She had previously been reported missing, though officials did not specify when the report was filed. Before her identification, authorities released a sketch of the woman in an effort to seek the public’s help.
On Saturday, sheriff’s officials announced that the coroner had ruled Papoli’s death a homicide. Investigators identified her estranged husband, Gordon Abas Goodarzi, as a suspect in the case.
Goodarzi, 66, was arrested Friday at his residence in Rolling Hills following what deputies described as a “continued and diligent investigation.” He was booked into the Central Detention Center, where he is being held without bail.
Inmate records show Goodarzi has been charged with murder and is scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday at 8:30 a.m.
Papoli’s son, Navid Goodarzi, spoke with the Los Angeles Times after his mother was identified, describing her as “a ray of light” and “sunshine manifested.” A 25-year-old graduate student at Harvard, he said his mother immigrated to the United States from Iran at age 18 with her mother and sister following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
After settling in the San Francisco Bay Area, Papoli later met Goodarzi, with whom she co-founded a clean energy company. The couple raised two sons in Southern California. According to her son, Papoli moved to Newport Beach about six months before her death, seeking “a serene place where she could thrive creatively” after retiring from the corporate world.