A heartbroken student has worn her wedding dress to mourn at the grave of her fiance, who was allegedly shot dead by a Facebook Marketplace killer shortly before they were due to marry.
It was supposed to be the happiest day of Sara Baluch’s life – the day she married Mohammad Sharifi – but instead, the 22-year-old found herself kneeling beside his grave in Nashville, Tennessee.
The sorrowful moment was captured by a photographer from Chattanooga’s Times Free Press.
Fighting against tears, Baluch said: “We were supposed to be together.”
“I’m so sorry, Mohammad. I’m so sorry. So sorry.
“’I want to be with him. Why do I have to wait?”
Her 24-year-old fiance was shot and killed in the car park of an apartment complex on February 19 in Hixson where he’d agreed to sell his Xbox One to D’Marcus White.
The deal had been made on Facebook Marketplace.
The 20-year-old has been charged with criminal homicide.
Baluch was the first to arrive at the hospital after the shooting, only to be told Sharifi was not in the system.
She told the Times Free Press last month: “I had the worst feeling.”
Minutes later the news came – her fiancé was dead.
Sara Baluch holds a picture while visiting the grave of her fiance, Mohammad Sharifi
The shock was so great, the young woman fainted.
She said: “When I woke up, I was like, ‘No. This is a dream. We were getting married in two weeks. I just saw him last night. I just saw him’.”
As they prepared to leave the grave, Baluch’s mother Sona replaced her daughter’s white wedding veil with a black one.
According to Baluch, Sharifi still visits her in her dreams, and he even had a parting gift.
He had already bought her birthday present – a watch he had promised her during a vacation to Hawaii.
She said: “He’s not here and he’s still surprising me. He’s not here and he’s still giving me the world!”
Sara Baluch poses for a portrait with a picture of her fiance, Mohammad Sharifi, in her dorm room on the campus of the University of Tennessee
Baluch’s father Masoud described the couple as “full of joy”.
He said: “Every time they came to my home, they brought joy everywhere.
“It was happy. I’m just waiting for them to come back.”
Sharifi had been preparing to graduate from the University of Tennessee Chattanooga this spring.
