A Ventura County man has been convicted of first-degree murder for stabbing to death his estranged wife and dumping her body in the Mojave Desert.
Rachel Castillo was stabbed to death in November 2022 at her Simi Valley apartment. She lived there with her sister, who called police after finding the apartment empty and blood on the floor.
She had been going through a contentious divorce with her husband, Zarbab Ali, and detectives determined he was a suspect in the disappearance. The following day, Castillo’s body was found in a remote desert area near the Los Angeles County community of Little Rock.
The Hawthorne man was arrested in Victorville the same day her body was found. The 28-year-old man is facing a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
