Mezhgan Aini had a husband and three children she cared about, family in Afghanistan who she talked to regularly, and a thriving seamstress business in Mississauga.<\/p>\n
Mezhgan, 38, was reported missing by her sister in August 2025. Seven months later, Peel police issued a news release: The probe into her disappearance was now a homicide investigation.<\/p>\n
The Star spoke to acquaintances in Mississauga, Peel police and Mezhgan\u2019s sister and reviewed immigration hearing records related to the Aini family\u2019s move to Canada, to piece together an account of Mezhgan\u2019s last known movements in the case of a woman who touched many lives before suddenly vanishing.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the Star from her home in Germany through an Afghan interpreter, Mezhgan\u2019s sister Benafsha Ahmadi, 31, told the Star that before she disappeared Mezhgan spoke to her mother in Afghanistan about plans for a relative\u2019s upcoming engagement party. It was the last time they would hear from her.<\/p>\n
Police were in touch with the family early this month.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have not yet shared the full details with us,\u201d Ahmadi said. \u201cThey have not told us exactly when, where, or how it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mezhgan went missing five years after relocating to Mississauga from the United States. The family had sought refuge in Canada in August 2017, shortly after her husband was fired from his job as a\u00a0counsellor to the Afghan Permanent Mission at the United Nations\u00a0in New York City,\u00a0following an incident where his wife was treated in hospital for injuries she sustained at their New York home,\u00a0court records say.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Peel police say Mezhgan Aini was last seen in the vicinity of her Queen Frederica Drive apartment complex in June 2022.<\/p>\n
Jason Miller<\/p>\n
Police have identified a suspect\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mezhgan was last seen in June 2022 in the vicinity of her Mississauga home where she lived with her husband,\u00a0Mohammad Yama Aini,\u00a0and three children, now ages nine, 14 and 17, police said. She was not reported missing until August 2025.<\/p>\n
Police have confirmed that they have identified a suspect but won\u2019t provide additional details.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes we still hope that maybe this terrible news is not real,\u201d Ahmadi said, her calm demeanour concealing a tortured sadness over being so far away and cut off from her sister\u2019s family.<\/p>\n
She explained that in the summer of 2022 after all attempts to contact Mezhgan failed, her family contacted her sister\u2019s husband, Mohammad, to ask him what happened to her, but as the months turned into years and they were unable to find out if Mezhgan was OK, Ahmadi said she decided to contact police.<\/p>\n
Ahmadi said the police shared her phone number with her 17-year-old niece,\u00a0but the family was only able to speak to her a few times, first via text, then on a call. During those conversations Ahmadi said her niece didn\u2019t share much but said that she and her siblings were fine and in school and that she didn\u2019t know where her mother had gone. Contact with her abruptly stopped in February.<\/p>\n
Ahmadi said her sister\u00a0was a \u201cvery kind and talented woman,\u201d who sewed and enjoyed painting since they were children growing up in Afghanistan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Residents at the Mississauga apartment building where Mezhgan lived with her family, told the Star that police have been canvassing there since the case was made public this month. Several Peel police posters with Mezhgan\u2019s picture and information about the investigation were posted in the lobby.<\/p>\n
When the Star visited the Aini family\u2019s Mississauga apartment recently, the oldest of the three children answered the door and told a reporter that her father was not home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When reached by phone minutes later and asked about his wife\u2019s disappearance Mohammad responded \u201cI\u2019m sorry, I can\u2019t talk,\u201d before ending the call.\u00a0Mohammad then sent a text message saying that \u201cI appreciate you understanding our situation, which doesn\u2019t allow me to have a conversation at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Unlike the person that we knew\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yaseen Mohammad\u00a0said Mezhgan became his wife\u2019s go-to seamstress after the two women connected at a Mississauga clothing store where Mezhgan worked in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Police have said that\u00a0Mezhgan was a talented seamstress, who worked in the Afghan clothing industry. She worked primarily from home and had private clients, but also worked at stores in the area, police say.<\/p>\n
Yaseen\u00a0said by 2022, Mezhgan was working from home and his wife would bring clothing there for alterations. He said he accompanied his wife to several of those appointments. Mezhgan worked on her sewing machine in the bedroom of the modest apartment she shared with her husband and children, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe would do everything from just regular alterations to making whole dresses from scratch for formal events,\u201d Yaseen said.<\/p>\n
Mezhgan\u2019s business was thriving.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had lots of clients,\u201d he said. \u201cShe was getting a lot of traction with her business just because of how well she worked and she was doing well for herself.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Mezhgan\u2019s husband would usually be home when his wife attended appointments at the Aini\u2019s home. The children were there as well.<\/p>\n
Yaseen said\u00a0Mezhgan was a person who \u201cthought about her children and having a better home and trying to grow her business.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said in June 2022, his wife had dropped off some clothing to\u00a0Mezhgan for alterations but several days passed and they did not get the typical follow up call from her. Attempts to contact her by phone went unanswered. He said that several weeks later, he and his wife received a call from Mohammad asking them to come and pick up their unfinished clothing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got notified by the husband to come pick up your stuff because she\u2019s not here anymore,\u201d Yaseen said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Benafsha Ahmadi, the younger sister of\u00a0Mezhgan Aini, shared a picture of Aini that was taken after the couple relocated to Canada in 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Submitted<\/p>\n
No explanation was given for Mezhgan\u2019s abrupt absence, he said, adding that at the time he and his wife were annoyed at what they thought was Mezhgan\u2019s lack of professionalism.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s unlike the person that we knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three years later they saw news reports about her.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really sad and it bothers us a lot,\u201d\u00a0Yaseen said.<\/p>\n
\u2019Where is she?\u2019<\/p>\n
The owner of one of the Mississauga clothing stores where Mezhgan worked, who did not want to be identified out of fear of her business being targeted, said that she was a lovely woman.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what happened, but she\u2019s such a nice person,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said Mezhgan started working at the store on a casual basis in 2019, after visiting the store with her husband to look for work. At first, she said Mezhgan didn\u2019t know much English but she was a very skilled seamstress and customers soon gravitated to her. By 2021, Mezhgan was mostly working from home and the owner of the store would sometimes refer customers who needed alterations to her, she said.<\/p>\n
By the summer of 2022, several customers, who were unable to contact Mezhgan, called her store to inquire if she knew anything about Mezhgan\u2019s whereabouts.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy customers keep coming, asking me, \u2018where is she\u2019, because she\u2019s doing a good job,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI called her many times and no answer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said Mezhgan\u2019s \u201chusband called everyone and said that she\u2019s not working anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she didn\u2019t get a clear answer from Mohammad when she asked him where his wife had gone.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said she\u2019s busy or something,\u201d the store owner said.<\/p>\n
She said she didn\u2019t realize anything was wrong until Peel police visited her store to ask her about Mezhgan\u2019s disappearance.<\/p>\n
Move from New York\u00a0<\/p>\n
In August 2017, Mezhgan moved to Mississauga with her three children and her husband, Mohammad, who had served as a counsellor to the Afghan Permanent Mission at the United Nations in New York City, U.S.\u00a0court records<\/a> say.<\/p>\n