{"id":52633,"date":"2025-11-26T07:41:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T07:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/52633\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T07:41:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T07:41:18","slug":"man-admits-he-murdered-estranged-wife-buried-her-body-then-dug-it-up-to-rape-corpse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/52633\/","title":{"rendered":"Man admits he murdered estranged wife, buried her body &#8212; then dug it up to rape corpse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A depraved husband has admitted being a \u201cmonster\u201d who murdered his estranged wife, dumped her body in a shallow grave \u2014 and then dug it up to rape her corpse.<\/p>\n<p>Zarbab Ali, 28, was found guilty last week of stabbing 25-year-old Rachel Castillo to death in California\u2019s Simi Valley in November 2022 just as they were about to finalize their divorce.<\/p>\n<p>Ali had confessed to the twisted crime soon after the mother of his two children turned up dead in a remote desert area.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.77777778;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37761023\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Copy-of-mug-or-photo-bkg-1-13.png\" alt=\"Rachel Castillo was murdered and raped in the horrific crime.\" class=\"wp-image-37761023\"  \/>Rachel Castillo was murdered and posthumously raped in the horrific crime.<\/p>\n<p>He sickeningly admitted hiding inside Castillo\u2019s darkened apartment \u2014 then jumping out and repeatedly stabbing her in the chest.<\/p>\n<p>He then wrapped her body in a blanket and tried to clean up the blood before burying her in a shallow grave.<\/p>\n<p>He returned in the middle of the night to dig up her body and abuse the corpse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust to confirm that I am a monster, I raped her,\u201d he confessed in a distressing police interview.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37761076\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Zarbab-Ali-following-guilty-verdict.jpg\" alt=\"Zarbab Ali was convicted in the twisted crime.\" class=\"wp-image-37761076\"  \/>Zarbab Ali was convicted in the twisted crime. Ventura County District Attorney\u00e2s Office<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I didn\u2019t commit to being a monster, then she would have died for no reason.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During his trial, Ali tried to blame the psychotic crime on his wife cheating on him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the only way I could escape,\u201d Ali said of the slaying. \u201cI wanted her dead. I was angry that she just wouldn\u2019t let me move on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors said Castillo had almost finalized the divorce when she was knifed to death.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur thoughts are with Rachel\u2019s family, who have endured unimaginable pain since the day she was taken from them,\u201d prosecutor David Russell said in the wake of the conviction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am thankful for the outstanding efforts of law enforcement, whose investigation made this verdict possible. While nothing can restore what her loved ones have lost, this conviction ensures the defendant will spend the rest of his life in prison and that the community will be protected from him forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ali, who was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder, is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A depraved husband has admitted being a \u201cmonster\u201d who murdered his estranged wife, dumped her body in a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2136,4081,238,9,11,10,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-52633","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-human-remains","10":"tag-murders","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}