An eight-year-old murder case involving the chilling Valentine’s Day slaying of an Iranian-Jewish jewelry store owner in New York took a dramatic turn, as authorities on Tuesday announced the arrest and extradition of a former employee long suspected in the killing.
Michael Patrick DeSalles, a 54-year-old citizen of Mauritius, was arraigned Friday in Manhattan Supreme Court on second-degree murder charges for the 2017 killing of Omid Gholian, his former employer at a Tribeca jewelry store. Prosecutors say DeSalles used black plastic zip ties to strangle the 51-year-old Gholian inside the locked shop before fleeing the country the same day.
The murder occurred on February 14, 2017, in the bathroom of “World of Gold N Diamond,” a cash-for-gold business on Church and Duane Streets. Gholian’s body was discovered two days later by police and family members, after loved ones reported him missing. He was found with zip ties fastened tightly around his neck, a head wound, and bruising around one eye. Blood stained the bathroom floor. His hands and feet had not been bound, and there was no clear evidence of a robbery.
According to investigators, DeSalles booked a one-way ticket just three hours after the killing and departed from JFK Airport that evening, headed to his native Mauritius — an island nation that does not have a standing extradition treaty with the United States. Authorities believe he targeted the destination deliberately to avoid justice.
The arrest came after a years-long, multinational effort. DeSalles was extradited back to the U.S. on May 2, 2025, and taken into custody. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg praised the persistence of his office, stating, “I hope the victim’s loved ones can take some measure of comfort that this defendant will finally face accountability in New York.”
Gholian, an Iranian-born Orthodox Jew, was remembered by his brother Jacob as a generous, gentle man — someone who even shared his lunch with the man who would later be accused of his murder. DeSalles had reportedly worked at the shop for nearly a decade, first under a cousin of the Gholians and later for Omid himself, and was considered “like family,” Jacob said. “When they told me that night that he’s a suspect, I said, ‘It is impossible.’”
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It wasn’t until authorities reviewed surveillance footage and travel records, and later obtained a secretly recorded phone call, that the pieces of the case began to align. In that recording, made three months after the murder, DeSalles claimed he had left the U.S. to care for his comatose mother, and insisted Gholian had still been alive when he left the store. He implied that someone else — “maybe another worker” — might have been responsible.
At the time of the murder, Gholian’s father was still alive but died the following year, which Jacob attributes to the trauma of his son’s death. The family shuttered the store soon after. “We just let it go,” Jacob said. “It wasn’t easy to be in this store after what happened and his memory and everything else.”
DeSalles is being held without bail. The Manhattan DA’s office noted that the charges are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.