Prosecutors: Man killed woman in Pilsen, stuffed body in air mattress

A former Chicago man was ordered held without bail Saturday on charges he killed a woman in 2013, then stuffed her body in an air mattress at his apartment in Pilsen, then fled to California.

Faramarz Bakhshi, 23, of Delano, Calif., is charged with first-degree murder and concealment of a homicide in the death of 29-year-old Michelle Manalansan.

Bakhshi was sought for questioning shortly after Manalansan’s decomposed body was found by his former roommate on March 17, 2013, at the apartment they’d shared in the 1400 block of West Cullerton, authorities said.

Manalansan, a Harold Washington College student, had been missing since Feb. 9, 2013.

Bakhshi is accused of killing Manalansan by striking her in the head and leaving her body in his bedroom.

A downstairs neighbor reported hearing “running and then a slamming on the ground,” Assistant State’s Attorney Robert Mack said in court Saturday.

Two days after the killing, a cleaning company went to Manalansan’s apartment in the 300 block of East South Water Street, and Bakhshi would not let them in, authorities said.

That night, someone saw Bakhshi leave Manalansan’s building with her dog, according to Mack, who said Bakhshi latery dropped the dog off with his sister. Mack said she bought her brother a train ticket to California on Feb. 15, 2013, so he could move there to live with their mother and that Bakhshi told his mother that Manalansan died of an overdose.

Bakhshi’s roommate discovered the decomposed body when he started to clean Bakhshi’s room “because he couldn’t stand the smell any longer,” Mack said.

He said that months after Manalansan’s death, Bakhshi posted on Facebook, “It’s only murder if they find the body; otherwise it’s a missing person. Just a thought…”

Bakhshi, a Loyola Academy graduate who attended more than two years at the University of Chicago, was convicted of two burglaries in California in 2014 and 2011, Mack said.