Authorities: Suspect in double murder case is dead

Minnesota investigators have concluded a Bangladeshi man charged with killing his wife and a nephew in Olmsted County almost 11 years ago is dead.

Olmsted County Sheriff's Sgt. Scott Behrns told The Associated Press they've had no luck getting official confirmation from Bangladeshi authorities or the FBI of reports from different sources that Iqbal Ahmed died last November.

But he says they've decided the information is as accurate as they're going to get, so the active investigation is over.

The Post-Bulletin of Rochester first reported the decision Thursday.

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Ahmed was charged with killing his wife, Mary Zaman, and her 3½-year-old nephew, Mohammed Tahseen Taef, in 1999, and leaving their headless bodies in a ditch near Rochester.

He fled to Bangladesh, where he was sentenced in 2005 to life in prison for two unrelated murders.

Behrns says the case isn't officially closed because Zaman's sister, Sophia Tareq, remains missing. Behrns says investigators have no idea what happened to her.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)