A UCCS visual and performing arts instructor was stabbed to death at an east-side Colorado Springs residence Wednesday morning, police said.
On Aug. 7, police found 54-year-old Haleh Abghari dead with at least one stab wound shortly after 7 a.m. at a residence in the 6400 block of Caddy Point, near Powers Boulevard and North Carefree Circle, according to a Monday news release from The Colorado Springs Police Department.
Abghari joined UCCS in 2015 as the head for UCCS’ voice program in the Visual and Performing Arts Department, according to her campus page.
Her death is being investigated by police as a homicide. As of Monday, a suspect is not in custody, police said in the news release.
This is the 26th homicide in Colorado Springs. There were 18 at this time last year, according to CSPD.
Anyone with information to help aid in the investigation can contact police at 719-444-7000 or 1-800-222-8477 to remain anonymous.
Abghari’s death marks the third UCCS-related death that’s been investigated as a homicide in the past year, a UCCS spokesperson said. The prior two happened in a campus dorm room on Feb. 16 after VAPA student Samuel Knopp, 24, and Pueblo woman Celie Rain Montgomery, 26, were shot and killed.
The VAPA community also lost Robert von Dassanowsky, the department’s founding director of the film studies program, after he died at 58 from undisclosed causes last fall in October.
Abghari was an integral part of the music program for almost a decade, Chancellor Jennifer Sobanet said in a campus-wide email. Outside of VAPA, Abghari also served on the Faculty Assembly and helped mentor struggling students.
“Beyond all of this, her close colleagues will also remember her as an incredible artist,” Sobanet said.
According to Abghari’s website, she was an Iran native who performed as a singer, actor and voice-over artist in the U.S, Canada and Europe. Her vocal repertoire ranged from early music to art songs, opera, cabaret songs and contemporary music.
Her work was recognized by publications such as the New York Times and the Washington Post, and she was the only woman to perform the demanding role as King George III in the opera performance “Eight Songs for a Mad King” by Peter Maxwell Davies, her website states.
For her work, Abghari has won multiple awards, including The David S. Saxon Award for Excellence in the Performance of Early Music.
She also was an original member of Mouths Wide Open, an ad hoc group of volunteers who uses art to advocate for active citizenship, civic dialogue and finding new forms of political expression, according to her website.
Her political activism also branched into UCCS following the Feb. 16 shooting, according to the email from Sobanet.
“She was instrumental in supporting VAPA students following the tragic death of Sam Knopp this past February. Following that tragedy, she became an unstoppable voice to change gun laws and testified at the state capitol,” Sobanet said.
In the event of the homicide, UCCS has opened walk-in mental health appointments between 10 a.m.-5 p.m. this week. 24/7 mental health resources can be accessed through the Wellness Center Resource page.
Photo of 54-year-old Haleh Abghari, courtesy of CSPD.