If you copy this information, please cite this as your source:

Betsy Mills and Ron Brothers. The Death and Cemetery Records of Lamar County, Texas, ReBroMa Press, 2008, http://www.lamarcountytx.org/cemetery. (12/16/2025)

THE PARIS NEWS, Tuesday, 18 Jan 1977, p. 8, by John Edmiston, News Staff Writer: “Investigation of death of student continuing - Paris police are continuing their investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Paris Junior College Iranian foreign exchange student Elias Kallimi Beroukhim, 18, who was found dead on a grassy knoll in the 3000 block of Clarksville Street Sunday. Paris Police Detectives Andy Smith and Burton Golden told The News early Tuesday morning they were still interviewing the dead man’s friends and relatives in an effort to find a lead. Golden still indicated the man had either been hit by a passing car or had been thrown from a vehicle. Golden also indicated Tuesday that the department was to send bits of the dead man’s clothing and other items to the Department of Public Safety laboratories in Austin for analysis. He indicated these results would be important to the case. OFFICERS Tuesday said the dead man, an employe at the Colonial House Restaurant on Highway 82 East, had left work about 11:40 p.m. Saturday night. He had declined a ride offer, and officers believed he may have walked the 3½ mile distance to where he was found dead. Units were again at the death scene late Monday checking for further leads into the circumstances of the Iranian’s death. Exact cause of death is still undetermined, however, officers said Tuesday morning. Justice of the Peace Chester Oakes, who pronounced the man dead at the scene at about 12:55 a.m. Sunday, said Tuesday he was still awaiting formal autopsy results form local pathologist Dr. John Rodgers. ‘I expected them yesterday,’ the judge said. ‘I hope to get them today.’ GOLDEN did not rule out the possibility that a 1971 Pontiac, found burned on U.S. Highway 271 North later Sunday morning, was connected with the case. Authorities said the car was found burning about 2:42 a.m. Sunday, near the time officers were alerted of the Iranian student’s body. Officers called to that scene said they were told by a witness that he had seen a man running from the burning automobile. No one was found by officers searching the area, and a man who was arrested as a suspicious person was later released. THE DEAD man was initially found by Charles Cass of Cass Ambulance Service, who told officers he had received a call from an unidentified person that there was a body lying on the ground in front of the WalMart store on Clarksville Street. Cass immediately called city officers. Officers said they found the subject barefoot, with one shoe lying several feet from the victim and the other shoe in the west driveway. Police found other clothing nearby. Several abrasions were found on the man’s body and a cut behind his left ear, which, they say, may have caused death.”

THE PARIS NEWS, Wednesday, 19 Jan 1977, p. 2: “Police still probing death of PJC student Paris police moved into their third day Wednesday of investigation into the Sunday morning death of an Iranian exchange student at Paris Junior College. Officers were still trying to re-trace the steps of Elias Kalimi Beroukhim, 18, who was found dead Sunday morning on a landscaped area in front of the Wal-Mart Discount Center on Clarksville Street. Paris Police Detective Burton Golden and Lamar County Attorney Tom Wells Thursday are to carry clothing and other items to Texas Department of Public Safety laboratories in Dallas for analysis. Police say they feel this evidence to be of major importance in the case. Paris police still theorized the man had either been hit by a passing car or had been thrown from a vehicle. MEANWHILE. Lamar County Justice of the Peace Chester Oakes, who had pronounced the man dead at the scene, said an autopsy report issued from local pathologist Dr. John Rogers said cause of death was from multiple skull fractures. According to the autopsy report, death came from a skull fracture in the left temporal area. A number of abrasions and lacerations were also found on the man’s body. Paris Junior College officials Monday notified by cablegram the dead man’s parents in Iran, and a spokesman for the college said that the Iranian Consulate’s office in Houston and the Iranian Embassy in Washington, D.C. have both been notified of the incident. The man, police said, was a waiter at the Colonial House Restaurant on Highway 82 East and had left work about 11:40 p.m. Saturday night. THEY said he had declined a ride offer, and officers believed he may have walked the 3½ miles from the restaurant to where he was found dead. Officers say he was on his way to a nearby trailer park to meet with friends after work. ‘He almost got where he was going,’ one officer remarked. Paris Police Chief Loyd Mathews told The News Tuesday that the department was also making an ‘all-out, concerted’ effort to find the person who initially reported to Cass Ambulance finding the man’s body Sunday. Mathews indicated the man may have been either a witness to the incident or may have even been involved. Charles Cass, of Cass Ambulance Service, told officers Sunday he had received a call from an unidentified person that there was a body lying on the ground in front of the Wal-Mart store on Clarksville Street. POLICE have also cleared two young Cooper men who were arrested in Terrell in connection with the incident. Police also indicated that a burning automobile found on Highway 271 North about an hour after the body was found is probably not a factor in the case. Paris detectives Tuesday and Wednesday were still questioning the student’s friends and relatives in an effort to find a lead.”

THE PARIS NEWS, Thursday, 20 Jan 1977, p. 2: “Elias Kalimi Beroukhim, foreign exchange student of Iran who was attending Paris Junior College, was found dead in the 3000 block of Clarksville Street early Sunday morning. Friends will be received 7-8 p.m. Thursday at Leverett and Steele Funeral Home. The body will be shipped to Tehran, Iran, on Friday.”

THE PARIS NEWS, Friday, 21 Jan 1977, p. 14: “Lab reports awaited in death of student Paris police officials say they are now awaiting laboratory analysis results from the Texas Department of Public Safety in the investigation of the death of an 18-year-old Iranian foreign exchange student. They call those results central to the case. Lamar County Justice of the Peace Chester Oakes said Friday morning he still has not issued a formal ruling in the Sunday morning death of Elias Kalimi Beroukhim, whose body was to be shipped back to Iran today for burial. An autopsy report showed that the youth had died as a result of a fractured skull and Judge Oakes Thursday indicated he would probably rule homicide in the case. Meanwhile, Paris police were still following leads in the case in an attempt to retrace the steps of the dead man after he left the Colonial House Restaurant where he worked the Saturday night before his death. PARIS Police Assistant Chief Charles Whitley said Friday morning that the department is also still seeking the person who initially reported to Cass Ambulance finding the man’s body. Officers indicated the person may have either been a witness to the accident or had somehow been involved. Police believe the dead may [man] had probably been the victim of a hit and run accident, saying the man probably walked the 3½ miles from where he worked to the 3000 block of Clarksville Street where he was found dead. Whitley Friday morning advanced a theory that the student may have been hit by a local fast-cruising automobile which struck the youth as it attempted to turn into the Wal-Mart parking lot. The car then flipped across the grassy area where the body was found back to the street, officers theorized. OFFICERS said they believe the man may have walked up Lamar Avenue from the Colonial House Restaurant where he worked and then turned up 28th SE Street toward Clarksville Street. A person told officers Thursday Whitley said, that he had seen a person, who he described as ‘foreign- looking’ walking along Lamar near 28th Street SE. He indicated the man was wearing dark clothing as that found on the dead man, and had ‘either a scarf or piece of cloth wrapped around his head.’ The informant listed the time at about 12:20 a.m. Sunday, police said. WHITLEY said officers believe now that the youth had wrapped his sweater around his head in an attempt to keep his head warm that cold, early Sunday morning. Officers said the youth was probably taking a short cut across the parking lot toward a friend’s trailer house nearby when he was killed.”

THE PARIS NEWS, Tuesday, 25 Jan 1977, p. 9: “Lab reports indicate student hit-run victim - Paris Police are now investigating the death of Paris Junior College Iranian foreign exchange student Elias Kaliimi Beroukhim, 18, as a ‘probable hit and run.’ Bits of car paint on Beroukhim’s clothing have been confirmed by the Texas Department of Public Safety Laboratories in Austin. According to police, lab reports from the DPS indicate that Beroukhim, whose body was found in the 3000 block of Clarksville Street Sunday, might have been a hit and run victim. Assistant Police Chief Charles Whitley and Detective Burton Golden said that ‘all evidence points to a hit and run, but that the investigation is continuing.’ Whitley said police are still looking for the person who called Cass Ambulance to the scene Sunday. That person was supposedly the first to find Beroukhim’s body. Police are still questioning the student’s friends and associates in an effort to find a lead. According to Golden, the car paint was found on the man’s coat and pants.”

THE PARIS NEWS, Sunday, 30 Jan 1977, p. 3: “Police report lead in death of Iranian - Paris police say they have a good lead in their investigation of the Jan. 15 death of Iranian exchange student Elias Kalimi Beroukhim, 18. Officers indicated they had received a phone call from an informant concerning the new lead, but they would not elaborate. MEANWHILE, Justice of the Peace Chester Oakes said late Friday that he intends to rule homicide as the youth’s cause of death. He indicated he would probably make that formal ruling this week. ‘That’s all I can see it as,’ Judge Oakes said Friday afternoon. ‘We do know now how he was killed. That’d be homicide.’ He added that the ruling could later be adapted to accidental or negligent homicide. PARIS POLICE said earlier last week that they are now investigating the death of the Paris Junior College foreign exchange student as a ‘probable hit and run.’ Materials on Beroukhim’s coat and pants have been confirmed by the Texas Department of Public Safety Laboratories as bits of paint from a car. Paris Police Administrative Chief Charles Whitely, who also heads the department’s criminal investigative unit, said, ‘All evidence points to a hit and run.’ The investigation, he said, is continuing. Whitley also indicated that officers are still seeking the person who called Cass Ambulance to the scene that early Sunday morning. The person was supposedly the first to find the student’s body. An autopsy report showed that the youth had died as a result of a fractured skull. The dead man was found lying on a landscaped area in front of the Wal-Mart Store on Clarksville Street in east Paris.”

THE PARIS NEWS, Wednesday, 2 Feb 1977, p. 11A: “In student death - Police moving ahead on lead - Paris police say they are still moving ahead with a lead which they feel may be central to the case involving the Jan. 16 death of a Paris Junior College foreign exchange student. They will not elaborate on what that lead is. Officers do say that the development of car paint found on the clothing of dead Iranian Elias Kalimi Beroukhim’s body does indeed point to a hit and run accident. Lamar County Justice of the Peace Chester Oakes, who says he has been told of the Paris police investigation, still feels he will rule homicide in the case, but as yet has not done so. The 18-year-old Iranian student’s body was found on a grassy area in front of the Wal-Mart Discount Store in the 3000 block of Clarksville Street in East Paris Sunday morning, Jan. 16. The youth, police believe, was struck by a car as he walked toward a friend’s mobile home nearby. Beroukhim, police said, had left his job as waiter at the Colonial House Restaurant some 3½ miles away about 11:40 p.m. that Saturday night. Police are still seeking the person who called Cass Ambulance Service about spotting a body. They feel this person may have either witnessed or was involved in the incident.”

THE PARIS NEWS, Wednesday, 16 Feb 1977, p. 17: “Student death lead developed Paris police say they are now developing a lead in the Jan. 16 hit and run death of Iranian exchange student Elias Beroukhim. Paris Police Detective Burton Golden, who has been spearheading the investigation, said Tuesday morning his office is now working with a major lead in the case. He declined to elaborate on what that lead is. Since late January, the department has indicated the death of the Paris Junior College foreign exchange student is a ‘probable hit and run.’ Lamar County Justice of the Peace Chester Oakes said last week he will not issue a formal ruling in the case until the police investigation is complete. He has indicated a probable homicide ruling but said the death could possibly be termed involuntary manslaughter, a third degree felony. Texas Department of Public Safety laboratories in Austin confirmed Jan. 24 that they had found bits of car paint on Beroukhim’s clothing. Police said those Lab Reports indicate the 18-year-old student might have been a hit-and-run victim. Police theorize Beroukhim was hit in front of the Wal- Mart Department Store in the 3000 block of Clarksville while he was walking to a friend’s trailer home. He was pronounced dead at 12:55 a.m. Jan. 16. At 11:40 p.m., he left work at the Colonial House Restaurant, some 3½ miles away.”

THE PARIS NEWS, Wednesday, 30 Mar 1977, p. 2: “Investigation of two deaths - Officers still wait for breaks - Local law enforcement officials said Tuesday that officers are going to have to hope and wait for a major break in both the Jan. 16 hit and run death of a Paris Junior College Iranian exchange student and the Feb. 22 child abuse death of an 11-month-old baby girl. No charges have been filed by authorities in either case. Paris Police are investigating the death of Elias Kallimi Beroukhim, 18, as a probable hit and run. They indicated last month they have a major lead in the case but said they have been unable to develop it further. ‘I feel confident that we will clear the case,’ Paris Police administrative chief Charles Whitley, who heads the department’s criminal investigation unit, said Tuesday. ‘It may be sooner or later. But I have a feeling it will be later.’ Also, in the case involving a baby girl whose death was cited as homicide by the battered child syndrome in February, officers say they are still questioning persons who may know something of the case. Two women, one the mother of the child and the other a babysitter who initially reported the death to Paris Police, have undergone polygraph tests in Dallas police said. County Attorney Tom Wells also said Tuesday that his office presently has no evidence or witnesses to bring before a Lamar County Grand Jury to indict anyone in connection with the baby’s death. Even if the case were to be brought before a grand jury, Wells said, a no-bill would result. ‘We’re just waiting for a major break,’ Wells said. ‘That’s exactly where we stand with both cases.’ Dr. Linda Horton, with the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office, ruled the ll-month-old girl’s death as homicide by the battered child syndrome. The child was reported to have bruises on her back between the shoulder blades, on the left side of the face, behind the right ear, and on top of both feet. Beroukhim was found dead Jan. 16 on a landscaped area in front of the Wal-Mart Discount Center on Clarksville Street. Cause of death was from multiple skull fractures, an autopsy showed.”