Steele said investigators have found a "disturbing" video on a smart phone belonging to her boyfriend, 23-year-old Nicholas Forman, who is accused of killing her.
Harooni was pronounced dead Monday afternoon at Pottstown Hospital Tower Health after Forman took her there in an Uber.
"When she arrives at the hospital, cold to the touch, she is deceased at the time," Steele said.
According to charging documents, Forman initially said Harooni got into an argument Sunday night at a bar in Oaks with three women, who then followed them back to his house on Hamilton Road in Perkiomen Township.
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Forman said Harooni went outside to fight them, and that he stayed out of it because he’s on probation.
After the fight, he said he helped walk Harooni back to his house. The next day, he said, he realized how badly she was hurt and took her to the hospital.
However, investigators say the Uber driver who took them home from the bar says they were arguing about a text from an ex-boyfriend. And when they searched Forman’s phone, they found a video showing Harooni lying unconscious with blood by her head. A voice from a man off camera can be heard calling her derogatory names and saying "This is what a cheating liar gets."
"Somebody that is going to go to the lengths that he did to video his victim, then talk on his recording about why she deserved this, is somebody we need to separate from the good people in our community," Steele said.
Steele said Forman had a preliminary hearing on Monday in Limerick on charges he was selling cocaine out of the bathroom of the Olive Garden where he worked. Steele said Forman waited until after that hearing to take Harooni to the hospital, and by that time, she was already dead.
"This was not a transportation to help a victim that was struggling with life," he said. "This was taking a dead body out of a residence to a hospital."