From his new position as analyst of marijuana cases, Sharma felt justified in seeking a promotion. The job he sought was equivalent to Bolding's — the supervisor of numerous departments. When it was given to a man with less education, Sharma told his wife the "department politics" were unbearable. Sometime in 2005, he decided to retire.
_____________________
Perveem Sharma continued commuting then to her job in the department of public works, while Baldev Sharma passed his time jogging and taking courses in tax preparation. He had a dream of opening his own tax-preparation shop, but as Perveem Sharma said, "dreams are not always fulfilled."
Baldev Sharma was director of DNA analysis in Houston's scandal-ridden crime lab.
Related Content
More About
Every night, Baldev Sharma waited for his wife to come home, and on October 10, 2007, as they did nearly every night, they went to eat dinner together at a small Indian restaurant on Scarsdale called Darbar. Perveem Sharma was going out of town the next day to visit relatives, and over the meal, Baldev Sharma complained that five days was really too long for a wife to be away from her husband. Afterward, Perveem Sharma remembered that there was no milk in the refrigerator at home. She didn't want to leave her husband without milk, and so asked him to drive a block down the road to Food Town.
Baldev Sharma dropped his wife at the door and went, according to custom, to wait with the car. While inside, Perveem Sharma remembered other items and was gone longer than she expected. Otherwise, everything went as usual until she emerged from the store and couldn't find her husband. She looked around; she called his cell phone. When he didn't answer, she got nervous. Her husband often parked to the side of the building, away from people who might damage their car. In that direction now, though, there were only a lot of vehicles with flashing lights. Perveem Sharma finally began walking toward them.
She was told in the glare that her husband had been carjacked. Their five-year-old Nissan would later be spotted in the robbery of a McDonald's and then found ablaze in a city park. Baldev Sharma, though, had never left. He lay on the asphalt, shot through the heart.
News accounts speak of screaming at the scene. Perveem Sharma told of the void she felt later, gazing at pictures of a husband who wasn't there. "He was a very nice, gentle man," she said. "He never fought with anyone." She dwells on what was taken from her and on the person who took it. "Who ruined my life," Perveem Sharma said, starkly, "they should be caught and punished."
The case remains open. Sheriff's deputies have no suspect — only the killer's DNA. They won't tell where they found it — whether from a cigarette butt, a dropped hair, a disposable cup — but Baldev Sharma's murderer may as well have signed his name. His widow will have her vengeance someday — with a little luck, that is, and providing that DNA analysts do their jobs.
Anyone with information regarding the murder of Baldev Sharma is encouraged to call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-8477.
