News of 22-year-old Rowena Irani’s tragic demise at the Wesley Medical Center in Kansas on October 4, 2016 was met with disbelief when messages on WhatsApp conveyed she was "shot in the head by her gora (white) ex boyfriend.” Rowena was supposed to pick up her mother from work around 3 p.m. on October 3, but when she did not arrive and could not be reached on the phone, her mother went to Rowena’s home at North Meadow Oaks Street in northeast Wichita only to find that Rowena had been shot, reported KSNW-TV. She was transported to the hospital in a critical condition and succumbed to her injuries the next day.
Rowena’s 27-year-old ex boyfriend Dane Owens, a sophomore at the Kansas State University majoring in social work, was reportedly charged with intentional first degree murder and booked into the Sedgwick County Jail. As per the arrest affidavit quoted by ksnt.com (Kansas Association of Broadcasters), Rowena had confided in her brother Rooshad that after breaking up with Owens she learnt about his time in the military when he had killed people including women and children, and of his plans to kill his previous girlfriend.
According to Rooshad, his sister was studying psychology and wanted to establish a career in trauma psychology. She worked with children who had a troubled, abused past at the Wichita Children’s Home and was considered a role model and a positive influence on them.
Dane Owens Photo: Sedgwick County Jail
The Irani family having migrated from Karachi around 13 years ago, they continued to retain ties with their family, friends and neighbors in Pakistan. As reported in the November issue of What’s On, the monthly newsletter of the Karachi Zarthosti Banu Mandal, after the YMZA (Young Men’s Zoroastrian Association) Dastur Dr Dhalla Institute’s Minwalla Music Competition on October 23, 2016 at the Avari Towers Hotel, a musical tribute was organized for Rowena when Rashna Gazder, a neighbor of Rowena’s grandfather, played on the piano with Brendon Emmanuel singing Candle in the Wind where the wordings of the song were adapted to suit Rowena’s personality. "Rowena was always helpful at our home and an obedient child, always eager to please,” conveyed Gazder to Parsiana. She further expressed in her email, "Rowena was tender-hearted and always smiling. I still remember her mothering my younger son Noshirwan in school. When he had a bad fall, she sat with him in the sick room, holding his hand, asking him to count to 10. From a pretty little girl, she blossomed into a beautiful woman. Her sunny demeanor opened up the darkest of moods with a simple smile and a joyful laugh.”
Strumming the guitar, Rowena’s friend, Almitra Mavalvala sang a song specially composed by her. As she subsequently conveyed to Parsiana, "Rowena, one with the vibrant spirit and one of the biggest hearts I know... was beautiful and charming and cheated in carrom! She used to be competitive and was always up to doing everything.”