Father Sought in Girl’s Death Is Linked to Jordan

A former San Diego substitute teacher wanted by state and federal authorities in connection with the March death of his 5 1/2-year-old daughter has allegedly sent a letter from Jordan to his former employer.

The San Diego Unified School District received a handwritten letter signed by 38-year-old Ibrahim T. Mubarak that “documents his location in a tangible way,” said James Bolenbach, an FBI spokesman, adding that the letter requesting verification of employment as a substitute teacher is new evidence, even though the bureau already knew Mubarak’s location. Bolenbach would not say what the exact location is.

‘Not His Handwriting’

Despite the development, relatives of the slain girl, Juliana Cathleen Olson, are not optimistic.

“It’s not his handwriting, (and) I think he had somebody write it,” San Diegan Betty Olson said of the letter, which was received in early July and showed a return address of Muswdy Shops, Huseiny Mosque, Amman, Jordan.

Olson, who is eager for Mubarak’s apprehension, said she thinks her former son-in-law may still be in the United States.

Mubarak disappeared a few weeks before an apartment manager discovered the badly decomposing body of his daughter in their Normal Heights apartment on March 22. Three days later, the district attorney’s office filed murder and child-abuse charges against Mubarak and issued a warrant for his arrest. There is also a federal warrant out for Mubarak that charges him with fleeing the area to avoid prosecution.

The girl, found wearing a nightgown on a bed, died of a blow to the head, according to an autopsy report. Last seen at her preschool March 14, the girl had been dead several weeks, the report said.

Mubarak won custody of his daughter from the girl’s grandmother in October after a five-year court battle that began when Cathleen Ana Olson, the girl’s mother, died at age 22 of a drug overdose.

1986 Charges Dropped

Mubarak was a former substitute teacher with the San Diego Unified School District and the Sweetwater Union High School District. He married Olson in 1981. The two separated after three weeks and were later divorced.

In 1986, child-abuse and child-endangerment charges that had been brought against Mubarak were dropped because of insufficient evidence. Deputy Dist. Atty. Rodger Overholser said Mubarak holds a Jordanian passport.

A State Department spokesman said the United States does not have an extradition treaty with Jordan, but the FBI’s Bolenbach said extradition is possible.