Alireza Pahlavi, son of former shah of Iran, commits suicide

The youngest son of the former shah of Iran was found dead of an apparent suicide at his home in Boston on Tuesday, according to a family statement. Alireza Pahlavi, 44, died of a single gunshot wound that was apparently self-inflicted, said a spokesman for the Suffolk District Attorney's office.

"Like millions of young Iranians, he too was deeply disturbed by all the ills fallen upon his beloved homeland, as well as carrying the burden of losing a father and a sister in his young life. Although he struggled for years to overcome his sorrow, he finally succumbed," the family website read.

The former shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was overthrown during the 1979 Islamic revolution. He fled the country and died of cancer in Egypt the following year.

His family has since lived in exile. Pahlavi is the second of the former shah's children to die of suicide. His sister, Leila Pahlavi, was found dead in a hotel room in London after she overdosed, the Wall Street Journal reports. She was 31.

A close friend of Pahlavi's older brother, Reza Pahlavi, said that the suicide of his sister caused Alireza Pahlavi to go into a deep depression, and he never recovered. 

"He became a different person," Fardia Pars told the AP.

After fleeing Iran with his family, Pahlavi attended schools in New York City and Cairo. He then studied music at Princeton University and ancient Iranian studies at Columbia University. He later did postgraduate work at Harvard University.