EATONTON, Ga. — Put a million-dollar exclamation point on the McIver saga.
The tragic tale that began nearly two years ago when high-powered corporate attorney Tex McIver fatally shot his wife, Diane, reached a crescendo of sorts on Saturday when the couple’s 85-acre ranch here was sold at auction.
During a short but spirited bidding period that took place at high noon in a white tent on the property's rolling grounds, Joe Bakhtiari emerged with the winning $1 million bid. A resident of the Smoke Rise section of Stone Mountain, Bakhtiari said he envisioned the ranch as a relaxation spot for his large extended family, which includes his five brothers.
“When we looked at (the ranch) we fell in love with it,” said Bakhtiari. “We’re going to make it a vacation house.”
While Bakhtiari said he knew “very little” about the drama surrounding the home's previous occupants, his brother, Majid, said he'd "followed it from the beginning. " In fact, along with a main house and “saloon,” two ponds and acres of lush pasture, the property comes with an undeniably emotional backstory.
“This is very sad,” attorney Mary Margaret Oliver, the court-appointed executor of Diane McIver’s estate, said on Saturday. The real estate property auction had just concluded and the tent had been taken over by hundreds of people bidding in a separate auction of the ranch’s contents and the couple’s personal items. “She didn’t deserve for her life and the lovely lifestyle she had out here on this property to be cut short.”
It was on Sept. 25, 2016, that Tex McIver shot his wife in the back as they were riding in their SUV near Piedmont Park. She died early the next morning at Emory University Hospital. Tex McIver claimed the shooting was an accident, but he was convicted of felony murder in Fulton County and sentenced to life in prison on May 23.