Mountain View lawyer injured in Iran quake Mountain View lawyer injured in Iran quake (January 02, 2004)

Cornell grad's fiance died during trip

By Julie O'Shea

A Mountain View lawyer, on vacation in Iran with her fiance, was among the few who survived the massive earthquake that leveled the ancient city of Bam and left more than 20,000 dead the day after Christmas.

According to news reports, Adele Freedman's feet were crushed when the inn where she was staying collapsed, trapping her and her fiance, Tobb Dell'Oro, under the rumble for hours while rescuers dug them out with their bare hands.

Dell'Oro, 41, bled to death, according to news reports. Freedman, 39, remained hospitalized in Tehran on Monday. Her mother, Annamae, in an interview with the New York Times published Tuesday, said her daughter had not been told that her fiance perished in the Dec. 26 catastrophe. The couple, both graduates of Cornell University, were engaged Christmas Eve.

Annamae Freedman and her husband Philip are making plans to fly to Iran to bring their daughter home and tell her the devastating news, the Times article said.

Adele Freedman, a native of New York who lives in San Francisco's Noe Valley neighborhood, has been with GCA Law Partners in Mountain View since 1999. She focuses on corporate and securities law. A spokesperson for the firm declined to comment for this story.

Dell'Oro was co-owner of the Dell'Oro Group, a marketing-research firm in Redwood City.

The couple met at a party several years ago, news reports said.

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