Syed Rizwan Farook was looking for a woman. A few years ago, not long out of college, he went online to find a match. He was slim, dark-eyed, 6 feet tall and living with a parent in Riverside, his dating profiles explained.
He was Chicago-born, with Pakistani roots. He didn’t drink or smoke. He avoided TV and movies, preferring instead to tinker with old cars, work out and memorize the Quran. He had a $49,000-a-year government job as a health inspector and wanted a young wife who shared his Sunni Muslim faith.
“Someone who takes her religion very seriously and is always trying to improve her religion and encouraging others to do the same using hikmah (wisdom) and not harshness,” he wrote on BestMuslim.com, one of several dating and matrimonial sites he used.
In Southern California’s relatively liberal Muslim community, his preference for extreme traditionalism narrowed his choices. The woman he found online and married, Tashfeen Malik, had spent her life in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and concealed her face with a veil.
A Pakistani national, she might have seemed an answer to his longings, matching, if not exceeding, him in religious devotion. Among the many mysteries: Did she corrupt her husband, or vice versa? Did their dynamic as a couple give rise to an act of mass terror neither would have contemplated alone?
Last year, Farook brought her to the United States on a K-1 visa, also known as a “fiancee visa.” Farook would say it was his wife’s conservatism that attracted him. She stayed home rather than worked. She opted not to drive. He didn’t want her talking to men, and she dutifully avoided their company. Even to other men in his family, her face was hidden.
The couple lived quietly in a brown, rented two-story townhouse in Redlands, an intensely private pair in their late 20s who drew little notice from neighbors. To their landlord, they seemed model tenants.
On Wednesday morning, they left their 6-month-old daughter with Farook’s mother, who lived upstairs. They retrieved combat rifles and handguns from a large arsenal they had been secretly amassing and put on black tactical gear. Farook briefly joined his co-workers for their holiday potluck, before leaving. He returned with his wife and together, wearing masks and carrying those weapons, they stormed into the party of Farook’s co-workers, killing 14 people and wounding 21 others. Sometime before the shooting began, Malik went on Facebook to express fealty to Islamic State.
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Friends and relatives of Sierra Clayborn gather for her funeral at Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church in South Los Angeles.
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A memorial service was held for Nicholas Thalasinos on Saturday morning at the Shiloh Messianic Congregation in Calimesa.
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A Shabbat service was part of the memorial for Nicholas Thalasinos at Shiloh Messianic Congregation in Calimesa, where Thalasinos and his wife, Jennifer, were integral parts of the congregation.
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A hired mover carries out personal items from the home of San Bernardino shooters Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik.
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Residents turn out to greet President Obama’s motorcade in San Bernardino.
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President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet San Bernardino Mayor R. Carey Davis, center, and Supervisor James Ramos outside Air Force One at the San Bernardino airport on Friday night.
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President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama leave in a motorcade, after arriving at San Bernardino International Airport, to meet privately with the families of the victims of the San Bernardino terrorist attack.
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President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama depart Air Force One at San Bernardino International Airport.
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San Bernardino residents Ashrie Matthews, left, Leah Brown and James Matthews line the street to cheer the president’s motorcade.
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President Obama stopped in San Bernardino on Friday evening to privately visit with the families of some of the victims of the Dec. 2 terrorist attack. Ashrie Matthews, left, Leah Brown and James Matthews joined others to cheer as the president’s motorcade passed.
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Anti-Obama protester Deann D’Lean, right, holds some of the many signs she brought to a small protest. In the background, Paul Rodriguez, Jr., with America First Latinos holds a bullhorn. Protesters were out on some San Bernardino street corners voicing their opposition to the president and Islamic State.
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People continue to visit the memorial just down the street from where the terrorist attack occurred.
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Family members and friends pay their respects to Robert Adams, one of the 14 victims killed in the San Bernardino shooting, during his graveside funeral service at Montecito Memorial Park in Colton.
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Summer Adams, center, grieves at the graveside ceremony for her husband, Robert Adams, at Montecito Memorial Park in Colton.
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A mourner sits on the curb with her head in her hands during the graveside ceremony for San Bernardino shooting victim Robert Adams at Montecito Memorial Park in Colton.
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Mourners embrace at the funeral for Aurora Godoy at Calvary Chapel in Gardena on Wednesday. Godoy was one of 14 killed in the attack in San Bernardino on Dec. 2. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
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Mourners embrace at the funeral for Aurora Godoy at Calvary Chapel in Gardena on Wednesday. Godoy was one of 14 killed in the attack in San Bernardino on Dec. 2.
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Mourners arrive for the funeral for San Bernardino shooting victim Aurora Godoy at Calvary Chapel in Gardena on Wednesday.
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Shemiran Betbadal, mother of Bennetta Betbadal, is hugged by family after funeral services at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Rancho Cucamonga.
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Pallbearers carry the casket of Bennetta Bet-Badal during funeral services Monday at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Rancho Cucamonga. Bet-Badal was one of the 14 people killed in the San Barnardino shooting rampage.
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The husband and children of Bennetta Bet-Badal hug Monday following her funeral services at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Rancho Cucamonga.
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Funeral services were held for Bennetta Bet-Badal, one of the 14 people killed in the San Barnardino shooting rampage, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Rancho Cucamonga.
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Funeral services were held for Bennetta Bet-Badal at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Rancho Cucamonga.
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Funeral services were held for Bennetta Bet-Badal at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Rancho Cucamonga.
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Twelve days after the mass shooting attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino the flowers are beginning to wilt but hugs and paryers are still in abundance.
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Gwen Rodgers, assistant pastor at the Church of Living God, hugs Cindy Quinones, cousin of the slain Aurora Godoy, during a vigil at the makeshift memorial for the victims of the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, Calif.
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Visitors arrive to pay their respects at the makeshift memorial outside the fenced off Inland Regional Center, in the background, the site of the deadly terrorist attacks, in San Bernardino, Calif.
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San Trinh, the longtime boyfriend of Tin Nguyen, 31, one of the victims of the San Bernardino terrorist attack, is consoled by family members as Nguyen’s casket is loaded into a hearse at St. Barbara’s Catholic Church in Santa Ana.
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Cousins of Tin Nguyen -- Trang Le, left, Tram Le and Krystal Le -- hold onto some of her personal items and cry as they watch her casket being lowered into the ground at her funeral at the Good Shepherd Cemetery in Huntington Beach.
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Pallbearers stand guard over the casket of the Tin Nguyen, a Cal State Fullerton graduate, at the start of her memorial service at St. Barbara’s Catholic Church in Santa Ana.
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Van Thanh Nguyen shouts her daughter’s name during her funeral at the Good Shepherd Cemetary in Huntington Beach. Tin Nguyen was 31.
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Family members and friends write messages on the side of the Tin Nguyen’s burial vault.
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Van Thanh Nguyen places her hand on her daughter’s casket while surrounded by friends and family.
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The casket of San Bernardino shooting victim Isaac Amanios leaves the St. Minas Orthodox Church during his funeral service in Colton.
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Two women cry during Isaac Amanios’ funeral service at the St. Minas Orthodox Church in Colton. Amanios, 60, is survived by his wife and three children.
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Funeral goers cry during Isaac Amanios’ service. Amanios had shared a cubicle with the male shooter at the San Bernardino County Public Health Department.
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Frineds and family stand during the funeral service for Isaac Amanios.
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Trenna Meins, center with daughters after the funeral for her husband Damian Meins at St. Catherine Of Alexandria in Riverside.
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Pallbearers escort the casket of Damian Meins at St. Catherine of Alexandria church in Riverside.
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Mourners gather at St. Catherine Of Alexandria in Riverside on Friday morning for the funeral of Damian Meins, one of 14 people killed in the San Bernardino shooting.
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Trenna Meins places a cross on her husband’s coffin. Damien Meins was killed in a terrorist attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.
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Mourners gather for the funeral of Damian Meins.
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Community members sing Amazing Grace during a candlelight vigil for Nicholas Thalasinos and the 13 other San Bernardino shooting victims at Fleming Park in Colton, Calif.
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COLTON, CA - DECEMBER 10, 2015: Jennifer Thalasinos,middle, fights back tears during a candlelight vigil for her slain husband Nicholas Thalasinos and the 13 other San Bernardino shooting victims at Fleming Park on December 10, 2015 in Colton, California.(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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A portrait of Yvette Velasco, one of the victims of the deadly San Bernardino terrorist attacks, is placed at her funeral service at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Covina, Calif.
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Robert Velasco, father of Yvette Velasco, consoles a family member during Yvette’s funeral service at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Covina, Calif.
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COVINA, CALIF.--December 10, 2015 - The coffin of San Bernardino shooting victim, Yvette Velasco, is carried to the hearse following a private viewing for family at Forest Lawn Mortuary in Covina, Calif.
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An FBI dive team searches a lake located about two miles north of the Inland Regional Center in connection with last week’s terrorist attack and shootout that left the two attackers and 14 victims dead.
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An FBI dive team searches a lake near the Inland Regional Center in connection with last week’s terrorist attack.
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A memorial to victims of the terrorist attack in San Bernardino continues to grow near the Inland Regional Center, where the attack took place during a holiday party.
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One week after the mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, the public is posting signs of gratitude and thanks like this one found at the San Bernardino Police Department.
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Family members and survivors paid their respects with a moment of silence at 11 a.m., exactly one week after the shooting occured at the Inland Regional Center.
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Customers wait for the doors to open at Turner’s Outdoorsman in San Bernardino Wednesday morning.
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Speaking during a Dec. 8 news conference, dispatcher Michelle Rodriguez of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department becomes emotional as she recounts the events of the deadly San Bernardino attack.
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Trenna Meins, right, of Riverside, hugs friends and family during a vigil t the Riverside County Health Complex for her husband, Damian Meins, and 13 others killed in the San Bernardino shooting rampage.
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On Dec. 8, people bring flowers, candles and remembrances to a memorial to the San Bernardino shooting victims near the Inland Regional Center, the scene of the attack.
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Frank Cobet of the Get Loaded gun store in Grand Terrace shows a customer an AR-15 rifle on Dec. 8.
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Monica Gonzales relights candles Tuesday morning at a memorial for victims of the shooting rampage in San Bernardino.
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Community members and students gather for a Dec. 7 vigil on the Cal State San Bernardino campus to remember the victims of the deadly attack in the city.
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Patricia Corona of Colton, Calif., holds her children, Dejah Salvato, 7, and Brandon Salvato, 9, as they attend a Dec. 7 vigil at the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors headquarters to pay tribute to the victims of the city’s recent mass shootings.
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A prayer is said at the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors headquarters to honor the victms of the city’s recent mass shootings.
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FBI agents put up a screen to block the view of onlookers as they investigate the building at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.
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Syed Farook, father of the suspect in the San Bernardino mass shooting, Syed Rizwan Farook, arrives at his home to a swarm of reporters in Corona, Calif.
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Roses are laid at the entrance to San Bernardino County headquarters as thousands of employees returned to work Monday, five days after Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik opened fire on a gathering of his co-workers, killing 14 people and wounding 21.
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Trudy Raymundo, director the the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health, is surrounded by San Bernardino County supervisors as she addresses the media during a press conference Monday.
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John Ramos of Riverside pays his respects Monday at a makeshift memorial site honoring Wednesday’s shooting victims in San Bernardino.
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Claudia Zaragoza writes a message on a banner at the ever-growing memorial site to the victims of the recent mass shootings near the Inland Regional Center.
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Caroline Campbell, from left, Jessie Campbell and Rylee Ponce embrace as they pay their respects at the ever-growing memorial site for the victims of the recent mass shootings.
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Caroline Campbell embraces her son, David Malijan, 6, as they pay their respects at the ever-growing memorial site to the victims of the recent mass shootings near the Inland Regional Center.
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The Zafarullah family of Chino, originally of Pakistan, watches Obama’s address. Arshia, at left, is holding her 18-month-old nephew, Sohail Ahmed.
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One of several signs supporting the city of San Bernardino hang above the 215 Freeway on Sunday evening.
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Members of the Muslim community, such as Khadija Zadeh, lit candles and wrote messages to the families of victims of the San Bernardino shooting rampage during a memorial service at the Islamic Community Center of Redlands in Loma Linda.
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Ajarat Bada prays during a memorial service at the Islamic Community Center of Redlands in Loma Linda to remember the victims of the San Bernardino shooting rampage.
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Alaa Alsafadi, center, holds her son, Yousef, 4, during a memorial service at the Islamic Community Center of Redlands in Loma Linda.
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Riders from the Christian Motorcycle Association in San Bernardino pray at a growing makeshift memorial for San Bernardino shooting victims near the Inland Regional Center.
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A candlelight vigil dubbed “United We Stand,” took place at Granada Hills Charter High School on Saturday evening. The event was organized by Muslim Youth Los Angeles and Devonshire Area in Partnership.
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Ryan Reyes, boyfriend of San Bernardino shooting victim Larry Daniel Kaufman, hugs members of Dar Al Uloom Al Islamiyah of America mosque who brought roses to a memorial at the Sante Fe Dam on Saturday.
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A bullet hole in the window of a pick up truck where the shootout took place on San Bernardino Avenue.
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A composite photo of the 14 victims of the San Bernardino shooting rampage. (Courtesy of family / Los Angeles Times)
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People kneel in prayer for victims of the recent mass shootings at the Inland Regional Center, in San Bernardino.
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After sunset, people continue to arrive at the memorial site for the victims of the recent mass shootings at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.
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The scene after landlord Doyle Miller opened the doors and allowed the news media inside the Redlands town home where Syed Rizwan Farook and Tafsheen Malik, suspects of the deadly the recent mass shootings in San Bernardino, lived.
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Josie Ramirez-Herndon, center, and her daughter, Chelsie Ramirez, bottom left, join other community members as they pray during a candlelight vigil.
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Fabio Ahumada, a San Bernardino EMT, attends a vigil at San Manuel Stadium
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A couple embrace at the candlelight vigil to honor the victims of the mass shootings at the Inland Regional Center.
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Angel Meler-Baumgartner 11, who was a member of the Inland Regional Center, where the shooting occurred, attends a vigil at San Manuel Stadium for the victims.
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The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA held a press conference and prayer vigil at Baitul Hameed Mosque in Chino. The group denounced the massacre.
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Amy Mahmood, right, holds hands with a woman named Shenaz during the vigil at San Manuel Stadium.
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Ryan Reyes, center, breaks down after finding out his boyfriend of three years, Daniel Kaufman, 42, was one of those killed during Wednesday’s mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.
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Ryan Reyes holds an image of his boyfriend Daniel Kaufman who was confirmed as one of the 14 victims of Wednesday’s mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.
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Larry Jones, left, pastor of Crossover Outreach Church; Dr. Jeannetta Million, pastor of Victoria’s Believers Church; and Arnold Morales, pastor of King of Glory Church, pray for the victims and those involved in the mass shooting in San Bernardino.
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A coalition of church leaders comes together to pray for the victims and those involved in the San Bernardino shootings.
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FBI investigators inside the suspects’ Redlands home on Thursday morning.
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The investigation continues Thursday morning on San Bernardino Avenue, where two suspects in the mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center died in a shootout with police.
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Law enforcement stands guard at a police line as investigators work at a Redlands home after the San Bernardino attack.
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A SWAT team stands guard with a rifle pointed at a home that is being investigated by police after today’s San Bernardino’s mass shootings.
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Farhan Khan, second from right, who was identified as the brother-in-law of San Bernardino shooting suspect Syed Rizwan Farook, joins religious leaders during a news conference at the Council of American Islamic Relations in Anaheim.
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San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies draw guns behind a minivan on Richardson St. during a search for suspects involved in the mass shooting of 14 people at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.
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Marie Cabrera, Sonya Gonzalez and Christine Duran, all of San Bernardino, pray after the mass shooting in San Bernardino.
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A woman and a man enter the Rudy C Hernandez Community Center after they and other people, who were at the scene of a mass shooting, arrived by bus to be reunited with their familys.
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Emergency personnel bring in a wounded person into Loma University Medical Center after the shooting in San Bernardino on Wednesday.
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A SWAT unit is on the move in San Bernardino.
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A member of the San Manual Fire Department takes the names of people evacuated from the scene of a mass shooting in San Bernardino before they are loaded onto buses and taken away from the area.
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Sheriff’s department SWAT members deploy on Richardson Street in San Bernardino on Wednesday.
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Sheriff’s department SWAT members deploy near San Bernardino Avenue and Richardson Street in San Bernardino on Wednesday.
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Evacuated workers join in a circle to pray on the San Bernardino Golf Course across the street from where a shooting occurred at the Inland Regional Center.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) That much authorities believe they know about the massacre, which the FBI is investigating as an act of terror — the deadliest on American soil since 9/11, as well as the deadliest mass shooting since the schoolhouse murders in Newtown, Conn., three years ago.
But much remains puzzling about the case, including the specifics of the couple’s radicalization. It may be weeks, or months, before investigators — who seized computers and cellphones that belonged to the couple and are working to reconstruct their communications — are able to trace a detailed path between their online meeting and their deaths, soon after the murders, in a shootout with police.
The stash of weapons discovered at the Redlands townhome —- including thousands of rounds of ammunition, a dozen pipe bombs and a workshop to make more — suggests to the FBI that the couple had been planning a terror mission for some time.
And two crushed cellphones, found in a trash can near the townhome, suggested the couple hoped to hide whoever they had been in touch with. Of particular interest to investigators is whether the couple received weapons training overseas, possibly in Pakistan, where both had spent time in recent years.
But the FBI said it had not been watching them prior to the massacre and had received no advance warning they were dangerous.
Farook, 28, grew up in Southern California, and he was in his late teens when his mother filed for divorce from his father, claiming in court papers that he drank and was abusive.
Farook earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental health from Cal State San Bernardino in 2010. His older brother, Syed Raheel Farook, served in the Navy from 2003 to 2007, winning medals for service in the “Global War on Terrorism.”
Among his co-workers at the San Bernardino County Public Health Department, where he worked as a restaurant inspector, Farook seemed to make little impression beyond his quiet good manners. He was “a very isolated, introverted individual with really no friends that we could identify,” said David Chesley, an attorney for Farook’s family.
A federal law enforcement official has said Farook had contact with overseas terror organizations, including the al-Qaeda-aligned Nusra Front in Syria and Shabab in Somalia. By the evidence of family, co-workers and acquaintances who have spoken publicly so far, however, Farook did not suggest a man plotting jihadist violence.
In a recent discussion with a co-worker, an outspoken Messianic Jew named Nicholas Thalasinos, Farook condemned Israel but apparently did not raise alarms by his manner, said a friend to whom Thalasinos relayed the conversation. Thalasinos, 52, was among the murdered.
Malik, 29, was born in Pakistan to an affluent, land-owning, politically influential family in Karor Lal Esan, in the southern part of the country’s Punjab province, a generally poor agricultural area where religious schools are known as incubators of Islamist extremism.
Though Malik’s family moved to Saudi Arabia when she was a child, she returned to southern Punjab a few years ago to study pharmacology at Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan.
One of her professors, Dr. Nisar Hussain, recalled her as “a very hardworking and submissive student,” and “an obedient girl.” He said she came to school veiled.
“She was religious, but a very normal person as well,” Hussain said in an interview. “I cannot even imagine she could murder people.”
She was a good student, he added, and at one point was first in her class. “I don’t think she had any kind of mental illness. She was among the best students, always hardworking, never created problems. Yes, she was religious, but not an extremist. She never tried to influence the class in the name of religion — never.”
A family member in Pakistan who asked not to be identified said that she had been a “modern girl” who changed during college.
“After a couple of years in college, she started becoming religious. She started taking part in religious activities, and also started asking women in the family and the locality to become good Muslims,” the family member said. “She used to talk to somebody in Arabic at night on the Internet. None of our family members in Pakistan know Arabic, so we do not know what she used to discuss.”
After university, Malik returned to Saudi Arabia, where Farook met her during a religious pilgrimage, according to his family’s attorneys.
The family member said that Malik, after moving later to the U.S., began posting messages of religious extremism on her Facebook account, a source of concern for her family in Pakistan.
Malik’s paternal aunt, Hafza Batool, told the BBC that the family was in a state of shock. “She was so modern. I do not know what had happened to her. She brought a bad name to our family,” she said.
To obtain the K-1 visa and the conditional green card that permitted her to live in the United States, Malik had to undergo background checks by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, but authorities apparently turned up nothing that gave them pause.
Farook told acquaintances that he and Malik were married in Saudi Arabia, in the holy city of Mecca. The couple held a post-wedding celebration at the Islamic Center of Riverside. There was a feast of rice and chicken curry.
It was there that Nizaam Ali, 23, who attends the mosque and recalled Farook as “a very nice person,” said he saw Malik for the first time. She was covered, head to toe. He saw her a few other times but could not remember even seeing her hands.
“If you asked me how she looked, I couldn’t tell you,” Ali said.
Farook’s family attorneys say she spoke Urdu and broken English. They say Farook’s family was shocked to hear of the couple’s involvement in the shootings, and had no advanced inkling of it.
FBI Director James Comey said that there was no evidence that the couple was directed by a larger terror network, although there were signs of “potential inspiration by foreign terrorist organizations.”
“The Internet allows the opportunity for people to consume poison and radicalize,” Comey added.
christopher.goffard@latimes.com
Times staff writer Soumya Karlamangla in Los Angeles and special correspondent Aoun Sahi in Islamabad contributed to this report.
