NYPD: Saudi Sisters Discovered in a River Talk about Harm

NEW YORK – Two immigrant sisters from Saudi Arabia, whose bodies were buried on New York City's waterfront, told the public they would rather get hurt than return to their home country, Friday announced investigators.

The bodies of 16-year-old Tala Farea and 23-year-old Rotana Farea were discovered on 24 October near the Hudson River, two months after their last sighting in Fairfax, Virginia, where they lived in a shelter in the middle of the river. Allegations that they were mistreated. at home.

Police said the sisters were in Manhattan since Sept. 1, staying in expensive hotels and ordering two by two until their credit card was used to the fullest. A jogger stated that he saw them praying in a playground near the river, sitting about 9 meters (30 feet) away, his head in their hands, hours before their bodies were found. announced the police.

Chief of Police Inspectors of New York City Dermot Shea said that people who knew Farea sisters in Virginia had told investigators they had made statements in the past year, stating that they "would rather hurt themselves – commit suicide – than return to Saudi Arabia."

Shea stopped saying that the sisters had committed suicide, but said that the police had "no credible information that a crime was committed". The medical examiner has not yet ruled on their death and the case is still under investigation, he said.

The bodies of the sisters were stuck together, facing each other and fully dressed, the police said. There were no obvious signs of trauma and it appeared that they were alive when they went into the water, police said.

The mysterious death of the Farea sisters caught the world's attention and fueled widespread speculation and online conspiracy theories following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi on October 2 at a Saudi embbady in Turkey.

The sisters' mother told investigators that the day before the bodies were found she had received a phone call from a Saudi Arabian embbady official, ordering the family to leave the United States because her daughters had asked for asylum.

The Saudi Embbady denied having spoken to the family about any asylum application.

The Associated Press could not get in touch with the parents of the sisters.

Tala and Rotana left Saudi Arabia to settle in the United States in 2015 with their mother in Fairfax, a suburb of Washington DC, police said.

The sisters left the family home and were placed in a shelter-like facility after a previous disappearance in December 2017. At that time, Shea said, "It has been said that they were victims of the death." ;abuse".

Rotana was enrolled at George Mason University in Fairfax, but left in the spring.

The sisters were last seen in Virginia on August 24th. They were reported missing on 12 September.

Police, citing credit card statements, a Uber receipt and other evidence, said they arrived in New York on September 1 after stopping in Washington, DC and Philadelphia.

They appeared in good health at the security police video about a week before the discovery of their bodies, said Shea.

The police initially struggled to identify the bodies as much of the city and the country was upset by other news, such as bomb-packs sent to a dozen prominent Democrats and to the office. from CNN to New York.

Police published sketches of the sister's face and posted repeated calls to the public's help to identify them on social media. Once identified, the police sent detectives to Virginia to reconstruct the last months of their lives.

The jogger who said he saw the sisters praying went to the police on Wednesday. He told the investigators that he "haunted her," Shea said.