Sisters found dead in Hudson River preferred suicide over returning to Saudi Arabia: Police
Source: ABC News
By AARON KATERSKY MORGAN WINSOR
Nov 2, 2018, 4:48 PM ET
Tala and Rotana Farea, the sisters from Saudi Arabia whose bodies were found taped together in New York City's Hudson River last week, were said to have preferred suicide over returning to their home country, according to police.
Dermot Shea, chief of detectives for the New York City Police Department, said "sources" in Virginia, where the Farea sisters had previously been living, informed investigators that the two women had been in the United States for two to three years and would "rather inflict harm on themselves and commit suicide than return to Saudi Arabia."
Detectives believe the women may have applied for asylum in the United States after alleging that they were victims of abuse, Shea said.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/sisters-found-dead-hudson-river-preferred-suicide-returning/story?id=58928983
Haunting and so sad. Death by drowning rather than return. Peace to them.
C_U_L8R
(45,002 posts)Given The Kingdom's penchant to assassinate dissidents, who knows. How do you duct tape your own bodies together?
barbtries
(28,794 posts)someone somewhere suggested an honor killing and I think that is viable.
sdfernando
(4,935 posts)There is no "honor" in killing someone!
I'm skeptical that it was suicide. I hope the true cause is determined (even if it was suicide).
RIP Sweet Sisters.
bronxiteforever
(9,287 posts)Who came forward is the key. I am sure NYPD will track down surveillance footage on that night.
More likely, the sisters were denied asylum by our federal government and they burned through the credit cards because they were going to kill themselves. This case both illustrates the trumpian immigration system ( how many other suicides are there) and the fact that in the Kingdom woman and girls are always second class.
ansible
(1,718 posts)It's easy to take living here for granted, my family emigrated here from Australia and I really, really don't want to go back there either.
We are being asked to believe that these two girls were able to tape themselves together and then jump into a river. That does not seem realistic.
lostnfound
(16,179 posts)This is a lie. Something is being covered up.
highplainsdem
(48,978 posts)Suicide story is bull shit
brush
(53,778 posts)of the same. It was reported at the time that the cause of death was unknown.
Hope this isn't another cover-up of Saudi killings.
Delphinus
(11,830 posts)my thoughts too.
RockRaven
(14,966 posts)committed suicide.
Given SA's willingness to assassinate people in foreign countries, no stone should remain unturned in investigating their deaths FULLY.
JI7
(89,249 posts)maybe that horrible thing they were getting away from found them here.
Princess Turandot
(4,787 posts)The parents reported them missing, but when they were subsequently located in 12/17, they told the Virginia authorities that they had been abused by family members (father, brother, mother). Shea didn't elaborate on the details of the abuse. Because of that, they were placed in a shelter in Va. where they remained until 8/18, when they disappeared. (The shelter reported them missing at that time.)
They had made their way to NYC by early September. They stayed here in several hotels, paying with a credit card. The police also got reports of them paying for other things with cash. Then significantly, they apparently began to run out of resources, about a week before they died.
On the morning of the day they were found dead, a man saw them in another part of Riverside Park, around 158th Street. He came in and spoke to the police about them two days ago. He said that they were sitting apart, and were audibly chanting something, as if praying, each one holding her head down in her hands.
As of right now, the medical examiner has not yet determined their cause of death. The girls were completely dressed, and had no injuries such as they might have gotten in a struggle. I assume they're now waiting on various lab results. The NYC medical examiners department/forensics laboratory is about as good as it gets, so if there's something there to find, they'll find it.
As to Saudi Arabia, maybe they just didn't want to return there because it's a disgustingly repressive place for women to live, especially after they were living in Northern Virginia for several years. There appears to be nothing going on here that would have caused the Saudis to send assassins after the two of them in NYC.
But given the Trump admin's policies on granting asylum and Muslim immigrants etc., if they had indeed applied for asylum, they may have decided that option was hopeless. Add that to no money, and no place to go as they saw it, they sadly might have opted for a drastic ending.
bronxiteforever
(9,287 posts)Hotler
(11,421 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)This sounds very fishy. Taping themselves together and throwing themselves in the river sounds very complicated. I am doubting the suicide angle.
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)It seems possible they were just very basically attached by tape, in hopes that their bodies would be discovered together.
AFAIK, we don't know the 'details' on 'how taped together' they were ... i.e. was it just their wrists? Or were they 'back-to-back tape mummies from head to toe'?
ginnyinWI
(17,276 posts)that they were taped around their waists and feet. Hands free.
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)Sit on the ground, opposite each other, but knees together, you could pass the roll to each other and wrap your feet. Then you could stand up by grabbing one another's hands and pulling each other up. From there, facing each other standing up, it'd be fairly simple to wrap tape around your waists.
Then you could either jump/fall into, or roll into the river ...
Not saying 'that's what happened', in fact I really kinda doubt it ... assuming they were really bound this way and that this isn't just a rumor that got reported by a number of sources.
Hell, even if it was accurate, they could've been forced to do this at gunpoint or the like ... a smart assassin would make them do it themselves so as to avoid doing something that a forensic expert could ID as something 'impossible' for them to have done on their own.
But I do think the experts at NYPD crime lab will figure it out.
Crutchez_CuiBono
(7,725 posts)BigmanPigman
(51,591 posts)after tying herself up and then jumped over a second story railing after writing a letter in red paint after her boyfriend's son died accidentally a few days before that. This sounds as fishy as that "suicide".
If you are planning to kill yourself I can see blowing all your available money on nice hotels, room service, expensive activities, fine restaurants before you do so bit the spending sprees "shopping" for things they will never use or wear doesn't make sense either.
GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)I cant give many details because I do not want to Out myself.
But I had an encounter with a young girl from SA. Here for school. She was beautiful, scantily clad and drinking like she had something to forget. Or fear. Just a few hours around her and I can see her taking this action.
Why we have anything to do with this midieval country boggles my mind. I mean I know why, but still...
obamanut2012
(26,076 posts)Not buying it. They were murdered in a horrible way -- they were alive when they were thrown in the river.
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)Article said their bodies were loosely bound together with duct tape when found.
obamanut2012
(26,076 posts)I ddn't even read the OP article, because I have been following it since the beginning.
Just two articles, lots of them when you Google.
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Dead-Sisters-Hudson-River-Farea-Saudi-Embassy-NYPD-Investigation-499127621.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/saudi-sisters-found-dead-bound-together-hudson-river-likely-entered-n929721
lostnfound
(16,179 posts)Raine
(30,540 posts)together and jumped off a cliff into the ocean near where I live, it happens.
Crutchez_CuiBono
(7,725 posts)How sad.