On Tuesday, 2nd August 2022, the trial of a man from Texas began in the court of Dallas in the USA. The Egyptian national Yaser Abdel Said aged 65, who lived in Texas, is accused of murdering his two daughters in ‘honor killings‘ for having non-Muslim boyfriends in 2008. After this incident, the accused was absconding for the next 12 years before he was nabbed in 2020.
According to a report by Fox News, Yaser Abdel Said was legally residing in Texas and allegedly killed his two daughters Amina (age 18) and Sarah (age 17) in 2008 for being ‘too American’. According to his wife Patricia Owens, he killed the two teenagers because their boyfriends were not Muslims. Yaser Abdel Said is on prosecution for premeditated murder and, if found guilty, would face a life sentence because prosecutors are not demanding the death penalty.
Last year, two of Said’s relatives, Islam and Yassein Said, were sentenced to long jail terms for allegedly assisting Yaser’s escapes. Prosecutors contend that on the day of the killing, Said stated he was going to take the two girls to a restaurant in Lewisville, but instead drove them to Irving, where he shot them.
After Yaser Abdel Said killed his two daughters, Patricia Owens divorced him. She said that the accused Said would often say that he did not want to raise whores as daughters. A 911 call was made by Sarah before she passed away, in which she was heard saying, “Help, my dad shot me! I’m dying, I’m dying!” Sarah’s sister Amina was believed to have died instantaneously.
Prosecutor Lauren Black said in court on Tuesday, “This is a case about a man obsessed with possession and control. These were two young, spirited young ladies. Normal teenage girls who wanted a normal life.” Amina’s lover testified that she ‘knew she was going to die’ when she grudgingly returned home on New Year’s Eve after fleeing to Tulsa, Oklahoma, with her mother, sister, and boyfriends. Her last words to him, he said, were that she would never see him again. On January 1, 2008, she came home and was killed that night. On New Year’s Day 2008, the remains of Amina and Sarah were discovered inside their father’s taxi, which was parked outside of a hotel in Irving.
Amina’s high school history teacher testified that the 18-year-old had contacted her about her intentions to flee her house. Amina wrote to her teacher, “He will, without any drama or doubt, kill us.” She also asked her teacher to keep her plans quiet until she had left home.
Said escaped after the killings and was arrested roughly 30 miles from the crime location in 2020, a dozen years after the crime. His 19-year-old son, Islam, and his brother, Yassein, were both convicted of harboring a recognized criminal. Yassein received a 12-year term, while Islam received a 10-year sentence.
Patricia Owens, the mother of the two deceased girls, said, “My daughters were loving, caring, smart, loved everybody, would help anybody. They were two of the most awesome kids in the world and they did not deserve what happened to them.” The culprit who was on the run for 12 years, will now undergo trial in court.
