Yaser Abdel Said, accused of murdering his two teenage daughters in Texas, will be featured on Saturday night's broadcast of "America's Most Wanted":
While most people were celebrating the New Year, one woman was making a desperate call to Irving, Texas Police Dispatch. At about 7:30 p.m. on New Year's Day, the woman claimed to be a shooting victim who couldn't figure out where she was.Here are Amina and Sarah:Irving units drove to the O'Connor Road and Riverside Drive area of Irving, but found no one. About an hour later, police received a second call, this one coming from a concerned citizen, reporting a suspicious vehicle in a parking lot. When cops returned to the area, they found the original caller dead in the car, one of two deceased young women.
Cops identified the two victims as sisters, 18-year-old Amina Yaser Said and Sarah Yaser Said, 17. To make this story even more heartbreaking, cops suspect the gunman is the girls' own father, Yaser Abdel Said.
While the family searches for answers about why this happened, investigators in Irving are trying to track down this man, whom they believe to still be armed.
And here is their father and accused killer, Yaser Abdel Said:
For three days, the story was largely ignored by the national media. More than 72 hours after authorities found the bodies of Amina and Sarah -- while their accused killer is a fugitive whom police say should be considered armed and dangerous -- the story had still not been reported on the Associated Press national wire, and The Washington Times was the only newspaper outside Texas to cover the story. As of midnight Friday, the only national media to have reported the story were Fox News, United Press International, ABC News, World Magazine and the Christian Broadcasting Network.
Bloggers, however, were on the story as early as Wednesday morning, when Debbie Schlussel posted a report, and as she noted Thursday:
I correctly called it then. I said it was an honor killing and I said that it was probably because his daughters were dating non-Muslim boys.That was confirmed by a Dallas TV station's interview with the sisters' boyfriends. As Jammie Wearing Fool notes, however, the girls' brother, Islam Said, denies the murders were religiously motivated:
"Religion has nothing to do with this, and it was very wrong," Islam Said said. "Islam is not a bad religion."But the Dallas Morning News reports:
Zohair Zaidi, a close friend of Sarah's, said Sarah told him their father had threatened harm to Amina recently when he discovered she had a boyfriend.Because the cab was found near Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Yaser Abdel Said could be anywhere by now."Her dad has always been oppressive with her and her sister," said Mr. Zaidi, 18.
"She said that one day when she came home -- the day he found out about Amina's boyfriend -- he told Sarah, 'I'm going to put a bullet through Amina's head, and you better get used to her because she's not going to be around much longer.' "
Wherever he is, however, John Walsh and the viewers of "America's Most Wanted" can find him. (I interviewed Walsh in 2003.) To date, "AMW" viewers have helped capture 971 fugitives.
Here's the "AMW" profile of Yaser Abdel Said. As John Walsh says, "Make that call."
-- Robert Stacy McCain, assistant national editor, The Washington Times
Comments (11)
Excellent coverage on this story!
Posted by M. Jones | January 5, 2008 3:06 AM
Oh, let's not report any facts that might offend Muslims. Honor killings? No such thing. The Israelis must have done it, with a green light from Bush. If we weren't so imperialistic and oppressive, everyone would be happy as peas in a pod.
May these poor beautiful young girls rest in peace, and may the mainstream media one day be exposed for their agenda-driven coverage of events, as when they flayed that Idaho chap for touching a guy's foot, but totally ignored the ACLU leader found with pedophilic torture porn.
Sorry state of affairs. Thanks to the Washington Times for being one of the only news organizations with a conscience and a journalistic ethic.
Posted by Concerned Citizen | January 5, 2008 12:28 PM
It's pretty obvious to an experienced eye that the murders of the Said sisters in suburban Dallas were dishonor killings. I'm disappointed in some media outlets for not taking this opportunity to educate.
Ellen R. Sheeley, Author
"Reclaiming Honor in Jordan"
Posted by ERS | January 5, 2008 11:35 PM
I must give the WashTimes and FoxNews credit for keeping this story alive.
The singular unwillingness of the MSM to touch radioactive stories like this one smells of appeasement and, what lgf's Charles Johnson so aptly terms "pre-emptive Dhimmitude."
Posted by m. r. o'donnell | January 6, 2008 12:33 AM
Murder is murder. Honor killings only puts a relative label for motive and helps the ACLU. If this slips through the cracks, it could be a precedence like the insanity plea. You come into this country, you obey this country's laws or you are judged by this country's laws and disciplined by this country's laws, it does not matter where you are from or what religion you practice.
Posted by Larry Stone | January 6, 2008 4:39 AM
No, Larry Stone, it makes a BIG difference as to whether or not these were "dishonor killings." If they were, then you are seeing an underground Sharia-type law that is beginning to infect this country. There are Muslim communities all over this nation and many of them are sympathetic to Sharia law. They may live in this country, but within their own communities they live by their own rules and their own laws. We should no longer be concerned with political correctness, especially after the events of 9/11. If we confirm that these girls were killed simply because they didn't follow Muslim tradition, this killer must be found and made an example of immediately. He must be found and imprisoned for the rest of his life and he must serve as a warning to other Muslims throughout this country. They must all understand that there is but one law in this country, and it is NOT Sharia law.
Posted by Libertyship46 | January 6, 2008 2:01 PM
Im not so sure where this is all going with the new media attention and AMW going so far as to call this an "honor killing". Perhaps it did in fact have to do with their religion, the Mother leaving the Husband and the girl's living what he called an American life, the truth is that the so called boyfriends turned out to be BS however and that is why there has been no further mention of them by any media source, it seems that they are simply two boys that the girls knew from school and wanted to be in the spotlight and Fox4 never should have given them the air time without first having the facts. My Husband is an Officer here in Irving and from the little bit that he has shared, yes it did have to do with the Wife (white/Christian wife) leaving him and the girls living what he thought was "too American of a life" but to blame this on his choice of religion and further add to the paranoia of the Muslim religion like this? quite simple he's just as sick as any other parent that kills his own children and who cares if it was his religious beliefs that put this act into his head? look at all the other parents that do this every year, what excuse will we give them? the man shot and killed his own daughters and that is really all that matters.
Posted by Irving resident | January 6, 2008 4:10 PM
just another prime example of how dangerous and sick these people are...and for someone to say israelis done with bush's approval? the person who says that is a: sick and demented b: a traitor to the US!!! if you dont back our president and government on the war on terror then you are a traitor and should be hung!!!
Posted by gary johnson | January 6, 2008 4:36 PM
I am getting pretty tired of political correctness and respect for Islam. The list of atrocities committed in the name of the Koran, or shariah law or whatever, is so long that i am sure one can make a statistical connection between the worship of allah and insane acts of violence. that's not racism, that is empiricism.
when you believe in fantasy as written in some ancient "sacred" text that can't possibly apply to modern moral society, you are two thirds of the way to being crazy. If you think god talks to you, i have news, that is a sign of schizophrenia.
Can anyone cite any atheist suicide bombers for me?
Posted by Sam Needleman | January 11, 2008 2:52 PM
Ok that man was one crazy absurd stupid idiot. He used his religion as an excuse to kill his daughters...when in fact his religion had nothing to do with it. The Quran does not tell you to just go and kill your daughters just because they are becoming too "americanized" or whatever. People are just ignorant mostly b/c they are uneducated and uncivilized human beings. But you don't have to be uneducated to be ignorant...clearly there are so many ppl...as evident above..that are so quick to point their fingers at Islam when in fact there are mannnnyyy non-Muslim ppl in America today that kill their wives and children because they are simply mentally sick. Just recently, a man stabbed his wife and her mother to death and jumped off a bridge and killed himself. Do you think they do it because of their religion?? NO. Let's not forget the asian kid who killed so many innocent students at Virginia Tech and the caucasian kid who basically did the same thing, except at a mall. Who are you blaming for for that?? Not thier religion. The point is...we have to treat this just like any other murder case. A man shot his daughters. He is a criminal and should be in jail for the rest of his life.
Posted by Z Khan | January 12, 2008 4:04 AM
Has this person been found yet? If not its seems he has fled the country. If his car was found near Dallas Fort Worth airport that seems to support that possibilty.
Not much chance the Egyptian authorities will turn him over to the West for prosecution.
We need neighborhood watches for people like this and my neighborhood was one where a 911 hijacker was living at one time.
The Terrorists are amoung us that is certain and until we start keeping vigilent watch for them we are under threat every day and every hour.
Thank you. Abdul
Posted by abdul | March 5, 2008 9:24 AM