2015: Family moves to Fairfax, Virginia from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
December 2017: Sisters run away and beg police not to tell mom where they were. They return back to Virginia at some stage afterwards
May 2018: Oldest sister attends final classes at George Mason
August 2018: Tala is reported missing. The search is called off when police learn she is with her sister in New York City.
October 17: Mother’s last known contact with the sisters, according to relatives
October 23: Mother receives call from Saudi Consulate ordering the family home because the girls have applied for political asylum
October 24: The girls bodies are found washed up in the Hudson River
These two sisters wanted to be free. They worked hard to stay alive – they lived in various shelters and had applied for asylum – fearing persecution for religious or political beliefs.
Drowned and duct taped sisters had been ordered back to Saudi Arabia
‘They were a happy family,’ says relative of Saudi sisters found dead in New York – then why did they keep running away?
The mother of the women told detectives that the day before their bodies were discovered, she received a phone call from the Saudi Arabian Embassy, the New York Post reported, citing police sources.
The Embassy reportedly told her that her family’s residency in the U.S. was in jeopardy because Rotana and Tala applied for immigration asylum.
The following day, their bodies were found in the Hudson River on the Upper West Side. The two were fully clothed, with no obvious signs of trauma, bound together by duct tape and...
