Yaser Abdel Said on FBI’s 10 most wanted list over 2008 ‘honor killings’ of 2 teen daughters arrested in Texas
A 63-year-old taxi driver from the Dallas area, who was wanted by the FBI for the suspected honor killings of his two teenage daughters, was caught and arrested on Wednesday, August 26, in a small town in North Texas. Yaser Abdel Said was arrested by FBI SWAT team members without any incident in Justin, which is 36 miles northwest of Dallas.
Authorities were hunting Said on a capital murder warrant ever since the New Year's Day 2008 fatal shootings of the two Lewisville High School students. The students were reportedly Said's two teenage daughters,17-year-old Sarah Yaser Said and 18-year-old Amina Yaser Said. The FBI, on Thursday, August 27, also announced the arrests of Said's two sons, 32-year-old Islam Said, and his 59-year-old brother Yassim Said. The pair reportedly face charges of harboring a fugitive.
A family member, according to a police report in 2008, had told investigators at the time that the Egypt-born suspect had threatened "bodily harm" against Sarah for going on a date with a non-Muslim. The teenager's mother, Patricia Said, had reportedly fled with her daughters post the threat to Oklahoma because she was in "great fear for her life." After the teenagers' murders, their great-aunt, Gail Gattrell, had called their deaths "honor killing," where a relative murders a family member to protect their family's honor.
It is believed that Said thought his two daughters had brought shame on his family by dating someone outside of their faith and eventually decided to kill them. Many people, post the killing, described Said as an overly protective parent who used to exercise a lot of control over the teens.
Said, on January 1, 2008, reportedly persuaded his estranged daughters to visit him, saying he was going to take them to get something to eat, according to a press release by the FBI. The father, instead, allegedly drove them to a remote location in a cab and allegedly killed them using a handgun. The bodies of the teens were found riddled with multiple shot wounds in Said's abandoned taxicab outside the Omni Hotel in Irving. Authorities reportedly found them after one of the teens called 911 from a cellphone, saying she was dying. According to a 911 recording, a crying voice — which was later determined to be of Sarah — said: "Help. I'm dying. Oh my God. Stop it."
Sarah, however, could not provide an address during the call, making it difficult for police to immediately find the girls post the 7:33 pm call. Nearly an hour later, an emergency dispatcher received another call from an Irving motel, saying he could see blood coming out of a cab. The sisters' bodies were found in the vehicle, one in the front passenger seat and the other in the back. The caller said: "They don't look alive." Autopsy reports later determined that Amina was shot in the chest twice while Sarah was shot nine times.
The sisters' tragic story was the subject of an award-winning documentary in 2014 titled 'The Price of Honor'. Ruth Totter, the mother of Amina's boyfriend, in the documentary, said: "Amina always knew that Yaser was going to murder her, it was just a question of when and where."