Two sisters were discovered dead in a flat in Sydney’s south-west under’suspicious’ circumstances after fleeing Saudi Arabia as adolescents.
Officers doing a welfare check discovered the ladies, aged 23 and 24, in separate beds of their first-floor Canterbury flat on June 7 after they failed to pay rent for four weeks and mail began to pile up outside their door.
The sisters’ remains had been there for ‘some time’ and had ‘no visible evidence of harm,’ according to police.
Despite the lack of evidence of forced entry, investigators are treating their deaths as suspicious, and the Homicide Squad is investigating.
According to the Daily Mail Australia, the brothers escaped Saudi Arabia without their families in 2017, when they were 18 and 19, and NSW Police are now trying to locate them.
The women had been working with a refugee service for five years, assisting foreign nationals fleeing persecution and seeking asylum.
Police were still awaiting autopsy findings on Friday, and they had yet to locate and contact the women’s families in the Middle East in order to properly identify the dead.
According to Daily Mail Australia sources, the sisters were not in frequent communication with their families back home.
In January 2019, the elder sister obtained an AVO against a 28-year-old guy, according to the Daily Mail Australia.
Later, the AVO was withdrawn and dismissed.
On May 13 of this year, the owner of their Canterbury apartment filed a legal complaint against the 23-year-old.
Before taking further action to have tenants removed from the home, landlords can issue legal warning warnings via the civil court for outstanding rent.
That action was initiated four weeks after sheriff’s officers and police officers went to the flat to serve the ladies with an eviction notice and discovered the terrible discovery.
During the weeks leading up to the sisters’ discovery, it’s unclear what attempts were taken by the real estate business Property Investors Alliance (PIA), which was handling the lease, to contact the sister.
Despite their horrific history, the women were said to be kind to their neighbors.
The women began arriving in 2020, right before the Covid outbreak, and were regulars until two months ago, when they stopped passing by, according to staff at a neighboring service station.
The couple, one brunette and the other bleached blonde, were described as ‘silent’ but’very pleasant,’ and they indicated they would only react to queries.
The sisters came to the shop for beverages throughout the day, but only seemed to fill up their black BMW coupe with gas at night, according to one female employee.
‘One girl would come in and get iced coffee and V [energy drink] every now and again.’ One female attendant added, ‘It happens two or three times a day.’
‘I never served her sister, but I would see them together going down the street.’ I was horrified and perplexed when I learned what had happened to them.
‘She was quite pleasant. She smiled every time she came in and I spoke with her. She never had a sorrowful expression on her face.’
If the women were seeking refuge in Australia, the Department of Home Affairs would not acknowledge it.
A spokeswoman stated, “The agency does not comment on particular instances.”
The Saudi Consulate General in Australia has also been asked for comment by the Daily Mail Australia.
According to a 2019 investigation by Four Corners, over 80 Saudi Arabian women have attempted to seek refuge in Australia in recent years.
Many of them were escaping Saudi Arabia’s male guardianship rules, which empower their spouses, fathers, siblings, uncles, and sons to manage their lives, according to the research.
The sisters’ motivations for leaving their nation are unknown, and the Daily Mail Australia reports that it was not because of guardianship regulations.
The fresh discoveries come after the Daily Mail Australia reported that the ladies had been subjected to two earlier welfare checks, one of which was conducted by police, in the months preceding up to their discovery.
‘It’s stunning and terrifying,’ one neighbor claimed.
‘Now I have to decide whether or not I want to stay here or relocate.’ I have no idea what occurred. ‘No one has informed us.’
Burwood Police Station or Crime Stoppers are urging anyone with information that might help detectives to contact them.