According to CBS DFW, jury selection will soon start in the trial of a Texas taxi driver charged with the “honor murders” of his two teenage daughters in 2008.
In August 2020, Yaser Abdel Said was captured in Justin, 36 miles northwest of Dallas, after 12 years on the lam. He was one of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted at the time.
Islam and Yassein, Said’s brother and son, were taken into custody in Euless, Texas. Both of them are currently doing time in federal prison after being accused of sheltering a wanted criminal.
Since the deadly shootings of Sarah Yaser Said, 17, and Amina Yaser Said, 18, on New Year’s Day 2008, the Egyptian-born suspect has been wanted on a capital murder warrant.
According to a police report at the time, a family member informed detectives that the suspect had threatened Sarah with “bodily harm” because she had gone out with a non-Muslim. In the week before her kids’ murders, Patricia Said, the mother, escaped with them out of “extreme dread for her life.” The sisters’ great-aunt, Gail Gattrell, has referred to the deaths as “honor killings,” in which a woman is killed by a family member in order to preserve the honor of the family.
The adolescent girls were discovered in a taxi outside a hotel in Irving, a suburb of Dallas, with several gunshot wounds. One of the girls contacted 911 on a telephone and reported that she was dying, which led to police locating them.
“Help,” said a crying voice on the 911 recording, later determined by police to be that of Sarah Said. “I’m dying. Oh my God. Stop it.”
Following the report at 7:33 p.m., police were unable to locate the youngsters right away. The tape of Sarah’s conversation was mostly incomprehensible, and the dispatcher repeatedly asked her for an address without receiving a response.
A hotel in Irving made another contact to the emergency dispatcher almost an hour later. One of the sisters’ bodies was in the front passenger seat of the taxi, while the other was in the rear. The caller reported seeing blood.
The caller, whose identity was removed from the tape, stated, “They don’t appear alive.”