Yaser Abdel Said

Yaser Abdel Said
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
Charges	Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution Capital Murder - Multiple
Reward	$100,000
Alias	Yaser Abdel Fattah Mohammad Said, Yaser Abdel Saeed
Description
Born	(1957-01-27) January 27, 1957 Sinai, Egypt
Nationality	Egyptian
Race	Arab
Gender	Male
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Weight	180 lb (82 kg)
Occupation	Taxi driver
Spouse	Patricia Owens
Children	Amina Said, Sarah Said, Islam Said
Status
Added	December 4, 2014
Number	504
Currently A Top Ten Fugitive

Yaser Abdel Said (born January 27, 1957) is a fugitive on the FBI Ten Most Wanted List. An Egyptian resident of the United States, he is wanted for the murder of his two teenage daughters in Irving, Texas.^[1][2]

Said, a Muslim who is reported to have been very controlling of his daughters, is believed to have felt that his daughters, Amina, 18, and Sarah, 17, had dishonored the family by their refusal to adhere to conservative traditional Islamic behavior. On January 1, 2008, he lured them into his taxicab on the pretence of taking them out to eat, and shot them in the cab.^[3] Said has evaded police capture, and remains at large.^[4]

Family

Yaser Said married Patricia "Tissie" Owens in February 1987; he was 30 and she was 15.^[5] Patricia had later alleged that Yaser had abused her during their marriage.^[6] Amina was born in 1989, whilst Sarah was born in 1990.^[7][8]

Abuse of Amina and Sarah

In October 1998, at ages 9 and 8, following a trip to a relatives, Amina and Sarah told their grandmother that Yaser had molested them. They later recanted their story and the family returned with Yaser. However, the girls confessed to a few friends that the abuse continued. "He treats me like a whore," Sarah wrote in an instant message conversation to a friend. On several occasions, Amina appeared at school with bruises, and at one point, had a split lip. Amina informed her friends the wounds were inflicted by her father, and her mother refused to allow her to seek medical attention.^[9]

Yaser would often spy on his daughters, often by video or audio-taping them without their knowledge.^[10][11] Amina stated she was afraid of using the public telephone "because he [Yaser] gets in everywhere, he knows everything".^[12][13] She also reportedly wrote in emails that her father intended to kill her.^[3] When she was 16, Yaser took Sarah to Egypt, allegedly to arrange a marriage to a much older friend of his, but Sarah rejected the marriage. After returning from Egypt, Sarah got an after-school job working in a convenience store. Yaser soon video-taped her at work and punished her for smiling too much at the customers.^[14]

Amina began dating a boy who she met through Taekwondo classes. When Yaser was out of the country, she felt anxious about meeting her boyfriend, imagining Yaser would be watching her with binoculars.^[10] Amina advised her boyfriend not to call or text if she sent a codeword to him, because Yaser would go through her phone. Soon after, Yaser found a note she has written to her boyfriend, which she said was to an imaginary boyfriend, leading to him searching her notebooks.

Yaser moved his family 60 miles (97 km) to a new house in Lewisville, Texas,^[10] which soon allowed Amina to make plans to run away with her boyfriend and get married in Vegas and start a new life. Her boyfriend had then quit high school to earn money working, so that he could save up to help her leave. Her boyfriend had also stated: "[Yaser] regularly threatened to kill Amina, and she knew he meant it."^[10] Amina was worried that her boyfriend would be killed by her father, and refused to tell her father his name while she was beaten, following Yaser's persistent accusations.

Death of Amina and Sarah

In December, after Christmas Day,^[10] Amina and Sarah ran away with their mother, Patricia, to Attica, Kansas to their great aunt's home. Patricia had then allegedly told her daughters that December 31 was her mother's death anniversary and that she wanted to drive to East Texas to put flowers on her grave, later telling them they will return to Yaser. Sarah reluctantly went, while Amina refused. Patricia drove to Amina's friend's house and pounded on the door, starting an argument with Amina. Patricia stood unmoved in the doorway, saying her father had forgiven her and would like the girls to return home.

On January 1, 2008, Yaser took Amina and Sarah to his taxi cab, telling them he was taking them out to eat. Patricia had wanted to come along, but Yaser had told her that he wanted to talk to the girls alone. He drove them both to Irving, where he shot both girls to death in the taxi cab. Sarah managed to call 911 before she died, stating "Help, my dad shot me! I'm dying, I'm dying!".^[15] Yaser's taxi was soon discovered by another cab driver outside a hotel.^[16]

Aftermath

Following the murders, Yaser vanished, although there is no record of him flying to Egypt. The FBI believes Yaser may now be driving a cab in New York City.^[17] A cab driver reported he may have seen Yaser driving a cab in Newark Airport.^[18] On December 4, 2014, Yaser was added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, with $100,000 reward with any information leading to the arrest of Yaser.^[19]

References