SOLVED NY - Tala Farea, 16, Rotana Farea, 22, Hudson River, 24 Oct 2018- COD released: suicide/drowning

[bears10]

I can't work out the living arrangements. When they arrived in the US in 2015, Rotana would have been aged 19, Tala 13, and I'm guessing the brother was somewhere in-between. How did she manage to go to college in NY and travel back to Va. where she lived with others? Maybe the apartment was in NY and she only went home on weekends and holidays.

I don’t think she ever went to school in NY. I think that was incorrect reporting.

 

[JudgeJudi]

The logistics of putting two people who are taped together into the water, leaves me believing that there had to be evidence left at the scene. Who has that kind of cunning, determination and strength?

Two people dumping the bodies at night close to where they were found. It looks like there's a pathway leading to the water or very close to it.



They were into fashion, but not very active on social media, communicating with relatives back in Saudi only via Snapchat.

The family were said to be financially well off.

The Fareas wanted to send their children, including sons aged 18 and 11, to better schools with father Abdulsalam, returning frequently to Saudi Arabia for his job.

Tala had a full-year scholarship from one of Jeddah’s most prestigious schools, Dar Al-Fikr.

Rotana had recently moved to New York, where she was studying computer and information technology at college.

A Saudi family member told arabnews.com the sisters were “happy and supported” and that the girls could not have committed suicide. The relative described the girls as humble, shy, gifted at school, calm and polite.

On August 24, Wala’a Farea reported Tala as missing to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Saudi sisters duct taped in ‘macabre cross’ on Hudson River bank

 

[JudgeJudi]

I believe it would have been absolutely impossible for them to commit suicide by jumping off that bridge. They had duct tape around their waists and ankles and were facing each other.

There’s now a new tool intended to prevent suicides from the bridge, an 11-foot-high fence connected to netting that forms a canopy over the pathway beyond the traffic lanes. Until now, the only barrier along the pathway was a barricade-high railing.

The officers who monitor cameras trained on the pathway can dispatch other officers, even a fully equipped emergency unit, if they see someone who arouses their suspicions.

The chain-link fence is too tall to scale quickly, and getting around the canopy would require unusual strength and agility.

There is no pedestrian walkway on the lower level, only a maintenance catwalk and a barricade-height railing.



At George Washington Bridge, a Fence Rises to Deter Suicides

 

[JudgeJudi]

Investigators believe the girls were alive when they went into the water. The only apparent injury is from landing on the rocks at the shore.

The medical examiner’s office was investigating the cause of death. The lack of obvious trauma appeared to rule out a theory they jumped into the river from the George Washington Bridge.

How Did Sisters Fleeing Saudi Arabia End Up Bound And Dead In The Hudson River?

This is really distressing news. Those poor girls.

 

[JudgeJudi]

This is a high profile case and it’s getting international attention. As it’s now been a week since the girls were found, I’m sure the ME would have prioritised the post mortems. I suspect he’s waiting on the toxicology results before releasing his findings.

 

[Cherry]

I would like to know if these lovely girls were able to swim? And, if not; who knew this?

 

[TTF14]

I think there is *zero* chance this was a double suicide. And I don't think it will ever be solved.

I really appreciate your perspective in this thread and think you are 100% spot on.

I'd like to think the US would "care" more about getting justice for these girls and less about politics.

In your opinion, is it more likely that someone close/known to the girls did this or that someone was hired to do it?

ETA: I wonder about their mom's feelings about life for women in SA. Was she hoping her daughters would have a freer and better life here?

 

[Stragnet]

Suicide. IMO. The sisters had run away in Dec. 2017, returned to a shelter (with or without their mother??). Day before they were found deceased, their mother, who appears to not have been with them, called them (spoke with them) and told them that she was ordered by Saudi Consulate to return home to Saudi Arabia. The sisters did not want to return, and we know this from their asylum request.

News reports tell us that the sisters were alive when they went into the water, so the cause of death will be found to be drowning.

Taped themselves together at the waist and feet to prevent being able to get out of water alive.

 

[JudgeJudi]

I don’t think she ever went to school in NY. I think that was incorrect reporting.

I'm not so sure it's incorrect. Rotana had been a student at George Mason University and left in the spring.

NYPD Chief of Chief of Detectives said police have interviewed members of the sisters’ immediate family in Virginia and other people who knew them. He said the interviews are "unraveling" the girls' lives. He said they have made “significant progress” in the investigation.

Sources tell WABC that police now have a better idea of where the sisters entered the water and how long they were in the river.

NYPD investigates in Virginia after Saudi sisters’ bodies wash up on Hudson River shore

 

[Stragnet]

I would not put any credence into any statements released by the Saudi government or even Saudi `friends' of the family (`friends' will have to tow the government party line):
Saudi sisters found dead in US 'did not seek asylum'

Note that the Saudi government refutes the fact that the sisters ran away previously and were reported to be missing for two months, among other things.

 

[JudgeJudi]

Suicide. IMO.

News reports tell us that the sisters were alive when they went into the water, so the cause of death will be found to be drowning.

Taped themselves together at the waist and feet to prevent being able to get out of water alive.

They were facing each other and their ankles were taped together. How could they walk from the shore into the water? If they were on the bridge, how could they climb an 11' high fence?

 

[JudgeJudi]

I would not put any credence into any statements released by the Saudi government or even Saudi `friends' of the family (`friends' will have to tow the government party line):
Saudi sisters found dead in US 'did not seek asylum'

Note that the Saudi government refutes the fact that the sisters ran away previously and were reported to be missing for two months, among other things.

I'm inclined to believe what relatives say, but even that has to be treated with caution. I don't trust the Saudis at all. They have so much leverage over the family members back home, as we now know.

 

[Stragnet]

https://eapps.courts.state.va.us/gd...8661&clientSearchCounter=13&localFipsCode=059
https://eapps.courts.state.va.us/gd...2181&clientSearchCounter=13&localFipsCode=059

Appears that the family was evicted from two different apartments (2016 & 2017). Financial issues? Not sure how this would relate to the daughters' disappearance.

 

[Stragnet]

They were facing each other and their ankles were taped together. How could they walk from the shore into the water? If they were on the bridge, how could they climb an 11' high fence?

Could possibly be other avenues to access the water.
Look at the timing of their deaths (day after being told by mother that the Saudi gov't ordered the familys' return to SA), they died after going into the water, and their bodies have no apparent trauma.

 

[Shlock Homes]

If it was a suicide, then the duct tape roll, and the scissors to cut them, should be found on the shore, or the tape roll should have still been attached to them. But I'm assuming they were duct taped together in another location and brought to the water and dropped in, which is why I don't buy the suicide theory.

 

[flowers In the dustbin]

"If it was a suicide" begs the question; it was a suicide - a double suicide. #rip

 

[JudgeJudi]

The girls’ mother told detectives that she hadn’t seen her daughters since December 2017, when she reported them missing to the police in Fairfax. Virginia police found them soon after, but rather than return home they went to live in a local shelter, with police refusing to disclose its location to her. The nature of the shelter or the reason for their stay wasn’t immediately clear.

Tala was reported missing again by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in August, but unnamed family members reported that the mother called off the search when it was discovered the teen was visiting her older sister at an unspecified college in New York.

Attempts to reach the sisters’ parents Tuesday were unsuccessful.

https://nypost.com/2018/10/30/sisters-found-dead-duct-taped-together-had-applied-for-asylum/

 

[JudgeJudi]

Rotana was specializing in computer and information technology at college and recently moved to New York, where she changed schools and her major.

Tala was reported missing when she went to see Rotana in New York this summer without her mother’s knowledge, the family member explained. “Tala was upset for quite some time after her sister decided to continue her studies in NYC. Yes, it did cause a problem for the family as the mother had to file a missing case report to the police over her daughter’s disappearance, but the search was called off later when they found Tala was with her sister, Rotana”.

‘They were a happy family,’ says relative of Saudi sisters found dead in New York

 

[theteardropexplodes]

Anything new about where cops think they went into the Hudson? TIA.

 

[OneEye]

I can't work out the living arrangements. When they arrived in the US in 2015, Rotana would have been aged 19, Tala 13, and I'm guessing the brother was somewhere in-between. How did she manage to go to college in NY and travel back to Va. where she lived with others? Maybe the apartment was in NY and she only went home on weekends and holidays.

The article I believe is correct is that the older sister attended George Mason University and was studying engineering. This university has a longstanding relationship with KSA for education of its youth. For some reason the older sister left George Mason for NYC but it was unclear if she were studying in NYC. The early report by NYPD said the girls were living in a shelter in NYC but I haven't heard anything further about the shelter arrangements since the inital report.