Owens told the News in 2011, two years after her divorce from Said became final, that he would often complain that the girls were becoming Westernized. He forbade them to date and kept tabs on them virtually at all times, often video- or audio-taping them without their knowledge. 2 men found drugged after leaving NYC gay bars were killed, medical examiner says. Speaking to reporters after the Mass, Malone would not discuss why Moreno was being moved out of St. Lawrence, saying the diocese does not discuss personnel matters. Amina Said showed up at Lewisville High School with welts on her body, a friend told the newspaper. in a factory fabricating water- and air-pressure hoses for aerospace companies. Their father, who was driving the taxi cab, immediately fled the scene and hasnt been seen since, according to Jihad Watch. A $100,000 reward has been offered. Several times, he physically and sexually molested his own daughters. Police identified "I'll come to you," I told her. On Jan. 2, 2008, I sat in the common room of All Saints hospital watching the local TV news, still in shock and trying to process the devastation of the day before. State District Judge Jan Krocker maintained a court schedule with specific breaks to accommodate his request to pray several times a day. His plan was to bring them back to Egypt, where they'd be forced into arranged marriages with older men, for a price. In the last However, he said combatting honor killings should be part of the broader fight to end violence against women. 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Sarah Said, 17, and Amina Said, 18, were found shot to death on New Year's Day 2008 in a taxi at an Irving motel. Times Syndication Service. In the last decade, there have been high-profile honor killings in Arizona, New York and Texas. Yaser's obsessive need to control his daughters went way beyond the usual overprotectiveness many parents feel toward their children. Weisenburger, a pastoral administrator at St. Lawrence Catholic Church, spoke candidly Sunday of the scene he encountered when he found Moreno dead of an apparent suicide inside the rectory. However, the media have not covered news on his personal details. Yaser Abdel killed his two daughters because he didnt need them to reside in line with their need. Joseph's mother, Ruth Trotter, learned about the abuse that Amina and Sarah were going through and. So what does Sabres GM Kevyn Adams do this week? Without revealing too much of what he saw, he mentioned a gun found by Moreno's side. If certain people who believe in honor killings feel that a daughter or a sister is becoming too Westernized, then the friends or individuals who support them are considered expendable and can be killed, said Creed, who faithfully attended a trial that is stretching into its eighth week. At the time of the molestation. He has ties in Egypt and Canada, and across the country in Texas, New York and Virginia. The Price of Honor, a new documentary about the lives and murders of Amina and Sarah Said, is screening soon in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and New York and at film festivals worldwide. But I wouldn't have cared if she had told him. Resolving not to talk about anything scary or difficult, we devoted the day purely to having fun. Spivey said his officers, the faces and names of whom have changed somewhat over the years, never gave up or lost faith that Yaser Said would be caught. 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Within hours of The film was discovered during the shooting of a documentary about the sisters murders in 2016. In fact, after all these years he might have moved on with his life and might be married as of now. However, he has no longer revealed his whereabouts as he barely appears in the public space. Amina was the strongest and bravest person I have ever met, and she refused to tell him my name. "She started telling me just little by little that it was more than him just being protective, it was more him being controlling and abusive,"Amina's boyfriend, Joseph Moreno, says. This man brutally murdered shot to death his two daughters in his taxi cab. Amina Said and her sister, Sarah Said (pronounced Saeed), were the focus of Forbidden: Dying For Love, a new crime documentary series that made its debut last night on Investigation Discovery (ID). gunfire erupted, authorities said. "They wanted Father Joe at the helm," Bauer said of the parish. In another snippet, he closes in on Amina Saids blue eyes. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. On Cortes' phone, detectives found a photo taken on the day after the murder with $500 in bills folded into the shape of a heart. Meanwhile, many people are inquisitive about Joseph Morenos current whereabouts. It was a trap. Their hearts weren't in it. As soon as we graduated, we promised we'd run away to Vegas, get married, and just split - get to somewhere safe and start a new life. Religion has nothing to do with it.. He mentioned specifically Moreno's time as a first responder during 9/1 1 and how the experience left him forever changed. #JusticeForAminaAndSarah pic.twitter.com/DX6XAHXHt3, Merhankeller (@merhankeller) August 27, 2020. According to our speculation, Joseph Moreno might be still in Texas. Though he was never officially the administrator there, he handled some administrative responsibilities and helped stabilize the church's finances, Pachla said. Amina and Sarah Said in an undated photo. Several members of St. Lawrence sent letters to the Diocese of Buffalo last week pleading for Moreno to remain at the church, on East Delavan Avenue near Eggert Road, and people who knew him said he was upset at having to leave. It was not clear why Owens is now contradicting her alleged statements to police immediately after her daughters killings. Knowing that staying at St. Lawrence was not an option open to him, he was in discussions with the diocese to become a hospital chaplain. However, her father found the notes that Amina had written to Moreno. It seemed like overkill at first, but then one night my phone buzzed with the agreed on code: 7. It was three or four times a week he would hit me or kick me or kick or I know the things that would set him off and I would have to not do those things. I received her first message a few minutes after we left class, and we ended up texting back and forth all that night - the beginning of our becoming girlfriend and boyfriend. "All his life, he administered to people. Amina walked in one afternoon in 2004 with her sister, Sarah, and brother, Islam, and I was smitten by her almost immediately. "I didn't see that coming at all," she said. Instead, he pulled over on the side of the road and gunned them down while they watched in horror. Celeb gist; People; Movie Zone; Comedy Skits; Sports; Crime; Health News; Covid - 19; Lifestyle; Business; TV&SHOWBIZ; Advertise Here; More. Malone described Moreno's death "like a punch in the stomach" and called it a "Good Friday" experience for people who knew and loved him. Two of Saids relatives have been arrested and charged with helping him to avoid capture. Forbidden: Dying For Love gives a compelling account of the sadness that Amina Saids boyfriend, Joseph, and his mother felt in the days and months after they were murdered. Joseph Moreno, also was killed in the morning shootout near a trailer park in Court records show that officers spent about an hour trying to find the injured teen, tracking the call to within a half-mile of her location. They dont look alive, the passerby told dispatchers, according to the AP. The footage shows Yaser Said recording his daughters as they lay in their beds. "Where are you?". Yaser punished Amina for smiling too much at the consumers as she had labored in a comfort store. Search Tools . Moreno, who was the sacramental minister at St. Lawrence, was to move temporarily to the rectory at St. Bernadette Parish in Orchard Park, and the Rev. I profiled Yasir on both AMW and In Pursuit on @DiscoveryID and glad to see him finally face justice. police said. Joseph Moreno She and other advocates noted that law enforcement needs to be more aware of the risk of honor violence when it comes to minors and especially runaways. must do everything we can to stand up for those who put their lives on the line Amina told him that these notes were to an imaginary boyfriend. She was the daughter of Egyptian-American former taxi driver Yaser Abdel Said. the shooting Friday, Rep. Nate Gentry, an Albuquerque Republican and the "I think we'll hear more and more of the legend that Father Joe is as the days go by," Malone said. "She overheard her dad talking to one of her uncles saying that soon she was going to become a memory," she recalled. I later found out he'd been abusive to the girls - both physically and sexually - since they were little. To raise awareness about the issue, and maybe find the father, filmmakers made the movie The Price of Honor to document the circumstances of the killings. Susana Martinez said in a The last time I saw Amina it was summer. Said was an innocent teen from the United States. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. #armystrong #nationalsecurity Joseph Moreno and U.S. Army Reserve Legal Command 2 19 Meanwhile, many people wonder where Joseph Moreno is at the current date. Yaser used to be indicted on capital murder fees, making him eligible for the loss of life penalty. Some sources were speculating it was an "honor killing," which Amina had chillingly predicted to me in private. / CBS/AP. According to the U.N. there are 5,000 such crimes each year around the world - a vast underestimate in the view of many international women's-rights groups, who believe it could be four times that. Help me, Im dying, the crying teen shouted in the call, obtained by Crime Watch Daily. the states congressional delegation issued statements in support of the fallen His wife, 40-year-old Shmou Ali Alrawabdeh, has agreed to plead guilty to kidnapping. We'd done it together, simply by falling in love. Several other members of the parish mentioned the pressure Moreno was feeling about his unwelcome impending transfer from his beloved church, although Weisenburger said that was but one of many things that weighed heavily on the priest's mind. Their father, Yaser Abdel Said, had not been heard from since and was considered a prime suspect. The instructor used to bust Amina's chops for not attacking aggressively enough. The flier says Said always wears dark sunglasses and frequents Denny's and IHOP restaurants. Their bodies were discovered in his abandoned taxi cab on the grounds of Irving's Omni Mandalay Hotel (now the Omni Las Colinas Hotel). People in line in front of us bailed at the last minute. Amina Said was a promising young Egyptian-American high school student living her life like any other American teen would. . Moreno was effective in getting donations for the church's food pantry when it ran low, and his connections with comedian Jay Leno and Yankees star Derek Jeter brought in donations sometimes used in fundraising, Bauer said. The centuries-old crime of honor killing, stretching back to ancient Rome and present in the Middle East and Latin America, is taking place in America at a rate of more than 20 a year, according to a recent U.S. Justice Department report. Womens advocacy groups put the number at closer to 20,000. These are not infrequent events that happen in some random part of the world. He saved lives, but he couldn't save himself.". Beavers brother said he believes there are more honor killings in the world and in the U.S. than statistics show. Claire Z. Cardona, Breaking News Producer. (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). My Teenage Sweetheart Was Killed To Preserve Her Family's 'Honor'. His son and his brother were captured in Euless, about 10 miles west of Irving, the FBI agent said. They both believed that what they had was genuine, that it was worth fighting for, and that it was worth dying for Amina. I'd later find out the gravity of this request. His capture and arrest bring us one step closer to justice for Amina and Sarah.. In December 2014, Said made the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. "He took his own life," Weisenburger told reporters. Irsan planted a gun on his body and escaped criminal charges by claiming self-defense before bragging to a neighbor he had gotten away with murder, testimony showed. legislative session, prior attacks on police - including the May and October Their father is the chief suspect. Malone acknowledged Moreno's death during a Mass at Our Lady of Victory Basilica that kicked off the church's "Year of Faith." To encourage him, church members told him that he would succeed at his next assignment. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Yaser all the time sought after her daughter to live consistent with his need. Yaser stored beating her to reveal Josephs identification, but she never did. Do I videotape you when youre sleeping?. What led us there was good old-fashioned, aggressive police work, DeSarno said. Follow the progress at @catchyasernow. One day, as we were taking off our shoes and socks and getting ready for class, she saw me slip my cellphone into my sneaker. every single day to protect us.. from the city of Alamogordo showed Moreno with dramatic facial tattoos, The FBI tracks hate crimes in America, but not alleged honor killings, according to Conner Hagen, a public information officer at the Houston office of the FBI. Claire joined The Dallas Morning News as an intern in 2012. Islam Yaser-Abdel . Patricia Owens told CBS 11 she still can't believe her own son, Islam Said, spent years helping his father hide from authorities for the murder of his sisters Amina and Sarah. "The investigation is still going on. This dirtbag has been on my list for a long time. Amina was 18 years old and was shot two times and Sarah was 17 years old as was shot nine times. I got my eye on you.". Yaser Said and his daughter, Amina, not long before he allegedly murdered her. Her mom apparently buckled under the pressure and tricked the girls into going back. In a planned vendetta of breathtaking scope, prosecutors said the husband and a close friend of Irsans daughter, Nesreen, were only the first two slated to die for helping her run away from her home in a rural Montgomery County compound and converting to Christianity. Said used to be a good-hearted adolescent from the United States. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Owens' relatives have said Said was prone to violence and that he believed Western society was corrupting his daughters' chastity. Some people believe Said is dead, others believe he could be hiding in plain sight in North Texas, perhaps being sheltered by someone. The news came ahead when Amina and Sarah were 18 and 17 and their father murdered them in cold blood inside his cab. In addition, hereportedlyused to abuse them physically and sexually. Shell casings were found in the cab with their bodies, and both sisters had been shot multiple times. Apparently he didn't buy the story. Amina Said was once eighteen years on the time of the incident on January 1, 2008, when her father shot her in his taxi cab in Irving, Texas, at the property of the Omni Mandalay Hotel. He just is probably in Texas. But they returned to Lewisville on New Year's Eve. Joseph Moreno On Jan. 2, 2008, I sat in the common room of All Saints Hospital watching the local TV news, still in shock and trying to process the devastation of the day before. July 6, 2022 by gordonofori Amina Said got murdered by her father because she was having an infatuation relationship with her then-boyfriend Joseph Moreno. Religion obviously will play into this in some fashion, as people will try to justify it in religious terms, he said. The girls ended up dead, the victims of alleged honor killings at the hands of their father. Search by Name Search . Amina's father Yaser left the scene as the girls were taking their last breaths, never to be seen again for the next 12 years. It was too soon, she said, refusing even to tell me what city they'd gone to. He was booked into the Dallas County Jail on capital murder charges in the deaths of Amina Yaser Said, 18, and 17-year-old Sarah Yaser Said. Afraid to speak out or protect her girls, Patricia, refused them of the help they needed, in order to survive their fathers wrath. The violence and threats of harm continued, according to friends of the sisters. statement. Aminas father, Yaser departed the murder scene as the girls breathed their last breaths, never to be seen again for the next 12 years. DeSarno said Wednesday that it was not a tip from the public that finally led agents to Saids location in Justin. Joseph Moreno was Amina Said's boyfriend when she was killed in an Honor Killing. slate of tough-on-crime legislation. The same jury is determining this week whether Irsan should face the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole for his crimes. Pachla recalled. Get the latest breaking news from North Texas and beyond. Very little information has been provided about the producers and writers of the show. There are many, many Muslims who are against it and it needs to be separated from Islam.. The code of honor runs so deeply in their DNA that it can be tough to raise children in the United States with such a different value system, Logan said. Its something else, Islam Said said, according to the News. Theyre happening in America and theyre on the rise.. The day of the shooting, Yaser Said picked up his estranged daughters to talk with them, their mother told police. Their story has been told many times, but few know of the love angle that ultimately led to the girls deaths for dating American boys and for not following their fathers strict, religious faith. A text of the number 7 meant that her father was planning to confiscate her phone and that no matter what texts I received after that, I should not reply. She stressed that Islam does not support honor killings, and while most happen in Muslim families, most Muslim families do not believe in honor killings. Amina's father Yaser departed the murder scene as the girls breathed their last breaths never to be seen again for the next 12 years. The job paid good money, $15 an hour, and I saved every penny for the trip and our future. He said honor killings in America are so infrequent that the crime does not need to be tracked as a separate category of domestic violence. "Oh, you have a phone?" Yaser Said Islam Said, from left, his father, Yaser Said, and Yaser Saids brother, Yassein Said, were arrested this week in connection with the 2008 killings of Yaser Saids two teen daughters in Irving, Texas. Islam Said has also in the past disputed the claims regarding his sisters deaths. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Brian Rogers covers Houston crime and courts. In 1998, his daughters accused him of sexually abusing them. Owens, then still married to Said, swore in an affidavit that the allegations were true, the newspaper said. He had apparently spent the evening driving around in his cab, texting her contacts at random, trying to prove she was deceiving him. The teens' Egyptian-born father, Yaser Abdel Said, fled and is still at large. "It shakes our faith. pronounced dead at the scene. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. They were two of the most awesome kids in the world, and they did not deserve what happened to them.. so very saddened to see that yet another courageous law enforcement officer has Crystal Bonvillian, Cox Media Group National Content Desk, Fugitive on FBIs 10 Most Wanted list captured after 12 years. It was in the hotel's parking lot that authorities found sisters Amina Said, 18, and Sarah Said, 17, shot dead in their father's cab on Jan. 1, 2008. Jill Biden takes her dogs for a walk on windy Rehoboth Beach on Father's Day. Furthermore, Amina Moreno, Joseph Morenos lover, was murdered by her own father, Yaser Abdel Said. With no possibility of getting hold of her, I imagined the worst. So, in this piece, well tell you all you need to know about Amina Saids lover Joseph. However, she managed to name 911 before she died. Both teens were dead when police arrived. Death is the only justice for him https://t.co/VbahQRSnC5, Jim Perry (@JimPerr28165665) December 11, 2021. I profiled Yasir on both AMW and In Pursuit on @DiscoveryID and glad to see him finally face justice.. I was 15 when Amina and I first met, at the Excel Academy of Tae Kwon Do in a strip mall in Bedford, Texas. Alamogordo, police said at a news conference. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Whether its one person or two persons or 10 persons, they are going to do what they are going to do.. One of the most notorious cases involved the deaths of teenage sisters Amina and Sarah Said near Dallas in 2008. This is illegal, Amina Said says in a portion of the footage. "Just a lot of pressure on him." In one clip, Amina is playing with a gun. pursuit, a carjacking and the shooting of a bystander whose car Hanes stole, She grew up in New Orleans and graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin. It made for a pretty tame matchup. Learn about careers at Cox Media Group. Authorities said he is survived by his parents, 2016 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. The murder of Amina Said and Sarah Said have been considered honor killings. A documentary about the killings titled The Price of Honor was released in 2016. FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive Yaser Abdel Said, a capital murder suspect wanted in connection with the homicide of his two teenage daughters, has been captured.