Saudi sisters spoke of killing themselves rather than return home, NYPD says

The two sisters from Saudi Arabia who were found bound together and dead in the Hudson River last month were overheard by witnesses saying they would rather kill themselves than return to their native country, NYPD officials disclosed.

Tala Farea, 16, and her sister Rotana, 23, were found on the afternoon of Oct. 24 on rocks by the Hudson River near 68th Street and Riverside Park. Both were loosely bound together with duct tape around their ankles and waist, police said.

At a special briefing for the news media Friday, NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said although the medical examiner had not determined an official cause and manner of death, there was no credible information that the pair were crime victims. It also appeared that the sisters entered the water alive, Shea said.

Detectives have found witnesses who told them the Farea sisters, allegedly the victims of abuse in their family home in Virginia, said that ”they would rather inflict harm on themselves, commit suicide, than return to Saudi Arabia,” Shea said. The abuse allegations involved the sisters' mother, brother and father, Shea added.

The family could not be immediately reached for comment Friday.

Police said the sisters' mother told investigators her daughters had applied for asylum in the United States and the Saudi government had then ordered the family, which had been in the country from two to three years, to return home. Shea said the sisters' asylum claim was grounded in the alleged abuse.

Shea also said a Manhattan fitness buff told detectives about a "haunting” scene he observed on the early morning of Oct. 24. He said he had seen the two sisters seated about 30 feet apart on the riverbank around 163rd Street with their head in their hands.  The pair were “making noises loudly that he described as praying,” Shea said.

In retracing the steps of the Farea sisters when they arrived in New York City from their home in Virginia around Sept. 1, Shea said they used credit cards to pay for high end hotel stays in the “Hilton, Knickerbocker and Hyatt.” The sisters were eating well and seemed to be in good health, according to surveillance videos and other evidence, Shea said.

 “The credit card money started to run out, that is what we believed happened,” Shea said about the sisters' final days.

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.comtonynewsday

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.