A Texas father accused of killing his two daughters in 2008 before going on the run for over a decade claimed on Monday that he did not kill his teen children, as he faces trial for their deaths with a behemoth of evidence against him.
Yaser Said, a 64-year-old man, claimed that his daughters were killed on New Year’s Day 2008 and that someone was following them while they drove. He claims to have gone down on Irving Transit Center and left his daughters at the car to fend for themselves, according to NBC News.
“I told them the car is yours. You do whatever you want since you know how to drive. I left the car for them,” he said.
His two daughters, 17-year-old Sarah and 18-year-old Amina, were later found dead outside of a Dallas hotel, shot multiple times. Said then claimed that he refused to bring himself forward to the police for more than a decade due to the media coverage that the case was getting, which he claimed focused on him being a Muslim man, the Daily Beast reported.
“I don’t think in the history of America there was a case that had the coverage that my case had,” he said.
The prosecution came out with many pieces of evidence from the killing that appears to contradict Said’s story, including a 911 call from Sarah before she died that directly points to her being killed by her father.
“My dad shot me! I’m dying! I’m dying,” she said.
“She’s asking for help and she names her killer, her father, Yaser Said,” prosecutor Lauren Black said.
Patricia Owens, the children’s mother and Said’s ex-wife, claims that at the time of the incident, she and her three kids left Said due to the abuse that they suffered under him, with the two daughters returning after Said declared them missing to the local police.
“He wanted me to go back to him and if I didn’t go back to him, he threatened to kill me and my family,” she said.
Police believe that Said practiced the cultural idea of “honor killing” to his two daughters, where he murdered them because he believed that they were bringing dishonor to the family for their more Westernized mindsets and because the two of them started dating. The boyfriends of the young girls at the time confirmed that the girls were more fearful of their father's potential reaction against them dating.
“Something would happen to me or something would happen to her,” Erik Panameno, Sarah’s boyfriend, said about why their relationship was a secret.
“Her look was in fear, she didn't look like she wanted to be there,” Amina’s boyfriend Edgar Ruiz said.
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