Saudi sisters found dead in Hudson River
Police suspect suicide pact, say bodies were duct-taped at the feet and waist
The Saudi Consulate in New York said it was monitoring with local authorities details of the case of two Saudi sisters whose bodies were found in the Hudson River last week.
The two bodies were found on Wednesday afternoon fully clothed and bound together with duct tape at the feet and waist facing each other, floating just offshore near Riverside Park.
A passer-by spotted the bodies and called the police.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) said that officers dispatched to the area “discovered two unidentified females unconscious and unresponsive with no obvious signs of trauma,” Saudi daily Arab News reported
The Farea sisters, Rotana, 22, and Tala, 16, were identified ■ by their mother on Friday from a sketch supplied by the police.
They had lived in the Red Sea city of Jeddah in western Saudi Arabia before they moved to the US to live with their mother in Fairfax, Virginia.
Family rejects reports
According to a posting on the website of the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, Tala had been reported missing since August 24.
However, the alert was cancelled following reports that Tala was visiting her sister Rotana in New York. Both women lost contact with their mother.
Police officers suggested the two sisters jumped off the George Washington Bridge in a suicide pact before their bodies washed up 100 blocks down river.
However, the family have rejected the claims and are awaiting the medical examiner’s findings.
The sisters’ father has reportedly arrived in New York.