Fugitive: Yaser Said

Yaser Abdel Said (Arabic: ياسر عبد السيد‎; born January 27, 1957) is a fugitive on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List.  An Egyptian resident of the United States, he is wanted for the murder of his two teenage daughters in Irving, Texas.  Said, who was very controlling over his family, was believed to have felt that his daughters Amina and Sarah dishonored the family by refusing to adhere to the traditional standards of Islamic cultural behavior. On January 1, 2008, he lured them into his taxi cab on the pretense of taking them out to eat, and fatally shot them in the cab.  Said has escaped police capture, and remains at large.

Family

Yaser married Patricia "Tissie" Owens in February 1987 when he was 30 and she was 15.  Patricia later alleged that Yaser abused her during their marriage.  Amina was born in 1989, and Sarah was born in 1990.  They also had a son named Islam Said born in 1988, and Yaser also had another daughter with another woman born in 1987.

Abuse of Amina and Sarah

The girls told family and friends that their father had physically and sexually abused them. Sarah wrote "he treats me like a whore" in an instant message conversation to a friend. On several occasions, Amina appeared at school with bruises, and had a split lip as well at one point. Amina told her friends that the wounds were inflicted by her father, and her mother did not allow her to seek medical attention.

Yaser would often spy on his daughters by video or audio-taping them without their knowledge.  Amina stated she was afraid of using the public telephone "because he [Yaser] gets in everywhere, he knows everything".  She also reportedly wrote in emails that her father intended to kill her.  When she was 16, Yaser took Amina to Egypt to allegedly arrange a marriage for her to a much older friend of his, but Amina rejected the marriage. Sarah got an after-school job working in a convenience store. Yaser began video-taping her at work and punished her for smiling too much at the customers.

Amina began dating a boy named Joseph Moreno who she met while taking Taekwondo classes. When Yaser was out of the country, she felt anxious about meeting Moreno, imagining that Yaser would be watching her with binoculars.  Amina told Moreno not to call or text her if she sent a codeword to him because she was afraid that Yaser would go through her phone. Eventually, Yaser found a note that she had written to Moreno. Amina told him that these notes were to an imaginary boyfriend. Yaser, not trusting Amina, continued his search in order to uncover Amina's relationship.

Yaser moved his family 20 miles (32 km) to a new house in Lewisville, Texas, prompting Amina to make plans to run away with Moreno, get married in Las Vegas, and start a new life. Moreno then dropped out of high school in order to earn money, so that he could save up enough money in order to help her leave. Moreno had also stated: "[Yaser] regularly threatened to kill Amina, and she knew he meant it."  Amina was worried that Moreno would be killed by her father, and she refused to give her father his name while she was beaten, following Yaser's persistent accusations.

Murders of Amina and Sarah

After Christmas, Amina and Sarah ran away with their mother Patricia to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Amina's boyfriend had relatives. Patricia had allegedly told her daughters that December 31 was her mother's death anniversary and that she wanted to drive to East Texas to put flowers on her grave, later telling them they would return to Yaser. Sarah reluctantly went, while Amina refused. Patricia drove to Amina's friend's house and pounded on the door, starting an argument with Amina to try and convince her to return to Yaser. Amina still refused to go. Patricia insisted and stood unmoved in the doorway, saying that her father had forgiven her and would like the girls to return home. On January 1, 2008, Yaser took Amina and Sarah to his taxi cab, kissed them, and told them he was taking them out to eat. Patricia initially wanted to come along, but Yaser told her that he wanted to talk to the girls himself. He drove them both to Irving, where he shot both girls to death in the taxi cab. Amina died instantly, while Sarah managed to call 911 before she died, screaming "Help, my dad shot me! I'm dying, I'm dying!".  Yaser's taxi was soon discovered by another cab driver outside a hotel.

Aftermath

Following the murders, Yaser disappeared, although there is no record of him flying to Egypt. The FBI believes that Yaser may now be driving a cab in New York City.  A cab driver reported that he may have seen Yaser driving a cab in Newark Airport.  Some people have also allegedly seen Yaser in New York City driving a light colored or champagne colored older Mercedes and working as a cab driver in 2014 and the FBI was informed of this.  On December 4, 2014, Yaser was added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list with a $100,000 reward with any information leading to the arrest of Yaser.