The "Honor" Killings of Amina and Sarah Said

In January 2008, sisters Amina Said and Sarah Said believed they were heading out for a family dinner with their father. But the invitation would prove to be something far more sinister. As the sisters struggled to balance their dreams of independence with the strict expectations placed upon them at home, they found themselves caught in a situation they could never have anticipated. In this episode, we unravel a heartbreaking story of fear, control, betrayal, and a years-long search for justice that would captivate the nation.

Recipe of the Week: Salmon with Lemon Vinegarette 

Killer Ingredient: Cauliflower

Documentary Recommendation: The Price of Honor

For case and recipe submission contact: recipeformurderpod@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, true crumb foodies, welcome to Recipe for Murder. Hi guys, and welcome to a brand new episode of Recipe for Murder, where True Crime Meets the Kitchen with me, your host, Laura Michelle. If this is your first time here, thank you so much for joining me. And if you're coming back, thank you so much for your support. I really appreciate it. Um, for the people that are new here in this podcast, I have combined my absolute obsession with food and my passion for true crime. We are going to do a deep dive into a case, and then we're gonna start with a little food news before and then end with a palette cleanser to help lighten the mood just a little bit. The case I have for you this week is one that has stuck with me for quite some time. I want to say the first time I heard it was probably 10-ish years ago, and then it made um headlines again, you know, five or six years ago. But it's one that has haunted me since the first time I heard it, and it probably will for the rest of my life. Um, before we get into that though, we are gonna go to what I call foodie news, where I introduce a recipe, and then I will tell you my killer ingredient of the week. Today, the recipe that I want to introduce you to, it's kind of two, and it's all about salmon. Now, I have always liked salmon, but I have not loved salmon, and that changed about a year ago when I learned of a recipe by Bobby Flay, which basically cooks salmon any way you want it, and it's really all about the vinaigrette that just brings this dish to life. It is equal parts, lemon juice, and olive oil with a spoonful of capers. Shake it up, add it to your salmon, and it is phenomenal. The next one, still playing on the salmon, we always have more than we need, and you know, we can eat it just as it is, but I'm always looking for different ways to repurpose leftovers. So I was looking up different ways to use the salmon, and I came across a salad which sounds pretty simple, but this is a French salad. I might pronounce it wrong, I apologize, but it's salad neçoise, which is usually made with tuna. But basically, it is your choice of greens. I had romaine. The other ingredients are boiled eggs, preferably jammy boiled eggs, if you like them for this salad. Blanched green beans, olives, I use calamata, tomatoes, cucumbers. Really, it's whatever veggies you have on hand. Put on this salad, top it with your leftover salmon, use the dressing if you still have some from the night before. If not, make some more. I cannot wait to have this dish again. It was so good. The flavors worked so well together. If you have not had it, I highly, highly, highly recommend it. It is so good. I'm sure the um dressing is good on other proteins. I don't know, but this is my favorite. And moving on to my killer ingredient of the week, something that became really popular about 10 years ago, but I think it's kind of disappeared from um what it once was. But I want to bring that back, and that is cauliflower. Cauliflower is so versatile, you can use it just as it is, raw or roast it. But there are so many other substitutes that you can replace with cauliflower, and it's truly, truly it's so good. You can use it for wings, you can use it as a substitute for mashed potatoes, you can just do roasted cauliflower steaks with balsamic vinegar. It is so good. You can use it for taco filling, a soup, make mac and cheese. You can do a pizza crust. Actually, buy the store-bought pizza crust. I think it'll be really um probably not that easy to make yourself. And I will tell you, if you had a cauliflower crust 10 years ago, they were awful, but they have improved dramatically since then. So now the cauliflower is really, really good. Um Parmesan, you can do a potato salad. It's just one of those vegetables that you can use so many different ways. If you have not picked one up in a while, do yourself a favor, look up some recipes. I can link some of my favorites and buy some cauliflower and just go bananas. It'll be fun. Okay, so that is our foodie news. Now we are going to move to why we are really here, and this is this week's case. What if your father invited you to dinner, saying he just wanted to talk? What if he promised he wanted to make things better? And what if, despite years of fear and control, you decided to give him one last chance? Well, that's what happened in this case. On New Year's Day, 2008, two teenage sisters climbed into their father's taxi believing they were going to dinner. They didn't want to go. Eighteen-year-old Amina and her 17-year-old sister Sarah had spent years living in fear of their father, Yasir Said. At the time, every conversation with him felt like walking through a minefield. Every day at home was controlled by his rules, his anger, and his obsession with obedience. But he told them he simply wanted to talk and work things out. Neither girl believed him, but in their household, refusing their father was not an option. So they got into the taxi, Amina sat in the front passenger seat, and Sarah in the back. Neither sister knew that they were not going to dinner that night. In fact, there were never plans to take them to dinner. This was a lie, a trap. Before the night was over, both girls would be dead. This is the story of Amina and Sarah Saeed. To most people, they looked like ordinary teenagers. They laughed with friends, took photos, dreamed about college, talked about boys, and imagined what their futures might look like. But behind closed doors, life was very different. Their father controlled nearly every aspect of their existence. Anger ruled their household, and fear was woven into daily life. But before we talk about what happened to Amina and Sarah, we need to talk about the world that they were born into because this story didn't begin on New Year's Day in 2008. It began decades earlier with a man named Yasir Saeed. Yesir was born in Egypt in 1957. He was the oldest child in the family, and by all accounts, he grew up in a culture where authority and obedience were deeply valued. In 1983, he immigrated to the United States on a student visa, eventually settling in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Life in America didn't immediately bring him success. He worked various jobs before becoming a taxi driver. It was there that he met a teenage girl named Patricia Owens. Now, Patricia was only 15 years old and Yasir was 29. And even more disturbing, Patricia had actually previously dated Yasir's brother, Yassin, when she was just 14. Patricia's childhood was difficult, her family struggled financially, and life at home wasn't always stable. So when Yasir entered the picture and began talking about marriage, some members of her family just kind of viewed this as an opportunity for security. Yasir presented himself as successful, financially stable, which wasn't true, but by the time anyone realized that, the wedding had already happened. In 1987, 15-year-old Patricia was forced to marry a man nearly twice her age. Almost immediately after the marriage, Yasir applied her his green card, leading many to believe that's the reason he was pushing to get married. At first, Patricia believed that she found someone who cared for her, but that illusion did not last long because within months, Yasir's true personality emerged. He became controlling, then possessive, and then abusive. He criticized Patricia constantly. He isolated her from her friends and family. He mocked her lifestyle and her American upbringing, and every decision she made required his approval. Over time, Yasir established strict rules that governed every aspect of her life. First and foremost, obedience. Patricia was expected to always comply with Yasir's commands without question. Disobedience or even hesitation would trigger verbal or physical abuse. She had zero independence. She was not allowed to socialize freely, make her own decisions, or challenge him. He kept her isolated and monitored every movement. She was expected to dress in the way he wanted, act the way he wanted, and remain loyal to him above everyone else, including her own family. According to her accounts, Yasir verbally and physically assaulted her all the time. What makes the story even more unsettling up to this point is that Yasir reportedly had a history of violence before he even came to the United States. According to reports discussed by family members and investigators, Yasir was involved in a deadly incident in Egypt after a dispute with a coworker. Allegedly, he sat in his car and waited for his co-worker to come out. And when the co-worker came out, Yasir pressed the gas and ran over his co-worker with his car multiple times, ultimately killing him. But despite the severity of the allegations, he walked away a free man. Through family influence or money, Yasir never served jail time despite murdering someone. And for those that knew him at that time, said that this was kind of a precursor for what he was capable of. The Sayyid family grew quickly. They had their first son, Islam, in 1988, followed by Amina and Sarah in 1989 and 1990. Like Patricia, the kids had strict rules. Islam being a boy, he did not have to comply with his rules. This was very specific to just the females in this culture. To the outsiders, they appeared to be a very ordinary family, but inside the home, things were much different. The rules that controlled Patricia's life were now being forced on the girls. The rules for Amina and Sarah are as follows no dating or boyfriends. Yasir strictly forbade Amina and Sarah from having boyfriends. He monitored their interactions closely and punished them if he even suspected that they were interested in boys. One, the restricted clothing. Pretty much the same as their mom. They had to dress very, very conservative and modest. He limited their friendships. The girls did have friends in school, but they really weren't allowed to spend too much time with friends outside of school because he was afraid of them becoming too American. Those girls were under constant surveillance. Yesir frequently recorded his daughters with a video camera, not even telling them. He would literally just kind of hide in the shadows, filming them, which is just really creepy and gross. He would interrogate them often, asking if they had any boyfriends or if they've done anything dishonorable, which really made them very uncomfortable. And like their mom, they were expected to be obedient without question. Yasir claimed that his rules were to protect the family honor, and they were told that their behavior was a direct reflection on him and his reputation. Yesir demanded that Patricia also enforce these rules on the girls, and if she kind of allowed them any type of freedom that he would disapprove of, he would verbally and or physically abuse her. Patricia later stated that Yasir would kick her and hit her, and he would intentionally throw things on the floor just so she would have to go around and pick it up. He also controlled when and how they had sex. She said she was never allowed to say no. She claimed that she did say no to him only once, and he cut her leg to teach her a lesson. What the fuck? And guess what? This is not gonna surprise anybody, but he was not faithful to Patricia. While she had zero freedom outside of her house, Yasir, according to Patricia, had at least six affairs that she knows of. He is an absolute piece of shit human, and we have not even gotten into this case. He's just a horrible, horrible person. So now you guys have an understanding of what home life was like for Patricia, Amina, and Sarah. When the two girls were just eight and nine years old, they were staying with their grandparents, and Amina told them that her father had touched her inappropriately. Fortunately, Patricia took this very serious and drove them to a children's hospital for an exam. And she actually left Yesir and called Child Protective Services, also known as CPS, and she stayed at her mother's house after that incident. She had actually signed an affidavit detailing the allegations, and Amina and Sarah were interviewed by CPS, and they gave the accounts of the sexual abuse that they were claiming lasted over two years. They said that they were afraid of their father and their uncles. They described them as mean and abusive. Yasir was questioned by police and became extremely angry with Patricia. He began calling her mother's house every 30 minutes and she asked him to stop, but that just fueled his rage. He then, of course, started making threats, and so eventually it got to be so bad they just unplugged the phone, but that did not help because that triggered Yasir to drive to the house. He was actually outside yelling, making more threats. Patricia and her parents called the police, resulting in his arrest for retaliation and outstanding tickets, but not for stalking and threatening his wife and family. Later, Amina and Sarah dropped the charges against him, and they said that they lied because they didn't want to live with their parents anymore, that they wanted to live with their grandmother, but that is not true. The girls were pressured by their mom to drop the case. And I'm assuming that Yasir was making really bad threats to Patricia, and out of fear of what could happen to her, the girls, she convinced them to lie. And keep in mind she's also a victim of abuse. So I don't, I don't completely excuse it, but I am just playing devil's advocate here. And just letting you guys know, Patricia in this entire case is something that I kind of go back and forth with. I struggle with some of the decisions that she you'll see that she makes that may have not been the best decision. Shortly after staying at Patricia's parents' house, Amina wrote a letter to her Aunt Connie talking about the abuse, and she actually told Connie that her mom is the one that asked them to lie to keep their dad out of jail. She stated that she did not want to go back and begged her aunt to help them from going back. Now, Connie hid the letter in a closet and assumed it was safe, but it wasn't. Connie thinks that one of the girls may have told her about the letter and Patricia found it and took it. Now, Patricia claims to know nothing about this letter, pretends that it doesn't exist, she didn't take it, she just does not know. Now, at some point in the previous timeline, assuming when the girls were much younger, Connie reported that their younger sister would go to Yasir and Patricia's house to help with the girls. But this arrangement did not last long because, of course, Yasir started sexually abusing her when she was alone with her, meaning the the younger sister of Connie and Patricia. And Connie said that they didn't tell Patricia immediately, and they just thought removing their younger sister from the situation would just resolve all the issues, but it didn't. Clearly, they were wrong. Anybody who was in this man's life at any moment was at risk of being assaulted, abused, or just some violence against them in some way or form. After the case with CPS was dropped, they moved back in with Yasir in Islam, and of course, nothing changed. Once again, they were subject to his control and his abuse. And now it's reported that after this whole incident, they moved to Maryland for a few months just to kind of wait for everything to calm down in Texas before going back. Soon after arriving back in Texas, sometime around 2000, when Amina was 10 or 11 years old, Yasir took the family on a trip to Egypt. But this was not a vacation, not even close. This was likely Yasir scoping out future marriage opportunities for his daughters. He was a firm believer in arranged marriages, and both girls knew that he planned to marry them off one day, and this absolutely terrified them. The arranged marriage was not just about cultural beliefs. There was another incentive, which is not going to surprise you. It is money, of course. He viewed them as his property. There is what is called, quote unquote, a bride price, and he planned on selling them to older men in Egypt and getting a pretty hefty sum of money in return. Basically, his daughters would go to the highest bidder. And one of the reasons that he was so strict on them when it came to boys is because their interaction with American boys would quote taint them. And he wouldn't get as much money for them if they had any kind of interaction with boys. And I just think that is so gross. The mindset of these girls being property and selling them to an older man for money, it just makes my brain want to explode. Now, around 15 or 16, Amina was allowed to join a taekwondo class, which would really set this case into motion. There, she met a boy named Joseph Trotter. A relationship was formed almost immediately and they exchanged numbers. Soon after, Amina was sneaking phone calls, of course, whispering while she talked to Joseph. She was doing everything she could to keep the relationship a secret. She had to, because once again, even the thought of dating was absolutely forbidden. But no matter how strict the rules became, Yasir could not stop something entirely normal from happening. Amina fell in love. As the time passed, Amina began telling Joseph what her life was really like, and he so badly wanted to get her out of there. She told Joseph again and again that if her father discovered they were dating, that he would kill her. She also confided in his mom, Ruth, and they both knew that she was in a really bad place. By 17, she and Joseph were talking about getting married when Amina was 18 and out of the house. They talked about going to Vegas, getting married, and just starting a life far away from Yasir. Joseph later stated that he had full intention of getting her out of that house, and his mom was in full support and she was doing anything she could to help. Now, around this time, Sarah also began secretly dating a boy named Ben. Despite having a monster of a father, both girls remained positive. They focused on their schoolwork and their friends and their secret boyfriends. They looked forward to college one day and just thought about how great their lives were going to be when they were out of that house. Amina wanted to go to Texas Tech to become a doctor. Sarah also wanted to become a doctor one day. And both of them were so smart and would have grown into amazing women had they been given the chance. Sadly, life only continued to get harder the older they got. Both girls suffered so much abuse from their dad. I'm not even calling him dad, from their father. But Amina was the main target of his abuse, and it's probably because she was the oldest, meaning she was, you know, obviously the closest to leaving the home. And so he really, really targeted her. Yesir's suspicions of his daughters dishonoring him by dating boys was becoming obsessive. He constantly filmed them with that video recorder I mentioned earlier and would make inappropriate comments about them while zooming in on certain parts of their body. You can use your imagination. He would ask over and over if they had a boyfriend. And in the videos, it's really obvious that they are so uncomfortable. He tormented those girls. And his obsession with recording them, especially Amina, is so fucking creepy. He would film her at work. There's a video of him, you know, sitting in his car. I'm assuming he's sitting in his car, and he's kind of zooming in. You could kind of see her at the register, and it's kind of not a super clear shot. She was a cashier and she had to be nice to the customers as expected. But he would record her and say things like, Why is she smiling at the customers? And I'm going to play you a clip of this. It's a little bit hard to hear, but in the video clip that I'm going to play, Patricia is her talking to. So she, I don't want to say she's like involved, but she's at least along for the ride because she does defend Amina and saying, like, hey, it's it's her job to be nice. Now I know that was really hard to hear, but his first thing he was saying, um, she can't see us from inside, can she? And then he's like zooming in, looking at her, and like mentions that she's smiling at customers, and that's what Patricia is saying. Well she has to, it's her job. By late 2007, Yasir called Amina writing a letter to Joseph. The context of the letter was clear that this was likely to a boyfriend, and he snatched the letter and demanded to know who it was to. Letters were their thing. She was so afraid of being caught that she decided the only safe form of communication were letters. Phone calls were now too risky. She was afraid to talk to him in the car because she convinced herself that the car was bugged, and it probably was. So the way they would communicate was through the Taekwondo classes, exchanging letters. Amina thought very quickly and she lied and said that the letter was made up. She said that it wasn't to anyone real, more like if in a perfect world where she could have friends or a boyfriend, it would be to that person. But of course, Yasir did not believe her. That very next day, Yassira moved them all 20 miles away to Louisville, Texas. And he didn't allow anybody to let anybody know that they were moving. So Joseph just woke up one day and Amina was gone. And he started freaking out. He knew all about her home life. So he had no idea what happened. He didn't know if she had been sent back to Egypt, if maybe he found out about him, or if she was really badly abused and couldn't go to school or taekwondo or anything. He had no idea. Now, Amina, she was smart. She thought of a way to reach out to Joseph and his family, and that was through her taekwondo instructor. She emailed him to let him know what was going on and where she was, and she asked him to tell Joseph. So the taekwondo instructor um did not reach out to Joseph directly. He reached out to Joseph's father, read the email to him, and just asked what they should do with the information, and they um passed the email on to Ruth. And Ruth said that she was thrilled that she was okay and still in the US, but absolutely terrified of what was gonna happen to her. And she didn't tell Joseph about the email right away, but she did respond to Amina as soon as she got it. Because Amina told Ruth that Yasir was really pushing to find out who this Joseph was and where he lived because Yasir was going to kill him, and Amina knew that he was serious. But Amina, because she's so in love with Joseph and wants to protect him, she refused to tell her dad who this Joseph was. So, of course, once again, not a surprise. Um, Yesir, he beat her. He kicked her in the face and in the stomach. He kicked her so badly that her braces were like stuck in her lips, just embedded in there. By the way, Patricia denies all of this. She claims that he was never abusive to the kids, only her. However, it is reported that Patricia was on her way to the hospital with Amina after the attack, but one of Yasir's brothers called her and convinced her to go back home. So, if he didn't abuse the kids, then Patricia, why were you taking Amina to the hospital? So at 17 years old, while still in Louisville, Yasir took Amina back to Egypt to have her marry a 40-something-year-old man, but she refused. Fortunately, the forced marriage did not go through, and Amina returned to Texas. Now, I have no idea what happened and how she was even allowed to refuse because he controlled everything. Maybe, maybe he agreed because he wasn't gonna get as much money as he wanted. I have no idea. But she was terribly shaken, obviously. And Amina told people that she feared that one day her father might send her back to Egypt against her will. And truly, I mean, she's only not even one year away from being 18. So if he's gonna sell her, he has to do it before she's 18. Otherwise, she has the freedom to walk away from that house and never go back. And that's absolutely what she would have done. At this point, Amina and Ruth are still in frequent contact via email, but poor Joseph still doesn't know anything. And Amina begged Ruth to let her talk to Joseph, and Ruth finally agreed. And no judgment to Ruth, her son's life is being threatened at this moment, so she's just trying to protect him. So I'm sure she really battled with allowing him to talk to Amina, but also it's just it's really, really messy. But now that they were connected again, they begin writing each other and they pick back up right where they left off, super in love and just longing to be together. But once again, they had to be really, really careful not to get caught. Yesir continued his manic threats, and by now there were so many guns in that Saeed house. Yesir had been collecting them for years, and at one point, Amina made a statement that next time he leaves one of his guns out, that she should just use it for what it's intended for, meaning she should take her own life. She was extremely suicidal during this time. She could no longer take the abuse or the fear of being sold to the highest bidder, or the fear of being killed. Their time in Louisville, I mean their time just their whole lives, but specifically this time in Louisville was absolute torment for those girls because Yesir at this point, his suspicions were very, very suspicions anymore. He had a little bit of proof that Amina might have a boyfriend, and he was losing it. He was spiraling and his abuse intensified, and the threats of killing them became more frequent. And both girls continue to tell their friends that they are terrified of their father. So their friends, and at one point, even a teacher at the school got wind of this, and I'm not sure if the teacher did anything at this point. Um maybe she didn't have proof, but the girls were letting people know that my dad is threatening to kill us. This was something that their circle of people were very, very aware of. By the end of 2007, the fear inside the Saeed house had reached a breaking point. For years, Patricia, Amina, and Sarah had endured Yasir's control and abuse, the rules, the intimidation, the threats, the constant fear of saying the wrong thing. But after Yasir discovered Amina's relationship with Joseph, the situation became more dangerous than ever. Amina wasn't just afraid. She knew that her life was in danger. And she wasn't the only one. Family members of Patricia had watched Yasir's behaviors escalate and they heard the threats. They witnessed the control. Some of them truly believed that if the girls remained in that home, something terrible was going to happen. So they came up with a plan. They would leave. And in December of 2007, Patricia, Amina, and Sarah packed their belongings and they fled. For the first time in years, the girls felt something they hadn't experienced in a very long time. Relief. They were away from their father. They were away from the abuse, the surveillance, the threats. They could actually breathe. Now their destination was to Now their destination was originally Tulsa, Oklahoma, where relatives agreed to help hide them. After leaving their house, they knew that Yasir could track their phones, and so they removed the SIM card and broke them and basically just threw the phone away. Once they got to their first destination, which was Kansas, they got a new phone. And as expected, when Yasir realized that the girls and his wife had left them, he lost his shit. He began reaching out to family members trying to see if anybody had heard from them. He and his slam both filed missing persons reports for the three of them. And I'm not exactly sure how Patricia found out that there was a missing persons report for them. I'm assuming maybe a family member communicated, but she did actually reach out to law enforcement to let them know, hey, we're not missing. We are just safe. For several weeks, this plan appeared to be working. But what no one knew is that Patricia had been in touch with Yasir this whole time. She would find a reason to leave the house, like running an errand, and she would secretly call Yasir. And when she was doing that, um, she would also call and check her voicemails from her phone that they had broken up. The people that um aren't familiar with this time period, you could actually call your phone from a different phone number and you could check your voicemails. So when she would get the voicemails, she had several voicemails from Yasir and Islam, her son, but she also had voicemails from Yasir's brothers. Uh, and they were the brothers were not mean. They were actually, hey, he's gonna change. They were just being very um comforting and providing support and letting her know, like, if you just come home, this is what he's gonna do. He's not gonna hurt anybody. He just wants to get his family back together. So now she's hearing this from his brothers, she's calling him, and eventually, I guess after enough pressure, she started to think, okay, maybe things will be okay. And she did find herself caught between these really two different worlds where one side she knew that her daughters desperately wanted to be away from their father, and on the other side, this is a man that she's been married to for 20 years, and not only had she, you know, been married to him for that long, but she was really afraid of him. So I don't know if it was the fear or it was just the the hopeful, you know, whatever. But she made a decision that she was going to take those girls back to Yasir. Her family begged her not to. Her sister Connie, her um, I believe it was her aunt Jill, everybody familiar with the situation, they begged her not to take those girls back to their father. They warned her, this is a trick. If you take them back, something awful is going to happen. I personally, I think deep down Patricia knew that too. But I feel like she didn't know what else to do. They probably couldn't hide forever. It's only a matter of time before Yesir finds them. I don't know. But she made the decision to take them back and she actually lied to them. She told them that they needed to go back to Texas, but it wasn't to go back to their dad. She said they need to go back to Texas to take care of something. Um, she said that they were gonna go stay with Connie, you know, Patricia's sister, and they were going to take grave or take grave, take flowers to their grandmother's grave. They were gonna ring in the new year with Connie, and don't worry, we are not going back to your dad. That was all a lie. Connie had no idea that she was even part of this lie. It was actually on the way back to Texas, and by the way, Amina and Sarah, they still didn't want to go. It did not matter what their mom said, they did not want to go, but um Patricia eventually wore them down. So it was not until they were on their way back to Texas that Patricia broke the news that, oh, by the way, actually we are going back to your dad. And Amina freaked the fuck out. And I would have to if I were her. So of course she's panicking. And Patricia said, It's okay, you don't have to go stay with your dad. You can stay with your friend. So Amina had a friend named Eddie, and that's where she was gonna stay. Now, I actually want to circle back really quick to them leaving. I didn't mention it earlier, but this was not Patricia's plan. Patricia was actually not part of the original plan to leave. Amina and Sarah went to their mom and they said, We're leaving and there's nothing you can do about it, basically. Uh and Patricia knew they were serious. So Patricia decided to join them. Now, once again, my opinion, I think that Patricia only chose to join them because um she still had that connection to Yasir, and if she's with the girls, she could still help control the situation a little bit. She knew if the girls go out on their own, then they're never coming back home. So I really think that Patricia's motivation, I don't think it was to truly help the girls escape. I think it was just to kind of help maintain that control. Once again, Patricia was an abuse victim. It's just really something that I struggle with. So they get back to Texas. Um, Patricia and Sarah go back to Yesir, and Amina goes to Eddie's. Once in the safety of Eddie's house, Amina, who was absolutely terrified and angry, she called her aunt Connie to ask Connie if she knew this was the plan, and Connie didn't. Once again, Connie had no idea that she was being used as part of this lie, but Connie urged her to file a restraining order and to stay as far away from her dad as possible. But I mean, this was New Year's Eve and she's only 17 years old, so I seriously doubt she even had time to file a restraining order. I'm gonna go ahead and tell you that the stories of what happens next, they do not align. The next day, January 1st, 2008, New Year's Day, Amina wakes up to several missed calls from Patricia and then a text from Sarah asking her to call their mom. And reluctantly, Amina does, and immediately Patricia starts begging her to come home, but Amina refuses. She stated that she would rather die than come home, but Patricia did not stop. She was relentless. She called her over and over and over, and Amina repeatedly said, No, my dad will kill me. I'm gonna play you a clip. This is Jill, Patricia's um aunt.

SPEAKER_05 36:33

Her mother, Patricia, she was gonna go on. Patricia kept the all day. Amina kept telling her no, because her dad was gonna kill her. She didn't want to go home. She would rather die first.

SPEAKER_00 36:48

Eventually, Patricia drove over to Eddie's to speak to Amina face to face, and she finally wore her down and convinced her that going back to Yesir was the right thing to do. And Joseph, he begged her not to go, but Amina defeated, told him that she loved him and stated, I have to do what I have to do. And Patricia then began rushing her, saying we don't have much time forcing her to hurry up and get her stuff together so they can get out of there. Here's um here's Joseph.

SPEAKER_06 37:18

And I remember telling her no.

SPEAKER_00 37:42

And there are a lot of witnesses to these accounts. Eddie, Eddie's mom, Connie, Joseph, in addition to call records that show Patricia obsessively calling her. Now, Patricia's recollection of that day 100% does not align. She claims that Amina called her and asked her to pick her up because she had school the next day and needed her stuff. I think that Patricia just does not want to take responsibility for her role. Once again, abused victim. No telling what Yasir was threatening her with, but I struggle. So this is just really quickly: this is Patricia saying what happened that day.

SPEAKER_07 38:24

Amina called for me to come pick her up on the next day or the day after they were going back to school. So she wanted to get her school stuff ready.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

After wearing Amina down, they drove back to Yasir, and it is late afternoon, early evening around this time. Um I don't know the exact time, but soon after arriving, Yasir told Amina and Sarah that he wanted to take them out to dinner to talk, and they did not want to go. But Yasir demanded that they get in his taxi, and they very reluctantly did. Amina in the front, Sarah in the back. Patricia asked if she could join, and Yasir told her no. He then drove away, leaving Louisville, and he headed to Irving, Texas. And it really just crushes me to think about that car ride. They were so scared, they knew that they were in so much trouble, and they had no idea where they were going, and just minutes must have felt like hours. I hate this man. So around 7 30 that night, Yasir pulled into an omni mandala hotel. He pulled out his gun and he shot Amina two times point blank, killing her almost immediately. He then turned the gun on Sarah and shot her nine times. And she did not die instantly. She scrambled to get her phone and called 911. And this call haunts me. It will never leave my brain. I'm gonna play it for you. I'm letting you know right now it is really hard to hear. You hear her saying that my dad shot me, you hear her say I'm dying. The dispatchers are a little bit confused. Listen with caution or skip forward approximately a minute. So if you chose to listen to that, you can hear obviously Sarah saying that she's dying. And when he asked what's going on, she's like, I'm dying, that's what's up. Um, she can't give any details about where she is. She more than likely doesn't even know where she is, but she's probably not even thinking about that at that point. Um, it's just really, really awful. And the dispatchers, they were confused. They didn't know exactly what was happening, they didn't know where she was, but um, I have a little more audio that's a little bit hard to hear, and this is just the dispatchers um still trying to figure out what's going on. After Sarah made that 911 call, the call was um, or the the phone was what's the right word I'm looking for? There were a 12-minute time lapse between making the 911 call and the phone finally disconnecting. I do want to tell you that during this time, Yasir was still in the car and he was moving it into a very like specific parking area, so it's not just a random car somewhere. Once again, I know that was really hard to hear anything. You can hear a little bit of Sarah still moaning and crying in the back. Um the dispatcher saying, Hello, hello. They are using GPS data to try and figure out where the girls are. Um, during this 911 call, you can hear the dispatcher say that they could hear a car door either open or close. I can't remember. And that was more than likely once Yesir parked the taxi. That was him getting out and closing the door and fleeing wherever he chose to go. Soon after, someone noticed the girls in the taxi. I'm not sure if it was the doorman or somebody who reported it to the doorman, but the doorman went to the manager and they walked out to the car and they saw Amina slumped over in the front and Sarah in the back. Blood and bullet holes filled the taxi, and they called 911 to report it. I do have a clip of that 911 call.

SPEAKER_10 44:04

Um but the two people. One of the people um one of the people.

SPEAKER_05 44:31

I understand that was kind of offered amount.

SPEAKER_10 44:39

Okay, thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 44:42

Now after that nine one one call, the dispatcher had the exact location and were able to get police and you know medical services there. Of course, it was too late. Both girls were dead upon arrival, and they quickly were able to identify that the taxi belonged to Yasir, and they um identified the girls and made their way to Patricia to let her know. The news spread quickly around the community. Law enforcement informed the family, and the news outlets obviously were covering this. They heard that two deceased bodies were found at the hotel in a taxi, obviously registered to Yasir Said. So even before the identities were publicly released, those that knew Amina and Sarah knew that it was them. Ruth saw it on the news and woke up Joseph to tell him, and he was absolutely crushed. Ruth later said that that was the hardest thing she'd ever had to do. Joseph was actually later taken to the hospital at some point to help with his grief and his mental health. I have a clip of Joseph just talking about what that was like for him.

SPEAKER_06 45:48

It was the day that I was supposed to return to work from Christmas break. And I was asleep in my bed, and my mother came into my room and she was just bawling, just and she woke me up and she was like, I have to tell you something horrible.

SPEAKER_08 46:06

And I told him that Amina, the author had shot and killed Amina and Sarah.

SPEAKER_06 46:12

Of course I didn't believe it. And she told me that it was all over the news.

SPEAKER_08 46:18

And I remember him sitting up and he thought he got a fist and he slammed it into the the wooden headboard that on his bed. And our hill started. Telling him what happened to Amina was probably one of the worst days of my life. How do you tell your child that the love of his life is no more?

SPEAKER_00 46:51

Once the identities were confirmed and the 911 call was released, the news spread like wildfire. It was being covered everywhere, eventually making its way outside the community into national news.

SPEAKER_04 47:18

Those words, oh my god, I'm dying. They are Amina and Terrest Daid. They were both shot over and over and left to die outside Irving, Texas in a hotel on New Year's Day. Dr. Abdul Said, a taxi driver accused murdering his two daughters last night and leaving their bodies in his cab at an Irving hotel.

SPEAKER_00 47:44

Patricia's family were absolutely devastated. They were in shock. They were horrified. They could not understand how she allowed those girls to go back into that house. The day after the murders, the police issued a warrant for Yasir's arrest, and that same day, the police went to Patricia's home and told her they needed to search it. Weirdly, they let her walk through it first, and she took a box of tapes and the computer. I still cannot wrap my head around why they would allow her to do that. If someone walks out of their house that has an active search warrant, and this person is carrying a box of VHS tapes, if I'm the investigator or the person responsible for searching the house, I'm gonna want to know what's on that tape. You're not taking that, and you're not taking your hard drive. I just I don't understand. So now both the state and the FBI are investigated in the case, and publicly they are now claiming that they believe that this is an honor killing, which is what the family was saying all along. And by the way, I'm talking about Patricia's family. This is murder. Okay, so now Yesir is on the run. The police are trying to find him, but in the meantime, life for the rest of the family does go on, and they move on to bury Amina and Sarah. So let's talk about the funeral. They had both Christian and Muslim services, and at the funeral, friends and family of the girls said that you could feel the tension between the two families. Patricia's side were just emotional, devastated. I mean, they were just wrecks. And um Yasir's side, they were just kind of cold. Both girls had open caskets and they were both wearing pink and had roses in their hair. And there's a documentary called The Price of Honor, which is where I got a lot of this information. And there is video footage of parts of this, and you can see them, and they're just they're both so beautiful, and it's just you can just you can see how devastated this community is or was over this, still is. Joseph attended the funeral and he sat close to Amina. He sat in the second row, which is as close as he could get. Now, Islam was um sitting right in front of him, and when he turned around and realized that Joseph was there, he lost it and he started screaming at Joseph that you did this. And Joseph was forced to leave the funeral by Yasir's family. And he's also, when I say he, I mean Islam, is reported to have grabbed the microphone and yelled that Yasir didn't kill his sisters and that they deserve to die. And basically what he was saying is that the reason those girls were killed was because of Joseph. Had he not been in the picture, had Amina not dated him, they would still be alive, so this is his fault. And Islam, you have to understand their culture and the way he was being brought up by his father and their uncles. He was very, very loyal to them. Um Patricia chose to have them buried in a Muslim cemetery. And at the graveside service, um, Islam and the rest of Usir's family, they were not emotional. Once again, they were just very, very cold. Her family was really, really upset that she chose the Muslim cemetery rather than an American cemetery. I have no experience with uh Muslim cemeteries, but they were saying in this case, in their opinion, what they experienced is that it was very dark, there were no flowers, and to them, it just looked like a construction site rather than a cemetery, and they were so, so devastated that they were leaving the girls there. Now, it's also reported that Yasuri Saeed, another one of um Yasir's brother, maybe a relative, but I think a brother, he told Patricia that had those been his daughters, the bodies would have never been found. And side note, Yasuri also had daughters, but they had already been taken to Egypt to be sold as wives. The day after the funeral, Patricia and Islam moved in with Moshin Saeed, another one of Yasir's relatives. And his last contact with Yasir was the day of the murder, literally right after the murders. So apparently they met in person at their usual place to talk. I'm thinking that Mos Motion, I might be saying that name wrong, was his getaway car. Now, the night of the murder, there is an outgoing call from Yasir's phone to Yassim, which is his brother, which lasted about 12 minutes. They also found a record of Patricia calling Yasir after the murders. So I have no idea if he told her what he had just done or if she did not find out until the police showed up at her door. But more phone records show that Yasir and Yassim spoke for over 14 hours the week leading up to the murder, meaning they were probably planning it. So now the funeral is done and the hunt for Yasir is on. The authorities believed that the brothers were helping him. One brother owned a transportation company and another owned um well another So now the funeral is over and the hunt for Yasir is on. Authorities believed that the brothers were helping him. One brother at the time owned a transportation company and another was a communications engineer. And the Saeed family, they were not cooperating. Some of them actually moved away and the others just refused to talk. Now, several tips came in that Yassin and Islam were hiding Yasir at Yassin's home, but this is where the police really dropped the ball. They weren't following up on a lot of the tips that came in. And eventually, on December 4th, 2014, Yasir ended up on the FBI's 10 most wanted list, and that's seven years after the murder. A reward for $100,000 was also offered for information leading up to his arrest. In August 2017, a maintenance worker in Bedford, Texas reported seeing Yasir inside an apartment leased to his son Islam. The FBI did set up surveillance and they confirmed that there was suspicious activity, but sadly they did not act like really fast and Yasir escaped the apartment before Islam. Now sadly, Islam and possibly Yasir escaped the apartment before the FBI had a chance to move in. But they did gather evidence such as cigarette butts, um, toothbrushes, and eyeglasses, and using DNA, they were able to prove that Yasir had been in that apartment. Now it's 2018. The FBI increased pressure on the Saeed family, still they're not cooperating. Agents believe Yasir was being shuffled between family safe houses in North Texas. The FBI intensified surveillance and informant work. Once again, they are too late and Yasir is on the move. Again. Between August 25th and 26th, 2020, so we're actually in the pandemic now, after days of surveillance on a house in Justin, Texas, agents observed Islam and Yassin making food deliveries to someone inside. This time, they wasted no time, thankfully. The FBI SWAT team raided the home and found Yasir inside. They arrested him and took him in. Islam and Yassin were arrested as well, charged federally with harboring a fugitive. On April 27, 2021, Islam Said, Yasir's son, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conceal a person from arrest, and he was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. On June 4th, 2021, Yassin Saeed, Yasir's brother, was convicted of harboring a fugitive and he received a 12-year federal prison sentence. Now, the trial of Yasir Saeed lasted from August 2nd through the 9th of 2022. He was tried in Dallas County for capital murder. The prosecution had plenty of evidence. One were Amina's and Sarah's own warnings that their dad would kill them. They had the eyewitnesses to the abuse, the 911 call where Sarah was saying her dad shot her. Um so they had a very strong case. Now it did not take long for the jury to find him guilty, and he was sentenced to life without parole. By the way, he claimed that he was innocent. He was saying that he did not kill those girls, and he is still saying that to this day. We'll touch on that in just a minute. He appealed his conviction, but he was denied. Today, Yusia remains in custody at the McConnell unit, and he will be in there for the rest of his miserable life. So now let's take a moment to talk about Amina and Sarah. Friends remembered Amina as serious but goofy. She was confident but also down to earth, and she stood up for what she believed in. They said she was a tomboy and she wasn't into dressing up or following fashion trends. They said she preferred jeans, casual clothes, and sneakers. She was interested in sports in school and she had big goals to become a doctor one day. She loved her writing and journaling. She loved her animals and she was deeply compassionate. She loved, loved Joseph with all her heart. And she had so many plans and dreams to be married to him one day and just had a great life that should have been hers. And she was also known for being very protective of Sarah. And now, Sarah, Sarah was said to be a little more bubbly and outgoing than her older sister. They also said that they were a really good match at balancing each other out. Like Amina, Sarah was a tomboy, even more so. She was also playful and casual and easygoing. She loved sports. She loved hanging out with her friends. She loved music and dancing, and she too had big dreams of going into medicine, possibly pediatrics. Amina and Sarah were best friends. They were the only ones who truly knew what life was like inside that home. The fear, the abuse, and the control. They carried that secret together, and they deserved so much more than what they were given. And now when Yesir pulled the trigger that night, he didn't just end the lives of his daughters, he stole their futures. Yesir killed to bring honor to his family, but it backfired on him. He is not honored, he is shamed. We honor Amina and Sarah. And that is the case. Once again, like I said, I heard this case 10 years ago. It has stuck with me forever. Um and it will. It is just so tragic. I highly recommend the documentary. I will link it in the show notes. Also, going back to what I said about Yasir maintains his innocence. A couple years ago, he gave an interview where he's telling his side of the story. Not a surprise to you guys. He's claiming that he was innocent. Long story short, he's saying that they were being chased and he got out of the car and somebody shot the girls. I'm not sure if that's 100% what he's saying, but that's um what I'm gathering. I have not been able to force myself to watch this yet because I know he's a piece of shit human and I know he murdered his daughters. So I kind of don't want to give him that space in my brain to even hear his side. Uh but I'm gonna force myself to do it, and I will do maybe a little mini episode to give you guys a recap of what he is saying, but probably will not be anytime soon because I need to remove him from my brain and just continue to speak about this this case and about honor killings and keep their names in the headline. People need to know their story, they need to know that these honor killings are still happening. Um, so let's just honor them. Let's just figure out how we can prevent this from happening to another young woman. It's just awful. Okay. I'm going to do a palette cleanser because I have to lighten the mood somehow. Once again, my palette cleansers are always food, food related. Fun fact. Could be another recipe, could be a question. Tonight we have another question because I caught myself doing this earlier this week. Do you have an item that you buy almost every time you go to the grocery store? Even though you already have it. I have one, and that is pasta sauce. And I just did it recently with Alfredo sauce. Marinara and Alfredo, those are pantry staples. My kids love it. Um, and pastas are always really easy, you know, weeknight meals, and it's something I always want to have on hand. Now, I am really good at keeping a running grocery list. I have my grocery store list and then my Costco list. So when I see we're getting low on something, or if we run out completely, I immediately add it to the list. We have a system, we all do it, and whoever is gonna go grocery shopping, you go, you take the list, or you take a picture of the list and you buy what's on it. Okay. So I know I'm good at this. And hopefully by telling the story out loud, I'm now retraining my brain to not do this. But every time I walk down that aisle, I grab pasta sauce. So I did it the other day, like I said, two jars of Alfredo, get home, open the pantry, and I already have four jars of Alfredo, probably ten jars of marinara. I don't know why I cannot remember that I have it. I don't need it. And if I do need it, I can always run right back out and get it. So I'm curious, am I the only one out there that does that? Do you guys have something that you always grab, not knowing if you need it or not, just assuming that you do? I'm curious to know. I can't be the only one. I hope I am, but I can't be the only one. Okay, so that is it. Um, if you want the recipes for the salmon, the salad, killer ingredient of the week, I'm gonna link that in the show notes. If you have a case submission or a recipe you want to share with me, I will make it. I will give my reviews. You can email me at recipeformurderpod at gmail.com. And I think that is enough for now. Thank you so much for joining. Please subscribe, follow whatever you're listening on, and I will be back next week with a brand new episode. So until next time, I hope you stay safe and hungry for justice. Bye.