Yaser Abdel Said

Yaser Abdel Said (ياسر سعيد; born January 27, 1957) is an Egyptian-American convicted murderer.

He came to the U.S. on a student visa in 1983.

Said married Patricia "Tissie" Owens in February 1987 when he was 30 and she was 15.

Patricia later alleged that Said abused her during their marriage.

The couple also had a son named Islam Said, born in 1988, and Said also had a previous daughter, born in 1987, with another woman.

Amina was born in 1989, and Sarah was born in 1990.

Said later became a permanent resident, eventually gaining citizenship in 1997.

According to reports, the girls had stated that their father physically and sexually abused them.

Amina told authorities she had been penetrated at least once and confirming that their mother knew about the situation but did nothing to stop it.

Said 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 [Said] gets in everywhere, he knows everything".

She also wrote in emails that her father intended to kill her.

When she was 16, Said took Amina to Egypt allegedly to 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.

Said began video-taping her at work and punished her for smiling too much at the customers.

Amina began dating a boy named Joseph Moreno, whom she met while taking Taekwondo classes.

When Said was out of the country, she felt anxious about meeting Moreno, imagining that Said would be watching her with binoculars.

Amina told Moreno not to call or text her if she sent a code word to him because she was afraid that her father would go through her phone.

Eventually, Said found a note that she had written to Moreno.

Amina told him that these notes were to an imaginary boyfriend.

Said, not trusting Amina, continued his search in order to uncover Amina's relationship.

Said moved his family 20 mi 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 also stated that Said "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 Said's persistent accusations.

After Christmas in 2007, Amina and Sarah ran away with their mother Patricia to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Amina's boyfriend had relatives.

Patricia 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.

However, Yaser, after having inundated Patricia with phone calls (from himself and other relatives) that were initially unsuccessful, eventually convinced her to return home with the girls.

When Patricia communicated this change of plans to her daughters, Sarah reluctantly agreed to return, while Amina refused, ultimately seeking refuge in her friend's house.

For 12 years, Said evaded arrest for the January 1, 2008, fatal shootings of his two daughters, Amina (18) and Sarah (17).

Their bodies were found in his abandoned taxi cab in Irving, Texas, on the property of the Omni Mandalay Hotel (now the Omni Las Colinas Hotel).

Said went into hiding after the killings.

He remained a fugitive from law enforcement for 12 years, with six of those years being on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List for the fatal shootings.

Said, who was very controlling over his family, felt that his daughters Amina and Sarah dishonored the family, primarily due to them dating non-Muslims.

On January 1, 2008, he lured them into his taxi cab on the pretense of taking them out to eat, where instead, he fatally shot them.

Said was captured on August 26, 2020 in the town of Justin, Texas.

His son, Islam, and Said's brother, Yassein, were both arrested in Euless, Texas, for aiding a fugitive.

Said was taken into federal custody by the FBI, and was then transferred to Dallas County where he was held until his trial, which commenced in August 2022.

Said was found guilty on August 9 after a week-long trial and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Said was born in Sinai, Egypt.