IRVING, Texas — Yaser Said was one of the most wanted men in world and had been on the run for more than a dozen years until he was caught in 2020.
Now, we are hearing from him first-hand as he gets set to go to trial.
Said is accused of killing his two daughters Amina, 18, and Sarah, 17, on New Year’s Eve 2007 after police said he was upset his daughters were dating outside the Muslim faith.
”I think that frustrated him and he couldn’t handle it, and that’s why he ultimately decided to kill them,” said Detective Eric Curtis with the Irving Police Department.
WFAA obtained letters Said wrote while in jail to Dallas District Judge Chika Anyiam. WFAA is quoting the letters as he wrote them, with misspellings.
For the first time he mentions his daughters: “I was not happy about my kids dating activity. But, I did not do the killings or any plan to hurt them.”
Police said Said shot his daughters multiple times and left them in a cab in front of the Omni Hotel in Irving, in what they call honor killings. Sarah, the youngest, managed to call 911 in her final moments and named her father as the shooter.
”My dad shot me. I’m dying," she told the 911 operator.
"What’s going on ma’am?" the operator asked.
"I’m dying.”
Ruth Trotter’s son was dating Amina when she was killed.
”I knew the threat was real," Trotter told WFAA. "She told us all the time her dad would kill her."
In the letters, Said rambles about honor killings and the changes in the law in the United Arab Emirates, which outlawed honor killings in 2020.
Said wrote: "Why they [sic] are criminalizing honor killings after my arrest in U.A.E. A country I came from, I’m not against that law but not under my name.”
Police arrested his son and brother for helping Said.
Said wrote: "I do remember my brother was working with FBI. Helped the government following Sept. 11th terrorist attacks" but the attorney for Said's brother said "my client never contacted his brother or helped him at any point during the past dozen years.”
Said's brother, Yassein Said, was sentenced to 12 years for hiding him.
Said goes to trial for Capital Murder in May.
Police records also indicate Said’s daughters made accusations that he was sexually inappropriate with them. While Child Protective Services investigated, he was never charged in that case.