Trial begins for man accused in taxicab 'honor killings' Yaser Said
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Fourteen years later, jury selection is set to begin in the trial of a Lewisville-area taxicab driver accused in the 'honor killings' of his two teenage daughters.
Egyptian-born Yaser Abdel Said was arrested after 12 years on the run in August 2022, in Justin, 36 miles northwest of Dallas. Said's brother Yassein and his son Islam were arrested in Euless. Both of them were charged with harboring a known fugitive and are now serving time in federal prison.
His daughters, Sarah, 17, and Amina, 18, were found dead in their father's taxicab on New Year's Day 2008. The girls, who were both students at Lewisville High School, were shot multiple times, according to court documents.
Police found them after one of the girls called 911 from a cellphone and said she was dying.
"Help," said a crying voice on the 911 recording, later determined by police to be that of Sarah Said. "I'm dying. Oh my God. Stop it."
Police could not immediately find the teens after the 7:33 p.m. call. Much of what Sarah said in the recording was unintelligible, and the dispatcher's repeated requests for her to provide an address went unanswered.
An emergency dispatcher received another call about an hour later from an Irving motel. The sisters' bodies were in a cab, one in the front passenger seat and the other in the back. The caller said he could see blood.
"They don't look alive," said the caller at the time, whose name was deleted from the recording.
A police report at the time said a family member told investigators that Said threatened "bodily harm″ against Sarah for going on a date with a non-Muslim. The girl's mother, Patricia Said, fled with her daughters in the week before their deaths because she was in "great fear for her life." Gail Gattrell, the sisters' great-aunt, has called the deaths an "honor killing," in which a woman is murdered by a relative to protect her family's honor.