FBI explains how it caught Texas father whose family hid him after he killed daughters
The brother and son of capital murder suspect Yaser Said were charged on Friday in federal court with helping him evade capture for more than 12 years.
Yaser Said, who had been on the FBI’s Most Wanted List after he was accused of killing his two teenage daughters in 2008, was captured Wednesday without incident.
On the same day, his 63-year-old brother, Yassein Said, and Yaser Said’s son, 32-year-old Islam Said, were arrested in Euless.
The two are charged with concealing a person from arrest. For years, the two family members provided aid and comfort to Yaser Said, authorities said.
Throughout the investigation, federal agents and Irving police believed other members of Yaser Said’s family had assisted and communicated with him.
Patricia Owens, who is Yaser Said’s former wife and the mother of the girls, told federal authorities that members of his family had indicated to her “little remorse for the victims,” and indicated support for their killer, according to a federal criminal complaint.
On the night of Jan. 1, 2008, Irving police found Amina Said, 18, hunched over in the passenger seat of her father’s taxi. Her sister, Sarah Said, 17, was found in the back seat. Both had been shot multiple times.
Hours before the bodies of the teens were found, Yaser Said had picked up his daughters and never returned home, according to the capital murder warrant obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Some family members said that the girls were victims of an “honor killing” because their father thought they had brought shame to the family. Authorities have declined to comment on a motive.
The criminal complaints against Yassein Said and Islam Said do not indicate where Yaser Said was from January 2008 until August 2017.
Nine years after the killings, investigators got a break when a maintenance worker at the Copper Canyon Apartments in Bedford spotted Yaser Said in an apartment rented by Islam Said, federal agents said.
FBI agents had told apartment officials before that encounter that Islam Said was renting an apartment there and that he was the son of a wanted fugitive.
After the sighting, on Aug. 14, 2017, an FBI agent tried to interview Islam Said, wanting to ask him who was inside the Bedford apartment and get consent to search it. Islam Said refused to cooperate and called his attorney. Later, authorities discovered that Islam Said called someone and told them, “we have a big problem,” according to the complaint.
Authorities obtained a search warrant for the apartment and executed it on Aug. 15, 2017 , but they didn’t find anyone. Investigators collected a Pall Mall cigarette butt from a trash can, a pair of eyeglasses, and a toothbrush found in a luggage bag inside a closet.
A few days after the Bedford apartment was searched, Yassein Said and another man showed up at the leasing office, demanding to know who saw someone in Islam Said’s apartment, according to the complaint.
Months later, test results on DNA collected from the apartment indicated that Yaser Said had been there.
Years passed before federal authorities got another break.
On Aug. 10 of this year, authorities discovered that two homes were in the name of Dalal Said, one of Yassein Said’s daughters. One home was in Justin and the other in Euless. Authorities already knew that the Euless residence was the primary home of Islam Said.
Federal authorities began physical surveillance at both homes.
Last week, FBI agents saw Islam Said and Yassein Said carry about five grocery bags into the Justin home.
From Aug. 17 to Aug. 19, FBI agents were conducting 24-hour surveillance at the home.
On Tuesday, Yassein Said and Islam Said arrived and carried in more grocery bags. At about 8:50 p.m. Tuesday, Islam Said was seen exiting the Justin home with two small grocery bags possibly containing trash. He placed the bags in a vehicle. Yassein also walked out of the residence and the two got into the vehicle.
Earlier this month, trash bags had been left on the curb near the Justin home. The two Said men drove to a Southlake shopping center and dropped the two bags in a garbage can.
The trash bags, which included numerous cigarette butts, were seized by FBI agents.
At 5:34 p.m. on Wednesday, authorities armed with a search warrant found Yaser Said in the Justin home. He was arrested without incident.
Authorities discovered a hidden room with a cot in it in the back of the Justin residence.
Yaser Said faces the death penalty if he’s convicted of capital murder.
If they are convicted, Yassein Said and Islam Said face a maximum of five years in a federal prison.
This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 3:20 PM.
