Last week, on October 24, two female bodies were found in the Hudson River near Manhattan.
As Dearly previously reported, the two bodies were bound together by duct taped and discovered by a passerby. Authorities issued sketches of the two women in hopes of identifying them.
Five days later, the mother of the two women is speaking out.
Investigators originally believed that the two sisters duct tapped themselves together and jumped into the Hudson River on their own accord.
According to ABC 11, they were tied at the feet and waist when they were found. The sisters were reportedly facing each other.
However, as their mother told Arab News, she doesn’t believe that theory. The mom identified her daughters as 22-year-old Rotana Farea and her 16-year-old sister Tala Farea.
The sisters and their mother lived in Fairfax, Virginia together before Rotana moved to New York City. Their mother said Tala was visiting her older sister when they went missing.
According to Arab News, Rotana and Tala are Saudi nationals:
Members of the family on Sunday denied claims that the two sisters had been missing for two months. In fact, the mother reported her younger daughter Tala as missing two months ago, but the report was withdrawn when she was found visiting her sister in New York, and the search was called off.
They were reported missing again just a few days before their bodies were found after the mother “lost contact” with them.
Their father arrived in the states just two days after their bodies were discovered.
As Arab News reports, members of Rotana and Tala’s family do not believe the sisters committed suicide.
The said that they are waiting on the medical examiner’s cause of death before jumping to any conclusions.
According to police, upon finding the bodies, there were no obvious signs of trauma.