More News on the Shaima Alawadi Murder in El Cajon.

[MADem]

http://www.cbs8.com/story/17280643/police-logs-describe-possible-suspect-in-murder-of-el-cajon-mother?clienttype=printable

All the material at the link is interesting. The big news bits: They've touted an almost obligato "darker skinned man in a hoodie with a donut shaped box" for suspicion. The daughter went walkabout for a couple of hours rather late at night about two months ago. The police have searched the house a couple of times and they've also impounded the husband's vehicle (tire iron included?).

...The report described the suspect as a "darker skinned male" in his late teens or early 20s with a skinny build and wearing a black or blue hoodie sweatshirt. He was carrying a brown, donut-shaped cardboard box, the report said.

...Also in the police reports, a call for service from Jan. 31, two months before the beating attack. The victim, Shaima Alawadi, called police at 10:50 p.m. to report her 17-year-old daughter, Fatima Alhimidi, had been missing for two hours....A short time after the call, the police response was canceled and a note in the log said the teen was located at 11:12 p.m. that same night.

...In the days following the beating, police also responded to reports of suspicious men in the neighborhood, the records show. ...Police responded to those calls, interviewed the suspicious men, took their names and released them, according to the logs.

To date, officers have served two search warrants on the family's home and they were seen carrying away bags of evidence. Neighbors said investigators also towed away a red Nissan van registered to the victim's husband, Kassim Alhimidi, 47.

But wait--there's more. The woman's body was flown to Iraq and she was buried there. Some US family members--most notably the daughter and father--were there as well.

...Earlier in the day, the body of Iraqi-born Shaima Alawadi was flown from the U.S. to the Shiite holy city of Najaf, south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, by a plane sent by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
...Relatives, including women clad in black, wept uncontrollably as they watched the burial. Alawadi's husband, Kassim Alhimidi, and teenage daughter Fatima fainted as the body was lowered into the grave.
http://www.cbs8.com/story/17303766/slain-iraqi-woman-buried-in-native-country

The Christian Science Monitor has a very detailed story on this matter.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2012/0328/Iraqi-community-perplexed-wary-after-slaying-of-Iraqi-born-mother

...Ms. Awadi was declared dead on Saturday, with the police describing the beating as “vicious.”

On Tuesday, several hundred people went to the Lakeside Islamic Center to pay their respects. But Salam al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, cautioned those at the memorial against calling the death a hate crime.

“It would be irresponsible to jump to conclusions,” he said.

Indeed, the investigation into Awadi’s death is ongoing, say both Mr. Marayati and the El Cajon police.

[Quantess]

1. Statistically it is much more likely for a woman to be killed by someone near and dear to her.

It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

[MADem]

2. I think they already have a pretty good idea what happened.

I think they're taking their time because they know who did it and where they're at right now.

They've done two searches of the house, taken the car, and the FBI with their lovely crime lab is involved in this effort. I think they might want the husband (who it turns out has been on disability for many years) and the daughter to come back from Iraq before they move forward. The oldest son, who's around fifteen, didn't go to the burial in Iraq. I guess he's watching the younger kids.

I found a couple of the comments made by the leadership at the memorial service in the US as well as in Iraq a bit curious--I think some of them might have an opinion as to what happened, too.

Time will tell.

[YvonneCa]

4. I think they are building their case...

...right now. This story has scary implications...so the ECPD and FBI has to get it right. But...from what I have read (if true)... there seems to be a lot of evidence to what happened.

Did you, by any chance, read Al Arabiya's coverage? I don't count on it as a source, but...

[MADem]

5. I think they know who did it.

If I were forced to guess, I would chose first, the father and second, the daughter (or--less likely, but ya never know-- a boyfriend of the daughter). Al arabiya is not saying too much, lately. There's film up on their site of the funeral--I thought the son stayed home, but there he is--I think he's genuinely bereaved:

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/03/31/204440.html

[YvonneCa]

7. I think there are actually two older sons. The older one...

..and the 17 year old daughter went to Iraq with the father. The 14 year old son stayed in EC...he attended a vigil in Santee over the weekend to represent the family.

Edited to add link to Huffpo essay I posted yesterday in Good Reads Forum...really positive article, regardless of who committed this horrible violence:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101622354

[MADem]

9. Ah, thank you--they look a lot alike, down to the haircuts.

I actually do think this was a crime of hate--only the poor victim was related to her hater. Many people in the local community are feeling the same way.

The husband knows an awful lot about the wife's wounds, and he gave a rather rambling interview in Iraq where he said that he was told that the house was targeted--before they moved in--by people who hate Arabs, and that the landlord warned them about bad people in the neighborhood.

All I can say is, well, why move in, then? Why not choose another house? In Iraq, where housing is still hard to come by in specific areas, I can see taking the first piece of crap you can get, but in USA? Hmmm. I think the husband was targeting his remarks to a specific audience, and didn't realize that this is the 21st Century. Translation is possible. YOUTUBE is everywhere, even if everyone doesn't have the Dish Arab Package. The internet can carry one's words around the globe in an instant. Also, the neighbors characterize the neighborhood as safe and quiet, and there hasn't been much crime in the area in the past year.

Anything's possible, but the whole scenario stinks. I will say if it was the husband, or the daughter, that they've got a lotta brass, going back to Iraq to bury the woman and look her cleric father in the eye.

[YvonneCa]

10. The story is slowly coming...

...out:

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/shaima-alawadi-el-cajon-hate-crime-investigation-146198625.html

[MADem]

12. Apparently the daughter has a boyfriend, was sexually active, and was looking at an arranged

marriage to a cousin, like it or not. AND...that old husband on disability was looking at losing his wife through divorce. Lots of motive, right there.

I wonder if Dad and Daughter will ever come home? Wonder if Iraq will extradite? They are dual nationals (I assume Iraq has that citizenship-via-parents thing like most places) and they have some 'splaining to do.

If the boyfriend--who has been identified--had anything to do with this (was he the guy running through the neighborhood with the donut shaped box?) and is pinned with the crime while the plotter(s) go free, that's not a good thing. He'll probably sing like a canary, if he hasn't already.

This whole sorry mess had nothing to do with "hijabs." A hijab didn't kill that poor woman, and one couldn't save her either. The only hate that victim had to deal with came from inside her own house. How terribly sad. Of course, she was 32 with a 17 year old daughter--you can do the math and realize she was a child bride who was probably shoved into one of those arranged marriages with some guy way too old for her. Her husband looks like a shi'a Saddam, with the hair dye. Sheesh.

Based on the search warrant, which is online now, it's obvious that the police knew from the get-go what this was all about. That bad acting job that the daughter did on TV probably tipped them off before they even got to the forensic details.

[MADem]

3. More input from the Iraqi Community

The "hate crime" theme is not a universal sale:

Unsolved killing is the talk of Iraqis' English class
Cuyamaca College students are discussing the beating death of Shaima Alawadi. Although speculation is high, they are placing their faith in the police, who say a hate crime is only one possibility.


...But in this working-class suburb east of San Diego, the nation's second-most-populous community of Iraqi immigrants, the fear does not seem to spring from a belief that the killing was a hate crime committed by a predator stalking Iraqis.

....Speculation within the Iraqi community about the motive has been continuous and wide-ranging.

"Who knows?" Nash Isho, 38, said as he played dominoes at the Baghdad Cafe amid large-screen televisions showing Iraqi music videos and an Arab soap opera. "Most people are friendly here to us, but maybe it's a personal thing, maybe a family thing. Who knows?"

On his way to the Babylon Market, 29-year-old Ray Tobiya admitted being perplexed: "It could be so many things. Maybe things nobody wants to talk about."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-iraqi-slaying-20120402,0,5491221.story

[Taverner]

6. I am surprised the cops even reported this on their logs....

[MADem]

8. Huh? nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. San Diego police agencies

Are annal when it comes to logs.