MELBOURNE, Australia – The case is shrouded in mystery.
In June, the bodies of two young Saudi sisters were found in separate bedrooms of the apartment they shared in Sydney, Australia. The remains had gone undiscovered for a month. There were no visible signs of injury and the house showed no signs of burglary. The police considered the death suspicious.
Almost two months after the find, authorities still know little about the women, even after an extensive investigation in which they spoke to many people in the area. The women, police said, “appeared to be on their own.” It also remains unclear how they died, although an autopsy has been performed.
Blocked, police took another step this week in hopes of finding new clues: they revealed the identities of the women as Asra Abdullah Alsehli, 24, and Amaal Abdullah Alsehli, 23. The sisters arrived in Australia in 2017 from Saudi Arabia. , the police said.
“We are relying on information because we don’t know much about the girls,” Detective Inspector Claudia Allcroft said at a news conference. The case is unusual, she said, as the cause of death remains unknown and the women “were 23 and 24 years old and died together in their home”.
There has been plenty of speculation about the life and death of the sisters. Local media claimed the women may have applied for asylum in Australia. If so, it would echo a case of two Saudi sisters in New York, whose bodies were found in 2018 on the banks of the Hudson River. Their deaths were ruled suicide; they had applied for asylum in the United States, police said, and said they would rather kill themselves than return to Saudi Arabia.
In the Australian case, workers in the women’s building said they were secretive and seemed nervous and scared, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. The women had told the building manager that they thought someone was tampering with their food.
Police declined to answer questions about the sisters’ citizenship or asylum status. Detective Allcroft said there was no information to suggest that the sisters had attempted to flee Saudi Arabia and that the families of the women in their home countries, who are helping with the investigation, were not under suspicion.
In March, authorities conducted a welfare check on the sisters after the building manager became concerned about them and reported that their food had been left in the common areas of the apartment block. At the time, Detective Allcroft said, “They seemed fine, and no further police action was required at that stage.”
Police were called to the apartment on June 7 for another welfare check and found the sisters’ bodies. That call from the landlord came after the sisters failed to pay the rent, local media reported.
An autopsy was performed on June 9 and 10, but the coroner made no finding, police said. Toxicological results are also pending.