Saudi sisters found tied together in New York's Hudson River

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Saudi sisters found tied together in New York's Hudson River were alive when they entered water, police say

Siblings had recently applied for asylum in the US

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The Independent US

The bodies of Rotana Farea, left, and her teenager sister Tala were found tied together in the Hudson river in New York ( New York Police Department )

Police investigating the mystery deaths of two Saudi sisters whose bodies washed up in New York City believe the siblings were alive when they entered the water.
Detectives said there were no signs of trauma on the corpses of 16-year-old Tala Farea and 23-year-old Rotana Farea, discovered tied together with duct tape on the shore of the Hudson River last week.

The pair were last seen in Fairfax, Virginia, on 24 August and were reported missing on 12 September.

Credit card records show the women visited Washington DC and Philadelphia before arriving in New York on 1 September, investigators said.

Their bodies were pulled from the water in upper Manhattan on 24 October. They were bound together at the waist and feet.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) has not disclosed how the sisters they travelled to New York or where they stayed before they died.

Water was found in the siblings’ lungs, indicating they were alive when they entered the river, the official added.
Murder or accidental death have not officially been ruled out.
The two sisters had recently requested asylum in the United States, according to police.
NYPD chief detective Dermot Shea said on Wednesday that officers were interviewing family members to establish "what was going on in the two young ladies' lives".
"We've made significant progress in piecing together pieces of this puzzle to find out what happened," he added.

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In a statement released earlier this week, Saudi Arabia’s general consulate in New York said the sisters had been “accompanying their brother in Washington”.

It said had appointed a lawyer to follow the case “to avoid inaccurate reporting”. The Saudi embassy in Washington also extended its “support and aid in this trying time” to the sisters’ family, the statement said.
Rotana Farea had been enrolled at George Mason University in Fairfax but left in the spring and may have moved to New York at some point, according to media reports.
The sisters had been reported missing before, according to Fairfax police.
The police department released new passport-style photographs on Wednesday showing the two sisters wearing headscarves.