The revelation comes as new pictures of the girls were released by the NYPD.
The mother of Tala Farea, 16, and Rotana Farea, 22, told detectives that she learned the girls applied for asylum in the United States the day before their bodies washed up on the East Side of Manhattan from the Hudson River.
Officials wouldn’t confirm the report publicly but did confirm they’re looking into the sisters’ immigration status.
The sisters and their mother lived in Fairfax, Virginia, outside of Washington but some reports indicated that the elder sister had moved to New York City. Their mother filed a missing persons report for Tala in December 2017. She later said she hadn’t seen either girl since then.
Police found the girls in New York City last year after the report, which said that Tala may have been with her sister.
Detectives initially suspected a double suicide from the George Washington Bridge but family members rejected that theory and officers have also dismissed it after reasoning that the bodies would have sustained more damage from a fall from the bridge.
The girls were bound together with duct tape, arranged so they faced each other, and were found fully clothed in matching outfits. The bodies had no signs of trauma.
Detectives Go to Virginia
NYPD detectives went to Virginia in recent days as part of the investigation into the deaths, reported WABC.“Sources say police now have a better sense of where the two entered the water and how long they may have been in the water,” the broadcaster reported.
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