Ajman: Police are investigating a triple murder in Ajman after an Asian mother and her two daughters were found strangled to death on Friday.
A three-year-old girl was found alive inside the same room as her dead 32-year-old mother, while her other two daughters aged 16 and 13 were also found dead in separate rooms of the apartment in the Al Rashidiya area of Ajman.
Forensic examinations discovered that all three died as a result of being strangled by a piece of cloth at least 12 hours prior to being found at 4pm on Friday. They also showed signs of assault consistent with having resisted their attacker.
Police are now working in coordination with Interpol to trace the whereabouts of the woman’s husband, aged 35, who fled the country after the murders, but not before dropping his seven-year-old son off at his grandmother’s house.
The grandmother - who lives in Abu Dhabi - had alerted police on Friday after becoming concerned for the welfare of her daughter and granddaughters when no-one at the flat answered the door or responded to calls.
Brigadier General Abdullah Ahmad Al Hamrani, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Ajman Police, said that the surviving children were now in the care of their grandmother.
Family of the victims confirmed that the couple had regulalry argued and that the wife had been exposed to psychological abuse from the husband. The husband had booked a flight to leave the country days before the crime had been committed, said Al Hamrani, who added that this showed the killings had been planned in advance.
He took his seven-year-old son to the home of his wife’s family in Ajman and after committing the crime he locked the apartment and took a taxi to the airport. Ajman Police received a concern for welfare call from the wife’s family 11 hours after the husband had already left the country,
said Lieutenant Colonel Ahmad Saeed Al Nuaimi, Director of Ajman Police’s Criminal Investigation Department.
Within an hour of the grisly discovery the husband’s details had been forwarded to the Ministry of Interior and Interpol to locate the culprit and return him to the UAE to face justice.
Al Hamrani conveyed his condolences to the family of the victims and called on the public not to hesitate in contacting police if they suspect someone they know is committing, or planning to commit, a crime.
Neighbours were in shock when Gulf News visited the scene on Tuesday.
They told Gulf News that the husband owned his own business and bought their own flat in block A4 of Falcon Towers.
According to residents the family also had a housemaid, but the father had sent the maid back home shortly before the crime.
They said the boy was always with his father and that when the grandmother came to the house on Friday she became concerned when no-one answered the door. Police sealed off the area and it took three hours before the bodies were removed.
Witnesses said police checked the building’s CCTV to trace the movements of the husband.
