Saudi Alsehli sisters found dead in Canterbury flat ‘believed private investigator followed them’

The two Saudi sisters mysteriously found dead in a Sydney apartment believed a private investigator was on their trail.

Asra Abdullah Alsehli, 24, and Amaal, 23, were discovered in their Canterbury unit in Sydney’s southwest on June 7.

The sisters were applying for political asylum in Australia and a source connected to that case told ABC’s Background Briefing the pair thought a private investigator was following them. 

After months of investigation detectives are still seeking clues to discover how and why the sisters died in separate rooms of their apartment, where they lay undiscovered for up to six weeks. 

Police are now turning to the Arabic-speaking community for help as they have make their first direct appeal in that language. 

Two weeks ago police released the names and photos of the two women at the request of the coroner but did not translate their English language appeal for information. 

The newly translated request has been sent out on social media and will be distributed to Arabic-language media outlets.

Police told SBS this was a standard practice without commenting specifically on the case of the Alsehli sisters. 

‘Translating media releases into target languages to reach specific communities is just one of the strategies the NSW Police Force adopts based on the requirements of detectives investigating cases,’ a NSW Police spokesperson said in a statement to SBS.

‘That is something the NSWPF (NSW Police Force) does often, again, based on the strategy that police are deploying at the time.’ 

After coming to Australia in 2017 the sisters lived for a period in the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield, which has a large Arabic-speaking community. 

The grisly remains of the two women were only uncovered during a police welfare check.

This was conducted because they owed the landlord about $5,000 worth of unpaid rent having failed to hand over their weekly $480 since mid-March. 

Bottles of chemicals such as bleach and other substances were found beside their bodies in separate bedrooms, leading detectives to suspect the pair planned to take their own lives.

Interim toxicology results showed traces of the substances found in the bedrooms inside the women’s bodies.

‘There’s no indication of anyone else being in the unit…no forced entry. It really does appear to be a tragic suicide,’ a police source told The Daily Telegraph.

More extensive testing is needed to determine the exact cause of death.

This is despite an extensive week-long public appeal and releasing the names and photos of the sisters at the request of the coroner.

The sisters’ black BMW coupe was seized by police after the women’s bodies were found remains in a police holding yard.

The car is expected to be sold to recover debts owed to the women’s landlord after they stopped paying rent 10 weeks before their fully clothed but decomposing bodies were found.

The sisters also owed $26.18 in outstanding water bills.

Their remains were uncovered during the last of three welfare checks by police, who initially were contacted by property’s building manager who expressed concern for their wellbeing because food was left out in common areas.

Building manager Michael Baird said his first interaction with the girls was when their car was ‘keyed’ after they moved into the building in November 2021.

‘We believed that it was not a personal attack to them because they’d parked their car in an unusual position. And somebody’s obviously taken offence to it,’ he told the ABC.

The sisters sent him an email at 2:25am on January 26 asking him to check CCTV because they feared their Uber eats food delivery had been tampered with and they were considering contacting the police.

The cameras failed to show this. 

‘The girls were very scared, very frightened of something, he said.

‘We’re not sure what is was, something, someone, they didn’t tell us so we couldn’t pursue it any further.’ 

A plumber was called into the apartment to fix water leak in late March. 

He phoned Mr Baird as soon as he was finished.

‘He was concerned that there was something untoward happening in the apartment,’ Mr Baird said..

‘He goes, ‘I don’t know. Something definitely wrong with that apartment. Something definitely happening in that place is not good’.’

‘The girls look scared for some reason. I don’t want to go back.’

Mr Baird asked police conduct a welfare check on the two women. 

When the officers visited the flat the women at first wouldn’t unlock the door, Mr Baird says.

‘Eventually the door was opened and the police stood at the door, asking the girls a series of questions,’ he said 

‘They said they were OK. They didn’t want any police involvement. And the police left it at that.’ 

Michael decided to go the apartment with his day manager pretending to look for a leak. 

‘I went into the unit, I saw these two little girls stuck in the corner, like two little sparrows,’ he says.

‘Really, I was looking to make sure there was nobody in the unit as well that was … causing them to be afraid or timid.

‘I ‘fessed up and said, ‘Look, I’m not really here to look at a leak. I’m here to talk to you … Just tell me whatever it is. It’s OK.’

But, he says, the women wouldn’t speak.

‘They more or less wanted us to leave as quickly as possible.’

That is what Mr Baird did and it was the last time he saw them alive. 

Reports published in Middle Eastern newspapers last week said the sisters had renounced Islam.

The sisters only left the Canterbury unit to study at TAFE, to go shopping or to work, their former landlord from a property they rented at Fairfield revealed to The Guardian.

The ‘shocked’ landlord claimed their mother visited the sisters in Sydney but didn’t like Australia and left after only a brief visit.

Detective Inspector Claudia Allcroft insisted there was ‘nothing to suggest’ their family was involved in their deaths.

The women were not known to be part of any dissident Saudi networks.