A Tunisian man killed his two daughters before committing suicide amidst a years-long custody battle in the United States, according to sacbee.com.
American Amy Hunter arrived at a parking lot near her home in West Sacramento on New Year’s Eve to pick up her daughters, Sara, 9 and Sophie, 12, only to find them lying beside the body of their father in the car.
The two girls were later declared dead by West Sacramento Police in a murder-suicide by their father, Hamdy Rouin, 46, a Tunisian immigrant.
Hunter described her ex-husband Rouin as an abusive man and heavy drinker who had hit her, and threatened to take the girls away to Tunisia.
The mother, who converted to Islam, and other family and friends from her Islamic religious community gathered on Tuesday evening for a vigil where she lived with her little girls.
She filed for divorce in December 2014 and it was finalised in December 2016. Rouin was allowed supervised visits once a week with his girls after completing a court-ordered parenting class.
The father gradually got access to the girls and was allowed unsupervised visits as he was listed as having joint legal custody in a November 2016 document, while the mother retained sole physical custody.