DAMMAM, 1 February — The third suspect in the disappearance of Saudi student Abdul Aziz Al Koohaji stepped off a bus in Denver, Colorado and was immediately arrested by Denver police. Naif Al Yousef, a Saudi national, returned from Albuquerque, New Mexico under his own free will and was taken into custody at 5:00 a.m.
He quickly began cooperating with police, contradicting the details of the murder of Al Koohaji as told to authorities by the two Saudis being detained here in the Kingdom.
According to Al Yousef, the three accused murdered Al Koohaji and then placed his body in a trash dumpster in Littleton, Colorado. Al Yousef claims that the story about Al Koohaji being left in the Nevada desert was concocted simply to throw authorities off track.
A few days ago the Denver police did recover a vehicle from the Denver International Airport that had been rented by the suspects and the car had enough miles on it to make such a trip feasible.
From the start, however, the police were skeptical about the Nevada desert story because the risk of driving eight hours from Denver to Nevada with a murder victim in the vehicle seemed unacceptably high.
The Denver police believe that Al Yousef is cooperating with them so that he will be kept in custody in the United States and tried and punished there for any crime. He has expressed a desire not to be returned to Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C., the US State Department, and the FBI are all working with the Denver police on the investigation.
Two uncles of Al Koohaji who have been waiting in Denver for news of their relative, missing since Jan. 11, were informed in the afternoon that based on the interview with Al Yousef all hope of Abdul Aziz Al Koohaji being found alive had been lost.
Al Yousef has confirmed that the motive for the murder was greed. Tariq Al Dossary, Mishael Al Suwaidi and Al Yousef wanted the $20,000 from Al Koohaji's bank account. They became aware of the money when they saw him deposit the amount in his account after reselling a car he had purchased.
After Al Koohaji's disappearance the car dealer gave a vital clue to police when he recalled that the men accompanying Al Koohaji all spoke the same foreign language, although the salesman wasn't sure what the language was.
Then additional clues as to their identities came from video surveillance tapes at the Wells Fargo Bank where they withdrew the money from Al Koohaji's account. The three suspects were roommates and once their identities became known Denver police began staking out their house but by then they had abandoned it.
As Arab News spoke to Denver police, Al Yousef was sitting 10 feet away from the telephone in a cell waiting to learn his fate. Al Yousef has given a clear description of the location where he claims Al Koohaji's body was abandoned and authorities were gathering to go to the site in Littleton. The city of Littleton previously became infamous worldwide as the location of the Columbine High School massacre.
