DAMMAM, 3 February — Police have been searching a landfill north of Denver for the body of Saudi college student Abdul Aziz Al-Koohaji.
The case has been upgraded from that of a missing person to homicide.
Denver Police Capt. Timothy Leary said on Thursday that police are "99 percent certain" that Al-Koohaji was murdered. It has now been determined that the three suspects in custody were friends of the victim but it is not clear why they would have killed him.
"We don't know what the motive is," police detective Jon Priest said. "Money doesn't seem to be the object with these guys."
Denver police have a suspect in custody in Denver. According to information provided by him it is thought that Al-Koohaji was killed on Jan. 11 or 12 at a house rented by one of the suspects in Aurora, Colorado, and then his body was placed in a trash bin. Unfortunately that container was emptied weeks ago and its contents taken to the Denver Regional Landfill outside of Erie, Colorado.
On Thursday and Friday police dug through an area of the landfill about as big as a football pitch and about 20 feet deep looking for the body. According to a report in the Denver Post, the three suspects met Al-Koohaji at the airport on Jan. 11. He was supposed to get together with friends that night, but did not. Then the next day he should have flown to Miami, Florida, to visit a friend but he never made the flight. When he did not show up for classes at Denver Community College his friends reported him missing to the police.
The three suspects in custody in Saudi Arabia and Denver clearly worked together. Police stated that one suspect sold Al-Koohaji's car, a Volkswagen Jetta, purchased in early November. He told the car dealer that he wanted to get rid of the car and move to London. The other two made sizable withdrawals from Al-Koohaji's bank account. On Jan. 24 the Denver Police Department was notified that the second suspect was in custody in Saudi Arabia. Then on Jan. 30 they were informed that the third had also been detained in Saudi Arabia.
The Denver Police Department, Aurora Police Department and members of the FBI are conducting an extensive investigation and urgent work is under way to locate the body of the victim. Members of the Al-Koohaji family are on the scene and they have hired a private investigator. If Al-Koohaji's body is not found in the Weld County landfill, police say they know of other places to look. No charges have been made yet. If Denver police do charge the three suspects, there will be a question of extradition of the two suspects being held in Saudi Arabia.
The case sent a shock wave through the Denver area's Saudi community.
"It's not a natural thing for Saudis to do that, especially when they're not in their own country," said Homaidan Alturki, the former president of the Islamic Center of Boulder. "The Saudis are very friendly to each other, very supportive to each other and very close to each other. It's very unnatural, and it's very distressing."
Alturki said he was flooded on Thursday with phone calls from compatriots worried about the disappearance and the fact other Saudis are prime suspects.
Muddassir Siddiqui, legal representative at the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington said on Thursday that he had spoken to Al-Kohaji's family.
"What they are going through is extremely sad . . . for anyone who loses a son. They were expecting him to graduate," Siddiqui said.
