Forty-five-year-old Auda Ahmad was caught red-handed on Sept. 1 while allegedly attempting to lure another housemaid who would have become his fourth victim, according to Brig. Mohsen Al-Radadi, spokesman for Madinah police.
The arrest comes after a four-year manhunt involving officers from Madinah and Yanbu. Police investigators had detained and interrogated a number of suspects, Al-Radadi said. Ahmad had been living illegally in Yanbu for several years. According to one report, the maids he murdered were Indonesian.
"We have been looking for this criminal for the last four years after arresting a beggar who was his son," Al-Radadi added. Police had apparently discovered photos of maids and pornographic videos in Ahmad's cell phone found in his son's house.
Further investigations revealed that he was a pervert who forced his children to beg in the streets by beating them and burning their bodies.
The modus operandi of the murderer was the same in all cases. He would lure the housemaids before raping and murdering them and then dump the bodies in remote areas.
The culprit claimed his first victim on Sept. 20, 2007 (Ramadan 8, 1428H). Yanbu police found the body of the Asian maid in an area close to a rest house.
Ahmad allegedly committed his second murder on June 26, 2008 (Jamad Al-Thani 22, 1429). He told police that he found the housemaid in Yanbu Corniche and was successful in luring and taking her to a remote area before raping her. He then struck her head with a big rock, killing her instantly. He later buried the body in the area.
Police say he committed his last murder on Aug. 10, 2009 (Shaaban 19, 1430). Ahmad allegedly noticed a housemaid walking along the roadside in Yanbu and followed her in his car until reaching a secluded area. He approached her and revealed his desire to have sex with her. She refused and tried to run away, but she was caught and stabbed to death. He then poured acid on her body to disfigure it. The body was buried in a remote area near Amlaj town.
Ahmad was released from a Yanbu prison in 2007 after serving a jail term for harassment and acid attacks on his sons. The man, who has four sons and two daughters, had been selling fruit and vegetables for a living.
He was seen luring a housemaid at a commercial market in Yanbu. He allegedly tried to mislead police by claiming he was trying to recruit the maid to work for him during Ramadan.
But the woman told police that Ahmad was persuading her to flee from her sponsor's house and have illicit relations with him.
A relative of the killer said the man was under stress because his wife was mentally ill, the citizenship of his father and uncle had been withdrawn, and one of his children had run away from home.