The body of a third housemaid, who was also raped and murdered by the same man, was buried some time ago.
Yanbu police arrested the man, who is of African origin, last September following his son’s arrest.
The man has admitted to the rape and murder of the three women over the last four years. The Prosecution and Investigation Commission is currently completing paperwork to begin court proceedings against the man.
Al-Madinah newspaper reported on Saturday quoting Dr. Abdul Rahman Saeedi, director of the Health Affairs Department in Yanbu, that one of the three bodies was buried and the remaining two bodies were still at a morgue.
“We have yet to receive any letter from the concerned authorities with regard to consent from their relatives to bury them,” Saeedi said.
Ibrahim Al-Abadi, a prominent lawyer and former head of investigations at the Prosecution and Investigation Commission, said keeping dead bodies at morgues indefinitely is a violation of rules.
“With regard to unidentified bodies, forensic experts should carry out post-mortems to determine the actual causes of death. Bodies should be photographed and fingerprints should be taken, in addition to DNA samples. All these procedures should be completed within a period of two months,” he said.
“Then the body should be buried once clearance is received from the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Health. If a relative claims the body or identifies it through the data the authorities have then they are entitled to exhume the mortal remains,” the lawyer said.
According to Al-Abadi, the murderer, called Auda Ahmad, should be handed the death penalty.
Ahmad has confessed to kidnapping runaway housemaids to avoid being detected. He would then torture the women, rape them and dump their bodies in desert areas after disfiguring them.
Yanbu police had been searching for the man for around four years before finally arresting him on the basis of information received from his son who was arrested for begging.
Ahmad was arrested on Sept. 1, 2010, while attempting to lure another housemaid who would have been his fourth victim.
The bodies of the three maids were so badly disfigured that police were unable to identify them. One of the bodies was found buried on Yanbu Corniche in a plastic bag. The body of another had been found with stab wounds and acid scalds over her face.
The third body was found already decomposing in a remote area close to a rest house near the town of Umluj.
Police found the serial killer with several forged ID cards and pictures of housemaids on his mobile phone, including a photograph of one of the three women.
None of the women’s relatives or sponsors have so far come forward to claim their bodies.
