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Syrian Immigrant Arrested In Mutilation Death
LOS ANGELES, May 31 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detectives on Wednesday arrested Fadel Tawil, a Syrian immigrant at his Burbank apartment.
Tawil was charged with first-degree murder and is being held on a one million dollar bail, 2 ˝ years after his nephew's partial torso and leg were found on a conveyor belt in a recycling center in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles police, who long ago determined the body parts were those of a 35-year-old Syrian immigrant named Hilal Taweel, say they have solved the mystery.
A small amount of blood found in Tawil's apartment links him to the crime, which police theorize took place on New Year's Day in 1999.
"It took us a while to put the puzzle together," said Det. James Gollaz. "But the puzzle fits. We believe Hilal Taweel was killed because of the embarrassment he caused."
Police, who said that Tawil had a strained relationship with his nephew because of the nephew's American ways, describe Tawil, 64, as a man unable to reconcile the life he led in Syria with the culture he found in the U.S. when he immigrated in late 1980s.
Police believe that Tawil grew bitter when his then teenage daughter Vilma exhibited an independent streak and was supported by Hilal Taweel, a UCLA graduate.
According to investigators of the LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division, Taweel told his friends and family members that he was in danger and told those close to him that his uncle should be investigated, if anything happened to him.
Vilma Tawil, 22, told police of her story of run-ins with her parents. She said that her parents did whatever they could to quell her independent streak and that she found in Taweel more than a trusted cousin.
She said that her cousin came to the U.S. when he was 24 to study engineering and learned to embrace American ways.
He was someone she could lean on, someone who understood why a young woman raised in America would want to slough off some of the rigid expectations demanded of her, Vilma told police.
In August 1998, Tawil was angry to find his daughter who left her parents home, at his nephew's apartment. He confronted Taweel and felt he was being disrespected and disgraced in the local Syrian community by the actions of his nephew, police contend.
On New Year's Day 1999, Vilma visited Taweel and her father went again to his nephew's apartment to bring his daughter, but the two refused to open the door, police said.
Investigators say Taweel had decided that helping her was no longer worth the trouble. Therefore, he went to his uncle's apartment twice that day, police added.
First, he went for lunch with Tawil and his wife. Then he returned to his apartment and asked Vilma to stay there.
Gollaz, who worked the case, said a witness told police that Taweel went to see his uncle after speaking to Vilma. Investigators found that the last call Taweel made from his cell phone was to his uncle's home. They believe the call was made as Taweel drove to see his uncle.
Gollaz said detectives had found a patch of carpet in Tawil's living room that had been replaced and covered with a Persian rug.
When workers at the Community Recycling center found Taweel's body torso, they halted the conveyor belt, searched the trash and found the leg, sliced at the knee.
The leg, which had a foot with one toe twisted over another, eventually led detectives to the missing Taweel.
Investigators say they found traces of blood on a wall in the house. They say DNA tests confirmed that it was the victim's blood.
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