Daughter Searching For Parents’ Bodies Who Died In Saudi Arabia

A daughter is urgently looking for her parents’ bodies after they died in intense heat while achieving their ambition of performing the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

Alieu Dausy Wurie, 71, and Isatu Tejan Wurie, 65, were last heard from on 15 June, when they informed their daughter that they had been waiting for hours in great heat for transportation to Mount Arafat.

The couple had a longtime desire to complete the Hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca that attracts millions of people each year.

“They saved their entire lives to embark on this journey and they didn’t receive the proper preparation, the proper documents, it was just a nightmare overall experience,” their daughter Saida Wurie told CNN.

After last hearing from her parents on that 109-degree Fahrenheit day, Saida said she was called by one of their tour group members, who informed the family that their parents had perished on the trek.

Their death was attributed to natural causes, including heat stroke. She is now looking for their bodies after the Consulate General’s office informed her that the couple had already been buried.

“We did ask the Saudi government to hold the bodies in order for us to travel to Saudi Arabia to at least give them the proper burial with [their] children being present and to be able to identify the bodies,” Saida said. “Unfortunately, they have already been buried.”

AccuWeather said that the peak temperature in Mecca on June 15 was 109 degrees Fahrenheit and fluctuated from 109 to 113 during the week.

“All we know is that it was of natural causes and someone from the U.S. embassy did advise that natural causes could have been due to a heat stroke, which based on the temperature, people were saying was over 110 degrees,” she said.

“There are millions of people, they have to walk long hours, so it was more than likely a heat stroke for both of my parents.”

Saida stated that her parents had always wanted to make the journey, and her mother had recently retired as the head nurse at Kaiser Permanente in Prince George’s County. The Wuries spent $23,000 on the vacation and booked through a Maryland-based company, which Saida claims did not provide adequate care for her parents.

“Honestly, I don’t think they were properly prepared for this trip. There was a group of them, maybe up to 100 people that were travelling under a certain agency,” Saida said.

The pair chose to stroll while waiting for transportation to come. According to a member of their group, Alieu Dausy took a break, and the couple was never seen again.

“We received a phone call from someone within their group who advised us they had been missing for a few days, that they were the only two who hadn’t returned to their hotel after the hajj was completed,” their daughter said.

“I tried tracking them a few times on the phone, I believe their phones may have died, we tried reaching out to the US embassy, and ultimately the same person who had advised us that they were missing advised that he went around to a bunch of hospitals and that they have passed away.”

“I was able to confirm that with the consulate general’s office in Saudi Arabia that they had passed away,” she said.

A Gentle Reminder: Every obstacle is a stepping stone, every morning; a chance to go again, and those little steps take you closer to your dream.

Nnamdi Okoli