Forensic Files - Season 8, Episode 38 - Honor Thy Father - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] even before the attack on the World Trade Center in New York intelligence
agencies were watching a number of suspected terrorist cells throughout the United States the FBI uncovered evidence
of a terrible crime by some individuals using the cover of a St Louis grocery store but it took a forensic autopsy and
a tape to reveal the entire story [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] 16-year-old Tina Issa was the kind of
daughter most parents dream of she was a high school athlete popular a straight A
student and wanted to attend college and become an airline pilot Tina wanted to be American Tina wanted to be
independent she wanted to have a career she wanted to travel she wanted to be her own
person her mother and father Zayn and Maria Issa were imig immigrants from Palestine and ran a small grocery store
in downtown St Louis like most immigrants the Palestinians went into the food business that's a tradition in
America food service is one of the easiest types of business to operate what was especially appealing to
the esas and their relatives is it was another way to rip off America they could avoid paying taxes they would play
little games with food stamp fraud grocery coupons I mean zann even said he loved America because there were so many
ways to rip it off on November 6th 1989 Tina was working the night shift at a fast food
restaurant according to the eses Tina arrived home around midnight and there was an argument Tina said she wanted to
live on her own and demanded that her parents give her $5,000 to support herself when they refused they said Tina
pulled a knife from her backpack and threatened them in the tussle Zayn said he turned the knife on his daughter in
self-defense father was saying it was self-defense and the wife was saying yes it was self-defense I was standing there
watching it so the only two witnesses to the crime had their stories kind of get
together that that their daughter had attacked them and in defending them themselves they the father had killed
her news of Tina issa's death stunned her friend friends and classmates just her Charisma her um just her attitude
overall period I mean she was just too nice of a person for anything like this to happen to you why would he want to St
his own child it's terrible I feel so bad Dina's classmates told police that Tina often rebelled against her parents
and their old world Traditions they also said the ISA objected to Tina's choice of a boyfriend
he was an honor student he was very very bright he was at the magnet schools which is a sophisticated program in St
Louis Public Schools he was an artist he painted he drew he wrote poems I don't think it was just that he was black I
think the real issue was that she had a boyfriend and they could no longer control her when the FBI heard about
Tina's death they called lead investigator Harry heger with some astonishing news us intelligence had photo red zann
Issa attending a meeting with known terrorists in Mexico all had ties to the Palestine Liberation Organization and
international Terror broker Abu Nadal Abu Nadal means father of War Abu father nidal war and he was one of the
most vicious terrorists around he's responsible for simultaneous bombings in Vienna
Rome over a 2-year period Zan Isa traveled overseas 14 times to Caracas Athens London Israel Zurich and Madrid
the FBI among others were maintaining a watch on Middle Eastern families some that might presumably have connections
with terrorist cells the esas were maintaining What Might Have Been a safe house for one of the Middle Eastern
terrorist groups so the ISA family were well known to us intelligence as a federal undercover
said to me these people are as organized as the mafia not nearly as lovable investigators now wondered
whether there was more to the story of Tina's death and her mother and father were
[Music] saying Tina's parents insisted that her death was in self-defense because she
had attacked them with a knife Tina's father was covered in blood and had cuts on his hands which he said
were defensive wounds that resulted from his daughter's knife attack when I reviewed the little bit of history that
I knew at the time it sounded extremely uh suspicious to me medical examiners have long referred to the autopsy as the
Silent Witness a way for the victim to tell her story things that the suspects in a crime usually leave
out at Tina's autopsy forensic pathologist Dr Philip Burch started his examination with a forensic technique
known as wound pattern analysis I didn't look just at one wound in this case I looked at all of the
wounds as a whole Tina sustained six deep stab wounds to the solar plexus all in close
proximity Dr Burch believed that any one of them could have caused her death the serious injuries to her were
all tightly clustered right around her lower Central chest and abdomen and I was told that she was supposedly
involved in a wild free-for-all type fight uh with a knife and that seemed to be very odd that all of the Fatal
injuries were very tightly clustered within a a specific car the body that's because stabbing victims
usually move during an attack I didn't feel that she was involved in a fight where she was able to move her
extremities uh freely that is either she stayed stock still of her own valtion for whatever reason or she was unable to
move or she was actually restrained Dr bur's theory was supported by paramedics who said Tina's arms were
above her head on the floor as if she had been restrained Zayn couldn't have held her
he was not a big man his daughter was probably as big or bigger than he he could not have inflicted that kind of
injury pattern on her and held her at the same time the only other person in the room
was Tina's Mother Maria Maria said she was on the sofa when the fight occurred but the forensic
evidence indicated otherwise there was body hair and blood from the girl on the insides of a white
sweater that Maria had been wearing at the time and that supported our theory that Maria was holding her while Zay
stabbed her stop moving it went beyond self-defense this was like driven by anger or passion or some purpose other
than self-defense investigators then took a closer look at the wounds on Zayn's hands wounds that he said were
defensive this story didn't match what we saw was a small like like I said it looked like a paper cut I think that in
stabbing her his hands were so bloody and slippery that what really happened is he his hands slipped down on the
blade of the knife and cut it cut it right across the uh outside of his palm there right below the little
finger this explains why Zayn's blood was found on the handle of the knife found beside his daughter
but prosecutors had a problem would a jury believe that a father and mother would kill their own child simply
because she had an outside job and the boyfriend sounds so aberant so strange I mean she was a model student but we're
talking about absolute control zann Isa still mentally was listening to tapes from Circa 1945 in a Palestinian Village
and that's the way he thought his daughter should behave and the FBI discovered secret
information that Tina Issa may have known some family secrets her father didn't want
revealed the forensic evidence clearly showed that 16-year-old Tina Issa had not been killed in self-defense as her
parents claimed Dr Victor LaVine is an expert on the Middle East and says Tina's death
sounded tragically familiar Zan Isa comes from a small town in in Palestine and he carried with him
that whole baggage every day there are dozens and even hundreds of women who are in some
fashion killed for the commission of some crime involving the sexual honor of the
family although dating is common in the United States it's discouraged in parts of the Middle East where arranged
marriages are the norm when a man and his family have daughters daughters are the purity of these women of these
daughters then guarantees a marriage you see and the delivery of the girl intact virginy intact which then
commands a higher dowy a girl who has been violated does not command a daer in fact
may not be able to find a husband Tina's death may have been part of an old tradition the honor killing she stained
the family's honor and blood Zan would say blood must cleanse blood in societies where honor killings
are common it is generally a killing done by a male member of a family presuming
to avenge a depredation on the honor of a female member of the family she had a black boyfriend and
this was enough to cause the anger of her family and of her father to arise to the boiling point where indeed he felt
that the family had been so shamed by her indiscretion that the only way to avenge it was to kill
her prosecutors were convinced she had been murdered in Cold Blood by her own parents but they knew a conviction would
be difficult it would be the Issa story of self-defense against the opinion of the medical
examiner but soon investigators got an unexpected break the FBI admitted they had
wiretapped the isa's home because of Zayn's suspected ties to known terrorists wir Taps were put in under
the foreign intelligence surveillance act known as fisa fisa allows the FBI to tap You wir tabs that run real toore 24
hours a day 7 days a week Issa was not considered important enough to monitor these wir Taps 24
hours a day so the FBI wasn't sure what was on them and they would need to be translated since the esas spoke Arabic
fortunately the FBI used the best listening devices available they're very they're top of
the line they could pick up a whisper at 50 ft some of these things if they're placed
properly placement of any listening device is crucial after breaking into the Issa apartment agents did not have
much time to plant the bug they needed not only a place to hide the device but also a power source
a battery operated device is the easiest to plant but with a long-term surveillance the battery would need to
be replaced periodically get in there once you're lucky you get in there twice you're even
luckier and the third time you're get bound to get caught the FBI had been able to connect
the devices to Electric inside isa's apartment and prosecutors learned that the wir Taps clearly picked up the
altercation between Ina and her parents but the FBI was concerned about releasing the tapes for a public trial
fearing they would compromise their electronic surveillance of other suspected terrorists ultimately the Attorney
General of the United States at the time Richard thornberg decided to release them it was the most chilling cold
blooded horrifying thing I'd ever heard or ever probably will hear you don't have to have it translated you don't
have to turn the volume up in fact at several times you want to turn the volume down but would the tape reveal whether
Tina Issa was killed in self-defense or murdered in Cold Blood [Music] prosecutors now had something almost
unheard of in the history of American Justice an audio recording of the events before during and after Tina isa's
[Music] death several weeks before the murder the FBI surveillance recorded this
telephone conversation between Zayn and his relative in which they discussed way
to make Tina's death look like an [Music] accident as you have said she threatened
me and I killed her she threatened me and I'll put the knife in her hand after she falls leave
the story to me 5 hours before Tina's death Zayn called his daughter from a previous
marriage one can fight the whole world but who wants to fight an enemy in your own house
when the news comes to me I will put on my best dress and go out my worries will
be gone forever in the Middle East shame is something which is felt collectively
by a family it is the discovery of the act you've done something bad the community knows about it your entire
family is shaped the tapes reveal the esas were angry Tina took a job at a fast food
restaurant without their approval and they were all also upset she continued to date her
boyfriend when Tina arrived home this was the welcome from her mother that's going to be the last time
she's ever going to leave that [Music] apartment Zayn and Maria then confronted Tina about her boyfriend
[Music] the argument escalates the evidence suggests zann went into the kitchen and grabbed a
knife Tina then screams pleading with her mother to [Music] help Tina pleading mother please help me
mother can't you make him stop and then he said die my daughter die when she was
dying Maria held Tina while Zayn stabbed her to death and the telltale signs was
the mother's response what help no shut up nowhere on the tape did Tina demand $5,000 and there was no reference to
Tina having a knife the tape also reveals the esas waited for close to 30 minutes to call
police after the murder Zayn and Maria Issa were both charged with first degree murder sir
what did your brother say to you you know with all the respect I do respect the news media but I think you're
overdoing it authorities speculated that the esas were afraid of what Tina might
reveal to others had there been a permanent Rift in the family this indictment alleges that there were other
reasons because of her knowledge of their terrorist activity and her plans to talk about those activities their
concern that she might talk about Ellen Harris wrote a book about this case called guarding the
secrets the prosecution offered Zayn a deal that if he plad guilty to murder in the first degree they would go lighter
on Maria and he refused to do so so he had no interest in Saving his own wife after hearing the tapes and the
medical examiner report the jury found Zayn and Maria Issa guilty the they were both sentenced
to death Zayn died in prison of natural causes in 1998 before his execution could be carried
out Maria's death sentence was later reversed on a technicality but she will spend the rest
of her life in prison without parole as for Tina Isa those who knew her are left to mourn Tina was a natural
born leader she would have done great things for this community and the Arab Community had she
lived had it not been for Zan isa's suspected ties to terrorism the prosecutor's theory about
what happened to Tina Issa would have been just that but the audio tape proved what many
jurists would have found difficult to accept you can hear in her voice her parents were murdering her
there's not a whole lot you can say it's it's just as I said earlier the most horrifying thing I ever hoped to hear
and and um it's just it's incomprehensible it's the kind of thing that once you hear it you cannot forget
it and once you hear it you don't want to hear it again the medical examiner did not hear
the audio tape until sometime after the trial but he wasn't surprised by what it
revealed I was able to parallel the information that was provided on the tapes with information that I simply saw
with my own eyes looking at the dead body on the morning that I did the autopsy as far as I'm concerned that's
intentional homicide [Music] [Music] [Music]

Brief Summary

Tina Issa was murdered by her parents, revealing ties to terrorism and cultural honor killings through FBI surveillance evidence.

Key points

The Tragic Death of Tina Issa. Tina Issa, a promising 16-year-old, is killed in a shocking incident involving her parents.
The Chilling Audio Evidence. Prosecutors uncover a tape revealing the horrifying events surrounding Tina's death.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

She was just too nice of a person for anything like this to happen.

Tina's friends reflect on her character after her death.

3:08WatchSep 16, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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