Saudi Arabian sisters found dead in Canterbury unit were daughters of ‘well-connected’ family

Two sisters whose decomposing bodies were found in a south-western Sydney apartment come from a well-connected Saudi Arabian family, sources say.

Asra Abdullah Alsehli, 24, and Amaal Abdullah Alsehli, 23, were found dead in their first-floor unit in Canterbury on June 7. 

Their remains lay in separate bedrooms for a month before they were discovered by authorities who were trying to evict them for failing to pay rent.

The case has been shrouded in mystery from the beginning – police conducted three welfare checks on the sisters before they died, there were no signs of forced entry at the unit, no clear sings of injury, and the cause of death remains undetermined.

The revelation the dead women are the daughters of a ‘well-connected’ family in the Saudi Kingdom has further added to the intrigue.

The Consulate of Saudi Arabia in Sydney has offered its condolences to the family, which policy say are helping them with their investigation.  

The Coroner has not released their bodies back to their family – although it is understood they could be buried in Sydney.

Pictured: Asra Abdullah Alsehli, 24. She and her sister were found dead in Sydney’s south-west under ‘suspicious’ circumstances

At a press conference on Wednesday, Detective Claudia Allcroft confirmed police know very little about the women and renewed an appeal for public information – anyone who saw the sisters in their final days has been urged to come forward.

While police told Daily Mail Australia in June that the toxicology tests had been fast-tracked, detectives said on Wednesday they were still waiting on the results.

Toxicology reports are normally processed within four and six weeks.

Detective Allcroft said she has ‘no reason’ to believe the Alsehli sisters fled their homeland, sources suggest otherwise.

The women are believed to have left Saudi Arabia in 2017, when they were 18 and 19 years’ old.

Upon arrival in Australia, they contacted a refugee agency and lived under the radar on bridging visas for five years.

Daily Mail Australia posed a number of questions to NSW Police, but they would not provide comment.

Eight weeks’ on from the grisly discovery, the case is still plagued with mysteries and inconsistencies. 

The bodies of the two women were found in a Canterbury apartment block (pictured) after they failed to pay rent for several weeks and mail piled up

A black BMW coupe covered in dust was removed from the garage of the apartment block the day after the bodies were found 

Their deaths have been reported in Middle Eastern publications, but they shed no light as to what the women were doing in Australia, or how they passed. 

Detective Allcroft would not release details about the women’s visa status on Wednesday, but she did say officers are in touch with the family – who instructed the consulate to act on their behalf. 

While the details of the Alsehlis sisters’ lives in Saudi Arabia have not yet been pieced together, what is known about their time in Australia begs more questions than answers.

Both women registered ABNs in 2018 for sole trading to a Wetherill Park address, in Sydney’s West, but police still can’t confirm what they did for work. 

They also drove a black BMW coupe which normally costs upwards of $38,000, and lived in a modern, two-bedroom $490-per-week apartment.

In 2018, Asra filed an AVO against a 28-year-old man, but the matter was withdrawn in court the following year and the details of the application are unknown.

There car was also keyed in late 2021, but is unknown whether it was a coincidence or whoever destroyed their property had malicious intent. 

Daily Mail Australia understands the two girls fled Saudi Arabia in 2017. Police are pictured at the apartment block on June 8

Forensics last week scoured the unit (pictured) in the wake of the grisly discovery 

The women regularly went to the local service station for coffee and energy drinks where workers described them as ‘cheerful’, but noted they would only respond to questions – they never started the conversation. 

There were also three welfare checks carried out by police in the months before the girls were finally discovered in separate beds of their first-floor Canterbury unit as mail piled up outside their door.

Police believe the women died in May – around the time they stopped paying rent. 

As detectives struggle to find out what the women were doing in Australia, police on Wednesday released their photos for the first time.

It is hoped the images may trigger the memories of members of the public who may have seen the young women’s faces or had any involvement in their lives. 

‘We hope that someone may be able to assist our investigators,’ Detective Allcroft said.

‘Either through sightings, or those who knew the sisters and may have some information on their movements prior to their death.’