KENNEWICK — Nabil Mohamed and his new wife were missing for nearly a month before Kennewick police found their bodies in their home Tuesday.
When Nabil, 65, his wife Hifza Khan, 63, and his son, Zuhaib Mohamed, 26, were discovered, they had been dead for at least several days, confirmed Benton County Coroner Bill Leach.
Now, Kennewick police are investigating how they died.
Police say they are investigating whether this is a double homicide and a suicide but they said it was too early in the investigation to draw a conclusion.
Family members alerted Kennewick police that they weren’t able to reach the couple, and investigators believed they were at Nabil Mohamed’s home at 2809 Dawes Street.
According to a missing persons poster from the Islamic Center of Tri-Cities, the couple hadn’t been seen since Sept. 22.
Nabil, an agricultural and biological engineer, and his wife were active members of the West Richland center, said Sadik Reka with the center.
“We’re deeply going to miss him and his presence,” he told the Herald. “He was exceptional to the community. He’s been loved in the community.”
Detectives obtained a search warrant for the home on Oct. 16.
While police haven’t said they believed Zuhaib was responsible for the couple’s disappearance, his possible presence in the house was enough for them to bring the Tri-City Regional SWAT team along when they arrived at the house Tuesday morning.
Kennewick police and SWAT surrounded the Dawes Street home and started trying to get the attention of the people inside. After receiving no response, officers broke in.
Inside, they discovered the bodies of all three but more information about circumstances inside the house were not made public.
The coroner’s office is still coordinating the autopsies that will likely happen next week, said Leach. They haven’t been able to identify exactly how they died at this point, he said.
Anyone with information about the family or the deaths is asked to contact Kennewick police using the non-emergency dispatch number at 509-628-0333.
Islamic Center members
Nabil Mohamed and Khan married recently. His previous wife, Munazza Nabil, died in June 2018 after a long struggle with brain cancer, according to her obituary at the time.
Concerns about the missing couple led the center to put the missing poster on Facebook on Oct. 12.
Among the people sharing the poster, one commenter said Nabil Mohamed was a dear friend. Several others prayed for the couple’s safe return.
Since graduating from the University of Idaho with a master’s degree in agricultural engineering, Nabil had spent a career working in agriculture, most recently with Lamb Weston, according to his LinkedIn profile.
After spending nearly nine years as a water and energy resource engineer for GreenWood Resources in Boardman, Ore., he moved on to Lamb Weston as an environmental manager in 2017.
He moved into the Dawes Street home in 2011, according to Benton County Assessor records.
It’s not clear how long Khan had lived in the Tri-Cities.
Delta High grad
Zuhaib Mohamed was Nabil Mohamed and Munazza Nabil’s son and worked as a part-time software sales representative since April 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The 2015 Delta High School graduate studied economics at Washington State University Tri-Cities in Richland. His profile does not show if he received a degree from the university.
While it’s unclear what happened in the past few years, he had been busy in the years before his mother’s death, including running an online reseller business for two years.
After graduating high school, he spent a year as a procurement assistant at HiLine Engineering and Fabrication, according to his LinkedIn profile. Then he worked clearing tables at Anthony’s restaurant and at Tim Bush Car Wash until May 2018.
None of the three had previously runs in with law enforcement, according to online court records, and police said Tuesday they hadn’t been called previously for any problems at the Dawes Street home.
