zein s hand, wounds that he said were defensive. the story didn t match what we saw. and was a small, like i said, looked like a paper cut. i think that in stabbing her, his hands were so bloody and slippery, what really happened, his hand slipped down on the blade of the knife and cut it right across the outside of his palm right below the little finger. this explains why zein 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 a boyfriend? it sounds so aberrant, so strange. i mean, she was a model student. we are talking about absolute control. zein isa still mentally was listening to tapes from circa 1945 in a palestinian village and that s the way he thought
between zein and his relative in which they discussed ways to make tina s death look like an accident. translator: as you have said, she threatened me and i killed her. translator: she threatened me and i will put the knife in her hand after she falls. leave the story to me. five hours before tina s death, zein called his daughter from a previous marriage. translator: one can fight the whole world. but who wants to fight an enemy in your own house? translator: 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 have done something bad, the community knows about it, your entire family is shamed. the tapes reveal the isas were angry tina took a job at a fast-food restaurant without
have this happen to. why would he want to stab his own child? it s terrible. i feel so bad. tina s classmates told police that tina often rebelled against her parents and their old-world traditions. they also said the isas objected to tina s choice of a boyfriend. he was an honor student. he was very, very bright. he was at the magnate schools, 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 she had a boyfriend and they could no longer control her. when the fbi heard about tina s death, they called lead investigator harry hager with some astonishing news. u.s. intelligence had photographed zein isa attending a meeting with known terrorists in mexico. all had ties to the palestine liberation organization and
working the night shift at a fast-food restaurant. according to the isas, tina arrived home around midnight and there was an argument. tina said she wanted to live on her own and demanded her parents give her $5,000 to support herself. when they refused, they say tina pulled a knife from her backpack and threatened them. in the tussle, zein said he turned the knife on his daughter in self-defense. the father was saying it was self-defense. 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 together that their daughter had attacked them and then in defending themselves, the father killed her. news of tina isa s death stunned her friends and classmates. just her charisma, just her attitude overall, period. she was too nice of a person to