Two suspects were in custody this morning in connection with the death of a 23-year-old engineering student from Saudi Arabia whose body was found next to Interstate 10 in the Coachella Valley a month after he disappeared.
Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck will hold a news conference later today to discuss the arrest of the two suspects, a police spokeswoman said. The time and venue of the news conference are to be announced later this morning.
Capt. William Hayes, commanding officer of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery Homicide Division, confirmed Sunday that two arrests had been made in connection with the death of Cal State Northridge engineering student Abdullah Abdullatif Alkadi, who disappeared Sept. 17 from his home near the campus.
Alkadi’s body was found Thursday along Interstate 10 east of Cook Street in Palm Desert, according to the Riverside County coroner’s office. That’s about 120 miles east of Los Angeles, and about 40 miles east of the Beaumont location where the student’s cellphone had last been used, just before it was deactivated.
Shortly after his disappearance, the student’s brother told a Los Angeles TV station that the victim sold his car the day before, but that police had checked the buyer and found no connection to the disappearance.
The brother told the station the family could think of no reason why Alkadi would travel to the Riverside County desert.
