Missing Woman's Husband: 'My Wife Wazineh Suleiman 4/19/11 Is My Life'/Wife is found safe/Couple to talk w/ media

BARTOW COUNTY, Ga. -- The husband of a missing Bartow County woman said he has nothing to hide.
Abed Suleiman told Channel 2 Action News reporter Linda Stouffer, “My wife is my life. I would do anything for her to make her happy."
Family, Friends Search For Missing Woman
Wazineh Suleiman, 30, disappeared Friday around 9 p.m.
Abed Suleiman said when he returned home from a canceled hunting trip, his children said their mother had gone out to rent a movie from a Redbox machine inside a Cartersville Walmart.
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Missing woman, husband recently in financial trouble

A Bartow County woman missing since Friday and her husband were in serious financial trouble, according to documents filed in U.S. bankruptcy court.

Investigators were not sure Wednesday if the financial problems had anything to do with Wazineh Suleiman's disappearance, Bartow County Sheriff Clark Millsap told the AJC.

Abed and Wazineh Suleiman, of Cartersville, owed debtors more than $1.2 million when they filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in August, court documents show. The couple, which owed more than $150,000 on credit cards, was forced to surrender most assets, including rental property in Florida. The couple retained possession of their Law Road home and a 2009 Toyota Tacoma.

Investigators were not sure Wednesday if the financial problems had anything to do with Wazineh Suleiman's disappearance, Bartow County Sheriff Clark Millsap told the AJC.

"I don't have any idea at this point," Millsap said. "I don't know if she left on her own free will."

Wazineh Suleiman, a 30-year-old mother of five, has not been seen since around 9 p.m. Friday, when she allegedly told her children she was going to rent a movie at Walmart. Abed Suleiman has told the AJC he returned home about 10 minutes after his wife allegedly left, and he was shocked to find that his wife had left the home at night, allegedly driving the couple's 2004 Nissan Armada.

"My jaw just dropped," Abed Suleiman told the AJC.

That SUV was found Tuesday morning parked and locked at a vacant business near I-75 in Cherokee County. There was no sign of any struggle or foul play, Millsap said. Surveillance footage from Walmart cameras show no sign of the woman.

Abed Suleiman has pleaded for his wife's safe return and was organizing a search Wednesday evening in the Acworth area near where the SUV was found. He has told the AJC it is out of character for his wife to not contact him. The two were apparently exchanging text messages Friday night.

Investigators are reviewing cell phone records for more clues to the woman's disappearance, Millsap said Wednesday. Detectives also interviewed the couple's children and a friend of Abed Suleiman. Investigators are waiting on bank records to determine if Wazineh Suleiman has used a debit or credit card since she has been missing.

Wazineh Suleiman worked as an assistant in a kindergarten class at Dar-Un-Noor Academy in Atlanta, where her children also attend, Abed Suleiman said. School leaders declined to comment about the woman's disappearance Wednesday afternoon.

Abed Suleiman is a pharmacist who has worked at Redmond Regional Medical Center in Rome, according to his Facebook profile. He told the AJC he previously worked at a Walmart pharmacy in Calhoun. In bankruptcy documents, Abed Suleiman listed his monthly net income at $8,350.

Abed Suleiman said he moved his family to Cartersville from south Florida about three years ago.
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Mom of five says she's going out to rent a movie and vanishes; cops find abandoned SUV

Authorities in Georgia are searching for a young mother of five who told her family that she was going to rent a movie and never came back.

Police on Tuesday found Wazineh Suleiman's SUV parked in an empty lot 12 miles from the Wal-mart in Bartow County, Ga., where she told her kids she was going to get a movie on Friday night.

At around the same time, Suleiman's husband, Abed, said he was heading to a hunting trip in Kentucky with a pal but turned around after realizing he got his dates mixed up.

"I pulled into the driveway and my buddy said, 'Hey, your wife's truck is not there.' I look over and my jaw just dropped," Suleiman told ABC News. "I was in shock. That doesn't make sense. She just doesn't leave without telling me."

Abed Suleiman said he found his children watching television, and they told him that their mom ran out to get a movie.

County Sheriff Clark Millsap said he didn't think the 30-year-old mom left on her own.

"It's dealing with a 30-year-old woman that kind of stepped away from five kids, and then we found her vehicle abandoned yesterday so it
escalates a little bit more than just a missing endangered person," he told ABC.

Abed Suleiman told cops that he exchanged angry text messages with his wife the day she disappeared.

In the last text he received, his wife said she would toss her phone out the window, police said.

Millsap said police were searching the SUV for clues, watching Wal-Mart surveillance video and also speaking to authorities in Florida, where the couple used to live.

Abed Suleiman was not a suspect or a person of interest, Millsap said.

Wazineh Suleiman is Muslim and usually wears a headscarf, but in photos released by the family, she appears without the scarf, with brown hair and hazel eyes.

Abed said he hasn't eaten or slept since Friday, and he was organizing search crews to look for her.

He also agreed with the sheriff's hunch that she didn't take off on her own.

"There is no way," he said. "Anybody that knows us, a lot of people look at us and say these guys are a perfect couple and a perfect family."



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I don't buy the husband's story at all. They had fought that day..and he sounds just like Josh Powell when he says he "got his dates mixed up". OMG, what a bunch of b.s!!

She is a beautiful woman and I just don't think she left her kids alone to go rent a movie. That is lame. So is he. MOO.

Why would he give a photo to make a missing poster without her burqa on, which as a devout Muslim, she would never appear in public without?

The children will be valuable to the police -there are five children they had least can verify she went out to rent a movie. Theres more to this story for sure

"I pulled into the driveway and my buddy said, 'Hey, your wife's truck is not there.' I look over and my jaw just dropped," Suleiman told ABC News. "I was in shock. That doesn't make sense. She just doesn't leave without telling me."



This made the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up!!!

I don't buy his story myself, I just happened to see NG and he was being interviewed. He talks too much and too fast, for sure there's more to this story. He said he'd take a poly, so lets see if he really does and if he passes. I think we're getting used to these stories..... unfortunately.

Agreed..BS coming from the husband.

He got his hunting date mixed up..really?

His mouth dropped when she went to the store?

They argued.

He arrived home ten minutes after she left.

C'mon you have to get better than that. He is looking mighty guilty to me.

Bring on the LDT machine.

I am not buying his BS.

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Bartow Sheriff: Missing Mom 'Alive And Well'

Nearly a week after her disappearance, a missing Bartow County mother turned up Thursday.

Bartow County Sheriff Clark Millsap told Channel 2’s Linda Stouffer on Thursday that 30-year-old Wazineh Suleiman had been found. He said he was contacted by another sheriff overnight.

"She is alive and well," Millsap said.

He said Suleiman does not want her location exposed, but her husband said she is still in the state

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Missing Georgia woman Wazineh Suleiman, the mother of five young children who disappeared nearly a week ago, has been found safe and is hiding in an undisclosed location, police told ABC News today.
She is alive and well," Bartow County Sheriff Clark Millsap. "I received a phone call from a sheriff here in the state of Georgia. At her request I will not tell you where she is."

My wife is my life," he said. "Anybody that know us, a lot of people look at us and say these guys are a perfect couple and a perfect family."

Wazineh Suleiman lived with her family in Israel for two months. She had recently gotten her first job, working at one of her children's schools.

Wazineh Suleiman married Abed when she was 17. The devout Muslim couple had recently found themselves in deep financial trouble. The couple is more than half a million dollars in debt to more than 50 creditors, according to a federal bankruptcy court . They filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in August, the court documents show.

Police had found Wazineh Suleiman's abandoned SUV in an empty parking lot 12 miles from the Walmart where was supposed to have gone to rent a movie.

Abed Suleiman had gone to Kentucky Friday on a hunting trip with a friend but returned to Georgia when he realized he'd confused the dates for when hunting season begins, he said.

"I pulled into the driveway and my buddy said, 'Hey, your wife's truck is not there.' I look over and my jaw just dropped," Suleiman said Tuesday. "I was in shock. That doesn't make sense. She just doesn't leave without telling me."

He said he found his kids watching television.

Bankruptcy court documents show the Suleimans were behind on mortgage payments on two rental homes in Florida and another in Georgia. They moved from Florida to Cartersville, Ga., about two years ago, police said.

When they filed for bankruptcy Aug. 11, 2010, the couple said they had made a little more $29,000 that year in income. The couple claimed they owned assets worth more than $600,000 but owed creditors $1,242,280.22, according to court documents.

Liens had been placed against their home and one of their vehicles, the documents show. Abed Suleiman has worked as a pharmacist, according to his Facebook page.

Wazineh Suleiman is a devout Muslim who usually wears a head scarf. Her husband has used images of her with no headscarf in missing person posters, hoping someone will recognize her. He said she would not have left on her own. The sheriff also doubted that she was a runaway, saying he doubted she left on her own.

"It's dealing with a 30-year-old woman that kind of stepped away from five kids and then we found her vehicle abandoned yesterday so it escalates a little bit more than just a missing endangered person," he said.

There is no history of domestic violence between the couple while they've lived in Bartow County, police said. The couple moved from Florida to Georgia about two years ago, police said.



The sheriff's statement indicates that Suleiman, 30, ran away.

"She does not want anyone to know where she is. We are not going to divulge her location at her request," Millsap said.

The sheriff said investigators are interviewing the woman. She was with a friend, police said. The friend called her husband, Abed Suleiman, police said.

Sources told ABC News that Wazineh Suleiman is extremely afraid of her husband.

Before Wazineh Suleiman surfaced, her husband, Abed Suleiman, was questioned for three hours Wednesday night by police.

"I was a suspect ... and they wanted to totally rule me out. They kind of already did that. They just wanted to iron out all the wrinkles and they did that," Abed Suleiman told ABC Affiliate WSBTV as he left the sheriff's office Wednesday night.

Abed Suleiman claimed that his wife had left Friday night to rent a movie from Walmart and never returned. Surveillance video showed that Wazineh Suleiman never entered the Walmart. Abed Suleiman had just returned from a canceled hunting trip in Kentucky with his friend Jason Seritt when he found his wife had disappeared, he claimed.

Seritt said that Wazineh Suleiman owes everyone an apology.

"She put us through all this hell and everybody pointing fingers and saying we did this and we did that," Seritt said.

He said that he never saw the couple argue in the three years he's known them.

"They seemed happy every time I was around them," Seritt said. "He's a real good guy. He'd give anybody the shirt off their back. He'd give her any and everything that she wanted."

Abed and Wazineh Suleiman exchanged heated text messages following her disappearance. In the text messages, Wazineh Suleiman cursed at her husband and threatened to throw the phone out the window, Abed Suleiman said. "There were two text messages where there was profanity used. We are very religious, very religious...Wazineh would never, ever, ever...talk to me like that or text me like that. She never has and I was saying something is not right," Abed Suleiman said Wednesday.

There is no record of domestic violence between the couple. He told ABC News that he treated his wife like a queen.

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The husband says his wife was his life and he had a perfect family - LE says she is very afraid of her husband. Amazing isnt it. He was a liar just not a murderer - maybe not yet. It sounds like abuse to me.

I assume that now she has embarrassed her husband and if she was extremely frightened of him before she may have more reason to be scared now.
I agree Artgal, he isn't a murderer, yet. I'm afraid for this woman.

Wow, this turned out good that she is in fact alive, although and IMO, No way could I have left my kids behind if I was in an abusive situation! They would be with me in hiding!!

Missing Georgia mother of 5 alive and well

A Georgia mother of five who disappeared last week is alive and well, authorities said Thursday.
Bartow County, Georgia, Sheriff Clark Millsap said Wazineh Suleiman does not want anyone to know her location, "and we respect that and we will be continuing this investigation to the point that no crimes have been committed."
Later, her father, Basem Jaber, said Suleiman was "safe" and with members of the sheriff's department. He said he did not know why his daughter went missing, saying only he was very happy she'd been found and he expected to see her for the first time later Thursday afternoon.
"She's good, she's in good condition," he told reporters Thursday outside the Bartow County sheriff's office in Cartersville.
Suleiman's husband, Abed Suleiman, said that just after his wife of 14 years disappeared Friday, he received profanity-laced text messages that were very uncharacteristic of her.
"It's over and I'm throwing the phone out the window,'' read one of the messages. Others contained curses, including the f-word, he said,
"She would never, ever send me a text message or use that word in front of me or to me at all," Suleiman said Wednesday on HLN's "Nancy Grace."
"That's the way she is,'' he said. His 30-year-old wife is a kindergarten teacher's assistant.
Suleiman said he attended Friday prayers after work last week and then brought home four pizzas at his wife's request.
The family ate dinner together, Suleiman said, before he set out for Kentucky on a turkey hunting trip with a male friend.
Later, Wazineh Suleiman left the couple's five children, ages 6 through 12, alone while she was supposedly going to a Walmart in Cartersville to rent a video, which she did not do. Police say there is no evidence she ever made it to Walmart.
When Suleiman and his friend were about an hour from home they were informed that turkey hunting season was to begin the following weekend. They immediately turned around, Suleiman says.
The friend corroborated the story and receipts back it up, Millsap said.
When he arrived home around 9 p.m., Suleiman found his children home alone, something he said had never happened before at night.
His oldest child told him Wazineh Suleiman had been gone 10 minutes. That evening, Abed Suleiman called police to report her missing.
On Tuesday, the family's 2004 Nissan Armada was found in an empty parking lot near Interstate 75.
Abed Suleiman, a pharmacist, says his wife's credit cards were not used, but authorities were still working to retrieve company records to confirm that.
The couple filed for bankruptcy in August. Abed Suleiman said, "I have a good income and I bought two very expensive properties in south Florida" that they ended up being unable to afford.
Millsap, on Wednesday night, would not say what the children or people who work with Wazineh Suleiman told investigators.
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Interesting she married at 17 so young but in this culture its common. Im actually very surprised that she left her five children alone she must have been desperate to escape.

I think the so-called trip was a set-up to try to catch her doing something he prohibited---maybe renting movies. She realized that he was back, and she was really going to get it, so she went into hiding because she is deathly afraid of him.

Yes Lisette! that makes sense - he also said that "my wife never goes anywhere without telling me"
sounds like he has control over her, or had that is!

I watched NG last night and could NOT stand listening to that man's interview, he did not sound like a worried husband who's wife was missing to me! He sounded so "Matter of fact" like he was OVER describing details of where he was that night. To be honest, I thought I would be reading a different outcome then this and you know what I mean. JMO, I think she finally Had enough and saw her window of opportunity and took it! I still don't like that she left her children behind though!

Well, I think in her mind with the oldest child there,
and the five of them together she probably reasoned they would be safe - as she knew her husband was coming home. It would be very difficult to run around with five kids in tow thats for sure and maybe she was desperate.

lisette wrote:I think the so-called trip was a set-up to try to catch her doing something he prohibited---maybe renting movies. She realized that he was back, and she was really going to get it, so she went into hiding because she is deathly afraid of him.

Well, with five kids if they cant watch movies, then
the woman must after started to lose her mind.
I wonder what will happen now. They are in bad shape financially and there are the five kids - thats why so many women go back to abusive relationships. They also dont get much support from their own family in the culture that they are from - that also is a problem
for her. If they are religious as he says divorce is a big deal for them.

artgal16 wrote:Well, I think in her mind with the oldest child there,
and the five of them together she probably reasoned they would be safe - as she knew her husband was coming home. It would be very difficult to run around with five kids in tow thats for sure and maybe she was desperate.

I am relieved she is alive and safe for now. Sometimes it is hard enough for the battered woman to get away that they can't take the children right away. Her culture is so different than mine. Her upbringing may not have allowed her to take her children.

That poor woman. And, she was probably treated like a slave. I feel for her. I hope she remains safe and gets some good counseling. I also hope that she somehow gets her kids back.

Bartow County couple reunites, will discuss wife's disappearance

Abed Suleiman said Tuesday that he and his wife are back together again and “happier than ever” and he wants to dispel all the false stories about why she disappeared for almost a week.

Alexis Stevens Wazineh Suleiman went missing from her Cartersville house on Friday, April 8. She turned up unharmed on Thursday, April 14.

The 30-year-old mother of five was found last Thursday, but neither her family nor the Bartow County sheriff, whose office was leading the search for her, would say where Wazineh Suleiman had been since leaving her children at home, alone, watching television while she supposedly went to Walmart to rent a video.

Abed Suleiman began contacting media outlets Tuesday morning, inviting them to face-to-face interviews later in the day. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is scheduled to meet with the Suleiman's Tuesday afternoon.

“Wazineh and I need to get a message out there!” Abed Suleiman said in the emailed invitation.

The husband reported his wife missing when he returned home from an aborted hunting trip about 10 minutes after she left the evening of April 8. Their five children -- between the ages of 6 and 12 – were at home.

In the following days there was speculation that Abed Suleiman had harmed her or that Wazineh Suleiman had been kidnapped.

The mystery deepened when her parked car was found abandoned at a vacant business near I-75 in Cherokee County a few days after she was reported missing.

That was fueled by reports that they had financial troubles. According to documents filed in U.S. bankruptcy court, the Suleimans owed more than $1.2 million when they filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in August. The couple, with more than $150,000 in credit card debt, was forced to surrender most of their assets, including rental property in Florida. The couple kept their Law Road home and a 2009 Toyota Tacoma.

Wazineh Suleiman answered a phone call placed Tuesday morning in response to the email but the husband got on the phone to explain what they wanted to say to reporters.

“We want people out there to understand how things work,” Abed Suleiman told the AJC.

He said they wanted to talk about “life, family and marriage” and to address the questions raised by the “pessimists. Don’t believe all that. Just have faith in God and look at all the positives. Everything is in God’s plan and everything happens for a reason.”

Abed Suleiman said he and his wife will discuss “everything. Nothing will be held back.” They will talk about their lives growing up, “our religion and our culture," Abed Suleiman said.

“Things will be pulled out of context if I don’t tell you how we were raised,” he said. “I’m not doing anything over the phone ... This [his wife’s disappearance] could have went many different ways. There are so many outcomes. People started assuming the worst: I murdered her, I abused her, she ran off with another man.”

But “first and foremost,” Abed Suleiman said, “she’s here. She’s back because she wants to be. We’re happier than ever. We’re looking at this as a lesson, an eye-opener.”
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This man has it all down..an answer for everything. I would bet he is telling his wife Exactly what to say. He makes me sick!!!

I wonder WHY she left the secluded place? She more than likely missed her kids and if his treatment of her is all she knows, she probably felt out of sorts w/out him. Sad, but true.

This should be interesting. I wonder what reporters he w/be talking to.

"The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is scheduled to meet with the Suleiman's Tuesday afternoon."

The above was the only media mentioned. I wonder if JVM or NG will pick it up?

I agree, husband has an answer for everything, then more. I'd be willing to bet that she came back because of her kids and she's been w/ this guy forever, she probably can't support herself and kids w/ out him. So sad.

It is Tues afternoon. Let's get on w/the show!!!

Raine, I agree with every word you said.

Husband Of Formerly Missing Bartow County Woman Talks About Where She Was, Why She Left

Abed Suleiman is clearing up questions about where his wife was for six days and why she left her five kids and husband. Wazineh Suleiman did not want to talk on camera or with reporters.
“There was a lack of communication there. I was so blind to some of this, I couldn't see any of this coming,” said Abed Suleiman.
Abed Suleiman admits he is partly to blame for his wife's disappearance. Wazineh Suleiman went missing after her husband returned from a trip unexpectedly to find the kids home alone. They exchanged heated text messages.
“She’s like, ‘Oh crap, I just lied to him, he's home.’ She's like, ‘He's going to kill me, he's going to kill me.’ I even told her in a text message, ‘I'm going to kill you,’” he said.
For days people searched for the missing mother of five, wondering what would make her leave her children behind. Suleiman admits he’s pushed Wazineh Suleiman before, but said it was all in the past.
“Give me some space, and maybe you know, but nothing physical where I would punch her or knock her out or hospitalize her or anything like that, no,” said Abed Suleiman.
But that threatening text message apparently scared her enough to sleep in her car in an empty parking lot her first night away. Suleiman said she spent the next few days in a women's shelter in Cobb County. Suleiman said he’s convinced she left because of what her actions meant in the Muslim culture.
“She didn't leave here because she feared for her life. She left because it's a great dishonor and disgrace and to us that's a lot when you do that to your husband and your family,” said Abed Suleiman.
Suleiman said when his wife came home, she admitted she needed a break.
“Everyone refers to my wife as a supermom, superwoman, superwife. She snapped. She's like, ‘I can't handle this anymore,’” he said.
Now the couple wants others to learn from what they went through.
“It’s very important to communicate. Never ever, even resort to the smallest white lie,” said Abed Suleiman.
The two had an arranged marriage when they were teenagers. Abed Suleiman said he will never tell or text his wife that he'll kill her again. He also said the kids were so happy to have their mom home; they hugged her and wouldn't let go.
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There's a video at the above link, I couldn't embed.

It's that dishonor and disgrace in their culture that made me think he's abused her before and I still believe it now. He has to save face somehow and so he seeks out the media with this story a few days later but I bet he hasn't fooled the public. IF she wasn't abused when she came home in the last few days it's probably because he knows he is being watched. That poor woman, she probably feels she has no way out. Maybe this situation being so public will save her for a little while but once an abuser, always an abuser. This is all JMOO.

I agree, Raine. Right now, they or HE is going by what is commonly called "The Honeymoon Phase". After an attack or some major upheaval, the abuser is extremely apologetic to the point that the victim believes (& longs to believe) that the abuse was "the last time. He is sorry & it will Never happen again." This guy is the poster child of an abusive man.

What really got me is he thinks she came back due to their culture. That may be a small part of it, but she came back because of her children. No question in my mind. And, for him to say she told a "white lie" or whatever he stated and that he always knows where she is shows me right there what he is all about. They are also experts at minimizing their mode of operation. Oh, no.. never used her like a punching bag.. just a little slap every now and then. Take what he says and times that by 1000.

In the video, he said it was "God's Will."

This is NOT the last of what we have heard. He will now Really watch her like a hawk, and when he is away..will make sure one or more of his "buddies" keeps an eye out on her. Once the publicity dies down and she does anything that he construes as "dishonoring him", she will be back in the news. I only hope we don't read one day that he killed her with one of his hunting guns.