Iraqi immigrant beaten to death in home may have been divorcing
Shaima Alawadi and her husband may have been on the verge of divorce when Alawadi, an Iraqi immigrant, was fatally beaten in their El Cajon home, according to a search warrant released Thursday.
In addition, the couple were at odds with their 17-year-old daughter, Fatima, who was angry about their effort to make her marry a cousin.
The search warrant allowed police to take boxes of potential evidence from the family home and Ford Explorer.
The body of Alawadi, 32, was found by Fatima, who also told police she found a threatening note.
Alawadi’s husband, Kassim Alhimidi, told police he had taken the couple's younger children to school when an unknown attacker brutally beat his wife.
In the couple's vehicle investigators found divorce documents with Alawadi’s name.
Alawadi's husband and daughter accompanied her body last week to Iraq for burial.
Alawadi was beaten March 21 with a tire iron and died March 24. She immigrated to the U.S. in the mid-1990s and lived in Dearborn, Mich., before moving to El Cajon.
The couple have five children, and Fatima is the eldest.
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-- Tony Perry in San Diego
Photo: Kassim Alhimidi embraces the body of his wife, Shaima Alawadi, during a memorial service at the Islamic Center of Lakeside in March. Credit: Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune
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