A devout Muslim tracked his step-daughter over four states to murder her for bringing dishonour on her family, according to police.
Rahim Alfetlawi, 45, followed 20-year-old Jessica Mokdad to her grandmother’s home in Warren, Michigan, and shot his step-daughter in the head.
Alfetlawi gave himself in to police, claiming the gun went off by accident when he pulled it out.
But detectives didn’t believe his story and charged him with first degree murder.
‘He’s a strict Muslim; she was more Americanised,’ Lieutenant Michael Torey, of Warren police, told Fox News.
Alfetlawi reportedly became enraged when Miss Mokdad stopped wearing the traditional Muslim headscarf.
According to friends, she hid her belongings in a bush outside the family home in Coon Creek, Michigan, and then fled after telling her step-father she was taking out the trash.
She travelled 700 miles through Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana back to Michigan.
But her step-father followed her on Saturday. The girl’s blood-covered body was found in a bedroom by her grandmother.
‘It would just seem like he had some sick obsession. It wasn’t just like a step-father-daughter relationship,’ said a friend.
The victim’s mother, Wendy, showed no sympathy for her husband, who had known his victim since she was seven-years-old.
‘He was too overbearing, over-controlling – things I thought were just normal, strict parenting, really. Now I look back, I say no, it was too much,’ she was quoted as saying.
She said she was glad Michigan doesn’t have the death penalty.
‘That would be too easy,’ she said. ‘I want him to suffer everyday just like she suffered.’
Alfetlawi was arraigned on Monday and will next be in court on May 12.