Bangladeshi American Brothers Kill Family of Four in Murder-Suicide in Suburban Dallas Home
- Farhan Towhid, 19, and Tanvir Towhid, 21, were students at University of Texas at Austin, and were battling depression.
Two Bangladeshi American brothers were found dead along with four members of their family in their home in Allen, a suburb of Dallas in Texas on April 5 morning. The two brothers, Farhan Towhid, 19, and Tanvir Towhid, 21, killed their parents, Farhan’s twin sister and their grandmother, who was visiting from Bangladesh. They were identified as Towhidul Islam; 54; Iren Islam, 56; Altafun Nessa, 77; and Farbin Towhid, 19.
The murder-suicide was the result of a pact the two brothers made, according to a suicide note posted online. The note, written by Farhan and posted on Google Docs was also linked to his Instagram handle. Both the Google Docs and the Instagram handle have now been removed.
Both brothers were students at University of Texas at Austin and battled depression. Farhan Towhid withdrew from school in January. Farhan’s twin sister, Farbin Towhid, had a full scholarship to NYU, FOX 4 reported.
Several news media had access to the letter, where Farhan talked about his years-long battle with depression and self-harm. He also expressed anger at the latter seasons of the TV series, “The Office,” and also talked about inadequate gun control in the U.S.
“The plan was simple. We get two guns. I take one and shoot my sister and grandma, while my brother kills our parents with the other. Then we take ourselves out.”
“Hey everyone. I killed myself and my family. If I’m going to die, I might as well get some attention,” he wrote. He said the idea of the murder-suicide was his brother’s. He wrote that in February, his brother said, “If we can’t fix everything in a year we’ll kill ourselves and our family.”
The letter details the brother’s plan. “The plan was simple. We get two guns. I take one and shoot my sister and grandma, while my brother kills our parents with the other. Then we take ourselves out.” He added: “I love my family. I genuinely do. And that’s exactly why I decided to kill them.”
The police told the Dallas Morning News that they were alerted to the home by a call from a friend who was concerned that someone at the home was suicidal. It is not clear when the deaths took place, but police believe they may have taken place on April 3 night based on evidence found in the house.
Sergeant Jon Felty of the Allen Police Department told the media that the investigation into the deaths is ongoing. He added that none of the neighbors reported hearing anything and that there were no reports of any gunfire in the area. Hw said the family has no known relatives in North Texas. He said police did locate some family members in Florida.
Neighbors described the family as being nice and friendly. “The family is a very nice and happy family,” friend Deelra Hassan told NBCDFW. “We don’t understand this. We are very shocked. Very shocked.” Another friend Mizan Rahman told the news outlet that they were always jolly and talking. “I don’t know behind the scenes what happened, but this is really, really devastating for the whole community.”
The University of Texas at Austin released a statement on April 5 on the deaths of Farhan and Tanvir Towhid, who were both former students at the college. “Today we received the extremely sad news about the deaths of two former students, Farhan Towhid and his brother Tanvir Towhid, and their family. The news is devastating to our university. We express our deepest sympathies to their extended family and friends.”