5 chilling details about Nada Huranieh’s murder

The 2017 murder of Nada Huranieh shocked the town of Farmington Hills. Nada, a 35-year-old mother of three was murdered in her own home, and soon her son Muhammad Altantawi was convicted for her murder. The case received immense attention because of the brutality with which it was carried out.

From the elaborately planned method of murder to the deeper complications within the family dynamics, the details of Nada Huranieh's murder are truly tragic and shocking. Dateline NBC season 32 episode 44, titled, The Shadow in the Window, explores the above case. It hits the screens on September 20 at 10 p.m. EST.

The official synopsis of the episode reads:

"A teenager's life is turned upside down when she finds her mother lying on the patio. What initially seems like a fatal accident reveals itself to be something much more disturbing."

Below are five chilling aspects of the case that continue to haunt those who followed its unfolding.

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5 shocking details about Nada Huranieh's murder

1) A brutal murder staged as an accident

Nada Huranieh's death was initially reported to have been an accident. She was discovered lying outside her family's dwelling, underneath a window on the second floor, and the initial inclination was to believe that she had fallen.

Instead, it was later discovered that Nada had been smothered with a damp cloth or towel before being pitched out of the window. Prosecutors contended that Muhammad staged the scene to make it seem that she had accidentally fallen out of the window.

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2) A son suspected of killing his mother

The most shocking twist of this murder story is that Nada's son, Muhammad Altantawi was accused and later found guilty of murdering her. When the son committed the murder, he was only 16 years of age. He harbored a bias towards his father due to his acrimonious divorce from his mother.

The prosecution claimed such loyalty was a major motive behind the killing. The additional tragic aspect here is that such an atrocity was perpetrated by a teenager against his mother.

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3) Cell phone evidence linked Muhammad to the crime

Evidence recovered by investigators through cell phone records showed several phone calls between Muhammad and his father, Bassell, during the time of Nada's death. Some of those calls were allegedly made at the time Muhammad claimed to the police that he was sleeping.

His alibi looked suspect to a great extent, coupled with other inconsistencies in the accounts he gave to the police made his case weaker in reality. Phone records also suggested that there was a degree of pre-planning involved as he sent his father a picture of the window approximately three weeks before Nada's death.

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4) Surveillance footage raises suspicion

Further chilly details emerged through surveillance footage taken from the family's house. In this footage, shadows and lights were seen to move around the house a few hours before the death of Nada Huranieh.

Cleaning products and a ladder were also seen near the window through which Nada had been flung. Video evidence added that much care was put into planning the crime, to the extent that Muhammed would later claim to have absolutely nothing to do with his mother's death.

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5) A family torn apart through the tragic event of murder

Aside from snuffing the life out of Nada Huranieh, the murder also broke her family. Her husband, Bassell, had been involved in a violent domestic dispute with Nada Huranieh before the murder. While their marriage was already strained, he had also pleaded guilty to charges of spousal abuse and healthcare fraud prior to Nada's death.

The Altantawi children, especially the younger sister Aya, were terribly shaken up by their mother's death and their brother's conviction. Aya also happened to be the one who had discovered her mother's body and called 911.

Aya was honest and emotional during the trial and claimed that their mother would forgive Muhammad despite what he had done, thus providing more evidence for the emotional trauma caused by this crime.

As reported by The Detroit News, Muhammad was sentenced to 35-60 years in prison for the murder of Nada Huranieh in 2022.

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For more details on the case, catch Dateline season 32 episode 44 on NBC.