Slayings ‘a tragedy we share,’ says prayer leader as hundreds mourn East York family

Some 1,500 mourners gathered for the funeral of homicide victims Zahra Abdille and her two sons, Faris and Zain. The funeral was held at the Khalid Bin Al-Walid Mosque in Etobicoke before they were buried at Beechwood Cemetery.

By Olivia Carville
Saturday, December 6, 2014

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A huge crowd gathered to honour the lives of Zahra Abdille and her two young sons on Friday, but the slain family had no immediate relatives at their funeral.

Abdille’s mother is dead and her father leads a nomadic lifestyle in East Africa — it’s likely he does not even know his daughter and grandsons are dead, Mughtar Yosow, Abdille’s distant cousin told the Star.

Yosow, who lives in Scarborough, was called by police last Saturday night, after Abdille and her two children were found dead in their Thorncliffe Park Dr. apartment. Abdille’s husband, Yusuf, who is being investigated for the triple homicide, fell to his death on the nearby Don Valley Parkway a few hours before the bodies were discovered.

Yosow had to call Abdille’s family in Kenya to deliver the news.

The bodies of Abdille, 43, and her sons, Faris, 13, and Zain, 8, were released to Yosow. He was responsible for arranging their funeral and burial.

“No immediate family are here,” Yosow told the Star as gravediggers shoveled dirt onto the three caskets lined up side by side in the Beechwood Cemetery grave.

Abdille and her sons were wrapped in white shroud, in keeping with Muslim tradition. Her casket was placed in between her children in the grave.

Yosow told the Star Abdille and her sons died from stab wounds. Police would not confirm their cause of death on Friday, saying the investigation is still ongoing.

Mughtar said relatives in Kenya are reeling over the deaths.

“It’s unbelievable. You can’t do any worse than this,” he said.

Abdille, who worked as a Toronto Public Health nurse, fled to an abused women’s shelter last year where she tried to get an emergency court order for the custody of her children, the Star reported Tuesday.

But, she did not have enough evidence to prove her children were in danger, she could not afford a lawyer and she did not qualify for legal aid, so Abdille returned to her violent home.

Mughtar said Abdille would visit him often, the last time he saw her was about a month ago, but he had no idea she was a victim of domestic abuse.

“I never knew he was violent. I knew he was a controlling creature, but I didn’t know he was violent,” Mughtar said.

Mourner Robert Doucett met the Abdilles when they arrived in Toronto as refugee immigrants in the late 1990s and moved into an apartment that he was supervising.

“Never in 20 years did I hear any comment from Zahra about any kind of problem or physical abuse in the home,” he said at the burial.

“I’m numb. I don’t know what to think about it. I loved them all very much and all I can do is weep.”

Doucett said he thought Yusuf Abdille, who worked as a mechanic in Toronto, was a “nice man.”

The funeral for Abdille and her children was held at the Khalid Bin Al-Walid Mosque in Etobicoke and chairman Said Omar said about 1,500 people attended.

Women and men were in separate rooms, divided by a wall. Abdille’s open casket, at first on view in the women’s room, was later moved, to be placed next to her children in the men’s room.

The women were seated close together in rows on the floor, some weeping into their hijabs during the service.

“The whole entire Muslim community shares this sorrow. It is a tragedy we share. It unites us,” Omar said during the service.

Zahra Abdille fled Kenya for Canada in the late 1990s. She married Yusuf Abdille in Toronto in 1998.

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