A Maryland couple died in extreme heat while fulfilling their dream of making the Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia – with scorching temperatures killing thousands during the journey.
Alieu Dausy Wurie, 71, and Isatu Tejan Wurie, 65, were last heard from on June 15, when the couple told their daughter they had been waiting for hours, in extreme heat, for a way to transport to take them to Mount Arafat.
After the pilgrimage was completed, a member of the group contacted the family and informed them that their parents had died during the trip. Their cause of death was listed as natural causes, which includes heatstroke.
According to AccuWeather, the high temperature in Mecca on June 15 was 109 degrees Fahrenheit and ranged between 109 and 113 throughout the week.
“They saved their entire lives to go on this journey and they weren’t given the proper preparation, the proper documentation, it was just a nightmare experience,” their daughter Saida Wurie told CNN.
Alieu Dausy Wurie (left), 71, and Isatu Tejan Wurie (right), 65, were last heard from on June 15 as they waited hours in the heat to be transported during the hajj in Saudi Arabia.
Their daughter Saida Wurie (top center), her parents never returned to their hotel and that’s when a member of the group discovered they had died.
“All we know is that it was a natural cause and someone from the American embassy indicated that the natural causes could have been heat stroke, which based on the temperature, said it was over 110 degrees,” she said.
“There are millions of people, they have to walk for long hours, so it was most likely heat stroke for both my parents.”
Saida said her parents dreamed of making the pilgrimage and her mother recently retired from her role as chief nursing officer at Kaiser Permanente in Prince George’s County.
The Wuries spent $23,000 on the trip and booked through a company registered in Maryland, which Saida said did not properly care for her parents.
“Honestly, I don’t think they were properly prepared for this trip. There was a group of them, maybe up to 100 people, who were traveling under the umbrella of a certain agency,” Saida said.
The couple was waiting for transportation to arrive when they decided to walk. A member of their group said Alieu Dausy stopped for a break and the couple was never seen again.
“We received a phone call from a member of their group who informed us that they had been missing for a few days and that they were the only two who had not returned to their hotel after the Hajj was over,” he said. declared their daughter.
The Wuries spent $23,000 on the trip, but their daughter believes the travel agency failed to take care of her parents.
It was the couple’s lifelong dream to complete the hajj, and Isatu Tejan Wurie (center right) had recently retired from her role as chief nursing officer at Kaiser Permanente in Prince George’s County.
Their cause of death was listed as natural causes, which includes heatstroke. The high temperature in Mecca on the day they disappeared was 109 degrees Fahrenheit.
“I tried to follow them several times on the phone, I think their phones may have died, we tried to contact the American embassy, finally the same person who informed us of their disappearance told us that “He had gone to a group of people in hospitals and they died,” she said.
“I was able to confirm with the consulate general office in Saudi Arabia that they had died.”
The family is trying to find their parents’ bodies, but the consulate general’s office told them the couple had already been buried.
“We have asked the Saudi government to hold the bodies so that we can go to Saudi Arabia to at least give them a proper burial in the presence of (their) children and be able to identify the bodies,” Saida said. “Unfortunately, they have already been buried.”
Democratic Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks paid tribute to the couple on X.
“Haja Isatu Wurie was an incredibly active member of our community. She was involved in several community organizations, which had transformational effects that were felt both locally and globally,” Alsobrooks said.
The couple were longtime Bowie residents, originally from Sierra Leone, and had recently rekindled their relationship after splitting in the early 2010s, according to the Baltimore Sun.
The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and all Muslims who can afford it must perform it at least once.
More than 1,300 people died during this year’s Hajj, mainly due to scorching temperatures above 100 degrees.
The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and all Muslims who can afford it must perform it at least once.
More than 1,300 people died during this year’s Hajj, the majority of whom were pilgrims traveling long distances in the scorching heat in and around the holy city of Mecca, according to Saudi Health Minister Fahd bin Abdurrahman Al-Jalajel.
The Egyptian government announced on Saturday that it would prosecute travel agents for hajj “fraud”, after thousands of deaths.
Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly ordered 16 tourism companies to have their licenses revoked and returned their managers to the public sector over illegal pilgrimages to Mecca, the cabinet said.
Every year, tens of thousands of pilgrims attempt to perform the hajj through irregular means, because they cannot afford the often expensive procedures to obtain an official visa for the hajj.
This puts these illegal pilgrims at risk, as they cannot access the air-conditioned facilities provided by the Saudi authorities along the hajj route.
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