Missing woman returns to family; husband admits to disagreement

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By Alexis Stevens

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Bartow County mother of five who was missing for nearly a week returned to her family, and her husband has admitted the couple had a disagreement shortly before the woman's disappearance.

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Jason Getz, jgetz@ajc.com Abed Suleiman talks to the media in front of his Bartow County home Tuesday afternoon in Cartersville, Ga., April 19, 2011.

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Family photo Wazineh Suleiman, who lives in Cartersville and is a mother of five, was missing for a week.

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Alexis Stevens Wazineh Suleiman went missing from her Cartersville house on Friday, April 8. She turned up unharmed on Thursday, April 14.

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On Tuesday, Abed Suleiman invited several metro Atlanta media outlets to his home by e-mail, telling them that he and his wife, Wazineh, were back together and “happier than ever." He said he wanted to dispel what he called were false stories regarding his family.

At the same time, Suleiman acknowledged, that during an exchange of text messages, he told his wife, "I'm gonna kill you," if he returned and she wasn't home.

Supposedly headed to a store to rent a movie, Wazineh Suleiman ended up sleeping in her sports utility vehicle for a night, abandoning the vehicle in a parking lot and staying in a Cobb County women's shelter for six days.

Abed Suleiman said his wife simply panicked. On Tuesday, he offered to make her available to reporters, but then said she was too intimidated to speak with them.

While unfamiliar with the Suleimans, Amber Harris, a Women’s Resource Center to End Domestic Violence official, said the series of events described concerned her.

"If she doesn't want her husband to know where she is, that's the No. 1 red flag," Harris said.

Harris also pointed out that if a woman in Wazineh Suleiman's position told police that her husband had threatened to kill her, law enforcement could pursue criminal charges.

When reached for comment late Tuesday night, Abed Suleiman said he does not abuse his wife.

The curious events unfolded on April 8, when Abed Suleiman, returning to his home after canceling a turkey hunting trip, called his wife on the way.

"I'm sleeping," Abed Suleiman said his wife told him shortly before 9 p.m.

The two exchanged several text messages, among them Abed Suleiman telling his wife, "I'm gonna kill you," with the man later telling police that Wazineh Suleiman responded, "I'll just throw my phone out the window."

Wazineh Suleiman told her five children, who 6 to 12, she was driving to Walmart to rent a movie. When she didn't return, her husband called police.

She drove to a parking lot near I-75 in Cherokee County and slept in her vehicle overnight, Abed Suleiman said. A friend of the woman's called police, and an officer took Wazineh Suleiman to a women's shelter in Cobb County, where she checked into the shelter under an assumed name, her husband said.

Despite widespread media attention surrounding the woman's disappearance, it was several days before the shelter staff realized who she was.

Four days after she left home, Wazineh Suleiman's SUV was found, but investigators saw no signs of foul play. On Thursday, Bartow County Sheriff Clark Millsap announced that Wazineh Suleiman had been found and was at an undisclosed location, and wouldn't provide further details.

Abed Suleiman next invited the media to his home on Tuesday, but appeared to prompt more questions than provide answers. He said the couple would talk about their religion and culture to make sure things weren't misconstrued.

“Things will be pulled out of context if I don’t tell you how we were raised. ... This could have went many different ways. There are so many outcomes. People started assuming the worst: I murdered her, I abused her, she ran off with another man,” Abed Suleiman said.

Staff writer Rhonda Cook contributed to this article.