Family reject police 'murder-suicide' theory on twin brothers found dead at mountain summit
The family of 19-year-old twin brothers found fatally shot on a Georgia mountain this month have rejected a police theory that one killed the other and then himself in an apparent murder-suicide.
The family of 19-year-old twin brothers found fatally shot on a Georgia mountain this month have rejected a police theory that one killed the other and then himself in an apparent murder-suicide.
Qaadir Malik Lewis and Naazir Rahim Lewis, who were about to turn 20, were found by hikers at the summit of Bell Mountain in Hiawassee on the morning of Saturday, March 8. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations said in a statement that both men had gunshot wounds and "the preliminary investigation reveals the deaths to be a murder-suicide."
"They’re very protective of each other. They love each other," Rahim Brawner, an uncle, told NBC affiliate WXIA of Atlanta." They’re like inseparable. I couldn’t imagine them hurting each other because I’ve never seen them get into a fistfight before."
The GBI said in a brief Sunday update that autopsies have been completed on the pair, but a medical examiner ruling had not been released because further forensic testing was needed. NBC News has reached out to the GBI for comment.
The pair, from Lawrenceville, Georgia, had planned to travel to Boston to see friends and were due to fly at 7 a.m. on March 7. Authorities say they never made the flight, and their bodies were found 90 miles away from their home in an area their family says they had never visited.
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