On Sept. 28, Laila Siddique became an orphan. The story as pieced together by police: Her father, Nasir Siddique, killed his wife in their Bel Air, Maryland, home; drove to the University of Maryland; and murdered her 19-year-old brother before taking his own life. Laila isn't so sure. In a lengthy piece for the Washington Post, Michael E. Miller looks at the case from both sides: that of Prince George’s County police and the Harford County Sheriff’s Office, and the 25-year-old med student, who hasn't been able to swallow the official explanation. On the morning of the killings, Nasir texted his daughter a message that began "Two reasons for my stress." Both were tied to his new job as deputy environmental chief at Aberdeen Proving Ground, a hundred-year-old site where the Army once tested the likes of mustard gas, napalm, and sarin.
While APG officials wouldn't comment, friends echo what Nasir wrote in the text: The job was hugely stressful. Things grew worse after he was taken on a tour of a decrepit house on APG's edge that was to be demolished. The visit disturbed him, and in the text he wrote, "They should not have taken us inside this very old and unsafe house at all. I have been feeling different since this tour." Two notes were found, and for Laila and her uncle Aasi, they don't provide closure: One, marked "Last will," says Laila and brother Farhad should inherit everything. Laila says it's odd that her father would leave things to the son he intended to kill; Aasi says the signature is suspect. "Somebody made him write something," he says. Laila too wonders if he could have been framed, or if someone forced his hand. Read the story in full. (More Longform stories.)
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