Extreme Heat Killed a Black Maryland Couple During a Trip to Mecca. Now Their Children Are Struggling to Find Their Bodies

The Wuries died traveling to Mecca. Now their family wants the government’s help finding where they are buried

By Angela Johnson

A family is mourning the death of a couple from Maryland who died during a trip of a lifetime – and now they are pleading with the government of Saudi Arabia to help them find where their loved ones are buried.

Saida Wurie’s parents, Alieu Dausy Wurie and Isatu Tejan Wurie, had been saving their entire lives to make their pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia for Hajj, a religious rite of passage required of all Muslims who are physically and financially capable.

But although the Wuries paid for an all-inclusive package with a Maryland-based travel company, their daughter says they were not given adequate food, supplies and resources to complete their journey in extreme temperatures that have claimed the lives of hundreds of travelers this year.

Wurie told CNN that she’d been in touch with her parents during their trip through a family group chat. But their last conversation took place on June 15 when they told her they had been waiting hours to be transported to Mount Arafat where they planned to pray. Without transportation, the couple decided to walk, a trip they told their daughter took over two hours.

According to CNN, this year’s Hajj has been impacted by above-average temperatures reaching well over 100 degrees which have led to almost 500 deaths.

“Along the way home, I saw many pilgrims who died. Almost every few hundred meters, there was a body lying and covered with an ihrom [white fabric] cloth,” one Indonesian tourist told CNN.

Wurie says the U.S. Embassy told her that her parents died of natural causes on June 15, but according to The Consulate General’s Office, their bodies have already been buried. The Wurie family says no one has been able to help them locate their family members, but they are holding on to hope.