The first picture of the mother-turned-killer who murdered 14 people in San Bernardino alongside her husband on Wednesday surfaced on Friday as attorneys representing the couple’s family revealed that Tashfeen Malik, 27, wore a burka and didn’t speak to male relatives, family members of her husband Syed Farook said, adding that they had never seen her face.
Abuershaid said at Friday’s press conference that the Malik who is Pakistani but lived in Saudi Arabia, met Farook through a dating website some time in 2013. Then Farook went to Saudi Arabia to meet her. Then went again in July 2014. Farook returned to the U.S. and the following month, Malik joined him in the U.S. on what is known as a “fiancé” visa, which allows an American fiancé to petition for his or her partner’s temporary entry before marriage. For the visa application, the address she listed in her Pakistani hometown, ABC News discovered does not exist. The couple was married the following month.
Six months ago, the couple had a baby daughter and named her according to a naming convention more common to Arab families, rather than in the typical Pakistani manner.
Investigators say Tashfeen Malik left a post on a Facebook page using an alias pledging allegiance to ISIS and its leader al-Baghdadi.
FBI is now investigating the San Bernardino mass shooting as ‘an act of terror’.
The couple were killed on Wednesday in exchange of gun fire with security (ABC News, CNN)