They Thought Their Mom Died by Suicide — Until Surveillance Footage Revealed It Was Staged By Her Son. Inside the Brutal Murder

What first looked like a tragic fall from an upstairs window turned into a homicide investigation when detectives uncovered two critical pieces of evidence: the autopsy results and home surveillance footage.

On Aug. 21, 2017, Nada Huranieh was found outside her Farmington Hills, Michigan, home by her daughter, Aya Altantawi. Huranieh was on the ground near the patio area, and the open second-story window made it seem like she had fallen. Police and paramedics responded, and she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators initially considered suicide or an accidental fall. But medical examiners later concluded Huranieh had suffered blunt force head trauma and died from asphyxiation before the fall—meaning she was already dead when she went out the window. Surveillance video also appeared to show a shadowy figure near the window around the time of her death, according to court records.

Detectives soon focused on Huranieh’s then 16-year-old son, Muhammad Altantawi. Police believed he was angry about her decision to divorce his father, Dr. Bassel Altantawi, and theorized that he smothered her—possibly with a poison-soaked cloth—before pushing her from the window and staging the scene to look like window-cleaning gone wrong.

Muhammad was arrested later that month and charged with murder. He denied involvement, but in 2022 he was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder and later sentenced to 35 to 60 years in prison.

She was a mother of three building a new life in Michigan

Huranieh was 35 years old and a mother of three. Raised in Syria, she moved to the United States with Bassel Altantawi after they married. While he worked as a doctor and opened an urgent care clinic, she cared for their children.

Over time, according to Aya’s later account, Huranieh became more independent—pursuing education and work and changing aspects of her public appearance. She became a certified fitness instructor at the Franklin Athletic Club in Southfield, Michigan, and stopped wearing her hijab, according to reporting by the Detroit Free Press.

Aya said the changes created tension at home. She described an incident roughly a year and a half before her mother’s death in which an argument escalated into a physical altercation. Police were called, and Bassel was charged with domestic violence and later pleaded no contest.

By 2017, the marriage had fractured. Huranieh and Bassel were separating, and court records indicated he was no longer living at the family home. Aya also alleged that her mother had begun dating someone from her gym as the divorce became increasingly contentious.

The death initially looked like a fall

Around 6 a.m. on Aug. 21, 2017, Aya discovered her mother’s body on the patio. Court records described a fall of about 29 feet from an open upstairs window.

Aya alerted Muhammad and called 911. A dispatcher instructed Muhammad on CPR steps, but when paramedics arrived, they could not find a pulse and pronounced Huranieh dead.

At first, the scene seemed to support the idea of an accident: a ladder, cleaning solution, and a rag were found near the window, suggesting she may have been cleaning and slipped.

Autopsy findings and camera footage shifted the case to homicide

The medical examiner’s findings changed everything. Dr. Ruben Ortiz-Reyes later testified that Huranieh’s cause of death was asphyxiation, with blunt force head trauma contributing. He also reported injuries—such as bruising on her lower lip—that he said occurred before death, according to Click on Detroit.

Detectives also reviewed video from six home surveillance cameras. At trial, footage was shown that investigators said appeared to depict a figure moving near the window and shadows consistent with someone lifting a body toward it moments before the fall was captured on another camera. A police sergeant testified that the video also looked like someone returned afterward and may have positioned the ladder, according to WXYZ Detroit.

Investigators came to believe the window-cleaning setup was staged, pointing to details like spray marks on the window to support the theory that someone tried to make the death look accidental.

Police arrested her teenage son, who later changed his story

Once the death was treated as a homicide, police narrowed their focus to who was inside the home that morning. Bassel Altantawi—already on probation for the earlier domestic violence case—was ruled out after data from a tracking device placed him miles away.

When questioned, Muhammad initially said he learned about the fall only after Aya found their mother. But investigators said that after he was confronted with the existence of surveillance footage, his account shifted: he claimed he had been helping his mother clean and witnessed her fall, and later said he was holding the ladder.

Less than a week after Huranieh died, Muhammad was arrested and charged. He pleaded not guilty.

The trial did not begin until 2022 after legal delays related to questions about how police questioned Muhammad when he was a minor.

A 2022 conviction and an emotional sentencing hearing

In March 2022, a jury found Muhammad guilty of first-degree premeditated murder. He continued to deny responsibility, insisting he did not smother or otherwise kill his mother, according to The Oakland Press.

At sentencing in September 2022, Muhammad dismissed his attorneys and represented himself, turning the hearing into a prolonged, combative proceeding filled with objections and claims that investigators overlooked other possible suspects. He told the court he had been convicted of “the worst crime imaginable,” and insisted that no one mourned his mother more than he did.

Aya delivered victim impact statements for herself and relatives in Syria. She described her mother as deeply kind and generous, and then addressed her brother directly—saying she still loved him, but could not forget what she believed he had done, and describing the lasting damage she felt the murder caused.

Bassel also gave a victim impact statement, but the judge cut it short, saying he was praising Muhammad instead of addressing grief for Huranieh.

The judge sentenced Muhammad to 35 to 60 years in prison, commenting that he still viewed himself as the victim rather than his mother.

As of December 2025, the text you provided states Muhammad is serving his sentence at Kinross Correctional Facility in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, in Chippewa County, according to inmate records.