AWFUL

Man Accused of Killing Autistic Sons to Collect Insurance Payout

The boys drowned after the father drove his car off the edge of a commercial fishing dock, prosecutors said.

An Egyptian man was charged Tuesday with fraud after allegedly killing his two young autistic sons in order to collect insurance payments, prosecutors said. Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that Ali Elmezayen purchased several accidental death insurance policies on his family members two years before he drove his Honda off the end of a California pier, drowning sons Abdelkarim, 8, and Elhassan, 13, in the Port of Los Angeles. “He called at least two of the insurance companies to confirm they would not investigate claims made two years after the policies were purchased,” prosecutors said. Elmezayen eventually collected a $260,000 insurance payout after the deaths of his children. “Witnesses heard the tires of the car screech loudly and saw the car accelerate before it flew off the edge of the wharf, crashed into the water and immediately sunk,” an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit. Elmezayen and his domestic partner, who was also a suspected murder target, both escaped the vehicle. The Los Angeles County District Attorney declined to press charges for the boys’ deaths, citing insufficient evidence. A judge on Tuesday denied Elmezayen’s request for bail, in part citing his alleged “ghastly scheme to obtain insurance benefits.”