Families Sue After Three Revere Women Die in Belize

Nearly a year after those three young women from Revere never made it home from a trip to Belize, their families are turning grief into action. They’ve filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit in Massachusetts, arguing the tragedy was preventable and that justice belongs in a U.S. courtroom. At a press conference this morning, Kaoutar Naqqad’s sister, Ikram, said the fight is about accountability, and making sure no other family suffers the same loss.

 

Ikram Naqqad, Sister of Deceased

“During this investigation, before we found Tom and Louis,  the sisters were doing the investigations because the rumor was, oh it was drugs. So we had to do all the research. So our grief is delayed. Because in that moment we had to stand up. But it does not feel like a year at all. Kaoutar and Wafae and Imane, they spent most of their time at my parents’ house. They were always together. They were always happy. Kaoutar was a youth counselor. She was looking forward to becoming a state police. Wafae worked at NGH in the research office and Iman was studying to be a nurse. So they all had careers. They all, they had big ideas and they had so much they wanted to accomplish. But as Edina said before. Kaoutar was everybody’s person. It’s my little sister Wafae, I grew up with her. She was our sister our adopted sister. And she was always smiling, always laughing, no matter what the situation was. Iman the same for her. Any room she walks into, she shed light everyone’s daughters. It’s are special. So this should not happen again to anybody else. And that’s what we wanna accomplish here.”

 

The families say this lawsuit isn’t simply about what happened to their daughters and sisters, it’s about setting the story straight, remembering three lives cut short, and protecting other families from the same pain.