Search Underway For Bowie Parents' Bodies After They Died During Brutally Hot Hajj

BOWIE, MD — An older couple from Bowie died last week while making the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in temperatures topping 110 degrees. Now, their adult children are working to find their parents' buried bodies and bring them home.

U.S. Senate candidate and Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks confirmed in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that Alhaji Alieu Dausy, 71, and Haja Isatu Wurie, 65, died during a trip to Saudi Arabia.

Alsobrooks said the couple were both actively involved in their community. Dausy served a volunteer for Alsobrooks' campaign, a spokesperson confirmed.

"Alhaji Alieu Dausy and Haja Isatu Wurie passed away during a pilgrimage to Mecca due to the severe heat," Alsobrooks said in a statement. "Haja Isatu Wurie was an incredibly active member of our community. She was involved in several community organizations, making transformational impacts that were felt both locally and globally. Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with their families during this difficult time. Their loss is profound, and they will be deeply missed."

Saida Wurie told CNN the family was told by the U.S. Embassy that her parents died of natural causes and heat stroke is considered a natural cause. Her mother had recently retired as a head nurse at Kaiser Permanente in Prince George’s County.

"There are millions of people and they have to walk long hours. It was more than likely it was heat stroke for both of my parents," Wurie said.

They are part of the nearly 1,300 people who died during this year's religious journey. Officials say the death toll could continue to climb. The Consulate General’s Office told Wurie her parents have already been buried, but officials do not know where, according to CNN.

“We did ask the Saudi government to hold the bodies in order for us to travel to Saudi Arabia to at least give them the proper burial with [their] children being present and to be able to identify the bodies,” Wurie told CNN. “Unfortunately, they have already been buried.”

Wurie told CNN she had maintained contact with her parents while they were in Saudi Arabia via a family group chat. It was in that chat, she said, that she learned the tour company did not provide the proper transportation or credentials needed to participate in the pilgrimage.

The group her parents were traveling with, which included up to 100 fellow pilgrims, didn't have adequate food and supplies for the five- to six-day journey, she said.

Because the group the Bowie couple made the journey with didn't have official permits, they couldn't use air-conditioned areas provided by Saudi authorities for the 1.8 million authorized pilgrims to use to cool down after hours of walking and praying outside in the heat.

All Muslims are required to make the Hajj once in their lives if they are physically and financially able to do so. Many wealthy Muslims make the pilgrimage more than once, according to WTOP.

According to the Quran, Islam's holy book, the rituals largely commemorate the accounts of Prophet Ibrahim and his son Prophet Ismail, Ismail's mother Hajar and Prophet Muhammad. According to CBS News, the Hajj, the timing of which is determined by the lunar Islamic calendar, fell again this year during the brutally hot Saudi summer.