Twin brothers were found dead on top of a mountain in Georgia, USA one day after missing a flight, having succumbed to apparent gunshot wounds.
As per reports, Qaadir and Naazir Lewis, 19, of Lawrenceville, Georgia went missing on March 7. The pair were supposed to board a flight at 7 a.m. but never arrived at the airport.
One day later (March 8), the two teens were found dead by a hiker at the summit of Bell Mountain, which lies close to the North Carolina border.
The mysterious circumstances of the case have led to speculation running rampant online. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations, meanwhile, is treating the case as a murder-suicide, though that’s a verdict the family of Qaadir and Naazir are refusing to accept.
Rahim Brawner, the boys’ uncle, said that the twins were inseparable and would never hurt each other.
“They’re very protective of each other. They love each other,” Brawner told local WXIA-TV last Friday. “I couldn’t imagine them hurting each other because I’ve never seen them get into a fistfight before.”
The brothers’ aunt, Yasmin Brawner, concurred, adding that the twins had a “huge support system”.
“We know them. They wouldn’t do anything like this,” Yasmine said. “To say they did this to each other? No. Something happened in those mountains, and we want answers.”
According to the New York Post, the bodies of Qaadir and Naazir were discovered by a hiker at the summit of Bell Mountain at around 11:05 a.m. on March 8. Both of the boys had sustained gunshot wounds.
Their family has since revealed that the brothers had their plane tickets inside their wallets when they were found. They added that the twins’ bodies were found in an area that Qaadir and Naazir had never visited before.
Another aunt, Samira Brawner, said: “How did they end up out in the mountains? They don’t hike out there, they’ve never been out there. They don’t know anything about Hiawassee, Georgia, … So how did they end up right there?”
A spokesperson for the GBI told PEOPLE Magazine yesterday, March 16, that an autopsy is complete and official results are pending additional forensic tests.
Yasmin told how she has started a GoFundMe to assist in paying for her nephews’ funeral expenses. It can be found here.