Man Questioned For 3 Hours About Missing Wife

BARTOW COUNTY, Ga. — Abed Suleiman was questioned by Bartow County Sheriff’s Office investigators for almost three hours Wednesday night as the search continued for his missing wife.

Channel 2’s John Bachman caught up with Suleiman after his meeting with the sheriff’s office. Suleiman told Bachman that he is no longer a suspect.

“I was a suspect … and they wanted to totally rule me out. They kind of already did that. They just wanted to iron out all the wrinkles and they did that,” Suleiman said.

Authorities have not named Suleiman as a suspect or person of interest.

Wazineh Suleiman, 30, disappeared Friday around 9 p.m. Abed Suleiman said he had just returned home from a canceled hunting trip to find his children home alone.

“My wife is my life. I would do anything for her to make her happy,” Suleiman told Channel 2 Action News reporter Linda Stouffer.

Suleiman said his children said their mother had gone out to rent a movie from a Redbox machine inside a Cartersville Walmart.

Jason Seritt, one of Suleiman’s hunting buddies, returned with him from the hunting trip. As for anyone suspecting his friend had something to do with his wife’s disappearance, Seritt replied, “morons, pea brains.”

“We got up there and buddy of mine called and said,’What are you doing?’ I said, ‘Going to Kentucky hunting.’ He said, ‘No, you ain’t. Season doesn’t start till next week.’ We turned around and went back,” Seritt said.

The Bartow County Sheriff’s Office reviewed surveillance video and said Wazineh Suleiman never made it to the store. Suleiman’s husband is pleading for his wife to come home, or for whoever is with her to make that happen.

“Wazineh, if you hear me, your family loves you, we want to see you. Come home,” Abed Suleiman said.

Abed Suleiman said he believes his wife is alive. Bartow County Sheriff Clark Millsap said he doesn’t think she left willingly.

“I find that hard to believe,” Millsap said in a Wednesday appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Abed Suleiman told Stouffer that he also allowed investigators to question the couple’s two oldest children, ages 11 and 12.

Abed Suleiman said he is getting frustrated by the Bartow County Sheriff’s Office because he can’t get more answers from them about his wife’s disappearance.

He said his jaw dropped when his wife’s car wasn’t in the driveway when he returned from the trip because she normally wouldn’t leave without telling him.

“It would be totally out of character for her to do any such thing,” Abed Suleiman said.

On Tuesday, Wazineh Suleiman’s abandoned Nissan sport utility vehicle was found in an empty lot near Interstate 75, more than 10 miles from the Walmart. Investigators said they found her phone charger in the car, and there were no signs of foul play. Abed Suleiman said her bank records showed no credit card activity since Friday.

Millsap said Suleiman’s last message to her husband was a Friday night text saying she was going to throw her phone out of the window.

Abed Suleiman told Channel 2 the message did not sound like her character. He said Wazineh Suleiman is very devout, and the texts contain slang words she wouldn’t use.

Abed Suleiman said he thinks someone forced her to send the message, or someone used her phone.

“Wazineh would never, ever, ever talk to me like that and text me like that. Something’s not right,” he told Stouffer.

Abed Suleiman was scheduled for an interview with “GMA” on Wednesday, but backed out at the last minute.

When confronted at the Bartow County Sheriff’s Office, he said he had to deal with an issue regarding someone in his wife’s search party.

Millsap filled in for the “GMA” interview, saying deputies had not made much progress in the investigation. He said they were working to rule out the possibility that Wazineh Suleiman simply walked away, which he doesn’t believe.

“Something just isn’t right,” Millsap said.

Wazineh Suleiman’s family arrived from Jerusalem on Wednesday. They are hoping a search Wednesday afternoon would lead to some answers in their daughter’s disappearance.

Facebook pages show more than 1,000 people want to help find Wazineh Suleiman. Friends were asked to wear all white at a vigil for her Wednesday night next to the Al-Farooq Mosque on 14th Street.

Wazineh Suleiman is described as Middle Eastern, approximately 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighing 130 pounds. She has hazel eyes and brown hair, which is usually covered, police said.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Wazineh Suleiman is asked to call the Bartow County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division at 770-382-5050, ext. 6032.