Shivangi Sinha
In August 2017, police responded to a home in Farmington Hills, Michigan, where a woman named Nada Huranieh was found dead on the patio. At first, it appeared she had fallen from a window in a tragic accident. However, when the medical examiner determined that her actual cause of death was suffocation, and CCTV footage revealed concerning activity inside the home, investigators shifted their focus. As they looked deeper into Nada’s family dynamics, suspicion soon centered on her 16-year-old son, Muhammad Altantawi. NBC’s ‘Dateline: The Shadow in the Window’ explores the investigation in depth, detailing the evidence and events that ultimately led to Muhammad’s conviction.
Muhammad Altantawi Was Asked to Perform CPR by the Emergency Services
Muhammad Altantawi grew up in Michigan with his two younger sisters, Aya and Sidra. Their father, Bassel Altantawi, had built a successful medical practice and accumulated significant wealth after immigrating from Syria. Their mother, Nada Huranieh, worked tirelessly to raise her children and supported her husband in every way she could. The three siblings attended International Academy West High School in White Lake Township, where they were provided with strong educational opportunities. However, life at home was far from peaceful. In February 2016, Nada reported a domestic violence incident involving Bassel, and by March 2016, she had filed for divorce.
Bassel had pleaded guilty to abuse-related charges as well as unrelated fraud offenses, and he had been staying away from the family home. On August 21, 2017, Aya called 911, reporting that she had found her mother, Nada, lying unresponsive on the patio. Muhammad was also present, and the 911 operator instructed him to perform CPR until emergency personnel arrived. However, when help reached, Nada was pronounced dead. At the scene, officers noticed a wet rag near her body and saw that the guest bedroom window directly above was open. A ladder stood next to the window, along with a bottle of cleaning solution.
Based on these observations, police initially believed that Nada might have woken up early, attempted to clean around the window area, and accidentally fallen from it. However, the medical examiner later determined that Nada had died from suffocation, not from a fall. This immediately shifted the investigation. Detectives reviewed the home’s surveillance footage and noticed something alarming: the light in the guest bedroom was on, and a shadow cast onto the ground appeared to show a person standing and lifting something heavy. Moments later, Nada’s body was seen falling from the window. This led investigators to believe she had been killed before being pushed out of the window.
Muhammad Altantawi’s Conflicting Accounts Raised Suspicion About Him
Given Nada Huranieh’s history with Bassel Altantawi, he was initially the primary suspect, but he was ruled out quickly. He was on probation at the time and confined by an ankle monitor that confirmed he had not left his residence. With Bassel eliminated, the next person the police turned their attention to was Muhammad Altantawi. The latter gave inconsistent accounts of his whereabouts and actions on the morning his mother’s body was found. Initially, he claimed he hadn’t seen her, but later changed his story to say he was holding the ladder when Nada supposedly fell from the window. Investigators also uncovered numerous text exchanges between Muhammad and his father in the days leading up to the incident.
Friends of Nada told police that Muhammad allegedly blamed his mother for the separation. According to investigators, he believed she was tearing the family apart. Per the officials, he was reportedly unhappy with her new job as a trainer and felt she was becoming too “Americanized.” Prosecutors alleged that he had not properly administered CPR when asked to, and friends reportedly told police that he had even saved his mother’s phone number as “Dog.” There was no evidence indicating that Bassel had any involvement in the crime, but Muhammad was arrested in August 2017 on charges of second-degree murder. He continued to insist that he had nothing to do with his mother’s death and that it had simply been a tragic accident.
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Muhammad Altantawi is Being Held in a Michigan Prison Today
Over the next several years, Muhammad Altantawi’s defense team filed multiple petitions to dismiss the charges. They even appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court, arguing that the evidence, particularly the surveillance footage, was insufficient and that the prosecution was unfairly targeting him. Despite these efforts, the case proceeded to trial in March 2022. The jury ultimately found him guilty of first-degree premeditated murder after he was tried as an adult. In September 2022, he was sentenced to 35–60 years in prison, a term shaped by the US Supreme Court’s “juvie lifer” ruling, which restricts mandatory life-without-parole sentences for crimes committed by minors and requires courts to consider a juvenile’s capacity for change.
During the sentencing hearing, Bassel Altantawi delivered a victim impact statement but spoke almost exclusively about Muhammad in positive terms, barely mentioning Nada. His remarks were eventually cut short by the judge. Now 24, Muhammad is incarcerated at the Kinross Correctional Facility in Kincheloe, Michigan. He will be eligible for parole in 2052, and his maximum release date extends to 2077.
