A family is still awaiting answers nearly two months after two brothers were found dead on Bell Mountain in Towns County.
The Towns County 911 Center received the call about the bodies of the twin brothers, Qaadir Malik Lewis and Naazir Rahim Lewis, both of Lawrenceville, around 11:05 a.m. on March 8. Authorities say both men were found with gunshot wounds.
Family members say the brothers were scheduled to fly out to Boston Friday, March 7, but they were found dead at the top of the mountain on Saturday, March 8.
The GBI was then called in to assist the Towns County Sheriff’s Office with the investigation.
In mid-March, authorities said they were closer to determining an official cause of death after the GBI reported that autopsies had been completed, though an official ruling and final results were still “pending additional forensic tests.”
Now, more than a month later, questions in the mysterious case remain.
“The investigation is active and ongoing,” GBI spokesperson Nelly Miles said via email Monday, April 28. “We’re awaiting updates from our (medical examiner’s) office.”
Miles didn’t disclose a timeline for when that update could come.
Family disputes preliminary findings
Family members of the brothers have disputed the preliminary determinations made by authorities – which suggested their deaths were a murder-suicide.
“It is very odd to us,” Rahim Brawner, an uncle to the brothers, told Now Habersham in March. “We absolutely do not believe what they’re saying – that it was a murder-suicide with two twin brothers who are always together. It’s just unbelievable. That’s just something they would not do. (Authorities) were so quick to say it was a murder-suicide – the same day it happened – without a thorough investigation or anything like that. This needs to be investigated thoroughly.”
Brawner went on to say the brothers, both of whom attended technical school at two Gwinnett colleges, have never been to North Georgia – making Bell Mountain an unusual place for them to be found. Bell Mountain is nearly 90 miles away from Lawrenceville.
Brawner also said he has questions of whether there were surveillance cameras in the area of Bell Mountain to capture footage of the brothers, or if areas of the mountain were enclosed at the time the brothers were supposedly making their way up there.
“They never mentioned anything about going to North Georgia,” Brawner said. “I couldn’t even imagine why they’d even be up there…they were supposed to fly out to Boston Friday morning, so a lot of this stuff doesn’t make sense.
According to Brawner, the last person to see the brothers together was their step-mother, who he said was just as distraught as the rest of the family.
