Alawadi's 17-year-old daughter Fatima found her unconscious, having been brutally beaten, on the floor of their dining room the day of the murder. Next to her was a note which read "Go back to your country, you terrorist;"[5][6] the sliding glass door was smashed. A similar note had allegedly been left a week earlier; although police were not able to immediately determine whether or not the murder was a hate crime, the note led them to consider the possibility.[7] The cause of Alawadi's death was determined to be severe head trauma.