NEW YORK (CBSNews/AP) — Police on Wednesday released pictures of two sisters found bound together floating in the water near Riverside Park last week. 
 
 The sisters – Tala Farea, 16, and Rotana Farea, 22, originally from Saudi Arabia – were discovered Oct. 24 on a bank of the Hudson River, about 225 miles from Fairfax, Virginia, where they lived and were reported missing in August. 
 
 As of Tuesday, investigators still had not determined how they died. The sisters’ bodies were taped together and facing each other, but had no obvious signs of trauma, police said. They were both fully clothed. 
 
 Their mother told detectives the day before the bodies were discovered, she received a call from an official at the Saudi Arabian Embassy, ordering the family to leave the U.S. because her daughters had applied for political asylum, New York police said Tuesday. 
 
 Saudi Arabia’s Consulate General in New York said in a statement that it had “appointed an attorney to follow the case closely.” 
 
 New York City police sent a detective to Virginia to learn more about the sisters. Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said they were particularly interested in finding out what happened since they were reported missing and what led them to New York City. 
 
 “We are looking at all clues in their past life,” Shea said. 
 
 The medical examiner’s office was investigating the cause of death. The lack of obvious trauma appeared to rule out a theory they jumped into the river from the George Washington Bridge. 
 
 In its statement, the Saudi Consulate General said embassy officials in Washington had contacted the family and “extended its support and aid in this trying time.” It said the sisters were students “accompanying their brother in Washington.” 
 
 Tala and Rotana moved to the U.S. from Saudi Arabia with their mother in 2015, settling in Fairfax, a suburb of Washington D.C., police said. 
 
 Rotana was enrolled at George Mason University, but left in the spring. A George Mason spokesman called the news of her death “tragic,” and said the university was cooperating with police. 
 
 Police said the sisters left their family home and were placed in a shelter after an earlier disappearance, in December 2017. 
 
 They were reported missing again Aug. 24. 
 
 Police released sketches of the sister’s faces and posted repeated calls for the public’s help in identifying them on social media. Neither sister had much of a social media footprint. 
 
 “We are out to get justice for those two girls and find out exactly what happened,” Shea said. 
 
 (© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.) ||||| These two undated photos provided by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) show sisters Rotana, left, and Tala Farea, whose fully clothed bodies, bound together with tape and facing each other, were... (Associated Press) 
 
 These two undated photos provided by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) show sisters Rotana, left, and Tala Farea, whose fully clothed bodies, bound together with tape and facing each other, were discovered on on the banks of New York City's Hudson River waterfront on Oct. 24, 2018. The Farea... (Associated Press) 
 
 These two undated photos provided by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) show sisters Rotana, left, and Tala Farea, whose fully clothed bodies, bound together with tape and facing each other, were discovered on on the banks of New York City's Hudson River waterfront on Oct. 24, 2018. The Farea... (Associated Press) These two undated photos provided by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) show sisters Rotana, left, and Tala Farea, whose fully clothed bodies, bound together with tape and facing each other, were... (Associated Press) 
 
 NEW YORK (AP) — Police investigating the mysterious deaths of two Saudi Arabian sisters whose bound bodies washed up on New York City's waterfront on Oct. 24 say it appears they were alive when they went into the water. 
 
 New York City police said Wednesday that 16-year-old Tala Farea and 22-year-old Rotana Farea were last seen Sept. 24 in Virginia, where they lived, and appear to have traveled together to New York. 
 
 Investigators haven't determined how the sisters died. They say there were no obvious signs of trauma. 
 
 The sisters' mother told detectives that a Saudi official called her the day before the bodies were discovered and said the family had to leave the U.S. because her daughters had applied for political asylum. 
 
 The NYPD says there's no known nexus between the sisters' death and the Saudi government.
– Investigators are still looking for answers in the case of Rotana and Tala Farea, the sisters whose bodies were found duct-taped together on the banks of the Hudson River last week. Police have disclosed that the sisters, who lived in Fairfax, Virginia, were from Saudi Arabia and had recently requested asylum in the US, the New York Times reports. Rotana, 22, and Tala, 16, had a history of going missing, but police don't know how they ended up in the river. "We do not know that a crime took place," NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot F. Shea said Thursday. "We have a terrible tragedy for sure." Sources tell the New York Daily News that the sisters had been in the US since 2015 and were once placed in a shelter after running away from home. The sources say the mother told police that the sisters disappeared after the entire family, which also includes two brothers, was ordered back to Saudi Arabia. A relative tells Arab News that the sisters were part of a happy family. "They never had any issues and the eldest was sent to college in New York City with her family’s blessing," says the relative, who rejects suggestions that the sisters died in a suicide pact. A police official tells the Times that they are still seeking "what might have been their entry point into the water." Read more on the case here.