EDITOR’S NOTE: Help is available if you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters. In the US, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
Lawrenceville, Georgia
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Qaadir and Naazir Lewis entered the world five minutes apart. The identical twins loved many of the same things: anime, the color red and the animated Disney classic, “The Princess and the Frog.” Where one went, the other followed.
Their relatives in suburban Atlanta nicknamed them the “ding-dong twins” because they moved as one. “They were so bound together … like ‘ding-dong, ding-dong,’” said one of their aunts, Sabriya Brawner, mimicking the chime of a doorbell.
The 19-year-olds had big plans for the future, including a cruise to celebrate their 20th birthdays and dreams of becoming entrepreneurs. So their family was stunned when the twins were found shot to death March 8 at the summit of remote Bell Mountain, about a two-hour drive north of Atlanta.
Investigators at the time said preliminary evidence suggested a murder-suicide — an outcome their family members refused to believe.
“The twins would not have harmed each other. They had a strong bond,” their aunt Yasmine Brawner said on Facebook in April. “Someone took their lives away.”
But on Wednesday, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation released a sobering new finding, based on autopsies and other evidence: The twins both died by suicide. Investigators said forensic evidence from the scene showed that both twins had fired a gun. In addition, their phones’ internet history showed searches related to suicide and how to load a gun.
The GBI declined to comment further. The brothers’ family members did not respond Thursday to CNN’s request for comment. But in a statement posted on Facebook, the family disputed the GBI’s conclusion.
“We still have questions regarding (their) investigative findings and feel like (their) final ruling was rushed and closed too soon,” said the statement on Yasmine Brawner’s page. The twins had plans for the future and did not own a weapon, the statement said.
In interviews before this week, the family told CNN the shocking deaths of Qaadir and Naazir have left them struggling to understand what happened. And the new GBI report still leaves many questions unanswered. especially this one: What would lead two ambitious, promising young men to take their own lives?
On March 7 – the day before the discovery of the bodies – Naazir was supposed to fly to Boston to visit his girlfriend, his family said.
Records show that Naazir had a ticket and went to the Atlanta airport but never boarded the plane, the GBI said. The family said they spoke to his girlfriend in Massachusetts, who told them he missed his flight and had rescheduled it for 7 a.m. on March 8 – the day he was found dead.
Much of what happened after that remains unknown. The twins’ stepmother told other family members she briefly saw the brothers later that day at their home in the Atlanta suburb of Lawrenceville, where they lived with her and their dad.
The twins typically shuttled around in a 2009 black Nissan Altima they jointly bought two years ago. The car, and their cell phones, revealed glimpses into their final hours.
The GBI said investigators used cellphone location data to build a timeline of the twins’ journey to Bell Mountain, then checked security video footage along the route to determine the brothers were alone. The family urged the GBI to publicly release those videos.
A spokesperson for the GBI, Nelly Miles, declined to provide additional details, pending the official closing of the investigation in the coming weeks.
One clue of the twins’ final hours came from a Shell station about 10 minutes from the brothers’ house.
The twins stopped at the gas station on the night of March 7, where they bought water, chips and Jack Link’s beef jerky. The snacks cost $10.24. The gas station receipt said it was 10:24 p.m.
The Shell station attendant on duty that night told CNN he does not remember the twins. But assistant manager Chris Allemand said that although he was not working that night, he watched the surveillance video footage of their snack stop before giving it to the GBI about two weeks after their deaths.
One moment on the video stood out, he said. The twins had stopped at pump No. 8, and as they opened their car door, a basketball bounced out onto the concrete before one of them retrieved it — a fleeting glimpse of teenage normalcy before tragedy struck.
After they got their snacks, the brothers climbed into their car and vanished into the night. About 12 hours later, hikers discovered their bodies at the top of the mountain.
Naazir and Qaadir shared the same room most of their lives. They spent hours playing their favorite video game, “Mortal Kombat,” and watching anime. They couldn’t get enough of the “Tokyo Ghoul” and “Attack on Titan” anime series.
Growing up, they would often storm into their sister’s room at the end of the day. Kai’ree Powell is older by six years, but they treated her like their little sister, she said.
“They never let me go into the store alone,” Powell said. “And after school, they would bust into my room and just start talking about their day and ask me about mine.”
Her voice trailed off as her eyes welled up. “They used to get on my dang nerves,” she added softly.
But the siblings were close. Even after Powell moved into her own place, the twins stopped by every week. They plopped onto the couch, scrolled through Netflix and talked about anything and everything, she said.
Their visits continued right until the end.
On March 5, ammunition for the gun was delivered to the house where the brothers lived, the GBI said. Investigators said Naazir – the older twin – had purchased the bullets.
On March 6, the day before Naazir’s planned trip to Boston, the twins spent much of the day with Powell. They accompanied her on a campus tour of the Interactive College of Technology in Chamblee, another Atlanta suburb.
They hung out again that evening at Powell’s place in Atlanta, where they watched the animated sitcom “Rick and Morty” before calling it a night around 11.
In their conversations that night, Powell said her brothers wanted to know what she really wanted to do with her life.
“They asked me … ‘If you didn’t have any anxiety and fears, what would you do?’ And I told them that I would want to dance because I’ve always wanted to be a dancer,” Powell said, her eyes shimmering with tears behind her glasses.
“And they said, ‘You should do that. I really hope that you do that.’ And that was the last thing they said to me.”
When the boys were young, some relatives could barely tell them apart.
But as they grew older, the family noticed small differences. Naazir had wider eyes, said Yasmine Brawner, who babysat them as children. He was also more outspoken and louder than his brother.
As kids they dressed alike. But as teens they opted for different hairstyles, making it easier to tell who was who. Qaadir preferred twists, while Naazir wore braids or a buzz cut.
The twins graduated from Collins Hill High School in Suwanee, Georgia, in May 2023 and were both pursuing their passions at trade schools.
And like their eyes and hairstyles, their goals had subtle differences.
Qaadir attended an aviation maintenance school and wanted to work on airplanes, while Naazir was studying automotive repair at a technical college.
“Qaadir was like, ‘Naazir is fixing cars, I’ll fix airplanes,’” said their aunt, Sabriya Brawner. “Naazir would work on the Nissan because it would break down all the time.”
Their ultimate goal was to be entrepreneurs because they had no interest in working for anyone, their aunts said. They were discussing plans to start an athletic clothing line called Overkill – a name they associated with excellence.
“Like strive for your future, and don’t just stop there. Overkill. Go for it. Go all the way,” Sabriya Brawner said.
They also watched a lot of motivational videos on their phones.
“They were not bare-minimum people. They were so career driven,” Powell said.
Their uncle chuckled as he recalled a time he tried to trick Naazir.
“When he first saw my Jeep, I kind of lied to him that this is the highest engine – the 395. He was like, ‘bruh, no, it’s not,’” Rahim Brawner said. “He knew cars.”
On April 27, three aunts and an uncle – all siblings of the twins’ biological mom – made a road trip from suburban Atlanta up into the mountains of north Georgia.
Unfamiliar with the area, they looked it up before their drive that Sunday morning. They also took the uncle’s Jeep to help navigate the winding road up Bell Mountain, near the border with North Carolina.
“We wanted to travel the same path they did just to try and figure out that scenario,” said their uncle, Rahim Brawner. “I drive a Jeep, and it was hard to get to that mountain. The twins hated long drives … they could barely drive. This is so out of character for them.”
At the park entrance, they stopped at a yellow barricade, near where they believe the Nissan Altima was found. Then they drove the short distance to the summit, past a sign that read, “WARNING STEEP GRADE.”
The top of the mountain contains jagged rocks – some covered in graffiti – and wooden stairs to a platform offering a panoramic view of Lake Chatuge and the Appalachian Mountains. The foursome – Sabriya, Samira, Yasmine and Rahim Brawner – climbed out of the car and walked around.
The family was baffled by the timeline that night. The barricade to the park atop the mountain is supposed to be locked every night from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. So if the twins didn’t leave the Lawrenceville gas station until after 10:24 p.m., when did they reach the mountain? And how did they get past the gate?
“It just doesn’t make sense,” their uncle said, referring to the remote location. “Too sketchy for them.”
A woman who answered the door at the house earlier this month and identified herself as their stepmother, Kaarini Lewis, told CNN that she and her husband – the twins’ father – are still processing the loss. She declined to comment further.
The brothers’ biological mother is also struggling, said Sabriya Brawner, the twins’ aunt. Their mother, who lives in the Atlanta suburb of Decatur, declined to comment when CNN reached out to her through her siblings.
“For a lot of our family, it’s too much,” Brawner said. “They are extremely traumatized.”
Family members have spent the last few months trying to untangle the mystery of the twins’ final days — and how they ended up at Bell Mountain, of all places.
Seeking answers, they started a GoFundMe in March in the hopes of hiring a private investigator who specializes in homicide and criminal cases.
The many unanswered questions on what led to the twins’ deaths have only deepened family members’ grief.
In their recent statement, the family said Naazir’s girlfriend told them that Naazir didn’t seem depressed and that the two of them were planning a future together and had discussed marriage. Qaadir was pursuing his studies and a dream of owning his own business, the family said.
“The twins were not suicidal,” the statement said.
The brothers were laid to rest on March 28, in matching coffins at a cemetery in suburban Atlanta. They came into the world together, and they left it together.
They had hoped to go on a tropical cruise from Florida to mark their birthdays in April but were still going back-and-forth about the destination in their family group chat, said Shania Brawner, a cousin.
Family members say they still want to plan a cruise trip to heal together and to honor Qaadir and Naazir.
Powell, their sister, told CNN she hopes people will remember her brothers not for how they died, but because of how they lived.
On April 5, the day the brothers would have turned 20, the family got together again at the twins’ mom’s house in Decatur, Georgia, for a posthumous birthday celebration.
They gathered around a cake adorned with the twins’ photos surrounded by wavy white frosting. Foil trays brimmed with the brothers’ favorite food: chicken wings.
People embraced. Some wiped away tears.
“It was our way of keeping them with us, keeping it a happy moment even with everything going on,” Shania Brawner said.
And they released white balloons into the sky, shouting, “Happy heavenly birthday to Qaadir and Naazir!” as they watched them float away, higher and higher, towards the heavens.
