Beth Nakamura/Staff

Fawn Lengvenis and Seth Smart talk Thursday morning about losing their daughter, Fallon Smart, in a Southeast Portland car crash in August 2016. Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah was arrested on manslaughter and hit-and-run charges in the Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard crash that killed the 15-year-old, but he was able to flee the country before his trial.

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Updated 6:05 p.m.

The first blow came with the senseless death of their teen daughter.



Then came the news that her accused killer, a young man from Saudi Arabia, had vanished before trial.



Now the parents of Fallon Smart are coming to grips with the fact that his government likely helped him escape — and possibly other Saudis suspected of serious crimes throughout Oregon and elsewhere.



"It's like the laws of physics go out the door," said Fallon's mother, Fawn Lengvenis, on Thursday. "And it all starts from the beginning again."



Fallon's father, Seth Smart, seated next to her, fought back tears.



"The imagination runs wild," he said during an interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive. "Is he just leading his normal life somewhere? Does he even think about it? Does he even care?



"Our families are forever changed," he said about himself and Lengvenis. The couple divorced when Fallon was young. Both have since remarried.



In August 2016, weeks before her 16th birthday, Fallon was killed by a speeding driver while she legally crossed Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard.

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The suspect, Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah, was jailed and charged with first-degree manslaughter and felony hit-and-run. After his arrest, the Saudi consulate retained private defense attorneys to work on his case and cut a $100,000 check to provide him bail.



Federal law enforcement now believe the Saudi government orchestrated Noorah's remarkable escape in June 2017. They say the Saudis furnished the young man, who studied at Portland Community College, with an illicit passport and possibly a private plane.



The Oregonian/OregonLive has since discovered similar cases in Oregon and across the country, including one in Ohio in 1988 that suggests the practice has been going on for decades.



The cases have generated international headlines, and Oregon's U.S. senators are seeking answers on Capitol Hill.



In their first interview since her death, Fallon's parents grieved the loss of the daughter they described as gentle and generous. They also grappled with how their family's personal tragedy carried political implications between the U.S. and a longstanding ally in the Middle East.



"It almost feels like you're reading the plot of an intrigue novel," said Lengvenis, who lives in Southeast Portland. "It's hard to believe that it's part of your reality."



But the pain continues in a very real way.



"It's not just mourning one life," said Smart, a Tigard resident. "It is mourning all the possibilities that one life had."

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Beth Nakamura/Staff

Fawn Lengvenis and Seth Smart talk Thursday morning about losing their daughter, Fallon Smart, in a Southeast Portland car crash in August 2016. Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah was arrested on manslaughter and hit-and-run charges in the Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard crash that killed the 15-year-old, but he was able to flee the country before his trial.

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Fallon talked about wanting to become a scientist or a teacher, her parents said. She sang Beatles songs, wrote stories and made her family laugh.



She had four younger siblings, all of whom she adored.



"That's where her selflessness really shined," Smart, 37, said. "She was a great big sister."



Though introverted, Fallon began to open up more after she started at Franklin High School in 2015. She came out as gay. She was passionate about environmental and social justice issues. Fallon had said she planned to become a mentor for other LGBTQ youth, the 36-year-old Lengvenis said.



Speaking at the office of Lengvenis' lawyer, her parents recalled the duet their daughter and her partner sang together at a Bridging Voices concert hosted at the Waverly Heights United Church of Christ.



"That's the moment she figured out who she was," Lengvenis said.



Fallon was killed six months later, just before the start of her sophomore year in high school.



The death cast her parents' lives into turmoil. Each had spouses, and both had Fallon's younger siblings to look after. The loss was unimaginable, life-altering.



"To survive something like this you have to compartmentalize a lot," Lengvenis said. "It's like shoving things into a closet. Eventually there's too many things and it bursts back open."



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Beth Nakamura/Staff

Fawn Lengvenis and Seth Smart talk Thursday morning about losing their daughter, Fallon Smart, in a Southeast Portland car crash in August 2016. Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah was arrested on manslaughter and hit-and-run charges in the Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard crash that killed the 15-year-old, but he was able to flee the country before his trial.

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Noorah's criminal case, meanwhile, slowly proceed through court.



Fallon's parents were surprised — and concerned — when the young Saudi student posted bail, which was set at $1 million, and was released from jail. He was placed under house arrest while his trial approached but was allowed to take classes at PCC .



"I just had this faith that the legal system would operate in the way I thought it would have," Lengvenis said.



Then Noorah, who was 21, vanished. The families were devastated anew.



It was only after his disappearance that the parents learned the Saudi government had posted the $100,000 required for Noorah's release.



Eighteen months later, they learned through a story published in The Oregonian/OregonLive about the kingdom's suspected role in Noorah's escape.

Fahad Nazer, a spokesman for the Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C., has previously said that, as a policy, the Saudi government will cover the cost of bail for any citizen jailed in the U.S. who asks for assistance.

Nazer said the Saudi government did not provide any travel documents to Noorah, who federal law enforcement says returned to Saudi Arabia, before he fled the U.S.



Lengvenis said she had remained hesitant to speak publicly about her daughter's death and her accused killer's disappearance out of concern it would be used to promote bigotry against Saudi people or as a political weapon by anti-immigration advocates.



"I didn't want to disrespect the work Fallon did in her short life just to get her justice," Lengvenis said.



Still, the girl's mother said that by telling her story there might be a greater chance of getting Noorah back to the U.S. one day.



Smart offered less optimism.



"I'm not very hopeful," he said. "I don't think Mr. Noorah is coming back to the United States."

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Photos courtesy of Multnomah County Sheriff's Office and Holland Studio

Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah was accused of hitting and killing Fallon Smart while speeding in Portland, Oregon.

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Rebeca Bagdocimo/Staff

Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah appears during his arraignment in Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 22, 2016. With him is his attorney, Ginger Mooney, who represented several Saudi students facing legal troubles in Oregon.

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Read other stories from this series:

He was accused of killing a Portland teen. Feds believe the Saudis helped him escape

Gone: More cases emerge of Saudi students vanishing while facing Oregon charges

Saudi students who vanish before trial span states, decades

Oregon’s Merkley and Wyden seek to punish Saudi Arabia over students who vanished before trial

Oregon’s Wyden prods FBI director for answers about Saudi role in student disappearances

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632