17-year-old Henriette fell in love. Then her father allegedly killed her.

“They are sending people to kill me.”

Those were the words of 17-year-old Henriette Karra in a message to a friend.

She wasn’t talking about strangers, she didn’t find herself caught up in the wrong crowd, and she certainly wasn’t being dramatic.

She was talking about her own family.

“They are searching for me in every possible place,” she wrote in another message, the Jeruselum Post reports.

“You don’t understand what fear this is. I don’t believe I have the strength to stand on my feet and run away.”

Henriette was an Arab-Israeli teenager who had fallen helplessly in love with a Muslim boy in Israel’s central town of Ramle. She was allegedly killed because of that love.

On June 13, young Henriette was found dead in her parents’ kitchen with stab wounds to the neck, after spending the last two weeks of her life in hiding, steering clear of a family – her family – who had a launched a dogged campaign of threats and violence against her.

A month after her death, her 58-year-old father Sami Karra was charged with the murder of his own daughter, in what prosecutors describe as a suspected “honour” killing.

In an indictment seen by local media, police believe Henriette’s family objected to her relationship with the man, her intention to convert to Islam and the fact he was serving time in person.

Just weeks before she died, the Jerusalem Post reported Sami allegedly beat and threatened Henriette, telling her, “I would spend my whole life in jail. I don’t care”.

Tensions were exacerbated when two weeks later, on the day of her graduation, the 17-year-old outlined her plans to convert to Islam for her boyfriend, who was due out of prison the next week, to a relative.

The next day, she was found dead.

Sami is denying the allegations he murdered his own daughter.

“It’s no secret that the family had a bad relationship, so to speak, between the deceased and her family in light of the criticism her family had of her behaviour,” Sami’s attorneys Shukri Abu Tabik and Giora Zilberstein told Ynet.

“This did not lead to murder and could not lead to murder. The complaints against [Henriette] were only to reunite the family.”

A family acquaintance told Haaretz that Henriette had previously been a “happy teenager”.

“Her life wasn’t easy and she was apparently a victim of all this complexity. She was a happy teenager who ended her life in such a tragic way,” the woman said.

If you or someone you know is in need of help, please call the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800 RESPECT.