Israel Police solved Fatma Rajabi murder, suspect charged

As the investigation progressed, suspicion grew within the police that this was not an innocent disappearance but a murder. Investigators began employing advanced technological means alongside a series of field investigations to trace the suspect‘s identity until they arrested him for questioning. During the interrogation, he reenacted his actions and led investigators to a barrel in a warehouse near his home, where the deceased was found. They also led investigators to a location in central Israel where a hammer, suspected of being used in the murder, was found. The investigation findings, conducted with the accompaniment of the State Attorney’s Office, revealed, as stated, that the suspect and the deceased knew each other beforehand, and the motive for the murder was a debt of tens of thousands of shekels owed by the suspect to the deceased. The police investigation revealed that after the suspect picked up the deceased in his vehicle, he allegedly attacked her with a heavy hammer, causing her death. In order to conceal the evidence and make it difficult to locate the body, he hid it, as stated, inside a barrel in a warehouse near his home in the A-Tur neighborhood and filled it with sealant. Afterward, the suspect attempted to conceal evidence in his vehicle and abandoned it in central Israel, where the vehicle was located by police officers. After exhausting the investigation and consolidating the evidential foundation against the suspect, the investigation file was transferred to the Jerusalem District State Attorney’s Office, which today filed a statement of intent in court, extending his detention. An indictment and a request for his detention until the end of proceedings are expected to follow.