An indictment will be filed next week in the murder of 46-year-old Rasha Muklasha, an Israel Police spokesperson reported on Monday.
In the late-evening hours of August 5, a private vehicle broke through a police checkpoint in the Jordan Valley and suspicion arose that it had been involved in a criminal incident.
Police began searching for the vehicle and identifying the occupants of the vehicle. During the investigation, it was suspected that the incident was related to the disappearance of Muklasha, which had recently been discovered.
Suspicion grew that the woman had been murdered. Police detectives tried to track down the suspect, who went into hiding and disappeared for hours, while searching for Muklasha in the vicinity of her home and place of work.
Around 5:00 p.m. the next day, the suspect tried to break through another police checkpoint, which had been set up in relation to the investigation. Police apprehended the suspect after a foot chase near the town of Nahalal.
The three sons of the deceased woman were arrested along with another relative who is suspected of being their accomplice. Their arrest was extended a few times, until police had enough evidence to point to the middle brother as the main perpetrator, and the rest were released.
Many policemen, accompanied by a helicopter, dogs, cavalry and the Police’s Reconnaissance Unit, continued to search for the missing woman. Following 26 hours of searching, the woman’s body was found in a mountainous area near the Jordan River. An attempt was made to hide the body under leaves and sand.
At the end of the investigation, in which the family of the victim remained uncooperative, enough evidence was collected to prosecute the middle brother. The prosecution intends on filing a severe indictment next week and request the arrest of the suspect to extend until the end of the proceedings.
“The rapid activity of the Central Unit’s investigators in locating the suspect, combined with the suspicion that it was a murder, led to the launch of all the Northern District forces for a quick and extensive operation to locate the victim’s body and prevent its disappearance, once again proving our full commitment to solving crimes in Arab society using all available means: in the air, on the ground and special forces together,” Police Northern District Supt. Shimon Lavi said.
Violence in the Arab sector has remained a prevalent issue with 92 murders so far in 2021, six of which occurred last weekend alone.