Missing Holon murder suspect found dead at construction site

A Holon man suspected of murder who went missing over the weekend, prompting a national manhunt, was found dead at a construction site outside Tel Aviv, police said Sunday.

Emergency services received a report of a worker who fell from a building in Ramat Gan, but when police arrived at the scene they found Azaria’s body. He had apparently jumped from a building under construction in the Tel Aviv suburb.

Police had sought the public’s help in finding Alfonso Azaria, a Holon resident suspected of murdering a man found dead of a stab wound in Azaria’s apartment on Saturday.

The last reported sighting of Azaria, 63, was shortly after the time of the murder, when he was involved in a minor car accident near the Halacha interchange in Tel Aviv on the Ayalon Highway.

The victim, Meir Shentovi, a 57-year-old resident of Ramat Gan, was found dead early Saturday in Azaria’s Holon apartment with a knife in his back.

Shentovi had been reported missing since Friday. Officers had tracked his location to Azaria’s apartment using his cellphone.

Police said Sunday that they launched a special investigation into Azaria’s death.