18 years later, student’s murder looks set to be solved
Suspected killer of Edward Rothberg brought back to Israel after living in Berlin under assumed name
A murder mystery dating back 18 years looked set to come to a close this week when German and Israeli police arrested a former Haifa resident who had been living in Berlin under an assumed name.
The victim, Edward Rothberg, was in his 20s when he was stabbed to death outside a Haifa club in March 1998, apparently after an argument over a young woman.
At the time, he had been living in the Galilee city of Ma’alot and was in his third year of mechanical engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
Gennady Galkin, 43, allegedly fled to Germany hours after the stabbing and police had been looking for him ever since.
Around two years ago, Galkin — today married and a father — was identified by someone who reported his whereabouts to police.
German authorities arrested him in September, and after the completion of extradition procedures, he was brought to Israel, where he is under arrest. On Wednesday, Haifa Magistrates Court extended his remand for six days on suspicion of premeditated murder.
Police sources said Israel got its first lead on Galkin’s location some two and a half years ago and that the German authorities decided to arrest the suspect around four months ago. Galkin has been cooperating with police, reports said.
Police files show that Galkin had been the boyfriend of a woman referred to as Y, who was also linked to Rothberg. Reports immediately following the murder quoted Y as saying that she had been with Rothberg at the beginning of a party taking place at the Jericho Club and that she had no idea who might have wanted to murder him. A few hours later, though, she said she had arrived with Galkin, an ex-boyfriend with whom she had been involved for six years.
The investigation at the time suggested that Galkin had become angry when he suspected romantic ties between Rothberg and Y. The two men became embroiled in a verbal argument, after which Galkin is suspected of having stabbed Rothberg to death.
Rothberg’s father, Roman, told the Ma’ariv news site that the family was still mourning and found no joy or satisfaction in the news.