DNA leads Dutch cops to arrest suspect in 1990 murder of Israeli woman

Based on DNA analysis, Dutch police arrested an Israeli man whom they say killed an Israeli woman in the Netherlands 26 years ago.

Officers reinvestigating the case identified the suspect in the 1990 lethal stabbing of Miriam Sharon in The Hague as Daniel Amunah, who has a history of property and drug-related crimes. Amunah, now 52, had been briefly considered as a suspect directly after Sharon’s death but was released for lack of evidence, Ynet (Hebrew) reported Friday.

Amunah was arrested again in August this year in connection with Sharon’s death based on newly discovered DNA evidence upon entering the Netherlands, according to Ynet. The report revealed for the first time the identity of the suspect who was arrested in August and who police believed to be the killer.

According to “Een Vandaag,” a Dutch investigative journalism television program, the new evidence analyzed by the team appointed by the Dutch police to re-examine the cold case included a cigarette butt and a black leather coat.

Sharon left Israel in 1979 for the Netherlands, where she settled and married a local artist. Sharon, who was in her late 30s when she was killed, had two children with the artist before the couple separated in the 1980s. The Ynet report did not provide information on how Dutch police see the relationship between Sharon and Amunah, or his purported motives for allegedly killing her.

Amunah has been in and out of jail in Israel since he was 17, Ynet reported. He completed his last stretch in 2014.