Key clues: Glasses, sandal, and phylacteries

The central clues that ultimately led to the discovery of the three teenagers’ bodies were a pair of smashed glasses, a sandal, and a set of phylacteries, the New York Times reported.

The phylacteries were discovered by the IDF in the torched Hyundai i35 in which the three were thought to have hitchhiked a ride on June 12, hours after the abduction. DNA samples drawn from the car matched those of the slain students’ parents. The vehicle was reported stolen a month earlier in central Israel, and was likely abandoned in the hours following the kidnapping.

The sandal was recovered on Thursday, and a pair of smashed eyeglasses belonging to Eyal Yifrach was found in a field near Hebron early Sunday morning. The owner of the eyeglasses store in Elad, Yifrach’s hometown, said police approached him immediately after it was discovered. “I answered that this is a frame that I sell. The next day police came back again with fragments of the lenses; the prescription matched the prescription we prepared for Eyal,” he said, according to the Haaretz newspaper.