Suspected killer of Abu Khdeir once tried to kill his own daughter

14 July 2014, 1:03 pm

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The chief suspect in the brutal July 2 kidnapping-murder of Palestinian youth Muhammed Abu Khdeir, 16, once attempted to kill his own infant daughter, court documents reveal.

The Jerusalem resident, 30, confessed to trying to strangle the girl, a fate that was only prevented when his wife walked in on him during the attempt, he said in a confession to police at the time.

The confession was part of a successful temporary insanity plea in the earlier case, and its return in the current case may indicate that Abu Khdeir’s suspected killers, three of whom have confessed to the crime and reenacted it for investigators, are pursuing a defense strategy centered on an insanity plea.