Man charged with killing his mother, the daughter of famed Noahide archaeologist

State prosecutors filed an indictment Monday against Joel Richardson, a 37-year-old man from the West Bank settlement of Maale Levona who is accused of murdering his mother and attempting to hide the evidence.

Sarah Richardson, the daughter of the enigmatic Noahide archaeologist Vendyl Jones, was found dead in her West Bank home in late May.

Police who arrived at the small settlement the morning of the 73-year-old woman’s death found her son digging a hole in the nearby garden.

He tried to prevent first responders from entering the house, where he lived with his mother, leading law enforcement to suspect he played a role in the murder and had meant to bury her body.

The suspect was arrested at the scene, but then released under restrictive conditions after forensics efforts were unable to determine the cause of his mother’s death.

Police arrested him again, however, after his father called the cops claiming he had threatened him with a knife.

During a subsequent interrogation, the suspect confessed to murdering his mother and reenacted how he killed her at the scene of the crime.

Richardson, who suffers from mental illness, also told investigators that he “received messages from God” commanding him to kill either his father or their dog, Channel 12 reported.

According to the indictment filed in the Jerusalem District Court, Richardson regularly abused his mother, who was dependent on him for assistance ever since she took a fall that impaired her ability to walk.

“Their relationship was marked by frequent arguments and repeated violence by the defendant towards his mother from 2019 up until her death,” the indictment read.

The defendant is accused of murdering his mother overnight, before dawn on May 27. He was apparently lying in bed with the deceased, who was fast asleep after the two had smoked cannabis together.

Sarah Richardson awoke to her son hitting her and shouted at him to stop, according to the charge sheet. He then took a pocket knife and climbed on top of his elderly mother, ready to stab and kill her, but then opted to smother her with a pillow instead.

Richardson struggled against her son for some time, over the course of which he accidentally cut his thumb on the knife in his hand. After removing the pillow, the suspect placed his leg on her neck and held it there for four minutes, choking her until she was lifeless.

After murdering his mother, Joel Richardson poured water into her mouth to make it appear as if she had choked on liquid. He removed her blood-stained clothing, undressed her and covered her with a tallit — a Jewish prayer shawl. He hid the pocket knife, also covered in blood.

Later, in the early morning, Joel called a friend, and then later the Magen David Adom emergency service, claiming that he had awoken to find his mother dead. He apparently poured water on his own face to give the impression he had been crying over his mother’s passing, said the indictment.

Prosecutors charged Richardson with aggravated murder, obstruction of justice, and assault of an elderly person, and requested that the court extend his remand until the end of legal proceedings against him.