Man walks into police station to confess to brutal 1974 murder of female soldier

A man has confessed to police that he killed an Israeli army servicewoman 45 years ago, a crime for which another man spent eight years in prison and many more afterwards fighting to clear his name.

The suspect, from the north of the country and in his 70s, reportedly walked into the Karmiel police station Sunday where he told cops he had killed IDF soldier Rachel Heller in 1974. He also confessed to killing another man a few years before Heller’s death. Hebrew media reported that the earlier death was investigated at the time by police who concluded it was a suicide.

The Acre Magistrate’s Court on Monday sent the suspect for a psychiatric evaluation and ordered he be kept in custody for at least four more days, Hebrew media reported.

A gag order was issued on many details of the investigation, including the suspect’s name.

Public defender Said Haddad, who is representing the suspect, told Ynet that his client is a lonely man and may have made the confession in order to be sent to prison so he can live out his days in the care of a state institution.

“My feeling is that he is trying to find a place for himself during his final years where he will be treated.”

"רוצה לדעת למה אחותי נרצחה": אחותה של רחל הלר שנרצחה לפני 45 שנה, התייחסה למעצר החשוד ברצח היום > https://t.co/oQIk9cF2Co pic.twitter.com/ei3pGk9Gtd

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) May 13, 2019

Heller’s killing remains unsolved. Her sister Ilah Angel told Channel 12 news that she is just seeking answers.

Heller, 19, was found dead near Kibbutz Sdot Yam in October 1974 with signs of violent abuse to her body. The killing provoked public outrage and demands that police solve the crime.

Two years later Amos Baranes, who was acquainted with Heller and who had offered to help police with the investigation, was convicted of her murder and sentenced to life in prison.

His sentence was commuted by the president after he had served eight and a half years amid concerns he confessed to the murder while being deprived of sleep for several days and amid harsh treatment by police officers. No other suspects were ever charged in the killing.

Following his release, Baranes spent years fighting to clear his name and in 2002 was granted a retrial but the state withdrew the murder charge against him. In 2010 the Tel Aviv District Court awarded him NIS 5 million for wrongful imprisonment and found that at the time of his 1976 trial the court was unaware of evidence which may have prevented his conviction, thereby denying him a fair trial.

He died in 2011.

Amos Baranes’s daughter, Tohar Edri Baranes, told the Ynet website that she had not yet received any official details about the recent development.

“On one hand there is a feeling of great relief, and on the other hand anger and pain that this didn’t happen while he was alive.”