Police exhume body of girl, 37 years after unsolved murder, citing new evidence
In dramatic development, authorities get family’s okay for move in investigation of gruesome 1982 killing of Nava Elimelech
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleMichael Bachner is a news editor at The Times of Israel
New developments were reported Sunday in the unsolved murder case of a 12-year-old girl that shocked the country 37 years ago, with investigators exhuming her body for examinations.
The remains of Nava Elimelech, who was violently murdered and dismembered in 1982, have been dug up, after investigators uncovered new evidence in the case, police said.
Elimelech’s body was taken Sunday to the Abu Kabir forensic institute for testing. Police did not elaborate on the nature of the new evidence and a gag order has been imposed on the case.
Elimelech’s family approved the move.
תיעוד: שוטרי לה"ב 433 בבית העלמין חולון מוציאים את שרידי גופתה של נאווה אלימלך@daniel_elazar pic.twitter.com/Kk7UCxvf1N
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) August 4, 2019
The girl, the youngest of four siblings, went missing on March 20, 1982, after leaving her parents’ home in the central city of Bat Yam to visit a friend, who lived 300 meters (less than two-tenths of a mile) away.
After 10 days of searching, Elimelech’s head and other body parts washed up on various beaches in central Israel, wrapped inside plastic bags, horrifying bathers and the country. A pathologist determined that the murder took place on the day she went missing.
The murderer was never apprehended, despite the Israel Police assembling what was described at the time as the biggest investigation team in the country’s history, with some 40 members.
Elimelech’s body parts were sent at the time for examinations in a London lab in an attempt to determine the murder weapon. Several suspects were arrested over the years, but were released over lack of evidence.
In 1983, a Gazan man was arrested and then released. Shortly afterward, IDF chief of staff Rafael Eitan claimed the murder was nationally motivated and had been an entrance test for joining a Palestinian terror group.
הותר לפרסום: 37 שנים לאחר הרצח המזעזע של נאוה אלימלך בת ה-12, שגופתה נמצאה מפוזרת, גופתה הוצאה מקברה היום בניסיון לאתר את זהות הרוצח. pic.twitter.com/Gf3up5rOO9
— שמחה חסיד (@Simcha_Cohen4) August 4, 2019
In 2001, a member of the original investigation team told Army Radio that the Shin Bet security agency had found evidence to support that allegation. An Israeli Arab prisoner had provided information that his former cellmate, a Palestinian jailed for terror offenses, had confessed to killing Elimelech. However, between 1983 and 2001 the man was released, moved to Jordan, and died. He was never questioned in the case.
The breakthrough in the investigation happened several months ago. Reports said the new development was related to recent technological breakthroughs in DNA identification.
Elimelech’s brother Yaakov, in comments to Hebrew-language media Sunday, said that he had “mixed feelings, great pain mixed with hope that perhaps with the advanced technological abilities it will be possible to shed light on a contemptible murder case that wasn’t solved for years.”
The family is in the dark regarding the nature of the development, he added.
The news of the exhumation was “not easy” for Nava’s mother and the family, Yaakov said. “Over the years there were suspects, but there was never something this serious.”
The Times of Israel Community.