Police seek autopsy of couple in mystery Eilat hotel ‘double suicide’

Israel’s High Court will hear a petition Tuesday morning by the families of Baruch Indig and Odelia Bachar, found dead this week in an Eilat hotel room, asking to prevent a police autopsy of the bodies amid an ongoing investigation into their deaths.

Indig and Bachar, both in their 20s, were found dead Sunday morning by staff in the Herod’s Hotel Eilat after the couple failed to check out on time. Entering room 301 where the two had been staying over the weekend, staff found both bodies lying on the bed alongside a suicide note in their names.

But despite signs of a double suicide, police were continuing Monday to investigate other potential causes for their deaths.

“On the face of it there is no criminal suspicion but the case obligates us to investigate all possible angles,” police spokesperson Luba Samri said, adding that the bodies had been transferred to the Abu Kabir Medical Center to determine the cause of death.

“While exploring options, we are still looking into the incident as a double suicide,” another police spokesperson said, denying that the case was being investigated as a murder-suicide.

Police are seeking to carry out full autopsies on the bodies but the families of Indig and Bachar have protested the move on the grounds that it violates Jewish law. After the Eilat Magistrate’s Court ruled Monday evening that police could go head with the postmortem, the families filed a petition with the High Court which will be heard at 8.30 a.m. Tuesday.

Arguing in the Magistrate’s Court to be allowed to carry out the autopsies, police claimed that initial medical examinations showed a disparity in the times of deaths between Indig and Bachar, Michael Gutvin, the coordinator of Zaka’s legal department which is representing the families, told The Times of Israel.

According to Channel 10 news, that time distance may have even been days. Bachar was estimated to have died some time overnight Thursday-Friday, just hours after the two entered the room on Thursday, while Indig may not have died until Saturday morning, the channel reported Monday.

“Whatever the outcome of an autopsy, there is no one to convict and based on previous cases, there is no precedent to go ahead with a full autopsy,” Gutvin said. “Police need need to respect the will of the families to bury their children according to Jewish law.”

Indig and Bachar both came from ultra-Orthodox families but had left orthodoxy in recent years.

Indig, 26, had served in the army as a radio host and producer for Army Radio until he was discharged a year and a half ago. He had previously worked for ultra-Orthodox radio station Kol Hai.

In the past year Indig shared a number of posts on Facebook detailing sexual harassment he suffered as a child from the age of eight.

“You ruined my life. Me and many other children who you hurt,” he wrote in a November post describing his feelings of despair as a young boy. “You forever put out the light of what I could have been.”

Other posts expressed feelings of depression and loneliness. According to her Facebook page, Bachar worked at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.

On Thursday the two updated their statuses on the social media platform to “in a relationship” with each other.

At 1.14 a.m. Friday, hours before Bachar is said to have died, Indig uploaded a photo of the two together, setting it as his final profile image. At 1.27 a.m., Bachar did the same.