Father of murdered Jerusalem girls agrees to ‘partial autopsy’

The father of four young girls found murdered in Jerusalem Sunday agreed to a “partial autopsy” of two of the girls.

The girls were found dead a day earlier in a suspected murder-suicide in the capital. Firefighters found the children, ages 11, 9, 4 and 11 months, dead in a locked bedroom of a fifth-story apartment that had been set ablaze in southern Jerusalem. The girls’ mother, who is the primary suspect in their murder, was found hanged on the balcony.

The bodies of the children were sent to the Abu Kabir forensic institute late Sunday.

The father, who was not at home at the time, at first refused to allow autopsies of the children. The family is religiously observant, and Jewish religious law requires respect for the bodies of the dead, as well as a swift burial.

But on Monday morning, after unspecified “signs of violence” were found on the bodies of two of the girls, police investigators asked the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court to issue an order that would allow the autopsies to go forward against the father’s wishes.

Police say only an autopsy will enable them to determine whether the girls were killed in the fire, or, as investigators suspect, by strangulation beforehand by their mother.

By Monday afternoon, the father gave his consent to a “partial autopsy” of the two girls who showed the signs of violence. According to media reports, if the findings indicated a need for further investigation, he would approve more invasive autopsies of all four of the children.

An initial investigation of the fire concluded that a mattress had been sprayed with lighter fluid and set ablaze in the apartment.

The father, who is not a suspect in the children’s deaths, arrived at the apartment about half an hour after the emergency services. A spokesperson for the United Hatzalah rescue organization said the father was being treated by a psychotrauma team. It was not clear where he was at the time of the fire.

Jerusalem municipal social services had placed the father in a hotel room for the night, where he is staying with family members.

Four firefighting teams responded to the initial call, entering the locked apartment through the balcony before discovering the lifeless body of the 36-year-old mother. A quick scan of the apartment led firefighters to a locked bedroom from which smoke was emanating and where they found the bodies of the four children.

The names of the children and the parents, immigrants to Israel from France, were not released to the public. Friends, acquaintances and neighbors of the family expressed their horror and disbelief at the tragedy.

A neighbor told Ynet that the “family had made aliyah from France 13 years ago, the children were born here. The mom always looked to be a strong, assertive woman.”

Another neighbor said he had seen the mother and daughters playing in an adjacent park a day earlier and everything seemed normal.

A friend of the family, who gave Ynet the first name Shmuel, said the family was “exceptional,” describing the mother as “brilliant, caring and warm.”

“They always looked to be a couple raising their children with a lot of love. The community here is in shock,” he said.

Hebrew-language media reported that the woman had been receiving psychiatric treatment, but there was no confirmation of the reports.

Jerusalem firefighter Arik Abuluf described the scene when rescuers first arrived.

“We found her lying on the floor. The room that the children were in was completely burned and because it was closed, the flames used up the oxygen.

“It was the most difficult thing I have seen in all my years in the fire service,” he added.

Rescuers said the woman’s body was found on a balcony outside the apartment. Neighbors who saw her body hanging on the balcony called the emergency services and were advised by them to access the balcony and cut her down. They were not able to enter the apartment, which was locked from the inside, and waited until firefighters reached the scene and broke open the door.

Shalom Klein, a volunteer with the Zaka search and rescue organization, called the scene “shocking.”

“I arrived at the scene of the fire and the neighbors brought me to the apartment balcony. The mother was dead. Her four children were burned to death. ZAKA Jerusalem volunteers are dealing with the bodies and collecting the remains,” Klein said.