Woman arrested on suspicion of killing her infant children over 25 years ago

Surviving children of suspect, a resident of an Israeli West Bank settlement in her 50s, claim she lied to authorities about two of her kids dying from sudden infant death syndrome

By ToI Staff 21 February 2022, 4:57 pm

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Illustrative: Israel Police investigate the scene of a crime on June 2, 2021. (Israel Police)

Police on Monday arrested a woman suspected of killing her two infant children over 25 years ago in separate incidents.

The infants’ deaths, the first occurring in 1989 and the other in 1995, were attributed at the time to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), also known as “crib death,” a poorly understood syndrome in which infants die during their sleep, often despite having no known preexisting medical conditions.

The suspect, a resident of a West Bank settlement in her 50s, was detained on Sunday after her surviving children, now adults, filed a complaint with the Jerusalem Police.

The complaint alleges their siblings did not in fact die of SIDS, but were killed by their mother.

Police were conducting an investigation into both deaths.

The Jerusalem District Court on Monday extended her detention by a week. The court put a gag order barring the publication of details from the investigation or the woman’s identity.