Shocking information was released for publication on Thursday regarding the unsolved murder of a religious couple three years ago, the attempted murder of a teenage girl the day before that, and the murder of a foreign worker from Moldova about three weeks ago.

The brutal murder of Tamar, 68, h’yd, and Yehuda Kadouri, 71, h’yd, on January 10, 2019, shocked the nation. The couple was found in their apartment in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Armon Hanatziv with their throats slit and signs of violence on their body, including stab wounds.

Unlike most murder cases, the perpetrator was never discovered and the police hit a total dead end in the case. They initially suspected an Arab worker, a resident of east Jerusalem, who cleaned stairwells in the area for 20 years. The police extended his arrest five times but ultimately released him due to a lack of evidence. The police then arrested one of the couple’s sons and his wife, who are Chareidi, as possible suspects in the case but they too were released after no evidence was found against them.

On Thursday, it was reported that the double homicide was carried out by Wasim a-Sayed, 34, a resident of Chevron and an ISIS supporter, who was arrested two months ago.

The case was solved thanks to the vigilance of Border Police officers in Jerusalem following the perpetration of another attack, during which he murdered Ivan Tarnowskia, a Moldovan foreign worker, at his apartment in Jerusalem, and injured another Moldovan foreign worker.

A few hours later, Border Police officers spotted the suspect in the Neve Yaakov area and detained him for entering Israel illegally. They then found the knife he used to commit the Moldovan worker’s murder in his knapsack and transferred him to the Shin Bet for interrogation. His arrest came four days after he was released from over two years of administrative detention in Israel for his involvement in ISIS terror activity – unrelated to the murders he committed. Previously he had been imprisoned in Israel from 2015-2018 for ISIS-related activities, including the planning of terror attacks against Israeli targets, and had also been imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority for several months.

The day before he murdered the Kaduris, a-Sayed attempted to murder a teenage girl, Hadar Betzalel, as she waited at the bus stop in the morning in Armon Hanatziv She was lightly injured and was hospitalized with stab wounds to her hand and neck but the perpetrator escaped and was never found. Following the murder of the Kaduris a day later, the girls’ mother, Merav Betzalel, told Ynet that she’s positive that the incidents are connected.

During a-Sayed’s interrogation, the investigators noted that his method of operation in murdering the Moldovan worker was similar to that of the murder of the Kaduri couple. The terrorist eventually confessed, telling the interrogators that he first tried murdering a young teenager in Armon Hanatziv. A day later, he returned to the same area and saw what he described as a “Jew with a kippah taking groceries out of his car.”

The terrorist then entered the apartment while Yehuda Kaduri was still outside and murdered Tamar Kaduri. He then hid in the room and meanwhile, Yehuda came in with the groceries and sat in the kitchen and ate a meal [assuming his wife, who suffered from poor health, was asleep.] When he was finished, he got up and saw the terrorist. A violent struggle ensued between him and the terrorist but eventually, the terrorist murdered him.

He then stayed in the apartment, sleeping there overnight. In the morning, he got up, took an apple, and returned to his home in Chevron.

Following the murder, an imprint of a shoe made in Chevron was found at the bloody murder scene. After a-Sayed was arrested two months ago, the bag with which he arrived at the Kaduri home was found in his home in Chevron with the shoe inside it. A forensic examination identified the blood of Yehuda Kaduri on the shoe.

The terrorist told the interrogators that the murders were committed out of his support to Islamic State, to which he had pledged allegiance.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)