(PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE)

Police have lifted a gag order on the case involving the May 2017 murder of Michal Halimi, 29, a resident of Yishuv Adam in the Binyamin Regional Council of Shomron.

Police at the end of May received a report of her disappearance, launching a missing persons investigation. Police learned that she left home on her own, apparently at the behest of her Arab boyfriend, a resident of PA (Palestinian Authority) occupied Shechem.

Police learned of their friendship from Facebook, where various photos of the two were posted as well as their declaring plans to get engaged to one another.

As the investigation unfolded, the suspect was arrested and in the first stage of his interrogation, contradictions arose regarding the whereabouts of the missing person, a fact that raised the suspicion of his involvement in her absence.

At this stage, District Commander Deputy Commissioner Moshe Barkat decided to impose the continuation of the investigation on the Central Unit.

The investigators of the Central Unit conducted a covert investigation, in which they began to collect findings while conducting various investigative activities, including the use of advanced technological means, which reinforced the suspicion that the missing person was not among the living. As the investigation progressed and a gag order was issued, other residents of Taibeh were arrested, with whom the suspect was in contact.

During the interrogation, they said that the suspect and the deceased had a relationship, and on the day of her absence, the two met in the Holon area where the murder was apparently carried out.

On July 24, 2017, after the unit’s detectives conducted extensive searches in the Holon sands area, a body was located in that area, identified at the forensic institute being that of Halimi HY”D.

The suspect, who was interrogated several times, confessed and reconstructed the murder. According to his version, he met the deceased in the Holon area, choked her, threw stones at her head, covered her body and left the place in her car.

A prosecutor’s request was filed on Wednesday 10 Av in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court and in the next few days the Tel Aviv District Prosecutor’s Office will file an indictment for murder and other offenses.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)