Last update - 00:00 21/12/2006
Katzrin residents cast doubt on police version of teen's murder
By Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz Correspondent
A day after Katzrin police announced the arrest of the man they say murdered Tair Rada, residents of this Golan Heights town are still uneasy.
Beset by confusion and uncertainty, some residents feel something is missing that would confirm the suspicions against suspect Roman Zadorov. They say the police version of events that the 13-year-old was killed after she asked Zadorov for a cigarette and then swore at him for refusing are unconvincing.
"Tair was a girl who treated others with respect. I was shocked by the reports, Tair was not one to confront someone, even verbally, and would not have insulted him," Rada's mother, Ilana, said after the police press briefing on Tuesday.
"It doesn't make sense, she was a good girl, she wouldn't touch cigarettes," said Anatoly Stoliarsky, a classmate of Rada's.
Sarit Ron, Rada's homeroom teacher, said the report did not ring true. "She did not smoke, she was a polite child who never hurt a fly. This story is a character assassination. This explanation is not convincing. I don't believe she asked for a cigarette, she was a naive girl who kept away from such nonsense," she said.
Referring to the report that the suspect had said Rada called him a "stinking Russian," Ron says "more than a third of Rada's classmates are children of new Russian immigrants. She never insulted them, she even helped a few with homework. This is just not like her."
The police dispersed from the Katzrin school on Wednesday and workers began putting up security cameras in various places.
Rada is believed to have finished the first of two scheduled drama classes at 1 P.M. the day she was killed. During the break she sat with Shai Yifrah, a friend in the eighth grade, and other friends on a bench near the classrooms. The others left and the two girls were left alone. Rada decided to skip the second class and remained sitting with her friend,
At some point Rada told Shai she was going into the building for a drink of water. "After that we'll go home," she said.
Near the entrance is a stairway where Zadorov was doing renovation work. Perhaps this is where the two met. It is not clear whether Rada continued to the drinking fountain or went upstairs to the bathrooms on the second floor, which was empty that day due to the tenth grade's annual trip.
Zadorov is suspected of following Rada into the bathroom and murdering her in one of the stalls.
The bathroom door has been locked since the murder, but through the window one can see a chair inside. Perhaps the murderer used that chair to climb over the door and get out of the stall, after locking it from the inside.
Yifrah waited but Rada did not return, as arranged. Yifrah went inside, to the water fountain, but Rada was not there. Later the detectives told her that had she gone to the toilets she might have been murdered too.
Yifrah thought Rada must have left through another door and went to talk to a group of pupils about to board the buses that would take them home at the end of the school day. After making sure Rada was not in the up area, Yifrah decided to go home, assuming her friend had done the same.
"Shai is in torment today," her mother said on Wednesday. "She doesn't care how the murder happened, she wants Tair back."