Last update - 00:00 09/07/2007
Police hold Lod man suspected of murdering missing wife
By Roni Singer-Heruti, Haaretz Correspondent
A 30-year old Lod resident was taken into police custody Sunday on suspicion of having murdered his wife over the weekend. Police investigators have been unable to find a body.
The husband allegedly admits to having kidnapped his wife, but says she managed to escape. Today the suspect will be remanded in custody.
On Friday evening, passersby saw an injured woman lying on the side of the road near Ashdod. She told those who stopped to help her that she had managed to free herself from a locked car trunk and asked for assistance to reach a police station.
She was taken to the Kiryat Gat police station, where she told police that she had been kidnapped, along with her friend, from the Holon area, and that the kidnapper was her friend's husband. The woman, who was bruised, said she did not know what happened to her friend.
After questioning, the police learned that the two women, Valentina Dombayev, 24, the suspect's wife, and the 20-year-old friend, both from Lod, had been driving on the Ayalon. When they reached the area of Holon, a vehicle blocked their path, and they saw Dombayev's husband and another man. The two told them to get in their car.
In the car the husband tied the 20-year-old woman's hands and locked her in the trunk. Dombayev was also pushed into the car and may have also been tied. As the car sped away, the woman in the trunk managed to free herself.
Near Ashdod, she succeeded in opening the trunk and throw herself outside, where she was later found by passersby.
Later police learned that the couple may have been fighting over their 4-and-a-half-year-old son.
During the weekend, detectives staked out the area where the child was staying (with a baby sitter), and saw his father come to collect him Sunday. The man was immediately arrested.
He admitted kidnapping his wife Valentina, and police suspect that he may have murdered her: There has been no sign of life from her since Friday night.
The suspect says that when he noticed that his wife's friend had managed to open the trunk, he stopped to check it and at that point his wife managed to flee.
The police are not convinced that he is telling the truth, and he will be brought before the Rishon Letzion Magistrate's Court this morning.