Last update - 00:00 08/11/2007
Caretaker: I murdered elderly woman because she pestered me
By Roni Singer Heruti, Haaretz Correspondent
A Moldovan caretaker suspected of killing an elderly women whom she was hired to nurse, awoke from her coma a few days ago and confessed to police that she had in fact murdered the woman.
Two weeks ago, the 47-year-old caretaker strangled Holocaust survivor Shoshana Bierenbach, 76, with a belt and then torched the elderly lady's bedroom. sHE then jumped out of the second floor window of the burning Holon apartment, sustaining a serious blow to the head that had left her unconscious for over a week.
In her deposition to police, the caretaker told police that she killed the elderly woman over her disparaging comments regarding the man she was dating. The caretaker said that after months of being pestered she decided to strangle the woman.
She could not explain to police why she decided to set fire to the apartment. She did state that she had jumped out of the window to escape police and not because she was trying to commit suicide.
Meanwhile, three men - unrelated to the caretaker - were charged with breaking into the murdered woman's apartment following her death. According to police,the three men heard about the woman's murder in the news, found out where the family was sitting shiva - the seven day Jewish mourning period - and stole a set of keys while paying a shiva call.
The three men then entered the apartment and broke into a safe, only to discover that it had been emptied. According to police, the son of the elderly woman had taken thousands of dollars from the safe only a few weeks before his mother's death - for fear someone may rob her apartment.
The three were caught on camera entering the woman's apartment and thus were identified by the police.
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