Subscribe to Print Edition | Wed., August 27, 2008 Av 26, 5768 | | Israel Time: 08:25 (EST+7)
Haaretz israel news English
web haaretz.com
  Back to Homepage
Haaretz Toolbar
Diplomacy
Defense Jewish World Opinion National
Print Edition
Car Rental
Books Haaretz Magazine Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File
Last update - 08:23 27/08/2008
Ever-changing stories of missing girl's grandfather burdened police
By Yuval Azoulay and Roni Singer-Heruti, Haaretz Correspondents
Tags: Rose, police, Israel 

For the past two weeks, police have been engaged in a frantic, round-the-clock search for Rose Pizem in locales as diverse as a Netanya nursery school, a French convent in Jaffa and Palestinian villages in the West Bank. The search was dictated by the ever-changing stories of Rose's grandfather, Ronny Ron, who is suspected of her murder.

Initially, Ron confessed to the murder, told police he had thrown the body in the Yarkon River and led them to the spot in Tel Aviv where he said he tossed the body into the river.

But then he changed his story, declaring repeatedly that he had given the girl to an institution - though the nature of the institution varied. Sometimes he claimed it was a yeshiva, sometimes a convent. At one point, he also claimed to have sold her to Arabs from the territories. And then, he went back to the murder story, but changed the location where he claimed to have disposed of the body to the dunes near Rishon Letzion.
Advertisement
Because of Ron's first story, the Yarkon was on the police's list of places to search from the start. But because his story had changed so often, it was a few days before they began searching the river in earnest. At that point, they began looking for the red suitcase into which Ron said he had stuffed Rose's body.

Ron said he had thrown the suitcase into the river near the bridge in Tel Aviv's Bavli neighborhood. He said he chose that site because he was familiar with it from his days as a taxi driver: The parking lot of the nearby Country Dekel country club is a popular place for taxi drivers to take their breaks.

But the search quickly encountered a snag: Police discovered that it was not easy to find divers willing to search the polluted river. Finally, they hired a private company that specializes in underwater searches, at a cost that police said has thus far totaled around NIS 10,000.

The company's specialists spent days searching every meter of the area in question with an underwater robotic camera, but without success. That is hardly surprising, environmental experts said: In the three months since Rose disappeared, underwater plants would probably have covered the suitcase, and visibility in the polluted waters is almost nil in any case.

But last week, just as they were about to give up in despair, the searchers finally found the red suitcase. They also found a diver who agreed to go down and retrieve it.

However, due to the poor visibility, the diver's legs became entangled with the camera's underwater cable, causing the camera to move - and the suitcase disappeared from the screen.

As it was getting dark, a second attempt was postponed until the next morning.

Incredibly, however, no one thought to mark the spot. Thus the next morning, the entire search had to begin again from scratch.

At one point, the searchers decided to send the diver down blind, with instructions to bring up anything he could feel. He retrieved a car bumper, a traffic cone and several backpacks and bags, but no red suitcase.

The result, said one source involved in the search, who was highly critical of both the delay in starting it and the way it was handled, is that "they are still searching for a suitcase that a week ago was three meters under the policemen's feet."

Even before they began focusing on the murder theory, back when they were still pursuing all of Ron's other tales, police quickly lost hope of finding Rose alive. "If she were alive, I believe we would have succeeded in finding a lead, in hearing something," said Avi Neuman, commander of the Central District Police's Central Unit, about a week ago. "After all, we're talking about a 4-and-a-half-year-old girl, who someone would have to take care of or know about. So if we haven't heard anything until now, I'm starting to be pessimistic."

As for Ron, when he was not claiming that Rose was in an institution somewhere, he consistently denied that he meant to kill her. He told the police that he even returned to the Yarkon a few days after the murder to beg her pardon, and considered committing suicide at the very spot where he disposed of her body.

Related articles:
  • Missing girl's mother allegedly told husband to 'get rid of her'
  • Police search for missing girl in 'one of the most shocking cases in Israel's history'
  • A lousy day to be a police detective in search of missing 4-year-old girl
    • Bookmark to del.icio.us  
     
    Swing Jews
    Jewish Democrats go hi-tech to fight anti-Obama 'hate mail.'
    Where's Rose?
    Missing girl's mother allegedly told husband to 'get rid of her.'
     Read & React
    Peace Now: West Bank settlement construction nearly doubled this year
    Responses: 230
    Jewish Democrats go hi-tech to fight anti-Obama 'hate mail'
    Responses: 43
    Obama: World must press Iran before Israel strikes
    Responses: 121
    Israeli and American: Why Jews can have more than one home
    Responses: 67
    VIDEO: Barak puts Tel Aviv apartment up for sale for NIS 40 million
    Responses: 39


    More Headlines
    02:55 Police: Grandfather killed 4-year old because she was hard to care for
    02:26 Before her disappearance, Rose Pizem suffered 4 years of horror
    07:08 Young Egyptians are in no hurry to die for the homeland
    07:59 Eying one another, Iran and Israel shore up their navies
    07:22 ANALYSIS / Israel's political limbo is just as thorny for Rice
    08:25 Shalit's parents to attend rally near Gaza ahead of son's 22nd birthday
    07:20 U.S. judge orders release of testimony in Jewish American atomic spies trial
    08:23 Ever-changing stories of missing girl's grandfather burdened police
    07:44 At Democratic convention, Hillary Clinton urges voters to unite behind Obama
    01:51 Tel Aviv and Givatayim at war over local beauty spot
    03:20 China passes Germany to become No. 2 exporter to Israel
    07:23 Teva's Azilect proven to slow progression of Parkinson's disease
    07:29 Reputed mob bosses face murder, drugs, money laundering charges in U.S.
    Previous Editions
    Special Offers
    Advertisement
    Fattal Hotel Chain
    Perfectly located hotels on best resorts of Israel.
    Jewish Singles Personal Ads
    Find the love of your life on JDate.com
    MBA in Israel in English
    APPLY NOW! Limited spaces available
    Israel's Premier Real Estate Website
    www. israel-property.com
    Hebrew Summer courses
    From $39.95
    ISRAEL BONDS Build Israel
    Israel bonds - a multi-purpose way to celebrate Israel's 60th
    Eldan Rent a Car
    Israel's leading car rental company offers you a 20% discount on all online reservations
    Junkyard
    Junk a car - get free towing nationwide and a tax-deductible receipt
    Home | TV | Print Edition | Diplomacy | Opinion | Arts & Leisure | Sports | Jewish World | Underground | Site rules |
    Real Estate in Israel | Travel to Israel with Haaretz | Hotels Israel | Restaurants Israel | Tourist attractions Israel | Shops Israel
    birthright Israel | Search engine marketing
    Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
    © Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved