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Last update - 17:51 27/08/2008
Police: We will do all we can to give Rose a proper burial
By Roni Singer-Heruti, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
Tags: Madeleine McCann, Rose 

Police consulted with private professionals on Wednesday regarding the option of drying up the area of the Yarkon River where Rose Pizem's paternal grandfather, Ronny Ron, allegedly tossed a suitcase containing her 4-year-old body.

Experts believe that drying up the area will cost hundreds of thousands of shekels. Additionally, police are conducting searches for Rose in Netanya and the surrounding areas.

In the search for the missing 4-year-old, the police are using search-dogs, volunteers and a device to pinpoint the cellular telephones of the suspects.
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Police said the tracking record of Ronny Ron's cellular phone did not contradict his testimony however it was not clear if Ron was carrying his phone at the time he allegedly tossed Rose's body in the Yarkon River.

For the past two weeks, police have searched in locales as diverse as a Netanya nursery school, a French convent in Jaffa and Palestinian villages in the West Bank.

Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen said Wednesday that the police were still unsure of the whereabouts of Rose Pizem, as they widened their search for the girl.

Police think that Ronny Ron, Rose's paternal grandfather, who is also the live-in lover of her mother, Marie-Charlotte Renault, killed her some three months ago. Ron admits murdering his granddaughter, and says he put her body in a suitcase and threw it in a Tel Aviv river.

But, said Cohen: "We are all full of doubt as to the whereabouts of Rose, but we are centered around the Yarkon River at present and this is the process of the probe, and the central angle of investigation."

Both Renault and Rose's father, Benjamin Pizem (who is also Ron's son)  are French, and Rose lived in Paris until last December.

The police chief told Army Radio that they also were conducting searches in two other areas apart from the river: near the child's home in Netanya and in the city's southern districts.

Both Ron and Renault were remanded for another eight days on Tuesday, as the court lifted the strict gag order that had been imposed on the case.

The story of the missing girl has sparked international interest. The search for Rose is being followed in France, where she was born, and in Britain, where comparisons are being made to the case of Madeleine McCann, the four-year-old who disappeared in May 2007 during a family vacation in Portugal. Rose's physical similarity to Madeleine - both have blond hair and blue eyes - has also been remarked upon.

Ron, a 45-year-old resident of Netanya, confessed to the murder earlier this week, police said. He also brought them to the spot where he allegedly threw Rose into the Yarkon River after stuffing her body into a suitcase.

Ron murdered the girl, police said, because he could not cope with the problems entailed in raising her.

Renault, in contrast, is not suspected of involvement in the actual murder. However, police believe the killing was premeditated, and that she helped plan it.

Ron denies that the murder was premeditated. He told the police that three months ago, as he was driving in the car with Rose in the backseat, her noisy chewing as she ate a cookie irritated him, and he yelled at her. She then went crazy, interfering with his driving, so he struck her.

He continued driving, he said, but after some time during which he heard no sounds from her, he turned around and saw that her head was at a funny angle. He stopped the car, discovered that she was not breathing and panicked. So he stuffed her into a suitcase and threw her into the Yarkon.

Police, however, do not believe this account. Nor do they believe Renault's story that she knew nothing about Rose's murder.

Renault claimed that Ron told her he had arranged for Rose to be put in an institution in France, and she believed him and asked no questions.

Ron seconded this story. When he got home after the murder, he said, Marie was asleep, so he quickly washed his clothes, and the next morning, he told her he had sent Rose to an institution in France. His greatest fear, he explained, was that Marie would leave him if she knew what he had done.

However, police find it hard to believe that Marie truly asked no questions after hearing Ron's story about the French institution.

They also claim to have evidence that she helped conceal the murder after the fact. For instance, police said, when she learned that police and social workers were searching for Rose, she called a family friend and urged him: "Get me a 5-year-old girl," since otherwise, "Ronny is liable to go to jail."

Police also said that Marie had asked Ron to "get rid of" Rose for her, though not specifically to kill her. "I don't want to see this girl; get rid of her!" one quoted her as saying.

Though the child died in May, police learned of Rose's disappearance only a little over two weeks ago. That was when Rose's great-grandmother, Vivien Yaakov, wrote to the National Council for the Child, saying she had not seen Rose since Ron removed the child from her house in May. Until then, Yaakov had been caring for the girl most of the time.

The council passed the letter on to Netanya's welfare department, which in turn sent it on to the police.

However, it was only early last week that police concluded that Rose had been either kidnapped or killed. At that point, every investigator in the Central District Police's Central Unit began working full-time on the search for Rose. Every other case was put on hold.

Rose was born in Paris in 2004, when neither of her parents had yet turned 20. When she was a year old, the family went to Israel so Benjamin Pizem could meet Ron, the Israeli father he had never seen.

At the end of that visit, however, Pizem and Rose returned to France alone: Marie announced that she had fallen in love with Ron and was staying with him.

Benjamin Pizem apparently had trouble raising the baby on his own, and periodically handed her over to the welfare authorities. Meanwhile, Renault and Ron lived together and had two daughters.

About a year ago, Renault learned that Rose had been hospitalized in France, apparently due to abuse or neglect by her father. She and Ron therefore began a legal battle to gain custody of the girl. Last December, they finally won, and Rose was brought to Israel.

However, they soon discovered that she suffered from severe speech and behavioral problems, felt unable to cope and began to neglect her. Their solution was to leave Rose with Ron's mother, Vivien Yaakov, for most of every day.

But Yaakov also felt unable to cope, and repeatedly demanded that Ron find some other solution for Rose. Finally, on May 12, after Yaakov and Ron had yet another bitter fight over this issue, Ron grabbed the child, stuffed her things into a suitcase and stormed out. Yaakov never saw Rose again.

Three months later, when the police and welfare authorities finally learned of the girl's disappearance, they initially had trouble figuring out what had happened. Police officers and social workers visited Ron's apartment three times in the ensuing 10 days in an effort to question Ron and Renault, but only on the third visit, early last week, did they find anyone home.

Initially, Ron refused to open the door to them, which immediately aroused the police's suspicions. When he finally agreed to let them in, they asked where Rose was, and he stammered that she was at her nursery school. They then demanded that he show them where, and he took them to a school, which was closed. Then he took them to Yaakov's house, claiming that Rose was there.

When they arrived, Yaakov immediately screamed at him that she had not seen Rose in three months. Ron then replied: "You don't remember that I told you I was sending her to an institution in France?"

At that point, police realized that something highly fishy was going on, and promptly arrested both Ron and Yaakov. Other officers were sent to arrest Marie Renault, who had remained at home. Yaakov has since been released to house arrest.

At first, police suspected that Ron was hiding Rose somewhere. When questioned, his responses were contradictory: First, he said he killed Rose and threw her body into the Yarkon; then he said he had handed her over to a Bratslav yeshiva. When asked for the yeshiva's location, he changed his story again, saying he sold Rose to Palestinians from the territories. Next, he said he gave her to a French convent, which had returned her to her father in France.

Meanwhile, testimony from other people led police to believe that Ron had frequently abused Rose.

Despite their skepticism about Ron's ever-changing stories, police pursued every one: They visited French convents, checked out local yeshivas and asked the intelligence agencies to query their informants in the territories. They also searched the Yarkon, as well as the dunes near Rishon Letzion, where Ron claimed to have buried Rose in yet another of his accounts.

Finally, however, Ron returned to his original story - that he killed Rose and threw her body into the Yarkon.

Related articles:
  • Before her disappearance, Rose Pizem suffered 4 years of horror
  • Ever-changing stories of grandfather burdened police
  • A lousy day to be a police detective in search of missing 4-year-old girl
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      1.   such a beautiful little girl; with tears in her eyes... 12:35  |  eric 27/08/08
      2.   Where also to look for? 13:35  |  AY 27/08/08
      3.   What a bunch of dirtbags 14:40  |  Hussein 27/08/08
      4.   ROSE 15:43  |  sara 27/08/08
      5.   Tragedy 16:15  |  Pierre Palestinian 27/08/08
      6.   No tragedy, Greek or Shakespeare or otherwise comes near this one 17:46  |  S 27/08/08
      7.   Hussein # 3 18:12  |  ChanahS 27/08/08
      8.   I agree with Sara and Pierre (end) 18:13  |  ChanahS 27/08/08
      9.   How very sad,.... No Words can express... 18:40  |  Dagma 27/08/08
      10.   Hussein 18:56  |  Persian Kitty 27/08/08
      11.   A beautiful `Rose` among a cradle of Thorns ...... 19:01  |  Dolly 27/08/08
      12.   He`s lying about the River and murder 19:04  |  Dave 27/08/08
      13.   Hussein`s "God" and "..." 19:11  |  Israeli citizen 27/08/08
      14.   Little Rose`s Mother not Jewish ir seems..... 19:17  |  nATASH 27/08/08
      15.   Little Rose`s Mother not Jewish it seems..... 19:18  |  Natasha 27/08/08
      16.   A beatiful Rose among a cradle of Thorns..... 19:19  |  Dagma [Second Time] 27/08/08
      17.   some have, but do not want...some want, but do not have... 19:53  |  milly 27/08/08
      18.   Wisdom from The Holy One 21:13  |  June Volk 27/08/08
      19.   this is too sick to say 22:02  |  eliezer 27/08/08
      20.   Hussein, I`m sure Rose`s family find your words a great comfort 01:51  |  Hannah 28/08/08
      21.   May God Rest Her Soul 01:51  |  NEJ 28/08/08
      22.   #5 03:08  |  joelle 28/08/08
      23.   u r the loser 04:17  |  Zvika 28/08/08
      24.   Lethal injection for those found guilty 05:25  |  Maurisa 28/08/08
      25.   Rest in Peace now Rose 08:16  |  Kathy 28/08/08
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