Police: Teen confesses, reenacts 2006 killing of Anat Pliner

Police yesterday informed the relatives of a 42-year-old female attorney from Ramat Hasharon who was stabbed to death outside her home in 2006 that a 17-year-old boy recently confessed to perpetrating the unresolved crime and reenacted it for detectives. The details of the case had been the subject of a gag order that was partially lifted yesterday.

On April 10, 2006, attorney Anat Pliner answered a nighttime knock at the door of her home in the Tel Aviv suburb. When she opened the door, the perpetrator stabbed her in the stomach. She collapsed and later died en route to hospital.

According to police, the 17-year-old suspect, who resides and attends high school in Ramat Hasharon, confessed to the killing, after a DNA sample that was found on the murder scene was found to match his own. On Friday, the Tel Aviv Youth Court extended his custody. The Tel Aviv Prosecutor's Office said it intends to indict the teen for murder.

The boy was first apprehended a few weeks ago, after police detained him for riding a stolen motorcycle without a valid license. He was questioned, gave a DNA sample and was released. In processing the sample, police found that it matched the DNA that police believed to belong to the perpetrator, which they had extracted from a knife and gloves left at the murder scene.

After the test results came back, the teen was rearrested, last Thursday, and reportedly confessed to Pliner's murder a few hours later. He maintained that he arrived at Pliner's house and asked her for money, adding that he had not known her before. Pliner refused and when she started shouting, he stabbed her and fled the scene.

Police questioned the suspect's friends and family in an attempt to establish whether any of them had been told by him about the murder, and had refrained from informing police. They were all released.

The suspect has been a student in a high school in the prosperous suburb, and his arrest was received there with surprise. "He had many weird stories, but we could never have believed he was a murderer," one classmate said.

Another student said he thought of the suspect as "a play-hoodlum with a big mouth," adding that "it's hard to believe that he actually did it."

His parents, who have no criminal record, refused to talk about their son's arrest. People who know the family say the parents both hold regular jobs and that the family was not known to suffer from any special financial difficulties.

The suspect's lawyer, Oron Schwartz, commented that, "at this stage of the investigation we are very wary and suspicious of the findings, including the minor's confession. We maintain that as things are, there are many loose ends, more than the police would admit."

The boy's uncle said that the family "is shocked," and that his nephew "is a charming boy." He added: "I cannot believe that what they are saying about him is true."

Pliner's relatives have been updated about developments in the investigation. One of them told Haaretz yesterday that family members were shocked to realize the murderer was allegedly a teenager residing in their town. "We were in a state of despair for a long time," said the relation. "When police summoned us on Thursday, we hadn't thought this was what they wanted to tell us. We feel greatly relieved."

Since the night of the murder, Ramat Hasharon police had worked on the assumption that it was a result of a robbery that went wrong. Three suspects, previously convicted for robbery, were questioned, but were released for lack of evidence.

En route to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, Pliner reportedly told paramedics that she did not know the person who stabbed her, but described him as "a young guy." She died of her injuries shortly after being hospitalized.

Four months later the police scaled back a news blackout on the case, and the public was asked to help identify a knife sheath found at the murder scene, and to report anyone who possessed a sheath of that sort.

Police say that in his interrogation, the suspect said the knife came from his a collection belonging to his father. He said he decided to rob someone "to make some money." He went on to tell detectives that he "went around town" looking for someone to rob. He did not decide to rob Pliner before he happened on her street, Gordon Street, he said.

"He said he chose that house because it looked nice," police officer Amir Moshe said. "He came to the door, knocked and when Pliner opened he told her to give him all her money. He said that at first she didn't quite understand what he wanted, so he showed her the knife and repeated the demand. Then, according to what he said, she started screaming and he plunged the knife into her twice, before running away."