Murder-suicide Suspected After Couple Found Dead in Coastal Israel

The bodies of a man and a woman were found in Ashkelon on Saturday, in what investigators suspect was a murder-suicide.

The body of a 30-year-old woman was discovered in her eighth-floor apartments in the southern Israeli city, with what appeared to be strangulation marks on the neck. The body of her live-in partner, who has been identified as Wladlen Trayvas, 41, was found shortly before on the ground outside the building. A suicide note signed by Trayvas was also left in the apartment, and the police believe he jumped out of the window.

Police said that Trayvas wrote in the note that he strangled his partner to death because he was “under pressure.” A preliminary investigation suggests that the woman, who was not identified by name, had been choked to death with an electrical cord. The couple apparently had no history of domestic violence that had required intervention by the authorities.

According to the police, Trayvas’ young son was in the apartment over the weekend. At around noon, Trayvas drove his son to the home of Trayvas’ ex-wife, in Kiryat Gat, and on the way back to Ashkelon he had a one-car accident. Trayvas left the vehicle and returned home, presumably by taxi. The police said the did not know whether the alleged murder was committed before or after Trayvas brought his son to the son’s mother in Kiryat Gat.

Maxim Nizri, a Magen David Adom paramedic at the scene, Trayvas was found lying on the ground outside the apartment house with fatal injuries, and firefighters and the police found the woman’s body when they broke into the apartment.

Neighbors told Haaretz that they hardly saw the couple and never heard them fighting. One neighbor described Trayvas as “a good guy.”

According to statistics compiled by Haaretz, 125 women in Israel have been killed by a close relative since 2011, and six women have been killed so far in 2017 by a family member.