Mother, 4 children from alleged murder-suicide buried
The mother killed all four of her young children on Sunday night after setting fire to her apartment, perhaps after strangling them, before committing suicide herself: 'the father is broken and crying non-stop.'
Hundreds of people attended the funeral at Har HaMenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem Monday evening of four children and their mother, one day after she allegedly killed all four of them before killing herself.
While the 36-year-old mother was believed to have set her children aflame with an accelerant, possibly strangling them first, before killing herself by hanging in the, the exact way in which the children were killed was not immediately clear and the matter is subject to an ongoing investigation.
According to an investigation by the fire services and United Hatzalah indicated that fire was deliberately set to the bed in one of the bedrooms where the children were.
"The fire caused masses of smoke, with heat and soot being emitted into the room and the rest of the house due to the lack of oxygen caused by the fact that the windows and the doors were shut," a statement said.
The father is expected to participate in the funeral. Earlier in the day, his lawyer said that his parents had also flown to Israel from France in order to join the processions. “The father is broken and is crying non-stop,” the lawyer said.
“He is staying in a hotel and is being supported by close family and friends and social workers,” he told Ynet earlier. “His parents came in from France to be with him. He is barely talking. His explanation and that of the police is that his wife was struck by a sudden burst of madness. There are clear indications of this."
He added that the father knew that his wife was being treated for depression after giving birth “but he never thought that things would get as serious as this.”
The mother’s friends described her as a beautiful and happy woman. They said that they were not aware of any special problems in her behaviour.
The police is continuing its investigation into the incident which is expected to conclude that the children were murdered in the fire or after being strangled by the mother before she set the place alight.
Before committing suicide, the mother killed her daughters who were aged just 11, 9, 4 and 4 months old.
Emergency services were informed of the fire while it was still burning in the sixth-floor apartment. Once it was controlled, paramedics attempted to revive the deceased.
Menachem Estrick, the first Magen David Adom medic to arrive on the scene told the press, "When I got here I saw smoke coming out of a window on the top floor. I went up immediately and went into the house, which was full of smoke, together with firefighters who broke into the apartment. I saw a woman in her 30s unconscious, with no pulse and not breathing, I did some first aid, but she did not respond. A short while later she was confirmed dead.”
