Four more suspects have been arrested in connection with the death of 23-year-old Eldar Dayan of Dimona, as police increasingly focus on a violent confrontation that preceded his disappearance and the discovery of his body three weeks later near an abandoned, bloodstained car in central Israel.
Police said the four men arrested Monday and Tuesday were part of a group involved in a brawl with Dayan and his friends near the Yarkon River in Petah Tikva, east of Tel Aviv. Investigators suspect members of the group kicked Dayan in the head during the fight, causing bleeding that may ultimately have led to his death.
Eldar Dayan
(Photo: Courtesy of the family)
Police are seeking to extend the four suspects’ detention by eight days.
The arrests mark a significant development in a case that began as a high-profile missing-person investigation before turning into a murder probe.
According to the investigation, Dayan and his friends had arranged to meet the other group near the river. Five people were in the group that confronted them. Two were arrested Monday and two more Tuesday, while the fifth remains at large.
Investigators believe that during the confrontation, Dayan and his friends got into the vehicle they had arrived in and fled, striking one of the other group’s members with the car and leaving him lightly injured.
The four suspects had previously been questioned by police over the fight, but at that stage investigators had not confronted them with allegations linking them to Dayan’s killing. They have now been rearrested as police examine whether the head injuries Dayan allegedly suffered during the confrontation caused or contributed to his death.
Disappearance that gripped Israel
Two other suspects had already been arrested in the investigation: Omri Peretz and Maxim Barberman, friends who were with Dayan on the night he disappeared.
The two gave investigators conflicting accounts of what happened. One said they had been attacked, apparently by people they did not know, while the other denied that account.
Dayan’s disappearance on July 16 drew widespread attention. He had gone out with Peretz and Barberman that evening. Several hours later, he spoke and exchanged messages with his sister and girlfriend, telling them, “There’s trouble, we’ll talk.” It was the last known contact with him.
During the subsequent search, an abandoned vehicle connected to Dayan was discovered in Petah Tikva with a shattered windshield and bloodstains inside.
Exactly three weeks after Dayan’s last contact with his girlfriend, his body was identified about 200 meters, or roughly 650 feet, from where the vehicle had been abandoned.
The discovery transformed what had begun as a missing-person case into a homicide investigation.
Peretz and Barberman were arrested on suspicion of murdering Dayan. The latest arrests have widened the investigation to include the rival group involved in the confrontation shortly before his disappearance.
Police are now examining whether Dayan was fatally injured during that fight, including the suspicion that kicks to his head caused bleeding that may have resulted in his death. One member of the five-person group remains wanted by police.