Police videos captured the final minutes before businessman Yoav Gilboa was killed and the suspects’ alleged efforts to destroy evidence, according to an indictment filed against Emil Avshayev and several relatives.
Avshayev, 46, a former prisoner from Hadera, was charged with premeditated murder under aggravated circumstances in the killing of Gilboa, 53, of Tel Aviv. Prosecutors also charged Avshayev’s brother-in-law, Ruslan Abramov, 36, with arson and obstruction of justice. Avshayev’s son, David Avshayev, 22, and his sister, Ella Avshayev, 47, who is Abramov’s partner, were charged with obstruction of justice.
Yoav Gilboa's final moments
(Video: Israel Police)
According to the indictment, Avshayev picked up Gilboa on May 21 from Azor, near Tel Aviv, and the two drove north toward Hadera on the coastal highway. Near the Zichron Yaakov interchange, the car stopped and Gilboa got out. Avshayev then allegedly made a U-turn, returned to where Gilboa was standing on the shoulder, got out of the car with a knife and stabbed and slashed him at least 59 times.
Police said footage from a Volkswagen Polo showed Gilboa meeting Avshayev, who picked him up. Avshayev later went up to his home while Gilboa waited in the car, unaware, police said, that he had entered a preplanned death trap.
Street cameras showed that four minutes later, the car arrived at Avshayev’s home. Avshayev was recorded leaving the vehicle alone, with bloodstains on his shirt and hands, police said. Cameras later showed Avshayev and his son David spending about 20 minutes thoroughly washing the car in an alleged effort to conceal evidence.
In another police video, Avshayev and Abramov were seen driving in a Mazda owned by Avshayev to a Dor Alon gas station. Abramov later told investigators that Avshayev handed him a small 1-liter bottle and asked him to fill it.
“We arrived at the Dor Alon gas station,” Abramov told investigators. “We got out of the car, and Emil said he was going to pay. I waited by the car. Before that, he poured water out of a bottle, gave it to me and asked me to fill it. It was a small 1-liter bottle. I poured gasoline into the bottle as he asked and gave it to him.”
Police said the two were then recorded returning to the site where Gilboa’s body had been left and setting it on fire with the gasoline.
The case began May 22, during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, when police received a report of a fire on the side of the coastal highway and a man lying unconscious nearby. Officers found a badly burned body with multiple stab wounds and a cut throat. The victim was later identified as Gilboa.
“Their mistake was returning to the scene to burn the body,” police said. “Without the arson and the smoke rising from the area, we might not have found them.”
Police said the videos proved decisive in the investigation. While Avshayev remained silent under questioning, Abramov cooperated, investigators said.
Abramov told police that when he asked Avshayev what had happened, Avshayev said he had been with a man who was “an old acquaintance.”
Yoav Gilboa's final moments
(Photo: Israel Police)
“Something happened between them in the evening, there was some kind of commotion, and Emil made a gesture with his hands,” Abramov said. “I asked what he meant. Emil said he killed him, slaughtered him, and then I understood the situation was not good.”
Commander Yoni Hajjaj, commander of the central investigative unit in the police Coastal District, said the case began with the burned body and little physical evidence.
“We saw signs of violence, but not much was left,” Hajjaj said. “After four days, the case reached the unit, and within 12 hours we understood who the killers were. We still did not know who the victim was, and the case was built with forensic findings collected gradually.”
Police later identified the Mazda as belonging to Avshayev and arrested him and Abramov on suspicion of murder. Investigators then located the Polo at an abandoned construction site, where they found bloodstains and a dashcam.
“It was a camera that recorded everything, from the moment Emil picked up the victim,” police said. “It was all an ambush.”
Avshayev had been released at the end of 2025 after serving about 10 years in prison for an incident in which he sought revenge for his brother’s killing, police said. Abramov told investigators that Gilboa was killed because “the victim knew too many things.”