The murder of 4-year-old Rose Pizem remains one of Israel’s most shocking criminal cases, 18 years after her body was found inside a red suitcase at the bottom of Tel Aviv’s Yarkon River.
Retired Cmdr. Ron Gertner, who was Netanya police commander and helped solve the case, recalled the start of the investigation Wednesday in an interview with ynet.
“There are days you apparently carry with you for life, and this is one of them,” he said.
Rose had been missing from her home for months before police were notified. A formal investigation was opened only after her great-grandmother suspected she had disappeared.
Her grandfather, Ronny Ron, later confessed to throwing her body into the Yarkon. Years later, Ron and Rose’s mother, Marie Pizem, were convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
During the investigation, police discovered that Pizem and her father-in-law, Ron, had become a couple. Prosecutors said they killed Rose because they saw her as a burden and a threat to their new family life.
Gertner said he was on his way home one evening when he received a call from the duty officer at the Netanya police station saying a girl had disappeared.
“I said, ‘What do you mean a girl disappeared? A girl doesn’t just disappear,’” he recalled. “I remember making a U-turn and driving to the station.”
Gertner said police quickly gathered the first details and began a dramatic night of questioning. By morning, he said, investigators had a full picture of the case, including confessions from the two suspects.
He said a youth officer first went to the home where Rose was supposed to be. Ronny Ron opened the door and claimed the girl had been placed in an institution for children. The officer insisted on seeing her, but when they arrived, the place was closed. Suspicion grew, and Ron was taken to the station.
When Gertner arrived, Rose’s great-grandmother, Ron and Marie Pizem were all at the station. Investigators separated them into three interrogation rooms.
Gertner said he decided to carry out an interrogation tactic, bringing Marie into Ron’s room. Ron then told her, “I take responsibility.” Marie mentioned the red bag, raising investigators’ suspicions further.
As questioning continued overnight, Ron told investigators he wanted Marie “to get out of this” because he was worried about her, Gertner said. Eventually, he confessed.
“He said, ‘I killed her, put her in a suitcase and put the suitcase in the Yarkon,’” Gertner said. “It is a difficult and very painful story.”
The former officer said he had been on his way to his own children when he received the call. Rose, he noted, would have been 23 today.
“An entire country was busy looking for her,” he said. “Hundreds of volunteers searched everywhere between Netanya and the Yarkon, all to solve the mystery.”
Gertner said one question remains unresolved: how Rose was killed. Ron claimed he hit her in the car because she was screaming, but investigators disproved that version.
“Whether he drowned her while she was still alive or killed her beforehand — it does not matter,” Gertner said. “There are two murderers who committed an act of unmatched cruelty. To take the life of a little girl because she disturbed the family’s peace — that is unforgettable and unforgivable.”