Maayan Ben Horin
The suspect
Photo: Hagai Aharon
Murder of 18-year-old girl solved
Over a month after her corpse was found, a 17-year-old Bedouin boy is arrested for Maayan Ben Horin's murder, attempted rape. Suspect sends letter of apology to girl's family, claiming he did not mean to kill her
The mysterious murder of 18-year-old Maayan Ben Horin in northern Israel some 40 days ago has been solved.
An indictment was filed with the Haifa District court Wednesday morning against a 17-year old Bedouin who was arrested for the crime on February 2.
Murder
Ahiya Raved
Corpse of 18-year-old Maayan Ben Horin, who has been missing since Monday, found in the north. Police suspect girl was murdered
The boy, living in a tent in the area where the body was found, had attempted to rape Maayan, a police investigation revealed, but after she fought him off, he murdered her with repeated brutal blows to the head.
Head of the Police's northern district central unit Menachem Hever said, "A DNA test was conducted and a perfect match between the suspect and material found on the murdered was found."
'No nationalistic motives'
Since the body was discovered, some 140 suspects were questioned by a special investigation unit in cooperation with Shin Bet. Over 70 saliva samples were sent to the Abu Kabir Forensics Institute in Israel for DNA testing.Once the boy was arrested he was transferred to Shin Bet for questioning, in order to determine whether there was a nationalistic motive behind the murder. "The investigation ruled out nationalistic motives," said Hever.
After initially refusing to cooperate, the boy finally broke down and confessed to the crime, but claimed he did not mean to murder the girl.
Maayan's family was informed that the suspect wrote a letter of apology to them and the judge in which he asked for forgiveness and said that he did not mean for Maayan to die.
Police found his story hard to believe, "The suspect is manipulating things to his convenience. We can determine with certainty that this was a premeditated murder. The suspect absolutely meant for her to die," said Hever.
