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Rehovot Death Foretold: Who is Responsible?
Police in Rehovot know that Netanel Sisa'i, an Ethiopian immigrant, was arguing with his wife Sarah in their apartment the day she fell - or was pushed - out of the third-floor window to her death. Police also know he was convicted in an Ashkelon court several years ago for beating and threatening her. Furthermore, they have heard from the victim's grown children that their father tried to kill their mother more than once, while beating and threatening her throughout their 20-plus years of marriage, beginning in Ethiopia.
"He had a history of violence against her, and I have no doubt, on the basis of his behavior around the time of the incident and from the evidence at the scene, that he was responsible for her death. If he didn't push her, then it was his words and threats that caused her to jump. A person doesn't just jump out of the window without provocation," says Insp. Yarden Calendarov, who headed the investigation into Sarah Sisa'i's October 21, 2005 death in the city's heavily Ethiopian neighborhood of Kiryat Moshe.
However, Netanel Sisa'i, in his mid-40s as his wife was at her death, was never charged with murder. "We had no evidence. We went door-to-door and nobody was willing to testify," Calendarov says. Police couldn't get Netanel to confess, either. "He didn't cooperate at all," he says.
When Sisa'i was in the holding tank, though, an undercover cop heard him threaten to kill his deceased wife's mother, and he was held in jail on this minor charge, then placed under house arrest in the home of family members in Ashdod, where he is now. The court, however, is expected to let him go free in the coming months. "The maximum sentence for this crime [of threatening murder] is three years, but the court usually doesn't give more than a few months," says Calendarov.
Sarah's son, Avi, 22, was serving in the IDF as a medic when she died. He is extremely bitter over how the police handled the case. "The police didn't seem too interested. They did a superficial job of investigating," he says, adding that this is a complaint made often by Ethiopian immigrants seeking police intervention against violent husbands and fathers.
Avi says neighbors told him and his sisters that right after their mother's death, which happened around 8:30, they saw Netanel run down from the apartment and try unsuccessfully to drag her body away, then give up and run off. Avi adds that one of Netanel's sisters said he admitted the murder to her and asked her for money to fly to Ethiopia.
But police did not consider any of this information credible. "The children were very manipulative in what they told us," says Calendarov. When told of his use of the term "manipulative," Avi says angrily that this just illustrates the police's lax handling of the case.
"We've lost all faith in the authorities," he says, adding that about two months before her death, his mother asked the Rehovot welfare department to get her and her two younger daughters into a battered women's shelter. "They told her they could find a shelter for her, but not with the two girls, so she decided not to go," Avi notes.
I asked the Rehovot spokesman's office about this and was told, "The details as presented are not accurate, to put it mildly. The applicant in question received a response in line with her request and her situation as she described it."
Orna Ben-Zvi, head of municipal welfare services in Kiryat Moshe, says that in the six months the Sisa'i family lived in the neighborhood prior to Sarah's death, she did not apply to her office to go to a shelter, nor did she or anyone else in the family complain to her office about Netanel's violence. "The only contact she made with our office was to request material help once," says Ben-Zvi... [read on at JPost.com]
Source: Larry Derfner. A death foretold. JPost.com (8 Feb 2007) [FullText]
"He had a history of violence against her, and I have no doubt, on the basis of his behavior around the time of the incident and from the evidence at the scene, that he was responsible for her death. If he didn't push her, then it was his words and threats that caused her to jump. A person doesn't just jump out of the window without provocation," says Insp. Yarden Calendarov, who headed the investigation into Sarah Sisa'i's October 21, 2005 death in the city's heavily Ethiopian neighborhood of Kiryat Moshe.
However, Netanel Sisa'i, in his mid-40s as his wife was at her death, was never charged with murder. "We had no evidence. We went door-to-door and nobody was willing to testify," Calendarov says. Police couldn't get Netanel to confess, either. "He didn't cooperate at all," he says.
When Sisa'i was in the holding tank, though, an undercover cop heard him threaten to kill his deceased wife's mother, and he was held in jail on this minor charge, then placed under house arrest in the home of family members in Ashdod, where he is now. The court, however, is expected to let him go free in the coming months. "The maximum sentence for this crime [of threatening murder] is three years, but the court usually doesn't give more than a few months," says Calendarov.
Sarah's son, Avi, 22, was serving in the IDF as a medic when she died. He is extremely bitter over how the police handled the case. "The police didn't seem too interested. They did a superficial job of investigating," he says, adding that this is a complaint made often by Ethiopian immigrants seeking police intervention against violent husbands and fathers.
Avi says neighbors told him and his sisters that right after their mother's death, which happened around 8:30, they saw Netanel run down from the apartment and try unsuccessfully to drag her body away, then give up and run off. Avi adds that one of Netanel's sisters said he admitted the murder to her and asked her for money to fly to Ethiopia.
But police did not consider any of this information credible. "The children were very manipulative in what they told us," says Calendarov. When told of his use of the term "manipulative," Avi says angrily that this just illustrates the police's lax handling of the case.
"We've lost all faith in the authorities," he says, adding that about two months before her death, his mother asked the Rehovot welfare department to get her and her two younger daughters into a battered women's shelter. "They told her they could find a shelter for her, but not with the two girls, so she decided not to go," Avi notes.
I asked the Rehovot spokesman's office about this and was told, "The details as presented are not accurate, to put it mildly. The applicant in question received a response in line with her request and her situation as she described it."
Orna Ben-Zvi, head of municipal welfare services in Kiryat Moshe, says that in the six months the Sisa'i family lived in the neighborhood prior to Sarah's death, she did not apply to her office to go to a shelter, nor did she or anyone else in the family complain to her office about Netanel's violence. "The only contact she made with our office was to request material help once," says Ben-Zvi... [read on at JPost.com]
Source: Larry Derfner. A death foretold. JPost.com (8 Feb 2007) [FullText]
Labels: Rehovot Criminal
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