Police arrest boyfriend of Beersheba woman found dead on highway in South

Investigators are now working on trying to determine a motive, as well as whether or not the victim was already dead when she was thrown from the car.

By BEN HARTMAN
Israel Police logo (photo credit: Courtesy)
Israel Police logo
(photo credit: Courtesy)
The boyfriend of a Beersheba woman found dead on Route 4 last weekend was arrested this week on suspicion of murdering her, police said Wednesday.
Bahya Maana, 22, was found dead near the highway’s Nitzanim junction in the South on Saturday. Her boyfriend, who had been driving the car with her and a friend of his inside, told investigators that he had begun arguing with Maana and that she had insisted he stop the car. At that point, he said, she got out and was hit by an oncoming vehicle.
Police disputed the claim, however, and after carrying out an initial investigation over the past few days, they took the boyfriend and his friend into custody.
Investigators are now working on trying to determine a motive, as well as whether or not Maana was already dead when she was thrown from the car.
The boyfriend has denied the allegations against him, and on Wednesday the Ashdod Magistrate’s Court ordered him kept in custody for a week.
The announcement of the arrest came a day after police in the Negev subdistrict reported arresting the parents of a woman from the Beduin Abu Queder clan on suspicion of involvement in her murder. The cause of death in that case was originally determined to be suicide, until an autopsy at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute ruled the cause of death to be foul play