Children suspected of beating 90-year-old father in J’lem forest

Son, daughter allegedly abduct and assault father over a financial dispute, then leave him for dead.

By DANIEL K. EISENBUD
TREES IN Jerusalem’s Har Adar forest 370 (photo credit: Courtesy Itzhak Rabihiya)
TREES IN Jerusalem’s Har Adar forest 370
(photo credit: Courtesy Itzhak Rabihiya)
A son and daughter allegedly abducted their 90-year-old father while he was visiting his hospitalized wife in Holon Sunday night, drove him to a wooded area near Beit Shemesh and beat him over a financial dispute, police said Tuesday.
According to police, the victim’s children, both in their late 60s, took their father from Wolfson Medical Center, where his wife has been treated for the past two weeks, and severely beat him in the forest, then left him for dead.
A patrol car later spotted the elderly man in the woods injured and covered in mud with moderate injuries, police said. Both suspects, who live in Tel Aviv, were arrested in their respective homes Monday night and subsequently brought to a holding facility in Jerusalem.
They will remain in custody until Thursday, when they are to be arraigned at Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on battery and kidnapping charges, police said.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said investigators believe the brother and sister attempted to intimidate their father to gain access to his savings.
“We are currently looking into the financial history of the suspects to determine the background of this situation,” said Rosenfeld Tuesday. “This is a very disturbing case, to say the least.”
Rosenfeld added that the victim remains in moderate condition at an area hospital.
“He’s a 90-year-old man, and he could have died,” he said.
“We’re obviously taking this very seriously.”