A man allegedly beheaded his wife and buried her head in the ground in a
gruesome homicide in Beersheba on Thursday. Police say he had locked the
couple’s three children in their room prior to the murder.
The
Ethiopian-Israeli murder suspect, 42, worked as a warden at the Prisons
Service’s Ohalei Keidar jail in the South, and colleagues say he was an esteemed
member of the staff.
After becoming suspicious that his 37-year-old wife,
Sara Yaso, was cheating on him, the man allegedly took a large knife and
launched a frenzied assault on the woman. He then allegedly took her head
outside their home and buried it.
Shortly before 6 a.m., the man placed
an emergency call to police, saying that he and his wife were intending to
commit suicide. A Magen David Adom paramedic crew called to the home was stunned
to discover a decapitated body, and the children locked in the room next
door.
Police found the suspect and arrested him. During initial
questioning, the man was in a highly intoxicated state and refused to cooperate
with police. He then sobered up and began answering questions, before leading
police to the spot where he had hidden the woman’s head.
“I knew it would
happen,” a relative of the woman told Channel 10. “He was very violent. He had
murder written in his eyes.”
A neighbor added that the couple was usually
quiet, saying she was shocked by the incident.
“He got angry sometimes,
but nothing unusual,” the neighbor said.
The suspect appeared before the
Beersheba Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, where police and his defense attorney
agreed to extend his custody by 11 days.
The murdered woman had worked in
an old-age home.
“She was an amazing woman who helped everyone,” a
colleague told the Local Beersheba Internet news site. “We knew she had problems
with him. There were rumors he abused her, but she didn’t tell anyone.”