Police confident girl's mother and grandfather will be indicted by Thursday.
By ABE SELIGrose murder suspects court 224.88(photo credit: AP)
An autopsy on Rose Pizem's body was unable to determine the cause of her death, a spokeswoman from the L. Greenberg Institute for Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir said on Sunday.
The four-year-old girl's remains were found in a suitcase at the bottom of the Yarkon River in Tel Aviv last week, and both her grandfather and mother, who are romantically involved, have been arrested in connection with her death.
Ronnie Ron, Rose's grandfather, initially admitted to killing her and dumping her body in the river, but retracted the admission just before Rose's remains were found.
While no signs of violence were found in the medical examiner's investigation, police expressed confidence on Sunday that a decision to indict Ron, and Marie-Charlotte Pizem, Rose's mother, would be made by Thursday.
"It's too early to say now," said Shlomi Sagi, a central district police spokesman said on Sunday. "But we have a positive ID on the body and we will make the decision as far as indictments are concerned by Thursday."
The inconclusive autopsy results however, could affect the character of those indictments as the results are expected to play a key role in the future trial of Ron, who will likely claim he accidentally killed the girl in a fit of rage. Police will likely seek to prove that the killing was premeditated, and that Marie-Charlotte played an active role.
Regardless, the Institute for Forensic Medicine spokeswoman said that she did not believe any more tests would be performed on Rose's remains, even though police have asked for additional testing to be done.
"I don't believe they will look any further," she said. "There were no signs of violence, no broken bones, maybe because she was in the water for so long, I really don't know. But if they didn't find anything, I don't think they will."
The spokeswoman added that the body could be released for burial as soon as the appropriate requests were made, but that she was not aware of any such requests.
"We don't know when she will be buried," the spokeswoman said. "Nobody from her family has asked for a release, and from what I understand the police are also waiting for such a request."
Sagi confirmed that no burial requests had been made to the police as of yet, in part because the location of Rose's proposed burial remains unclear.
Betty Sghaier, Rose's paternal grandmother who lives in France, has said that she wants Rose's body brought to France for burial. "I want her body repatriated," Sghaier said last week. "She has nothing to do over there, I will do everything to have the burial in France."
Describing Ron and Marie, Sghaier said, "They are monsters, assassins, they have no heart. I want Ronnie and Marie-Charlotte punished, let them rot in jail. They have destroyed Rose's life. They don't deserve the death penalty, they must pay."
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