Daniel Nachmani named as indicted alleged murderer of Noa Eyal

Police say DNA evidence reportedly links man to 1998 rape and murder of teenager.

By BEN HARTMAN, YONAH JEREMY BOB
Handcuffs [Illustrative] (photo credit: INIMAGE)
Handcuffs [Illustrative]
(photo credit: INIMAGE)
The Jerusalem District Attorney's Office on Thursday filed an indictment with the Jerusalem District Court against Daniel Nachmani for the alleged murder and rape of teenager Noa Eyal, a 1998 case which had gone cold for years.
 
Nachmani was to be brought before the court for a hearing to remand him to police custody until the end of the proceedings.
On Tuesday, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court cleared for publication that police in the capital had arrested the murder suspect after DNA and other evidence reportedly linked the man to the killing.
The man, a 38-year-old Jewish resident of the city, is married with two kids and was arrested in late October.
He has denied the charges against him.
Nachmani came into the sights of law enforcement about a year ago, when a relative of his was arrested by police on an unrelated crime. A DNA sample taken from the relative was shown as being similar to one taken from the murder scene. Police then began to work on relatives who may or may not fit the profile they made for the killer, eventually honing in on the suspect.
Last month, while the suspect was under police surveillance, he reportedly spit on a sidewalk in Jerusalem and the sample was taken and matched to the DNA from the murder scene.
Police said that the suspect’s cellphone was one of those that on the night of Eyal’s murder were in the area of the Davidka Square, where she was last seen.
The suspect’s attorney issued an appeal to Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, requesting that his name remain under gag order. As a result, his identity could not be revealed until Thursday afternoon. His attorney Yehuda Shushan told the press on Tuesday that his client has denied ever meeting Eyal or being involved in her murder.
Eyal was 17-years-old when she disappeared late one night in February 1998. She and her friend Eldad Bribrom had left a movie theater in downtown Jerusalem and Bribrom told detectives that after he got on a bus at Davidka Square, he saw Eyal run to a different bus than the one she was waiting for. Police later interviewed a cabdriver downtown who told them that he saw a girl getting into a white car, believed to be a Ford Escort, with tinted windows and several bumper stickers on the back, including one for the Golani Brigade.
The next day, Eyal’s body was found raped and murdered in a forest in the Ramot neighborhood of the city.
Since that night, the case has been a major focus of Jerusalem investigators, who have invested countless man hours and interviewed hundreds of people of interest in an attempt to crack the case.
When the development was first announced last month, representative of Eyal’s family put out a statement saying they are very excited and nervous about the reports and that “we call for supporting the police and allowing them to do their work thoroughly so that the truth will see the light of day.”