Man hunt ends as wanted man found dead in Ramat Gan

They have yet to determine if he took his own life or fell to his death.

MDA's wishes ambulance (photo credit: WWW.MDAIS.ORG)
MDA's wishes ambulance
(photo credit: WWW.MDAIS.ORG)

The search for a Holon man suspected of murdering his friend in his apartment over the weekend came to an end Sunday morning, when 63-year-old Alfonso Azarya was found dead in Ramat Gan.

Azarya was found after paramedics and police received a call on Sunday morning that a man had fallen from a construction site on HaMaayan Street in Ramat Gan. When police and paramedics arrived at the scene, they realized that the man in question was not a construction worker but Azarya himself.

They have yet to determine if he took his own life or fell to his death.

Investigators had suspected that Azarya would stay at an improvised hiding spot such as a construction site and that he had not planned out his flight from police well in advance.

Meir Shem-Tovi, 57, was found stabbed to death Saturday morning at Azarya’s apartment in Holon. He had gone missing since the day before, and police arrived at Azarya’s residence after tracking Shem-Tovi’s cellphone. When they arrived they kicked down the door and found Shem-Tovi lying stabbed to death in the apartment.

Police on Saturday asked for the public to help them find Azarya, who was last seen the day before walking on a section of the Ayalon Freeway in north Tel Aviv next to Ramat Gan.