Ashdod man admits killing wife, mother-in-law

By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
A week ago, Ababa Andiknan sat on a park bench in Ashdod, drank a few beers, and then returned to his apartment and, without warning, stabbed his wife to death as she stood washing dishes in the kitchen. He went to the living room and stabbed his mother-in-law repeatedly, until she too was dead. On Thursday, the 36-year-old calmly recounted for police the circumstances of the double murder he committed inside his family's Rehov Harotem apartment. After killing the two women, Andiknan called police, telling them he had "beaten" his wife and mother-in-law, and then, as officers hurried to the scene, he turned his knife on himself in what police say was a suicide attempt. Police discovered him bleeding and also found four of the couple's five children in the home. The oldest boy, 12, fled after witnessing the attacks, and was later found wandering the streets in Rehovot, kilometers away. The five children were placed in the care of their aunt, their mother's sister. There was no argument preceding the attacks, Andiknan said Thursday as he confessed to the murders and recreated them on camera for detectives. Andiknan was released from Rehovot's Kaplan Hospital into police custody on Tuesday, and his remand - originally extended by four days - was extended by 13 days. The Ashdod attack is the third such murder-suicide attempt to occur among Ethiopian immigrants in the past five months. While Ethiopian Jews comprise approximately 1 percent of the population, 25% of women killed by their husbands in the past decade have been Ethiopian, and eight of the 20 most recent wife murders have occurred within the Ethiopian immigrant community.