Neighbors in the run-down housing project where the torso was found say they were utterly shocked.
By YAAKOV LAPPINdumpsters 248 88 (photo credit: Yaakov Lappin)
A cleaning woman in Petah Tikva made a grisly discovery on Sunday morning, finding the decapitated head of a murder victim in a trash bin together with a knife and an ax.
Police found the victim's torso at a nearby address.
Within hours, police had imposed a court-approved media ban on almost all details of the investigation, including the identity of the 35-year-old victim and details about possible murder suspects.
Neighbors in the run-down housing project where the torso was found said they were utterly shocked by the killing, but none appeared to have known the victim well.
"I'm shocked. This is terrible," one neighbor told The Jerusalem Post from his apartment window, while clutching his infant son. "I did not know this neighbor."
Other locals also said they were not acquainted with the slain man.
The working class area is populated with many immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia.
Police said the victim had a criminal record and that he lived alone in a rented apartment.
The investigation was taken over by the Central District's Central Unit, and forensic officers combed through the scene well into Sunday evening.