Suicide ruled out in couple's death

By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
Police have all but ruled out the possibility that an Acre couple whose bodies were discovered on Tuesday committed suicide, arguing on Wednesday that a mechanical failure in the couple's vehicle led to their deaths. The bodies of 56-year-old Ya'acov Malul and his 47-year-old wife Miriam were discovered by their youngest son. The 16-year-old said he had smelled gas and gone to search for the source, and after a number of hours discovered his parents unresponsive in the family vehicle. A postmortem examination released Wednesday confirmed that the couple had died of gas inhalation as a result of a problem in their vehicle. Nevertheless, the Acre Police are still investigating the incident in order to rule out criminal negligence as a possible cause of the vehicle's malfunction. The results of the postmortem examination support the Malul family's argument that the couple, who had been married for over two decades and were a fixture of their north Acre neighborhood, would not have committed suicide. The two were described as loving parents to their three sons, the oldest of whom, 25-year-old Hanan, is traveling in Chile and has yet to be notified of his parents' deaths. The Foreign Ministry and the family are working together to locate him, but have been unsuccessful so far.