Man charged with sexual assault, decapitating wife

42-year-old prison guard allegedly killed wife during domestic dispute before cutting off her head, burying it in sand.

By JOANNA PARASZCZUK
Forensic police unit (photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Forensic police unit
(photo credit: Ben Hartman)
A Beersheba father-of-three allegedly strangled his wife and cut off her head when a dispute over money turned violent, according to an indictment filed in the city’s district court on Thursday.
Yaso is charged with murder, indecent assault and obstruction of justice.
The indictment describes a murder in which the accused, Hanoch Yaso, 42, launched a frenzied attack on his wife, strangling, biting and beating her before sexually assaulting her corpse and decapitating her with a kitchen knife.
Yaso, a prison guard, and his wife, Sara, were married for nine years and lived with their three children in a Beersheba apartment.
On the night of the murder, as their three children lay asleep in their rooms, the married couple began to argue over Yaso’s plans to buy a car, the indictment said.
Around 1.30 a.m., Yaso allegedly began to attack Sara, choking her.
Yaso then took a knife from a kitchen drawer and held it against his terrified wife’s neck, as she tried to push him away, the indictment alleges.
Allegedly, Yaso continued his assault, hitting his wife in the face and biting her left cheek.
He continued strangling Sara, who collapsed and died, according to the indictment.
The document describes in detail the injuries that Sara sustained to her face and neck, allegedly as a result of Yaso’s brutal attack.
As Sara lay dead on the floor, Yaso allegedly sexually assaulted her corpse.
Yaso decided to decapitate his dead wife, the indictment alleges.
Yaso used the knife to sever Sara’s head from her neck, cutting through her spinal cord, vertebrae and blood vessels, the indictment said.
He then allegedly washed the knife in the kitchen sink and returned it to its place in a drawer.
Next, Yaso allegedly washed Sara’s severed head in water, and put it into a plastic bag.
To prevent the couple’s three children from seeing their mother’s decapitated corpse, Yaso locked them into their bedrooms before leaving the house, carrying the bag containing the severed head, the indictment said.
Allegedly, Yaso got into his car, put the severed head on the floor behind his seat, and drove to a construction site near Beersheba’s Kaye College. There, Yaso buried the head in sand.
The father-of-three then drove to the prison where he worked as a guard, and sat inside his parked car for a time, the indictment said.
At 5.18 a.m., Yaso called the police, and told them he had quarreled with his wife and that the couple planned to commit suicide. Yaso asked the police to send a patrol car to his home.
When the police arrived at the Yasos’ apartment, they discovered Sara’s decapitated corpse on the living room floor, and the couple’s three children locked into their bedrooms, the indictment said.
That same day, Yaso took police to where he had buried his wife’s head.