A special team of police from the Shfela District and the Ramle police station have arrested a woman they suspect of having dug up the fresh grave of IDF Staff Sgt. Amit Ben-Yigal, who was buried at the military cemetery in Beer Yaakov last week after he was killed by Palestinian rioters during an arrest raid in Samaria.
The desecrated grave was discovered by a bereaved mother who was visiting the cemetery. Police officers arrived on the scene found a note on Ben-Yigal's grave that read, "Your son has 72 hours to be resurrected."
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Investigators identified the suspect, a 41-year-old resident of Rishon Lezion, with the help of security camera footage taken from a construction site adjacent to the cemetery. One of the cameras shows a woman digging around Ben-Yigal's grave. Police identified the suspect and proceeded to locate her whereabouts.
Police also collected various pieces of evidence from the grave itself, including tools and the handwritten note, all of which have been sent for forensic analysis.
The suspect has been jailed while the investigation continues. A hearing was scheduled for Tuesday, and police were expected to ask the court to extend her remand.
From the time the incident was first reported, police believed that the case was a criminal one, and not a terrorist hate crime. Eighteen years ago, the suspect survived a terrorist attack in Jerusalem and has been diagnosed with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).
The woman has not yet given investigators her version of the story and is slated to undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether or not she is capable of standing trial. A year ago, she was a suspect in a similar incident involving the grave site of a relative.
