Two people were brought by police to a remand hearing Tuesday as part of the investigation into a double homicide in the capital last month, amid investigators’ growing belief that the killing was not a terror attack but rather had a criminal motive.
The bodies of Yehuda Kaduri, 71, and his wife Tamar, 68, were found January 13 in their apartment in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood of southern Jerusalem, with signs of violence, including stab wounds, in an apparent double homicide.
Most details of the case are still under gag order. Police initially looked into both terrorist and criminal motives for the attack.
In early February, police appeared to hit a dead end in their search for the killer when a Jerusalem court ordered the release of the sole suspect held in the case, a Palestinian man who worked in the area.
But in recent days, the investigation appears to have taken a new turn, with police questioning people who knew the Kaduris, including employees at Yehuda Kaduri’s accounting firm, as well as family members.
On Tuesday, police asked for court approval to remand two unnamed individuals detained in the wake of the second round of questioning, suggesting that investigators no longer believed the double murder was a terror attack but suspected a criminal murder by someone who knew the couple.
The development came after the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ruled last week that there was insufficient evidence to hold the unidentified Palestinian suspect in the slaying, and granted him a conditional release.
Shortly after the couple was found dead, a family friend told reporters last month that Yehuda, a successful accountant, had been taking care of his wife in recent years. Their neighbor said people felt something wasn’t right when Yehuda did not show up at synagogue for Shabbat prayers on Saturday morning. “He would normally say ahead of time that he would be missing,” the neighbor told reporters. “He had a heart of gold.”
The victims’ daughter reportedly had been unable to contact her parents for a few days and finally called emergency services, who broke open the door to the apartment on Mordechai Elkahi Street. Medics subsequently pronounced their deaths at the scene.
The couple is survived by three children.
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