Amos Baranes, Jailed After Confessing to Female Soldier’s 1974 Murder

A man from northern Israel reported to the Carmiel police station Sunday to claim responsibility for a nearly 50-year-old murder that rocked Israel and for which a different man served eight years in prison before being exonerated.

The lawyer of the suspect, a man in his 70s whose name has not been made public, said his client was mentally ill and homeless and did not grasp the implications of his claims.

The suspect, who also told police that in 1970 he murdered Salim Knaan Abu Zayid of Kafr Rama, was ordered into custody for eight days.

Rachel Heller was a 19-year-old soldier at the time of her murder, in 1974. Amos Baranes was convicted of her murder in 1976. He served eight years before his sentence was commuted by then-President Yitzhak Navon. Baranes fought vigorously to clear his name and was exonerated in 2002.

The suspect told detectives he had mental problems and has been hospitalized in psychiatric wards. He is expected to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. A gag order has been issued on the details of the investigation.

The suspect’s lawyer, Said Hadad, told his client was “an old man who has been dealing for years with mental illness and is known to the mental health authorities,” and that it’s doubtful he is aware of the significance of what he is saying. “Some of the details he gave turned out to be wrong. We’re talking about a person in serious emotional distress looking for a place to stay, which is why he went to the police with these kinds of claims.” Hadad called on the police to complete their investigation quickly “to avoid a lengthy detention of a sick person.”

A relative of the suspect told the man was being treated with psychiatric drugs and gets a disability allowance. “We are almost certain he suffers from hallucinations; it’s illogical that he committed the murder.” The family added that in Kafr Rama it had always been assumed that Abu Zayid had committed suicide.

Heller’s naked, badly beaten body was discovered in the dunes near Kibbutz Sdot Yam in October 1974. Baranes, then 28, was arrested but released after offering an alibi. In April 1975 he was rearrested; after four days in custody he confessed to the murder, but later retracted it, saying his confession was extracted from him by torture.

Ayala Angel, Heller’s sister, said Monday that the new confession was puzzling. “Can such a thing happen, that after 40 years someone would come and declare that he’d murdered my sister? If he did this, let him explain why.” She said for her family the riddle of Heller’s murder remained an issue that was “closed and unclear.”

Motti Baranes, Amos’ brother, said “this hullabaloo doesn’t interest us anymore.” Since neither Heller nor his brother is still alive — Amos Baranes died in 2011 — “No confession or resolution will bring them back. We don’t know anything; we don’t know the man who confessed, and what he really knows or if he’s just making it up. As a family, it doesn’t interest us.”

Baranes’ sentence was commuted in a special amnesty procedure after serious defects were found in his investigation that cast doubt on why he was charged at all. In 2002 the Supreme Court granted him a retrial, but since the prosecution refused to issue a new indictment, he was acquitted by the Nazareth District Court without an actual trial.

In 2010, the Tel Aviv District Court ordered the state to pay Baranes compensation of 5 million shekels (around $1.34 million at the time) for the damage done to him by his imprisonment and damage to his reputation. Since he died only a year later from cancer, he didn’t even have much time to enjoy the money.

Baranes was not the only suspect in the case. Others, including Heller’s boyfriend at the time, were arrested, but to no avail.