Random DNA sample solves 1998 Jerusalem murder case

A random DNA sample has enabled to Jerusalem District Police to arrest a suspect over the 1998 murder of Jerusalem teenager Noa Eyal, a police statement revealed Tuesday, after a gag order placed on the new developments in the case was lifted.

Eyal, who was 17 at the time of her murder, was last seen waiting for a bus to take her to her Ramot neighborhood home on the night of Feb. 28, 1998. Her parents reported her missing the next morning, sparking a massive police search of the greater Jerusalem area. Her body was discovered the following night by several of her classmates, in the nearby Ramot Forest.

The police later disclosed that Eyal was found partially naked, bound and gagged, with evidence of extreme violence on her body. Later still, investigators revealed she had been brutally raped before she was murdered.

Over the years, the police operated under the assumption that Eyal had missed her bus and decided to hitchhike home, a theory backed by the testimony of a cab driver who said he had seen Eyal getting into a white car outside the bus depot. At the time, the teens searching for Eyal reported seeing a white vehicle speed away from the area where she was found moments later, but neither the car nor its owner was ever found.

The case was considered cold until a breakthrough came in 2013, when a man was questioned in connection to a domestic violence case. A DNA sample obtained from the man was entered into the police DNA database -- and yielded a familial match to DNA evidence collected from Eyal's body. The man in the domestic violence case, the DNA test showed, was the father of the suspect in Eyal's murder.

Police then identified the suspect as D., a 38-year-old married father of two and a resident of Jerusalem, and launched a covert investigation against him after discovering that he had a previous record for sex crimes. They were able to obtain a DNA sample from him several months ago after he spat in the street. They were also able to place him near the scene of the crime, after they traced and triangulated the location of his mobile phone at the time of the murder. He would have been 22 at the time of the murder.

The initial DNA sample was found to be a match to existing evidence, and police detained D. for questioning as a person of interest in the case. Suspicion grew when investigators searching his home found personal effects belonging to Eyal.

Two weeks ago, a second DNA sample, obtained from a glass of water he had used during his questioning, ascertained the match to the DNA found on Eyal's body, and D. was immediately placed under arrest.

D. denies any connection to the murder and has so far asserted his right to remain silent. His attorney, Yehuda Shoshan, told reporters, "My client did not know this girl and never had any contact with her. Past experience has shown that even forensic evidence can be dismissed."

The police plan to charge D. with the rape and murder of Noa Eyal before the Jerusalem District Court on Thursday.

A statement released by the Eyal family said, "We are flooded by excruciating memories from those days, of a long time with no answer to this mystery. We have been stunned by the news. Today we learned that evil finally has a face.

"We know the police never gave up on the case, sparing no effort to solve it. Solving this case was a moral imperative, a debt the police owed first and foremost to Noa and the family, and to the public as a whole. We thank the police and the State Attorney's Office for their efforts."