The publication this weekend of the recorded testimony of Roni Ron, who murdered his 4-year-old granddaughter, Rose Pizem, in 2008 and Rose's mother, Marie, thrust the entire nation back into the horror story of the search for and discovery of little Rose's body. The chilling recordings were made public after the Lod District Court ruled that Channel 1 was allowed to broadcast them. Both Ron and Marie were tried and sentenced to life in prison for murder, and the Supreme Court recently rejected their appeal. A recent report said that Marie Pizem would soon marry another prisoner. What follows is Ron's testimony about what happened the day he and his granddaughter were driving along the seaside promenade in Netanya. According to Ron, Rose began jumping around in the car. Ron: "I threw her back and gave her a flick. I couldn't not give her one. ... It sounds awful, because if I could go back to that moment of course I wouldn't slap her if I'd known it would cause her death. You give a kid a slap, you don't expect that. ... I told her, 'Rose, je t'aime,' I love you. 'Bisou.' Kiss. I saw her sink into herself. I stopped on the side of the road and said to her, 'Baby, what's wrong-' 'Ça va-' I saw that she wasn't really responding, so I got out of the car quickly. What I wouldn't give for ... for not to have slapped my baby? How hard I fought for her -- I gave up everything. I sold my soul and my body. I fought the state prosecutor, the courts in France, the grandmothers, what didn't I do for her? And in a split second that you, that I got mad, what, I got mad? I wasn't even mad, not even a little, to give a slap like that to the child, and the child isn't with you." Detective: "After that, what did you do-" Ron: "I was frightened, I was terrified, I was afraid, I went crazy." Detective: "What did you do-" Ron: "I didn't do anything. That's just it, I didn't. I picked the girl up, I saw I was covered with blood. The girl was covered in blood. I picked up her head, and it fell back, you know what I mean? Like she was broken." Detective: "And then what did you do-" Ron: "I broke her apart with a slap in a second. Like a little bag of milk, that you open like that." Detective: "Did you try to call anyone-" Ron: "No." Detective: "Did you think to call anyone at that moment-" Ron: "No. No, I didn't think about anything. I frightened myself. I was frightened about the incident. I was scared. I was horribly scared." Detective: "Did you think to call a doctor, a hospital, the police-" Ron: "No. I saw the girl was finished. She was broken. I saw her neck was broken. She was limp, that's it. A baby, a little baby of 4 years old. I thought, I don't know, to ram the car into some wall. To kill myself. I started to think about how to kill myself. I didn't have the strength to take it on myself, to accept what happened to the little girl. Even if it was a mistake, it ... something happened to her." Detective: "I'm asking you again, what did you do when you brought her back to the car-" Ron: "I opened the trunk, put her inside a colored suitcase that was there, I don't remember anymore." Detective: "What suitcase-" Ron: "Her suitcase. She had a suitcase with all her clothes in it. With all her underwear, and I drove to Tel Aviv." Detective: "To the Yarkon [River, where Rose's body was later found], directly-" Ron: "Yes." In the next part of the recordings, Ron is standing on the bank of the Yarkon River, explaining how he left the car behind. He is seen leading detectives to the place where he threw the suitcase containing Rose's body into the water. Detective: "You came here-" Ron: "Yes, and threw the case into the water, from the car, just like I was. With the case in my two hands. I got up, got out, ran over, threw [it] and went back to the car. I drove away. In like ... five seconds. Not a long story. Do you understand? I drove home right away."
