Israeli family members of Yafit Butwin, the woman who was murdered together with her three children by her husband in Phoenix last week, are leading and intense legal battle to have Butwin and her children buried in Israel, Channel 2 News reported Monday night. Police believe 47-year-old James Butwin shot his wife and his three children, ages 7, 14 and 16, and drove them out to the desert before lighting their SUV on fire and shooting himself. The bodies were found on June 2, burned beyond recognition in the desert 35 miles south of Phoenix. They were positively identified late last week. A family acquaintance alerted Tempe police that he was worried about the family after receiving a note from James Butwin instructing him on how to run his real estate business. Police soon after found suspicious and concerning evidence in the home that they said pointed to the family being dead in a murder-suicide. Butwin had been seeking a divorce from her husband, who neighbors and police say was battling a brain tumor and experiencing financial problems. Now, Butwin's family in Israel is engaged in a legal battle against James Butwin's parents to have Yafit and her children buried in Israel. "Yafit specifically asked that if anything should happen to her, she be buried with her kids in the holy land, in a respectful, Jewish ceremony," Kfir Amsalem, Butwin's nephew, told Channel 2 on Monday. But even if the U.S. court rules in favor of the family's request to bring the bodies to Israel, they might not have the funds to give them a proper burial. Since the children are not Israeli residents, the chevra kadisha (burial society) in Israel has asked the family to pay $4,500 for each burial plot for Butwin and her three children. These costs come in addition to the regular Israeli burial costs, the cost of flying the bodies to Israel, and all the legal costs, amounting to hundreds of thousands of shekels, which the family says it does not have. "Everyone is talking to us about money, despite the tragedy that befell us. Everything we want to do involves money. We took all the money we had and got a lawyer so that we could at least bring the bodies here," Anat Amsalem, Butwin's sister, told Channel 2. "Open the Interior Ministry's records and look. [Yafit] served the country, she gave to the country. So I called the National Insurance Institute and they told me 'Sorry, she hasn't been here for 20 years, you have to take care of the burial.' That's the type of reply the National Insurance Institute gives to a family that is about to collapse from the difficult time it is going through-" Ilana Amar, another one of Butwin's sisters, said. The Foreign Ministry explained that since the family is engaged in a legal battle in another country against James Butwin's parents, the state cannot intervene. The Religious Services Ministry and National Insurance Institute said that only Israeli residents can get free burial in the country. But Butwin's family says Yafit and all of her children are Israelis, and they expect the country to support them.
Family fights to bring bodies of Yafit Butwin and children to Israel
James Butwin allegedly shot his wife, Yafit, and their three children and drove them out to the desert before lighting their SUV on fire and shooting himself • Family fights to have them buried in Israel but may not have the finances.
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