24-year-old Sapir Nahum, a single mother, disappeared on Thursday after entering her ex-partner’s car. The partner has a criminal record and was recently sued for child support.
Large police forces are searching for Sapir Nahum, 24, from Acre, who disappeared on Thursday without a trace after entering her former partner’s car, according to Israel Police.
The ex-partner, 34-year-old Wahl Halayla, is the main suspect in her disappearance.
Nahum is a single mother to a two-year-old daughter. She dropped her daughter off at her preschool at 8:00 a.m. and after returning home entered her ex-partner’s car, leaving it and then entering it again.
Halayla has a criminal background and is known to police as having been involved in illegal guns, drugs and violent activity.
He was arrested on Friday, after admitting that he had met Nahum but denying that he had anything to do with her disappearance. He was released shortly after. He was then arrested again on Saturday night after police observed him behaving suspiciously and has been in custody since. His custody was remanded on Monday to June 13, and a gag order was placed on the case.
“I didn’t support the relationship [between Nahum and Halayla], I didn’t like it, but there was not much I could do,” Nahum’s aunt, Tal Azaria, said to 103FM.
“They did not get along and she sued him for child support and that is probably what he didn’t like,” she said.
The police searches began in Acre but spread out into other areas in the North. They focused over the weekend on the Bedouin town of Ibtin, where the suspect’s car was reported as being seen soon after she disappeared.
Forces involved in the search included mounted police, its canine unit, jeeps, drones and a helicopter, along with investigative and intelligence efforts.
She was described by the police as being 1.53 meters tall, skinny and with long brown hair.