Police find body in search area for missing woman, Arab boyfriend arrested

Eleven days after mom of two goes missing, unidentified body discovered near a well. 

By World Israel News Staff 

Police on Sunday said the body of an unidentified woman had been discovered, 11 days after Sapir Nachum, a 24-year-old mother of two, went missing from the area.

The body was found by an old water well near the Bedouin community of Ibtin, outside of the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Ata.

Police informed Nachum’s family about the discovery, but added that it was still investigating forensic details to determine her identity. Police officers from the forensic laboratory also came to Nachum’s family home to collect DNA samples.

Eleven days ago, Nachum, who is mother to a two-year-old daughter and an eight-month-old baby, left her apartment in Acre to drop her older child off at daycare, but never returned home.

“In recent days, Israeli police officers have worked with Border Patrol officers and volunteers to conduct searches and scans in large swaths of land, in complex terrain conditions and using a range of technological means, including an air unit helicopter, skimmers, dogs, cavalry and the deployment of large forces,” Israel Police said in a statement.

Police arrested Nachum’s boyfriend, Willa Robin Khalila, an ex-convict with a lengthy criminal history, in connection with her disappearance.

Nachum was involved in a dispute over finances with her boyfriend, her sister told Israeli media.

Khalila was one of several Arab-Israeli men who recently filmed themselves rampaging through a kibbutz on horse-drawn vehicles, in a video that went viral on TikTok and led to a police investigation.

Security cameras showed Nachum getting in to Khalila’s car.