Police forces, dogs and detectives today launched an extensive search operation for Moishi Kleinerman, the 17-year-old boy from Modi’in Illit who disappeared about nine months ago, after new information received points to a direction of investigation that has not yet been tested, and is also an opening for further search operations. Kleinerman has been missing for about 260 days, since he was with his friends in Miron on Shabbat, during Shabbat he told his friends that he was going to “seclusion”, a Hasidic custom that includes going to a remote place for thought and prayer. Since then he has not returned to them and no one knows what happened to him.
A special search team was established in the police, search operations were conducted in the Mount Miron area, and Commissioner Kobi Shabtai himself informed the family of the developments of the investigation, the details of which were subject to a gag order. Shabtai assured the family that “we will not let up until we find out what happened to him.” In the last day, his family members said Because they “expect the Israel Police to turn over every stone, in order to put an end to the painful case that has plagued them for nine whole months and thanks all those involved in the work, policemen and volunteers alike. We thank the people of Israel for their prayers, help and desire to bring Moishi home and hope that he will indeed be found soon.”
Today’s searches will focus on the Mount Miron area, the place where he was last seen. The new information reached the police from one of the suspects in the boy’s kidnapping who were taken in for questioning as part of the search. Police sources cool the optimism and say that the information that has arrived definitely helps the investigation and the searches, but it is not about DNA samples or dramatic material that leads the teams with certainty to the end of the case.
Missing persons are reported to the Israel Police almost every day, but most of them are located within a few hours or a few days. A total of 6,000 reports of missing people whose traces have been lost are received every year at the police’s Hotline 100, but in a few cases the objects of the search appear as “long-term missing persons”, an average of 16 people join this circle per year, currently there are 600 long-term missing people in Israel.
Last June, a new unit was established within the volunteer wing of the Israel Police, which is tasked with locating missing people who are defined as “at risk”. The new unit is operating in a trial version in the coastal district, and helped to locate the body of Sapir Nahum the 14th, a resident of Acre who was murdered by her ex-partner. In the future, the unit is expected to expand its activities and recruit forces for all the districts in Israel.