A debt of over 200 thousand shekels, the surprise party and the ultra-orthodox son: new details on the escape of Meli and Liel Yahalomi
The tearful phone call from Argentina, the birthday party that gave no hint of anything, and Meli Yahalomi's debt that accumulated to more than 200 thousand shekels. Sources familiar with the investigation tell about the weeks that preceded the disappearance and what has happened since.
Shortly after they were located in Argentina, at 11 PM, Meli and Liel Yahalomi called through the local police representative, Walter, to the house of grandmother Tzipi, where all the worried family members had gathered. The phone call that arrived at the landline number startled everyone. On the line, Liel was sobbing. On the other side of the receiver was Liel's uncle, Moshe Yahalomi. "Are you okay? We are all here very worried," he asked. Liel replied in tears: "We are okay, everything was done voluntarily. We are sorry. We didn't think it would reach this situation. We will update later."
A person close to the family says that just on the weekend that preceded the escape, the close-knit family had celebrated a surprise birthday party for Meli Yahalomi's 50th birthday. There was no evidence of the two planning anything. "But in the background, there were always the debts," he says. From the moment the two disconnected their phones and were absent from the flight back to Israel from Vienna, the family went into action. One of the family members, a security services person, called his friends from the technological units in the IDF, who entered the rented apartment of Meli and Liel in Modiin. The apartment was fully furnished, without anything being sold.
Even Meli's son, Evyatar, an ultra-orthodox avrech who remained in Israel with his son and was financially supported by his mother, did not know anything about the plans. He was the one who gave the team established by the family the passwords to the computer and iPad that the two left in the apartment. A colleague of Liel described the shock: "We were terribly shocked by this. She was quiet and cute. She was supposed to receive an outstanding employee award." A close friend of Liel, who identified herself as A., said that in the first days after the phones were disconnected, she was sure that a disaster had happened to her friend: "I was angry at her, because I thought something had happened to her. I thought the worst thing. I tried to call, I sent messages, we all tried - and there was no answer, there was only one 'tick'."
Evyatar, Meli's ultra-orthodox son, was stunned no less than the rest of the family members. When the family members watched for the first time the documentations and photos that Walter, the police representative who located the two in Argentina, sent them, they suffered another shock: Meli, who had returned to religion about 20 years ago, was seen in them without a head covering. For the family, this was another strong indication that the two are indeed seeking to start over with a new identity and leave their old lives in Israel behind.
A person close to the family who asked to remain anonymous adds another disturbing detail: "We received indications that there is someone who is helping them. We don't know who it is." According to her, although Meli is defined as technophobic, someone took care to delete metadata files that could have exposed their location. "There is no chance she knew how to do such a thing herself - only someone who knows how to cover up can reach this," she says.
A source familiar with the investigation asks to put things in proportion: "Contrary to publications, they did not look for a country without an extradition agreement out of criminal intent, and in general did not commit a criminal offense. They mainly looked for how much cash can be withdrawn from the bank legally to enter the country, and chose a country whose currency is relatively low." According to that same source, Meli Yahalomi is a woman who had financial difficulties and dragged debts and interest for a period. It is about debts of more than 200 thousand shekels, which only grew from month to month. She did a master's degree to increase her salary at the bank, but even that was not enough. In the end, she was promoted in her position, but could not recover - and fled from the debts that remained behind.
In the police, they are careful to clarify that this is not a kidnapping scenario: "We understood from the first moment that this is not a kidnapping or the involvement of another person. Walter, the local police representative, met and questioned them, and they said clearly that this is their personal decision only."
