Israel Police announced Friday that Mali Yahalomi and her daughter Liel, who mysteriously disappeared during a trip to Vienna a week ago, have been located safe and unharmed in Argentina.
Police released dramatic footage showing officers, including representatives from Israel and Interpol, boarding a bus in Argentina and approaching the mother and daughter. Mali and Liel appear confused and surprised as the officers introduce themselves, but both appear unharmed.
The discovery ends an international search launched after the two abruptly vanished from Vienna last Friday and cut off all contact with their family.
Their disappearance had triggered an extensive investigation involving Israel Police’s Lahav 433 unit, Austrian authorities and international law-enforcement agencies.
It remains unclear why Mali and Liel stopped communicating with their family, how and when they traveled from Austria to Argentina, or why they made the trip.
A police source stated: ‘We tracked their movements and managed to locate the bus they were traveling on. We knew they had likely left the country voluntarily and that they were not in any danger, but we needed to confirm this. We contacted them, updated them on the situation, and ensured that there was no criminal concern. From that point on, it was their decision. They voluntarily ended contact, and their lives are not in danger. This is not a criminal incident, and there is no basis for arrest.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
3 Responses
They are both wearing pants in the video they went off the derech
How tragic. In the picture from Vienna, the mother was wearing a band fall. In Argentina, her hair is uncovered. They’re running away from themselves. What’s so sad is that the entire Jewish world was worried about them and cared about their fate. As anonymous women in South America, along with leaving behind Torah and mitzvos, they are abandoning their entire extended family of Am Yisrael. They wanted to begin a new life together, away from their family and country. They will soon discover that as anonymous women with no identity, no one there will give a hoot about them, and that the only people who really love them and truly care for their well-being are their own People.
ladler – I really wish you were right, but for many people the reality is the opposite. They felt like they had no value in the frum world, and when they left they discovered for the first time that people actually liked them, respected them, and appreciated what they had to offer.
That’s not an indictment of Torah, chas v’shalom. It’s an indictment of the way some frum societies operate, with such rigid conformity and stigma that anyone a little different gets chewed up and spit out. And very often those “different” people are the smartest, brightest and most talented people we have. Push enough of them away and eventually you’re left with far too many people who know all the right slogans and tropes but have very little thought or substance behind them, and in some cases, plenty of hypocrisy too.
So yes, I hope these women eventually feel the love of their family and community. But we shouldn’t assume that everyone who leaves is running away from people who made them feel loved. Sometimes they’re running toward the first place where they actually did.