Tel Aviv Police: State's key witness in Bar Noar murder case disappears

Drama in the Barnoar investigation: The State's witness in the 2009 gay center shooting case has escaped a police safe house where he resided under police protection. Hundreds of police officers are searching for him. It is feared he will flee the country and might be targeted by offenders.

Police switched safe houses after the witness gave an interview to Ynet and started talking to his friends. On Thursday morning, police discovered he had escaped from the safe house without anyone noticing it.

  

The key player responsible for breaking the story of the Barnoar murders kept the secret for three-and-a-half years. He knew the plans of the murder suspects: To avenge the sexual assault of one of them, who was a boy, and to help bring the plan to fruition.

After the massacre everyone kept silent. A long time went by before the accomplice broke – and decided to take his revenge. "Why? Because they screwed me for a lot of money. They did not look out for me in jail. Besides, I'm from the (gay) community and it's very hard for me," the man who became state’s witness said to his acquaintances.

The man is a criminal who was in prison several times, for violent crimes, among other things. A week and a half before the murder, when he was still in prison, he was approached by two of the suspects, who had cooperated with him in previous crimes.

They told him about what allegedly happened to one of them: A well-known activist in the gay community had sexually assaulted him. They asked for information regarding the man, and the witness told them that he would be at Barnoar that evening – August 1, 2009. "I thought maybe they would beat him up," he said in a recording obtained by Ynet.

Two days after the murder, the witness was questioned himself, as he used to frequent the Barnoar, and even had confrontations there with people. His name came up in police inquiries, and detectives went to question him in jail.

He did not say anything specific, but he claims that he did leave them with a hint – you should focus on the community activist. It is unclear whether investigators really listened to what he was saying. The interpretation of this, regardless, took much longer.