Missing French Girl Feared Dead in Israel; Mother, Grandfather Arrested

Aug. 27, 2008— -- A story told in a different language is just as powerful for Hebrew students.

Hebrew University Ulpan teacher Shlomit Chazani begins every class by asking her summer Ulpan (Hebrew for language-intensive class) students, "Mah hadash," or "What's new?" Instead of the usual small talk responses, today Chazani's students asked in broken Hebrew if she would please explain the meaning of the headline on the Hebrew newspaper "Israel Today," which reads "The Angel and the Devil."

The "angel" refers to a 4-year-old who was allegedly murdered by the "devil," or her 45-year-old grandfather, back in May. The police only recently learned of the girl's disappearance.

Without speaking a word of English to her second-level Hebrew students, Chazani used a basic Hebrew vocabulary to explain the not-so-basic disappearance and alleged murder of a 4-year-old girl, a case Israeli police are calling "one of the most shocking in the country's history," according to Reuters.

"You could tell everyone was really affected and everyone really understood the meaning of the whole story even without having a bunch a big words that we haven't gotten to yet," Hilary Greenberg, a 40-something Ulpan student, told ABC News.

Chazani simplified the intricate chain of events that led Ronny Ron to confess to the murder of his granddaughter, Rose Pizem, "in a fit of anger," Ron's lawyer told Reuters.

"I was planning on talking about this story with the class even before they asked me about it," Chazani told ABC News.

Rose's disappearance and alleged murder have caught the interest of not only the media but also the Israeli public. Ma'ariv, an Israeli newspaper, printed the title "Madness: Half the country searching the Yakron for Rose's body."

The public is also leaving comments on online articles suggesting other locations in which to look for the body. One reader, Eric, of Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, wrote, "They say that Israel only invokes the death penalty for the most heinous crimes. I hope this one doesn't slip by!"

Rose's father, Benjamin Pizem, told Israeli TV channels Tuesday that he believes his daughter was murdered, according to Haaretz. He said, "I look forward to knowing why this all happened, even if they find Rose in the worse circumstances. Whoever did this needs to pay."

After admitting to the murder earlier this week, Ron brought police to the place where he allegedly tossed Rose into Tel Aviv's Yarkon River after stuffing her body into a suitcase.

According to Haaretz, police are consulting with private professionals regarding the cost of drying up the area of the river, a task experts estimate will cost hundreds of thousands of shekels.

Police are exploring other possible areas the girl's body could be.

Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen told Haaretz, "We are full of doubt as to the whereabouts of Rose, but we are centered around the Yarkon River at present, and this is the process of the probe, and the central angle of investigation."

Paris-born Rose traveled with her parents to Israel in 2004 before either of her parents had turned 20, so that Pizem could meet Ron, his Israeli father.

The family vacation went awry when Rose's mother, Marie-Charlotte Renault, announced that she had fallen in love with Ron and would remain in Israel.

Pizem returned to Paris with Rose but had difficulty raising his daughter and periodically gave her to the welfare authorities, according to Haaretz.

When Renault and Ron learned that Rose had been hospitalized because of alleged paternal neglect and abuse, the mother and grandfather, who now had two of their own children, began a custody battle for Rose.

Rose was brought to Israel in December when the mother-grandfather couple won custody.

But when they realized Rose's difficult speech and behavioral problems, they, too, couldn't cope and handed the child over to Ron's mother, Vivien Yaakov, who watched over her great-granddaughter every day.

Yaakov also had difficulties coping with Rose and reportedly demanded that her son find an alternative solution to her daily babysitting.

According to Haaretz, after another harsh fight with his mother in May, Ron grabbed Rose and her suitcase and stormed out.

Yaakov never saw Rose again, and Renault claims to have never asked where her daughter was. Only when Yaakov wrote to the National Council for the Child a little more than two weeks ago did the police learn of Rose's disappearance.

Police report that upon questioning, Ron's accounts of his daughter's whereabouts were inconsistent, according to Haaretz. Initially, he claimed he had killed Rose and then threw her into the Yarkon River; then he said he dropped her off at a yeshiva, but when asked for the yeshiva's location he changed his story yet again, saying he sold his granddaughter to Palestinians.

Police are using search dogs and volunteers, and trying to track Ron's cell phone records for insight into the location of the girl.

And the Israeli media is following the investigation step by step. Online readers have been leaving comments expressing their anger and sadness. One Haaretz reader, Franz, titled his comment "The Angel is Dead."