The body of the chareidi young man discovered over ten days ago in
the Amud River near Tsefas, was finally identified conclusively this
past Sunday after an intricate and successful effort conducted by
the Zaka unit for the identification of accident victims in Jerusalem.
(Zaka stands for Zihui Korbanos Ason.) The young man had apparently
fallen off a cliff. Hikers in the area who discovered the body called
the police, and a local rescue squad tried to save him, but could
only recover the body which doctors later said had probably lain there
for about 48 hours.
The name of the young man is Doniel Blaustein, a 26 year old native
of Brazil, whose father passed away a number of years ago, and whose
mother could not be reached. Late Sunday night, the levaya
of the meis mitzva, who had no relatives present for the funeral,
left the Sanhedria burial parlor and headed toward Har Hamenuchos,
where he was buried. Many responded to the call to accompany him on
his last earthly journey.
Last week, the Zaka unit posted announcements all over the country
with the description of the young man whose body had been found in
the Amud River. The center was flooded by calls from hundreds of worried
people who feared that the victim was a family member. This concern
was sparked by the fact that many young people leave their homes for
long periods of time and do not contact their families.
One of the callers informed the police that a certain chareidi young
man rented two apartments, one in Jerusalem and the other in Tsefas,
and the possibility that he was the victim was raised. The members
of the Zaka unit went to the young man's apartment in the Beis Yisroel
neighborhood of Jerusalem last Friday, broke inside, and began to
conduct various searches. They took samples of hair from his pillow.
The samples were sent to the Institute for Medical Jurisprudence in
Abu-Kabir, and the laboratory examination proved that they were indeed
the hairs of the victim.
A bill which Blaustein had received from a dentist ten years ago was
found in one of the closets. The Zaka volunteers tried to locate
the dentist, at first without success. Sunday morning, they turned
to the Dentist's Organization of Israel which helped them find the
dentist, who told them that he hasn't worked in the field for many
years.
The dentist said that he couldn't remember patients whom he had treated
ten years ago, but that x-rays of his patients' teeth might still
remain in his files. After a brief search, the file of the young man
was found, and the impressions of his teeth were sent to Abu-Kabir.
It was only this evidence that proved beyond a doubt that the victim
was Doniel Blaustein, and he was finally brought to rest in Har Hamenuchos.
