One day after it was revealed that a 17-year-old boy from Lod was suspected of the murder of Olga and Ruslan Prikhodko, the Israel Police and Shin Bet arrested three additional suspects in relation to the crime on Friday.
In addition to the arrests, several relatives of the main suspects were brought in for questioning.
The arrests were made after investigators from the Central District Police Headquarters and the Shin Bet gathered intelligence information.
The three suspects, residents of the West Bank, were transferred to the Shin Bet for questioning, where investigators will try to determine the extent of their involvement in the murder and whether they had any connection to the planning of the act, its execution, or assisted the murderer afterward.
This development came less than a day after the Rishon Lezion Magistrate's Court extended the detention of the main suspect, a 17-year-old resident of Lod.
According to sources familiar with the investigation, during his interrogation, the suspect confessed to the suspicions attributed to him. After the interrogation, law enforcement continued their investigation into the full circumstances of the murder and the possibility that others were involved in the affair.
Ruslan, Olga Prikhodko found dead in vehicle on May 22
Ruslan Prikhodko, 46, and his wife, Olga, 44, residents of Rishon Lezion, were found dead on May 22 inside their vehicle in an open area between Moshav Mishmar Ayalon and Karmei Yosef.
Family members of the Prikhodkos contacted the police after not being able to reach the couple for many hours. After a search effort was launched, the couple was located in their vehicle, and Magen David Adom teams that responded to the scene declared them dead.
Initially, investigators examined the possibility that the incident was a murder-suicide, but at the same time, Shin Bet personnel joined the investigation alongside the Central District Police, who continued to look into other possibilities.
The family members of Olga and Ruslan Prikhodkos have consistently rejected the possibility that it was a murder-suicide and insisted that the two were murdered. According to them, the couple was in contact with their relatives throughout the day of the murder after going on a trip, before communications from the Prikhodkos abruptly stopped.
That initial suspicion began to weaken when Ruslan's personal gun, which he was licensed to carry, was not found at the scene. Investigators theorized that a person who happened upon the scene after the murder may have taken the weapon, but the gun was later found in a safe in the couple's home.
Law enforcement suspects murder was nationalist-motivated
Also, according to sources familiar with the investigation, no traces of gunpowder were found on Ruslan's hands, a finding that strengthened the suspicion that the incident was not a murder-suicide.
Further investigation yielded evidence that led to the arrest of the boy from Lod, and since then, the investigation has continued.
Alongside the main suspicion that this was a nationalist-motivated murder, law enforcement is continuing to investigate who supplied the suspect with the murder weapon, whether the suspect had accomplices, and whether others were involved in the murder.