A male psychiatric nurse, who in 2021 buried alive a 17-year-old ex-patient with whom he was in an illicit intimate relationship, was cleared of murder charges on Sunday in the Haifa District Court.
Edward Kachura, 53, buried Lital Yael Melnik in a worksite in the Haifa suburb of Kiryat Motzkin in October 2021, as part of a “rebirth” ceremony she had agreed to, and left Melnik alive and equipped with a makeshift snorkel to breathe while buried in sand, the defense said. The prosecution had alleged that Kachura took away the snorkel and prevented Melnik from getting up.
After a four-year trial, the court ruled unanimously that there was reasonable doubt as to whether Kachura had murdered Melnik. Instead, the court found him guilty of negligent homicide, which carries a sentence of three years in jail, as opposed to a life sentence for murder.
“The court stressed that the defendant’s acquittal does not mitigate the severity of his actions or absolve him completely of responsibility for the victim’s death,” wrote the three judges, adding that “the actions and failures of the defendant enabled the ‘ceremony’ that led to the victim’s death.”
Kachura was also found guilty of unlawful intercourse with a person who was dependent on him, and of violating a restraining order that Melnik’s grandmother had secured against him after discovering that he was in a relationship with the victim, whom he had met when she was under his care at a psychiatric hospital in northern Israel.
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Ludmila, the grandmother, expressed dissatisfaction with the verdict.
Edward Kachura appears at a hearing in the Haifa District Court in the case of 17-year-old Lital Melnik’s death, November 29, 2021. (Flash90)
“My heart is exploding. Four years I’ve waited for him to get what he deserves,” she told Haaretz.
“Four years ago he took her to a place and murdered her and went on with his life,” she said. “But she died. If not he, then who murdered Lital?”
According to Hebrew media reports, after investigators found Melnik’s body buried in the construction site, police believed Kachura was in a sexual relationship with Melnik even when she was under his care.
Six girls hospitalized alongside Melnik told the Walla news site that Kachura had a “special relationship” with a number of girls at the facility.
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