A New York plumber and father of four has been murdered during a trip to Colombia to meet a potential new wife, according to friends and local authorities. The body of Nachum Israel Eber, 51, a member of the Boro Park Belz Hasidic community, was found inside a wardrobe left on a street in a remote area of Bogotá on Sunday.
Authorities believe Eber was targeted by a local criminal gang in what is thought to have been a robbery, though a motive has not been confirmed. The attackers remain at large. Eber had recently connected with a woman in Bogotá’s Hasidic community and travelled to South America to meet her, his friend Motti Dresdner told the New York Post.
“It’s a terrible tragedy,” Dresdner said. “A person, a gentleman in his prime. He was always talking about his future, how he was going to get remarried and find a perfect bride, and have a beautiful life. And to be cut off like this is very sad.”
Surveillance footage captured Eber leaving his Airbnb in the Colombian capital around 9 p.m. on 21 April. He was not seen again. Days later, a passer-by reported a bloody wardrobe on the other side of the city from where Eber had vanished. Authorities later confirmed it contained his remains.
Colombian law enforcement officials have opened a formal murder investigation as his family works to bring him home. “This is a difficult and painful incident of a Jew murdered far from home,” said Yossi Landau of humanitarian volunteer organisation ZAKA. Eber is survived by his children and extended family, including 16 siblings living in Belz communities across the US, Canada and Israel.
