An entire family was erased because of a bird's nest: The mystery that shook Tel Aviv

In 2002, three members of the Eyal family were found dead in their apartment in Ramat Aviv. The initial suspicion was a family suicide, but an investigator who collapsed at the scene led to the discovery of carbon monoxide poisoning from a heating system whose chimney flue was blocked by a bird's nest. Six years after the disaster, companies from the Pazgas group were convicted of negligent homicide.

In 2002, three members of the Eyal family were found dead in their apartment in Ramat Aviv. The initial suspicion of the police officers who entered the scene was a family suicide, after they found pill packets on the kitchen table. The parents, the Eyal couple, were lying on the bed in the bedroom, and their son Asaf was found near the bathroom. The home was tidy and clean with no signs of forced entry. Family members and acquaintances who questioned the possibility of suicide described a normative and well-established family that was planning a family vacation. Investigator Osnat Shubli, who entered the apartment, began to feel ill and nearly lost consciousness. Initially, it was thought to be a momentary weakness, but pathologist Prof. Yehuda Hiss, who heard about it by chance, immediately understood it was poisoning. Toxicological blood tests confirmed carbon monoxide poisoning. Investigators returned to the apartment and discovered that the chimney flue of the heating system was blocked by a bird's nest that had been built over years. The cold and rainy weather that weekend caused the windows and shutters to be closed, and the combustion products accumulated in the house without smell or color. Six years after the disaster, companies from the Pazgas group were convicted of negligent homicide, fined hundreds of thousands of shekels, and paid millions of shekels in compensation to the family's relatives.