The Travis County Sheriff’s office is investigating the deaths of Yariv Kaplan, 42, and his 9-year-old daughter, Lielle, who were found dead from gunshots wounds early Monday morning in their home on El Dorado Drive in Austin, Texas, KXAN reported. Authorities say Yariv’s injuries were self-inflicted.
According to the Austin Statesmen, neighbors called the authorities to check a disturbance at the Yariv home around 5:44 AM Monday. the first deputies who arrived at the home knocked on the door but got no answer, determined that someone could be in danger, so they entered the house, where they found the man and the girl dead.
A Sheriff’s office spokesperson said “this is a very unusual call for a neighborhood like this,” seeing as “this is a well-established neighborhood — nice, quiet place and definitely unexpected.”
KXAN, citing Travis County court documents, reported that Kaplan, a software engineer had been going through a rough divorce and a custody fight over his daughter. A hearing of the custody case was scheduled for January. Kaplan had asked for a new lawyer after the initial custody ruling.
Kaplan received his training as software engineer while serving in the IDF and later at the Technion. Recently he posted an article dedicated to his daughter in which he attacked his ex-wife and presented himself as the victim of her abuse. He claimed his ex-wife was poisoning their daughter against him. He also revealed taking anti-anxiety medicine and that his failed marriage had ruined him financially.
In the article, Kaplan also revealed his intent to take his own life and complained that his daughter prefers to stay with her mother, because she is “stronger.”
Lielle’s mother has launched a crowdfunding campaign online to raise $70,000 to bring her daughter’s body to Israel for burial. She claims the unusually high cost includes buying a plot in Israel and taxes.
It should be noted that Israeli citizens are entitled to a virtually free burial, including a plot, paid for by Social Security. Additional services, such as bathing and driving the body may cost a few hundred shekels. With the cost of the gravestone, the cost of a burial for an Israeli should not exceed one thousand dollars.
The mother promised to donate any remaining money to her daughter’s school.
The Austin Waldorf School told KXAN Lielle was a student there. The school is now following its crisis response protocol to “ensure that our school community has what they need to begin processing.”