The Motive (2020–2021): Season 1, Episode 1 - Episode #1.1 - full transcript

Ein Karem.

At around 1:00 a.m., on the night between
Friday and Saturday,

we received a call from dispatch

Informing us that shots had been heard
in Jerusalem's Ein Karem neighborhood.

Okay.

I said, "I'm an investigator,
I must be there."

I turned left and drove down to Ein Karem.

It was dark outside,

and I was alone
in a police car on a dark road.

I happened to be unarmed
and it was an unpleasant feeling.

And then, I arrived at the scene,



I entered the home,

a two-story home.

At the entrance, what I saw was a table.

On the table was an M16.

Turns out it was an army rifle.

And in front,
there was the parents' bedroom.

When entering the bedroom,

the father was lying

with his wife beside him,
facing the curtain.

They'd both been shot…

from very close range.
The outcome was not pleasant.

The father…

this whole part was gone.

He'd been shot
with the M16 at point-blank range,



and this entire part

was missing from his face.

A while later it was found
on the curtain behind him.

The mother, who was lying by his side,

had been shot in the cheek,

and here, she had
a kind of opening, a channel,

and blood was spurting out of her face.

I was on duty.

I was in charge of the lab. It was Friday.

"Come to Ein Karem."

I think it was at HaTeimanim St., nearby.

"There's been a murder."

Right at the entrance,
the minute we went into the house,

right away we saw a horrific sight.

The patrolmen on the scene,

they told me, "Samuel, go upstairs too."

-"What is it?"
-"Go upstairs."

I went up the stairs to the second floor.

I went inside.

Right as I entered,

there were two beds,

and on the beds there were two bodies.

Again, women.

And both had been shot
at point-blank and their heads disfigured.

The soldier…

the one I later discovered was a soldier,

had been shot first,

and we… actually I…

wondered
how the soldier had stayed asleep.

The blanket was pulled
up to her shoulders, it was winter,

it was cold, and she was covered
and didn't move her hands,

she didn't try to get up, she did nothing.

How could that be?
After the gunfire downstairs with an M16,

which results in an echo effect
in the house, how come she didn't move?

What I remember is a policeman
standing behind this iron gate,

with stripes and a spring, standing there
stopping us. "You can't go in."

"What happened?," "We can't tell you."

"What's this?," "Wait for the spokesman."

Until the spokesman came.
He arrived long us.

Nothing to photograph.
You snap the gate, the policeman,

you fill the frame
so that you have some footage.

And then the spokesman comes, and says,

"There's forensics,
a process, it will take awhile."

We went into the car since it was raining.

I won't forget that night.
It was raining heavily.

Okay? Ready?

Follow me.

Excuse me? Good evening, Mr. Spokesman…

And then they let you go inside,

and it's like…
there's a kind of vampire feeling.

When you enter a scene filled with blood,
you feel like you have to…

At that time, at that second,
you know you have to take photos,

but when you leave…

I felt like some kind of vulture
that was swooping down on the bodies.

Sound, Amir.

We have two or three minutes,
let's use them.

Amir, Rami…

Sound.

I entered the house

and immediately noticed
the picture hanging

above the bed in the couple's bedroom

of their wedding day, which is…

There's nothing…

I don't know.

It's something hard,
too difficult to bear.

It's hard.

You really need the strength
to calm yourself down

so you can keep working.

And I couldn't see.
I had tears in my eyes the whole time.

I had to stop for a moment, wipe my tears,
and continue recording evidence.

When they called me,
I was sitting with my family.

On Friday, with my family and kids,

and now I come
and see a family and kids like that.

So it's hard, it's unbearable.

When I arrived at the crime scene,

my first thought when I saw it

was that it was terrorists.

Terrorists,
because of the horrific type of murder.

When a terrorist comes,

and we've had many cases of terrorists
coming into homes and shooting,

his goal is to kill
as many people as possible.

Murders by terrorists have…

things that are unique to them.

For example,
you're not only there to kill.

You want to make noise, get attention.

So you gather them all together
and you tie their hands,

and make noise for the media,
to achieve something.

You don't just go into a home and kill.
Who will know?

The goal to make noise
for a certain cause didn't exist.

So from my point of view,
I decided it wasn't terrorists.

A burglar?

Meaning, a property thief
who broke into the house to steal.

Even drugs. What if he's a junkie?

He's a burglar. He's a thief.
He's not there to kill.

So he ran into people
who were in his way and killed them.

But why go upstairs to the second floor
and kill the other two?

And it's not a criminal family.

So that too,
at that moment, I eliminated it.

So what is this? What happened here?

I decided to check the scene again
to see who and what was going on,

and then, before I could check the scene,
someone told me, "Look,

one of the family members fled the scene
and is at the neighbors' home,

in a building next door."

Come on, let's go, Rami.
Amir, do we have sound?

Come on. Good evening.

Are you getting this?

Shoot, Rami.

No entry.

I went to the next building,

and I saw a small boy,

sitting there,
a lot of policemen talking to him.

I asked them to leave.

And as a night investigator
and a youth investigator,

with my authority, I began talking to him.

There was another policeman with me,

and the house we were in
also had two stories.

I called him and hinted
that I needed him near me.

I didn't feel comfortable with this kid.

Although I was much bigger than him,
I had a bad feeling.

He had a look in his eyes…

that I remember,
though many years have gone by

and I've been through things since,
but that's a look you can't forget.

How is it described in the books?
Spine-chilling?

That's the phrase.

We grew up together, with Nissim.

We're almost the same age, Nissim and I.

Later, when they got married,

we were already grown-ups,
and we were friends.

And their children were friends
with my children.

You were close neighbors.

Next-door neighbors, here, right by us.

We would spend
every Saturday night together.

We'd meet every Saturday night,
at their place,

then at ours, then at other friends'.

They weren't bad people, not at all.

They were very positive.

They don't deserve to be remembered
in the context of violence.

They don't deserve it.
They were not violent people.

They were angels of sorts,
the exact opposite.

The exact opposite.
They were amazing people.

They were good people. Very good.

And then I started asking him
what happened.

And he says,
"A burglar came in and wanted…"

Thirteen and a half, short,
four family members are gone,

and the kid is talking…

as if he has experience
with this kind of talk.

And I told him,
"Look, I'm not buying your story."

And I explained what I said,
why it couldn't just be a burglar.

He said,
"Look, I'll tell you what happened

on one condition."

I said, "What condition?"

"After I tell you,
you let me talk to my mother."

Because when he saw the blood spurting,

I mean, he still saw movement,
from his perspective.

It was as if the woman was still alive.

So he wanted to talk to her.

I don't know what he wanted to say,
he wanted to talk to her.

Mr. Spokesman.

-Can you tell me what's going on?
-Not right now.

Why? One word?

Shine a light on them, aim…

Get that. Get it.

The door is open. Come on, here, yes.

Get it. Before they close the door.

And then he tells the…

Fantastic, wonderful, crazy story,
call it whatever you like.

On Thursday, the father
came back from reserve duty…

and on Thursday and Friday he asked,

and then the father taught him
how to use the M16.

Assembly, dismantling, and so on.

That evening, they sat down to eat dinner.

They finished eating dinner
and they watched a movie.

At some point they were tired.
It was late at night.

Around 12:00 or 12:30 at night.

One by one, they went to sleep.

Forecast for Sunday, partly cloudy.

That's all for the news, and our broadcast
is also finished for tonight.

Good night and Shabbat shalom
from Jerusalem.

VERSES FOR SABBATH

And then he said
that at about 1:15 at night,

he dreamt… No, he didn't dream,
he recalled the movie…

The movie Papillon.

And he remembered
a certain part of the movie

when Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen…

The nurse there gets mad at them
for pretending to be crazy.

And our "friend" was angry.

As this was happening,
as he remembered that scene,

he heard the bells
of the churches in Ein Karem.

In Ein Karem,
there's a red and white Russian church…

And something said to him, "Get up."

"Go."

He came down
from the second story of the house,

went into the parents' bedroom
and put together the M16,

put a bullet in his father,
a bullet in his mother, went upstairs,

a bullet in the head of each sister.

He went downstairs,
put the M16 on the table,

went back up through the balcony,
fled the house

and yelled, "Burglar! Thief!
He shot, killed!" and so on.

That's the testimony he gave.

When we arrived at the scene,

right away he broke down
and he told the story.

It's important evidence they need.

They had to confirm it.

So they gathered the clothes immediately.

There were clothes by the laundry nook.

By the washing machine,
they had this nook for laundry.

This is where he hid them.
He didn't have time.

He knew that
with those sounds of gunshots,

police cars would be coming,
emergency services and…

His story would be terrorists.

He changed clothes,
pulled himself together.

He needed a defense.
"What, who would believe me?"

That fit the feeling at the scene,

the way he talked, his reliability,
and other things.

It looked like it was the truth.

Of course, I reported it
to whom I was supposed to

to calm the atmosphere in Ein Karem.

And then,

I took him in my arms,

I covered him with a blanket because

all the photographers were outside,
so that they couldn't take photos of him.

I dragged him to the car.

I was there for, I think,
at least five or six hours.

Five or six hours.
Until they took the bodies away.

It was a tough scene.
They were four people.

Didn't you want to know why?

If there's a reason?
It can't be that he just murdered them.

I tried, and that's what he said.
And he insisted on it.

Every direction.

The Papillon, the churches,
the voice that called out to him,

putting the weapon together…

and the shooting.

Had he ever been beaten
by his parents? No.

Had he ever committed a crime,
even the smallest of crimes? Also, no.

Was there trouble in the family? Also, no.

I mean, any question you'd ask
to find a motive that was normal,

if you can say "normal"
about such a crime, there was nothing.

Come on.
He's coming out with the kid, come on.

Light on the kid!

Subtitle translation by: Harry Darkins