BEIRUT — The General Directorate of the Internal Security Forces (ISF) announced on Wednesday the arrest of two women in connection with the murder of an elderly woman in her seventies found unconscious at her home in Ain Zhalta, Chouf district, during the night of March 11-12. The incident shocked the public in the region. 

A forensic examination revealed the victim, born in 1953 and a Lebanese national, suffered a violent blow to the head and signs of strangulation.

Following an investigation at the crime scene, ISF identified the primary suspect: a Syrian housekeeper who was arrested on Tuesday at her home in Baakata, a village about 15 kilometers from Ain Zhalta, also in the Chouf district.

The investigation subsequently revealed that “during her interrogation, the suspect confessed to committing the murder at the instigation of the victim's son's wife, a 50-year-old Lebanese woman, after forming a friendship with the instigator for about two years,” the statement said.

Motive and planning

The daughter-in-law reportedly had repeatedly suggested murdering and robbing the victim, who possessed a substantial sum of money and jewelry at her home. Initially, the alleged killer refused, before finally accepting. “The instigator then planned the operation and provided her with information about the victim, explaining that she sold clothes at her home. The suspect visited her home several times under this pretense,” the statement continued.

On the evening of March 10, 2025, when the victim was alone inside her home, the alleged killer reportedly struck the victim on her head with a piece of wood, then strangled her before stealing her jewelry. 

The ISF also indicated that on the day of the murder, which occurred on the evening of March 10, 2025, the alleged killer reportedly struck the victim, alone inside her home, on the head with a piece of wood, before strangling her and stealing a quantity of jewelry. “She stayed on the site until the following morning before departing for Baakata, then to Syria with the stolen items; she returned to Lebanon a few days later,” the ISF statement detailed.

Second arrest

Later the same day, ISF arrested the daughter-in-law at her home in Ain Zhalta. During her interrogation, she confessed to orchestrating the murder for the purpose of theft, corroborating the alleged killer's statements.

 “She confessed to inciting the murder of her mother-in-law for the purposes of theft,” added the statement, according to which “appropriate judicial measures have been taken against them, and the investigation continues under the supervision of the competent judicial authorities.”