Missing child case captivates Israel

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The case of a missing four-year-old girl who police believe was murdered by her grandfather -- her mother's live-in lover -- captivated Israel on Wednesday.

Paris-born Rose Pizem disappeared in May but news about the investigation and an unusual love triangle began to emerge only this week, when police issued a public appeal for information about her whereabouts.

After a court gag order was lifted on Tuesday, Israelis learned that police suspect that Rose's paternal grandfather, an Israeli taxi driver, killed her, stuffed her body in a suitcase and threw her into Tel Aviv's Yarkon River.

Police investigators said the suspect's son and Rose's mother married as teenagers in France after their daughter was born. The couple visited Israel, where the mother fell in love with her Israeli father-in-law and moved in with him.

Father and daughter returned to France, but the mother won a French court order for the girl to live with her and the grandfather in Israel.

The grandfather's lawyer told reporters he killed Rose in a fit of anger. He is under arrest, along with the girl's mother, in a case that has dominated headlines in Israel and touched off a national debate on child abuse.

No charges have been filed as police continue to search for Rose's body. The investigation was launched after the girl's great-grandmother wrote to Israeli welfare authorities to say she had not seen her for several months.

(Writing by Jeffrey Heller, Editing by Dominic Evans)