Kristine Luken used to work at Patrick Henry College in Institutional Effectiveness. She was murdered in Israel this week while hiking with a friend. They suspect terrorists. Pray for her family here in Virginia.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/video/american-tourist-found-dead-in-israel-12437500
A British woman was tied up and stabbed while walking near Jerusalem, but survived the assault by pretending to be dead. Her companion, an American tourist, was later found killed.
Kaye Wilson, a British citizen who moved to Israel in the early 1990s, was found on Saturday night with her hands tied behind her back, bleeding from several knife wounds.
She told police that she and her companion, Kristine Luken, had been hiking in a forest west of Jerusalem at Khirbet Hanut, an archaeological site, when two Arab men attacked them.
It was unclear whether the assault was a politically-motivated attack by Palestinian militants or whether it was a random criminal offence, said Micky Rosenfeld, police spokesman.
"We are looking into the incident. There are different possibilities, including the possibility of a terror attack," Rosenfeld said. "There are no clear conclusions at the moment." The assault has not been claimed by any armed group.
The body of Luken, an American tourist, was identified today. She had been hidden among shrubs in a forested area between Jerusalem and the Israeli town of Beit Shemesh.
Wilson, a 46-year-old tour guide who moved to Israel in the early 1990s, and who holds dual citizenship, was taken to Haddasah hospital in Jerusalem. She was said to be in a stable condition, after being moved from intensive care to a normal ward. "She was stabbed in the abdomen and in the back. The wounds are not very deep but she has a lot of pain. She did not suffer any internal bleeding and she has been communicative and conscious since she arrived at the hospital last night," said a hospital spokesman.
"She will stay in hospital for several days. She has gone through a very difficult experience. She is very affected."
Speaking to Israel's Channel Two TV from her hospital bed, Wilson said that she and her friend had been hiking in the forest when they encountered two men who asked them for water.
She tried to get them to leave, she said, feeling that "something wasn't right", and the two women then set off back towards the trail, but the men reappeared and then attacked.
"It happened so quickly. They came and attacked us. One of them pulled a very long knife. It was like a bread knife with a sharpened edge. I was scared, but my friend became a bit hysterical, so I told her in English – they spoke in Arabic – 'be quiet, don't make any noise, it'll make them attack us'," she said. "One of them took the Star of David necklace off my neck like a gentleman – and they stabbed me 12 times. They came to kill. Nobody walks around with a knife like that for no reason. He stabbed me, but I sensed the knife did not penetrate my heart. I pretended to be dead."
Wilson managed to reach a road where she was found by families walking in the area. Hundreds of police and members of special army units launched a hunt in the area on Saturday night.
Several roadblocks were installed to close access to Palestinian villages in the area where the police thought the criminals could hide.
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