Uman: Body of Missing Man Found

Tonight (Saturday) ZAKA volunteers identified the body of a missing Israeli Amir Ohana who went missing in Uman since Tuesday morning.

On the second day of Rosh Hashanah Amir’s friends discovered that Ohana did not return after leaving his room. After Rosh Hashanah ZAKA volunteers in Uman were notified and immediately began searching.

On Wednesday another ZAKA delegation headed by Haim Outmezgine, special units commander of ZAKA headed out from Israel to lead the searches. With him were special aerial photography units with their equipment. A professional ZAKA command post was set up in uman, friends of the missing as well as all who saw him recently were questioned, as well as 16 cameras in the area where we he was spotted on two of them. The ZAKA Command center activated dozens of Breslev Chasidim in Uman, divided them into teams with each team getting a grid to search. ZAKA also activated a local dive team in both lakes in Uman, ZAKA’s drone units scanned the entire area, grid by grid, representatives of the Israeli Embassy in Ukraine Helped the ZAKA Command Center with all communications with the Ukrainian authorities as well as the management of institutions of Breslev in Uman.

Rabbi Yaakov Roza, Rabbinical Committee Chairman of ZAKA said “ZAKA volunteers should continue the search even during Shabbat.

This evening a ZAKA team combing the area identified a head in the water by the lake, they immediately informed the ZAKA Command Center. Another team of ZAKA volunteers who were rushed to the scene recovered the body of the missing person from the lake. Relatives and friends who came from Israel to assist in searches identified the missing person as Amir Ohana of blessed memory. A local pathologist examined the body together with ZAKA professionals, there were no signs of violence, the pathologist ruled the cause of death as a result of drowning.

At this time the teams are working hard to get all the necessary approvals to release the body and to fly the body to Israel this evening.

ZAKA commander, Chaim Outmezgine, who commanded the search in Uman, said: “Although it is a sad statement we were able to locate the body of the missing person. We’re talking about a lake which has a depth of 6 meters. Hundreds of Breslev Chassidim and ZAKA volunteers searched around the lake and in the woods near the grave of Rabbi Nachman Of Breslov. Divers scoured the depths of the lake, with the help of aerial pictures take by the ZAKA drone unit from above. This evening, team No. 17 was able to locate his body. I together with the specialist team extracted the body from the water “.

ZAKA International Rescue Unit Operations Officer, Yossi Fraenkel, said: “We are now working with the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Embassy personnel to get the necessary approvals so that we can bring the body back to Israel as soon as possible for burial”.