Remains Found Believed to Be of Missing Israelis

Authorities have recovered what are believed to be the remains of two Israeli citizens kidnapped in December in an alleged narcotics rip-off, the FBI said Monday.

The bodies were unearthed Sunday in the desert, 30 miles northeast of Barstow. Authorities said the location was provided by one of three people in federal custody on charges of kidnapping Adar Neeman, 25, and Benjamin Wertzberger, 24.

The remains, stacked in a grave less than 3 feet deep, were taken to the San Bernardino County medical examiner’s office, where autopsies are expected to take place Wednesday.

“We’re pretty confident it’s them,” said FBI spokesman Matthew McLaughlin.

Last week, the FBI announced the arrests of Shane Ronald Huang, 34, of Canoga Park, and Benjamin Frandsen, 29, of Los Angeles on suspicion of kidnapping the two men.

Ora Vossen, 38, of Hollywood also was being held on suspicion of providing false information to federal authorities.

According to a criminal complaint filed last week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Wertzberger had been staying rent-free at Huang’s Canoga Park home in exchange for watching over an indoor marijuana crop.

Huang suspected his housemate had stolen drugs from him, the complaint says, and on Dec. 2, 2002, he took Wertzberger and Neeman captive.

On the night of Nov. 27, federal authorities said, Wertzberger and a friend, Doron Kochli, drove to a house in the San Fernando Valley where Wertzberger was growing marijuana with other men.

At about 9 p.m., he and Kochli pulled into an alley at the residence where they were approached by two men, Shane Huang and another man identified as Jamil Kharboutli, wearing rubber gloves, authorities said.

Kochli told authorities that a strong odor of marijuana hung in the air and that Huang and Kharboutli appeared upset that Wertzberger had brought an outsider to the house.

The last time Kochli saw Wertzberger alive was Dec. 2, 2002, when Wertzberger and Neeman came to say goodbye before they drove to Las Vegas in Wertzberger’s 1992 Chevrolet Cavalier, the federal complaint says.

Kochli told authorities that he believed Wertzberger had planned to first see Kharboutli to pay back money he had borrowed from him the previous week.

A friend of Wertzberger said that Kharboutli had caught Wertzberger and Neeman “red-handed, ripping them off,” according to the complaint.

On Dec. 4, authorities found Wertzberger’s car in Las Vegas. The keys were in the ignition, and Wertzberger’s and Neeman’s belongings were scattered inside.

The next day, officials placed a call to Wertzberger’s cell phone, which was answered by a man who said that he had found the phone in Las Vegas.

According to the criminal complaint, Huang was previously arrested in 1988 for possession, manufacturing and sale of dangerous drugs and showing a deadly weapon.

Those charges later were dismissed.

Kharboutli has a history of arrests related to narcotics. No charges have been filed against him in the kidnapping case.

If convicted, Huang and Frandsen face life in prison and Vossen faces five years, according to the FBI.