Samantha Woll, president of the board at the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue poses for a photo in Detroit, Oct. 13, 2022. Samantha Woll, a Detroit synagogue president was found stabbed to death outside her home Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 police said. The motive wasn’t known. (David Guralnick/Detroit News via AP)
Detroit police Chief James E. White reiterated at a press conference Monday that investigators do not believe the heinous murder of a beloved synagogue board president was a hate crime.
“We believe the motivation is very different than a hate crime,” he said a press conference broadcasted on the department’s Facebook page.
Cops say they were called to a home in the city’s Lafayette Park neighborhood near downtown for an unresponsive person. Once there, authorities said they found Samantha Woll, the board president at Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, with multiple stab wounds and declared her dead at the scene. While there, police said they saw a trail of blood leading to the victim’s residence and think that’s where she was killed. There was no signs of forced entry.
White said Woll attended a wedding on Friday night, left around 12:30 a.m. and went home. While she was inside there was a struggle, she was stabbed several times and she stumbled outside where she collapsed, according to White. She was outside for “quite some time” before she was discovered, White said.
The police chief was careful with his words as the investigation is ongoing, but said detectives are working through what they have identified as persons of interest.
“We are just short of calling one of the people a suspect,” he said.
White declined to say whether she left the wedding alone, say how many times she was stabbed or if she had any defensive wounds.
Woll’s stabbing death comes amid rising concerns over antisemitic and anti-Palestinian attacks as the war between Israel and Hamas rages on in the Middle East.
“The investigation into the death of Ms. Woll remains ongoing. At this time, however, no evidence has surfaced suggesting that this crime was motivated by antisemitism,” White said in a statement Sunday evening.
Local NBC affiliate WDIV reported that initial conclusion was partially based on the fact that investigators found a large Israeli flag in Woll’s home that was untouched.
White said Detroit police are working with the FBI “to forensically analyze all of the information obtained up to this point in an effort to ascertain the timeline that ultimately led to Ms. Woll’s death.”
