Psychopath on killing spree:

Ghastly murders of old women

Sandasen MARASINGHE

The murder of 56-year-old Sellaiyah Mariamma in an estate line room in Opatha on July 21, 2008 shocked the Kahawatta area. She was living all alone and was very weak because of her age. She was strangled. Police investigations initiated brought no results as the criminal had not left any clue to the surprise of the Police. The people in Kahawatta area trembled in fear when the investigations revealed that the victim had been raped by the criminal.

Somehow the Police could not bring the culprit into books. With the passage of time the public forgot the incident. It was nearly one and half years later the people in Kahawatta were driven to dread when 48-year-old Baby Nona was killed in Kotakethana, Kahawatta. She had been killed while she was bathing in a stream near her residence. The criminal had committed the same crime to the remains after the murder. Similar feature that the suspect had with the previous one was that he had not left a clue.

The Kahawatta Police Officer in Charge, Chief Inspector R D Aluthgamage told the Daily News that it was an embarrassing situation as the Police had no clues about the criminal. The people were accusing the Police of inefficiency for not taking the suspects into custody.

The people pressurised the Police by many ways. “I had to go to the village and talk to a gathering of the villagers to ease the tense situation,” C I Aluthgamage said. “I promised that the Police would not allow the culprit to continue this array of crimes.”

When the situation was coming back to normal in the area though the culprit was not arrested again the people in Kahawatta area were driven to trepidation when the criminal prayed upon another elderly woman, 80 years old. This time it was after six months later. S M Heen Menika of Dimbulwela, Kahawatta was murdered on December 21, 2010. Her head was cut and remains were lying on the bed naked.

“It was an embarrassing situation, I was facing as the Officer in Charge of the Police” the Chief Inspector said. “It was clear all these crimes were committed by a single suspect or by the same group. All crimes were committed in the same manner.”

CI Aluthgamage stated that he was sure that no criminal was perfect at all times and instructed his officials to find out at least a single clue.

The culprit was so shrewd that he had washed away the blood as well. No weapon could be found. To our surprise the culprit had left behind four white local cigars (beedi) in the victim’s room.” Aluthgamage said. “Well I guessed that it could be of pivotal importance”

Now the villagers in the Kahawatta area was arrested by a fear psychosis as the murders were committed mysteriously since 2008.

The frequency of the committed crimes was also increasing. In the meantime the Kahawatta Police Mobile Unit on patrol received a message around 11.30 pm on January 21, 2011 that a man was attempting to break into a house in Kotakethana, Kahawatta. The Police Mobile Unit rushed to the scene and arrested a 29-year-old youth.

He was a labourer working in a tea estate in the area. He was earlier self employed as a coconut plucker before he joined the tea estate.

He had gone house to house in the area plucking coconuts. “There was nothing suspicious about him” CI Aluthgamage said. “We thought he was trying to rob the house until Sergeants Waduge (20883), Piyaratne (24748) and Karunathilake (30139) found several white local cigars hidden in a pocket of his underwear.”

He said that suddenly it struck him that there could be an involvement of this suspect in the array of mysterious crimes.

Then the investigators studied the similarities of those crimes with this incident. The Police trembled when they found out that partitioned house was the dwelling place of an elderly woman (62).

That part of the house was separated from the rest of the house where the other family members were living.

Another matter the Police found out was that the distance to the houses of the victims from this suspect’s residence was nearly one and half kilometers.

Later on, the Police initiated a fresh investigation. Police said that the culprit confessed to the crimes upon interrogation. Police said the culprit admitted that he went to the house of Heen Menika in Dimbulwela on December 21. He was known to Heen Menika and she gave him a cup of tea as well. She used to call him “Lamayo (child)”. Police said that he admitted he cut her head and killed her thereafter. He said that he washed away the blood stains also. The Police found a knife with which he is alleged to have committed the crime.

Police added that he also confessed about killing Mariamma. Although he feared he would be caught nothing had happened. Police said that he strangled Baby Nona with the rope he used to make a ring to climb coconut trees. He took away the rope with him without leaving it near the remains of Baby Nona as he knew people could identify it.

The suspect was born on December 20, 1982 and was unmarried. His mother had died when he was nine. Then his father had left them for good.

He was living at the residence of his maternal grandmother. His mother’s sister was living there with her children as well. Police said the suspect said that he also had worked in houses where young women were living but he never had any feeling towards them.

The investigation was conducted by a Police team led by Kahawatta Police OIC Chief Inspector R D Aluthgamage under the supervision of ASP Amarasinghe and SSP L G Kularatne under the instructions of Senior DIG S K Shankar.