The bodies of the young mother who went missing three days ago with her only 11-month-old daughter were found, brutally murdered and left in a forest area in Rathmaldeniya, Anguruwathota yesterday (21) morning.
M.Vasana Kumari (24), a resident of Anguruwathota Uruthudawa area, and her daughter Tashmi Dilanya (11 months) were the deceased. Police found the towel used by the murdered woman who went missing, near her body. According to the police, the ex-army soldier, the brother-in-law who was taken into police custody on suspicion of this incident and released, has fled the area.
The young mother and her daughter.
A police officer said that the husband of the missing woman had come to the Anguruwathota police station on July 18 and lodged a complaint saying that his wife and their 11-month-old daughter had gone missing from home since that evening and that there was suspicion regarding his brother-in-law who is said to have visited them in the evening while he was not there.
The complainant’s husband had stated that his brother-in-law had called him on the phone and asked, “I have accepted a job, what time will you come home? and after he said that it would be late at night, he had hung up the phone.
The husband had also told the police during questioning that the wife had told him on two occasions a few days ago that the brother-in-law was in the habit of visiting her when he was not at home and that his presence had become a nuisance. During initial investigations conducted by the police who had come to the house regarding the complaint, they had seen some blood stains on the refrigerator door in the kitchen of the house and some faint blood stains on the floor nearby, which had led them to suspect that some crime had been committed.
The towel used by the murdered woman to be given, to help the official police dog Bruno trace the missing persons and brought to uncover any important information, was also missing fromthe house, though a thorough search was carried out.
The police said that after giving Bruno the dog to sniff at a pair of shoes and a comb used by the deceased woman, the dog had come out of the house and then come to a stop near the three-
wheeler which was parked near the house of the murdered woman that belonged to the former soldier (brother-in-law) who is a suspect and had fled the area.
Five police teams and police Special Task Force officers were deployed to find the missing mother and the baby, and as a result the bodies of the mother and the baby were found in the area.
The bodies of the mother and baby were found lying on their backs, in a forest in Anguruwathota Rathmaldeniya area and the mother’s stomach and private parts had already been eaten by Water Monitors (kabaragoyas) and the baby’s body was found about fifteen meters away.
Police suspect that the corpse of the infant would have been near the mother’s body and had been dragged by monitors who had eaten part of her head.
The police also suspect that the ex-army soldier, who is under suspicion for the murder of the young mother and the baby, may have wrapped her in a used towel and taken her to the forest with the baby in his three-wheeler after she became unconscious or died in an incident that occurred due to her protesting against an attempt to sexually assault her.
The police discovered that on the day of the incident, the suspect was seen carrying something white in the back of his three-wheeler on CCTV camera footage.
A team of officials including Dr.Paneetha Seneviratne, Consultant Judicial Medical Officer of the Panadura Base Hospital conducted investigations.
Panadura SSP Samantha Wedage said several special police teams have been dispatched to a number of areas to arrest the ex-soldier who has fled the area.
Bimal Jayasinghe and Sumith Premathilake