Murder in the mansion

Two homicides and a suicide in a Walauwa in Kandy:

The grand old lady lived a secluded life in her mansion (Walauwa) at Mapanawathura, junction, at Ramanayake Mawatha about three kilo meters away from the Kandy town. She was a nonagenarian. After the passing away of her husband a few years ago she lead a life of seclusion in her mansion surrounded by her faithful servants.

Seetha Irin Rostan Gladys Ramanayake, was a wealthy widow and a landed proprietor. Her prosperous relatives lived abroad in countries like the USA and U.K. while others lived in the Western province of Sri Lanka.

She was a childless woman and nobody was there to take care of her. Due to advancing years, her health was deteriorating rapidly. But with all odds going against her, she preferred to live a lonely life at her Walauwa with her servants of whom she had implicit trust. Mrs. Ramanayake was an immensely rich lady who spent lavishly to upkeep herself and her servants. Her monthly household expenses exceeded over Rs. 100,000, sources said.

Others who shared her spacious Walauwa were her domestic servant Nelupa Sandamalee, a 25 year old married woman. She shared a room in the Walauwa with her husband Jayalath Nandasena and with their one year old infant son. The other man who lived in the Walauwa was a labourer, Wijepala who attended to various household chores.

Wijepala (34) was an uneducated man from the Kurunegala district. He had worked for the old lady for nearly 15 years and was a trusted man.

Sandamalee, her husband Jayalath Nandasena and caretaker Wijepala lived harmoniously with the old lady.

They never quarrelled about anything as there were not shortcoming in the household. The old lady provided them with everything they needed. But as the years rolled by things took a different turn. Frequent quarrels erupted between Sandamalee and Wijepala over trivial issues at home.

It all began when Wijepala made amorous overtures to Sandamalee during the absence of her husband. This offended Sandamalee. She resented his advances which embarrassed Wijepala. This was the root cause of the problem at home.

The old lady too was disturbed and was in a rage when she learnt about the sordid behaviour of Wijepala. Countless admonitions by her, upset Wijepala. Wijepala too was scared that Sandamalee had poisoned the old lady's mind to gain special favours.

This eventually led from one problem to the other. Wijepala was now apprehensive that the old lady was going to fire him sooner or later. Well if such a thing happened, he would stand to loose the benefits promised by the old lady, he pondered.

On September 29 Wijepala had a sleepless night. That night his mind was like that of a devil's workshop. Several evil thoughts crossed his mind. On the following morning Wijepala planned to kill the old lady and Sandamalee while her husband Jayalath Nandasena was away from home. Nandasena was a native of Wadukada Kurunegala.

Wijepala left home around 9 a.m. to the Kandy town. He then walked straight into a hardware shop and purchased a sharp pruning knife for a sum of Rs. 375. He returned home with the knife wrapped in a piece of paper. He then knew that Nandasena was not at home.

So he went straight in to his room and waited for a while planning his next move. He saw the old lady stretched out on an easy chair in the drawing room. After unpacking the knife he darted across the drawing room and went straight at the old lady.

Using brutal force he chopped and slit the old lady's neck with the knife. Then allowing her to bleed profusely he crept into the room where Sandamalee was. He saw Sandamalee tending to her little infant. Without showing any remorse he grabbed her hair while she screamed at the top of her voice.

Wijepala then tortured her and chopped her neck quickly fearing that some neighbour would come to his rescue. On hearing Sandamalee's loud screams, a woman from the neighbourhood rushed to the Walauwa to see what was happening.

She witnessed Wijepala attacking Sandamalee with a knife. But the courageous woman had howled and screamed at the assassin and carried away the infant lying on the ground. The assassin had then run into the garage and hung himself with a rope ending his life.

Later when an anonymous caller had rung the Kandy Police a police party rushed in and found the three bodies. According to OIC Crimes Kandy Police Station, Inspector Kaluarachchi two homicide cases and one suicide case was reported last Sunday from the Walauwa.

The Magisterial inquiry and the postmortem examinations have been conducted last week. Inspector Nandasena and WSI Kanthi who investigated the double murder and the suicide case found the assassin's knife in a shrub close by.

But what the police couldn't believe was when they found the purchase receipt of the knife still wrapped around its handle. "The old lady wouldn't have dreamt that she was going to be killed in this fashion," police said.

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