Mystery shrouds Wevelwatte

Village folk living in Wevelwatte, about 22 kilometres from Ratnapura town were as horrified and baffled as the local policemen investigating the brutal killing of Sandhaya Malkanthie (19) an advance level student from Ferguson College Ratnapura.

Her body was found lying in a shrub by a woodcutter while combing the jungle for firewood last Sunday. The woodcutter alarmed by what he had witnessed had informed the people who happened to pass by, through the estate. However the news spread like wildfire in the neighbouring villages and the gruesome killing was on everybody's lips.

The killing of a young schoolgirl reverberated in the lonely village of Wevelwatte Hapugastanne bordering the holy mountain range of Sri Padda. Despite the bad weather people in the neighbouring villages flocked to Demodera to witness the carnage of the schoolgirl.

Who could have done such a dastardly thing to a young school girl on her way home they whispered to each other. The school text books, a few apples and wood apples she was carrying were seen strewn on the ground. She was probably carrying them home.

Policemen from Wevelwatte police station who visited the scene found several cut injuries on her body. Her throat was slashed with a sharp cutting instrument.

Other injuries were found on her head. A policeman who spoke on conditions of anonymity said the killer apparently had not raped the girl according to the autopsy examination conducted at the Ratnapura hospital.

"He wouldn't have had sufficient time to rape her but instead decided to kill her for some reason." he said. The killing had taken place around 1.45 pm. on December 15th in a lonely spot of the estate.

But so long as the killer remains at large the police has no clue whatever to establish the motive for the murder. Even the sharp cutting instrument used for inflicting grievous stab wounds on her head was not found.

Ostensibly the killer would have thrown it somewhere or perhaps may have hidden it somewhere. However it seemed to be a pre-mediated murder judging from the events. The killer obviously knew that Sandhaya Malkanthie returned to her native village at Rathgaha Demodera every Saturday after attending tuition classes at Ratnapura.

The killer may have followed her or would have been waiting in ambush for her in the estate. It was also possible that he may have accompanied the innocent girl. On that fateful day Sandhaya had boarded a bus at Ratnapura that was bound for Demodera. She apparently had got off the bus at Demodera junction and had walked through the foot path of the estate.

Her parents had told the police that Sandhaya usually informs them before coming home. But strangely she had failed to inform them last Saturday. It was also possible that she accompanied someone through the jungle strip on that fateful day. But according Wevelwatte police they have no knowledge about Sandhaya Malkanthie courting anybody as such.

However Policemen from the Finger Prints section who visited the scene of murder are carefully analyzing data collected at the scene. Even the trained dogs from the Police Kennel brought there could not pick up the scent owing to the incessant rain. The scent left by the killer probably may have been washed away.

Sandhaya Malkanthi was the second daughter of K. Sirisena and Vimala Malini who were farmers by profession. They had two daughters and three sons. They toiled hard to earn a living.

What they earned was spent on Sandhaya and the rest of the children on educating them. Sandhaya after completing her GCE O level at her village school at Rathgaha had entered Ferguson School Ratnapura to continue higher studies.

As she found it difficult to travel to Ratnapura daily her parents found her a boarding place, at Rathgama from where she attended school. She was boarded at a relatives home. A senior police officer told the Sunday Observer that three special police teams have been detailed to apprehend the killer.

According to reports filed by the Sunday Observer from beginning of this year to mid December several elderly women have been murdered in their homes. The murders committed at Nugegoda, Seeduwa, Moratuwa. Kandy and the young woman who was recently pushed out of the third floor of the Negombo hospital have horrified the society at large.

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