Shocking killing shatters peaceful environs of Nawala:

A crime most heinous

by Manjula FERNANDO

On Tuesday February 23, 2010, Victoria Kim (39) must have been doing what most mothers with a six-year- old would be doing early morning, preparing her son to be sent to school; cooking and rushing about so as to get everything ready on time. It was around 6.30 a.m. and she and the middle-aged maid Daisy were in the kitchen.

They did not have the slightest clue, that there were two silent intruders in their backyard, quietly walking towards the house. The two lone figures had climbed over the parapet wall and entered her two - storeyed house at No.54/9, Galpotta Road, Nawala where Victoria, an Uzbekistani Buddhist, lived with her son.

Victoria with her son

The intruders arrived at the Nawala house in a three wheeler. On the way they stopped at a Service Station to fill two cans with petrol enough to set a house ablaze. They quietly made their way into the house from the back door.

The duo had murder on their mind. They attacked the women inside the kitchen with a sharp weapon which the police have not been able to locate yet. The maid was killed on the spot. She lay in a pool of blood. Victoria sustained fatal stab wounds and collapsed.

The attackers then proceeded to find her son. The little boy who heard the screams of his mother ran upstairs and hid himself inside the bathroom. So young to be exposed to such grief, he must have been terrified to witness what was unfolding before his bare eyes.

Made insane with vengeance the two ruthless killers were determined to finish it off. The thought may not have crossed their mind that this little boy cannot be held responsible for any crime the elders were party to - he was just six years old.

They obviously were possessed by the devil or no human with an ordinary heart that pumps warm blood could have even imagined committing such a horrible crime.

The child was stabbed inside the bathroom where he was found and dragged down the stairs, leaving a trail of blood on the way. They were heartless.

With the two petrol cans, the intention of the killers may have been to burn the three bodies inside the house to delay the investigations so that their plan to escape to another country would not have been interrupted.

The police suspect they may have planned to pile up the bodies in the kitchen and set them on fire. The child was dragged down for this reason.

But the body was abandoned halfway. The police found it in the stairway later. Apparently their plan had been interrupted.

Victoria who regained consciousness during the time they were busy upstairs, had run out of the house and screamed for help. Neighbours alerted by her hysterical cries called police emergency which then alerted the Welikada Police. The police arrived at the scene shortly after. But by the time the intruders had already fled.

The attackers got alarmed when they saw Victoria whom they left lying on the kitchen floor, presumably dead, vanished.

An eyewitness later informed the police that he saw a fair man dash out of the house around 6.30 am and left in a three wheeler, going by the eyewitness account the police immediately alerted the Airport authorities.

The house at Nawala where Victoria Kim lived. - Pix: Saman Sri Wedage

Their hunch is that if the killers were foreigners there is a strong possibility that they may try to leave the country.

True to their suspicion a Ukrainian couple whom the police believe to be the killers of Victoria's son and her maid were apprehended around 11 a.m. at the BIA. Victoria was admitted to Kalubowila Hospital in a critical condition.

The Welikada police crime officers obtained a detention order from the Court and grilled the couple. On questioning the police found that the couple had planned to escape to the Maldives the same day.

They had purchased two tickets at the airport counter and were awaiting their flight which was to take off the same evening, at the time of their arrest.

The police said a business deal gone wrong could have made the couple to make an attempt on Victoria which ultimately resulted in the killing of her son, born to a Sri Lankan, and the maid.

The woman had settled down in Sri Lanka eight years ago and she is suspected to have been involved in a successful call girl service with the Ukrainian couple. The couple was detained and questioned by the Police for two days and was remanded on Thursday.

Victoria was receiving treatment at the Kalubowila hospital at the time this edition went to press. The police said her condition was stable.

Police Spokesman SP Preshantha Jayakody and Welikada police furnished the details.