Murders of women that baffle the police

Harshani Nilukshika Jayaweera (27) was an unmarried woman from a wealthy family. Her family lived in a mansion at Bandaragama -Raigama in the Millgaswewa junction. Her father was a businessman who owned a bakery and a hotel at Horana. She had a brother who helped her father to run the bakery at Horana. But she was destined to die young as fate had decreed, at the hands of a brutal assassin who inflicted grievous injuries on her on March 26. There were several wounds on her neck inflicted with a sharp cutting instrument.

All this happened while she was alone at home on that fateful day. At that time her family members were away. Her blood-soaked body was found lying in the garage behind her home. Police said it was not clear as to how her body came to be found in the garage. Ostensibly she may have come down to the garage to discuss something with the assassin or it maybe that she was set upon by the assassin who stalked her after her family members left the house. When Bandaragama police began investigating the circumstances in which she mysteriously died, someone in the neighbourhood told them that two people were seen lurking outside her house that morning. The crime was probably committed between 11 am and 1.00 pm and the Killer vanished leaving behind some prints at the scene of the crime, police said.

On the day of the incident, her father had left for the bakery at Horana early in the morning. Her mother too had left home that morning to visit a temple in the area. The killing took place after her brother had also left home that day around noon. Meanwhile, her father returned from Horana around 1.30. pm. and found his daughter lying in a pool of blood in the garage. He rushed her to the Horana hospital but found her dead on admission. A police party led by OIC Bandaragama Police Station Chief Inspector Charles Wickremasinghe and OIC Crime Inspector Udaya Kumara visited the scene of the crime after hearing about the brutal killing.

According to the police the motive for the killing was not clear at the time of filing this story. However, suspicion fell on a young man employed by her father. Her father fired the man from his work place recently. Later when policemen went to question him regarding the murder he was found missing from his home. Nobody at home knew his whereabouts as he had not informed them. Later the autopsy was conducted at the Horana hospital by the Judicial Medical Officer Horana. The victim had been stabbed in the neck several times with a sharp cutting instrument and the woman died as a result of haemorrhage, the JMO’s report said. In the meantime police found a crow bar with blood stains used in the killing. The killer had kept the crow bar against a wall in the garage.

‘Policemen received a tip off that led to the arrest of the man who was employed by the victims father. The man was picked up from a location in Moratuwa. The man vehemently denied any knowledge of the foul murder. He denied attacking the victim with a crow bar. He told police that he left the bakery on his own accord. Police said the motive for slaying is not clear. “It could be an act of revenge or due to some other reason which we are investigating. We are looking at it from all angles before drawing a conclusion.” police said. Meanwhile, CID sleuths have been assigned with the task of investigating the heinous crime.

Police records show that several women have been murdered during the past few months. Most of the victims have been gagged while they were in their homes.

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Two months ago an elderly woman was gagged while she was preparing bed tea for her husband early in the morning at her home in Borella. The assassins then fled on hearing the door bell ring without leaving behind any clues. The men entered the home by removing a concrete slab from the roof. But police arrested the suspect after enduring detective work.

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In another incident, three weeks ago a popular film actress and a film producer Vinu Wettamuni was murdered while she was asleep in her home at Ratmalana. The assassin who spent a night at her home on that fateful day trespassed into her room and strangled her by tying a shoe lace round her neck. The killer is still at large and police have not been able to trace him so far.

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A bizarre murder was reported from Mawathagama where a 67-year-old unmarried woman had been strangled to death in her home at Mawathagama last Monday. Police visited her home and found her body lying on the floor of the room. Her hands and legs were tied and pieces of cloth in her mouth. Police found the front door locked but the rear door opened from where the killers had escaped, police said. The woman had shared her home with eight couples who rented out rooms in her home. The couples were employees of garment factories in the Mawathagama area. She was engaged in pawn brokering business and lending money on interest.

On the day of the incident, the woman had visited a Co-Operative Bank in the Mawathagama town and had withdrawn Rs 28,000 from her account. Thereafter, she had purchased groceries which she carried home in a bag. After reaching home she kept the bag containing groceries on the doorstep but had gone missing thereafter. A boarder who returned home that evening found the house locked and the landlady missing. But when he peeped through a fan light he found her lying on the ground with her hands and legs tied.

Police said the victim’s room had been ransacked with all valuables stolen along with the cash register where she kept the names of people whom she lent money.

Further investigations are being made by Officers in Charge (OIC) of the Mawathagama Police station Inspector N.P.S. Jayalath and OIC Crime D.M. Dissanayake.