Mystery murder uncovered after 22 years

It was one of the oldest unsolved murder cases in the country which was hitherto buried under a layer of silence for more than twenty-two years until policemen from the Galagedera police Intelligence Unit worked tirelessly for six months to crack open the case. The policemen worked under cover as labourers in the village to unravel the mysterious disappearance of a man from the Pallekotuwa in the Galagedera area twenty two years ago.

The villagers of Pallekotuwa were agitated when they heard of the disappearance of a man named U.A. Karunaratne, an inhabitant of the village. They launched a search for him, but it was a futile exercise. The disappeared man was a driver employed in a bakery at Kurunegala. He lived at Kurunegala due to his busy work schedule and returned home every fortnight or so to be with his wife and children.

Arguments

The couple led a quiet life though there were occasional arguments on trivial matters. But there was no reason for the husband to suspect that his wife had an affair with another man in the village.

Although villagers gossip a lot about others in the village nobody told him that his wife was having an extra marital affair with an unemployed man in the village.

While the affair was going on, Karunaratne, disappeared from his village and nobody were the wiser. Karunaratne’s wife lodged a complaint at the Hataraliyadda police station that her beloved husband was missing and there wasn’t a trace of him. The Hataraliyadda police however was wary of the wife’s complaint and did not take the matter seriously.

They thought it was purely a domestic matter. However, it was during this period that the LTTE terrorist war was in full swing and policemen did not have time to investigate mundane matters with much enthusiasm. They left it at that and soon it became a forgotten matter.

Twenty-two years later Police Constable Gunewardena attached to the Intelligence Unit of the Galagedera police station received a tip off that a man who had been chopped to death with an axe had been buried in a secret location in a large abandoned estate in the Pallekotuwa area.

When the information was conveyed to the OIC Galagedera Inspector M.D. Chandrapala, he launched an investigation and found that a man named U.A. Karunaratne, a resident of Pallekotuwa had disappeared in a mysterious manner twenty-two years ago. Inspector Chandrapala studied the complaint made by Karunaratne’s wife at the Hataraliyadda police station twenty-two years ago and re-opened the case as several persons came forward to testify against Karunaratne’s wife.

Affair

Inspector Chandrapala and his team of police officers learnt of the extra marital affair that Karunaratne’s wife has had with an unemployed man in the area. She was a forty-two year old housewife with four children, two sons and two daughters while her paramour was only twenty-two years old. The unemployed man eked out a living by doing odd jobs in the Galagedera area.

When the police team went to Pallekotuwa to question Karunaratne’s wife, they learnt that she had sold her house and property and moved elsewhere.

Police subsequently learnt that she had moved into Pundalu-Oya to live with her son who was a bus conductor. Her daughter was given in marriage to a person who lives in the Western Province. Her other son had joined the Army and was living in the Gampola area.

Having gathered vital information regarding Karunaratne’s family and their whereabouts, Inspector Chandrapala despatched a team of policemen to Pundalu-Oya to meet Karunaratne’s wife and question whether she had any knowledge of her missing husband.

Police finally located her at Pundalu-Oya.

When they tapped at the door, Karunaratne’s wife was bemused. She could not believe for a moment that policemen would come to question her regarding her husband’s disappearance after a lapse of twenty two years. It also sent a shiver down her spine. She fumbled while being questioned which made the police suspicious.

Tracks

She also gave contradictory answer trying to cover her tracks. By then the police were suspicious that she was trying to conceal evidence.

At this juncture police arrested her and took her to the Galagedera Police station for further questioning. She told police about her illicit affair with a young man.

Their casual affair gradually blossomed into a full blown love affair due to infatuation and she simply did not let him off the hook. While they were carrying on with each other, someone in village whispered to her husband about the nefarious affair.

The husband too began to suspect the young man as he was a frequent visitor who had no business at his home. Frequent quarrels thereafter began to erupt between the husband and wife as a result.

It came to a stage where the wife could not bear the belligerent attitude of her husband any more.

She then hatched a plot with her paramour to kill her husband when he behaved in a violent manner at home.

The husband as usual arrived home from Kurunegala to spend the weekend with his family.

But he became furious when he spotted the young man at home talking to his wife in an intimate manner. Soon a heated argument broke out between the husband and wife and the paramour too intervened in the matter.

There was another visitor present at home while the argument broke out.

At this stage the woman’s paramour rushed in with an axe and chopped the husband with all his might.

He dealt several blows on his head until he bled profusely and died at his home. Later, with the help of the visitor they wrapped the body on cloth and buried it secretly in a ten foot deep trench in an abandoned estate close by.

A few months later the paramour dug up the body again and burnt it so that it was beyond recognition.

Thereafter he buried parts of the body in another ten foot trench.

Following a court order the Galagedera police began exhuming parts of the body from two 10 foot trenches last month. Parts of the skeleton along with teeth were found scattered all over the grave.

The bones have been sent to the Forensic Division of the Peradeniya Medical Faculty for a report.

Galagedera police said following the killing of her husband she sold all her property and moved elsewhere.

Acid

The woman later attempted to throw acid on her paramour when she learnt that he had married another woman.

Further investigations are being conducted by OIC Galagedera Inspector M.D. Chandrapla and Sub-Inspectors G. Sarath Gunadasa, Athula Hapugaskubura and W.G. Dissanayake. Others in the police team include Police Sergeant Wijekoon, Pussella, Karunaratne, Wijeratne , Wijesiri and Police Constable Gunewardena and Duminda.