Woman in fashionable attire raises suspicion

It was on April 24 morning that Wellampitiya police station received a phone call from a woman that her aunt had not answered the telephone that morning and when she later visited her home at Wellampitiya she found the house locked up.

She complained that something might have happened to her aunt and wanted the police to visit the house as she suspected foul play.

When Wellampitiya police visited her home they found the body of Mrs. Wickremasinghe lying on her bed in a pool of blood. She had been brutally murdered.

The assassin had used a sledge hammer to bludgeon her head while she was fast asleep at her home on the previous night. Police identified the deceased woman as Mrs. Lillie Wickremasinghe, an 84-year-old retired school teacher who lived alone in her home along with her domestic aid.

On the instructions of DIG, Western Province (South) I.M. Karunaratne, the case was transferred over to the Special Crime Investigation Unit of Mirihana police for further investigation and to apprehend the suspect. Chief Inspector Janaka Perera of the Special Crime Investigating Unit and his team visited the residence and made inquiries from people in the neighbourhood. Soon they learnt that domestic aid whom Mrs. Wickremasinghe had employed had bolted following the death of her landlady.

The police became suspicious of the domestic aid when they found the land lady's almirah ransacked.

The assassin had removed gold jewellery and other precious gems belonging to the deceased.At this stage a thought crossed the mind of Chief Inspector Janaka Perera. Who could have stolen the gold jewellery worth several lakhs of rupees other than the domestic aid? Although it was common sense was there anybody else involved in the killing of the old woman, he pondered. He thought to himself that the domestic aid had a lot to explain on events that unfolded that night. She also had to explain why she left in a hurry without any rhyme or reason. Police said the dead teacher and the domestic aid were the sole occupants of the home at the time of the incident. She had been in employment for about one year.

She was a married woman and a native of Imbulgoda, Gampaha. She has three daughters and a son. Due to estrangement with her husband she lived separately and eked out a living by doing odd jobs and working as domestic aid in many households.

Her husband died a few years back. Thereafter she had an illicit affair with a three-wheel taxi driver from Matale.

The deceased teacher paid her Rs. 10,000 a month.

The Special Investigation Unit started looking for the woman who had fled from the home. Mrs. Wickramasinghe had served at a well-known school in Colombo and was an English teacher.After retirement she had employed many domestic aids afterthe demise of her husband and her only child.

Mirihana Police station sent messages to other police stations giving a detailed description of the woman.

They were looking for a domestic aid around 54-years-old who was in possession of stolen gold jewellery and gems worth several lakhs of rupees, the message said.

A few days later, Inspector Sunil Ekanayake from the Unsolved C-3 Unit of the Matale Police Division was returning to his office in his jeep along with Sergeant Dissanayake and Bandara when they spotted a woman clad in a fashionable lungi dress carrying a hand bag and hanging around in the Matale town.

The Inspector noticed that something was odd for a woman of a provincial town to be hanging around clumsily in the town. However, when he went nearer to get a closer lookthe excited woman tried to run away. Inspector Ekanayake then checkedher hand bag.

When he opened the hand bag he found to his amazement gold jewellery and precious gems worth several lakhs of rupees and cash Rs. 44,000,and two Bank Pass books. The haul included a gold chain with a pendent, a gold chain embedded with gems, two gold rings, two gems, four ladies watches, two mobile phones, a small tray and many other items. When questioned she said that her landlady had gifted the items through generosity.

The Special Crime Unit of Mirihana police grilled the suspect and she finally admitted to the ghastly slaying of the old woman by beating her head with a hammer.

She told police that her paramour, the three-wheeler driver picked her up around 2.20 am from the Wellampitiya residence .

Following the revelation a team from the Special Crime Investigation Unit proceeded to Matale and arrested the three-wheeler driver and recovered the hammer hidden at a house in Matale. The domestic aid and her paramour were produced in Courts at Hulftsdorp and were remanded until investigations are completed. Further investigations are being made conducted by the supervision of ASP Crime Nugegoda, Nishantha Soyza.