Death in Dompe

Wanted; three assassins from Kapugoda :

The brutal murder of an elderly woman (69) and her mentally deranged son (37) at Kapugoda village in the Dompe police area last week was a shock to most natives in the village.

The nerve-wracking murder was reported from Kapugoda where a mother and a son was strangled to death by unidentified assassins. It was the second most harrowing murder reported from the Gampaha police division after the murder of Nishanti Buddika (26) an attractive unmarried woman who was raped and strangled by two men almost four months ago.

The victims last week were identified as Somawathie Ramanayake (69) and her son Pradeep Ramanayake (30) whose bodies were found lying on the floor of their rooms when the Dompe police visited the house. A neighbour had informed the Dompe police about the murder.

It was revealed at the inquiry that her younger son and her daughter- in- law occupied the upstairs portion of the house while the mother lived in her room downstairs. Her mentally deranged son too lived in a room on the ground floor.

According to neighbours the mother had lived with her two sons and her daughter-in-law quite peacefully in their home at Kapugoda much to the envy of the villagers. The family was fairly well off and the robbers may have got the impression that they had stashed cash and jewellery in the house.

According to Police three unidentified robbers had entered the house in the morning hours around 8.30 to 9 a.m. and committed the double murder in order to remove valuables from the house.

The three men had been desperate to find cash and jewellery and they had marked the Ramanayake's house. It was a well planned affair and police believe that more people could come forward to identify the robbers.

The robbers had previously met at a secret location and hatched a plan to rob the residence of Somawathie Ratnayake. They worked out the modalities of the robbery and decided to kill both the mother and son to eliminate evidence. They planned to carry out their mission by strangling them with a rope. The execution was planned on Monday (26) after the younger son and his wife left home for work. The younger son was an engineer by profession.

Meanwhile, the three men took position outside the house and waited impatiently till the son left home. Around 8.a.m or so the robbers noticed the son and his wife leaving home for work. No sooner the couple left, the three robbers stealthily entered the home and went straight into the bedroom where the mentally deranged son was.

They found him stretched out on the bed. A robber then seized him by lifting him from the bed while another man hurriedly tied a rope around his neck. There was little resistance from the son due to his mental condition. Physically too he was weak and was not able to wrestle with the robbers.

They tightened the noose around his neck and strangled him, to death. They left his body on the ground and then barged into his mother's room. The old lady too was sleeping when the robbers seized her and tied the rope around her neck. There was no resistance whatsoever from her due to her old age.

Although she screamed and howled it wasn't of any avail. There wern't any body in the house to come to her rescue. The robbers were a ruthless bloodthirsty bunch of men who showed no remorse even for an old woman. All what they wanted was to loot, the treasures from the house and make a quick exit.

They ransacked the entire house and even pulled out clothing from several cupboards in search of cash and gold jewellery. But to their utter dismay they only found a gold chain valued around Rs. 40,000. This was all they could lay their hands on.

According to OIC Crimes Dompe Police, Sub- Inspector, Ranjith the robbers could not find other hidden gold jewellery as they were in a hurry. When the Police fingerprint experts visited the home looking for clues, they found 7-8 finger prints in the house. The trained sniffer dogs from the police kennels too were brought in to the scene.

But the most important clue the police got was from the public. Several persons in the vicinity had seen three persons hurriedly leaving the Ramanayake residence around 9.30.a.m. However due to the sensitive nature of the case, police were not in a position to disclose details regarding the identity of the robbers.

OIC Dompe Police, Inspector Dharmapriya Nishantha who spoke to the Sunday Observer said that they are working on several clues to apprehend the robbers.

Meanwhile it was revealed at the post-mortem examination that the deaths of the mother and the son were caused by strangulation although no rope was found at the scene of crime.

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