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Seya’s tragedy: The search, the discovery and heartache
She enters the room supported by two women. A faint sob escapes her as she looks at the man seated at the edge of the bed, his head in his hands.
“Lamayage walata pas tikakwath danna yamuda? (Shall we go and put some soil on our child’s grave?),” she asks her husband. She is greeted with silence and a look of confusion.
| One suspect a school drop-out: PolicePolice yesterday said the two suspects who were arrested over suspicions of sexually molesting and killing four-year-old Seya were remanded by the Minuwangoda Magistrate till September 28. Police Spokesman SSP Priyantha Jayakody said the suspects were both from Akarangaha, Badalgama and one of them included a 17-year-old school drop-out. “There are some facts to be clarified. If their alibis are satisfactory they will be released,” he said. |
The two people in the room are the parents of four-year-old Seya. This interaction takes place on Tuesday (September 15) while their little daughter’s lifeless body is being buried at the Akarangaha cemetery in Badalgama.
A brutal end to a young life: Police take photographs of banners expressing grief over the death of Seya. Pic by M.D. Nissanka
The room they are in, painted green and bearing scribble marks of a child, is the very one that Seya slept in that fateful night when she was taken away and sexually abused before being strangled.
Two beds stand side by side in this 10 feet by 10 feet room. There are four windows of which one has no grill. We are told that the grill was removed a couple of months ago to enable Seya and her elder brother to get out of the room after they had inadvertently locked themselves in.
It was through this very same window that Seya is believed to have been abducted on the night she was killed.
“I came home at around 12.10 a.m., on Friday. I had extra hires and was late to return home that day,” Seya’s father, 38-year-old Upul Nishantha who transported garment factory girls who worked over time, said. He was paid Rs. 21.50 a km. His wife was a handloom instructor.
Life was difficult for them he said but they managed to take care of his parents and three children, Seya, an older boy who was studying in grade three and the youngest, a one-and- a half-year-old girl.
That night when Nishantha returned he noticed that Seya was not in bed and asked his wife where she was. “She told me that Seya must be with her grandmother,” he said, adding that this didn’t strike him as being unusual as she often went to the grandparents room at night.
| She was excited about her b’daySeya was looking forward to celebrate her fifth birthday on September 16. But three days earlier she was killed in a brutal manner. Her Montessori class teachers, Kamala Padmani and Manarangani Rathnaseeli recall the eagerness with which Seya awaited the big day. A week earlier the little girl had declared it was her birthday and demanded a celebration. Her mother bought her a packet of biscuits and her grandmother prepared a special lunch for her friends. “Seya loved to dress up. She would tie her two pig tails in coloured hair bands and ask the teachers whether she was pretty and would beam with joy when we agreed,” recalled Ms. Padmani sadly. “Seya was a little shy and she used to love to cuddle up to us,” Ms. Rathnaseeli said. Seya’s heartbroken mother, 37-year-old Samanthi Renuka sits in the corner of the room as her daughter is being taken away for burial. She said Seya’s ambition was to become a policewoman and fight crime. “This is my fault. For a brief moment, I lost track of my child and she is now gone forever,” she lamented. She said the horrible experience showed that anything could happen in the blink of an eye and people should always be vigilant. |
The following morning they found that Seya was missing. The anxious parents informed their neighbours and very soon the villagers of Akarangaha, Badalgama had only one question; where was little Seya?
Around 6.30 the following morning Saturday (September 12) 31-year-old Chamila Jeewani had just woken up when her neighbours came rushing in asking whether she had seen Seya. She said very often the neighbourhood children would come over and play in her garden.
But on that day Seya had not come that way. Chamila was one of the neighbours who joined the search party. However after a while when their attempts bore no results they called 119.
Inspector H. W. S. Udaya Kumara, Officer-in-Charge of Kotadeniyawa Police was on duty when the station was informed around 7.40 a.m. about the missing child. Initially he did not think it could be a serious case but however he and eight other officers had gone to the scene.
There were many questions. How was the child taken? How did the garment that Seya wore end up on the bed she was sleeping on? The police questioned the family members.
When they failed to find Seya OIC Kumara sought the help of Katana and Divulapitiya Police. A sniffer dog was also brought in.
“It was not an easy task. The rain and the fact that there were no eye witnesses made things even harder,” he said.
Around 20 policemen and 100 villagers in small groups searched for Seya till nightfall. The following morning OIC Kumara decided to search the nearby coconut plantation area. About six policemen and villagers set about this task.
Village women avoided this area as it was desolate. OIC Kumara said he thought it would be a good place to search as they had got several complaints of illicit liquor being brewed and coconuts being stolen.
To get to this plantation from Seya’s home one has to walk along a footpath, past a muddy paddy field and cross a canal. However the search party opted to take the other route of entering the plantation through the main gate.
A close neighbour and friend of Seya’s father, 41-year-old Gamini Rupasena Pathirana, a father to two schoolgoing boys had joined the morning search group. He said that when they got to the gate it was locked and he along with three policemen jumped over the gate and resumed their search.
At 8.30 a.m. they found Seya’s body by the canal, near a Bo-tree.
“I went to the canal area with a police officer and a few minutes later the policeman called out that he had found the child,” Mr. Pathirana said. “She didn’t look like she was dead, but looked as if she was sleeping”.
Inspector Kumara arrived at the scene and soon the investigations started with Negombo District Hospital’s JMO Dr. M. N. Ruhul Haq brought into the crime scene.
“This is an unusual offence. It is very rare to see a child being raped in this manner and killed,” Dr. Haq said.
Dr. Haq said the nature of this sexual crime was a combination of pedophilic (desire for sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children), sadism (where the psychological or physical suffering of a victim arouses sexual excitement) and possibly necrophilia (sexual activity with the dead).
The Judicial Postmortem Examination report released on Monday (September 14) said that Seya was strangled with a piece of cloth. There was also indication of ante mortem, vaginal penetration and anal penetration.
The report indicated she had been killed between 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. after she was abducted. Dr. Haq said the nature of the crime was disturbing and it showed that the perpetrator had signs of being a serial offender. “There are several reasons for a person to become sexually deviant. Mental illness from birth or drug addiction, especially to marijuana could cause this.
It is important that the perpetrator is found soon as he could turn into a serial offender,” Dr. Haq warned.
About 2000 people from across the country attended Seya’s funeral. The angry ‘mob’ was demanding the arrest of the killer.
“She was a normal child and she deserves a normal funeral. Look where her family is now. It is our own child’s funeral,” said her father Mr. Nishantha who was confined to his house while his child was taken to be buried.
The parents had been advised to remain at home due to security reasons and the family was being given police protection “ There are stories that I raped my own child,” Mr. Nishantha lamented. This story had spread mainly because there were allegations that he had allegedly abused a student while he was an English teacher. Mr. Nishantha was asked to leave the school. The court case is ongoing.
Even after the funeral the crowd had refused to disperse until someone was arrested that night. Police had to use force to disperse the crowd who jeered and hooted at the police demanding that they do their ‘job’. Two people who were detained on the day of the funeral were released following a severe warning.
On instructions of the Police Chief N. K. Illangakoon the CID has taken over the case. Semen extracted from the child’s body and hair have been sent for examinations.
“This is the saddest and the most exhausting case the Kotadeniyawa police has come across. It has shocked the entire country. We are working day and night with the CID to find the perpetrator,” OIC Kumara said.