News
Police baffled by bodies in murder mysteries
The discovery of bodies in public locations in the city and outstations is worrying police, with mystery surrounding many of the murders.
The corpses have been found in lakes, on roadsides, abandoned landsites and beaches over the past few months.
Last Monday, the police emergency and the Slave Island Police received telephone calls claiming that a body was floating in the Beira Lake in Colombo.
‘When the police visited the area they noticed the body close to the Colombo Rowing Club. The body had no external injuries and was removed to the morgue for further
investigations,” said Inspector Nalaka Gunasekara, OIC of the Crimes Division of the Slave Island Police.
After news of the body emerged, three-wheeler drivers operating in the Fort area told police that the dead man had been employed in the Third Cross Street in Pettah.
Police following up the information found this man had been employed as an electrician in a building complex under construction. He had gone missing few days before his body was found.
A judicial medical investigation found that the victim had head injuries and the death had not been caused by drowning.
Police are analysing CCTV footage to find clues to the crime.
On the same day, the 119 police emergency service received a call saying a body had been dumped in a canal close to the Open University.
Police who visited the scene found that the body had been there for nearly five days and the face was disfigured. The crime drew public attention as the location was highly residential.
The victim is yet to be identified but Sub-Inspector G.S. Priyantha of the Welikada Police Crimes Division said early investigations had revealed useful information.
A breakthrough came in another murder case in the area where police found a man had killed his drinking pal in order to rob him.
A three-wheeler driver has been arrested for the killing after the body of his friend found in a canal in Madinnagoda, Rajagiriya.
“Investigations revealed that the three-wheeler driver had overheard of a conversation that the victim was in possession of Rs 35,000. He had taken him to a playground on the pretext of giving him to drink and clubbed him to death,” SI Priyantha said.
On Thursday, the body of a young girl was found in a teak plantation in Mahiyangana. She had been raped and killed, and was identified as an 18-year-old garment factory worker.
A 20-year-old man who had been having an affair with the girl had gone missing soon after the incident but a search resulted in him being found hiding with another girl in nearby jungle.
Both he and this girl attempted to commit suicide during the arrest operation but both and were taken into custody.
Meanwhile, mystery surrounds bodies dumped off Kalpitiya in separate incidents, the latest of them found two weeks ago.
A foreigner was found dead, washed up on Kalpitiya beach on November 18. The body is in Kuliyapitiya hospital while police investigations continue.
On October 27, a body of a well-built man believed to be around 35 years, was found on the shore of the lagoon in Kalpitiya. Police have been unable to identify the man.
A few weeks earlier, a fertiliser bag containing the body of a woman was found floating in the lagoon. Her body had been cut in half. In September, parts of a body of a man were washed ashore near a hotel by the lagoon.
In 2013, a foreigner aged about 28-30 with tattoo marks all over his body was found in an abandoned well along the main road in Palaviya, Kalpitiya.
The body was covered with a curtain cloth and had cut wounds all over. A bloodstained pillow lay next to the body. The body lay in the Puttalam mortuary for nearly 40 days without being claimed by anyone. Forensic investigation found that the man had been murdered.
Two years on, nothing has emerged that would lead to an arrest. The Kalpitiya Police OIC, Inspector M. Udumalagala, said outsiders often visit the peninsula.
Additional reporting: Padma Kumari Kankanamage in Kalpitiya