(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) – Police are continuing search operations to recover the head of the decapitated female body found in a traveling bag left at a busy street in Colombo on Monday (Mar 01), Police Spokesman DIG Ajith Rohana said.
The man, who had left the traveling bag containing the body of the headless woman near a shop at the Gas Junctions on Dam Street, was found hanging in a rubber estate in the Badalkumbura area in Moneragala yesterday.
The suspect, identified as M.A. Premasiri (52), a father of three was a police sub inspector (SI) attached to the Buttala Police Station.
Police Media Spokesman DIG Ajith Rohana stated that the body of the suspect was found hanging from a rubber tree in an estate near his house at Pahe Kanuwa, Badalkumbura and a bottle of poison was found at the place where the body was found. Police believe that he had hanged himself after consuming poison.
Investigators found a four-page letter he had written to his wife in his home before committing suicide. In the letter he has described that he had an affair with the 30-year-old woman and ongoing arguments with the victim has led to her murder.
The suspect had taken six-days leave and left the police station on February 27 and had arrived at a lodge in the Hanwella area at around 10 that night with the victim.
Investigators have found that he had come out of the lodge with the girl three times while he was at the lodge and on the 1st March he had come out of the lodge alone with a large traveling bag. The suspect has taken a three wheeler to the Hanwella bus stand and boarded a bus to Colombo carrying the bag with the body. He was seen on CCTV cameras alighting the bus at Dam Street and walking around the vehicles and leaving the bag near a shop.
It is believed that the girl was killed a few hours before the head was severed as there was no excessive bleeding from the body after the murder. The investigators believe he had not planned to kill the girl and had been taken to the Dam Street in a suitcase without knowing how to dispose the body.
Investigators have also found CCTV footage of the suspect purchasing a knife and a bag from a shop in the Hanwella area. They have found that after the murder, the hotel room was thoroughly cleaned.
According to the Police Media Spokesman’s Office, several investigation teams have already obtained statements from the lodge owner and staff as well as the shop owner from where the knife and the bag were obtained.
After leaving the body, the suspect has returned to his home in Badalkumbura on the 2nd march and when the police were approaching he had escaped from the back door.
His body was found nagging on a tree by two rubber estate workers yesterday.
The victim, 30-year-old Dilini Yehansa, had been living with her mother and brother in Theppagama, Kuruwita. Her brother was a member of the Kuruwita Pradeshiya Sabha.
The victim’s brother Prabhath Jayasuriya stated that his sister had left the house on the 27th saying that she was going on a pilgrimage to Sri Pada. His sister had last called him at around 10 that night and told him that she was in the Erathna area and that the phone had been switched off after that.
The brother arrived in Colombo yesterday (03) and identified his sister’s body.
An autopsy is to be conducted on the body and further investigations are being carried out by several police teams.
