Cops dig up body five years later to trace missing man

Mortal remains of the deceased are being examined by KEM hospital's forensic team

The Ahmednagar police almost landed straight into a modern crime investigation series last month as they dug out a five-year-old corpse of an unknown person from his grave. Having run pillar to post for five years, a family in search of their missing kin reached the Loni police station when officers joined the jots to find similarities between the missing person and the buried deceased. The mortal remains have now been sent to the civic-run KEM hospital in Mumbai for DNA analysis to confirm the identity of the person.

According to the Loni police, in 2015, an unknown decomposed body was found in a local water body which was buried later since no one had claimed it. The dentures of the deceased person were however retained for investigation purposes. When the family arrived at the Loni police station, the investigating officer opened up the old file since "there were many similarities of age, height and clothes." The deceased person's age was around 57 years and height of 5.7 feet. "We assumed that it might be the person the family is looking for," said police inspector Pravin Patil.

Forensic reports awaited
According to the statement given to police by the family, the missing person is mentally-challenged and would often flee home and return in a few days. In March 2015, when he went missing, the family thought he would return soon. When he didn't turn up for 20 days, the hunt for him began. "In the initial forensic examination, it was found that the deceased was hit in the head. We had also kept his dentures for future reference but not much was revealed in the forensic examination. We thus had to dig the skeleton out from his grave. KEM hospital has one of the best forensic teams in the state and we thus decided to send the samples there," Patil added. A senior forensic expert from the hospital said that blood samples from family members will be taken to get more clarity in the case. Since the fleshy tissues of the human body have dissolved completely leaving only its bone structure, given the number of years that have passed since it was buried, the expert said.

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