Mumbai Crime: Mystery woman's murder investigation goes south

Ever since a woman's corpse washed ashore at Cuffe Parade in 2016, the police's investigation has only gone south. Now, the cops are headed in the same direction, suspecting that the woman may be from South India. Going by a photo they had found on the body, the police are now matching DNA samples with missing complaints for women in south and east India who disappeared between October and November 2016.

mid-day had reported on the case after the body was discovered on November 2, 2016, around 2 km behind INHS Ashvini in Colaba. At the time, the police had only three clues to work with - a bed sheet stamped with 'GL', in which the body had been wrapped; a torn picture of a woman on the forehead of the victim; and a beaded bracelet on her person.

Failed attempts
At first, the police suspected the white bed sheet was from a hotel or lodge, but couldn't find any that used such sheets. The cops also questioned bedding traders but got no answers. The police also reconstructed the face of the victim based on the torn photo found on the body, but that didn't help either. "We thought that the murderer might have kept the photo with the body to misguide us.

But neither the identity of the body or the woman in the photograph could be established," said an officer from Cuffe Parade police station. The cops also took the help of weathermen to calculate which direction the wind was blowing and where the body might have washed ashore from. "Our teams went to Uran, Alibaug and all the coastal villages to identify the women in photograph but didn't succeed," he added. They checked all ferry boat plying between Mumbai, Elephanta, Alibaug, Rewas and Mandwa, and also tracked all ships that had come to harbour in Mumbai or at nearby ports. But nothing helped.

'Not giving up'
"Our officers haven't given up, they are still probing the case," said Rashmi Jadhav, senior inspector of Cuffe Parade police station. The police had earlier taken DNA samples of the body to match with people who had filed missing complaints about women gone missing in October or November 2016. "We have checked all of Maharashtra for missing women, now we have ventured into neighbouring states. The woman appears to be from south India or east India, so we are keeping a close eye on missing complaints filed in these states, too," said an officer.

Also read: Mumbai mystery woman death: Cops turn to weathermen to trace her

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