Mumbai police have only three clues to solve floating woman murder case

Armed with three clues, the Cuffe Parade and Mumbai Crime Branch unit 1 have fanned across the city and neighbouring areas to solve the mystery of the unidentified floating woman murder case.

The decomposed body of a woman in her late 20s was found wrapped in a bed sheet, floating in the Arabian Sea behind Afghan Church, near Asvini INS Hospital, Cuffe Parade, by the Navy, around 5.30 pm on November 2.

Embroidered linen
A senior police officer privy to the investigation, said, "We have found that the white linen bed sheet in which the body was wrapped was from a lodge. This is evident from the ‘GL' embroidered on the fabric. Usually, such trademarks are seen in guesthouses/lodges or on club linen."

Knock-off tee
The officer said the woman's pants had a tear that had been hand-stitched and her T-shirt was a knock-off of Lee Cooper. "This shows that she wasn't very well-off."

No definite conclusion
The third clue is the woman's seashell-threaded bracelet. "There was a ligature-like wound around the neck. She may have been strangled to death and then her body thrown in water. The findings of the post-mortem examination performed at JJ Hospital, however, could not give any conclusive reply on this. The chemical and histopathology reports are awaited."

There was no earring or valuable on the body, nor any undergarment.

Asked about the torn photograph found on the woman, the officer said it was found - ripped in two pieces - inside the bed sheet and not on the forehead as had been reported. "We suspect that the accused was in a hurry when he tore the photo, and in a hurry to dispose of the body, the picture might have remained inside the bed sheet. The other probability could be that the accused deliberately left the torn picture so that she could be identified," he said.

Samples preserved
The body is still in the mortuary of JJ Hospital. A doctor from the hospital said vaginal swabs were collected to ascertain sexual assault, and the viscera, nail clippings and hair samples preserved for laboratory tests to ascertain the cause of death.

Altercation gone awry?
One of the theories the police are working on is that the woman and her attacker were known to each other, and that they had an altercation within a closed room during which the woman was strangled. The police suspect that the body was then wrapped in a bed sheet and disposed of in the sea to destroy evidence. They also suspect that more than one person was involved in the murder.

Suspecting the body was washed towards Cuffe Parade by the tide, the police have expanded their probe to cover even the suburbs and the outskirts of the city. Police teams are, therefore, conducting investigations at Dongri, Cuffe Parade, Malad, Gorai, Mira Road and even Navi Mumbai, and are speaking to their counterparts in Alibaug as well. The police are also questioning dhobis in these areas to track the source of the linen.