More than two weeks after a missing case was registered, Mangaluru City Police (MCP) discovered the skeletal remains of a 16-year-old girl in a forest area behind her residence on Saturday evening. Based on the preliminary findings, the jurisdictional police said that they suspect it to be remains of Fiona Swedal Cutinho. The police have also arrested Fiona’s brother Samson Cutinho (18) in the murder.
According to the complaint filed by the victim’s father Francis Cutinho on October 8, his son Samson Cutinho had allegedly told him that Fiona had gone to Mangaluru but never returned.
Francis, a resident of Pajeer near Mudipu, which is around 25 km from Mangaluru, tried contacting friends, relatives over phone but the whereabouts of Fiona remained unknown.
Following the complaint, a kidnap case was registered at the jurisdictional Konaje police station. The city police had launched a massive manhunt to trace the 16-year-old, who was a student pursuing her first PUC at a private college in Mangaluru city. Initially, police said they interviewed nearly 40 people in an attempt to trace the ‘missing person’. Mangaluru City Police commissioner PS Harsha had also sought public help to find Fiona.
Investigators suspicion turned to the family after electronic surveillance of Fiona’s cell phone was traced to Mudipu (close to the victim’s home) contradicting the family’s version that she had gone to Mangaluru. Further, police also received a tip-off that Fiona’s elder brother Samson was allegedly addicted to ganja and other contrabands and since failing his engineering degree was idling at home, the police official said.
Subsequently, Samson was questioned, when he allegedly admitted to killing his sister with a hammer over a trivial reason at home. “Samson was miffed that his parents focused more on Fiona over him. This we believe might have lead to jealousy that turned into a rage during an argument with his sister – that instigated him to kill her,” the police said.
Following the murder, the victim’s elder brother allegedly dumped the body in an isolated forest area behind the house, and then fabricated a story of his sister leaving to Mangaluru, the police said.
According to the police, Samson also showed the authorities the spot where he had allegedly dumped the body after committing the crime. Police also found the victim’s mobile phone, teeth and hair samples around the same spot and are further scouting the areas for more evidence.
Police said that they have dispatched the skeletal remains for forensic examination to ascertain that the body belonged to Fiona. Subsequent to the verification by Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Konaje police said that they will convert the kidnap case to murder. The hammer used for the crime has been recovered by the police.
Samson is currently in police custody.
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