Serial killers and true crime

In the incident of rape and murder of the two-and-a-half Angel Sharma at Cuffe Parade, the killer apparently had the bulb in the house removed before kidnapping the baby, apparently to avoid detection.

Police are now taking fingerprints of Angel’s grandmother Rani, uncle Albert Fernandis, step-father Ashok Jadhav, grandfather James Fernandis and a few other neighbours. Confirming this, a officer from the the Cuffe Parade police said, “We are taking fingerprints of the people who had access to the child as well as those living close to the Fernandes home. We will match the fingerprints with those found on the bulb.”

The police suspect there is a big chance of some known person being involved in kidnapping the minor from her house. In fact, they interrogated Ashok and James for over 48 hours besides taking their DNA samples. Apart from checking the phone call records of all the male family members, the police have taken the DNA samples of nearly 20 other people, including relatives and neighbours. All 20 were first taken to the Colaba police and then to Nagpada police hospital before being taken to JJ Hospital for a medical check-up.

“As the child was raped, we will be checking for any matching of the DNA samples to identify the killer,” added the officer.

Mother of the deceased Suzan Sharma, however, has claimed harassment at the hands of the police. “I have already lost my daughter, and now the police are harassing me by not allowing my husband and father to go free. We don’t have an issue with the police collecting DNA samples as they are doing it for my daughter. But why torture my husband even before the results are out. On Thursday night, they beat up my father very badly,” she complained.

Serial killer could be behind Angel’s murder too: Police

Ambedkar Nagar resident Angel had gone missing from her house around 2 am on Thursday. Her body was found near the sea line close to Maker Tower L in Cuffe Parade around 8.30 am the same day. Post-mortem reports revealed that Angel had been raped and then strangled.

A joint team of officers from Colaba and Cuffe Parade police are probing the earlier murders of two minor girls from the area. The victims — Colaba resident Karishma Chavan and Cuffe Parade resident Jagruti Patel — were found dead near the Nariman Point Fire Brigade Depot. While Jagruti was found dead on November 13 last year, Karishma was found dead on January 18. Both girls were around three years old.

The police had said both murders could be the handiwork of the same person as the victims had died of a fatal blow to the head. However, no arrests have been made yet in either case.

An officer part of the investigation said there were many similarities in the cases. “Jagruti was kidnapped on October 20 and then killed. Karishma was found dead on January 18 and Angel was found murdered on April 19. The time between all three murders is nearly three months. This may not be a coincidence considering that the victims are all girls in the 3-4 age group,” said the officer.

The officer said, “All three victims either stayed with their grandmothers or were with them when they went missing. Jagruti stayed with her grandmother, but was with her parents on the fateful night. Karishma was kidnapped from Sassoon Docks in Colaba on January 17 when she was with her grandmother. Angel was kidnapped while she was sleeping next to her grandmother. There is a possibility that the killer prefers such victims,” the officer said, adding that the suspect may be a local.

However, the officer added that if the same killer was involved, he strayed from his pattern when murdering Angel.

“The first two victims died of head injuries but Angel was strangled. The first two bodies were found in a secluded spot, while Angel’s body was found near the sea. The killer may have strayed from his pattern because of police presence near the crime scene,” the officer said.

Meanwhile, the police sent Angel’s father along with several other suspects to seek their DNA tests.