3 bodies, one pattern: Is a serial killer on the prowl in Bengaluru?

Three women have been found dead in eerily similar circumstances in Bengaluru in the past four months, leading to speculations whether a serial killer might be on the loose in the IT city. All the bodies have been found in railway stations, and the victims were all women in their 30s. In two cases, the bodies were stuffed in plastic drums, and in one, a gunny sack.

The third incident was reported on Monday (March 13) evening when a woman’s body was found in a storage drum at the swank Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal (SMVT) — India’s first air-conditioned railway terminal — at Baiyappanahalli.

The second body was found on January 4 in creepily similar circumstances — in a drum — at the Yeshwantpur railway station. The first case was reported on December 6, when a female body was found in a train compartment at Baiyappanahalli railway station.

Also read: Rape and murder of toddlers shock Gujarat

Victims yet to be identified

None of the women have been identified though they were all in their 30s. And though the police are yet to admit the possibility of a serial killer being on the loose, the pattern in the murders is hard to miss. In each case, the women were killed elsewhere and their bodies were disposed of at the railway station.

CCTV footage at SMVT showed three men arriving with the drum in an auto-rickshaw, carrying it into the station, placing it near the automatic sliding door, and walking out. Police are trying to trace the auto owner from its registration number, said police.

Though the bodies in the first two cases were highly decomposed, in the third one, the woman is believed to have been killed in the previous 48 hours. Her face had turned black, but the body was not highly decomposed, a senior railway police officer told Deccan Herald. The autopsy is being carried out at CV Raman Hospital though the report will take a day or two to come.

Also read: What happened? The story behind double murder that shook Assam

Victims of similar age

The latest victim’s pictures have been sent to all police stations across Karnataka and the neighbouring states for identification. “It looks like the woman, aged between 31 and 35, was murdered, and the accused attempted to dispose of the body,” GRP Superintendent SK Soumyalatha told The New Indian Express. There were reportedly no external injury marks on the body.

The second body, found in a highly decomposed state on January 4, was also of a woman aged between 30 and 35. Her face was reportedly disfigured.

The first body, found stuffed in gunny sacks and blankets on a train at Baiyappanahalli station in December, was also of a woman of similar age. The corpse was found in a compartment of train number 06527 (Bangarpet-SMVT Bengaluru Express). She was reportedly strangled and the body had several external injuries. Police retrieved her jewellery and clothes.

None of the victims were reportedly subjected to sexual assault. “We have some clues about the killers and are working 24/7 to track them down,” a senior officer told Deccan Herald.

(With agency inputs)