Skeleton recovery case: No headway in 1.5 years
Around one and a half years after the recovery of a human skeleton from inside a building's wall in the capital's Shewrapara, investigators still could not identify the victim and unearth the mystery despite making various efforts.
DNA tests conducted at Dhaka Medical College and at the forensic lab of the Criminal Investigation Department confirmed that the skeleton is that of a male aged between 18 and 35 years.
However, the mystery further deepened when the investigators and experts suspected it to be a woman as a long hair was recovered with it. DNA samples of 26 persons, including the family members of the building owner and tenants, have so far been examined to know whether any sample matched with the victim but to no avail.
"The focus of our investigation has completely changed as DNA tests results revealed that the skeleton was of a male," Md Imam Hossain, additional deputy inspector general of CID, told The Daily Star on Monday.
On September 17, 2020, police recovered 156 bones, both whole and broken, following discovery of the skeleton by a local plumber while he was repairing water supply lines at the ground floor flat of the six-storey building. Those were packed inside a polythene bag mixed with tea leaves.
The recovery stunned locals and police alike with Mirpur police taking up the investigation. It was then transferred to the CID, prompting it to form a team to identify the victim and reveal the case.
However, the one-and-a-half-year-long investigation is yet to yield encouraging results, owing to the country lacking in technology and experts to crack a case's mystery by examining only the skeleton of a victim.
A CID officer involved with the investigation said in developed countries, experts can reconstruct the face of a victim from skull, how long ago the victim was killed and can determine victim's height combining the bones.
"If we had such expert and technology, it would help crack the mystery," said the official, adding that they are trying to hire one such foreign expert.
The CID official said they scrutinised all GDs filed after people went missing from Shewrapara since 1991 when the building was constructed, but no clue was found. None also claimed that any resident of the house went missing.
The CID inquired whether any family members of house owner, tenants or their family members who resided in the building since 1991 and even those who worked as house helps went missing. However, no such instance was found.
"Now we have been collecting information of all the missing persons since that time," said an official.
Owner of the building, Abdul Halim Sarker, earlier said he started construction of the building, holding No 389, in 1990 and the work ended in 1993. He said the building remained abandon for several months after the construction.
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