TIRUNELVELI: The skeletal remains of a person, presumed to be a woman who was allegedly killed and buried by three youth in 2013 on temple premises near Thatchanallur, were exhumed by police on Thursday.
The exhumation process lasted for six hours as the officials had to excavate three different spots within the premises of Vasudaiyar Sastha Temple using an earthmover.
Forensic experts collected the sample of the skeleton and sent it to a research centre in Madurai.
According to sources, the Tirunelveli City police accidentally stumbled upon the confession of two auto-rickshaw drivers who were recently arrested in connection with an attempt to murder case.
The duo -- Manikandan (26) from Tirunelveli and Aaseerselvam (32) from Ramayanpatti -- was arrested earlier this month.
During the course of the investigation, they reportedly confessed to having killed a woman along with one Sivakumar (36) of Sakthikulam near Cheranmahadevi in 2013 and buried the body near Thatchanallur.
It is said that Sivakumar, who is now married and residing in Mumbai, got acquainted with the Reddiyarpatti-based widow woman, whose name is said to be Pushpa.
During a dispute, Sivakumar reportedly killed the woman with the help of the other two suspects and buried her.
Police say that Sivakumar confessed to the crime. Based on the trio's information, officials exhumed the body in the presence of Thatchanallur Tahsildar S Subramaniam and Assistant Commissioner Satheesh Kumar.
Officials sources told TNIE that the gender of the remains will be identified only through a DNA test.