KOCHI:A 44-year-old school teacher was found murdered with throat slit at her residence in Mulavukkad on Wednesday. Her husband, a postal department official, was also found lying near the body of the deceased with injuries on the throat, by the neighbours and has been admitted a hospital with serious injuries.
According to police, the deceased has been identified as Merlin Fernandez, wife of Johnson D’Silva and teacher at a government school in Kudassanad in Alappuzha district. Police suspect that Johnson murdered Merlin doubting her extramarital affairs. “The incident occurred at the residence of the couple near Mulavukad Service Co-operative Bank in the wee hours of the morning. There was a paper pasted at the front door of the house reading ‘Mishap Occurred’ written in red colour suspected to be blood. The neighbours while going to church read the notice and checked the house. They found the door was opened and Merlin lying in a pool of blood. They also found Johnson with throat injuries near Merlin. Merlin was dead while Johnson was alive. They rushed him to a hospital. His condition is stated to be serious,” police officials said.
Apart from the slit throat, there were stab marks on the chest, stomach and hands of Merlin. The police suspect that the deceased was tortured before her throat was slit.
“From the preliminary investigation, we received information that Johnson doubted Merlin over extramarital affairs. Following this there might have been a brawl and the husband might have decided to murder the wife. After murdering the wife, he might have written the notice and pasted it on the door. Later he made an attempt to commit suicide by cutting his throat. But a clear picture about the case can be received only after interrogating Johnson and his daughter who is in Kozhikode,” police official said.
A case has been registered and the body has been shifted to Ernakulam General Hospital for postmortem. The body would be handed over to relatives on Thursday.