THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The body of a 17-year-old girl was recovered by the police from a pond in a quarry - Kalladichanmoola - near Kovalam the other day. The girl was identified as Suchitra of Vaikkolkulam, near here.
The girl was reported missing by her family from Friday. On Sunday, her body was recovered from the quarry beside the road. It was only about a month ago that she had joined a private tourist hotel at Kovalam as a trainee from where she went missing. The incident created a furore among the local people, who raised suspicion over the death.
Meanwhile, the police said that they suspected the case to be a suicide. The statements of the physician who conducted the post-mortem also indicated this possibility. According to the doctor, there were no marks of any kind of physical abuse on the body. Some occurrences at the tourist resort where she worked could have tempted her to commit suicide, police said. The mobile phone of an employee had gone missing from the hotel, following which a case was registered. Shortly after this, Suchitra turned up and returned the mobile phone. The hotel authorities were about to hold a meeting of all the employees when the girl disappeared, the police said.
However, the police also said that the internal organs of the girl had been sent to the forensic lab for further examination, only after which the cause of death could be confirmed.
Suchitra is survived by mother Geetha and brother Sujith.
trivandrum@expressbuzz.com