PATHANAMTHITTA: Most people have seen such scenes only in movies. “Scenes like police dogs going after a crime suspect’s trail and scent evidence create fear. Now, we are seeing it in front of us in our village. Definitely, it is a new experience for us,” said Joji, a villager of Elanthoor. The arrival of cadaver dogs Maya and Murphy created curiosity and anxiety among local villagers and people who had come from various parts of Pathanamthitta and neighbouring districts.
The special investigation team brought the two cadaver dogs on Saturday when the three accused in the Elanthoor human sacrifice case were brought to Bhagaval Singh’s home for evidence collection. Forty-eight-year-old Biji, who hails from Kodumon, said she reached Elanthoor along with her friends mainly to see the three accused. “We have been angry after hearing about the heinous act they had done to the two women. These three accused should get the maximum punishment for the crime. Maya and Murphy created both curiosity and anxiety among us.
I have seen these kinds of searches only on TV news channels and in movies. Now, we saw it directly,” said Biji, a homemaker. Maya and Murphy joined the Kerala police force in 2020. These Belgian Malinois canines were among the 35 dogs that completed their training in two batches. They are experts at tracing buried bodies and body parts. They can scent the human body and body parts lying up to a depth of 40 feet. According to the police, they are experts in finding even decomposed and very old bodies lying buried. They underwent training in Kerala Police Academy.
They are very energetic and wise. They can work for hours without a stop. It was Maya, which helped the police trace eight bodies buried deep under the debris following the landslide at Pettimudi in Idukki in 2020. Maya did this soon after completing her threemonth training programme. Maya and Murphy were also helped the police in tracing four bodies when the state witnessed another landslide in Kokkayar. The state police have 36 Belgian Malinois dogs. Of them, 17 are in tracker category and they are being used for probing murder and theft. As many as 13 dogs have been trained to trace explosive materials.