A meticulous investigation by Madurai District Police helped crack the murder of an unidentified woman whose body was found in a highly-decomposed state in a secluded place under Perungudi police station limits.

The body, wrapped in plastic bags with hands and legs tied with ropes, was found amidst bushes off Echaneri Road along Inner Ring Road on March 4. The police remained clueless as the spot was not frequented by people. The post-mortem report revealed that the woman could be aged around 50.

As the body was decomposed, the police had to relay on a pair of anklets left on the body.

“With the markings of the jewellery shop, our officers sought details of all those customers who had bought particular type of silver anklet weighing around 60 grams,” said Madurai Superintendent of Police B.K. Arvind.

The police got a long list of customers and then they started to zero in on the possible persons who could have lived in the vicinity of the scene of crime.

It was then the police were able to match the identity with that of a woman who went missing from Villapuram. The deceased was identified as Indrani, 70.

“The mismatch in the age — actual age of the deceased and suggested by PM report — initially made the police to look the other way.

Based on her sister’s suspicion, the police picked up two persons, K. Chandrasekaran, 50, and G. Amarnath. “Chandrasekaran used to help the elderly woman in all possible ways and used to frequently visit her,” the SP said. During interrogation, the duo reportedly confessed to have murdered the woman.

“Chandrasekan, who had some debts, had stolen some gold jewellery from the woman’s house. As the woman started to ask for those jewellery, he, along with his friend Amarnath, strangled her to death on February 20 and dumped the body elsewhere ,” the SP said.

Since the woman had gone missing long back, going through the video footage of CCTV for several days could have been a very challenging task, the SP said.

But, by falling back on available clues, the police were able to crack the case much earlier.