Following a directive of the Kerala DGP that the victim not be named as there are suspicions she was raped, THE WEEK, henceforth, will not be naming her or showing her photographs.
There is a beauty salon in Cork Town, Ireland, named “Beauty Crime: Commit Something Beautiful.”
The owner of the salon, Ilze Skromane, however, has been having a harried time in God's Own Country for the past two months looking for her missing sister, who was found dead two weeks ago. Ironically, her sister had given that strangely beautiful name to Ilze's salon. Ilze was busy travelling the length and breadth of Kerala, looking for her sister, who went missing while undergoing ayurvedic treatment for depression in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala.
The duo had arrived in Thiruvananthapuram on February 21, looking for treatment for the 33-year-old victim for post-traumatic depression. They checked into an ayurvedic treatment centre in Pothencode in Thiruvananthapuram. Barely a month into the treatment, the victim who was showing signs of improvement, went to a beach in Kovalam, about 30km from the state capital, without informing Ilze.
The victim reached Grow Beach in Kovalam in an autorickshaw, as per police records, and paid Rs 800 to the driver. That was the last time the victim was caught on a CCTV camera. The day was March 14 and there was no trace of her after that.
Though the matter was reported to police, the latter took a long time to respond, complains Ilze. “Had the police been more serious in the initial days, as they are now, we would not have lost her,'' she says.
Ilze is upset that around 10 days were lost since she first reached out to the police for help. "Police smiled at me and kept assuring me that she would return. They just could not understand my state, my tears and the situation. Crucial days were lost between me reaching out to them and the special investigation team being set up," Ilze told the media.
The police, however, refutes this claim. "We have been doing our job right from the beginning. A large team of police officials and resources have been deployed to probe the case," said police commissioner P. Prakash.
Ilze, meanwhile, left no stone unturned to trace her sister, who was just an year older to her. She travelled all over Kerala, pasting posters of her missing sister wherever possible. When the victim's decomposed body was found on April 21—that is more than a month since she went missing—Ilze was in Kasargode—the northernmost district of the state. There also, she had pasted posters with the victim's photographs in various phases.
The victim's headless body was found from a mangrove near Vazhamattom in Thiruvananthapuram. The spot is nearly 5km from Kovalam beach. According to the post-mortem report, the victim was strangled to death. Her head was found a little away from her body. The body had decomposed to such an extent that it required a DNA test to confirm it was the victim.
Police, citing the autopsy report, said the cause of death was blunt force exerted on the neck, which could either have been caused by strangulation or stamping during an assault. There were a few minor injuries on other parts of the body, too, which were not serious enough to cause death. According to police, the autopsy did not establish any sexual assault on the victim. However, on Thursday, police officials said they suspect she could have been raped. Results of chemical analysis tests done on the internal organs are awaited.
Adding a mystic element into the case, Ilze, in between, conducted a parallel investigation with the help of a clairvoyant. She scouted for her sister as per the guidance of the clairvoyant who had told her to look for Ilze in wetlands and water bodies. She visited almost all wetlands and marshy tracts in Kerala, as per the sketch given by the clairvoyant. In fact, Ilze had even reached a place that was barely kilometres away from the spot from where the victim's body was found eventually. “Thinking that the mangrove forest belonged to a private person, I did not enter there,'' said Ilze.
The police have taken five persons into custody; they were from a gang belonging to the area where the victim's body was found. The autopsy report had hinted at the possibility of the involvement of more than one person in the murder. The police is continuing their investigation at the secluded mangrove forest near Panathura, the area where the body had been recovered. The banks of the Karamana river have also been combed for evidence. Divers were also deployed as the police suspect that the victim, along with her alleged murderers, reached the spot on a fibre boat.
The incident is, not surprisingly, a blot on the much hyped tourism market of Kerala. The possible involvement of drug peddlers in the case has brought negative publicity for the state. “The use of ganja and other drugs among tourists has increased off late. It is a huge interstate racket,” said a local guide who did not want to be named. The mushrooming of illegal spas and resorts and also fake tourist guides are responsible for these illicit activities, according to him. He hoped that the Latvian tourist's death will open the eyes of authorities to clear the beaches of these rackets.
State Tourism Minister Kadakampilly Surendran said a team consisting of 750 persons has been formed to conduct a survey on all resorts and spas in the state. “It is our duty to ensure the safety of all tourists who visit the state. We are determined to weed out the illicit activities in and around tourist destinations,'' said the minister.
Ilze, meanwhile, is getting ready to go back to Latvia with the ashes of her sister. “Our custom is to keep the ashes in a wooden box inside the house. But my sister would always tell me that she did not want to be kept like that; she wanted to be one with nature. So, we will plant a tree,'' said Ilze.
The Skromane sisters belong to Latvia, which was earlier part of the USSR. Now with Latvia being an independent country that is in the EU, the sisters had moved to Ireland for studies. The victim, an avid reader, did a course in public relations and Ilze studied architecture. Ilze's sister had been working with an NGO there.
The victim's live-in partner Andrew had also assisted Ilze in her search for her sister. The sisters have a brother and their parents are still in Latvia.
Ilze, despite the tragedy, is full of feelings for Kerala. “We have lost my sister and will never recover from that. But then, it could have happened anywhere in the world. It is just that she happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and met the wrong people. But the people and the government here were so warm and supportive,'' she said.
According to Ilze, the victim too had fallen in love with Kerala. “She would tell me that it was not for nothing that this place is called God's Own Country. I too share those feelings even now. I will come back again,'' Ilze said.
The victim would be cremated in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday evening. And the ashes would be taken to Latvia where she will grow as a tree and spread her branches.