Teenage girl dies under unexplained circumstances
Father, mother contradict each other’s statements about the girl's death.
ISLAMABAD:
A 14-year-old girl was found dead in her house on Thursday without any wounds on her body. Her father and uncle told the police she had committed suicide by hanging herself.
However, the girl’s mother contradicted their statement and claimed that she had died of a heart attack. According to police officials, the girl’s father told police that the girl hung herself on a shower, with the help of a string in the bathroom.
The investigation officer who visited the site said the shower could not bear the weight of the girl and should have bent, if not uprooted. However, it was found fixed in its place without the slightest bend. No string was found in the bathroom.
A police official said there were no marks of strangulation on her neck, which should be there if she had hung herself. “There were no wounds anywhere on her body,” said a police official.
The police suspect that the father and the uncle of the girl know more than they are letting on.
However, the girl’s mother, in a separate statement, told the police that the girl had suffered a heart attack, while she was taking a shower. She said the girl used to take long in the bathroom but on Thursday she took unusually long. The door was forced open upon no response and she was found dead.
Police sent the body for postmortem (due on Friday), to determine the cause of death. They suspect the girl could have been poisoned if she had not suffered a heart attack.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2011.
A 14-year-old girl was found dead in her house on Thursday without any wounds on her body. Her father and uncle told the police she had committed suicide by hanging herself.
However, the girl’s mother contradicted their statement and claimed that she had died of a heart attack. According to police officials, the girl’s father told police that the girl hung herself on a shower, with the help of a string in the bathroom.
The investigation officer who visited the site said the shower could not bear the weight of the girl and should have bent, if not uprooted. However, it was found fixed in its place without the slightest bend. No string was found in the bathroom.
A police official said there were no marks of strangulation on her neck, which should be there if she had hung herself. “There were no wounds anywhere on her body,” said a police official.
The police suspect that the father and the uncle of the girl know more than they are letting on.
However, the girl’s mother, in a separate statement, told the police that the girl had suffered a heart attack, while she was taking a shower. She said the girl used to take long in the bathroom but on Thursday she took unusually long. The door was forced open upon no response and she was found dead.
Police sent the body for postmortem (due on Friday), to determine the cause of death. They suspect the girl could have been poisoned if she had not suffered a heart attack.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2011.