Though the search is continuing for her decapitated head, the husband was arrested almost immediately after the identity of the victim was ascertained. This, however, one of the cases where the investigators tasted early success; there are many where there has not been much progress despite several years passing by. DT Next takes a look at some of these murders reported in the city – some recent, but there are ones that are more than a decade old – where the killers are yet to be nabbed by the police.

Velachery murder of a couple:

Since the time the decomposed bodies of Jacob (62) and his wife Moni (58) were found in their house in Indira Nagar Sanakra Avenue in Velachery in November 2006, city police had been trying to zero in on killers. But their efforts have been futile for all these years. Commissioner after commissioner had been forming special teams to crack the case but without any success. Though various possible theories, including taking over properties and seizure of documents were discussed by the police, investigators have failed to go beyond the dead end.

No breakthrough in pawnshop owner murder:

The murder of pawnshop owner Heeraram on Arcot Road in Virugambakkam on Deepavali eve in 2014 for a huge quantity of gold remains a mystery for the police even now. The victim was running Anand Bankers, a pawnshop-cum-mobile phone recharge outlet. According to KK Nagar police, unidentified men posing as customers came to the shop and attacked Heeraram with knives, inflicting injuries on his head and hands. They took away gold and silver beside cash from the shop and fled as the street was filled with smoke from cracker-bursting and festivity of Deepavali. 

No fingerprint to help double murder probe:  Almost four years have gone by since the bodies of N Rajalakshmi, an 86-year-old woman, and S Annapoorani, her granddaughter, were found inside their house in VGP Shanti Nagar, Pallikaranai. Their relatives grew suspicious after the duo failed to respond to repeated calls to their mobile phones. By the time the kin went to the house on the morning of January 4, 2015, their bodies were badly decomposed. Police said the robbers, believed to be armed, ransacked the house. They took away gold ornaments weighing 20 sovereigns. But the investigators could not lift any fingerprints from the crime scene, that hampered the probe. Four years on, the case remains unsolved even now

Murderer techie who left no digital trail: When the body of a murdered young girl was found, there was not much of a mystery as to who the prime suspect was. For, S Aruna’s body was recovered from her boyfriend’s car parked at the apartment complex premises on Barrack Road in Secretariat Colony. According to police, while they were inside his apartment on March 9, 2015, Dinesh, a BPO employee, hit the girl’s head with a flower vase, which killed her. He then stuffed the body in his car while trying to take it out to dump it. However, he could not complete the task as the security guard at the apartment complex because suspicious of the way he was moving about. Before he went underground, Dinesh visited his ailing father at their flat. In a rather smart move to escape the police radar, he left his mobile phone behind. He withdrew money from his account using his ATM card, but has not left any digital trail ever since.

 

still eludes cops: Another case which remains unsolved till now is the murder of a 32-year-old lady dentist, S Sangeetha, at her clinic in West Mogappair in May 2015. She was reportedly murdered for her 12 sovereign chain. There were no external injuries or even signs of struggle; police said the death happened because of injuries caused by the chain. The murder came to light when the family members of the doctor, a resident of Karnan Street, reached the clinic in search of her as she failed come home as usual for lunch and did not answer repeated calls. Though the police suspected that one her patient could have killed the dentist, they could not zero in on the killer.

 

Priyadarshini and R Jaya Krishna Prabhu Lawyer who killed  his children remains untraceable:

The police are still on the lookout for a lawyer who allegedly killed two of his children aged 13 and 11, by poisoning them in Maduravoyal, in 2015. Police has found the going tough, as it was almost impossible to track Ravi, the suspect, because his mobile phone has remained off since then. He was practising at Poonamallee special court. The bodies of the children – R Ishwarya Priyadarshini and R Jaya Krishna Prabhu – were found in the bedroom in a decomposed state in June 2015. Police investigations revealed that Ravi was separated from his wife Maheshwari, also an advocate. She lived at Chidambaram while the children were with Ravi. The previous day, his neighbours had seen him leaving his two-wheeler behind and going out in his car. And he has not been seen ever since.

 

Retired couple brutally murdered in Avadi: Jagadeesan, a 68-year-old man, and Vilasini, his 58-year-old live-in partner, were murdered with their heads smashed with an iron rod in their house near Avadi one late night in November last. Police suspect the role of a couple from Andhra Pradesh who had joined as housemaid and gardener just two weeks before the murder. The investigators managed to collect the images of the suspects from CCTV footage, but they have not yet been able to track and nab the killers so far.