Woman killed in tea land in Pinnaduwa

The Akmeemana Police yesterday said that a body of a woman who had been plucking tea leaves at a  tea land at Pinnaduwa was found with her throat slit. This murder had taken place on Tuesday and the deceased has been identified as Yasantha Geeganage (54), a mother of one.

This victim’s husband works as a driver at the Immigration and Emigration Department and her daughter is employed at an outlet where tea is being sold and the husband is at present deployed at the Galle Harbour.

During investigations it has become apparent that this woman’s husband and daughter had left for work at about 7.30 am on April 25 and they had returned home around 5.30 pm. Since the woman had not been at home by then, the husband and daughter had gone in search of her. Police said that the tea estate belongs to them. The husband had seen the basket the wife used for putting in plucked tea leaves, in a corner of the estate and searched around the area and then discovered the body of the woman in a tea estate belonging to a neighbour not far away.

The police said that the woman had been killed by slitting her throat. A top police official said when considering the quantity of tea leaves which had been picked, she would not have been able to engage in picking tea leaves for more than ten or fifteen minutes. When observing where the basket was and where the body was found, it appears that the murderer must have chased after her and that she had thrown the basket and fled trying to save her life when she had been attacked with a sharp object, this police official said.

Although investigations had been carried out by bringing in police sniffer dogs and crime scene laboratory officers, they had not been able to discover any information about the suspect or suspects in the murder.