28-year-old Irish backpacker, Danielle McLaughlin, was in Goa to celebrate the festival of colour – Holi. Little did she know that the colour of Holi would be her own blood. Quite used to travelling in India, and especially Goa, she had many Indian friends. Some of whom she was with on that fateful night. Unfortunately, that Holi night the Irish woman was a victim of an unholy brutal murder.
Little did she know that the colour of Holi would be her own blood!
Danielle’s body was found in a pool of blood, lying naked in the field around 200 mts. off the Arambol road in Devbagh, North Goa. A local farmer, Premanand Komarpant, on his way to the fields at 7 a.m. saw Danielle’s body and alerted the local police.
“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery!” That was the tattoo that Danielle had on her wrist.
Police Inspector Filomeno Costa said Danielle’s body “had bruises and her face was badly smashed. “Looking at the injuries we concluded that that it was a case of murder.”
Who is responsible for the brutal murder of the Irish woman?
Yesterday the Police arrested a suspect named Vikas Bhagat, who was last seen with the Irish woman before her brutal murder. Vikas has been a charge sheeted in several theft cases involving foreigners in 2014. He confessed that he raped and murdered Danielle. He killed her to hide his identity and smashed her face with a beer bottle so no one would identify her.
However, on close examination of the body, DySP Sammy Tavares suspects that Danielle may have been murdered elsewhere and her body may have been dumped at Devbagh.
The Post Mortem Report confirmed sexual assault and death due to strangulation of the victim, (as per a media report).
What ended up as her final Facebook post on February 22, Danielle said she was travelling to Goa for “another adventure”. It was as if she was saying goodbye.
She wrote: “Thank you to all my friends and family for making home so special and always looking after me. “I am very grateful and the luckiest person I know”.
Apart from the brutal murder of the Irish woman, Goa has had a spate of ill-fated incidents involving foreign nationals in the recent past.
Around 8 years ago, Scarlet Keeling, a 15-year-old British teenager, found lying semi-nude on Anjuna Beach, North Goa, in a similar fashion. Her murder still unsolved and the accused let-off.
Six years after a 35-year-old British woman, Denyse Sweeney, was found dead near Anjuna beach in Goa, the CBI has filed a closure report in the case as no evidence of assault or homicide has been found. (NDTV report)
Video credit: ANI
Some of the comments ‘Itsgoa.com’ received in response to our article on the Murder of Monica Ghurde:
- [email protected] says:
“It is not only women that lose their lives in Goa but majority are actually men. I lost my nephew Felix Dahl 2015 and since then have done extensive work trying to get justice for his killing and have researched not only the tourist killings but locals as well. It seems that the typical victim is actually a male with the age group 20-40 years old. During the last 10 years there have been hundreds of cases and usually, they do not get investigated properly and guilty are left free. The system works same for everyone and at the end no one gets justice.
2. Minna Pirhonen – [email protected] says in regards to Monica Ghurde’s murder:
“If she were there as a tourist, her death would not be mentioned as murder to avoid bad publicity. I hope her killers can be caught so she can get justice. The same can not be said about tourists.”
The tiny state of Goa attracts many tourists. Their safety is our concern. Let us protect Goa by making it a safe haven for Goans and tourists alike.
