A severed human head was found near a riverbank behind a carpentry workshop in Moratumulla on Sunday morning, police said, and the victim has not been identified.
Hiru News placed the discovery at Cooray Place, Upper Indibedda, a residential pocket of Moratumulla on the Bolgoda waterway south of Colombo.
How it was found
The owner of the carpentry workshop spotted the remains at about 8.00 a.m. and alerted police through the 119 emergency hotline, according to Ada Derana. Moratumulla Police OIC Dinesh Hettiarachchi confirmed the head was recovered near the riverbank behind the workshop.
Officers from the Moratumulla Police and the Police Special Task Force went to the location, along with a Mount Lavinia unit that Hiru identified specifically as the Mount Lavinia Crime Scene Bureau. The Acting Moratuwa Magistrate visited the site and carried out an inspection.
Both outlets reported the head was severely decomposed and appeared to have been scavenged by animals. It has been placed at the Panadura Hospital mortuary, Hiru reported.
What is not known
Neither outlet reported the age, sex or identity of the deceased, and neither said whether any other remains have been recovered from the site or the surrounding waterway. No arrest has been reported, and police have not indicated how long the head may have been at the location.
The advanced decomposition and the animal damage both point to the remains having lain there for some time, which would place the death well before Sunday’s discovery — but no outlet reported an estimate from the Judicial Medical Officer, and no post-mortem finding has been made public.
Moratumulla Police are continuing investigations.
