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AS IT HAD HAPPENED
* In their apartment on Thursday, Anthony stabs his wife
* Fermaina Fiona Fernandes suffers multiple injuries, dies
* Anthony also sufferes injuries while he hacks her to death
* The accused attempts to pack the body into a suitcase
* Unable to fit the body in suitcase, he chops off the legs
* Carries the suitcase on his scooter to TB hospital compound
* Just meters inside the hospital property body is set it on fire
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THE GOAN NETWORK
MARGAO: In a spine chillining incident that has sent shivers across the commercial capital, a woman was allegegdly hacked to death by her hubby and later the body set ablaze.
It all seems to have happened in an apartment near the TB Hospital atop Moti Dongor on Thursday. The accused, 50-year-old Anthony Fernandes from Tivim, a tiatrist, is alleged to have stabbed his 42-year-old wife, Fermaina Fiona Fernandes to death and setting her body on fire in the dead of night. The alleged murder came to light on Friday.
Police said the accused chopped off his wife’s legs since the dead body did not fit into the suitcase before he transported the body on his scooter to the spot where he set the body on fire with petrol to destroy evidence of murder.
Swinging swiftly into action, Margao police arrested the accused Anthony from his house. Investigating officer and Margao police station in-charge PI CL Patil told the media on Friday evening that Anthony allegedly killed his wife suspecting her fidelity.
Fermina Fiona Fernandes, who employed in Syria, had come down home on March 16. The husband-wife duo was putting up in an apartment at Moti Dongor. PI Patil said the incident occurred on Thursday March 24 at 2 pm when the wife was inside the house. He stabbed her with a knife in the hall, inflicting multiple injuries, which proved fatal. At least three stab wounds were found on the charred body, including her chest and arm. The accused also suffered injuries to his palm as he tried to remove the knife from the body after stabbing her.
PI Patil said, as the accused planned to dispose the body, he allegedly decided to stack the body in a suitcase. But, since he found that the body did not fit in the suitcase, he chopped her legs, covered the body with a curtain and stacked the body and legs in the suitcase and carried the same on his scooter towards the TB hospital at the isolated spot “ around 1.5 km distance from his apartment.
However, as he tried to enter the TB hospital compound through gate No 3 with the body, he is believed to have lost balance and the suitcase landed on the ground. “The accused then dragged the suitcase to the spot, just meters inside the hospital property and set it on fire. One could find the marks of the suitcase being dragged from the main road to the spot where the body was set on fire in the bushes,” PI Patil said.
Incidentally, the body was found in a charred state and only one side of the victim’s face could be identified. The alleged murder incident came to light in the morning at around 9 am when a TB hospital staff found the charred body lying alongside the pathway inside the property.
The police achieved a breakthrough in the case around noon when Anthony’s daughter, who is believed to have come down from UK on Thursday, and her fiancée approached the Margao police station around 1.30 pm to file a missing complaint. After the police showed photographs of the woman murdered at Moti Dongor, she and her fiancée identified the charred body as that of her mother.
Police suspicions only grew stronger as the duo told the Margao police that they have come to lodge a missing report over their mother’s disappearance since their father Anthony was found hesitant to lodge a missing report. “At around 3 pm, when we all went to the apartment at Moti Dongor, Anthony tried to evade questions, but finally relented and later confessed to committing the brutal murder,” PI Patil said.
Anthony has been arrested under Section 302 and 201 of the IPC for murder and causing destruction of evidence. Police said that investigating are on to recover the weapon of assault and other items used in the crime.
