Homemaker’s murder: police arrest physiotherapist

Physiotherapist arrested for fatally stabbing homemaker in Thiruvananthapuram; intense social media friendship turned sour leading to crime.

The Chingavanam police in Kottayam arrested on Thursday Johnson Ouseph, a physiotherapist in connection with the fatal stabbing of Athira, 33, homemaker and mother of a two-year-old child, at her residence in Kadhinamkulam, a coastal suburb on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram, on Tuesday.

They admitted him to a local hospital after Johnson told them that he had consumed poison. Dy.SP, Attingal, S. Manjulal, told The Hindu that an intense social media friendship that turned sour had resulted in the crime of passion. 

Athira’s husband, Rajesh, a priest at the nearby Bharanikad Devi Temple, found his wife with a deep stab injury on her neck when he returned home after the morning puja. Her daylight murder in the safe environs of her home had precipitated a sense of insecurity in the district. 

The police said there were no eyewitnesses to the murder or any signs of struggle at the crime scene. An investigator said the police concluded that someone acquainted with Athira had killed her and their suspicion pivoted towards Rajesh initially. 

However, a cyber forensic inspection of Athira’s social media activity and WhatsApp chats revealed that Johnson had befriended her on Instagram in January 2024 and remained in touch for protracted periods daily. The police have not ruled out a blackmail aspect in the murder. 

They also verified the digital footprints of mobile phones used in the locality and found that the suspect had activated a SIM connection using Athira’s identity as proof. They detected its presence in Kadhinamkulam at the time of the murder and in the days running up to the crime. 

The police ran a profile check on the accused. They found that the native of Daivapuram in the Kollam district had divorced his wife in 2021 and remained single since.