A sack of bones, a DNA test and a phone call unravel a murder mystery

A sack was found on the bank of a river. When it was opened, police discovered a human skull, several teeth and bones. There were no answers as to who the victim was, how the person had died, or why the body had been concealed.

The incident is from 26 December 2022. The remains were recovered from the eastern bank of the Chandana-Barashia River in West Gondardia Sardarpara of Madhukhali, Faridpur. Madhukhali police station filed a murder case, but both the victim and the suspect were listed as unidentified.

Police initially made little headway in the investigation. Despite extensive efforts, they were unable to establish the victim's identity. In February 2023, the case was handed over to the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI).

The mystery was eventually solved through a missing person's general diary (GD), a DNA test and a phone conversation between a father and his son. The PBI identified the victim as 11-year-old Mursalin Sheikh. Investigators said his stepfather, Mizanur Rahman, confessed to killing the boy and dumping his body in the river. He is now facing trial.

After taking over the investigation, PBI investigators first visited the crime scene and the surrounding area. They spoke to local residents and began searching for records of missing persons from the locality. During that process, they came across a general diary (GD) entry.

According to the PBI, about six months before the skeletal remains were recovered from the river, a woman named Iti Begum had filed the GD at Madhukhali Police Station. In it, she reported that her 11-year-old son, Mursalin Sheikh, had gone missing.

Investigators then began looking into the missing person report, as Mursalin's home was located quite close to where the bones had been recovered. The PBI subsequently collected a DNA sample from Iti Begum for testing. The results, however, took some time to arrive.

Meanwhile, the PBI said Mursalin's stepfather, Mizanur Rahman, suddenly left the area. He told relatives he was going elsewhere in search of work, but investigators found the move suspicious. In July 2023, the PBI finally received the DNA test results, which confirmed that the skeleton was indeed that of Mursalin.

After identifying Mursalin, investigators from the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) came to regard his stepfather, Mizanur Rahman, as the prime suspect in the killing. However, they had neither eyewitness testimony nor any direct physical evidence linking him to the crime, making it impossible to arrest him at that stage.

Faced with that situation, investigators adopted a different strategy. PBI officers informed Mizanur's parents that, based on the evidence gathered during the investigation, their son was involved in the murder. They also said that even if he remained on the run, he would eventually be arrested.

The strategy was based on the expectation that the message would reach Mizanur. It did. His father later contacted him using a relative's mobile phone and, during the conversation, repeated what investigators had told him. The PBI obtained a recording of the call. According to investigators, the conversation made Mizanur's involvement clear.

Mizanur was arrested in Magura in July 2023. During initial questioning, he denied the allegations. However, the PBI said that as investigators confronted him with one piece of evidence after another, he eventually broke down and confessed to the crime. He later gave a confessional statement before a court.

The PBI investigation found that Mursalin was the son from Iti Begum's first marriage. After divorcing her first husband, she lived separately with her son. She later entered into a relationship with local labourer Mizanur Rahman, and the two married in 2019. They later had another child together.

The family struggled with financial hardship and persistent domestic conflict. Mizanur's first wife did not accept his second marriage, further escalating tensions within the family. In June 2022, following a family dispute, Iti moved to Dhaka with her younger child, leaving Mursalin in Madhukhali with his maternal grandmother.

Mizanur was not informed where Iti had gone or what she was doing.

In his confessional statement, Mizanur said that on the morning of 25 June 2022, he was working in a chilli field near Chairman Ghat in Madhukhali when he ran into Mursalin, who was passing by. He then took the boy to a spot beside a nearby field and asked him about Iti's whereabouts.

According to the PBI, Mursalin replied that he knew nothing about his mother's whereabouts. An argument followed, during which Mizanur struck the boy hard on the ear. Mursalin collapsed to the ground, bleeding from his ear, and died at the scene. The PBI said Mizanur panicked after the sudden death.

In his confessional statement, Mizanur said he initially hid Mursalin's body in a nearby bush. He then carried on with his work as usual throughout the day. That night, he returned, placed the body in a plastic sack and took it to the river.

To make it harder to identify the victim, he removed the boy's clothes and disposed of them separately. He then walked several kilometres before dumping the sack containing the body into the river.

PBI investigators said Mizanur believed the river's current would carry the body away, making it impossible for anyone to identify Mursalin. However, the body did not drift away. Most of the remains decomposed over time, leaving only the bones.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, PBI chief and Additional Inspector General of Police Mustafa Kamal said the murder had been solved through a combination of circumstantial evidence, the DNA report and the accused's confession, despite the absence of eyewitnesses or direct physical evidence.

"The killer tried to erase the child's identity," he said. "But in the end, the bones left on the riverbank revealed the truth he had tried to hide."