A bruised and smashed body of 28-year-old Danielle McLaughlin from Liverpool was found near a beach in Goa on Tuesday morning. She is believed to have been raped and murdered. The Irish-born was visiting Goa, probably with a friend to celebrate the Indian festival of colours, Holi.
The Goa police has launched a murder investigation, arrested one person and questioned a number of other suspects. The police concluded this as a murder after looking at the nature of the bruises on the victim's body and face. Her face was badly smashed-up and she bore deep bruises on her body. The body has been sent to the Goa Medical College for post-mortem to determine if she was sexually assaulted. The Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin has contacted the embassy in India and Ireland's Embassy in India's capital New Delhi is in contact with the Indian government regarding the murder.
This is the second incident of assault and murder of a British tourist in Goa. The body of a British teenager Scarlett Keeling was found in 2008 at the Anjuna beach – believed to have drowned after a drug overdose. Two men held in charges of the murder -Samson D’Souza and Placido Carvalho, were acquitted recently by a court in Goa.
