40-yr-old man suffocates wife, four kids to death

MULTIPLE MURDER: The decomposed bodies of his family were recovered from various parts his home.

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Palakkad (Kerala): Forty-year-old Reji Kumar looks like the family man next door, but today, this graduate, who works as a rubber tapper, is accused of killing his wife Lizzy and their four children - three daughters and a son. It's a crime that has shocked middle-class Kerala.

The youngest girl, Amanya, was just three years old. The police say Reji has confessed to suffocating all his victims to death.

SP Palakad, Vijay Sahare says, "For the last month, they were missing. Then a search was conducted in the area and in and around the house."

The decomposed bodies of the missing members of the family were recovered from various parts the family home, including the overhead septic tank. Reji's neighbours and his employer are stunned.

His employer, A Siddique says, "He was working in my farm and was very sincere to his work. He came across as a nice and simple man. We are shocked to hear that he has committed such a henious crime."

Experts in criminal behaviour can only guess as to what may triggered this multiple murder.

Director Central Institute of Behavioural Science, K S David says, "When he committed the crime, he was not in his normal senses, that is for sure."

(With inputs from Kundur Sathya Narayan in Thrissur)