Double murder day after flat key lost; maid suspected
Police suspect the housemaid in the murder of a woman and her daughter, whose bloodied bodies were recovered from a flat in a multi-storey building in the capital’s Mohammadpur area on Monday.
The deceased were identified as Laila Afroze, 48, and her daughter Nafisa Lawal Binte Aziz, 15.
The domestic worker has been on the run since the incident and is believed to be around 20 years old.
CCTV footage from the building shows the domestic worker entering the flat wearing a burqa. She was later seen leaving dressed in the school uniform of the victim, Nafisa. A day earlier, on Sunday, the family had misplaced the key to the main door of the flat. The following day, two members of the family were found murdered.
According to police, Nafisa had several deep wounds on her neck, while Laila’s body bore multiple injury marks. The killer used a sharp weapon and was wearing gloves. Items inside one of the wardrobes were found scattered. Police also said a security guard named Md Khalek had been detained for questioning.
Analysis of multiple CCTV camera footage shows that Nafisa’s father left home for school work around 7:00am. At 7:51am, the domestic worker, Ayesha, was seen entering the lift wearing a burqa and going up to the seventh floor. At 9:35am, she was seen leaving the flat wearing Nafisa’s school uniform, carrying a schoolbag, and with her face covered by a mask.
Family sources said Nafisa’s father, Azizul Islam, had gone to school in the morning. When he returned home around 11:30am, he found the bodies of his wife and daughter.
Azizul said the domestic worker had been hired four days earlier through the building’s caretaker and security guards. She used to come in the morning for household work and leave afterward. The main door key went missing on Sunday, raising suspicion, but no one questioned her.
He added that he had asked the girl for her identity and phone number, but she refused, saying her parents had died in a fire and that she had been burned as well. She did not provide any contact details.
Azizul, originally from Natore Sadar upazila, had been living with his family in an eighth-floor flat in the building since 2012.
Mohammadpur Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Mezbah Uddin said the bodies were handed over to the family after autopsy.
Tejgaon Division Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ibn Mizan said police received the information around 11:30am. The girl was taken to a hospital but died shortly after arrival. Both bodies were later sent to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital for autopsy. All relevant information is being verified as part of the murder investigation, he added.