American tourist killed in Jodhpur, ’son’ detained

JODHPUR - A 50-year-old American woman was found brutally murdered in a resort near this Rajasthan town, police said Friday, adding that a teenager claiming to be her son has been detained.

Staff at the resort in Osian, about 60 km from here, discovered the body of the woman, identified as Cindy Iannarelli, inside the tented accommodation where she was staying Friday morning.

She was staying with a 15-year-old boy Joncarlo claiming to be her biological son. Both had landed in Jodhpur from Mumbai on Aug 11. The boy, considered to be a prime suspect, was detained while trying to board a flight from Jodhpur to Delhi, police said.

“It seems that the throat of the woman has been slit by a sharp object; she must have been murdered late in the night on Thursday,” G.L. Sharma, superintendent of police, Jodhpur rural, told IANS on phone.

“We have already informed American Embassy about this and have started to interrogate the boy who was detained while he was trying to board a morning flight to Delhi,” Sharma said.

The actual cause of the death and the time of would only be known after a postmortem is conducted.

“The resort staff informed us about the murder in the morning today at around 9 a.m. and also informed that her son left early in the morning,” a police official from Osian added.

“After putting checkposts at major roads, bus stand, the railway station and the airport we finally nabbed him at the airport,” he said, adding that the teenager is a prime suspect in the case.