9-Year-Old Missing Boy's Half-Eaten Body Found, Two Teens Confess To Murder

A missing nine-year-old boy’s mutilated body was found in a field near railway tracks in India’s Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, May, 18. The boy’s two teen friends have confessed to the killing, police said.

The incident happened in the Hafizpur area of Hapur district.

The child, who has not been publicly identified, had gone missing 6 days ago. The Hafizpur police registered a missing case on May 13, a day after the boy disappeared.

According to the police, the boy had gone out to play with his friends in the nearby fields when he went missing.

On Tuesday morning, people in the neighborhood found the boy’s half-eaten body in the fields and alerted the police.

"A portion of flesh was eaten away, most likely, by wild animals," The Times of India quoted the Hapur Superintendent of Police Neeraj Kumar Jadaun as saying.

Following a preliminary investigation, police officers narrowed down their suspicion on two teens who were friends of the boy. The teens were detained and questioned during which they confessed to the killing.

The boys, aged 15 and 18, told police that they committed the crime, following a dispute with the child.

The exact motive behind the slaying is unclear at this time. It is also not known how they killed the boy.

The half-eaten remains were sent to a medical examiner for an autopsy. Police officials said the exact cause of death will be revealed at a later date as autopsy results are being awaited.

"The post-mortem report will ascertain the exact cause of the death," the Superintendent of Police told the news outlet.

Sections of murder and causing disappearance of evidence would be added to the existing kidnapping case, police said.

This is an ongoing investigation. No further details were revealed at the time of this writing.

In a similar incident, an Iranian filmmaker's dismembered body was found stuffed in a suitcase in a trash bin outside his parents' home in Ekbatan, a neighborhood in the west of Tehran, on Sunday, May 16.

47-year-old Babak Khorranmdin’s father has confessed to sedating his son before chopping him to death.

This incident is the latest in the honor killing row reported from Iran.