Dahlia Yehia, from Austin,Texas and originally from Egypt, had gone missing since August 7 while travelling to Pokhara of Kaski district. The police has arrested a suspect, Narayan Prasad Paudel, who hosted Dahlia at his rented apartment in Pokhara after they were connected via a hospitality exchange and social networking site, couchsurfing.com.Paudel allegedly murdered Yehia by hitting her with a hammer while she was asleep at his apartment.
"The arrested has confessed to the allegation but we are yet to establish the confession if she was murdered," said DSP Govinda Adhikari of the District Police Office in Kaski.
Paudel has confessed to the police that he battered her to death and disposed off her body in the Seti River from the KI Singh Bridge, about one kilometer away from his rented apartment.
Rescue officers on Tuesday continued to search the body of the missing woman in possible areas but remained clueless.
"Sniffer dog, polygraph test of the suspect and other related enquiries supports his confession but we need to wait until the DNA test is carried out to establish the alleged murder," said Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) Inspector Bhisma Humagain, who assisted in the investigation.
In order to establish the alleged murder, the police are waiting for DNA samples from her family members to match the sample obtained from the blood clots on the crime site, according to Inspector Humagain. The US Embassy in Nepal has initiated the process to collect the DNA samples from the family members of the victim. The police have preserved blood samples from pillow cover, bed cover and the clothes of the woman.
Dahlia was an art teacher in Texas and had volunteered for relief works to support the earthquake victims in Nepal.
According to the police, she stayed at Paudel's apartment on the 4th, 5th and 6th of August before the crime was committed. Police were not successful to carry out further interrogation as the arrestee jumped off from the third floor under the pretext of using toilet. He has been hospitalized as he broke both legs that were operated on Tuesday. Paudel has been charged under the Public Offence Act as the murder of the woman is yet to be established, the police investigators added.
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