Indian authorities said on Sunday they were treating the death of a British girl as murder after a second autopsy revealed injuries that officials said were homicidal in nature. Police found Scarlet Keeling, a 15-year-old British tourist dead last month on a deserted beach in the coastal state of Goa. Police initially said she had possibly drowned after taking drugs.
But a second autopsy conducted last week revealed injuries, inflicted by a sharp weapon, which forensic experts believe had actually caused her death, police said.
"The second autopsy has revealed many injury marks, and based on it we have started a case of murder and are now looking for suspects," Jorge Bosco, a senior police official said from Goa. Police say Keeling could have been raped before she was killed, and were detaining drug addicts for questioning. "We will take one step at a time and arrests could follow soon," Bosco told Reuters by phone.