In a chilling turn of events, the lifeless body of a 19-year-old woman, missing for 34 days, was discovered in the Kharghar area of Navi Mumbai on Wednesday. Preliminary investigations suggest that the victim was murdered by her jilted lover, Vaibhav Burungale, who took his own life by leaping in front of a local train

The police cracked the case after decoding a cryptic message found in Burungale’s suicide note, revealing the location of the victim’s body – a tree marked by forest officials. The woman had reportedly been strangled to death in the Kharghar hills, and the motive behind the heinous act appears to be her decision to sever ties with the perpetrator.

The timeline of the tragic events indicates that the woman went missing on December 12, after leaving for her college in Sion. A missing person case was subsequently registered at Kalamboli police station. Simultaneously, news reached the authorities that Burungale had ended his life by jumping in front of a moving local train at Juinagar railway station on the same day.

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Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Milind Bharambe responded to the gravity of the situation by establishing a special task force to investigate the case. The breakthrough came when a suicide note, stored in Burungale’s mobile phone, detailed the murder and his intention to take his own life. The note included coded messages such as L01-501, which, when deciphered by the police, pointed to a specific tree identified by the Forest Department.

Collaborating with voluntary rescuers from Lonavala, along with the Fire Brigade, Cidco, and the Forest Department, the police conducted an extensive search operation, employing drones for added assistance. The culmination of these efforts occurred when the victim’s body was located in a dumping ground in the Owe Camp area of Kharghar.