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Source: Reuters
Australian police are hunting for the killer of a three-year-old boy found dead by the side of a Melbourne road just hours after he went missing from a relative's home.
They are waiting for forensic results to determine how a toddler
was killed but have confirmed they are treating his death as a
homicide.
Gurshan Singh's body was found by a council worker dumped in long
grass by the side of a road in Oaklands Junction, in Melbourne's
north, at about 9.00pm on Thursday.
He was found 30km from where he was last seen, at a relative's home in Lalor.
"Clearly, the circumstances are suspicious so we are fearing the
worst," says Deputy Police Commissioner Sir Ken Jones.
"We are treating it ... as a homicide."
Jones says while police are investigating a number of areas there are no suspects at this stage.
The boy's body was found fully clothed in blue jeans and a grey
top.
Jones has acknowledged that the death will ignite massive media
interest in India following a recent spate of violent acts on
Indians in Melbourne.
"I would ask for calm and support from media to allow investigators time and space to conclude a thorough investigation."
Fears boy followed father
The boy went missing shortly after his father went without him to
the library, according to a flatmate of the family.
The parents of the child arrived in Australia from India on January 9, planning to stay.
But they decided to leave next week because the father could not get work.
Sim Kaur, 24, says she was at home with the three-year-old's mother when the boy went missing .
She says he had been screaming because his father had gone to
the library without him.
"He stopped shouting and I thought what happened?" Kaur has told
reporters at the home in David Street, Lalor.
She says his father had left for the library a few minutes earlier
with another housemate.
Kaur says the family would go to the library two or three times a
day so they initially thought the toddler had tried to follow the
father.
The library is just a one-minute walk away.
The mother called her husband and asked if her son was at the
library, Kaur says.
When the father said he wasn't there, the family's cousin alerted
police to the toddler's disappearance.
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