19-year-old, boyfriend kill her ‘adoptive father’, chop body, throw it in Mithi

Five days after a bag stuffed with body parts washed up near Mahim Dargah, Mumbai Police’s crime branch identified the deceased and solved his murder. The deceased was identified as Bennett Rebello, a 59-year-old guitarist who lived in Vakola. On Saturday, the police arrested a 19-year-old woman claiming to be Rebello’s adopted daughter and a minor boy for the murder.

Inside the bag, police had found a left arm till the shoulder, a right leg and a sweater, which had a tag that the police narrowed down to a menswear shop in Kurla.

“Tailors have a practice of attaching a piece of cloth to the bill book while writing the customer’s name and contact number. The bill only had the first name ‘Bennett’ on it. We scanned social media and found one Bennett Rebello wearing a sweater which matched the piece of cloth kept by the tailor,” said Shahji Umap, deputy commissioner of police, crime branch.

From the social media profile, the police reached Rebello’s residence, where they found a 19-year-old woman who said she was Rebello’s adopted daughter. Initially she claimed Rebello was in Canada, but later she confessed to killing him with the help of her 16-year-old boyfriend. The 19-year-old has also claimed Rebello sexually assaulted her. Police are probing her claims.

According to the police, the duo killed Rebello in his Vakola residence on November 26. “They first hit him [Rebello] with a bamboo and then stabbed him. While he was still alive, they sprayed mosquito repellent on his face,” said Umap. The duo cut Rebello’s body into pieces over three days, in the bathroom. The body parts were stuffed into two bags and wrapped in gift-wrapping paper. Patil and the minor threw these into the Mithi river over three days and burned incense in the house to cover any smell.