American woman murdered in Jodhpur, son detained

A 50-year-old American woman was on Friday found murdered with her throat slit near a resort in Osian village in the district and police have detained her son for questioning.

The body of Cindy Iannarelli, from Pennsylvania, was found by the staff of the Reggie's Camel Camp, Superintendent of Police (Rural Jodhpur) Girdharilal Sharma said.

The American tourist had been attacked by a sharp-edged weapon and there were wounds on her neck, the SP said. Cindy and her son Johncarlo Patton (22) had reached Jodhpur on Wednesday afternoon and headed straight to Osain, 100 km from Jodhpur.

Police claimed that the Johncarlo 'fled' from the resort after the murder last night and was today detained by police at Jodhpur airport.

"We are interrogating Johncarlo, who is the prime suspect," Sharma said.

The SP said that the police received information his morning that Cindy's body was found lying near the resort and her son Johncarlo was missing.

In his statement to the police, Johncarlo said that his parents had divorced and he wanted Cindy to patch up but she was not convinced.

"They had a heated argument on the issue on Thursday and in the night this incident occurred," police said.

According to the resort manager, the duo had gone on a camel safari yesterday and visited a temple. In the evening they had enjoyed a cultural programme and at about 10pm, they went to their room.

"Next morning, when I went to their hut, it was closed but there was blood splattered everywhere. I followed a blood trail and found her body at the bottom of the sand dune on which the hut is built. We immediately informed the police," he said.

The police have informed the US embassy. They said a postmortem will be conducted after a representative of the embassy arrives here.

The body was sent to the Mahatma Gandhi Hospital mortuary, Sharma said, adding the hotel staff were also being quizzed.