US teen arrested in Jodhpur for his mother's brutal murder

The dispute between a husband and wife became the reason for the son to murder his mother after he failed to convince her to go back to his father.

John Karlos Patton, 15, killed his mother Cynthia L Iranaralle on August 14, around 1 am at Hotel Camel Camp (near Oshia), seventy kilometers north of Jodhpur city. Both mother and son frustrated with family disputes first landed in Dubai, then Colombo, Bengaluru, Delhi, and finally reached Jodhpur on August 11.

On the night of August 13, they had their dinner together, and this was followed by a heated debate between them around the midnight, leading to the son killing his mother. "The family was frustrated over internal disputes, and they came to Jodhpur to peacefully reach a resolution. The son was in favour of his father, and regularly asked his mother to settle issues. He murdered her with a knife, and dragged her body outside the hotel before throwing it into the sand dunes nearby," said Superintendent of police Jodhpur Girdhari Lal Sharma.

"He fled with all the documents she was carrying, including her passport, credit cards. The hotel officials got wind of the incident only when they didn't get a response from her room on the morning of August 14. They later opened the room and found bloodstains on the floor, and later recovered the body from the sand dunes.

The local police were informed about the incident," added Sharma.

The police later arrested Patton from a nearby area, where he had taken shelter after murdering his mother, and was produced before the city magistrate court. He has been sent to a juvenile home till August 16. "We have to send the body for a postmortem, and have informed the US Embassy and Cynthia's family members, including her husband. Four members from the US Embassy arrived in Jodhpur, and we are completing the paper work to handover the body to the embassy," added Sharma.

Police investigation is on based on belongings recovered from Cynthia's room.