Police find note that may hold key to motive in Goa murder

A five-sentence handwritten note in English, ostensibly scribbled by 39-year-old startup founder Suchana Seth, who allegedly smothered her four-year-old son in a Goa hotel room, was found by the police and might hold the key to unlocking the motive behind the grisly crime that has shocked the country, investigators said on Thursday.

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Seth the CEO of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) firm in Bengaluru allegedly stashed her son's body in the trunk of a taxi she hired to escape from Goa to Bengaluru before being arrested in a dramatic operation spanning two states on Monday afternoon.

The handwritten note was found in one of the bags carried by Seth in the taxi and was scribbled on tissue paper using eyeliner, possibly in a hurry, said a police officer familiar with the investigation.

The note was later shredded and crumpled and our forensic team has recovered it and painfully pieced it together," said the officer quoted above, requesting anonymity.

"The note indicates that the accused didn't want her son to go with the father and offers insights into her state of mind," this officer said, adding that it may have been written at the time she allegedly killed her child.

"The note is very cryptic and is a crucial piece of evidence that reveals her state of mind and possibly the motive behind the crime," the officer added.

He declined to reveal the exact words contained the note.