Nine women have been found murdered over the past 14 months in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly, sparking fears that a serial killer might be on the prowl. The women, aged between 45 and 55, were murdered within a 25-kilometre radius in the rural pockets of Bareilly.

The similarities in the murders are striking. All the women were found strangled in fields around noon, their clothes dishevelled, but there was no evidence of sexual assault, according to a report by The Times of India.

UP DGP Prashant Kumar informed the newspaper that the police have been investigating the cases for six months and have not dismissed the serial killer theory due to the identical modus operandi.

“Our teams have been investigating this case for six months and have not ruled out the possibility of a serial killer due to the nearly identical modus operandi of the murders,” he said.

Based on some leads, the police have released sketches of three suspects.

The string of murders began in June 2023 when the first body was found. By November 2023, the body count had risen to eight, causing widespread panic among the local residents. Despite the arrest of three men, the murders continued unabated.

The most recent victim was discovered on July 3. A 45-year-old woman found lifeless in a farm in the Shahi Sheeshgarh area of Bareilly.

Bareilly SSP Anurag Arya told TOI, “The pattern is clear – strangulation around noon, bodies dumped in farms, and post-mortem ruling out sexual assault. Our investigations, including electronic surveillance, have hit a dead end.”

Dharampura Gram Pradhan Sharif Khan told ToI, “Despite constant vigilance, the killer remains at large. We have advised our women to move around in groups.”