Kovalam: The family of the missing Latvian woman has identified the clothes on a decaying corpse found in a mangrove at Thiruvallam.

The month-old, decayed and decapitated body of a white woman was found in a mangrove Friday afternoon by a group of anglers who immediately informed the police.

Liga Skromene, 33, a Latvian medical tourist has been missing since March 14 from Pothencode at Thiruvananthapuram, where she was getting treated for chronic depression.

Her sister Ilze and husband Andrews, along with the special police team (SIT) probing Liga's disappearance had arrived Saturday morning and visited the site where the body was found.

Ilze identified the clothes on Liga's body, but said that the jacket and slippers were not hers. There were three packets of cigarettes, a lighter and a bottle of water near the dead body.

The police said that only a detailed scientific analysis can confirm that the body was indeed that of Liga.

The police are not ruling out the possibility of murder as a severed head was found fifty metres away from the body.

The decayed body clad in t-shirt and jeans was found with arms entwined in the mangrove roots and legs stretched out.

Ray of hope dying?

In Kasaragod, a tearful Ilze was busy pasting up Liga's pictures on Friday when she got a call from the police asking her to rush to Thiruvananthapuram.

Ilze, who had offered Rs 2 lakh for any tip-off on Liga, had arrived in Kasaragod as part of her journey across the state to locate her missing sister.

The sisters had come to an Ayurvedic facility in Pothencode for treatment and Yoga lessons.

Andrews had flown in after Liga went missing, but had returned to his country for a while as the search yielded no results.

'I see you as I close my eyes'

On Wednesday, Ilze posted on her Facebook a poignant note on Liga, even as she continued her search. “I see you as I close my eyes,” Ilze wrote. “The moment when I hug you again. A silent voice reminds me..this is just another phase..this too will pass".

Ilze and Andrews were due to return to Latvia on Wednesday. But she stayed on, because there was no question of leaving without Liga.

In a note Ilze writes: “I'm staying back here. I can't think of taking a flight without her. I have no noises around except the heartbeat of my thoughts. My prayers have melted into nights deprived of dreams. What keeps me going is only the intense desire to hold you once again in my hands.”

The social media stood strong with Ilze as she searched for her sister across Kerala. She wrote repeatedly on the Facebook page 'Missing in Kerala,' followed by over 1,000 people, with words that expressed her sorrow as well as hope.

The 'Go fund me' crowd sourcing platform of Ilze, launched to support the search for Liga, has fetched nearly Rs 3.8 lakh within six days.

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