Australia Australia - Amesha Rajapakse, 31, Westmead, NSW, 26 Aug 2014

  • #281
Police are appealing for people with information to contact Crime Stoppers, catswhiskers.

The last time police asked for public assistance was last Wednesday.

Why haven't police given a photo or cctv clip of Anesha to bring out any witnesses who might have seen her walking to the shops or around the complex foyer and car park?
Amesha was allegedly missing for approx. 12 hours in wild weather so why wasn't a 000 called earlier?

Fruity good point about lifeline!

Perhaps there is no reason for police to release a photo of Amesha or request further public assistance as they may have all the information they require at this stage.

IF they needed further assistance they would definitely be advertising it.
 
  • #282
I just read through the last couple of pages of the thread to update myself.

I think there was a lot of messy reporting at first. But it sounds clear enough that the old man in the photo was her dad and the other was her brother. And yes it's the dad who is crying out saying he just want's to see her face.

Other notes
1. Traditional sri lankan dress doesn't include a scarf.
2. Young sri lankans who migrate to Australia are relatively liberal with the dress code. This is of course a generalisation but by looking at the photos of the family I would guess that she was wearing "ordinary clothes".
3. I'm not surprised at all that the family was living together. They would expect her to sort out her studies, get a job and possibly married before asking her to get her own place.
4. The usual trend is that one member of the family migrates first, and then establishes himself/herself enough to sponsor another member of the family. A student visa is relatively easier to process.

In conclusion, this family unit fits the average stereotype.

What annoys me the most right now is that there seems to be absolutely no internet visibility regarding her or her brother at all. And the other factor is that the local media in Sri Lanka is not giving this the sort of attention they usually do when they hear of an expat murder etc
 
  • #283
I just read through the last couple of pages of the thread to update myself.

I think there was a lot of messy reporting at first. But it sounds clear enough that the old man in the photo was her dad and the other was her brother. And yes it's the dad who is crying out saying he just want's to see her face.

Other notes
1. Traditional sri lankan dress doesn't include a scarf.
2. Young sri lankans who migrate to Australia are relatively liberal with the dress code. This is of course a generalisation but by looking at the photos of the family I would guess that she was wearing "ordinary clothes".
3. I'm not surprised at all that the family was living together. They would expect her to sort out her studies, get a job and possibly married before asking her to get her own place.
4. The usual trend is that one member of the family migrates first, and then establishes himself/herself enough to sponsor another member of the family. A student visa is relatively easier to process.

In conclusion, this family unit fits the average stereotype.

What annoys me the most right now is that there seems to be absolutely no internet visibility regarding her or her brother at all. And the other factor is that the local media in Sri Lanka is not giving this the sort of attention they usually do when they hear of an expat murder etc
I note from an earlier article that her brother is a fraud analyst. Perhaps he needs to keep a low profile because of his work??...
 
  • #284
Well, I myself keep off the radar due to my work and what not, so he might have his own reasons.

But I'm surprised at the girl's lack of internet visibility. Another thought is that some people migrate via seeking asylum.
I know of plenty of people who have done this, and some of them take up new identities, or at least new first names. I wouldn't start wondering the legitimacy of the asylum plea or not because that's whole other (unrelated) story.

And it's the magazine/article regarding migration which prompted me to think of this.
 
  • #285
I wondering if updates are taking a long time maybe a cause of death can't be found?
 
  • #286
I wondering if updates are taking a long time maybe a cause of death can't be found?

Good point!
Although I thought it was strange how it kept being reported that she had 'drowned' - and the autopsy had not yet been conducted... Who knows, she could have been killed elsewhere and just taken to that location afterwards...
With the Alison Baden-Clay case, I think they could not determine a cause of death on the basis of any injury, so they said she had been suffocated.
It's hard to know what the purpose is of repeatedly mentioning that a scarf was wrapped around Amesha's neck. Are they insinuating strangulation? Or just drawing a link between that and the fact that she used a scarf to keep the foyer door unlocked? Or is that just the only piece of clothing they're going to describe that she was wearing at the time?
I'm sure someone earlier in the thread said they had found a fb profile for someone with her name, but it had a male profile picture. Well, when I tried fb the other day, I couldn't get any results at all for that name... Though that does not mean she isn't on there. She could have set up a profile whereby she cannot be looked up by name, for example.
 
  • #287
Yes I've been trying for days to find any online anything for the family to no avail. The closest I got was to a male with the brothers name but it wasn't him and I'm not sleuthing him anyway.
Hopefully tomorrow we will get an update.
 
  • #288
<modsnip>

I'm pretty convinced that there is some sort of name change involved, otherwise there would be lot of articles in the local sri lankan papers here. They would have probably been speculative garbage, but nevertheless something.
 
  • #289
<modsnip>.

I'm pretty convinced that there is some sort of name change involved, otherwise there would be lot of articles in the local sri lankan papers here. They would have probably been speculative garbage, but nevertheless something.

Thanks for your insights, spooks. Much appreciated :seeya:
 
  • #290
Thanks so much to the locals who are chiming in here. There's so little info forthcoming..

I keep coming back to the thought that is highly unlikely to be a coincidence that Amesha was acting oddly in the foyer, pacing up and down etc, on the same night she died. As there is no reported history of severe mental illness there, I can only surmise that somebody had Amesha acting in an agitated way, just hours before her death.
 
  • #291
Thanks so much to the locals who are chiming in here. There's so little info forthcoming..

I keep coming back to the thought that is highly unlikely to be a coincidence that Amesha was acting oddly in the foyer, pacing up and down etc, on the same night she died. As there is no reported history of severe mental illness there, I can only surmise that somebody had Amesha acting in an agitated way, just hours before her death.


What happened on Tuesday that had Amesha pacing and waiting/watching/avoiding/anticipating/ruminating? And how are police going to determine that?


She is the cleverest. She got a lot of achievements. Her whole world was her family and close relatives.

He said the last conversation he had with her was on Monday was &#8220;nothing special&#8221;.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...akse-in-westmead/story-fni0cx12-1227039468200
 
  • #292
What happened on Tuesday that had Amesha pacing and waiting/watching/avoiding/anticipating/ruminating? And how are police going to determine that?


She is the cleverest. She got a lot of achievements. Her whole world was her family and close relatives.

He said the last conversation he had with her was on Monday was &#8220;nothing special&#8221;.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...akse-in-westmead/story-fni0cx12-1227039468200

The CCTC internal & external cameras could help.
The cameras outside could show if she'd met someone or where she walked or looking towards. An unusual car cruising or sitting. I'm hoping the exterior cameras were working around the car park.
 
  • #293
Hi all, I'm new to this thread. Read all the pages and I'm really keen to find out what happened to Amesha. I have done a lot of research on this case even though there's not much information available to us at the moment.

I'm originally from Sri Lanka, a Sinhala Buddhist living in Sydney. So if there are any translations required, I can do that for you.

These points may have been already discussed but I'd like to list a few that caught my attention:

1. The pacing in the foyer meant Amesha was disturbed by something/someone at the time she was trying to leave the building - could it be that she saw a suspicious person outside or someone she already knew and had a dispute with, waiting for her outside and so she couldn't decide whether she should go back up to her apartment or wait for this person to leave? (If she was thinking of suicide, I don't believe she'd go to the foyer to contemplate it). There was definitely an 'external' element that captured her attention at the time she was in the foyer of the building. Or else, she'd not be going in and out while jarring the door. That is not the standard behavior/pattern of a person contemplating suicide. 'Going in and out' meant she was troubled by something/someone associated with the 'outside'. It could be rain that she was waiting to clear. But then if that's the case, why was she going in and out? She could have gone back up and come back later, or leave the shopping for the next morning. She was definitely 'disturbed' by something external, and it can't be the rain.

2. The mentioning of the 'gift cards' by the brother made me think why he had to say that to the father knowing Amesha had already left home. It's not like there was a means of contacting Amesha anymore is it? Clearly she had no phone with her. That to me, sounded like 'too much information'. I'm not implying the brother had something to do with her death. I'm just analysing factual discrepancies here. Also how he said that he bought her take-away the night before. How he also said that her world was small. The mentioning of the gift cards meant they were tight for money. Didn't look like Amesha had a job either although she was an IT graduate. She couldn't also be found anywhere on the net or Facebook. For a 31yr old woman living in Aus, it seemed little too restricted a life. Was the brother getting some sort of satisfaction from the fact that her world was small, that she was dependent on him and that he was the 'model brother' who took care of her? Does this mean she didn't have much freedom to make friends, to venture out there on her own and do her own thing? Was she under pressure because she was totally dependent on family?

3. Being a Sri Lankan woman from a similar background myself, having had my tertiary education completed here, received my Aussie citizenship and having made a new life for myself here, I must say it is a very hard process at the beginning. It's a tough experience having to go to Uni, pass all your exams, find a job, establish yourself here somehow. It's a great amount of pressure especially on young women, coming from a conservative background leaving their home countries and families. Although Amesha had her brother and father here, her migration to Aus is pretty recent (2009). She must have just completed her degree and struggling to find work. There may have been mental pressures and worries. Everyone handles stress differently. So we can't completely rule out suicide.

4. The fact that the family did not contact the Police the very moment they realised Amesha was missing is not unusual by Lankan values. There's strong cultural pride among Lankans and it is considered an embarrassment to contact authorities because that would mean going public with it all. So the family would try their best to solve it themselves first. It is in our nature not to seek external assistance even if we are not capable of doing it ourselves. The Lankan community in Sydney is close-knit, and often families secure their pride and place that over anything else. On a similar note, although it is not culturally specific for women to put up with domestic violence because of shame and guilt, most Sri Lankan women choose to keep silent over dobbing in their family members. If such a thing happened to Amesha, I'd have expected the same behavior from her. No matter how educated we are and no matter where we go in the world, it is hard for most of us to shed our cultural values and expectations. It's a psychological shift that takes years to change, if not never.

5. Lastly, the fact that she left her mobile phone at home is a dead giveaway she did not want to be 'traced'. Any person going out at night, especially a woman, would definitely take their phone with them. And her access card. This to me looks like she had no authority at all, of any of these items. Was the access card not given to her? Was she living on house-arrest? When was she last seen using the access card? Did she ever use it? Security cameras can tell. Was she seeing someone secretly? Did the brother disapprove of this, and therefore, did she lose her right to have an access card or leave home? Strangest of things can happen in households, and it is not surprising how grown women would put up with it all out of fear or shame. Sometimes people are taught to respect their older family members, but in reality it's fear. And one day, everything you've bottled up for so long can explode.


I'd like to highlight the fact that I'm not criminalising anyone or judging Amesha's life or family members here. Just mentioned what I have been deriving from the very little information we have about this sad story so far. I really hope it will be solved for Amesha's sake and for the good of all women out there. May her soul RIP. Really sad for this girl. Wish someone had helped her that night. It goes to show the importance of having friends you can confide in. There's nothing we can't solve 'if we tell someone who cares to listen'.


Keshi
 
  • #294
Hi all, I'm new to this thread. Read all the pages and I'm really keen to find out what happened to Amesha. I have done a lot of research on this case even though there's not much information available to us at the moment.

I'm originally from Sri Lanka, a Sinhala Buddhist living in Sydney. So if there are any translations required, I can do that for you.

Respectfully snipped by me

Hi Keshi ... welcome! :welcome6:

Thank you for your input - very helpful to hear from a Sri Lankan Australian.

You mentioned helping with translations .. are you able to please listen to this video and tell us what the father says exactly? Does he just say he yearns to see her face, or does he say more than that? It seems as if he says more than just that, to me, but maybe it takes more words in his language to say what a few words say in English.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdBv5QWiNys


(I have to go out for a bit now, but will be back later to see if you have had any success. Thanks for your help. :) )
 
  • #295
Thanks for the warm welcome SouthAussie :)

I watched and listened to that clip a couple of times. What the father was saying in Sinhalese:

"Mata balanna oney moona" - "I want to see the face"

Then immediately turning towards the officer, he also goes to say:

"Poddak" - "a little"

It's a Sinhalese figure of speech. To say "I want to see the face a little" is an affectionate statement, mostly conveyed at partings/goodbyes. It's similar to saying 'Let me look at you one last time". At funerals in Sri Lanka, people focus a lot on the face - they even touch, kiss, pat the face of the dead person. And when it's finally the time to close the coffin, it becomes an emotionally intense moment, because that would be the last time seeing a loved-one's 'face'.

IMO he wanted to see the daughter's face, wanted to read her last expressions. It's a deep emotional need he was trying to meet.
 
  • #296
Welcome keshi. What a great first post. :)
 
  • #297
Anoshka, is there still an increased security presence at the complex? You'd think that sooner or later there would be an update, for the residents' peace of mind?!
For police to not publish Amesha's photo, they must have leads pretty 'close to home'?? Perhaps they do assume it's suicide now, or they think the murder is somehow tied to person/s with a relationship to the complex...
Interesting to see that her body was found close to the fence... It's also been reported that she was found IN the creek, NEAR the creek, IN an underpass, NEAR an underpass...
What is this underpass? Is there a walkway under the railway lines? Could someone have accessed that area from the other side of the rail line, by walking into the underpass and heading towards the creek that way?

Clicked few photos of the complex and fenced to give you guys idea about how tall was it ..but how do I post them? :blushing:
 
  • #298
Clicked few photos of the complex and fenced to give you guys idea about how tall was it ..but how do I post them? :blushing:

Anoshka where you reply there is a button saying go advanced. Then above where you type there is a paper clip icon which allows you to attach photos. Good luck. Mine always come out sideways lol
 
  • #299
I doubt she was under house arrest as such. But the access card issue does come up when people sub rent an apartment.
A 2 bedroom apartment with 2 registered tenants usually gets 2 access cards.

The police can (and will) go through old CCTV recordings to see if the "scarf as a door wedge" was a common occurrence. A lot of things that strike as strange to us might have been totally normal and routine to others.
 
  • #300
I doubt she was under house arrest as such. But the access card issue does come up when people sub rent an apartment.
A 2 bedroom apartment with 2 registered tenants usually gets 2 access cards.

The police can (and will) go through old CCTV recordings to see if the "scarf as a
door wedge" was a common occurrence. A lot of things that strike as strange to us might have been totally normal and routine to others.

I imagine the brother would have one card on him, and the other one would have been with the father/Amesha. Didn't sound like the father was planning to go out ... Wonder why Amesha didn't take an access card, if she was just ducking out to buy milk and butter.
Then again, the whole timing of the saga sounds a little odd. Why not buy milk and butter earlier in the day, or wait until the next day? Or, as others suggested, ask the brother to get some on his way home?
Sounds like she could have been using that as an excuse to get out, like she needed or wanted to go out for a bit. Did she sense someone was coming over to try and meet up with her for whatever reason??
And, of all times, those phone calls from the brother. Why did he want to speak to Amesha, I wonder? It sounded like he wanted to speak to her quite urgently, but nowhere is it disclosed, what he wanted to speak to her about, despite there being quite detailed reports about the takeaway, gift cards etc.
It could have been, that he was trying to warn her about someone or something?? Maybe the father was not aware of something the brother was aware of?
And the father answering her phone/her not taking her phone with her. Did kind of strike me as him being the 'keeper' of that phone. But, who knows, perhaps it was the only phone left in the unit... They may not have a landline and the father may not have his own mobile....
Just goes to show that, on reflection, most things can be seen in more than one way, with so little information.
Hope we hear something soon!
 

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