Portrait Of A Cyanide Killer: How Kerala's Jolly Killed Six Family Members Meal By Meal

For years, perhaps the only thing Koodathayi was known for was through-traffic. Its proximity to state highway SH-34바카라�the artery connecting hub towns Koyilandy and Edavanna바카라�makes the village a mofussil pit-stop some 35 km from Kozhikode city in Kerala바카라�s Malabar region. With a little over 13,000 people (Census 2011) calling Koodathayi home, 바카라�vajagam바카라� (idle chatter) is what passes for entertainment here. When villagers used to talk about Jolly Joseph, daughter-in-law of the prominent Ponnamattom family, it was generally in complimentary terms. Much like her business-owner husband바카라�s parents, educationists Tom and Annamma Thomas, Jolly바카라�ostensibly a commerce lecturer at the nearby National Institute of Technology, Calicut (NIT-C)바카라�was acc­orded the high regard her station afforded her and was a familiar face at the Lourdes Matha Church. 바카라�She was very approachable and would go out of her way to talk to people,바카라� says K.P. Kunhammad, a member of the village panchayat. The sudden deaths of Annamma in August 2002 and Tom in August 2008 did little to dent this public approval.

바카라�We sympathised with her as she now had to manage the household by herself. There was talk that her husband was depressed since his parents바카라� deaths and facing business difficulties,바카라� says a villager. 바카라�Then, in September 2011, when the husband, Roy Thomas, died of an apparent suicide by cyanide, we were struck by how Jolly maintained her composure and stayed strong for her sons.바카라� These days, however, a different sort of conversation has been brewing in Koodathayi and across the state. After exhuming six bodies from the family burial vaults at the Lourdes Matha Church and the St Mary바카라�s Forane Church in nearby Kodenchery on October 4 as part of a two-month probe, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Kerala Police arrested Jolly and two other people for Roy바카라�s murder.

Kozhikode (rural) superintendent of police K.G. Simon said Jolly confessed to giving cyanide to Roy, his parents and three other relatives바카라�Annamma바카라�s brother Mathew Manjadiyil, Sily and two-year-old Alphine Shaju, who died in February 2014, May 2016 and May 2014, respectively. Sily and Alphine were the former wife and daughter of Shaju Zachariah, whom Jolly married in 2017. While charges for the deaths of the parents and other relatives are still pending, the 바카라�perfect daughter-in-law as serial killer바카라� has become the peg of the story.

During his press briefing after the initial arrests, Simon said Jolly was trapped in a series of lies and contradictions. 바카라�Jolly came under closer investigation after her presence was found to be the one constant in all the deaths,바카라� he said. 바카라�We discovered she had told people in the locality that she was a BTech graduate and a lecturer at NIT-C. She had forged a NIT-C employee ID card and used to travel in a car with the institute바카라�s board and sticker. In reality, she is a BCom graduate who operated a beauty parlour at Mukkom. Her in-laws too were kept in the dark. She insisted Roy had died from a heart attack though she knew he had cyanide in his system. There were also attempts to forge documents, including a will that made her the sole beneficiary of the family properties.바카라�

The police claim that the motives for the murders varied. 바카라�As the matriarch, Annamma had the run of the house,바카라� said Simon. 바카라�She needed to be eliminated for Jolly바카라�s position in the power structure to be secured. Jolly also fell out with Tom over the allocation of property. After the parents바카라� deaths, the relationship between Roy and Jolly seems to have been very strained. It led to Roy바카라�s murder.바카라� The police also noted that Manjadiyil, who was killed later, had been the most vociferous in demanding Roy바카라�s post-mortem.

Roy바카라�s post-mortem and police investigations concluded it was a case of suicide and found nothing suspicious in the manner of death바카라�the body was found in a bathroom locked from inside. 바카라�When the case file was inspected again, we found no satisfactory answers to how and where Roy had acquired the cyanide,바카라� said Simon. 바카라�Further investigation uncovered five other deaths in the family that seemed to share some commonalities, including the manner of death and the presence of one person.바카라�

While Simon likened Jolly to Harold Shipman, the UK doctor dubbed 바카라�Dr Death바카라� for killing at least 15 patients, more apt parallels may be found closer home. 바카라�The vast majority of cases ­involving female perpetrators of such crimes involved the use of poisons and were crimes of opportunity, which rem­ained confined to intimate relatives and close friends,바카라� says Jayesh K. Joseph, a veteran criminologist and trainer at the Kerala Police Academy in Thrissur, pointing to last year바카라�s murders in Pinarayi, Kannur district, where the prime accused allegedly poisoned her daughters and parents reportedly after her alleged extramarital relationship was discovered, and the 2014 twin murders in Attingal, Thiruvanthapuram district, where lovers Nino Mathew and Anu Shanthi were found guilty of stabbing to death Shanthi바카라�s mother, daughter and husband. 바카라�In the Kerala scenario, we can see commonalities such as close attachment to the victims, same modus operandi, gaps between murders, presence of a male accomplice and illicit affairs in a majority of the cases.바카라�

In Tom바카라�s case, the alleged cause of death was cyanide salt mixed into cooked tapioca, whose smell, a forensic ­exp­ert says, 바카라�resembles that of cyanide바카라�. 바카라�It takes just 150-300 mg of cyanide salt to kill a person,바카라� says former for­ensic pathologist Dr N. Rajaram, who has performed over 1,000 medico-­legal autopsies. 바카라�After ingestion, cyanide salt is converted into hydrocyanic acid. The speed of conversion depends on whether the stomach is full or empty. Cyanide aff­ects tissue respiration. It may take only two minutes for the poison to act. Death takes place very rapidly.바카라�

A number of factors could have inf­luenced Jolly바카라�s alleged crimes. 바카라�A multi-factor approach, incorporating risk vs reward and pleasure vs pain principles, can be useful to help und­erstand this,바카라� says criminologist Febin Baby, president of the Indian Criminology and Forensic Science Association. 바카라�After her first attempt to murder Annamma (an earlier incident prior to the 2002 crime, also involving mutton soup, which resulted in a trip to the emergency room, was disclosed by the police), Jolly was waiting to see if she would be caught. When the axe didn바카라�t fall, she succeeded in her second attempt and was rewarded with more power.바카라�

While the theory of opportunity might explain the gap between the deaths of Annamma and Tom, Baby said, 바카라�The failure to punish or even suspect Jolly for the first crime provided positive reinforcement and emboldened her. This could be why she brought down the interval from six years to three and so on between the subsequent murders. There are also clear signs of psycho-pathology or anti-social personality disorder. Projecting a strong, calm and sympathetic figure to the outside world, while meticulously covering up the crimes and having no empathy for the victims, is a strong indication.바카라�

Speaking to the media earlier this week, Roy바카라�s sister Renji Thomas said, 바카라�After Jolly got married to Roy in 1997, I considered her my elder sister. She was friendly with everyone. No one had a bad word to say about her. She even took care of my father after my mother바카라�s death. However, soon she began to take control. When Roy died, Jolly told us he committed suicide because of financial difficulties. Roy had 38.5 cents of land and a house worth crores. Also, if he had any money issues, he would have turned to family members. That바카라�s when I felt something was wrong. When Shaju바카라�s wife, Sily, died, Jolly was behaving like an event manager and taking stock of everything, while the rest of the family was grief-stricken.바카라�

After her marriage to Shaju and discovering the forged will documents, Renji said she and her US-based brother Rojo were convinced that something untoward was up. That was when Rojo filed the official complaint that led to the re-investigation of Roy바카라�s death. 바카라�The hand of God was at work in bringing the truth of the case to light,바카라� said Renji. With her at the press meet Roy and Jolly바카라�s older son Romo. He said his mother 바카라�could not have done this alone바카라� and that the probe would find the others involved.

M.S. Mathew and P. Prajikumar, t he two other accused in Roy바카라�s murder, are alleged to have procured the cyanide. The police also brought in Shaju, a high school teacher, for repeated questioning. 바카라�Jolly is attempting to implicate me by saying I was in cahoots with her,바카라� Shaju told the media. 바카라�She was the one who initiated the marriage discussion. I was just thinking about my kids after their mother바카라�s death. The investigators int­errogated me to collect additional details. I am not an accused.바카라� Nearly 200 people, including relatives, have been reportedly called in to give statements. No further arrests have been announced as of going to print.

Due to the relative dearth of physical evidence, the exhumed remains of the five other victims assume added significance in light of Jolly바카라�s confession. Section 26 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, negates any confession in police custody without a magistrate present. The import of actionable evidence in this case can be gleaned from a police statement about expanding the SIT and exploring the possibility of sending the remains elsewhere for testing. 바카라�After death, cyanide in the bloodstream will go into the skeletal bone marrow,바카라� says forensic scientist Siva Prasad. 바카라�Using sophisticated tests like gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy analyses, cyanide could be detected in the long bones, especially the sternum and femur leg.바카라�

Dr Rajaram is more measured however. 바카라�The possibility of finding cyanide in an exhumed body is low, but that should not prejudice the investigation. As per Jolly바카라�s statement, she gave her victims cyanide. But only through chemical examination will we know for sure whether it was cyanide or some other poison. If not the bones, perhaps the soil samples from the grave might help,바카라� he said.

Regardless of what other skeletons tumble out of the closet, for those in Koodathayi, the harm has been done. 바카라�From now on, all will rem­ember our village only for this,바카라� Kun­hammad rued.

By Siddharth Premkumar in Thiruvananthapuram