Sharjah: Sharjah Police confirmed to Gulf News that the deaths of three people in a hotel apartment in Sharjah on August 29 was the result of suicide.
The incident, described by the police as a group suicide attempt, involved a man, a woman and a youth along with two female relatives, in which the latter two survived.
Police said that three people, a man, his wife and their son, died while two female relatives — the sister and niece of the woman — failed at the suicide attempt.
All of them are Sri Lankans.
The bodies of the 55-year-old man identified J.K. and his 54-year-old wife, B.S., and their 19-year-old son, J.N., were moved to Al Kuwaiti hospital and then to forensic laboratory for autopsy.
The two women who survived, identified as D.I, 17, and P.I, 27, received treatment at Al Kuwaiti hospital and were transferred to Obaidallah Hospital in Ras Al Khaimah for psychological assessment.
The incident came to light on August 29 at 2.30am when the man jumped to his death from the 7th floor of the building and a witness in a neighbouring building immediately reported the incident to the police operations room.
Police and forensic experts rushed to the scene of the incident.
Upon checking the identity of the man, police found that he had been residing in the same building from which he jumped to his death.
The police immediately visited his seventh floor apartment and found it doubled locked from the inside upon which they obtained permission from public prosecution and broke the apartment’s front door and entered the house.
Inside, they found an older woman and two young women in a pool of blood with their wrists slashed while a young boy’s body lay on the ground covered with a white sheet.
On a table, police found different kinds of medicines and cups containing red liquid and small white balls.
Initial indications suggested that the boy died first and followed by suicide attempts by the three women, and finally, the man who jumped to his death.
Police said that it was a planned suicide.
The hotel apartment management’s spokesperson told Gulf News that the family had been living in the building for more than a year and had paid a monthly rent of Dh6,250. He described them as a friendly family.
He added that recently, the woman recently approached the owner of the hotel apartment and requested him to reduce the rent as her husband, who worked as gold designer in Dubai, was facing financial problems and that he had not received his salary for three months.
She also informed the owner that a foreigner had conned her husband.
Consequently, the owner reduced the rent to Dh5,750 per month.
Police said that as they were carrying the bodies of the victims out of the room, one of the young women who survived the suicide attempt began to cry, saying, ‘Why am I still alive’.
Investigations into the incident are continuing.
