24-year-old murder solved: Forest body, phone-booth trail and egg crates

In September 2001, a forest guard patrolling the Konanakallu Reserve Forest in Karnataka discovered a man’s body and immediately alerted the authorities. Initial clues — a passbook and a phone number in the victim’s pockets — pointed to a businessman in Shivamogga. But that lead quickly went cold. Over the years, with no digital trail and the perpetrators relying on STD booths and landlines, the case seemed destined to remain unsolved. =

Fast forward to December 2025: after revisiting old files and re-tracing dozens of phone-booth calls across at least six districts, the detectives at Karnataka Police finally cracked the case. Their investigation revealed that the victim — identified as a writer — and his driver had been dispatched to collect ₹1 million; only the driver survived the rendezvous. The writer was killed, robbed, and his body dumped in the forest.

According to an Indian Express report, the breakthrough came via painstaking legwork: police teams visited every contact from the call-detail records, traced irregular activity in a Bengaluru neighbourhood, and discovered two egg-crates purchased at a local shop — a small but telling clue leading to a suspect’s new residence. The suspect, along with two accomplices, eventually confessed, revealing that the murder was premeditated. Court records from 2005 show life sentences were handed down — though one convict briefly absconded before being re-arrested in 2014.

Investigators now reflect on the case as a testament to old-school detective work — long before digital footprints dominated criminal investigations. As one retired SP involved in the case told The Indian Express: “It was a very challenging case.”