03/06/2005

Man arrested in Jeshma murder investigation

A man has been arrested in Latvia in connection with the murder of 17-year-old Jeshma Raithatha.

Viktors Dembovskis, 42, is believed to have been arrested by Latvian police in Livani, 150 miles outside the capital of Riga. Mr Dembovskis is thought to be the man sought by police, who had disappeared shortly after Jeshma’s murder. He had lived close to the A-Level’s student’s home in Greenford, west London.

Jeshma disappeared on May 16, after failing to return from a shopping trip. Her body was discovered eight days later in a wooded area near her home. She had been stabbed three times in the heart and had also been raped.

Police believe that she had been grabbed in a random attack and taken to a wooded ‘den’ area, reportedly used by local drinkers, where she was then raped and murdered.

On Wednesday, police released CCTV footage of Jeshma’s last movements on the day she was murdered, in an effort to encourage more witnesses to come forward. The footage shows Jeshma, dressed in cardigan, T-shirt and Jeans, on her shopping queuing to purchase a top in Primark in Wembley High Road around 2:20pm. After that, Jeshma went to PoundCity, where she purchased a candle, before catching a bus to Sudbury Hill.

Jeshma began her walk home at around 3pm and police believe that a stranger grabbed her as she walked along a footpath through a wooded area leading to the Wood End Estate.

Police have urged anyone who may have seen Jeshma on the afternoon she was murdered to contact them.

(KMcA/SP)

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