The family of the 10-year-old girl, who was sexually assaulted and murdered near Coimbatore, had shifted to a neighbourhood near Sulur about a month ago, with hopes of a fresh start.

Her father, employed in a workshop in the locality, had earlier been travelling from a place near Podanur, where they had been residing before, according to the neighbours.

“They were residing with a relative near Podanur. The family shifted here with a lot of hope as the breadwinner’s worksite was nearby. They were looking for admitting the girl to a new school in the locality,” said a close relative, waiting outside the mortuary of the Government Medical College and ESI Hospital, where the post-mortem examination was conducted on Saturday noon.

“The accused, Karthi, is a friend of the victim’s father and he used to visit their house. The girl went with him [on Thursday evening] when he called her and offered chocolate, trusting him like an uncle. We are told that the incident took place when her younger sibling went inside home to have water. Her mother, a homemaker, was also inside the house,” a neighbour said. 

A few other neighbours said nobody recalled seeing Karthi leaving the place with the girl on a two-wheeler on Thursday, when she was lured and abducted by him around 5 p.m. People from the neighbourhood joined in desperate searches for the missing girl and shared the new family’s grief as their own when she was found murdered on Friday.

Overwhelmed with  grief, the villagers wanted the perpetrators to be awarded with the maximum punishment.