Chennai: A day after tracing the identity of the man whose decomposed body was found stuffed inside a suitcase at Madhavaram on Thursday, the police arrested his grandson for allegedly killing him. Michael Jerome Bosco, (25), a high school drop-out, murdered his grandfather J. Maxwell Williams (70) Monday because he scolded him for drug addiction and wayward habits.
Maxwell’s body was found in a trolley suitcase besides a drainage canal on Thanikachalam Nagar 80 feet road on Thursday morning. “When we recovered the body, there was a silver chain around the neck which had Infant Jesus inscribed on it. There was also a ring with the inscription ‘Max’ on it, which helped us identify the deceased as a Christian,” the official said.
We enquired at a few churches in and around the locality, but a wristwatch with the inscription, ‘Port of Chennai 125 years of Service’ was crucial in identifying the victim, the police said. The family approached the police only after reading about these clues in the newspapers. Police investigations reveal that Maxwell retired as welder from Chennai port trust 10 years ago and was staying with his son Brendan Williams in Australia.
“He came to India only about a month ago and was staying in the house of a sister-in-law’s daughter at Periyar Nagar in Peravallur,” a senior police officer said. During his stay, he learnt of his grandson’s habits and pulled him up several times, threatening to inform his parents. Angered by this, Jerome confronted Maxwell on Monday and hit him. “He hit the old man repeatedly on his chest which broke a few ribs and damaged the internal organs, leading to his death,” Madhavaram inspector Sivakumar said.
The same morning, he had offered to take his grandfather to a bank in Mannadi to withdraw cash for a relative’s wedding. After committing the murder, he took the cash and spent it, the police said. That night, he wrapped the body in a blanket and kept it in an abandoned storing area on the terrace of their house. The family assumed that Maxwell had gone to visit his friend as he usually kept aloof from the family and left the house without informing them, returning days later. On Thursday, Jerome stuffed the body in a suitcase and left the house during the early hours on his father’s two-wheeler to dump it in an abandoned area.
