Suitcase victim ‘lived in a refuge’

A TORSO found in a suitcase in the Forest of dean is feared to belong to a woman who had been living at a refuge but has not been seen ‘in weeks’.

locals said a resident in her 20s had vanished on april 14 after a series of rows with another woman.

Her mobile phone went unanswered until it was disconnected last week – on the same day that a man and a woman were caught allegedly attempting to dispose of a body.

officers are still waiting for dNa results to confirm the victim’s identity.

a Jamaican woman, Gareeca conita Gordon, 27, has been charged with murder.

Mahesh Sorathiya, pictured, a 38-year-old married father of two, is charged with helping Gordon to dispose of the body.

Police had been called after reports of a vehicle being driven erratically just outside the village of coleford, Gloucestershire at 10.30pm last Tuesday. officers found two suitcases which contained the decomposing remains of a young woman. Her body had been burned and chopped up with a circular saw, with the torso placed in one suitcase and more body parts in the other.

Gloucestershire Police said the results of a postmortem examination had been inconclusive. Further tests will now take place to establish the victim’s cause of death.

Forensics teams have searched properties in Wolverhampton and Birmingham, with work at the latter having continued over the weekend.

yesterday a neighbour claimed the victim had been living in a refuge in Birmingham with four others. ‘There’s a lot of women who come and go from that house,’ they said. ‘They are all running from something. There are no men allowed. you hardly ever see men going in there. I’ve been told that the victim lived in the house.’

another neighbour said: ‘There was a woman living in the front bedroom on the first floor but I haven’t seen her in weeks. definitely not in the last month.

‘We didn’t have a clue about what had gone on until the forensics and police turned up.’

Gordon and Sorathiya are due to appear at Gloucester crown court tomorrow.

appearing via video-link, Gordon spoke only to confirm her name, address, date of birth and nationality at a hearing on Saturday at cheltenham Magistrates’ court. Kathryn Jones, prosecuting, said the accused ‘was found near a quarry while [Sorathiya] was located up the road and the suitcases were located nearby’.

district Judge Joti Bopa rai said the smell greeting officers would have been ‘disgusting’.