Father in court after body parts found dumped
A MARRIED father-of-two appeared in court yesterday after the dismembered body parts of a woman were found dumped in suitcases.
Mahesh Sorathiya, 38, from Wolverhampton, was charged with assisting an offender after the remains of the unidentified victim were found in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, last week.
Gareeca Conita Gordon, 27, a Jamaican national who lives in Birmingham, has been charged with murder.
Both defendants spoke via video link to Cheltenham Magistrates’ Court. They confirmed their names and were remanded in custody to appear at Gloucester Crown Court on May 19.
The victim, who is believed to be from the Lozells area of Birmingham, has not yet been named pending DNA results.
Gloucestershire Police said a postmortem examination had failed to establish the cause of death and further tests were being made. Officers believe the woman was killed between April 14 and May 12.
The body was discovered by chance on Tuesday night when police received a call about a car being driven erratically near a quarry in Coleford, Gloucestershire.
Officers who arrived at the scene questioned a man and a woman before asking them to open two suitcases in their car. Inside they found the human remains. Following the grisly discovery, detectives raided a five-bedroom house said to have looked ‘like an abattoir’.
The police in Gloucestershire had been contacted by Gemma and David Greenway after they noticed suspicious activity near their home on the outskirts of Coleford. They reported that they had seen a man entering a lorry trailer yard. Mrs Greenway, 37, who runs a grooming salon and breeds dogs with her husband, said she was ‘shaken’ by the horrific find.
Mr Sorithiya and Ms Gordon were charged on Friday night, after police had been given an extra 36 hours to question them.
Last week detectives cordoned off a huge area in the Forest of Dean as police with sniffer dogs scoured the woodland.
‘Raided house looked like an abattoir’