The bodies of a woman and her three children were recovered from a house near Mumtazabad Phatak in Multan on Tuesday, in what police officials are now treating as a quadruple murder disguised as a suicide.
Multan City Police Officer (CPO) Sadiq Ali Dogar told the media that the initial reports of a mass suicide were misleading. “Certainly, this is not a suicide; this leans more towards murder,” Dogar stated, confirming that the crime scene had been staged.
The victims included three children, aged six, four, and three. Police also confirmed that the deceased woman was pregnant at the time of her death.
Emergency responders from Rescue 1122 and local police originally arrived at the settlement following a helpline call claiming a woman had hanged herself along with her children.
However, the crime scene came under immediate suspicion. A senior police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told a private media outlet that initial findings suggest the case is a suspected homicide staged as a suicide. He added that evidence suggests the victims were strangled with a rope before being hanged to deceive the authorities.
The investigation has been further complicated by the fact that the bodies were moved and taken down before the police or rescue teams arrived. This has led to concerns of potential tampering of evidence.
Initial inquiries into the family’s background revealed that a domestic dispute had occurred earlier that same day. The woman had reportedly contacted her parents to inform them of the conflict, but the killings took place before they could reach the house.
Police have taken the woman’s husband and his brother into custody for interrogation.
While the bodies have been shifted for post-mortem examinations to determine the exact cause and timing of the deaths, the CPO maintained that all aspects of the case remain under active investigation.
