‘We begged her not to go’: Tears of Sarah’s father as he reveals he pleaded with her to stay away from Indian houseboat where she was stabbed to death
Sarah Groves, 24, was stabbed 45 times in Kashmir on Saturday morning
Her father reveals the family had urged her not to travel there
Miss Groves’ body will today be flown to Delhi, escorted by British diplomat
A post-mortem showed she tried to fight off her killer during attack
Results show she suffered two fatal wounds to her lung and neck
Victim had been staying on boathouse for two months with boyfriend
Police arrested Richard de Wit 45 miles from alleged murder scene
Videos seeming to show his travels in Manila have appeared online
Boyfriend’s family pay tribute to traveller who was ‘like a daughter’ to them
By Hugo Gye and Rebecca Evans for the Daily Mail and Jalees Andrabi and Becky Evans and Damien Gayle
Published: 09:52 BST, 9 April 2013 | Updated: 17:32 BST, 10 April 2013
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Doctors said that Miss Groves’s injuries revealed she fought for her life
The father of the backpacker murdered in her hotel room in India described today the heartbreaking dawn phone call telling him of his daughter’s murder.
Sarah Groves, 25, was found on Saturday in a pool of blood inside her room on a house boat hotel on the Dal Lake in Srinagar, Kashmir. She had been stabbed 45 times.
Dutch tourist Richard de Wit, 43, who had a room adjacent to Miss Groves in the hotel, has been arrested on suspicion of her murder.
Describing the 5.45am call from India that brought news of her savage killing, her father, Victor Groves, from Guernsey, said today: ‘It was still dark, I didn’t know where the phone was, and I stumbled around to pick it up.
‘The voice on the other end was a very rough Indian accent and he said: “Mr Groves, your daughter is dead, she has been murdered”.
‘I said to him: “You can’t just say this to me, it may not be true.” I didn’t know if it was genuine. I rather suspected it wasn’t, but he knew a lot about the situation.
‘I immediately called Guernsey Police … They confirmed two hours later or so that it was genuine.
‘That’s where we are now and, sadly, where we will always be.’ Mr Groves spoke at a press conference near his Channel Island home as a British diplomat arrived in Srinigar to escort his daughter’s body to the Indian capital, Delhi.
Miss Groves’ Kashmiri boyfriend, Saeed Ahmed Shoda, 26, also spoke today of the moment he came face to face with her alleged killer in the police station where both faced questioning over the crime.
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Sorrow: Mr Groves and his son Ben wept today as they speak of the devastating impact Miss Groves’ murder has had on the family
Grief: Victor Groves, centre, father of murdered backpacker Sarah Groves, is flanked by his sons Ben, right, and Tom at a press conference where he described the dawn phone call which told him his daughter was dead
Although Mr Shoda’s alibi was firmly established, police asked him to speak to the 43-year-old Dutchman as they struggled to establish a motive for the frenzied knife murder.
‘The first time I said “I do not want to talk to you”,’ he said in an interview with ITV Daybreak. ‘The second time I said “Why did you do this?” and he said “Yes, I killed her. Yes I did this” – it made me want to kill him.’
In a separate interview with AFP, Mr Shoda said the suspected murderer told him: ‘There is no reason [why I killed her]. I just killed her.’
Tragic: Indian police carry the coffin of Sarah Groves into an ambulance to take her body to the airport, where she will be accompanied by a British diplomat on the way to the Indian capital Delhi
Crime scene: Journalists and policemen stand outside the houseboat where Miss Groves was found dead on Saturday, on the Dal Lake in Srinagar, India
Indian police say De Wit, who was arrested hours after Miss Groves killing as he attempted to flee the area in a taxi, has confessed to carrying out the frenzied knife attack, telling them: ‘The Devil took over my body.’
Deputy police inspector general Afadul Mutjaba told AFP that they had learned from Dutch police that their suspect has a history of psychiatric problems.
The policeman also said it is believed that De Wit was under the influence of a drug at the time, possibly cannabis or heroin.
Suspected murderer: A picture of Richard de Wit provided by Uma Rupanya, his wife of ten years
Ms Rupanya pictured at the home she shares with De Wit near Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Right, De Wit with a child, it is not known whether it is his
Happier times: A picture of De Wit’s wedding to Ms Runpanya in 2002. She suffers from MS
It’s all at risk now: Indian police say De Wit, pictured right with one of his children and left in another old photo, has confessed to murdering Miss Groves and told them he was under the influence of drugs at the time
Miss Groves’ original plans had never included going to Kashmir, said Mr Groves, whose business has an office in India. He revealed that the family had begged her not to travel to the area.
After exploring Goa she was meant to travel to Sri Lanka where she would meet up with Sarah Griffith, founder of the Bridge 2 Sri Lanka charity.
‘She was happy there but we were keen that she didn’t stay there too long,’ Mr Groves told the press conference.
‘We weren’t happy when she changed her plans to go there, but we were ultimately reassured and she seemed to settle in … with a good interdenominational family-type environment.
‘It is nothing against the guy himself but sadly she met somebody and instead of going to Sri Lanka she went north instead.’
Miss Groves had been staying on a houseboat belonging to the family of her boyfriend Saeed Shoda
In an effort to tempt Miss Groves away from Kashmir, Mr Groves had booked a trip to Nepal where he and his wife intended to meet up with her at the base camp of Mount Everest on April 19.
Miss Groves had previously climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and raised more than £3,000 for Childreach International.
‘We didn’t want to particularly separate them [Sarah and Saeed] long term – but Sarah wanted to see so many places and she got caught up in something which meant she only saw two places,’ said Mr Groves.
The beautiful student received defensive injuries to her arms and hands in the horrific attack
Speaking from India in a UK television interview, Mr Shoda today said he hopes De Wit, Miss Groves’ alleged killer, will be ‘in hell’.
‘I want him to get really big punishment, he made her really suffer and I want him to be in hell as well,’ he told ITV Daybreak.
‘She didn’t know him at all, so why he did this?’
Anger: Miss Groves Kashmiri boyfriend Saeed Ahmed Shoda told ITV Daybreak of the moment he came face to face with her suspected killer as both faced questioning over her death at the local police station
VIDEO Sarah’s boyfriend on Daybreak on meeting suspected killer
Describing how her death had affected him, he added: ‘I couldn’t really walk and stand up, I really did cry a lot. I think now my life is really like shut down.
‘I spoke with her parents and I told them I am very sorry for this, I couldn’t really take care of her.
‘The whole world will see her face and see how innocent she was and how kind she was.’
A British diplomat today travelled to Srinigar to Best Escort Agency Goa Miss Groves’ body on a flight to the Indian capital Delhi this afternoon.
Indian police personnel carried her simple coffin from the mortuary at the Shere-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Science into a battered old ambulance for transport to the airport.
‘Your daughter is dead. She has been murdered’: Mr Groves also revealed how he had learned of Sarah’s death in a phone call
Nazir Ahmad, Station House Officer at Ram Munshi Bagh police station, said: ‘We have handed over the dead body of the British woman to an official from the UK Embassy. The body will be be flown to New Delhi this afternoon.’
The Groves, who last spoke to their daughter two days before her death, have not travelled to Kashmir and do not intend to after Mr Shoda carried out the identification process.
However, they were unsure when her body would be bought back home.
The latest comments from Miss Groves’ family and her boyfriend come after the results of a post-mortem examination yesterday showed that Miss Groves had ‘bravely’ tried to fight off her killer.
Cuts to her arms and wrists suggested she had fought for her life, before her killer fatally plunged the knife into her chest, puncturing a lung, and her neck, severing the carotid artery that takes blood to the brain.
Tragedy: Sarah Groves, 24, pictured getting a make-over, tried to ‘bravely’ fight off her killer during a knife attack in which she was stabbed 45 times
Saeed Shoda described Miss Groves as ‘perfect’ and the pair were planning a trekking holiday together
Police said the 24-year-old was found inside the boat and had defensive wounds to her wrists and arms
The post-mortem results come after films emerged on YouTube that appear to be the holiday videos of her Dutch alleged killer Richard de Wit.
The videos, uploaded by a user of the same name, show Baclaran Market in Manila. They were uploaded in February, just weeks before Sarah was killed.
Dr Farida Noor, head of forensics at Srinagar’s General Medical College, said yesterday two of the wounds were fatal.
She added that the former public school girl had defensive wounds to her hands and arms proving that she had tried to resist the attack, according to The Telegraph.
Dr Noor said: ‘Two of the wounds were fatal, one on her neck and the other pierced her lung.
‘The cause of death was haemorrhage, but all the rest of the injuries were defence wounds. She tried to save herself… I think she would have fought bravely.’
Saeed Shoda (left) said he has spoken to Dutch national Richard de Wit, who was arrested about 45 miles from the scene of the suspected murder
Before setting out to India, Sarah wrote: ‘Quit your job, buy a ticket, get a tan, fall in love, never return’
The post-mortem results came as Miss Groves’ Guernsey-based family prepare to return her body home and friends paid tribute to the ‘free spirit’.
She was staying on a houseboat owned by the family of her Indian boyfriend, who said she was ‘like a daughter’ to them.
Before Miss Groves set off for India in July last year she posted a message on Facebook which said: ‘Quit your job, buy a ticket, get a tan, fall in love, never return.’
She wrote a blog called The Bright Side of Life, on which she posted uplifting messages such as: ‘When you seek beauty in all people and all things you will not only find it, you will become it.’
Pictures posted on Facebook show her with African children. Friend Fabiana Harrington, who accompanied her to Kilimanjaro, said that in Tanzania she had fallen in love with the saying kuwa huru, meaning ‘be free’.
‘This is really how she was – a free and loving soul, a fearless, brave, inspirational and generous free spirit,’ she said.
A police officer holding Sarah’s hiking boots. She was a keen traveller and had raised money for a children’s charity by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro
An officer bagging evidence. The boyfriend’s family heard screaming and raised the alarm
Many friends and fellow pupils of £30,240-a-year St Mary’s School in Ascot, Berkshire took to Facebook to pay tribute to Miss Groves, the daughter of wealthy businessman from Guernsey.
One friend, Annemarie Flemming, wrote on Facebook: ‘Your beauty, passion, smile and energy will always stay in my heart.’
Another, Claire Spindlow, said: ‘Sarah, your amazing outlook on life and beautiful personality was infectious to all those around you.’
Hafiza Shoda, mother of Miss Groves’s boyfriend Saeed Ahmed Shoda, said she was ‘devastated’ at the backpacker’s killing.
‘She was a shy, lovely girl and called me mother in Kashmiri,’ Mrs Shoda said as she expressed regret at hiring a room on the houseboat to the 43-year-old alleged killer.
A police officer with a pair of Sarah’s shoes at the front entrance to her room on the houseboat
‘Had we known the man had such evil intentions, we would have never let him stay,’ she added. ‘I’m devastated.’
Mr Shoda had gone to see friends at the time Miss Groves was killed in the early hours of Saturday morning on the houseboat near Kashmir’s capital Srinagar.
‘I wish I hadn’t gone,’ he said. ‘I torture myself with those regrets now. She may still be alive if I was here or if she had come with me. I don’t know how I can come out of this trauma.
‘It was a very short time we were together but I will never forget her. She has left a mark on my life. She had a great wonderful soul.’
Yesterday he said he had confronted De Wit, a 7ft cannabis user, and begged for answers.
Mr Shoda said de Wit’s response was brazen and ‘not normal’, adding: ‘I saw him at the police station and I asked him, why did you kill her?
‘The killer is not right in his head. He is not of this world. He doesn’t seem okay when you speak to him. He will not divulge anything about his crime, he has confessed to the crime but will not give any details.
‘I want him hanged. He had no reason to kill her. She didn’t do anything wrong. I just don’t understand.’
Indian police said de Wit had confessed to the murder, which was allegedly carried out with a 12in knife.
The Deputy Inspector General of Kashmir Police, Ahfadul Mujtaba, said: ‘We put him in front of the magistrates today and we now have him in our custody for a further ten days.
‘He has confessed to killing the girl but at this time he is not giving any further detail.’
De Wit had arrived at the lake two days earlier and was staying in a separate cabin on the same boat as Miss Groves, a former bank worker.
Saeed’s brother Irfan said the police did not send forensic officers until a day after the crime
Sarah Groves’ backpack is taken away for forensic tests by police
Indian policemen carry the coffin containing the body of Miss Groves
Investigation: The police station where the body of Sarah Groves is being kept
She was found at around 3am by Mr Shoda’s brother Irfan and father Abdul.
Irfan said she had desperately tried to phone for help during the attack and was found lying on her bed, clutching her phone and with cuts on her fingers. He said: ‘The Dutchman’s room was open. Sarah’s door was open, broken.
‘I used my torch and saw Sarah in a pool of blood on her bed. She was motionless and one of her hands was in her mouth.’
Officers said they had not ruled out sexual assault because the victim’s clothes had been torn. After the attack, de Wit fled in a stolen rowing boat, which capsized.
He swam to shore and was picked up by police, carrying his passport and with no shoes, 50 miles away in Qazigund after flagging down a taxi.
Probe: River police investigate a boat on the lake where the houseboat is moored
The getaway boat believed to have been used by de Wit. Sarah painted ‘No Woman No Cry’ on the interior
Arrested: Dutch national Richard de Wit was arrested about 45 miles from the scene of the suspected murder
Inside: A pair of shoes (left) belonging to the 24-year-old woman from Guernsey are pictured on the houseboat in Srinagar
It is believed that Miss Groves travelled to Srinagar two months ago, intending to stay there for just four days
On the evening before the attack, Miss Groves shared a vegetable stew with the family in their corrugated iron hut beside the houseboat.
Hafiza tried to persuade her to stay the night with her, but she declined, saying she wanted to speak to her father and read a book.
Her parents, Victor, 70, and Kate, 66, are understood to be preparing to fly to India. Her brother Tom, 31, yesterday launched an online campaign to get justice for his sister, writing: ‘She lit up so many people’s lives.’
The attack will be another blow to the Indian tourist industry after a 25 per cent drop in foreign visitors since a spate of sexual assaults on women over the past few months.
A policeman stands outside the houseboat, New Beauty. Sarah, a qualified fitness instructor had gone travelling in Africa and Asia after attending Chelsea College of Art and Design
Sarah Groves was allegedly stabbed to death on Dal Lake, a popular tourist destination
Owner: One of the sons of the boathouse owner Abdul Rahim Shoda (pictured) is also helping police with the inquiries, although he has not been arrested, according to reports
Shoes: An Indian policeman stands guard on a houseboat near a pair of shoes (left) belonging to Sarah Groves
Tribute: Messages of respect have been paid to Sarah on sites including Twitter
Family: The son of the houseboat owner said Sarah had been enjoying her time with the family
In December a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was gang-raped on a bus in the centre of Delhi and later died from her injuries.
In March a 39-year-old Swiss tourist was gang-raped while camping with her husband in woodland in central India.
A few days later in the northern city of Agra, a 31-year-old British tourist was forced to jump from a second floor balcony when she feared a sexual assault by the owner of her hotel, who was trying to get into her room at 4am.
Shocked friends have left messages for Miss Groves on social networking sites.
James Blower, a businessman in Guernsey, tweeted: ‘Can’t believe Sarah Groves is dead. Such a little ray of sunshine and not a bad bone in her body. Taken far too young.’
The Foreign Office has confirmed that a British woman has been killed in Srinagar and that it is providing consular assistance to her family.
