Noida, May 17:

The brutal murder of Noida girl Aarushi got murkier today as the prime suspect, the family’s domestic help who had gone missing, was found dead on the terrace of their house, police said.

The body of Yam Prasad alias Hemraj, who is of Nepali origin, was found after an extensive search was conducted around the house in Jalvayu Vihar in Sector 25, which falls under the Sector 20 police station. The police are not revealing anything of how Hemraj could have died.

Fifteen-year-old Aarushi, a Grade IX student of Delhi Public School (Noida), was found dead with multiple stab injuries on her face, chest and neck when her father opened her bedroom door at their home here last morning.

The teenager, the only daughter of a dentist couple, had eaten dinner with her family on Thursday night and then retired to her separate room in the three-bedroom apartment.

At 6 am yesterday, her father Rajesh Talwar woke up to open the door for a part-time domestic help and peeped into Aarushi’s room. To his horror, he found his daughter lying dead in a pool of blood. Her throat was slit and there were stab wounds on her forehead, shoulder and chest, said Superintendent of Police (city) Mahesh Mishra.

She was rushed to hospital where doctors declared her dead.

The police immediately suspected Nepali origin Hemraj, the family’s recently-hired domestic help, as he was absconding since the incident. But after the recovery of his body from the Talwar home’s terrace, police are now probing other angles, an official said.

The motive behind the murder is unclear as no art icles were found missing from the house. Mishra, however, had said that “sudden provocation” might have been the cause. But according to Aarushi’s autopsy report, there were no signs of sexual assault on her. This has made the case even more complicated, Mishra said.

Hemraj was brought to the Talwar home by Vishnu, the family’s regular domestic help, who had to go on leave. Hemraj had been working with the family for the last seven months.