A 68-year-old Kerala woman's brutal murder in 2014 remained unsolved for nearly a year until a crucial breakthrough connected it to another crime. Mary Lucas, who ran a paying guest business in Bengaluru's Banaswadi locality, was found dead on April 29, 2014, with her hands and mouth bound with brown tape. Her gold ornaments and cash were missing, but initial investigations hit a dead end with no CCTV footage, mobile data, or viable leads.

Police examined approximately 20-22 similar home-alone murders in the region, searching for patterns, but the case went cold. The turning point came in February 2015 when another murder occurred in the Varthur police station jurisdiction. A 65-year-old woman named Manjulamma was murdered using an identical modus operandi, her mouth, hands, and legs bound with the same distinctive brown tape.

Police sub-inspector Mirza Ali Razzaq noticed the striking similarity between the two cases. When the Varthur police arrested four suspects in Manjulamma's murder through mobile phone location tracking, interrogations revealed a critical connection. Among the accused was Prabhu, then 23 years old, whose fingerprints matched evidence from Lucas's murder scene. Under custody, Prabhu confessed to his involvement in Lucas's death and revealed the actual perpetrators: Viji (23) and Thangaraju (20), both from Tamil Nadu's Dharmapuri district.

According to The Indian Express, Prabhu confessed that Viji had previously visited Lucas's house and noticed her gold ornaments. During a drinking party with associates, Viji allegedly pitched the idea to murder Lucas and steal her valuables for quick money. The breakthrough in solving the case came when investigators recovered the missing gold ornaments pledged at jewellery shops in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu, Ganesh Jewellers and Girish Jewellers, matching descriptions provided by Lucas's family.

The Banaswadi police arrested all three accused on March 28, 2015, nearly a year after the murder. The case was charged under Indian Penal Code sections 302 (murder) and 394 (voluntarily causing hurt during robbery). On November 4, 2025, the 59th Additional City Civil and Sessions Court delivered its verdict, convicting all three accused to life imprisonment with an additional fine of Rs 2,000 each.

Judge Balachandra N Bhat's 49-page judgment acknowledged the case's investigative shortcomings but noted that the distinctive modus operandi and fingerprint evidence provided sufficient grounds for conviction.