Confession without a corpse: Kozhikode's 5-year puzzle of a man lost in marshland

NEW DELHI: Five years after he vanished without a trace, the story of 35-year-old Vijil from Kerala's Kozhikode sounds like a crime thriller without an ending.On March 24, 2019, Vijil left home in the morning and never returned. His phone rang near Sarovaram Bio Park until afternoon. After that, silence. For his family, hope lingered. For the police, the trail went cold.Last month, the case suddenly stirred back to life. Two of Vijil’s friends - Nikhil, 35, and Deepesh, 27 - were arrested. Their confession was chilling: Vijil, they claimed, collapsed after using brown sugar with them and another friend, Renjith, at Sarovaram Park. Believing he was dead, they panicked, abandoned his bike, threw away his phone, and buried him in a marsh near the park, according to a PTI news report.When guilt caught up, they said, they even returned months later, retrieved skeletal remains, and immersed them at Varkala.Yet, despite excavations and earthmovers, not a single trace of Vijil has been found. The marshland is now waterlogged, and the police say they will dig again once it dries. Experts from the Centre for Earth Science Studies have also been roped in to help.The absence of evidence has only deepened the riddle. His parents refuse to believe the overdose story, insisting Vijil never touched drugs, and allege he may have been murdered. Investigators, meanwhile, have registered a case under multiple IPC sections, but admit they are still searching for answers.For now, Vijil’s disappearance hovers between confession and conjecture, a story without a body, a death without closure.