Mystery Envelops US Woman Discovered Starving and Chained to a Tree in India

An unknown American woman was found screaming and chained to a tree in a Maharashtra forest, with authorities investigating the mystery.

Lalita Kayi, 50, was found a week ago in Sindhudurg district’s deep forests when shepherds heard her calls for assistance. After informing the police, they cut the chain and freed the woman.

Ms. Kayi was brought to the hospital looking completely malnourished. Since then, her physical health has improved, and on Friday, medics attending to her told the BBC that she was transferred to a psychiatric facility for more care.

She claimed that her husband “chained her and left her in the forest to die without food or water” in a written statement to the police.

Police are searching for her husband in the southern state of Tamil Nadu based on the information she provided.

However, seven days after Ms. Kayi was rescued, numerous questions still remain unanswered.

The woman was discovered last Saturday by Pandurang Gawkar, a cow herder, who told BBC Marathi that he had heard “a woman screaming loudly” while taking his animals for a graze in the forest. 

“The mountainside forest was the source of the sound. Upon arriving, I noticed that she had a leg tied to a tree. She was yelling like a savage. I made calls to the local police and other villagers.”

The Aadhaar card, an exclusive identity for Indians, and a copy of her passport, which showed that she was an American citizen, were discovered on her, according to the police, along with her home address in Tamil Nadu.

They reported that she was also in possession of a mobile phone, a tablet, and 31,000 rupees ($370; £290), which led them to dismiss theft as a motive.

The shepherd chose an area close to her for his flock to graze that day, according to the locals, which was fortunate for the woman. She might have gone for days without anyone hearing her calls for aid in the large woodland she was found in.

She was first taken to a nearby hospital by police, and then they transferred her to a hospital in the neighboring state of Goa.