Rabat – Moroccan investigators have identified a shepherd as the primary suspect in the killing of a 24-year-old Moroccan woman in the Ifrane region, in central Morocco.
On Friday morning, locals in the Oued Ifrane rural community in Morocco’s Middle Atlas Mountains found the decapitated body of the woman in a deserted area.
The woman was a Moroccan divorcee, mother of a 7-year-old daughter, living with her parents.
The suspect, 38 years old, is a shepherd in the forests of the Atlas Mountains. He reportedly disappeared suddenly after the crime.
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Using a helicopter and sniffer dogs, the Moroccan royal gendarmerie and auxiliary forces are chasing the suspect, who is thought to have headed to his hometown Tounfit, in Midelt province, central Morocco.
While rumors spread that the motive behind the murder was retaliation for “a failed love relationship between the victim and the suspect,” the victim’s father told Moroccan media that the crime could be linked to “a dispute over a piece of land.”
The father, speaking sorrowfully, said that one of his daughters broke the news to him of the death of his youngest daughter. He said his daughter was the family’s breadwinner and had worked in the area’s olive and apple fields and cafes.
Police transported the woman’s body to the Azrou Regional Hospital’s morgue for an autopsy.
The gendarmerie and local authorities are still examining the crime scene to investigate the murder.
