On October 20, the police found the decapitated body of Alan Stanley, a guest lecturer at Delhi University’s St Stephen’s College, on railway tracks near Sarai Rohilla station in the national capital. The same night, a friend went looking for Stanley at his residence in Pitampura. There, he found Stanley’s mother, Lissy, hanging from the ceiling, her mouth stuffed with a cloth. Stanley was from Kottayam, Kerala, and Lissy had recently moved to the capital to stay with her son.
The police suspect that Stanley helped his mother commit suicide before killing himself. A note found at their home — signed by Stanley and his mother — lists “mental tension”, “depression”, and “a misinformation campaign by a few media outlets” as the reasons for their suicide, said a Delhi police official who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
