Two days after he went missing, a 7-year-old boy, R. Shanmugavel, of Tirumangalam, was found dead inside a parked car at Melapatti in Peraiyur police station limits, on Saturday (November 15, 2025) night.
The police suspect that the boy could have got accidentally trapped inside the car and died due to suffocation.
The police said that the victim from Nadukottai under Tirumangalam Taluk police station limits, along with his mother, Kavitha, had gone to his grandmother’s house in Melapatti to attend a temple festival.
Even as Kavitha was at the grandmother’s house, the boy went out to play. The family had searched for him for a brief while when they could not find him on the street on Thursday evening.
However, Kavitha thought that the boy could have gone to some of her relative’s house and did not bother much.
As the boy did not return home on Friday, a missing complaint was lodged with Peraiyur police.
A search for the boy did not bear any fruit on Friday.
When a doctor from Virudhunagar, who had also come for the temple festival, tried to take his car to return home, he found the boy dead inside the car.
Police suspect that the boy, who could have got into the parked car, did not know how to open the door and got trapped inside.
Forensic experts found signs of the boy having struggled to draw attention of passersby by hitting at the window glass. However, under the high decibel noise played out by the public address system, no one could have noticed him.
The body has been taken to Government Rajaji hospital for post-mortem.
Peraiyur police are investigating.
Published – November 16, 2025 12:31 pm IST
