Two Americans being probed over remote Indian tribe’s killing of missionary John Chau
- Investigators believe the pair – a man and a woman thought to be fellow missionaries – encouraged him to visit the island where he was killed in a hail of arrows
Indian police believe two American missionaries encouraged John Allen Chau to go to a forbidden island where he was killed by an isolated tribe he was trying to convert, a top investigator said Saturday.
Dependra Pathak, head of police in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, said the suspects had left India, and that there was still no sign of the body of Chau – who was killed last month in a hail of arrows fired by the Sentinelese tribe.
“We are investigating the role of at least two Americans, a man and a woman, who met with the man who went to the island,” Pathak said.
“These other two, who have since left the country, were reportedly into evangelical activities and encouraged him to visit the island.”
The police chief did not name the couple nor give details of the organisation they belonged to.
Pathak said investigators had traced the two Americans through calls made to Chau’s telephone phone. The Americans had “local mobile numbers”, he added.
