US woman found in Maha forest tells police she had chained herself to tree

Mumbai: The 50-year-old American woman found tied to a tree with an iron chain in a forest in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district has now told police she had shackled herself and no one else was involved in the incident, an official said on Monday.

The official cited the woman’s mental health conditions for her act of self-harm.

The woman, said to be battling with mental health issues, appeared emaciated when a shepherd heard her cries in the forest where she was found tied to a tree with an iron chain on July 27 and alerted the local police, an incident that had caused an uproar and attracted wide media attention. She was rescued by the police and taken to hospital.

The Sindhudurg police recorded the woman’s statement on Saturday (Aug 3) during which she said she brought three locks and iron chains and used one of the locks and chains to tie herself to a tree in a forest near Sonurli village in the coastal district, around 460km from Mumbai, the official said.

The police had recovered a pair of keys used to lock the iron chain a few metres away from the spot where she was found. It was still unclear for how many days she was tied to the tree, he said.

In the statement, the American woman also told the police she does not have a husband, the official said.

During investigation, the police came to know her mother resides in the US, but so far nobody from the family has contacted them, he said.

Meanwhile, the woman was brought to Regional Mental Hospital in Ratnagiri where she is being treated at the psychiatric department, he said.

Sometimes the woman experiences hallucinations and during one such moment she must have said that her former husband had tied her to the tree, said the official.

After the American woman was rescued, the police had recovered a note from her bag in which she had mentioned that her “former husband” had tied her to the tree. Based on the note, the police had registered an attempt to murder case against her former husband without naming him and launched a search for him.

The police had recovered a photocopy of her US passport and an Aadhaar card with a Tamil Nadu address. A copy of her expired visa was also found in her possession.