Three persons, a woman and two children, were found brutally killed in a forest at Harrachaur of Gulmi district.

Locals of the area discovered the bodies—which had already started to decay—in Chaurali Pokhara forest on Saturday and immediately informed the police. The heads of the victims were severely bashed.

Investigating officers suspected that the victims were from the same family and were murdered. The bodies are yet to be identified.

According to Rajendra Singh Khadka, the superintendent of police in Gulmi, the woman is likely to be in her early 30s, while the boy and the girl could be 10 and 7 years respectively.

Khadka said the bodies were found around eight metres from the Shantipur-Sukhaura road. The security personnel recovered a hammer, a mineral water bottle and some blood-stained stones near the incident site.

The incident site lies near the border of Gulmi and Baglung district, approximately 70 kilometres north-east from Tamghas, the district headquarters of Gulmi.

A police team led by Inspector Raj Kumar Rawal reached the incident site and initiated an investigation into the gruesome murder. “It might have been a murder. The victims sustained severe injuries in head,” said Rawal, adding that police team started the investigation from different angles.

The nearest settlement from the murder site is Gaidhunga, a settlement of eight Gurung households. The preliminary police investigation shows that the victims were not from that very settlement.

“The victims might have been taken to the murder spot from another place and murdered,” he added. “The murder took place about a week ago.”