Police in the UK have launched an international manhunt for a man who is suspected of murdering his wife and hiding her body in the boot of a car.

The body of 24-year-old Corby resident Harshita Brella was found stuffed into the boot of a car on Brisbane Road in Ilford, East London on Thursday (14 November), prompting the launch of a murder inquiry.

Northamptonshire Police have named Harshita’s husband Pankaj Lamba as the prime suspect.

Speaking at a press conference in Kettering, Chief Inspector Paul Cash said: “Inquiries lead us to suspect that Harshita was murdered in Northamptonshire earlier this month by her husband Pankaj Lamba.

“We suspect Lamba transported Harshita’s body from Northamptonshire to Ilford by car. We believe he has now fled the country.”

The body of 24-year-old Harshita Brella was found inside a car boot in Ilford, London (PA/Northamptonshire Police)

Police had been contacted the day before her body was found by a member of the public who was concerned about Harshita’s welfare, with officers visiting her home in Skegness Walk and not being able to find anyone.

A missing person investigation led to the discovery of the car and the 24-year-old’s body hidden in the boot.

A police spokesperson previously confirmed that Harshita Brella had been targeted by domestic violence, and in September of this year Northampton Magistrates’ Court had granted her a Domestic Violence Protection Order (DVPO).

The 28 day order reportedly banned the person who committed the violence against her from visiting the woman at her workplace, and from harassing or threatening her or attempting to get others to do the same.

Formal charges against the perpetrator of the violence were not recorded by the court and they were subsequently released, though ordered to pay full costs.

Police have named Pankaj Lamba as a murder suspect, and believe he has fled the country (PA/Northamptonshire Police)

The police investigation into the 24-year-old’s death continues with over 60 detectives now working on the case, with Chief Inspector Cash appealing to the public for any further information.

“If you saw anything suspicious in the past week or have any information, no matter how small, please contact us,” he said.

“We would always rather receive well-meaning information that turns out to be nothing as opposed to not receiving it all.”

Extra police patrols will be carried out in Corby to reassure the public, though officers believe there is not a wider risk.

Anyone who may have information is asked to call police on 101 quoting Operation Westcott, or they can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111. Information can also be submitted online at mipp.police.uk.

Donning a wetsuit and crouching over the water, Dawn Brancheau was pictured leaning forward to give a killer whale some love.

The snap would turn out to be the last ever photograph of the experienced animal trainer, as moments later, she was snatched into the jaws of the six tonne and 22ft long Orca, Tilikum.

The duo regularly performed together at SeaWorld Orlando and quickly became the star attraction with their heart-stopping stunts during the Shamu show.

Despite being in charge of the largest orca in captivity, Dawn was always cool, calm and collected and had built a ‘great relationship’ with him, according to a senior trainer.

On 24 February, 2010, she’d performed her Dine With Shamu segment with Tilikum as swarms of visitors watched from the sidelines.

As the pair wound down their performance, Dawn was lying on a slide-out on the edge of the pool rubbing the killer whale’s head as part of the end-of-show routine.

In front of hundreds of spectators, Tilikum suddenly latched onto her long ponytail and quickly began dragging his trainer into the depths while she desperately tried to struggle free.

X/@fasc1nate

But she was no match for the humungous killer whale, who thrashed her around the pool as terrified guests were ushered away by SeaWorld staff.

Despite efforts to distract him with food and nets, Tilikum kept a tight grip on his trainer for around 45 minutes – reportedly severing her spinal cord, scalping her and tearing off an arm during the attack.

The 40-year-old’s body was then retrieved from the water, with an autopsy later showing that she had died by drowning and blunt force trauma.

It also showed she suffered fractures to her jawbone, ribs and a cervical vertebra.

Dawn’s death soon made headlines around the world as people were left in shock that a senior killer whale trainer had become Tilikum’s third victim.

Magnolia Pictures

Experts believe that the Orca had become ‘psychotic’ due to being kept in captivity, a claim that was echoed by the 2013 documentary Blackfish which accused SeaWorld of horrific treatment of its killer whales.

Tilikum died in 2017 after suffering a series of health issues, including a persistent bacterial lung infection.

Speaking at the time of Dawn’s death, John Hargrove, a senior trainer at SeaWorld, said: “We’ll never know why Tilikum made that choice to grab Dawn and pull her into the pool.

“He had a great relationship with her, and she had a great relationship with him. I do believe that he loved her, and I know that she loved him.”

Dawn’s sister, Debbie Frogamei, described her as ‘special’, adding: “We were in awe of Dawn and the way she cared for the animals and interacted with them.

“If we were at SeaWorld for the day, we attended every show that Dawn performed in.

“Watching her perform was sure to bring tears of joy for some of us. She was simply amazing.”

Tilikum dragged his trainer underwater for around 45 minutes. Gerardo Mora/Getty Images

Trainers can no longer perform in the water alongside captive animals at SeaWorld.

According to CBS, SeaWorld now runs a programme called ‘Orca Encounter’, which looks at the killer whales’ role in the ocean ecosystem, behaviours that the animals exhibit in the wild, the importance of conservation to their habitat and animal welfare practices at SeaWorld.

In addition to this, all Shamu (the stage name given to orcas performing in SeaWorld shows) merchandise reportedly was slowly starting to be removed from the shelves and is now virtually non-existent within the parks.

It was also outlined in a 2017 Annual Report that SeaWorld San Diego had temporarily ceased its killer whale shows which caused a ‘deterioration‘ in attendance.

LADbible has contacted SeaWorld for comment.

Warning: This article contains details of torture and murder that some readers may find disturbing

American serial killer history is something that many are morbidly fascinated by, but the case of John Wayne Gacy is a very real tragedy that rocked a small community.

In a suburban town in Chicago, 15-year-old Robert Piest’s disappearance on 11 December, 1978 would open up a can of worms like no other, leading to detectives being traumatised by what they saw till this very day.

John Wayne Gacy, who would often dress up as a children’s clown called Pogo and was integrated into the inner circles of the community, had been harbouring a dark secret.

He was a killer, who had as many as 33 victims, most of whom were stuffed in the crawl space of his home.

How Gacy managed to get so many men and boys to his home was by telling them they needed help with ‘scientific research’, for which he would pay $50.

After he got them alone, he would either hold them at gunpoint or through manipulation, and would give them alcohol until they were drunk and then trick them into handcuffs.

Then, he would torture them, rape them and finally, perform his ‘rope trick’ which involved him strangling them to death with a length of rope.

Many of the people he set upon were either runaways or homosexual, which was taboo at that time.

One of his victims was the son of a Chicago officer who even begged inspectors not to release the details of his son’s sexuality to the public.

John Wayne Gacy would attend children’s parties as Pogo the clown (Netflix)

Des Plaines inspector Rafael Tovar was on the case at the time with a team of 10 who worked tirelessly for six months clearing the bodies from Gacy’s home with their bare hands.

What they discovered would shake them so badly, and they can still recall the smell and sights from within the ground.

It was at the Norwood Park Township home that they found 29 bodies, some which were piled on top of each other in different stages of decomposition.

Through the initial search, they couldn’t find Piest, who was known to have followed the clown home on the day he went missing.

But when an officer could smell rotting flesh coming through the heating system which was linked to the underground crawl space, they knew they were on to something.

That’s when the force returned with a second warrant, and dug up the crawl space, where Tovar found a femur bone.

Des Plaines inspector Rafael Tovar was scarred by what he saw at the house (Getty Images)

He told The Sun Online: “It was a bone already so we knew it couldn’t have been Robert Piest because it had only been 10 days [since his disappearance].

“So then we kept digging and found a second femur – a left femur – and then we found a third left femur. By this point we’re thinking there’s a whole lot more here.”

After telling Gacy that they were going to dig up his whole crawl space, he immediately cooperated and drew them a map of where each body was so that they didn’t ‘dirty’ his carpets.

Tovar explained that when they were down there, ‘there was a putrid odour, unlike anything else’ and Gacy ‘had them all around the outer edges of the house and he had dug up some trenches. Some of them he put one on top of the other.’

He explained what the conditions were like in the basement for those six months of excavation: “It was very wet, very moist down there.

“You couldn’t dig with a shovel because we were afraid of breaking a bone or knocking some teeth out because that was the only way we were going to identify them, so you dug with a very small gardening tool and then you used your hands.

Gacy tortured and murdered 33 boys and men (Bureau of Prisons/Getty Images)

“You couldn’t wear gloves because the moment you stuck your hands into the mud, you pulled your hand out and it would suck the gloves right off you. So, by that time, we just decided to go at it. We didn’t have all the equipment we have nowadays.”

One thing that stuck in his mind was a decapitated body, who’s head had been removed due to the way Gacy had strangled him.

The case still haunts Tovar and his old officer pals, who meet up each year for ‘therapy’ as the sondition of the bodies, and sights they saw took an immense toll.

He said: “It was a case of a lifetime. To me it meant he stopped killing more people and was made to pay for his sins.

“I was very proud and happy with all my colleagues who started with nothing and broke this case. But I saw the damage he did and I can’t forget… he was an evil b**tard.”

John Wayne Gacy died by lethal injection on 10 May, 1994, after spending 14 years on death row.

Wade Wilson, who has been given the nickname ‘Deadpool’ killer on account of sharing his name with the Marvel superhero, has had his sentencing delayed.

He has been convicted of the murders of two women – Kristine Melton, 35, and Diane Ruiz, 43 – and the jury voted to send him to death row.

Wilson was convicted of six offences in total, including two counts of first-degree murder, battery, burglary, theft and grand theft auto.

While the jury recommended that Wilson be sent to death row that decision will ultimately rest with a judge, and the murderer’s sentencing hearing was supposed to take place today (23 July).

However, Wilson’s sentencing will now take place next month after doctors argued that they needed more time to evaluate the convicted murderer.

Newsweek reports that the defendant’s lawyers are allowed to present additional evidence before the judge passes their sentence.

A jury has recommended the death penalty for Wade Wilson, but it’s up to the judge to decide. (Court TV)

They report that court records say ‘two additional mental health experts were not able to modify their schedule to testify at the penalty phase proceedings’.

As per Fox 4, one doctor wants to run a brain scan on Wilson while the other reportedly needs more time to run tests on the convicted murderer.

The State Attorney’s Office said the scans were not needed as Wilson didn’t have previous evidence of brain injuries, and they reported that the move had been slated as a ‘fishing expedition’.

A request from Wilson’s team for him to be allowed to wear street clothes in court next time he is there was denied, and it may be 27 August when the convicted killer learns what his sentence will be.

He is already covered in a series of tattoos, including a swastika on his face, and a body language expert said that while Wilson was trying to appear ‘casual and calm’, there was a ‘lot of anxiety and stress that he doesn’t want to show’.

Wilson’s attorneys have said that two medical experts need more time to examine him, hence his sentencing being delayed. (Court TV)

Wilson, who killed the two women in 2019, heard his father tell the court during his trial that he’d confessed to the murder over the phone.

The killer’s biological father Steven Testasecca said he didn’t believe his son initially, recounting that Wilson said there were ‘two people who were gone and would not be coming back’.

At first Testasecca didn’t believe his son and thought he was ‘a good storyteller’, but in further calls the son told his father he ‘choked that b***h’ as he described murdering Kristine Melton in her own home.

Even if a judge decides not to impose the death penalty, which would go against the jury’s recommendations, on Wilson he would still be facing the prospect of life in prison without the possibility of parole.