Forensic experts have collected DNA samples from the decomposed body suspected to be that of a missing boy in Qurayyat. Eight-year-old Muhammad Al-Azemi was missing since last Friday and the body of a child was found by Shuaib Bayer, Qurayyat two days later. There were multiple stab wounds on the burnt body of the child. The initial speculation is that the boy was burned by an unknown culprit after killing him. Col. Mofleh Al-Thalj of Al-Jouf police said that DNA samples of Muhammad's father and mother have also been collected and all the samples will be sent to Riyadh to carry out tests in order to ascertain the identity of the victim. “It will take more than one week to get the results of the DNA tests and the police can determine the identity of the child only after this,” he said, according to a report in Al-Watan newspaper. Col. Al-Thalj denied reports spreading through the Internet about the arrest of the culprit. “Investigations are on to remove the mystery around the boy's death as well as to arrest the culprit,” he said. The burnt body was found on the road, two days after his father filed a missing complaint. Col. Al-Thalj said a Saudi motorist informed the police of a body lying on the road near a gasoline station in a locality called Muthallath Ghatiya. “Upon receiving the information, security forces and forensic surgeons rushed to the scene and it was revealed in preliminary tests that the body belonged to a boy. The body was then taken to the mortuary of the Qurayyat general hospital,” he said adding that investigations are still going on. Mofleh Al-Azemi, paternal uncle of the child, said that there were deep stab wounds on various parts of the body, especially on stomach. “There is every possibility that the accused killed the child and then burned his body. From the identification marks on the body, we are almost certain that it is the body of Muhammad,” he said. Muhammad's disappearance and the discovery of the dead body have shocked most parents in the Qurayyat region.
