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"Lina", alternatively known as "Lina Anwar" or the Mymensingh Jane Doe, was a woman who died by suicide by sitting on the tracks of an oncoming train alongside eight other people in Mymensingh, Bangladesh. The group was identified as all being a family with the decedent initially being misidentified as the daughter of the family's patriarch, though the daughter was later discovered alive and well. Lina is now believed to have been a disciple of the family's patriarch and may have been a worker for them. Despite this, Lina is not mentioned in any of the existing diary entries by the deceased family.
Case[]
Suicide and the Adam's House religion[]
On the 11th of July, 2007, a train was traveling through Mymensingh when nine people, consisting of men, women, and children, walked onto the tracks and sat in the path of the oncoming train. Despite the train operator's efforts to avoid impact, the train would collide with all nine people on the track, leaving only two members of the group initially surviving the impact before passing away at a hospital. During the investigation, police were quickly told by residents that the group was a family known as the Anwars, though identification of the bodies was initially difficult due to how heavily the impact of the train had mangled them with some pieces of the bodies being found several kilometers away from the impact site. Nonetheless, authorities were able to identify each body as a member of the Anwar family.
Upon investigation into the family, it was found that their pucca house was right next to the railroad and appeared normal inside before police discovered a large hole that had been dug in their backyard with the family having purchased coffins for themselves before their suicide. Inside the home, investigators were able to find diaries belonging to each family member with entries in both Bengali and English, alongside a sign placed in front of the home dated the same day as their death. It was quickly discovered that the family's suicide had a link to an unnamed religion they had been practicing, with the case soon being called "Adam's House" in reference to their reverence to the figure Adam from the Christian religion. Their unnamed religion would soon be referred to by the same name. Despite the multitude of times Adam and Eve were mentioned in the family's diaries alongside religious statements, there was never any mention of God or Christianity. Though, it was discovered in the diaries that the family had planned prior suicide attempts since July 7th with one room in the house containing several nooses hanging from the ceiling and a chair sitting atop one of the beds. According to the diaries, their suicides were not considered as such to themselves and instead a manner in which they could meet their deceased father and older brother.
Furthermore, police soon discovered candles, a planchet, paper, and utensils arranged in a manner used to speak with the dead. Reportedly, their neighbors had never visited them but were regarded as not having a bad relationship. An investigation into the family's history would bring the deceased father, Anwar Hossain, to the police's attention. Hossain had been a practicing Muslim in the past as well as a member of the Bangladeshi army that held several religious activities following his retirement but often got in arguments with others over his faith and practice. Though, as he got older, he began to abandon his Islamic faith and studied Christianity with his eldest son. They were reported to have distanced themselves from their family at this time until Hossain passed away from a heart attack on July 10th, 2000. Reportedly, before his death, he had written instructions for his family on how his body should be handled after death with details on how he did not want traditional Islamic burial rites. Despite their attempts though, the family was unable to follow his instructions due to villagers and police rejecting these instructions. According to records, his proceedings had to be overseen by authorities to ensure none of the Anwars would disrupt the funeral.
Following Hossain's death, in 2005, the Anwars moved to Dharka before the eldest son, Arif, was murdered by unknown assailants. The family then returned to their original village in Mymensingh and began to study ways to contact the deceased in the afterlife with the second eldest son, Aktari, taking the mantle as the leader of the home. The family reported that soon they began to believe Hossain was speaking through their bodies with some diary entries appearing to have been written from his perspective. During this time, their belief in Adam's House grew with local Christian communities reporting to the police that they had never seen or even heard of the Anwars until their deaths. Investigators then began to believe that they had fluid religious beliefs with which religious figures they worshipped fluctuating through the years. It is unclear whether it is believed the Adam's House religion began with Hossain or came into existence following Aktari's leadership.
The discovery of Moby Anwar[]
On July 14th of the same year, a massive break in the case was made when it was discovered that one of the deceased family members, Moby Anwar, was discovered alive and well in Mymensingh's Brahmanbaria district. She was reported to have not held the same beliefs as her family, though rejected the ruling that her family's deaths were the result of mass suicide. Instead, she would claim that she believed it was a premeditated murder committed by the same people who had killed Arif in 2005. Witness statements did not match Moby's claim though, and despite potential evidence for her claim being found in her mother's diary, it was reported that her mother was illiterate and the handwriting in it matched with the handwriting of one of the daughters.
Upon investigation into the body that was initially believed to have been Moby, it was confirmed that the body did not belong to Moby but instead to an unidentified woman. Authorities detailed that the woman was close in age to Moby and looked quite similar to her, but was unable to release any further information on her physical features nor the age of Moby. Though, they were able to obtain a diary belonging to a woman named Lina who was a disciple and follower of Hossain alongside her parents. Despite her parents later leaving after they stopped following the Adam's House religion, Lina reportedly stayed and abandoned her family. She is noted to have potentially changed her name to Lina Anwar, though it is believed her name is an alias as none of the family members ever mentioned Lina in their diaries. After her autopsy, her body was reported to have never been claimed despite her connection to the Anwar family and was later buried by a charity with traditional Islamic rites. No further details on Lina have been released since her burial and Arif's death is reported to still be unsolved.
Sources[]
- BD News 24
- Barta 24 (Bengali)