No criminal network linked to recent body discoveries: Police Commissioner

The recent discoveries of partially decomposed bodies in Suva, Nadi and Lautoka are not linked to any criminal net work, says Police Commissioner Rusiate Tudravu.

In his press conference yesterday, the Commissioner reassured the public of the need to trust the investigators.

“The autopsy report that was done hasn’t indicated any link to that,” he said.

“Should there be a link based on the postmortem that will be done and the report that is given, then we can confirm it to the public.”

Partially decomposed bodies of five people, four of whom were be low the age of 21, were discovered between December 2025 and January 2026, sparking concerns of alleged foul play.

“We have found out that some of those that were missing were not reported initially to the Police,” Mr Tudravu said.

He admitted that they did not have a specialised unit to handle missing persons reports, adding to the challenges of verifying the process and system.

“I’m pushing it back to the fam ily members, to the vanua, to the people. These are the people that should look after them. It seems that they are reported to the Police and they leave it to the Police to do all the search and everything.

“We can do as much as we can, but we need the effort of the whole of Fiji community regarding the missing persons.”

In a statement yesterday, Fiji Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission Commissioner, Chantelle Khan, called on the establishment of a national taskforce involving Government, vanua, civil society organisations and faith-based groups.

Ms Khan raised serious concerns over missing person cases, saying that 52 cases reported to Police since 2024 involved children be tween the ages of five and 17.

She said the trend highlighted the grave risks associated with missing persons reports and the urgent need for timely, coordinated responses to prevent loss of life and further harm.

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