The Russian girl whose body was found on the railway tracks in Goa on May 8, was not carrying her passport, police sources have said. Goa police is now probing why the foreign national, believed to be travelling to Mumbai, was not carrying such an important document.

“No foreigner would leave for another destination without their passport. We are investigating why she left without it. It also gives rise to the possibility that she may not even have left for Mumbai,” a senior police officer said.

Nineteen-year-old Elena Sukhanova’s mutilated body was found 3 km away from Thivim railway station. Goa police initially expressed the possibility of an accidental fall, but are now investigating the death from the homicide angle.

According to the police, the Russian teenager had left her passport along with around 139 other things in her room at the hotel, Travellers Inn, at Baga.

Police officials, who avoided commenting officially on the issue, said they had also found a mobile charger in the baggage left behind in her hotel room. Elena was carrying her mobile phone, and police claim she had taken a photograph of a goods wagon passing Thivim railway station a few hours before her death.