PATHANAMTHITTA: Three suspected to be the accused in the case of murdering a merchant and stealing gold and money in Mylapra have been taken into custody. A vehicle has also been seized from them. The police are grilling them. 73-year-old George Unnunny was murdered on Saturday evening.

The postmortem report said George was strangled to death. Two lungis and a shirt were used to strangle him. There are no other injuries or signs of using force on the body. His chain of eight sovereigns and a locket of cross of one sovereign went missing. A hook recovered was found broken.

Money kept in the table was missing. A sniffer dog stopped in front of an uninhabited house on Mekozhoor Road. The house was inspected but could not find anything. The hard disks of the shop's CCTV are also missing.