Woman tourist, 23, found decapitated after going missing while hiking through the Himalayas in Nepal
By Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 06:13 GMT, 27 June 2012 | UPDATED: 10:55 GMT, 27 June 2012
The desperate search for 23-year-old Belgian hiker missing in Nepal for ten days came to a gruesome end when her decapitated body was found in the Himalayan Mountains.
Debbie Maveau was badly decomposed, but investigators couldn't miss the sight of her head 13 inches away from her body, discovered the near a hiking trail in Langtang National Park, Agence France-Presse reports.
She is only the latest in a string of assaults and disappearances of young women hiking alone in the rugged mountains along the Chinese border.
Debbie Maveau
Mystery: Debbie Maveau, 23, was neither robbed nor raped before she was brutally murdered, according to authorities
The violence led the US State Department to issue a travel warning earlier this year and advise Americans not to hike the rugged terrain alone.
Nepalese police say they are investigating Maveau's death as a murder, but that few people are cooperating.
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'Everyone in the area says they have not seen her,' local inspector Bhakta Sunuwar told AFP.
Even on Miss Maveau's badly-decomposed corpse, police said the panties were still intact, so they don't believe rape was a motive.
She also still had her camera and about $100 worth of Nepalese rupees on her, so authorities also ruled out robbery.
Himalayas
Danger: The US State Department has warned Americans not to hike Nepal alone in light of the attacks on tourists in recent months
The body was discovered June 14 after local villagers tipped off authorities.
Miss Maveau set on a six-day hike to Gosaikund, a lake with deep significance to Hindus, on May 31.
She was expected to return to Belgium June 9, but never arrived in her home country.
Lena Sessions, 23, an American, was hiking alone in the area in in December in Langtang when a knife-wielding man threatened to rape and kill her, though she was able to escape.
A week earlier a South Korean woman was assaulted, as well.
Two years ago, University of Colorado student Aubrey Caroline Sacco disappeared in the same area. She has never been found.
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