Cha Lu Aung — One of three women reported missing from a village in Arakan State’s Maungdaw Township was found dead on Friday night with her throat slashed, according to the administrator of Thupanna village-tract.

The three Mro women from Baung village went missing earlier in the day on March 13, when they were last seen leaving to harvest chilis at a farm near their village.

The body of 17-year-old Ma Saung Paung was found in a forest more than a mile from Baung village at about 8 p.m. on Friday. Daw Taung Shi, 40, and Ma Htaung Lone, 20, are still missing.

“We informed the No. 5 Border Guard Force in the region and searched for them into the night. We found a body in the forest with slash injuries. We are still searching for the other two missing women,” said Zaw Win Tun, the administrator of Baung village.

Another village official, Ko Aung Naing, described a grisly murder scene, with the slash wound to Ma Saung Paung’s neck so deep that she had effectively been beheaded.

Baung village has about 40 households, and most of the villagers are from the Mro ethnic group.