[Above: The spot where a body was excavated from a well.]

First he was arrested on 17 Oct for the murder of his mother, whose body was found stuffed in a suitcase under the stove.

Then, four days ago, the 22-year-old suspect confessed to murdering yet another woman, reported China Press. On Wednesday at 4.45pm, the police took the man back to his village of Kampung MIC in Ulu Tiram, Johor.

He led the police to his victim's body, which had been hidden within the compound of an abandoned house in a well that he had sealed with cement.

An excavator was brought in. The abandoned building was demolished and the cement covering broken apart, revealing the corpse.

The police managed to excavate only the victim's limbs from the water-logged and mud-filled well.

On Thursday, the police activated more than 10 police officers and a fire-fighting vehicle to pump ground water out of the well.

At 1.20pm, the officers finally managed to excavate the rest of the corpse.

The police also found six RM50($20) notes at the scene.

Preliminary examinations of the body showed that the victim, whose identity is unknown, had been dead for about six months.

The victim's hands had been tied together with electrical cables and a pair of earrings were found on the body, suggesting that the victim was female.

Villagers believe that the suspect's girlfriend had "disappeared" about half a year ago.

However, the suspect's family denied that he had a girlfriend.

The suspect's uncle said that prior to her murder, the suspect's mother had mentioned that she had seen her son entering the abandoned building with cement.

She found it suspicious and had told her daughter what she had seen. However, the family were unaware of the suspect's intentions.

Seri Alam police chief Roslan Zainuddin said the suspect will not be charged for the moment as he is involved in another murder case.

The police will detain the suspect till 3 Nov as further investigations are being carried out.

He said: "The police have to wait for the victim's DNA test results before any identification can be made. The test report will take between two weeks and a month to be completed."

Police believe the suspect, who has a record of drug abuse, killed his mother, 47, a housewife, for favouring his younger brother.

On 4 Oct at 9am, the suspect quarrelled with his mother over her decision to buy his younger brother a car and refusing to buy him a motorcycle.

He is believed to have stabbed her before stuffing her body in a suitcase, which was then shoved under the stove.

The next day, her family members, who had filed a missing persons' report, found a rice sack containing her blood-stained clothes on the bank of a nearby river.

A 2m-long parang and the suitcase were found during a search of the family house. By then, the suspect had fled.

The police finally tracked him down 12 days later and took him into custody.

He broke free from a psychiatric institution where he had been sent for an evaluation on 24 Oct, but within 24 hours, he was re-arrested in Skudai.

This article was first published in The New Paper