Texan teacher beaten to death with hammer

Police are searching a river in Nepal where the body of a 27-year-old teacher from Texas was thrown after she was beaten to death with a hammer.

Authorities are looking for the body of Dahlia Yehia, who disappeared from the resort town of Pokhara in western Nepal last month.

Police have arrested a local teacher, Narayan Paudel, who was hosting Ms Yehia while she was in Pokhara to help earthquake victims.

Texas Teacher Beaten To Death In Nepal http://t.co/ejlLVMwCMi

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Police say Paudel confessed to the crime and described how he hammered the victim to death and threw her body into the Seti River.

Police found blood-soaked clothes and ropes they believed were used to tie up the body.

Authorities believe the motive for the killing was money, with Paudel saying he took cash from Yehia.

Authorities plan to seek the maximum sentence of life imprisonment for Paudel, 30, but they need the body to help build a strong case.

Ms Yehia was an art teacher at Sci-Tech Preparatory School in Austin, Texas, the Kalamazoo Gazette newspaper in Michigan reported.

It said she was a Michigan native and graduated in 2011 from Kalamazoo College, where she studied art.

She arrived in Nepal in July and reached Pokhara on August 4. She was killed three days later.

Paudel was arrested September 2 and confessed the next day.