Nepal police search river for Dahlia Yehia's body after being 'beaten to death'

• Dahlia Yehia from Kalamazoo, Michigan went missing last month 
• Arrived in the city of Pokhara to help those injured in the earthquake 
• Local man, Narayan Prasad Paudel, allegedly killed her as she slept 
• A police official said he confessed to then throwing her body into a river
• A widespread search of the river is underway in a bid to locate her

Police are searching a river in Nepal in a bid to locate the body of an American teacher who was thrown in it after she was hammered to death.

Dahlia Yehia, 27, from Kalamazoo, Michigan, has been missing since travelling to the city of Pokhara last month to help people who were injured or lost their homes in April's earthquake.

Police arrested a local teacher, Narayan Paudel, 30, who was hosting Yehia, an Egyptian American.

Paudel confessed to the crime last week and described how he hammered the victim to death and threw her body into the Seti River, police said. 

Dahlia Yehia, from Kalamazoo, Michigan, has been missing since travelling to the city of Pokhara last month to help people who were injured or lost their homes following last April's earthquake

Police are searching the Seti river in Nepal where the body of the 27-year-old teacher was thrown
after she was hammered to death

Search and rescue teams in Nepal are looking through every inch of the area where Yehia's body was dumped 

Hari Bahadur Pal, a Nepal Police official police found blood-soaked clothes and ropes they believed were used to tie Yehia's body.

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

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

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

A Michigan native, she graduated in 2011 from Kalamazoo College, where she received a bachelor of fine arts in painting.

She studied abroad in Ecuador, and after graduation, she left Michigan for Phoenix, where she also posted her artwork, according to CNN. 

Police search the area after Narayan Paudel, 30, confessed to the crime last week and described how he hammered the victim to death and threw her body into the Seti River, police said

She found a room on a website called couch surfing which was full of local people offering a place to stay for those who wanted to help in earthquake relief efforts

Yehia, who was an art teacher in Austin, Texas, at the time, was staying in a rented room in Narayan Paudel's home when she was savagely attacked

She found a room on a website called couch surfing which connects local hosts with travelers and had people offering a place to stay for those who wanted to help in earthquake relief efforts.

Yehia was staying in a rented room in Paudel's home when she was savagely attacked, senior local officer Govinda Adhikari said.

'He confessed that he killed her and then threw her body into a river,' the officer told the Himalayan Times. 'Unfortunately, we have not found her body yet. We are also trying to find out the motive for the killing.' 

Adhikari said the suspect had thrown Yehia's body into the river from the KI Singh Bridge.

'He contacted the American lady through the internet and invited her to stay in a rented room in Pokhara on an earthquake relief support programme.

'She had been staying in the room for three days before the crime was committed.'

Police said that while Paudel was being interrogated at the district police station about Miss Yehia's disappearance, he attempted suicide.

He first made the excuse that he wanted to use the toilet. Released from handcuffs, he then allegedly made his way onto the roof and jumped off in a suicide attempt.

But he broke his leg and was quickly recaptured and was treated at the Manipal Teaching Hospital. 

Yehia's family is understood to have last heard from her through the WhatsApp messaging service

Yehia's family is understood to have last heard from her through the WhatsApp messaging service.

She contacted them from Pokhara on the night of August 6, according to a Nepalese trekking association. 

When she didn't contact anybody after she sent the WhatsApp message, her family and friends became worried. The family then contacted the association for helping in finding her.

They told them that she had first visited a village in Gorkha district, which was at the epicentre of the earthquake, before setting off to Pokhara.

Last week, the family got official confirmation that she was dead from the U.S. Embassy.

Her friend Meghan Moharter paid tribute to her and described her as: 'incredibly talented.' 

Nearly 9,000 people died in the April 25 earthquake and thousands more were left without homes. 

Hundreds of thousands of houses in Nepal, aid groups and individuals rushed to the South Asian country to help the victims including Yehia.

Yehia, seen left and right, was a Michigan native and graduated in 2011 from Kalamazoo College, where she received a bachelor of fine arts in painting

Yehia was in the country helping people caught up in the deadly earthquake in April. Pictured is a destroyed house in Bhaktapur 

Nearly 9,000 people died in the April 25 earthquake and thousands more were left without homes