KATHMANDU, Nepal » Police in Nepal say they’re searching a river where the body of a 27-year-old teacher from Austin, Texas, was thrown after she was hammered to death.

Police official Hari Bahadur Pal said Tuesday that police were searching the Seti River for the body of Dahlia Yehia, who disappeared from the resort town of Pokhara in western Nepal last month.

Authorities arrested a local teacher, Narayan Paudel, who was hosting Yehia while she was in Pokhara to help victims of April’s devastating earthquake.

Pal said Paudel confessed to the crime and described how he hammered the victim to death and threw the body into the river. Pal said police found blood-soaked clothes and ropes they believed were used to tie Yehia’s body.

Authorities believe the motive behind the murder was money.