Girl defiled, strangled

A FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD girl has been defiled and strangled by a gang before dumping her naked body near her aunt’s house in Lusaka’s Chilenje Township.
The teenager was defiled by a group of men, who dumped the body a few metres away from her aunt’s house.
Police acting spokesperson Rae Hamoonga said in an interview that the girl’s body was discovered by members of the public, who alerted police officers.
“We have instituted investigations in a case where a 14-year-old girl has been murdered and defiled by unknown people between July 31 and August 1, this year.
Her body was discovered around 06:00 hours on Thursday,” he said.
Some neighbours said in an interview yesterday that they heard the girl screaming around 02:00 hours.
They suspected that the girl was defiled and killed by some people who knew where she used to stay.
The deceased’s aunt, Prisca Kapelwa, where the funeral is being held in Chilenje Township, said in an interview that her niece went missing from her father’s house in Kamwala South on Wednesday evening.
This was after her father attempted to question why she was staying from school.
Ms Kapelwa said the girl’s father had received information from the girl’s school that she had not been attending classes for two weeks.
“His daughter failed to give any convincing reason why she was absconding from school. This was on Wednesday morning and she decided to run away to her grandmother within Kamwala South,” she said.
Ms Kapelwa said amid sobs that her father followed and questioned her again but she excused herself as though she was going to the bathroom and disappeared.
“I was shocked because I had only left the house a few minutes and later I was called to rush home. I jumped on the vehicle and was driven to a house near home where I was asked to identify the body. This is very sad because my niece was young and did not take alcohol and was harmless,” she said.
Meanwhile, Police in Lundazi District have arrested a 39-year-old man of Chief Mwase’s area for allegedly brutally killing his cousin.
James Kumwenda is alleged to have killed Moses Kumwenda, 38, by hitting him with a pounding stick and a hoe handle.
Eastern Province deputy Police chief Alfred Nawa confirmed the murder which happened between 22:00 hours and 04:00 hours on Wednesday.
Mr Nawa said the two were reported to have been involved in a fight which led to the death of one person.
And police in Chipata have discovered a body of an infant in a stream in Paramount Chief Mpezeni’s area.
Mr Nawa said the upper part of the infant’s body believed to have been about two weeks old was found floating in a shallow stream of Molunza around 11:00 hours on Thursday.