Uukwiyuushona/Ongwediva
The man accused of the double murder of his own mother and biological daughter at a village near Ondangwa has been referred for psychiatric evaluation by the Ondangwa Magistrate’s Court.
Apart from the killing of his mother and the eight-month-old daughter he reportedly killed the family dog and a chicken.
Joel Metumo Michael, 24, was arrested last week on Thursday for the alleged murder of his 58-year-old mother and infant daughter. Family members and neighbours however suspect that he could be having a mental illness.
The incident took place at Onambango village in Uukwiyuushona Constituency.
On Friday, Magistrate Petrus Ngula postponed the case to January 11, 2016 and remanded Michael in custody, pending investigations that include psychiatric evaluation.
He was also informed of his rights to get legal representation. August Abisai prosecuted.
Michael is accused of killing his mother Suama Kanime and her namesake granddaughter Suama Michael, following a trip from Onandjokwe State Hospital where Michael was taken by family members. The family suspected that Michael was mentally ill after he started behaving strangely.
He was given medicine and sent back home the same day. But his behaviour took a turn for the worse when he started assaulting his girlfriend and a female neighbour.
The girlfriend then alerted the family and handed over baby Suama to the suspect’s mother before she and the neighbour ran away.
When he realised that he could not catch up with his girlfriend, the suspect returned home and threated to kill everyone in the house.
Everyone else in the house ran away, leaving Kanime and the children behind.
Kanime who was carrying little Suama at the time tried to calm him down, but he instead hit her on the head with a digging bar.
“When she fell to the ground, he continued battering her, together with the baby. When he killed them both he turned to my bedroom where some children were sleeping and broke the window.
“He went inside but fortunately he did not see the children who were fast asleep on the floor – opposite the bed. He left my room and went to destroy my sister’s shack and two other huts. He thought we were hiding there,” recalls Saima Mikael, Joel Michael’s elder sister.
One of the sisters helplessly witnessed the horror while hiding behind some zinc structures in the homestead.
Other family members called the neighbours who managed to subdue the man who went berserk and they called the police.
According to Saima Mikael, on Sunday Michael threw a baptism party for his niece. That was before he called his girlfriend to bring his daughter. The infant daughter and her mother lived in Okalongo in Omusati Region, over 130 km away.
On Tuesday evening he started showing some signs of mental illness when he started accusing his girlfriend of bewitching him. He also assaulted her and started running from his girlfriend whom he claimed had turned into a dark monster. His family then managed to take him to Onandjokwe hospital on Wednesday.