2018-03-05Staff Report 2 John Muyamba Rundu-The naked, half-decomposed body of a woman that was found in the bushes at Rundu last Wednesday has been identified as that of Petrina Wayera Haipopo, a 24-year-old mentally disturbed young woman from Nyodo village, some 90km east of Rundu in Ndiyona. After the gruesome discovery it was believed and suspected by the police that the deceased could have been a teenager as she appeared short and small. Police said the victim had scratch marks indicating she was raped before being murdered and dumped in the bushes. Police say that while observing the scene they noticed the grass looked untouched and they immediately suspected the rape and murder happened somewhere else, and the body was just dumped there as there were no struggle marks at the scene where the body was found. The killing now brings the number of murdered women in the area to three since last month alone. On February 22 a woman died from injuries she sustained in a savage beating allegedly at the hands of her boyfriend, who had just been released from police custody a week earlier for assaulting her. The incident took place at Likwaterera, 30km south of Rundu, in Kavango East Region. In Kavango East, during the same month of February on the 12th, a 32-year-old man took the police to what was termed a secondary crime scene where he allegedly buried his girlfriend after he strangled her the previous evening at Divundu. He drove with the body for 200km before burying it in Rundu. The 32-year-old suspect worked at a funeral home as a part-time employee. Last year, two decomposed unidentified bodies of women were discovered in separate incidents at Rundu – the corpses were found not more than two kilometres apart. The first one was found at Ndama, south of the Trans-Caprivi Highway on March 14, and the second was discovered on March 26 next to the Cuma gravel road near the same highway. “Those two corpses are still in the Rundu Intermediate Hospital mortuary and have not yet been identified, and no arrest has been made,” said Kavango East crime investigations coordinator, Deputy Commissioner Bonifatius Kanyetu. 2018-03-05Staff Report 2
