Sun, 11 Dec 2016 10:29:02 +0000
…Decomposed body of 8-year-old girl found after disappearing from family home
By MARTIN AKENDE
For two days the decomposed body of an 8-year-old girl suspected to have been raped and strangled lay covered below a Chitenge material in the bush as relatives waited for the Police to arrange for a Pathologist to conduct a postmortem on site.
The girl who disappeared, apparently abducted, on Sunday last week was only discovered on Friday, on a well-trodden path raising fears that she was murdered elsewhere and the body dumped beside the path.
The body could not be immediately picked up because the Police were looking for a pathologist to conduct a postmortem on site. Villagers mobilized to guard the body and spent the night in the bush after police failed to collect it.
After much effort by relatives Police finally secured the services of a pathologist who conducted a postmortem on the body yesterday. Burial followed immediately due to advanced decomposition.
Police and family believe that Anastasia Phiri, 8, of Vorna Valley in Lusaka’s Meanwood area was raped then strangled. One of her arms was broken and maggots had eaten through it exposing a bone.
Anastasia went missing between 11 and 13 hours on Sunday last week after she was sent by her aunt to buy washing paste at a nearby pastor’s shop, about 300 meters from her house.
When she did not return home an alarm was raised and Police were informed about the disappearance. The relatives were asked to make a formal report after 48 hours which they did.
However after nearly a week the body of Anastasia was only discovered by a by-passer in a decomposed state in a nearby bush 20 meters from the road on Friday December 9.
According to her grandfather, Goodson Nyendwa, the preliminary findings suggest Anastasia was killed after she was raped by unknown people.
Mr. Nyendwa suspects the criminals ambushed her on her way back from the shop and took her to the bush where she was raped and killed.
She was found dressed in male boxer shorts, together with her dress, a red umbrella, and a canvas shoe.
Zelipa Phiri the aunt of the deceased explained to the Daily Nation that the girl on the material day was first sent to buy washing paste at a nearby shop, but returned after she found the shop closed. Zelipa further stated that the girl acted strangely because on her return she quickly changed from her white attire she was wearing to black one and insisted on going back to the shop to check if it had opened.
After realizing that the girl had taken long to return home, she went searching for the child but could not find her at the shop or any of the nearby houses.
The grandmother of the deceased, Rina Daka, said the partly decomposed body was dressed in boxer shorts and had the left ribs open, but that all the parts were intact.
The body was put to rest at Kasisi cemetery on Sunday shortly after the doctors conducted a postmortem at the scene.
Zambia police Public Relations officer Ester Katongo could not be immediately reached for a comment.
