Pregnant youth murdered and dumped
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Monday January 19, 2015 17:49
The victim, Merapelo Moloi, who was wearing a Culture Spears’s Kulenyane t-shirt on the fateful day, was buried on Friday afternoon with her corpse in a bad state. However parents have confirmed evidence of murder after it was discovered that Merapelo’s throat had been slit. The deceased, who was awaiting her form three results, was from Ntshinoge ward in Mochudi. She was one of 2012/14 Ithuteng Junior School. Merapelo’s mother Nene Moloi told The Monitor that her 17-year-old, daughter Merapelo also her last-born daughter left home on Monday morning around 10am. “When my daughter last left home I was at a funeral next door. I was told that she left after she received a phone call,” she said sadly. “I don’t want to think of the way my daughter was killed. She died a very painful death and I don’t know who killed her. I don’t know who she went to meet that fateful day,” the old woman said as she cried silently.
She said that after seeing that the deceased was not coming back home they asked her friend who fortunately knew the name of the boy who called her and looked for his number from her grandchildren after they were told that the boyfriend was staying at Gabane. “Fortunately my grandchild knew the boy and had his number. We called him and he admitted that he had indeed talked to my daughter and asked her to come to Gabane but had never came. We decided to involve the police as we realized that the matter was beyond us and he was apprehended,” she said sadly.
She said at the time her daughter was discovered by the police her corpse had decomposed and her neck and throat were cut apart. “I asked the police to show me where my daughter was killed to get closure, if you can see the bush that my daughter was slaughtered, you will see that her chances of surviving or getting help were very slim. No one was going to hear her even if she was screaming,” she said as tears rolled down her cheeks.
Nene said that they were told that Merapelo was pregnant when she was killed. She said the deceased’s friends were further interrogated by the police where later one of them told the police that she had a boydfriend at Boseja ward in Mochudi who was later apprehended. She said she wants justice and hoped that her daughter’s killers would be jailed.
She said Medical practitioners failed to do a post mortem, as the deceased’s body was badly decomposed.
According to the deceased’s sister who stayed with her and other family members Kedibonye Moloi, her sister liked visiting people. “Merapelo left home in the morning after she received a phone call. I could hear that she was talking to a boy so when I saw her coming out of the house dressed up; I asked her where she was going. I tried to stop her but she told me to mind my own business. She told me that she was going to the mall and would be back soon,” she narrated almost teary.
“Ke gakologelwa sentle se neng moswi a se apere fa a tsamaya. O ne a apere sekipa se se hibidu sa kulenyane, borokgwe jo bosetlha jwa jeane le machesa a mahibidu (I can clearly remember what my sister was wearing when she left home. She was wearing a red kulenyane t-shirt, beige jeans and red sneakers),” she recalled.
Kedibonye says even though her sister was naughty like other teenager her age, she never slept away from home and that if she did she would make sure that she comes back home in the morning.
She said that Merapelo always fulfilled her promises but she did not come back Monday night she got concerned and tried to reach her on her cellphone but it was switched off. She said she dismissed that thinking that the deceased might have switched the phone off so that they could not ask her where she was. “The next morning I realized that she did not come back then I tried calling her. As time passed by I became even more worried because that was not like her. She would not sleep away from home and spend more time away from home. We started calling her friends and other relatives asking her where Merapelo was but nobody had seen her. We decided to file a missing person report on Wednesday after we had exhausted all the contacts we had and though she might had gone to,” she added. Merapelo’s decomposed body was buried at her home in Ntshinoge on Friday.
Mochudi Police Station Commander, Superintendent Simon Setale, confirmed that they had suspects in police custody. He said a passerby about the horrific discovery of a young girl’s dead body alarmed them.
“The deceased was brutally killed. She had multiple wounds on her neck and seemed to have died the previous day,” he said. He said the murder had the features of a passion killing and that investigations were still on going.