Suspect in the Desert race murder arrested

Pini Bothoko | Friday June 29, 2018 15:24

 

The suspect was arrested on Wednesday evening at Lotlhakane village after a tip-off from members of the public. The police had earlier on aired a clip on Botswana Television showing the suspect’s photo and pleading with members of the public to assist towards his arrest.   

Interestingly, a few minutes after the 7pm news, the police had already received useful information from members of the public locating the suspect’s whereabouts.

In an interview with Mmegi, the deputy public relations officer of the Botswana Police Service (BPS), senior Superintendent Near Bagali applauded members of the public for their quick response to their plea.

“We were so happy that shortly after airing the clip on Botswana Television, we received a tip from members of the public informing us about the suspect’s whereabouts and we managed to locate him.

“We do not say we are certain that he is the killer yet, but investigations are currently ongoing to establish such possibility if any. Police investigators are currently busy questioning him to see if he could be linked to the murder  or not,” Bagali said.

Bagali further said he could not at the moment disclose to the media how the suspect was drawn to their investigations, as that scrutiny was still ongoing.

“I cannot even disclose his names because he is not yet charged with murder, but still a suspect until at a point where we will be certain and our investigations have proven that beyond reasonable doubt,” he said.

However Mmegi has learnt that the police retrieved the suspect’s cellphone hidden under the deceased’s body when taking the body to Jwaneng mine hospital.

It is highly possible for the police to have used the phone to retrieve photos that they used to plead for the public’s assistance to locate him.

Early morning on Sunday, the police received a report from a security officer who was knocking off and walking along the streets of Unit 2 location in Jwaneng when he discovered the young woman’s lifeless body in a dense thicket.

The Sesung  woman’s body was found naked and dumped in the bush a day after the popular annual 1000km Desert Race Competition, that was held at the mining town, was coming to an end.

The police revealed to have discovered that the deceased was in Jwaneng for the event as their investigations have established she was not a resident of the mining town and had temporarily visited the area.

The police are yet to carry out and run tests with efforts to establish if the deceased was sexually assaulted or not. “We are yet to carry out autopsy and run other tests to establish if she was sexually assaulted ,or not because the deceased was discovered naked,hence suspecting she might have been raped before she was killed,” said the police then.