01 Feb 2023

Tutume police are investigating the death of a 73-year-old woman of the village's Thini ward, whose decomposed body was found lying in her field on Sunday.

In an interview on Tuesday, Tutume Police Station commander, Superintendent Lesego Kgosiemang explained  that the deceased’s 48-year-old son notified them about his missing mother on January 29.

Supt Kgosiemang said the son told the police that he last saw his mother on January 24, when he left for work in Francistown. But when her phone rang unanswered, he was prompted to come back to check on her.

Upon finding her absent from home, the son is said to have went to check her mother at the fields, about four kilometres away, only to find her motionless body lying on the ground. 

The station commander further said the police, upon receiving the report, rushed to the scene, where they found the body and immediately called medical officers to come and conduct the post moterm as the body was in a bad state.

Preliminary investigations showed that the body had some injuries, suspected to have been caused by her struggle to break free from her 'murderer'.

Furthermore, Supt Kgosiemang said investigations had also revealed that the woman was last seen by her neighbours on January 25.

Due to the bad state of the body, he pointed out that the woman was buried the same day. However, police are still awaiting the results of the post-mortem to determine the cause of death while investigations continue.

Supt Kgosiemang appealed to the community members to always request someone to accompany them when going to the fields.

He noted that in the past years, many women had been attacked and killed in a similar way while tending to their fields.

The police are also appealing to the public to come forward with information that could lead to the arrest of the perpetrator(s). Ends