adminThupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
POLICE have arrested a 29-year-old mentally challenged Beitbridge woman after she allegedly smashed her one-year-old niece’s head with a stone in a bushy area in Dulibadzimu suburb.Caroline Mhlanga is facing a charge of murder and was not asked to plead when she appeared before Beitbridge resident magistrate Gloria Takundwa on Friday.
She was remanded in custody to August 1.
Prosecuting, Nomathemba Sayi said on July 23, Mhlanga went to her brother-in-law’s house in Dulibadzimu suburb around midnight where upon being asked the purpose of her visit she failed to give a satisfactory answer but was allowed to sleep.
The girl’s father, Jikicha Mutamba, is the younger brother to Mhlanga’s husband (Petros Mutamba).
Sayi said on the following day, at around 9AM, Mhlanga took her niece and started playing with her outside the house.
Later that morning her husband arrived at the same house driving a Toyota Raum.
The two brothers later went into the house leaving Mhlanga and the girl outside the house.
While in the house they spoke about going for a social outing and when they got outside the house they could not locate Mhlanga and the toddler.
They then searched the entire neighbourhood but still could not find Mhlanga and her niece.
Mhlanga is alleged to have taken the baby to a bushy area near the new medium density suburb and smashed her head and face with a stone before disappearing.
After committing the crime she went and hid in the bush near Shule-Shule business centre.
The toddler’s corpse was discovered at around 12 noon by a resident who had gone to relieve himself in the bush.
Sayi said the body was lying in a pool of blood facing downwards.
A report was then made to the police who took the toddler to Beitbridge District Hospital where she was certified dead by doctors.
Sayi said the police recovered the blood stained stone some two metres away from the murder scene.
A search for Mhlanga was then conducted leading to her arrest on the same day.
derick.khumalo