Johannesburg – A man has been charged with murder after his 2-year-old daughter’s decomposing body was found stuffed inside the ceiling of his house.
The child’s body was found by neighbours who had smelt a very bad odour coming from the house.
They went to the house to investigate and found the body of the little girl who had been reported missing by her mother.
Lieutenant Colonel Amanda Funani of the North West police said allegations were that the man went to his girlfriend’s house last week Thursday. She saw the child playing outside and took her without telling anyone.
At the time, Funani said, the mother was in hospital and the child was in the care of her grandmother.
The man has three other children and he normally takes them to his house. When the grandmother did not see the child, she assumed that the father took her.
When the mother of the child was discharged from hospital the following day, she did not find the child. When told that the girl was with her father, she wanted to make sure and called him, but allegedly did not get a response.
“She called him but did not get him on the phone.
“When she went to the father’s house to ask if he had taken the child, he said he had not.”
A missing person’s case was opened and the father was later arrested for kidnapping as it was believed that he knew where the child was but failed to say.
It was only on Monday when neighbours smelt something foul coming from the man’s house and the child’s body was discovered that a charge of murder was added to the man who was already in custody.
He was expected to appear at the Klerksdorp Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
Unconfirmed reports state that the man was allegedly drunk when he took the little girl. He allegedly put her on his shoulders but due to him being drunk, he lost his balance and the child fell, hit her head and died.
Terrified, he allegedly hid her body in the ceiling and did not tell the mother about what happened.
The Acting Provincial Commissioner of North West, Major General Dintletse Molefe, thanked the neighbours and community members for working in cooperation with the police.
IOL