Police in Chiradzulu have launched a manhunt for people who have brutally killed a 78-year-old Edina Makhumba who was staying alone in an isolated house.
Chiradzulu Police Station Public Relations Officer Cosmas Kagulo has told Nthanda Times that Makhumba was killed during the night of February 8, 2024, at Lidala Village in the district, and assailants and went away with a keypad phone, four chickens, beddings, five kilograms of maize flour and K20, 000.00 cash, all adding up to K112, 000.00.
According to Kagulo, the incident came to light after Makhumba’s son, who had visited her the day before from Blantyre, and brought with him two bags of fertilizer and money amounting to K20, 000.00.
Kagulo said the son raised concerns when he received a disrupted call from his mother. Community policing members were alerted and upon arrival at Makhumba’s house, discovered her lifeless body.
“In the wee hours of today, February 9, the mother called her son, but the call was interrupted before he grasped the message, a development which forced him to call community policing members to go and check the house. Upon arrival at late Edina’s house, the Community policing members found the door of her house broken and after entering the house, they found her body lying on the floor seemingly dead,” said Kagulo.
Police visit to Makhumba’s house found her legs and hands tied to a pole inside her house.
Kagulo added that postmortem examination revealed that Makhumba’s cause of death was suffocation secondary to strangulation, as confirmed by a postmortem examination conducted at Chiradzulu District Hospital.
“A report was immediately made to Namadzi Police Post who visited the scene of crime and found that her both legs and hands were tied to a pole inside house. The body was taken to Chiradzulu District Hospital where death was confirmed and postmortem examination revealed that death was due to suffocation secondary to strangulation,” added Kagulo.
Edina Makhumba hailed from Lidala Village Traditional Authority Mpama in Chiradzulu district.
