EMPLOYER’S BRUTAL MURDER: GARDENER HOSTS PARTY WHILE CORPSE IN HOUSE

MANZINI - The gardener who has been arrested for the brutal murder of his employer, a 68-year-old woman, allegedly partied with his friends after the incident.

This, according to a source close to the matter, took place while the lifeless body of the elderly woman was in another room within the apartment. According to the source, on May 30, 2024, the gardener, who is believed to be around 19 years old, purportedly killed the 68-year-old liSwati woman, who was married to an Asian businessman. The incident took place at the elderly woman’s apartment, which is located at Extension 6 near Living Waters Church, at Moneni in Manzini.

Hosted

The suspect is believed to have hosted his friends – males and females - at the elderly woman’s apartment and told them that it was his house. They are alleged to have partied, while the woman’s lifeless body was covered with a blanket in the laundry room. In fact, the source said according to the deceased’s family, the gardener was actually doing piece jobs for the elderly woman, as the yard had overgrown vegetation. The source alleged that the suspect allegedly used a spade to hack the elderly woman on the head. She sustained a gaping wound on her face and it was difficult to recognise her. He added that he also hacked her several times on both arms.  

Thereafter, the teenager allegedly covered her body with a blanket. According to the source, they believe that the incident took place in the laundry room as the floor and walls had bloodstains, and that was where the body was found. When narrating how the deceased’s body was discovered, the source said one of her sisters called to check on her on Saturday, at around 8pm. However, he said her cellphone was answered by a young man, whom said he would pass the phone to the owner. Instead of passing the phone to the owner, the source said the young man switched it off and the sister, who was on the line, called one of the elderly woman’s daughters and told her to rush to her apartment as she suspected that there was something wrong.

He said the daughter, who was accompanied by her husband, made the shocking discovery when they opened the door to the laundry room.  He said since they were not sure if the suspect was in the house, the man fired two gunshots in the air, just to scare the murderer away. Thereafter, he said they called the police. However, he said they were assisted by police officers from the Traffic Department and Operational Support Services Unit (OSSU), who were deployed at Moneni, along the MR3 Highway, to provide security for the King, who was due to fly out of the country to South Korea.

Colleagues

He said the law enforcers attended to the scene and called their colleagues from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), who came and recorded statements; collected pieces of evidence and removed the body from the scene. The source said they suspected that the elderly woman was killed on the same day. However, he said as the police continued with their investigation, which led to the arrest of the gardener on Monday, the source said some pieces of electronic evidence suggested that the elderly woman was brutally murdered on Thursday night.

This, he said, was because the electronic evidence suggested that between Thursday night and Saturday, the suspect was partying with his friends and female acquaintances. “One piece of electronic evidence shows the suspect half-naked and boasting to his friends that he owns a big house,” the source said. He said it also resurfaced that apart from the cellphones, which were reportedly stolen by the suspect after allegedly murdering his employer; he supposedly also stole jewellery (gold and diamond), clothes and a playstation, among other things.
Some of the items were recovered when the police arrested the suspect.  

A senior family member, who was found with other family members at the deceased’s apartment yesterday morning, cleaning it, confirmed the matter. She said they had been made aware that it appeared that their loved one was brutally killed on Thursday as, after the incident, the assailant purportedly called his friends and partied in the house. However, the family asked not to talk much about the matter, because it was already in the hands of the police. On the other hand, Acting Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Assistant Superintendent Nosipho Mnguni, said they could not comment much about the matter, because the evidence that the police were working on would be submitted to a court of law.

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