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General News of Monday, 7 December 2009

Source: Daily Guide

Woman Killed: Private Parts removed

RESIDENTS OF Ofankor in Accra have started fleeing the area after waking up last Friday morning to find the blood-soaked corpse of a murdered woman whose vagina had been completely removed and her abdomen slashed open. This latest incident brings to at least five, the number of persons killed in Accra for suspected ritual purposes within the last five weeks.

The woman, believed to be in her mid-forties, had a wide hole between her thighs where her vagina used to be. Her head had also been smashed and the skin peeled from her legs.

The deep cuts between the thighs and abdomen indicated that sharp objects were used by her assailants.

Early reports gave her name as Mary Agyekum, a Dansoman-based married woman who left her home the night before to attend an all-night prayer at Oblogo Manchester near Weija in Accra.

A number of persons who saw the mutilated corpse speculated that she might have come from Amansaman, while others mentioned other surrounding towns near Ofankor.

A team of police personnel from the Mile 7 Police Station, who rushed to the scene, conveyed the corpse to the Police Hospital morgue and commenced investigations into the matter.

Police sources told DAILY GUIDE that though the woman’s vagina had been removed, it was too early to confirm she was murdered.

“We will fail to believe that it is a murder until the autopsy reports are out to ascertain the cause of death,” the Police source noted and said the autopsy was being conducted at the Police Hospital.

It has also not been confirmed whether the woman was killed somewhere else and later dumped at Ofankor or she was actually murdered at the spot she was found.

Though the exact time of the murder was not yet known, residents suspected that the body must have been dumped there around 3.00am.

She was suspected to have been killed by unknown assailants, after which the genitals were removed and dumped at the scene, meters away from the road, to create the impression that she was dismembered or run over by a vehicle.

A resident of the area, who wished to remain anonymous, however told DAILY GUIDE that Mary Agyekum lived with her family at Dansoman but frequently visited her siblings at Amasaman.

The resident said, “She left her Dansoman residence some weeks ago to live with her brothers at Amasaman due to some personal reasons but later returned to her husband’s house at Dansoman.”

The source narrated further: “She then left the house around 9:30 pm to church but never returned till we heard that she had been murdered and dumped at Ofankor Junction by some unknown persons.”

Meanwhile, information reaching DAILY GUIDE indicates that one Nicolas Agyekum has identified the body as that of his wife who left for a watch night service but never returned.

All attempts to get the said Nicolas Agyekum proved futile as his contact number was out of reach.