Sixteen-year-old Esther Chipolopolo, who was working as a domestic worker in Area 12 of Machinjiri Township in Blantyre, was murdered on Monday morning by a suspect who is at large, police officials have said.
Police have concealed the identity of the suspect because investigations to bring him to book are currently underway.
According to Blantyre Police Station spokesperson Elizabeth Divala, Chipolopolo, who came from Chiliramoto Village in Traditional Authority (T/A) Kuntaja’s area in Blantyre, was recruited barely two months ago and her boss was fond of her.
Divala said her boss, 65-year-old Gloria Mfutso, who works as a teacher at SOS Kindergarten, left for work around 7am and when she returned at around 4pm, she noted something was amiss when there was no sign of anyone at the house.
She said: “When she tried to open the door, she found it locked. She sought help from her neighbours who helped her to break the door. When she entered the house, it was in a mess and looked like there had been a fracas.”
She said when Mfutso entered the maid’s bedroom, she found her under the bed, dead and she immediately called for help and the police were alerted right away.
Divala said the neighbours informed police that they had earlier seen the suspect around 10am carrying maize suspected to have been stolen from the house, heading to the trading centre and they thought he was assisting them to take it to a maize mill.
“When police went to his place, they found he had moved around 2pm after telling his landlord that he has secured a job elsewhere. Post-mortem conducted at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital [QECH] has indicated death was due to strangulation,” she said. n
