For members of Mabula's family, Monday night was one without much sleep, Mabula's aunt, Joey Swartz, said late yesterday afternoon.

Having heard on Monday afternoon that Mabula's head had been found next to the B1 road between Windhoek and Rehoboth, relatives had a sleepless night before they had to visit the Police Mortuary in Windhoek yesterday morning to identify the head, which is partially decomposed, Swartz said.

When they saw the hairstyle, the shape of one ear, which was less badly decomposed than the other ear, and the stump of the neck attached to the head, they recognised it as Mabula's head, Swartz related.

"We just have to live with the situation that we are in now.

But it was very traumatic.

It's very bad," she said.

"All of us didn't sleep last night.

(.

.

.) But we will just have to live with it.

That's all that we can do."

Relatives of Mabula held a prayer meeting in Windhoek last night to help them cope with the previous day's events, Swartz said.

They had not yet decided when they would be laying Mabula's head to rest with the remainder of her body, which was buried at Mariental two weeks after the murder.

The family would first have to wait for the Police to conclude forensic tests, Swartz said.

Mabula's beheaded body was found lying behind a bush close to the road on the southern section of the Western Bypass road in Windhoek on the morning of September 25.

She had last been seen alive near Chez Ntemba, a nightclub in the city, between four and five hours before her corpse was found.

With no suspects yet arrested after four weeks of Police investigations, someone cutting grass to be used as fodder for his farm animals found Mabula's head lying in a plastic bag next to a culvert about 50 km south of Windhoek on the road to Rehoboth on Monday.

By yesterday afternoon, the Police could still not say how Mabula had been killed.

A Police spokesperson, Chief Inspector Hieronymus Goraseb, said the cause of her death was still being investigated.

He could also not say how long it is suspected the head had been lying next to the road.

Local News Headlines Of The Last 48 Hours

•  'DRC refugee' arrested at airport
•  Keetmanshoop grapples with debt, at odds with Receiver
•  Namibia plagued by gender-based violence
•  'Struggle Kids' are happy campers
•  Teachers 'plot to kill' principal
•  Zero tolerance for road hogs
•  Nujoma Foundation raises N$300 000 at gala dinner
•  Young man sent to jail for killing older brother
•  Three die in lorry crash
•  Henties Bay 'in a mess'
•  High Court upholds labour-hire ban
•  Oshakati nervously eyes the sky
•  Shamil Dirk's graft case postponed again
•  ACC nabs Otavi Village Council CEO
•  Justice driver accused of looting
•  Job equity has improved
•  Ombudsman complains about Justice Ministry
•  New plan for Cuvelai Basin
•  APP postpones congress
•  Zim to ignore tribunal ruling
•  Immigration locks up SA journalist
•  Youth gets four years for rape
•  Swapo closes ranks