THE fifth day of a Police investigation into the death of a woman whose torso was found in two pieces inside a rubbish bin next to the main road between Windhoek and Okahandja on Sunday passed yesterday with detectives still unable to confirm the woman’s identity and with most of the rest of her body still unaccounted for.
Five days after the discovery of the female torso in a rubbish bin at a lay-by next to the B1 road some 42 kilometres north of Windhoek, and a day after two human thighs were found in a rubbish bin at a lay-by next to the B1 road some 25 km north of Rehoboth, the riddle of the origins of these macabre finds remained unsolved yesterday. The Police still do not know the identity of the woman whose torso was found on Sunday, the Commanding Officer of the Serious Crime Unit, Chief Inspector Michael Unandapo, said on enquiry late yesterday.Except for the two thighs found on Wednesday – believed to belong to the same woman – no other body parts had turned up by late yesterday, Unandapo said.The woman whose torso – headless and with the limbs severed – was discarded in the rubbish bin was brown in complexion and was roughly estimated by the Police to have been in her twenties.The torso appeared to have been chilled in a fridge or freezer before it was discarded.The two thighs found on Wednesday also appeared to have been chilled before they were deposited in the rubbish bin where a cleaning crew found them at about 09h00 on Wednesday.The place where the legs were found is about 14,5 km from the spot where the severed head of murdered Windhoek resident Juanita Mabula was found lying next to the B1 road on October 24 2005.Mabula’s headless body was found lying naked next to the Western Bypass section of the B1 road near the Windhoek Country Club resort on September 25 2005.The murder of Mabula (21) – suspected to have been killed with a heavy blow to the back of her head – remains unsolved, as does the murder of 22-year-old Melanie Janse, whose body was also found naked next to the Western Bypass road near Windhoek’s Van Eck Power Station on August 20 2005.It is suspected that Janse had been strangled.Also unsolved is the killing of a fourth young woman, 18-year-old Viola Swartbooi, who was reported missing shortly before Christmas 2005.Her remains, also naked, were found buried in a shallow grave at Rehoboth on December 28 that year.The Police offered a reward of N$20 000 in late September 2005 for any information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for killing Mabula and Janse.This week, a reward of N$60 000 was offered for information leading to the arrest of the person who killed the woman whose torso turned up in the rubbish bin next to the Windhoek-Okahandja road.The Police have neither ruled out, nor been able to confirm, that some or all of these killings were related.The Police are asking anyone with information to contact Chief Inspector Unandapo at telephone (061) 209 4302 or cellphone 081 124 0521, or Deputy Commissioner Visser at (061) 209 4221 or cellphone 081 128 2380, or Warrant Officer Geoffrey Scott at 081 253 0303, or Sergeant Willem Dax at 081 245 9199.The Police still do not know the identity of the woman whose torso was found on Sunday, the Commanding Officer of the Serious Crime Unit, Chief Inspector Michael Unandapo, said on enquiry late yesterday.Except for the two thighs found on Wednesday – believed to belong to the same woman – no other body parts had turned up by late yesterday, Unandapo said.The woman whose torso – headless and with the limbs severed – was discarded in the rubbish bin was brown in complexion and was roughly estimated by the Police to have been in her twenties.The torso appeared to have been chilled in a fridge or freezer before it was discarded.The two thighs found on Wednesday also appeared to have been chilled before they were deposited in the rubbish bin where a cleaning crew found them at about 09h00 on Wednesday.The place where the legs were found is about 14,5 km from the spot where the severed head of murdered Windhoek resident Juanita Mabula was found lying next to the B1 road on October 24 2005.Mabula’s headless body was found lying naked next to the Western Bypass section of the B1 road near the Windhoek Country Club resort on September 25 2005. The murder of Mabula (21) – suspected to have been killed with a heavy blow to the back of her head – remains unsolved, as does the murder of 22-year-old Melanie Janse, whose body was also found naked next to the Western Bypass road near Windhoek’s Van Eck Power Station on August 20 2005.It is suspected that Janse had been strangled.Also unsolved is the killing of a fourth young woman, 18-year-old Viola Swartbooi, who was reported missing shortly before Christmas 2005.Her remains, also naked, were found buried in a shallow grave at Rehoboth on December 28 that year.The Police offered a reward of N$20 000 in late September 2005 for any information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for killing Mabula and Janse.This week, a reward of N$60 000 was offered for information leading to the arrest of the person who killed the woman whose torso turned up in the rubbish bin next to the Windhoek-Okahandja road.The Police have neither ruled out, nor been able to confirm, that some or all of these killings were related.The Police are asking anyone with information to contact Chief Inspector Unandapo at telephone (061) 209 4302 or cellphone 081 124 0521, or Deputy Commissioner Visser at (061) 209 4221 or cellphone 081 128 2380, or Warrant Officer Geoffrey Scott at 081 253 0303, or Sergeant Willem Dax at 081 245 9199.
