Her face was not recognisable, cop tells court about burnt girl’s death in 2020

One of the first police officers at a scene where the charred remains of Natalie Chipomho (9) were discovered, testified on Tuesday that her face was not recognisable.

The gruesome discovery of the child’s body was made on 25 January 2020 by a security guard at a dumpsite in Windhoek North, the state is charging.

The suspects in the matter, Edward Nkata, Caroline Nkata and the deceased’s mother, Rachel Kureva, appeared in the Windhoek High Court before judge Philanda Christiaan.

It is alleged that the trio fatally assaulted Chipomho, dumped her body at the dumpsite and burned her body.

The suspects denied guilt at the start of the trial.

They face charges of murder, attempted murder, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, a charge of defeating or obstructing the course of justice, a count of failure to provide adequate medical assistance to a child, two counts of fraud, and a count of forgery.

Detective warrant Joseph Ndilyowike testified that when he arrived at the scene, he observed rubbish and a partially burnt blanket near the deceased’s body.

“At that point, there was no clue who she was or where she resided. While at the scene, we started preliminary investigations to find out if we could establish where exactly the child resided and possible suspects.

“We then noticed a CCTV camera on the street and approached the City Police to retrieve the camera.

“We established that two people were seen pulling a dustbin towards a municipal skip bin.

“We observed that the person pulling the dustbin was a man, and a woman carrying a baby on her back accompanied him,” Ndilyowike testified.

It is alleged that an eyewitness, who is a neighbour of the suspects, told police officers that he saw a “fat” man and a woman with a baby, carrying a rubbish bin around 21h00 on 24 January 2020.