Mabula murder probe marches on

THE person, or people, responsible for what was probably Namibia’s most sensational murder this year remain on the loose as 2005 draws to its close – but the Police are not letting up in their investigation of the crime.

The body of Juanita Mabula was discovered lying next to the Western Bypass Road in the area of the Windhoek Turf Club on the morning of September 25. She had been decapitated.She was killed a week before what would have been her 22nd birthday.It was only almost a month later, on October 24, that her head was found in a plastic shopping bag next to a road culvert some five kilometres south of the Groot Aub turnoff on the Windhoek-Rehoboth main road.A post-mortem examination revealed injuries to the back of the head that indicated that Mabula had been killed by a blow to the back of her head with a blunt object.Almost two months after that breakthrough in the investigation, and with the three-month anniversary of her death at the door, the Police have still not arrested any suspects in connection with the killing.The investigation is continuing, though, and has not been laid to rest, Chief Inspector Manfred Sass, a senior member of the team of detectives investigating the murder, said yesterday.Sass said investigators were still receiving information that might assist with their investigation on an almost daily basis.All of this was being followed up as the investigation continued, he said.He said people calling the investigators were offering information about people who might fit the description of someone on a sketch that the Police had released in early October, or were making reports about people acting suspiciously, and that all of these possible leads were being investigated.Up to now, in the region of 140 people had been questioned as part of the investigation, Sass said.Some of the people who had been questioned have also been subjected to DNA testing, he added.The investigations have not yet yielded clues firm enough to warrant any arrests, however.The sketch of a blonde man that was released two and a half months ago actually relates to the investigation of the murder of another young woman, 22-year-old Melanie Janse, about a month before Mabula’s murder.Janse’s body was found lying next to the Western Bypass near the Van Eck Power Station on August 20.Like Mabula, she had been left there naked, but she had been strangled to death.The murders are being investigated separately, and not as part of the same case, Sass indicated yesterday.It might only be known whether the two murders are linked once an arrest has been made.She had been decapitated.She was killed a week before what would have been her 22nd birthday.It was only almost a month later, on October 24, that her head was found in a plastic shopping bag next to a road culvert some five kilometres south of the Groot Aub turnoff on the Windhoek-Rehoboth main road.A post-mortem examination revealed injuries to the back of the head that indicated that Mabula had been killed by a blow to the back of her head with a blunt object.Almost two months after that breakthrough in the investigation, and with the three-month anniversary of her death at the door, the Police have still not arrested any suspects in connection with the killing. The investigation is continuing, though, and has not been laid to rest, Chief Inspector Manfred Sass, a senior member of the team of detectives investigating the murder, said yesterday.Sass said investigators were still receiving information that might assist with their investigation on an almost daily basis.All of this was being followed up as the investigation continued, he said.He said people calling the investigators were offering information about people who might fit the description of someone on a sketch that the Police had released in early October, or were making reports about people acting suspiciously, and that all of these possible leads were being investigated.Up to now, in the region of 140 people had been questioned as part of the investigation, Sass said.Some of the people who had been questioned have also been subjected to DNA testing, he added.The investigations have not yet yielded clues firm enough to warrant any arrests, however.The sketch of a blonde man that was released two and a half months ago actually relates to the investigation of the murder of another young woman, 22-year-old Melanie Janse, about a month before Mabula’s murder.Janse’s body was found lying next to the Western Bypass near the Van Eck Power Station on August 20.Like Mabula, she had been left there naked, but she had been strangled to death.The murders are being investigated separately, and not as part of the same case, Sass indicated yesterday.It might only be known whether the two murders are linked once an arrest has been made.