Two women die in gruesome murders over weekend
“I love you, my sister. Please take care of yourself.”
These were the last words Wilhemina Hamases heard the night before her sister, Mercheline Hamases (38), was found dead in a river bed at Okahandja in the early hours of Friday morning.
The sisters were last seen together at a watering hole where Wilhemina left Mercheline to go home.
A passerby at Oshetu 2 informal settlement found Mercheline’s body.
The mother of five was unemployed.
“We were just together Thursday night and Mercheline was in a jovial mood. I was with her until before 21h00 and I had to go home. We said our goodbyes,” Wilhemina says.
She says she understands Mercheline went home at around 22h00, where she lives with her boyfriend, but apparently left again.
“I understand my sister never made it home again. One of her children was sick and she was supposed to take them to the clinic the next morning, but never made it.
“Even Oupa is still waiting for the vetkoekies my sister was supposed to bring him on Friday morning, only for us to hear she died that same day.”
Mercheline’s mother, Albertina Garises, has described her daughter as loving and always available to help her family.
Garises is calling on the government and good Samaritans to help with her daughter’s burial.
A LIFE OF SACRIFICE
In another incident, a woman’s boyfriend allegedly shot and killed her in Windhoek’s Havana area on Friday.
Rachel Frans (39) died after an alleged fight with the boyfriend.
Neighbours say he had gone to her home three times to see if her door was open.
He allegedly shot Frans through a security door, which the family believes she refused to open when she saw her boyfriend was armed.
Frans was allegedly shot at around 10h00, and her daughter (14) found her dead when she came home from school.
Frans was known as a woman who put others before herself.
To her family, she was not only a mother but a provider, peacemaker and someone who always made sacrifices to ensure those around her were taken care of.
“She wasn’t a bad person. She never showed she was being abused, We could tell she was being abused,” a relative says.
She says Frans did not drink alcohol.
‘SHE LEFT US’ … The family of murdered Ragel Frans (39) says she used to unite her family and her death has left them with nothing.
“She united the family. He [the boyfriend] left us with nothing,” the relative says.
Frans was an order-with-me agent and leaves behind three children aged 20, 14 and seven.
She had been in a relationship with her partner since 2019.
They sometimes lived together at Khomasdal, but when arguments escalated, she would go back to her house.
The family claims the man frequently insulted her and became difficult to deal with when he had been drinking.
“He could only do these things when he was drunk . . . ,” the relative says.
