Crimes that gripped the nation in 2019

A WOMAN battered to death while her children watched, an entire family wiped out in cold blood together with their livestock and an employee accused of killing his boss over a contract. was on the ground closely following these chilling crime stories as they broke out. Let us revisit some of the most sensational crimes, accidents, suicides and mysterious deaths that received a lot of public attention this year.

In April, Namibia Institute of Mining and Technology executive director Eckhart Mueller and his deputy, Heimo Hellwig, were gunned down at Arandis. According to staff on the scene, the two directors arrived at the head office at 06h00. As soon as they got out their vehicle, a suspect shot them dead before fleeing the scene. Ernst Lichtenstrasser, who was a senior lecturer at the Tsumeb campus of Nimt, was arrested and charged for allegedly having gunned down the two.

The police arrested Namibia Qualifications Authority CEO Franz Gertze for allegedly shooting his wife, Anittha, several times with a rifle at their home in Windhoek in November. Gertze drove his wife to the Roman Catholic Hospital after the shooting incident. A month later, Anittha reportedly made a statement to the police that her husband was not trying to kill her on the day, but that she was attempting to prevent him from committing suicide, and was shot in the process. Gertze was released on N$5 000 bail. The case is postponed until 19 February 2020.

In September, two sisters were brutally hacked to death at Oshaango in the Ohangwena region by the estranged partner of one of them. Ndamononghenda Nafuka (23) and Martha Nafuka (32) met their fate after Samuele Enkono (29), the father of two of Ndamononghenda’s three children, allegedly attacked them with a panga before slitting their throats, and then proceeded to hang himself. Both women died on the spot, a few metres from their homestead.

In mid-June, the body of 22-year-old Gilberto Ruiters was found by passers-by at the edge of Moses Garoeb Street in Khomasdal in Windhoek. Police said Ruiters’ body was found with bruises on his forehead and chest.

In January, a former Global Fund employee allegedly shot and killed his boss Sarah Mwilima at the office located in the Windhoek city centre. The suspect, Simataa Simasiku, also left another employee Ester Nepolo injured. Mwilima, who was a management unit director at the Global Fund, died on the scene. Simasiku later handed himself in to the police. It is alleged that Simasiku was upset because his contract had not been renewed.

In September, Lucillia Bunita Quimbra (30) was allegedly beaten to death by her boyfriend of three years, Edward Haiyambo (31), in full view of her four children aged 10, six, three and one. The last two children were fathered by the suspect. At the time of the incident at Okandjengedi location at Oshakati, Haiyambo had escaped from the Oshakati State Hospital on 24 August, where he was under police guard while undergoing medical treatment. He was in custody for theft. His case was postponed to 20 January 2020.

In August, two pupils from Windhoek Gymnasium School died, and others were injured, after the bus they were travelling in overturned. The accident happened about 30 kilometres south of Kalkrand on the B1 highway. The bus driver, Uasora Uanivi, tested positive for alcohol.

In July, Kahambue Nyandee Hipose (10) was found hanging from the laundry line behind the family home by his uncle. Hipose allegedly committed suicide after playing a deadly game that dares young children to take their own lives. Police statistics provided to The Namibian show that 36 children killed themselves from 2017 to 2019, a number described by the education ministry as “tragic and devastating”. Nationwide, 18 children committed suicide between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2019, while a similar number died between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2018.

In July, a 16-year-old pupil at Namib High School, Swakopmund, allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself at the Swakopmund Primary School’s playground with a swing rope. A report issued by the Erongo police’s crime investigations coordinator, deputy commissioner Erastus Iikuy, stated that two younger girls discovered the body hanging from the swing poles. They then notified their parents, who subsequently notified the police. The deceased was identified as Kaiyongua Venomambo. She left a suicide note.

In late March, the decapitated body of Elna-Marie Abbott (29) was found on a train track near Game Shopping Centre in Windhoek. An autopsy revealed that the manner in which her head was severed from the body indicated that she had put herself on the railway line to commit suicide. Abbott’s body was found two days after her family had reported her missing. Her car was later found parked in the basement of the Merensky Tower apartment building in the Ausspannplatz area. Police said more than 10 notes addressed to different family members of Abbott, including her mother, father and brother, were found in her car.

In June, a Namibian Defence Force member allegedly shot Zimbabwean taxi driver ‘Talent’ Black (22) during a police operation in Katutura, Windhoek. The soldier, Gerson Nakale, allegedly shot Black after the Zimbabwean attempted to make a U-turn to avoid a police roadblock that had been set up on Monica Street at the Greenwell Matongo informal settlement on 13 June. While in September, a civilian was shot dead, allegedly by a member of the Namibian Defence Force during an ‘Operation Kalahari Desert’ mission. Benisius Kalola (32) was shot around 10h45 and died a few hours later.

In February, a 27-year-old man allegedly killed his cousins, and raped and injured his grandmother at Okafitu ka Katanyange village in the Outapi constituency of the Omusati region. The suspect, said to be an Angolan national, allegedly beat the two boys, aged 8 and 12, to death with a mopane tree branch, which he also used to beat his 75-year-old grandmother. He fled the scene shortly after allegedly committing the offences, but was arrested at Outapi.

In January, a passer-by found the body of Dexter Netha (19) whose body was washed ashore near Long Beach. Netha disappeared at Swakopmund on 28 December 2018 after attending the popular Sound of Summer Festival at the coast with his friends. Family and friends were searching for him before his body was recovered. Police said his cause of death was a suspected drowning. Netha was a student at the International University of Management.