Dam refuses to give up secret

POLICE officers investigating a case in which an alleged cellphone thief jumped into the Goreangab Dam in Windhoek last Tuesday, are beginning to doubt that the man did in fact drown.

By yesterday afternoon, seven days after the incident, nobody had been retrieved, despite continued Police monitoring of the area. The suspect, along with an accomplice, allegedly stole a cellphone from a 16-year-old girl as she was walking home from the Woermann & Brock shopping centre in Otjomuise.The girl called for help when the robbers fled, and an angry mob started chasing the two men.The suspects then apparently split up, with the mob chasing one of them for more than a kilometre until he reached the dam.Eyewitnesses said they saw the suspect throw the cellphone into the bush before taking off his T-shirt and jumping into the water.Although the witnesses insisted that the man did not get away without them noticing, Police officers are beginning to think that the man did not actually drown.Over the weekend, Police said that it would not be unusual for a body to remain underwater in the Goreangab Dam for more than a week.However, yesterday one officer remarked that if the body did not surface by tomorrow, it would be doubtful that the man had drowned.Police divers say the water in the dam is too polluted for them to search for a body there.The suspect, along with an accomplice, allegedly stole a cellphone from a 16-year-old girl as she was walking home from the Woermann & Brock shopping centre in Otjomuise.The girl called for help when the robbers fled, and an angry mob started chasing the two men.The suspects then apparently split up, with the mob chasing one of them for more than a kilometre until he reached the dam.Eyewitnesses said they saw the suspect throw the cellphone into the bush before taking off his T-shirt and jumping into the water.Although the witnesses insisted that the man did not get away without them noticing, Police officers are beginning to think that the man did not actually drown.Over the weekend, Police said that it would not be unusual for a body to remain underwater in the Goreangab Dam for more than a week.However, yesterday one officer remarked that if the body did not surface by tomorrow, it would be doubtful that the man had drowned.Police divers say the water in the dam is too polluted for them to search for a body there.