IS IT A SERIAL KILLER? …as desperate mother pays for prayers for missing daughter, who turned up dead(PHOTOS)

LINDA TEMBO and NOEL IYOMBWA write

@SunZambian

A MOTHER paying for prayers in a desperate search for her missing daughter and startling revelations that the girl could have been a victim of a suspected serial killer, are the latest in the shocking death of a 13 year old farm girl.

Brenda Mwila’s  desperate search for her  missing daughter, Faustina, led her to a pastor where she was asked to pay for prayers, anointing oil and holy water, all aimed at uncovering the mystery.

However, all these were in vain as the teen girl, Faustina Mwila, was already dead and lay decomposing in a field.

Desperate search

Faustina’s mother, Brenda, went from pastor to prophet, hoping to find her daughter who had been missing for two days.

One pastor asked for K20 before seeing her and K50 for anointing oil, which she readily paid.

When she requested for special prayers, Ms Mwila was asked to pay K100 but she did not have enough and therefore the request could be carried out.

Stunning revelation

And in a stunning revelation, some residents have called for investigations into the matter as this death could be a result of a suspected serial killer as this was not the first girl to die in this manner.

A senior citizen who refused to be identified told the Sun in an interview he had lived in the area for 10 years and that it was the fourth body to be found in four years.

“I have lived in this area for the last 10 years and this is the fourth murder of a young girl. Apart from this particular one there was yet another girl from the same school and prior to that two other girls were killed in a similar way,” the old man said.

He said police should intensify patrols in the area and get to the ground because there might be a serial killer at large preying on young girls.

“The other two girls who were murdered went to the same school as the girl who has just been murdered,” the old man said.

He said undeveloped bushes in the area had contributed to the rise in murder cases because the murderers dragged victims in the thickets

Residents of Kalundu in Lusaka West are annoyed at the death of   Faustina , who was found dead in unclear circumstances at one of the farms.

They say she is the fourth girl to be murdered in as many years.

Faustina, a grade seven pupil at Isabella Primary School in Kalundu, was found dead at one of the farms after missing for about 11 days.

Her mother narrated to the Sun how she went searching for her daughter after she failed to return home hoping to find her alive.

The interview

Sun:  What are your names, and what happened?

Mrs Mwila: My names are Brenda Mwila, the mother of Faustina Mwila.

My daughter went missing on June 9. What happened was that she had gone with my younger sister to do piece work at the next farm Pa Kasusu, Pa Mweemba to harvest green beans.

At around 11:00 hours she told my sister that she was hungry and was going home. And I had gone to church.

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When I went back home after church I found that the bucket that my daughter had carried was not there and she had not reached home.

I waited for her to come home but she didn’t come. Later in the day my younger sister came home and asked me if Faustina had reached home.

I told her she had not reached home and that maybe she was at the well with her friend, Milly.

That’s how my sister left and I continued waiting until it became dark. My younger sister sent her daughter to bring Faustina’s money home which she had worked for at the farm.

Then I asked my niece where my daughter was and she told me they had not seen her.

It was getting late, around 20:00 hours. I started asking myself, where could my daughter be?

Calling family members

I started calling family members to find out if she had gone there to visit without my knowledge. They all refused that they had not seen her.

She got lost on Sunday. On Monday morning I asked around my relatives’ homes if my daughter was there. They all refused and I did not know what to do.

I thought she was just at one of her friends’ houses and that she would come back.

REPORTED TO POLICE

On Tuesday I went to Makeni police to report my missing child. The officers told me to find my child.

That’s how I left the police and went to her father’s home at a place called Kashima, but she was not there.

MEETING WITH PROPHET

On Tuesday I also went to see the polofita (prophet) at my Church, Zion, at a place called Muyeco.

I told Prophet Nchimunya that my daughter had been missing since Sunday and I wanted her to come back home.

He told me my daughter was around, that she was not dead and that she was being kept in a house somewhere by some people and that we should pray.

She will be back. He assured me that my daughter was very fine and we prayed.

After prayers he gave me water to sprinkle in the house and to bath and that my daughter would be found.

I obeyed his instructions. That same day my daughter did not come home. On Wednesday there was still no sign of her.

MEETING WITH PASTOR MOSES

On Thursday I went to a place called Kwa Mbasela to meet Pastor Moses. Someone just gave me his phone number and told me he would help me find my daughter.

I called the line and I was told to go and see him and that he would pray for me. I reached Pastor Moses’s home.

PAYING FOR PRAYERS

I was told I needed to pay K20. I paid the money and was allowed to go inside the house.

He started praying and told me my child was alive, that nothing bad had happened to her.

Pastor Moses said she was only being kept by unknown people.

He told me we should pray so that my daughter could be set free. He told me he would give me directions of how to use the anointing oil and water. He told me the cost of the oil and water was K50. I got my money and paid the pastor.

He told me for my prayer request I needed to pay K100 and put it in my envelope.

I told him that I did not have the money. I only had a K50. He [Pastor Moses] told me to put it in the envelope.

I was given the oil and water and was told my daughter would be back before the week ended.

I went back home with the assurance that my daughter was alive and not dead.

STRANGE SIGHTINGS

That very day, Thursday, when I went home some people told me they had seen my daughter buying relish with her friends somewhere in our  area and I  said if it was possible let my daughter come back home. 

On Friday I went round looking for my child even in places I was told she had been seen, but there was no sign of her.

I went back to Kanyama police station to tell them my daughter was still missing.

The officer told me they had an 11-year-old child. They showed me and asked me if she was the one, but I refused and told them mine was 13 years old.

PROPHET ASSURES BRENDA HER DAUGHTER WAS ALIVE

I went back home and on Saturday I went back to Prophet Nchimunya to inform him that my daughter was still missing.

I was told not to worry because my daughter was alive and that the people who were holding her were planning to bring her back to me before the end of the month.

On Sunday I couldn’t even go to church. I was home. On Monday I went round in all the places people told me they had seen her.

Some said they had seen her at the market cooking nshima; others in different homes that had gates.

I looked for her, but nothing positive came out.

I called my relatives that I was unable to find my child. I had searched everywhere; I said if my child is locked up or dead somewhere it’s okay and that maybe those who were seeing her were seeing her in form of a ghost.

I continued searching. On Thursday I had gone for the burial of a certain man I knew who had died.

He had been bashed by a vehicle.

THE PHONE CALL

While at the graveyard, as they were burying the body, I received a phone call from someone asking me if I had found my child.

I said no. That’s when I was told to rush to the scene before the police arrived so that I could identify a body that had been found.

I ran fast so that I could find the body and identify it. Everyone I asked on the way told me they had no idea whose body it was.

When I arrived I could not identify her from her face. It was decomposing.

I knew she was my daughter because of the skit she was wearing and her toes because they looked like mine.

Everyone refused that they didn’t know her. That’s how I started crying and that’s how my daughter was found dead. I do not even know how she died. I am still in shock.

Sun: How was the body looking when you found it?

Ms Mwila: When we found the body, it was in a decomposing state and she had burns on her body.

It was difficult to identify her because there were flies all over her body, but I knew she was my child because of the clothes.

And Faustina’s uncle, Charles Chipikauka, said the body was found by school children and that they were the ones who informed the elders.

Mr Chipikauka said after hearing the news they quickly informed the police.

“We gathered and slept right at the place the body was the whole night to guard it with the neighborhood watch people,” he said.

Mr Chipikauka said what had happened to her niece was very sad and unfortunate, and that it was not the first time a dead body had been discovered in the area.

He appealed to Government to consider putting up a police post in the area to protect residents from marauding criminals.

According to Mr Chipikauka, the post mortem was conducted on the scene on Friday and police and medical staff left the family to go and bury the body.

The family that had gathered at the crime scene and kept vigil over night, watched as medical staff removed samples for further investigations.

The body was then put into a simple coffin made of soft wood as the family looked for transport to carry the body to the cemetery.