Daily Graphic, (front page), Tuesday, March 17/09
A MAN and a his girlfriend, both in their early 30s, were yesterday found dead in a single room apartment at Abeka in Accra in what is suspected to be a combination of murder and suicide.
When the Daily Graphic went to the scene, the man had a rope tied around his neck, with the other end of the rope tied to the ceiling, while the woman was lying half naked on the bed.
The man was identified by his neighbours as Daniel Parku Jnr, a former worker of Westec Securities, while the woman, who could not be identified, was suspected to be his girlfriend by name Worla Ahado, who is said to be an itinerant house help.
Residents of the area could not say what exactly happened but they believed that the man might have killed the woman and later hanged himself.
They said the last time they saw the deceased was on Saturday and, therefore, they suspected that the incident might have happened on Saturday night.
A tenant, Mr Samuel Asiedu, who claimed to be Daniel’s friend, said the deceased were not married but were living together in the house.
He said they fought very often but it was never suspected that such a thing could happen.
“I knew they had separated but I do not know what exactly brought the lady back to the house on Saturday,” he added.
He said he had not set eyes on Daniel since Saturday, until Monday morning when other tenants started complaining of a terrible stench all over the house, with flies hovering around.
Mr Asiedu said they forced Daniel’s door open, only to find him hanging in the room, while Worla’s lifeless body lay on the bed.
He said the landlady was immediately notified and a report was made at the Tesano Police Station.
The landlady, Mrs Philomina Ayevor, said she had gone to knock at Daniel’s door on Sunday when he did not show up at a regular meeting organised in the house for the tenants but she thought he was asleep, since there had been no response.
She said they went on with the meeting without Daniel and woke up in the morning of yesterday only to get complaints from other tenants about an unusual stench from Daniel’s room.
She said when the door was forced open and she saw the lifeless bodies, she went to lodge a complaint at the Tesano Police Station.
She said she called for an ambulance to convey the bodies to the mortuary, but as of 12:20 p.m. when the Daily Graphic was leaving the place, the bodies were still in the room.
From the Korle-Bu Mortuary, Rebecca Quaicoe Duho reports that around 1.30 p.m., the Tesano Police brought the two bodies to the mortuary but the bodies were refused by officials of the mortuary.
According to police sources, the mortuary manager at Korle-Bu said the place was full and, therefore, they could not take the bodies, which were in advanced stages of decomposition.
The police, therefore, took the bodies to the Police Hospital Mortuary where they were received.
At the mortuary, an aunt of Worla’s, who gave her name as Dora, said she could not at first identify the deceased from the face because the body had decomposed. She said she could, however, identify Worla by a mark that she had on her belly which resulted from an operation.
She confirmed that Worla had been in an on-and-off relationship with Daniel and added that since September last year the deceased had been living with her at the Labadi Civil Aviation Quarters.
Dora said she had gone for a funeral on Saturday and that on her return she was told that Worla had left the house since Saturday and had not returned, adding that she called the deceased’s phone several times but no one answered it.
When the landlady was interviewed again at the Police Hospital Mortuary, she said Daniel had been living in her house for the past three years, noting that it was later realised that he had a mental problem, a situation which she said Daniel later confirmed to the household, adding, however, that he had been treated and he was, therefore, normal.
She said what baffled her was that when Daniel rented the room three years ago, he used the address and telephone number of Worla’s aunt (Dora) as those of a relative and, therefore, when the incident occurred and they were trying to reach his relatives, their calls went through to Worla’s aunt.
She further confirmed that it had been a while since she saw Worla in the house and, therefore, she thought that the two had ended their relationship.
Later, a source at the Tesano Police told the Daily Graphic that the police are investigating.
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