Body of missing woman found decomposing

By Charles Etukuri

LIRA - The Police in Lira are investigating circumstances under which 25-year old Sylvia Osinya went missing only for the residents to stumble upon her decomposing body in a maize plantation.

By the time of her death, she was working as an administrator with Fresh Horizon Ltd, a company contracted by Uganda Breweries to buy sorghum in northern Uganda.

Osinya's cousin, Francis Musoni Okiria, says he last had a chat with her on Facebook on October 22.

“Everything seemed okay and we looked forward to seeing each other but was shocked to hear she was dead,” Okiria said.

A friend, Agnes Arebo Ebamu, had talked to her that evening. “She did not look troubled,” Ebamu says.

Sylvia was last seen alive on October 31st. 

According to a friend, she left the house where she was staying with a colleague and carried a flat iron.

She wanted to first go to office to pin a notice given to her by her manager and later proceed to her boyfriend’s home.

Detectives in Lira say that her boyfriend had sent her a message asking she goes over and helps him wash his do laundry.

It remains unclear what exactly happened along the way. One thing that remains certain is that she never reached her workplace. Could she have been kidnapped along the way?

Okiria says they received a call from her manager on Tuesday informing them Osinya was missing at work.

“He wanted to find out whether she was in the village,” Okiria adds.

Her employer, Stephen Wekyewa, said they reported a case of a missing person and also informed the relatives.
 
“Police however called us on Thursday to inform us they had recovered a decomposing body and we positively identified it as hers,” he says.

He says the deceased had been working with them since September 6, this year when they recruited her.

Several of her friends expressed condolences and shock on her Facebook wall paying moving tributes.

Patrick Landerson Omongin posted:

“RIP, Sylvie. It is unbelievable but we know you have gone where you belong …HEAVEN, to meet the Lord. Jesus Christ demonstrated to believers that, There is life after death. We shall continue to pray for your soul to comfortably rest in Eternal Peace. We are going to miss you physically and on Facebook but we shall always be with you in spirit. Strengthen your family and all your friends spiritually in this time of grief”.

Florence Apolot wrote, “It’s too too soon. She had just gotten a job she was so excited about it and did not get to enjoy the fruits of her Labour!!! She has made me realize how short our time on earth is... You can b chatting with someone now and hear the person dead the next minute...surely we should live our lives to the fullest each minute that  passes by because there is no rehearsal...show love to others each moment like it was the last time u r seeing each other.”

Her burial will be in Serere.


Investigators in Lira are now working hard to try and unearth what exactly went wrong that fateful morning.

Close sources say police has lined up a number of people to help with investigations.

Other sources however say that shortly before the deceased went missing, she had been embroiled in a work dispute with colleagues in procurement who she had accused of inflating bills.

Police will also question her boyfriend who has not yet been named.

"We have been told to dig the grave and wait for the body. It is in a bad shape and we have been told to bury it straight away,” Okiria said.