Man beheads 9-year-old girl, hides body in a swamp

CRIME 

The police in Kasangati, Wakiso district are still holding a young man in connection with the brutal murder of a nine-year-old girl.

The body of Grace Lubega, daughter of Pastor Abbey Lubega and Rhona Male of the Holly Power Dominion Church located at Nakwero along Gayaza-Kalagi Road was recovered from a swamp after it had been beheaded.

The Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesman, Patrick Onyango said they were still holding Eria Kamoga, a resident of Nakwero B zone in Kasangati Town Council as the prime suspect in the gruesome murder.    

He said the girl's head and one arm were still missing and after recovering the body, the police mounted another search for the missing body parts.

According to Onyango, the police were still investigating the matter and were yet to establish the motive of the murder.

He explained that the girl went missing from her home for three days, which forced the parents to report the matter to the police and alerted residents. It was said the girl was last seen playing with her colleagues in the neighborhood.

Some residents, however, reported that they had seen the suspect moving with the deceased to an unknown location, which forced the police to arrest him.

His house was searched and the police recovered a blood-stained machete, which was wrapped in a sack and later saw traces of blood in the house.  

Police detectives also recovered some fetishes and upon further quizzing, the suspect confessed to have beheaded the girl.

Under tight guarding, the suspect led the police to the place where he had hidden the body at Nakalere swamp between Bulindo and Kiwologoma wetlands.   

According to Onyango, the suspect told police that he was possessed by ‘spirits', which he claimed had directed him to kill.

 It was not yet clear whether this was another case of child sacrifice after some residents claimed that the man committed the murder in order to acquire wealth.

One of the local leaders, however, said that the suspect, who was staying in a rental house had been in the area for hardly two months and they did not know much about his background.

Onyango said the body was still lying at Mulago hospital as the search for the head and hand continued.

"We cannot hand over the body without the head because it would again require us to do a DNA test if the head is recovered," he explained.

 Residents suspect that the head and hand could have been thrown in the wetland and carried away by running water or they could have been taken somewhere else for other intentions.