. . . corpse found with arm, breast, lower jaw, face and both eyes missing
Mantoetse Maama
HER right arm and breast, lower jaw, facial flesh, and both eyes, were missing. The 15-year-old girl also had a deep wound on the right thigh when Malikoebe Sejane identified her grandchild at a local funeral parlour on Monday last week.
The teenager had gone missing on 22 April in Mazenod and Ms Sejane was hoping one day, she would return home alive — only to be confronted by a gruesome sight the elderly woman says she would never forget for the rest of her life.
“The first time I saw the body in the mortuary, I was so shocked I needed a second look because the condition the body was in left me in a state of utter disarray. I couldn’t think straight,” Ms Sejane
told the Sunday Express from her Mazenod home.
“I decided to go home and come again four days later, on Friday, together with other relatives, to be absolutely sure. It was horrific; I will never forget that sight for as long as I live.”
And when Ms Sejane went back to the mortuary on Friday, the worst had already been confirmed by relatives that indeed, it was her grandchild who lay mutilated in the morgue.
“She was only 15 years of age, and very bright at school. She was in Form C and passed with first class,” she said amid tears of grief.
“Puleng had visited her mother in Teyateyaneng where she works; and had gone there to spend Easter holiday with her.
“She came back to Mazenod at around 1pm on the day she disappeared, and was at my home until about 5pm, when I told her to leave since she stays with my mother here in Mazenod.
“She was helping look after my mother, her
great-grandmother, because she is now very old.
“I was told when she got home, she started watching television, together with my mother and other relatives. She was then asked her to go to the kitchen and start cooking papa.
“I was told they heard her moving around the kitchen, then after a while, she left. They are not sure whether she received a call before she left the house.
“After realising she had been gone for a long time, they decided to look for her in the toilet as they thought she had gone there but she was not in there.
“Early in the morning the following day, I went to the hospital for check-up and when I came back, Puleng’s sister, who stays with me, informed me that my mother had come looking for Puleng.
“The sister told me that Puleng had disappeared the previous night. I called Puleng’s mother to check whether she was with her but she told me she had last seen her daughter the previous day, when she left for Mazenod. This got me worried and I asked her friends and relatives but no one knew of her whereabouts.
“I reported the matter to the police and her school principal, and when I couldn’t get any help, I consulted a traditional doctor and a prophet in an effort to find out what could have happened to her but to no avail.
“Last Saturday (24 May), I decided to take her photo to Lesotho Television so that after the news they would show her picture so that other people could help me search for her.
“On that day, I was also going to meet a certain prophet who had asked for her T-shirt and photo but then I could not get help as the prophet told me that a priest had to bless those items first before I could get help.
“I also went to Tšepong Hospital as I had heard there were some people who had been involved in a car accident. I looked in all the wards but she was not there.
“Later that day, I heard that there was a body of a woman that had been found in Masianokeng. When I got there, I was told that the police had taken the body to the mortuary, but people who had seen the corpse said the woman could be in her 30s.
“Since I was convinced that the lady would be 30 years of age, I never thought it was my child and I still had hopes she would come back alive.
“On Monday, while I was at work, my mother came and said the police wanted me to go and identify a corpse that had been found in Masianokeng on Saturday. I refused as I knew that the woman was older; besides, I was expecting to find my child alive.
“I got emotional and started crying, then went back to work. But then, the police sent for me again, saying maybe it was wise that I went to see the body. I then went to the Mazenod police to ask for an officer who was investigating the case.”
The officer, she said, took her to an office where she was asked what Puleng was wearing the day she disappeared.
“When we got to the mortuary, we went to an office where the police and a certain lady from the mortuary, asked me again what my child had been wearing when she went missing.
“I told them, and then the officer and lady looked at each other, and then left the room.
“They asked me to accompany them to the mortuary, and when I entered, the body was covered with linen but one foot was not. I recognised her foot. When they removed the linen, I saw the officer taking something from a plastic bag, and putting it against her shoulder.
“Her skull and neck were all white, without flesh. I was stunned; I couldn’t believe what I was seeing but it was clear this was Puleng I was looking at. I was horrified; my immediate reaction was this was the work of ritual murderers.”
The deceased’s mother, ‘Mapuleng Sejane could not control her emotions, and continued sobbing throughout the narration of the grisly sight of her daughter.
“No, no, no . . . this is not happening. What kind of people could be so cruel? What has she done on this earth to deserve such torture?” she wailed.
Acting Police Spokesperson, Thato Ramarikhoane, on Friday confirmed the death of the teenager, adding no arrests had been made.
“A 15-year-old girl was found dead in Masianokeng after she was reported missing by her relatives,” Senior Inspector Ramarikhoane said.
““No one has been arrested and we are currently investigating the case.”
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