72-year-old man commits suicide after murdering his wife in cold blood of their child’s paternity

A LUFWANYAMA woman has been shot by her ex-lover who also took his own life after she informed him that he was not the father of their 3-year-old child following a dispute

Safi Mayonde, 42 has allegedly been murdered by 72-year-old Saela Walubita, the supposed father of the child she informed him that he was not.

According to police on the Copperbelt, Mayonde had a boy child with Walubita, however, the two started having misunderstandings over the paternity of the child.

“The lady informed the suspect that he was not the biological father to the child. On 08/07/23 between 10:00 hrs and 13:00 hrs, the suspect followed the deceased to her farm within the Chipese area where he found her harvesting her maize in the company of two other people.

He was armed with an unknown firearm which he discharged and shot the deceased on the upper side of the right breast causing her to sustain a big bullet hole.The suspect was seen by the two other witnesses shooting the victim and later got on his bicycle and left,” Copperbelt Police Commanding Officer Peacewell Mweemba said.

Mr Mweemba said police visited the scene and found the deceased lying exactly where she was shot from.

“On inspection, it was found with a big bullet hole just above the left breast. Upon searching the scene, one spent shotgun cartridge shell was found near the body. From the two witnesses present at the time of the shooting, they stated that the suspect shot at the deceased four times,” Mr Mweemba said.

Mr Mweemba said police launched a man hunt for the suspect and upon visiting his farm, the suspect had left a written message on the wall of his house in black charcoal writing stating the reason he had killed the deceased.

“He went further to indicate that since he had killed her, he was equally going to kill himself. A search was conducted around his farm and his lifeless body was found hanging from a tree about 100 meters away from the farm entrance.

“He had used a ladder to climb a tree of about 10 meters where he used a red sisal rope to tie a noose which he used to hang himself. The ladder was found still leaning on the same tree,” he said.