Jealous husband held for wife’s murder
A 24-year-old marriage blessed with 10 children has come to a bloody end at Penpenmu in the Birim North District in the Eastern Region when the 47-year-old husband allegedly killed the woman in a fit of jealousy.
Police sources told the Daily Graphic that the suspected murderer, Kwame Helevi, who hails from Togo, had suspected his 42-year-old wife, Paulina, of infidelity and proceeded to kill her and hid the body in a nearby bush.
Briefing the Daily Graphic at Akyem Oda last Monday, the Oda Divisional Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Ben Atadana, said in May, this year, Helevi accused Paulina of infidelity and that brought a misunderstanding between the couple at the farming village.
He said as the woman could not bear the regular assaults and accusations, she left the matrimonial home to stay with her step-daughter at Yayaso, a nearby village, in order to have her peace.
Chief Supt Atadana said Helevi traced his wife to the house of the step-daughter, who had accommodated her, and asked her to expel her from the house, but the step-daughter refused.
He said during one of Helevi's regular visits to Paulina at Yayaso, Helevi confronted his wife and told her of his suspicion that she was pregnant and asked her to tell him the one responsible, but the deceased denied the suspicion.
Chief Supt Atadana said during another visit, the accused demanded to know the one who gave her some rice she had cooked.
He said when the deceased mentioned Kwaku Botwe, a farmer at the village as the one who bought the rice for her to be given to her daughter, Helevi hurriedly went to Botwe's house to accuse him of having an illicit affair with his wife, an allegation Botwe vehemently denied.
According to Chief Supt. Atadana, Helevi who was not satisfied with the response Botwe gave summoned him before the elders of Yayaso, who dismissed the allegation after through investigations. He said when Paulina went to the farm on July 21, this year, and failed to return home, her relatives suspected that she might have been murdered by her husband, so they organised a search party and fruitlessly traced her whereabouts.
According to the Divisional Commander, when Helevi was informed that his wife was missing, he reported the matter to Akyem Afosu police but was arrested to assist with investigations into the case.
He said a combined search party, involving the residents and the police on July 27 this year uncovered the naked body of Paulina lying prostrate in the bush almost decomposed.
Chief Supt. Atadana said a post-mortem report from the Nkawkaw Holy Family Hospital indicated that, “Marks of assault were found on the body.”