A Form Three student attending an all night church service over the weekend was found murdered inside a toilet where the service was being held.
A young man is currently helping the police with their investigations.
The nineteen-year-old suspect was arrested on Saturday and appeared before the Palapye magistrate court on Tuesday, charged with three criminal offences: murder, burglary and theft.
Reports from Palapye suggest that last Friday night, a seventeen-year-old student who was attending a church crusade at one of the primary schools was found dead in one of the school toilets.
It is reported that the deceased was attacked by an unknown assailant in the toilets.
The report says that the suspect attacked the deceased, raped her and strangled her to death with her church uniform.
After that, the suspect is said to have moved to a nearby house where he forced his way in and stole some household items.
During the early hours of Saturday morning, some church mates started looking for the deceased and when they could not find her, they intensified the search.
The deceased’s body was found in one of the school toilets after a long search and the matter was reported to the police.
Owners of the burgled house had reported the break-in just before the deceased’s body was found inside the toilet. Foot prints from the scene led to the arrest of the suspect.
The Palapye Acting Station Commander, Assistant Superintendent Meshack Ranku, told The Telegraph on Monday evening that “we are investigating a murder case in which a student was allegedly murdered by a nineteen-year-old who will appear before the magistrate court on Tuesday this week”.
“We have not yet established the motive behind her death but we believe that she was strangled to death.”
In response to the allegations that the deceased might have been raped, he said “I would not want to commit myself as to whether the deceased might have been raped before being strangled as police investigations are still ongoing.”
While the body of the deceased still lies in the Palapye Hospital mortuary awaiting a post mortem, her name is still being withheld.
