Four family members arrested over suspicious death of relative

Police in Greater Masaka has arrested four family members over the mysterious death of Jane Namatovu, 50, who was allegedly killed in a ritual sacrifice.

The deceased was a resident of Kilokole zone in Kawempe Division whose death was  reported by a one Rose Nabulime, 20 years also resident of Kawempe.

It's alleged that on July 11, Jane Namatovu now deceased received a phone call from her sister identified as Olivia Nansamba inviting her to go and check on their ailing father called Nyansio Ndaula, 78 years whom she'd alleged was in intensive care at a health facility in Masaka.

It is said the Rose Nabulime, the daughter to the deceased escorted her up to Busega stage where she boarded a taxi to Masaka. Upon reaching Masaka, she was tricked and offered as a sacrifice in a ritual murder.

In a statement, Muhammad Nsubuga, the regional police spokesperson for Greater Masaka said that the Nabulime  told police that on July 13, she spoke to her mother who seemed too weak but did not reveal anything.

Later that day she was shocked to receive another call informing her that her mother had passed on.

"On July 15, when the children of the deceased travelled to Masaka to perform cultural rituals of bathing their late mother's body before burial they found the deceased with a wound on the forehead and scratches on the body and some missing parts of her reproductive organs,” Nsubuga said.

This raised suspicion and chaos which prompted mourners to call police to calm down the situation after they also discovered that the father to the deceased had never been bed ridden as the sisters had alleged.

“The scene was visited immediately and we recovered private body part tissues of the deceased inside the father’s newly built built shrine," Nsubuga said.

The father was arrested together with deceased’s uncle, nephew and young brother whose names have been withheld by the police at the moment as investigations continue.

However preliminary reports indicate that they first strangled the victim before cutting her private parts.

The four are also said to have been found with several traditional ritual regalia including a dead puppy.