Man stabs wife to death - police

Published Mar 10, 2014

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Kimberley -

A Lerato Park woman died after her husband allegedly stabbed her with a broken beer bottle.

Nthabiseng Tsilo, 35, died in the shack in which she and her husband lived. Her body was found in a pool of blood with pieces of glass scattered across the scene.

The couple’s neighbours, Phetogo Sepato and Gladina Sima, on Sunday said that they woke up to Tsilo’s screams early on Saturday morning when she was desperately pleading for help.

“We woke up around 2am when we heard Tsilo loudly screaming ‘help me… please help me’ from next door. We went to fetch her mother-in-law, who arrived at the shack only to find the door locked.

“She pleaded with her son to open up, but he apparently said he could not find the key and then he proceeded to break open one of the sink walls with a hammer. She entered and I could see Tsilo lying on the floor. Her whole body was covered in blood. Her head and leg had gaping wounds. She was lying in pieces of broken glass and her wounds were also covered in what appeared to be broken beer bottles,” Sima recalled.

“The mother-in-law tried to calm her furious son, without any success. He picked her up from the floor and carried her to the bedroom, where he tried to wash the blood from her face.

“The man and the mother-in-law then went to call an ambulance. Shortly after I entered the room and saw that Tsilo’s was not going to make it. Her head, eyes and leg were all cut up. I touched her and could feel the broken bones in her body. I tried to administer CPR, but she gave her last breath while I was doing so. She died on the floor,” Sima added.

An ambulance eventually arrived, but it was too late for Tsilo.

The police also arrived later and searched for her husband, who had already disappeared. They could not find him. He apparently turned himself in at the Roodepan Police Station later on Saturday morning.

The deceased’s mother-in-law, Clemintina Tsilo, who was on Sunday still scrubbing blood from the carpet where Tsilo’s body was found, added that her daughter-in-law’s last words to her was “mother, please don’t leave me”.

Sepato, Sima’s partner, said that the community suspected that the husband went into a fit of rage after hearing of his wife’s infidelity.

“He apparently heard that his wife had cheated on him. Shortly before the incident he confronted her and screamed that he wanted to know the truth. We suspect that, combined with the fact that they both had been drinking heavily, it was this that triggered the attack,” Sepato said.

More neighbours, who gathered around the shack, said they were becoming concerned with the escalating violence associated with alcohol abuse.

“We call on our community to rather use dagga, instead of abusing alcohol, if they have the need to intoxicate themselves. Dagga smokers are known to be placid, peaceful and happy people, who are never involved in violence. Although it might be illegal, it remains a natural plant and does not cause the extensive harm alcohol, which is legal, does,” one woman said.

Her sentiments were echoed by other bystanders.

Police spokeswoman, Lieutenant Andrea Cloete, on Sunday confirmed that Roodepan police were investigating a case of murder. - Diamond Fields Advertiser

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