Durban - A teenager allegedly murdered his mother with a hammer and buried her body beneath the kitchen floor of their south Durban home.
The woman’s brother discovered her decomposing body on Sunday in the kitchen outside her house in Lovu Township, Illovo.
He had been investigating a foul smell.
The woman, in her forties, went missing on March 3. As the suspect is a minor, her name is being withheld.
According to a neighbour, Mandla Msomi, after the body was found the Grade 11 pupil told neighbours and his uncle what had happened.
Msomi said the son was angry that his mother punched him for coming home late.
They were inside the house when she turned around, and he grabbed a hammer and hit her twice on the back of her head. She fell face-down and he pulled her to the kitchen.
Msomi said he told them that he then went to sleep and the next day went to school as if nothing had happened.
When he returned from school he buried her in the kitchen, and put firewood over the grave.
The uncle said he found the body on Sunday when he looked for the source of the smell.
“I followed a trail of flies leading inside the kitchen. Inside, along the wall, was soil covered with wooden planks.
“I fetched a pickaxe from the main house. I started digging, with one hand covering my nose,” he said.
He hit something hard with the pick.
“When I got closer I saw a blanket. I quickly pulled it out. There my sister was, covered with three blankets.
“With neighbours’ help we alerted police who removed the body,” said the uncle.
He said the family had reported his sister missing after she did not answer her phone.
Despite using sniffer dogs, police had been unable to find the woman, he said.
He said his nephew had not aroused any suspicions.
Msomi, who is also a ward councillor, attributed the murder to the use of the drug whoonga.
“I do not believe he was alone when he buried his mother.
“He could have been helped by other whoonga boys,” said Msomi.
Police confirmed that a 17-year-old suspect had been arrested and charged with murder.
The minor was to appear in the Umbumbulu Magistrate’s Court today, said police spokesman Captain Thulani Zwane.
Daily News