Pretoria - In an unusual turn of events, Sunnyside police have charged a man with murder after he walked into the station and told them he had just killed his mother - and that "evil spirits" made him do it.
The man, 31, walked into the police station shortly before midnight on Wednesday, and confessed to police officers an evil spirit ordered him to kill his mother.
Sunnyside spokesperson Captain Daniel Mavimbela said the suspect walked in calmly before explaining what he had done.
“Upon arrival at the man’s flat in Sunnyside the police made a gruesome discovery they found the body of the suspect’s mother, lying in a pool of blood."
The police suspected that the victim had died of multiple stab wounds inflicted with a knife that was recovered at the scene.
And so gruesome was the find by the police officers that the local police station’s Employee Health and Wellness Unit had been activated to ensure that the officers who attended the scene received a thorough debriefing.
Mavimbela said it was uncommon, and especially rare at the Sunnyside police station, for criminals to walk in and confess to horrendous crimes.
“In my time here I have never witnessed anything like it, this is an usual case,” he said.
Commenting on the possibility of the accused being in a trance, or if there was suspicion of the involvement of drugs or intoxication, Mavimbela said the suspect appeared to be normal.
“Like most criminals or transgressors, he appeared clean and not suspicious. He looked sober and not intoxicated."
Mavimbela said the flat looked like a normal family home with no sign of abnormal or supernatural activities of artefacts that could suggest a sacrificial killing. “In fact, we got information that the family was dedicated to church and attended religiously,” he said.
“We found the body of the 57-year-old mother lying in a pool of blood next to a huge knife which looked like a carving knife,” the police officer said.
The man was arrested immediately, and is set to be charged with murder. He will appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court soon.
Mavimbela said officers who arrested the man were traumatised.