Three years later, the mysterious murder of Peter Manyathelo of Makobo village has come back to haunt his wife, 61-year-old Susan Manyathelo as she was re-arraigned and remanded by Francistown Magistrate’s Court last Friday.
In last week’s court appearance, Susan a former secretary at Attorney General Chambers in Francistown was charged alongside 38-year-old Blessing Bhebhe from Zimbabwe and three others who are still at large for the murder of the 68-year-old man.
Susan and Bhebhe will return to Magistrate Thapelo Buang’s court next week Monday for argument of bail. The investigating officers in the mariticide will produce new evidence linking and implicating Susan and her co accused.
At the time of the alleged murder the elderly couple were said to be estranged.
The murder case of the 68-year-old man previously went cold after investigations failed to bring evidence linking Susan to the gruesome killing of her husband.
In February 2022 when the murder case was first registered and heard by Magistrate Mareledi Dipate, Susan was the only prime suspect in the matter.
According to court papers then, the wife with the help of hired hitmen is believed to have murdered her husband between the 7th and 8th of February 2022 in a bloody attack. The deceased’s-blood stained body was found in his van on a Tuesday morning by a passerby near Borolong bridge.
Investigating officer at that time, Joseph Modipe revealed, “we arrived on the scene and found the lifeless body of the deceased. The wife was called and she identified the body.”
“Then we proceeded to the couple’s home in Shangano ward, Makobo. Upon arrival at their home, we learnt that the couple was sleeping in separate houses. The wife was sleeping in the main house while the deceased was sleeping in the roundavel house.”
Police tried to get access to the deceased’s house only to find it locked and the accused said she did not have the keys to the house which we later recovered from the deceased’s van.
Detective Modipe said when officers eventually entered the deceased house, the red-like spots suspected to be blood caught their eye. The stains were on the wall, doorframe and the corner of the bed was soaked in red.
“The floor appeared to have been recently mopped. We proceeded to search the whole yard and found a mop and other clothes hanging on the screen wall, stained with a red substance. We therefore took the bloodstained items for forensic analysis,” Modipe narrated. The murder weapon was not recovered at the time when the police were searching the couple’s yard.
