Man who raped, killed 6-year-old girl nabbed

Police in Likoma are keeping in custody a 24-year-old man for being suspected to have raped and murdered a 6-year-old girl at Chizumulu Island.

The suspect who was arrested yesterday has been identified as Arthur Mtambo.

On 2nd May this year, the girl Tadala Kabefu was found dead and it was discovered that she was raped before being strangulated to death.

According to Likoma police publicist Mcliff Ngulube, on 1st May, the girl together with her mother went to her grandparents’ to pay a visit but the girl left her mother there and started going back home.

When the mother reached home she did not find her daughter.
At around 7pm, the child was not back home and the mother started enquiring from neighbours, relatives and friends but did not find her child.
On 2nd May at around 6am, the body of the girl was found in a trench covered with a heap of stones with only the feet visible.

The matter was reported to police who later took the body to Chizumulu Health Centre where postmortem indicated that the girl was first raped and later strangled to death.

After a week of intensive investigation, police on Wednesday arrested the suspect who has been identified as Arthur Mtambo.

The suspect will appear before court soon to answer charges of murder which is contrary to section 209 of penal code and attracts a penalty of death or life imprisonment, and defilement which is contrary to section 138 of penal code and attracts a penalty of imprisonment for life.

Mtambo hails from Kabuthu village in Traditional Authority Mkumpha in Likoma district.