Two men aged 69 and 45 have hanged themselves in separate incidents at Chintheche in Nkhata Bay.
The deceased are Thom Mphande aged 69 of Mpalawezi Village in Traditional Authority Malanda in Nkhata Bay District and Andrew Siame aged 45 of Muyepa Village in Traditional Authority Kanyenda in Nkhotakota District.
In the first occasion, during the night of October 29, 2022, it is said that Mphande was sleeping with his wife but reports indicate that he got up and went outside where his wife believed that he wanted to answer the call of nature.
Surprisingly, minutes passed without seeing Mphande coming back and the wife followed but didn’t find him.
She only found him later in the early hours of October 30, 2022 in a nearby bush where he hanged himself in a tree with a suicide note indicating that he was in land disputes with one of his relatives.
In the second scenario, it is reported that Siame had been in perpetual misunderstandings with his wife such that on the material day in the early hours of October 31, 2022, they picked a quarrel again. The wife eventually left her husband and children at home and fled to her home village in Nkhotakota.
Following the incident, a reportedly angry Siame set ablaze his own clothes and kitchen utensils before locking himself up in his bedroom where he hanged himself as well.
Upon receiving reports about both scenarios, police officers from Chintheche Police Post, visited the scenes and took the victims to Chintheche Rural Hospital where both deaths were confirmed. The autopsy conducted at the hospital revealed that the duo died due to suffocation as they got strangled.
Meanwhile, police in the district are urging people to avoid killing themselves if they have problems but rather to seek help from close friends, relatives, police and other relevant authorities including religious leaders.
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