Nselema police in Mchinga is keeping in custody 18-year-old boy who surrendered himself after killing a 50-year-old woman.

Machinga police station public relations officer Constable Davie Sulumba has identified the suspect as Ishmael Stenala and the deceased as Sausaje Mangame who hailed from Saiti village, Traditional Authority Chikweo in the same district of Machinga.

According to Sulumba, sister to the deceased Mrs Fanny White said on the morning of 29th June 2018, the deceased went to her garden to prepare ridges and she did not come back.

“This made her relatives to start searching for her and was found dead in her garden with deep cuts and a fractured right arm,” the deceased sister told the police.

The body of the woman was taken to Chikweo Health Centre where a postmortem revealed the death was due to sever loss of blood.

The suspect confessed of his crime to his parents who advised him to surrender himself to police station.

“When interviewed by Police, Ishmael confessed that his motive was to steal cash from the deceased because he knew that she had money as she had just received her money on Social Cash Transfer Programme which is commonly known as mtukula pakhomo,”said Sulumba adding that he also confessed to stealing K4,000.00 from the woman.

Meanwhile, Ishmael will soon appear in court to answer murder charges contrary to section 209 of the penal code.

He hails from Suse village in the area f traditional authority Chikweo in Machinga.