Police in Chiradzulu are keeping in custody a 30 year old, Mathias James for allegedly killing a 105 year-old woman over witchcraft allegations.

Chiradzulu Police Public Relation Officer (PRO), Yohane Tasowana identified the deceased as Ellina Anderson from Mbule village, in the area of Traditional Authority (TA) Mpama in the district.

“It is alleged that on October 12, 2018, James visited the deceased at around 8 am where he accused her of bewitched him based on a dream he had,” he said.

Tasowana added not satisfied with his grandmother’s response, the suspect went to a nearby village to take liquor and came back to the deceased’s house at around 8 pm while drunk and entered the deceased house by force, and took her out of the house.

He said James started beating the deceased with a wooden stick so hard that she collapsed and died on the spot.

Postmortem conducted by health personnel from Chiradzulu District Hospital revealed that death was due to severe internal bleeding.

James will appear before court soon to answer charge of murder which contravenes section 209 of the penal code.

James hails from Mbule village, in the area of TA Mpama in the district.