A six year old child was on Thursday, 9th February, 2017, found dead along the banks of Mtedza River in Lilongwe.

According to Kanengo Police Deputy Publicist Salome Chibwana the deceased Gift James who was staying with his mother in Area 25 Sector 3, was last seen on Wednesday, February 8 when his 10-year-old friend, came to get the little boy to escort him to a place called Green Corner within the location.

Chibwana said: “We received a complaint from the mother of the deceased that her child never came back home and when queried at around 7PM, the boy’s ten-year-old friend said they had parted ways long before and did not go together to the Green Corner.”

She further told Malawi News Agency (Mana) that later, the body of the missing child was found on the banks of Mtedza River which is very far away from where the child stayed, with cuts and bruises all over the body.

According to Chibwana, postmortem showed that the child died of strangling contrary to what people thought.

“Because the child was found along the Mtedza River, people concluded that he might have died of drowning but postmortem done at Area 25, health centre and the Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH), respectively, revealed that the child died of strangling,” said Chibwana.

Meanwhile, police are investigating on the suspect who murdered the child.

Gift James hailed from Katsengere Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Chitukula in Lilongwe.