CAROLINE KALOMBE, Lusaka
A WITNESS yesterday narrated to the High Court that the body of his employer, Clara Sukizia Sichinga, was found bundled in her bedroom toilet, wrapped in a bedsheet with a plastic bag over her head.
The witness was testifying in the case in which Davies Zulu is jointly charged with a juvenile with the murder of Ms Sichinga, 50, their employer at her house in Chudleigh, Lusaka.
When the case came up for trial before judge Nicola Sharpe-Phiri, Mutale Lupili, 33, a graphic designer, said he used to work for Ms Sichinga at her company, which was housed at her home in Jesmondine in Lusaka.
He said he had failed to get in touch with Ms Sichinga for three days and when he went to the house, he found the gate locked and no one within the premises.
Mr Lupili said he tried texting her and calling her phone but that there was no response, and that he later called Ms Sichinga’s grandmother, who, too, said she did not know her whereabouts.
He said three days later when he went back to the premises, he met a boy in a Mitsubishi Canter light truck.
Mr Lupili said he entered the premises and the boy told him that he had come to return the property Zulu had stolen earlier.
He said they were joined by Ms Sichinga’s aunt, who asked him to open the house so that they could see whether Ms Sichinga was in the house.
Mr Lupili said Ms Sichinga’s brother also arrived and that it was at that point that he asked that they search the house thoroughly and that it was discovered that the door to the toilet in her bedroom was locked.
He said when the door was forced open, they found the body on the floor wrapped in a bedsheet and a plastic bag over her head.
Another witness, Moses Mtonga, said he was related to the teenager who is jointly charged with Zulu and that he was the one who convinced the parents that he should take back the property he had stolen.
Mr Mtonga said he did not know at this point that Ms Sichinga had been killed and that this was only revealed later when the boy was arrested.
It is alleged in the first count that the two, between April 12 and 14 last year, murdered Ms Sichinga in Lusaka.
In the second count, the particulars of the offence are that they stole four pieces of a sofa set, a queen mattress, 20 litres of paint, two cookers, a Philips CD player, a bicycle, a fridge, a microwave oven, a heater, a coffee table, a pair of trousers and a Mercedes Benz car registration number ABR 5182, all valued at K150,850, the property of Ms Sichinga.
The trial continues.