The community of Ha-Khakhu Thondoni was abuzz last week Thursday when news spread of the discovery of the body of a 17-month-old girl. The toddler was allegedly put in a refrigerator for three days before she was buried outside the house.

The 17-year-old mother was apparently not there when the incident happened. She had left her child in her mother’s care.

When the police exhumed the body of the child, community members were gathering around the scene and many were openly asking questions such as: “Was it a ritual murder? Why was the body first put in a refrigerator?" and "Why did the grandmother not report the matter to the authorities immediately if the child had died a natural death?”

The Siloam police opened an inquest docket and are investigating the case. “No arrests have been made and we are awaiting the postmortem results," said the Siloam police spokesperson, W/O Edward Tharaga.

According to the police, they had received an anonymous tip-off from the community that there was a child in the village who had been improperly buried by her grandmother. The tip-off alleged that the child had been put in a refrigerator for three days before being buried in the yard behind the house.

The chairperson of the sub-council in the village, Nndondeni Nepfumbada, said they had not spoken with the grandmother of the deceased, but they had consulted her elder sister. “We will wait for the postmortem results from the police. We don’t want to confuse her (grandmother) as we fear that she might even commit suicide,” he said. “We are shocked, this is awful,” he added.