A 27-year-old woman of Magangeni village outside Elim was allegedly chopped to death with a panga by her estranged boyfriend before he hanged himself last Wednesday (26th). Ms Ndondeni Muhali was allegedly killed by her boyfriend, Mr Antony Mahanchi (53), in the village before he hanged himself inside his house. The community members of Magangeni and family members of the deceased are still traumatized by the incident. According to the police report, Muhali had visited her boyfriend, Mahanchi, at his house at Magangeni when the incident happened. "It appeared that the two had differences which led them to quarrel before the incident," family members said. Muhali was supposed to meet her sister, Suzan Munyai, at the social grant paypoint the day she was killed. When she did not show up, Munyai decided to call her sister. Mahanchi answered the phone and told her that she would never see her sister again. Munyai did not take it too seriously at first, but when her sister did not return home that Wednesday, she started to panic. Mahanchi´s neighbours also started to wonder why they hadn´t seen him for two days in succession. On Thursday, the neighbours went to Mahanchi´s house to investigate. They found the doors locked, but there was a bad smell coming from the house. The neighbours then decided to call the police. When the police arrived, the door was still locked. They had to break open the door, only to find Muhali´s lifeless body next to the door, while Mahanchi was hanging from the roof inside the house. The spokesperson for the Waterval police, warrant officer Kedibone Mabatha, confirmed the incident. "We suspect that the incident might have happened on Wednesday. When we were called last Thursday, we discovered Muhali´s lifeless body inside Mahanchi´s house. Mahanchi´s lifeless body was hanging from the roof. It appeared that the man had killed his girlfriend before he committed suicide. We discovered a panga lying next to Muhali´s body," he said. He added that the police had opened a case of murder. "We had also opened an inquest docket, because we do not know whether the man committed suicide after killing his girlfriend or whether they were both killed [by someone else]. Investigations are still continuing to determine what had really happened," said Mabatha. A lot of killings of this nature have been reported to have happened in the Waterval area in the past weeks. Mabatha is now calling upon all people who might be having marital problems to consult the social workers for counselling, rather than resorting to killing each other. According to the family members of Muhali, she will be laid to rest at the Mpheni cemetery tomorrow (Saturday).