By FLAVIOR CHISHALA –
POLICE are looking for a run-away boyfriend of the 13-year-old girl who was defiled and killed in Ng’ombe Township in Lusaka on Monday.
The man is believed to have been the last person seen with the deceased, who has been identified as Lucie Phiri by her mother, Brenda Mwape. She was a Grade Five pupil at Ng’ombe Basic School.
In an update, Police spokesperson, Charity Munganga-Chanda said the unidentified man was believed to have gone on a drinking spree with the teenager on the night before her murder.
Her mother, Ms Mwape said her daughter was strangled and called on the Police to expedite investigations in the brutal murder, in which the deceased’s body had bruises around her neck and bite-marks on one of her breasts.
“Her death is very painful to the family, I went out immediately when I heard that my daughter’s body had been found outside.  She went missing on Sunday, only to find her dead in the morning. Whoever did this, please we are begging the Police to do their work,” Ms Mwape said amid sobbing.
Police are gathering clues to the murder puzzle. Used condoms, found at the crime scene, were the immediate evidence in police’s possession.
A visit at the family’s residence found mourners complaining about the loss of yet another victim to rampant murder cases in Lusaka.
Two of the deceased’s friends, speaking on condition of anonymity,  said they last saw Lucie around 20:00 hours after plaiting her hair.
Meanwhile, Police in Lusaka have shot dead one criminal in connection with recent spate of robberies that have rocked Lusaka’s Libala,  Kamwala and Chalala Townships.
Ms Chanda said in an interview yesterday that officers gunned down a criminal only identified as Goodson, while 11 of his colleagues had been arrested, including two former convicts.