The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service is to conduct deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) examination on the human remains found buried at a shrine at Maame Dede near Adeiso in the Eastern Region last month.
The DNA would reveal the sex, age and identity of the skulls, and bones and other parts of human remains found by the police.
The Director General of the CID, Commissioner of Police (COP) Isaac Ken Yeboah disclosed these at a press conference in Accra yesterday to update the public on the murder of Edward Quartey Papafio, 64, a biochemist consultant.
He said on January 17, 2020, complainant Rev Mrs Comfort Ruth Quartey Papafio reported that, her husband Papafio left his house at Kasoa, in the Central Region, at about 7:33 a.m. after receiving a phone call and had since not returned.
The CID boss said on receipt of the complaint, police intelligence revealed that the victim was last spotted at Adeiso, near Nsawam, in the Eastern Region.
COP Yeboah said during investigations on April 21, the police arrested suspects Christian Gamale Lawoe,36, also known as Power, and Famous Adukonu,37, alias Scorpion, both fetish priests, and retrieved two pump action guns, single barrel gun tighter with eleven packets full of cartridges from Christian Lawoe’s room.
He said on April 29, 2020, both suspects admitted having interacted with the missing person Papafio for some time, but he was later shot and killed on Janaury 15, at their shrine.
COP Yeboah said the suspects told the police the corpse of the deceased was buried at a spot within the shrine, and led the police to the scene, adding that the area was secured for exhumation order to be granted by the court.
“On April 30, 2020, the police including a pathologist, personnel from crime scene management unit of the police, forensic scientists, laboratory experts, drone and personnel from CID operation unit went to Maame Dede and executed the exhumation order,” he added.
COP Yeboah said on arrival, the two suspects led the police to the scene behind the house, which has been walled with a small entrance but no exit, where the graves of the deceased and one other were spotted, “and the pathologist retrieved decomposed bodies, which the suspects identified as Papafio and Kwasi Zormelo, a Togolese.”
The CID chief said the team later exhumed human parts, such as hair with beads attached, suspected to be of a woman, and other bones from a third grave.
“A decomposed human flesh with bones wrapped in a cloth buried among the bodies was also retrieved from the scene,” he added.
He said the team also retrieved, a gallon of liquid substance suspected to have been siphoned from Papafio and Zormelo (which suspect Lawoe confirmed), human skull together with bones believed to be that of another corpse hidden under idols in the house.
COP Yeboah said investigations revealed in December that, the two conspired and murdered Papafio, adding that the suspects lured the deceased to their shrine, and succeeded in collecting GH¢10,000 from him under the pretext of fortifying the deceased spiritually to make his company flourish.
He said they later took possession of the deceased items, including Nokia mobile phone, which were given to Charity Dakudzi, Lawoe’s third wife at Mensah Ba, near Oyibi; Lawoe later led the police to retrieve them.
COP Yeboah said the two murdered Zormelo in February 2020, when the deceased demanded money the suspect owed him.
He said the bodies and human remains have since been sent to the Police Hospital in Accra for autopsy and DNA examination.
BY ANITA NYARKO-YIRENKYI