Man kills wife, 25, commits suicide

Front Page: Daily Graphic, Janaury 14, 2010.
Story: Albert K. Salia
A 60-year-old man has committed suicide by hanging after allegedly stabbing his 25-year-old wife, Florence Ama Prah, to death.
Edward Kwadwo Marfo was found hanging on a tree in the compound house in which he lived at Santa Maria in Accra.
Although tenants in the house described the relationship between Marfo and his wife as lovely, since they did things in common, Marfo’s father-in-law later indicated that all was not rosy in the marriage, as the man suspected his wife of engaging in extra marital affairs.
The love-hate relationship hit its summit when Marfo allegedly denied responsibility for Ama’s pregnancy.
Ama’s decomposed body was later retrieved from their apartment, with her intestines gushed out and the body covered with a cloth ostensibly after Marfo had stabbed her, possibly last Monday night.
The posture of Marfo as he hung on the tree also raised questions for investigators as his feet were firmly rooted on the ground.
A bloodstained knife suspected to have been used in the attack and a crowbar were found lying close to Ama’s body.
Marfo had, on Monday afternoon, taken their two children, identified only as Korantemaa, five, and Nana Owusu, two, to his father-in-law’s house within the same vicinity, with the allegation that Ama had abandoned the children and could not be traced.
The last person who saw Marfo was the daughter of the landlord, Ms Janet Addy, who claimed the man had bought tea from her about 11 p.m. on Tuesday night.
She said when she was retiring to bed about 11:30 p.m., Marfo asked for the key to the toilet in the house.
Marfo’s father-in-law, Mr Kwadwo Prah, 46, recalled a misunderstanding between her daughter and her husband over a pregnancy which Marfo claimed he was not responsible for.
He said Marfo had accused his wife of sleeping around and that the pregnancy was the result of her infidelity.
According to him, Ama had to abort the pregnancy because of the misunderstanding over it and indicated that he (Prah) had spent three hours last Sunday night resolving another problem between the deceased couple.
He said the couple had been bringing the children to his house and, therefore, he had not suspected that there was any problem when the children were sent to him last Monday afternoon.
Some tenants in the house claimed that the last time they had seen Ama in the house was last Monday afternoon.
The landlord, Mr Ransford Addy, said he had been woken up by his wife that one of the tenants was shouting in the house about 3 a.m. yesterday.
He said when he stepped out of the room onto the main yard of the house, he found the deceased hanging on the tree.
He said it was at that point that they became suspicious and when they approached the entrance of the deceaseds’ door to call Ama, they were met with an unusual odour.
He said he quickly rushed to the police station to report the incident.
Mr Addy said Marfo had only told him recently that he was not financially sound as a result of challenges he had been encountering in his "Pure water" business.