Decomposed bodies of 4 children found at Mpumalanga home, mother arrested

Four children were on Sunday found murdered at their home in Klarinet in Emalahleni in Mpumalanga, allegedly by their mother who was arrested after she handed herself over to the police.

Police spokesman Brigadier Leonard Hlathi told the African News Agency (ANA) that police were called to the home where they found the four bodies in the two-roomed house.

He said the children were two girls, aged four and eight, and two boys, aged seven years and 11 months.

“While we were still working at the scene, the mother of the children handed herself over to the Vosman police station, where she was arrested,” said Hlathi.

“The bodies were in the early stage of decomposition. Neighbours said they last saw the children at their home on December 26. The bodies had no visible wounds and the motive for the murder is not known at this stage.

A postmortem will be conducted to determine the cause of death.”

The 30-year-old woman would be charged with four counts of murder, added Hlathi.

Kingdom Mabuza, the spokesman for the executive mayor of Emalahleni Linah Malatjie, said the municipality would offer support to the family.

“The office of the mayor would like to send condolences to the affected family,” said Mabuza.

“The family has clearly been hurt. We will offer support where it is needed. We don’t know what happened and we will wait for the police to do their investigation.”

African News Agency (ANA)