Mum killed, baby left in bush

Main Stories, National
Source:

The National, Monday 29th April 2013

By JUNIOR UKAHA

A TODDLER was left abandoned in a bush overnight after her mother was killed near the family food garden in Lae last Friday.

Lae Lord Mayor James Khay has condemned the killing, saying crime in the city has gone from bad to worse.

The body of Maria Drua, 20, originally from Yandera, Bundi, in Madang, was found by a farmer the next day about 100m from where her child slept in a bilum near Wanam Farm at 9-Mile.

She had a deep cut on her forehead and her severed arm was found lying 5m away from the body.

Lae metropolitan commander Supt Iven La­ka­­­tani said he had sent detectives to investigate.

The dead woman’s father, Kimson Drua, a local ward councillor said his daughter had gone to the family garden about 300m from their home last Friday with her one-year-old baby.

When she did not return in the afternoon, the family members began looking for her.

“In the morning (Saturday), a man from Chimbu came and said he had seen Maria’s body in the bushes,” he said.

Liu Poka, who found the body at around 7am on Saturday, told The National he was on his way to his garden. 

He said he was shocked and turned back.

“I came and told the councillor that a woman who looked like his daughter, Maria, was killed and left in the bushes,” Poka said.

Neighbours John Nombri and Simakus Gende who were at their garden when they heard news of the killing went to investigate. 

They spotted Drua’s bilum and her child sleeping in another bilum.

The little gilr had spent the night exposed to the cold while her mother’s corpse lay about 100m from where she had left her.

“The child is alive and is with us,” Drua said.

Maria’s husband, married to another woman, had left her and the baby, according to the family. 

Khay said the high crime rate was due to the lack of funding for the police.

“There are over 800,000 people living in Lae and the police manpower of whole of Morobe is under 300,” he said.

“They need vehicles and other resources to deal with the problem.”

Khay said Lae MPs must work together to address the murders, rapes and arson which were becoming daily occurrences.

Maria was the second woman to be killed in Lae in a fortnight. 

Last week, a woman from Eastern Highlands was murdered and burnt before her body was dumped at a secluded spot near Kunai Block.

A student from the Martin Luther Seminary also died after he was hit with a heavy object on the head.