Two double murders linked to sorcery

NCD Central divisional commander Fred Sheekiot yesterday confirmed four murders over the weekend, including that of a Grade 10 student, on the outskirts of Port Moresby.
Two of them were related to sorcery and were planned while the earlier two were innocent victims whose vehicle had broken down in the area.
Sheekiot told reporters yesterday that in the first double murder, Seru Mara, an adult male, from Aku village in Komo district, Hela, and Davis Bare, 19, of Menyamya, Morobe, were murdered at about 10.30pm last Saturday.
Their bodies were dumped alongside Bautama bridge along the Magi Highway.
The second double murder of Hahari Warite, 20, a Grade 10 student at Mt Diamond Secondary School, and Mathew Isaac, 25, both from Madowate village, in the Bautama area, occurred while they were asleep at their home in the village at about 4am on Sunday.
Sheekiot said the latter deaths followed a plan by Goilala settlers at 6-Mile to attack and kill a Koiari family of Madowate.
He said the Koiari family had been blamed for using sorcery against a Goilala woman.
Sheekiot said that the attack was also to avenge the stabbing of a Goilala youth who was injured in an attempted robbery and stabbing of three Mt Diamond students on the school road two weeks ago.
He said more than 10 Goilala youths, including two women, took part in the carefully orchestrated attack.
The gang had set off on foot from their 6-Mile homes headed for Madowate village at about 10.30pm when they struck their first two victims.
He said police had retrieved three blood-stained bush knives for forensic tests while the stabbed victim at the hospital had fled.
The five 6-Mile settlement houses, where the suspects lived, were deserted with chains and padlocks on the doors, Sheekiot said, adding that their identities were known to police.