Gbarnga, Bong County – Domestic homicides, or murder by an intimate partner, are gradually assuming an alarming dimension in Bong County, with reports of the death of one or both partners in the resultant fisticuffs.
Investigation revealed that women are more likely to be killed by an intimate partner, be her husband, an ex, or a boyfriend, than anyone else.
Sometimes, innocent children who did not beg to be brought into the world end up having their lives snuffed out of them by either of the partners, apparently to erase memories of the bitter days.
Investigation by the Crimes Services Department of the Bong County Police Detachment revealed that between January 2015 and October 2022, more than 56 cases of domestic homicides have been recorded in the county, with three in the month of October 2022.
Investigation further showed that in most cases, anger, jealousy, depression and abuse of drugs have been the propelling force behind these unwarranted deaths.
Last week, residents of Goll Farm on the Melekie-Gbarnga highway woke up to find the lifeless body of 63-year-old Nowai Yarkpawolo. This shock was not in her death but the circumstances surrounding it, as she was alleged to have been strangled to death by her 58-year-old husband, Kokolu Kpaquoi, during a misunderstanding over LD$ 500 of his cane juice money which his wife reportedly mismanaged. The disagreement degenerated into a fight.
One version of the account alleged that the late Nowai had grabbed a machete to scare her husband during the fight, but that the latter overpowered her, causing the machete to fall off her grip. Kokolu reportedly pinned her by the neck and strangled her to death in the process.
Another account revealed that Kokolu killed his wife with machete after discovering she had mismanaged his money.
However, another version of the account claimed the deceased might have slumped and died out of exhaustion during the quarrel.
Question on the lips of neighbors is what could have warranted couple of that age, who are supposed to be counselors and mentors to young couples , to have engaged in a fight that went awry.
Love turns bitter in county
Love is one of the most profound emotions known to human beings. Unfortunately, some persons got entangled in it but ended up realizing too late that it was a death trap.
In Bong County, Liberia and elsewhere in the world, the story is the same. One moment, it feels like both parties could not do without each other, and in another moment, one of the parties ends up in regret, that is, if life is not snuffed out of him or her, either due to anger induced by jealousy, or frustration of not getting a reciprocal feeling from the other.
Back home in Bong County, in 2021, a jealous lover identified Dolo Kollie, 35, allegedly stabbed his wife, Hawa Yarkpawolo to death in Botota, Kokoyah Statutory District.
Reason? He accused her of picking up a call from another man.
Relatives of the deceased said Kollie and his wife were engaged in a verbal altercation when a call from a man whom Hawa described as a casual friend came in.
This sparked up a renewed rage, as her jealous lover, according to relatives, started beating her and in the process, stabbed her with a knife in the back and abandoned her to die.
Before being charged with murder by police in Bong, he apologized to the deceased’s family in an emotionally-filled interview he had with journalists.
“I feel very hurt, very unhappy at the moment. I want to ask my wife’s parents and relatives to forgive me, it wasn’t my intention to do what I did. I acted on jealousy after I was misinformed by my friends that my wife was into an extra relationship with someone from a neighboring town,” said Kollie.
In May 2020, A man confessed to shooting his long-time girlfriend to death. Police said the death of Fatu Yarkpah, 29, a resident of Mansansue Town in Salala District, said Friday that they had arrested the victim’s boyfriend, Jacob Nyumah.
Jacob, 50, admitted to FrontPageAfrica Friday to succumbing to rage after discovering that his girlfriend had been cheating on him. “I shot my girlfriend after I noticed that she had a different boyfriend. I begged her on many occasions to leave the boyfriend and she refused. So, I got angry and shot her in her chest with my single-barrel gun,” he said.
He said he had confronted his girlfriend with evidence of her cheating on him with another man. “I saw a photo of her and the boyfriend in her phone when I confronted her about the evidence she denied,” he said.
Joshua said they had a fight over what happened and the last straw was his girlfriend, with whom they have been together for nine years, told him she had fooled him for a long time.
Several other cases, most of which are in court abound. From the foregoing, it is obvious that domestic homicide accounts for a number of deaths in not just Bong County and elsewhere in the globe.