INSIDE THE TSHUBE FAMILY TRAGEDY

 

The Tsholofelo East township in Gaborone attracted attention in the early hours of Sunday when the police were called to a double-murder and suicide incident that would for this week become the talk of the town. Two children were killed while their killer, their father, committed suicide.

According to Broadhurst Police station commander, Obusitswe Lokae, the father of the deceased children - the late Dr Mellus Tshube - had a misunderstanding that seemingly led to a heated argument with his wife, Boipelo Tshube earlier on Saturday afternoon.

It would appear that their misunderstanding dragged into the evening and into late night hours, whereupon Dr Tshube would take the drastic step of chasing his wife out of their matrimonial home. While kicking out his wife out, he then locked himself inside their house with their two-year-old daughter and their son aged seven.

While in there, the police share, the 38-year-old man started sending strange messages to friends, family and neighbours that he was about to end his life. It turns out that he would also send some messages through facebook, even posting a message to suggest that he was leaving his wife to the men who had been having affairs with her. He included the names of the men.

A frantic and panicky Boipelo was in the meantime seeking help from neighbours, fearing that her husband could be up to something dreadful as he had locked himself with the kids inside the house while sending these messages. The neighbours then quickly called the police, telling them that they needed urgent help as there was some strange incident unfolding in their neighbour's homestead.

“We immediately reacted to cry for help but when we arrived, the man had already killed the kids. He appears to have made his last call around 00:37am to a family member, which suggested that he was in the final moments of his life,” Lokae said.

The police had to force open the main door, whereupon they found the two kids lying lifelessly on the floor. Dr Mellus was hanging on the roof rafters. It appeared he had hanged the kids using some plastic rope and then cut them off once they had breathed their last - and then followed suit to also hang himself from the rafters appearing through a trapdoor in the ceiling. Two short ropes, from being cut, were still hanging from the rafters while his body hung close by.

The bodies of the two children and their father were immediately ferried to Extension 2 Clinic in Gaborone where they were certified dead by medical doctors. The distraught Boipelo was then taken to her family home for her safety, Superintendent Lokae told The Midweek Sun..

The Station Commander revealed that in their investigations, the police will also look closely to the information that the deceased medical doctor posted on his Facebook account and will also question those suspected to have been wrecking his marriage.

The incident has irked and shocked many across the country, with some taking to social media platforms to hazard possible reasons for what they termed a heinous act of murder of innocent children who would not have known why they were being killed like that. Meanwhile, the Tshube family released a press statement about their lost family members, and identified the deceased as Dr Mellus Tshube, Entle Tshube and Isago Tshube. The family has since requested that they be allowed time to process and grieve privately.