No limbs, no skull: Family to bury incomplete body
The incomplete remains of Baitshepi Phirinyane (71) of Kanye has been buried.
Phirinyane went missing on the 14th August 2022 after attending church service at Salvation House Church in Kanye at the invitation of a neighbour.
She never returned home and a month later, her clothes were found in the bush with few bones next to them.
The police did a DNA test on the bones and concluded that the bones belonged to Phirinyane. In an effort to eliminate doubt, the family sought second opinion and the results came back positive.
Goitsemang Edward Phirinyane, son of the deceased said this week that it is now time for him and his siblings to move on with their lives. But can they really?
It has been five months of torture and they are hurting badly, the pain cuts deeper than anything.
How does one bury a few bones, so few that they can all fit inside a one litre water jar and that is all that they have of their mother?
These are the questions racing through the minds of Phirinyane’s four children as they prepare for burial.
“We are torn, the police have given us those few bones with one believed to be part of the ribcage and that is all we have. There is no skeletal, no hands, thighs, not even the skull. We searched and searched and couldn’t find any more body parts.
“We really do not know what we are doing, what if we bury the rib today and tomorrow we are given the skull? Are we going to have another burial? This is torture, we are hurt, we fear for the unknown, the pain is too much,” Edward said.
They really do not understand what led to the death of their mother but as far as they are concerned one thing is certain, she was killed and her killers are out there somewhere.
“The pathologists have not been able to determine when she died or even the cause of death. When we were with the police, they hinted that maybe she was eaten by wild animals but where her clothes and bones were found suggests something else.
“My mother’s clothes were not torn, in fact her German print dress and T shirt were zipped and intact. No bloodstains or dirt can be spotted on those clothes, it is like someone put them there, so no, something does not add up here.”
Furthermore, there was something like oil on the ground where the bones were found but strangely, pathologists did not find any DNA on the soil which they took for testing.
At first they had thought that the oil like substance was a result of bones decaying.
“This is very strange, we are trying to find closure but we can’t, so much does not add up,” he said.
And because they are not sure of anything right now, they will not be conducting memorial services for their mother. The intention is to collect her remains from the morgue, pass them by home to pay last respects then proceed to the cemetery.
When reached for comment police spokesperson Dipheko Motube said investigations into the death of Phirinyane are ongoing but at the moment, they do not suspect foul play.
The police are however, open to any fresh information that might surface which could help solve the case. He confirmed that they allowed the family to bring an independent pathologist when they expressed doubts about the results provided by the police.