Battered and stabbed pensioner clung to life long enough to name killer

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Durban - Hours before a brutally battered and stabbed Merebank senior citizen could take her last breath, she revealed the name of her alleged killer. Relatives of Dhanwathie Fakira, 79, of Arcot Place, made the shocking discovery when they visited the elderly woman for a late lunch on Sunday. Her bloodied body was found lying on her bedroom floor. She was still alive. “That is how we all know our ‘mami’, never to give up without a fight, but her frail body could not handle the pain,” said relative, Jenny Lutchman, who along with her husband Raj and their 9-year-old daughter had visited the woman, who lived alone. “She had called us around midday and asked us to come over for lunch. We had told her as soon as we were done with our errands, we would visit her before returning to our home in Pietermaritzburg.

“When we arrived at the house just after 4 pm, I had knocked on the door and called out to her, but there was no answer. My husband saw the gate was unlocked and the door was slightly open, so he decided to open it,” she said.

After entering the house, the family knew something was amiss. They walked into the lounge and noticed the landline phone was off the hook and covered in fresh blood.

Raj said he kept calling out to Fakira and could hear muffled cries.

“As I walked towards the bedroom, I saw her one leg stretched out through the bedroom door into the passageway. I rushed to the room and found her lying on her back, in a pool of blood. I screamed for my wife to call the ambulance and police.

“Her mouth was full of blood. We turned her to her side, so she did not choke. I then rushed out to call the neighbours to help,” said Raj.

Jenny added that she kept asking Fakira “who had done this to her”.

“The words that came out from her mouth was ‘tenant’ and his name. I kept asking her if she was sure and she kept nodding her head,” she said.

Two hours later, Fakira was declared dead by paramedics.

She had sustained multiple stab wounds to the neck, face and hands.

“She will always be remembered as a strong, loving and caring woman, who was also very independent. In her old age, she still went to work, she ran a small pickle and sweetmeat stall at our local shopping centre,” said Jenny.

Isipingo Community Policing Forum (CPF) chairperson Aidan David said after receiving news of the attack, he had banded together with his team in search of the suspect.

“We were given a description of the man, who was believed to have been a tenant on the property but had since moved out in June this year.

“Our members began combing the area.

“Whilst searching through the passages leading from street to street, we found a bloodied pair of jeans and boots.

“After receiving information from a source and using technology, we were able to trace the man. He was travelling towards the Phoenix area, when he was nabbed,” said David.

Police spokesperson Captain Nqobile Gwala said a 37-year-old suspect was arrested for murder in the early hours of Monday.

This attack comes just two weeks after a 66-year-old Isipingo Hills grandmother was found strangled to death in her Spathodia Drive home.

According to a source, a former employee of the woman’s son had come to the home wanting to speak to him about getting his job back.

Neighbours, who heard her screams for help, alerted her daughter.

Her lifeless body was found lying in the passageway of her home.

Less than four hours later, a suspect was arrested at a petrol garage in the Isipingo CBD area and charged for murder. He was found in possession of the deceased’s phone.

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