Female Chinese shop owner, 44, found dead in shop
THE shocking discovery of the body of a 44-year-old female Chinese lying in a pool of blood in her own shop at the White Angel Building in Point Cruz had left chills amongst Honiara residents yesterday.
This brought back memories of a similar incident that occurred on an Easter Weekend on 15 April 2017, where the bodies of a Chinese couple were found dead inside their shop at Town Ground, west of Honiara.
Two people, whom one is the couple’s security guard, were arrested, charged, and then sentenced after a trial to life imprisonment in 2018 following this incident.
In relation to yesterday’s incident, an initial report from the Police Media Unit stated that the deceased left her house in the Ranadi area, east Honiara to drop off her twin sons at school in the morning.
It stated that the deceased then went down to her shop at the White Angel Building in Point Cruz to open it as she normally did.
“While the shopkeepers were waiting outside for the deceased to open the shop, the husband of the deceased arrived and sought assistance from a nearby shop to open their shop as the doors were locked from inside,” the report stated.
“When the husband finally entered their shop just before 9 am, he discovered his wife (deceased) lying on the floor with blood all over her body,” the report added.
The discovery had attracted a number of bystanders who took pictures and uploaded them onto social media.
A photo of the deceased lying in her pool of blood was also circulated on social media.
While some social media users are guessing the killings are done by another Chinese, Chinese Triads probably, others said it must be a robbery by locals gone wrong.
But police are saying they had not yet identified a suspect as their investigations continue.
“Officers in the National Criminal Investigation Department (NCID) of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) together with the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) at the Honiara City Central Police Station are investigating this suspicious death,” the report added.
Assistant Commissioner for Crime and Intelligence Patricia Leta said, the matter was reported to police and officers from the Forensic Unit, National Criminal Investigation Department (NCID), Fire and Rescue, Police Response Team (PRT), and Central Response Unit (CRU) attended the incident and cordoned off the scene of the crime while investigations began.
Members of the public who may have been around the White Angel building early yesterday morning and may have noticed anything suspicious are urged to come forward to police with any information that may assist police in this sad incident.
The NCID can be contacted on 21192 or the National Police Communication Centre on 23666.
The body of the deceased is now at the National Referral Hospital (NRH) morgue for further examination and post mortem.
By ASSUMPTA BUCHANAN BONGIDANI
Newsroom, Honiara
