2 Remaining families of missing girls agree to DNA test

Mary Mensah & Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu Aug - 09 - 2019 , 09:17 5 minutes read

The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service has despatched a team of clinical psychologists and forensic experts to Takoradi to counsel the families of the kidnapped Takoradi girls and also explain the processes involved in the DNA examination.

The CID has also sought the assistance of an external pathologist from the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital to assist the police pathologists to conduct the examinations together with the forensic experts.

This follows the agreement of the remaining two families of the kidnapped girls to cooperate with the police to carry out forensic examinations to determine the identities of the skeletons that were retrieved from a cesspit at Kansaworodo and Nkroful, suburbs of Sekondi/Takoradi in the Western Region.

The families are those of 19-year-old Ruth Abakah and Ruth Love Quayson,18.

According to the CID, the team would return to Accra at the weekend without bringing any samples from the families for matching.

The police would later dispatch a vehicle to convey the family members to be nominated to the Police Forensic Laboratory in Accra for their samples to be taken, a source familiar with the investigations told the Daily Graphic yesterday.

The mother of Abakah, Ms Cecilia Owusu Ayisah, agreed to cooperate with the investigations when the Western Regional Police Command sent a delegation to break the news of a new skeleton find last Tuesday which could hold key information to unravelling the whereabouts of her daughter who was last seen on Sunday, July 29, 2018.

The spokesperson for the Quayson family, Mr Michael Grant Hayford, told the Daily Graphic that although the family had agreed to cooperate with the police, they would also engage an independent pathologist to do a concurrent examination on the skeletal remains found in a cesspit in an uncompleted building at Kansaworodo near where the chief kidnapping suspect, Samuel Udoetuk-Willis, lived before his arrest.

As of last Wednesday, only two of the four families had agreed to be part of the investigations. They are the families of Priscilla Blessing Bentum, 21, and Priscilla Mantebea Koranchie,18.

Ayisah family

After interacting with Ms Ayisah in her residence at Nsuaem in the Tarkwa municipality in the Western Region, she told the team of policemen sent to break the news of the discovery to her that she was ready to avail herself and support the police in their investigations.

She said from the very moment her daughter went missing, they had not had peace. “It has always been an anxious moment for me, the mother, and my parents, who took care of her.

“You have accorded me the respect and come all the way to look for me and explain your findings to me. I have no option, we are all looking for the solution and I will assist you in that regard,” Ms Ayisah told the team of investigators and a psychologist.

“I do not know the process, but whatever you want me to do to find the solution or lead to the discovery of my daughter I will avail myself,” she said.

Quayson’s family

For his part, the spokesperson for the Quayson’s family, Mr Michael Grant Hayford, expressed the readiness of the family to avail themselves.

“We were not against the DNA by the police, but what we were asking was for an independent forensic body. After meeting with the other two families, we have agreed to support the process to establish the veracity of the bones recovered from both Nkroful and Kansaworodo,” he said.

Recall

Although she has become known as the fourth kidnapped girl, Ruth Abakah was the first person who was reported missing in Takoradi in July last year.

Also known as Stacy, the senior high school graduate was first reported missing to the Kojokrom Police Station and later to the Takoradi District Police Command, where entries were made to that effect.

The families were later contacted via telephone to demand a ransom of between GH¢20,000 and GH¢30,000. The family, after persistent calls and negotiations, first paid GH¢5, GH¢202 and then GH¢303.

Experts despatched

Meanwhile, the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the police has despatched a clinical psychologist and forensic experts to counsel the families.

A source, who is familiar with the investigations, said the team would be met on the ground by another pathologist.

The team will also explain the processes involved in the forensic examinations, including DNA tests, to the families.

Background

The team of police forensic experts working to unravel the mystery surrounding the recovery of the remains of three persons found in a cesspit at Kansaworodo, a suburb of Takoradi, also discovered another full human skeleton in a well in an uncompleted building at Nkroful, also in the twin city metropolis.

Last Friday, the police in an operation found three skulls and the skeletal remains believed to be those of the three girls who went missing between August and December last year and for which 28-year-old Samuel Udoetuk-Willis is being held as prime suspect.

The cesspit from which the remains were found, serves the house from where Udoetuk-Willis rented a single room apartment.

The fourth set of skeletons was found in the uncompleted building from where the prime suspect was rearrested after his escape from lawful custody on December 30, 2018.