iol - A grieving mom got a creepy visit from her dead son when his body mysteriously arrived on a local orphanage's stoep.
Little Simamkele Maphini's decomposing body was found in the tiny white coffin he was buried in nearly three months ago after he died of meningitis.
Now the orphanage owner has been taken in for questioning after Simamkele's mother and the community accused her of turning the boy into a zombie.
The Du Noon house in Benelle Street was a hive of activity early Monday morning when a neighbour saw the coffin and went to alert orphanage owner Tozi Gonya.
Tozi is a well-known face in the area because she looks after abandoned and abused kids.
When the boy's mom Fundiswa Maphini arrived at the scene, she confirmed that the tiny corpse was her dead four-year-old son and told the Daily Voice she knows Tozi well.
Fundiswa said Tozi had approached her a day before her son died in April, offering to look after the cute little boy.
"I refused her offer and a day later my boy wouldn't wake up," she said.
"His body felt numb and he died later that day."
Fundiswa said her suspicions that Tozi was practising witchcraft were confirmed when the orphans told her the 54-year-old woman was keeping Simamkele in a cupboard.
"The kids came to tell me they saw my child crying in the house," she said.
"They told me she was feeding him (sugar water) because she couldn't afford the Coke he used to drink with me."
Out of desperation, Fundiswa consulted a sangoma who told her Simamkele would be returning home on August 2.
"That is not my real son I buried but a second body. She is using my son as a zombie," she claimed.
On Monday, even cops were too scared to open the dirty white coffin and forensic officials had the grim task of lifting the lid and peering inside.
A terrified Tozi tells the Daily Voice Fundiswa is nothing but a grieving mother desperate to blame her.
"She believes that I killed her baby. All I know is her baby died of meningitis," she said.
"She accused me of witchcraft and of keeping her baby as my zombie.
"She must have hired people to dig the coffin and dump it in my yard."
Milnerton police spokeswoman Daphne Dell said the boy's coffin and body were dug up from Maitland Cemetery.
**********
Accused Witch Pleads Guilty to Fraud, Leaves Lawyer in Ruins
A Toronto lawyer caught out by a fraudster originally accused of practicing witchcraft used his victim impact statement to rail against what he sees as the lax approach to white-collar crime in Canada.
Vishwantee Persaud pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud last week, but the Crown withdrew a rarely laid witchcraft charge.
Noel Daley, an experienced criminal lawyer originally from Newfoundland, was in court last week to see Vishwantee Persaud plead guilty to four counts of fraud.
Persaud fooled Daley into believing she was a law student, defrauding him in the process of at least $27,000, although he claims the real figure is much higher.
The Crown withdrew a rarely laid witchcraft charge against Persaud as part of a plea deal. In the meantime, Daley says her crimes have left him shunned by the legal profession and his career in ruins. Continue reading at Accused Witch Pleads Guilty to Fraud, Leaves Lawyer in Ruins
***********
Game Reserve Owner Plans To Inject Rhino Horns With Poison
swns - The owner of a South African game reserve intends to inject his rhino’s horns with poison to deter poachers. Ed Hern, owner of the Rhino and Lion Reserve near Johannesburg, hopes this extreme measure will dissuade poachers who have slaughtered more than 150 rhinos this year. He believes the only way to stop the thriving black market trade would be to make the horns deadly to humans.
“The aim would be to kill, or make seriously ill anyone who consumes the horn,” Hern said. “If someone in China eats it and gets violently sick, they’re not going to buy it again.” In China, powdered rhino horn is believed to be an aphrodisiac and recent demand has led to a dramatic new wave of rhino poaching across South African game parks.
The animals, including the critically endangered black rhino, are being massacred at the rate of two or three a week with horns fetching up to £45,000 on the black market. Poachers use helicopters and night vision equipment to track down and target their prey, with more than 150 killed this year. Hern’s idea to poison the horns of his herd of white rhino has provoked uproar among conservationists although he claims the animals will not be harmed.
“We are experimenting by injecting a little of the substance every day into one of the rhino, and monitoring him carefully for any effects,” Hern said. He admitted while his plan might seem barbaric, he stressed “what’s really outrageous is the sight of a dead rhino with its horn sawn off”. Research has proved the keratin inside rhino horns has no medicinal value yet myth surrounding its properties continues to drive illegal trade.
**********
Florida Man Kills and Skins Pet Dog...Thinks It's Satan
pnj - A Gulf Breeze man is charged with killing and skinning the family dog on Sunday because he believed it was possessed by the devil.
Matthew O. Foote, 25, is being held without bond on a third-degree felony of cruelty to animals. He is expected to make his first appearance in court this afternoon.
Foote told investigators he believed the 7-year-old dachshund Chihuahua mix, named Sasha, was possessed by Satan, according to a Santa Rosa Sheriff's Office report.
He vividly described slitting the dog's throat and chest with a knife several times, then when she did not die, holding the dog's mouth shut to suffocate her, the report says.
He then took the dog into the back yard and skinned her body. He dug a shallow grave, doused the body with gasoline and lit it on fire. A bag with the dog's skin and entrails was found in a nearby wooded area.
In her report, Deputy Virginia Rush described Foote as "very matter-of-fact," calm, cooperative and showing no emotion as he discussed the dog's death. He said his parents were at Mass when he killed the dog.
"He told me he did not really know why he killed his dog except that he thought the dog was Jesus," Rush wrote. "He then corrected himself and said Satan."
Foote also said he spent the preceding weekend in Louisiana where he met a lot of "evil people." He told the investigator that he also punched a girl on a bus and believed that "something was put in the water," the arrest report says.
Sheriff's deputies learned of the death after Foote's father, Gerald Foote, called 911 from their Reservation Road home. The elder Foote told the dispatcher that his son had killed the dog.
**********
The Next Governor of Tennessee is....
Click for video
Basil Marceaux's Official YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Marceaux2010
Fortean / Oddball News - 8/3/2010
