A young lady,Dorcas Shangev, who went missing in Makurdi, Benue State on her birthday ,was found dead with her body parts severed 24 hours after the day.
Our correspondent gathered that the lady, in her 30s, who resided at Owner Occupier Area of Makurdi, had gone out to hang out with friends to celebrate her birthday, on Sunday, July 16, 2023 and did not return home .
It was gathered that several calls made to her phone by friends and relations in search of her were not answered,until the following day, Monday, July 17, when a friend got a strange message from her phone.
The friend, who didn’t want to be named told newsmen in Makurdi that, Miss Shangev, On Friday, 14th July, 2023, escorted a friend of hers to the burial of her brother in-law. After the burial, they both returned to Makurdi on Saturday July 15, 2023.
“When they returned, she didn’t go back home, but slept at her friend’s house around the Modern Market area.The next day, Sunday, July 16,was her birthday, she left her friend’s house with a promise to call her friend by 3pm, so they could hang out.
“However, when she didn’t call back as arranged, her friend called to find out why she hadn’t called, but she didn’t pick her calls. Her friend kept calling the whole of Sunday, and continued till Monday, July 17, but she still didn’t pick the phone.
“On Monday, heer friend got a message that was sent from the lady’s (deceased) phone, but later on realised that she may not have been the one that actually sent the message, asking her to come to a certain address and when her friend got to the place, she discovered that she was dead and dismembered and some of her body parts strewn all over the place.”
Our source,who narrated further, said the deceased’s friend, who was taken aback by the sight of the dead body, immediately called her husband to the scene and the husband in turn called the police.
He said on thorough observation of the body, “it was discovered that her eyes, ears, tongue, breasts, among other body parts, were removed and taken away by whoever may have perpetrated the act.
“When the Police saw that the corpse had started to decompose, they called in one of the state agencies, which came, gathered the body parts into a plastic bag, took and buried her.
“This lady, (the deceased) has been through a lot in recent times. She had gone through one trauma or another. And recently, she lost her elder sister,” our source lamented.
Our correspondent gathered that when the police discovered her corpse, they contacted the Benue State Environmental Sanitation Agency, (BENSESA), to evacuate it for burial.
Benue State Police Public Relations Officer(PPRO),SP Catherine Anene, said she was out of town and would get back with details.
When contacted, acting General Manager, BENSESA, Mr Martin Tseuma confirmed that the body was evacuated on Wednesday at about 4 pm after receiving report from the Police on Tuesday evening.
Tseuma who noted that the corpse had not decompose at the time they evacuated it,said they did not know the identity of the lady and could not contact the family before the burial.
“We didn’t recover the body. The police at B division wrote to us that they have discovered an unknown corpse at Adem village, near Welfare Quarters.
“It was based on the report that they said we should evacuate the body for burial, and that was what we did. We didn’t contact anyone because we don’t know the family of the deceased.
“But the family came to my office this morning, Monday, July 24, and I directed them to go back to the police where they got the story of the unclaimed corpse . We were working based on the report from the police,” the GM said
